Reviews!

[Annette]

Armchair General has posted a review of winSPWW2, assigning the game their rating of 85%. Reviewer Lieutenant Colonel Bob Mackey, Ph.D., writes:

...it is a game that will be quickly learned and only grudgingly dropped. Personally, I expect to go back to this one time and time again, and it will live a long time on my harddrive...

One of the best, most well organized manuals I�ve seen in a long time. Good graphics, printed on quality paper, with actual screenshots; a very useful and informative guide to learning the game.

SPWW2 is the perfect game for the hardcore wargamer who never owned the original Steel Panthers or would like the new scenarios. It�s also recommended for anyone with an older PC looking for a well-crafted and challenging game.

You may read the full review HERE (link).

[Tiger_Reyth]

Wow he almost hit it perfectly on the head...

He just failed to mention the infinite variety of potential playing environments through the active and vibrant playing community and thus scoring it a perfect 10!

T_R

[welk]

This article is all wrong...

Spww2 is not a game.

It is THE game : king of games.

[Artofwar]

The way my brain works the best part about the game is the forum help one gets form the WinSPWW2 Forums. The manual is great and the total Depth of the game makes it; however, I still get stuck with stuff because of how I process info. For example, the noob Organized Chaos Scenario I got hammered in - I was great at one thing moving my units and getting shot at... Then I applied the games "Realism" as I will call it... I moved not through the woods cause it takes to long only have 12 turns. I moved 1 hex at a time with my Inf so they can shoot back effectively if shot at AND not attract fire just like the game notes say in the manual.
Then by this time I had learned how THROUGH the Forums cause I'm so dense how mortars\arty works rather than going on theory in the first time I played it and got hammered. So my overall plan was to lay down smoke in front of the trenches which means it will not be real accuratte AND will not happen until 2.2 turn. But this fit ... So the smoke came down on ok spots I moved up behind it drew some fire and 2 or 3 units got pinned but didn't retreat !!! AND I put the machine guns up where they could engage at long range. THEN had the AO since I knew more what I was doing at this time put down mortar fire via the pre Targeting hex which speeds it up. Noticed the hill\ change in terrain height in front of trenches moved infantry up to it as I exchanged fire with the enemy as I moved forward. USED my Scouts as Scouts not combat INF .. per the manual. Engaged enemy efficiently so that as many as I could became Pinned Routed before cressing the hill in front of them instead of just blazing away at 1 or two of the units - per the Manual !!! This really helped ..
When I had to really expose myself two or three of the bad guys units were routed so they would not fire on me as I moved up. The smoke kept me from using my machine guns for 2 turns But knowing too how and when and how much to Rally my troops again per the Manual made everything work fine.One snafu was when one side on my attack got hit by my own mortar fire and then got pinned so on turn 9 or 10 one side of my force was to pinned to move oooops - this wasn't the manuals fault lol I friendly fired my troops after the battle they put a grenade in my jeep. But I moved up the other side kept the pressure on and moved the other guys up the next turn and by turn 12 not 11 but 12 I got every single flag and the bad guys were bugging out. When the battle was over I checked the map and saw ... well I won't say in case a person hasn't played it ... I saw where a problem was I had when I moved up my troops over there and why they had a problem. But anyway knowing what I was doing or at least knowing a lot better because of the forums and help on here makes it a totally 100% rated game for me. It so much more realistic and tactics pay off when ya know which buttons to click on to do the tactics and what is what and who is who. Makes me want to buy the CD Version now ....

[Roman]

And you'll see when playing PBEM. You can also play long campaigns. It really is a great game.

[Artofwar]

So PBEM ... I mean you sent emails back and forth to play someone .... or is it online real time ???

[Roman]

Files are sent by e-mail. If you get an opponent to get in line you can make turns and send them by messenger. Once I made small battles, with few units and my opponent, we sent our files via messenger. It was almost as online. But when you do battles with many units, delays in making the turns.
At first I had the impression that it might be boring (I was accustomed to the Age of Empire hahaha), but now I think is very good.

[Artofwar]

Thanks Champ

[prinzeugen]

Why I will no longer be playing SPWW2....
You would think a yearly upgrade would be a good thing. It's not. The designers are just making the game worse and worse!!!!!!!!!! And not addressing any real issues. This is not a game for "hardcore gamers". The Long Campaign is a joke. It is more bug-ridden after every upgrade.
The last straw for me was when I was in an attack mission and the AI disable my use of my art. and used my own art. to attack ME!!!!!!!!!!! I know this because I am a "hardcore gamer". I was playing as the Germans against the English in 1940 France and I was bombarded with German art.!!!!!!!!!!
The only "improvement" the designers made to the Long Campaign in the last 10 years is the art. over-load rule. This is a very sloppy "fix"... and does not address the real issues in the Long Campaign.
The most glaring unrealistic element of the Long Campaign is that there is no unit scarcity rule. The German player can have unlimited tank destroyers, for example, of which only 2 were ever produced and only 1 was ever used in battle! When I complained years ago that the River-crossing missions are unplayable, I was told just don't play them, now they are no long part of the Long campaign. Apparently that is the way the designers solve problems...
This is not a game for "hardcore gamers" because if it was I would not be the only one aware of all the glaring problems with this game.
I could go on for hours with the all bugs, and poor programing, that have never been addressed. For just one example: German 88mm FLAK cannot fire at aircraft....
I will not be looking forward to next years "upgrade".

[DRG]

Originally Posted by prinzeugen

Why I will no longer be playing SPWW2....
You would think a yearly upgrade would be a good thing. It's not. The designers are just making the game worse and worse!!!!!!!!!! And not addressing any real issues. This is not a game for "hardcore gamers". The Long Campaign is a joke. It is more bug-ridden after every upgrade.

Really ? "More bug-ridden after every upgrade." Are you just going to complain vaguely or offer a list.....IF you think there are new problems every year then you must know what they are. You had made a grad total of THREE posts before this one and they were made 3-4 years ago and they were as vauge on details as this one....

Originally Posted by prinzeugen

The last straw for me was when I was in an attack mission and the AI disable my use of my art. and used my own art. to attack ME!!!!!!!!!!! I know this because I am a "hardcore gamer". I was playing as the Germans against the English in 1940 France and I was bombarded with German art.!!!!!!!!!!

The simplest thing to do in that case would be to save the game at that point, zip up the files and post them here with a description of the problem and we WILL investigate. We investigate everything presented in that way. We cannot test something we cannot see or recreate and there multitude of unanswered questions ....what turn did this happen for one. You seem to be suggesting that for the entire game you had no access to your own arty but was constantly bombarded by it......a simple save game posted would show this and if correct, could be fixed but you are the only person to report this and you are not the only person playing a long campaign

Originally Posted by prinzeugen

The only "improvement" the designers made to the Long Campaign in the last 10 years is the art. over-load rule. This is a very sloppy "fix"...

In what way is this " sloppy"..... again a vague angry post with no details.. WHY is penalising over purchasing of arty " sloppy"? I would guess from this that you regularly overloaded your force with arty and are ticked off we penalized you for it

Originally Posted by prinzeugen

and does not address the real issues in the Long Campaign.
The most glaring unrealistic element of the Long Campaign is that there is no unit scarcity rule. The German player can have unlimited tank destroyers, for example, of which only 2 were ever produced and only 1 was ever used in battle!

This is baffling as the German produced an abundance of tank destroyers but if I had to guess.......and you leave me no choice but to guess..... you are referring to the Dicker Max and/or Sturer Emil....NEITHER of which the AI can purchase in a game..they are HUMAN PLAYER ONLY units so what we are left with is you are enraged by the fact WE allow YOU to buy as many as you want and you cannot self-limit yourself to historical usage....... and somehow that is a fault of the game and not you.

Originally Posted by prinzeugen

When I complained years ago that the River-crossing missions are unplayable, I was told just don't play them, now they are no long part of the Long campaign. Apparently that is the way the designers solve problems...

River assaults were a troubling problem and I cannot comment on the "solution" as I was not the one who made it.

Originally Posted by prinzeugen

This is not a game for "hardcore gamers" because if it was I would not be the only one aware of all the glaring problems with this game.
I could go on for hours with the all bugs, and poor programing, that have never been addressed. For just one example: German 88mm FLAK cannot fire at aircraft....

......... so after all these years we are back to an "issue" that I had thought had been laid to rest nearly 20 years ago......the 88 does not fire at aircraft because it was not used to fire are low flying aircraft and right from the very beginning we did not include heavy flak guns in ANY OOB..... NONE of that has anything to do with "poor programming" or a "bug"...it's the way the 88 is set up in the OOB as an AT gun NOT an AA gun and ALL OOB's follow that OOB rule. We provide MOBHack for anyone who disagrees to alter their personal OOB's in any way they want and with that you could set up an 88 as an AA gun.....so why have you not done that ?? setting up 88s as AT guns only and not AA guns was an OOB design decision made in 1998 ! .....and now NINETEEN YEARS LATER you show up saying it's "poor programing".....

Originally Posted by prinzeugen

I will not be looking forward to next years "upgrade".

So how is it that you feel the game was made worse with this upgrade SPECIFICALLY?

Don