Wargamer Weekly: A Question of Doctrine By Joe Robinson

So I’ve been playing an unhealthy amount of Rule the Waves 2 this week – what a revelation. It’s both utterly compelling and maddeningly obtuse at the same time – but only to my modern sensibilities. I’ve quite enjoyed it, although trying to keep up with the AI in terms of ship advancements is tough, especially as a smaller nation with limited budget.

My own personal tastes lean towards science-fiction, so I’d love to to play something like this set in space. Doesn’t even have to be grand sci-fi – an Expanse like scenario set in the Solar system would also be quite cool. Beyond that, I’d love for Rule the Waves to expand it’s emergent narrative elements – there’s a lot of really cool potential here. Also for the love of god, get some tooltips.

Meanwhile, in the world of wargaming…

Matrix Games & Slitherine

Armored Brigade is getting more love this week: not only is a Steam version finally happening, but Matrix have also opened up a sub-forum to assist with collecting research on various countries during the period. So far they have forums for France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia and Canada, and you can suggest additional ones if you want.

Note this doesn’t mean they are guaranteed to appear in the next DLC, or any DLC for that matter, it’s just the devs want to start creating easily accessible places for research materials on Cold War armies and Orbats, to assist in the devs own work but also for any modders who want to make their own content for the game.

Also note the disclaimers on the news post so you don’t get into trouble.

In other news, Field of Glory: Empires now has a release date – July 11th. It’s a bit later than we were expecting; the last report we had indicated by the end of June but it’s not a big deal. Here’s a quick trailer recapping everything you need to know about the game.

Speaking of Field of Glory - it seems we're not the only ones who go in for super in-depth guides on niche subjects. A Matrix forum user has compiled a complete guide to all of Field of Glory II's available Army Lists as of Wolves at the Gate. There's nearly 300 of them now, in case you were wondering, so this is a pretty hench document. but it provides a little blurb on each army/faction combo available with some images. Check it out here.

We’ve also got our first Dev Diary for WarPlan, the new grand strategy WW2 game that’s in the works. It’s mainly an introduction from the lead developer Alvaro Sousa, and covers his own personal history and his inspirations for the game. We’re still not really sure what to make of this project – we have a beta article in progress which we’ll be able to share with you soon.

Last but certainly not least, there’s also been another dev diary for Fantasy General II. This one covers the combat system in general:

Naval Action Leaves Early Access

Game-Labs – the creators of Ultimate General: Civil War – have finally released their Age of Sail-era hardcore naval simulation Naval Action from Early Access.

Be careful when rushing to check it out though – there community itself already seems a bit unhappy with how things have turned out, and the presence of at least £100’s worth of DLC that all seems to be ships has me suspicious – Wargaming.net struggles with accusations of ‘pay-to-win’ amongst its own premium vessels in World of Warships, and similar accusations are being brought against Naval Action.

Coupled with reports of a lot grind, and lack-lustre PvE features, this might be one to wait out and see where the wind blows.

That's all we have time for this week - if you spot anything else of interest, let us know in the comments!