PC, and Tabletop Strategy Games

All articles by Yooper

There are some games that hang with you. You get an urge to explore an era and always go back to that same title. It becomes like an old jacket on a crisp fall morning. It feels right. It feels good. Flashpoint Campaigns Red Storm has become that game for me, and seeing as I
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Command Modern Operations : Strike Planner

One of the most requested features in CMO (and CMANO) has been a Strike Planner, or Time on Target planner. This, with the latest Beta Update, is now a reality. It works. It works well. It will probably change how you play the game, and it will most definitely make your play time more enjoyable.
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Second Front : Review

Few unreleased games over the years have kept my interest and excitement as Second Front has. Published by Microprose and developed by Hexdraw, it combines the best of solid gameplay, historical accuracy, and move of all, fun. It’s all wrapped into a UI that is delightfully refreshing in the genre. This will be, without a
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Simulating the Sinking of the Moskva

On 14 April, 2022, a pair of Ukrainian Neptune ASM missiles struck the Moskva, fatally wounding the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and leading to her demise hours later.* How is it that a warship fitted with an able and capable SAM system, CIWS (close in weapons system), in a war zone, can
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Command Modern Operations : Droning on About Drones 1

Like the rest of the world I’ve been watching the terrible situation in Ukraine. Every day I’m incensed by the violence perpetrated by the Russians, and inspired by the courage of the Ukrainians defending their country. It is surreal to watch, almost in real time, as a modern war unfolds. Today we’re going to look
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Review : SGS Operation Hawaii

Introduction SGS Operation Hawaii is a “what if” scenario that has the Japanese invade the Hawaiian island of O‘ahu. SGS, The Strategy Game Studio, was founded by Philippe Thibault of AGEOD and Europa Universalis fame. It is in the same vein as the other games in the SGS stable that are firmly grounded in the
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Where is the Digital Wargame Renaissance?

For several hours over 150 people watched a gentleman wax poetically on the state of table top war games, and occasionally clip the corners on counters. It’s almost routine to watch someone un-box a board war game and loving display the counters, map, even the manual. Twitter is filled with folks gushing over game design,
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November 2021 Round Up

The last couple of months for wargames has been busier than the Pumpkin Spice industry. Releases, re-releases, ownership changes, and completely new announcements all come together for what is shaping up to be an interesting year.
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Campaign Series Vietnam Q4 2021

Get ready to crank the Creedence Clearwater Revival, roll a doob, and slap a peace sticker on your pot. Campaign Series Vietnam is looking at a Q4 2021 release. Information is sparse but there’s some dev blogs that we’ll highlight below the break so you can get your Vietnam groove on. Edit : Release date
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Armoured Commander II Review

Immolation is the career hazard of armored crewman. A tank is a steel box filled with machinery, explosives, and fuel. Pierce that armored shell and odds have it, your crew will burn. I know this because in Armoured Commander II most of my crews suffer this terrible fate. But, like the troopers they are, the
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Hex of Steel Review

Introduction Hex of Steel, previously know as Operation Citadel, is a multi-platform turn based war game set during World War 2. Designed by Valentin Lievre, this is a first release for the designer as a self taught programmer. The title is both on Steam, as well as Android and iOS. Interestingly, there is multiplayer cross
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Books and Brawls : With Wings Like Eagles

A few years ago I picked up a read for a brief vacation, “With Wings Like Eagles” by Michael Korda. My knowledge of the Battle of Britain was pretty basic, a general idea of the smackdown, but never a deep dive. Michael Korda’s book lays it all out and really pins how unwinnable the Battle
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High Fleet : Review

High Fleet is a title from the phoenix reborn, Microprose, released on July 27th. It is many things all at once, like the desert and air ships that make up the core of the game. Diesel punk? Immersion shooter? Roguelike? It has a tactical layer akin to Command Modern Operations and a combat layer rather
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Combat Mission Cold War : Review

Combat Mission Cold War fills a fairly wide open niche between the World War 2 titles and the ultra deadly combat of Combat Mission Black Sea. Built upon the same engine as the previous releases it is showing its age but also is very functional. With a few mods it can look as good as
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Cardboard Games Made Digital

Lately I’ve had three games on my mind. Two are firmly in the digital space and one is in the cardboard space. War in the East 2, Pavlov’s House, and No Retreat. Comparing and contrasting has made me look at boardgames of years past, what the future may hold, and does a black box of
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Multiplayer CMO : Shoot your friends!

Command : Modern Operations PE has been the sole source of multiplayer for the platform. Only those professional or military folks have been able to shoot each other in real time. Until now. Matrix Forums user musurca has released IKE, a way to play PBEM CMO in a really awesome way. Let’s dig into it
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Unity of Command 2 : Barbarossa DLC

Building on the solid base of UoC2, 2×2 Games has announced a Barbarossa DLC. Slated for a Steam release sometime in April 2021. It really looks to expand upon the usual UoC maps and take advantage of the wide open spaces provided by the Soviet countryside.
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Rule the Waves 2 Expansion : Ironclads to Missile Cruisers

The fine folks over at NWS have announced the first expansion to Rule Waves 2 and it will cover from 1890 all the way to 1970. In addition they will be enhancing the modern aspects of jets, ASM’s, night air operation, along with a whole host of related improvements. On top of this is a
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Site Status Update

WeaponsRelease is humming along and I wanted to give you folks a quick update. No More Ads Hosting fees for the site are like $8 a month. I normally run an adblocker and I assume all of you will as well. You’ll see a button on the sidebar for BuyMeACoffee. This is a quick and
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7 of the Greatest Games I Never Play

On December 8th, 2015 I purchased War in the Pacific Admirals Edition from the Matrix store. In the 5 years since I’ve probably logged less than 4 hours playing the game. But I’ve spent countless hours following others as they dash across the Pacific, engage in daring battleship raids, and hunt for the elusive Tokyo
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Command Ops 2 : Bombard Tutorial

Proper use of artillery can mean the difference between a hasty retreat and a victorious advance. Do you attach it to the main command? Micro-manage and direct it yourself? Or just leave it attached as is? All situations are valid at certain times and with different play styles. So lets dig in and find out
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Battletech, 3d Printers, and Automation

Some of my earliest gaming memories are frantically erasing paper mech sheets so I can play another round of Battletech in my grandparents basement. Following a long lapse whilst I whittled away the time in Mechwarrior Online or in the HBS Battletech game, I have finally returned to my gaming roots. Except the paper and
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Command Ops 2 : Manhay Crossroads (Beta AI)

Manhay Mayhem A quick playthrough from Command Ops 2 base game, the Manhay Crossroads scenario. I’m playing from the Allied side. This was first posted on the new ConSimWorld website. They’ve made some big improvements compared to the 1997 webdesign that the site previously had. But here’s some Manhay Mayhem! Also worth noting, this is
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Books and Brawls : Korea 1950

This will be a new column where we’ll look at a piece of non-fiction and pair it up with a game. Few things inspire me to game a scenario than a well written book. Right now I’m reading In Mortal Combat, Korea 1950-1953 by John Toland. We’ll be looking at history through the eyes of
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Command Ops 2 : Probe Tutorial

This tutorial will explore the nuance of using the Probe command. While it may seem like a simpler version of Attack, there’s actually some interesting usage that will allow you to recon in force without locking down or revealing the majority of your force.
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Command Ops 2 : Delay and Withdraw Tutorial

The Delay and Withdraw commands offer an important, and very different, way for your forces to disengage and delay the enemy. In both cases you rely on the AI to determine the best way to operate, and this is a good thing! If you play with any sort of orders delay you allow your AI-HQ
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Command : Modern Operations : Sahel Slugfest Start

This tutorial will cover my initial process any time I play a Command : Modern Operations scenario. In this case it is the CMO:LIVE scenario Sahel Slugfest. In this scenario I play as a combined Sudanese-Chinese task force that must destroy Chadian-French forces. It offers a wide variety of unique Chinese aircraft and a not
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How’s it Going Second Front?

Second Front has a very fluid and open design process that is well displayed on the Microprose Discord channel. If you’re not using it, well, I’d really recommend it. Every few days Jo, the developer, posts some screenshots or a gif, or some other little tidbit. Check out below for a collection of his most
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Command Ops 2 : West of Arnhem

The Highway to the Reich scenario pack contains 13 scenarios ranging from 55 units all the way up to 881. It covers Operation Market Garden and makes for a very challenging Allied experience. We’re going to take a closer look at a smaller, and shorter, scenario : Arnhem Second Wave.
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Weapons Release : A New Hope

Back in 2017 I set started TheStrategyGamer as a gaming blog to cover some more niche games and offer guides that the average game site doesn’t touch. Even today my tutorials on Gary Grigsby’s games are the top hits. Fast Forward a few years and I want to differentiate myself from the generic name I
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Combat Mission : Storming the Steam Beaches

On August 4th it was announced that Matrix Games partnered with Battlefront to bring Combat Mission : Shock Force 2 to Steam. This is a very exciting and long overdue transition. Even more interesting is the tectonic shift that is grog game developers moving away from niche, DIY, distribution platforms to Steam.
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Command Modern Operations : Quick Battles

A clever bit of code makes for an interesting, infinitely variable battle generator. Even better is it can be modified with a bit of html and a touch of Lua to really do some unique stuff. I’ve just scratched the surface but this might be the coolest addition to CMO.
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Command Modern Operations : Birth of a Scenario Part 4

Finally we add some aircraft. Placing the air bases is the easy part. Once all of these bases are down we’ll work out saving them with aircraft for future use.
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Command : Modern Operations – Birth of a Scenario Part 3

Our previous entries were just adding proper unit locations using CMO’s installation library. One goal is to make it big, but also manageable. This next bit will do a lot to automate the boring stuff.
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Command : Modern Operations – Birth of a Scenario Part 2

Sweden. 1990. It’s been two weeks since the Soviet Union invaded Germany. The world holds its breath as it wonders who will use nuclear weapons first. West of Fulda the US 1st Armored Division halted the advancing Soviet Guards Divisions with incredible losses. The 82nd Airborne in coordination with the British Parachute Regiment have, against
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Command : Modern Operations – Birth of a Scenario Part 1

CMO offers a host of new and exciting features that I’ve been eager to tear into. Except life had other plans and I’ve had to sit on the sidelines since launch. Now though I’m getting back into it and am going to walk through a scenario I’ve had in mind for awhile. The Soviet invasion
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Armored Brigade : A Tutorial

This field manual provides basic doctrinal discussion on the operation and usage of the game Armored Brigade. This FM’s target audience includes commanders, opfor, and anyone looking to expand their grasp of the Armored Brigade game platform.
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Armored Brigade : Yugoslavia – Italy

With the coming release of Armored Brigade on Steam I decided to pick up the Yugo-Italy expansion and dig myself back into the game. There’s been a big patch since release as well, so how does it do?
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Ultimate Admiral : Dreadnaught – Alpha Release

A new challenger has appeared in the pre-WW1 naval simulator! Like a battleship in the North Sea mist, UA:D has been on the horizon for awhile. But today, suddenly, it dropped. So how is it?
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Command : Modern Air Naval Opeations : Abqaiq Updates

More details have emerged since my previous post and we’ll take another look at the situation. The tough part about operating with open-source intel is well, it can be a bit rough. On the plus side it’s easy to test all this out in CMANO. So we’ll make a few more scenarios, test out what
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Command : Modern Air Naval Operations – Abqaiq Refinery Strike

One of the great things about CMANO is seeing a headline and testing it out yourself. The refinery strike on Abqaiq and the Khurais oil fields are a prime example. In this post we’ll explore how to research the topic and turn it into a CMANO scenario.
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Armored Battle Crew : Review

Tanks. WW1. Trenches. Voxel people. This is Armored Battle Crew. A cutesy take on a tank management game in the vein of Bomber Command or FTL. So does it make the grade of get choked by Mustard Gas?
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Combat Mission on GOG

Hell has not frozen over. Pigs are not flying. But, somehow, Battlefront game(S!) are on GOG. Battlefront has been vociferous in their opinion of third party storefronts like Steam or GOG. So much so that when it was pointed out that Combat Mission : Beyond Overlord was on GOG, they weren’t even aware. Then it
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Rule the Waves 2 Review : Does it Still Rule?

It’s June, 1944. A line of French battleships screens a motley collection of carriers, escort carriers, and destroyers. The sun is about to rise as flight crews prepare to attack a target in Sardinia. Our fighters are inferior to the Monarchist Italians, but our bombers are glorious. The signal is sent, and waves launch…
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Imperator Rome : Yet Another Review

Paradox’s Imperator : Rome tackles the Roman world circa 200 BCE. Carthage is ascendant, Alexander is still a recent memory, and Gaul has yet to be conquered. The world of antiquity is being replaced by what will be the Roman behemoth. In a nutshell… it’s a good game. We’ll get more into it later, but
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TOAW IV Revisited

10/22/18 – RTFM has been spouted. I’ve RTFM. Am returning after reading some 3rd party guides that seem to be more helpful. My argument still stands, but I really want to like this game. It started in Finland. June 29th 1941. A narrow peninsula was held by Russian troops threatening to drive on Helsinki. The
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On The Western Front : Early Access Look

On The Western Front is a wargame unlike anything we’ve quite seen in the genre. One part trench warfare simulator, one part meatgrinder, and one part logistics. You are tasked with taking a section of trench and, well, doing whatever it is one does with a trench in 1915. First things first : It’s Early
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Command Modern Air Naval Operations : LUA Waypoints

Today’s Lua repository is covering a relatively simple, but infinitely useful waypoint method. You have to manually path your strike missions and this can lead to some comedy when you forget a plane and it flies over some MANPAD’s. Or maybe you want the OPFOR to act sneaky and fly a strike mission between some
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Command Modern Air Naval Operations : Custom Overlays & Campaign Overlays

This has been superseded by the instructions here : https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10201&t=381973&p=4980384#p4980384 as GMAPS is not really available. Out of the box CMANO uses a map set known as SRTM 30 Plus. This is an open repository from the USGS with tiled data from across the globe. It’s great for CMANO on a macro scale, but what
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Command Modern Air Naval Operations : Lua Repository #5 Conditions

Using conditions in Command Modern Air Naval Operations can be kind of tricky. Unlike triggers, which are pretty obvious, or actions, which can be dead simple, a condition is more complex. In a nutshell we use Lua to check something and return true or false. If true the action will execute, and if false nothing
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