spillblood

Another, apparently rather unknown TD game, that has destructible towers and free tower placement like Harvest Massive Encounter mentioned by mrwynd here is Revenge of the Titans. It's much more hectic (with a certain arcade influence, power ups etc.), and gets very difficult in the later missions. http://store.steampowered.com/app/93200/?l=german

Regarding Steam and Matrix Games, actually they announced on their website they're going to bring Panzer Corps to Steam, and after that some other titles, so they'll be present on Steam some time in the near future: http://www.matrixgames.com/news/1308/Panzer.Corps.gets.a.Greenlight Ah, BTW, Achtung Panzer Operation Star (one of the titles by Graviteam, also in the Matrix Games catalog, but without any of the addons) is also available on Steam now (somehow it was made available via Steam over Strategy First). Ah, and some comment regarding Pandora: They've also mentioned the Deadlock series (Deadlock:Planetary Conquest and Deadlock: Shrine Wars) as an influence besides Alpha Centauri. Not sure if you're aware about it, but since it's available on gog.com now, some classic review about Deadlock 1+2 would be nice. It's absolutely worth checking out for Civilization fans with an interest in Sci Fi. It's about colonies of several alien races and humans competing on a single planet (planet-based like Alpha Centauri), and if I'm not wrong it was actually released BEFORE Alpha Centauri (in 1996, the sequel in 1998, Alpha Centauri in 1999).

Actually an episode on the huge John Tiller game series mentioned also mentioned in this podcast would also be nice. The only one I've tried so far was Panzer Campaigns on an Android device, which didn't seem to be optimized pretty well for it (it plays like a PC game, with a lot of little icons for controlling the action). People who have got some Android tablet or smartphone should check it out, but it seems pretty hard to learn: http://www.pockettactics.com/news/ios-news/t-34s-from-the-tiller-man-panzer-campaigns-out-on-android-ios-soon/ It's got one of the longest help/tutorial texts I've ever seen in a mobile game. Considering Korsun Pocket itself, I also got it and tried to get into it after learning from some interviews and posts from Tomislav Uzelac on the Unity Command forums that it's one of their biggest influences, but couldn't really manage to really play it so far (it seems pretty hard to get into). It's actually not the first SSG I've tried, played a lot of Panzer Battles on the C64 in the 90s (before I had a PC): http://www.thelegacy.de/Museum/8139/?game_id=8139&multilanguage=1&system=2

Good episode. Some more description about the different games talked about would have been nice though.

Great episode with an interesting topic. It would be pretty interesting to see the rebellion mechanic fleshed out some more in Grand Strategy games. Applying the politics system of Cliff Harris' Democracy series (or other games with a similar topic) to a grand strategy game, IE simulate different interest groups in a society could simulate this in more detail, but I guess it would make those games less straight forward and streamlined, especially Civilization. It'd be also pretty cool to have a strategy game where you play the rebels, IE try to take over a country (there were some, I remember an old C64 game and some PC strategy game from the time around 2000).

I did play with the expansions turned off, but there's so much stuff going on at once, it's much more complicated than in a turn based game. But really have to try again, because as far as i know there's also much automation to do many of those tasks for you. Have given up the tutorial every time I tried with a new version because I somehow got annoyed with new tasks showing up over the course of a full campaign. But I guess I still have some savegames. The tutorial somehow is a game of it's own! Ah, and another problem, the fact that the whole keyboard is used for all sorts of hotkeys I find very hard to memorize is a big turnoff. It's almost like in a complicated simulation.

Extremely cool you join in here personally, Victor. If there's a demo available of Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue, I'll definitely give it a try! Plus, regarding those high command decisions: This is MUCH more realistic than WitE. WitE basically leaves out High Command/ OKH/ Stavka, but the war on the Eastern Front can't be recreated without these insane, extremely ineffective (and inhuman) decisions. But I guess Unity of Command somehow gets this part right by only giving you predetermined scenarios with harsh time limits, which somehow reflects the insane decisions the High Commands of both sides made.

Yeah, I recently messaged Tomislav, Nenad and the others about a 3MA episode about UoC Red Turn, and they said they don't have time for it at the moment. But maybe it could be realized next year. BTW, also hinted to this particular 3MA episode at the Unity of Command Forums.

Man, gotta try again to get into AI war some time. I've bought all the DLCs so far, and started the lengthy tutorials, but somehow it's incredibly overwhelming. I guess you have to commit much time to really master it. I'll defininitely come back to it some time.

Thanks for the recommendation. Tried out WitE, but so far it has been too complicated for me. Trying to get into really complex hardcore strategy games, but haven't managed this one so far. I've tried out the first game by Victor Reijkersz, People's Tactics, which was a mix of Empires with some hardcore strategy (the basis, which has been refined in his later games). Guess I'll have to try out DC: Case Blue, because the Eastern Front interests me far more than the Western Front (the first DC game covered the invasion of France and Sea Lion, as far as I know). Loved all the previous episodes in which Bruce got into detail about it (inspired me to watch more documentaries, read some books about the subject matter etc.). Regarding the podcast: Extremely great, on par with the earlier shows on War in the East. Listened to it while playing some scenarios of the UoC Red Turn DLC (Korsun Pocket etc.).

The Unity of Command Red Turn DLC is out. Please cover it in a 3MA podcast. I've been a beta-tester, so I could already play a couple of scenarios before release. It's great! http://unityofcommand.net/ Will listen and comment to the WitE podcast as well, because the other ones that covered it were great.

The Battlezone remakes were awesome, didn't really try out BZ 1 yet (only the first levels) but watched my younger brother play BZ 2 a lot and played some missions myself. I think this mixture of RTS and action hasn't been done in a similar fashion afterwards. BTW, regarding Carrier Command, there's a similar game called Hostile Waters - Antaeus Rising from 2001 made by Rage Software that's available on gog.com. It's story based though, but it's also a vehicular action/ RTS mixture, and your base is a carrier ship like in Carrier Command. You should give that one a try, it's been recently re-released. About Arma 2: You should have at least mentioned all the other games in the series, especially Operation Flashpoint, which had a far better singleplayer mode than any of those newer titles in the series, and it also became pretty tactics/strategy based later in the game. And regarding the addons: I think guerilla warfare has never been modelled in an FPS more realistically than in OpF Resistance. Hehe, another thing not related to this topic: The Red Turn DLC for Unity of Command is gonna be awesome. I'm a beta tester on it, and the NDA has been lifted due to release (probably tomorrow). Have told the guys at 2X2 via messages that they should ask for an interview on 3MA (but they said they don't have time at the moment, but maybe it's possible after release). The campaign seems to be even better and longer than the two campaigns in the main game.

One of the worst shows of 3MA I've ever listened to. If they cover E-Sports again they should go into some lengths to explain the game, the terms etc. This way this was simply absolutely incomprehensible for people who don't know anything about the game.