If the best wargames and best real-time strategy games were selectively bred over several generations, the result would be Wargame: European Escalation, an "easy to learn yet difficult to master" wargame that plays out in real time. Set during the twilight years of the Cold War, Wargame boasts an epic campaign and crafty AI. In addition, it lets you zoom out the camera far beyond the normal confines of RTS games, giving you a view of the battlefield matched only by the likes of Supreme Commander or Sins of a Solar Empire. Eugen Systems has managed to craft both a great wargame and an entertaining RTS in one exhilarating package.

Comrade Tchijikov feels calm now, but who knows what horrors await in NATO's arsenal?

Wargame: European Escalation is well named because it feels more like a Panzer General-style "beer and pretzels" wargame than a real-time strategy game. There is no base building or unit micromanagement, but you have more traditional wargame concerns to focus on instead. For example, units have a finite amount of ammunition and fuel and must be resupplied in the field. Supply trucks can repair, rearm, and refuel units, but they also have a finite number of supplies. To keep an offense rolling, your best bet is to use the FOBs to restock the supply trucks and send them scurrying back to the front. Another example of Wargame's rich heritage is the role that terrain plays in the game. For instance, most units have trouble seeing over the next hill or spotting threats hidden in a nearby dense forest.

Therefore, sensible use of reconnaissance units is important. Furthermore, vehicles can get temporarily bogged down in harsh terrain like swamps. Roads are important because they allow for quicker movement and better fuel efficiency, but they can be death traps for your armored column if they run past dense woods packed with enemy antitank infantry. Blitzing through open countryside may seem like a convenient way to avoid certain obstacles, but helicopters more than 2,000 meters away may see your forces and open up on them with rocket pods and antitank guided missiles.

You can seamlessly zoom between the grunts on the ground and the (really) big picture.

The wargame heritage doesn't stop there. Each of the game's hundreds of units has unique stats. For example, the AMX-30B2 tank has three types of weapon systems, each of which has different stats like caliber, range, ammo, rate of fire, accuracy, and armor-piercing-versus-high-explosive attack values. Besides the weapons, units have stats like speed, fuel capacity, optics, and armor (and front, side, rear, and top armor have separate values). Furthermore, units have morale, and if their morale drops too low, they become too panicked to respond to your orders. Retreating units need precious minutes to regain their composure, which can be disastrous for the unit in question, as well as your plans.

By contrast, the RTS side of Wargame's heritage is fairly minimal. There are no bases to build, no special powers or superweapons to use, and resourcing is limited to securing zones on the map with a command vehicle. New units may be requisitioned with the points that trickle in from the zones you occupy, provided that you control a deployment zone (the areas on the edges of the map marked with large white arrows).

Also, there is very little in the way of unit micromanagement. Your control options are as follows: you can toggle certain weapon systems on or off, regroup four straggling tanks into a platoon, order units to fire at an area they cannot see (particularly useful for having artillery demoralize anyone in the general vicinity of where their ordinance hits), command units to use roads whenever possible, tell helicopters to change their altitudes, or move infantry units into and out of transport vehicles.

Wargame features hundreds of units, and its statistics answer the question of whether East German or Polish T-34s are better.

At first glance, Wargame is a daunting prospect. There are a lot of variables to consider, and it does play out in real time, after all. However, a smart interface makes it very approachable. First off, Wargame allows you a better view of the battlefield than most RTS games, which tend to prevent you from zooming too far above your units.

In Wargame, you can zoom out to a bird's-eye view reminiscent of Supreme Commander, at which point all the units turn into their respective standard NATO military symbols. Icons appear over units when they are running low on fuel or ammo or when they are in danger of being routed. If you pull the camera in closer, red text above the unit informs you of various problems and how long these effects will persist. For example, a shot-up helicopter may have the message "fuel leak 20 seconds" above it, or a tank may be cursed by "damaged tracks 5 seconds."