Another title that was on the showfloor of E3 at the CDV booth was Blitzkrieg II.

While the expansion for Blitzkrieg should be in the stores now, the boys at CDV are busy working its sequel, only scheduled for release a year for this game is not nearly finished but it allready has a few nice features.

The mayor change in Blizkrieg II is that this time everything in the game is completly 3D meaning that everything on the map can be burned, crushed and basicly destroyed.
Models of all the tanks used in Blitzkrieg I have been overhauled with extra detail and now you can rotate and pause you game freely whenever and however you want.

In total there will be about 350 units available from all kinds of factions, ranging from Japanse tanks to German warships. (or if you prefer, the other way around).

As in the first installment you had objectives to conquer, but now these objectives are actual buildings or other usefull items, radarstations, harbors and trainstations will not only win you points but will be actually usefull in your battle.

The extra's you obtain through them range from reduction in fog of war, more reinforcements or even troops who are directly ferried to your conquered trainstation in stead of appearing at the start of the map. Blitzkrieg II tries to be more strategic then the first installement using this kind of approach.

Reinforcements have also become a lot less random, now you are able to buy what you want from a sort of warehousesystem using the points you earn by conquering objectives.
The sort of units you are able to obtain has also been expanded, now you are even able to control battleships for artillery support.

For those among you who have played the first Blitzkrieg and always wished for an option to build tanktraps and minefields like they could build trenches, basicly with a click and drag system, rejoice! Building defences now is easier then ever and alot less timeconsuming so you can focus on the game in stead of building your dragonteeth one by one!

Another improvement is the use of heroes in the form of elite squads like the 101-airborne or tankaces like the German, Wittman. They won't be part of your core army but on some missions they'll be available for you to use.

The AI offcourse has had a mayor overhaul, a combination of scripting and real AI should make for a challenging opponent who will use terrain and test your defences to find your weakness.

Online play should also become alot more challenging, CDV is planning to use an online ladder system, not unlike battlenet that will enable you to build up an army using points earned in battle, you'll even be able to import your core army from your singleplayer game to a multiplayer match.

In total there will be 60 missions, 15 missions per side as you will be able to play a campaign for Russia, Germany, America and the British. Historical missions will also be available, they will feature nations like the Japanse and Italians, who will not have an own campaign.

The project is currently in Alpha but there will be a beta in the fall that might be public with a final release in Germany for the 1st quarter of 2005.