Covers the initial landings and subsequent breakthrough of Operation Overlord, and consequently employs a smaller scale (down to company level).
The Wargamer gave it a positive review, but remarked that the Germans' ability to significantly delay the Allies in the bocage could only be reproduced by using the alternate engagement rules, which prohibit advance and assault on the same phase/turn.
The Wargamer review (by a former HPS collaborator) dissected the level of historical realism in the simulation, instead of the game mechanics, which were largely unchanged from the previous iterations.
On a side note, the reviewer noticed that the historical order of battle, taken from the publications of David Glantz, had to be adjusted by the game designers, because some duplications were found.
Its reviewer observed that even the optional surrender rules failed to produce the expected numbers of prisoners unless the unit was surrounded, broken (a status meaning it had lost combat cohesiveness), and assaulted.
The Wargamer reviewer was impressed by campaign notes that ship with the game, which contain "a detailed description of how unit ratings were computed and a lengthy bibliography".
Several scenarios, which have fairly lopsided orders of battle, are balanced by requiring the attacker to inflict difficult to achieve kill-ratios.
Some of the criticism levied at the user interface of the series has been addressed in this game: a fast AI option, avoiding some dialog boxes, and locating units by coordinates.
Although there are some discrepancies between various historian's accounts of this battle (in particular with respect to losses), the book of David Glantz and Jonathan House was taken as reference.
The reviewer analyzed several scenarios in-detail, and concluded that "with the exception of overrating Soviet air power early in the battle, this game is extremely accurate".
Rating the level of fun in the game, he found that "scenarios with fewer than 40 turns and with relatively small numbers of units are engrossing", and suggested that players only try the larger ones afterwards.
[21] PC Gamer similarly found that "firmly grounded on prodigious research, this game is surely the definitive Kursk simulation, and one of the finest titles this prolific designer has ever given us".
A new quick play feature was added for the AI, which resolves roughly ten times faster than in previous games.
The usual designer notes, which discuss order of battle balancing, as well achieving historical results, and an extensive bibliography round up the documentation.
In order to provide some historical accuracy, when the fog of war is enabled in this game, the player's units can be damaged by their own minefields.
[28] Armchair General praised the graphics, sound effects, and challenging AI, but found the 3D view uninspiring and the turns too lengthy.
[38] Covers Operation Spring Awakening, the last major German offensive of World War II, aimed at securing Hungarian oil reserves and halting the Soviet advance towards Vienna.
[40] All games from 2012 and prior have received revamped "Gold" releases since 2017, developed by Wargame Design Studio, which was formed in 2016 and licensed to update the catalogue of John Tiller Software titles.