World War II and RTS gaming - they go together like, well, the most popular war era in the world and (amongst developers at least) the most popular war game genre in the world. PC gaming could be by all intents and purposes dead, and there would still be developers scattered around the globe producing WWII RTS's. One of those developers would probably be 1C Company, and together with Battlefront.com, they have created what could be the finest WWII RTS ever made in Theatre of War, although it is definitely not an RTS for everyone.

If you find yourself gaming on the PC more than any other platform, there's a good chance you play the occasional RTS, however when you think of the typical PC RTS, you think of the Command & Conquer series, or the Age of Empires series, or basically one of similar design - that is, a game with real time control over your units in a field of combat, as well as micro management aspects such as building and maintaining a base of operations, with resource collection thrown in for good measure. Theatre of War is not like this. It has no bases to build, no resources to collect, no means of producing more troops or vehicles out of thin air and no technology tree. So, you must be thinking, what on earth makes Theatre of War such a great RTS?

Three simple words - Real. Time. Strategy. Theatre of War is all about combat, in real time, and the strategy behind it. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Every war based RTS ever made has always been touted as a game that takes 'real war strategy' into account and it's never true", and this is a reasonably accurate statement. It seems the "gamers must deploy real strategy to win!" label is thrown around an awful lot in the RTS gaming world and it is indeed rarely ever true, or at least it's rarely ever a requirement. I feel this is the case because most RTS games tend to treat their units as expendable commodities; a resource you can simply make more of in the matter of seconds should you need to. Since Theatre of War isn't like this, each unit is invaluable and therefore you have to protect them while at the same time use them to eliminate the enemy units, and there is really no other way to do that than by adopting real and proven war based strategies.

So how does Theatre of War work if you don't have to do half of what most RTS games require you to do? It's really quite simple. Basically, you start a battle, which can either be done via the game's campaign mode, it's quick battle mode, or with multiplayer mode over the net or a LAN. Before the battle commences, depending on the mode of choice, you will be given the option to modify the difficulty, your starting units (to a degree), and if unit 'morale' is turned on. Once you've made your mind up on these three areas, you're ready to take the battlefield, where you're permitted to organize your units in a small area and then start the real time elements of the battle at your discretion. ToW also has a control system typical of any RTS - drag to select, right click to move and/or attack, with a well designed GUI to interact with at all times. Simple stuff. That is, until you actually start playing ToW.

Unless you're a budding military mastermind who is not an army general only because you can't grow a mustache, chances are the gameplay in ToW will at least initially take you by surprise even on the easy setting. While there are tutorial missions on offer, these only really cover the basics - the ins and outs will require ample real gameplay to master. This is because ToW centers itself entirely around the principles of realistic warfare - tank units will not be killed by a barrage of rifle gun fire, infantry units are not going to survive an explosion simply because the unit attacking them is 'weak against infantry', and projectiles like tank and artillery shells are not automatically going to hit their target just because you did a really good job of pointing and clicking where they should be going. ToW is a game where one tank could be destroyed from an artillery shell originating from a cannon not even in your entirely zoomed out camera view's range. A game where just because you have 10 tanks up against 4 doesn't mean you're going to come out the victor based on pure numbers alone. A game where terrain actually dictates a battle. Basically, ToW is an RTS which absolutely, positively requires effective strategic execution to succeed in - strategy like using heights to your advantage, bundling infantry units with tanks for support and flanking enemy units to name a few.

To win in ToW, you will need to master these strategies and many more like them. You will need to utilize every unit you can for your cause and keep the mistakes to an absolute minimal - if you find yourself out of position by a flanking enemy tank unit for instance, chances are anything you control near by will soon be toast. On the easy setting, the game does cut you a little more slack, but it is still a very challenging and intense game regardless - be prepared for a lot of repeated missions and sometimes even hours spent fighting a mission only to succumb to defeat with your last objective in sight. This is the type of game that ToW is - brutally realistic.

With all this emphasis on strategy, one could conclude that without ample space the game would suffer, so it's a good thing then that the maps in ToW are usually absolutely massive in size, at least in respect to the size of the units and their movement speed (which actually does seem slightly slower than it should be). The maps are so big in comparison to the units that the game has to list any that are off screen in the form of small icons on the side of the screen they are nearest to so you don't lose them. At the same time though, as touched upon a few paragraphs back, tanks and artillery units can attack each other from almost one corner of a map to the other, producing a rather tricky mix of long range and close range combat. It really gets the mind going creating an RTS that leaves little time for rest - there is always a unit you can move or an aspect you can modify to your strategy at any given time.