Wargamer Weekly: A New Age Dawns By Joe Robinson

Welcome to the new era! Since last week, you may read up about our exciting news. We will always have a certain amount of gratitude for Matrix/Slitherine, although we know many of our readers found the situation uncomfortable. Given the state of our sector of the industry, I suspect if Matrix hadn’t acquired The Wargamer (whenever that was – way before my time), then it would have ceased to exist.

As one of the only publications left that covers digital wargames to the extent we do, I for one am thankful we survived up to this point. With Network N behind us now, there are some exciting times ahead to be sure.

Meanwhile, in the world of wargaming…

Matrix Games/Slitherine

You'll remember that the developers behind Campaign Series: Middle-East released a game-changing 2.0 Update to the turn-based tactical wargame recently. With that out of the way, the devs are now calling for feedback on the next entry in the series - Campaign Series: Vietnam.

They've put together a survey of eighteen questions for their new game, which is due to release sometime this Summer. If you want a hand in shaping the future of this new title, go let your voice be heard.

The only other news items worth sharing that we haven’t already covered this week is the release of new screenshots for the upcoming Field of Glory II DLC – Legions Triumphant.



Shenendoah's Napoleonic turn-based strategy game March to Glory also has some new snaps.

Steam Lunar Sale

Steam’s running another sale event to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Plenty of wargames running at a discount over the weekend.

Have you seen our Curator Page? We put all of our reviews of games that make it on to steam on it, and we compiled a list of our Top Picks for 2017. Many of those are running a discount:

Afghanistan ’11 (34% off)

Command: Shifting Sands (25% off)

Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach (34% off)

Field of Glory II (34% off)

In terms of other notable discounts, Gary Grigsby’s War in the West if 66% cheaper than it usually is, and Graviteam’s Tank Warfare: Tunisia 1943 is 80% off. Clad in Iron: Philippines 1898, which the late James Cobb reviewed favourably, is running a modest 25% discount.

There’s plenty of wargames to be found if you know where to look – we recommend starting with this search term and see what you can dig up.

New Game: Klotzen! Panzer Battles

A new wargame has surfaced! Klotzen! Panzer Battles Is being developed by Maxim Games, an indie developer hailing out of Croatia.

It is a hex-based operational wargame that will be turn-based, and set during WW2. It cites Panzer General as an inspiration, and offers a large branching campaign with customisation, random events and over 60 scenarios.

There will be over 600 unit types, a unique supply system. Commanders and more. The Steam page is now live:

Klotzen! is made with replayability in mind, with numerous random events between scenarios that act like a train switches, moving campaign in new and unpredictable ways. With AI, different generals and commanders even replaying a single scenario will be a different experience each time.

You can also check out the official web page here.

Dear Diary: Hearts of Iron IV

Another week, another Dev Diary for Hearts of Iron IV as we move closer to the release of the upcoming Waking the Tiger expansion.

While achievements on Steam have never really been something I’ve bothered with much, forming new nations in Paradox games is oddly satisfying. Victoria II is where I think I got addicted to it, and I tend to prefer playing nations in EUIV that have something they can work towards in terms of forming new entities.

It’s present in a very limited form in Hearts of Iron IV, and more often than not is tied to ideology, but with the new update comes a new wave of sand-box toys. More impactful formable nations are coming, and soon you’ll be able to try for anything from a united Scandinavia, to a re-born Byzantine Empire.

They’re mainly a player thing – the AI is set to ignore them in historical mode and will probably only ever be able to get the easy ones in sandbox mode, but we suggest you check out the diary in full foe more.

That’s all for this week’s round-up – seen any other wargaming news that deserves some attention? Let us know! Otherwise, happy gaming.