Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943

German campaign is good.
I stopped playing the Russian campaign in the first mission, because Germany attacks with Tigers and the Russians can't destroy them, even with their best artillery. It don't need such time-wasting nonesense.
The game also crashes and sometimes corrupts the save files, so one has to start at an earlier save.

The game is good, really good, it reflects the real realism about an specific equiptment or units, though i hope that more mods will be available for this game including for the other TOW expansions like the Africa and Korea expansion games.

Great in-depth Strategy game. Just a hassle to run on a modern machine.

A great game especially given it's age. I like the large maps and the ability to fight at long range which is realistic. When you zoom in the detail is very good.It is one of those games that you have to read the manual before you play, but it is very rewarding once you understand the mechanics as it has a moral system as well as realistic line of sight and armor penetration.

Overall, ToW games shine in armor combat. Each crew member is individually modeled and they depend on each other. Each projectile is calculated individually, including it's path after penetrating the armor. Secondary fragmentation, shell stability, interior equipment damage, this kind of things (and in Kursk and later games you can turn on hit vectors display mode that visually shows you detailed info - hit angles, caliber, penetrations...).

Moreover, starting from Africa ALL vehicles have historically correct view ports, so if a MG gunner is killed noone will be using his view slits and tank will become blind from the right side. This is not all. A crew member can use only one view point at a time, so if a commander is busy assigning targets appearing from the front to a gunner, he may not notice targets from behind (and noone else in the tank can watch behind).

It is an excellent game, but only for those who are looking for this particular type of RTS. The only annoying aspect is the pausing when a unit dies, but that can be remedied by going to the steam configuration option of the game before you start, as the option is not available in the main menu of the game to disable it.

Also the trailer for this game is interesting (with the T34 vs Panther).

Interesting gameplay and idea of game, but not very comfortable UI and AI, and :) trailer show the other game

游戏更多的的细节模拟还原，较少的娱乐性。模型，贴图，损毁效果非常棒，比钢铁之师2的模型细节高不少。不愧我童年1c大哥。小众但不乏我们的热爱。玩法拿苏军第二关举例，德军南面装甲进攻，苏军守着三个阵地，道路前沿，后方村庄，东边山头。主力集中山头，德军有豹豹和IV猛攻，德军两种选择，沿着道路进攻或者向山谷冲锋直到拿下山头阵地。苏军37mm炮布置在前沿，第三道防线有zis3支援，你甚至还有全套的美系英式装备（斯图亚特，m3李，以后玛蒂尔达瓦伦丁丘吉尔比你t34多了去）。如果德军冲破防线，苏军将侧面暴露。开始时候苏军工事已经布置好了，掩体和战壕都是准备好的，不需要变动。开始后就旁边欣赏战斗过程就行了，这也是游戏玩法之一。德军坦克虽然强大，但履带断了，基本就失去进攻能力了。游戏到后期，关卡设计德军会从侧面包抄，增加了游戏趣味性。游戏的真实在于步兵和载具的反应能力，并不像正常rts点哪里就到哪里，有一段延迟，而且模型损毁，火炮散布，炮击音效非常真实。游戏中喀秋莎散布就相对有更好体验。游戏中还提供战术数据，士兵装备信息等参数。但参考意义较多，给玩家初步判断。但玩法还是战场布置好了，之后只要欣赏就行了。有坦克增援就稍微手操一下，火炮支援点一下，剩余步兵和炮兵基本不用动了。鼠标移动，欣赏整个战场就行了。总体游戏画质不错，记得关闭hdr，修改下分辨率和相机视角就行了，别的基本，猴子都会操作。

even in this day an age, this stands out as an excellent strategy game, not as in depth as gravteam tactics, which i also own and recommend, but this is easier to get into and the graphics are really ok, its the game play thats first class, oh and grab the caen DLC thats excellent too

Good game that feels like it's missing something.
The developer made a big mistake not including a strategic map like Total War.
I've played it on and off since 2011.

The game could be really good, but sadly it is full of bugs related to its age. I played about half of the Caen campaign and then it started crashing and I could not unlock the bugged mission (hill 112). If you decide to purchase get it on sale (like $3.00) so if you have problems it is not a big deal.

After attempting to replay this game I would change to thumbs up. I got past mission hill 112 by saving about every two minutes. Once this mission was completed, other ran more smoothly. I suggest saving every 5-10 minutes or after each small battlefield success (e.g. knocking out a pesky 88).

Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943 is the eastern front exclusive, more refined, "other half" of Theatre of War 2 set during the fighting on the Kursk salient shortly after Stalingrad; Players take on the role of either a Red Army commander wishing to thwart Operation Citadel and push towards Berlin or a loyal Wehrmact Panzer Ace hoping to see victory for Germany in light of the loss at Stalingrad and Baku. Compared to Africa, Kursk's two campaigns are longer than any campaign in A:1943 (at 10 missions each) and more fleshed out from simply attacking, holding, or defending objectives with the use of event triggers to signal retreats, purposeful use of ambushing, the addition of crew morale/cohesion, and tank defenses becoming imperative to survival. Kursk clarifies the foundation put down by A:1943 and improves upon it creating an addictive wargame simulation.

Kursk cuts the experimentation of Africa and places it in a more concise package: combat is still asymmetrical to an end, the Wehrmact and Red Army have many tanks that can go toe to toe with each other making tank battles(honestly a series highlight) even more fluid, unpredictable and interesting to watch compared to the deserts of Tunisia, the use of combat support is more even handed here between both sides and a timer is introduced meaning players can simply have a cooldown for getting more airstrikes, mortars, howitzer strikes, or reinforcements rather than a limited cap defined from the beginning of a mission.

The game does away with the "tactical pause" mechanic unless player desired, features blood and gorey elements, and ups the immersion, this game really sounds like a battlefield on the Eastern Front, any silence is deafening and I still remember the Red army Missions to this day.

The Red Army and Wehrmacht feature huge arsenals with some returning vehicles from ToW2(M3 Stuarts, Shermans, and Grants in Soviet flavor) and new ones (including a new roster of USSR vehicles like the T-34/72 and infantry like the NKVD, and late war Werhmacht tanks like the Panther and Jagdtiger). With the addition of units which can effect morale on a sector wide scale unlike anything seen before in the franchise, landmines, flamethrowers and and barbed wire for area control; Kursk still pushes the envelope while acknowledging what Africa got right and wrong.


Battle for Caen seems to largely acknowledge this as well by taking another crack at the Western Allies with a fresh prospective: set during the Normandy Landings of 1944, BfC focuses on British vs Waffen-SS forces around Operation Epsom, the UK no longer relies on American tanks, equipment, or Artillery and have a matured arsenal (featuring the M10 Wolverine, Achilles, Churchill/AA, 17-pdr, and many more, over 40 additional units for both sides), that create a pronounced difference in tactics without sacrificing the playability or viability of either faction and missions are presented in a cut and dry fashion with clearly defined objectives. Eight maps set in and around Normandy, France are available in multiplayer with this DLC and they are some that I have great memories with.


Players are given more flexibility when building their divisions and reinforcements where they have full freedom to decide what is given at the cost of the RPG-lite level mechanics from Africa (for infantry and crews) being curbed. This creates less situations of tankers firing over and over at a target with unbreakable morale and more realistic scenarios of tankers leaving a tank under sufficient bombardment and immobile. Combat in this game is more fluid than it's been previously in the series and it really shines in this game, carefully plan your attacks and watch as your units execute the enemy with extreme prejudice for the motherland or fatherland. This game is faster than predecessors but still slow, yet with the focus of this game compared to the somewhat lack of focus seen in Africa makes it a pleasure to play; I largely played this game when it wasn't on steam and therefore my time with it compared to other ToW will seem less so but that's anything but the case.

Theatre of War 2 is not for everyone. You either like it or you don't, as the game is more focused for young adults and above. It is one of those games that you have to read the manual before you play, but it is very rewarding once you understand the mechanics as it has a moral system as well as realistic line of sight and armor penetration.

It is an excellent game, but only for those who are looking for this particular type of RTS. The only annoying aspect is the pausing when a unit dies, but that can be remedied by going to the steam configuration option of the game before you start, as the option is not available in the main menu of the game to disable it.

The Theatre of War I played the most. Don't get the mixed reviews (at least it's not the terrible ones in the Korean war one). If you get the hang of it (it can be a little hard at the beggining) you can have good fun with realistic, slow paced ww2 combat. I recommend it for everyone who it's looking for this kind of games, but not for someone looking for a more friendly, fast experience.

Edit: guys, to know how to properly control units take a look to the manual or ask google. Most of the complaints are from people that can't get the hang of it. For me, the only problem it's technical problems (specially CTDs). I have had none capping framerate to 30 fps (more than enough for this game)

One of the best war games/RTS I've played

This is a game for a niche audience, I find it understandable that many players don't like it, but if you like "realistic" RTS, spam saving, and micromanaging the smallest details, then this might be the game for you.

Similar to Sudden Strike or Blitzkrieg series, you don't have any base building nor recruit units, you play a mission with a set amount of troops and reinforcements. You can upgrade your units across missions and the infantry can capture weapons or vehicles.

The good

• Realistic units, nice, detailed models, a ton of them.
  
• Interesting missions, all based on history.
  
• Different shells and calibers, shell penetration, line of sight, ballistics, it's a detailed and complex simulation.
  
• "Morale" system, soldiers will panic and refuse to follow orders, both your troops and the enemy.
  
• Soldiers will take a few moments to follow orders, which adds to the realism of the delay in giving/receiving orders.
  
• Micro/macro strategy, you can micromanage a single soldier picking up a machine gun or manning a canon, or macro manage a bunch of tanks and infantry squads.
  
• Uncanny level of detail.
  
• Good sound FX.
  

And the bad

• Dated graphics.
  
• Some bugs (I experimented some crashes, nothing big)
  
• "Dumb AI", you have to micromanage everything to make it work (actually, some bad pathfinding...)
  
• Slower paced than other RTS.
  
• Controls can be a little awkward.
  
• Non impressive UI, voice acting and intermissions.
  
• 1C is known for providing subprime support to their older titles.
  
[*] No skirmish, limited multiplayer options.

One of the main complains in the reviews is that the game pauses every time a unit dies. This can be unchecked in the options menu, but I find it very immersive: every time a soldier dies I stand up in my chair, cry their name out loud and say "no, not Vladimir... not Vladimir, noooo" while I imagine a montage scene of boot camp and the aforementioned soldier bonding with the rest of the troops.

This game runs Ok in Linux via Proton.

Disclaimer: This is the same review I have for ToW 2 Africa (since it's basically the same game) and I played a lot more hours back in the day before I got it on Steam.

Great Fun Very Time Thinking game as well not like Men of war or Company of heroes Where it's a bit more arcade
Those are great games in there own way's Shame that they stopped making these game's
Not in the same League as combat mission But Fun for me to play though #
People Say It's Crappy in some parts which is true But if your
A WW2 buff like me I would Deffo Say Yes go for it

Agree with previous, Steam versions seem better then earlier non steam versions. Not surprising really, all fully patched etc. I am coming (back) to this from Graviteam games, which i have to say are better IMHO but direct comparisons are perhaps unfair as Graviteam are not strict RTS more war simulators. However, i now better understand the trickle down chain of command and fog or war aspects better coming from Graviteam rather than say CoH type games which are very different in feel and gameplay. My inner grognard is enjoying these titles all over again as i try to understand the influence individual soldier's skill plays in spotting, accuracy, driving and moral etc and the time it takes for commands to reach front line soldiers from commanders not to mention sheer random variables due to act of god or just lack of moral fiber! I say enjoy them for what they are in a suite of similar games and avoid making direct comparisons as they all have plenty of merit. Only criticism i would say is the lack of dynamic campaigns but editors do allow custom or historical scenarios to be designed and shared. Try buy in a sale then you definately won't piss off your wallet. Enjoy and don't think about COH, MoW, or even Graviteam.

Theatre of War 2 isn't a fun game. It is a diehard realistic tactical warfare simulator-RTS. There are people who enjoy these kind of unwieldy games, for example people who like to play ARMA or people who like to play Hearts of Iron.

This is not for everyone, but if you are one of those aforementioned people, you will have a blast with this.

Not what i had expected. Clunky controls, unresponsive units. Game is quite tedious.

I can usually get past that, i don't mind slow and hard-to-learn strategy games. But it's just not responsive nor is it any fun, and frankly, i find the tactical value to be lackluster due to unavailible options for unit behaviour. (infantry only hit the dirt when under fire instead of ordering them to do so before they are under fire, for example) your units also act clunky and units are unresponsive, especially for tank and gun crews, which is my biggest issue. I am well aware that the game creates a somewhat realistic factor by having a delay in orders and units acting sort-of by themselves, but often at times it seems like my soldiers have a death-wish by simply deciding to hit the dirt right in the middle of a killzone, or tanks refusing to turn the right direction when under fire.

There are also a number of more 'hidden' factors in the game, such as morale, but i couldn't find it. Armor and penetration values for guns and ammo also only displayed the moment when i really started searching for them. While ammo penetration and armor resilience are displayed, they are only done so pre-game when assembling forces and in the encyclopedia. If you happen to stumble upon a tank in-game, you're just gonna have to guess or know these statistics beforehand - which is just silly.

The tutorial is practically nonexistant and explains nothing. While that's usually not too much of an issue for me (i dont mind googling, watching YT vids to get my information) it is still frustrating nonetheless.

I do applaud the creators for trying, the genre is kind of a niche and i really enjoy the setting and the armchair-general genre as a whole, but Theatre of War is just one big dissapointment. I recommend avoiding it.

I recommend picking up Men of War: Assault Squad instead. Not only is it more accessible, it's also got far more depth than Theatre of War, along with excellent sound effects, better graphics, immersion, and an active modding/multiplayer community. And most importantly: Unit behaviour and responsiveness works - unlike Theatre of War.

A good game with really good and clear effort and love behind it, BUT there is one glaring, game breaking problem, and that is the extreme frame rate drop nearly half way through any mission. At times it can drop to about 5 frames a second. It has nothing to do with machine as I run far more demanding games, but rather the poor coding.

Sadly, I cannot recommend this game, but if the concept interests you try out Graviteam Tactics Operation Star. With the uniform mod, that game is not only gorgeous and historically accurate to the T graphics wise, but also the best strategy game on the market.

As a sequel I simply can't recommend this game. It seems to take several steps back, and in doing so hits it's head against an open cupboard.

Firstly, there's the issue of why Theatre of War 2 comes in 2 games, each with their own add-ons? The answer to which illudes me completely. The original game had way more content, more nations, and a wider time period. Poland and France have been removed, and Italy and the USA needlessly funnelled off into their own game (which is also suffers from a severe lack of content). The British only have equipment they had at Caen, and not even all of that is present (have you ever heard of the RAF, 1C?). Are we to believe the feed back for the first game was "there's too much stuff, I want less choice"? Obviously it wasn't, so this is another quandery with no real reasoning.

Secondly, there's a grand total of one new mechanic. It's not even pluralisable. Just the one thing that's been added. It's not a terrible one, just poorly executed. The new mechanic is points. You spend points on the task force which you take on missions, and you get points for destroying enemy units. This in and of itself works fine, although knowing what's worth what would be quite nice, as you've no way of knowing in the middle of a battle (or in the menus for that matter). The only real downside is that your support now costs points. So you need at least 3000 points before you can call in artillery. Given that the average tank kill gets you about 400~ points, you need to wipe out roughly an entire battalion of tanks before High Command decide the situation looks a little hairy, and grant you off-map arty support. I'm not sure why this change was made, as artillery and air support were finite resources anyway, so you could quite easily blow it all on a not-so-serious attack and only realise later there's still another 300 dudes to kill, and your 6 remaining shells probably won't do the trick.

These are just the starkest of the games faults. There's so many little things going wrong as well, from unforgivably bad sound design (Brits speaking in American voices and the generally empty feel of the soundtrackless battles (the music slider is actually greyed out but left in)), all the way to awkward, but sadly compulsary, infantry micro-management (I shouldn't have to manually give my MG ammo while I want to be flanking a Tiger with my SU-85). It's just so frustrating to have a beautifully rendered WW2 battlefield, and then feel consricted and fustrated by mechanics of the game.

Wait, why am I spending 3 paragraphs moaning about a 4 year old game nobody even plays? Perhaps I'm passionate about the subject? Or just unemployed?

It's the second one. Hey 1C, give me a gig as a play tester you f**king hacks!

Great game!....Released in 2010 and still better than most CM today. A must to experience for people loving than genre!....It is realistic and historically accurate, what is there to dislike?....

After playing through non-steam versions of Theatre of War 2 (Africa, Kursk, Battle for Caen) and Theatre of War 3: Korea I purchased the steam versions as well (during sale).
IMHO, this is not just another WW2 tactical game, it is the MOST REALISTIC simulator of company-level battles of 1943-1951 warfare!
Not easy to master for everyone who is used to "select'em all -> send'em all!" tactics! Every shell and armor interaction follows real physics laws, every unit moves are done in the real scale (time and distances), all battles are very intense and make you feel that this is how it was for real!
Every wargamer eager for WW2 realism must try at least!