Combined Arms Operations Series

Latest update:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1466610/view/4407338353941451543

IN A WORD: LACKING

IN A NUTSHELL:

WHAT TO EXPECT: World War II wargame. Historical and ahistorical battle simulations. Board-game aesthetic. Complete scenario customisation. Turn-based strategy. WEGO turn-based tactical combat. Scenario and force composition customisation. NATO counter representation used for units. Hexagonal-grid maps. Many military themed mechanics. Basic graphics. Good varied atmospheric soundtrack. Unpolished GUI. Made for modding. Single-player. Online co-op and versus modes.
ACHIEVEMENTS: MOSTLY ORGANIC. A FEW REQUIRED REPEATED PLAYS. A FEW MANSTEIN LEVEL TASKS.
STATUS: INCOMPLETE. ROADMAP OF ADDITIONAL CONTENT IN FORUM.
WHO FOR/WHEN TO BUY: PURELY FOR GROGNARDS WHO CAN SEE PAST ITS CURRENT STATE

More info below....

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2633684565

THE LOWDOWN:

Combined Arms Operations Series (CAOS) is a military sandbox wargame, with a digital board-game adaptation design and gameplay style. It delivers an operational level experience of historical (& hypothetical) battles from the World War II era. Instead of a mission-linked campaign, individual one-off encounters are configured and fought against the AI or another human.

The game's most impactful feature is the ability to completely customise the session to the player's desire. From the choice of map; to the factions involved, and the year in the conflict that the Orders of Battle (OoB) with be determined from; to the objective type, number of turns and scale of battle. Among others minor refinements. Granting players the freedom to fight virtually any battle that took or could have taken place during the era.

In addition battlegroups of all shapes and sizes can be created and combined beyond any reasonable desire. There are six factions to choose from depending on the chosen year of the conflict. Force compositions are compiled using requisition points. With over 4000 unique units and 580 historically accurate army, corps and division formations to choose from. Air formations are also included to provide aerial missions in the fight for air superiority. Units are represented with NATO counters. Requisitioned units can be over-strengthened and their training levels raised or reduced to determine their starting ability.
<See full review. Link below.>

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2633687488

THE GOOD:

+ Aims to provide a very open sandbox experience for World War II operational engagements.
+ Complete scenario customisation: 1x Scenario type; 14x historical/fictional maps; be the attacker or defender; 3x objective types or set to random; choose player and/or AI nations from 6x factions or set to random; turn length; 10, 15, 20; Taskforce size; Division, Taskforce, Corps, Corps+, Army or set to random; whether to reinforce.
+ Choose from an extensive OoB of just under 4500 historical units from 580 divisions across, various military branches including air formations; of German, Soviet, American, British, Italian, and French armed forces from 1939-1945.
+ Complete army customisation. Spend recruitment points to build up the forces to command from those available in the year selected. Breakdown and reconstitute individual units to preferred parent formations for even great control. Purchase and allocates 3x types of replacement (armour, infantry, artillery).

THE BAD:

- Lacks some focus. For newcomers could have done with pre-made scenarios to go and play. Or ability to save configurations for ease of play. To be shared by players.
- The OoB database look-ups function can take several seconds to populate in menus.
- Definitely requires reading of the manual.
- The darnedest thing. While the game is playing I cannot access its library page in the Steam Client. A real and reproducible issue. One that does not apply to every other game in my library. Its infuriating.
- There are issues with with some displays being fuzzy on the highest resolutions (over 1920x1080).
- Default mouse sensitivity isn't perfect. But can be smoothed through the settings options.
- Some errors in the OoB database, with units having 0 stats.

AND THE REST:

* Basic accessibility with a tutorial and [for a wargame] average sized game manual.
* The ability to over-strength units. Given them additional training or send in replacements after combat.
* Made for single-player, synchronous versus or 2 player co-op.
* Simultaneous (WEGO) turn resolution that lacks accessibility in the combat results. Hidden away in sub-screens.
* Replayability mostly comes from the customisation of the scenario. Specifically: Map, Objective type, AI nation, OoB year and scale of battle.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2633712083

ANALYSIS:

CAOS turned out to be a peculiar experience. A promising concept providing an incredible amount of choice. Essentially a sandbox designed to allow one-off scenarios to be played with whatever troops players desire. Very much like traditional table-top wargames with miniatures. Amplified with the ability to choose; the map of where to fight and the extraordinary range of battlegroups that could be compiled. With a combat model that possessed enough depth to allow for the fair development of military strategies. Something that should be applauded. However many of its aspects were lacking and would likely be unappealing to the average gamer. With such a functional delivery, its more likely destined to be a draw only for seasoned wargamers. A game that requires alot more polish and the need for some refinement if novice or average wargamers are to be encouraged.

Scenario customisation was a highlight. With enough factors to allow for the considerable configuration of scenarios. There were more than enough units to choose from and enough factions to vary the experience. Yet some options were not so well populated. Scenario types, objectives and maps need to be increased. With only one level of AI difficulty the game's difficulty is sure to stunt the enthusiasm of less experienced players wanting to try this game out. So perhaps a multi-level AI should also be added for that purpose alone. Maybe even to give factions their own realistic behaviour, instead of a single 'expert' one. It would certainly add some much needed flavour to battles.

<See full review. Link below.>

VERDICT:

CAOS looks to provide players with a completely flexible WWII battle simulator. One that possesses an impressive array of scenario customisation. Thus allowing players the freedom to define their own battle formations, to choose from 1000s of units and eventually play on dozens of historical maps. Its eventual aim to deliver an impressive sandbox where players could play each other or with (or without) another human, against a competent AI.

As it stands right now its undoubtable promise isn't quite to a level the average [war]gamer would be happy to pay full price for or maybe even play. It needs a number of refinements, especially in terms of accessibility and alot of polish with regard to the GUI. To immerse the player by displaying the combat as the turn is calculated, rather than as a replay of events. More content and map editor would make this a game I would be happy to recommend for a wider audience.

<See full review. Link below.>

FULL REVIEW:

Given Steam's restrictions on character limits, you can read the rest of this review by using the link below:
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheIrregularGamer/discussions/0/3112543466377382086/

Thank you for reading. | Follow my curator here. | Key provided by Turn-Based Tactics

IMHO, I can recommend this game with two caveats. The first is that this product is not for players new to wargames. For those gamers, Panzer Corp 2 might be a better, albeit more expensive, choice.

For experienced players, the game comes closest to Matrix Games' The Operational Art of War III-IV, although CAOS is much simpler to pick up and play.

Here's the short-list of positives for this product:

1. The OOBs are exhaustive, and the historical units will be familiar to wargamers. The NATO symbols are a delight.
2. All the nitty-gritty details for a moderately complex operational wargame are here, including Air Units, Supply, a Comprehensive Orders Menu, Zones of Control, WEGO turn playback (10 "impulses" shown per turn) and a multi-page combat resolution display showing lists of units involved in the action and combat losses.
3. The developers continue to add the equivalent of free DLCs worth of content, including the latest WW2 Operation Husky campaign in Sicily.
4. The AI is definitely up to the task. In my experience, it may be getting a little bit of "help," but that is hard to determine, as so much is going on under-the-hood, with the movement and combat calculations hidden from the player in fog-of-war.
5. The latest version of the game, and the Operation Husky add-on, appear bug-free.
6. Many aspects of the game are text-moddable, and I have yet to "break" the game after seriously messing with the text files!

Using the Interface
- Right-click on a unit or stack on the map, and an OOB breakdown appears below. Choose the entire stack or highlight an individual company/BN/Regiment below by left clicking. Then *left-click* on a destination on the map, and right-click to exit orders for that unit.
- When deploying units at the start, or during a game (reinforcements are a new addition to the sim), left-click on the OOB box below to highlight the unit, and then *drag* it onto the map on the highlighted blue squares.
- Selecting the Air button in the lower right corner of the screen allows one to choose bombardment/air support/recon and doing the left-click to select the specific target, unit to be supported or recon square.

(Check out the images shown on the Steam purchase page to see the plethora of information available on the various unit screens.)

For those who want to "tool around" and are familiar with the Cheat Engine application, it's easy to search for (and increase) the number of build points on the deployment screen using the "double" value-type search option. I am happy to help anyone who needs it regarding use of Cheat Engine when playing against the AI. This allows one to deploy an unlimited amount of friendly units at the start, or during, the game.

And finally comes the second caveat, which applies to some players: All the stats and formulas appear to be there, but the visual resolution of combat is minimalist in the extreme. Even the old (but great) HPS and John Tiller games featured a combat resolution box during turn resolution, as each attack was made. In this game, you will have to search for the results by using the replay feature and selecting the units with "combat resolution" icons over them.

Personally, graphics and whiz-bang resolutions come a distant second in comparison to historical fidelity, lots of unit stats and formulas, etc. But I still found that the game is a bit less "exciting" than it should be, considering all that it is simulating.

For $20 USD, it is still a solid buy for most wargamers, especially because the devs continue to work hard and release free content. It's also "different" enough in its own right to find a place with a 1,000 other wargames released over the past 40 years!

Interesting wargame. Detailed and enough chrome to get your teeth in, and at the same time very accessible and easy to pick up. Recommended.