A Very Brief Review Of Battle Group Commander: Episode 1

[Hub01]

(Note: I’ve owned and played many of the other ProSim offerings, such as Brigade Combat Team, Armored Task Force, and The Falklands War. I’ve played the demos for the rest, including Air Assault Task Force – so I’m familiar with the series)

Battle Group Commander: Episode 1 follows on in the same vein as AATF and uses the interface and improvements first implemented with that title. It can be played as a standalone product, or it can be layered on top of any of the other previous ProSim titles, upgrading them to the AATF standard and rolling all previous content into one package. The AATF interface is a great improvement over the old Armored Task Force, making unit control much easier and intuitive than before.

BGC is like a stripped down version of AATF – you get four scenarios that can be played solitaire from the British side individually or as a “mini-campaign,” and the ability to play same multiplayer against a human. All the editors available in previous iterations of the series are not included. The trade-off for this is that you get BGC as a digital (only) download for $14.95 from the Shrapnel Games website. There isn’t a demo for BGC – you must download the AATF demo from the Shrapnel Games website and play it if you want some insight into how BGC will look.

BGC retains some things from the earlier games that I don’t care for. You have the option of displaying the playing maps (or map, in the case of BGC –part of the British Army training facility on Salisbury Plain) as a color rendering, as a contour map, or as a combination of the first two. I find that anything but the contour map turns into an ugly, pixilated mess when zoomed in. The contour map included with BGC however is probably the best one I’ve seen in the whole series to date. It is highly detailed and retains its sharpness and clarity through all the zoom levels included in the game.

Units can be represented either pictorially, ala Steel Panthers, or as NATO wireframe icons. I find the same applies to the unit pictures as does to the map – they look terrible when zoomed in. I therefore play only using the contour map and the NATO wireframes. Personally this is not a game breaker for me as I don’t have too much trouble reading contour maps and have been using the wireframes for years. It could be problematic for newer players though.

I’ve set up and played the game on my Dell 1650 Laptop (2 Gb RAM, Intel generic integrated graphics) with no problems except for one: when I have time sped up to X4 or X8 and I have the Contact Log dropdown open, scrolling and mouse control goes way south. I think this is caused by contacts (usually the same ones every few seconds) being fed into the log at a greater rate than normal and choking the processor. Closing the log and/or going back to X1 speed clears up the problem. I spend about 95% of the time at X1 speed anyway, so for me this isn’t a big deal.

There is a very nice tutorial provided in a Power Point - type format that will go a long way in aiding new players in getting a handle on some of the more basic game functions, plus a manual in .pdf format is included in the download that explains things in more detail.

I’ve only played through the first scenario so far – it represents a counter-recon engagement between a squadron of British Sabre AFV’s and an OPFOR company of mixed BMP’s (no dismounts). There are no supporting elements for either side. This is a good introductory scenario for both BGC and the series – it is small and evenly balanced, and helps illustrate the basic game concepts without too much complication. Still, it is a nail biter as you must juggle speed, position, and stealth in order to destroy all the OPFOR units, which are easily equal to the Sabres in armor and firepower.

The other three scenarios escalate in scope and size, with the next pitting Apache attack helos against an armored attack, followed by a British defense (including artillery and counter mobility obstacles), and culminating in a British counterattack against a defended position.

Although I’ve only spent about five hours in total with the game, I find I rather like it, and so far I’m getting a decent value for money. The four scenarios can be replayed several times as the enemy AI has been given alternate strategies to employ on a random basis, and there is always multiplayer as well. I don’t miss the inclusion of the editors, as I always found them to be difficult to use and it was extremely time consuming trying to generate anything on my own. I’d rather give that job to someone else, and paying roughly US $15 for this amount of content seems worth it to me.