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> Results: Blitzkrieg II
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Once upon a time, real-time strategy (RTS) games were ubiquitous, but the market has contracted to the point where the only US RTS are typically high-profile and extremely ambitious. What happened to smaller scale and specialized themes? Fortunately Europe is up to filling the void, unfortunately they're still mired in the Sturm und Drang of the Second World War.
Blitzkrieg II's most immediate change over its predecessor, is the new 3D graphics engine. Now the action comes to you complete with impressive explosions, lighting effects, weather, and armchair commanders can better survey the battlefield with an eye for using terrain to their advantage. Buildings can be occupied, tanks and troops are harder to dislodge if they've spent some time entrenching, bombing runs can be used to "soften" the enemy before a full-on assault, and bottlenecks can be found, and taken advantage of, to turn a rout into a victory. The camera system, a frequent problem with these kinds of games, is limited in scope ﾖ you can't zoom out far enough ﾖ but this adds some uncertainty to the battlefield, so it's forgivable. The camera isn't hard to control, even during the tensest of firefights. The game uses reinforcements and commanders. Each mission allows the player a certain number of reinforcement points. These can be spent on needed troops, tanks, or a bombing run. It's been said that a great game design is one which gives the player as many "meaningful" decisions as possible and the reinforcement model certainly achieves this goal. In fact, ideas come during the mission, and players might replay missions to try things a different way. That's solid game design. Commanders are simply units you can promote, given them more options and orders (a promoted tank commander can order his units to camouflage or patrol). If you do this, all units of that type perform better and the commander gains experience with each successful battle and rises in rank. This is great for making the game play like you do, meaning if you favor tanks, you can keep calling tank reinforcements to enhance your tank commander unit. But this also encourages players to limit themselves to only certain types of reinforcements, which then encourages bad tactics, making the later stages harder. It's better to develop a balanced army than to overuse a single type is a lesson the game effectively delivers ﾖ albeit a bit too late in the campaign to be helpful.  The game does actively and effectively discourage the most obvious bad tactic common to RTS games: the tank rush. Players are still welcome to call in the tanks, loop them up, and fling them at the enemy base, but a competent commander knows to leave a few Reinforcement points in reserve. A tank rush can end in ruin against a well timed counter-attack loaded up on ant-tank personnel. Single player lets you portray the German blitzkrieg, the US-led invasion or fortress Europe, or the valiant Soviet defense against the German onslaught. There are 80 single and multiplayer missions, and all are quite good. The manual claims there are over 250 different units and each is specially coded to react realistically on the battlefield. I will say that armor-piercing units know enough to concentrate fire on armored units, but it doesn't mean an infantry unit can seize the guns of their fallen artillery comrades. Instead they point their rifles at the oncoming armor and go "ping-ping-ping." The two biggest problems with Blitzkrieg II are the music and the artificial intelligence. For a game featuring such deep and rich tactics, the computer fumbles and flails a bit too often with the pathfinding and there isn't enough modeling about how combined arms reacted on the battlefield. The computer is overly fond of the newbie-friendly trickle-technique (where the computer never attacks with a convincing army, instead preferring to send a few units at a time, where they're destroyed in a few seconds). It makes some use of buildings and terrain; it does entrench, but never in a way that will seriously challenge players. Suffice it to say the computer does a better job maximizing its forces, than it does using them to surprise you or catch you unawares. The music can be summed up as "Muzak," and I'll never understand why European game developers feel techno is a good soundtrack for World War II combat. The upside is the music quality might bring back some old school Midi memories for grizzled gamers of the early 90's era. While flawed, Blitzkrieg II makes a good single player wargame because it successful models the cold ruthlessness of war and the importance of using reinforcements wisely. It's even stronger as a multiplayer wargame simply because an opponent who can use the game's tactical options as well as you do makes up for the game's greatest flaw. It's another WWII RTS from Europe, sure. At least it's a pretty good one. 
Real-time strategy games tend to be fast and frantic, which puts games like this out of the reach of smaller children, and the subject matter is most definitely World War II style combat and the graphics don't shy away from tiny dead bodies (since the game is European the blood is kept to a minimum). The downside is the violence, but the upside is that this sort of game is strategic (it teaches teens about supply, command, morale, and other real-world considerations beyond carnage) and it's historically accurate enough to feed or maybe even spark an interest in WWII. A great place to talk about what Grandpa or Great Grandpa did during the war.
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