The years, they don’t stop coming – and neither do Unity of Command 2 DLCs. At about 176 hours in, I was graced with the Kursk DLC. This baby is huge, featuring campaigns for both Nazis and Soviets in 1943 (and maybe even 1944), And you know what? Unity of Command 2: Kursk DLC is the best one yet.
Veggies before cake, I started Unity of Command 2: Kursk DLC by playing the Nazi campaign and aiming for the alternate history track. This immediately treated me to probably the most devastating German campaign Unity of Command 2 has seen! This is definitely not Barbarossa anymore. Even if the German armored division is still the scariest thing in 1943, they’re not unbeatable and they can be surrounded and destroyed in detail. And once you’re on the defense, boooy…
The Soviet will have deep reserves, ones that AI will spend with aggressive abandon. You will see entire armored units destroyed, to be reconstituted at a later date as miserable 3-dot rookies. On the other hand, you will also see the AI run out of steam and consolidate. In some cases, it may even seem that it’s playing with their own, objectives, stopping after achieving the most important ones.
And then you get reach the alternate Unity of Command 2: Kursk DLC tracks, which sends Germans to Italy and other Mediterranean adventures! By shifting troops after performing ahistorically well in the east, you get to kick the Allies out of the boot. But just like on the eastern front, you’ll see some very bloody fights where you’ll accept casualties that in previous campaigns would have made you reach for the “Restart scenario” button. You’ll also continuously cannibalize units that don’t transfer mission-to-mission to reinforce veteran formations that do.
But if you thought that was harsh, welcome to the Red Army, where we take 863,303 casualties in Kursk and keep on truckin’. Holding the Germans at Moscow wasn’t as hard as the opening of Unity of Command 2: Kursk DLC campaign. You will become nearly inured to German panzer divisions each aerosolizing multiple formations per turn. The AI doesn’t bother with survival and so it plays very aggressively with the scariest units it has. Just look at that 52% casualty rate! Preventing that will demand all the skill you have in both WW2 warfare and Unity of Command 2.
You will have reserves, yes, and many replaceable non-essential units. But the fighting will still be brutal. More than ever, meeting bonus objectives will mean risking your armored units, cutting off enemy HQs to stop them from using any of their powers, and encircling the enemy to deny them supplies. The Soviet division may not be match a German one, but they’re good enough to stand guard around surrounded infantry.
Speaking of divisions… If Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2 has taught me anything (I played it three times), it’s that Soviet divisions were much smaller than German ones, and would eventually be merged into more sensibly-sized Corps. Previously, Unity of Command 2 simulated this with Soviet divisions simply being weaker and able to employ fewer specialists. With the Kursk DLC, comes a naming change. Any unit called a division will start with 4 pips, just like we were used to with brigades. The real meat is in Corps formations, which are division sized. Yes, it’s mostly an aesthetic change – an aesthetic changes that works for me!
My concluding argument is that Unity of Command 2: Kursk DLC is the best DLC yet. It’s meaty, it has many new aesthetic changes (though Guards tanks are still ugly) and it provides challenges the likes of which we haven’t really experienced yep. It’s also bringing us ever closer to late war, with the German campaign breaching into 1944. Can’t wait to level Berlin!
