Men of War: Assault Squad

Treelines, sandbags and other cover are crucial to the survivability of your units as they reduce the fire-effectiveness of enemy forces. Every captured command-point is worth snooping around in case there's a crate with some interesting goodies inside, waiting for your terrain-investing infantry.

What really sets the Assault Squad apart is the level of difficulty. 'Easy' is no longer a life-threatening source of palpitations. Diligence is required at the lowest settings, for sure – advance unguarded and you can expect to be knocked back, but set up your forces sensibly before an advance and you're pretty much guaranteed solid progress.

Plant mortars way back in your safe-zone to soften up enemy positions, place a couple of AT-guns in cover with clean arcs of fire ahead, set up a couple of HMG squads to pick off any chancing infantry and you're ready to advance with the grunts, and repel any counter-attacks.

The US and German forces on offer in Assault Squad's single-player mode are, as the title suggests, quite infantry-focused. Certain units are a joy to use when you figure out their best application.

The US Rangers, for example, rock up in their own truck, complete with a mounted HMG. This makes them an instant assault force in their own right; hop them out and they can exploit cover and advance, under the auspices of heavy anti-infantry fire.

What's more they're immensely mobile, and capable of executing lightning raids on sparsely-defended positions. Drop a few hardy Paratroopers into the mix and you have a sudden, and quite handy, assault force.

The biggest innovation up Assault Squad's sleeves is its new Skirmish mode, which allows four-player competitive or co-op play. There's a choice of German, American, Russian, Commonwealth and the newly anointed Japanese army options. In addition, many of the existing forces from Men Of War and the first expansion, Red Tide, have undergone rebalancing to even things up.

In a move which is seemingly at odds with the gritty realism of the game, DigitalMindsoft is also integrating 'hero' units into the skirmish armies. However, these are largely unavailable until later in the missions, when you've captured a set number of control-points, and your income is fairly hefty.

On the German side Veteran Tigers become available; 88mm cannon-sporting monsters which can dominate extended tank confrontations. And there's the cheeky Goliath – essentially a buggy-sized mine on tracks. It can deal a devastating high-explosive blow to emplacements and vehicles if deployed successfully.

Whether these additions will unbalance the multiplayer experience is unclear but in recent interviews, DigitalMindsoft have gone on record to stress they won't, citing a reworked system that introduces a key special-unit resource which is hard to come by in quantity. And if the hosting player doesn't wish anybody to field such uber-units, they can be removed from the game at the lobby stage.

In short, there's plenty to enjoy here. Even if multiplayer isn't your bag, the promise of more missions for the most compelling wartime RTS since Company Of Heroes is an enormously tasty prospect.