Of all the simulations of WWII on the market, the best by far has been the Hearts of Iron franchise. Starting with HoI and progressing through patches and the excellent HoI2, this system has been improved and refined over the years. Now that game system is further extended with the stand-alone expansion called Doomsday, which adds new scenarios and campaigns to the basic HoI2 game, as well as extending the game into the nuclear era of the 1950s.

Doomsday is a stand-alone add-on of HoI 2. Like its predecessor, it is loosely based on the EU game engine, but this game is far different from that groundbreaking title. In Doomsday players may select any nation on Earth, and guide it through the 1930s and into the early 1950s with the backdrop of World War 2 for players to deal with. Players will set the production of weapons, equipment, formations, aircraft and ships of any belligerent or neutral of the era, while also guiding the civilian aspects of the nation, research, and the manufacture of consumer products. The tech tree is now expanded, and a new folder has been added for spying and other intelligence activity. Doomsday is a very complex game, but within that complexity is a smooth flowing game, that is both fun and to a large extent, historically accurate.

Depending on the scenario chosen, players will have at the start forces available to the actual country, including named historical civilian and military leaders. From that point on, players take over the destiny of their nation, and they must make decisions of both a strategic and tactical nature. The game is based around the individual ship, division, and air wing level, with attachable brigades of support forces also available. The scenarios include an early start in 1936, through the last gasp of the war, and battle campaigns like the Spanish Civil War and Battle of the Bulge. Since you can play as any nation, each scenario seems completely different.

To those familiar with HoI and HoI2, the game keeps many of the operations of the previous titles; units can still be grouped into armies, fleets, and air wings. Historical leaders - many with special traits - command these formations, and their abilities, weather, and terrain, as well as enemy leaders all can affect the outcome of battle. A new feature for this add-on is that leaders can now gain traits through battle. For example a leader could become a hill fighter or an expert in counter attack. At one point I had leaders with 10 or more traits leading combat forces.

A major new innovation is the use of brigades for air units and the increased effectiveness of ground attacks. Unlike previous versions, bomber formations have long-range escort fighters attached directly as brigades so that every time they fly they have an escort. These escorts can be researched and improved through jet versions and it makes for a much smoother air game. The air tech tree has been reworked considerably and there are now many more choices to make.

The research of new technology, weapons, ships and planes is similar to previous versions of the game. Doomsday uses the HoI2 system for research and production. Money is produced by your civilian economy, and added production there can produce additional sums. Players can research up to five things at once as long as they can afford it. A sub system has historical companies and famous scientists and military men, who actually conduct research. These companies and men have an effectiveness rating, as well as specialized traits, which makes them more effective researching certain techs over others. You can change a research team at anytime, but if you do this during research, all accumulated work is lost. Before or after projects, you can replace these freely. Players can actually have Krupp research submarines, or Boeing research heavy bombers, just as in real life. The companies also include historical logos and photos, adding a nice touch to this section.

The real new section of this game is the intelligence folder. Players can send spies to any nation on Earth for a price, and if they manage to infiltrate the nation you will receive information about that country's forces and what they are researching. You can send a maximum of 10 spies to each nation, as well as 10 counter spies to your own to route out enemy spies. Once they are in the foreign nation they send back reports when you check the intelligence screen. The accuracy of the reports depends on the amount of spies you send. You can also conduct espionage activities like assassination and sabotage, but these have low probabilities of success.

This expansion also includes the revamped and improved AI, which does a much better job of controlling the computer armies. There are also improvements to the naval game that prevents outlandish things such as Japanese ships appearing in the Barents Sea and other strange activities. The event triggers have also been fixed so that they all appear to work properly now, and there are far fewer crashes to desktop seen in this game system, but it still does crash now and again.

Overall this is an outstanding upgrade of a fine system and well worth the effort for those interested in strategy games. The lack of bling will make more casual gamers shy away, yet those who love WWII will flock to familiar battlefields to again re-fight the largest war in history or to finally play a game about the early Cold War; a nice touch for the strategy crowd.

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