Unlike most other games that I acquire, this time I decided to start out by actually reading the instructions before I did anything else. Tearing into the box I discovered the jewel case with 2 cd's in it and an 80-page book. Undaunted I tossed the cd's aside and grabbed a coke and sat back to read all about it. Skipping past the meaningless stuff like how to actually install the game I leapt to page 14 to learn about the Campaign map.

I found that the game book was very informative and did a great job of walking you through the game screen by screen. The level of detail that the designers at CDV put into Blitzkrieg was amazing. By the time I hit page 20 I was drooling and had tossed the book aside to get back to the computer to see it first hand. Oh, just as a note, if you can do it, take the time to read the whole book. Page 49 has the section on Managing Troops and Tactics. It is a good quick overview of military tactics and strategy, as well as giving you a good description of how your units can be used to their fullest.

Originally I was going to install the game on my PII 350 system to stress test it at below the minimum requirements. However, the 2.4 gig drive space requirement and the fact that I really wanted to see the Good graphics, caused me to install it on my game computer at 1.2gig with a geforce2 card. The installation went quick and smooth and easy. Btw, check out the official Blitzkrieg site, there is a patch there that will update the game.

Rubbing my hands together in anticipation I started up the game and sat back to watch the intro. The opening video is worth watching, they did a fantastic job with the animation and graphics. By the end of the intro my blood was pumping and I was ready to go to war.

Starting off with the training scenario's I spent an hour or so learning the basic controls of the game. The layout of the training hall was excellent. The walkthrough did a good job of covering all the main points of unit Command, Control and Communications.

Entering into the Campaign section, I chose the German Campaigns. The first round was a bit annoying with the victory conditions continually popping up. But after the first game they were only displayed at the very beginning.

By midnight I was into my 4th mission and decided it was time for bed. But before that I just had to load up the next mission and see what the map looked like and maybe get my units organized for next time. By 2am I was just finishing up the 6th mission and thinking that perhaps I should really just stop and experiment with the sleep concept. It was difficult to tear myself away from the computer and not load up the next mission to see what the area of operations looked like.

I have to say that Snipers are cool, but they don't very much appreciate it when a 40-ton tank rolls over them because it was chasing your APC across a field. Artillery rocks (well, until counter battery finds it and blows it to the next county) and is devastating to enemy forces. The supply system is excellent, and does a good representation of combat units in action. If memory serves a soldier can only carry enough ammo for maybe 10-15 minutes of sustained combat. The combat units in Blitzkrieg run out of ammo at about that rate. So keeping the supply train open and running with access to a depot becomes an absolute must.

The Armor is great, so long as you don't go charging into an antitank gun emplacement, and has a relatively high survival rate. Even still, without the infantry to protect its flanks it gets into trouble.

As for the air cover, recon planes are a must; they do a very good job at uncovering the enemy units for you and giving you targets for your artillery. The bomber units, so far, have been devastating to the enemy (so long as there is no anti-aircraft emplacements about). They are very good at selecting targets on the ground in the target zone that you selected for them. Paratrooper units do a great job of either reinforcing the core Company, or, placed behind enemy lines for scouting out enemy positions.

So far, the only negative comment I have about the game is the initial set up time. When the mission starts none of your units are deployed. And in a couple of instances my artillery and armor units were destroyed by enemy artillery within seconds of the scenario starting.