This was a great Thanksgiving weekend for a couple of reasons. The first was not only that the wife and daughter took off for a weekend of Black Friday shopping, but, more importantly, that I wasn't with them. The second was that this left me an entire three days to put into Slitherine/Fury Software's Strategic Command: World War I, a sequel/do-over of their classic game of the same name. I had a blast.
The review copy I received was updated over the last several days, so it did add in the final campaign scenario, which starts the festivities in 1917, putting pressure on the Central Powers to win prior to US involvement. However, I didn't get the player manual until very late so I had to use the one that came with Strategic Command WW2: World at War. Both use the same game engine and play is quite similar.
Don't kid yourself though, SCWWI is different in many ways and this is a good thing. After playing the 1917 scenario, I have to say no game covering the Great War at this level comes as close to capturing the ambience of the period as this one. The game feels like World War I, lock, stock and two smoking Stosstruppen.
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WW1 strategy games: the best World War I strategy games