Master of Command is a game that immediately catches the eye of strategy game players and history buffs alike, especially those eager for complex mechanics. The Armchair Historian, a favorite history channel of mine, inspired excitement when they explored video games, making this title particularly intriguing. His first game, Pike and Shot, had rough edges, but lessons learned are evident in this impressive new release.
Master of Command launched last month, and it’s tailored for those who appreciate deep, complex strategy games, inspiring a sense of respect for its depth and rewarding challenge.
Don’t expect me to regale you all with how skilled I am at this game, though. As it turns out, this is a challenging game even for veterans of the genre, with a heavy focus on the logistics of conflict. For someone who takes delight in making constant mistakes and sacrificing hundreds of soldiers for the greater good, the game’s difficulty ramps up! So instead, enjoy my journey with my Prussian general Odds Bodkins, and his journey from a terrible general into a horrible human being.
Master of Command features several factions set in the Six-Year War, with a nice set of modifiers. It highly recommends starting on easy difficulty if you’re beginning, but even with all the bonus modifiers to reduce the challenge, it is still going to be tough. Prussia is a good place to start. Players are expected to manage their forces, gather supplies, and build up an army. It’s the usual strategy affair, but with an emphasis on logistics that I greatly appreciate.
From the onset, I love how you can freely customize all your units, including renaming and changing their uniforms. Personalisation is something I’m growing to love with strategy games, as it allows players to create forces that are genuinely their own. Like the Xcom series, it adds emotional attachment, which is rather essential in military strategy. After I spent my time fine-tuning my fledgling forces and naming them, it only hurts more when I mess up in battle and get them killed, like Odds Bodkin’s first battle.
In direct battles, Master of Command plays like a Total War game with real-time unit controls. The graphics aren’t winning any prizes for visual beauty, but they remind me of the original Medieval Total War in a pleasant way. You can easily tell which unit is which, and the tactical depth carries over from the campaign map into these battles. Odds Bodkins went into his first conflict with some confidence, with a larger army and all. Unfortunately, he got cocky after ordering his cavalry to rout the enemy’s horse riders. The infantry was doing well enough, using their gunfire to suppress the enemy grenadiers before rushing to engage with swords, but the enemy cavalry rallied.
Odds Bodkins rushed in to engage with the surviving cavalry under his command, only to be routed. That was humiliating for him, and despite the battle ultimately ending in victory, his men gave him deserved shit as they licked their wounds.
Morale, ammunition, and weather are all factors to take into account in Master of Command’s fights, and managing these is critical to survival. Every bullet and cannonball needs to be replaced, and losses are recovered by drawing upon a pool of reservists. All of this adds to the campaign’s cost, which further complicates the overall challenge. You have to build up a strong military quickly to stand a chance against the enemy armies that come at you at the end of each Act, while making sure your soldiers have enough supplies and ammunition to survive.
There is plenty to like in Master of Command, and it is clearly developed with both passion and a great understanding of historical warfare. A roadmap has already been established covering the next three months, including new maps, a reworked difficulty setting, full mod support, new armies, an infinite campaign mode, and a unit Hall of Fame. This impressive scope of upcoming updates demonstrates a strong commitment to long-term support, which is reassuring for potential players.
I have a couple of minor gripes. Despite the game’s modest visuals, it does require a system with a fair amount of power for optimal framerates, so I’m sure there’s some ongoing optimization that needs to be done. Occasionally, a few units got stuck during pathfinding, and I had a crash after one battle, but the overall technical state is decent. Second, the difficulty spikes feel a little over-tuned right now, especially on greater problems. On the face of things, however, these are minor issues, I think. The main takeaway I have is that Master of Command is one of the most impressive strategy games we have seen in a long time, and a vast improvement over Pike and Shot.
As a 34 year old British guy, I’ve been gaming almost as long as I’ve been around! Narrative Designer (Spellforce 3, Plarium Games as Lore Editor) and Freelance Writer, my favourite game genres are strategy, RPG, simulation and RTS.
