Strategy and Wargaming

Latest Steel Division 2 Beta to Feature 18 Divisions and Over 600 Units with Solo, Multiplayer, Co-op and More

Independent developer and publisher Eugen Systems announced today the launch of the biggest closed beta yet for Steel Division 2, the sequel to the critically acclaimed real-time strategy title Steel Division: Normandy 44. Starting today and scheduled to remain open and playable until the final game launches on June 20, 2019 (June 18, 2019 for players who pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe Edition of the game), the Steel Division 2 closed beta on Steam will offer players the most in-depth look at the title to-date.

As part of their extensive pre-order bonus offerings, the pre-order beta will feature 18 Divisions, and more than 600 units, giving players access to every unit and division that will come with the game when it launches.

Additionally, players of the pre-order will received two exclusive Divisions. These two Divisions are the Skijäger-Division, a heavily mechanized elite infantry division. It features the famous Sturmpanzer KV-2® heavy tank and the Panzerjäger Gazelle Exclusive Units. The next is the 3rd Guards Tank Corps, a fantastic Armored Division featuring the state-of-the-art 85mm AA/AT guns, as well as the very last of the IS-2 family, the IS-2 obr.44.

For full details on the launch of today’s Steel Division 2 continuous closed beta, please head to the page on Steam. For full details on pre-order bonuses for Steel Division 2 and immediate access to the current closed beta, please head to the official website at buy.steeldivision2.com.

Key Features for the Steel Division 2 Closed Beta on Steam include:

Four Game Modes

• Conquest
• Closer Combat
• Breakthrough
• 5-Player Online Coop

Five Maps

• Orsha North
• Vitebsk East
• Tsell
• Lyakhavichy
• Autobahn zur Hölle

18 Divisions

• 2nd Guards Tank Corps
• 29th Tank Corps
• 3rd Guards Mechanized Corps
• Manoeuver Group “Tyurin”
• Manoeuver Group “Bezugly”
• 9th Guards Cavalry Division
• 26th Guards Rifle Division
• 44th Guards Rifle Division
• 184th Guards Rifle Division
• 5. Panzerdivision
• 20. Panzerdivision
• 78. Sturmdivision
• 28. Jägerdivision
• 14. Infanterie-Division
• Gruppe Harteneck
• Köruck 559
• 1. Lovas Hadosztály
• 12. Tartalékos Hadosztály

Steel Division 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed real-time strategy title Steel Division: Normandy 44. Set during Operation Bagration on the Eastern Front in the summer of 1944, Steel Division 2 pushes the limits of the World War II tactical experience, delivering new 1:1 scale Dynamic Strategic Campaigns. Command entire armies during Operation Bagration, covering the Soviet counter-attack against Axis forces in Byelorussia. Battle in the multiple skirmish modes on 25 maps and customize your battlegroups in the brand-new deck system, allowing for an unprecedented level of customization.

Steel Division 2 players can also look forward to a special surprise that will happen during the closed beta and are encouraged to follow the team at Eugen Systems. To stay up to date on the latest regarding Steel Division 2, be sure to visit the game’s official website.

Matrix Games has announced that they are opening subscriptions to the beta of Panzer Corps 2!  You can now apply to the beta and help us in developing the game. If you are willing to test it, find bugs, offer feedback and criticism and you love Panzer Corps, we definitely could use your help.

What are you waiting for? Click here to sign up!

Panzer Corps 2 is currently in development using Unreal Engine 4, to allow an impressive leap forward in both technological capabilities and visual impact. Hundreds of World War 2 units will be shown with a level of quality and detail never seen before in a wargame.

The move to a fully 3D engine is a natural evolution of the game, but the core gameplay will always remain true to its roots: pay tribute to the classic gameplay of a distant golden age of strategy gaming, refine it, perfect it and use the most recent technologies to enhance these experiences and bring them to a new generation of gamers. In other words, strike the perfect balance between tradition and innovation, both in visuals and gameplay.

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

Today’s gameplay trailer takes an in-depth look at the new single-player, turn-based Army General mode

On behalf of French independent developer Eugen Systems, we’re excited to share a brand-new gameplay trailer for Steel Division 2. Today’s gameplay trailer takes an in-depth look at the new single-player, turn-based Army General mode.

Focusing on Baranovichi, the fourth campaign of the game, players can choose to be in the role of the German or Red Army. The date is July 3, 1944. The German Army finally received reinforcements to set up a defense to stop the Red Army’s progression. But Hitler ordered a counterattack toward Stowbtsy to reopen the road to Minsk. The player objective is to hold Stowbtsy and capture Baranovichi.

In today’s trailer, players will get a close look at how turn-based strategy, in the title’s 1:1 recreation of World War II theaters of war, transitions into real-time battles in areas of conflict. With a detailed demonstration of selecting battalions, choosing formations, spending action points, and some of the strategic elements that will affect those decisions, viewers will see how Eugen Systems’ focus on strategy, historical accuracy, gameplay, and detailed maps and units come to life in Steel Division 2.

Steel Division 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed real-time strategy title Steel Division: Normandy 44. Set during Operation Bagration on the Eastern Front in the summer of 1944, Steel Division 2 pushes the limits of the World War II tactical experience, delivering new 1:1 scale Dynamic Strategic Campaigns. Command entire armies during Operation Bagration, covering the Soviet counter-attack against Axis forces in Byelorussia. Battle in the multiple skirmish modes on 25 maps and customize your battlegroups in the brand-new deck system, allowing for an unprecedented level of customization.

Players who pre-ordered a Digital Deluxe Edition of Steel Division 2, can now look forward to playing the final version of the game on June 18, 2019 before the wide release of the Standard Edition on June 20, 2019.

Starting on May 29, the Steel Division 2 beta will remain open and uninterrupted until the final game launch on June 20.

To stay up to date on the latest regarding Steel Division 2, be sure to visit the game’s official website.

By John McArdle @ Wargamer

The recently released “nation pack” for last November’s Armored Brigade is a great example of why you can never have too much of a good thing. The two nations included in the DLC, Italy and Yugoslavia, bring Armored Brigades already fulsome roster up to nine cold war combatants.

What’s more, players who purchase the nation pack will also have access to the new 61×61 Km map of the Italian-Yugoslav border, making for plausible randomly generated missions between the starring nations of the DLC. Or should I say plausibly generated campaigns, as Veitikka Studios, to coincide with the release of the nation pack, co-released a free dynamic campaign generator, adding an aspect to Armored Brigade that was sorely needed since launch.

Read on…

Matrix Games has announced that a new installment for Field of Glory II is coming and it is “darker” than ever. Wolves at the Gate depicts the epic struggles that newly forged European kingdoms had to face for their survival during the “Dark Ages”, a long period of recurrent conflicts that eventually gave birth to Europe.

This age was marked by the volcanic expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate and its fights against the Byzantine Empire, the last bastion against the Islamic advance in the middle-east. In Europe, Charlemagne, King of the Franks, and then crowned Emperor of the Romans, built the foundations of the Carolingian Renaissance and the beginning of the Translatio Imperii in the West.

But no-one was prepared for the endless waves of ruthless and merciless raiders and warriors that from the end of the eight century onward ravaged almost the totality of the Continent and the Mediterranean. Christendom’s towns and holy places were in constant danger from the depredations of the Vikings and Magyars, as well as the on-going Saracen threat. The Vikings were to carve out colonies in Ireland, the Danelaw in England, Normandy in France and the Kievan Rus in Russia. The Magyars were eventually to cease their raids and become the Christian kingdom of Hungary.

The Wolves have arrived. Is this end of Christianity, or is it just the birth pangs of a new world order?

Get more information about Wolves at the Gate on its official webpage.

Matrix Games announces that Armored Brigade Nation Pack: Italy – Yugoslavia, the first DLC for the acclaimed Cold War wargame Armored Brigade, is now available.

Italy and Yugoslavia are ready to join the conflict with hundreds of new units and aircraft, on a complete new map (the Gorizia Gap) covering 61×61 kilometers.

Together with the Nation Pack DLC developers have released also an important update featuring, among many other goodies, a Campaign Generator tool! And it is free!

If you want to know about how Campaign Generator works, have a look at this guide.

You can check the full changelog here.

Get more information about Armored Brigade Nation Pack: Italy – Yugoslavia from its official webpage.

Developer Kraken Studios and Matrix Games are proud to announce WarPlan. 

WarPlan is a game like few others. It is more than a WWII game. It’s a tool. Merging the experience of 50 years in wargaming, WarPlan puts in players’ hands the control of virtually everything.

Supply System, Production, Politics, Military operations and many other layers are offered to you thanks the great engine flexibility.

Today, developer Kraken Studios and Matrix Games are proud to announce that WarPlan has reached the Beta Phase, so if you think you have what it takes to help polishing and testing don’t miss this incredible opportunity and join the Beta now!

Learn more about WarPlan on the games official webpage!

Matrix Games has released an overview of the first iteration of the Armored Brigade Campaign Generator system. It and the original Battle Generator are built with the same design philosophy in mind: To have an easy way to generate an infinite amount of replayable content that can be shared with others.

It provides a context for the battles and adds more depth to gameplay by making use of the game’s features that some players might otherwise have overlooked.

The flexibility of the battle system that can handle almost any forces, locations, and other parameters is made use of by having units with tracked statistics, battle locations that are dictated by the outcome of the previous battle, and the time of day and the weather that keep changing during or between the battles. One strength of Armored Brigade is the enormous size of maps. They offer a myriad of unique and realistic locations, and when fighting over a piece terrain, even for several battles, its special characteristics become familiar and memorable.

The system tracks explosions and terrain fires, and these areas become destruction zones in the following battles. All this creates a sense of drama.

Let’s take a look at how a fresh campaign is generated, and how the transition between the campaign battles works.

IMPORTANT – The Battle Generator tool comes with the free update that will be released along with the Nation Pack. It will be available both for the base game and the DLC.

Click here to read the document (.PDF File).

Get more information about Armored Brigade from its official webpage.

Strategic Mind: The Pacific is a turn-based strategy set in the WW2 period depicting the war between the USA and the Empire of Japan waged in the Pacific Ocean with mindblowing historical accuracy and attention to detail.

It offers an immersive experience of commanding both sides of the conflict, allowing you to gain a unique understanding of the situation through the eyes of both sides top commanders, resulting in enjoyable and insightful gameplay.

Build up, train and equip your troops with the newest weaponry available to maximize their efficiency and set sail for victory. The core element of the game is large scale naval battles with numerous carrier ships bringing so much more aircraft into the battle for seizing the control over the ocean. Upon overtaking the sea you will have to set foot on hostile land through a series of costly landing operations.

You will have to make your naval, aerial and amphibious forces act as one flawless mechanism – a task only a truly strategic mind can achieve.

Two Sides. Two Commanders. Two Destinies.

View the Gameplay & Mechanics video in Strategic Mind: The Pacific HERE.

Head on over to the Strategic Mind: The Pacific Steam page to purchase the Early Access version of the game at a discount.

The third official update of Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe is finally available for download.

After the “Garand” and “Gewehr” updates, we are very proud to release the “Panzerfaust Update”, and there are many reasons to be excited about it.

This Update is truly massive, touching hundreds of game elements, bringing the game to its highest level.

Before proceeding to download the update and to view the changelog, there are two important things to notice.

The first is that all the changes and updates previously released for World at War are now in place for War in Europe as Well. This has been a major effort and we’d like to thank the developer for the constant great support on the game.

The second important element to know is about PBEM. With the Panzerfaust Update current PBEM matches won’t be compatible with the latest version so, if you have important battles going on, our advice is to not update until you have completed the session. You’ll have 3 months to play your multiplayer session after which we would turn off PBEM support for older versions.

If you are playing a Steam version, the update will be moved to a beta branch and you’ll be able to keep playing you sessions in there.

GoG users will have full control over the download choice.

But let’s not waste any time further and jump straight into the Panzerfaust Update! Click here to download it.