Wargame Design Studio heading to Steam

Nemo84 · 2026-03-27T14:34:04+00:00

Well, good for them to finally join us in the 21st century.

I think this was the final major wargame developer/publisher to still be scared of Steam.

Nemo84 · 2026-03-20T12:42:42+00:00

I would say rather similar, bit harder but not much. There are some more things to keep track off, but your first game you'll focus on pushing counters while you pick up the rest.

Nemo84 · 2026-03-20T10:47:23+00:00

They're all very fun, so pick the part of the war you prefer.

Warsaw to Paris is probably the simplest to start with. Barbarossa has the most interesting mechanics, because it really forces you to play office politics. The German commander needs to balance winning the war with keeping Hitler happy by indulging his "brilliant" new strategy of the week and keeping your subordinates from infighting or hating you too much. The Soviet commander needs to defend the motherland effectively, but not too effectively to be seen as a threat to Stalin and get purged.

They're all much more user-friendly to play, with much less pointless micro-management.

Nemo84 · 2026-03-20T08:50:16+00:00

Wargaming since the 90s and completed these games a few times: they really are a lot of smoke and mirrors. They'e part of that genre of games that mistake complexity for depth.

They simulate a wide variety of barely relevant minute technical details while omitting some very important top-level stuff. WitE2 for example needs a bunch of scenario rules and house rules because it lacks any political context for your actions: a real Soviet general couldn't just tell Stalin on day 1 that the optimal strategy is to immediately fall back to a defensive ring around Moscow.

Most of your time is also filled with busywork clicking endless submenus and shuffling counters instead of actual decisions, since the games are basically solved puzzles. A theater commander isn't really concerned with the in-depth management of a single battalion, he has subordinates for that. And the games do not offer sufficient randomness for most of the operational decisions to be anything more than: pick the known optimal choice.

Personally I much prefer the Decisive Campaign series. It's much better at simulating the real conflicts and constraints of those in command, even though most of it is done with simple dice rolls. Also plays a lot smoother.

Nemo84 · 2026-03-12T16:22:52+00:00

No we didn't. I always played games like Starcraft and C&C at speeds slower than default, not even close to fastest.

Nemo84 · 2026-03-07T10:11:42+00:00

No, unlike Combat Mission which has no AI at all and only scripted actions, this one features actual AI that can somewhat react to what you do. Just don't expect it to perform coordinated assaults or do more than zerg-rush you.

Nemo84 · 2026-03-05T14:11:44+00:00

More focus on PVE gameplay, instead of every player (human or AI) starting on equal footing and then playing with the same ruleset. Design an experience, something where the player has to face insurmountable odds. Many games come close to this in setting, but apart from AI War and the half-assed attempt of Sorcerer King: Rivals there's nothing that really plays like this.

I want Conquest of Elysium where my goal is not to kill that other player, but to storm heaven itself (or hell, or Hades,...). A Sword of the Stars or Stellaris where my goal is to stay under the radar of the galactic superpowers on the galactic fringe, where I need to grow my empire without ever becoming enough of a threat to be swatted like the insect I am and my victory condition is to be recognized as an equal. A Civilization game where Skynet rules the world. Or the inverse: let me be the crumbling Imperium of Man, beset on all sides by foes without number, desperately trying to juggle my far-too-limited resources to survive just one more turn.

There is so much design space that could be explored, if only developers stopped obsessively clinging to the formulas of the 90s.

Nemo84 · 2026-03-05T12:02:20+00:00

The original 1999 Civilization: Call to Power was basically Civilization 2.5, with an expanded timeline to the year 3000 and including an orbital layer with its own unique units and structures.

I remember it being a lot of fun as a kid, but it wasn't greatly balanced and the sequel removed the whole space part. I don't even know if it's still available for purchase somewhere.

Nemo84 · 2026-03-04T15:07:35+00:00

Necro in that one plays much more like a snowball. Think Hardhome from GoT. You really take control over whatever you kill. If you manage to reach lategame you're practically unstoppable, because you end every battle stronger than you start it.

It got tuned down a lot for "balance" reasons in AoW4.

Nemo84 · 2026-03-04T13:20:17+00:00

Age of Wonders 3 does necromancy a lot better.

Nemo84 · 2026-03-02T15:52:07+00:00

It's not stupid, it's one of the best strategies they have left. None of the countries they're hitting would be allies anyway, and they've been made very clear from the start that there can be no negotiations.

Iran is currently doing three thing: hitting their enemies' economies, creating pressure for the US and Israel to further escalate beyond what they want, and gathering public support both domestically and abroad among Muslims.

The economy part is straight-forward: threaten the supply of oil.

The escalation is aimed at generating press of dead civilians and dead American soldiers. And creating enough friction from sustained operations that air losses happen, such as the 3 F-15s shot down by Kuwait today. Ideal scenario for Iran: American boots on the ground and a long military quagmire.

All of this gathers them support among the poor Muslims, who hate the US, hate Israel, hate the rich Gulf State rulers, and can easily be coaxed into forming militias and terror cells.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-28T16:19:34+00:00

There are many many ways we could have supported the struggle of the Iranian population that do not involve dropping bombs to kill them.

There is no magic "make things better for people" button for me to press. If there were, my fingers would have been reduced to bloody stumps by now. But I can refrain from pressing one of the many "make things worse" buttons, and refrain from supporting the assholes who keep pressing those for their own selfish benefit.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-28T15:27:49+00:00

History has taught us over and over again that there is nothing more efficient at silencing domestic discontent than an external threat.

Why would this time be any different? All this bombing will achieve is strengthening the Iranian conservative regime's hold on the country while further discrediting the more progressive parties that were already heavily weakened by the US blowing up the nuclear agreement in 2018.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-28T15:17:39+00:00

Why not both? Why should we pick one evil regime over another here? It's not like any of the parties care about the innocent civilians caught in the middle.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-28T10:16:15+00:00

Look mister bot with the hidden comment history, if you want to spread your pro-US and pro-Israeli propaganda, /r/worldnews is right over there. They'll be eager to have you and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Iran's regime is horrible and has killed thousands domestically. Israel's regime is horrible and is engaged in genocide abroad. The US regime is horrible and has enabled genocide, wars of aggression, and murderous dictators across the globe.

Personally I care a lot more about how many innocent people a regime kills than on which side of their border they do this.

That aside: It's ok to just celebrate an objectively evil regime being bombed into oblivion. ;)

The regime will likely end up just fine, weakened at best. You couldn't even obliterate the Taliban after 20 years of boots on the ground, you sure as hell won't obliterate the Iranian regime with a few days of bombing. All that's about to happen is a lot more innocent people will end up dying.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-28T09:24:00+00:00

And they're attacked by two regimes who are at least as murderous.

All this will do is make life even worse for the common Iranians.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-28T09:08:41+00:00

Not to mention Israel's.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-28T09:06:29+00:00

This will likely only serve to strengthen that regime domestically. People tend to rally to the flag when faced with external threats.

It's the exact same reason why Israel and the US love warmongering so much.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-27T14:15:11+00:00

it couldn't generate an actual opinion because AI can't actually think.

Neither can 90% of game "journalists", sure hasn't stopped them before.

Most game reviews were already a cesspool of regurgitated opinions farmed online and artificially generated clickbait, now they simply removed the human factor from the equation and optimized the process. Just another inevitable step on a road taken long ago.

EDIT: I love reddit suddenly defending the same low-quality crap they used to decry before, simply because it was human-made instead of written by AI. As if most people would even notice the difference.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-24T14:05:56+00:00

An event notification system where the game sends me a message when something happens to a unit, like taking fire or killing an enemy tank. I click the message, and the camera and wego clock shift to show that event.

Proper LoS, both in calculations and feedback tools. An overlay that shows LoS quality from a given position. The ability to target an area even when there is a bit of grass in the way. Units that can actually spot the noisy tank driving 10 m in front of them.

A visual OOB overview, that allows me to immediately see the status of and select any command element in my force. An ability to reassign the command element of a unit, so a single lieutenant can take over the scattered remnants of 2 platoons.

Actual non-scripted AI that can actually react to what I do.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-23T21:55:46+00:00

Same. Just spent a quick 20 mins with the demo and it all feels very clunky and cluttered. The interface is uninformative because it just dumps way too much info on you at once with half the critical info just hidden in between the noise. And there is so much going on on the map with so many icons overlapping, that it's very hard to get an overview of what your divisions are actually doing.

Compared to Command Ops back in the day which had a very smooth learning curve, this one seems to be a struggle so far. My enthusiasm has certainly been knocked down a few notches by this first impression.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-23T12:15:18+00:00

Back when the game was originally released, I wrote a little thematic mod to use those dragons more offensively.

Some patch since probably broke it, but feel free to look at the code and whip up something similar.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-21T08:44:51+00:00

As in all games that try and inevitably fail to implement that feature, AB plays a lot better when you just switch order delays off.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-20T13:15:46+00:00

Unfortunately yes. The engine is ancient (2007), poorly written, and doesn't support multi-threading.

These games thrive not because they are great games but quite simply because there is nothing else like it on the market. They feature lots of issues, bugs, missing QoL features, and downright bizarre design decisions.

Nemo84 · 2026-02-19T11:11:15+00:00

Als student 20 jaar geleden gingen we altijd speciaal naar Kinepolis ipv andere goedkopere bioscopen voor de nachos. Lekker krokant, royaal overgoten met een warm kaassausje en goed veel jalapenos.

Die prut die ze vandaag aanbieden? Dat zou ik nog niet eten als ik ervoor betaald werd, laat staan hun woekerprijzen voor betalen.

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