Weekend Break, or: Old Gamers Never Die, They Just Get New Games

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Main Menu screen from Strategic Command: WWII: World at War. © 2018 Fury Software/Slitherine Ltd. 
Well, Dear Reader, it's Saturday, October 12, 2019; it's Columbus Day in Spain (which celebrates the occasion as "Dia de la Raza") and Latin America, while here it is a warm and humid early autumn Saturday. In my little corner of Florida, the current temperature is 82℉ under partly sunny skies; with the humidity levels at 66%, the feels-like temperature outside is 85℉.

I was going to watch my new Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Blu-ray today, but the gaming bug bit me sometime before noon. I don't play video games on my PC often; I love writing more than I care for gaming, but as the old saw goes, "All work and no play makes Jack...er, Alex...a dull boy."  And after looking at my small selection of PC games, I decided to try my luck at Strategic Command: WWII: World at War. 
The war begins! Actual gameplay screenshot from my first session of Strategic Command: WWII: World at War. © 2018 Fury Software/Slitherine Ltd. 


Developed by Fury Software and published by Britain's Matrix and Slitherine Ltd, Strategic Command: WWII: World at War is an updated version of Strategic Command: War in Europe. It is, like many strategic-level war games, a turn-based game played on a scrolling map board that depicts terrain, bodies of water, cities, and military units on a hex-based screen display.

 Strategic Command WWII: World At War is your chance to re-fight the 20th century’s greatest conflict, from Poland to China, Normandy to the Pacific, on a map encompassing the globe. Building on the success of Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe, this new turn-based game will provide even more opportunities to try out different strategies, maximising re-playability to the utmost! Can Germany, Italy and Japan triumph and construct their new world order, or will triumph turn to disaster as the rest of the world mobilizes to meet force with force? This is your opportunity to take command and change history!


I bought this game (after giving it a lot of thought) about a month ago because I felt nostalgic for my favorite MicroProse Software World War II game, Crusade in Europe, a program that I used to have for my first home computer, an Apple IIe. I can play that game for free at two abandonware sites I found last year, but I got the yen to get Strategic Command from Steam a while back. So I figured, "Why the hell not?"

Now, don't worry, I'm not going to review Strategic Command: WWII: World at War today. I'm just beginning to learn how to play it, so I'm not in a good position to do a decent writeup about the game. I just wanted to give readers a first look at the game and share a couple of screenshots to show it off a little.

First, let me just say that this is essentially a "beer and pretzels" kinda game. It's not as insanely complex as Hearts of Iron IV or Gary Grigsby's War in the West, even though it is a strategic-level wargame where the smallest land unit seems to be an army corps or a tactical air force group. Only naval units seem to be depicted as individual ships rather than squadrons or fleets. That being said, Strategic Command: WWII World at War plays like a mix of Axis & Allies and Hearts of Iron; the unit setup is relatively simplified in comparison to War in the West, yet you do have to think in Big Picture of the War terms and make decisions about diplomacy, industrial production, and research and development.

German forces have plunged deep into Poland by the end of Turn 2 in Strategic Command: WWII: World at War.  © 2018 Fury Software/Slitherine Ltd.

Today I played several turns as Germany in the scenario World at War - 1939. When playing as the Axis, you can choose to play as Germany, Italy, and Japan against the computer, or you can choose one country in your alliance - in my case, Germany - and cede control of the others to the artificial intelligence (AI). That's what I did; my assunption was that running one belligerent nation is tough enough as it is, so I delegating command of Italy and Japan to the AI just makes the game less complicated to play.

It took me three turns (roughly 42 days of in-game time) to conquer Poland. Bad weather hampered my ability to use the Luftwaffe, and even though my armies were victorious, it still took me longer to capture Warsaw and defeat the Poles than it took the real German armed forces in 1939.

A screenshot from my first attempt to play the game back in September, this time as Japan against China. © 2018 Fury Software/Slitherine Ltd.

Although I'm not a huge fan of the Axis powers, I chose to play as Germany (delegating Italy and Japan to the AI) because in most of Strategic Command:WWII: World at War, the "bad guys" always get to start the first turn. I don't like starting games as a defender, for one thing; I get frustrated just sitting at my computer and watching the AI forces beating the hell out of my forces. In addition, even though I'm (obviously) not a Nazi or even a right-wing political adherent, I do enjoy the challenge of commanding the side that lost World War II in real life and seeing if I can do better.

So far, my performance as Germany's warlord has been adequate but not earthshaking: I've conquered the territories that the historical Third Reich overran in 1939 and 1940, but not without major setbacks.

January 1941: France (finally) falls! © 2018 Fury Software/Slitherine Ltd.

I began Case Yellow (the attack on France, Belgium, and Holland) in May of 1940, just as the real Germans did in real life nearly 80 years ago. However, the Dutch and Belgians resisted far longer than they did in 1940, thus delaying the Battle for France by more than six months.

The game has key reality-based"trigger events" that affect the outcome of the war for the player. Here, France's surrender in January of 1941 results in the ascent of Marshal Philippe Petain as leader of Vichy France. © 2018 Fury Software/Slitherine Ltd. 


Due to German laws that prohibit the display of the swastika and other Nazi iconography, the German flag shows the correct colors but swaps the Balkenkruz where the Hakenkruz would be. © 2018 Fury Software/Slitherine Ltd.

And even though my version of the Kriegsmarine has won a few skirmishes (including the sinking of HMS Hood by the Bismarck in 1941 off the coast of Norway, the British and Canadians are winning the Battle of the Atlantic.

There are all kinds of cool features, including end-of-turn activity summaries. © 2018 Fury Software/Slitherine Ltd.
I will, of course, keep playing the game; my next challenges will be the campaign in the Balkans, as well as the inevitable confrontation with the Soviet Union. So, stay tuned, Dear Reader, to see if history repeats itself, or if Germany can conquer the East!

Uh oh. I see a diversion of military efforts to North Africa in my future. © 2018 Fury Software/Slitherine Ltd.


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