Operation Crusader, Stalingrad is a strategy game where you deal with units that are in the company, battalion and regiment level. You are fighting as Russians to defend Stalingrad from the evil Axis, or defeat the evil Russians with Germany’s forces in late 1942.
The game model is turn based, and both enemy and player units move at the same time. You first plan your movements, attacks, and engineering activities, and then at the end of the turn they happen.
If you like World War II games, this game is one of the best.
You have engineers that can create entrenchments and fortifications. There are airfields that can airdrop supplies to your troops. It factors in historically accurate or random weather (depending on the scenario), it factors in fatigue, disruption of supply lines and levels of supplies for each unit, and every scenario from the first easy ones to the later involved ones build in a very pleasing way.
Operation Crusader has a very nicely done and realistic fog of war. Enemy units are not revealed until within spotting distance of your units. German recon aircraft have the best spotting distance, and the distance varies by unit. Even after an enemy unit is spotted, you will not know specific information about that unit until you have
been in contact with it for a while. Kind of like how it would have been back in 1942.
The Computer AI of the opposing forces is pretty good, and can be challenging at times, especially in the harder scenarios. There is also computer AI that will help you as the player as the battles and scenarios get more involved. You can choose to have a staff officer who will handle certain responsibilities for you.
The campaign game is quite impressive, and very involved. It is hard to keep track of all of your units and battles, so you will want to have a piece of paper around to write down where everything is. I found it difficult to keep track of everything if I didn’t make a note of it. Perhaps your memory is better than mine.
In any case, the game is highly recommended, and leave your comments so I can see if you agree with me. If you like old-style turn-based World War II games, this is one of the best.
