Eugen Systems: Comparing Steel Division '44 and Wargame: Red Dragon

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Eugen Systems:

Eugen Systems: Zones of Control and Weapon Ranges

Eugen Systems: Airforces, AP, and Artillery

Steel Division: Normandy '44

Time to Beat: 18 Hours

Wargame: Red Dragon

Time to Beat first campaign (plus a little extra): 14.5 Hours

Wargame: European Escalation

Time played: at least ten hours, but five or six years ago and I don't remember much

Almost a decade ago I played Wargame: European Escalation (2012) by developer/publisher Eugen Systems. For reasons long lost to time, I never finished it. But I must have enjoyed it because I placed Wargame: Red Dragon (2014) on my wish-list (but I must not have enjoyed it too much, because I only purchased the game ten years later). I had also been scouting Steel Division: Normandy '44 (2017). This past December I purchased both with the idea of comparing and contrasting them. Little did I know that Steel Division was also developed by Eugen (though published by Paradox Interactive).

The purpose of this review is to pit Steel Division: Normandy '44 against Wargame: Red Dragon. 0321E8529B943A4DDB0CFF29E899D5D2ECBD9EF0 (2560×1440)

To begin, only one has a real tutorial. Some experienced players may find Normandy's tutorial too simple. Maybe it doesn't need to cover how to select units and move them across open terrain. But it also introduces intermediate areas of knowledge. It doesn't explain enough. It fails to explain what the vast majority of units do. It fails because there are so many types of infantry, tanks, artillery, etc. Just because two units are infantry, doesn't mean they fulfill the same functions. Normandy doesn't explain each unit as they appear in the campaigns, but it teaches the player the basic tools to learn themselves. Red Dragon doesn't even include a tutorial. It introduces the player to gameplay with no visuals, only a few boxes of text. Two years earlier Eugen released Wargame: European Escalation, which includes a tutorial mission. Possibly Eugen assumed anyone playing Red Dragon had already played European Escalation, making a tutorial redundant. A big assumption, and it ignores the fact that Escalation only had land units, while Dragon introduces naval and air units.

Both Normandy and Red Dragon play as a series of missions across multiple campaigns. The former consists of three short campaigns, while the latter features five extended conflicts.

Steel Division's campaigns aren't strategic; each includes four tactical scenarios. Two follow the Allies in their attempts to secure the D-Day landing or capture Hill 112. The Axis campaign is a “What If?” where the Germans, under Rommel, counter attack the Normandy landing. The mission types offer an excellent variety of objectives; attacks, transport units to area, hold locations, destroy specific enemy units, map control, or rescue allied units. Missions are introduced in briefings with an officer explaining the grander strategic plan, but also the local battlefield with maps and plenty of intelligence on possible enemy unit deployments, plans, and movements. After the briefing the player chooses from a number of possible units. Though the game didn't make this clear, units lost during one map in a campaign are not available later. 83DF92458CCA89C743C4FD23260291D7602829A9 (2560×1440) Units are grouped into eight categories (infantry, support, artillery, recon, tanks, anti-tanks, air, and anti-air), and the player is limited on how many from each category they can bring to battle. Infantry units include as many as twelve people, while vehicles are single units. With such small units, it seems they are intended to fight until they die. Units have an experience ranking of zero to two stars. Their value doesn't increase or decline based on their participation during the campaign. On the map, mandatory and optional objectives are well marked, but sometimes the marker blocks the player's view of the area. I do like that each mission had allied, computer controlled units to coordinate with. It makes the player feel like a commander, interacting in a coordinated command structure. Scenarios end with a victory screen (or loss screen). This screen is impossible to parse, because it includes too much data for every single unit that fought. It's also worthless, because units have no distinguishing characteristics. Too much data, too little reason to care.

Wargame: Red Dragon screams into battle with five immersive campaigns. These take historical events and posit; what if something slightly different occurred? Each scenario is introduced with an engaging mini-movie, comprehensively outlining the events that led to the conflict (these videos do little to explain the details of the military situation). In Wargame: Red Dragon I played the first campaign, the 1987 Busan Pocket (North Korea invades South Korea again), three times. The first attempt I suffered a crushing military defeat as South Korea. The second time the forces of the United States and South Korea were winning, but I didn't complete strategic objectives in time. The third time was a resounding victory for Seoul. The war is played on a strategic map. Units move from area to area, and battle when both sides have units in the same area. Some areas award extra supply points or are objectives for winning the game. 83C9262C3E4F8D62E9307E5761EB8EE77529B408 (2560×1440) Because a campaign of Red Dragon is a series of battles on a campaign map, units retain certain elements. Units are organized into groups, and groups maintain morale and cohesion values, which change depending on the outcome of battles. Morale determines the amount of casualties a unit can suffer before surrendering in a battle. Cohesion affects the amount of starting units and how many points the unit earns every second to deploy new units.

Because Red Dragon campaigns are played on a map with connecting locations, each area has a unique combat map. But the unique map never changes. It's possible to fight multiple consecutive battles on the same battlefield. The repetitive nature of battles, and the lack of scenarios or plotted fights, leads to a tedious grind of similar battles, fought by the same units in the same area. Similar to Total War Saga: Troy, the auto-resolve system is abysmal, so even if the player has a huge advantage they can't use it to skip easy battles.

Despite the strategic map of Wargame: Red Dragon, most of the action of it and Steel Division occurs on the battlefield. In both the World War II and Modern eras of combat, vision is key to winning the battle. In both games every unit has an Optics rating, which determines how far they can see. While airplanes and helicopters always see at their full range, obstacles block the vision of ground units. The line of sight of units in Steel Division is often blocked by forests, hedgerows, or smoke from artillery fire. While it would seem to be clear, often the nature of hedgerows, small clumps of trees, and even the topography can make finding the line of sight on an enemy unit a pain to micromanage. DD6D91E0C398F3FE770FC23BBD3F52AEF0CB62D2 (2560×1440)

The opposite is true of Red Dragon. Terrain doesn't matter much. Terrain is more uniform and contiguous with a few large forests/hills/towns/rivers and very few small clumps. Units seem to have some vision into forests. Topography plays a greater part. The terrain has less detail, less character. The few hedges that exist don't seem to block sight. It makes it both boring, but less frustrating. More strategically straightforward.

The terrain of Normandy is better explained and more detailed. Units are either in the open, in light cover (sparse woods/small buildings), or in heavy cover (woods, larger buildings). It is immediately apparent to the player what protection a location provides. Though woods and buildings both apply a heavy cover, it did seem as if buildings were slightly better. Units in Normandy auto-cover, meaning, if they are in the open, but close to cover, they move to it automatically. This is normally preferable. But sometimes they would be in the clear on the safe side of hedgerows, where the enemy couldn't see them. The auto-cover feature moves them into the light cover, but now the enemy can see them, and shoot them. The player can turn off auto-cover for any individual unit but that leads to many more problems. In Normandy, cover is not relevant for vehicles. Wheeled and tracked vehicles can't cross deep terrain like woods, or even hedgerows. It doesn't seem as if terrain is destructible, and if this game has topography, which I think it might (?) it is difficult to see. 5394BB0BD65A296EB2EF7840BEEEBE98C783D725 (2560×1440)