Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg

Review

Starting a new game will open the campaign screen, where you’ll be able to select the German Reich campaign. Here will be some information and your role in the campaign. Haunted by the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles, the German people are looking for hope from the new government. To bring back Germany to its former glory, you play as Franz Halder, an officer of the old and renowned Prussian school of military tradition. You’re about to become the German Army Chief of General Staff, after which you’ll only take orders from the highest authority while making sure the Fatherland and its people don’t perish.

After selecting Start you’ll be given the choice of Game Difficulty (Storytelling, Reasonable, Challenging, Insurmountable and Custom). Customising your game will allow you to choose the Enemy Strength, Prestige for Victory and Units Reinforcement Cost. Once you’ve decided the game will start, it’s 1938 The Spanish Civil War, and Soviet Russia is trying to establish the Bolsheviks in Spain! The Germans are supporting the brave volunteers who stand against the Spanish Republicans puppet government.

The primary goal of the first campaign is to take control of the city Tarragona, which will then cut Barcelona off from the rest of the Republican government. You start in the city of Zaragoza, with infantry, tank, artillery and recon units on hand. Selecting a unit will allow you to see the area in which you can move that unit. In each of the hexes there are icons in white; these icons are a box, truck and spanner and screwdriver.  The box icon is supplies, truck is fuel and the spanner and screwdriver are service zones. These icons only appear in supply routes between cities and towns. So, if your fuel or ammo is running low, or you need repairs, your units must be placed on the hexes with the corresponding icons. If you run out of fuel before being making it to a fuel supply line, then your unit is stuck and out of commission. If your unit happens to be a plane and you run out of fuel, then you’re up the creek and going to crash, leaving nothing but a smear on the land.

In the bottom right corner is the Unit Actions Panel; selecting a unit will display the type of unit, tank, infantry etcetera, the amount of ammo, fuel and the number of hexes the unit can move in the bottom right corner. Also here is HQ Skills, where you can call for Reinforcements to top up your units. Equipment is also in the Unit Action Panel, where you can add equipment to your units, such as Sappers Squad, Additional Ammo, Extra Fuel Tanks, and MortarsMG-34 Machine Gun, depending on the types of units. Along the bottom centre of the screen are your units; selecting them will take you to wherever they are on the map. There’s a mini map in the bottom left corner, which details your units in green while the enemy is red.

Using your recon units will uncover hidden enemies in the surrounding areas and cities. This will help you decide how to plan your next move, instead of rushing in somewhere and getting ambushed. Artillery will take care of the enemy from a distance; tanks can also attack from a distance but beware of closeup infantry.  Also take care with anti-tank guns. You’ll use other units such as warship, submarines, fighter planes and bombers as you progress through the game.

There are two types of units which are indicated by a green circle on the unit's icon; these are your Core units. The other types are Non-Core units which are indicated by yellow hexagon shape. Non-core units are only allocated for one mission, while Core units can be levelled up and will give them new equipment and will be with you throughout your campaign.

The weather can have an effect throughout your campaign; rain applies a thirty three percent penalty to all units’ attack values. It also provides a plus one bonus to camouflage. There may be other weather changes as you progress, which will hinder your progress.

Upon completion of a campaign the victory screen will open, giving you a detailed breakdown of your latest victory. The details consist of Victory Points, Prestige, Unit Class (Kills, Losses, Prestige). Any prestige points you gain here can be used towards recruiting non-core units in the following campaigns

In the Settings there’s options for Sound, Master, Music, Speech, Units Speech, Effects and Video Volume Sliders. In the Video settings there’s Shadows, Anti-Aliasing Method, Anisotropy, Textures and Foliage Quality, Post Process, Effects, Physics and Animation and Resolution. In the Game settings you’ll find, Language, Subtitles, Mouse and Key Scroll, Unit’s Outline, Hexes on the Map, Zoom-in when Mechanics Triggered, Interactive Hints and Controls.

Strategic Mind: Blitzkrieg is a fantastic game and I’ve enjoyed playing it. It looks good and runs smoothly on maxed-out settings. I did have a problem in the tutorial (part three) freezing up a few times, but who really needs a tutorial anyway.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!