7 – Combat Mission: Shock Force 2
The early 2000s saw the United States and its allies entering several conflicts in the Middle East that became engraved in our collective memory due to being the first conflict to be broadcast live, all over the world. Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 doesn’t directly tackle the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, but instead a hypothetical conflict between NATO and Syria.
It’s no secret that the Combat Mission franchise highly ranks amongst my personal favorites, and while I’m one to prefer the simulation of other time periods, it’s hard to argue with the fact that there are plenty of players out there who wished to play these conflicts (if anything, the biggest proof of this would be Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare), and there are no more realistic representation of what a conflict between these two forces would have been like. Combat Mission takes simulation to the extreme, with every weapon system and projectile being meticulously represented in video game format, behaving as if they would in real life, alongside communications and information gathering and dissemination, soldier psychological state, and field of view. If you’re the kind of player looking for a game where you can simulate what happened in the Middle East, you should check out Shock Force 2.
6 – Pike & Shot: Campaigns
Video games cover a wide range of topics and time spans, with some being a lot more famous and beloved than others, meaning that they see a lot more representation in media as a whole. A time period that rarely sees any kind of love is the time when the Pike & Shot formations of the Tercio dominated the battlefields of Renaissance Europe. Pike & Shot: Campaigns is one of the very few games that tackles the battlefield challenges faced by commanders who found themselves in a transition period where the gunpowder weapons had been introduced on a scale, heavy cavalry was starting to lose its impact, and infantry was used to protect the musketeers and arquebusiers. The game is played as a turn-based strategy game, has 154 armies, from 20 playable nations and factions, alongside 40 full-length battles.
5 – winSPMBT
I know what you’re thinking, looking at this: “What the hell, Nuno? Why are you recommending a game from the 90s? Well, that game happens to be one of the most complete, content-filled, and exciting experiences you can play right now. And better yet, you can play all of this for free, and it runs on a poorly built toaster. That’s right, we’re talking about winSPMBT! I came across WinSPMBT some 5 years ago, and booted it up on Christmas day, after everyone was suffering from a food-induced coma, and spent the entire afternoon playing a scenario based on the Yom Kippur War, and for the first time, I felt that an older wargame really clicked with me. Ended the scenario, and the game has been installed on my laptop ever since. The graphics aren’t the best, but they’re servicable. But the amount of content, from nations, units, scenarios, maps, and weapon systems, is unmatched if you’re looking to simulate any historical conflict that has taken place since the start of the Cold War until the modern day.
There’s also a World War 2 version called winSPWW2, which is equally rich in content and detail, if you so wish.
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