It's pretty painful.
War Wind
I think this was SSI's answer to Dune (RTS).
This real time strategy game takes place on an alien planet and involves using workers to harvest resources, construct buildings, hire units and then sending them out to battle enemies and fauna on the map.
It also features four completely different factions/campaigns to pick from which is massive! Unfortunately all are really aliens which doesn't make them too relatable, even though the story is a simple one of rebellion.
Also, there is zero tutorial available and it's so old, when you save or load a game it actually temporarily drops you into windows to use the default file handler! A bit too dated for my taste, I give it only one and a half tech pigs out of five.
Insight: Right clicking on a unit brings up their valid commands - like instruct workers to build or harvest.
Europa Universalis II
Information overload!
In this old school, world conquering game you take command over a country with the goal of achieving more victory points than anyone else before time runs out. Don't worry, many kings will come and go before that happens.
What is totally nuts though is the broad scope covered here, as you play on a map of the world and depending on your chosen nation, there can be a lot going on. Spain for example is sprawling all the way across to America so you could be dealing with Aztecs and the French at the same time.
Too much going on all the time.
The dated interface also isn't the best meaning you'll need many clicks to find out what's going on, and that's while the game is paused! If time is going, expect to be interrupted by pop up boxes galore, some requiring you to make important choices while more popups get in the way.
Avid war gamers might enjoy this but it ended up being way too complicated for me. One and a half census tax collections out of five.
Insight: Pause is your friend.
Warhammer 40K: Rites of War
In the future, there is only hex-based war!
The Eldar have grown weary of the ruthless expansions of mankind, especially as they now desecrate their ancient sites with their mere presence. You are tasked with assembling a small army (you'll be lucky to field 12 squads) to eliminate the Imperials, Space Marines and random Tyranids that block your path to retrieve holy relics... that only can only be carried by a unit not already holding one.
Should that happen your entire army shrugs, goes "oh well" and is forced to leave it behind - even if every single other unit you have doesn't yet have a relic. Yep. It's annoyances like this that make this hex based war game more tedious than it should be.
The "rest" action is also heavily used by the AI to recover unit strength which means if you can't kill an enemy off in one turn, you will likely have to fight it at near full power again really soon. Have fun when your are getting swarmed by superior numbers and that happens! Not really a game for anyone other than Warhammer Eldar fans, I give this one and a half scatter lasers out of five.
Insight: Stick together and move your slowest units forward first. Support types are great since they get extra attacks out of turn.
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