Sorry you got it wrong.
It has more to do with Civillization games than with MOO2.

You should have broken the NDA, that's just stupid.

A title that I monitor since two years and that slowly but surely is nearing completion is the PC-version of Word in Flames. No release date yet, but they are in process of (closed) beta-testing. but i must admit, beyond that I am not fully up to date on how far they have gotten. Planned release wax x.mas 2006. I expect it sometime in 4th quarter this year. See yourself:

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=110

There are threads that feature and illustrate all the many hundreds of different counters, and map details.

Set in WWII, WiF has been one of the most successful map-and-counters cosims ever, and is deperately waited for by many fans. If they do it right, it could become a tremendous success. Obviously they do not hurry it, and take their time, which is a good sign.

Do not mix it up with the old PC-version which was developed from 1995-2002.

If your going for BOB - I might suggest Universal Combat or something along the lines of Derek Smart - which is as open ended as you can get IMO.
But Turn Based games - open endedly - aren't all their snubbed to be.

Ausraider.

PS:
DS notwithstanding....

OFP is certainly as open ended as you would like it to be - and should be reasonable bucks nowadays.
Make sure you get the FULL Resistance campaign version.

ahhh, good old OFP. I lost many nights of sleep on that game last summer :doh:. My uncle (a rather crazy ex-Royal Army tank commander who immigrated to the states) had the entire package and let me borrow it. Man oh man, what a great game. Still wanting to play ARMA...but OFP will be hard to top.

As of right now, I'm still trying to master IL2, and Lock On...and still waiting for the fabled 1.3 for SH4.

Was it really necessary to bring Drek Smart into this discussion?

Oh boy....:nope:
Those forbiden 2 words. :nope:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=99213

gcb is in development...

I just meant please dont give the guy any publicity ..

P.S. I see you play GPL .. :up: .. Recently I came back to it after a 8 year hiatus and its still unsurpassed! Holding a LAN session with a friend soon.

Did you used to play Microarmor by any chance?

Star Wars Rebellion:

1. You collect miain characters from the movie as you play. Empire and Rebellion start with x amount of main characters. You use your main characters to send on missions:

- Recruiting (character will search for new main characters to join your faction.
Each character has special abilities: dipolmacy, research, force sensative, combat

- Sabotage (will attempt to destroy a structure or equipment on a planet)

- Assainate (will attempt to kill main character on other side)

- Training (characters with the force will train other characters that have the force)
The characters being trained will come back stronger with the force and will promote to different levels of Jedi.

- Diplomacy (characters will go to planets to persuade the population to join the faction)

- Research (character will research new techonologies)

- Incite Uprising (character will try to get the population to overthrow the current govt)
This is only successful if diplomacy is mostly in your favor for that planet.

- Reconnaissance (droids will go out and gather information on a planet only)

- Espionage (characters will gather information on a planet or character/ship movements in a system)

2. Diplomacy: There is a diplomacy bar under each planet. A planet is either white (neutral) uninhabited, green (supports empire), or red (supports rebellion). Most planets have a bar that is green and red and its your job to send characters with high diplomacy skills to sway them to your side. The benefits of gaining support are use of planetary resources, permission to build on the planet, and resistance to other faction in the event of an invasion by force. So you can either win a planet over by talking to the people or you can take them by force and send in garrisons to stomp out any resistance.

When Death Star is moved inside a solar system it will scare or motivate all planets in system to join empire. a star destoyer parked in orbit of a planet will do the same only for that planet. when you bring these units into systems your diplomats will gain interest to support the empire faster than without them. Also movie a ship unit over an enemy system initiates a blockade of that system (which stops production and resource gathering) If a planet cannot be defended the citizens will eventually sway to the opposing faction for protection.

3. 3-D RTS battles are only available in space. The environment is a box with a 2-D space backdrop of planet, etc. The fighters were made of sprites while the larger ships were simple 3-D polygon models (back then this was amazing graphics) Camera angle is not limited to one viewpoint. In the RTS space battles you could move around in the 3-D environment freely and see ships from any angle.

4. Main characters all had special abilities and could be assigned titles: Generals (can be assigned to ground invasion forces), Commanders (to lead figher squadrons), Admirals (to command and give bonuses to ship manueverabilty and weapon effectiveness)

5. There isn't any weather on planets that will affect the outcome of a battle.

6. Plot follows the original Star Wars trilogy. There are many events that happen along the way that relate to the movie. Luke at one point flys off to see Yoda and comes back as Jedi.


Empire at War:

1. Graphics are better.

2. RTS environment for both ground invasions as well as space battles. (Rebellion it was space only)

3. Weather on planets can manipulate battles.

4. No character assigning (can't make darth vader a commander or Piett or Ackbar and Admiral) There are less characters in Emire at War than there are in Star Wars Rebellion.

5. RTS is viewed from one camera angle only.

I recommend trying Galactic Civilizations 2 for open ended gameplay. It looks like a silly game graphically but, the gameplay is pretty amazing.

Things you can do:

Custom build your own ship designs and save them to build later. Your designs alone could give you the advantage over the enemy in combat. There are no other games out there that allow this (other than Robot Arena 2: Deisgn and Destory)

The AI and diplomacy are probably the best I have seen in a game. Its alot like Sid Meier's Civilizations but, with better and less limited AI negotiations.

Become an arms dealer and capitalize off others at war:
You can build ships and sell them to factions at war for income or you can sell them to people at war with your ememies so you don't have to attack them yourself (if you have a weak military).

Voting system based on population. The more people that you can cram on your planets the more politcal power you can wield during elections. You can trade for influence points that basically buy votes so people agree with you. If you want your enemy not to have a voice in elections you just send in troops to kill the populations on his planets.

Permanent and temporary laws can be voted during each assembly meeting allowing you to vote for things that may favor your civilization or oppose your enemies. (I think its just cool in general to be able to vote in a rule to a game while playing it)

There are hardly any limitations in this game. The only thing that really limits you is your current technology level.