You would be surprised how a good keyboard is a key part of my daily motivation to keep on penning these articles. After some shoddy search, I dismissed this week’s Strategy and Wargaming News galore as not-worthy. Probably as an excuse to play more Distant Worlds, probably just so I could enjoy my lazy Sunday off the computer, who knows? However, the ominous presence of my immoderately priced keyboard is an everlasting reminder of how I should really get on with work. So here we are, with an XXL version of the usual Strategy and Wargaming digest of the last couple of months. From big sales, charity bundles, RTS, Wargames, and First Person Shooter, this week has something for everyone.

Gates of Hell – Talvisota Announced

I don’t feel like I’ve given Gates of Hell enough of a chance when it got out. The game was buggy, undercooked, and to be absolutely honest with you, it was overly familiar. Too similar to Men of War- a game I got bored out of my mind when I fell into the wargaming rabbit out almost a decade ago, during my early years of University. However, it has since become clear that GoH is a labor of love from the developers, with continuous updates coming out steadily over the last couple of months.

As the name implies, Talvisota is expanding the game into northern Europe, introducing the stubborn Finnish and their arsenal. Here’s what you can expect when the expansion comes out, but there’s no release date as of yet:

• Finland as a fully playable faction with 40 vehicles, 50 uniforms, 20 weapons.
• Finnish single player campaign with 6 extremely detailed historical missions.
• Eastern front skirmish campaigns for Germany, USSR and Finland with 12 missions.
• 20 new multiplayer and dynamic campaign maps based on the Finnish and northern eastern front landscapes.
• A huge amount of detailed assets to create beautiful locations using the editor.

Beautiful Maps For Attack at Dawn: North Africa

If Tomislav’s videogame career doesn’t work out as well as he expects, I’m sure he could go on to make a fortune illustrating historical maps for a living. It seems that cartography is one of his hidden talents. Just get a look at these maps from his upcoming game, Attack at Dawn: North Africa:

Creating a good, accurate, and good-looking map is a tough and complicated process, so the fact that Tomislav is putting all this work in his dev diary goes a long way to show how invested he is in his first commercial, videogame project. In case you’re wondering what’s behind his idea of creating a real-time, hex-and-counter wargame, you can go and read our interview here. The game should be approaching its release window something during the next couple of months, so a demo is already up and running on its Steam page.

Humble Bundle Ukraine Support Care Package is Massive Value For a Good Cause

Two weeks ago, indie-focused store, Itch.Io launched a massive bundle that raised more than 6 million dollars to charity. Now, Humble Bundle has stepped forward and launched a Stand With Ukraine bundle that is an absolute delight and managed to raise more than 8 million dollars as of the writing of this article. At this speed, it’s safe to assume it will be more than double the amount raised by Itch. By the low price of just 36€ or your regional equivalent, you can inflate your library to new levels by adding more than one hundred games. Amongst these are Satisfactory, Back 4 Blood, Metro Exodus, Max Payne 3, Quantum Break, This War of Mine, Slay the Spire, The Long Dark, Kerbal Space Program, Expeditions: Viking, WARSAW, The Amnesia franchise, Wargroove, Superhot, and a lot of other games, worth a total of 2.500€. So yeah, if you have a couple of bucks to spare and are missing out on some of those major titles, this is a great way to get them all without breaking your bank while also giving a helping hand to a worthy cause.

Just in case, there’s also a Strategy Sale going on at Humble Bundle with great games such as the really good Distant Worlds 2, the classic XCOM 2, and the average but entertaining Iron Harvest. There’s a lot of great stuff there for pennies on the dollar.

WARNO New Divisions and DAVOUT Milestone

WARNO is getting heftier by the day and after an extremely shoddy release in January, it has recently recovered the community’s favor with its substantial updates after release, building a very chunky Wargame successor, and that is no easy task. The DAVOUT Milestone is out right now and brings two new nations to the table, NATO’s Bundeswehr and Warsaw Pacts Nationale Volksarmee:

• The West German 5. Panzerdivision brings a host of new units, from the Leopard 1A5 to the powerful Leopard 2A3 MBT, Marder IFV, Panzergrenadier infantry, Alouette II recon helicopters, Unimog trucks, Marder Roland SAM and Gepard 1A1 SPAAG amongst other. The Luftwaffe deploys its share of airplanes, including the F-104G fighter and the state-of-the-art Tornado IDS strike aircraft.
• The East German 7. Panzerdivision is well-trained but uses slightly older equipment, including “vanilla” T-72 and T-72M, as well as T-55 variants such as the modernized T-55AM2 and T-55AM2B. Other units are ZSU-23-4 Shilka SPAAG, Czech-made RM-70 MLRS and T813 supply trucks. Air support is provided by Su-22M-4, MiG-21PFM and MiG-23MF.

A new 4v4 map called Geisa – a 12 kilometer wide and 9 kilometers deep of mainly plain terrain- is currently available but undergoing testing to become a 10v10. The rest of the substantial changes focus on fixing bugs with the game. Judging by the recent Steam reviews, it’s fair to say WARNO is going places.

Hell Let Loose First Look At Remagen

Hell Let Loose, one of my favorite games of last year and recurrent night-“elapser” also keeps on expanding, this time going straight into the heart of Germany when during the month of March in 1945, the Allied forces tussled for the control of the Ludendorff Bridge, one of the last remaining bridges still standing over the Rhyne. In the game, the scenario will take place shortly after the Americans captured the bridge. Here are the available screenshots.

Fanatical Spring Sale

Spring has officially started, this means that digital platforms will rush at your wallets like dandelions seeds at unsuspecting open throats! The Fanatical Spring Sale has some absolute wargaming bangers, here are my recommendations:

• Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm Player’s Edition – €11,49

• Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector – €18.69

• Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach – €5.87

• Decisive Campaigns: The Blitzkrieg from Warsaw to Paris – €7.39

• Radio Commander – €0.83

• Battle Academy – €1.34

• Vietnam ’65 – €2.09

• Civil War II – €7.39

• Frostpunk – €6.29

• To End All Wars – €7.39

Axis Operations 1943 Announced

There isn’t a lot to say on this one other than that the next Panzer Corps 2 expansion is going to focus entirely on the Eastern Front and it’s coming later this spring. Here is another screenshot.

DCS: AH-64D Module Out Now

Sometimes I like to put this here just so people think I actually play DCS when, in all honesty, I just booted the free version once, crashed the plane, and went on to play War Thunder. If the trailer above rocking at the sound of ACDC Thunderstruck doesn’t make you want to pilot a million-dollar killing machine I don’t know what will. Give that editor a raise! That’s all I have for you this week, stay tuned and I’ll upload a Distant Worlds part one review soon.

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