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Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich drafts the player into the position of tactician for the Axis or Allied combined Airborne Assault divisions, namely paratroopers and their support units, for the World War II Operation Market Garden. Players can choose any one of 34 scenarios, both historical and fictional, to play in any order as either the Allies or the Axis Powers. In each scenario, players are given a number of objectives that need be accomplished including taking strategic towns and bridges, blockading supply routes, and destroying Nazi-controlled bridges and dams.

The scenarios are set up in such a way as to provide entertainment as well as providing a distinct challenge. A few of the objectives on a map are fairly easy to accomplish, although they are not always easy to maintain. Others are much more difficult to accomplish, but once successful in the extremely difficult objectives the player generally receives notice of a decisive victory against his or her adversaries. In addition to the difficulty of some of the objectives, the developers decided to make the units as realistic as possible by mixing different troop types. Rarely do units ever consist of simply one troop type as that would cause a single encounter with a troop type that does well against them to wipe the entire unit out. Grenadiers are no longer helpless against units of machine gunners. Any given unit can hold machine gunners, snipers, rocket launchers, and even transport vehicles along with the grenadiers. This adds to the difficult learning curve, but definitely adds to the realism and innumerable possibilities as well.

The graphic detail is very simple in comparison with modern strategy games, but don’t let that fool you. The developers spent much more time on the actual gameplay aspect than on making everything look pretty. The maps are, as suggested, simple 2D maps of areas with your units shown as squares with the primary unit type shown by symbol. While the map may occasionally show that enemies are near, there tend to be far more challengers than the map would have you believe. The developers made use of many more different aspects of warfare than any other strategy game I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Line of sight, historical and fictional weather effects, day and night affecting movement and visual range, and ambushes are some of the realistic elements that influence battles in this game. Ground to ground bombardment, blockades, cover fire, and even aerial strikes are attack options available that enhance gameplay.

Ambushes and reinforcements caused me to lose many a battle when I first started playing. I would see a simple objective defended by one machine gun nest and simply send in a couple of my more powerful units to wipe them out and take the objective. Little did I know that lying in ambush were four panzer units which commenced firing once my units were in firing range of the machine gun nest. In seconds I’d lost nearly three quarters of those units and I was forced to retreat and regroup with lowered morale and much lowered offensive capability. Little did I know that my offensive triggered an enemy reinforcement squad to show up behind my lines which quickly wiped out the measly defense I had left at my base of operations.

Being an extremely complex game in terms of gameplay possibilities and unit specs, Airborne Assualt: Highway to the Reich would not be a game for everyone. Impatient people who are used to understanding a game immediately and beating it in a few hours may just be frustrated enough to take the game disc and throw it out the window. Children are not likely to enjoy the lack of detailed graphics or what little of a story there is. Even with my fairly extensive experience with strategy games, I had quite a bit of difficulty not being wiped out completely. It took a few games before I actually began using my units to their fullest extent, using terrain to ambush enemies, and using all the possible actions for each unit in conjunction to turn the tide of battle in my favor. I would only recommend Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich to extreme strategy or WWII enthusiasts who would think to themselves, “I wonder if I could have done better?”