Newly rolled out screenshots of Combat Mission: Shock Force, (scroll down to take a look) illustrate the aspect of unconventional warfare within the game. Images are fresh so don't think it's anything you've seen before. In addition to the screens, Battlefront has updated the game's official blog with a full entry dedicated to the subject.

"Even though Combat Mission Shock Force is focusing on a future hypothetical conventional war, it would not be complete without the inclusion of some basic elements of unconventional warfare," says Battlefront's spokesperson. "It is an unfortunate fact that the lines between conventional and unconventional warfare are blurring today. Partly due to the strength of the western forces in the area of conventional warfare, unconventional methods are more and more the big equalizer for the opposing force."

"As game designers the challenge for us is to add the various elements of unconventional warfare, such as IEDs (improvised explosive devices) or spies, in a realistic way, while preventing them from unbalancing the rest of the simulation. The imbalance could swing either way - if not powerful enough, unconventional elements might be a mere nuisance, only adding micromanagement for both players without any real purpose. If too powerful, players might be tempted to overuse unconventional tactics, thus pushing the limits on what the game is designed to simulate. And that is a conventional warfare setting with an unconventional component, not the other way around."

Paradox Interactive, the game's publisher, has won numerous awards worldwide for the newly released grand-strategy-game, Europa Universalis III. The game has a 3D engine that requires the system to meet the Pixel Shader 2.0 specification, while the map has 1,700 land and sea provinces encompassing the entire world, with 250 playable historical nations.

Check out the fresh screenshots below (selected out of a total of 12) and remember, Combat Mission: Shock Force has been scheduled for a July 27th, 2007 release.