iOS Universal, Android • Boardnaut Studios has quietly been translating quality print-and-play and small box tabletop games to digital for a bit now, titles like Maquis and Land 6. Their latest has just landed on the App Store, and it’s a port of another print-and-play game, Constantinople.
When Panzer Corps was released for iPad back in 2013, it immediately became the best war game made for the platform and, to this day, hasn’t been surpassed. The PC version that preceded it isn’t bad either, and has spawned 17 expansions since its release in 2011. With all this success, it could only be a matter of time before a sequel appeared. That time came last week when Slitherine announced a successor, creatively titled Panzer Corps 2.
PC/Mac • A long time ago I remember hearing rumors of cardboard publisher Lock ‘n Load getting into the digital game, then I hit a personal black hole and lost contact with the world only to reemerge last fall having completely forgotten about their digital plans. Turns out I should have written a note or tied a string around my finger to remind myself, because Lock ‘n Load published several versions of their light, fast tank battler Tank on Tank for PC/Mac last year and I’m just hearing about them now.
iOS Universal, PC/Mac • HexWar, HexWar, HexWar. Seems like we can’t go a week without more HexWar news popping up. It’s not rehashing a release we’ve already talked about before, either, it’s all new stuff. First The Great War launches, then we find out they’ve teamed up with GMT Games for more Commands & Colors, and now we learn they’re going to tackle endless war by entering into the Warhammer 40K universe. That’s right, they’ve teamed up with Games Workshop and are bringing a new Warhammer title to PC, Mac and iOS: The Battle of Tallarn.
Last week saw Richard Borg’s latest Commands & Colors title, The Great War, make its way to Steam for PC/Mac. We had rumors from GMT Games that more Commands & Colors titles, specifically Ancients and Napoleonics, were on the way but had little evidence to back up those claims. That ended yesterday when GMT released their January update. Not only are both Ancients and Napoleonics on the way, both of them should be in our hands by the end of 2017.
Carrier Battles of Guadalcanal is the best war game on the App Store that involves carrier battles in the Pacific that have Guadalcanal in their title. I joke, but it’s actually a pretty amazing little war game with a ton of depth and character which belies its one-man development team. It’s also updated with new content so regularly that when a new update hits, it’s barely news. Last week the latest update arrived and it’s a doozy.
Silent Depth is a long-gestating WWII submarine sim, placing you in an American sub in the Pacific Theater in 1942. Success means slowing the flow of vital supplies to Japan, sinking troopships, and buying the U.S. industrial effort time to rebuild the surface fleet after the catastrophe at Pearl Harbor. And, in a cruel metaphor involving sinking ships, it represents the first Stately Play use of the tag “Windows_Phone. [and possibly the last. -ed.]
While the mac daddy of Commands & Colors games, Memoir ’44, is stubbornly staying away from our tablets, it looks like we’ll have plenty of other options using Richard Borg’s iconic war game system soon. We already have Battlelore from Fantasy Flight and, recently, GMT Games announced that they’re moving forward with C&C: Ancients and C&C: Napoleonics. We had heard last year that HexWar was going to be working on the World War I themed title, The Great War, but yesterday we learned that it’s going into closed beta.
This is this, and this is free. Eugen Systems continue to deliver the goods for Wargame: Red Dragon, their final entry in the esteemed operational-level real-time tactical series. Though deploying in 2014, the game has now received no less than six expansions and nation packs, four gratis and two paid. For my hard currency, I can’t think of a more enjoyable real-time tactics title, and it sits, stinking of diesel and MLRS propellant, atop the pile of recent strategy gems.
I have, in the past, stated my love of Academy Games‘ fantastic team based war game, 1775: Rebellion, which made me think I wouldn’t need to do it again on the eve of it’s mobile release. Then I remembered that I hadn’t stated that love at our new digs, so here goes. I love this game.