By Jim Rossignol on February 3rd, 2011 at 12:06 pm.
Men Of War is one of my favourite RTS games, because it’s brilliant. The new skirmish/multiplayer version of the game, Assault Squad, is currently in an open beta. If you have even the vaguest interesting in ordering tanks and tiny men to their deaths, then you should have a go at it. 1c also send word that digital and retail copies will be available February 25th. So not long to go! The co-op games played in the previous beta were among my gaming experiences of 2010 – as detailed here – so I can’t wait for this game to be on general release.
03/02/2011 at 12:13 Scatterbrainpaul says:
The thought of micro managing 100 of mens own individual inventories again is a bit of a mind fuck
Although saying that, this game was the first game that really got me back into RTS games
03/02/2011 at 12:17 Njordsk says:
Spot on, that’s my exact problem.
I can’t, just can’t micro-manage that many people. I did play the first one, and it was really pleasant. Until a mission in the snow, don’t know the name, but you have, let’s say a good hundred soldiers in trenchs.
Yet you have to stop tanks waves, and a lot of tanks.
I couldn’t get past the frustration of that mission. And yeah, looting, equipement & such is a good addition, but in a commando game, not on that scale.
Sadly too “complex” for me, everything else was to my taste, graphics, physics, setting…
And I’m a complete RTS noob. I mean it.
03/02/2011 at 12:18 DarkFenix says:
That seems to have improved. At least in the skirmishes I played your infantry start with enough ammo that they won’t run out in a hurry, and having a squad selected when you pick up ammo automatically distributes it among them.
03/02/2011 at 12:27 Scatterbrainpaul says:
@ Njordsk
I remember that mission. I think it was at that stage I put the difficulty level down to Easy (you may mock me). But it did mean i got to the end of the russians campaign.
03/02/2011 at 13:00 A Little Lebowski says:
@Njordsk
That mission is not quite as hard as you think it is. It’s actually a time sensitive one where you need to hold the Germans off until the defences behind you are complete (think it’s about 10 minutes). There will be a voice coming over saying that the defences are almost complete. At that point retreat all your men to the back of the map and you’ll get a cut scene and a new part of the map opening up. At that point you can start getting reinforcements, and you have decent tanks as well as a lot of entrenched infantry with AT weaponry.
And I know this because of playing that map several times and doing things like knocking out tanks and repairing them to use myself whilst the entire German Army were attacking to try and survive… The poor little mini men I wouldn’t retreat must have been in the thousands. I was basically like a really bad commisar who fully implemented the “not one step back” order.
This also means you still have the evacuation of Sevastopol to look forward to :)
03/02/2011 at 13:07 rhizo says:
Admittedly resupplying your forces with ammo is often a hassle of the worst order, but the inventories of the tiny men (of war) also enable some of the funniest and most enjoyable RTS moments.
I always remember that one mission in Red Tide where you have to protect Leonid Brezhnev (I hope I’m thinking of the right soviet leader here) and eventually halt a mechanized German assault with a skeleton crew of infantry and half-wrecked AAA. Except in my version Leonid wasn’t safely holed up in a building in the back lines but instead prompty stole a mounted 30 cal from a nearby jeep and went on to devastate an approaching German infantry company, from the hip of course. Later on he continued his heroics by picking up a repair kit from a destroyed Russian armored car and stealing a damaged PzKpfw IV for his personal command vehicle. Stuff like this just doesn’t happen in other RTS games.
03/02/2011 at 12:22 DarkFenix says:
Been playing the beta, mostly skirmishing against the AI. The infantry micro-management burden has been lessened much to my relief (they’re actually realistically usable as a large force now). Of course, the real highlight is taking personal control of a huge tank and wrecking everything.
03/02/2011 at 13:41 Sandmandan says:
@Njordsk
That mission in the snow having to stop all of the tanks made the game for me. Memories of trying to sneak up on an unsuspecting Panzer with one man with only an anti tank grenade for company…cant wait for the next one!
03/02/2011 at 15:03 Wilson says:
I’m confused. Is the beta actually available now? I have a key, but when I try to make an account in game it tells me I’m using an ‘incorrect password’. I’ve looked at their forums, and it seems to be if your password starts with numbers or has less than six characters (not the case) and there are some old threads from people linking to the announcement about the beta closing/opening.
03/02/2011 at 16:14 Wilson says:
Oh, it’s working now. Maybe I used a shorter password, or something. Mmm. I don’t like that login system, hope it changes for the main game.
03/02/2011 at 15:21 tigershuffle says:
Hi,
I was confused too…..cos by the time I got the beta working it said it was closed………..However, !!
good news!!
http://steamcommunity.com/games/mowas/announcements/detail/992119159275910249
theyve release beta#2 as of Feb 2nd :)
downloading at the mo’
03/02/2011 at 16:09 The Innocent says:
Thank goodness. I’ve been playing the socks off the beta. It’s about time they told us a release date. And it’s not too far off!
03/02/2011 at 16:29 Stranglove says:
Ah, most excellent. I will be playing this (and have been. Me and another fellow from RPS had a bash at it last night. Phwoaaar, what a lovely looking game)
03/02/2011 at 16:29 bilharzia says:
If you use your squad leader to collect ammo etc. it will be automatically distributed across the whole squad.
The game can be fiddly but positioning your troops is more important than worrying too much about direct control micro-ing every unit.
03/02/2011 at 16:56 Quine says:
Surely there can be no finer sight than a spiffy tank cresting a rise!
(Especially if your AT gun is pointing the right way for once)
03/02/2011 at 18:37 leeder krenon says:
just play 1 v 1 skirmish with a buddy, with 100 point sides. very manageable, and very fucking awesome.
men of war is probably my favourite game of the past 10 years.
04/02/2011 at 03:18 pupsikaso says:
I am so afraid of playing this in multiplayer. I was barely competent playing the first game singleplayer, but the thought of just being completely out of my league against other players is totally putting me off.
I’d take a good Solium Infernum any day of the week instead.
04/02/2011 at 17:37 bilharzia says:
I recommend watching a few of TychoCelchuuu’s videos http://www.youtube.com/user/TychoCelchuuu
Multiplayer can be incredibly unfriendly, I am shockingly bad but still have a good time most of the time.