2023 is shaping up to be a great time for wartime RTS games. If Men Of War 2 and Company Of Heroes 3 weren't enough to keep you busy on the WW2 side of global historical conflicts, Petroglyph Games' The Great War: The Western Front will also be stepping into the trenches of WW1 at some point next year as well – literally, in this case, as planning, digging and capturing these muddy lines of defence will play a vital role in both its pre-combat Theatre Commander mode and busy real-time strategy battles. Recently, I got to play through one of its RTS battles, but what I found was a strategy game quite unlike its WW2 rivals.
In some ways, this shouldn’t be surprising. As Petroglyph Games’ lead designer Chris Becker tells me over email, “WW1 is known for being a war of attrition and a battle of inches,” leading to fewer sweeping power plays when it comes to securing a victory. Indeed, your main concern here isn’t so much the winning of each individual battle, but maintaining your side’s National Will, which Becker says will be "in constant fluctuation" throughout the campaign – and with both the Allies and Central Powers to pick from here, that could mean very different things depending on who you choose. "It’s essential that players continue to monitor this, as the relentless toll that the war will take on National Will can result in overall victory or defeat," says Becker. "Authenticity is at the heart of this, we wanted to truly represent what 'victory' meant in the war - even with success, there is cost."