Tom Chick at Fidigt has published the first installment of a series about the upcoming Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3. He starts with the Allies.

I was never a big Command & Conquer person until C&C 3 came along, so I can’t be certain how many of the units and descriptions radically deviate from the usual Red Alert nonsense. At E3, I was told that they don’t want long time RA players to feel confused by how old factions play in the new game, so I suspect there’s some overlap here. Feel free to confirm or reject my suspicion.

Faction profiles are the bread and butter of strategy previews, and I don’t always find them useful. Chick’s is a little different than most since it isn’t pure description; there’s some commentary in there about engineers being useful and how the allied Hydrofoil can be used tactically. It’s hard to make a faction preview interesting, though, especially when there’s not a lot of context on how the whole thing fits together. RTSes are, more than most genres, a form that draws meaning from how units interact with each other. This is only the beginning of the previews, so maybe there will be a wrap-up where Chick – one of the most thorough RTS commentators out there – speculates on the game as a whole.

As for me, I’m not really enthusiastic about Red Alert. It’s very much a C&C 3 game, and as much as I liked Tiberium Wars, I think I’ve been spoiled by the slow majesty of Sins of a Solar Empire, a much more leisurely RTS than what EA LA has been churning out.

Keep your eyes on Fidgit for more Red Alert previews.