Blitzkrieg 2 Anthology

Blitzkrieg 2 great game which has interesting campaigns, authentic units with upgrades and stats that make sense, nice armor&penetration system and no base building, which is big plus in my opinion. The biggest (and almost only) issue with the game is path-finding AI which often makes it extremely frustrating to play: Even a short movement usually manages to obliterate any formation and the worst part is that when you give a group new move order it will try to use the current formation (which usually is total mess) instead of deploying in a line. You can even change the direction the mess is deployed in but units don't rotate to that direction which makes even that pointless. This wouldn't be such a huge problem if maps were big and open but instead, almost every map is a cluster of tight passages and obstacles. The result usually looks like drunks driving bumper cars under cannon fire and more often than not the weak side and rear armors are facing the enemy.

I've always loved the blitzkrieg series of games. Out of the anthology Blitzkrieg II and Fall of the Reich are fun and playable. Fall of the Reich borders on frustrating, but it is winnable as germans as long as you take it slow and easy. I would not bother to install Liberation at all if you like to play as Germans. You'll be in for a huge disappointment. The scenario Bastogne is seemingly unbeatable. Unless its glitched, the scenario pits you against wave after wave of allied tanks and ultra accurate artillery.

In the tutorial, there is a sentence that says your units will move to try to get to the best position to execute your command. I wish my units didn't move and just told me, "enemy out of range" or "no line of sight." I have seen my medium tank move next to an enemy light tank then move away several times without firing a shot until the light tank finally killed him. This was on a bridge. Maybe that made my tank's AI dumb. I have sent an entire platoon of Tigers and Panthers rushing over enemy infantry in trenches, putting enemy AT guns and tanks in their sights, only to have them turn their turrets around to shoot at the enemy infantry with their main guns while the inferior enemy AT and tanks killed them from the FRONT. You might say, if I were better at micromanagement, I could have avoided the horrible AI behavior. That's true, but this is still a strategy game, isn't it? Am I playing a commander or a babysitter? Which is a pity because there are things to like in this game. There is a simple, brutal, but effective damage model for vehicles. Most light vehicles will cook off with one shot from even a light tank. Tanks have differnt armor at different places. Guns have damage and penetration. So lighter tanks can quickly take out heavier ones from a good angle but maybe not with one hit, just like in real life. Infantry are fragile, but they can also scout and storm buildings (going inside to clear out enemy infantry) and can threaten a tank if they are close enough. Disregarding the AI, the combat mechanics are quite solid. The graphics are also good, a little dated but still very appropriate for a war game. And the destruction from three level bombers really puts CoH to shame. Infantry bodies disappear, but destroyed vehicles remain. You tanks may act dumb, but they look good doing it. In the end, I decided to keep the game but not play more than the first chapters. It's good WWII fun when I don't have to see how bad the AI is, but I see it much too often.

Graphics-Outdated (To be expected). Gameplay- Brilliant. Cutscenes- very good! All round good game!

Had this years ago on disk good game THIS VERSION WORKS ON WINDOWS 7 64 BIT !!! YIPPEE