It's a decent game - but it needs work – Russian Front Review

One of the things that I truly miss with the death of computer games for the PC is that strategy games - especially turn-based strategy games - are nearly extinct so I am very excited when I come across a decent one. So - things I like. It is turned based. Units can be reinforced right at the front lines. The goal is to control cities. It is historical - complete with winter which decreases the combat capabilities of your units. It is long. The first campaign is a whopping 108 turns. I enjoy games that take some time to craft a strategy. Things I don't like. The instructions need to be more clear. I restarted the first campaign several times as it took me a little while to figure out how the reinforcements work. You can either bump up the unit to increase its combat capability against infantry or mechanized units. Bumping up the stats also increases the unit's size. 2nd, as mentioned I enjoy long games. I was just beginning to get my strategy moving - I was playing the the first campaign on medium difficulty as the Russians when I suddenly won on turn 10 when I thought I had 98 more turns. The game has a winning score and a losing score. Hit either number and the game is over. The Russians in the first campaign star with 32 pts with a losing score of 25 and a winning score of 38. I had lost 2 cities by turn 5 so my score dropped to 30. I was on my way to recapture them when the game told me I had won. Apparently, the winning/losing score can change as the game progresses, and that is what happened to me. The instructions do mention that the score can change, but there is no explanation of how or why. I was annoyed as I was looking forward to a long campaign. Reinforcements - There are two types. 1st type is bumping up the unit as previously mentioned and the 2nd is new units appearing in your cities. Regarding the first type, the numbers available were different each round and there was no explanation as to why I received the numbers I did. Regarding the 2nd, the new units would appear in the cities. There was no message saying where the appeared and no explanation as to why the appeared where they did.You have to scroll across the map to see if there were new units. You also don't get to choose the reinforcements you receive. I never received and new tanks for example. Units - There doesn't seem to much variety in unit types. The Russians had tanks and infantry. The Germans had tanks, two types of infantry, and some sort of half -track unit. There is no explanation of the different combat capabilities. Overall, an ok game. Pay no attention to the reviewer that said it is impossible to win. It looks fairly well balanced. I wish it lived up to its length potential. Perhaps an option to keep playing? (I was REALLY looking forward to invading Germany). I would also like to see an explanation of how/why the reinforcements and new units appear. Finally, I would also like to have the option to choose the reinforcements I receive.
Review by WMBTBY on Russian Front.