Strategy and Wargaming

The Winter Update as well as The Sergeant & The Lioness DLC are out NOW!

Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition – Winter Update & DLC Trailer

Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition’s Winter free update has delivered fresh custom content tools for creating your own CPU lords, castles and trails!

This new Winter update continues the trend of featuring both free and paid DLC content. The free content consists of a fresh co-op campaign for you to wage war with a friend, a new pack of unique maps to leave your mark on, and last but far from least, an external custom Lord and Castle Editor which gives players the freedom to create their own custom CPU opponents, scenarios, and castles! Hopefully those vocal players who yearn for an even greater challenge will finally meet their match against powerful enemies of their own design.

The paid DLC meanwhile will introduce two distinct CPU Lords in the form of The Sergeant and The Lioness, each with specialised tactics and military goals, along with a 9-mission skirmish trail – The Trail of the Cobra – to push players to reach new strategic heights.

This tutorial will take you on a tour of these new editors and guide you through the necessary steps to crafting the custom Stronghold Crusader experience of your dreams.

The ‘Castle & CPU Lord Editor’ lets you design your perfect custom lord and their fearsome fortress – and even edit the stats and castles of existing lords, too. After updating the game, you can find this tool via the Steam Library! The ‘Custom Trail Maker’ is part of the base game, and you can find it in the Map Editor! Devise challenging skirmish trails of up to 50 missions, and share them with your friends to test their mettle.

You’ll need to download the brand new base-game update for Stronghold Crusader: Definitive Edition first, and then launch the game to check you’re on the latest version. You’ll also need to restart Crusader: DE after using the ‘Castle & CPU Lord Editor’, so Steam can sync your custom CPUs and castles to the game.

Combat Mission Shock Force 2: Battle Pack is available now on Steam for $9.99.

This new DLC expands the modern warfare sandbox of Combat Mission Shock Force 2 with a focused collection of intense, small-scale engagements set in the turbulent aftermath of a hypothetical NATO invasion of Syria.

Damascus has fallen, but the war is far from over. Across the country, regime loyalists, isolated military units, and local militias continue to resist occupying forces. Some are determined to fight to the last man, while others prepare for a prolonged insurgency. In this unstable environment, every engagement is volatile and tactical decision-making is critical.

Battle Pack places players directly into these flashpoints, emphasizing asymmetric warfare and hard-fought combat in both urban and rural terrain.

The DLC includes four new campaigns and seven standalone scenarios, ranging from insurgent raids on exposed mortar positions to neighbourhood militias clashing over humanitarian aid. These scenarios are designed to offer varied tactical challenges and strong replayability.

For scenario designers, the DLC includes five large and detailed master maps based on real Syrian locations, supporting custom scenario creation and advanced mission design.

You can also expand your gaming experience by purchasing the DLCs: Marines, British Forces and NATO Forces, discounted by 30% in this bundle.

Following on the successful subscription plans for other grand strategy games, like Hearts of Iron IV and Europa Universalis IV, Paradox Interactive is now offering Crusader Kings III and all of its content to players who’d prefer to play for a limited time or in a more budget-conscious manner.

Owners of the Crusader Kings III base game now have the opportunity to pay a monthly fee that opens all of the expanded content for the game – every expansion, every cosmetic or event pack. Everything.

Real strategy requires cunning, and if you’ve been reluctant to test your scheming ways on the grand medieval landscape of Crusader Kings III, this subscription will allow you to experience the many new events and decisions as well as fresh historical flavor and character, with new challenges drawn from the distant past.

Sign up now to enjoy:

• Expansions, adding new major features and dramatically transforming the game experience.
• Flavor packs, which highlight historic struggles in specific regions.
• Event packs with colorful new choices for your characters as they make their mark on history.
• Cosmetic content, including historical clothing styles for some regions and music packs for deeper immersion.
• Every content pack specifically designed for Crusader Kings III by established community modders and creators.
• All “instant unlock” content provided to Chapter owners throughout the life of Crusader Kings III.

Crusader Kings III subscriptions will start at $9.99USD/£8.49/€9.99 per month, with discounts for longer term subscriptions. Purchase the base game here on Steam and sign up for a subscription on the Steam Crusader Kings III subscription page.

Today marks the release of War in Spain 1936–39, a deep and highly detailed grand strategy wargame that recreates the Spanish Civil War across land, sea, and air. Featuring dozens of new mechanics, updated art, and major engine improvements, the game delivers an extensive operational and strategic simulation with historically accurate orders of battle, a 5-nautical-mile hex map, and unit detail down to individual vehicles, aircraft, guns, and squads.

War in Spain 1936-39 Gameplay Trailer

Players can experience the full scope of the conflict through ground operations, naval warfare, and air combat, with nine campaigns and scenarios ranging from focused engagements to a full grand campaign covering the entire war.

War in Spain 1936–39 is out now only on the games official webpage.

Command large-scale armies in this premium deep real-time tactics title

Tactical Boar has announced Veterans: Napoleonic Wars, a premium real-time tactics and strategy game set during the Napoleonic Wars. Coming to Steam, Veterans: Napoleonic Wars places players in command of historical armies, focusing on mastering formations, maintaining morale, and making tactical decisions across authentically recreated battlefields.

Veterans: Napoleonic Wars – Official Teaser Trailer

On the battlefields of the late 1700s, combat is built around accurate formations such as line, column, and square, with morale and unit experience playing a critical role in victory or defeat. As campaigns progress, units gain veterancy, allowing players to shape and customize their armies while adapting to increasingly complex tactical scenarios. Artillery features multiple ammunition types, reinforcing the importance of positioning and timing during engagements.

Blending strategic depth with accessible, fast-paced gameplay, Veterans: Napoleonic Wars delivers a focused single-player experience centered on tactical missions and historically grounded encounters, supported by a realistic visual style that combines 3D terrain and lighting with readable 2D unit rendering.

Key Features:

• Historical Campaigns: Battles inspired by Napoleonic campaigns from 1796–1797
• Tactical-First Design: Real-time combat focused entirely on battlefield tactics with no base building
• Formation Warfare: Deploy historically accurate line, column, and square formations
• Morale & Fatigue Systems: Unit morale, fatigue, and line of sight directly influence combat outcomes
• Dynamic Battlefields: Weather and terrain that affect movement, visibility, and engagements
• Army Progression: Customize armies and develop veteran units over the course of campaigns
• Authentic Artillery: Realistic artillery with multiple ammunition types, along with authentic uniforms
• Single-Player Focus: A premium single-player experience built around focused tactical missions

Veterans: Napoleonic Wars is in development for PC via Steam. Will you too be defeated at Waterloo? Wishlist the game on Steam now and prepare for battle in Veterans: Napoleonic War.

Slitherine has released Update 1.0.12 “Allied Command” for Broken Arrow. This update introduces an important new feature, several gameplay improvements, and a number of resolved issues.

The key feature of this update is the introduction of allied bots in Skirmish mode. Our goal was to ensure that bots act as reliable, predictable teammates while still remaining flexible enough to adapt to dynamic in-game situations.

To support this new functionality, we expanded the lobby settings. Bots can now be assigned to any available slot on either side, while retaining familiar options such as difficulty and specialization. This gives players more room to experiment – assembling custom teams, balancing sides, or testing new tactical approaches.

Skirmish mode has also received several quality-of-life improvements aimed at enhancing convenience and gameplay variety. Lobbies are now private by default and automatically filled with bots upon creation, allowing matches to start more quickly. Additionally, you can now change the time of day, making each battle more atmospheric and adding greater variability to battlefield conditions.

For more game information and to purchase Broken Arrow, please visit the games website or its official Steam page.

A somber new chapter in one of strategy gaming’s most acclaimed series

Ardennes, the latest expansion for the award-winning strategy series Unity of Command II, is OUT NOW on Steam.

Praised for its elegance, precision, and deep operational gameplay, Unity of Command II has continued the legacy of a franchise critics have called “the perfect gateway into computer war games.”

With more than 100,000 players worldwide and a dedicated community of wargamers and historians, the series stands as one of the most respected names in the genre.

Now, the next chapter arrives—and it is a bleak one.

A Desperate Offensive. A War Already Lost.

Ardennes drops players into December 1944, as the Third Reich, encircled on all fronts, launches one final, catastrophic gamble: a surprise winter offensive through the Ardennes meant to split Allied lines and turn the tide of the war. This is the campaign known also as The Battle of the Bulge or Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein.

Players will command the German forces in the frozen forests of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Eastern Front during the final months of WWII.

For those willing to stray from history, a full alt-history campaign branch explores a speculative, almost unbelievable “what-if” scenario – a version of the winter of ’44-45 worthy of its own documentary.

KEY FEATURES

● 14 Challenging Scenarios

A dual-path campaign:

7 historical scenarios covering the real Ardennes offensive and final battles against the Red Army.

7 alt-history scenarios exploring a wildly speculative, high-stakes alternate timeline.

● Two Highly Detailed New Maps

A sweeping Ardennes offensive map capturing the scale and tempo of the German winter push.

A tightly focused map tracing the dramatic route of Kampfgruppe Peiper.

● New Units

Including winter-camouflage Panthers, and rare Axis contingents such as Swiss, Portuguese, Spanish, and more.

● Unique “Red” Specialists

Late-war German specialist units -one-of-a-kind, powerful, and limited. Examples include the infamous Panzer Brigade 150, Sturmmöser Kompanie 1000, and other exotic formations.

Matrix Games are pleased to announce Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War has received its first update, v. 3.0.1.10236 focusing on bug fixes. It addresses several scenario issues, improves unit pathfinding, SOP propagation to unit orders, fixes artillery counter-battery behavior, along with a number of other miscellaneous fixes and updates.

You can download the patch here. View the changelog here.

Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War is out now on Steam.

Slitherine today has announced Panzer Corps 2 – Allied Operations: Italy Vol. 1, the first chapter of a new grand Allied trilogy covering the liberation of Italy from the invasion of Sicily to final victory.

In Allied Operations: Italy Vol. 1, you will command the British Eighth Army and the US Seventh Army during Operation Husky, the massive amphibious assault that opened the road into Europe’s southern flank. Fight across Sicily’s rugged terrain, break through Axis defensive lines, and push both armies toward a converging offensive against the retreating German and Italian forces.

This DLC features two parallel campaign paths that eventually merge into a unified Allied advance. Build and carry over your veteran core forces, use historical heroes, earn Commendation Points for unique rewards, and deploy new obstacles and fortifications such as hedgehogs, barbed wire, pillboxes, and machine-gun nests.

Begin the Allied liberation of Italy and shape the opening phase of a campaign that will continue across the entire Italian front.

More information is available on the official webpage or you can wishlist it on Steam.

Slitherine and Frag Games have announced Bolt Action, a turn-based WWII strategy game inspired by the acclaimed tabletop system from Warlord Games. The game brings the miniature battlefield to life in a fully 3D environment, featuring realistic line of sight, terrain, and morale mechanics.

Bolt Action Announcement Trailer

Bolt Action offers a dynamic single-player campaign set during D-Day and the battles of Normandy, alongside multiplayer modes. Players must make careful tactical decisions, positioning troops, timing attacks, and issuing orders to achieve victory.

The game is currently in development and is set to release in 2026, with more updates coming in the months ahead.

Find our more about Bolt Action on the games official webpage or add to your wishlist on Steam.