


Your army is usually outnumbered and outgunned on the ground, so good use of artillery and airplanes becomes critical in order to be able to weaken and disorganize the Russian forces. And despite this they can sometimes feel a bit cramped, as huge armies clash on the plains of Russia. The levels are, with a few exceptions, big.

There are in other words no massive surprises to be found here, just more of the same. With 17 new missions and the introduction of a few new units there’s a lot of stuff in this DLC, though most of it just builds on what was already in the game. There’s also, after every mission, a short description of what historically happened during these battles. The writing during these briefings, while not outstanding, helps give some character to what could otherwise end up being a very dry story. The Russians are far from pushovers, and they are bringing some of their industrial might to bear here, often fielding armies and airfleets larger than the German ones, and at this point in the war it’s becoming clear that the Soviet armored vehicles are often on par with their German counterparts (though it’s not until at the very end of 1943 that the first of the famous T-34/85 would roll off the assembly lines, so that’s one for the next DLC).īefore and after each mission you’ll get a briefing by one of the German officers, with historical officers, like Manstein, making cameos in some missions. The size of many of the levels are suitably huge with enormous armies fighting against each other on often mostly flat terrain. This includes the massive Second Battle of Kharkov and the push into Stalingrad. They might have a larger pool of manpower to draw from than Germany, but they’ve lost their most fertile land and after the losses they took in the previous year their army is in disarray.Īxis Operations – 1942 focuses mainly on the eastern fronts, and most of the major engagements there. But the war is far from over, and the Soviet union is still in a precarious position. The strategy that had brought France to its knees so quickly has proven to not work as well against the vast Soviet Union. But the seemingly unstoppable German onslaught has finally been halted, and now Germany are bogged down in a war against a foe that’s proving to be stronger than expected. While the Soviet forces were able to push the German forces back from Moscow, Germany still has a substantial army on Soviet soil. With Operation Barbarossa being well underway Germany has managed to penetrate deep into Soviet territory. Breaking through the heavily fortified Soviet positions was just the start of the level Story & Setting
