Unity of Command

By: Derek Yu

On: January 3rd, 2012

Unity of Command, by 2x2 Games

Unity of Command nearly passed under my radar, which would have been a shame – even a casual strategy fan such as myself can tell that the game is something special. For one thing, long-time TIGSource readers may recognize the artist, Nenad Jalšovec, who created Rescue the Beagles and Ablation. Indeed, the artwork in Unity of Command is lovely – a far cry from the low-res pixel art of his previous games, the semi-iconographic style he employed here is much more detailed but nonetheless just as eye-catching and functional.

Set during the Eastern Front of World War 2, the game lets you play as either Germany or the Soviet Union in a campaign that includes the Battle of Stalingrad. You command at an operational level, with the campaign divided into scenarios where you control divisions of soldiers and earn prestige bonuses based on your performance. Supply lines are crucial to victory in each scenario – units quickly lose their effectiveness once they’re cut off. To emphasize this, Unity of Command lets you view supply easily and the AI, which has been praised by sites like The Wargamer, jumps on any chance to starve your army.

Alongside the campaign, UoC offers individual scenarios (including a tutorial), internet/hotseat multiplayer, and replays. It also comes with a 40-page PDF manual that is as well-put together as the rest of the package (just look at how much effort went into the cover art for this digital game!). With the manual, tutorial, and intuitive interface, even newbies can quickly get up to speed and start enjoying the more intricate aspects of the design.

TIGdb: Entry for Unity of Command

  • News

    you en eye tee why is unity, so come along brothers and sisters

  • http://twitter.com/garion333 Paul Drager

    Best intro wargame I’ve ever seen

  • Raigan

    So… where’s the demo?!

  • http://www.gnomeslair.com/ gnome

    This look amazing and I will certainly be giving it a go. 

    Oh, and happy 2012 Derek! And happy 2012 everyone!

  • Harkejuice

    *sighs* A demo would be really nice =/ 

  • Randomdwarf

    And to think this game wasn’t even mentionend among the most expected indie games for this year. This is easily worth 10 Fezes, 12 Spelunkys and 15 Scrolls.     

  • http://www.twitter.com/BeeMickSee Brandon McCartin

    Happy 2012, gnome, my brotha.

  • Jotaf

    10 Fezes?? o.O

  • http://www.godatplay.com Godatplay

    Freaking fantastic visuals

  • http://www.ben-peck.com/ Benji

    And a well organized and matching UI to match. Looks great!

  • crimson

    Would like to try a demo 1st before I buy…

  • Derposaurus

    The campaign ends with stalingrad? That is … mmm… I’d say retarded.

  • http://16x16.org/ Nenad

    Thanks for posting this, Derek.

    I was not directly involved with the design but I played it a lot during the development. The game is very well crafted design-wise.

    Axis campaign doesn’t end with Stalingrad. If you win Stalingrad it goes on all the way to Baku, with the mix of historical and hypothetical battles. Stalingrad is on about 1/3 into the Axis campaign. You can also play the Soviet counteroffensive campaign of the similar scope.

  • http://www.derekyu.com Derek Yu

    Apologies, I read in the manual that the campaign “culminates in the Battle of Stalingrad” and misinterpreted that. Edited my post.

  • Aksel Ladegaard

    No demo: No buy.