Strategy and Wargaming

Hot Mongols Are In Your Area and They Want to Talk to You!

The sound of hoof beats echoes across the plain, and you can see the dust kicked up by their approach hours before the first arrow falls. You have heard about this demonic army of master horsemen for years, laying waste to everything before them. Sheikhs and Caliphs and Tsars have failed to stop their progress. The tumult can only mean one thing.

The Horse Lords are coming to Crusader Kings II.

The nomadic invasions of the Mongol and Turkic steppe tribes transformed the history of Europe, the Near East and much of Asia. Genghiz Khan built the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever seen. And now Paradox Development Studios brings you the clan politics, the mighty hordes and the migratory push for new lands that will bring this exciting and vibrant culture to life.

With an expanded map, revised interface and new rules for successions and trade, Horse Lords will immerse you in a world very different from the fixed settlements of Europe and challenge you to become the Great Khan – the Ruler of the Sky.

Horse Lords is the eighth major expansion to Crusader Kings II and will be coming to major digital retailers very soon. In the meantime, prepare to meet the Great Khan on the field of battle; your stone walls won’t help you.

Check out the announcement trailer here.

For more information on Crusader Kings II, click here.

We were succeeding. When you looked at specifics, this became a war of attrition. We were winning.” (William Westmoreland – Chief of Staff of the US Army from 1968 to 1972)

Vietnam ’65 has been updated to what we could call “the Napalm Upgrade”!

Releasing today on both iPad and PC, this new version of the game introduces major changes that not only affect the gameplay but also the overall replay value and immersion level! A custom game mode with 10 variables to tweak, combat modifiers, fog of war, zones of control mechanics, village and unit names, weather, hex overlays on maps, and many other new features come together for a completely overhauled Vietnam experience!

Download the patch from here.

Be sure to check the entire changelog here.

The game is also available via Steam.

Paradox Reveals Screenshots and Update Info on New EU4 Expansion

The Common Sense expansion for Europa Universalis IV will encourage you to take a closer look at the dominions you control – provincial development, new options for subject states, and parliaments to bend to your will. So it makes sense to take a closer look at how the game will appear. Paradox Development Studio has you covered.

Ten new screenshots of Common Sense reveal a few of the secrets hidden by our cabinet ministers for the last few months. Get a sneak peek at a few of the new events relevant for subject states, our new theocracy government and the Buddhist nations of East Asia. Our new building menu is revealed, as well as the master menus for the Parliamentary and development mechanics.

Also, pictures of tall men carrying pikes, because that’s how we roll at Paradox.

Common Sense hits digital retailers on June 9th – get ready to rule a whole new world.

Today sees the release of the first gameplay trailer for Total War: Arena, showing exclusive Alpha footage of this energetic and exciting new entry to the award-winning series.

Total War: Arena is a free-to-play, team-based strategy game, putting players in the middle of epic-scale battles. Using key elements of award-winning Total War design, it is made from the ground-up for multiplayer realtime strategy fans, with players going head-to-head in 10v10 battles.

To join the Closed Alpha sign up at: www.TotalWar.com/Arena. The Closed Alpha is currently available in Europe, US servers will be added soon.

What’s more, this weekend sees the first live stream of an ARENA match, with games broadcast live from an exclusive ESL event in Cologne. To see more of the game, watch the first live stream on Saturday 23 May at 17:00 CEST on the official Total War Twitch channel: http://www.twitch.tv/totalwarofficial.

This Patch brings many changes, improvements and bug fixes. The most important are two new maps added to play in coop (vAI) and “Scenario restart” now correctly resets campaign events!

Be sure to check the changelog here.

Set in Pacific theater of WW2, Order of Battle: Pacific features playable campaigns for both the US-led Allies and the Japanese Empire. Starting from the attack on Pearl Harbor, the dynamic campaign system allows players to alter the course of history and even win the war as Japan in the fictional “what-if” conquest of Australia, or lead the Allied forces from the struggle at the beginning of the war to ultimate victory with the invasion of Japan.

Get more information about the game here.

Source: Blue’s News

Firefly Studios now offers The Emperor & The Hermit on Steam as new DLC for Stronghold Crusader 2, their siege warfare simulation. This carries a 33% launch discount, offering seven new player missions, AI opponents, castle designs, achievements, and coat of arms designs. Here’s a trailer, and here’s more:

Following on from the ‘Invasions’ update, which added Sandbox sieges and an easy AI mode for the modern laid-back gamer, The Emperor & The Hermit introduces spiritual successors to The Emperor and The Abbot from the original Stronghold Crusader. Playable in skirmish mode and multiplayer The Emperor and The Hermit are leaders driven by religious fervour and an insatiable desire to ‘cleanse’ their enemies. Backed by zealots who follow their cause without question, said cleansing typically ends in virtual bloodshed.

Nival, an independent game developer renowned for their strategy games, have today announced that Blitzkrieg 3, the long awaited next installment to one of their most beloved franchises, is out now on Steam in two editions. Nival have also released details of a limited time offer for anyone purchasing the game up until May 12th.

As an added thank-you to everyone who purchases Blitzkrieg 3 on Steam from May 6th to May 12th, digital copies of the first and second part of the Blitzkrieg Anthology will also be included. Blitzkrieg Anthologies includes the first two games in the series along with all the official add-ons.

The brand new launch trailer can be viewed here.

For more information on Blitzkrieg 3 and to pre-order the game head to the games official website.

winSPWW2 8.1 Replaces winSPww2 8.0 and winSPMBT 9.1 Replaces winSPMBT 9.0

Every once and a while mistakes are made and corrections become necessary. You can always count on Camo Workshop to make corrections efficiently and immediately. The new upgrades for winSPWW2 and winSPMBT are now available. These upgrades replace the upgrades from April 8th. The upgrades can be downloaded directly from the individual product pages. Just look for the links under the ‘Downloads’ section.

You can download and get more information on both upgrades at the official Shrapnel Games website.

Nival, an independent game developer renowned for their strategy games, have today revealed that Blitzkrieg 3, the long awaited next installment to one of their most beloved franchises, will be launching on Steam Early Access on May 6th, along with details of the various game editions.

“The best way to get the game that you want is to take part in the development process” said Sergey Orlowskiy, the CEO and founder of Nival. “Steam Early Access is the perfect portal for players to become involved, to play the game and provide us with invaluable feedback on how and where they would like to see Blitzkrieg 3 go.”

From May 6th there will be two editions of Blitzkrieg 3 available on Steam Early Access: the Standard Edition and the Special Edition.

Blitzkrieg 3 can be found at the Steam Store.

For more information on Blitzkrieg 3 and to pre-order the game head to the games official website.

Including 60GB of Development Data for Modders

Official mod tools for Total War: Attila are available now. The new Assembly Kit can be downloaded as a beta via the Tools menu in ATTILA owners’ Steam Library, and will be immediately familiar to modders of SHOGUN II and ROME II. The most extensive Assembly Kit yet offers the following tools:

• DaVE: enables editing of the game’s database entries.
• BOB: enables processing of raw data such as textures, models and animations.
• TeD: enables the creation of individual battlefields for land, sea and sieges.
• Terry: enables the editing of campaign map aesthetics such as the height-map, lighting and props. Unlike previous Assembly Kits, Terry now grants access to Terrain Raw Data, which means modders can determine which battle maps load in for specific campaign map locations. Go mod those cities!

In order to get the most from the tools, a Terrain Raw Data resource pack has also been made available, featuring 60Gb of in-game production data for modders to work with.

For a rundown of the possibilities, check out the Assembly Kit trailer here.

For a comprehensive resource on scripting and using the new tools, check out the Total War Wiki here.

Along with the mod tools, Steam Workshop support for Total War: Attila is also live. This means modders can share their creations with other players via the Total War: Attila Workshop page.