Armored Brigade II: Great Cold War Strategy
The machinery may be newer, but the killing's the same idea and, with it, goals.
Since I reviewed Armored Brigade seven years ago, I was delighted to have Armored Brigade II land on my review schedule. You know, I’m not much of an RTS boy, but there are certain games I’ll make an exception for. This is definitely one of them.
“New and improved” are only tiny clichéd remarks concerning the two games. Armored Brigade II has massively built itself up with country availability and the massive increase in additional rules of engagement over its predecessor. (If I tell you much more, I might get spoilery).
What they’ve done with Armored Brigade II is introduce some major improvements. First, they’ve made it 3D. They drastically improved the LOS system. They drastically improved the waypoint mechanics. They added both spotting and return fire. Again, without being too loose lipped, the game feels a lot more like Combat Mission (of which I just reviewed). So, there are about 176 more improvements which I didn’t list.
Armored Brigade II: Great Cold War Strategy
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Under the “Generate Campaign” button, I intentionally chose “The Ardennes” because… just as I told you ahead of time that I had some Cold War games coming up (of which this is one of those too)… I said that my next review will be specifically aimed at “The Ardennes” as well. Odd how the stomach, oh I mean, how the world turns. Luckily, I get to play two Ardennes in a row.
What Armored Brigade II does with the aftermath of that particular part of the war, is, of course, make your brain bleed. They have a great FoW, so you’re always stuck with, “ Now, if I move ‘this’ here, is that where they’re hiding for their attack?” “However, if it seems too obvious, maybe I should move these units ‘over there’.” Regardless, you’re going to run into the enemy rather quickly. They want the objectives as much as I do.
Also, Armored Brigade II is listed as “RTS”. However, I played it more like RTWP. That’s just me, figuring since they have a big pause button, there are multiple reasons to use it.
I’m an image guy, sometimes to the Big Boss’es chagrin. However, I can rapidly move through the steps… of just getting setup with captioned images rather than blathering on in some weirdo-ey nine paragraph thing. So, here we go with just that leetle part of the game:
The setup phase, once you get to that screen, is that you can manually set up both sides… or automatically set up both sides, or any combination thereof. I like to manually choose my own and let the computer pick its units for their side. (That’s just me so that I have an idea of what forces I’m going to war with and I have no idea what my enemy has chosen to stand up to me).
The force(s) placements on the board are done by the computer. HOWEVER, before even hitting the “Start” button, you can move you units at will, to (almost) anywhere you want them to setup and start the campaign. “Almost” because the battlefield has some vertical lines on it: one green, which you have to keep your troops west of; and another red line in which the enemy has to setup his units east of.
Pro Tip = Sometimes, the computer, during the setup phase, will accidentally put units, of either team, over their respective lines. Obviously, you can’t do anything with the ‘bad guys’, but you can move your own. (My campaign is Americans on the west, Germans on the right). Another huge “however”, (unless it’s a recon unit [which pretty much have the Rule of the Land before game’s start) if you see, then want to move a non-recon unit away from being ‘over the line’… if you pick it up, you cannot return it! It now has to go before whatever color your vertical/setup line is.
Once you’re all setup, and happy with your choices, this is finally where the action begins. Hit the “Start” button and watch how all your aspirations, calculations, and master plans work out. Now, remember, this is RTWP so if you notice something really bad happening in a certain part of the map… at the very least you can do is pause and adjust it. No more chances to move whole sections around (e.g. like during the setup phase), however, you can change the orders of every individual unit.(I’ve obviously run into units hidden by the FoW and been caught off guard). Luckily, most vehicles have a “reverse” in their tranny. You might suffer from a few losses, but it’s better than losing whole platoons/companies being ass-wiped for ya.
Now, I’m afraid if I I go much further, I’ll start to give away ‘secrets’. At the very least, strategies I use… which really should have no bearing on you when you’re out there commanding entire armies.
Regardless, when you review games for a ‘living’, there are certain titles that you want to keep going back to over and over again. Armored Brigade II fits that bill exactly to a tee. It’s an incredible game that I just want to go back to repeatedly. “Well, if I would’ve moved this platoon over here, instead of…”. “Why did I endanger these two infantry squads over here, when I could’ve…?”
It’s a great game, man.
Armored Brigade II: Great Cold War Strategy
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Armored Brigade II is available for PC.
