Wargamer Weekly: Wait, why is this on a Thursday? By Joe Robinson

Good question, why IS this coming out on a Thursday? Well, by the time you read this, I’ll actually be in Stockholm attending Paradox’s annual ‘PDXCon’. In fact, I’m talking to you from the past right now because I had to write this Wednesday evening as I was catching an early flight today.

So, apologies for the early and slightly truncated nature of this week’s update. There will still be something coming up tomorrow, but it’s a regular feature that was easy to schedule in advance. Normal service will resume on Monday, and watch out for snap posts from me either here, on Strategy Gamer, or on Twitter/Facebook.

Meanwhile, in the world of wargaming…

New Graviteam Tactics DLC

Graviteam Tactics: Mius Front is one of Graviteam’s more recent Combat Mission-esque war simulations, having released in 2016. Since then the game has received four expansion packs, and late last Friday the developer released a fifth – Black Snow.

It covers fighting that took place on the Eastern Front around March 19th, 1943, and comes with the following new content:

Two operations of 28 turns for each of the parties (Karbusel, March 19-23, 1943).

Precisely recreated area of over 100 sq. km west of the Naziya river, village Karbusel.

Historical organizational structure of units at the time of the offensive.

Massive use of KV-1S and Churchill II tanks.

It is currently enjoying a 15% launch discount, if you want to jump on it right away.

Order of Battle: Sandtorm

It’s been featured in so many WW’s lately, I’m glad we can finally say this expansion pack is out. As soon as we get review code, we’ll get Ian on the case.

In case you’ve forgotten, Sandstorm takes the player to North Africa, where the Italians and Germans fight with the British over control of the Mediterranean coastline. It features a branching campaign with a couple of different paths you can take at various points, as well as a few ‘what if’ scenarios.

The release of Sandstorm also comes with two other cool announcements – The entire Order of Battle collection is no available via GOG.com, and in addition to that, Matrix are holding a sales event. Depending on the expansion, you can get past Order of Battle add-ons at up to 75% off until May 23rd.

Armoured Commander II New Build

A new build is available for Armoured Commander II. It has some new features to build upon the work done for the Alpha 1. Change-log below:

ADD: message log for the campaign day and a simple log display in the game menu

ADD: terrain score for each scenario map hex, used to help the AI player

ADD: terrain types for zones on the campaign day map; and this determines the type of terrain that will be generated on the scenario map

ADD: railroads to scenario maps, no depiction on campaign day map yet

ADD: bonus to hull down chance if railroad in hex

ADD: very brief briefing for the start of the combat day

ADD: sound effect for vehicle armour save

ADD: new unit: German PSW 231(6 rad) Armoured Car

CNG: Guns and Infantry units will now be spawned in more strategic locations at the start of the scenario

CNG: continue key for attack displays to Tab

CNG: roll indicator to percentage display for attack rolls

FIX: vehicle destroyed sound was not playing until after the message display

FIX: vehicles without turrets suddenly had them

FIX: moving or pivoting now clears any acquired target immediately rather than at end of activation

FIX: center objective hex will no longer have a pond generated in it

Age of Sigmar 2.0

Another token table-top update this week. It seems Age of Sigmar the game that destroyed countless Warhammer Fantasy players’ hopes and dreams is getting a second edition, barely three years after its original release.

For some context, the time span between the release of Warhammer Fantasy 7th edition and the final 8th edition was four years, and five years between 8th and Age of Sigmar. Seems a bit soon, although no alarmingly soon. The new edition will refine the rules, but the bulk of the work seems to have gone into expanding the universe with more lore, and maps. Can’t forget the maps.

They’ll also be new minis, of course, because what’s a Games Workshop release that doesn’t try and squeeze as much money out of you as possible? No news yet as to a release schedule, so there’s no telling if it’ll be later this year, or early next.

And now for something completely different…

It’s actually just a coincidence that I’ve founds something interesting two weeks in a row. If I keep finding interesting tid-bits, I might make it a regular thing. This week’s fun thing is this scalable map of Europe, but everything looks like it would have done during the time of the Roman Empire. Enoy!

That’s all for this week’s (slightly rushed) round-up, see you all next week!