Unity of Command II

[persself]

This was on sale last week, so I picked it up, as it's turned based WWII. Never played the 1st one, so didn't know too much beforehand.

Very polished, great looking game. There are some videos up on YouTube that do a better job of visualizing game play more effectively
than I can with words only... this one, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRhPRQU0pN8. edit: He mentions problems
loading the game in Steam, which have since been resolved...I had no problems. I agree the tutorials are not the best, and could go in to much more
detail, but I figure playing the game is the best way to discover the features.

I've only played the tutorials, but I found the music fantastic, and controls and GUI were wonderful. I rarely pay full price for games,
so this sale at $20 was worthwhile, in my opinion.

[persself]

Another video by WarSimmer, where he describes perfectly how accessible the game is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZggP1NiWLGc. That's something I really appreciate, the accessibility.
And the emphasis on logistics is no exaggeration.

[dbt1949]

It looks good. But even with the discount it's more than I want to pay.
The original I liked but everything is too small and I have a hard time seeing the counters. Do they have larger counters in this one?

[persself]

Still small, but I have to wear glasses close up now for everything. Not sure how it compares to UoC1

[Archinerd]

I liked this one quite a bit and it avoids the puzzle like scenarios of the first one.
I'm too lazy to write more nice words about this game, so here's a link to a good review by Rob Zacny.

Like a lot of wargames, each scenario has a maximum time limit for completion before you fail the scenario. But the real challenge is in taking objectives “ahead of schedule” for a higher score. In the original, this could lead to a some repetition as you identified an optimal order of opening moves, then just repeated them until they achieved ideal outcomes. Here, there are so many different ways of tackling each objective, so many different decisions you can make beyond positioning, that the outcome to a single combat probably won’t make-or-break a scenario.

It's even possible to lose your best unit(s) and still be able to win scenarios and complete the campaign.

[Lassr]

I liked this one quite a bit and it avoids the puzzle like scenarios of the first one.
I'm too lazy to write more nice words about this game, so here's a link to a good review by Rob Zacny.

Like a lot of wargames, each scenario has a maximum time limit for completion before you fail the scenario. But the real challenge is in taking objectives “ahead of schedule” for a higher score. In the original, this could lead to a some repetition as you identified an optimal order of opening moves, then just repeated them until they achieved ideal outcomes. Here, there are so many different ways of tackling each objective, so many different decisions you can make beyond positioning, that the outcome to a single combat probably won’t make-or-break a scenario.

It's even possible to lose your best unit(s) and still be able to win scenarios and complete the campaign.

I've been playing the first one and that review is good to hear because I hate games where it's timed and there is only one way to win it and you have to keep playing over and over to figure it out. Especially war games!!!

[Archinerd]

Not that it's a bad thing, but it does still have some "gamey" elements though, it is not a simulation.

[Lassr]

Did not enjoy the first one, started a campaign today, and failed the first scenario because i was one turn away from the objective. Highly irritated me. I'd rather a game penalize me with fewer reserves or something for getting behind on a timeline that just fail and start over. I could tell this game wasn't for me and uninstalled. I'll read up on II before I buy it.

[Lassr]

Started playing UoC II the past few weeks and I liked this one much more than the first one. Still hate the turn limits, or should I say I hate the extremely tight turn limits. When you have to be near perfect to reach the objective before time expires. But I did discover you can easily change the time limits in a editable file. I bumped them up by 4 turns and it made all the difference where if i have a slight set back i can still recover, but major set backs will still cause me to lose the battle.

[dbt1949]

I picked this one up a while back on sale. Haven't played it yet but I usually hate the turn limits. Thanks for the tip on how to change them.

[Lassr]

When you find your UoC folder in the Steam folder, the file is named Game under >Packages>base>config

this section is what I edited: I can't remember what the original numbers were now but I added a few extra turns and trucks for easy.
# Difficulty
extra_prestige_on_conference_start:
easy: 100
normal: 50
extra_turns_on_scenario_length:
easy: 9
normal: 3
extra_turns_on_objectives:
easy: 7
normal: 1
extra_trucks_on_scenario_start:
easy: 4
normal: 1

[dbt1949]

Thanks! I found it okay.

[Archinerd]

I didn't really have much issue with the turn limits on my play through. I did force me to advance faster than I would have liked to in several cases... but I think that's the point. The thing I liked best about the game is it doesn't require you to have perfect victories to keep progressing.

[Lassr]

I didn't really have much issue with the turn limits on my play through. I did force me to advance faster than I would have liked to in several cases... but I think that's the point. The thing I liked best about the game is it doesn't require you to have perfect victories to keep progressing.

When I was playing individual scenarios I was finding I was not finishing in time but I've start a campaign and I'm finishing 4 or 5 turns earlier so I may reduce the timer down to only 1 extra turn.