Unity of Command II

Review

1943 was the start of the end of the Third Reich. It started with the defeat of Stalingrad in February.  It was followed by the invasion of Sicily in July and the start of the Italian Campaign in September, and by June 1944, the allied had landed in Normandie. It was no longer in doubt who would win the war, but how long it would take to end it was still in question. You are about to relive both these invasions and push towards Germany from the Western War theatre in Unity of Command II.

Unity of Command II is a turn-based strategy game developed 2X2 Games and Croteam, published by 2x2 Games on the 13th of November 2019 on Steam.

The game consists of 31 missions which you can play in a campaign mode and also individually if you wish to do so. But before you jump into the thick of it, I strongly recommend playing the four tutorials available before starting the game. It won’t take long, and it will give you a good idea of how the game works. In terms of difficulty, there are four in total, from easy to hard.

Each of the missions will have a few main objectives and a few bonus objectives, which vary between each mission. Your main goal will be to complete all the main objectives within a certain number of turns to win a scenario.  If you can complete the bonus objectives (which must also be done within a certain number of turns), and are successful, you’ll be allocated additional prestige points which you can use to upgrade your units in the pre-phase combat mode.

If you decide to play the full campaign, the first thing you’ll see is the Allied Western Front strategical map. You’ll also see your armies, prestige points, a folded deck of 5 cards, a conference button and the ability to swap between the Northern and Mediterranean theatre. Mind you, your first few missions will start from North Africa, so you’ll only be able to see the Mediterranean map until you unlock the D-Day mission. Your first conference will start and you will be allowed to purchase up to 5 cards. Some will be free but others will cost you a certain number of prestige points. These cards will give you the ability to provide help to your troops in battle, such has extra bombers or trucks for your supplies. You can only use these cards once until the next conference takes place, which is usually three to four missions before the next conference. So, use them wisely.

In the pre-combat phase, you can upgrade the units on the map as long as you have enough prestige point in stock. You can add a maximum of 6 more personnel per unit (represented in yellow points) and also add more firepower to them, such as bigger guns, tanks, etc. The next thing is to study the map. You can see the German supply lines by pressing the B key, and your supply lines (if you have any before the battle) by pressing the V key. Large Blue barrels will show you the German Depots and the kaki barrels will show the allied depots. The trick is to make sure that your units have enough supplies to move forward.  Keep your supply lines intact so your units still have plenty ammunition, and find a way to cut the German supply on the number of terms available to win the battle. On the left-hand side of your screens, you’ll have a few help icons you can use during the battle. The bomber can be used once or twice per term, while the battleship can only be used once or twice during the entire battle. It may change from battle to battle but can be influenced by one of the cards you hold on your deck.      

Some of your units will be able to build and/or destroy bridges, choose to use artillery (suppressive fire) and various other options through the headquarters, but it will also cost you command points, which are limited per turn. It’s a lot of fun, requiring strategy and fine-tuning to win a scenario.

I must say that when I originally started playing the game, I was a little bit confused with a few aspects, especially with the pre-phase upgrade, but it didn’t take me long to figure it out.

Good graphics, good information on the units during gameplay and the game runs well. It would have been nice to have at least one save per scenario, in my opinion, as a scenario can go for 25 minutes to 40 minutes; it’s not a big deal but it would have been nice. Apart from that, it’s a good game!