It’s good to be back! Happy New Year, everyone. Hopefully, you’ve had a nice family holiday season and are returning to work safe and sound. Let’s kick it our weekly news digests with some of the things going on across this small corner of wargaming goodness. 2022 Is promising to be a spectacular year for pundits of the genre. If you haven’t had the chance, make sure you read my extensive list of the most anticipated wargames for the current year.

WARNO Releasing 20th January

Are you ready to take command? Are you? Don’t look at me. It’s Eugen’s upcoming WARNO Steam Page who’s asking. Cold War and Modern Warfare fans should be set for decades after 2022 is done. Regiments was announced a couple of months back, Broken Arrow is looking fantastic, and WARNO is coming to Steam just a couple of days from now. WARNO is being currently developed by none other than the pioneers of this kind of RTS, Eugen Systems.

Unfortunately, there’s no gameplay to judge this book by its cover before it hits the digital front later next week. What I can safely say is that, if the gifs posted by the developers are anything to go by, then WARNO will be visually very impressive. The terrains and towns details are miles ahead of Steel Division and, even more so than Wargame: Red Dragon.

WARNO is coming out on the 20th of January 2022.

Campaign Series :Vietnam Out 20th of January

It’s fair to say that the Vietnam War isn’t getting the love it used to. Other than Radio Commander and Vietnam ’65 and a well-received ARMA III DLC I’m having a hard time remembering other recent releases covering the jungle conflict. Campaign Series: Vietnam is a soon-to-be-released turn-based, tactical/operational wargame focusing on the conflicts in Southeast Asia, from 1948 to 1979. Conflicts covered are the French Indochina (1948-1954), South Vietnam Civil War (1955-1964), and of course the United States involvement in South Vietnam from 1965 to 1967.

According to its Matrix page, each scenario map is actually built around topographic information from the period with the engagement taking place in it, having been previously painstakingly researched. Campaign Series Vietnam is introducing Helicopters, riverine units, tunnel rats, civilians, and supply units. Of course, the inclusion of units such as the tunnel rats means there’s another tactical layer to take into account, such as tunnels.

Having played the original Campaign Series from Jonh Tiller for a bit, it came out as extremely outdated and clunky. There are just a lot more interesting things to play at the moment, so I can’t say I’m necessarily excited for the release of Vietnam but let’s wait and see how well it does.

Campaign Series: Vietnam is out on the 20th of January.

Armored Brigade Team Working In Other Project

Slitherine is back and in their most recent Tea Time, they dropped a sneaky that went under my radar until I watched it again, with the presenter letting viewers know that the team behind the excellent Armored Brigade is working on something. Something that’s not related to the current Armored Brigade, so no new nations, but something… Very cryptic. In my head, this either means that the team is working on a successor for the game or working in a spin-off, taking their well-oiled engine into another time period. Given the hype Slitherine is putting behind the AB: 1943 mod, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them going all-in on World War 2. But that’s just a theory.

Cities: Skylines – Airports Releasing Soon

Cities: Skylines is the best City-Sim of all time and with each update, it keeps on getting better and better. Now, finally, after all this time, Paradox Interactive is dripping some love into the aerial side of things by introducing airports and the ability for players to build them in a modular way. An airport can have a huge impact on the way surrounding spaces are designed, and most importantly, it can have a profound economic impact on the region. Finally, digital mayors will adapt these massive transportation interfaces to the needs of their cities.

Cities: Skylines – Airports is scheduled for release on the 25th of this month

Tribute to the Liberation of Italy releasing February 3rd

Eugen Systems might be gearing up for the release of WARNO later in the following week but Steel Division II has not been left on the wayside. Releasing in February is the next historical expansion for their World War II franchise. The Tribute to the Liberation of Italy will bring four new Nations and eight new Divisions, comprised of more than 300 new units, including new vehicles and plane models as well as infantry models.

• AXIS: The new divisions are the 5. Gebirgsjäger, the Italian-German mixed 4. Fallschirmjäger, the 26. Panzerdivision – the sole remaining German armored formation in Italy – or the Mussolini-loyal 4a Divisione Alpini “Monterosa”.
• ALLIED: 6th South African Armoured Division, the Italian Corpo Italiano di Liberazione, the mountain troops of the 8th Indian (Infantry) Division, or the diverse Task Force 45 with its Japanese-American Nisei and Brazilian soldiers.

The Tribute to the Liberation of Italy is out on the 3rd of February

The Troop Out Now In Early Access

The Troop is a fantastic new game that came out of nowhere that truly does the whole “simplifying things” a whole lot better than most of the games out there. The Troop is a turn-based tactical game set in World War 2 during the D-Day Campaign and puts the player in charge of British and Canadian forces as they engage the germans all across the Normandy countryside. 

If you know about or have played Battle Academy, then I would argue that The Troop does pretty much the same thing but with less cartoony graphics, opting instead for the Saving Private Ryan color scheme and vibe instead. 

I’ve yet to buy the game (Varmilo keyboards aren’t cheap, you know?) but having played the demo a couple of months back during the Steam Games Festival (and most recently, last week), the Troop gets a solid recommendation if you’re craving for more fast-paced, simple Second World War action then Combat Mission.  

The Troop is now in Early Access and will cost you $33,99.

The Giveaway Is Over, Check Your Emails

There was an alarming lack of views on my article about letting everybody know that the Strategy and Wargaming giveaway was finally over. So if you happen to pass on by to read this weekly update of what’s going on around these parts, make sure you check out your email for a forgotten and late Christmas gift hanging around.

Project Reality Is Still In Active Development And That’s Awesome

Were you aware that Project Reality is still in active development? I didn’t. It’s has been quite a while since I last played it (probably five, six years by now? Maybe more). Now it’s installing.

And that’s all I got for you this week. It’s great to be back on the frontlines of Wargaming and even greater to have readers coming back again and again checking out for new content every day. Stay safe out there and stay tuned for my first impressions on Regiment and how well it pairs up against Wargame: Red Dragon.

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