Strategy and Wargaming

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!

The Warplan Pacific beta is coming to an end and we’re getting closer and closer to release.

With that in mind, we have prepared the Warplan Pacific Tour, covering the main changes and improvements introduced in Warplan Pacific. The new series has a very special tour guide, as the videos are narrated by Alvaro Sousa, the developer of the Warplan series of games.

A new episode will be published on a weekly basis.

EPISODE #1 – Advancements and Unit Changes

The first video covers changes in advancement that were based on player recommendations. It will also talk about unit differences between countries, the new marine unit ability, special country rules, and added events for China.

Find out more here.

Source: Blue’s News

Fates Divided is now available on Steam as a new DLC pack for Total War: THREE KINGDOMS the Windows, macOS, and Linux strategy game set in ancient China. A new Release Trailer shows off some cinematics and gameplay. Here’s what the fates hold for a who purchase this:

Determine the fate of China in the new Chapter pack for Total War: Three Kingdoms. Grow Yuan Shao’s mighty army or stand in his way as Cao Cao and use strategy to achieve the grandest of ambitions.

In the Fates Divided Chapter Pack you begin at 200 CE, a period that finds Yuan Shao and Cao Cao at a crucial turning point. These childhood friends have borne witness to each other’s growing ambition, but Yuan Shao’s patience with Cao Cao is fast coming to an end – a childhood bond is about to break.

Fates Divided includes significant improvements to several in-game mechanics, a new faction, and new units, as well as new playstyles for established factions.

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

It is a large tank engagement that took place during the early stage of Operation Barbarossa: the Battle of Raseiniai.

Each scenario in Axis Operations  1941 has been carefully researched and designed to be different. We hope that this battle video did a good job at showing Raseiniai in Panzer Corps 2.

Furthermore, we have some important news: Axis Operations 1941 will be released on March 18.

We’ll see you next week with another battle video: Bryansk.

Source: Blue’s News

2×2 Games and Croteam announce Barbarossa, new DLC that will come to Steam on April 21st for Unity of Command II. As the title suggests, this is based on Operation Barbarossa, allowing owners of the World War II strategy sequel to recreate Germany’s ill-fated invasion of Soviet Russia. The DLC includes 23 scenarios, new maps, new units, new vehicles, and alternative outcomes that make it possible, if difficult, for Germany’s plan to succeed. Here’s the battle plan:

On 22 June 1941, a Sunday, Nazi Germany set in motion the largest invasion in the history of warfare — the attack on the Soviet Union, codenamed “Barbarossa”. By the time the four-year conflict on the Eastern Front is over, the world will have witnessed a war that’s unfathomable in scale and unparalleled in brutality.

In this DLC, you command Axis forces during Operation Barbarossa, from their summer of roaring victories to the painful halt at the gates of Moscow in the winter of 1941/42.

Key Features of the Barbarossa DLC

• 23-scenario historical campaign, with battles from the lakes of Karelia in the north to the Black Sea beaches in the south
• Limited, but still difficult to achieve, alternative historical outcomes, such as capturing Moscow in late 1941
• Detailed, zoomed-in maps for the hard-fought sieges of Odessa and Sevastopol
• 20+ new unit types including those from Italy, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Finland, and Spain.
• Beautiful new vehicle models including BT-7 and T-26 tanks, and the iconic ZIS-5 truck