Strategic Command: World War I Command the Great War, turn by turn

The war plays out on a hex map where each hex is about 20 miles: Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and the Atlantic, with special spots like Ypres and Gallipoli added for the period. You move infantry and cavalry, send fleets across the ocean with Naval Cruise, and lay naval mines to choke an enemy's sea lanes or guard your own. Everything runs on a single resource, production points, so each turn is one clear question: more corps, more research, or more pressure on a neutral country? The interface keeps the bookkeeping light while the choices underneath stay deep, which is exactly why the game is hard to put down once the fronts start stretching.

Early on, your corps can punch hard in the open field, then they hit entrenchments and everything grinds down. Units move and dig in, and research into Trench Warfare improves those defences, so a frontal assault into no man's land gets riskier by the month. The way through is investment: artillery backed by Reconnaissance Bombers that spot enemy positions, new doctrines that sharpen your commanders, and eventually the Tank and fighter aircraft. You decide when the assault is worth it. Ground gained is precious, and under the right conditions trading heavy losses for a breakthrough can be the rational call, which gives the western front a grim logic all its own.

The campaigns follow the real war's shape but leave the steering to you. Five of them cover 1914 through 1918, from Call to Arms to the Ludendorff Offensive, including one where Italy joins the Central Powers. Decisions pop up with historical notes attached: whether Austria-Hungary cedes land to keep Italy neutral, whether to send Lenin, whether Unrestricted Naval Warfare drags America in. You can shrink the Decision box to study the map first, so nothing is answered in haste. Will Germany take Paris through Belgium? Will Russia succumb to revolution? In one long playthrough those answers can land years early or never at all, and each campaign plays out differently because of it.

The whole game works over the PBEM++ multiplayer server: you set up a challenge in the lobby, play your turn, and the next one arrives in-game without any file juggling. A turn takes real thought, so matches unfold over days, each side second-guessing the other's build-up. Before the first shot you can even shift corps around your starting positions, which makes the opening moves a little contest of their own. If a friend is less keen on managing six nations, you can hand friendly armies to the AI, take the interesting front yourself, and swap that arrangement whenever you like. You can also switch sides mid-war, should the friendship survive that long.