Two campaigns have been made available to players - The rabbit campaign and the pig campaign. As the leader of a rabbit task force, you will often perform strategic strikes and reclaim former rabbit territory as well as cut off vital supplies to the enemy forces. One rather amusing mission involves your strike force implementing a blockade of a watering hole in the desert in order to force a portion of the pig armies to surrender for lack of water. Another almost hilarious mission involves staging a counter-attack just when the general of the pig forces failed to wake up during a long nap. As the leader of the pig strike force however, you will usually find yourself taking the offensive against the rabbits. Missions can range from taking out the radar dish near the border to neutralizing rebellions.
As the leader of a special task force, it will be your task to command a squad of tanks, rocket launchers as well as multiple support vehicles, such as mine layers, command vehicles and tow-trucks. You must be cautious in your commands and try to minimize casualties as your resources are limited. To this end, you must learn each vehicle's weaknesses, strong points and specialty. For example, while your artillery has a devastating long-ranged attack, it must first dig in before it can fire, and even then it has a minimum range, making it vulnerable to quick strikes. Your light tanks can prove to be more versatile allies. While they deal out only moderate damage, they have the ability bury themselves in the ground to increase their armor rating as well as make themselves impervious to machine gun fire from enemy scouts. Used effectively, they can prove to be a valuable asset in both reinforcing defensive positions as well as taking the offensive. However, if you need to scout out enemy-held territory safely, your command vehicle will prove to be a invaluable asset with its long line of sight. They are however, defenseless against enemy attacks, as they possess no weapons. Still, they have the ability to bombard enemy forces by calling in lethal airstikes. Although these are highly effective, they will cost you quite a number of strategic points. Strategic points are given out only in limited quantities at the beginning of every mission, so use them wisely. They can be used to expand your arsenal of destruction as well as purchase tow-trucks which can be hitched up to tow your fuel, ammunition and repair trailers along. Naturally, the further you get, the more exciting the vehicles available. You might start out with a few jeeps and a couple of tanks armored with what may very well be cardboard, but persistence pays off and it's not long before you're wheeling out the more exotic stuff, such as artillery, mine layers and rocket launchers. An interesting approach is the ability to purchase new units in the field, with planes airdropping them straight from HQ.
Vehicles are rated in four fields - Health points, ammunition, fuel and experience points. Health points determine the integrity and condition of a vehicle. Once it reaches zero, a vehicle will either be destroyed or put out of action. Repair trailers can be used to restore health points. Ammunition determines how much longer your tank can stay useful in a battle. Once out of ammunition, a tank will be defenseless. Use ammunition trailers to provide additional ammunition to your strike force. Fuel allows your tanks to move over vast distances. Once out of fuel, a vehicle will then become immobile. Similarly, use fuel trailers to top up your tanks. Experience points increase after successful encounters with enemy forces. They allow vehicles to reach veteran status, increasing their health points and chances of survival. There are also a plethora of upgrades for you to bolt onto your vehicles for a price before the beginning of each mission. Upgrades range from binoculars, which increases a unit's range, to extra fuel or ammunition. Your vehicles and upgrades will carry on with you throughout the entire campaign, with the only exception being your supply trailers, who'll cost 150 strategic points each. Thus, try to avoid purchasing them during shorter or easier missions, and purchase additional upgrades or tanks instead.
Your forces' behavior is also decently configurable, allowing you to mix several fire modes - Fire at will, Return fire, Hold fire - With any movement mode - Chase, Hold position or Retreat. The AI also seems to be able to hold its own quite well, providing RTS veterans with a challenge. However, a rather interesting design decision was to make the units unable to turn on the spot. Instead, they're all front wheel drive and this means they can often take five or six goes at pointing in a new direction, and then usually end up crashing into trees, buildings and other objects in the most bizarre ways. It's like watching a stoned wasp trying to cross your living-room carpet. This will cause any commander much grief when attempting to order units across a bridge, downright frustrating actually. At times, this will also make it difficult for commanders to mount an effective counter-attack quickly and effectively. More amusing however, will be to watch your tow-truck drive backwards across half a map when ordered to hitch up to a supply trailer. Our highest commendations go to the drivers. Oh, and they could probably pass driving school with the highest possible grades. Ever.
Direct IP, GameSpy and LAN games have been made available, allowing you to battle it out with up to eight squads of friends. Each squad will control an army of tanks, support vehicles and supply trailers of their choice. Each army is limited from 3000 - 9000 strategic points worth of military hardware. To make things more interesting and exciting however, players can choose to band together in groups. This allows players to support one another with a greater variety of tanks and artillery. This smart move on Stormregion's part can only result in several exciting team challenges, forcing players to work together as a team to defeat an opposing team of tanks. Besides this, the host of a match can tweak several options such as the size of a map, the terrain, the number of strategic points, game options such as allowing buying in the game, having bombers, limited fuel and limited ammo. Several game types also include Death Match, Countdown, Domination and Capture the Flag. All in all, the multiplayer option promises to keep players occupied long after the single-player campaigns.
