Strategy and Wargaming

We are delighted to reveal another highly detailed map for the upcoming American Civil War wargame Brother Against Brother: The Drawing of the Sword!

The Battle of Wilson’s Creek represents one of the first battles fought in the Mississippi Theatre and it was seen as a great springboard for the further Confederate operations in the region.

As we did for the previous Battle of Manassas, we are giving alongside the map also a 20 page PDF booklet with the precise description of the forces on the battlefield with the proper order of battle!

Download the full package here or click here to browse the map online!

Map and Booklet are added in the download section of the product page!

Stay tuned for further reveals!

Get more information about the game from its official product page.

Today we are very excited to announce the release of Battle of Kursk – the first expansion of Battle Academy 2 – on PC, Mac and iPad!

Driven by two new challenging campaigns, this expansion includes a carryover system that invites you to have the wider strategic picture in mind when they plan their next turn. As the head of both armies, you will also have to quickly identify the strengths of the new units available to bring out the best of them.

Grab the game here (PC).

But the news from the Ostfront are not over!

Battle Academy 2: Eastern Front base game is updated to Version 1.0.4!

This version is available with several improvements and bug fixes! Now skirmish map generation scripts are in DATA/BATTLE/SCRIPTS (and this allows them to be over-ridden in a campaign for custom skirmish map generation) and the bug related to the sniper’s animation is fixed.

Be sure to check the list of changes and bug fixes here!

You can download the patch from here.

Get more information on Battle Academy 2: Battle of Kursk from its official product page.

The Celts Culture Pack enables players to embark on new campaigns as the Ebdanians, Caledonians and Picts. Alongside unique new culture and faction traits, units, objectives and a new narrative event-chain, the Celts specialise in swift and deadly warfare. Every unit in the Celtic roster has the Guerrilla Deployment trait, enabling them to deploy almost anywhere on the battlefield – even behind enemy lines.

Unleashing the full horror of the apocalypse, the Blood & Burning add-on brings blood effects, decapitations, limb-lops, disembowelment and more to Total War: Attila. Disease-ridden soldiers can be seen vomiting on the battlefield and decapitations and gore-slicked event pictures feature on the Campaign map. Check out the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5zy703KFLc

Note: Blood & Burning contains mature-rated content, rated above Total War: Attila‘s original age rating in many territories, check the product information with your retailer for more information.

Both are out today and available for purchase from Steam:

• Celts Culture Pack ($7.99/£5.99/€7.49)
• Blood & Burning ($2.99/£1.99/€2.49)

For further details, please visit the official Total War website.

“The only true rule for cavalry is to follow the enemy as long as he retreats”- Stonewall Jackson

Good news for you, American Civil War fans!

As the release date of Brother Against Brother: The Drawing of the Sword approaches, we have a lot to share with you. One of the key features of the game is the incredible attention to detail and realism that was put to recreate the historical battle maps. So from now until release, we will give you the opportunity to let you browse them, discover them, own them and more!

We will start with the 1st Manassas battle map. This huge image has been slightly reduced to allow you to check it out online, but you can also download the fully blown thing alongside a 20 page PDF booklet with the battle history and the full in-game order of battle. Download it here if you want to be blown away!

The map is so rich in detail, you will be able to find all elements from single regiments to railroads, woods, villas. Nothing was left out of it. It took years of primary research for Western Civilization Software to come up with one of the most detailed and historical battle maps every created for any game.

To make thing easy, you will find all this also in the download section of the product page.

Stay tuned! Because we have planned to release a new map every week until the release of the game.

Get more information about the game from its official product page.

By Richard Talbot @ The Wargamer

As a wise man once said, “And now for something completely different!”. Well perhaps not completely different, but Vietnam ’65 is not just another wargame, this is an attempt to create a game about counter-insurgency warfare (COIN) rather than conventional warfare so it isn’t about lining up your troops to face off against the enemy, it’s more difficult than that – you have to find the buggers first, and then they run away to hit you from a different direction. You’ll find yourself shouting “will you just stand still and die” at the computer on more than one occasion when playing Vietnam ’65 if my experience is anything to go on.

Read on…

“The enemy must be annihilated before he reaches our main battlefield. We must stop him in the water, destroying all his equipment while it is still afloat!” (1944 – Erwin Rommel)

The definitive wargame of the Western Front is updated to version 1.00.21! New contents and features are now fully integrated to give the game a more detailed perspective. For instance Italian reinforcements are now allowed prior to July 43 (in the past they were not allowed until after Italy had surrendered) and with this version it’s more difficult to reach very high interdiction values.

The list is very long, so be sure to check the full changelog here.

The patch can be downloaded here.

But this time the good news is not finished, because alongside the update we are very happy to announce that an expansion of the base game focused on the attempts of the Allies to open a second front in Europe prior to Overlord is now ready to enter the beta phase! And we ask players to help us test it by enlisting for the beta here.

Operation Torch includes 10 diverse scenarios for an extensive coverage of the African and Western European theaters between late 1942 and 1945 including both historical and what-if operations.

Operation Torch includes 10 diverse scenarios for an extensive coverage of the African and Western European theaters between late 1942 and 1945 including both historical and what-if operations.

A lot of astounding news! What are you waiting for?

Get more information about the game from its official product page.

“The time for war has not yet come, but it will come, and that soon; and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard.” (Stonewall Jackson, Confederate General)

Following up on the success of their last foray into the American Civil War, the development team behind the award-winning “Forge of Freedom” have returned to the period at the tactical level. Brother against Brother: The Drawing of the Sword, the latest new wargame from Western Civilization Software, is finally ready to march. Indeed, this epic military strategy game covering the first year of the American Civil War will be available on April 16th!

It is 1861. Nearly a million armed Americans face each other along a line stretching 1200 miles from Virginia to Missouri. Tensions in the country reach a climax when Confederate forces fire upon a key Union fort in South Carolina in April. This is the starting point of a bloody four year conflict between the North and the South that would leave an indelible mark on American history.

In Brother against Brother: The Drawing of the Sword, the focus is on the opening battles of the American Civil War. Players will be able to command both sides and relive the major encounters of 1861 and early 1862. Thanks to extensive historical and topographical research, including in-person examinations of each battlefield and consultations of materials previously unavailable to game-designers, the maps and orders of battle each have been recreated at an unprecedented scale and level of detail. Connoisseurs of the period will immediately notice that the behavior of the commanders and their soldiers perfectly matches the tactics of this era! However, Brother against Brother is much more than a rigorous simulation, it also offers several what-if scenarios for a very refreshing approach to famous battles such as 1st Manassas or Wilson’s Creek.

Erik Rutins, Director of Product Development at Matrix Games, said, “It’s always a pleasure to work with the team at Western Civilization Software, but I believe this release is truly special. For Civil War computer wargame fans, I believe that the incredible research and great gameplay included in Brother against Brother will make this game the definitive treatment of these battles for years to come.”

Get more information about the game from its official product page.

Battleships are back on the Pacific Ocean! Matrix Games is very proud to announce that one of the biggest updates of all time is coming today. Indeed, even if War In The Pacific: Admiral’s Edition was already the most detailed wargame focused on the Pacific theater ever, this update is going to push the boundaries of awesomeness still further! Thanks to dozens of changes and enhancements, version 1.01.24 will live in the community’s memory for a very long time. As it’s impossible to list all of the gameplay and technical improvements here, I invite you to click on this link to get access to the huge changelog associated with this patch.

You can download the patch from HERE

Grab the game HERE.

War in the Pacific: Admiral’s Edition is the most realistic and engrossing WWII Pacific theatre game available.

The immense scale is 40 miles per hex with losses covering individual vehicles, aircraft, guns and squads. Since half the planet Earth is covered by the titanic Pacific struggle, the game is massive in scope, covering thousands of ships tens of thousands of aircraft.

Find out more at the official War in the Pacific: Admiral’s Edition webpage.

New objectives, skills, tier-5 buildings, ancillaries and a new narrative event-chain

Source: Gamer’s Hell

The Celts Culture Pack adds three new playable factions to Total War: Attila: the Picts, the Caledonians and the Ebdanians. All the factions may be used in single or multiplayer campaign modes as well as in custom and multiplayer battles.

The Celts Culture Pack should be available to pre-order from tomorrow with a launch date coming soon.

View the screenshots HERE.

Watch the video HERE.

This year Total War becomes one of the longest-running series in gaming with 11 titles spanning over 2000 years of historical warfare.

Empires have risen, and many a brave warrior has fallen with an estimated 4.8 billion battles waged in the last 15 years.

Over 1 million people play Total War every month now, spending an average of 104 hours apiece in each game. 2015 will be our biggest year yet, and this latest trailer will give you a hint of what’s to come. Digital and tablet title Total War Battles: KINGDOM, 10v10 team strategy in Total War: ARENA, and more.

Visit us at the EGX Rezzed show in London this weekend for some retro and modern gaming on all our titles, plus a huge Total War prize giveaway.

View the “15 Years of Total War” Video HERE.

Get the latest news at www.totalwar.com.