SP:
MoW comes form a long and excellent tradition of missions dating back to famous games like Desperados and Commandos. It not only does a great job at keeping the great tradition alive but also improves upon it and gives new dimensions to the game: like large scale battles, squad combat and lots of new units and weapons. RT is another great addition to the genre and MoW Vietnam looks really exciting too.
AS skirmish missions is a great mystery. It is neither a skirmish nor a mission. It puts the game somewhere between CoH and MoW. It still has the fun micro of MoW and amazing looking maps but it is a shame that it is so repetitive and dull and the flag points are too arcade for my taste.
MP:
I played equal amount of games in both MoW and AS and all I can say is that none of them is better. They are just different. MoW reminds me more of a night combat and AS is more of a day combat. MoW is a lot more surprising and you need to keep your eyes open for the enemy, esp, for elite infantry, scouts and kamikaze. The AS Goliath, which is one of the most useless hero units in the game, would be seriously OP in MoW. What I like in MoW is that tank combat is a lot more exciting coz the heart of tank tactics is flanking and avoiding direct clash and you will see that a lot in MoW but it is so bloody hard to flank in AS. You have to wait for the moment when your opponent is busy with microing something else and use the momentary lack of attention to get closer to fire APCR.
AS is more straightforward. You can easily see the enemy so your tactics depend on direct confrontation and firepower. You set up your initial positions, sandbags are in frequent use, and try provide enough firepower combining MG/HMG,tank and artillery to help you to push forward and move your frontline. You can’t use deception and surprise tactics as much.
One of the most striking differences you will see in 1 on 1 matches. In MoW 1 on 1 is a pretty exciting, fast paced game in which you will see lots of different units and consequently tactics. AS 1 on 1 games, on the other hand, are a lot slower and you will see a lot less different units ( in a good even game, you won’t see a heavy tank). At the start it is all about MG/HMG spam coz they are a lot deadlier than in MoW and due to the increased FoV it is easy to decimate squads with them. AS is more suited for 2 on 2 + games.
I enjoy both games. It is good that they are different. But for me, MoW hold the edge because of the fact that I prefer games that offer me a lot more tactical opportunities. When I came back to AS a few days ago, I immediately started missing the big variety of choices you have for the opening move that MoW gives you. In MoW a lot tactics also come from the flexibility and usefulness of most units: like scouts with bazookas can be really dangerous and help you win the game; and artillery can do a very good job at killing enemy infantry and soft targets as well as suppressing or, if lucky, damaging or even killing enemy tanks. Katyusha is simply brutal in MoW but it remains unviable in AS.
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