It’s kind of interesting how long-legged some games are in the App Store, especially compared to the traditional gaming market. Sure, Gree’s base-building military romp Modern War (Free) is a bit long in the tooth, and is very similar to the even older Crime City (Free), but it’s still as popular as ever. While it is, like fellow iOS offering Modern Combat, clearly riding off the success and fame of Call of Duty, its approach of taking similar settings and applying them to a different genre probably opens this up as a companion piece for Call of Duty fans, rather than the more difficult road of trying to dethrone the king. Whatever the reason, in the vein of our other guides, I’ve put together some advice and tips for those who are just getting into this one now.
The first thing you should do is to decide exactly what your goals are with playing this game. Are you more focused on working your way through the single player content, or are you looking primarily at multiplayer success? Depending on what you’d like to do, you’ll need to build your forces and spend your skill points from level-ups in different ways.
General Advice
Invest heavily in money buildings in the start. You’re going to need lots of money if you don’t want to spend real money, and the best way to do that is to get the money-making buildings laid down and upgraded as soon as possible.
Always keep the plates spinning. You can be building something and upgrading something at any given time. Whenever you’re finished a play session, make sure you’ve got one of each on the go. The real-time waiting is a big killer in these types of games if you’re not someone with infinite pocket cash, so make sure you cut down on it by ensuring you’re always getting things going before you stop for a while.
Use the ten gold the game gives you as you like. It’s not enough to buy anything. It’s nearly worthless, in other words. So if you want to speed up a couple of timers with it, go nuts. There’s really no way to get more gold in this game except by spending your real cash or using Tapjoy.
Single Player Focus
Follow the missions, but don’t just follow the missions. You should be building and upgrading things at all times, not just when the game tells you to do it. Additionally, if you need extra money, go ahead and kill more enemies in the enemy zones. At the same time, make sure you’re following the missions, so that you can collect the XP and other rewards that come from doing so.
Sink your experience points into energy. All of them. Seriously. If you’re playing single player, energy is the most important stat. It determines how long you can play before having to wait again. How high you should build this should depend on your own personal gaming habits. If you’re only going to play once a day, build this stat up to a thousand points or more. If you’re going to be playing several times during the day, you don’t need it quite as high.
Iran is the best choice for single player. Yeah, I know, I doubt many English players want to be using Iran of all countries, but every country has their own unique bonus, and Iran’s is a 10% boost to energy recovery, which helps you regain energy more quickly and therefore finish missions at a faster pace.
If you run short on money, farm high ranking enemies. If you have a big energy meter, you’ll be able to slaughter them again and again and build up a good bit of cash in pretty short order. It’s kind of a poor way to go about things, especially early on, but in a pinch, it’ll basically let you convert energy to money.
Multiplayer Focus
Russia is probably the best choice. There are lots of ways you can go here. America gives you a bonus to restoring stamina points, which allows you to attack others more often, but in the long run, this bonus isn’t going to be a very useful one. The air units in this game are very strong, particularly if you don’t have access to units bought with gold. Russia offers a bonus to air units, and as a result is probably the strongest country in the game in terms of pure power.
Put lots of points into the attack stat. This will give your attacking units a big bonus, and it goes without saying, it’s quite useful if you’re the attacking sort. Don’t worry as much about defense. It’s possible to build a strong enough defense without the benefit of bonuses.
Build your stamina stat. Again, this should match your playing habits. Each attack consumes just one stamina point, so you generally won’t find yourself as short on stamina as you would on energy in single player. If you’re playing just once a day, though, you might want to boost this one up evenly with your attack boosts. Otherwise, pump it up a bit, but it’s probably not worth focusing on in lieu of attack.
Watch out for ‘mock turtles’. It’s possible in Modern War, and not a bad strategy, to build up economy and forces without leveling up very much. This is called mock turtling, because you appear low level, and will be pooled in with low level players when it comes to raid/attack targets, but you’re obviously much stronger than you appear to be. Make sure you check out any potential target by choosing ‘raid’ first, which lets you check out their base, giving you a good measure of their actual power. Don’t throw away your resources on impossible targets.
Invest in air forces. Upgrade your airfield as well as your advanced airbase to gain access to powerful units like the stealth bomber. Without gold units to fall back on, you’re going to want to stockpile on powerful attack jets and bombers to boost your attack rating.
Upgrade your vault and don’t forget to use it. If you go on the attack a lot, you’re going to be inviting a lot of revenge strikes. The vault will keep your money safe in the event of an attack, and while it has good value to anyone, it will have especially good value to someone who is always attacking others.
Make lot of allies. Allies boost the number of units you can deploy, making your forces stronger on both attack and defense. You can also earn some extra money by visiting their bases. This game has cooled a bit on our forums, but you can still find plenty of allies the old-fashioned way: by checking the reviews on the App Store.
That’s all the advice I have for you for today. Hopefully, with these tips, you can get yourself established well enough to achieve success in Modern War, no matter which style of play you prefer. Now, when am I going to get a new real version of Cannon Fodder out of this military video game boom? I’ll even accept a simple port to iOS!
First lol
I can't wait for the inevitable TA article telling us how to play and spend as little money as possible!
I doubt there will be one. It would basically say, "Just play the game." Nimblebit is known for having 100% optional IAP that is only added after the game has been balanced.
Nope. I played it and it is definitely a sit and wait or use the IAPs. It's very slow to progress and grind heavy.
"Nope" to what?
Seems to me there are two main ways to play this game. Casual: play for 5-10 minutes then go do something else with your life. Non-Casual: use strategy and, yeah, grind a bit.
It really leans towards IAP transactions. Played it enough to realize that it's a very slow grind without putting in some cash.
Well, I disagree. I've been playing it extensively, and I've never felt that I was being pushed to buy IAP. For me, the grind is the game. I think that's where we see things differently.
That's ok. I have no problem with grinding in games, it's just these kind of games don't feel rewarding... They just feel like work. All I did was send trains off to deliver something, saved up money, unlocked new destinations and track lines, then started the whole process over again. The trains get better, and making money gets easier, but there is no real depth. There is no strategy beyond choosing what to deliver and where. I'm glad you like it though.
Yeah, what feels like work to you is fun to me, though I'd be hard pressed to explain why, exactly. I'm not even a fan of this genre, but for some reason PT rings my bell.
Different strokes. :)
Wow, that has to go down as the first civilised message board conversation in history! Well done guys, though I do feel cheated somehow... :)
Lol
That's how all these developers games are. I think they really nailed this games IAP. If you need it it's extremely reasonably priced and there isn't a pack that costs more than $15 (I think the lowest was actually $10). The times are short for trips and there is almost always a bux trip to carry out
Hey toxic, it's now up! You called it!
Fun so far but there is too much micromanaging IMO. Pocket planes scaled up better once you could send planes off for an hour across the globe. Not sure how the gameplay will hold up in later stages.
P.S. My gift code is 1DCY is anyone wants to send me parts
Love the game, can't believe that it wasn't game of the week?! But I respect TA's opinion. Really there is no excuse not to download this game, it's free and takes up very little space.
Like pocket planes a decent game, but I can only enjoy it for a day or 2.
Near perfect game. My only complaint is that I wish it displayed all the info you needed better. Too many sub menus.
As much as I like trains, Pocket Trains feels like a rehash of Pocket Planes, which I grew tired of a couple of weeks after playing. I'm already tired of Pocket Trains after playing for 3 days. Train breakdowns & refueling are also annoying, new ways of forcing you to pay unless you love to grind for your progress. Far from being the worst "free" game out there, but the IAP does hurt it.
Thank you for finally reviewing the game and actually caring about it. It's a good game, and deserves at least some attention.
Shameless plug for sending me parts: gift code is 1DCY
Pls don't spam.
Man, I loved Tiny Tower, but I just couldn't get into Pocket Planes, it was just too boring. I hope Trains is better.
Game of the week for me.
This game is so boring.
FREEMIUM crap.
This comment is so boring.
Same old crap.
This is not freemium crap. I've played for three days without spending a dollar an feels much more like a Kairosoft game with tons of polish than a freemium money grab.
Buying crates at stations doesn't work for me... I pay and they do not show up in the crafting menu
They appear in that station and need to be delivered before you can use them.
This comment pointing out the boring comment is so boring.
Same old informative crap.
Played for some time and noticed that elements which appear to be random, are starting to feel managed, almost predetermined. The game always gives you something to carry, a clear choice for the route, but always just a bit more than you can haul, forcing you to compromise, and in-turn, increases the urgency to upgrade your trains. The ability to upgrade, however, is based on the limited availability of bucks and crates, both of which, can be obtained faster through IAP.
Hope they fix a lot of bugs and make better tutorials and help. Also I would like a guide of Trains like a list handbook and twitter share also convos with the nimble persons will awesome heard the opinions and complaints hahaha like in Tiny Tower
The guide of trains would help greatly. Always nice in planes to dream of getting those 20-slot planes. It does give info if you click on the button, but like an earlier post mentioned that is a lot of steps to get there and there is a lot of micro managing in the game.
I'm liking this game a lot! I just wish it could add up the amount of money of the cargo combined to make it easier to decide the most profitable, and after you have over 10 trains, you have to work hard to keep them running, i wish it was easier to manage multiple trains at a time like "pick up jobs automatically"
Omg you have 10 already. I'm concerned re: sheer micromanagement. Would it be like civ5 on massive size map lol
I've played if for a few days, had some fun but ultimately deleted it. For me Pocket Trains suffers because there's no goal and no real challenge. Just by playing you'll make money and expand your railroad, it's just a question of how much time you sink into it. It badly needs a challenge, such as an AI railroad or simply the possibility of going bankrupt if you don't run a well organised railroad.
This comment sums up my response to the game. I enjoyed it for a bit and the premium currency is balanced quite generously, but I felt no incentive to continue playing. Every move is profitable, the progression of trains feels extremely meaningless. Even the compulsion loop of getting a train out of the station so I could raise my bank balance did not hold me for very long ( despite my general susceptibility to such loops)
Deleted after I finished an event but did not get rewarded while phone was asleep. The need to repair is discouraging with the amount of gold earned through the need of constant micromanaging. A fun game though while it lasted.
Been playing for a few days now--I really love this one. I don't care if its similar to Pocket Planes--I've been having a lot of fun regardless. And if they make a Pocket Submarines next year and its exactly the same formula I'm sure I'll have fun playing that as well.
I still want Pocket Detective, where you manage a detective squad and are sent out to solve murders, thefts, etc.
Awesome idea! I think I will steal it and make millions!!!
i'm just playing it right now for the need to unlock all engine types...
most annoying for me is the button to remove cargo that is stashed in the station, on the yard.. why on the left side ? I got the pop-up to delete it all the time, I accidentaly press it :/
I feel I have lost very little by the decision to strip out the multiplayer elements. Pocket planes had a team leaderboard, but it still was single player. Not a detractor in my opinion.
I think the multiplayer component of games is a little overrated these days.
Generally I love this game. What I really hate and simply do not understand is why on earth this game requires iOS 6. Even IB2 is playable on an iPod Touch 3g but PT isn't? Come on...
Requires iOS 6 so can't play it on iPod Touch 3G. I am GUTTED. Why, by the way?