Wargamer Weekly This is Not a Drill By Joe Robinson

I've been on annual leave this past week looking after my daughter. I'm looking forward to the day I can indoctrinate her into the ways of wargaming so I don't have to be alone any more. Next War: Poland isn't going to play itself you know... well, outside my slow and bumbling solitaire sessions, that is. This week in general seems to have been pretty active - plenty of news, new releases and announcements, which is always nice to see. Let's get right into it.

Meanwhile, in the world of wargaming...

Men of War: Assault Squad 2 - Cold War

Well this isn’t something I expected to see while I was away. I’ve been wanting 1C to do something with Men of War for a while, and it seems like my prayers have finally been answered. Cold War is a new expansion that takes the game into the post-WW2 era, with more modern machines and even Jet Fighters. They’re also releasing a new feature in the form of dynamic generated campaigns, which should be fun. So far it seems this might actually be a ‘WW3’ alt-history scenario, but hey, it’s more Men of War so I’m happy.

Worth noting that one of the more popular mods for Assault Squad 2 is in fact a Cold War-era mod, so not sure what the situation is there. Cold War is due to release via Steam on September 12th, 2019.

New Games Alert!

We’ve actually got several news games to highlight this week:

First up we have Battles for Spain -a game set during the Spanish Civil War, covering the four key engagements of Ebro, Teruel, Guadalajara and Mérida/La Serena. You can play as either side, and the scale is battalion and company level depending on the unit. Looks a little bit like a cheap, old-school AGEOD game.

Next up is Theatre Commander: The Coming Wars, Modern War Game which is a terrible title for a potentially interesting subject matter (I’m thinking of computer war game equivalent of GMT’s Next War: Poland). It’s real-time, and focuses on the campaign and battle levels, with several scenarios covering hypothetical conflicts across the globe using modern weaponry and up-to-date ORBATS. It actually bears some resemblance to CMANO in places, and bills itself as a military simulation. We’ll try and check this one out ASAP.

Last but certainly not least, Order of Battle: Red Star was released this week as well. Ian’s on the case, and we’ll get you our review as soon as we can.

Games Updates

A couple of game updates to catch-up on:

Armoured Brigade received an update recently you may have missed - it makes a few bug fixes, as well as changes to the database and engine, and is NOT savegame compatible. Until AB lands on Steam you’ll have to grab the patch the old fashioned way , for now.

Rule the Waves 2 has now been updated to Version 1.07. This is a smaller update to the previous one, but it addresses things like the effects of accelerated construction, Carrier behavior, and Airbase UI.

Token Tabletop News

With GenCon 2019 having passed us by recently it’s worth sparing some words for some of the interesting announcements that caught our eye.

For example, there’s finally been a new Star Wars: Armada wave announced. We’ve had nothing for the Star Wars-themed fleet combat game since the Super Star Destroyer was announced at GenCon last year… and that’s only just come out. Sadly, the new ships are a bit under-whelming. I mean they look decent enough, but I guess I’m struggling a little bit because they’re pulled from a book I haven’t read. Seems like FFG is being nudged towards the direction of the ‘nu canon’, which means we’re probably going to start seeing more Episode 7-9 stuff from now on, unless they also go to the Clone Wars era like X-Wing has done.

Meanwhile, Games Workshop has announced a brand new miniatures game called Aeronautica Imperialis. This will be an aerial combat combat game set in the 41st Millenium. Thing Watch your 6!, X-Wing etc… except its warhammer. Will be interesting to see if this one takes off.

Last but not least, our friends over at WSS Magazine are running their annual wargaming survey. If you’re in to table-top miniatures and want to contribute your thoughts to the poll, make sure to fill it out! The WSS guys usually get some fascinating insights from this annual event, so it’s well worth participating.

That's all for this week - enjoy your weekends and we'll see you Monday!