Unity of Command is a smart, tough, turn-based strategy game set in the Second World War that’s one of the best in the genre. With its emphasis on logistics, the Battle of Stalingrad should be one of the game’s most gruelling encounters.
Should.
Benjamin Thomas found a way to do what the Germans could not, and by essentially breaking the scenario won the whole thing in just two turns (the game’s lead developer says the earliest a player should be able to achieve victory is 7/8 turns).
That equates to August 10, 1942, which is so fast it’s two weeks before the actual German army could even begin their assault during the Second World War.
Here’s how he did it:
This strategy dawned upon me while doing something completely different. I had been focusing on the top bridge... What if I put all my efforts towards this bridge? SCHWERPUNKT, baby!
Using this strategy may play out in different ways. The main objective of the southern axis of attack is to weaken the strongest unit, but I have also managed to pierce this area, and had a complete encirclement of practically all Soviet troops by the second round.
That last sentence is key; unlike most other strategy games, Unity of Command is very into the idea of logistics, so much so that if you cut off an enemy army’s line of supply you don’t just weaken them, you essentially cripple them.
We usually see videos on Kotaku of people finding shortcuts and perfecting weird strategies for games like Mario, but turn-based strategy games are no different when it comes to this kind of quest. There’s a pre-determined enemy force, a set number of turns, very clear rules governing the way they all work...it’s a genre ripe for this kind of experimentation.