A is for Alphabetised wargame and sim news. Every four weeks or so I hang up a streamer of industrial strength fly paper in The Flare Path water closet and see what wargame and simulation news items stick to it. Below is this month’s bag – 25 stories, most of which involve virtual vehicles and surrogate slaughter. If you’ve visited a transport museum or heritage railway in the past twelve months, or can put these battles – Tsushima, Thermopylae, Trenton – in chronological order, you probably won’t regret clicking where it says…
]]>A is for Alphabetised wargame and sim news. Every four weeks or so I hang up a streamer of industrial strength fly paper in The Flare Path water closet and see what wargame and simulation news items stick to it. Below is this month’s bag – 25 stories involving virtual vehicles and surrogate slaughter. If you know what the G stands for in TGV, or can put these three battles – Guam, Goose Green, Guadalajara – in chronological order, you should probably click where it says…
]]>A is for Apology. Sorry. Wordblind and weary after two weeks of non-stop battle narration I very much doubt I'll get as far as Z today. Please spend the time you would have spent Flare Path perusing doing something equally worthwhile such as finishing that design for a solitaire board game about swallow migration you've been working on for the past seven years.
]]>If the dazzlingly different duplex wargame I've been enjoying this past week was a debut release from a small, impoverished specialist studio that few had heard of, the paragraphs that follow would radiate enthusiasm. Because it's actually the work of a big (though not quite as big as it used to be) well-heeled company with a long history of producing well-received military strategy titles, the paragraphs that follow will radiate enthusiasm.
]]>After a multitude of delays, mega-scale WW2 RTS Steel Division 2 is out now. Another in Eugen Systems's line of extra chunky strategy games (including RUSE and the Wargame series), this one steps up from the relatively small maps of the original Steel Division's Normandy campaign and into the sprawling plains of Russia. One for the historical grognard crew, which is why we have Tim Stone in the trenches working on a review. We didn't put him in the trench - he just won't leave it. Below, a launch trailer showing off the game zoomed in closer than most will see it.
]]>A is for Another Automobilista. Automobilista, the sim that stormed to victory in the single-player portion of the inaugural Flare Path Grand Prix (a popularity contest for race sims) is to get a sequel in December and interestingly the sequel will rely on an engine last seen in Project CARS 2. As Reiza explained to www.racedepartment.com, the graphical prowess and “smooth as butter” fluency of Slightly Mad's engine were a major attraction, as was the prospect of unrestricted code access. From statements like "We didn´t actually have access to the rF2 code beyond information that Studio-397 would supply to us on a need-to-know basis to get our content to work in their engine." it sounds like the Brazilian devs weren't completely happy with their previous engine provider.
]]>A is for Additional ants. Covered regularly in The Flare Path's outdoorsy sister column The Garden Path, Empires of the Undergrowth has sufficient hexagons, realism, and warfare to feature in this one from time to time too. Yesterday's update certainly warrants a mention. The largest content injection since Slug Disco's myrmicine management RTS entered Early Access, the Leafcutter Update adds a new ant species, numerous extra foes, plus Ecuadorian rainforest environments. The ingenious Leafcutters are militant farmers. They carry leaf pieces into their nests then use them to cultivate a nutritious fungus.
]]>Paks&Jabos? BirchBehemoth? BridgeOfWoe(vclose)? I was planning to base today's Steel Division II tussle tale on one of the hand-titled skirmish replays in my profile folder, but as my aide-mémoires are proving nowhere near as effective as I'd hoped, perhaps it would be better to start from scratch instead. The SD2 beta has a happy knack of producing electrifying engagements abuzz with historical echoes so I'm confident that whatever unfolds during the next hour won't be dull or far-fetched.
]]>By next Friday I should have answers to all these questions... How do AI-controlled Steel Division II attackers react to player-deployed obstacles like barbed wire and trenches? Are new commands like Quick Hunt (unit uses roads while stalking) and Efficient Shot (unit will only open fire when hit and penetration chance is over 40%) as useful as they appear? Is the new radio mechanic (units bombarding targets within the 'aura' of a friendly radio owner enjoy greater accuracy) clever shorthand or a half-hearted sop? Are 'command chains' (buff-transmitting strings of leaders anchored by new commander units) a fiddly distraction or a welcome nod to serious tactical titles like Combat Mission and Graviteam Tactics?
]]>World War 2 RTS Steel Division 2 is due to roll out on April 4th, despite messy labour disputes greatly reducing the size of developer Eugen Systems. Owners of the original Steel Division; Normandy 44 are getting some nice treats if they pick up the sequel, including eight exclusive divisions to control, with over 350 units (mostly returning plus a few new ones) split between them. Troubles with the studio aside, it looks like a solid continuation of the large-scale style of real-time strategy that Eugen have built their name on since RUSE. See the release date trailer below.
]]>Embattled strategy studio Eugen Systems (Wargame, Steel Division) remains at war with itself. As reported by Gamasutra, the company fired six employees on December 19th - almost a quarter of its remaining staff - who were involved in a two-month strike last year over pay disputes. Eugen have now stated the reason for the six were fired was because they "used a professional tool for an inappropriate purpose”, denying that the layoffs were related to their involvement in the strike.
The workers have stated through French games union STJV that they were fired under the pretext of having "negatively affected the mood" of the studio, for their use of "insulting language in a... private chat channel." Their full statement from December 21st (available in English here) says that they believed the firings to be "a preemptive move by management" ahead of a labour tribunal hearing scheduled for March 2019 - a case being brought against Eugen by 15 employees.
]]>Eugen Systems are ready to resume their European offensive. Steel Division: Normandy 44 was occasionally a bit dry thanks to its multiplayer/skirmish focus, but still one of the most exciting historical real-time strategy games released in years. Today, they announced a sequel - Steel Division 2 - set against the backdrop of Operation Bagration, another 1944 conflict, this one pitting Nazi Germany up against the Soviet Union and Poland. Below, a short but dramatic teaser trailer.
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