Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943 PC-DVD Street Date: 20th August 2010 Price: £29.99 From: 1C Company/battlefront.com Age Rating: 16+ The largest tank battle in history - KURSK 1943! Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943 is a completely new real-time strategy (RTS) game in the Theatre of War series of tactical World War II titles. It does not require any of the previous games (such as Africa 1943) to play!

The Battle of Kursk lasted for forty-nine days, from July 5 until August 23, 1943 and has made its way into history as one of the most crucial conflicts of WWII. It was the last armoured strategic offensive the Germans were able to mount in the east. The resulting decisive Soviet victory gave the Red Army the strategic initiative for the rest of the war.

Assuming the role of either the Russian or German battle group commander, acting under direct orders of division commanders Ivan Chistyakov or Walter Hoernlein, players will control their troops in historical scenarios on precisely reconstructed authentic battlefields.

Five Days of July
In Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943, you control the units of the battle group belonging to German division Grossdeutschland or the forces of the Soviet 67th Guards Rifle Division and 3rd Mechanized Corps, which participated in the defensive stage of the Kursk battle at the south face of the Kursk salient. There are two campaigns - German and Soviet:

· Fiery Salient (forces of the Soviet 6th Guards and 1st Tank Army, July 5-10, 1943)
· Operation Citadel (German division Grossdeutschland Kampfgruppe, July 5-10, 1943)

Each campaign consists of up to 9 major battles and puts you in charge of a typical military unit from that period. Each soldier is a unique personality with specific characteristics and skills that can change during the campaign. Careful planning and force selection are recommended before each battle.

Key features
· Take control over a powerful Soviet or German battle group in one of the battles which changed the history of the war;
· Fully simulated visibility, ballistics and armor penetration systems. All vital vehicle systems and crew members are individually modelled;
· Two historical campaigns (up to 18 major engagements in total) and an unlimited number of customisable missions waiting to be created with a few mouse clicks using the built-in Mission Generator;
· Sophisticated AI for both enemy and your own units;
· Over 60 Soviet, German and lend-leased US and British player-controllable units (not counting various infantry squads);
· Unsurpassed management of your soldiers. You can assign, promote and award up to several thousand soldiers with their unique characteristics. You can even rename units for easier recognition in the heat of battle;
· Team multiplayer for up to 8 players (control of key points or assault/defence) with reinforcements, artillery barrages and air strikes;
· Tools for creating your own missions and maps (built-in Mission Generator, wizard-like Simple Editor, full-blown Mission Editor and 3D Map Editor).

Minimum System Requirements
Your PC should meet the following minimum requirements for the game to run properly:
· Operating system: Windows XP or Vista
· CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon64 X2 (2.4 GHz or better)
· RAM: 2 GB
· Graphics: nVidia GeForce 6600 or AMD Radeon X1900 with 256 MB RAM or better
· Sound card: DirectX 9-compatible
· DVD-ROM drive
· Free hard disk space: 3.5 GB
· DirectX 9.0c

Recommended System Requirements
· Desktop PC with Operating system: 64-bit Windows Vista or Windows 7
· CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 or AMD Phenom II X550
· RAM: 4 GB
· Graphics: nVidia GF 8800 or AMD Radeon HD 4850 with 512 MB RAM or better
· Sound card: DirectX 9-compatible
· DVD-ROM drive
· Free hard disk space: 3.5 GB
· DirectX 9.0c

Note: This title requires on-line activation to play. Once the game is activated you do not have to be connected to the Internet to play the single player campaigns.

Also Available in this Series... Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943 from 1C Company and battlefront.com Highly detailed RTS (real-time strategy) simulation of World War 2 combat! Set in North Africa 1943 there are three campaigns, one for each side of the conflict: Germany, USA and the UK. Click here to find out more about