Strategy and Wargaming

Paradox Thanks their Community with New Voiceovers, Portraits, and More

Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studio today celebrated the one-year anniversary of Hearts of Iron IV, the World War II Grand Strategy Game released to critical acclaim on June 6, 2016. Hearts of Iron IV, the game that challenges players to navigate the nation of their choice through history’s greatest conflict, continues to engage players one year later across Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs. To thank the community for their ongoing support for the game, Paradox today released the Hearts of Iron IV Anniversary Pack as free DLC, available now for all players.

Since the game’s release one year ago, Hearts of Iron IV has built a dedicated and growing community of players. Today, Hearts of Iron IV continues to be played by an average of 250,000 monthly active users (MAU). Over half of those players enjoy using one or more of the community’s creative game mods, including “Millenium Dawn,” which brings the war into the modern era, “The Great War,” which pulls it back to World War I, or “Kaiserreich,” an alternate historical setting that presumes Germany had won the first world war. More mods and newer players continue to flock to Hearts of Iron IV, setting the stage for more new war stories for years to come.

The Anniversary Pack includes new in-game content to provide players with a richer and more detailed Hearts of Iron IV experience, featuring new voiceovers for Polish troops – an inclusion frequently requested by the player community. Players can download the new content for free today:

• New voiceovers for troops while playing as Poland
• 20 new portrait selections for generals and leaders across nations in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America
• 20 new custom division icons

To download the free Anniversary Pack, visit http://store.steampowered.com/app/642010/Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Anniversary_Pack/.

A new addition to Hearts of Iron IV will also arrive next week with the release of Death or Dishonor, a Country Pack releasing on June 14, 2017. Death or Dishonor will add new focus trees and in-game events for the nations of Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. For more information on the forthcoming DLC, visit https://www.paradoxplaza.com/hearts-of-iron-iv-death-or-dishonor.

For more information about Hearts of Iron IV, visit the games official website.

On this day 73 years ago, the Allies were about to start Operation Overlord, the biggest naval invasion of history. Its aim was to land on the European mainland. It was D-Day.

We chose to remember this day by putting several of our World War II games on discount! All games in the following list are discounted by 30% off until the end of the week on Sunday 11th June!

All you have to do is enter “D-Day30” in the coupon field when checking out, and all games in the list will be discounted by 30% off!

This offer is only valid on our store on www.slitherine.com and www.matrixgames.com, not on Steam! Remember that if you buy a game which is also available on Steam from our store, you will be given a Steam key so you can redeem the game on Steam as well.

One of the best wargames recently released has reached a new milestone!

Strategic Command is now available on Steam, and finally you’ll be able to unleash the power of the Axis or the Allies on this platform!

You will be the supreme mastermind behind the entire conduct of operations, deciding the priorities, the strategies, and coordinating your global efforts to win the war!

Each nation in your coalition will have their own strengths and weaknesses, levels of technology, troops, equipment, and industrial capacity, and it will be up to you to make the best use of all of them!

Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe is a deeply immersive turn based strategy game covering the greatest conflict in modern history.

Don’t miss this change and grab the game now! What are you waiting for?

Get more information about Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe from its official Product Page!

Real-time strategy classic Company of Heroes continues to mark 10 years in the trenches with a celebration of its dedicated fan base. The game’s community has played an integral part in its enduring appeal through the submission of incredible user-generated content and innovative mods.

Today, Relic Entertainment and SEGA Europe Ltd. are delighted to recognize the ongoing dedication of these players with a raft of activity across the franchise:

• Company of Heroes has been updated with Steam Workshop capabilities and in-game Workshop hub allowing users to play, share and manage their subscriptions to custom scenarios. This update includes Steam Trading Cards to entice completionists everywhere!
• The Eastern Front mod – bringing the two original factions from Company of Heroes 2 (the Soviet Army and the German Ostheer) into the original Company of Heroes – is now available on Steam. This rounds out a selection of total conversions already available including the Far East War, the Great War and Europe at War.
• Until 10AM PDT, June 5th, all Company of Heroes and Company of Heroes 2 games and expansions will be 75% off and all Company of Heroes 2 paid-DLC and in-game store items will be 66% off.

“Company of Heroes players are still blowing us away with their creativity and support,” said Justin Dowdeswell, General Manager at Relic. “We count ourselves very lucky to see the energy we put into building this game given right back to us by the players.”

For more information about Company of Heroes, visit the games official website.

Nival releases Blitzkrieg 3, an online World War II real-time strategy made for true admirers of tactical mastery.

Blitzkrieg 3 features the world’s first Neural Network AI for RTS. Ruthless machine named Boris plays at the top player’s level while not using any hidden information about the enemy. General Boris regularly analyzes the gaming session and makes Neural Network-based predictions of the enemy behavior. This approach allows him to think up sophisticated counter-strategies and bring them to life. That makes Boris tough and unpredictable, so he can amaze players over and over again.

Game covers the main period of World War II: from the invasion of Poland in 1939 to the triumphant capture of Berlin in 1945. Each of three atmospheric campaigns provides a unique blend of PvE, PvP and PvAI missions. In total, game features 60+ historical missions with 200+ authentic combat units. Each unit has performance characteristics reconstructed in detail, such as fire rate, armored capture, field of vision, and others that let players feel like real generals.

In addition to classic Skirmish 1×1, 2×2, and 3×3 modes Blitzkrieg 3 features the unique asymmetric Assault mode, where one player attacks and the other defends his fortifications. 20+ historical commanders with their own specialization and favorite combat tactics combined with dynamic weather system make every PvP and/or PvAI game even more diverse.

“Blitzkrieg 3 was created with the active participation of the player community.”, – commented Pavel Naumenko, head of Blitzkrieg studio. – “We strongly believe that players’ contributions are invaluable and we will continue to develop the game according to their feedback”.

You can get more information and purchase a digital copy of the game on the official website, or via the games Steam Store Page.

Pre-orders now open for both expansions, duo-pack available for a discounted price

Paradox Interactive and Paradox Development Studio today announced that Europa Universalis IV: Third Rome, the first immersion pack for the best-selling historical grand strategy game, and Hearts of Iron IV: Death or Dishonor, a country pack for the World War II grand strategy game, will launch together on June 14th, 2017.

Both packs will be priced individually at $9.99. Fans of both of Paradox Development Studios’ global conquest simulators can purchase both packs together as part of a duo-pack for 10% off at Paradox Plaza here.

Paradox demoed the new features from Third Rome in a live stream on Tuesday. The replay of that stream can be found here.

The new features in Death or Dishonor are demoed in an ongoing stream series. Replays can be found here.

Third Rome expands the governmental, military, and diplomatic opportunities for the Russian empire. The pack includes new ranks of Russian governments that give Tsars the power to claim states, powerful streltsy mercenary units that excel in combat at the cost of the empire’s stability, and new interactions with the Orthodox Patriarchate. These changes give Russian players more ways to maintain control over their sprawling territory using a mix of military might, political touch, and religious conviction.

Death or Dishonor introduces new National Focus trees and gameplay options for the countries caught between the Nazi and Soviet war machines – Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. In addition, Death or Dishonor adds new diplomatic and puppet interactions, new music and gameplay art, and additional national interactions to change the course of history.

Both DLCs will be accompanied by free patches that bring broader updates to the base versions of Europa Universalis IV and Hearts of Iron IV.

For more information on Europa Universalis IV: Third Rome, click here.

For more information on Hearts of Iron IV: Death or Dishonor, visit click here.

The Operational Art of War IV includes a suite of new naval features that should prove to be a good first step towards a full naval warfare model.

Naval Combat: To recap, naval combat in TOAW had been very crudely modeled. Ships were literally treated as if they were a single piece of equipment – like a single squad. Any AP hit killed them. Their defense strengths weren’t used in that determination, by the way. This surprising discovery meant that it was as easy to sink a Battleship as it was to sink a Destroyer. AP strengths were combined for hit determination – making a bunch of DDs as powerful as BBs. Whether hit ships were permanently destroyed or just sent to the “On Hand” pool bizarrely depended upon a check against their proficiency. Fleet units could “evaporate” like a land unit that had lost cohesion. Embarked units employed their various strengths when attacked. The whole thing had to be overhauled if there was to be any hope of realistic naval warfare. It has been. The new naval combat model has the following features:

• Ships now have damage levels, and take damage in combat, if hit by the attacking ordinance. Those levels are displayed in the unit report.
• Attacking equipment Anti-ship factors are evaluated as individual shots/planes so that each warhead can be evaluated for armor penetration.
• Hit chances depend on a number of checks made involving various factors such as the visibility, attacker proficiency, target agility, aircraft anti-naval strength, gunnery range, and shock levels.
• The amount of damage a hit inflicts on a target ship depends upon shell weights of the ordinance hitting them, their armor thickness, and their durability.
• Ship armor and durability are derived from the ship’s defense strength, unless the designer has explicitly specified them using the new naval equipment add-on to the scenario’s equipment file. That file also allows ship agility, accuracy, and speed to be explicitly specified.
• Embarked units’ armor, durability, agility, and AAA are fixed at 0, 25, 18, and 0, respectively. This means that the strengths of the embarked equipment are no longer used to resolve attacks on embarked units.
• Ships that accumulate 100 or more damage points are eliminated – sent to the dead pile.
• Ship damage levels less than 100 are saved in the unit on each TO&E line. Those levels debilitate the ship’s AP, AAA, Speed, Nuclear Strength, and Agility accordingly. They do not affect Defense Strength, Armor, or Durability levels. Damage levels of 50 or more turn the ship’s TO&E button silver (for a bit of chrome).
• If a TO&E line contains more than one ship all damage on that line is applied to only a single ship until the damage totals 100 – at which point one ship is sunk and the damage level of the TO&E line drops back to zero. Call it the “lead” ship in that line. Other ships in that TO&E line remain undamaged (and invulnerable) – until they become the “lead” ship due to the sinking of the previous one. Note that there is a technique available to designers to split such multiple-ship lines up into single ship lines, if desired.
• Naval units cannot be disbanded by players or evaporated by combat short of all ships in the unit being sunk. Combat never sends ships to the “On Hand” pool.
• Aircraft Carriers with more than 66 damage points cease to function as aircraft carriers. If that means that there are then fewer aircraft carrier bases than air units in the hex, one air unit will be eliminated.
• Carrier-based air units are exempt from combat reorganization.
• Damage points incurred by embarked units destroy a weight of equipment equal to those damage points.
• There is limited ability to repair some damage while at sea and significantly more while at port.

This new combat procedure only affects combat where the target is a ship or embarked. Bombardment of land units by naval forces is still resolved just as it has always been resolved.

Read the full entry here.

Check out the official The Operational Art of War IV product page for more game information!

By James Cobb @ The Wargamer

UAVs aside, recent military action has been pretty low tech. Small units attack terrorist positions with flashbangs and small arms; conventional artillery and armor grind away at Mosul. No country has used all those exotic weapons they’ve been spending trillions on. Game developers need to create simulations using them or gamers may not be around to see how they work in games? How many computers will survive an EMP exchange? Postwar games probably won’t have much of a market waiting. The never-tiring team at Warfaresims has gotten a jump on Armageddon with the latest standalone expansion of Command Modern Air and Naval Operations (CMANO), Command: Chains of War. Will another level of lethal tech finally make players to cry “Uncle”?

Read on…

6th of June 1944, the greatest seaborne operation in World War II begins. But there is another 6th of June to keep in mind, this one soon however.

Because on June the 6th 2017 Strategic Command World War II: War in Europe, one of the most intriguing wargames on the market, will be available on Steam!

Since its release, Strategic Command has been known to employ a very well designed Historical Decision Event System, where every military decision must be taken very carefully, always balancing the advantages and the disadvantages.

In combination with a smart AI capable of long-term strategies, prioritizing fronts and making good strategic choices, Strategic Command WWII: War in Europe happened to be a very nice addition for both experienced wargamers and newcomers.

With Strategic Command marching straight to Steam, developer studio Fury Software is very proud to announce that an important update has been released for beta testing. This new version adds some needed icons for the UI, Expanded tooltips, an Amended supply distribution system, and many more improvements, making this version of Strategic Command the most playable and enjoyable one ever!

What are you waiting for? Get more information about the game from its official Product Page!

Eugen Systems and Paradox are Locked and Loaded with their Newest Bombshell 

Paradox Interactive, a publisher known for shooting from the hip, today released Steel Division: Normandy 44, a tactical real-time strategy (RTS) game from Eugen Systems, for Windows PCs. Steel Division: Normandy 44, made by the creators of Wargame and R.U.S.E, welcomes players to the world of 1944 World War II-era warfare with detailed and historically accurate weapons, tanks and troops. Players must use their tactical know-how to outmaneuver and outgun the enemy in big multiplayer battles, or go it alone in a hardcore single-player campaign.

Steel yourself for war with a new trailer, available here.

Lead legendary divisions from six different countries, such as the American 101st Airborne, the German Armored 21st Panzer, or the 3rd Canadian Division, all based on their actions and capabilities during the invasion of Normandy in 1944. Take command of over 400 units armed to the teeth with historically accurate weaponry. Maneuver your troops and push the front line against the enemy in multiplayer battles that feature ranked matches of up to 10-vs-10. Coordinate your selections of infantry, tanks and aircraft to create the ultimate military force and counter the enemy’s units.

Your war chest of features include:

• Real-world Tactics: Battles accurately reflect the movement of real-world armies with different units that unlock over time. A dynamic front line illustrates the ebb and flow of the conflict as you strategically corner your opponent’s infantry to gain the advantage and force a retreat, or fall back to regroup.
• Deep Strategy: Players have control over everything from battlegroups to troop positioning and maneuvering — winning battles will call for more than just brute force, requiring real cunning and strategy. Each lost unit presents a growing tactical advantage for your opponent, and players will need to fight to gain — and keep — the upper hand.
• Real-world Setting: Seamlessly control a tactical aerial view to monitor your armies down to a single unit using the latest version of Eugen’s IRISZOOM engine. With 400 different real-world vehicles and units designed with careful detail, Steel Division boasts textbook-ready historical accuracy including maps based on actual aerial reconnaissance photos of Normandy in 1944.

For more information on Steel Division: Normandy 44, visit the games official website.