The scope of this game is by necessity much smaller than your typical RTS fare – so much so that it really doesn’t do the game justice to call it Real Time Strategy, even though it will probably be labeled as such. There is no production, no resources, no bases, no miners, or any of those elements. You have a set of forces, the enemy has his, and you meet on the field of battle. You will have a few squads at your command and usually only a handful of tanks. This encourages you to plan according to the strengths of your units and the weaknesses of your enemy – and it is hoped by the designers you will use bona fide tactics with units, rather than lasso fodder. Despite these good intentions, this preview code still had the occasional tank charging in alone, men running in weird patterns as they struggled with route finding, and a few other "RTS-isms." Similarly, the game has multiplayer which more closely resembles the RTS model – providing up to eight players a way to face off against each other in a free-for-all battle royale.
As sisters go, these two games are definitely from the same stock, but are clearly very different. Can you call Theatre of War a Combat Mission lite? Perhaps you can, but you have to be ready to accept that this means some features which are very definitely part of one game (useable buildings, riding outside tanks, immense battles, etc.) are not necessarily going to be part of the other. By all appearances this game was designed as a refinement of the RTS genre using tactical elements, rather than a refinement of the turn-based tactical genre using RTS elements. Seeing the two as individuals will help shape your expectations, and unquestionably will help address which one you’d like to date. I plan on doing the impossible, and dating them both!
[Apologies to my wife.]
[Note: Gameplay was on an AMD 3000+, 1G Ram, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and was smooth and fluid. Screenshots represent all the highest settings in video options.]
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