Commander: the Great War

The First World War isn't traditionally seen as good gaming material. In place of the thrilling battles and heroism of other conflicts there were static front lines, mud, and unimaginable suffering.

But now and again some brave designer tries to challenge that stereotype. Commander: the Great War is the latest, and one of the more successful.

Its conceit is simple yet powerful. Rather than trying to make trench warfare itself interesting, the game asks commanders to look elsewhere to do their strategizing.

To look, in fact, at the logistical issues that were at the root of the uniquely horrible stalemates that characterized the conflict.

World War One was the first fully industrialized conflict. To wage it, nations required colossal resources diverted toward military production.

Yet never having seen a war like this before, commanders had little idea of what to do with all that material to achieve a breakthrough.

So that's your brief. Keep the economies of the countries you're commanding functioning by guiding trade conveys through dangerous waters.

Then use those economies to build men and ammunition for the front, while researching new tactics and technologies to break the enemy lines.

If that sounds a little dry, well, it can be. This is a detailed game that rewards close attention. Units have sixteen different statistics and you'll spend a lot of time and effort just trying to make sure your front line formations keep rotated, rested, and well supplied.

But when you do go on the offensive the effort of all that planning makes it excruciating, knife edge stuff. Success is wildly exhilarating, failure utterly miserable. At least until you go back to your last save and try again.

Of course you can't get all the political and economic stuff into a strategy title without it starting to look and feel an awful lot like a grand strategy game. And Commander: the Great War certainly fits the bill in most regards, except perhaps timescale.

Turns are two weeks long and the full campaign lasts the four years of the war and incorporates every front. Confusingly, that means that the first campaign on the list, starting in 1914, is actually the longest.

Indeed confusion is likely to be rife during your initial experiences here. There are no rules, and the tutorial is little more than a few popup boxes. Anyone unused to strategy on this scale is going to struggle.

Further barriers are put between neophytes and tactical nirvana by the amount of time the game demands from you. Coordinating your efforts across multiple fronts means you can take twenty minutes or more to plan a single turn. It takes another five for the AI to churn out a response.

That's not such a big deal on the PC where the game originated, but it feels a bad fit for mobile. You can save when you like, but this isn't a game you can play successfully in bite-sized chunks.

It needs too much focus, and demands to be played for long stretches curled up on the sofa.

Imperial rewards

If you have the patience and the inclination to invest enough time to learn, play, and master this game then your reward is a title unlike anything else on the App Store. Especially in terms of depth and scope.

The AI may be a little kooky at times, but the inclusion of an asynchronous multiplayer option means the possible play time offered here is vast enough to outweigh its substantial asking price.

But bear in mind that this isn't a game for everyone, so that cash barrier might prove a little too high.

If you think you can find the time and motivation to master the convoluted numerical intricacies of Commander: the Great War, it offers a unique challenge to the mobile gamer. Others should probably leave well alone.