The German and Russian sides are always fairly equally balanced through a variety of advantages and disadvantages. Instead, you’re given a set number of units (usually around twenty) and a set number of terms in which to complete a set number of objectives. There’s no colossal army or economy that’s waiting to be tediously managed off-screen. What you see in the screenshots is what you get – bar the occasional reinforcement. Unlike most turn-based game campaigns, which are usually enormous, lumbering, incomprehensible things, Unity of Command’s scenarios are short, small-scale and punchy.

The two campaigns, German and Soviet, consist of multiple individual scenarios that focus firstly on the German push into Russia and later the Soviet. Some introductory blurb – Unity of Command focuses on the German campaign to conquer Russia during the Second World War, also known as Operation Barbarossa. Unity of Command is a rare thing indeed – a deeply tactical turn-based strategy game that is also fairly easy to learn and willing to teach you.

My assumption proved to be completely wrong, and I’m very glad for it. It doesn't look like much, but strategically it's a very compelling game. Oh no, it’s going to be one of those games isn’t it? One which is so complex and unintuitive it assumes that if you even try to play it, you’re clearly the sort of person who will be able to work everything out yourself. A turn-based strategy game with large numbers of units, lots of buttons on the UI, and a list of stats longer than hell’s reservation book for investment bankers. When I was first given Unity of Command to review, I made the mistake of glancing at a few screenshots before playing.

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