Strategy and Wargaming

Time is running fast and tensions between Israel and Syria doesn’t seem to de-escalate. The entire region is in high alert, with rumours of military exercises being conducted on both sides.

Mark the day, as Command LIVE – Broken Shield 300 will be released on February 13th!

Inspired by the most recent geopolitical events, Command: LIVE – Broken Shield 300 scenario depicts how the Heyl Ha’Avir (or IAF, Israeli Air Force) would act in case of a military escalation in Syria and its final activation of S-300 missiles batteries to protect Iranian assets.

FEATURES

• Playable as Israel (main side) and Syria (limited experience)
• Carefully researched scenario featuring authentic representation of the Israeli Air Force down to the individual tail numbers in the respective squadrons
• Feasible Russian made IADS network composed of both modern [S-300 PMU-2 (SA-20B), Buk (SA-17), Pantsir (SA-22)] and legacy [S-75 (SA-2), S-125 (SA-3), S-200 (SA-5), Kvadrat (SA-6), Osa (SA-8)] air defense systems
• Realistic “what if” scenario aimed at exploring the ways to crack up to date IADS networks using all the tools available to a modern day western commander like long range stand-off weapons, OECM platforms, space based assets and even cyber attacks
• Challenging scoring system based on the necessity of maintaining very low to non casualties and extracting downed pilots from enemy territory via SAR operations before they are captured by the enemy for propaganda purposes – rich backstory along with a developing one through the scenario

Get more information on the Command LIVE – Broken Shield 300 official product page.

We are receiving news from Israel about an increase in military exercises, close to the borders with Syria.

Tensions are rising between these two countries after the latest attack conducted by the IAF has destroyed an Iranian cargo containing advanced guidance systems – probably to be delivered to Hezbollah – in Syrian controlled territory.

Damascus’ regime has been proving to have increased its air interdiction capacities, even threating the IAF in its own airspace, so it is very likely that Israel would try to prevent this to finally happening in some way.

The current situation is very volatile and it could escalate at any moment.

Get more information from the latest Command LIVE News Report! (.PDF)

Command LIVE – Broken Shield 300 is a DLC for Command: Modern Operations. Check out the official product page.

The first post-CMO LIVE DLC has been announced, and once more it recreates a highly accurate scenario from real-world situations.

Broken Shield 300 depicts how the Heyl Ha’Avir (or IAF, Israeli Air Force) would act in case of a military escalation in Syria and its final activation of S-300 missiles batteries to protect Iranian assets.

The situation in Syria has turned volatile pretty quickly again. On the 3rd of January 2020, the Iranian General, leader of the Quds Force and people’s icon, Qasem Soleimani was killed by US Armed forces near Baghdad International Airport.

Iran authorities swore a strong retaliation; however even the hardliners were painfully aware that, for the moment, an open attack on US forces stationed in the region would be suicidal, so they had only one viable option left to pick from as their target – Israel, Iran’s other sworn enemy.

The only way to conduct such an attack without direct repercussions to Iran itself would be by using the proxy forces located in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. These forces however needed some time for proper preparation if the attacks were to be effective. Certain assets and weapons, not yet present there would have to be positioned.

This has resulted in the proliferation of A2/AD capabilities in the region, especially with the introduction of ‘triple digit ‘SAM systems such as Russia’s S-300 PMU-2 (SA-20B) and S-400 (SA-21), making Syria more inviolable with each passing day, threatening the Israel Air Force even in its own airspace.

If Israel wants to keep its crucial air-superiority, the destruction of the majority of Syrian S-300 positions becomes mandatory.

FEATURES

• Playable as Israel (main side) and Syria (limited experience)
• Carefully researched scenario featuring authentic representation of the Israeli Air Force down to the individual tail numbers in the respective squadrons
• Feasible Russian made IADS network composed of both modern [S-300 PMU-2 (SA-20B), Buk (SA-17), Pantsir (SA-22)] and legacy [S-75 (SA-2), S-125 (SA-3), S-200 (SA-5), Kvadrat (SA-6), Osa (SA-8)] air defense systems
• Realistic “what if” scenario aimed at exploring the ways to crack up to date IADS networks using all the tools available to a modern day western commander like long range stand-off weapons, OECM platforms, space based assets and even cyber attacks
• Challenging scoring system based on the necessity of maintaining very low to non casualties and extracting downed pilots from enemy territory via SAR operations before they are captured by the enemy for propaganda purposes – rich backstory along with a developing one through the scenario

Get more information on the Command LIVE – Broken Shield 300 official product page.

Espionage Focused Expansion to Hearts of Iron 4 Only a Month Away

The codes have been cracked and your agents are ready to move. The enemy will do their best to uncover your mission, but you’ve been preparing for this day for months. You will expose the collaborators and bring the vengeance of the oppressed to the very doorstep of the occupier. You are La Résistance. And the date of the operation has been set.

Paradox Development Studio is ready to announce that La Résistance, the next expansion to Hearts of Iron IV, will be available for all generals and spymasters on February 25, 2020. Hearts of Iron IV, Paradox’s best-selling strategy wargame about World War II, will now be supplemented by an expansion that highlights the challenge of governing unruly conquests and the power of well-placed spies.

Features of Hearts of Iron IV: La Résistance include:

• New Focus Trees for France: New National Focuses for Free France and the Vichy Regime, as well as an option for conservatives to restore the old French Monarchy.
• More in Depth Spanish Campaign: New National Focuses for Republican and Nationalist Spain, including an expanded Spanish Civil War that can spiral into a wider conflict.
• Portuguese National Focuses: New unique focus tree for Portugal. Restore Portuguese naval power, strengthen the overseas empire or intervene in the Civil War next door.
• Espionage: Use your Intelligence Agency to train spies to specialize in certain types of information warfare and send them on special operations, or develop passive resistance to enemy espionage.
• Support Resistance: Use your agents to assist allied resistance movements, giving them what they need to damage the enemy.
• Collaboration Governments: Use your agents to prepare the ground for collaborators to fill the void once you’ve conquered your target.
• Code Cracking: Decrypt enemy communications to gain short term battlefield advantages.
• Recon units: Scout planes can provide useful information on nearby areas while armored cars help in detecting and suppressing resistance activities.

Hearts of Iron IV: La Résistance is now available for pre-order on Steam and Microsoft Store for $19.99 and will be available at Steam, Microsoft Store and the Paradox store on February 25, 2020.

Slitherine Games has revealed the release date you were all waiting for: Panzer Corps 2 will be released on March 19th. View the Panzer Corps 2 Release Date Announce Trailer HERE.

It will also be possible to pre-order the game starting on February 6th. Pre-ordering Panzer Corps 2 will give you access to a series of exclusive assets and a nice discount on the final price.

Yesterday was in general a big day for Panzer Corps 2. Slitherine Games had the producer of the game, David Sharrock, live on their Twitch channel for over a hour (watch the replay in case you missed it), during which he showcased plenty new features and new, never seen before gameplay footage.

Furthermore, as we had announced, Pixelated Apollo streamed part of the single player campaign for the first time ever. You can watch his take on the invasion of Poland HERE.

We have two more pieces of news for all Panzer Corps fans.

• We are opening a Discord channel! As you know Panzer Corps 2 will have Live multiplayer, so the Discord channel will be a great place to find online opponents. It will also be a gathering place for all fans to discuss the game and interact with the devs. Join the Discord channel HERE.
• DasTactic is going to start a Let’s play series of streams on our Twitch channel later this week. Tune in on our Twitch channel on Thursday January 24th at 6 pm GMT for the first episode.

Get more information on Panzer Corps 2 from its official product page.

This is the announcement you were all waiting for. Join us on Twitch on Monday January 20 for the announcement of the release date of Panzer Corps 2.

Shards, producer for the game, will be live in studio and showcase all the innovations in Panzer Corps 2, as well as answer all your questions. Live on Monday January 20 at 5 pm GMT on our Twitch channel.

Then, following our stream, at 6 pm GMT the strategy youtuber Pixelated Apollo will be streaming the single player campaign of Panzer Corps 2 for the first time ever. We will host him on our own channel, so you can just stay once our stream is over and watch a full scenario of Panzer Corps 2 in action.

Command: Modern Operations has reached an outstanding milestone. The Open Beta for Build 1121.4 has introduced a major new feature: the Fog of War (FOW) for Tacview 3D view.

When God’s Eye view is disabled, the Tacview window will now display only own- and friendly-side units plus any detected contacts. Displayed contact shapes start from generic semi-opaque placeholders and then switch to more specific (and solid) shapes when/if they are sufficiently classified/identified. If God’s Eye is active, all units are shown as before. (Known current issue: Switching side or toggling God’s Eye status forces the Tacview window to close and re-open).

Check here the full changelog and instructions to download the beta update.

Important note for Steam users. You can apply this update manually on top of your Steam installation. This new beta will soon also be available on the Steam beta branch, and after it checks out also on the normal distribution branch.

Matrix Games has announced the start of the Field of Glory: Empires – Diplomacy Open Beta.

Field of Glory: Empires developers didn’t rest on their laurels. As previously anticipated, the next big thing about Empires is the Diplomacy Update, designed to enhance greatly the way the game makes players and AI kingdoms interact through diplomatic efforts. You won’t have to wait any longer as today it is the day.

Since this update is significantly massive and would probably affect the overall balance and gameplay mechanics in multiple ways, we opted for releasing the Update as a public Open Beta. Everyone willing to help us with feedback and thought is very welcome to download it and to try it.

The update is a separate installer, meaning that it will be like downloading a separate game, so no one will be forced to play with the Update in place if that is not his intention.

The Diplomacy Version can be downloaded in the members area section accessible through the “My Page Area”. We have created a dedicated sub-forum thread here, whare you will also find out more about the Field of Glory: Empires – Diplomacy Update.

By Bill Gray @ Wargamer

This was a great Thanksgiving weekend for a couple of reasons. The first was not only that the wife and daughter took off for a weekend of Black Friday shopping, but more importantly, I wasn’t with them. The second was that left me an entire three days to put Slitherine/Fury Software’s Strategic Command: World War I, a sequel/do-over of their classic game of the same name. God bless us everyone, I had a blast, and not just from a creeping drumfire barrage.

Read on…

The Great War Begins

Strategic Command: World War I is released and it’s time for you to relive the War the should have Ended all Wars.

Choose which bloc you want to lead, The Triple Entente or the Central Powers, and witness firsthand the importance of strategic planning coupled with the need for cooperation between all the nations on your side.

Discover new groundbreaking technologies, employ new tactics on the battlefield and try the hardest as you can to break the enemy’s morale with any action!

Unique World War I gameplay mechanics have been implemented for an ever greater dose of realism and historical accuracy. Develop impenetrable trench systems, block enemy sea routes with naval mines, use early aircraft models to scout the enemy and direct focused artillery fire on them. Or undermine the enemy’s will to resist through diplomacy and political intrigue before striking.

Watch the Strategic Command: World War I Release Trailer HERE.

Grab the game now on the Matrix Games Store, and on Steam. Strategic Command: World War I is also part of the “Strategic Command Complete” Bundle.