Wargamer Weekly: May's First Edition By Joe Robinson

It’s funny – I updated our guide to what 2019 still has in store as far as computer war games is concerned, and while there were a few projects to add, I realised we hadn’t really reviewed much that was ‘new’ up till now - I wasn't removing anything.

The odd game, sure, but we’ve also been doing some legacy reviews and other gap-filling in terms of war-game coverage. Have we missed something? Is there a computer war game out we don’t have a review for (Early Access doesn’t count)? If there is, let me know because if not the latter half of 2019 is going to be nuts.

Meanwhile, in the world of wargaming...

Slitherine / Matrix Games

The UK-based war games company seems to have remembered they are a war games company, and have been very active this week.

Firstly, Strategic Command WW2: War In Europe (so not the more recently released World at War) has just received its third major update. Patch 1.16 fixes and changes a lot of things, but more importantly brings the game in line with the improvements that went into WaW, making the two not technically the same apart from scenario.

This update will break any saves and PBEM games, so it’s advised you hold off on updating until you’re done with these sessions. You can read the full patch notes here.

Secondly, Matrix have released some documentation that looks at the initial iteration of Armored Brigade’s Campaign Generator It’s not very long but goes through the basics of setting up a campaign, and what you need to pay attention to during and after an engagement. Since this is something they’re looking to expand on, all of this is subject to change - you can download it directly here.

Thirdly, there’s a second video-blog out for Fantasy General II, this time looking at the Barbarian faction, one of the main player factions.

There’s also a second challenge running for Field of Glory: Empires, but we’re probably not going to be taking part in this one. It involves Carthage, and making lots of money quickly, though.

Star Wars Day

We don’t talk about Star Wars here often, but for those of you who are a fan of the IP will know it’s Star Wars Day tomorrow. Lots of Star Wars-y stuff going on about the internet, and our sister website Strategy Gamer has re-posted an article on pretty much the only Star Wars game that could be considered a ‘war game’ – Star Wars: Rebellion.

It was ahead of its time (predating Hearts of Iron 1 by nearly half a decade), but also behind the times as it was pretty low-fi compared to what the strategy genre was doing in the late 90’s. Still, it was great fun and one of the only games at the time to present a unique vision of a Star Wars galaxy in a state of total war.

UBOAT Enters Early Access

A new game hit Steam’s Early Access program this week – UBOAT is a WW2 Submarine simulator, with survival and management aspects, where you crew a German UBoat at the height of the Atlantic campaign. It’s Early Access period is due to run into 2020, there’s a fair while yet for this game to develop, and I’ve got Jack on the case to give us some early impressions.

ArmA 3

Bohemia mentioned a while ago they’re going to be working with the community to bring some officially licensed DLCs to ArmA 3, and the first project from that initiative launched this week.

Global Mobilization – Cold War Germany is a ‘Creator DLC’ that takes the game back to 1980’s and the North German Plain. It adds a new custom map based on Weferlingen, as well as vehicles, weapons and gear for both East and West Germany. It’s a bit pricey - £16.99 full price, although Bohemia have also said they’re dropping the base price of the main game and all the other DLCS.

It’s good to see the community getting official recognition and reward for their hard work, at the very least, although we don’t know how good this mod is yet.

That's all we've got time for this week - enjoy your weekends and we'll see you next week!