I had to rely on an external guide, alt-tabbing out to remind myself that the dark blue icon with the chevron indicated a self-propelled anti-tank specialist while the chevron and dot meant it was a towed anti-tank specialist. Other, multi-coloured symbols represent various specialists serving in the division, but there's no tooltip or in-game explanation as to how a specialist can benefit a unit. Tiny stars and crosses next to a unit indicate whether it's an elite, veteran or regular unit, but these icons are all-too-easily missed, and even after dozens of hours of play I still found myself occasionally not noticing I was sending a regular infantry to their doom against an elite. Yet in these variable battlefields, things are rarely equal. All else being equal, a five-step unit will beat a three-step unit. Units are composed of "steps," an offputting, unfamiliar term that basically measures the health of the unit. Although units come in only two types-tank and infantry divisions-there's a host of critical attributes that can distinguish one tank division from the next, assuming you can get your head around the collection of arcane icons used to describe them. Rounding out the preparatory phase, the units at your disposal are pre-assigned as per the scenario, so you're never burdened with choosing whether or not to deploy the US 13th Airborne or the 7th British Armoured Division-they're already there, conveniently positioned on a hex, ready to go. Clear, concise objectives provide a structure to each mission that makes it easy to digest what's expected of you, and when you should be aiming to have it accomplished. And if you're tasked with taking and holding a location then doing so will undoubtedly accord an ongoing advantage. For example, if the objectives ask you to take a certain town by turn 5 and a second town by turn 8, then it's likely that taking the first town will be beneficial to your efforts to take the second. These objectives are designed in such a way to guide you across the map, and the attentive player will glean useful advantages from them. Usually there are a couple of primary objectives that must be fulfilled to complete the scenario, accompanied by a few secondary objectives that, if achieved, offer a bonus reward or even a slight tactical advantage in the next mission. Extra cards can be collected during missions as you complete certain objectives, but they arrive more as a relief package-an unexpected boon to your cause rather than a way to undermine the decisions you finalised at the last conference.Īt the outset of each mission you're able to survey the map and plan your approach. Get these plays right and you feel like the greatest general the world’s ever seen. Such constraints force you to make bold choices about which targets you absolutely must hit and when precisely is the right time to do so. Knowing you have only three opportunities to use a naval bombardment over the course of a single mission does a lot to focus the mind. And the choices you make are locked in for the duration of the conference, so you've got to manage with what you've got in terms of HQ upgrades and make those cards last over several missions. The cards available to purchase are shuffled randomly, meaning you can't always rely on picking up a favourite and may need to accommodate a curveball or two. Luck and short-term planning combine here in an interesting way. Beat all the missions in a conference and you unlock the next, along with another chance to upgrade and purchase. At the start of a conference, you can spend prestige points on upgrading your field headquarters, extending their range and efficiency during combat, and on purchasing theatre cards that you can play in battle to grant additional abilities. Missions arrive in groups known as conferences, one of the first off-putting terms you'll encounter. Placing you in charge of the Allied forces in 1943, the campaign opens in North Africa before pushing up through Italy and into the heart of Western Europe. Sometimes you don't even need to engage the enemy at all you just have to starve them out. In fact, the winning move often involves holding your position. Unity of Command 2's twist on the genre makes it a game about manoeuvring your units to occupy spaces that maintain clear supply lines to your forces and deny supply to the enemy. This isn't really a strategy game about marching your troops forward to attack the enemy. But once the confusion clears it reveals a surprisingly straightforward wargame whose keen focus on establishing and severing lines of supply delivers remarkable strategic depth. At first glance, Unity of Command 2 may look intimidating, the familiarity of the pint-sized tanks and military men that populate its World War II battlefields obscured by an impenetrable fog of unintuitive jargon and confounding icons.
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