Wargame: European Escalation (PC) Developer: Eugen Systems Publisher: Focus Home Interactive Released: February 23, 2012 MSRP: $39.99 Rig: Intel E8400 Core2 Duo @3.0GHz, 4GB RAM, ATI Radeon HD4830. Wargame: European Escalation is the closest you'll get to a full-fledged military simulation of the Cold War era of modern warfare that is still fun to play. Game Fixes: Wargame: European Escalation v13.00732 MULTI11 Fixed Files; Wargame: European Escalation v12.09.24.950 MULTI5 Fixed Files #2. Accueil du forum Wargame series Wargame: European Escalation Tech. Ven 16 Mars 2012 08:43. That GPU doesn't have native 2MB memory so it is likely using shared. Wargame: European Escalation free DLC adds co-op play and new maps, 40% off this weekend. By Rob Zacny 13 April 2012. Comments; Shares.
- Wargame European Escalation Manual
- Wargame European Escalation Mod
- Wargame European Escalation Trainer
- Wargame: European Escalation 2012 Native American Heritage
Wargame European Escalation Manual
Overview
?Wargame: Red Dragon? is thesequel to the 2013 title,?Wargame: Air Land Battle,? and the thirdgame in the series which started in 2012 with ?Wargame: European Escalation.? To the casual viewer, the games arenearly identical. The biggest addition to?Red Dragon?is navalunits and naval combat. ?Air Land Battle?included naval actions, like bombardments, but they were all strategic mapbetween-turn items rather than in battle units like ?Red Dragon? has. ?RedDragon? is an incremental upgrade to the previous version of the game.
?European Escalation? had noair units aside from helicopters, ?AirLand Battle? added fixed wing aircraft and, as previously mentioned, ?Red Dragon? added naval units. Justas ?Air Land Battle? air units lackeda fleshed-out air superiority mode and really only allowed for close airsupport and extremely limited air to air elements, ?Red Dragon? adds naval units in the same model, where they areadded mainly to support ground combat and not for open ocean naval combat.Another big change in 'Red Dragon'is that unlike the previous games in the series, the theater of operations shiftsfrom a Cold War gone hot in Europe to Asia. The timeframe of the game isbetween 1975 and 1991. The game adds several new nations as a result of theshift in geography such as, China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and more.
Game Modes
Game modes have not changed since the last installment of theseries. The game includes two different game modes and a tutorial. Thetutorials are effective, yet brief. The first mode of the game would be thecampaign game, which includes five different campaigns. The first campaign isvery small and almost feels like a tutorial of the campaign game, while thelarger campaigns have the potential to last many hours. The second game mode isskirmish mode, which could be accurately described as a sandbox mode, where yougenerate random or player-defined battles in a single engagement. The skirmishmode is also essentially the online multi-player mode and allows for playinganywhere between 1 vs. 1 up to 10 vs. 10, but multiplayer does not allow acampaign to be fought in single battles.
Gameplay
Thegameplay in 'Wargame: Red Dragon'is almost identical to previous 'Wargame'installments, in that the game uses the same engine, the same interface, andthe vast majority of the units are also ported over from that game.
First,let?s look at what?s the same. Now when I say gameplay is almost the same as 'Wargame: Air Land Battle', I mean it?s literally the same. So here?s aslightly modified excerpt from my previous reviewof 'Wargame: Air Land Battle' (see the quotedsection below if you are unfamiliar with the series). If you?ve already playedand want to know what?s new, you can skip this segment and see below where Italk about naval combat.
Modified Excerpt from Wargame: AirLand Battle Review on Gameplay
?Gameplay isalmost like a melding of more traditional RTS's in the Ageof Empire vein,and more tactical based games such as the Combat Mission series.Battles start with a deployment phase. Players are given a set number ofinitial points with which to purchase various units and place them on the map.Once the battle is underway, a player slowly accumulates more points. Thisallows the player to call in new troops once the engagement is underway but,unlike most traditional RTS's, there is no resource gathering or base building.The only user-created building of any importance is the FOB (Forward OperatingBase), which allows units to resupply both ammunition and fuel. Unlike moretactically- oriented real time games, such as Combat Mission, you are able to callin reinforcements on the fly using your initial points as you see fit. The gamehas no scripted reinforcements, and in this sense you are able to adjust yourstrategy based on how the battle unfolds. Reinforcements can only be called infrom certain parts of the map. The battlefield is split up into numeroushex-like regions and, while these areas have no impact on movement or gameplay, like in a hex-based game they do handle how reinforcements are allowed toenter the field of play. Reinforcements can only be brought into a battle froma region that boarders the edge of the map, though not every boarder region isallowed to bring reinforcements in. Additionally some regions earn youreinforcement points that can be spent on said reinforcements, you earn statednumber of points for each of these sections every 5 or so seconds while othersections of the map earn you nothing and have limited value. This does give asense of tactical importance to certain parts of the map over others. Also it?sworth noting boarder sections that can are annotated on the map with arrowspointing from the outer part of the map inwards. This appears to be an attemptto simulate the impact that roadways and other transportation systems have on abattlefield.
Typically each army will start with one or two regions along theborders, with which they can deploy forces into and call in reinforcementsthrough. Reinforcements can only be called into a region that a side controlsand in order to control a region, a player must have at least one stationarycommand unit in the region. Command units come in various sizes andcapabilities and represent senior officers on the battlefield. These units canvary between lightly armed and largely helpless jeeps, to command tanks whichare more than capable of defending themselves against enemy units. As alreadystated, reinforcements can only be called in from the regions on the edge ofthe map and, similarly, each side almost always starts in possession of aregion capable of calling in more reinforcements.
Wargame European Escalation Mod
When maneuvering your army terrain plays an important role: wooded areasprovide concealment, open fields are death traps for infantry, bridges canbecome fatal funnels, buildings provide useful defensive cover for infantry,and rivers provide natural barriers and should be used to provide protection toyour flanks as you advance down the other side of the map. With that said, heightfields don't seem relevant. Apart from some buildings, you rarely see a chanceto get your troops higher than the enemy. Tanks may get slowed down by treesand mud, but they rarely have to navigate mountainous passes or hills. The maphas some nice eye candy along the corners, but despite the theater ofoperations being in some mountainous areas like Korea, most battles still feelfar too flat. The terrain has improved somewhat from ?Wargame: Air Land Battle?but overall it?s still a huge disappointment, though at least there is someprogress. Also, while you have multiple choices for setting up skirmishbattles, all the battles still feel like meeting engagements with defensivelines with other defensive tactics having only a limited importance. Sure,defensive tactics can still be used, but it's less relevant to holding the lineor strategic location, but rather for the purpose of destroying the enemy. Thevarious victory points awarded by parts of the map and the reinforcement pointsprovide some strategic incentives but for a war and conflict as fast as a coldwar gone hot it feels there should be a way to make these pretty large battlesfeel more epic and like something bigger than just a battle of attrition.
Whilst the impact of elevation and engagement variety might be somewhatlimited, what the game does have in spades however, is units. There are over1,200 units included (an increase of some 400 units from Air Land Battle anddespite being focused in the pacific theater the majority of Air Land Battlesunits do carry over and can be used in skirmish modes and multiplayer) in thegame from a seemingly endless list of nations: The expected, American, Russian,Chinese, Korean and Japanese troops are there but there are also, Polish, EastGerman, and the list goes on. ?Red Dragon?s? biggest addition in terms of gameplay and unitsfrom its predecessor is the inclusion of naval units.?
Naval Combat/Gameplay
Naval units can be broken down into a few broad categories,Destroyers, Frigates, Corvettes and Patrol crafts, in addition to that thereare aircraft carriers that partake in the campaigns and can be moved around theoperational map which basically acts as a mobile airbase. While just like airunits, naval units are mainly a side show to the ground pounding they are a bitmore involved in Red Dragon. That?s to say unlike air units it?s possible tofight strictly between two naval forces over control of the sea. This gives thegame an ability to model the fight for naval supremacy through ship onlyengagements, as well as supporting the now possible amphibious assaultlandings. Naval combat however is extremely arcade like. Battles take placebetween ships at obscenely close ranges and ships fire off surface to surfacemissiles at ranges that look like they should be trading broadsides during theage of sale rather than firing SSMs and what?s incredible at these close rangesmissiles often miss, in fact surface to surface missiles act more like rocketsin that they don?t follow their targets but seem to fly a straight course andare unusually inaccurate and underpowered. I love using naval forces to supportlandings as it seems a genuinely fun and interesting addition to the game, butthe naval on naval battles just feel poorly done and really don?t work well ina small map environment or within this type of game engine that?s clearlydesigned for land combat first. It?s an interesting experiment but it doesn?tfeel like it works very well.
Both land and naval battles can be won in two ways: everyunit is worth a certain number of points and each battle will have a pointsthreshold for the battle. If you hit this threshold before the enemy, then youwin the battle. The second way to win a battle is by destroying all the enemycommand vehicles. If a battle ends with time running out and neither side meetsthe afore mentioned victory goals, then the fight is considered a draw and willcontinue during the next turn if the battle being fought is part of a campaign.
Continued on page 2 ? Disk xray 2 5 – disk optimiser and duplicates detector.
Comments
Log in to join the discussion.
Related Posts from Wargamer
Order of Battle: Pacific
30 May 20140Wargame Red Dragon - Driven back to Pusan
23 May 20140Wargame: Red Dragon - The Second Korean War - The Battle of Daegu
12 May 20140Featured
Field of Glory 2: Medieval has been announced
16 Oct 20203The Complete Guide to Combat Mission
08 Sep 20208Upcoming War Board & Miniature Games 2020
30 Jul 20206Upcoming Wargames 2020
06 Oct 202013Matrix Games & Slitherine release schedule - what to expect from the next few months
16 Oct 20200Hearts of Iron 4: Battle for the Bosporus Review
15 Oct 20200Hearts of Iron 4’s 1.10 ‘Collie’ patch releases today alongside the new DLC
15 Oct 20200Top Articles
The Best WW2 War & Strategy Games
29 Sep 202030The Best WW1 Strategy Games
23 Aug 202010'War… War never changes.'
-Fallout
That may be true, but gaming sure does, especially in the world of RTS games. Over the years, this genre has started to split into multiple sub-genres, from the normal old-school base building RTS games, including the likes of Starcraft, Company of Heroes and the Command and Conquer series, to the newer more action orientated RTS games, including the likes of World in Conflict, and now Eugen Systems (developers of R.U.S.E) latest release, Wargame: European Escalation.
Wargame European Escalation Trainer
“Are you ready to rumble?”
Wargame: European Escalation puts you directly in the shoes (or combat boots) of a commander of either NATO or Warsaw Pact forces, lead by the United States and the USSR respectively, during a fictional escalation of the Cold War taking place in the 1970s to early 1980s.The fighting in the game focuses on land engagements in Europe, with most of the maps, being some variation of 'Northern European summer countryside', but this by no means a bad thing, as these maps fit the gameplay, and still contain just enough variation to keep them interesting. While both the Air Force and the Navy are absent from the battlefield in this game, this does not take anything away from the massive battles on screen as the massive amount of different units (361 per side) include everything you could ever want when taking on an enemy battalion. The units all fall into one of several categories, including Tank, Helicopters, Recon, Support, Logistics and Vehicles. This may seem overwhelming, but each type of unit has a very specific role on the battlefield, so it easily falls into place. Each unit has also been maliciously modeled with great attention to detail, as well as different armor values for different parts of the vehicles.
“Unit card for the Leopard 1A4, one of the early NATO tanks”
The main addition to Wargame: European Escalation that sets it out from the rest of the games in the RTS market is it's 'Deck' system. Much like any trading card game, you have to start out by creating your deck. This deck can consist of up to 25 different units, of any type and combination. 25 different units may not sound like much, but every variation of a unit still counts as just the one (for example M1 Abrams, M1IP and M1A1 all count as a single unit). On top of this, one can create several decks for each faction, to accomodate a variety of play styles and match types (1v1 – 4v4). Units are unlocked through command stars, that can both be unlocked through the campaign, by completing missions and secondary objectives, but also through multiplayer, where one will gain several command stars each time one gains a level. These levels are gain through EXP, which in turn is gained by both wins and losses, so this means that the good players and early adopters do not have a monopoly on the good units. Due to this, the unlocks do not really effect the games balance, as you usually only need to level up a few times before you have enough stars to create a deck that is on par with anything the enemies can throw at you. Although, if you are the type who doesn't like to pick a where you are the underdog, no matter how slight, the option is always there to cut your teeth against bots first, with multiple difficulty settings, or play some of the well balanced, if a little challenging campaign to earn the command stars to get the unlocks you want, before taking on the rest of the world.
Moving on to the actual gameplay, one will find that it is actually very simple, and can possibly be compared to World In Conflict, if you increased the scale, slowed down the pace, reduced the frustration and removed 'Off map support assets'. It very much features the same concept, of deploying your units at the start of the match and then receiving command points from controlling various points across the map, which can be used to call in reinforcements. This is differentiated by there being two different types of control points, 'control points' which grant you a certain amount of command points every few seconds, and 'reinforcement points' which provide you with a point to bring units onto the field. Though out the battle, you gain points (score) by destroying enemy units. The amount of points is depends on the cost of said unit, so destroying 1 expensive unit is worth more that destroying 3 cheap ones. On top of this, there are only two different victory conditions in the game, point limit and a time limit. This main sound like a very limiting factor, but due to the nature of the game, it works perfectly. At the moment there are three ways of playing the game, “Campaign”, “Skirmish”, and “Multiplayer”. There are four different campaigns, two for each faction, each lasting around 4-5 missions. The story is your basic “Cold War gone hot” scenario without many twists, but what makes it interesting is the level of challenge the AI offers, as well as the persistent aspect. As you progress through the missions of a campaign, you can unlock more units to deploy, but be warned, any units you lose will be lost for the remainder of that campaign, meaning a costly victory in one of the early missions can mean that it can be almost impossible to beat the later ones. This forces you to play things safe, and thing about your decisions. The skirmish mode is the weakest link in the package at the moment with only one on one play for the time being (Co-op, “Comp-Stomp” is being added in a patch). The AI has 3 difficulties in skirmish, but there is little reason to play it, as you are not awarded command stars for you efforts. Multiplayer is the real meat of the experience, with an active and relatively nice community, with thousands of games being played a day at the time of writing this. Multiplayer allows you to play anything from 1v1 to 4v4, and even allows you to unbalance the teams (for example 1v4), to give skilled players a unique challenge.
'Control Points in the middle of the map, and Reinforcement Points with the arrows.'
The actual gameplay also works very well with the setting and the game, as this game is more about your choice of units and tactics than your APM. This is in part due to the massive scale of the battles, but also due to the fact that you do not have that much control over your units. For example, when moving tanks, you cannot decide which direction the face, like in many other RTS games, but thankfully the AI is generally smart and will turn to face any threats, as well as turn to face the most logical direction, most of the time. “Most of the time” being the key word in the previous sentence, as the AI sometimes decides that a single unarmed transport is a bigger threat than 12 Soviet T-80 tanks barreling towards them. As one progresses through a battle, logistics will start to play a larger part in the overall engagement, as it is required to rearm and refuel unit regularly, if you want them to operate to their full potential. This is done through the use of FOB, which are placed at the start of the game, for a point cost, and supply vehicles which can be called in, just like fighting units. This extra mechanic really adds a new layer of depth to the gameplay, by forcing you to keep your supply lines secure, if you don’t want your offensive to grind to a halt. The main problem with this system comes when you play with an evenly skilled player, with balanced units, as this sometimes causes the game to turn into a textbook war of attrition, leaving you praying that his FOB will run dry before yours.
The presentation of the game is truly stunning, for the massive scale, with units being modeled in great detail, with explosions and gunfire instantly drawing your attention to where the action is. The extremely streamlined HUD and lack of loud, out of place music really increases the immersion, and after a few hours, you’ll find yourself believing that you really are a General. While the graphics are great, you will rarely see the details, as you are mostly going to play with the camera zoomed out, so that you can get a full overview of the battles. This sometimes results in a few rendering issues on some machines, but Eugen is working to patch this as soon as possible.
After playing this game for over 75 hours, since it’s release, I only have two issues with this game, they can be classed as minor or major, depending on how you look at it and what type of person you are. The first being the fact that this game comes with added DRM, on top of Steam, which limits the game to five installs, while this is not a problem for me and the DRM has not bothered me the slightest, I know some people may have problems with this, especially seeing as it is based on the notoriously poor “Starforce” DRM. The second thing that bugs me with this game is the way that unit grouping works, if you tell multiple different units to move to one location, they will not do so at the same speed. Faster units will leave slower ones behind, which can result in a lose, if you are not completely focused, as it may lead to AA vehicles being left behind causing tanks to die, or worse, all you logistics vehicles storming ahead only to be captured or destroyed by the enemy, leaving an entire army stranded halfway to their destination with no fuel, just waiting to be destroyed.
Though it causes a few problems here and there, the main strength of the gameplay remains it’s huge scale, which hundreds of units fighting for control of a gigantic map, stretching over multiple square kilometers. This combined with its vast amount of units and streamlined interface and gameplay really make this a game for anyone looking for a new tactical RTS to sink their teeth into. Candle 1 1 17 – an adventure with challenging puzzles. While it offers nothing groundbreaking or genre defining, it does what it does, and it does it well, and I can wholeheartedly recommended it.
Wargame: European Escalation 2012 Native American Heritage
Pros:
Great Graphics | Huge Scale | Challenging Campaign | Engaging Mulitplayer | Streamlined Gameplay
Cons:
Extra DRM | No Grouping | Pointless Skirmish Mode | Lack of Precise Unit Controls
Final score:
8.5/10
You can't solo security COVID-19 game security report: Learn the latest attack trends in gaming. Access here