60 hours, all 3 dlc's bought and a couple Late nights later i have completed the game. Perhaps not 100% completion but enough time to figure the mechanics from my experience in the Men of war games. And the completion of all campaigns
Easiest dlc? Legion
Hardest campaign? Base Game
Most boring? Uprising
General Thoughts:
Worst part of the game in my opinion is Balancing. The jump between medium to hard is... Significant to say the least. And it doesn't help that the player seems to become massively Disadvantaged when it is increased, namely in your troops performance. I played all 3 campaigns on Medium, and i cannot fathom my sanity loss should i play on hard or all the way to "realism", (though i may try).
I will say the game (on sale) goes for a fair price, including the dlc. The content present is enough for anyone who is knew to the RTS and Wargame genre, whilst not being as in-depth as time proven classics are, (men of war, Company of heroes, Supreme commander, etc) it has enough present to keep you entertained for ATLEAST 60 hours.
DLC Review
Lets start out with the worst publicly received dlc, Uprising. Uprising starts off easily enough as you control a sector, replenish resources, recruit units, and conquer other territories as a larger Army Unit. However after about the 4th Territory you may start feeling the boredom ensue. While every Sector offers differing rewards (some repetitive), and a different map's featured exclusively FROM the base game Campaign, It ultimately feels as a repetitive Base game Travel. Overall the Resistance DLC feels rushed, and very very simple in what it offers.
We Are Legion
This DLC makes the player a part of Legion. The overall mechanics remain similar, however strategy, becomes very important. As you can lose a mission Very easily if you mismanage your objectives and priorities. The mechanical side is refreshingly different, being that you have a VERY finite amount of resources at your immediate disposal Per mission, which can be improved as per your performance, and you can only transfer a couple units to and from said missions. That being said the general Strategy for legion is namely Mobile Warfare, as you'll discover in the very first mission. Every mission proceeds very similar to the last besides that of the Infiltration one. Overall We Are Legion felt very refreshing after slugging through the base game missions for... around 40 hours, Speaking of-
Terminator: Dark Fate - Defiance
Base game is overall Nice. Having spent roughly 40 hours (may be less) to complete the campaign, it is far to say you will quickly, learn how to best use your units, as you will be forced into many Save - Reloads Because the vehicles and squads you have, become immensely important VERY fast. So much so that should you lose to many of them, the proceeding missions become near outright impossible - Insanely difficult. And without Properly supporting your Main offensive and Defensive units (Tanks, IFV's, ATGM Squads, Artillery, ETC) you will quickly realize if you haven't already how VERY important they are to your performance per mission.
The Base game in my opinion while being Difficult in many missions will make you appreciate the ability to recuperate after every mission.
(Pro 30-40 Hour gamer tip, for the love of god Get yourself Artillery as fast as possible, and at least 4 ATGM squads, they WILL save your progress)
After all this is said and done the game is good, the dlc's are OK. Pick this up on sale and you'll have a relatively good weekend albeit frustrating to the lessons needed to be learned.
Should you buy this over other rts games?
I personally recommend playing Men of war Assault squad, or company of heroes. As they and MANY classic rts games will feature far more content than what is made today in the same genre. This game however i'd recommend to those who are wanting something newer to try out.
