Saratoga

This is a great release of a series I can't recommend enough. With this and Rebel Fury out now, I hope they do well so GMT sees some incentive to put out more digital versions with some decently programmed AI. I always like that many GMT games have solitaire suitability, but I'm not a fan of solitaire play in traditional games, if only because you do need to distance yourself a bit from the bot script, so having a decent AI is good. In order to get people into wargaming, we need these digital versions rather than VASSAL, because the automation of combat tables and phase upkeep prevents scenarios from reaching multi-hour affairs and allows for a more casual friendly approach for those who are not already into the hobby. Nothing can replace the actual player to player experience, but you can't have that if people aren't already interested. I think the tutorial is pretty good for someone jumping in, but I already knew the series rules so I can't say how much they matter for a new player. My one comment would be to make sure to do more playtests with fresh players and see if the tutorials can be more fleshed out. The one thing that scares away players is having to memorize all of that stuff. Having pdfs of the rules for reference is great, but not everyone is of that age where they consult the manuals for information. The close combat chit matrix is probably the one thing I would recommend a more in depth tutorial on, because I think understanding that can be hard for someone who is new to the game's system.

I bought this game so that I could play an AI opponent { I own the original board game} but have found the interface so slow and clunky that it would take less time to set up the physical board game and play both sides. The response time when you click on anything in the game is very slow and it seems to get worse the longer you play it! More worrying is the fact that once you close down the game the poor performance continues and I have to restart the computer to get rid of the problem! I requested a refund from Steam but unfortunately I had played over the 2 hour limit because of slogging through the tutorials and was refused. I have bought dozens of GMT games and have always regarded them as a byword for quality and so I found it difficult to accept that the online game was so bad! I have had no problems running any other games in my steam library including recent purchases such as Civilisation 7 and Solasta 2 so I am at a loss to understand why this game runs so poorly.

Outstanding! It's a faithful adaptation of the board game. I can finally play true solo - against the AI, it's great! I wish there were more hex&counter games like this, especially Holland '44, Ardennes '44, or those in the Great Battles of History series...