While I’m hard at work penning my thoughts on some excellent titles like Songs of Conquest, Maneuver Warfare, and Attack at Dawn: North Africa (releasing this week, on the 7th), the weekly update still needs to come out, lest we lose the trail of the interesting happenings going on in our small Strategy and Wargaming space. Just a couple of things, though:

Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm Looking For Beta Testers

I’ve been pestering Slitherine and Matrix to let me get my hands on Flashpoint Campaigns’ upcoming classic Southern Front for quite a while now. Unfortunately, I’ve been rather unsuccessfully. The grand tactical wargame set in the cold war has proved its pedigree after riding high on the “best modern wargames” lists all over the internet with its previous – and current- iteration of Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm. Having played it myself, it certainly deserves its spot: it’s a scenario and campaign rich game, with plenty of content to explore, it packs a ridiculous amount of detail into its weapon systems and orders of battles, and most interesting, it implemented a variable-length turn system based on command and communications.

If you want to try and give its beta state a go, you can apply here, at Matrix’s website. No release date has been announced as of yet but the game was set to release this year.

Civil War Battles Demo Released

For those unsure, if Wargame Design Studio games are what you’re looking for, the studio has released a new demo, just a couple of days ago for their Civil War Battles series. You can try its systems and test their mettle in three scenarios “the intro, Getting Started scenario, then the full battle scenario and finally there is a “meeting” variation of the battle with the forces arriving on the map over time so that the battles lines will vary depending on player choices”. Nicely enough, they’ve also included the scenario editor, so more adventurous wargamers can try their hands at creating proprietary scuffles out of their imaginations (as long as it is in the included map and Order of Battle). The demo is completely free and available for download by visiting the product page, something you can do so right now by clicking on these words.

Desert Rats DLC Announced

At the rate 2×2 Games are pumping out new content for their Unity of Command sequel, I’m surprised there’s still any war left to expand upon. Now, wargamers all over will be joining forces with the Desert Rats, by taking command of the precarious Allied forces fighting in the North African desert to stop the Italians, and eventually, the Germans. The game will feature:

• 20+ historical scenarios based on British Commonwealth campaigns in East Africa, North Africa, and the Mediterranean in 1940-41.
• Large map coverage expanded to include the Western Desert and the Middle East, plus a brand new map for East Africa.
• Many new units from the Commonwealth nations.

Unity of Command II – Desert Rats is set to release on the 14th of July, 2022.

Trivia: Do you know that Unity of Command makes a small appearance on my List of the Best World War II Games of All Time?

Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865) Economy Update

The Strategy Wargamer – and his… interesting way of producing content- made me aware of this update. Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865) economy has been completely revamped and overhauled in what the team calls “The biggest Grand Tactician update so far”. Version 1.06 brings a lot of bug fixes and minor improvements alongside “new game mechanics, like government-funded projects and a new weapon procurement system (including a few new weapon types) as well as [the] ability for the player to construct a wide range of buildings with unique effects on the campaign map”.

Having played said game for a while now, I can safely say it’s one of the best Civil War offerings on the market and you would be missing out if you haven’t given it a whirl yet. Surely, this new update can only improve its already existing goodness. Until the 10th of June, the game will be 15% off on Steam, at a reasonable price of 38,24€ or your regional equivalent.

Call To Arms – Gates of Hell: Talvisota and Content Update III

I always find it amazing that when someone says wargaming is dying, a new weird expansion comes to what can be called a “mainline title”. In the works Content Update III for Gates of Hell: Ostfront is bringing the Second World War into its earlier stages by adding early war equipment, squad compositions, and maps- apparently, the impact of which is so impressive that “the new era feels different because of the equipment and because it triggers players to use rather different tactics as a result”. Most importantly, with this update “all war periods are covered and the foundations for any future development of fronts and factions are complete”.

The future update is coming raising the map count level all the way to 35 for multiplayer and 25 for conquest. It will introduce at least 40 new vehicles and equipment, totaling 290. This is not counting with the Talvisota DLC, mind you.

Gates of Hell players that don’t buy Talvisota will still be able to join any PvP session with any DLC owners, however “in such lobbies [players] won’t be able to play the Finnish factions”. Talvisota will include 20 new maps based solely on Finnish locations. To round things up, only those with Talvisota on their Steam account will be able to access their assets on the Editor. There are still no release dates for both the Content Update III and Talvisota DLC.

World War 2 Rebuilder Prologue Looking For Players

Well, this is an interesting one. Have you ever stopped to consider what happens when your little soldiers are done with destroying that city block by destroying every little bit of edifice that once stood? Madnetic Games is removing the machine guns and howitzers from you and handing you out shovels, hammers, and mortar so you can build back every little house you leveled during your last Combat Mission… mission.

WW2 Rebuilder: Germany Prologue is aiming for a July 2022 release date. If you want you can visit their WW2 Rebuilder Steam page to take a look at the whole game.

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