Frontline: Afrika Korps is an RTS that feels right out of the Golden Age

Well, we all knew it — especially if you read my last review (for Frontline: Assault Corps WW2). We knew that Frontline: Afrika Korps was going to be an RTS! If I remember correctly, it was kind of an almost experimental game, for something else they’re working on that’s coming down the pike (but neither a tuna nor a sturgeon).

Playing it is (almost) like right out of the early 2000s — when the RTS trend took over just about everything. The major difference is: I don’t think the well-known and established “Tank Rush” will work in Frontline: Afrika Korps. It didn’t for me, anyway. You just don’t have the money or the income to do that (as in the ancient past). After initially having a couple of extra doll-hairs, you’re basically stuck with what you get right out of the gate.

However, other than the base building with all of the worrying about buildings (especially a tank production plant), or any kind of side-distracting politics, negotiations, or anything else that’s not strictly about fighting a war, you’ll be more interested in the planning… then execution.

Another reason the “Tank Rush” strategy won’t work is the fact that they hide people in both the Fog of War and the Fog of Trees. So, if you lasso part, or all, of your units, and try to just simply send them in, all of the ambushes will instantly go into effect. Then, you’ll die. Boiled down to the neety-grReety, you’ll have to use logistics and an adaptable, provisional approach rather than what I used to call the Cave-Man-Stomp of a “Tank Rush”.

Frontline: Afrika Korps is an RTS that feels right out of the Golden Age

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Playing as Italy!

While still being a great game, you can tell that Frontline: Afrika Corps is more of a simplified experiment for something coming ahead, from later on down the road. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very fun… but you have to use your brains rather than simply cluster and steamroll.

Frontline: Afrika Korps is available on PC.