General George Smith Patton, Jr. was born November 11, 1885 in San Gabriel, California. One of his most distinctive aspects were the ivory handled pistols he carried with him.

The United States entered World War II in December of 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1942, Patton was across the Atlantic and in North Africa during Operation Torch. In 1943, he was in Sicily commanding the Seventh Army. In 1944, he was given command of the Third Army in France. Like rolling thunder, he stormed across France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. In October 1945, Patton assumed command of the Fifteenth Army in American-occupied Germany. On December 9, he suffered injuries as the result of an automobile accident and subsequently died 12 days later, on December 21, 1945. He is buried among the soldiers who died in the Battle of the Bulge in Hamm, Luxembourg.

Whenever I think about General Patton, the image that comes to mind is the scene from the movie "Patton" when George C Scott was standing in the street in the small desert village "jousting" with a Messerschmitt - .32 ACP vs. .30 cal machineguns. No fear, no concern for his own safety, just righteous indignation at the German pilot for having the audacity to trespass in his domain.

Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder (B-RT) is the 3rd chapter in magnificent Blitzkrieg tactical RTS series and continues the high standards of the series. In Blitzkrieg: Burning Horizons (B-BH), you followed the career of Field Marshal Rommel as he advanced in his career in the German Tank Corps. In B-RT, you will be following the career of one of America’s greatest Generals, General George S. Patton, as he led the American forces through the war in North Africa, through Italy and finally into the heart of Germany.

If you have not played the original Blitzkrieg before trying out B-RT I highly recommend that you do. Though B-RT is a stand-alone game, it is also, by my experience, a continuation of what has come before and, as such, it is a more advanced version. Immediately upon beginning the game, in the mission "Operation Torch", the you are dropped right in the middle of battle and the game is horribly unforgiving of any mistakes you might make. B-RT has an excellent training/introduction system, like in the previous games, which will get you started on the "how" of playing the game, but it still won’t give you the experience on the field of battle that you will get from playing the original Blitzkrieg. Looking back on my review of B-BH, I find that I said pretty much the same thing there regarding the play of that game and suggestion that you play Blitzkrieg first. This is not to say that CDV hasn’t created a game that can be played as a stand alone game, just that both B-BH and B-RT are more advanced versions of the original. They build on their predecessors adding improved AI, improved graphics and more missions and equipment so that as a total package you get a much more complete view of the history of WWII.

As described in the interview with CDV there have been some adjustments and improvements to the game’s AI, most notably the AI’s response to the presence of a sniper. In Blitzkrieg, enemy units would just stand around and do nothing as their fellows were being taken down one by one by a sniper hiding in the brush. In B-RT, if you leave your sniper in one place too long and kill too many of the enemy, they will respond - usually with overwhelming force. Having a Tiger tank come rolling out of the "fog" onto your position, escorted by a squad of infantry is a bit frightening to say the least. One thing that has been added to the game as a bonus to the sniper is a "sneak" mode that makes him mostly invisible to enemy troops. Don’t rely too heavily on this though, as it’s not true invisibility (wouldn’t it be nice to have a mage on your side?) but more of a camouflaged state that makes the sniper hard to see. There was a few times when my sniper crawled right past enemy units without being seen and other times when he was what I would consider a fair distance from the enemy, he was spotted almost immediately.

Another nice new feature of B-RT is the ambush function. It is now possible to position units to ambush the enemy. Again, this does not make them invisible, just harder to see and can give you a tactical advantage in certain situations where you may not want your units firing immediately on the enemy.

Have you seen the movie "Saving Private Ryan"? Remember the opening scene of D-Day, Omaha Beach, and massive death and destruction? My first run through the Omaha Beach mission scenario was a complete disaster. As the last American soldier fell to the German defenses I noticed the "Air Support" button was in ready mode. Since my focus was on the field of battle I had not really been paying attention to the UI. When I clicked on it I noticed that I had ground support aircraft available to me. After I was done banging my head on my desk, I tried again. My second attempt at the mission was not a "complete" disaster, but a disaster none the less. I was able to take a section of the beach defenses, though I didn’t have enough forces left to complete the rest of the mission.

I’ve found that it is very easy to get caught up in the frenzy of battle and spend too much energy and resources on trying to destroy the enemy and not enough on completing the mission objectives. The Omaha Beach scenario is a perfect example of this. The initial mission objectives are to enter two underground bunkers, on the third run through the mission I focused more on completing the mission than on decimating the enemy. There was still a huge loss of manpower, though not as much as it takes to clear out all the trenches. By completing the mission objectives quicker, I had more men to move on to the next objective.

Completing mission objectives does not necessarily end the mission. As in the Omaha beach mission, once the beach defenses have been taken and the tunnels entered, reinforcements arrive and a new objective to move inland and secure the town. Once the town is under your control you then have a new objective to defend your position and hold it against the German reinforcements that are arriving on the scene.

Some mission objectives will give you tactical advantages in the current mission. In one of the North African missions, there is a small village defended by an Italian unit supported by German forces. If you can move in and destroy the Germans while leaving the Italians mostly intact, the Italians will surrender. Not only does this end the fighting in the village (which is good for preserving American forces) it will also give you invaluable intelligence regarding the other German defenses you will be going up against by revealing the locations of mine fields.

Have you ever wished you had more control over the mix of units available to you during a mission? Well, the war fairies have granted your wish! Some of the missions will now give you the option of selecting the reinforcement mix by having an officer move in a certain direction. For example, if an officer goes to the left you get a tank company supported by AT guns and infantry. If he goes to the right you get self-propelled AT guns, light tanks and a couple of mobile AA guns. The opportunity to make choices regarding the units under your command is a huge improvement on the diversity of the game. This also adds to the re-playability of the game since the choices you make will affect how the game plays out.

Another point in favor of the game’s re-playability is that the enemy positions and locations of mission objectives change each time you restart the mission. The enemy units will still be in approximately the same location (as there is a limit to the size of the game map) but at least there is enough of a change to make you hunt for the units instead of just dropping artillery shells on them right off the bat.

As in the previous versions of Blitzkrieg, your core units gain experience as they progress through the missions. I have noticed, at least for the artillery units, that they become more accurate with their fire as they progress in rank (levels). Of course, your core units can’t advance in rank unless they engage the enemy and each time they engage the enemy they take the chance of being killed. There is incentive to have them involved, and risk as well -- just like in real life. I finally had the opportunity to see a unit gain rank through combat experience; as the message popped up on the screen I happened to have that unit in my field of view and it lit up in a bright glow for a few moments to show which unit advanced.

The AI in B-RT is very adaptable… too adaptable at times. During one mission in France I had basically left my left flank lightly defended (thinking it was far enough from the main battle to be safe, silly me), with a few AT guns and some infantry and my artillery behind them. Well, when the Tiger tanks drove out of the fog they rolled right over the defenses and decimated the forces there and destroyed my artillery. Suffice it to say that by the time the Tigers were done I was pretty well hosed. Next time around I built up the defenses and consolidated the left flank. I added some tank traps, barbed wire and a few tanks. When the Tigers showed up they completely avoided the area that I had built up and struck at a section of the line that was not as well defended. Was it random chance? Just bad luck for me? Or was it the smart AI that adapted its tactics to meet my own…

With all that has been said, the game is still not perfect. There are still some pathing issues that occur that send units on circuitous routes to get to where they are trying to go. Enemy units leave their artillery and fixed positions vacant when their crews are killed. And the scenarios don’t give you enough time to set up the defenses. These are minor annoyances though and don’t truly diminish from the fun or play of the game.

B-RT is not just about infantry and tanks and fighting, there is much more to manage that can make the difference between victory and defeat. First there are aircraft available to you: Recon, Bombers, Combat Air Patrol, Ground Support and Transports carrying infantry reinforcements. Next there is artillery support which comes in different forms: Mortars, Antitank guns, Howitzers, Rocket Launchers, Mobile Artillery and Mobile AT guns. You also have Engineers whose responsibilities are some of the most diverse in the game. The Engineers are responsible for repairing damaged vehicles, digging foxholes, setting out tank traps, laying barbed wire and mine fields; as well as clearing mine fields. And last but not least, is the Ambulance which will medicate, band-aid, splint and generally fix up the infantry in the area around it as they get shot, punctured, stabbed, blown-up and generally mangled by the enemy.

Strategy and Tactics plays a huge part in the play of the Blitzkrieg series and as it is an RTS you can’t always just sit around and dilly dally while you are trying to lay out your plans (well unless you pause the game that is). With all of the various types of units, terrain features and effects and victory conditions – and now with the dynamic reinforcements available in some missions – there are a myriad of options available to you giving the game huge replay potential as you experiment with different tactics to conquer each of the missions in the game.

Each successive game in the Blitzkrieg series has brought new developments in the AI, graphics and playability. Based on what has come before, the future of Blitzkrieg looks good and I can’t wait to see what Blitzkrieg 2 has in store for us.