Hexwar's basic battle system, but it seems to keep improving with each game. The combat system has a lot of detail, and now you can really look under the hood and see how it all works, maximize your attacks. The flank attack rules are crucially important in this game, and the different types of cavalry mean you really need to know when to shoot and when to charge.
For those unfamiliar with the English Civil War, it took place at a point between Middle Ages warfare and the age of Napoleon; Cavalry was still quite strong, but not dominant, either charging with the sword or riding up close, firing off pistols and retiring. Armor was being phased out due to the rise of muskets, and infantry would protect themselves with long pike formations, almost like ancient Greek phalanxes, but they also had lots of musketeers attached to blast away at anyone who came close.
At times this system can start to feel a bit generic, as it's been used for everything from World War II to ancient Rome, but this one felt enough like the period to make it work. When I played the battle of Edgehill, there were big cavalry battles on both flanks, and eventually one wing swept around and hit the Parliamentarian infantry in the rear, that felt right.
Compared to Pike and Shot from Slitherine, this one plays a lot faster and is less detailed, but they each have their advantages; Fire and Fury is way less fiddly, and you have a lot more control over your units; Pike and Shot has a lot more chaos, with units retreating like wild or charging when you don't want them to, historically accurate, but perhaps frustrating to some. Another alternative is Musket Smoke, which is also very very good, and no luck factor involved whatsoever. All in all, it's great that there are three games on 17th century warfare on iOS now!
My only request for Hexwar games at this point would be to add some command and rally rules; then again, the current morale system rewards you for retreating your weak units before they get killed. Still, it often feels like units fight to the last man a lot more than they run.
A big improvement here is that they have cut back on the "capture control point and receive reinforcements" mechanic, which really gave a gamey to feel some of the older Hexwar stuff, and it tended to drive the narrative a bit too much. This one is much more like the historical force match -ups, you get what's on the battlefield, and go at it, have to break the other army's line or morale to win. And another big improvement is the really big maps they have now which offer you a lot more ways to go about beating the other army. Well done.
About the only complaint I have with this is that there's no Game Center support. The AI is good enough to make you work for your wins, but I would really love to be playing this against a human opponent!