Historical real-time tactics game Strategos is out in early access today, boasting over 120 factions and 250 units based on “the major and minor powers of the ancient Mediterranean”, according to developers Strategos Games. If you are a brazen tomfool, you might summarise it as Total War without the sprawling campaign map element. If you are an excessively brazen tomfool – brazen to the point that a formation of Greek Hoplites would use you as cover while manouvering around some pesky Achaemenid Persian archers – you might also say that “Strategos” sounds like a spiky brand of cereal, rich in essential iron and horse sweat.
We neither of us are tomfools, however. We know better than to write such nonsense out loud. I’ve still yet to play Strategos, but I’ve been reading more about its “command and control” simulation, after covering the news that MicroProse would publish the game, and it does sound like a worthwhile complication of the process of clattering phalanxes together like frying pans.
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In brief, there’s a gap between giving an order and receiving or executing that order. Orders are issued by generals, rather than arriving magically in every unit’s brain whenever you left-click. To receive an order directly, units need to be within earshot of a general (some generals are louder, making them better commanders). If the general is too far away, they’ll need to send one of a finite number of couriers. Couriers can be intercepted and killed. Do you see? I have played wargames that make communication a feature in this way, but not recently.
Even if an order is successfully delivered, units may act independently, based on what’s going on nearby. They may choose their own targets. They can be goaded by enemies. Having one of your generals ride up to offer morale support and instructions is one way of countering this, along with keeping units in reserve to plug the line.
Units may also take unprompted tactical breathers after a certain amount of time spearing each other’s bellies, rather than grinding away till they rout, as in Twar. As the developers explained to Strategy And Wargaming last March, “[o]ngoing combats can also periodically shift into a mutual ‘passive’ mode where the two sides, although still locked into melee, fall back for a rest during which combats are not resolved and they can rally (and they may hurl some missiles at each other if available), which is part of the ‘Pulse Model’ of ancient warfare that inspired much of Strategos.”
I consider all this very juicy, and I’m sad we don’t have some review impressions to share with you. That said, the game has only just launched into early access, so there’s time yet to flank the bastards and treat them to a vigorous Wot-I-Thinking. The plan is for it to launch into 1.0 in early 2027 or so. The current build includes five historical campaigns, nine reenactment battles, and one map-based campaign, and the devs aim to “add additional scenarios and units (including chariots), along with a more refined map-based campaign”. Read more on Steam.
