2014 – Ultimate General: Gettysburg
2014 is the year when my favorite videogame of all time, Shovel Knight, came out. Yes, my favorite game isn’t a strategy game or a wargame, it’s actually a platformer, the only one I have ever enjoyed and loved ever since. This was also the time I was starting to get serious with wargaming, and one of my gateway games into what’s now a massive project in my life was Ultimate General: Gettysburg. Created by the guy responsible for the Darth Mod Total War series of mods, brilliant real-time strategy follows very closely the formula laid out by Sid Meier decades prior with his Gettysburg game. Ultimate General: Gettysburg is a game that offers an intense experience of the Battle of Gettysburg. Players command Union or Confederate forces across a series of pre-made scenarios, or by playing the whole battle. The game’s highlight is its impressive AI, which can be modified to have different personalities, offering a different experience every time you play.
2015 – Cities: Skylines
It had been 12 years since Sim City 4 had come out, and 12 years since we had a decent city-builder title. Enter Cities: Skylines, a game that empowers players to unleash their creativity and embark on the journey of building whatever city, small village, or seaside hamlet pleases them. With one of the largest modding scenes in gaming (available through the Steam Workshop), the possibilities are endless. It also features gaming’s most realistic traffic simulation mechanics, if you’re one of those people who fail to see how that can be engaging, then it’s your time to give Cities: Skylines a whirl and test your planning mettle as you watch your vision come to life in this highly acclaimed (highly, highly acclaimed) city-building game. This was also the year that brought us The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, Rocket League, and Bloodborne.
2016 – XCOM 2
Believe it or not, I’m currently on my first, full-length playthrough of XCOM 2. I have played it before, quite a lot, in fact, but never got around to finishing it, you need to realize this was the year when Battlefield 1, Overwatch, and Titanfall 2 came out, so I was rather busy, and Strategy and Wargaming was just an ink line on an old university notebook! XCOM 2, the successor to the 2012 reboot of the classic series improves the game in every aspect: there’s a new story following the defeat of the humans in the alien invasion, there’s a new and very well-implemented stealth mechanic, new unit classes, new enemy types. The War of the Chosen DLC is the cherry on top of this delicious cake by introducing new factions, new enemy heroes, new perks, new mission objectives and maps, and a lot of new mechanics like unit bonding and faction management.
2017 – Steel Division: Normandy 44
This was the year when I started Strategy and Wargaming (former OneHexAway), and Steel Division: Normandy 44 was one of my first reviews ever! You can read it here if you’d like. I called it a strange melting pot of other well-known and lesser-known strategy games. The fast-paced action, infantry-focused combat, and clean UI of Company of Heroes. The morale system a la Close Combat and the accurate historical use of WW2 hedgerow tactics can be found in Combat Mission: Normandy. The unit variety, deck building, air support, and logistics systems are imported directly from their previous Wargame series. I still stand by my review of it, and I think it has only gotten better with all the expansions it got after release.
2018 – Into The Breach
2018 was going to be a toss-up between Frostpunk and Into The Breach. Everyone’s favorite turn-based Kaiju Exterminate simulator of 2018 was a massive indie hit. Into The Breach is one of the greatest turn-based games ever made. I’ve finished its campaign several times, with nearly all available squads. You’re tasked with controlling a team of three mechs, fighting against an alien invasion and how you do it is by manipulating the location of the aliens to have them attack their own, throw them into obstacles, or outside of the map. What a fantastic experience.
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