Author: Donster

The AI for Field of Glory II has been developed by building on the knowledge gained from developing the generally praised AI for Pike and Shot and Sengoku Jidai.

Deployment
For non-preset scenarios, it is important that the AI can deploy its army in a sensible formation, taking account of the prevailing terrain. Generally speaking, most ancient armies would deploy with an infantry centre in one or more lines. (Usually three for Romans, usually only one for Hellenistic armies). They would then have cavalry on both wings and perhaps in reserve, plus light troops both in the centre and on the wings. Except for cavalry armies, the “autodeploy” routine therefore starts with the infantry centre, in one or more solid lines. If the army has a mixture of heavy and medium foot, it will deploy the heavy foot where the terrain is most open, and the medium foot where it is most uneven. This takes into account not just the deployment line but also the map in front of where the line will advance.

If it is possible to rest one flank of the infantry on a river or a coastline, it will do so.

Cavalry are then assigned to each wing depending on the amount of adverse terrain on each wing. More cavalry will be deployed on an open wing than on one with lots of rough or difficult terrain or a river. Some cavalry may be assigned to a reserve behind the infantry.

Light troops are then assigned in a similar way to the cavalry, but more light foot will be deployed on the wing with more terrain, and more light horse on the more open wing.

For cavalry armies, the cavalry is divided into centre and two wings, and the usually weak infantry deployed at the back in reserve.

Read the full A.I. Developers Diary HERE.

By Joseph Conner @ Historynet.com

The new soldiers arriving at Building 341 at Fort Warren, Wyoming, in November 1943 were blissfully unaware of what the future held. Told they were a “GR outfit,” they speculated on what that meant. Maybe guerilla raiders, one suggested. They liked the sound of that. The next day, their commanding officer, Captain Thomas A. Rowntree, snapped them to attention and informed the men that they were now the 612th Graves Registration Company.

“You could hear the sucking in of breaths and the gasps of disbelief and feel a sudden numbness,” recalled Private Thomas J. Dowling. “It was a job that had to be done in war; it was certainly no disgrace, but it was something you always thought about being done by someone else.”

Read on…

War Thunder’s Italian Air Force has successfully concluded closed testing. Initially introduced with Update 1.69 Regia Aeronautica, all regular aircraft of the game’s sixth major nation can now be unlocked by all players, with the top jet fighters; Fiat G.91 and G.91R/1 being the last to finish their trials.

Warmly welcomed by the players of War Thunder, the new Italian aircraft are now a common sight in the skies above the War Thunder battlefields. To prepare them for release, all Italian aircraft went through a closed playtest on the live servers, after which they were progressively unlocked for all players to research. Both purchasers of one of the Italian Founder packs and active players of War Thunder could participate in the testing, giving the developers invaluable feedback in the process. Today, many virtual pilots have already mastered the unique and ingenious Italian designs, which now play a major role in any air combat they participate in.

Naturally, with the end of closed testing the development of the Italian Air Force in War Thunder is all but finished. New Italian content is already in development and will reach the players of War Thunder as soon as the next major update goes live.

To download War Thunder, please visit the official War Thunder website.

Matrix Games has announced that Carrier Deck, its fast paced time management game where you will play as the Air Officer on board a CVN-76 in the midst of active war, has been updated to version 1.1.2. This update brings a lot of improvements and changes, making the game better than ever! Now, you can launch missions in any order (you do not have to do them in the order of the mission queue). As a balancing act to that, the mission queue has been reduced to 3 slots.

You can download the patch from here or from the Members Area.

Version 1.1.2 Patchnotes:

• Improved feedback for invalid launches
• Improved mission launching mechanism where missions can be launched without needing to select units
• Changed cargo missions to immediately add Logistics mission on landing
• Missions no longer have to be launched in their order in the mission queue
• Reduced number of slots in the mission queue to 3
• Missions in queue show chevrons when the mission is ready to launch
• Aircraft can turn around on elevators
• Removed unnecessary loadout options from loadout radial on Greyhound, Hawkeye and Osprey
• Improved damage effects on units
• Changed Abort Mission behaviour to be a once off deferral rather than ditching the aircraft and launching a rescue mission
• Fixed mouse clicks not being recognised on some occasions
• Balanced Survival Mode
• Fixed Achievements
• Fixed various landing bugs
• Fixed various mission queue bugs

Get more game information by visiting the official Carrier Deck product page.

With the upcoming release of Burma Road DLC for Order of Battle, we wanted to take a moment to fill you in on what’s been developed by The Artistocrats in association with Demon Wings Interactive.

Order of Battle is returning to the war against Japan in the region of Southeast Asia. Many battles were across the Malaya Peninsula, India, and of course Burma as the Japanese sought to acquire war materiel such as oil and rubber while the British and Allied forces stood against them.

Unlike the island hopping campaign of the United States across the Pacific, the Southeast Asian conflict was coloured primarily by ground warfare. Such warfare was markedly different from the land war of Europe and Afrika as dense jungles were ever present and presented a major obstacle for both sides. That’s not to say the entire campaign consists of skulking through the jungles of Burma, battles such as the action at Imphal in 1944 were sizeable affairs fought with many armoured units engaged in major fighting.

One very important campaign tenant is the concept of presenting degrees of success in almost every battle. Because of the nature of a game like this, where a Pyrrhic victory is as good as a defeat since it effective ends your ability to continue a campaign, we’ve taken extra measures to help lessen the seriousness of such a situation.

These degrees of success are very important and very prominent throughout the campaign, and to explain them succinctly, they are bonus objectives that reward special units, commanders, resources, and specialization points are very challenging to acquire, especially for a player trying to acquire every single one of them, while primary mission objectives that continue the campaign progression are more accessible to complete. It’s up to the player to find the difficulty level that suits them best, and then within that difficulty level, they can still experience many degrees of success ranging from simple scenario finishing or true scenario domination with all bonus objectives fulfilled. On the other hand, if the player is struggling they might want to hold their forces back from full committal for a scenario or two, focusing only on the minimum objectives required and not over-extending their forces in an attempt to grab all the glory. Then once they are back to strength, they can start hunting for those extra difficult bonus objectives once more in the remaining scenarios!

So with that in mind, we have some content diaries to share with you regarding the history and gameplay of a few of the scenarios this DLC will have in store.

Click here to read the Campaign diary!

For more game information please visit the official Order of Battle: Burma Road product page.

Matrix Games has released a new set of screenshots about their upcoming wargame Desert War 1940-1942, featuring the starting points of the main scenarios available in the game!

Browse between“Operazione E”, “The Battle of Sollum, “The Fall of Tobruk” up to “Operation Supercharge”, and discover plenty of tactical options you’ll have at disposal!

Desert War 1940 – 1942, is an operational level, ground-centric wargame that recreates the epic tank battles fought between the Axis and Allies for possession of Libya and Egypt, capturing the drama of the campaign for North Africa during World War II.

Get more information about the game from its official product page.

The Battle of Gettysburg, fought between the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia, is considered by many the turning point of the American Civil War.

Lasted three days, from July 1st to July 3rd, 1863, the battle saw many epic and tragic moments, culminating in the famous Pickett’s Charge, the desperate frontal assault of the confederates against the unionist defensive lines at Cemetery Ridge.

Today, Shenandoah and Slitherine are very proud to release Gettysburg: The Tide Turns, the brilliant hex-based wargame that will make you relive all the hard tactical choices the Confederates and the Unionists had to take during these long and crucial days of fierce fighting. Watch the Gettysburg: The Tide Turns Launch Trailer here.

But the news is not over! We have just opened the gates for the first Gettysburg: The Tide Turns Tournament!

Take the challenge and defy your human opponents! The tournament will start on Wednesday 19th! Click here to sign up!

IMPORTANT! Only 8 players will be allowed initially, so first come first served! We will add more players in future matches once we will collect enough feedback! Even if we did beta testing during the development stage, “no plan resists contact with the enemy”!

What are you waiting? Grab Gettysburg: The Tide Turns now!

Check out these latest hardware announcements for today from around the web. Also included are some hardware news bits, and on some days, a few rumors tossed in for good measure. Click on the links below to read the official press release, visit the products web page, or to an independent news source.

• AMD Announces Ryzen Threadripper 1920X and 1950X Processors – VIDEO
• MSI Announces the Immerse GH70 Gaming Headset
• ASUS Adds Three ROG TUF Series X299 Motherboards
• MSI GTX 1080 Ti Lightning X and Z Now Available on Newegg- $859/869
• ADATA Launches XPG SPECTRIX D40 RGB Memory
• ID-Cooling Announces Frostflow Plus Series AIO Liquid CPU Coolers
• Colorful Announces the iGame GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Neptune W Graphics Card
• ASUS Launches VP28UQG UHD Gaming Display
• MSI Intros the GK-701 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Massive update features new FREE Authentic Plus difficulty mode, maps, more! The final chapter of Deathstorm, Sniper Elite 4′s thrilling mini-campaign, launches July 18th 2017 on PlayStation®4, Xbox One and PC.

Deathstorm Part 3: Obliteration is the main course in a veritable feast of brand new Sniper Elite 4 content! Also coming to the game on July 18th is the LOCK AND LOAD weapons pack featuring three new weapons.

And that’s on top of tons of FREE extras, including the new AUTHENTIC PLUS difficulty mode, the new “Facility” map for Survival mode and the new “Bunker” map for competitive multiplayer.

Deathstorm Part 3: Obliteration is the final chapter in a new three-part campaign for Sniper Elite 4, taking fans back to World War 2 Germany for the first time since Sniper Elite v2 in 2012.

It’s in the Bavarian town of Steigerloch, in the heartland of Germany, where the abominable nuclear project known as Deathstorm is being researched. A heavily guarded underground complex is rumoured to lie hidden beneath the sleepy town’s hilltop church, with suspicious vehicle activity suggesting the Nazis are planning something big – and soon. Elite agent Karl Fairburne must draw on all his skills to neutralize the facility and bring Deathstorm down, once and for all.

Deathstorm Part 3: Obliteration is out July 18th. As a bonus, players who purchase it will also unlock six new Axis characters to use in multiplayer! Agents can also bolster their arsenals with the new LOCK AND LOAD expansion pack, delivering the firepower of the SVT, M30 Drilling and Mauser M712 rifles.

The new content doesn’t end there! The free AUTHENTIC PLUS difficulty will also be available starting July 18th, featuring relentless enemies and even fewer display aids. It’ll be a Herculean challenge, and players who are up to it will find two new trophies and achievements to earn.

Other Sniper Elite 4 freebies arriving July 18th include:

▪ Elite ranks, raising the level cap from 50 to 250!
▪ “Facility” Survival map, inspired by “Magazzeno Facility” campaign mission
▪ “Bunker” adversarial map, inspired by “Allegra Fortress” campaign mission
▪ By popular demand, the option to choose your rifle’s scope reticule!

Watch the Sniper Elite 4 – Deathstorm Part 3: Obliteration DLC Trailer HERE.

For more details on the game, please visit SniperElite4.com.

Historic in-game events and missions roll out with Christopher Nolan’s epic drama, DUNKIRK

In conjunction with Warner Bros. and alongside the WWII action thriller DUNKIRK, Wargaming is kicking off the commemoration with a series of history-based activities and bundles. The “Remember Dunkirk” content will be available in all three of the Wargaming “Battle Trilogy” of video games beginning July 14th. The robust program encompasses World of Tanks (PC & Console), World of Warships, and World of Warplanes.

“The historic ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’, like many of the events of World War II, continues to impact and inform our battle-focused games,” stated Erik Whiteford, Head of Marketing, Wargaming America, “We are inspired by this momentous military operation and are excited to be in a partnership with Warner Brothers for Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated action thriller DUNKIRK.”

Wargaming’s “Remember Dunkirk” activity debuts this Friday, July 14th. A full series of “Remember Dunkirk” themed missions will take over the tank battlefields of World of Tanks and combat-filled skies of World of Warplanes. Players can compete to earn “Remember Dunkirk” themed vehicles and accumulate experience points (XP) that are redeemable for in-game gear, including special camouflage and more.

The battles expand in the coming weeks, as the “Remember Dunkirk” missions embark onto the high seas in World of Warships. A series of challenging missions will give warship commanders the opportunity to earn Dunkirk-themed containers and flags, as well as a Dunkirk themed ship Commander!

More detailed information on all of the historic in-game action and offerings can be found here.

Additional information on Wargaming’s Dunkirk related activities, including the ability to register to play the entire Battle Trilogy of games can be found here.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ DUNKIRK arrives in theaters July 20, 2017.