by Peter Robbins, 6 November 2025
Master of Command is an odd pup. I say that with deepest respect. You need to walk into this game with this basic knowledge: This is a combination Roguelite and RTS Wargame hybrid. If you are not seeing colors and have a headache with that statement, then proceed. Otherwise, close the browser now. Master of Command is an interesting, unique, innovative combination that may NOT be everyone’s cup of tea, but, I’ll quote Richard Dreyfuss and say “This Means Something….”1. And what I mean by that is, there is something here, and it’s either genius or bat shite crazy. Or both.
➡️ Side-bar, what the heck is Roguelite? Read this ChatGPT chat on the topic.
This wargame is as if Castle Crashers, Mount & Blade: Warband, Total War, Ultimate General: Civil War, and the Whisky & Lemons DLC for Grand Tactician Civil War, got together in an orgiastic developers sexfest, and had an illegitimate mobile game as a pc game bastard child; and while that sounds really odd, somehow…. tentatively….. With great trepidation. Does it somehow work? Maybe? I need more time with it. I’ve only had about 10 hours with it at this point and I am still experimenting a bit to and fro.
One point I’ll make front and center, I purchased this one myself. This was not a Press Copy. So, fair warning, I’m going to accolade this, and likely rip it a new one all in one go, and that’s ok. I would VERY MUCH like to talk to the developer of this wargame, and sooner the better (if you read this dev, get in touch via comments), but more soon on that potential interview front.
To the game at hand…
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What’s In The Box?!
As shown above, you are able to Continue your last save file, start a brand new campaign, Load a previously saved Game, play the Rise Of Frederick historically leaning campaign, edit game Options, or Exit Game. Pretty straight forward offerings. The meat and bones of the game is the New Campaign, which we’ll start below and take you through one battle as a First Impression of the game.
The historical campaign offering breaks down to the above four Chapters.
Master Of Command
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Homework 📝
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Starting A New Campaign
The New Campaign instructions will give you a good idea of what you are getting into.
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Selecting A Mission
Above, I’ve selected the “Protect Hanover” mission, and let’s see where we end up Act I–wise.
Operational Level Play
War Camp
Operational Map Moves
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The above two images show you a wide-angle view of the ultimate enemy HQ/camp that you will eventually track down and attack (after building up your forces capabilities and numbers along the way*).
The above shows some of the options while on the Operational Map. As you can see, it’s actually quite detailed in what it allows for as far as stances, movement rates. You can also see in the top right side, several Objectives or Missions which are part of this initial ACT I shaping act if you will. So, while this is non pregenerate content, and takes on more of a generic sandbox form, the actual functionality is impressive, and has a lot of potential.
First Battle
Tactical Level Battle
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The above provides a pretty good selection of the initial experiences in the wargame Master of Command.
Final Thoughts & First Impressions
This is as much an experience as it is a wargame. There is an obvious good amount of variation of the options you pick up along the way and bonuses there-of, but the Player Agency seems to be primarily in customizations. Ultimately, it’s a similar formula for each successive Act of the overall campaign system.
If you liked the “choose your own adventure” style life-pathing in other offerings of the Ultimate General wargame series, Civil War, and its American Revolution cousin, then you “might” like this. I’ll let you be the judge overall of that, but it smacks of that “live your virtual life as a commander and let’s see where you get to” in your virtual military career in a random generated Act I, II, and III, welcome to the Boss Level mode.
The main issue I have with Master of Command is I do wish I had a third play option of Historical Campaign, where there is just more of a defined overall War going on, not just a node like spidered out procedural Boss Fight leveling fest. The campaign is more of a random sandbox than any semblance of an historical campaign area of operations.
Overall, it’s odd, but I find myself coming back to play it? It’s a toss-up as to whether this is your cup of tea. I personally feel that this is one well done community mod away from incredible? Maybe? I feel like they are a couple more “layers” away from a wargamers dream game, but it will take some time to design a more historical skeleton on top of what is already present in the game. I’d definitely like to have the ear of the developer for this one, and will seek out an interview with him. He seems like a nice person and is very receptive to user feedback.
You can chat about this game in the Age of Gunpowder section of our discussion forums
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it’s a very nice looking game. But i can’t take the real time . To me true wargames are turn based.