Fridays are back to being all about news. Last two weeks brought us the amazing insights of Jo Bader, developer of the upcoming Second Front and the new island-hopping tour of the early 1940’s with WarPlan Pacific. Now, after 15 days in the wild I’m back at my office ready to pump some worthy news. Here, at Strategy and Wargaming Inn we care not for patch notes and world of tanks top 10 mods and skins. We like big hex-maps,unending stats sheets and college textbooks size manuals. It’s a place to chill, sip a drink and after a long week wishing you could enlist your colleagues in the penal battalions of the Soviet Army. Fridays are indeed for relaxing during a lunch break, day-dream about the weekend ahead and to get inspired by reading the latest post at TallyHoCorner by the legendary word-wrangler Tim Stone.

Slitherine Reveals New Games

The moment we’ve all been waiting for. Home of Wargamers went live last tuesday with four new games revealed: Master of Magic, Scramble: Battle of Britain, Broken Arrow and Stargate: Timekeepers. Out of the four shots by Slitherine, Scramble and Broken Arrow are clear hits. The first, and the most appealing for me, brought me back lovely memories from Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol, a WW1, turn-based, dogfighting delight of yore. Broken Arrow is being developed by former Eugen Systems, Wargame devs and it appears to be going down the same route. Happy times for Wargame fans! As Microprose is also developing their own take of the franchise with Regiments. If any developers are reading this, I must urge you, please! Down forget us, the uncoordinated slow-pokes whose brain power can’t handle the fast gameplay of Wargame! I personally love and own the entire Wargame and Steel Division series but the fast-pace nature of the franchise means that more often than not I’ll get overwhelmed and avoiding it entirely.

New Total War Warhammer III Trailer and Gameplay

A fiery new trailer is out for Total War Warhammer III with minuscule snips of gameplay. Watch a man resent a world that has forgotten Kislev, men “forged hot against an anvil of ice”, forever destined to be the bulwark against the hordes of Chaos. Watch as this men descends into madness and eventually being consumed by rage, turning his back on everything he once care to protect.

In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war. Folk at the Warhammer universe don’t necessarily live enviable, joyful lives but at least here, at the Planet Tera we can have fun at their expense.

JTS Panzer Campaigns Kiev ’43 is out now.

I like big stacks and I cannot lie. My other Commissars can’t deny. When I see the 4th Panzer Army my T-34 gun gets sprung! Here’s from the game page:

After the debacle at Kursk in July of 1943, the Russians followed up their victory with a series of campaigns to drive the Germans out of Russia. The first of these was Operation Kutuzov, lasting from 14 July to 14 August, where the Axis forces tried to hold a line at Bryansk but failed. After this the Russians kicked off Operation Rumiantsev, from 3 – 24 August, where the Soviets captured Kharkov and liberated the eastern Ukraine. The next major objective on their list was to cross the Dnieper River line and liberate Kiev, the third largest city in the Soviet Union.

Game features include:

• Game scale is 1 hex = 1 km, 1 turn = 2 hours, with battalion and company size units.
• 59 Scenarios – covering all sizes and situations, including a solo tutorial scenario plus specialized versions for both head to head play and vs. the computer AI.
• The master map (75,044 hexes) covers the entire area from Zhitomir and Korosten in the west to Kiev and beyond the Dnepr River.
• The order of battle file covers the Axis and Allied forces that participated in the campaign with other formations added in for hypothetical situations.
• Order-of-Battle, Parameter Data and Scenario Editors which allow players to customize the game.
• Sub-map feature allows the main map to be subdivided into smaller segments for custom scenario creation.
• All new images for unit art on both sides, including guns, infantry and vehicles covering all of the forces of the Allied and Axis armies involved in the operation.
• Design notes which cover or include the production of the game, campaign notes and a bibliography that includes the sources used by the Wargame Design Studio team to produce this simulation game.

Microprose is publishing Ground Branch

Ground Branch is Rainbow Six, but for manly, bearded men. I’ve been playing it on and off for the past week and let me assure you that you won’t find a game that takes itself more serious than this. When they say “Unprecedented Customization” it’s not “oh just choose some attachments and you’re good” or “just pluck a laser sight”. It’s more like “if there’s enough space for it, you can put it on and we don’t care if it works or not. That’s entirely your problem. Start doing good life choices. Why would you want and MP5 with a 8x zoom? But hey, if it works for you, go for it!”. Anyway, I love it.

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