The View from the Turret

Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue is now available. Case Blue is a WW2 operational level computer wargame on the German’s 1942 drive towards Stalingrad in Russia. It is a follow-on to the well done Decisive Campaigns: Blitzkrieg Warsaw to Paris. The game manual is available to download.

It is the summer of 1942 on the Eastern Front, and Case Blue is about to begin. The German Wehrmacht must continue their drive to Stalingrad and into the Caucasus in order to secure victory against the Soviet Army. As time passes and the battles rage on, winter arrives and with it the Soviet winter counter-offensive dashes hopes of a speedy victory for the Wehrmacht.

Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue features an easy-to-learn interface and a challenging AI for all levels of players. Among the many new features for the Decisive Campaigns series is the optional high command order system, which puts you in the position of the historical commander, with often difficult and unrealistic goals assigned by your superiors. Succeed and you may be able to guide the future strategy of the campaign – fail and you may find yourself removed from command or facing a firing squad!

The new full campaign scenarios cover a remarkable sweep of history, including the full Case Blue campaign with all of its many historical options.  The order of battle may change based on your performance and the entire direction of the campaign is even within your reach if you do well enough.  Whether you start in the summer of 1942 or take control as Operation Uranus begins, there are virtually endless “what ifs” in each of these remarkably detailed campaigns.

[Updated: 23JUL12]

Battlefront.com will be releasing the latest game in their WW2 Combat Mission line of tactical computer games soon. The next installment is Combat Mission: Fortress Italy featuring battles in Sicily and Italy. CM:FI is a standalone game and uses the new CMx2 engine. Combat Mission: Fortress Italy is available now. The game features:

“The combat forces immediately available to players include the full range of historically available American, Italian, and German forces which fought in Sicily. In addition to the completely new Italian forces, both the American and German organizations differ significantly from those familiar to Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy players. Some of the highlights are elite formations such as:

•     Italian Bersaglieri
•     American Rangers
•     German Herman Göring Division

Of course, the time frame and units involved require equipment new to the Combat Mission series. A full list is available on the new Fortress Italy website, however here are some particularly fun gadgets to play with:

•     R-35 Light Tank
•     Semovente 90/53
•     Panzer Mk III
•     Grille
•     M3 GMC Halftrack
•     T30 HMC Halftrack

Players get to dive in and try these forces out in three (!!!) campaigns, one from the perspective of each national force (USA, Germany, Italy), a host of new stand alone battles, and of course the automatically generated QuickBattles. It won’t take long for Normandy players to feel how different this time period and setting is from what they are used to. And the Italian forces are very interesting indeed! Squads the size of Platoons, almost no radios at all, few antitank weapons, proportionally few support weapons, and relatively light armored vehicles present even the best CM player with a lot of new challenges.

But wait, we didn’t come to the best part yet… Fortress Italy features more than just a new setting and new units. It is also the first Combat Mission game to be upgraded with our CMx2 engine Version 2.0 features! If you haven’t heard about the new Upgrade path for Combat Mission. For those who have, here’s just a few of the new features you’ll experience:

•     Moveable Waypoints
•     Target Armor Arc Command
•     Expanded Floating Icon Categories
•     “Fog of War” Floating Icons
•     2D Editor Map Overlay
•     Auto-Assemble Road/Wall/Hedge Tool
•     Camera Jump to Groups
•     Target Briefly Command
•     New Rendering Shaders
•     Bump and Normal Mapping
•     Improved Framerates
•     Pausable Realtime TCP/IP Mode
•     …and more!”

[Updated: 3AUG12]

Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear computer game is now available. Conflict of Heroes is one of our favorite games and on our Top Picks list. The game appears to be a great adaptation of the board game.

There is a new large (1.1GB) v1.14 update available.

Designed and developed in cooperation with Uwe Eickert, the original designer of Conflict of Heroes, and Western Civilization Software, the award-winning computer wargame studio, no effort has been spared to bring the outstanding Conflict of Heroes gameplay to the computer.  Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! includes an AI opponent as well as full multiplayer support with an integrated forum and game lobby.  To remain true to the core gameplay of the board game, the PC version is designed to be fun, fast and easy to play, though hard to master. The game design is also historically accurate and teaches and rewards platoon and company-level combined arms tactics without overwhelming the player with rules.

Much effort went into distinguishing the units in the game by highlighting their historical strengths and weaknesses. For example, each tank defense rating takes into account relative armor thickness, armor slope deflection percentage, speed, size, targeting mechanics, and crew training. All these factors are represented in an easy to learn target number system.

Also included are all ten original Awakening the Bear! scenarios as well as eleven new Frontier scenarios, five new Commanding Heights scenarios and a very flexible “Partisan Road” Point Buy scenario.  For those with a creative urge, Conflict of Heroes also comes with a scenario editor which allows players to create and share completely new scenarios using the Awakening the Bear! units.

The included scenarios, many of which you can play in about an hour, are designed to depict the pivotal points in a given battle. You can learn enough of the game to play the first scenario in ten minutes and a full set of in-game tutorials is included, as well as a full-color printed manual.

[Updated: 4JAN13]

Battlefront.com released the newest expansion for their WW2 tactical computer wargame Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy. Commonwealth Forces brings…err…well…Commonwealth forces to the game.

Commonwealth Forces”, the first module to the Wargame of the Year 2011 (Wargamer.com Community Award) “Combat Mission> Battle for Normandy” tactical WW2 ground warfare simulation, and includes all new, meticulously researched and historically accurate UK, Canadian and Polish Free Forces units and formations, dozens of new scenarios and QuickBattle maps and two in-depth campaigns. The full range of Commonwealth weaponry is brought to life with the same amazing level of detail and simulation fidelity found in the previous Combat Mission titles.

This module also brings you new German formations, such as the “Waffen SS” and the Luftwaffe Field Divisions. Several variants of the iconic Churchill tank, the Cromwell, Stuart and Firefly are included along with many other new units. The Germans see the mighty King Tiger and the Jagdpanther in their arsenal among several other additions.

We were very surprised, and very happy, to learn Matrix Games and Academy Games teamed up to produce a computer version of Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear. Even better it should be available soon.

COH has long been our favorite WW2 tactical wargame. The computer version looks great and if it faithfully mimics the boardgame should be a must get.

Designed and developed in cooperation with Uwe Eickert, the original designer of Conflict of Heroes, and Western Civlization Software, the award-winning computer wargame studio, no effort has been spared to bring the outstanding Conflict of Heroes gameplay to the computer.  Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! includes an AI opponent as well as full multiplayer support with an integrated forum and game lobby.  To remain true to the core gameplay of the board game, the PC version is designed to be fun, fast and easy to play, though hard to master. The game design is also historically accurate and teaches and rewards platoon and company-level combined arms tactics without overwhelming the player with rules.

The year is 1941. Germany has defeated Poland, Denmark, Norway, and France with ease. In the morning hours of June 22 over 3 million German soldiers attacked Soviet forces along a 1600 kilometer front heralding the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. Complete surprise was achieved and the Germans struck deep into Soviet territory. The Germans thought that the Soviets would fold like a house of cards. Their officer cadre had been massacred by Stalin, training was poor, and morale low. The Blitzkrieg catches the Soviets by surprise and they lose over 1.75 million men in the first two months alone.

The Germans are unstoppable, their Panzers pushing to the very gates of Moscow. But then winter hit and the cold drained the German’s resources, strength, and morale. The Soviets began striking back in the dead of winter and the momentum began to shift in their favor through the following spring. The bear had awoken!

Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear! takes you to the Eastern Front of World War II during Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.  This release includes a historical roster of infantry, artillery, mechanized and support units for the Axis and Soviet forces for the time frame of Operation Barbarossa.