Combat Mission: Shock Force 2

Its ABSURDLY over-priced. The second another group takes this very straight-forward concept & runs with it, I'm abandoning CM; they're arrogant & greedy... I'm not fans of the people there, but I get the strong sense they could care less. They kind of have some us by the "Short hairs", extortion-wise, as currently NO ONE makes games like this (Close Combat is a distant 20-year second), PROS - 75% of the game works as advertised. Its got good replay-ability & adequate, not great AI. Combat is highly detailed process, lots of constant evaluation of probabilities happening. There are accurate performance of personnel & weapon capabilities. The maps are wonderfully detailed with small rolling knolls in places. LOS is highly modeled & statistically represented in shot likeliness. CONS - The blatant "Screw you buyer" price tag... The pay-more packs are a waste of time, dont bother. False advertising: 25-30% of the reported "behavior" concepts are not actually modeled in the game (ex: a "pinned" enemy AT team will both shoot at & accurately kill your tank 500m away while they are pinned & "panicked".
Worst Con = the user interface is like trying to start an old car. Its the user interface you'd expect from a game made in 1995, not 2024. I've played hundreds of hours & am constantly pressing the wrong button or struggling to issue a command STILL... A small, small amount of extra programming effort could resolve this 100%, they're well aware of it, they just don't care - we keep buying it - why work harder? Its an extremely fun $35 game that's over-priced by nearly a factor of 2 at $60, and has some false claims about what it does. If you don't care about getting ripped off to have some fun, try it out.

this game is old. very old. but its really fun. its like if arma 3 was turned in to an r.t.s game. this game is not for everyone. its based off real combat. you cant just rush in your units. unless you want them all to go home in body bags. the combat is slow and brutal at times. you really need to take your time. urban war is hard. you have to go slow and fight street by street one building and house at a time. not worth the full price but 60% off its worth it. there is really no combat simulation today that comes close to this. its a nice brake from games where you just rush your units in to combat.

Modern combat circa 2008 or so that largely features the Stryker IFV in a fictional fight with Syria. It is about mechanized infantry and modern weapon systems. Spotting and using distance weapons (artillery, air strikes) is very important, so a big part of each fight is locating and damaging targets from afar.
It is a somewhat complicated game which you can learn by reading the manual and watching some Youtube vids. What isn't really spoken is that the game has a pace. You need to soften targets and otherwise take your time when you have an advantage. Rushing will almost always result in calamity.
The learning curve for me was 8 hours or so. I am a wargamer, tech savy, and have an infantry background, so this game is a good match for me. The interface is clunky, but it works fine. The graphics are serviceable and utilitarian - not great, but you know what is going on without too much of an issue.
Value for play time? Well, I am in the first campaign and just finished the third mission. There are 22 scenarios in the campaign, so I think it will take me at least 60 and probably more like 85 hours to complete it.

Gameplay is awesome, with literally nothing analogous around. UI is outdated, but manageable. Performance is unexpectedly subpar, but is somewhat fixed by community guides.

This is a really fun turn-based strategy game without a current parallel. There's a lot of content to be played with mods, many of the campaigns are really fun and intense. It's just not worth the $60 as the game looks and feels super dated. Get it on G2A or on sale and you'll have a lot of fun.

Safe to say my favorite of the Combat Mission series (I think it's the setting that I like). Requires a little finagling to get the look and feel just right, but it's worth the time investment in the end. Highly recommend watching tutorial videos while you get your hands dirty with this one. Great mod pack here as well:

A little aged in graphics but I still find I come back to this game more than other realistic RTS. I enjoy the detail of the weapons and the realistic feel of the combat. Once you get an idea on proper tactics the game is an absolute joy. Highly recommend when on sale.