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This is truly a grognard's game. If you don’t know what that means, you’re probably not one. If you do – and you are – you will be refreshed and inspired.

Matrix Games’ latest WW2 title, Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich deals with Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne campaign of the war. Allied troops dropped deep behind enemy lines to capture key bridges, securing the way for armored units to roll up “Hell’s Highway” towards Germany. The proposed lightning strike soon bogged down and stalled as German reinforcements poured in, leading to a bloody stalemate.

AA:HTR is an extraordinary game. As Allied or German commander, you control a number of units depending on the scenario chosen (and the largest scenarios are very big indeed).

The action unfolds continuously, and so technically this is an RTS. However, time can be slowed down and orders can even be given while paused. The range of troop types represented is huge, from engineers to artillery to armor, and each individual unit (normally company sized) has a designation and in many cases a brief history. An unbelievable number of statistics are tracked for every unit, such as rounds of ammunition remaining for each different weapon type carried.

Similarly the orders that can be issued are rich and varied: a unit can be told simply to attack a position, but if you are a control freak you can specify tactical details (unit frontage, attack assembly point, acceptable casualty rate) to your heart’s content.

In fact, if you are a micromanager you will drown in information and decisions. The game’s greatest innovation is encouraging broader strategy by representing a realistic command structure. So, in addition to the individual companies, you will see Battalion HQ markers: and Regiment, Brigade, Division and Corps HQ. The entire chain of command is represented by colored lines, and easily navigated with the cursor keys.

Giving a command to, say, attack a position to an entire Division will automatically generate orders for all of the subordinate units. Your companies will spread out, reforming for the assault while your divisional general maintains a reserve and directs artillery support. It is up to you to decide on the overall strategy: your AI subordinates actually put it into practice.

Of course, it is your prerogative to over-ride the AI orders for individual command structures. Each general and colonel is rated for a number of traits, and will sometimes do very silly things, or be overly defensive or aggressive: each according to the real historical personalities involved. So the gameplay consists of issuing general orders, then turning to particular areas of interest and tweaking the results.

On the highest difficulty levels, orders take time to be transmitted and processed. Often a painfully long time. Give a unit one order after another and it will simply become confused! You will find yourself screaming at your generals as they misunderstand you, and loving them when everything falls into place: not bad, for a computer game.

Graphics are… well, hardly groundbreaking. Military symbols move across an extremely detailed topographical map: you can almost imagine your staff running around to update their positions.

Enemy units are concealed by fog-of-war: when sighted, the report gradually becomes less and less accurate as to position and troop strength over time. Sound is minimal: a few gun and explosion effects from time to time. Nothing to distract you from the flow of the battle!

AA:HTR does the best job of any wargame I’ve seen of putting you in the commander’s shoes. It is a hugely complex game, complete with housebrick sized manual in dense type: but then commanding an army isn’t a point-and-click affair. The manual is wonderful at telling you not only how to do things, but also why, and the included tutorials teach strategy as well as tactics.

This is truly a grognard’s game. If you don’t know what that means, you’re probably not one. If you do – and you are – you will be refreshed and inspired.


Review by Marc Read.