Theatre of War 2 - Kursk 1943 is scheduled to be released next month, exclusively by Battlefront.com, and they’re expecting to be able to open pre-orders shortly.

Detailed damage info modes

If you would like to see each exact impact of a rounds or projectile on a vehicle, you can enable the display of impact vectors with the F4 key (default). You can adjust the amount of data displayed (for example, you can choose to show penetrations only, etc.). If you zoom in the camera onto the damaged unit with this mode enabled, you will see impact vectors and information about the projectiles. Additionally, the game log at the bottom of the screen will start showing messages about the impacts, such as: ‘Turret front hit. Minor damage’.

The vector colors indicate the severity of the impact: white – ricochets, blue – projectiles destroyed at collision, green – hits not resulting in full armor penetration, and red – armor penetrations.

The impact angle in degrees is shown at the impact point of a projectile, as well as the effective armor strength (taking into account the hit angle). The projectile caliber in millimeters, its type (e.g. APBC) and designation are also shown.

The maximum amount of vectors displayed for a unit can be adjusted in the game settings.

This German Panther tank took quite a beating from Soviet ZiS-3 multi-purpose 76-mm guns during its advance, but only a few rounds penetrated it’s armor (red vectors).The tank seems intact at first glance, but an APBC round hit the right side of the turret, went right through it, (most likely killing the commander and loader) and retained enough penetration capability to emerge on the other turret side.

Old-school top-down view

If you enable the Tactical Map, the camera will be located over the battlefield and directed down vertically, but zooming in and out will work as usual.

This way you can see the entire battlefield (if you zoom out far enough) and can keep full control over your troops. In this mode the game looks like a classic wargame – map, unit icons and some additional information are giving your full control to employ your tactical skills.

Continuity

All campaign battles are logically interrelated. In the German campaign, forces allocated to players at the start are all that are available for the rest of the game. Soviet players get more or less steady reinforcements in addition to the starting units. Losing too many troops in one mission may have a serious impact on later battles for both sides. Some units, like the Tiger tank, are unique. Depending on the outcome of the previous fight, each battle also has an effect on the next. Troops can move on to the next battle, so it is important to keep them alive. 

Victory points

Special Victory points are given for the elimination of enemy soldiers and armor, as well as for the completion of orders received during a battle from High Command. You can spend Victory Points for reinforcements, air support and artillery fire during combat, but the more victory points you have at mission end, the higher your military skill level will be.

Built-in mission generator

The Mission Generator lets you create new single-player missions quickly. You can either specify parameters like soldiers experience, weather and others, or leave them completely random.

You can add new missions as a single skirmish or create a brand new campaign and fill it with missions created by you either in the Mission Generator or in the Mission Editors. If you want to create new maps, the powerful Map Editor application is also available.