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[Biowraith]

So, after seeing the link over on this thread, I’ve spent the last 3-4 days playing March of War.  It’s a free to play turn based wargame with both PvP and PvE options.  It’s currently on Steam as early access - I'm not sure what the official development stage is at, but I'd put it at about the equivalent of late closed beta (just not, you know, closed), so it's still pretty rough around the edges.  However, I’ve been enjoying it enough that I figured I’d make a thread for it in case, you know, other people would enjoy it too.

Links:
Official Website
Wiki(a) (be careful though, I've heard reports of the occasional trojans and stuff in the ads on Wikia)

Fair warning - I'm not so hot at brevity or being concise.

Overview

March of War is set in an alternate version of the 1940s global conflict, with what they’re describing as a dieselpunk flavour - in addition to the regular tanks and soldiers, you also have flame-thrower mechs, zeppelins, oversized war gorillas, and silly/cool (delete as appropriate) stuff like that.

The game is split into a real time strategic map, where the game’s 6 factions are battling for control of the world’s territories, and the tactical maps where the turn based battles take place. 

Battles can be both PvE and PvP.  PvE has 4 match types and 8 difficulty settings.  PvP has 2 match types.  For the solo player battles are 1v1, but if you’re in the game’s equivalent of a guild you can do 2v2 (I'm not in a guild so I’m unsure if more than 2v2 is possible, and if not I’m unsure whether it’s planned). 

Winning a battle progresses your faction’s progress in conquering or defending the territory, and also awards you with Gold and Research.  Gold is the in-game currency used to buy units to use in your battles, while Research is spent to unlock new units, or abilities/upgrades for your existing units.

And that’s basically the gist of it.  I’ll now go into a bit more detail for those who are interested.

Bugs etc

So to get this out of the way, as said it’s early access.  Some people are struggling to get the game to work at all.  Some people get it to work but then it crashes or gets stuck loading battles.  There’s a common issue of the game stuttering, freezing for a few seconds on a regular basis during battles (sometimes it's fine, other times it drives me insane).  There’s no PvP turn timer so if someone’s losing they can just go afk and wait for you to get fed up and surrender (though GMs will step in to end battles if this happens).  I gather the co-op battles have a number of issues with disconnections and the like.  The AI is really dumb, and also a bit of a cheatyface (possibly to makeup for it being really dumb).  And there’s definitely a lot of balancing still to be done (bloody Heat Shells!).

That said, it’s got a lot of potential, and even in this state it’s pretty fun (at least, I think so).

Strategic Map

As mentioned above, one half of the game (really, more a quarter or fifth of the game – the battles are the meat of it) is played on the strategic map.  This consists of a map of the world split into territories which the 6 factions of the game fight over.  There's screens to view your ranking and statistics, faction information, news reports of who's attacking who, along with army management & research.

The factions are:

• European Alliance - storm troopers, heavy tanks, sexy spies, zeppelins
• United Republic (i.e. North America) - mounties, jet packs, air strikes, artillery
• Soviet Union - snipers, tanks, mechs, propaganda
• Shogun Empire (which includes most of Aisa, not just Japan) - ninjas, flame tanks, war balloons
• Latin Junta - cavalry, sexy amazons, "killdozers", buses full of chemicals
• African Warlords - gorillas, war elephants with guns on, bikes & buggies, auto-shotguns

There's the usual factional strengths/weaknesses with some leaning towards e.g. mobility while others lean towards e.g. big tanks.

Each faction has a player nominated as leader.  The leader is voted on by the entire faction once every 2 weeks and can set up treaties with other factions and I think start projects for the faction (hazy on the details of those, but I gather one of them involves nukes).

In addition to the leader, the top 30 ranked players after each election are appointed the faction’s High Command.  The High Command players can vote on which territories the faction will attack.

Generally there’ll be 2-4 territories in dispute for each faction at any given time.  Some of these will be the ones your HC has voted to attack, while the others will be ones you’re defending because some other faction has voted to attack them.

Battles can only be fought in disputed territories, and winning those battles will contribute to your faction taking (or retaining) control of the territory - each faction gets a sort of health bar for the territory, and winning a battle gives a certain amount of 'battle points' which are knocked off the health of the opposing faction, with the first to lose all their health losing the territory.

Currently there’s not really any benefit to owning territories, so if you’re in a poorly populated (or poorly played) faction it’s not a big deal, other than possible ego bruising.  The only exception is your faction will occasionally get an objective to e.g. control 3 specific territories, giving a faction wide boost to e.g. gold rewards if they succeed.

Units & Research

Each faction currently has ~12 unit types available.  4 of those start off unlocked and available to buy.  The others you have to unlock with Research points (gained by winning battles).

You can spend Gold (also gained by winning battles) to buy units of the types you’ve unlocked.  Units bought are permanent so that e.g. if you buy 5 Rocket Troopers, and 3 of them die during battle, afterwards you’ll be replenished back to 5 Rocket Troopers ready for the next battle.  You can also spend gold on consumable 'cards' which let you e.g. launch an air strike during a battle.  They cost a lot less than units, but aren't replenished automatically.  There's 3 consumable types per faction (at least, my faction has 3) of which one is unlocked to start with.

Of the 4 ready-unlocked unit types, all factions have one set as “Light Infantry”, which are free – you get an infinite supply and never have to spend Gold on them.  Of course, they’re also pretty crap – it’ll take a Light Infantry around 3 turns to kill another Light Infantry, much less stronger units.

Unit stats are fairly basic.  They get hitpoints, defense types, damage types, and movement range.  Different damage types work better against different defense types – chances are you know the drill here; anti-armour damage is great for taking down vehicles, but not so hot for killing infantry (though a few units are great at both).

You only start with only a handful of non-Light Infantry, so you have to look after them – especially anti-armour units, since if they die before they take out the enemy’s vehicle(s) you’re going to have a bad time.

In addition to unlocking new unit types, Research can also unlock extra abilities for your existing ones.  These unlocks aren’t very complicated, just a straightforward unit A can unlock ability X with research (where X is fixed for that unit).

Battles

So once you’ve bought and/or researched your units, you’re ready to fight a battle.  Battles can only be fought in a territory your faction is currently disputing.  A disputed territory will have two battles available for you: a PvP battle, and a PvE battle.
 
I don’t know a lot about the PvP battles except that there’s a few issues with them right now (which is why I’ve not tried them), so I won’t say much about that. 

PvE battles come in 4 match types, though the type for each territory is picked for you (so e.g. India may currently be offering an Assault match, while Japan is offering a Siege match).   You can choose from one of 8 difficulty settings.  The difficulty setting determines how much Gold & Resource (and contribution to your faction’s struggle in that territory) you get if you win, though there’s a random element to it too.

If you’re in a Battlegroup – the game’s equivalent of a guild – you can do co-op matches with your guildmates.  I’m not in a guild so I’m hazy on the details – I know there’s 2v2 PvP and 2vAI, but not sure if it goes beyond that (and if not, if there’s plans to expand it).

At the start of the battle you’re given a pool of resources to spend on deploying units.  The resources come in 3 types: Infantry, Vehicle, and Command.  Infantry and Vehicle spent on, well, infantry and vehicles.  Command is required for some of the fancier units (e.g. a Flame Tank requires both Vehicle and Command resources) and can also be spent on one-shot abilities like air strikes, area damage boosts and the like (these are also bought with gold, but are consumable – you don’t get them back after the battle).

Depending on the match type, the map will likely contain control points.  Capturing a control point will provide resources each turn, and also act as mini-deployment zones for any units you bring in mid-battle.

PvE match types are:

• Assault – capture all the control points to win.
• Blitz – both sides get a special command unit.  Kill the enemy command unit to win.
• Breakthrough – the enemy starts with the only two control points on the map, which bring in more resources than usual, but they also start with far fewer resources.  You have a time limit to capture both control points.
• Siege – you get a special command unit.  The enemy gets loads of free resources each turn.  You have to keep the command unit alive for a set number of turns.

PvP is limited to Assault and Blitz.

Each turn, each unit can either attack, move then attack, or move twice.  Only infantry can capture a control point (meaning those crap Light Infantry from earlier can still be useful), but land based vehicles can ‘contest’ a control point, blocking it from being captured.  Turns are on a side basis rather than unit by unit – I move and attack with all my guys, then you (or more, likely the AI) moves and attacks with all your guys.

Matches are generally fairly quick for a turn based game, I’d estimate most of mine take 10-20 minutes a piece.

Free to Play / Pay to Win

The microtransaction system they’re using is basically that anything you can buy with Gold or Research, you can also buy with Gems (aka real money).  There’s also a handful of cosmetic items that you can only buy with Gems.  Gems are also used to open up extra battle slots (so you can have more than one battle in progress at once, which I'm not overly keen on as a feature personally) and character slots (you start with two, I guess the most you'd want is six, one for each faction).

Some reckon that’s enough to write it off as Pay to Win and there’s maybe some merit to that – early on you’ll only have a handful of units to deploy before you’re down to the free Light Infantry, which can make some matches fairly brutal if the AI starts pulling multiple vehicles and stuff, and I gather PvP matchmaking isn't terribly good so you could find yourself against someone with loads of bought units while you're stuck with only a few.  And there is some element of later units being stronger than early ones, it’s not entirely a case of sidegrades (though that might be a balance issue rather than intentional, I'm not sure).

That said, the early units are all fairly useful (I actually start every Assault match with the crappy free Light Infantry, since they're cheap so can potentially cap more undefended control points for an early advantage), with most of them remaining useful in the late game (the starter anti-armour infantry is actually one of the most popular units among my faction’s top players). 

I found that while there’s a bit of a hump to get over early on, it didn’t take too long – maybe 8-10 hours of play before I had a good spread of units bought and unlocked.  I’m now about 20 hours in and no longer feel any need to spend real money to advance (though if I’m still enjoying it in a week or three I’ll do so to support the game). 

That said, I'm apparently ranked 18th in my entire faction (and 109th in the whole game), so it may be that players who haven't taken to the game quite as easily as me are having a harder time and thus feel there's less of a choice about spending money to advance.


And I guess that’s everything.

(Oh, and I'm playing as Shogun Empire because ninjas and flame tanks and war balloons)

(edited to add some brief info on faction units, and again to add brief description to the title)

[Anvilfolk]

Tactical turn-based strategy games - can't get enough of them, especially if they're free. The game itself is pretty cool, I'm enjoying the tactics so far. I must've played about 5 matches or so, but the game freezing for 5 seconds at a time quite frequently drove me away. I'll come back when that's fixed

The interface also needs a little work, but overall it's decent. I like the system they have set up, though I definitely find myself reduced to basic infantry every time. It would take me maybe 15 or so matches to be able to buy an extra unit to use in the matches. Of course, that's matches of medium difficulty, and you need to win. Still, this building up of your capabilities is pretty cool.

I've only done PvE, and sometimes it gets pretty frustrating being put up against helos and tons of armour since I only have basic infantry. I end up surrendering those matches. I feel you should still get a little something if you lost. Not sure whether you get more monies for playing against players and so forth, or exactly what it depends on, though I haven't read too much.

The game definitely scratches the itch for the a nice tactical TBS, though since I've only played a couple of matches, I can't really appreciate how deep things go. For instance, do units have side-armour? This usually gives games another depth entirely.

Overall I'd say it's definitely worth a try, though maybe wait until they fix the freezing for 5s part

[Krevsin]

Based on my very linited experience, the game is very cool. The only thing that bothers me right now is that some times, the infantry does a hillarious (read: annoying) little dance before shooting, or sometimes do not shoot at all.

Still, i like the game though Australia ought to be a separate country.

[Biowraith]

the game freezing for 5 seconds at a time quite frequently drove me away. I'll come back when that's fixed

It's fixed!

Well, it's fixed on the Steam client.  The ISOTX client is due to get the fix imminently.  I played for four hours last night without a single freeze (though there's still the odd crash and such, but that's not *too* bad given you can return to where you left off and don't just forfeit the battle).

I've only done PvE, and sometimes it gets pretty frustrating being put up against helos and tons of armour since I only have basic infantry. I end up surrendering those matches. I feel you should still get a little something if you lost. Not sure whether you get more monies for playing against players and so forth, or exactly what it depends on, though I haven't read too much.

There was a bug where Easy difficulty was giving the AI way more units than it's meant to get (both in numbers and tech level, I think), which is supposed to be fixed now.  I've long since left Easy difficulty behind though, so not sure the extent to which it was fixed.

PvP rewards are greater than the first few PvE difficulties, but high level PvE offers better rewards and I suspect resolves faster.  Couple that with the lack of turn timer (so if your opponent afk's or whatever, you're stuck in battle with him/her) and PvP is probably best avoided for the moment.

The game definitely scratches the itch for the a nice tactical TBS, though since I've only played a couple of matches, I can't really appreciate how deep things go. For instance, do units have side-armour? This usually gives games another depth entirely.

Alas no, armour is uniform and depth is somewhat limited in general - no cover system, troops can't go inside buildings, etc.  I kinda miss that stuff, but I'm not sure if its absence really detracts from the overall fun (I missed it a lot more when I started playing than I do now).



In general I'm a little unsure about the longevity of the game - how much of a reason there'll be to play once I unlock all the units , lack of reason to hold territory beyond bragging rights, etc - but for now I'm really enjoying it.

[Datgum]

I played for two days (about eight battles) and am convinced there is no longevity for me. The PvE is really dull, and though I haven't played PvP, I imagine it being pretty boring and quite time consuming. There's just no incentive to grind a game like this where you have to spend 15ish minutes for each battle when you can play a browser game like Erepublik where fighting for the day takes about 20 mouse clicks total. Ultimately the "incentives" of conquering and defending territory (and maybe doing a bit of light strategizing if you put tons of hours in and are part of the leadership) for your side are the same in March of War as they are in far less grindy and time consuming games. It's always nice to jump into a game like this at the very beginning, but this strikes me as an unimaginative Pay 2 Win failure.

[Cheedows]

Playing this as United Republic and yeah, there is a grind but it is quite fun when you dominate the AI.  I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but some factions are just terribly difficult and very grindy in order to become good that while some are insanely easy.  The European Alliance is really OP at the start since their half-tracks is the equivalent of a Jeep + Tank high health, and very anti- personnel.  I've played as them on another character so no bias here, but they definitely have one of the strongest beginning units.  Evens out late game (sorta), but the AI for some factions are so bugged such as the Latin Junta having bugged tanks. 

So, this is just my opinion if you are planning on playing this and don't feel like forking over some cash or grinding, don't play as the Latin Junta or Russians.  This may just be me, but having the beginner unit of an offensive vehicle can make a world of difference early game.

[Anvilfolk]

I feel the tactical gameplay could use a little more depth, like flanking actually mattering and that kind of stuff... anybody else feel that?

[Cheedows]

I feel the tactical gameplay could use a little more depth, like flanking actually mattering and that kind of stuff... anybody else feel that?

Yes, this would give more advantage to faster units, stealth actually making a difference rather than a 50/50 split etc.

[Biowraith]

Yeah, it could definitely use a bit more depth in the tactical gameplay.  The strategic level too, for that matter.

I'd also like to see some larger maps to fight on too (with higher reward, since they'd take longer) - it's a bit too easy to out-rush the AI before it can really get an offensive going, at least on Assault matches (and some Blitz maps can be won on your second turn, once you have a decent force built up).

And European Alliance is pretty much universally agreed as being the strongest / most overpowered faction - strong units, compounded by the omniscient Sonic Bomb spam the AI likes to use.