An Instantaneous Traditional is Born

The idea of technique comes from the Greek strategia. In Latin, strategi. In French, stratégie. In German, strategie. In Italian, strategia. In Spanish, estrategia. Are you penning this down?

All of that comes from the Greek phrase strategos, which means army common. It’s Strategos that we’re right here to speak about.

Developed by aptly-named Strategos Video games and revealed by the second iteration of MicroProse, Strategos is a real-time technique sport that places you answerable for a few of historical past’s most legendary armies. The sport, set to launch on January twentieth, 2026, has been on my radar for some time now, so I used to be ecstatic to get a evaluate copy of it.

Full disclosure, I did attempt to procure a duplicate of The Cambridge Historical past of Warfare by Geoffrey Parker to organize for the discharge, but it surely didn’t arrive on time. I’ll blame any of my battlefield failings on this.

Command College

Legendary Russian Common Alexander Suvorov as soon as stated that tough coaching interprets into ease on the battlefield. Though I didn’t undergo Parker’s aforementioned ebook, Strategos does a superb job masking the fundamentals earlier than you dive in.

The sport has a three-step tutorial that introduces you to the controls and mechanics, then places you thru a trial by fireplace in opposition to a restricted model of an AI common.

Criminally hidden beneath the Miscellaneous menu is the Guide tab, a splendidly clear view the place yow will discover correct details about unit effectivity in several eventualities and the modifiers that come into play.

Underneath the hood, Strategos looks like a historical past nerd’s digital reimagining of Warhammer, minus the necessity to spend your total life financial savings on figures painted to requirements barely adequate to have a look at from half a desk away.

Crossing the Rubicon

I’ve a weak spot for marketing campaign modes, in order that felt like a pure start line for my Strategos journey. With a number of clicks, I turned Alexander the Quickly-to-Be Nice, thrust into the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE in opposition to the would possibly of the Athenian military.

Earlier than sending you to the battlefield, every marketing campaign mission helps you to select which unit sorts you wish to convey. That is restricted to sure slots, but it surely provides a pleasant layer of customization with out jeopardizing your military’s identification. The alternatives are sometimes for items of the identical class, like completely different mounted sorts.

Like most good RTS video games, Strategos has a staging part the place you possibly can redeploy your items relying in your gameplan. Or you possibly can all the time simply run with the default, extensive entrance format, which I did initially till I received the grasp of issues.

The place it stands out from different video games is the Common mechanics, nonetheless. Your military’s area commanders are hooked up to sure items, and solely they’ll problem orders on the battlefield.

Throughout lulls in battle, orders may be shouted at an honest vary, however more often than not, I ended up counting on the Couriers to do the job. Following within the footsteps of Hermes, they dart by the thick of battle to ship directions. More often than not, they make it, however casualties are inevitable. Couriers are a finite useful resource, which pressured me to be conscious of what orders actually wanted to get by.

Luckily, Strategos does away with micromanaging and options a number of the most pleasantly autonomous unit administration I’ve seen shortly.

In step with nearly all of actual engagements, the battles on this sport finish with out the whole elimination of the enemy. Typically, you possibly can have the aspect that took the worst beating come out victorious as long as it stood its floor.

Throughout my marketing campaign expertise, I discovered it a missed alternative that the state of items doesn’t switch between missions, breaking the sensation of precise continuity. Given the intervals between a number of the marketing campaign battles, it is sensible that losses in some generic cavalry unit would simply be replenished, so I perceive the reasoning there. Nonetheless, it could have been good to have a stronger attachment to your military.

Mechanical Animals

In Strategos, unit commanders might require generals to problem main orders, however they act independently as soon as they attain their positions. The modifiers and specifics are exterior the scope of this evaluate, however the sensible end result is that you’ll be able to really handle the general circulation of battle as an alternative of making an attempt to pressure a bunch of archers to interact.

This has lifelike penalties, generally damaging: for instance, your infantry might run right into a hid enemy en path to the goal space and resolve to cost to protect themselves. This, in flip, might go away your flank uncovered and have cascading results on the battle. For essentially the most half, I discovered that it significantly improves my battlefield administration.

Terrain performs an enormous half in Strategos, and I used to be blissful to see that this goes past simply bushes slowing down items. Your troops are affected by elevation, vegetation, waterways, and even particular sorts of soil. The precise interactions fluctuate per unit kind: dismounted archers, for instance, can transfer by forested areas unhindered for essentially the most half, whereas cavalry struggles there.

When you come to phrases with the intricate complexities that rule over fight in Strategos, the sport steadily scales up the issue by the campaigns and in reenactments. In later missions, the margin for error is drastically lowered, although it by no means feels unfair or unattainable.

The actual problem is managing armies so massive in a cohesive method, which makes the primary battles you expertise really feel like foolish skirmishes as compared. The bitter style of defeat is the very best instructor in Strategos, so it solely takes a number of humblings and coffee-infused meditation periods to come back again wiser.

The place I’ve some combined emotions is the audiovisual expertise. Strategos units the scene properly with the music and battle cries, and the animations are endearing, however there’s a sure cartoonish high quality to the entire affair that falls within the gray zone between inventive selection and dated design.

None of this actually will get in the way in which of the gameplay, and generally that classic air takes me again to the outdated days of enjoying Rise of Nations after faculty, however there may be all the time that nagging feeling that it may have been just a bit extra polished.

Time passes equally for everybody on this planet, but it surely looks like ages have handed since we received a superb, encyclopaedic antiquity simulator for PC. Strategos seems to be and looks like a completed product that may ship partaking, lifelike battles so that you can flex that armchair common muscle on. The minuscule finances is on show at instances, however Hannibal was primarily involved with successful his battles as an alternative of smelling the flowers. Strategos delivers the place it issues most and has all of the hallmarks of a real-time technique basic.

Programs

Launched

2026-01

Developer(s)

Strategos Video games

Writer(s)

MicroProse Software program

Variety of Gamers

Single-player

Steam Deck Compatibility

Unknown

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Execs & Cons

• Large number of armies and items
• Complicated and lifelike engagements with autonomous unit
• Properly-contextualized marketing campaign and reenactment modes
• Complete tutorial and documentation
• Sturdy, atmospheric soundtrack

• Tooltip info overload
• Engagements can really feel too brief
• Outdated graphics
• Often repetitive battles

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