Take one of the best operational-level World War II wargame engines ever devised, improve it, and cross it with one of the most compelling campaigns in military history, and you get Battles in Normandy, the latest entry in SSG's Decisive Battles series. The new game has the same basic engine and gameplay as The Ardennes Offensive and Korsun Pocket, but it incorporates several improvements, including a deadlier computer opponent, a streamlined interface, and much better in-game support, which can be relied on to present answers to most questions with simple mouse-overs.

There's nothing better than a hex-based wargame that doesn't rely on generic terrain tiles.

This turn-based wargame lets players invade (or defend) Normandy in multiple campaigns and scenarios, and many enhancements to the combat engine were made to handle the unique aspects of this epic clash. Naval units can now bombard the coast, which dovetails nicely with a new amphibious operation component that was added to handle the D-Day beach assaults. Fail to clear a path with the US Navy and the boys on the ground are hit hard when they disembark from their landing crafts. The system is specifically devised so that infantry units are more likely to survive an initial assault than are artillery or antitank gun units, which forces players to make realistic decisions regarding the order in which units land.

Aircraft were vital components in the Normandy war machines, and their importance is reflected in this game through interdiction and carpet bombing capabilities. Interdiction existed in previous editions of this series, letting players commit aircraft to disrupting the enemy's supply lines, and here the interdiction model is improved because of changes in the antiaircraft system. The Allies have overwhelming air support, but the Germans can somewhat diminish its effects by committing antiaircraft assets to areas affected by interdiction strikes. This causes some tough decisions for the German player, who needs to decide whether antiaircraft assets are needed more in the rear (to blunt interdiction strikes) or on the front lines (where they were historically used to blast Allied tanks). Carpet bombing is only available at certain times during certain scenarios, and it's tremendously useful for softening up large groups of units. You just have to be careful not to hit your own troops in the process.

This is obviously a complex game, requiring players to make tough decisions at every turn, but the excellent interface makes things much less complicated than they could be. Combat is driven by underlying CRTs (Combat Result Tables), which are spreadsheets that show the battle odds for various types of terrain. A little luck is added by incorporating dice rolls during combat to spice things up. However, as the game progresses, players always have enough information to know if they are making well-informed decisions, taking calculated risks, or gambling wildly.

Combat result tables may look complex, but they are very easy to read with a little practice.

If looking up combat odds sounds tedious, don't worry. The combat advisor feature that made previous entries in this series so manageable is back. With one click, players can instantly see the overall odds for all possible combat, which are overlaid directly on the game's map. This reduces reams of data to single, meaningful points that are easy to understand but challenging to act upon. For example, seeing good initial odds in several areas along the front doesn't necessarily mean that you can punch through all of those areas on a single turn, because if you commit enough resources to a single attack to put the odds in your favor, it takes those resources away from some of the other areas and shifts the overall odds in further attacks. Also, taking advantage of high-odds attack situations isn't always the best choice, because it can leave the attacker exposed, or it can cause a breach in your lines, which is never a good thing. The real challenge in this game comes from collecting enough units in one spot to successfully attack a weak spot in the enemy's line--but without spreading your forces too thin elsewhere. And here the combat advisor helps you to avoid costly mistakes.