Excellent introduction to military wargaming
The original Battle for Moscow is a board game that simulates some specific moments from Germany's World War II campaign against Russia in the early part of the war. This is an unofficial adaptation of that board game which brings the fun to computer screens and which makes for the perfect introduction to historical strategy games due to its accessible nature. The game offers two main scenarios, the first being Germany's unsuccessful attempt to take Moscow in late 1941 and with the second being Russia's counter-assault that prevented Germany from concluding the Eastern European war. When playing as Germany, you need to capture Moscow for a victory, while as the Russians you need to prevent them from entering the city and drive them back before the end of winter. Battle for Moscow is really designed for newcomers to this kind of thing and introduces them gradually to the core concepts of strategy wargaming, like hex-based movement, combat mechanics and probabilities, resource management, reinforcements and supplying and the effects of weather conditions. The game is thoroughly detailed and comprehensive in its approach and really does provide a great introduction for complete noobs so if you are interested in this kind of thing, this is the perfect place to start. However, one warning must be made and that is that there is no computer opponent, so ideally you will have another interested party to play with or at the very least a patient veteran of the likes of Allied General or Panzer General. If you can supply the second player, then there is much enjoyment to be had here, with plenty of opportunities for detailed and varied tactics. If you have experienced this kind of game before however, you might find it lacking in the challenge you crave so you might want to look elsewhere.
