Wargamer Weekly: Good Morning, 2019 By Joe Robinson

Welcome back everyone. So… 2019 eh? I’m hoping it’s going to be an interesting one for computer war games, especially considering quite a few Slitherine heavy-hitters got pushed back and we also have independent projects like Steel Division 2 on the horizon.

Who knows, maybe even Unity of Command 2 will show up.

Coming out of a holiday season is a bit of a slow, laborious endeavour for niche sites like ours, so forgive us if the content is a bit basic or filler-y. We’ve got big plans for this year though: Wargamer as a website did very well out of 2018, and we’re hoping to grow even more.

Meanwhile, in the world of wargaming…

New Game Alert: Radio Commander

A new upcoming war sim has been spotted on steam – Radio Commander is a new real-time strategy/war game set during the Vietnam War that looks like it’ll have a wonderfully unique take on the concept of ‘realism’.

In essence, you are the commander of a force of men fighting in Vietnam. Armed with only a radio and an abstracted map, your task is to take in information from your troops on the front and assign orders and assets in order to see your forces through to victory. From the game’s official blurb:

In Radio Commander situation reports are given to you in form of dramatic radio statements sent by troops fighting on the ground. And your only accessory is a strategic map, on which you can place tags and notes. Will you be smart, fast and cold-blooded enough to carry the responsibility and save your men?

It seems utterly fascinating, and the only downside is that it’s not due to drop until Q3 this year… that could be as late as next Christmas, for those of us who struggle to divine what ‘quarters’ actually mean. Shame, but we’ll keep an eye on this project as it develops.

Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 v2.01

Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 has been updated with a new patch, albeit a minor one. There’s a minor array of minor technical and visual bug fixes, the PFG manual has been revised with a separate chapter on Fortifications, and various TO&E lists have been tweaked. Also, the Semper Fi Syria Campaign only requires the USMC Module.

Don’t forget to check out our review of this long-awaited sequel, if you haven’t done so already.

Steel Division Dev Diary #4

Eugen have kicked off 2019 with another development diary on Steel Division 2. This time they’re going into detail on the Battalion and OOB mechanics for the single-player campaign, Army General.

The Battalion is the basic unit block in SD2 and the unit you move about. It is made up of various company-sized units that are assigned to it, and these companies are what give the Battalion it’s combat strength and unit availability when fighting in a real-time battle.

The Battalions in Army General are all as historically accurate as possible, so the player won’t be able to customise them as they might in past games or in multiplayer. You’re very much stuck with what you’ve got, although reinforcements are included as part of the campaign.

We talked about a lot of this in our developer interview, but we highly suggest you read the diary in full, especially the last part where it talks about how all this translates into the game. It’s very exciting stuff.

That’s it for this week. Enjoy your weekends!