For those who have played Wargame:Airland battle online...

[Maximilian]

Im pondering on getting this game, i liked its predecessor it really did a lot of things right and i put ~200 hours into the game but there were some major flaws in the multiplayer which i hated (not balance related, idgaf about balance ) if someone can answer these questions that would be great:

- In the original you join a game and your player level is right there, big bold ass number telling everyone how good/crap/experienced/new you are, is this still the case? I wont go into why this is a crap idea but IMO it is.

- The original game had no automatch facility, i may be remembering it wrong there may have been 1v1 and 2v2 automatch but there definitely wasent anything for 3v3 and up. Has this changed at all?

- There was no global chat lobby in the original, this isn't a big deal for such a niche game but battle.net 1.0 had this and so does CoH 1 (in fact the list of games with global chat is freaking endless so yeah....) i like it, its a nice feature, helps build a community IMO. Has this changed at all?

- Lastly, do air units improve the game any? Is it more fun than its predecessor? People who played the original would be the only ones who could really answer this.

 

[BrightCandle]

1) Same you still see other players levels.
2) I don't know of any automatch, you choose games/they choose your game.
3) There is a global chat system, but its full of vile comments. It doesn't function as a community, its a huge trollfest.
4) They certainly add an additional dimension. They aren't really better but I do think they are for the most part well done.

 

[obidamnkenobi]

i put ~200 hours into the game

Lol. I wish I could get into an online RTS game, but this is why I have no chance, and it just would't be fun. I barely have 200 hours combined in all my games on steam.

For what it's worth; Tom Chick (quarter to three) loved Airland battle. It sounded pretty cool..

 

[Maximilian]

Well i managed to get it cheap... curiosity does mean things to a cat etc :sneaky: My earlier concerns have been addressed, indirectly but yeah, levels are there but they don't matter as much because everything is unlocked, also 10v10's don't have a host, they start automatically when 16 or more people join the game so no elitism there. Have to say i like the chat that's been added, its great for a laugh between games.

It was between getting this and getting CoH2, I played the beta of CoH2 and its missing too many things for me, i wont go into that here though. Anyways holy shit i love this game!! Noone told me there were 10v10's and they're done rather well as they are hosted on a server, not p2p. Just played a few 10v10's as PACT where everyone did their combined arms thing, few infantry, few tanks etc etc, i stomped all over all that with masses of T55 spam Only works if your teammates support you though.

Im probably making this game sound brainless as hell (its definitely a rather in depth strategy game!) but i like to try stupid tactics like that and to be fair i would have been slaughtered if it wasent for my team supporting the push, plus the guy who showed me how to use smoke to blind the enemy from wasting my weak ass tanks as soon as they came into sight range. Blind em, get as close as you can and even a crummy T55 can kill an M1 Abrams at that range!

 

[KMFJD]

I found this game very complex, the tutorial is crap

 

[Genx87]

Been playing skirmishes. Game is pretty deep when it comes to unit selection. I like it though.

 

[Maximilian]

Been playing skirmishes. Game is pretty deep when it comes to unit selection. I like it though.

Ye theres a ton of units, ive been playing multiplayer for a month now and i still see planes of some type come flying in and wonder wtf it is they do. Could click it and open its stats window but by the time ive done that ill already have found out what they do the hard way

 

[TallBill]

Downloaded this game and EE this past weekend. Picked up both for around $10 total on steam. Loving it so far but it aint easy. Have not tried online yet.

 

[Maximilian]

Downloaded this game and EE this past weekend. Picked up both for around $10 total on steam. Loving it so far but it aint easy. Have not tried online yet.

I think multiplayer EE is dead, not sure about airland battle though. Most seem to have moved on to red dragon, tons of people on that.

 

[TallBill]

I think multiplayer EE is dead, not sure about airland battle though. Most seem to have moved on to red dragon, tons of people on that.

Yeah I'm hoping that red dragon hits summer sale. Don't wanna pay $27 or whatever it is right now.

 

[Genx87]

My complaint about Red Dragon is the support role. I like the idea for organized games. But in a public game it ends up being an arty spamfest. It is really bad with redfor support roles due to all the fire they can reign down. I played games where the other team would literally burn out an entire capture zone with their arty.

 

[clamum]

I've had Airland Battle for quite awhile, not too long after it came out I think, but I haven't played a lot of it. Don't get me wrong, I really like it, but I think it's fairly complex and I just don't invest the time in it, I guess. I can't even win a frickin skirmish game on Easy (maybe if I really tried but I didn't fare too well last time I played, lol) so there's no way in fuck I'm going to try multiplayer yet.

If anyone is interested, there's a pretty good guide on the game written by a player. Much better than the nearly useless tutorials included with the game. Oh, looks like there's one for Red Dragon, too.