Operation Bagration was a 2008 Real-Time Strategy game developed by Belarussian website Wargaming.net. The game follows the events of the real-life Operation Bagration, which was the name given to the Soviet campaign of the liberation of Belarus from German troops. You are allowed to play both the historical Soviet campaign, and the Alternate History German one. In addition to these campaigns, there was also the multiplayer mode. It is no longer active now, however, as the game had low sales and is now notoriously hard to find online.
This game provides examples of:
- Alternate History: The German campaign eventually veers into one. Before that, you’re simply left trying to defend against Soviet advance as best as you can.
- Artificial Brilliance: The enemy AI is very advanced, capable of perceiving the weaknesses in your defence and concentrating its onslaught in that region, as well as reinforcing the areas where you’re on the offensive and retreating its troops from where it’s heavily beaten.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Averted. If the computer is losing on one front, it will pull back the troops so that they can reinforce another.
- Crosshair Aware: The game shows the firing ranges of every unit on the map.
- Fog of War: Averted, both during single and multiplayer matches.
- Foregone Conclusion:
- The game is set in 1944, when the victory of the Soviet Union was already inevitable. The campaign for Germans ends with what is basically a Pyrrhic Victory, as while they’ve managed to prolong their occupation of Belarus for longer, they have no strength to advance, while the Soviet reinforcements are still incoming.
- This is also relevant on a more tactical level, as the outcome of every little skirmish can usually be foreseen from who which side has more or better units. Unlike older, simpler RTS games, the AI cannot be exploited to allow for unsuitable combinations triumphing over more powerful troops, and so retreating and regrouping with additional troops is generally the answer.
- Gameplay Grading: Happens at the end of every mission, where you receive a certain amount of victory points based on how many secondary objectives you managed to fulfil, with points also given for killing many of the enemies’ troops and deducted if you suffer heavy losses.
- Real-Time with Pause: You’re allowed to turn the pause on to give out orders at any time in singleplayer games. This option is obviously disabled for multiplayer matches.
- Tank Goodness: Downplayed, as while the military vehicles present are all well simulated, there are relatively few types in comparison to other strategies such as Sudden Strike.
- Timed Mission: Nearly every mission in the game is one.
- You All Look Familiar: Averted; the game uses the same technology as Medieval II: Total War to ensure that all units look different from each other.
- Zerg Rush: It’s technically possible to win some battles that way. If you do that, however, the game will deduct victory points for suffering heavy losses, leaving you short on vital upgrades for the next mission.
