Stepping up to try to fill this gap is CDV and Nival Interactive's Blitzkrieg, an ambitious real-time strategy title that tries to do for the Allies, Russians and Germans what Blizzard Entertainment did for the Humans, Protoss and the Zerg. Bringing the detail of hex-based strategy titles down to the level of 3D, platoon-level combat, Blitzkrieg does a solid job of capturing the intensity and complexity of the WWII battlefield, though occasionally the game itself is its own worst enemy.

In fact, if anything, Blitzkrieg plays as though it's actually a small part of a much bigger game. Players are offered the opportunity to play through an Allied, Russian or German campaign, each offering about 20 different missions with varying objectives. Each is thoroughly researched, fairly well depicted (in some theatres, like Scandanavia, that aren't normally covered) and includes big name historical missions (like the Siege of Tobruk or the Battle of Stalingrad). The road between those missions, though, seems to be littered with scenarios that seem to be generated almost at random, and which quickly grow repetitive.

Luckily, the huge variety of vehicles, weapons and tactics available to players make even the most familiar battles entertaining. Blitzkrieg offers more than 200 types of vehicles for players to use and demolish, from motorcycles to tanks to mobile mortars, as well as a surprising number of infantry types. On top of that, engineers can be used to not only repair vehicles, but also build bridges, lay mines, and dig trenches for your infantry to dive into when they come under heavy fire.

And there will be heavy fire. Oh yes. Possibly one of the greatest tactical toys in Blitzkrieg is the simple addition of artillery, which can do amazing things to a battlefield. Did one of your scouts spot a tank column heading your way before he was gunned down? Lay down a suppressive artillery pattern to slow their advance. Having a hard time cracking into the little Belgian village that stands between you and your objective? Shake the Germans loose with some heavy shelling before you send your tanks in. Feel like spurring your opponent into making a hasty move? Move your guns out into the open a bit and start pounding his starting position.

Aside from the pure entertainment value of bombing the stuffing out of your opponents, the artillery also introduces a creative way to break up the normal RTS tactics of gather-build-rush, and it's only one among several. Equally interesting is the introduction of supply lines, as represented by small dumps and warehouses that dot the scenario maps. As individual units fight, they deplete both their morale and their ammunition, both of which are re-supplied by player-controlled trucks. The longer the supply line, the farther the trucks have to carry supplies to the troops, and the more difficult it becomes to stage any kind of advance. Resource management, then, becomes less a matter of harvesting and spending crystals/gases/spice/gold/what-have-you, and more about capturing and holding control points on the map, while still providing the tension of protecting helpless, slow-moving, critically-important vehicles.

Most remarkable, though, is that players are almost always forced to complete a scenario with the resources they're given at the start of it. So, no matter how many supply dumps they may capture, if players squander their troops (or more importantly, their armor) on foolish gambits, they're likely blowing their own chances at success. The only consistently renewable units come in the form of airborne fighter, paratrooper, reconnaissance and bombing raids, all of which are highly vulnerable to enemy ground fire. Beyond that, players can attempt to capture enemy artillery, which can turn the tide of a fight, but can prove to be a costly acquisition.

This becomes doubly true for elite units, which gain ranks through the number of hits and kills they rack up in combat. Based on their performance, players can also upgrade them to more potent unit types between missions, adding something of a role-playing element to the game. On top of everything else, the rank improves the morale, accuracy or damage potential for a unit, depending on what exactly it does. Combined with armor and mobility stats, there's plenty for number crunchers to keep track of, and countless different ways to match up against enemy forces.

All of this grants much more tension to each decision that players might make over the course of a mission, especially when there are multiple objectives involved. Is it worth using a squad of your hardened troops to take that warehouse, or can you afford to just demolish it with your big guns? Should you risk running your tanks blindly down Main Street to chase that British infantry, or hold off to ensure there aren't Matildas hiding around the corner? Do you hold back your elite units to make the most of them, or put them on the front line, where they can do the most damage? Deciding these tactics alone are enough to keep the game replayable for at least a little while.

That is, if you can forgive its shortcomings. For all the complexity of statistics, occasionally Blitzkrieg's battlefield mechanics are absolutely infuriating. Despite having up to five or six different moods for movement (including aggressive, ambush, dug-in, formation, and more), units will still drift into a field of enemy fire, or spend a few minutes tripping over each other while they try to follow their movement orders. This can go a long way to change tension to frustration, especially when irreplacable units are lost while trucks try to plough through infantry columns.

Plus, despite the 3D, the game still does have a pretty dated look to it. Part of this is certainly due to the traditionally muted palette of World War II games, but when even at high resolution the infantry appear like defectors from Red Alert, Blitzkrieg seems behind the times. Still, considering how many soldiers and vehicles can be going head-to-head on-screen without even a little slowdown, it seems a fair compromise. And for personality, almost every structure on the screen is fully destructible, from trains to trees.

There are some other minor issues, like typos or awkward translations, but since mine was a beta review copy, hopefully most of these will be ironed out before final release. Considering how much potential Blitzkrieg has, and how surprisingly addictive a title I found it to be, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the final product.