Valor & Victory Reviews

Very good game. The AI is tough but not impossible to beat. I'm an ASL player and my first game is a draw. V&V is very playable: it's easy to learn and hard to master. Use wisely the terrain, learn when to stay and to dash forward, spread your forces and form a killer stack only when you need its firepower. It's a 1.0 version: i'm sure there will be improvements soon (i.e. the Zoom).

If you have any interest in Squad Leader type board games you will not be dissapointed. This is a labor of love by a small team and I think they have delivered on a simple game style that flows quickly yet leaves the player many decisions during game play. I will play any and all squad level games and they each have their own strengths and weaknesses but I keep coming back to V&V for one more play. The scenarios are quickly played and the AI actually uses some fairly good judgement most of the time. The dev's have been pretty open to ideas and responsive and I believe there will be a bright future for the game. What you won't find is the over complexities of most squad level games, what you will find is quick game play where you will curse the dice at times and cheer your leaders on at others. Every move you make, every die roll is critical and it makes for some tense moments and sometimes victories snatched from the jaws of defeat. As far as squad level wargames go, I don't feel like I'm fighting the system, I'm just having fun.

Normandy is good campaign. Stalingrad has poorly thought out scenarios. In Normandy, campaign you have the ability to maneuver and fight on both sides. In Stalingrad, it appears the designers set every scenario to be an ambush. Russian ATRs are too powerful. Forget using armored car. As you move your troops up they get shot to pieces. The die rolls seem also to help the Russians or your opponent. There are no levels and the designer has opted for impossible. The turns set for many scenarios are way to short. Not paytested very well. Needs further developemnt especially with Stalingrad.

I've played over 3,000 different board games and countless computer games. I also spent at least a decade on Matrix Games forums complaining about nearly every game. What few games met some of my expectations would fail completely if nothing else on the horrible User Interface. While some decent games existed for other scales nothing made in more than a decade seemed to do the tactical scale correctly. For these reasons and more I didn't even bother with this game at first. And yet this one ends up being the game I always dreamed of having. Yes I played ASL/SLSK/SL and yes this absolutely fully scratches that itch. Sure there are a couple things here or there I wish were more like that system. But it is its own system and game and you cannot always apply the same strategies in exactly the same way. But there is plenty of depth and strategy here. The expansions only continue to add and perfect with many details. The UI was made as if to prove by example what I was trying to say for a decade or more is the way it should be done. The graphics are extremely pleasant to me and I've not encountered any bugs myself. I've already bought the expansions and plan to continue to support this one. It gets my highest recommendation for anyone even remotely interested in a WWII Tactical Turn-Based Game.

I absolutely love this game. It has a feel like squad leader yet slightly different. Most scenarios are pretty quick so it's not a huge investment in time to play a quick game. Multiplayer works fine. And the occasional tournament is a blast. The art work on the boards and counters is excellent, and there are quite a few boards to use with the editor. I have all the DLC's, but would love to see North Africa and the Italians. My only gripe is they haven't added the Japanese to the quick mission builder.

I'll start off by saying that although I don't recommend this for now, from what I've heard and read from the devs, they are committed to improving this game. I'm confident the problems will get ironed out over time, hence I haven't requested a refund. That said, this game has a lot of issues. First off, the lack of audio-visual settings. The most basic stuff is missing, but I'd personally like more options for the window mode, specifically bordered window that I can scale manually. The lack of multiple volume options is also baffling, although there seems to be sound settings in-game that aren't found in the home menu, but it affects ambient sounds only...I think? Then there's the random number generator. Horrendous. The devs insist it's fine and unmanipulated, but after playing for some hours, I've seen some really dodgy die behavior, but also an insane amount of middling results (6-8 range). AI getting regular snake eyes, me getting regular double sixes, and so on. Maybe it's just a case of bad luck, but it feels a bit "off." I'd prefer a physics based 3D dice option, at least for aesthetic purposes, if nothing else. The scenario editor, while it is a welcome feature, is just too bare bones right now. One huge omission is the lack of a modular map builder. Even the og tabletop Valor & Victory had this capability, which makes the absence of it here unforgivable, really. One could perhaps forgive the lack of a proper map creator if it at least had this option. Although, of course, that's another feature people want, or at the very least modular map packs (for a very modest fee). The tutorial could be better, but the rules system for this game is sorta beefy so I can understand why they wouldn't want to stuff it all into an intro scenario. But that does mean you'll have to read the (somewhat hefty) manual to get a solid grasp on many of the mechanics. Splitting/merging groups, loading/unloading vehicles and so forth are also confusing and unintuitive if you haven't read the manual, and their functionality in the UI doesn't make it any easier. Speaking of the UI, it's basic, and while it gets the job done, it leaves a lot to be desired, but this is mostly just a matter of aesthetics. Although, a deselect function (simply right mouse button or ESC) would be nice, so I don't have to click on an empty tile just to un-highlight a unit to avoid misclicking them. And there's also odd decisions like exceeding the 'stacking limit' of a space resulting in the straight-up ELIMINATION of the "offending" unit; and this is not a glitch, as the game warns you of this in the tooltip and a nice little red number indicating this ill-advised option. Insane. Why is it an option at all? I found nothing in the manual justifying this. Why not simply prohibit the action? I can't imagine any situation in which someone would willingly choose to sacrifice their unit for absolutely no reason, but I can certainly imagine a scenario where someone is quickly moving their units and accidentally clicks on a fully stacked space. Oops. Bye bye, clumsy soldier, you apparently got smothered to death by your mates. There is some good to be found, however. The base mechanics of the game itself are tactically satisfying, as long as you don't mind a good dose of RNG (the quality of the number generator notwithstanding). The visual quality of the maps and chits are nice and sharp. The added affects like gunfire, explosions and birds flying over the map add some pleasing visual flare. The elements are there for a pretty good digital wargame experience, it just needs some tuning. At $20 it seems a fairly good deal, but you can also get the Lock 'n Load core game and a couple battle packs for near the same amount, and get a better optimized experience (although its scenario editor/generator costs extra money, it's far more fully featured and flexible). If you can see yourself overlooking these issues, then there's still fun to be had here. I don't necessarily regret my purchase (with the understand the devs are committed to improving the product). I look forward to seeing how this improves, and I'm eager to change my rating to a thumbs up. Edit: I will admit criticizing the RNG may be unwarranted here, as it is very hard to judge that sort of thing. Also I'll add that I really do like the aesthetic of the game, despite the rudimentary UI; and I find that the A.I. is, in my experience so far, fairly competent. The game rules here are a bit easier to digest than LnL, without being overly simplistic. Though if the devs could pull off a fully fledged custom map maker, that would be an edge on LnL, which doesn't even offer that feature.

Ive been watching the scenarios and something is wrong with the dice mechanism. Over the past 3 days I'e tried to play about 10 games total, I have won 1 of these 10 games against the AI. Here is my issue after 9 very frustrating games I decided to actually measure what I had been observing in the last 6 or so games. The AI averaged a 5.1 in its dice rolls and I averaged a 9.2. This was set to a dice advantage in favor of myself the player. My suspicion is that it was same or similar in previous games. At one point it achieved 5X3's in a row followed by a snake eyes in one turn. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS GAME UNTIL THE DICE MECHANISM IS FIXED. I personally wnat to play it rolling my own dice at this point. The average will be about 7 for both sides.

The game is great reminds me of Advanced Squad Leader days. Only have played about 3 hours and it is fun very easy to understand rules etc. That being said there are some quirks and I dont want this to be too negative but the game is very limited. (I am sure there will be add on DLC units in the future) However as of now units are very limited, This is no Yanks, Beyond Valor, or British Commonwealth worth of units. Very limited right now. Would like to know what or if any DLC, unit packs will come out later. So dont be too frustrated or uptight, I am sure there will be more as it seems a very good platform they have to build off of. There are a few UI issues and technical things I hope they address. 1. I had a unit (Half Squad) I could not select and when it was finally destroyed it remained on the board 2. There are no Vehicle or gun wrecks 3. When moving your units you cant see what is underneath. Foxhole, building etc, so you have to remember if your unit is in cover or not.. Hopefully not in open ground :) 4. Very limited units right now. 5. No Vehicle commanders.. so your tanks and AFV shoot like crap if your enemy is in woods.. Need lucky ass rolls. 6. No Mortar units or Artillery as of now Other than that it seems it will be a great game as long as they keep updating and providing more scenario's or boards. The editor is great but you cannot make your own boards and must choose what they have.

A good looking and good sounding game based on a rare case of a free print & play boardgame that plays amazingly. However this version plays horribly. The UI is terrible, unresponsive, forcing you into missclicks that require restarting the scenario. The rules aren´t implemented correctly (or fully for that case) and the scenario editor is lacking. The many scenarios are all the same basic premise of static defender and moving attacker. Always playing the attacker by default since the AI is very simple. Try a scenario being the defender and watch the AI struggle with the most basic turns. All in all a very pretty package that seems designed by people that never before have programmed a wargame, and that´s just a shame. I encourage everyone to go find V&V´s page on boardgamegeek and print out all of the pieces for themselves. Even playing solitaire you will have a better experience than the game in this state.

Turns are incredibly too short. Basically the only strategy for offence is to rush but just about every element is working against the offensive. You cannot coordinate fire on a hex, only what you have in your stack - excluding vehicles - , which forces you to try and create DOOM stacks. Tanks cannot overrun. Defensive units are basically untouchable given how attrition works... you have to shoot the same hex more times than you have stacks/units and you'd better hope each roll is a 1,1 or else at best you're pinning them (another turn wasted), at worst given the TEM they're untouched. Even if you manage to pin the unit and try to assault, good luck, given how you have to concentrate your entire force on one hex, it leaves the other 20 enemy stacks to shred apart your assaulting unit during their defensive fire before you can do something meaningful. Conversely given that you only have the rush option to achieve victory of having to usually take 4 hexes with what amounts to 2 units left in 6 turns - the defense often enjoys delivering about 60-90% casualties. On the positive, the AI is fine but by the Gods the ability for the offensive units to have to take ALL VP hexes (or eliminate every single unit on the board) in just 6 turns, inability to coordinate meaningful fire and mandatory doom stacking, and how casualties are calculated needs to be tweaked.