Strategy and Wargaming

The first massive mod for Close Combat: The Bloody First is now available.

It is called Veteran and it was developed by a well-known modder in the community, Nomada_Firefox.

He took upon himself the task of converting maps from Close Combat: the Longest Journey, as well as adding a lot more content. We were so impressed with it that we have worked to bring this content into the game as an optional addition you can directly download from the games client.

Nomada_Firefox’s Veteran mod main features include:

• New content that covers the whole of the Normandy landings.
• Adds British and Commonwealth forces as well as many new units for US and German forces
• Two new campaigns, one Allied and one Axis
• Dozens of new battles and operations
• 20 new maps converted from Close Combat The Longest Day

You can now download the Veteran mod directly from the game’s download system by doing the following:

1. Click the button ‘User Content’ which will appear on the game main screen next to the game title.
2. Select the ‘Veteran Normandy’ mod from the ‘User Content List’
3. Click ‘Download.’

Last but not least, Close Combat: The Bloody First is currently part of our Easter sale: If you don’t have it yet in your game library, you can acquire it at 30% off by entering the “happyeaster30″ coupon code. The offer is only valid on the Slitherine and Matrix Games stores.

Stop by the official Close Combat: The Bloody First webpage for more game information!

Leviathan Add-On Introduces New Diplomatic and Development Options

Not everything has to be brute force. Armies are necessary, of course, but there are other ways to succeed. Build a force of diplomats, for example, and use your flattery as a weapon against others. Or draw wealth and power from the remote regions of your realm to construct a metropolis to be the engine of your economy. You can try many new routes to global power in Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan, coming next month.

Leviathan is the newest expansion to Paradox’s grand strategy classic about the early modern world. The first release from the Barcelona based Paradox Tinto, Leviathan adds new options for diplomatic and economic play, and will be available to Europa Universalis players on 27 April 2021.

One of the highlights of Leviathan is the ability to use diplomatic Favors to gain benefits from other nations. If you post a diplomat to curry favor in a foreign nation, you will slowly build up enough diplomatic power to request material aid, changes in alliances and even the return of core provinces.

Other features of Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan include:

• New Regency Options: Regency councils represent the interests of the most powerful estate, and can be extended to delay the ascension of an unfit monarch.
• Specialized Colonial Nations: Let your colonies focus on military help, trade power or self-government.
• Concentrate Development: You can now steal development from your vassals or territorial possessions to enhance the power of your capital city.
• Pillage Capital: Loot an enemy capital as a condition of peace, hauling development back to the capital metropolis.
• Expand Infrastructure: Provinces can expand their capacity to build new structures and manufactories, allowing smaller nations to create centers of wealth for a modest cost.
• Centralize State: Reduce the cost of government by spending unused Reform points.
• Totemism: Nations that follow the Totemist religion can revere a pantheon of past leaders, earning bonuses that reflect the skills they had in life.
• Monuments: Expand and establish great projects, adding new bonuses to your empire.
• New Unit Models: New army sprites for Southeast Asian nations, including Indochinese, Indonesian and Polynesian nations.
• And more: Including the ability to carpet siege enemy provinces, draft transports as a plutocratic nation, watch heirs gain legitimacy as they wait to inherit the throne and other changes.

As usual, Leviathan will be accompanied by a major free update available to all Europa Universalis IV players. This update includes modifications to the maps of Southeast Asia and North America, with major gameplay changes for North American First Nations. It also adds Australian Aboriginal nations.

Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan will be available on 27 April 2021 at the Paradox Store and major online retailers for the suggested retail price of $19.99/£15.49/€19.99.

More game information is available at the Europa Universalis IV: Leviathan webpage, or on the expansions Steam page.

The third episode of the Warplan Pacific weekly tour with Alvaro Sousa is now available: this week, we unveil more details on the games Naval Units. There is some great detail here if you are looking to explore some of the depth on mechanics such as oil, repair and fleet strength.

We also briefly explore WWI battleships and how they function, as they were the main body of what the USA had in 1941.

Episode #3 Naval Units Changes

If you are hungry for more information on Warplan Pacific, you can check out our product page on Matrix Games.

Warplan Pacific, the second game in the Warplan series, will be released on April 29th.

Starting in 1941, Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2 covers one of the most brutal conflicts in human history. This bitter fight to the end between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, is lovingly modelled and detailed from the highest strategic overview to the smallest logistical decision. GGWiiE2 is a complete overhaul of the first game. It is richer, more historical, more encompassing and is the most accurate representation of this conflict ever conceived.

Interface improvements, including new art and re-organized screens allow you to discover and access the games rich strategic layer more easily.

Flexible movement, road and rail modelling allows unparalleled realism in how units flow towards or from the frontlines in the conflict. Details such as road quality, the quality of your transport, the weather, the condition of the men and much more determines if those critical supplies will arrive on time.

Discover the history underpinning each and every unit and weapon that was used and how it fits into the grand scheme of the overall conflict, in the games built-in encyclopaedia. Armed with your new knowledge, devise new ways of putting those units and weapons into action on the biggest strategic map yet.

It is not just the game itself that has been dramatically improved. The game comes with an exceptional tutorial and 520-page comprehensive manual, to help new players understand the depth and complexity that underpins how real war is fought and won. The A.I. has also been improved, so veterans of the first game will also relish new challenges in an expansive campaign that covers everything from Barbarossa to the fall of Berlin.

Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2 has arrived in the Matrix store and is now available for purchase and download HERE.

First post-launch update goes live on Steam and GOG, with a full spring and summer content roadmap revealing Sun Tzu, new units, maps and missions

Firefly Studios has just released their first update for Stronghold: Warlords, adding an extreme difficulty mode, increased troop limits, a new map, AI improvements, balance changes and bug fixes. The castle sim developer also revealed the first part of Warlords’ post-release content roadmap introducing new a AI character and playable unit, as well as extra single player missions and warlords:

Patch Notes
Roadmap Reveal Trailer

“This first phase in our overall roadmap of updates for Warlords covers the spring and early summer period” said Nick Tannahill, Marketing Director and resident castle lover at Firefly Studios. “We have additional smaller patches planned of course and then more to come in the second half of the year, however everything covered in our announcement will be added to the game free for all players”.

Firefly’s content roadmap for Stronghold: Warlords is divided into two separate tracks, creatively titled minor and major updates. Minor updates, starting today with the addition of Extreme Difficulty and numerous AI improvements, will be aimed at improving core gameplay and adding smaller features. Later on players can expect further AI updates, stability improvements, more maps, fixes, quality of life features and series staple features, such as controllable AI invasions in Free Build mode.

When it comes to major updates for the spring and early summer period, two substantial content additions are scheduled as part of the game’s initial roadmap. As requested in post-release feedback, Stronghold: Warlords will first receive a new AI character in the form of Sun Tzu. Available in skirmish mode, multiplayer and all future updates, Sun Tzu will provide players with fresh armies to battle, castles to besiege and tactics to outmaneuver. Following this a larger ‘Skirmish Trail #1’ update is planned for the early summer. The game’s first skirmish trail update will add 10 single player missions, a new unit in the Samurai Lancer and two warlords with unique abilities. The Beetle Warlord in particular is a response to player feedback, introducing the power to heal battlefield units using the new Field Hospital structure. Both major updates, as well as future planned content additions, will aim to improve the content on offer in the core game in both single player and multiplayer modes.

Stronghold: Warlords is now available on Steam and GOG, with a Special Edition including a digital art book, new soundtrack by series composer Robert L. Euvino, ‘Making Of’ documentary and a copy of Stronghold HD.

Visit the official Stronghold: Warlords website for more game information.

Warplan Pacific, the second game in the Warplan series, will be released on April 29th.

Warplan Pacific is an operational level wargame that covers the events of 1941 to 1945 for every nation involved in the battle for the Pacific.

The game has up to 62 countries potentially involving themselves in the conflict. Each of these is given the care and detail you’d expect from a Warplan series game, so be sure to keep that in mind as you are planning your strategy.

If you are hungry for more information on Warplan Pacific, you can check out our product page on Matrix Games HERE.

The second episode of the Warplan Pacific weekly tour with Alvaro Sousa is now available: this week, we unveil more details on the games new scale and how it impacts some game mechanics, such as port supply interdiction, and port supply range.

We also cover changes to airfield placement and how to use engineering specialties to make the most out of them.

Episode #2 – Port Supply and Airfields

Visit the Warplan Pacific website for more game information.

1941 was a crucial year in World War II.

Having secured western Europe, now the Wehrmacht looks east. The largest front in the war is about to open, and the biggest and most decisive battles are about to take place.

Panzer Corps 2: Axis Operations  1941 brings the decisive battles of 1941 to Panzer Corps 2. Relive the invasion of the Balkans, of Greece and of the Soviet Union and fight both popular and more obscure battles in its 20 scenarios campaign.

As part of the Axis Operations series, you can decide to import a core army from the previous DLC, 1940, or play with a brand new army. You will also be able to export your core army at the conclusion of the 1941 campaign, and export it to the next DLC.

Watch the new Panzer Corps 2: Axis Operations 1941 in 2 minutes video HERE.

You can read more about the DLC and its new features on the product page.

Northern Lords Flavor Pack Spotlights Norse and Viking Culture

One of 2020’s most celebrated games gets its first new content today. Crusader Kings III, Paradox Interactive’s strategy role-playing game about medieval dynasties, expands with a new flavor pack highlighting one of the game’s most popular regions.

Northern Lords adds greater depth and variety to the Norse cultures of medieval Europe through a series of new events, options and decisions. With more detail on Norse religion, raiding and internal disputes, this flavor pack is now available at major online retailers and the Paradox Store for $6.99/£5.19/€6.99.

Watch the Crusader Kings III: Northern Lords Release Trailer HERE.

Features of Crusader Kings III: Northern Lords include:

• Norse Adventurer Realms: Norse characters may abandon their own homes and lead hosts into foreign lands to establish their own kingdoms.
• Jomsvikings and Shieldmaidens: Norse holy warriors and stalwart shieldmaidens take up arms on your behalf, while poets can compose stinging rebukes or romantic overtures.
• New Cultural Content: Special Norse dynastic legacies, Norse blot sacrifices, trials by combat and cultural innovations as well as numerous new events add additional color.
• New Art and Music: Original art and musical score to enhance your playing experience.
• And more: Berserkers, missionaries, runestones, Varangian adventurers, new decisions and other highlights from the exciting history of the Norse people.

Crusader Kings III: Northern Lords will be accompanied by a free update that adds harsher winter conditions to the map, as well as character duels and a new poet trait.

More game information is available on the official Crusader Kings III website.

Slitherine has released a new Battle video showcasing one of the scenarios coming with Panzer Corps 2: Axis Operations 1941.

This time we are featuring a large battle fought on the eastern front: Bryansk. In the video, among other things, we showcase the new muddy terrain coming with the new DLC.

It’s only a few days until the release of Axis Operations 1941. Are you ready?

After the stunning defeat of Poland shocked the world, the Western Allies prepare for the inevitable. The British Expeditionary Force has landed on the continent, Belgian and Dutch forces man their fortifications, and the vaunted French Army mobilize their formidable heavy tanks for combat.

After German plans fall into their hands during the Mechelen Incident, the Allies think themselves ready for the coming storm. But in truth, they have no idea what is coming as Germany launches Von Manstein’s master plan to conquer Western Europe!

To execute the plan, your veteran Wehrmacht forces are called to action to once again!