Operational level war gaming.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Lieste

COTA has been supplied to the Australian MOD as part of their officer training software, in a similar way that SB Pro is used.

Training software? Hm, I maybe should put that title on my list, even more so after reading at Matrix Games that the game can be paused by still commnds could get entered. I never was a big fan of the Action RTS click-mouse-button hectically-festivals, and have a weak spot for old-fashioned IGYG-hex-games, but I get the impression that COTA might be interesting for me.

Is the engine used in any modern-era title?

How is stability, support and patch status?

[Lieste]

There are a variety of datagroups working, including for the Eastern Front and for Modern Era version to be developed in the future.

Stability is good, some intial problems with Vista, current status unknown.
Support is generally good, but mostly historical as most limitations/problems have been identified and where possible patched.
There are four patches that fix most problems and add some of the most important missing features for the theatre. The intitial release was stable and ran reasonably well out of the box, although routeing near crossings could become confused under some circumstances.

[Speedy]

I picked up COTA when it first came out and can thoroughly recommend it.
Haven't played it in a while but can still vividly remember trying with great difficulty to maintain an effective fighting withdrawal in some of the Greek battles and the desperate seesawing fights for control of the heights overlooking Maleme airfield.
If you are into wargaming COTA along with HTTR are must haves in my opinion.

[Skybird]

Is there enough community activity, modding, scenario and download activity to justify a stickied resource thread like the existing ones? Anyone having sufficient links to contribute? If enough comes together (I don't know, I still consider to eventually buy COTA), all titles of the series could be covered in just one resource.

Take this as an invitation to suggest resource stickies on other wargames, strategy games featuring ground war, and comparable games as well. For example Armed Assault would be acceptable for tanksim.com. EA Sports or Unreal Tournament would be not.

But be aware that if you launch one new yourself, you will be responsible for upating it constantly when new links and information gets posted. That is so that the information is structured and in one place and in one post, not scattered around on 20+ thread pages. Searching for a single info in a 20 pages-thread IS NO FUN. Although that needs constant awareness from your side, I would encourage you to do it yourself, because currently i myself already maintain 5 such threads.

[Skybird]

I am also (and still) considering to buy COTA, and am close to it, but strolling around at the Matrix site I learned that there is another game as well that might interest me, Commander - Europe at War. Does anybody know it and can give some feedback? I'm currently stuck in decision-making and can't decide which one of the two it should be. Just that it is time for some good wargaming title again, that'S for sure. Both seem to be very strong contenders.

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/....Europe.at.War

I am also considering Close combat modern Tactics.

Strange that most of such games focus on history, but only few focus on the modern era - this would interest me most. A WWII-title always is a compromise for me.

[Lieste]

COTA may be the better choice for training you to make timely decisions then

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Lieste

COTA may be the better choice for training you to make timely decisions then

Hehe, point taken.

Anyway, I found the demo of Commander, and found it to be a massively beefed up Panzer General. I LOVED Panzer General! that was one of those game where you think "just one more move, and than I have a break/have a meal/go to bed", and two hours later you find yourself still glued to the screen and thinking that same thought to excuse your moves. It is not the ultimate in realism, of course, but it plays breathtakingly fluid(?fluent?), and really can turn you into a junkey.

There also is a Napoleonic version of it, which is newer, but maybe not as thoroughly patched, then.

I think I'll buy both COTA and Commander.

Only question is in what order I will start to play them. Any bright answer to that question now...?