Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday

After a long absence, it's time to come back with some updates. Nearly every strategy game is updated, patched, or expanded. So I'll be bringing forward some of these expansions, beginning with Hearts of Iron II .

Opening of the Cold War in Europe

Hearts of Iron II: Doomsday is an expansion pack for this excellent World War Two strategy game, and adds much to the overall gameplay. You still have the option of 175 different countries to select from, but now you can control these nations from 1936 until 1953. This allows time for Doomsday's greatest addition, a scenario depicting a Cold War gone hot, with the Soviet Union and Allies at war. Also included is a new espionage tab, which allows you to spy on friends and enemies alike. Spying, assassinations, and revolts are yours to instigate.

Espionage allows many more options

While keeping the core of the original, Doomsday makes an excellent expansion. Any fan of World War Two strategy games should at least check it out. The gameplay is limitless, now more so than ever before.

Company of Heroes: Best World War Two Real-Time Strategy

There are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of World War Two games out there. So when I say that there is another WWII Real-Time Strategy game out, you may be turned off instantly. But, Company of Heroes is certainly no typical WWII RTS. Taking place in Normandy soon after D-Day, Company of Heroes puts you in command of Able Company in the fight against Germany. Coupled with an expansion, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts, you can also take control of the British 2nd Army or German Panzer Elite. The Gold Edition grabs you both for one price. The game combines constant action, wonderful graphics, and unbelievable historical accuracy which makes it one of the best in its class.

The level of detail is simply amazing

If you loved the movie Saving Private Ryan, and thought Call of Duty was a great first-person shooter companion, then imagine the idea transformed into the Real-Time Strategy genre. Enter Company of Heroes: Gold Edition. You take charge of a company of troops, tanks, and emplacements in order to defeat your enemy. Gathering resources (manpower, ammo, and fuel) involves capturing strategic points throughout the battlefield. Each faction is highly unique, and offers three different company commander options to further increase diversity. Each company commander allows you to “research” upgrades for your troops, as well as specialized units and artillery and air support. Starting with a Headquarters, which produce construction units, you can build several different structures (or, in the case of the British, different Command Trucks) which open up new technologies and units for production. Each unit is displayed extremely realistically, with army specific weapons and weapon upgrades. Infantry squads are controlled as a single unit, and are very intelligent AI-wise. They use cover to avoid fire, and without cover are suppressed and pinned by heavy fire. Engineers allow construction of field defenses like sandbags, barbed wire, trenches, and machine gun posts. Tanks are armored behemoths, towering over infantry with massive firepower, but with armor depicted realistically, are vulnerable to rear attacks. Soon, you will find yourself unconsciously flanking enemy machine guns with infantry and anti-tank emplacements with armor to get a better shot.

When you are controlling units in combat, it almost feels like a First-Person Shooter

With a heavy-duty gaming computer, visuals are beautiful. Bullets kick up dirt, tanks can bounce enemy rounds with their frontal armor, and artillery looks frightfully devastating. By zooming in on units, you can easily make out individual weapons and markings on vehicles. Also, the entire map is destructible. If you order artillery on enemy infantry hidden in houses, each shell that hits will knock off the part of the building it hits, eventually leveling the structure. Tanks turning on city streets will occasionally knock off the corners of nearby buildings, and walls are no barrier. With each distinct explosion leaving a mark on the landscape, it really looks as though a war has been fought.

The graphics are excellent, espescially considering the game is two years old

Company of Heroes: Gold Edition delivers three separate campaigns, each with a very respectable length. You can lead Able Company, US Army from D-Day until the closing of the Falaise Gap. Choosing the British 2nd Army gives you command of the very distinct British forces in the drive on Caen. Finally, the Panzer Elite campaign places you in command of German forces trying to stop the Operation Market Garden airborne invasions. When done with the campaigns (which will take many hours to complete), there are several dozen instant-action maps to choose from. If you choose online play, there is a very active community. Another faction, the regular German Army, is available in instant-action and multiplayer games, with its own units and company command trees. My only personal grief was multiplayer connection problems, which are not isolated, but not common either.

Each unit costs a certain amount of population count, but this does not stop you from producing quite a large force

Company of Heroes is probably the best WWII Real-Time Strategy game available. Between building your base, capturing points, and making decisions in combat (tactical decisions are very important as opposed to most RTS’s), even vet players will have their hands full. With such wonderful graphics and realistic gameplay, it can be difficult to stop playing. Such diversity, with four armies and three company commanders each, along with many varied maps and missions, make Company of Heroes: Gold Edition an excellent addition to the genre, and proves that all WWII games are not created equal.

Axis and Allies: From Board Game to RTS

The Axis and Allies series includes the best WWII strategy board games available. So if you like those, then TimeGate Studio's Axis and Allies (for the PC) is a definite must have. This version keeps the board game's world map and gameplay, but adds to it with great RTS play. Choosing between Great Britain, the U.S., the Soviet Union, Germany, and Japan, you must attempt to conquer the world. But if you don't like the idea of moving a couple pieces around a board, then there are plenty of other options for gameplay.

Bases can grow to be very large; this shows a Corps HQ along with Division HQs, airfields, and an oil depot

In Axis and Allies (A&A), you take the command of an army corps. From your Corps HQ, you can deploy infantry, mechanized, armored, and airborne divisions. Each Division HQ allows the requisition of three to six regiments of several different types. Regiments usually consist of five to nine infantry, halftracks, or tanks. Units are realistically employed, with realistic weapons, but balance is still kept between the different nations. Also available are engineer and artillery brigades, and motor pools, which unlock additional units and provide useful technologies. Engineers can repair buildings as well as construct static defenses. Airfields are available once all brigades are deployed, allowing you to order powerful airstrikes on your enemy. Naval units are not producible, but are available in some missions. Balancing resources involves accumulating money as well as keeping an income of ammunition and oil. Money is accumulated and spent, while ammo and oil is needed for the upkeep of divisions, and a deficit means less money income. Keeping units in supply is vital, since they will automatically repair and get reinforcements. Experience and entrenchment add to their capabilities, different formations and terrain affect their attack efficiency, and morale keeps them fighting. Keeping track of these variables is not difficult thanks to an effective layout. The AI will also keep you on your feet, pressing to find weaknesses, and then thrusting whole divisions at your lines. While the presentation is not up to some of today's high standards, combat can become extremely chaotic and enjoyable.

Combat looks epic when you get several divisons fighting, here the Germans are trying to take Moscow

If you enjoy the board game's gameplay, then you will enjoy hearing that it carried over to A&A on the PC nicely. You control a nation, using money to buy armies and technology, and then move your armies into different territories to capture them. You can take as many uncontested territories as you want, but each nation gets only one attack per turn. These battles can either be handled by the AI, or controlled by the player in an RTS match. But if you don't like the grand strategy element, then there are other options. A campaign is available which puts you in historical battles, each quite lengthy with a healthy amount of difficulty. Both the Axis and Allied powers have different campaigns, with the Axis version ending in victory for Germany and Japan (leading to obviously fictitious missions). There is also a custom mission editor, and a skirmish mode that puts up to eight players on a random map. Multiplayer communities still exist, with many player-made maps available. So, there are other choices for gameplay.

The "World War Two" mode looks like the board game, and allows you to play RTS battles, but is very easy to beat

A&A is another aging, but still highly playable game, and can be found for quite a bargain. For WWII RTS enthusiasts, it is a great strategy game to pick up. The ability for both grand and operational strategy play makes A&A quite unique. I highly suggest checking it out for new and old strategy gamers. Whether you want to build your own army and invade Japan, or find out what could have happened if Germany had repulsed the Allies in Normandy, Axis and Allies can deliver great gameplay time and time again.