Wargamer Weekly: Writer in the Snow By Joe Robinson

I now understand why the jokes about Russian, land wars and winter are so funny. We’re beset by some unusually heavy snowfall here in the UK right now, and it seems the entire country has just decided to pretend today doesn’t exist and stay at home instead.

No idea how we’d have ever gotten ourselves roused enough to fight a war if it was snowing. Maybe that’s why we largely left the Battle of the Bulge to the Americans. Luckily (or unluckily?) I work form home, so its business as usual for me and so it’s business as usual for you. As a final note, today's title is a play on Wallace Breem's excellent Eagle in the Snow, an historical fiction novel about the Legio XX Valeria Victrix and its destruction in defence of the Rhine frontier the 5th Century AD.

Meanwhile, in the world of wargaming…

Hearts of Iron IV

We’re going to kick off with Hearts of Iron IV today because of the mammoth dev diary the team put out this week. More of a diary of diaries, it’s a near-complete recap of all of the previous dev diaries and the features they covered, as well as a few other things they may have forgotten to talk about as they’ve been working on the upcoming Waking the Tiger expansion.

You should definitely give it a read, because looking at the sheer wealth of changes coming between the free patch and the expansion, I’m actually quite excited.

The changes to generals and army structure I think are on of the things I’m most looking forward too. Hearts of Iron III’s command structure may have been very ‘old school’, but this is a game about fighting the second world war – what else would it be? Hearts of Iron IV’s simplification felt a bit to much for me, but perhaps it was needed to make the series a tad more accessible. Now, they can build upon it again as they go.

The other thing I’m looking forward too are the changes to Germany – with an updated focus tree you can now take it down a truly democratic or resurgent imperialist path. I never liked the idea of playing as Nazi Germany, so I honestly haven’t touched them as a faction.

Waking the Tiger is due out next Thursdays on March 8th and rest assure we’ll be reading and waiting to fight that war one more time.

Matrix Games/Slitherine

First and foremost, Matrix Games have released the next big expansion for Command – The Silent Service. This is a stand-alone expansion which can be purchased and played separately, as well as the content being able to integrate seamlessly into other existing CMANO installations (so either the base game or other stand-alone expansions).

Along with the new expansion, the game has also been updated to version 1.4.1 It’s a minor update on the bigger 1.4 patch that was released last week. We’re currently on the look out for a new writer who can cover Silent Service for us, so we’ll get you our review as soon as we can.

A last minute update - Desert War 1940 - 1942 is going to be released on March 22nd.

In other news, the next piece of DLC for the excellent Field of Glory II – Legions Triumphant – will be releasing next week on Match 8th. We’ve got Bill on the case, so instead of his usual table-top tome he’ll be looking at the DLC.

Last but certainly not least, Matrix have posted up a Q&A with the developers of Check Your 6!, which is releasing in a couple of weeks. It’s fairly standard PR-friendly stuff, but there’s some interesting tid-bids on some of the top-level design decisions the team made.

World War 1 Tanks

Bit of a random thing we spotted today, but it might interest some you – do you have 79p/$0.99 to spare?

If you do, you can now pick up Cry of War on steam. This is a newly released Early Access title that’s basically some kind of World War 1 Tank Simulator. It was allegedly created by a university student using Unity3D.

It’s very bare-bones right now – there are currently 3 Great War tank models in the game and one map based on the Battle of the Somme. The Early Access period is due to take 2 – 4 years, so there’s plenty of time for the updates the developer has planned to turn up. If you do end up diving in, let us know what it’s like. We’re honestly curious.

Lock’n’Load

Lock’n’Load publishing make their Wargamer Weekly debut with a small digital update.

If you’re a VASSAL user, the company has released the Hell Frozen Over expansion for Heroes of the Pacific V2.1 Vassal Module. HotP is a hex-and-counter tactical wargame based on Lock’n’Load’s LnLTactical system and covers the pacific theatre.

Hell Frozen Over is an expansion that adds nine new scenarios covering the 1943 assault on the island of Attu by the US military, and comes with a unique new map.

The Vassal update comes with other tweaks, including:

…our new counter look, now with rounded corners and light shading. The maps and counters are all larger hi-res digital images designed to match the board game contents, which makes them all easier to see and read.

That’s all for this week’s wargaming round-up. Enjoy your weekend, and happy gaming!