An awesome and addictive game with great replayability via Skirmish mode and Multiplayer.
British forces have three very powerful defensive structures and two great units not found in other military forces. These are the 17 pound AT gun bunker, 25 pound Artillery bunker and the slit trench. With these three fortifications, British forces can hold ground very effectively. The two great defensive units are the Priest self propelled artillery and the Captain unit. You are only allowed one captain unit, but whichever sector he is in will gain a defensive bonus. The Priest unit, which is only available if the player selects the artillery company option, is a powerful mobile artillery piece, effective on the defense or offense. When Priests and 25 pound Artillery emplacements are combined into a defensive line, massive ammounts of blocking fire power can be used to stop any major enemy attack.
When fighting on the British side, normal base structures, other than defensive works, are non existant. Instead of building, there are three base trucks for unit and ability production. You start out with the main HQ truck and must produce the others and drive them onto the field where you can set them up. These trucks can enhance resource production in any sector they are setup in, but this comes at the cost of increased risk to these most important units.
Panzer Elite forces are probably the best military force on the Offense, getting even more powerful as the game proggresses. They are about equal to or maybe a little better than the U.S. Army on the defense in the early game, but later on as they aquire better units, their defensive capabilities begin to rise higher. Equipped with the little Kettenkrad recon vehicles, Panzer Elite forces are great at capturing sectors in the early game. Later on after the enemy builds up their forces, the little thin-skinned vehicles becomes less effective at this, but that is when the Panzer Elite heavy units start leading the charge. Panzer Elite forces have many effective amored cars and half-tracks at their disposal. These fast and deadly vehicles are often used in assaults to overwhelm a sector or two in one rush. Its hard to prepare all your sectors for these light armored rushes, so they often are succesful, however, if the force happens to run into a couple AT guns, tanks or AT infantry in heavy cover, they are out of luck due to their light amor. The highly effective artillery of the British is also a great counter to massed Panzer Elite vehicles, often whiping out 5 or 6 lightly armored targets and bunches of infantry in a well placed and coordinated barrage.
Graphics Improvements: A few new options have been added to the graphics options that will allow more control and tweaking for better performance or slightly better graphics than the original.
Sound: The new units and new music in the expansion are as great as the original. The music is fitting and high quality, never getting in the way of a good game. Unit sounds are powerful and convincing.
Game Control: When in battle the game is pretty much controlled the same way as the original. There have been a few tweaks and improvments to the UI here and there but nothing major that is an annoyance or super helpful. The biggest difference in control of the game is actually on the out of combat menus screens. These have changed for the worst. Menus are not placed intuitivley, the saved game system is not flexible and could use an overhaul. Computer A.I.:
I have been very impressed with the AI in the original, and the expansion continues this for the most part. I have noticed that A.I. controlled British and Panzer Elites units act a little strangley at times and arent as human like as the computer US and Wehrmarcht forces. British base trucks sometimes drive out into the middle of the battlefield, Panzer Elite forces dont use their great offensive potential effectivley. They both need further AI tweaking from the developers before they are as great as the original AI forces. Squad A.I. is awesome in the original and the expansion, vehicle AI is a little funny at times with their pathfinding and clumping up into clusters in one area.
Bugs and Technical Issues:
I have had a fair amount of crashes after playing the game for long periods and usually when I dont save my game. Other than this and some accasional popping and cracking of the sound there havent been any other issues.
THE GOOD
The expansion is a worthy one for the original game. The new forces have varied, unique and fun units and structures. New maps are as great as the originals. New music and sounds are great. More graphics options are always a good thing. British mobile base units and strong defensive potential add new cool elements to the game. All of the new vehicles for the Panzer Elite allow one to highly customize their mechanized forces.
THE BAD
The games main menus are now annoying, period. Some technical issues and A.I. quirks need to be sorted out. The two new forces need better strategic A.I. and fine tuning. British company options dont feel equal. AI skirmish Panzer Elite units seem to always spam amored cars. When playing any of the new forces against the original ones, there seems to be a lack of good balancing. British tanks and light amored vehicles seem underpowerd against many Panzer Elite units and are usually not worth the resources.