Command, and Control On December 6, 2018, British PC game publisher Matrix Games launched WWII: World at War, a turn-based grand strategy wargame representing the Second World War on any major front from Germany’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 until the end of the fight in the summer of 1945.
Fury Software, based in Toronto, designed Strategic Command for Matrix. WWII: World at War (or WAW) is a relaunched Strategic Command game containing the strategic command: Europe. Strategic Command: World War I, WWII: War in Europe, and this year’s Strategic Command: Global Conflict In the late 1990s, Fury created this long-running series, with Battlefront publishing the first game, Strategic Command: European Theater, in 2002. Hubert Carter, president/lead developer at Fury Software, and Bill Runacre, lead designer at Fury Software, created WAW, the fifth game in the series. Click here for additional information on Play Station games.
Players can play as either the Allies (Britain, the Soviet Union, the United States, and France) or the Axis (Germany, Italy, and Japan) against the game’s artificial intelligence (AI) or another player (through “hot seat” or online via play-by-email) (PBEM).
WAW also includes neutral or co-belligerent lesser states (like Switzerland or Sweden) who join either coalition for various reasons, including political leanings, diplomacy by the great powers, or invasions of their lands by either side. The AI controls these lesser armies, and while they may appear to be nothing more than decoration at times, they can also be force multipliers that make or break a player’s war goals.
some preliminary thoughts
WWII: World at War by Strategic Command (SOCCOM) covers several important campaigns and scenarios, each with its start date and set of victory criteria. In my situation, the following movements and publicly released modifications (or mods) were available in mid-October:
Bill Runacre and David Stoeckl conceived the three real situations in WAW, and Hubert Cater programmed the AI. In all three scenarios, the Axis player (Human or AI) begins the game and moves first during each turn; both sides have victory conditions that must be met by the end of the scenario, which typically includes the capture of various national capitals and other major cities of strategic interest to either side.
For example, in the 1939 World at War campaign, you must control Berlin, Paris, London (and neighboring hexes), Manchester, Moscow, Stalingrad, Cairo, Tokyo, Seoul, Chungking, Delhi, Manila, and Canberra to gain a decisive victory as the Axis forces.
If you’re playing as the Allies, you’ll need to control Berlin, Rome, Paris, London (and nearby hexes), Moscow, Washington, DC, Tokyo, Seoul, Chungking, and Delhi to win decisively (Great Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and the United States). For more information, go here.
There is three Race to Victory variations of the campaigns mentioned above. Both sides have the same victory conditions in the Race to Victory scenarios, devised by the same team that created the original main campaigns. However, the game places time limits on participants, hence the moniker Race to Victory.
The World at War, Axis High Tide, and Allies Turn the Tide scenarios all have identical win conditions as the World at War, Axis High Tide, and Allies Turn the Tide scenarios. The main distinction is that the various warship units depicted in the game have different mechanics in these Naval War variants.
Triumph and Tragedy depict the Allied onslaughts against Germany and Japan in the European and Pacific Theaters in the summer of 1944 and later, while 1941 Rostov depicts Germany (and her Axis allies) fighting the Red Army for the city of Rostov in October 1941.
WWII: World at Conflict depicts a wide range of unit types, from lowly garrison units defending cities and suppressing partisan outbreaks in occupied countries to Nazi Germany’s lethal V1 and V2 missiles later in the war. Your headquarters units send supplies to your fighting units to represent logistics value. Tanks, various types of artillery, planes, and warships, all depicted as 3D sprites or NATO-style counters, are also available to command in WAW. Each unit has advantages and disadvantages, and if you choose 3D sprites, they visually represent the country that created them and can even change shape as technology advances.