Compared Basic Ideas

Xerkis · Post by **Xerkis** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 3:12 pm

I know that it has been said on the forum that Commander – The Great War has a new engine and AI; but in basic ideas, how will this game compare to Europe At War?
By “basic ideas” I mean with regards to maps, units, research, diplomacy, UI, things like that.

I have never played Europe At War, so I don’t know much more about that game than what can be read on the website and forum and in screen shots.

Reading between my lines – I’m trying to decide if purchasing Europe At War would be a good thing before or after purchasing The Great War. And since I’m deep in to Panzer Corps, afterwards might be best.

massina_nz · Post by **massina_nz** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 9:10 pm

Played CEAW for over two year's now. IMHO it's very playable but has some limits, notably a poor AI and a clunky PBEM (emailing files to opponents), neither of which will be remedied as most of the user community effort has been to improve the gameplay of PBEM (not AI) without remedying the ability to replay your turns. That latter would take a complete redesign, well outside the means of the user community. If you put those two issues aside, it's a very rewarding PBEM experience.

I suspect the UI of Great war vs Europe at War (CEAW) was at some point quite similar, but that was probably over a year ago, and they would have likely diverged since.

I'm about to finish my remainign CEAW games and am looking forward to swapping over to the Great War. Having played both FOG and BA, the PBEM++ system is really fantasic. It is a big selling point with me.

Xerkis · Post by **Xerkis** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:41 pm

By what you are saying (especially the “notably a poor AI” part) it sounds like I should not bother with CEAW and just wait for this new Commander to be available.

massina_nz · Post by **massina_nz** » Wed Sep 21, 2011 10:59 pm

Xerkis wrote:By what you are saying (especially the “notably a poor AI” part) it sounds like I should not bother with CEAW and just wait for this new Commander to be available.

Yes if you only want to play solely against the AI then you are really limited to playing only as the Axis, where the AI for the Allies is vaguely challenging.

But I've had many, many enjoyable PBEM games against a variety of human opponents, and the game has improved vastly over the past three years, just time for new things I suppose.