Fantastic game. Why?
1. zoom system means that you can scale what you see from the entire battlefield to the regimental markings on a single tank - vast improvements over the RUSE system as well, the funny counters no longer appear
2. each battle escalates as it progresses BUT unlike RUSE which had a semi Age of Empres resource system, units appear appear from off of the board
3. the whole meta-game, for the first battle you play you actually only have a few units available, you need to unlock others as you complete the campaigns, play other people e.c.t. - your strategy will therefore be reflected in your army, did you unlock the artillery, or the helicopters?
4. I am actually a miniature wargamer, this game is like an epic version of my favourite game in real life - 'Battlegroup:Kursk' - there is a whole supply mechanic which means you have to really plan your offensives, and defensive moves.

If you like strategy, real strategy, then you may just be looking at the best game ever, I cannot praise it enough. If you are not so sure then I have had friends who have played this game and not enjoyed it so much: it can be confusing, complicated and annoying at first, but getting past the learning curve is well worth it.

Steep learning curve, but thats half the fun. For the sake of balance, not all of the units are accurate to their historical counterpart. But thats ok, one can easily see how Wargame: European Escalation can be played competitively.

This game is really good, you have total freedom in the battle field, not preestablished commands like in Company of Heroes 2. Have to say it is quite difficult, specially the Warsaw Pact missions.

Pros:
RTS game with not the tipical isometric perspective, you can zoom in and out from the meters scale to the entire battlefield.
Sandbox, total freedom inside the battlefield, it focuses in tactics, not microscale fights.
Quite cheap, and if you like it there are the two sequels: airland battle and red dragon.

Conts:
Some missions are frustrating, very difficult, especially the ones in Poland, but saving the game regularly it can be done.
A bit messy when you have all the factions mixed in the battlefield.
I miss some military soviet music like in CoH2, btw the only good thing in CoH2.

So, after many different strategies and tactics, I have finally come to an unsatisfying conclusion. This game is a trainwreck.

Let me start off with the good parts about the game.

THE GOOD THINGS:
So, the graphics for a game on a scale such as this are amazing. The overall look of every unit is pretty good and you can clearly see that the developers did try to optimize the game as well.

There is a decent tutorial system in the game as well. From the first mission, it tells you what you must do and so on, and after the first few missions, the game lets your hand go and lets you think on your own.

That's just about it for the good things. Time for a good spank.

THE BAD THINGS:
So, let me start off with the enemy AI. In the Singleplayer Campaign, the AI seems to be an all-seeing entity that knows your every move, every tactic and attempted strategy, and immediately counters it, or makes it useless by annihilating your heaviest armored units. It's just impossible to fool this AI, no matter how hard I try, unless I guess where his line is the weakest and blast through there with whatever I can. This kills the overall fun of a fictional conflict RTS for me.

Next up: BALANCE
There are some serious balancing issues between units of similar roles in the game, like, the M60 Patton being unable to stand up to a T-60 or a T-72 whatsoever. As an example, I had four M60 Patton's engage against three T-60's, both stock versions and at full HP, however, the T-60's somehow, magically, one-shotted my Patton's, even though both groups had their frontal armor aimed at one another, AND to top it all off, my tanks never managed to hit them, despite the distance being probably optimal for late 20th century tank battles - 500 meters.

Third point: COMPUTER GETS AN UPPER HAND
At the start of every defense mission, the computer seems to have at least fifteen times more points that it can use to call upon reinforcements than the player. As an example, I was playing ABLE ARCHER's second mission, Ramstein Airbase or something like that, and I was able to call upon only three full squads of my finest armored units, M1 Abrams tanks. I placed them strategically where they were needed the most, but then the AI picked them all off almost 10 minutes after the start of the battle. The tanks were at full health, all of them had Corporal's stripes, but, they were just swarmed over by T-72's with missiles. I couldn't summon any other units because I didn't have a magical point income rate that the AI seemingly has.

Fourth: MAGIC INFANTRY
As the title says, the game has magic infantry units that can fire hand-held AT rockets on the move. No weapon that I know of is capable of being fired on the move. The result of this on-the-move shot should would fly away from its intended target, really far. And then Infantry is overpowered, by being able to one shot even heavy Main Battle Tanks.

Fifth point:
All the tanks are horribly underrated or overrated. The M1 Abrams seemingly has really bad equipment, while, to my knowledge, the Abrams was one of the best and most technologically advanced tanks of its time when it first came out. And the T-80 seems to be the single most capable tank of the game, able to utterly annihilate squads of Abrams and Leopard 2 tanks that are even outflanking it. Yes, this actually happened to me.

Sixth: TACTICS? I THINK NOT!
So, this game promotes a lot of thinking, but this clearly isn't a thinking man's game. It's a cheating man's game. What I mean is, no tactic has any value on the battlefield whatsoever. For example, I set my batallion in a formation where my flanks are stronger than my middle, to make sure that I can outflank my enemy and surround him in a powerful pincer move. But that doesn't work because the AI can do whatever the hell it wants and summon units out of nowhere to outflank my tanks and one-shot them all with incredible accuracy.

Seventh: ACCURACY
So, why do all of the player units suddenly have godawful accuracy and spotting range? I counted that at least 83% of all of my shots missed while they were in optimal engagement range, but for the AI - 67% was a miss at long range. The statistic is clearly showing how the AI wins in this and I am fully aware that the statistics for both factions are more or less balanced. It's still ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Eighth: MICRO- AND MACRO-MANAGEMENT
This game supports management on a small and massive scale, and it's applaudable. Games like this are a rarity and ones that execute it perfectly are a luxury among the rare ones, but Wargame isn't that luxury. The management is a huge distraction because your units have no versatility and they can't think for themselves. They're literally civilians given a gun and then shooting anything that moves, not trained soldiers that must do what they're told to do.

My personal verdict:
Don't waste your money on Wargame, get RUSE instead. Or better yet, if you want a Cold War-era game, get World in Conflict. It is a far better game, executed masterfully, unlike this poor excuse for a ''Wargame'' where everything is out of place.

NOTE: Don't give me that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that I must suck in this game. I've been playing RTS games for ages, and this game simply does NOT in ANY DARN WAY reward tactical/strategic thinking. It's all RNG.

Wonderful strategy game. Unlike most RTS tactical use of terrain is crucial, and an ambush can easily take out the most powerful units. All units you'll find in the game are real-world units from the cold war era, and there's an incredible amount of them! Just learn to read their stats and their basic role and you shouldn't be overwhelmed though.

Graphics are both impressive (smooth strategic zoom like R.U.S.E. or Supreme Commander, very detailed units and ground) and a bit bland (maps look all alike and very generic... at least it makes them easy to read).

Campaign is a bit generic but is a very good challenge, you definitely won't breeze through the missions. Multiplayer was still alive last time I checked, but if that's your main interest you'd better buy the latest game in the series (Wargame: Red Dragon at the time of writing this) as that's where most of the community is.

Excelent game, litterally best strategy game ive ever played so far. It has a hell of a learning curve to get past though, took me about 5 hours straight of playing to get stuff like building decks, and moving units down to pat. although the one thorn in my side is that you can only get command stars by playing the increasingly difficult campaign missions, or multiplayer. and i cant play multiplayer because my internet sucks. I wish you could get xp and command stars by playing A.I. skirmish mode. but over all great game, this is a MUST for any RTS fan or Cold war enthusiast. Great game Eugen!!!!!

One of the IF NOT THE best tactical RTS I've ever played: challenging, dynamic, replayable: If there's a Wargame: I'm going to play it :D And this is only the campaign, thus far. (120 hours under my belt since release and Airland Battle).

My ONLY criticism is not being able to save in combat, at least in ALB. I'd probably play it a lot more if I didn't have to commit an indeterminate number of time to it.

good game, but very hard

good game little older, but i love strategy games and this holds true to its type..

Let me preface this by saying I kinda suck at this game but it is still awesome. Be warned that the difficulty curve ramps up quickly in single player. Scout vehicles are more important in this game than other rts because you dont want your limited supply of tanks wandering into a trap set by infantry with anti tank missiles.

I can't even beat the first campaign levels!

If you see this game dont walk away instead bash your way to get this. THIS IS DA BEST STRATEGY GAME THAT MY ETERNAL AND LIVING SOUL TO HAVE RESTED ON. so BUY THIS. BUT ALSO ID RATHER DO AIRLAND BATTLE That is if you have enough money to get it....

Top Game......RTS fans will love this......dont need to say anymore...

One of my favorite RTS games. In this RTS game, instead of focusing on resource gathering and management or building up a base, you have a "deck" of units to work with. You can customize these decks with units you have unlocked. And once you start a match with a deck you can only use those units in the fight. You only have a limited number of each unit so don't just spam tanks or artillery units because you will run out very fast. In order to win you have to achieve a certain amount of points (ex:3500pts). You get points by destroying enemy units. Don't spam units and expect to win. You can't win with only tanks. You have to flank, use combined units to force your way into enemy controlled areas. Does the enemy have a heavily defended sector? Bombard them with artillery to dwindle there force and then move your garrisons in.

You also have to worry about fuel and ammo. You will need a constant supply of ammo trucks to keep your units functional.

Some cons I do have with the game are in fact the decks. It can be kind of tedious or grindy to have to unlock all of the units. It would be much easier to have them all unlocked at the start and just let you build it. But instead you are constantly playing matches to get stars to unlock better units.
Another slight issue would be the learning curve. The game doesn't really explain itself well so trying to figure out what is what and what does what can be confusing at first and may be a turn off for some players.

Over all I would rate this game 8/10. Very fun.

Good game !

Similar to R.U.S.E, But more complex and better !

Best rts wargane out there.

Its hard to gauge wargame ee. Overall its a fun game, but its mainly a multiplayer game and that multiplayer community has gone on to the newer games.

The single player campaign is just kind of tedius and not fun and it really feels out of order as well. You can only play against one ai opponent so not much entertainment as far as playing the ai etc. Overall i hate to say it but i have to give a good game here a thumbs down recommendation.

Which is a real shame. This game has an impressive and realistic unit and weapon selection, the maps have a nice natural look to them, and the game makes you resupply your vehicles as weapons/fuel are depleted which gives you a feel for the nightmare of logistics for a modern army, and i think that is a very cool angle to go after.

Im sure it was great when it was new, and you might try the new games, but i wouldnt recommend old games in the wargame series. Theres just not all that much to do in them now that the community is playing the newer games.

This is probably a really good game - if you know how to play it. Only, there is no tutorial, there is no introduction and there is no room for a learning curve (or if there is, it starts way too high on this learning curve).
This game ended up being more annoying than fun

yes it is a hard game, but not that hard to get the hang of how to play. some of these reviews will scare you away from this game, dont let them. it not hard at all to understand how to play the game, just take your time, dont rush it! its alot of fun.

quite hard in the beginning but otherwise a very fun game!