Burden of Command

As a seasoned strategist with battlefields spanning decades and countless campaigns, I must confess that Burden of Command has piqued my interest like no other title in recent memory. The blend of turn-and-hex tactics with leadership RPG elements is reminiscent of the complexities I’ve encountered on the real battlefield – a delightful challenge indeed!

I’m just as taken aback as you are to learn that Burden of Command has finally been released! Given the extensive period it’s been in development, there’s a lot riding on it. After quickly previewing some tutorials and scenarios, here’s my initial impression:

Burden of Command

It is an innovative title, I’ll give it that much. The idea of merging a turn-and-hex-based tactics wargame with leadership RPG elements is a very nice foundation to build a game.
The tutorial is very in-depth, but it can be a bit overwhelming for newcomers. It goes over a lot of stuff at once.
It operates on a multiple-phase per-turn system, which can be confusing at first but starts to make sense after a while. Each phase is led by an officer, controlling the squads under his command, when that officer and squads are out of moves, the phase ends and you hand control over to the enemy. This goes back and forth until you either don’t want to move any of your units, or you’re out of action in every officer.
The system makes some sense, by making the enemy less static and keeping the gameplay cycles a lot shorter and more intense.
From the looks of it, most battles will take place at relatively closer ranges, as the game forces you to use the 4Fs to find, fix, flank, and finish your enemies with a charge. It’s realistic.
The leadership RPG aspect of it isn’t on full display in this demo, but what’s here is enough to lead me to believe we might have something special in our hands. I just want to see how consequential my actions are in the full campaign.
In battles officers take the central stage, they’ll direct fire more effectively, rally demoralized units, bolster their spirits, and conduct artillery missions. Be ready to have them constantly shift between squads if you want to make the most of each one.
There are a lot of options and not enough time to do everything perfectly, just like in war. Burden of Command isn’t afraid of making that abundantly clear from the get-go.
There’s a lot of love put into the amount of well-written text, the colorized pictures of World War 2, and the videos of veterans are impeccably presented.

In summary, The Burden of Command could go one of two routes: either fading into obscurity due to its intricate mechanics, or becoming an immediate icon in the wargaming genre, breaking new ground that no other game has dared to tread. I’m hoping it will be the latter.

To put it simply, Burden of Command is reminiscent of a video game adaptation of an Anthony Beevor novel, given its extensive resources and commitment to realistically depicting World War 2.

2024-09-28 00:42

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