WargameDesignStudio - 2019 End of Year Update

[KAreil]

https://www.wargamedesignstudio.com/2019...-part-one/



Strela didn't post it here yet, but a lot of upgrades are coming - at least ModernCampaigns NorthKorea and NorthGermanPlain should arrive this year 

Looking over the past year, we have been a little ‘irregular’ in keeping you up to date with what we’ve been working on. To remedy that we’re going to give a year-end update spread over the next couple of blog posts. Today’s post will cover updates and upgrades.

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Looking back at what has been achieved this year has been pretty crazy. Working closely with the John Tiller Software (JTS) team, it was decided to update the whole of John’s catalog with improvements to code, graphics and where possible new content.

This process was started back in December 2017 with the first Panzer Campaigns Gold release for Smolensk ’41. All the Eastern Front games were well advanced, and those titles were all updated by March 2018.

The first round of Civil War Battles updates was also released in June 2018 with three titles bought onto the newly released Campaign Petersburg code base. New features included all new hand painted maps, 3D units and an overall graphical improvement.

We had a hiatus for the remainder of 2018 as the focus moved to new titles with Panzer Battles North Africa 1941, Japan ’45 and the massively expanded France ’40 taking precedence.

With the end of 2018 and the release of the latest Panzer Battles title behind us we were able to focus on getting further upgrades out again. Wargame Design Studio (WDS) focused on Panzer Campaigns, Panzer Battles and the Civil War Battles set. Rich Hamilton at JTS coordinated the remaining game series.

At WDS we managed to release the remaining ten Western and Mediterranean Panzer Campaign titles updated to Gold status. There were also ten Civil War Battle titles to be updated and all have now been released. A lot of credit to the Old Banshee team led by Frank Mullins for the huge effort required to update all the artwork. Another unsung hero was John Ferry who volunteered to (without truly knowing!) update every order of battle in every game to allow the new regimental artwork to appear in all its glory. The WDS team also managed to update all four (including the Demo) of the Panzer Battles titles with all the new features that were included in North Africa as well as new content.

The JTS team have not languished this year either. In just the last month, updates for the Early American Wars and Squad Battles series have been released.

Early American Wars saw all four games; Campaign 1776, The War of 1812, The French & Indian Wars and Mexican American War receive a complete overhaul. A lot of new content was added including new scenarios, code changes, new 2D graphics by Christopher Osterlund as well as Frank Mullin’s painted 3D maps.

Below are a few in game shots (all following shots can be clicked for full size);

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Squad Battles was a huge undertaking with all sixteen (!!) titles updated at once. Mike Amos did sterling work upgrading all the 2D & 3D graphics as well as including Ed Pacito (Richie61) top down artwork. This was all a huge amount of work considering the breadth of periods these games cover.

Here is a selection of shots from a few games;

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You can get all the aforementioned updates including the newly released Early American Wars and Squad Battles updates from the JTS site here; JTS Updates Link

Looking forward, there will hopefully be one more series updated before the end of the year. The WDS team have been hard at work bringing the five games in the Modern Campaign series up to the same standard as the Panzer Campaigns Gold releases. Like the Gold releases it’s intended to include all Volcano man scenario packages, rules changes from Panzer Campaigns as well as updated map and unit graphics.

The graphics update has been another big job, as none of the various images had been created before due to our prior ‘narrow’ focus on World War 2. Though only five titles, we have three different theaters to cover; Europe, the Middle East and Korea with different protagonists. This has expanded the required artwork and has been one of the biggest time sinks.

Currently two games, Korea ’85 & North German Plain ‘85 are completed, and this is what will be included in each update;

Korea ’85 has all new 2D and 3D graphics, unit cards and updated game interface. The scenarios included are the original base game as well as the Chinese intervention expansion pack bringing the scenario count to 155. We’re very happy with how this update has come together and here are some sample screenshots of the map and various units;

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Here are the unit cards for the North Koreans, Chinese and South Koreans. I am trialing using a black and white background that is coloured when selected. Examples are below. Kudos to Jison from whom I stole the idea! Please note that this is all work in progress and there may be some changes before release;

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North German Plain ’85 (NGP ’85) has been completed before Fulda Gap ’85 and Danube Front ’85 as it will provide a lot of graphical content for those titles. NGP ’85 includes the base game, the two official expansion packs including AFNorth and Berlin as well as the ‘Ich bin ein Berliner Campaign’ by David Gillies (Sgt Fury). Like Korea ’85 here are some screenshots and unit images;

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Here are the American troops (again with the black and white and an example selected unit);

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Here are some ‘minor’ NATO partners, Belgium, Canada and the Netherlands. France is also shown (it was not part of NATO);

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The British and West Germans are well represented;

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And finally the Warsaw Pact troops, with East Germany, Poland as well as the Soviets;

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The remaining three games are currently being worked on. One thing that people will hopefully be happy with is that we have permission to include Aaron Vandenberg’s (Tazaaron) Bolt from the Blue mod for Danube ’85. This is probably one of the most heavily played scenarios in the Modern Campaigns series and we will be very happy to include the latest 5.3 version.

All going well, the Modern Campaign updates should be out by the end of the year.

In our next blog post we plan to preview some of the new titles were currently working on.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Thanks for posting to keep us informed of the great work thats going on. 

[Strela]

Thanks KAreil!

I never knew you could post a whole of my Blog post like that. Nice to know for the future.

A lot of effort has gone into the MC games to date - particularly the unit art. I hope everyone will enjoy them when released!

David

[Xaver]

Nice, good news as allways.

I like finally EAW receive the update.

I really expect see new art for modern titles first in an "Armored battles" title but looks like this title is the "Song of Ice and Fire" and MC gold "Game of Thrones" 

Curious about the titles in work, maybe we can see something before new year arrive 

PD: i notice some pics in the blog post are not working, i open them to post in other forum but appear this "Sorry, the parameters you provided were not valid"

[beldurax]

Nice, good news as allways.

I like finally EAW receive the update.

I really expect see new art for modern titles first in an "Armored battles" title but looks like this title is the "Song of Ice and Fire" and MC gold "Game of Thrones" 

Curious about the titles in work, maybe we can see something before new year arrive 

PD: i notice some pics in the blog post are not working, i open them to post in other forum but appear this "Sorry, the parameters you provided were not valid"

I am of the same mind as Xaver - I am wondering about the brand new titles in progress 

[2-81 Armor]

The graphics for Modern Campaigns certainly look nice, and are welcome. However, I was never one for the Warsaw Pact attacks with complete surprise while NATO sits in garrison style scenarios, which most of, if not all the games of the series seem to feature.

I always did admire Bolt with it's attention to detail in the OOB, but could never get into the fact that all of the units are KGs (I DO understand why this was done though) and can't combine if broken down. Also it's another complete Pact surprise scenario. Have to respect the research that went into it though.

I would have hoped for a little bit more with a mobilization style scenario or two, but beggars can't be choosers, and this type of update is better than none at all I guess. They are free after all.

[larsonney]

Great work! Can't wait for the releases!

[Xaver]

Well, in my case i am more into the war after 2-3 weeks when 2nd-3rd line units and NATO minors enter in combat, here you can play a lot with what NATO nations send soldiers to battlefield and the performance of soviet non frontline units.

I think this could be a new title focus and you can have same scen with a lot of variants based in who and how is ready to fight.

For the new titles... any idea when the 2nd post is going to be avaliable? is sad but with holidays coming i have less time for me... i feel that working i can do more wargaming things hahahaha.

[2-81 Armor]

Well, in my case i am more into the war after 2-3 weeks when 2nd-3rd line units and NATO minors enter in combat, here you can play a lot with what NATO nations send soldiers to battlefield and the performance of soviet non frontline units.

I think this could be a new title focus and you can have same scen with a lot of variants based in who and how is ready to fight.

For the new titles... any idea when the 2nd post is going to be avaliable? is sad but with holidays coming i have less time for me... i feel that working i can do more wargaming things hahahaha.

I agree. For the NATO-WP games at least, it would be fun to have more "war in progress" scenarios, and like I said earlier a few mobilization and build up to outbreak of fighting ones. We take what we can get though.

CptCav (Mark Breed) did one along those lines called "Better Dead Than Red" (?) for NGP '85 that involved mobilization, and it's very good. I think it's still available here at the Blitz, but I might be wrong.

For myself, I've spent 5-6 years or so researching and constructing a mid/late 1970s OOB that now has three variants (Super Detailed, Simple Detail, and Limited Scope) and two campaign scenario templates for them. Nothing was ever finished, but I still have everything in a separate DF '85 install. I dust them off now and then, tinker a little and that's about it. They never were completed because I'm honestly, a pretty bad scenario designer. OOB's I can do all day with no problem, but scenarios are another story. Also, I've realized that the mid/late 1970's most likely would not be very popular because all of the "sexy" equipment like M1s, Bradley's, and Leo 2's are not present. I just don't have the heart to discard anything because of all the research that was involved. At the least, it was a good academic exercise.

Anyway, it looks like the Modern Series will at least be getting a much needed graphics update, along with bundling of some popular user scenarios. That's a good thing overall.

[Elxaime]

On Bolt from the Blue, I think it would be challenging to design a fuller mobilization scenario that didn't turn static right away. Both sides have enough troops to concentrate at WW1 level density. Nukes of course can be tossed, but the premise of nuclear use, which I think is right, is that there are unthinkable risks involved in triggering a strategic exchange. Another factor is that Volcano Man set Bolt for around 1989, where NATO modernization was in full swing. The Pact forces at this point begin to seriously lag in quality, not enough to turn it into a NATO walk-over certainly, but enough to make an assault against a fully-mobilized NATO a slugfest at best, with massive Pact casualties.