Call of War with the weeks behind it

Call of War hands you a country in 1939 and then refuses to stop the clock. Units march in real hours, factories take real days, and an order given at breakfast resolves while you are busy with something else entirely.

The research tree carries the interest. No economy can afford all of it, so each game turns into a bet on armour, aircraft or the fleet while the neighbours place theirs in other directions.

Diplomacy settles most rounds. The message system sees far more traffic than the battle screen, and a coalition that holds together beats a bigger army that does not.

Where it earns its place

• Combined forces
• Persistent map
• Alliances

Go for it if

Players who want slow decisions with weight and real people to talk round.

Not worth it for anybody who needs a result inside one evening.

Settling in

Tidy your own region before looking abroad. Most beginners declare a distant war and lose to shipping times rather than to soldiers.

Pick one research branch and see it through. Three half-finished doctrines lose to one that is complete.