As you play through the game's campaign these HQs level up, gaining new abilities and more command points. HQs can also deploy portable bridges, organize emergency supplies, and organize motor transport for slow infantry. Meanwhile my British 8th Army was an iron wall of artillery that could grind down even the most determined, entrenched enemy. I consistently used it to exploit gaps, pushing armored divisions into attacks on favorable terrain, but ordering them to make fighting withdrawals in the event of counterattacks. For example, I specialized my US 5th Army as a fast force that hit hard and excelled at breaking single points. HQs can use their very limited command points to have divisions execute special maneuvers-suppressing artillery fire to pin down enemies, feint attacks, and set-piece assaults to reduce enemy fortifications.

Every section of your army has an HQ unit, a non-combat location that your logistics, intelligence, and command efforts come from. That's not to say the game as a whole lacks complexity. The interface is good enough though and doesn't fight the game design-it's certainly one of the best for a wargame of this kind.

More detailed, frequent tooltips would have been nice. The basics like combat are easy, but expect some trial-and-error frustration while you figure out how to reassign steps, balance logistics, juggle command range and upgrade your divisions. On the other hand, it doesn't do a great job of teaching itself. Sure, there's a detailed combat resolution table buried in the manual, but you can happily play this (quite complex) wargame without ever looking at it. If that sounds complicated, it's not, because the game just shows you the likely results. When a unit attacks or defends its active steps are multiplied by their combat value, totaled, and compared to the other unit's total for the odds of various results. Steps are either active, a full circle, or suppressed, an empty one. Sometimes divisions have 'specialist steps' of attached assets-like a detached tank company temporarily assigned to support an infantry division. Every division on the battlefield is made up of sections called steps, each represented by a little dot below the unit's model. Unity of Command 2 has the same baselines that made the first UoC a success.

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