It's not for everyone... but if it is for you it is so fucking amazing. You can pick it up for free, but it's so much easierto just pay like $2 on GOG (just install on C: for your own sanity).
You will get a ridiculous number of hours of gamelay out of it.
Like playing as the Allies on Veteran you're probably looking at over 100 battles over the entirety of the Operation Market Garden granmd campaign. Strong emphasis on historical recreation of battlefields (so much so playing the Germans is way easier because, you know, history) ... and the campaign is so bloody complex.
Like this game ... it's not just victory or defeat. Some maps and battles you simply can't win ... but you can force a stalemate, you can hold parts of it, etc. Persistent terrain scarring and the variable nature of assaults (after each battle you slect the ceasefire period, the lowest number of hours is how long untilthe next fight over the same map) can turn battlelines on maps into debris strewn streets with blasted houses that once were great vantage points into merely vision occulting wrecks after multiple battles are fought to hold them.
It's just ... it's probably the best tactical war game I have ever played.
Your soldiers will refuse your orders, their morale will break and they'll rout, sometimes in certain conditions they'll become 'heroic' ....
Your orders are more 'suggestions' that soldiers will do if they're
capable. In the right place mentally and physically. Soldiers have names. And if you keep them alive they will accrue experience. Squads get whittle down through the course of multiple engagements, forcing you to let go of squads to increase squad slots, or simply because they are no longer viable fighting units. You simply need
more soldiers as fights can turn into multiple map, multile engagement actions ofattrition you just need to suffer.
Honourable mentions;
MechCommander Gold (you can play it for free)
Jagged Alliance 2 (All around awesome)
