An interesting system, but scenario victory conditions in the previous games in the series are based on "turns remaining" so you always feel pushed to do something, even if it is wrong. Not my cup of tea, but others may find they like it..
How many more war games from the Nazi side do we need? I've had enough, I'll tell you that. I won't buy them any more unless the campaigns allow you to play either side. Scenarios? Who cares? Lazy programmers know it's much easier to design for the offense and quite hard to design a good defensive game. Either that, or it would seem most of these designers are infatuated with the Wehrmacht.
I bought the entire Panzer Corps set thinking I could at some point play as Allies - wrong. I haven't bothered to finish it for that reason, though I did play into early Barbarossa. I just can't get off playing as Axis, sorry. Perhaps this version will float my boat but I don't relish paying out another hundred bucks or so to get still another set. Maybe I should just wait until it goes on sale in a couple of years.
Appreciate the thought, but, for the likes of me, there's a world of difference between "as slow as you want" and "turn based." Think of the difference between playing chess and playing pac-man. Its like that.
No, the aliens do not invade your main base in this game. I saw a video or read an interview where that was addressed - sorry, I read so many I can't cite it now - but they looked into it and the ant farm layout just did not work for it, so no, no base defense mission(s). I don't mind - there's plenty to do from all I've seen.
I finally took it off my hard drive when I realized there really wasn't much actual strategy to a game that one fellow could beat in 5 minutes of play by beelining to the queen's chambers and offing her in a suicide run. I never played the genre before and was surprised how formulaic and one-dimensional it was. I expected a real campaign and instead got a top down shooter.
IMHO it has been released with a few flaws or shortcomings. Some common weapons (e.g. M-1 Carbine) missing, US Army ranks and icons messed up, no reaction fire that I can see, no entering buildings, no working vehicles or tanks, minimal documentation, etc. All in all, less than it could have been. Some things are patchable, others probably are not. I'm surprised that Matrix picked it up in its present state. A nice try but so far, no cigar.