Wargamer Weekly: Blood Brothers By Joe Robinson

Now that I've returned from holiday we can get back to the very serious business of computer war games. My own game-time has been incredibly lax recently as needs must I've had to concentrate on other things, although I am playing through Men of War: Assault Squad 2's recent DLC expansion, Cold War. It's not great, fam. I've got to play through a bit more but I'm aiming for a full write-up next week. Great ideas executed poorly, basically. A bit lazy too, if I'm being honest.

Meanwhile, in the world of war games...

Close Combat: The Bloody First Release Date

This news dropped after I'd already hit 'Publish', but you'll all be interested to know that Close Combat: The Bloody First now has a release date.

You can follow the US 1st Infantry Division through their campaigns in World War 2 from October 3rd. Here's a trailer to celebrate.

Armored Brigade’s New Nation Pack - France & Belgium

Armored Brigade is getting a new DLC pack which will bring the French and Belgian Cold War armies into the fray. It’s a modest pack, although there will be over 200 new units added to the game all-in-all. It also comes with a new map that covers the Ardennes region.

Historically parts of the 1 BE Crops guarded a stretch of German countryside that stretched east from the Rhine at Cologne, and I took part in a simulation of a similar ‘what if’ conflict as part of the Belgium team in a megagame a few years ago.

The France/Belgium Nation pack, as well as the game’s Steam debut, will be released on October 31st.

Strategic Command WW2: World at War

A couple of things for World at War this week. Firstly, it’s just received a pretty update, bringing the game to Version 1.05.00. We suggest you read the full change-log to get a full overview of what’s been improved.

In addition to that, the game’s received its own Community DLC Pack. Fury Software have integrated five popular mods into the base game free of charge. You can read more about which mods have been included and what they do here.

Hall of Men: Blood Brothers Early Access

Other than having a bonkers name, HoM is notable because it appears to be trying to be a real-time strategy (war) game set during the Cold War (gone hot) naturally. Nato vs. Warsaw Pact is very evocative but not covered as often these days, so this might be something to keep an eye on. Here’s an official blurb:

It is a skirmish game that offers innovative mechanics that reward thoughtful and strategic players. With the cover system for infantry, class combinations, the danger of vehicles by their firepower and resistance, HoM is close to simulation, you will have to learn to use all these aspects.

It’s due to launch into Early Access next week on September 23rd.

Hollywood History - Troy Edition

Ancients-era wargaming is definitely one of our favourite topics here at Wargamer, and what’s more enticing than one of the most iconic Bronze Age conflicts in history - the Trojan War? Not many games have tried covering this period (I’ve got Bill doing research on this as we speak), but now Creative Assembly are sticking their oar in.

Total War Saga: Troy is the second game in the new spin-off series that focuses on flashpoints in history. The first game was the controversial and under-appreciated Thrones of Britannia, covering Alfred the Great’s era, and now the second game seeks to bring Homer’s Iliad and the Trojan War to life. You can read more about it at our sister website, if you want.

Rule the Waves Version 1.09

Development on unique naval war game Rule the Waves 2 continues, and a new patch has been released. It’s a more modest update, so much so that we can post the full change log here:

Revised battle missions for Italy and AH to account for possible change in ownership of Dalmatia.

Tweaked battle compositions so that lack of certain ship types will not guarantee that a "better" type is substituted.

Aircraft of multi deleted air units will now end up in the pool of available aircraft.

Auto delete of unused rebuild design files is now an option. If checked, the delete will be performed every December.

The airbase list data will now update after multi-moving air units to the reserve.

"Fastest Available" checkbox will be automatically turned off if game speed is manually lowered.

Added copy and paste function for air groups in Air Groups screen.

Air Bases in air groups screen now sorted: Reserve - CV - Home area bases - other bases by possession.

Fixed an error with British bonus techs in the nation file.

Added Dreadnought to the British ship names file.

Made airstrikes less likely to target transports.

That's all for this week - as ever if you spot anything else let us know in the comments.