1 – Wargame Design Studio – Eagles Strike
If you’re looking for the ultimate, hardcore experience of D-Day and the Normandy Campaign as a whole, in all aspects, at all levels of command, with tactical and operational elements, then the Wargame Design Studio offering is for you. Let’s start with the tactical level, with Eagles Strike, which is the game I wanted to highlight the most, because it recently received a beautiful visual upgrade that completely overhauled the experience for me, even after I had played it extensively. Just look at the screenshot above and tell me it isn’t a tasty-looking wargame. Eagles Strike is played at the tactical level, and for those of you who might be as nerdy about this kind of stuff as traditional wargamers tend to be, this means you’ll be commanding at the ground level, i.e., individual tanks, squads, and weapon sections. You could even say it’s almost an RTS-level of play, where very little is abstracted. With 120 missions, playable from both sides, the game offers one of the most comprehensive and realistic takes on the battles of the Normandy Campaign, and the game extends beyond that, covering also some battles from late 1944. Meticulously researched, with Orders of Battle for all units involved, you won’t find a title as historically accurate as this anywhere else.
Before you go, Wargame Design Studio also has two other titles, one called Battles of Normandy, which takes place at an intermediate operational level where you command units at the Platoon and Company levels (between 50 and 100 units). Also pretty fantastic, with a lot of scenarios as well. In fact, it was the game that had me fall into the WDS rabbit hole. Lastly, we have Normandy 44′ Gold, which is a true operational game, with players controlling full Companies and Battalions, where all the fighting is done in a more abstract way.
Conclusion
There you have the best World War 2 games to play to celebrate the 82nd anniversary of the day that turned the war in Europe. Each one of these games gives its own take on D-Day and the following days, weeks, and months, and at all levels of command: from the tactical control of small squads and individual units, to operational and strategic, commanding entire divisions across the whole theatre. What matters is that each of these games delivers on something unique and worth experiencing.
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