Company of Heros

Note: My review also includes "Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts" which is the first expansion and introduces the British and Panzer Elite factions.

Brilliant squad based RTS set during WW2. You play as two different Axis armies (both German, although one being an 'elite' division), or Allies armies(British or American although the second expansion is rumored to be including the Russians).

The game innovates with a fantastic 'cover system' whereby every piece of terrain offers four different grades of cover from heavy to negative making it important to position your troops carefully as you move around. Buildings can be occupied, and as the snipers open up and mortars fly it really feels authentic. Then you hear the rumble of heavy tracks, and it's tank time baby. These steel terrors are a lot of fun to wield as they crush through hedges and fences to make their way on to the battlefield in the late game, after you have amassed enough fuel.

Another outstanding innovation is the 'doctrine system'. There were only two factions in the original game, and now four with the expansion, however each faction has three doctrines. You choose one of these during the and as you gain command points by killing enemies on the field you can unlock abilities from your doctrinal command tree. These abilities are often doctrine specific units (British 'Commando' doctrine can deploy glider borne commandos, and Wehrmacht Terror doctrine eventually gets the mighty King Tiger tank) but can also be special abilities such as off map artillery, or fighter plane strafing runs. The doctrine heavily flavor the base faction and make game extremely fun.

There are single player campaigns and also a very nice online server that can automatch opponents based on their skill level. The downside is the game has a raft of bugs and balance issues. Although most of these are minor, and none are really showstoppers it does tend to feel like death from a thousand cuts.

Relic has released a string of patches but problems persist and that, unfortunately, brings what would be a 10/10 game down to a 9/10.