by Michael Eckenfels, 20 January 2025
I was just given access to Platoon Commander, an upcoming game by Alpharabius Games, which will be published by Slitherine. The game is a real-time strategy fest that takes place during the fall and winter of 1941, during the German advance on Moscow. The demo I was able to access is very limited, in that it only covers an attack by you, the German commander of a small group of soldiers, equipment, and vehicles, to push into and clear out a Soviet village, before a counterattack takes place. According to the demo page, it looks like any troops you lose in your initial effort will not be around to hold against the inevitable Soviet attack to take the village back.
click images to enlarge
In the initial screens, you are given a choice of units to purchase – infantry in the form of regular infantry squads, assault squads, and anti-tank as well as sniper teams, as well as a Panzer III-F and a 37mm PaK anti-tank gun. Those six are all you get to choose from in the demo, but as it is a demo it’s of course going to exist to give you a taste for the game rather than a full-on experience. The Steam product page promises “an even broader selection,” which is interesting to me as I wonder if it will change at all during the campaign.
Which is detail that is not really hinted at in the game, but is indeed mentioned on the product page – it sounds like you’ll be managing your troops throughout this part of the campaign, and will decide as well on the pacing and tempo. Morale and psychological states will impact your soldiers, and the environment can be destroyed, as well.
Which is good, because the game demo is very difficult to beat. I’ve not managed in even a dozen tries to capture the entire village, but then again I stink at these kinds of games. One thing that annoyed me in these endeavors is, there is a timer at the top of the screen, counting down from 30 minutes. If you don’t capture the village in that timeframe – which consists of what looks like ‘victory locations’ that you have to move a unit of yours upon, or near, in order to make it change sides – then you lose automatically. It’s very difficult (for me, anyway – but again, not the greatest tactician, me) to get your troops carefully moved and positioned, and to do it quickly enough.
What’s embarrassing to admit is, it seems the AI in the demo sets up in the same places, so one may think that makes for an easier time next time – and it does, but it still gets frustrating when your Pz III gets brewed up each and every time by the same Soviet anti-tank gun. “Oh, well let me try moving it here –“ BLAMMO – “nope, that’s not it, okay…let’s try it over HERE” – KABLOOEY – “nope, THAT’S not it” – and that can be very frustrating.
Looking at the product page, you can see what looks like camera angles that should allow you to rotate your view, but I’m not able to do that. That might be something in the full release, but in this, all I can do is zoom in and zoom out, and of course move the camera by mousing my cursor to the edges of the screen. Frustratingly too, when zoomed all the way in, you cannot get a first-person-ish perspective from that vantage point. I feel like that would have come so much in handy when trying to see if I have a line of sight.
That’s not to say you do not have a line of sight tool – select a unit, press and hold the CTRL button, and you get what is a range finder, targeting reticule, and color-coding to the range band. I’m guessing the colors are chances to hit, possibly – green being easier, yellow more difficult, and red almost impossible if not allowed. Though, I was able to target the enemy even with the red part of the range band present, and was able to clear infantry out of a few houses with my PaK guns before moving infantry in. Doing that last bit without a bit of preparation is bad news for your infantry; the Soviets, in cover, will decimate your ranks easily.
I do like the tension this brings. While this has been done numerous times before (Close Combat, Squad Assault, not to mention many others), if this is something you enjoy, you’ll probably enjoy digging in here, too. I wish there was a bit more to the demo to allow me to progress a bit and get a feel for the product page’s promises, such as managing your army. I’m not knocking this at all for being similar to other, previous games; rather, it’s something of a comfort. You can buy your troops at the start of your mission, which is kind of like Close Combat – I’m guessing it’s similar in that your troops will gain experience as you bring them through each battle successfully.
I am not terribly keen on puzzly aspects to my wargames; in the case of the demo, if the AI sets up its Soviet units (you can only play from the German side, here), like I said, in the same locations, and it’s frustrating to figure out the ‘best’ approach to make. I’ve tried several tactics and tend to get my soldiers offed, unfortunately.
Then I try it again, and am ready for the first ambush – but then the next one happens, and you have to start over again. And so on.
The limitations of the demo, though, should not be a red flag at all. It IS just a demo, after all, and not a full product, so hopefully there will be a rotatable camera and some other aspects as I’ve mentioned here in the finished game. The tension of discovering hidden Soviets that are desperately trying to keep you out of the village is actually kind of fun, even if I’m terrible at persuading them to leave. I’ve come close to clearing out the village, but even making one little mistake can mean an entire squad gets wiped out. I can see that being incredibly frustrating after a long mission, but it’s par for the course for these kinds of games.
I do also like the detail in the game. Highlighting a unit gives you information on it, including ability and range, which helps tremendously with interpreting that aforementioned range band. The status of your soldiers in each squad is displayed as well; they can be pinned down, incapacitated, or of course, completely removed from your squad by meeting their end via the Soviet welcoming committees in game.
It looks to have a lot of detail, has some nice graphics (though again, a first person view or something akin to it would be really nice here, when zoomed all the way in), and the promise of managing your army through several missions in a campaign has a lot of promise. I will keep my eye on this one and look forward to the full release.
Screenshot Gallery
Slitherine provided Armchair Dragoons a copy of this demo
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