We’re taking a look at Call of War for our newest “Things We Love About..” article, a World War 2 strategy where players take charge of their own country and get to write a new history, at the dawn of the war no battle lines have been drawn, no alliance pacts signed, just opportunistic leaders looking to their neighbours with greed and wrath. A strategic free to play browser MMO there’s plenty to like about, but here’s some of the things we really like.
Huge Map
The player map is extensive. The playable world map itself centres mostly on Europe, North America/Canada and areas of North Africa, excluding the Pacific theatre of war. Every country in the game is broken down into different territories that offer tactical significance, from being defensible territory, hosting a major city, or having a particular resource that other players might want. Due to the map size and numerous territories players must always be mindful of the many borders they could find themselves having to fight on; if you are an expansionist then you need to make sure you have a large enough army to defend your entire territory or risk losing it all. The strategy is endless, and this all primarily stems from the size and layout of the world map itself.
Victory Conditions
Players can win the game. The goal of the game is to occupy key cities that are worth Victory Points, the larger the city and more difficult it would be to take it from a rival’s hand (generally if it is surrounded by territories) then it is worth more when occupied. The game itself runs for a set number of real world days, at the end of that time the player/alliance with the most Victory Points from their occupied cities is declared the winner. Due to the fact that there are actual win conditions it greatly changes the dynamic of gameplay, each move must be thought through as a false move could quickly spiral out of control and see a player wiped out or falling too far behind to recover. Every resource spent, every unit maneuvered, every battle fought, they all count.
Branching Tech Tree
Higher level of technological customization. The game has a branching technology tree, which many strategy games lack, which means instead of a linear progression with the units you unlock players can diverge into sub-techs to specialize on a certain type of armored unit instead of everyone progressing their units in the same order. Furthermore there are multiple unit tech trees to advance down, so players can do them in any order depending on the type of strategy they are aiming for. There is a level of balance as some techs can’t be unlocked until a certain Round (i.e. when so many days have passed) to stop players making a bee-line directly to the most powerful unit, but otherwise players are free to build up their army however they like.
Game Speed
The speed of the game is steady and slow. Whilst this may be a negative aspect for many, lacking the constant back and forth of other strategies, the beauty of Call of War is that it is more from the viewpoint of a world leader where they must make decisions and put them into action even though it may be days before they see a result. Moving enemies across the map can take real world days if you move them far enough, with such a decision it may mean leaving your home territories a little weaker and more vulnerable, where trying to quickly bring units back might be too late. Battles aren’t won easily, it is a methodical and strategic long game that leaders must play; not for everyone but something we definitely like.
Micromanagement
Players have full control over their Empire. Whether managing resource, units, technology and city production, players have control over lots of aspects of their Empires development, which grows more complex as they expand their territories. Managing your Empire and tying it into your overall game plan is give and take, it’s a balance between wanting to create a huge aggressive army and focusing on military production, and actually being able to support that army financially and with other needed resources. The level of micromanagement offers lots of options when it comes to playstyle; trade, diplomacy, aggression or being a defensive player.
Morale
City Morale is a key feature. Each city has a morale value for its populous, there’s many ways to keep the people happy, generally giving them a good quality of life and plenty of resources, but there are just as many ways to lower Morale. Protracted wars, cities lacking armed units to defend them, and even espionage Spy actions can all lower a city Morale, which in turn lowers production and can even lead to the city revolting against its owner!
So that’s what we love with Call of War, but more importantly what are some of your favourite things? What do you think could/should be added to our list that makes the game great? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
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