Latest WDS blog reveals PzC Rumyantsev '43 and other titles

[ComradeP]

First of all, best wishes for 2022 and a happy New Year to all fellow Blitz members and family.

WDS revealed Rumyantsev '43 by Daniel Asensio (DanTGN on the Blitz and at Punta de Lanza, who also created Compass '40 scenarios for El Alamein '42) which is expected to be published in 2022.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/2021-en...ear-update

One remark about the blog post: the area of operations is not "Southern Russia".

Stalingrad/Volgograd is in Southern Russia, Kharkov and most of the map area is in Ukraine.

Southwestern Russia and Ukraine, though a lengthy description, would be more accurate. The only large Russian city on the jump map screenshot is Belgorod.

The western map edges seem to be around Poltava in the southwest (though Poltava isn't on the game map in the 4th Battle of Kharkov jump map, it's on the Second Phase jump map) and at Bilopillia or so in the northwest. Compared to Kharkov '43, I'd estimate about 25 hexes were added to the northern part of the map, some 50 or so to the western part of the map, 150 hexes or so were removed along the Y-axis from the southern part of the map. The eastern edge of the map seems to be more or less the same as in Kharkov '43.

Explicit mention was made of a revised Kursk campaign (the southern part) being included as well, just like a revised Market Garden campaign was included in Scheldt '44. The additional effort is greatly appreciated.

The same post also revealed 3 other titles are being worked on covering the fighting in Southwestern Russia and Ukraine in mid-1943. Note: the blog mentions this is a release cycle that will take several years.

The other titles are:

-A game covering the fighting "north" of the area covered by Operation Rumyantsev and I would say it's a safe guess that title will be Kutuzov/Orel '43.

Smolensk '43 would also be possible, but the fighting for Smolensk was done in stages, ending later and starting earlier than the offensives in Southwestern Russia and Ukraine. Kutuzov '43 is a logical tie-in to the other offensives aimed at reaching the Dnepr.

-A game covering the fighting "south" of Operation Rumyantsev. This might be an expanded Mius '43 title, or an entirely new title, featuring the fighting for the Donbas.

-A game combining the three other titles into big campaign scenarios. WDS mentioned somewhere in 2020 that they were working on a master map which would allow various titles to be combined into one almost strategic scale title.

Good to hear a number of new titles are being worked on, and I look forward to playing a game by a new designer.

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No mention is made of any FWWC games, which is usual. Volcano Man is a man of mystery and doesn't reveal much about upcoming FWWC titles, but I guess he's working on a title involving something that starts with "G": Galicia, Greece, Gallipoli, Germans.

I was getting a bit worried about how Volcano Man was doing, as there was no word from him with the launch of WDS as developer and publisher of FWWC titles. He recently replied to a post about Nancy scenarios in France '14, and it seems he was just very busy.

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Edit: Panzer Battles - Moscow is also not mentioned, I hope it is not facing delays.

[Mr Grumpy]

A couple of comments, the Compass '40 add on for Alamein '42 was designed by Ed Williams (Volcano Man) working in conjunction with Paul Sinatra (Steel God), if I read your post correctly you implied these scenarios were created by Daniel Asensio?

As you correctly guessed Ed is super busy, I can say that the next FWWC title is being worked on but as you say Ed prefers to keep his titles a secret until launch so I cannot comment on the subject matter, I also cannot give any indication when the next title might be released if that was your next question. 

[Ricky B]

First of all, best wishes for 2022 and a happy New Year to all fellow Blitz members and family.

WDS revealed Rumyantsev '43 by Daniel Asensio (DanTGN on the Blitz and at Punta de Lanza, who also created the Compass '40 scenarios for El Alamein '42) as the next upcoming PzC title.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/2021-en...ear-update

Great summary, thanks for detailing all of that. I will point out that David's post did not explicitly state Rumyantsev would be the next PzC title, it was just announcing it. It very well may be the next, David can clarify is he wants. But was he stated there are numerous titles in development and I am thinking another could come in first to be published.

But this is very exciting, I always thought about shoehorning as much of 4th battle of Kharkov on one of the earlier Kharkov games as possible as a personal scenario, but never got to it. And having a huge master campaign is even more interesting, at least from a giant team game if not a fully playable single player game, in my lifetime at least!

Rick

[ComradeP]

A couple of comments, the Compass '40 add on for Alamein '42 was designed by Ed Williams (Volcano Man) working in conjunction with Paul Sinatra (Steel God), if I read your post correctly you implied these scenarios were created by Daniel Asensio?

I know there's an expansion pack, which made the information I found when I searched the forum and Google for Daniel Asensio a bit confusing. The Spanish website Punta de Lanza credits Daniel Asensio with a Compass '40 v2.0 mod for El Alamein '42, a mod that includes a Derna scenario that I could find a thread for at the Blitz.

I've edited my post, removing "the" before "Compass '40 scenarios", as he seems to have made one or more scenarios and possibly his own scenarios covering Operation Compass but not the expansion pack as you say.

The modder was unknown to me until reading the blog, and he has only made 4 posts on the Blitz until now, but as I said I'm looking forward to work from a new designer.

[ComradeP]

Great summary, thanks for detailing all of that. I will point out that David's post did not explicitly state Rumyantsev would be the next PzC title, it was just announcing it. It very well may be the next, David can clarify is he wants. But was he stated there are numerous titles in development and I am thinking another could come in first to be published.

You're correct that it doesn't mention it explicitly as being the next title. I've rephrased it to: "which is expected to be published in 2022", the phrase used in the blog.

A year with 2 PzC releases would be exceptional.

A year with the release of Rumyantsev '43, Panzer Battles - Moscow  (and possibly a FWWC title, we can always hope for one) would already be amazing.

But this is very exciting, I always thought about shoehorning as much of 4th battle of Kharkov on one of the earlier Kharkov games as possible as a personal scenario, but never got to it. And having a huge master campaign is even more interesting, at least from a giant team game if not a fully playable single player game, in my lifetime at least!

Turns for a giant master map covering campaigns from 2-3 titles would take more time, but depending on unit density they could still be playable.

Eastern Front unit density is not that high in most titles. There are over 6 times as many German units in the France '40 Prucha OOB than in the November OOB's for Kiev '43 (note: the OOB counts component units), though you'll be using more companies on the Eastern Front due to wide frontages.

I think Rumyantsev and the Donbas offensive combined would be quite playable. Adding Kutuzov would sharply increase the unit count.

[DanTGN]

A couple of comments, the Compass '40 add on for Alamein '42 was designed by Ed Williams (Volcano Man) working in conjunction with Paul Sinatra (Steel God), if I read your post correctly you implied these scenarios were created by Daniel Asensio?

As you correctly guessed Ed is super busy, I can say that the next FWWC title is being worked on but as you say Ed prefers to keep his titles a secret until launch so I cannot comment on the subject matter, I also cannot give any indication when the next title might be released if that was your next question. 

Hi to all, 

As far as ComradeP is concerned, I have my own Compass '40 Mod but I only released it on the Spanish site of Punta de Lanza, unlike the one made by Ed Williams, mine includes two new maps, one from Derna to simulate the events after the fall of Tobruk and another in the form of an epilogue on the capture of the Giarabub Oasis that puts an end to my vision of this exciting campaign

I have to update the Addon Compass '40 with more scenarios and the Weather.dat file that didn’t give me time to develop for the release of Compass '40 2.0 but for now I can’t find the time to do it for the reason that you can all imagine, as soon as I have it available I will also launch it in the forum The Blitz

I leave you the mod in case you want to try it and so there are no more confusions with Ed Williams pack

https://drive.google.com/file/d/199dd3vD...sp=sharing


By the way Comrade, great summary of the exciting times that await us in PzC 

Greetings

Dani

[Mr Grumpy]

Hi Dani,

OK thank you for clearing up that confusion, I only knew of Ed's C40 scenarios. 

Thanks for posting your Mod, I will try to get round to looking it over.

Good luck with the new title, I am sure it will be a winner! 

[Strela]

One remark about the blog post: the area of operations is not "Southern Russia".

Stalingrad/Volgograd is in Southern Russia, Kharkov and most of the map area is in Ukraine.

Southwestern Russia and Ukraine, though a lengthy description, would be more accurate. The only large Russian city on the jump map screenshot is Belgorod.

Hi ComradeP,

As Dani mentions, a good summary by you.

I have changed 'Southern Russia' to 'Eastern Ukraine' in the blog post as you are completely correct that my geography was wrong.

As far as PzB Moscow. I will tackle the current state in a future blog post. It is definitely not being worked on fulltime as I am personally doing the bulk of the scenario design and the project has been secondary to getting WDS up and running. We have a lot of conflicting priorities currently.

David