Source: The Wargamer
Last year’s Vietnam ’65 was a fantastic game, a wargame in which controlling the hearts and minds of the local population is just as important as which hexes your units occupy. Developer Every Single Soldier isn’t done delving into wargames with a slightly political bent, as their next game will delve into the Middle East, specifically Afghanistan ’11.
There was a time when war was fought by two regular armies on battlefields. That time is over. The year is 2011, you are commanding the US army operations in Afghanistan. But contrary to the previous generations of military officers in your family, killing the enemy is only a secondary mission. Most of your efforts and resources are spent elsewhere. Providing security to the civilians, persuading local tribes to reject the Taliban and isolating insurgent leaders are your main focus.
Counter-Insurgency will have better results in the long run than conventional tactics but a simple incident during a routine patrol can ruin your relationship with the locals and damage your image in the Western newspapers.
Afghanistan ’11 will include:
- A full nation building module, whereby player can affect the hearts and minds of the local population via non-military means (constructing infrastructure and delivering UNICEF aid)
- An intense 19 battle campaign covering the iconic Afghan war operations from establishing Camp Rhino to the Bin Laden Raid (Neptune Spear)
- Command the American and the Afghanistan National Army during ground and air operations
- Drones, multirole fighters and ground-attack aircraft are available to help you to spot and eliminate enemy units
- Upgrade your bases with specific buildings to offer a better support to your soldiers and military vehicles
- Random social and political events – like Afghanistan National elections – affecting the balance of power in the Afghan theatre
- Taliban operations are financed from the growing and harvesting of opium crops. Locate and destroy these fields to cripple the opponent’s resources
- Full range of modern military units including artillery, mechanized and infantry units, engineers, helicopters, etc
- Special forces including sniper and forward air controller actions, offering you plenty of tactical options.
Aside from Afghanistan ’11, Every Single Soldier is working on another game right now that puts you in control of the USS Ronald Reagan supercarrier in the middle of a warzone. It’s called Carrier Deck, and sounds more like a management sim than a straight-up wargame. That’s not a bad thing.
No clue on when either of these two new games are hitting the shelves, but we do know that Afghanistan ’11 is slated for both PC and iPad. Not sure what platforms Carrier Deck is coming to, but we should be talking with Every Single Soldier soon and have a lot more info to pass along.