Strategy and Wargaming

Command Showcase: Ford Class is a DLC series of scenarios that will put you in command of the most significant weapons sensors and units in the modern era with new and hypothetical theaters of war.

Your Second challenge:

Russia, in an attempt to break international sanctions, has set up a trade agreement with Angola. Unfortunately, the situation has turned ugly with the death of the Angolan President, back and forth claims of Russian and/or US and/or European interference fused with a fractious domestic political situation boiling down to civil war. While many nations attempt to evacuate non-combatants, Russia has vowed to send ‘Peacekeepers’ and the US is adamant that its Embassy will remain open and US citizens will be protected.

Enter the USS Ford and her dispersed Strike Group, diverted from a scheduled visit to South America. Simultaneously, the Russians divert their newly refitted Battle Cruiser Admiral Nakhimov from a mission to the Mediterranean. Suddenly two of the most powerful ships on the planet are steaming at high speed towards a tinderbox situation.

What could possibly go wrong?

Features:

• Playable by the US side only and focused on the USS Ford.
• Configurable air wing for the USS Ford with 10, 14 or 20 F-35s and varying numbers of other aircraft to round out the wing.
• Randomized starting positions for many elements.
• P-8, RQ-180 and other high end surveillance aircraft.
• High end SSNs on both sides.
• Airborne insertion of US Marines to the US Embassy.
• A NATO airlift not under the player’s control but needing protection.
• A fast-moving and dynamic situation on the ground which will complicate the player’s ability to achieve tasks and missions.
• An escalation mechanism where both Russia and Angola will gradually lose patience with player actions at different rates and for different reasons, and likely start shooting.

Command Showcase: Ford Class will be released on 6th March.

The Command Showcase: Ford Class DLC requires Command: Modern Operations to play.

Relic Entertainment™, Inc. and SEGA® Europe Limited are excited to announce that Company of Heroes™ 3, the highly anticipated third installment in the beloved strategy franchise, is officially out now on PC on Steam! Watch the launch trailer HERE.

Since Company of Heroes 3 is the biggest launch in the series’ history, we’ve joined forces with some of our greatest community members to produce a hefty 23 brand new tutorial videos, covering everything from combat fundamentals to advanced techniques like breaching and countering.

Long-time Company of Heroes content creator SkippyFX pours over the basics of issuing commands to your units, how to hold onto victory points for dear life, and the strategic importance of capturing airfields. CoH tournament caster StormlessUK covers the subtle art of using the right tank for the right job, how to position them for maximum armour value, and how to smash new routes for your infantry.

Meanwhile, covering more intermediate tactics, content creator Elpern explains how CoH3’s Veterancy system rewards your most persistent units, or how upgrades can turn basic units into specialized threats, like the flamethrower-wielding Royal Engineer.

Last but not least, content creator Tightrope shows players how to counter every possible threat at a strategic or tactical level, including defensive anti-tank units and deadly eagle-eyed snipers.

Check out all these tutorials now to help get you started on your journey across the Italian Dynamic Campaign, the North African Operation, or your next multiplayer match in Company of Heroes 3.

For more information about Company of Heroes 3, head to www.companyofheroes.com.

Relic Entertainment, Inc has release the fourth and final trailer in a series faction reveals for Company of Heroes 3. In this video, players can find out more about the highly-anticipated Deutsches Afrikakorps and their arsenal of mobile, mechanized weaponry and vehicles. Debuting in both single-player and multiplayer, the Afrika Korps were infamous for their prowess in the North African deserts.

Watch the new trailer HERE.

The Afrikakorps is the most radical and unorthodox army in the game, and will suit players who like to play aggressively and keep the pressure on the enemy, benefitting greatly from the synergy between its specialized infantry and armored vehicle roster. Afrikakorps players can use the Half-track to quickly deploy troops to respond to new threats or sustain the offensive, while the versatile Panzer III is the workhorse tank of the army. The Armored Reserves system allows for the deployment of the dread-inducing Tiger Tank and other heavily armored options. In the harsh deserts of North Africa, the Afrikakorps also had to rely on their vehicle-towing capabilities to reposition their anti-tank Flak 36 88mm cannon or repair damaged tanks.

Like all factions in Company of Heroes 3, the Afrikakorps come rounded out with their own assortment of supporting Battlegroups to tackle unique battlefield scenarios. The Italian Guastatori, clad in all-black uniforms, wield deadly flamethrowers to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. Or utilize the Italian Combined Arms Battlegroup, which lets you field some impressive units, such as the highly effective Semovente da 75/18 Assault Gun, the elite Bersaglieri infantry, and the quick striking Carro Armato M13/40 Light Tank.

Company of Heroes 3 is coming to PC on February 23rd and is available for Pre-Order! Get the Launch Edition and receive the Devil’s Brigade DLC pack featuring Legendary skins for Infantry, Vehicles, and other Legendary tier cosmetics. To find out more about Company of Heroes™ 3, head over to CompanyOfHeroes.com.

Matrix Games has announced the release of Nuclear War Simulator. Nuclear war simulator is a detailed realistic simulation and visualization of large-scale nuclear conflicts with a focus on humanitarian consequences. It lets you design conflict scenarios and estimate the consequences using a population density map and realistic weapons effects.

This software should help you answer the question: what will happen if Russia and the United States or India and Pakistan use their arsenals? You can design warheads, missiles and carries, place them on the map and execute attack plans to tell a credible story about how nuclear conflicts play out and what are the consequences. Using a high-resolution population density map and realistic weapons effects like blast, heat and radiation you can make an estimate of how many people will die in a conflict.

Using an intuitive UI you can design warheads, place them on missiles and into silos, on aircraft, TELs and submarines. You can then place the forces onto the map simply clicking on it or importing real-world locations from KMZ files.

More game information is available at the official Nuclear War Simulator web page.

For the first time in the history of the series we are proud to announce the release of the first DLC for Strategic Command.

Strategic Command: Wars in the Americas gives you the opportunity to fight five new campaigns covering some of the greatest conflicts of the mid/late 19th century. Including battlefields ranging from the deserts of Peru to the jungles of Cuba, these campaigns will provide countless hours of entertainment while challenging your strategic skills to the utmost!

This DLC contains five major wars, new unit types, new historical leaders, new events and so much more.

Click here for more game information.

The seventh chapter of the Axis Operations series begins to loom

Matrix Games has announced Panzer Corps 2: Axis Operations – 1944, the latest DLC for Panzer Corps 2. The Axis Operations – 1944 DLC Campaign is the first DLC that offers two entire campaigns that are completely separate and independent from one another.

In the historical campaign, prepare to face the brutal realities of the decline of the German Wehrmacht as it struggles to survive the Allied onslaught battering it from all directions.

In the ahistorical campaign, continue your success that has secured the Caucasus region for Germany as you defend your extensive conquests from familiar and totally new challenges.

To properly explore the historical battles and ahistorical events in the 1944 DLC, Axis Operations 1944 has grown to provide the largest amount of content a DLC has yet to have.

The vast 20 scenarios count offers the best glimpse at exploring the historical realities of devastating battles fought on the Eastern Front during 1944, especially during Operation Bagration.

The ahistorical campaign is a fully fleshed out and realized campaign with well-researched potential successes, and setbacks, the mighty German Wehrmacht may have faced even after it emerged as the victor from the Battle of Kursk.

New features:

• Two playable campaigns
• New 20 huge scenarios
• A new set of objectives, classified as Elite Objective
• Import your core forces completed the previous Axis Operations1943 East campaign
• Field Marshal Erwin Rommel returns!

More information is available at the official Panzer Corps 2: Axis Operations – 1944 webpage.

By Blood Alone Add-On Includes Plane Designer and New Alternate Histories

Paradox Interactive’s best-selling grand strategy wargame Hearts of Iron IV gets even grander and more strategic today with the release of By Blood Alone, a new expansion pack that adds new ways to explore the limits of your military genius and long-term planning.

The centerpieces of By Blood Alone include the much requested aircraft designer, allowing you to build the fighters and bombers of your imagination, and three new national focus trees, carving out room for an even wider range of diverging alternate histories, whether you successfully repel European conquest as Ethiopia or foment a communist revolution in wartime Italy.

Features of Hearts of Iron IV: By Blood Alone include:

• New Italian Focus Tree: Alternate histories of Fascist Italy, including a socialist revolution.
• New Ethiopian Focus Tree: Defy the odds to defeat the Italian invader or resist the conqueror from abroad using unique Government in Exile abilities.
• New Swiss Focus Tree: Surrounded by France, Germany and Italy, the mountain nation of Switzerland finds strength in its neutrality, balancing competing factions and overtures from the great powers.
• New Peace Conference Options: Demilitarize zones of the map or entire nations, bid on the capital ships of defeated powers, or claim control of enemy resources or factories as reparations.
• Aircraft Designer: Design and build your own planes, from nimble interceptors that prioritize speed to durable bombers crafted to unload tons of destruction from high above.
• Unit Medals: A log of each division’s accomplishments lets you track their performance, and even allow you to award medals to those that have performed well.
• Embargo Interaction: Embargo your enemies with a new diplomatic interaction, preventing them from trading with you if they have generated enough world tension.
• New Unit Models: More than 20 new pieces of unit art for Italian, Ethiopian and Swiss armies.
• New Plane Models: 67 new plane models.
• 12 New Music Tracks

As usual, the release of By Blood Alone will be accompanied by a major update to Hearts of Iron IV, available for free for everyone who owns the game.

Hearts of Iron IV: By Blood Alone is available now for a suggested retail price of $19.99/£15.49/€19.99.

For more game information please visit the official Hearts of Iron IV website.

For the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War, Command Modern Operations is pleased to announce a new DLC that will bring you back to 1982. Command Falklands contains fifteen scenarios and two bonus missions that put you in charge of the most significant units during the war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands off the coast of South America.

Watch the Command Falklands announcement trailer HERE.

Take command of the Argentine forces or the British task force assembled in 48 hours to fight the Argentine invasion, manage units previously taken out of service in bonus scenarios such as the HMS Ark Royal, Buccaneer and Phantom Fighters long-range attack planes, and the aircraft carrier CVA-01.

Features:

• 15 Scenarios plus 2 Bonus Scenarios including units not present or available during the war.
• Scenarios designed by a retired Royal Navy officer and Falklands veteran, who served on HMS Plymouth
• Management actual and previously taken out of service units
• Air, surface and underwater combat
• Guide your Forces to victory in a multi-sided campaign.

Are you ready to counter the invasion?

Find out more about Command: Modern Operations – Falklands at the games official webpage.

Matrix Games and 2by3 announce the first DLC for War in the East 2.

Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2 was last year’s best-selling and most praised wargame. The simulation improved every aspect of its predecessor, effectively rebooting the series and giving it new life. Since its release, Gary Grigsby and his team have been working hard to improve gameplay with various upgrades. Simultaneously, 2by3 Games started work on the game’s first DLC, Steel Inferno. This expansion puts the spotlight on several major offensives that influenced the course of the war in the East. It is also expanding the gigantic map further by opening new areas throughout eight new Scenarios and two new Campaigns.

Steel Inferno covers Operations in Yugoslavia in 1944 for the first time and adds several German scenarios, such as the attack into the Caucasus. The addition of hypothetical scenarios and two new full map campaigns offer countless extra gameplay hours in historically detailed settings and what-if alternatives.

The Steel Inferno DLC includes:

Two complete Campaigns:
• 1943 Campaign – 3 Jul 43 – 6 Jul 45 — an entire Campaign starting with the German Operation
• 1944 Campaign- 11 May 44 – 4 Jul 45 — an entire Campaign that begins with the Soviets readying for the start of their massive Summer 1944 offensives.

Nine Scenarios:
• Operation Kutuzov – 12 Jul 43 – 3 Oct 44
• Road to Karelia – 22 Jun 41 – 11 Oct 41
• Army Group A – Part I – Race for the Caucasus – 25 Jul 42 – 20 Nov 42
• Case Blue Phase II 42-43 – 25 Jul 42 – 5 Mar 43
• Case Blue Phase II 43-43 – Alternate – 25 Jul 42 – 5 Mar 43
• Army Group A – Part II – Kuban Bridgehead – 1 Feb 43 – 10 October 43
• AG C – Kutuzov to Bagration 43-44 – 12 Jul 43 – 2 Apr 44
• Western Ukraine 43-44 – 3 Nov 43 – 25 Apr 44
• Drama on the Danube 44 – 20 Aug 44 – 5 May 45

More information about Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2: Steel Inferno can be found on the games official webpage.

New Baltic Themed Expansion for Europa Universalis IV Available Now

For almost a decade, Europa Universalis IV has encouraged players to explore new and exciting alternate histories of the early modern world. In the newest immersion pack, Lions of the North, dramatically different pasts can unfold before your eyes. Denmark can keep its hold on its northern subjects. The Teutonic Order can retreat to its past crusader glories. Gotland can become a pirate haven.

All of these dramatic “what ifs” are now available in the new Baltic Sea themed add-on to Europa Universalis IV. With branching missions, new government options for major players and even new military units, Lions of the North is packed with variety and excitement. Make your enemies hear your roar!

Highlights of Europa Universalis IV: Lions of the North include:

• Expanded Branching Missions: Decisions taken along some mission trees will determine what options are available to you in the future, allowing you to follow distinct and dramatically different alternate paths.
• New Mission Trees for Denmark: Maintain power in Scandinavia while expanding your influence over the northern German cities.
• New Mission Trees for Sweden and Norway: Break free from Danish dominance, and turn a foothold on the continent into the base for a northern empire.
• New Mission Trees for Teutonic Order, Livonian Order and Riga: Follow a path of religious zealotry or secularize your realm with an eye on the future.
• New Mission Trees for Poland, Lithuania and the Commonwealth: Vast lands on the border of East and West present unique challenges for ambitious rulers.
• Other Mission Tree Changes: Pirate kings of Gotland, unique options for a united Scandinavia, a free Finland, and a powerful Danzig.
• New Government Reforms and Estate Privileges: Some regional powers will have unique government options and new ways to court the favor and influence of local estates.
• New Units: The Swedish Carolean Infantry and Polish-Lithuanian Winged Hussars will be available for recruitment.
• New Unit Art: 35 new army sprites for regional powers.
• New Music: 3 new pieces of Scandinavian music, plus 3 other Baltic themed songs.

Lions of the North is accompanied by a major update to Europa Universalis IV, free for all players.

Europa Universalis IV: Lions of the North is available for a suggested retail price of $14.99/£11.39/€14.99.

More info is available and you can purchase Lions of the North on Steam.