Is everybody ready for the HOW- 100% Wargames of 2022? I most certainly am! There isn’t a lot if any, other big-name events for us, wargame aficionados out there, so we take everything we get. The event will take place this week, on October 13th, and will have a run time of about two hours, from 17:00 to 19:00 UK Time and you’ll be able to watch it all on the Slitherine Twitch Channel.

Slitherine and Matrix were nice enough to provide an inventory of all the games that are going to be making an appearance:

• Modern Naval Warfare is a “next generation naval combat simulator” unveiled last year to an audience pleased with the game’s presentation and promises of realistic skipper-scuffles and true-to-life controls of a SSN-774 Virgina Class Nuclear Attack Submarine;
• Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm is going to be the next entry to the beloved Flashpoint Campaigns “series”, with Red Storm being a constant feature in every “best Cold War videogames of all time” with its innovative implementation of a dynamic turn system based on the quality of communications;
• Command: Modern Operations is the uncontested winner of the coveted award for “most ridiculously detailed wargame ever created, to the point, it’s used by some of the world’s most powerful navies to train their forces”. It’s going to be interesting to see how CM:MO and Modern Naval Warfare will square off when the latter finally releases. I doubt Slitherine and Matrix would be crazy enough to be publishing games that would create competition within their own ranks;
• Valor & Victory is a squad-based level wargame based on the original Valor & Victory board game. I still haven’t had the time to get to it;
• Strategic Command needs to put some effort if its goal is to rekindle the fire it had with its community after the lukewarm reception of the recent American Civil War, it seems that porting its World War 2 systems directly into the previous century wasn’t necessarily the best idea, especially when there are games like Grand Tactician: Civil War (1861-1865) fighting for the exact same market spot offering both the grand-strategy experience Strategic Command is known for while also allowing for 3D tactical battles in the vein of the Total War titles Creative Assembly so creatively assembled;
• Rule the Waves 3 was a nice surprise, especially since the untimely death of NWS store owner, at which point buying Rule the Waves 2 and 1 was near impossible. There’s a lot to speculate about, but for the first time since the game was announced in August gameplay will be shown;
• War in the East 2 – DLC Steel Inferno, the all-encompassing operational simulator of the second world war – Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2– is a game that amazes and scares in the same measure is getting a new DLC covering the military operations in Yugoslavia in 1944 and it is set to come out sometime during November;
• Combat Mission – New Unannounced DLC. Hopefully, this new “unannounced DLC” from the Second World War isn’t the same as already available for pre-order at the Battlefront website for Combat Mission: Red Thunder, set to become the Battle Pack 1. Because if it is, then my naive hopes for another Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy DLC are sure to suffer. A shame indeed;
• Nuclear War Simulator is another game announced at the same Home of Wargames that featured Modern Naval Warfare and it’s selling its premise as a “detailed realistic simulation and visualization of large-scale nuclear conflicts with a focus on humanitarian consequences. There are currently over 13000 nuclear weapons on this planet of which over 9000 are in military stockpiles. This software should help you answer the question: what will happen if Russia and the United States or India and Pakistan use their arsenals?”. Apparently, players will be able to design their very own weapons of mutually assured annihilation. After that, place them on the map and look at the top right of your screen to see the bodies starting to pile up, in the most stupid decision humanity could ever take after the creation of Coca-Cola Clear;
• Shadow Empire, the 4X from VR Designs is not another dime-a-dozen from the Explore, Expand, Extract and Exterminate space. It sticks closer to wargames, focusing mostly on military affairs, supply, and logistics instead with a pinch of politics in between for good measure.

Marco Minoli, CMO at Slitherine highlights that “The event will feature never-seen-before footage for Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm, Command Falklands, and War in the East 2 Steel Inferno. There will be interviews, the first showing of Rule the Waves 3, news about the future of Combat Mission and Shadow Empire, and more. We’ve got promos and discounts across multiple stores, interviews, chats, and social media posts. There is something for everyone who’s got a passing interest in the genre and a whole week of happenings for the ones who want to follow everything. We are eager to re-position the Home of Wargames brand so that it genuinely feels like a place to share a passion and discuss it with friends. We’ll keep investing in the hobby, it is our responsibility as market leaders, and it’s also an ongoing mission for both the company’s founders and the new members.”

In case you’re not able to see the live event, here at Strategy and Wargaming I’ll be summarizing everything after the event is over.

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