[CCIP]

This game is quite a gem! Put in about 15 hours of play into it so far and am very satisfied. The AI in particular has me excited since yes, it is absolutely merciless and quite clever. For a single-player-only game that was the biggest question, and in my mind it absolutely delivered on that. Some of the best AI I've seen in a game of this type.

It's not without problems, of course - grenades/molotov cocktails are a real problem for unit AI when there are obstacles in the way. Every time I get an infantry unit trying to ambush a vehicle, most of their grenades end up blowing up on the trees/bushes that the unit is hiding behind, often injuring the soldiers themselves. The AI also seems to be a little iffy with light vehicles, and often rushes them forward even though the gunners are very vulnerable. It's also a bit irritating that when these gunners are killed, the AI will often try to continue operating the vehicle as if it had a gunner, uselessly moving it up to positions where it remains under fire. Very rarely, but occasionally, there are pathfinding problems for heavy vehicles near buildings. I had a couple of T-34s abandoned after they blindly ran into a house and became stuck on the ruins.

But aside from those things, there's really not much negative to say about this game. It's addictive and challenging and I hope and pray that more scenarios/sequels follow it. The engine is very solid right now.

It's hard to call the game pretty - it's as pretty as Ukraine at the start of March in the middle of WWII (read: frozen mud), but there are some really cool effects and physics. Damage modeling and vehicle physics in particular are fantastic. I've seen some rather jaw-dropping stuff happen. Example: an armored car tried to move itself up to a Soviet position. Its gunners were peppered with bullets, and grenades were thrown. One of the guys in the car got blasted out of the car by the grenade, into the air, back down hitting his head the side of the car causing a blood splatter. He fell down, and I thought he was dead... but apparently the grenade also set him on fire. In a couple of seconds he got up, burning, and ran panicking towards the Soviet position where he expired, probably much to the shock of the Soviet soldiers there. The same grenade that killed him also killed the driver, but it seems his foot remained on the gas pedal so the knocked-out vehicle continued travelling forward slowly until it hit a ditch, where it sat for the rest of the mission with the motor running. And as with all knocked-out vehicle, its hulk would be seen in that very spot for any subsequent battles of the operation (great touch, that). THAT is really some detail.

But aside from the cinematics, the damage model post-battle report is also fantastic. You can see all the detail on all vehicle hits and examine exactly what damage they caused. Talk about the other end of the spectrum from stupid health bars!

I also really like the maps. Sure it's too bad there's only two of them in the entire game, but the scale is pretty breathtaking, and it's refreshing to see a perfectly working wargame where scenery objects are not tied up to grid squares. The scenery ends up feeling really realistic and not like an abstraction of the real world like it is in so many games. The only thing I kind of wish for is more variety of buildings.

But yep, all in all, this game is a ton of fun without compromising on realism, it's HARD to beat the AI. Very comparable to Close Combat in some regards, but I personally enjoy this one a bit more due to a number of features here. The map and the way it's used especially is great. The unit/land area ratio in the game is quite low which ends up with really interesting scenarios since you cannot create a "wall of units" anywhere, either on offense or defense, and have to either really pick your positions carefully or be very mobile. With the operation level, you also now have purpose for fighting and hanging in even the most desparate tactical battles since sometimes all you really need to do is just hold the front.

Anyway, really happy with this one. I can't NOT recommend it at $20. Long time since I've had so much fun with a game of this style.