Nations at War Digital is an early access port of Lock n' Load's proven board game system of the same name. It is a platoon level impulse based game of combat in World War II in Europe. The core game comes with two scenarios, so you can give it a test run for a refundable $2.99 on sale. Two battle packs are available to buy for $7.99 each featuring combat in France and Germany between the western allies and Germany and providing an additional 19 scenarios. I'm writing this review after playing the tutorial and one scenario right after release. The in-game tutorial takes you through the opening turns of a scenario step by step, teaching you the basics of firing and maneuvering. I tried the scenario after that, without even glancing at the game manual, which pitted US and German recon elements battling over control of a town. I managed a draw, with the game coming down the final movements in the final impulse. And I had lots of fun doing it. I've played LNL board games, but not the NAW series, so I was not specifically familiar with the game system. But I found it easy to pick up, though a little tricky in places, like forgetting that a unit can both move and fire or fire and move in the same impulse. The game looks like a board game but has a detailed layer of animations and effects and information over the game pieces to help the player. It plays like a board game and even has visible dice rolls. The video and pictures on the game's store page give you a very good look at the game. What you see is what you get visually. On its face the game might look very simple, but there is a lot of complexity. Just look at all the numbers on the counters to see that. And there is a detailed manual to explain that complexity. However, you can play it like I did without knowing all the details. If you like WWII era games and tactical games, you should consider spending the $2.99 to take a look at it. Remember, again, this game is just released for early access, so there will be changes and additions as it moves forward. You can find a discussion on what to expect in the future on the store page.

I loved playing this game as a board game, though I mostly played solo. With no hidden units and relatively low-density scenarios, it lends itself well to playing solo.

I was therefore very excited to get the computer version -- don't need to set up the board, don't need to fiddle with counters, don't need to worry about forgetting rules!

First, I love how the game looks, I love the intuitive ease of the interface.

Second, I have two major disappointments.

The AI, as others have noted, is terrible. While defending, the AI puts up a fight. It does, sadly, sometimes move around units that were already in good position to resist the attack. Sometimes, it moves them out in the open where overwatch fire can lay waste to the unit. On offense, forget about it. I recently played a scenario in which the attacking German units (with 3mp) would move back one hex, then forward two. Why?!? Sometimes, units move in little circles during their turn.

The other major disappointment is that you only have the choice of two game modes. Multiplayer -- but no hotseat. This is strictly online two player. It requires that you have an opponent on the internets. Given the small player base right now, that means you need to find an opponent somewhere (company's forums? boardgamegeek? consimworld?). You can play SOLO but... you have to choose one side to play and the AI gets the other. There's no option to play both sides. Why not? As someone who has enjoyed hours playing this game solo on a tabletop, and given the undeveloped AI, this would make the game instantly better for me. Vastly better!

As a side note, the same developer has been working diligently on the Lock N' Load games, which I also own, and those DO have the option to play hotseat multiplayer or solo both sides. Why the different design decisions?) There have been very few updates on Nations at War -- especially when compared to the constant work being done to improve the Lock N' Load game which is also still in early access. Hopefully, this game is just backburnered and will soon get more attention.

So, I'm torn. Thumbs up? Thumbs down? Right now, I am frustrated that simply allowing solo play of both sides would make me love this game while they worked on improving the AI. So, a thumb's down until they start fixing the AI and until they allow hotseat/solo play of both sides.

Disclosure: I have played World at War and World at War '85 quite a bit (The board games which Nations at War system is based on, therefore learning it is very easy for me.)

Played 2 scenarios so far, counting the tutorial. Really enjoying this iteration of the series. I have never played Nations at War the board game but as stated above I have played its older brother extensively. This allowed me to slip into this game very easily. For brand new players the tutorial does a good job of the basics and the manual is easy to pull up in game any time a question arises. The game of course limits and restricts things for you within the rules which takes a large burden of learning off.

The AI seems good, in both games I played them to their end and on both scenarios came down to the very last turn to determine the victor. Excellent in my opinion.

The counter zoom in is easy to access and read, the art doesn't suffer from the zoom in either (And the counter art is great, barring the UK activation tokens having US helmets).

For $20 (On sale currently at time of review) you get 21 scenarios, so for easy math $1/scenario where you can play either side against the AI or a live opponent. Great bang for the buck in my opinion.

Looking forward to seeing them add more and support the game series.

I don't usually give reviews with such little play time.

But this tactical battles game is a real gem.

One of my best purchases of recent times.

The price is right, but the AI commits a lot of nonsensical moves. Would be nice if you could speed up the animations.

I picked up this digital version of the boardgame during Steam's summer sale. With the white star rising two DLC it cost me less than $5. The system itself feels fine, but there are some things I don't like about it.

I've played 5 scenarios, both sides. I've had enough.

All I can say is this about the AI. It's horrible. Really, really horrible. The time limit is more of a threat than the AI, as the strange chit-pull mechanic can mean that you don't even get an action in the turn. So, two German missions I only managed to capture the town and exit the map just in time on turn 3. But, as the AI is so stupid, it has zero chance of completing one of these time-limited scenarios on offense. So, on defensive scenarios, I have my own objective, kill everything!

The game is also somewhat buggy. Do not try to load a save game, as it doesn't track objective progress correctly.

Rating:
Game system: 8 (Solid, quick tactical wargame)
-1 for the chit pull system (Much prefer system in OCS)
-1 for the bugs
-2 for the stupid AI, which almost makes playing pointless.

Final Score: 4/10 (solo). Could be worth playing 2-player though.

I want to like it, but it just isn't there yet. $5 for the base game seems reasonable, but White Star Rising is split into two $10 expansions to get all the missions and there's no multiplayer, you get some kind of "It's broken, but we'll be fixing it soon." message. Sorry that doesn't cut it. There are a lot of little user interface things that add up and become frustrating, like not displaying unit counter stats once the perform action button has been clicked, the HQ gets locked on top and if you've forgotten the main units stats and want to double check before you attack, you'll need to cancel the action and check. The “information box” which takes up the upper right of the screen is useless, at least use it for a history of actions and die rolls. When you open the options menu there’s only about four things you can adjust and volume might take up two of those. Hovering over a hex doesn’t display the terrain modifiers. Also, the rulebook is not at all new player friendly. Missing and annoying things like this are all over the place and leave me unable to recommend it to others until they fix it. Sadly I don't know if they will, because they seem to be focused more on LnL Tactical and just bringing out more stuff instead of fixing existing problems. I bought a print version of WSR 2nd edition with upgrade and it was missing two of the four counter sheets. The digital game makes me feel like the paper experience did, disappointed and frustrated by the lack of quality control and attention to user experience.

NATIONS AT WAR DIGITAL

Reminds me of the classic Avalon Hill boardgames like Panzer Leader, PanzerBlitz, and the lesser known but very interesting Arab-Israeli Wars. 150 meters per hex, 5-15 minutes per turn, platoon sized units, rules for command & control plus "Fate" & "Chaos," and enough randomness in play order to make things nice and interesting. Ranged direct fire, ranged indirect fire, assault/over-run, plus off-board air and artillery. The AI is ok, though it could and should be far more aggressive in my opinion, and multiplayer is available. Definitely recommended for fans of contemporary tactical wargaming. And it's available for macOS, so it fills a huge gap. My one request would be to implement complete fog of war, so that enemy location must be seen before enemy units are known -- right now, you can see all your enemy units, and vice versa, regardless of line-of-sight.

The AI is not too smart but that's okay because neither am I.

Nice mechanics, nice scenarios, nice graphics, interfaces easy to use....So, why not a thumbs up ?
Because the AI is one of the weakest AI I ever found in a game ! Ambush with a surprise scenario illustrates that very well : as the attacker, you must rush with the two groups of untits and hope to take one of the two villages (time might fall short if you do not get an activation for more than two turns). When the AI plays the attacker, it even does not move towards the objective, or so slowly, and so dispersed that it has zero chances. Simple : the AI did not attack a single time one of my units in the whole scenario. And I wiped out more than 50% of the overall attacker forces... If you plan to use it in multiplayer mode, it might be a good buy (I did not try) but, is Solo mode, avoid until some sort of AI is implemented...