Friendly troops generally handle things nicely as they keep track of weapon stockpiles, call for more when supplies gets low, and send repair trucks where they're needed with little prompting. Collectively, though, they work well together and put up a great fight against the fast-swarming enemy. The AI is very good, but your troops occasionally have a bit of trouble getting out of each other's way. Often, you simply set events in motion and wait for them to finish before advancing. The technology tree is similar for each army and very slow to develop, and allows research of only one item at a time, which severely hampers base development, units and their effectiveness. Each mission features new units to create and, occasionally, a special unit that's instrumental in completing the mission is automatically generated. Units can be assigned to a control group so they'll join the right outfit once produced. The interface is fairly easy to master, and offers a choice between a basic or advanced set up, dependant on the level of investment you want to make in developing your base and units. In order to develop your units fully, the enemy needs to be willing to do the same, which rarely happens since the AI is set to swarm over your base as soon and as fast as possible. Keeping them alive, though, isn't always easy, as the game is designed more for "amass and attack" type strategy than unit development. Units gain experience by eliminating the enemy, with some needing protection to eventually turn them into high-ranking troops and elite killing machines. forces employ long-range mortars and build towers to call in air strikes from F-15 fighters and B-2 bombers. As the Iraqis, you can camouflage desert units perfectly for ambushes, and have access to truck bombs and SCUD missile launchers. Due to expert skills in field repairs, Russians have self-repairing vehicles, as well as chemical weapons that can cut through armor. All factions have basically the same main forces, tanks and helicopters, but have special skills as well. With only one resource, you can focus attention on building up your base and units. The base progression is so fast, in fact, that you'll often crush an enemy base only to discover that he's already built a new one two sites away, which can be frustrating. Your base is limited by access to the technical tree, similar to Heroes of Might and Magic, and building more units and buildings creates additional opportunities. Building a solid base is fairly rapid, as you surround it with gun batteries for protection - something the enemy is also doing. The process of locating oil to sell to finance your campaign is done automatically prior to building forces and buildings, thus you're not required to find, gather, store and refine it. Your first confrontation playing as the U. Although this somewhat restrictive feature may annoy some gamers, the linearity doesn't significantly hurt gameplay. In single player action, you must first win the United States campaign before you can play as Iraq, and eventually Russia. The game features a single player campaign, multiplayer action, and a computer opponent skirmish mode, with only minor differences in actual gameplay. NATO members, reacting to the threat to security and wealth, send their own armies to stop the Russians.
A former Communist general from the days before Russia's breakup decides to amass an army to take over the oil fields and return the Motherland to its former glory. The Arab Federation halts the flow of oil, causing panic among world powers as they search for alternate energy sources. As a change of pace from the glut of science fiction and fantasy RTS titles, World War III: Black Gold offers a real-world strategy experience with realism ranging from the appearance of soldiers and vehicles to their gritty actions.