Just going to start out by saying that, from my experience, this is not a normal hex-based strategy game. If you are looking for something resembling, say, Advance Wars or Civ, then this game is not for you. If you are looking for something consistent and easy in which you can figure out the rules in ten minutes and breeze through the rest of the game, then you should spam the back button until you reach something completely different. This game has a lot of less-than-obvious mechanics and an absurdly steep learning curve for at least the first few hours (or, dare I say it, days) of play, and to top it off, the tutorial is honestly not that great. You will spend your first few sessions replaying the same mission over and over again, quite possibly screaming, trying to figure out how your main battle tanks were destroyed by a company of infantry at what the computer claimed were 10-1 odds in your favor, and then you will move on to the second mission and try to figure out how you're supposed to beat an enemy with about 3 or 4 times as many troops as you, but I will tell you that it is possible.

Once you get past the complete insanity of trying to figure out how this game works, you will actually (miraculously) discover an amazingly intricate, engaging, and still almost stupidly hard strategy game, because you will be going up with 6 squads against 18 squads of tanks, but if you literally play your cards right, deploy your forces well, and have just a bit of luck, you will find that there are subtle patterns and rules that you can use to hold the line and push the enemy back. The dice system adds a pleasant element of chance which you can and must use to think about where you'll need power which interacts well (if peculiarly and not necessarily nicely) with the defensive support mechanic and the different unit types in order to force you to think about what you're doing on the battlefield.

Again, if I didn't say it strongly enough in the first paragraph, if you are looking for an easy, simple, lazy, or idle game which you can pick up on Friday afternoon and master by lunch on Saturday, you would be better off dropping your money on the sidewalk in the rain, because this isn't that type of game. It's hard to learn and harder to "master," and if you're not interested in committing a lot of time to learn a game then you will not enjoy yourself. If, however, you are a slightly obsessive person who likes challenges and is interested in analyzing systems, then I can say that I've never encountered a better game for it and that you might be worse off donating your money to a charity.

Deep and detailed turn based strategy set in the Sword of the Stars universe. Interesting mix of hard strategic choices and a deck building system that allows you to customize what kind of temporary bonuses to apply to the battlefield (remote resupply, orbital bombardment, etc.). Dice system is innovative and allows you to tailor a normally 'random roll' to where you think the most critical unit on the battlefield is. Good musical score. Campaign is challenging and diverse but rewarding. Racial differences in unit types make battlefield choices interesting (burrowing Hiver tanks coming up behind your main line, etc.).

Update:
This game must not be doing well: 8 weeks after launching on steam it was in an 80% off sale on an internet store; 9 weeks after launch it was in a cheap game bundle. I would guess that we are not going to see long-term support with this game, since it looks like it sold badly.

Updated review because of game leaving Early Access:
Everything in the review is still relevant. Only change is increased thread locking and post deleting in the forums. Here's a post I made about the Early Access price supposed to be lower than the release price before my reply was deleted and the thread locked:

http://imgur.com/FNe0Pdy

MAIN REVIEW FOLLOWS:
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I have been holding off writing this review because the game could be so good and I was hoping it would change.

This is a hex-based wargame in the SotS universe and that's exciting stuff. (I just realized that will sound like a joke to non-wargame fans, but it's true).

Based on the screenshots you would think was a cool, deep, fun game. The information in the encyclopedia in game is a nice touch.

Try to play the game though and you'll find a confusing, fiddly mess. There are far too many phases and lots of fiddly things you have to keep doing. The user interface is really bad both in usability and in showing you what's going on. A lot of this is because of the developers making the bad decision to have a "unified user interface" on mobile and PC, which means no tooltips, only one button used and no scrolling when you get your mouse to the edge of the screen. This cripples the PC UI and the developers flat-out refuse to change it to make the PC version easier to use.

The tutorial has been through a few changes but still remains awful at teaching you the game. This is both due to the content of the tutorial and the way it is presented, which makes it hard to tie together the UI with what the flash-card like windows are telling you.

I bought the game at the start of the Early Access on Steam and I was disappointed to find out that the game was not as finished as I thought it would be. From the store page it seemed like the only thing missing were some campaign missions, and the ironing out of the last few bugs:

"With this Early Access release, Ground Pounders is feature complete, and the main differences between now and final release - besides a few last minute cards and units - is there is only 1 campaign (instead of 2) and 5 scenarios (instead of ten)."

It turned out that early adopters really were unpaid beta testers and only by assiduously playing when it wasn't fun and giving feedback could we turn the game into the good game it had the potential to be. I mean, it wasn't just bug fixing, there were actually changes to how the game worked, and there was really the feeling that the game hadn't been tested at all before putting it on steam.

I did this for a short while but then I just couldn't be bothered any more- it was just not fun. I decided to put the game down until they finished it and see how it was. As of today the game is still in Early Access but is 66% off on a certain online game store. Because the Steam store page went out of its way to point out that we were saving money by buying into the Early Access game at the start vs. buying when it launched I felt a bit betrayed by this; I also took it as a sign that the studio may be in some sort of trouble. The game was planned to be released in March according to the Steam store page and it's almost June now with no release so maybe that's why.

Anyway, I suppose if you do get a deep discount on this or even get it in a bundle (there have been a lot of Early Access games in bundles recently) then it may turn out to be the game you expect, but at the moment it's unlikely that it is.

edited to say something positive: The music is good. That's the only thing to like about it though really.

Ok. Personally, I think this game has potential and there are obviously still issues needing to be worked out as the game is still pre-release.

Now, that said, I'm going to advise against buying the game now if you are looking for something to play. If you are wanting to support the development of this game, go ahead and buy it, play it, and give the company feedback. I'll give a brief bullet point list as to the current pros and cons with the game as I see it.

Pros:
1. Tutorials are worth the time and explain a lot of the game's mechanics. Do -not- skip them, thinking you'll pick up the game quickly without them because you've played games like this before.
2. Luck and skill both play a role in this game, without placing a premium on either.
3. The card mechanic is a nice touch, as it creates openings that you might otherwise not be able to take advantage of.
4. The campaign structure (from what I've been able to play of it) rewards careful husbanding of the units you buy, without punishing you unduely for taking risks with the temporary units assigned to your command.
5. The three layers of the battlefield keeps things fresh, as burrowers may sometimes pop up in your lines unexpectedly.
6. Keeps the flavor and expands on the lore of the Sword of the Stars universe.

Cons:
1. The game is buggy as hell. But it's early access, so...you should be expecting that going in.
2. The high-res texture pack will cause the game to crash when loading in. At least, that's been my experience.
3. The game has a sharp learning curve. As noted in the pros, the tutorials are worth the time, so...that helps curb that somewhat.
4. Some aspects of the game are counter-intuitive, adding to the learning curve noted above.
5. No adjustable resolution or window size.
6. It's early access, therefore not recomended for someone expecting a completed game. It's -very- much a work in progress.

Overall, however, I highly recomend this game and look forward to seeing the end result. Given Kerebos' track record with SotS games, I have high hopes for the end result.

This game is a deep strategic game and therefore obviously has a steep learning curve! To say I can't be bothered to learn the game and therefore don't recommend it is naive. For those of us who don't mind a game with a steep learning curve, have the time, and don't want to play "simple" games I can not RECOMMEND this game enough. If you liked Panzer General get this game without delay !!

By all means play whatever type of game you prefer but to knock a game because YOU can't be bothered is ignorant and your post should be removed in my opnion as it clearly is not too helpful.

This game is a good challenge and an enjoyable play. It crashes every so often, but if you like good strategy mixed with intense narrative with a little bit of strategic variety (via cardgame-style deck system), this is a game you will love up and down.

This game looked promising in the description but it led me to actually doubt my way of supporting developers by buying early access...

The interface is horrible and I have seen some bad design etc. in my 25 years of gaming experience.

There is no tutorial whatsoever, so I was put off and had no nerve to even try and understand the tactical gameplay after 30 minutes into the first game of the campaign.

I can only advise everyone to wait for the final product or just skip this title. Sorry lads.

This game is painfully bad.

It has no explaination of what's going on, no text anywhere, cryptic symbols, no way to tell what is art, UI or just plain broken... uninteresting mechanics (apparently), and just no appeal whatsoever.

And I say this as a person who loves turn based strategy games. But Ground Pounders reminds me of a bad 1970s boxed game with chits, only it forces you to play the game while hopped up on novacane.

hmmm,just 1 word

CUTE

It only took a few minutes to see that none of the normal conventions apply and the learning curve is more than I want to invest .