CHAPTER V

Welcome and enjoy this Sunday Read! In this chapter I will cover some new releases, announcements and tools! Yes, tools. As an avid wargamer on Windows 10 and many of the games not aged very well there are some helpful tools I like to share.

To start with Dxwnd. This small tool from developer Gho is life saving when it comes to run older games on modern hardware. Since Directx instructions for most games are changed in newer video card drivers some 2D games with hardware acceleration can cause problems with slow mouse responds (the older Paradox games), screen flickering (Heroes of Might and Magic IV) etc. Some games won't even start or have problems with ingame menus's (Total War 1, WinSPWW2 and Tank battles).
The tool eliminates all new driver and Win10 functions if you point any .exe to it and makes most games run smooth for me, without the need of changing any of the Windows compatibility settings.
The developer is very helpful and active in the forums himself and knows solutions for almost everything for your older games.
You can download the full version for free here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/

In Windows 10 I have my task bar set to auto-hide since it uses unnecessary space and is damage my immersion when playing non fullscreen games.
Unfortunately most hex games made in Windows environment can't set to full screen and when scrolling down the map the taskbar appears unwanted.
For this I use a small tool called taskbar eliminator. It hides (crtl + h) your taskbar without popping up till you enter the shortcut again. Another lifesaver and you can download it for free here:

http://download.cnet.com/Taskbar-Eliminator/3000-18487_4-10908230.html

Since many games were created when maximum memory was 1 or 2 GB, most games can't use over 2 GB memory even when you have plenty of memory free. There is a simple lock that prevent those games use over 2 GB, while some games can have profit in performance when using over 2 GB memory. For this you can patch your original .exe file with the 4 GB patch. A simple tool that makes your games use how much memory possible. It works very well for older Civilization games enhanved with mods and with most older AGEOD games to pre load map textures (and I notice even faster AI turn times). It's free and you can download it here. (If you run into trouble after patching your .exe file the patch created a .old.exe file with the original .exe in the same folder. Just rename to .exe and delete the newly created .exe and you are fine.

http://www.ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php

As always, all tools are tested and played with for many hours without running into problems, but use those files at your own risk.
If you have other tool suggestions please let me know in the comments.

What's new

Some great names from the (hex) gaming industry (Chris Avellone) are working on a new game that mixes different genres into one and it looks gorgeous. If you don't have Burden of Command on your radar yet I will advice you to add it to your watchlist or wishlist. It's a tactical game in WW2 setting with a new RPG part for leaders and a living hex map full with 3D unit models and structures you can demolish. It looks really cool in the demo to see the hex map changes over the battle. No clean map anymore after your slaughter campaign. For them who demands some competition for Paradox and Slitherine/Matrix I bet this one will make a good change to compete with them.

http://burdenofcommand.com/

As mentioned in a previous chapter also John Tiller is revamping some older titles together with http://www.wargamedesignstudio.com/ who did a great job to renew the interface and 2D counters so they fit modern systems and high resolution properly. The first new game in the series is released last week. Campaign Petersburg:

http://www.johntillersoftware.com/CivilWarBattles/CampaignPetersburg.html

Another new title released following the same roadmap of improving interfaces and 2D counters for modern systems is TOAW IV. Following the path of TOAW III (2006 game with a DOS look UI, which is now a discontinued title) without any concessions made you have the most complete sandbox for your hex gaming pleasure here. It covers era's from 1775 to modern wars in over 200 official scenario's, can create 700 x 700 hex maps (that's 490.000 hexes on a single map) to create scenario's like this Pearl '41 (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3770284 ).
The interface is now a real clean windows UI and the counters are visible at large screens. Scenario's created by the community are backwards compatible, but expect some problems with new leader functionality etc in some of them.
A full scenario bank is available at Matrix forums and here:
http://www.alternatewars.com/Games/TOAW/TOAW.htm

The operational art of war IV isn't released on Steam yet for reasons unknown to me, but they may plan to do that in the future. You can buy the game with a pretty heavy pricetag of 36,99 EUR from Matrix/Slitherine directly here. However this game is complete at release with scenario's covering the whole history of human war, so the price is fair compared to other games who release them over time in the form of DLC.

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/587/details/The.Operational.Art.of.War.IV

You can find an informative review here:

http://www.wargamer.com/reviews/review-the-operational-art-of-war-iv/

Another new release is announced by Slitherine/Matrix last week, but it's not a new game. In cooperation with Fury Software (http://www.furysoftware.com/index_main.html ) they decide to bring Strategic Command WW1 back to the store and on Steam. The original version of the game was available at Battlefront but is removed from that store last week. Let's hope Slitherine/Matrix will have a better offer then Battlefront had (55 EUR it was the last few years) It's confirmed the developer offers the complete fully patched game with Breakthrough dlc at Slitherine, but the release date is not confirmed yet.

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=704


Shrapnel I mentioned in a previous chapter who created some very good games (WinSPWW2 and WinSPTank) updated their storefront recently. It comes with a HUGE discount (13 % max for any of their overpriced games), but sorry to say the store is even worse then the previous one in my humble opinion.
It looks like an Amazon store setup by an individual market reseller. Not really the upgrade I was hoping for in previous chapters to be more competitive, but decide yourself:

http://www.gamersfront.com/store/all-games.html

Phobetor updated both of their PC games (Germany at War and Army General) with some impressive patches and free dlc. While some of the previous titles were sold by Slitherine, it seems the German wargame company decide to go independent and offers their newest game on Steam.
Take a look at Army General on the official website here:
http://www.army-general.de/en/
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/606950/Army_General/

Barbarossa Germany at War is only available at Matrix:

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/472/details/Germany.at.War:.Barbarossa.1941

Another interesting find you probably never heard of is Crypticcomet. They designed digital boardgames in the past and their work was very well received by the community. Especially the very well written sci-fi stories. Slitherine/AurochDigital, even released a new game not too long ago based on their game Armageddon Empires. If you like some nostalgia you can find the title here:

http://www.crypticcomet.com/games/AE/armageddon_empires.html

The AurochDigital game is influenced by Armageddon Empires and is on Steam:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/376450/Last_Days_of_Old_Earth/

For this week that's all folks. I wrote a 10 page story about DLC prices from Paradox for the new CK II and EU IV games (total 43 EUR to buy them both) and Sons of Cadia for Warhammer Sanctus Reach and Lumens for Polaris Sector. But when I clicked the “send” button on Steam it was vanished completely and I have no energy to write it a second time for now. Just see if there is something interesting for you to update any of the games. EU IV is now focused on the Islamic world with latest Cradle of Civilization DLC (content pack with some 3d models sold separately) and CK II's Asian part of the map is improved. Lumens is getting a new race for the first time, but best of the dlc is the more options for generated map features now 1000 stars map and more diversity. (That update is free outside the dlc as well). The best dlc imho is Sons of Cadia since it adds a new race, new unit models and stats and a new campaign. You can find them all on Steam.

Thank you for reading and have a great next week!

CHAPTER IV

Clear wheater, detection maximum

The fourth chapter about Hex Wargaming is dedicated to the follow up, from the follow up, from the follow up from Advanced Tactics(Gold), Case Blue and Warsaw to Paris. Barbarossa is the very well received third installment in the series. A major improved engine, card event system, leaders, thousands of hexes and massive war is what you get from Vic's latest creation.

It's a strong scenario based campaign, you can choose a linked campaign a short and a long version, and there is no random generation in these games. Only in Advanced Tactics Gold (and a New Dawn).
I prefer random maps myself in most games, but I know a lot of you demands well crafted scenario campaigns and that's exactly what Barbarossa is. Delivered with your download is the full OOB and dates when they arrive in different documents, even as stats and leader names. It's massive.

What's even more nice is that their is an active mod community for the game and there is a fan based mod community project you can download and install over any of the three decisive campaign games.
That gives you a impressive Winter War scenario, Hkushin Ron scenario (Japan vs Russia for control the far East) and the almost never seen before First Congo War.

http://www.vrdesigns.net/?page_id=1346

For the DC Community Project click here:

http://www.vrdesigns.net/community1.php

And for more scenario's for the whole campaign series, Advanced Tactics Gold included, follow this link. There is an exclusive Civil War mod (beta) for ATG, and the recently released Four Seasons mod that change the unit pictures and counters.

http://www.vrdesigns.net/scenariobank.php

Vic Reijkersz work on his new game Shadow Empires is progressing. The first invites to pre beta are sended. You can follow progress in his devlog here:
It's a new genre, has some tactics, strategical and 4x elements, HEXES, random maps and even procedural generated units (stats)!

http://www.vrdesigns.net/?cat=21

And if you think you have seen everything by downloading just some ingame delivered mods in some of classic games like OOB and the Battle Academy Series you are wrong.

Battle Academy is not an hexbased, but a square based turn based tactical game. Based on the engine (Archon engine) used today for Pike and Shot, Sengoku Jidai and Field of Glory II.
But the Battle Academy series was succesful (There is another game based on this engine named "Hell") and I'm impressed what this modmaker can do with that engine:

http://amaris-games.com/

Besides a Stalingrad Campaign (beta) and some maps with real cities for Batte Academy 1 and 2, there is an impressive Pacific War mod as well and one in the making for OOB, the Korean War.
I can highy advice you to visit his website and watch the different tabs.

http://amaris-games.com/ba-amaris/naval-academy-mod/

Sometimes mod makers can simply do more then the original designers. Not restricted by any rules and doing exactly what players ask for.

One of those project that was fee to download for a while when in pre Alpha state was a new Brian Kelly game named Dessert Wars 40 - 43, and since 2015 nothing new on the website and no download as well.
Probably there is a reason for this silence and I think it's the game in development now for Slitherine names Dessert War 40 - 42 (maybe they develop 43 as a dlc).
Take a look in the manual and at their website:

http://members.upc.ie/jeanette.kelly/manual.html

And see the "In development" section of Matrix/Slitherine,
A Brian Kelly game indeed:

http://www.slitherine.com/products/676/details/Desert.War.1940-1942

They are searching for a skilled programmer for the spiritual successor of the Steel Panthers series as well so that's some big news as well:

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4278897

Also AGEOD will finally switch to a new engine after release of their title in development: Wars of Succession:

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=637

About the new engine based on the Archon engine. AGEOD and FOG combined? Hexes?
Do we get a successor to the only game I know of with a strategic map and hex based battles?
(Forge of Freedom: The American Civil War 1861-1865 http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=333)

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4052325

In the past three chapters I described a lack of reality, competetive pricing, Steam use or the lack of it and working with 20 year old engines. Probably that lack of common sense is compensated by design skills because again I can present a list of titles you probably never heard of, from companies you never heard of because they lack every marketing skill, are stuck in 1998 and do nothing to build a community around their games. It's the niche of the niche.

For example you ever heard of the Strategic Command series World War 1, World War 2 and dlc's? Well crafted games at first sight, Civilization style hex map, with 3D and or 3D counter units, massive armies and maps. Just a little high priced at 70 EUR for WW1 and 60 for WW2 and no Steam, no streams, no community and no reviews to read about the game.

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=74&Itemid=117

Glad in this case again Slitherine has their own Strategic Command WW2 series and recently released a massive free community pack for it here:

http://www.slitherine.com/products/product.asp?gid=714

But Battlefront, HPS, John Tiller, Sharpnell are not alone in their "we are niche and we stay niche" statements. It can always get more worse. For example if you are able to create an immersive hexwargame, fully detailed, years of research, ultimate gameplay mechanism for the HexWar die hard, but using his mobile phone to capture a video plays on his screen as introduction movie for his game:
I simply can't believe, but the game looks incredible and the newest patch is released yesterday.
Prepar yourself for World War II from Schwerpunkt:

http://schwerpunktgames.com/
(Watch Grogheads for an interview and screenshots http://grogheads.com/interviews/8116)

Or take a look at Soldiers of Empires II from IgorLab Software. Ever heard of it?
Looks pretty interesting:

http://www.soe2.com/soe2project.htm

Like to see a free mix of Heroes of Might and Magic III and a Medieval wargame on a strategic level?

http://www.knightsofwar.ba/

Or maybe another totally free title you never heard of. The devs lacks the skill to develop an English page for their English game. So all forum is in German, the downloads section, the playerbase etc etc
But there is a great game down here and it's totally free:
Advanced Strategic Command is the name. You can find all kind of screenshots here:

http://www.asc-hq.org/

And in the German forum download the latest (beta 3, scroll down a bit so you find the right link)

http://battle-planet.de/pbp/board/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=6606

Ever wanted to make your own wargame with your own countries, OOB's, units and terrain? That was popular in the past as well. Matrix gave us the War Engine for free http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=356
Download here: https://www.gamewatcher.com/mods/the-war-engine-mod/full-release-1-0

And Norm Koger (Oprational Art of War III and the upcoming IV) gave us the Wargame Construction Set III: Age of Rifles 1846-1905, based on DOS. Another gap in the market. Where is our recent Sanbox Wargame simulator???

Well it doesn't take long before Operational Art of War IV arrives.
Is that finally the right massive open, sandbox, hexwar game we are waiting four chapters for?
Read the FAQ here:
http://www.matrixgames.com/amazon/PDF/TOAoW4_faq_final.pdf

Thank you for reading. This was actually an extra episode with a sidestep to some free games, free mods, some games you probably never heard of and games that didn't fit in the other chapters.
Hope you enjoyed this one as well.

Chapter five will be a normal chapter again.

CHAPTER III

FOG II - Ancients -

Since I plan to write about Field of Glory in the previous chapter I had to skip it since their is so much to mention about FOG and other Ancient games. And also cover some other popular Era's.

Of course and without doubt this chapter will be dedicated to FOG II for being the most interesting releases of the end of this year in general and a masterpiece for TBS gaming.
You can read my FOG review in the review section of my Steam profile page.

There was always FOG. FOG in miniature format tabletop games, FOG in paperback, FOG in .pdf files, books full armylists and history, beautifully decorated, and FOG Dgital.
And since there is FOG there isn't enough space for another ancient game in the genre. Not because I don't want, but there simply isn't anything to find.
Rome, Ceasar and Sparta is what I think of when talking about history. Those are the stories I remembered from school and those are the stories that influenced me on holidays to create my own tabletop games and books full of army stats.
I used to own three big paper boxes with CD-Rom inside from iEntertainment. (You remember the big blue eye logo?). They didn't survive their own war as a company, but the collection is till on GoG.
The great battles of Hannibal, Alexander and Ceasar:

https://www.gog.com/game/great_battles_collectors_edition

It's hexes, turn based, historical and ancient so worth a mention in this post.
But also John Tiller and HPS developed a series early 2000 with the ancient era in mind.
They turned the original Panzer Campaigns engine into an ancient wargame with 3D models, hexes and gameplay you can compare with Field of Glory. Different formations, placement of units, terrain features and lot's of unit/army stats. Huge maps. There is a million hex map in one of the series (I think it was the Punic wars). The last one created is the Diadochoi war series.
While mentioned in chapter one the price of those games is highly unrealistic imho. 39,99 for every individual game in the same 20 year old engine. Have to say there still is support and patches for higer resolutions are available. The research done for these games is comprehensive and the scenario's are crafted by the best designers in the world. Worth it for some. Probably enough for HPS to sell them, but totally igonores Steam, community building, social media and competetive pricing.
Here is the list with their games in the Ancient series. Will cost you at least 240 EUR to buy them all.

http://www.hpssims.com/Pages/Products/AllProducts.asp (See ANCIENT SERIES, the second aliena).

So we had only two series mentioned by now and the third of course is the most complete and best affordable one. This goes to Slitherine again. The original Field of Glory.
The original FOG is a hex game, common known mechanics as in FOG II, like disrupted units, charges and position of units. Around 8 - 10 dlc's are developed for the original one. But before release of the last two (probably three, but that's a still a secret) expansions the original devs left the team and left the game abondoned. Slitherine was not able to get into the source code of this old game, but at least keeps supporting it in many ways. First they keep the PBEM system runnings as well as the possibility to continue downloading the game from their website. Also they offered the game heavly dicounted (9,99 EUR and 4,54 EUR per DLC) on their website, but no Steam here and do not expect that to happen in the future.

What went totally wrong for this title was a programmer, also fan of the original series who had the ambition to rewrite the original FOG engine in Unity. That was the firt step to a release on tablets, the ability to finish the last two dlc's (one of them is the viking era) and eventually a Steam release.
But it went wrong. Months became years and the game is left in a miserable state. The Unity version is simply not working as intended, but the original is still very good to play.

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=378

I will not say that Rome isn't subject of enough content in video games the last decade, but not for strategy hex wargaming. There is Total War 1 & 2 and a lot of other RTS games in the genre. Thousands of mods and even official modifications (Rome for Europa universalis, Rome for Warband, Ageod games, Civilization series and mods, AOE etc etc), but nothing between the original Battle series from iMagic, FOG from Slitherine and the Ancient series from HPS.

It isn't a surprise in that way that FOG II is so well received by players and serious gaming press.
It doesn't surprise me if this is the biggest hit for Slitherine after Panzer Corps and I'm not surprised if we can expect a flood of DLC's for this game the next few years. For me they are welcome. Game is fun, game looks nice, gameplay is authentic. But still the same complain. It's not a modern engine hex wargame with Ancient theme. The gap is still there, even after FOG II.

So what is not surprising at all is that there is that (annoying) returning company who is very smart and notic the lack of Ancient war hex games. And that is exactly where the to casual for me Hexwar company comes in to play again.
Because the over 10 year lack of Ancient hex war games they produced (it's almost a factory that company) title after tilte. The same engine without much depth, small maps, bad interface and no mod freedom. Devs absebt in forums, no community features, no tournaments etc etc
But they find the gap and fill their pockets. Because there simply isn't anything else:

Five pages of titles from Hexwar, all around 9,99 EUR each, to run on all different platforms. The hexwargame factory presents:
https://www.hexwar.com/downloads/ancient-battle-rome/
https://www.hexwar.com/downloads/ancient-battle-successors/
https://www.hexwar.com/downloads/ancient-battle-alexander/
https://www.hexwar.com/downloads/ancient-battle-hannibal/
https://www.hexwar.com/downloads/battles-of-the-ancient-world-i/

So what's need to happen is a MASSIVE ancient wargame with hexes in a modern engine respecting the old fashioned gameplay. I'm patiently waiting.

For medieval era's the lack is even more noticable. There are some English Civil war campaigns and the Pike and Shot era is covered in certain games (covered in another chapter to come) but simple dark age games and medieval games are hard to find in the genre.

Again it's Hexwar filling the gap with a few casual Steam titles, but also the creators of the Strategy & Tactics bundle created something to fill the game. HeroCraft is the name of the developer.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/508300/Strategy__Tactics_Dark_Ages/

But no hexes here, so actually not worth a mention. But Dark Ages at least looks interesting to pick up on a sale one day.

That brings me to the last hidden title in medieval era you will not find on Steam or elsewhere and that is "Vengeance".
But be warned, this is not a 100 x 100 hexes game, but designed to play half hour battles at max.

http://digitalgameworks.com/index.php/vengeance/

For the Ancient period itself there is simply nothing like FOG II and is lonely on top. The best free alternative, but only possible to play online is DBA Online.

http://www.dbaol.com/screenshots.htm

It's worth a look at their site just to see some of the 1200 handcrafted unit sketches I miss in current 3D titles.

To fullfill our Ancient strategy needs in a turnbased way we are stuck to FOG II for now or the older alternatives. There is no competition again. There are some Grand Strategy games in the genre that are worth a mention because they cover the history/characters and have wargame gameplay mechanism:

Alea Jacta Est
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=445
(often on sale in the war bundle at former Bundle Stars, now Fanatical).

And some classics from Matrix/Slitherine. Some of them discounted now to 9,99 EUR and some still the ancient price:

Gates of Troy
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=299

Tin Soldiers: Julius Ceasar
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=304

Spartan
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=312

Chariots of War
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=341

Legion Arena Gold
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=340

Legion Gold
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=346

Great Invasions
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=359

Hannibal: Rome and Carthage in the Second Punic War
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=388

Last but not least it's good to see that another company dev under publisher Slitherine has discovered the ancient needs of us, the lack of products and the lack of another catagory: "Naval".
It has hexes, strategic turn based gameplay, naval combat and all in the Ancient setting.
From the makers of Quadriga is there Mare Nostrvm:

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/product.asp?gid=650

That brings me to the end of chapter III. Thank you for reading. There is a lot to cover in upcoming chapters. A sneak peak:

-Mods and user scenarios
-Books
-Reference materials
-Gaming sites
-HeroCraft Strategy Tactics
-Ultimate General GameLabs
-HexWar Games
-GraviTeam Tactics
-Combat Mission
-Making History Factus Games
-Warbanners
-War in the West
-Battlegoat Studios Supreme Ruler Series
-The different Era's
-Panzer Campaigns
-Naval Games
-Victoria and Golden Age

Thank you for reading, voting and comments!

CHAPTER II

Order of Battle: World War II

As in Chapter I, the introduction about Hex Wargaming history and future, I dedicate this chapter to a Steam game. The first one was Advanced Tactics Gold as good example of how to modernize a hex wargame with full replay value (sandbox, procedural generation, usermaps, mods, modern resolution graphics etc) as filling the gap between the old JT games and modern turnbased wargames.
In Chapter II I choose for Order of Battle. The reason is twofold, since it's an excellent game in terms of innovation and new wargamer friendly, it also lacks in some ways the gameplay elements of the old JT games. For me it's somewhere in the middle between wargaming on a strategical level and on an operational level, but with some design choices not respecting the old wargame rules.

When you start any of the John Tiller or HP Simulations games you mention that you can chooose over 20 and 350 + scenarios for every box you buy. This includes a starter scenario to play like a tutorial with a printed (or use your tabet), manual in hand, lot's of individual scenario's to play against human or AI and a series of campaigns you have to play in order depending the outcome of the previous scenario.
What is unique in those games compared to newer titles is that you have a lot of maps to choose from, the engine can even generate procedural content, you can design order of battles (called OOB from now on) and the turn range is from 7 turns for the smalles scenario's to 200 + turns for huge maps consiting of 900 + by 900 + hexes (that are almost a million hexes). I'm not totally accurate for every title atm (then this piece of writing will turn into an academic piece), but in ATG it's 100 x 100 hexes the max and in Order of Battle it's 200 x 200 max.
But compare it to Strategic Command, Decesive Campaign Barbarossa (and the previous two titles) and War in the East/West you see they can only be played on fixed world maps. The amount of maps to choose from is limited, there is no random generation and you can choose out of one or two campaigns max.
There are of course thousands of more differences, also in a good way, but mention them in more detail in this post or in later chapters.

Back to Order of Battle,
The choosen business model for selling this game is not common for Slitherine, and while I think it can attract new players for the community I don't think it's the way to go with future titles.
It's sold on Steam as a free to play game. While it's technically true you can download the game for free and play, you can only play the tutorial and first campaign scenario. The campaigns itself are common DLC's you can pick up between 9,99 and 19,99 EUR atm of writing.
Free to play attracts a specific audience, and I think wargames in general are not that type of audience.
We do research, we know history, we make use of streams, reviews and Steam community features/curators to tell each other about new releases. We don't need a free to play (demo) model to enter. What is happened to Order of Battle is that 50% of the reviews are now influenced by the business model itself and not about the game. That's sad for the developers. The reviews are mixed, while the game deserves a positive rating at least.
About the game now. You play on hexes and the 200 x 200 maps able to produce enable pretty big maps. The original designers didn't use this scale often in official scenario's but mod makers and scenario designers do. More of this in a future chapter.
But specially with a new turn based hex wargame with OOB in the name you expect they stay true to some unwritten wargame rules. Have a skirmish mode, have 2D counters (called military or NATO counters), manage supply, stack troops and have a OOB!
While the maps are beautifully crafted, the unit models are very well done and the new supply system is interesting it lacks in all other parts. While they showed 2D counters in the pre Alpha ads, they never made it in the game, there is no stacking, no skirmish mode (except an experimental one in MP mode only atm in beta) and no OOB. There is nothing to organize, except troops placement in individual hexes, influenced by close by units and terrain, but no Organisation of Order of Battle. That makes it more a tactical wargame like Panzer Corps instead of keeping the same vibe as the old JT/HPS games.
All in all it deserves a reccomedation for being mod friendly, have lot's of DLC's to choose from covering interesting era's of war and being beautifully designed in terms of UI and graphics. An exceptional middle game.

And that brings me in this second chapter to Panzer Corps itself. Panzer Corps is the natural evolution of the classic Panzer General series. While fully 2D, no counters, no skrimishes and no OOB, there is lot in this game to keep you calm a few years. It's one of those games some people on Steam clocked over 2000 hours ingame for, the Gold version with all DLC has over 350 official scenario's and campaigns.
The unit models are 3D rendered models, the amount of different units is huge, there is an active map building and tournament community and it's played on hexes! It's on sale often @ Steam, Fanatical or Slitherine website.

!FREE!

But there are many free alternatives. For example People's General, Pacific General, Allied General, PEG, Open General and of course Panzer General.
I'm not a digital rights expert, and I know some of the titles are on GoG (the classic DOS titles modified to run on Windows 10) but a lot of them you can find on Abandonware and in Open free form.
What's all fun with this is that you can choose between hundreds of usermade maps and campaigns, it runs better on modern resolutions and is still in development, while the original titles are, well, abandoned...

Please use external links at your own risk, with a good antimalware program and/or adblocker plus in Firefox or Chrome.

Open General:

http://luis-guzman.com/OpenGeneral.html

PeG:

http://www.pegww2.net/Pages/install.htm

People's General:

http://www.peoplesgeneral.de/index.html

Panzer General:

http://panzergeneraldownload.com/

PeG Forever:

http://pgforever.info/

To end this list I recently found out something interesting about Panzer Corps.
As some of you know Panzer Corps 2 is is development since a while now, and nothing is published by the devs yet. What we do know is that they change from 2D to 3D, not make use of the inhouse Slitherine engine used for Sengoku, P&S and FOG II, but the Unreal 4 engine.
Flashback games is dedicated to the job ( http://flashback.games/) and in their devlog you can read about their ambitions with PC2. There you will see that one of the devs is also involved in PeG Forever shown above. He mentioned that they are very dedicated to downgrade nothing gameplay wise and want to stay true to original wargaming. This must be a enormous complicated job since the Unreal engine isn't famous for good 3D conversions from classic games (see the Homm VII debacle, Warmachine Tactics). But also X-Com 2 is made in Unreal engine 4 and that, in combination with a dedicated dev famous from a free to play PeG version, can be gold in the long term. Aiwating this release with pleasure.

I was planning to cover FOG in this second chapter as well, but it's already to much to post in one time. I choose to cover FOG in the next chapter together with a complete list about different ERA's and what is available. For example FOG isn't alone in the Ancient period. Also Civil War, Napoleonic and other ERA's deserves a specific chapter.

That brings me to the end of chapter II with in the end like in chapter I something new on the radar some of you probably didn't seen yet.
This time I reccomend you to look at YoboWargames http://www.yobowargames.com/
While I wonder who choose the logo and name for classic hex war gaming, what I see from their newest title in development is interesting:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/672140/Battle_For_Korsun/

But with a warning since a look at their previous work and company logo it can be to casual for it's own good. We just have to wait and see (or play).

In one of the next chapters I want to cover original tabletop/boardgame wargaming with hexes and how they compare to newly released tabletop engines (Like Tabletop Simulator on Steam) in terms of user created complete sandboxes of thos classic tabletop games and how they can be played. It would be nice to read about your experiences in the comments. Are their Axis and Allies, Avalon Hill boardgames to download for free in the workshop for those tabletop engines? Some research is needed here, will not happen before chapter six.

Thank you for reading and till next chapter!

Cablenexus

Hello,

I like to publice my chapters about the history and future of wargaming in this forums as well.
It's just something I wrote for my friends activity feed, but turns into a huge guide with research.

CHAPTER I

- Advanced Tactics Gold -

I don't know if many of you played this title, but I think it's best to describe this game as filling the gap between the old HPS/John Tiller (Campaign) and Panzer/Squad series and the new generation of hex battle game like OOB World War II, Strategic Command WWII and (probably Panzer Corps, while more a tactical game without command and supply structures).

I did some research over the last few weeks, triggered by the release of Slitherine's FOG II, and decide to look back in time what they had to offer till now.

There is a huge cap between games released around 1998/2000, a long time silence, starting in 2012 again to attract an audience, with FOG II, while not really a World War Tactical game, at the top of the moment as best sold I think.

The John Tiller Campaign series (Civil War and Napoleon battles are available as well bundled), you can buy in a bundle instead of the individual priced games at John Tiller Software and/or his former partner HPS Simulations for at least 49,99 EUR a single game in the series. The Slitherine bundles are priced almost half of this and are the individual games in the series bundled. With the newest JT game, the Campaign Middle East series still sold as new indiviudal title at Slitherine.

The Panzer series, Squad series, First World War series are all available at JTS or HPS for around 49,99 EUR (discounted always) a piece. You can choose from over 50 titles.

2000 and the years of the financial crisis was the end for Talonsoft. The whole team is working in many different directions but some of them are involved in the wargaming community. Like mentioned the John Tiller Sofware page, where you can find all titles between 2000 and now, the HPS site where you find most of the titles, except the newest ones and some other (almost obscure) hidden sites with professional modifications of some of the games (released and in development).
And of course Slitherine have an amazing mix (together with Matrix, but for one reason I feel more attracted to Slitherine myself) of (hex) wargames and newer tactical and strategical games in most avialable genres (from Sci-Fi to Ancient games).

Ok, then where is the gap you could ask yourself? Well here it is. All the old Panzer and Campaign series games are designed in the time we used screen resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 if you was lucky, or 1024 x 768 if you was common. All games are Windowed mode, since the whole interface/UI is simple Windows, so they age well in terms of compatibilty and screensize fits your current 19xx + desktops.But when you look in full 3d zoom in to the unit models, they are just simple pixels, and changing to counter style graphics with original military counters makes them so small you can hardly read them on current displays.

This gap is partly solved for most of the games available at HPS since the developers released patches for the whole series to make a zoomed in 2D mode where counters are visible. They still look not sharp and the models aren't changed, but for sure it's a neccessary improvement.

There is even this website http://www.wargamedesignstudio.com/ where you can see a group of people improve the graphics, the counters, the resolutions and even the interface for some of the JT/HPS titles. Three are already released, and a few are in development, even as the game Panzer Battles 3 with even more improvements (screenshots available at their site).

So probably for a few of the titles we get newer interfaces and improvements for modern systems in graphics and hopefully in UI tweaks as well. The old games can be tedious in selection procedures on large maps.

I even read somewhere that there are plans to release the original games in bundles and it brings me to the question why this is not happened earlier?

Slitherine only offers 5% of the collection, HPS and JT sites are aged and the price of the games there is totally unrealstic compared to what the gamers market, bundle sites and Steam offers today.
Last there is another smaller series of specific games in the genre (medieval and even fantasy) at Digital Gameworks. Here are the links:

http://www.johntillersoftware.com/
http://www.hpssims.com/default.asp
http://digitalgameworks.com/

The audience is small is what you often hear from developers of wargames, but they don't do anything (except Slitherine) to expand thir community. And that is a strategic failure in my opinion.

How incredible would it be to buy in a normal price range for what are worth the classic titles (between 19,99 and 29,99 EUR, or 49,99 + for bundles) available on Steam, with latest patches and support from the community in terms of mods and mapmaking. I wish they wake up one day and start to make use of what Steam has to offer.

While I absolutely love Slitherine, I think it's very healthy and even neccessary for them to survive is to have competition. The competition isn't healthy atm of writing.

Research of what there is to offer in the whole spectrum is miserable compared to the glory days of hex wargaming. Yes there is Hexwars who pops up regurlary on my Steam page, with interfaces like they are just Ipad dev tool samples and placeholders, pretty nice models, on really small maps with less gameplay variation and stats like the old games. Yes they do series, they have many titles, the price justifies their lack of depth some way, but I wish they had more depth.

There are only a few independant devs next to hexwars. The Command OPS series (Lock and Load publishing), Strategic Command WW2 and WW1 by Battlefront (who also develops the Combat Mission series)

https://www.hexwar.com/
http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

And some games (almost all are free to play in low resolution without campaigns) developped by Sharpnell you can find here:

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/index.html
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1713246

The WinSP Battle series and Tank Battle series are excellent old skool hex games, also Matric have one version (with a free to play version) available in the forum. There is discussion about which one is really the best, so try to find out! (see link above).

I like to end the first chapter of my post with the plan to give a weekly update to the post if you, my Steam friends, like to read about it. In chapter II I will continue my journey about the gap in Hexwar games between times with some example of actual games that come close to the genre, some changes I like and I dislike, some new games in development and some vision about what I miss in current hexwar games while they are grpahically improved. For example the 900 x 400 hexes maps with kilometers of terrain and ten thousands of hexes on individual maps, the many user made maps, the depth in mechanism and generated maps. Will be continued...

For now I recoomend Advanced Tactics Gold Edition as an example of a complete war sandbox friendly and easy to use on modern systems with the old indepth gameplay seen in the classics.

Cablenexus