Excellent game of WWII grand strategy.

This is a sequel to Time of Wrath, which I did not play, and they did make another game called strategic war in Europe, which is a game that can be played much faster and its not as detailed as this game. There is also storm over the pacific which I also own, and its also an excellent game covering the Pacific theater.

What I like about this game is there is enough detail to feel like I have lots of control over my nation, but not so much detail that I just give up trying to play it. I have enjoyed games like Hearts of Iron II, and Decisive Campaigns Case Blue. However HOI III was too much, and so games like war in the East and Gary Grisby's other games were just too much for me, as much as I wanted to like those games.

This one though, its just perfect. FIghting as the Russians against Germany for over a year and a half in my second attempt has been excellent. I had to change the difficulty to very easy, and Im still struggling to hold on to Leningrad in June of 1942. There is a thrust toward Stalingrad, and a new one going toward Moscow which will be tough to contain. This game is fun and challenging for both new wargamers and veterans like me.

The graphics have many options, so you can adjust the map and the units to achive the look that you want. I think the screen shot of the graphics and my belief that the game would be too simple and have poor AI is what kept me away from these games. Don't let that stop you.

The only caveat is that Wasteland games does not give the best support. I had trouble with Storm over the Pacific and fortunately I had purchased the game from Matrix, who has awesome technical support. They helped me find a solution to the game crashing all the time. However, I have had only one crash and one other techical problem with Time of Fury, and both problems were fixed with a reload. I guess if I had a real serioius problem I might have to buy the game again trhough Matrix. So that is the one caveat, the support is really poor. Which is a shame, because they have an awesome system for war games. Heck I just bought the 1953 Nato vs Warsaw pact game, even though its incomplete in terms of balancing and pictures for all the units. And again, the knock on that game which is in early access limbo is that its not getting any support. So come on Wasteland, support your awesome strategy games.

In theory an awesome game, very reminiscent of boardgames like Advanced Third Reich or World in Flames. Sadly the upkeep system has a severe bug where bigger countries pay far too much upkeep for units after loading a saved game. Sounds easy enough to fix, but sadly the company who made this game didn't bother to fix the problem for at least the last 2 years, if not more ( http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3659990 ).

Time of Fury's graphics are dated. There's no two ways about it; however, the gameplay is solid. If you were one of those grognards who remembers hunching over a tabletop covered with a hexmap littered with counters, this is a gem.

Know what you are getting into. This is one of those kinds of games. There is no realtime clock running or blow up tactical battlefield to play with. Instead players are treated to making hard decisions about where to invest limited resources and how to achieve victory, constrained by the same.

I've enjoyed it immensely and highly recommend Time of Fury.

Time of Fury (ToF) is wasteland interactive newest ww2 grand strategy game. Some of you may be familiar with their other tiles, Strategic war Europe, Time of Wrath to name a few. While there are some issue this game seems to fix a lot of the problems with the earlier titles.
Basic
Players can choice from variety of scenarios ranging from the fall of Poland, the invasion of France, a grand campaign and many others. Turns are a week long and each scenario has different lengths. Players can then choose which countries they wish to control, both major and minor countries can be controled and players can control as many as they feel they can handle.
Units
The game has Infantry, Mechanized troops, armor airborne fighter, tactical bombers, strategic bombers and a variety of navel units. Players can conduct research in the varies units and develop stronger better versions (more attack power). When purchasing a unity players select the unit type, the size (corps or army) and the level (1-4 depending on what they already have unlocked. The price and time before deployment will change based on the player selections.
Diplomacy
There are diplomacy options but it is the basic, convince a future ally to join sooner or an enemy to join later; over throw a government or if your nation allows hold elections in your own country.
Navy
Navy action is simple and basic. You build a fleet and send it to a sea zone. You set the fleet to be either regular (attack enemy fleets) or raider (attack enemy conveys). The computer will randomly decide when there are navel engagements which will take place between the last plaer turn and the first player turn.
What has changed since other Wasteland titles
Well first the interface seems much more user friendly
You also have an increased number of options during the game. For example when Belgium do the French arm the retreating survivors (add a unit but loss production points) or do they send them on their way. The Germans also have the option to actively look for volunteers for the army or simply stay with recruitment stations
The bad
There are two minor issues with wasteland games.
1. Multiplayer is PBEM (NOTE there is hotseat play at the same computer). Now this is an old system and some may feel it is outdated. With a campaign being over 400 turns I doubt many people are going to
have the time to sit and play very long in a single seating. So while I do not see it is a problem some people may have issue.
2. Game balance
The developers choose to create a more open world than historical acute one. What I mean by that is that it is possible for Romania to have tanks more advanced than the Russians. There is still no way Romania alone could beat Russia but they may not have the crappy units they had in real life
One other thing with balance, and what I do not understand, is that Russia will not see the economic and military boost after Stalingrad there are no reserve from Siberia coming and it is doubtful the Russian army will ever see the number increase in troops they did in real life.
Final thoughts
ToW is not a bad game, and it is clear Wasteland learned from their mistakes. Sure it has some issues but most are minor and do not take away the enjoyment of the game. Some people will say 'The graphics look old" well these types of games are not about graphics but the play experience.
So if you looking for a decent strategy game with a good bit of depth, but not as deep as hearts of Iron I say give ToW a try.

The game comes with a Windows security warning. I think I'll pass.

NOT Recommended!

I tried USSR on Very Easy which meant I have DOUBLE production points. I have to build level 1 units, strength 3 infantry and strength 6 tanks. AI Germany has strength 11 infantry and strength 32 tanks .... in Nov 1940.

Also, once again the Axis do not attack Yugoslavia, so Germany breaks the non-aggression treaty and declares war on me in ... Nov 1940?

This is a very clunky game. Graphics are almost CGA 1980's quality. So what, but still. Also there are a few bugs, such as unit upkeep is wrong for large armies sometimes and the events file shows a scrpit for your nation (does not show your decision, just some programming script non-sense.)

Oh, and one crash for my frist game after 2 hours. Second game went almost 6 hours and I made it from Sep 1, 1939 to Nov 24, 1940.

Anyway, games like this should be better. Germany should not be attacking the USSR 7 months early. That is dead wrong.

There is almost no information on how to play or how things work. Also, the AI takes Forever to take its turn.

This game had potential but Clash of Steel from early 1990's plays better than this. Way better.

I have been playing WWII computer games since they were invented (yep, I am OLD), and I recommend Stay Away From This Game! Total waste of time.

WIN 7

time relating to a part that which is more whole between fury

First I'm an old timer and was raised on Avalon Hill board games. This game is a throwback to paper chits and paper maps. From that standpoint it plays very much like those old board games. There are some problems though...
1) Russia can not be knocked out except by removing every unit and town.
2) Allies must be micro managed or they are useless.
3) In general the game in campain mode takes far to long (80 plus hours)
4) You have to play against other humans as the AI is not good.
I don't want to give this a bad review as I loved the old board games, but second thought should be given as to its purchase.

fun casual time sinker


*spoiler*

- play germans grand campaign, normal difficulty

- drop half your armour/mech/tac bombers in prussia, take warsaw in 3 turns

- other half armour/mech/tac bombers on the border of yugoslavia, invade sept 1st, keep going through greece and turkey

- as soon as poland falls transfer all units to the french front north of luxemburg and start pushing into france

- enjoy!

There are much better wargames about both of this period and style.

I hoped to find a diamond in the rough with this title but this it aint.

The gameplay mechanics and rules work its just very clunky, buggy and unpolished.

Go somewhere elese