Second Front

I have just past over 1,000 hours playing this and that in itself speaks of my enjoyment with this great game. This is the game I dreamt of many (+40) years ago as a teenager when I first started playing Squad Leader but could never find like-minded local opponents. That game evolved and morphed into ASL and I lost interest as the rules became too overwhelming. Too much time reading the rule book rather than playing the game so I stuck with basic Squad Leader with the Cross of Iron and Crescendo of Doom expansion gametes. I don't really play computer games, rather preferring to play my collection of consim board games on line via the excellent vassal tool that allows direct play or pbem against opponents around the world. Then I started to see posts by the SF game developer on the Squad Leader facebook page that really caught my interest. Could his game really be a computer version of the game that hooked me all those years ago and started me on my life long interest in consim gaming? Yes it could, and more, so much more. It not only offers the tactical game play of the board game but manages the minutiae of all the rules. If you are familiar with Squad Leader/ASL or any tactical WWII board game you'll slide comfortably into game play like a well fitted glove. The AI opponent is the best I have witnessed in my, admittedly limited experience with PC games, providing a real challenge to my own tactical abilities playing through the many and varied scenarios and campaigns that are provided with the game and via the excellent player community Workshop entries. I've even submitted some of my own scenario designs for others to try and, hopefully, enjoy. The Map & Scenario editor is user friendly and provides a real sandbox for anyone interested in exploring WWII tactical engagements between the protagonists that fought in the West, East, African & Mediterranean Theatres, with literary hundreds of vehicles, weapons and units at your disposal.
I really do recommend this title to anyone remotely interested in exploring WWII at the tactical level.
The best 35 euros I have ever spent.

Like SL and ASL without a thousand rules checks and dice rolls. Best part is it's a solo game, would be nice to have an option to play a human player.

After many years of waiting, this is the closest I've seen to let me play ASL on screen. The implementation is done exceptionally well and there's a real flow to the game which you don't get over the board. It makes you realise how well designed the ASL rules are when you see them represented in a game like this.

If you remember the old Advanced Squad Leader game from the way back this seems a lot like it, but without the math and cross referencing charts and tables. It's missing air and artillery support and the RNG seems broken.

You can roll 5 tanks up to a transport truck open up with a dozen machine guns and five main guns and not hit anything and often you're lucky if any gun in your entire force hits anything...meanwhile a squad sitting in a foxhole across the play area will kill 3 squads without batting an eye. Things like that seem to happen more often than not, but with a little patience, and a little luck you may make the top 300 list with a scenario score.

The game could use an after action review with losses and kills. I haven't done anything with the scenario editor or campaigns, but they seem to be open ended with a lot of options.

reminds me of the board game squad leader without the problem of setup and computations

great game. very similar to ASL. AI tends to miss some opportunites but overall very good.

So far its a great game, such a great selection of scenarios from the devs and workshop. Waiting for a few items on the road map and I think it will be the among my favorite games.... Waiting for Pacific combat and arty. Great game worth every dollar.

Great game, especially for those familiar with the mechanics of Advanced Squad Leader. Basically the same game as ASL SK.

The game Second Front is somewhat underrated, especially considering its recent updates, which have significantly enhanced its overall quality. Upon re-examining the game, I was impressed by its fully destructive world and accurate units, ranging from infantry to tanks and aircraft. Despite its cartoonish appearance, the game boasts a high level of realism, making it a hidden gem. While it may initially seem similar to Battle Academy, it offers a more complex and nuanced experience. However, there are areas for improvement, such as the implementation of air strikes and artillery strikes. Additionally, the ability to create custom campaigns using the editor would be a valuable feature. Overall, Second Front is an underrated game that deserves more recognition, thanks to its dedicated developers and supportive community.
8/10

this game needs a two player option, must have!!!!!

I like this game. I want to love it, as it is the sort of old school tactical game that I played, growing up, if not for one thing: Gun emplacements are brokenly powerful.

They tend to have a better rate of fire than most machine guns, the best possible accuracy, the ability to stealth fire, and seem to be largely unhindered by smoke as they pop 1-2 of your units a round (they're as good vs infantry as against armor, and come entrenched in hard cover. This makes it particularly tricky to knock out, since your infantry can rarely pin them before assaulting (I watched one gun crew take out 12 troops, earlier today).

These super units aside, the game is entertaining. It is a challenge to play as the attacker, as you need to consider your approach to a position to be able to fire on it (as the accuracy penalty for moving is fairly significant). The scenarios themselves are challenging, but become easier as you start to understand how the mechanics work. Even more exciting, there's a map maker to it, for building your own scenarios. The range of units available in the game are fairly expansive, and, barring a few oddities, fairly well represented (though I do question the AP value of some of the smaller caliber guns punching above their weight). With four factions, and multiple environmental tile sets, the game has a lot of potential to it.

This game is missing some major accessibility and QoL features that make it obsolete compared to any competitor.
The Two most egregious examples are:
1. Pause and menu are only available on your turn and only certain phases.
2. The game is always fullscreen with no option to change resolution or windowed settings.
(Not to mention the d100 dice rolling issues that can result in a PaK 36 shooting all of its ammunition in one turn while knocking out half of the opposing force.)

Second Front is a nearly perfect tactical combat turn-based board game. No other computer game that I have found offers squad level tactics that accurately represent WWII units in such detail, including individual leaders who can make or break your assaults and defenses.

Be prepared to learn and suffer grievously for your mistakes,. Like true warfare, much is up to luck and your skill as a commander. There will be the hard learned lessons of blindly running a platoon into withering fire you did not see coming. If you are going to survive this thing, you will need to learn how to be aggressive yet patient, and how to play the odds.

And the odds are displayed for you in detail. You will need to learn to understand the wealth of unit information, including your chance of hitting, chance of damage if you hit, and chance that your guns may jamb. Do you really want a specific unit to reveal their position to the enemy to launch attack when the odds of causing damage are so low? You might be devastated by the return fire in the next phase, or maybe you will gain a new leader or hero as a result.

Every detail seems to be addressed in this game, with buildings that can damage and catch fire; the ability to break down heavy weapons for faster movement; loading and unloading your troops from transports; and buttoning down vehicle personnel, among others. There is a lot to attend to in Second Front, which should provide hours of deep and introspective game play for those who like this kind of game.

Did I say there is a Scenario and Campaign editor that allows you to create and publish your own for others to play? I haven't looked at that feature but judging by the large number of user generated maps to play, it must have to tools and features needed.

Though there are a few UI features that could be implemented to further enhance game play, such as locking the top down view, I will leave these for another review. For now, just getting into this and having played a lot of similar games, in this overview have to give this game a 9.5 / 10.

Really fantastically done and runs without a hitch on my low-end $450 HP Ryzen 5 laptop. If I didn't have a PC to run this, I would go out and purchase one just for this game. If you like tactical turn based board games, I'm sure you will find Second Front delivers hours of entertainment,. And when your Sherman is totally destroyed by that 88mm flak gun you didn't see camouflaged ahead, you'll be itching for revenge!

this game sux

One of the strengths this game has - you can play it casually or you can "grok" the numbers to maximize the final few percentage points of advantage. The game plays smoothly. The map creation kit and scenario designer are easy to use, yet pay attention to details as there are subtlety under the hood. Included are many scenarios, campaigns with much replay value. The workshop contains many more of varying quality to test your skills. More options are promised by the developer with regard to the games future development. All in all this is a good solid buy for a Squad/Tank based game.

Pros: this game has a great amount of content and potential, the art style is great and the premise is really cool too
Cons: the actual game play is insane some of this has gotta be a bit of a skill issue on my part but what I don't get is a full auto AT turret with a 50% chance of reloading gets to reload 8 times in a row. Now I'm no statistics genius but either I'm the unluckiest person in the world (0.4% chance of this happening) or this game is bs. Not to mention this also happens every time I play the scenario.

The best war game out there. Love the graphics and interface. Smooth and easy to control and play. Great community of contributors offers a huge number of scenarios to play.