What a year, huh? Feels like we’ve all collectively lived through about 5 or so years in the last 12 months. To be frank, writing this was a struggle, because games that made a splash in the first half of the year feel like they came out in 2018 now.
So, to jog everyone’s memory and let you know what’s out you can count on as a companion for the remainder of our quarantines, let’s take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?
This is the first in a series of retrospectives we’re running this week looking back on the world of wargames in 2020.
OOPS, ALL WORLD WAR 2!
Last year, I referred to 2019 as the “Year of the Wargame”, praising the large amount of very good games that came out last year. This year, I’m going to call it the “Year of the World War 2 Game… Again” because boy, did we have a lot of them. And that’s not a bad thing! While most of what we’ll mention here are expansions to on-going games, there are a few newbies mixed in as well!
Kicking us off, Steel Division 2 graced us with a couple of pretty decent expansions through the year. Our own Charles Ellis liked the game well enough last year, and while the expansions weren’t perfect, they were pretty good additions to a solid series. We also saw Unity of Command 2‘s Blitzkrieg expansion, which added a much requested German campaign that was some of the best wargaming in the last few years, in my professional opinion.
Hearts of Iron 4, that titan of the WW2 grand-wargame category, also spat out two new expansions at us, La Résistance, and Battle for the Bosporus. I liked La Résistance well enough, as it added some solid focus trees and features, while Battle for the Bosporus was a bit lighter and more mixed overall. Timothy had some thoughts to share on the recent expansions and the direction of HOI4 in the future here, as the game is far different than it was 4 years ago at launch.
As for new standalone games, we had a few familiar faces, but a few new ones as well. Panzer Corps 2 showed back up this year in a big way, Bill was a pretty big fan and I can’t say I disagree with his assessment. It’s a pretty dang good turn-based operational game and scratches that Panzer General itch that tends to come around when you’re shut up in your house for long periods of time.
Another notable newcomer is Cauldrons of War: Barbarossa, a game that Joe liked quite a bit. It’s a pretty unique take on operating the war in the east (not that one, we’re talking about that later), leaving many of the tactical decisions out, for the player to focus on the strategic parts of conducting a dirty war. And dirty it is! Cauldrons of War is a standout for both its unique structure and for its handling of the crimes of the German army, by showing them but notably not praising them. It’s interesting to see when so many games just leave it out entirely.
The last World War 2 digital game I’ll highlight here is Partisans: 1941, a game that shows you steering around some Soviet partisans in 1941. It was rough around some edges, but it was charming and a nice stealth-tactics game. And hey, who doesn’t love garroting some Nazis in their WW2 game?
One tabletop game I want to highlight here is Undaunted: North Africa. A sequel to the very excellent Undaunted: Normandy that came out last year, Undaunted placed the player in the shoes of a platoon commander for either American or German forces in Normandy. It featured a pretty novel card system to direct play, but the Normandy setting is a tad familiar for most wargamers by this point. Luckily, North Africa brings the players to North Africa, wouldn’t you know, and sees British Long-Range Desert Group forces face off against Italian troops. The scale is a bit smaller than Normandy, but the change in setting and the addition of vehicles made for a solid change of pace.
There are quite a few other solid WW2 games that came out this year or recently, I recommend checking out our guide on the best WW2 games for more recommendations.
?I’M WARGAMING WITH MYSELF?
Speaking of tabletop games, it was mostly a bad year to be a tabletop wargamer. Mostly. It is, after all, a hobby that normally requires a great amount of time, effort, and fellow wargamers to play against. You probably had plenty of the first two this year, but not so many rivals to play against (in person, at least). A real shame too, considering that we had such cool releases as the 9th Edition for Warhammer 40k, for one. So what’s a wargamer to do when seeing another in person is a perilous endeavor?
You may remember a little thing called VASSAL, we wrote about it a couple years ago. VASSAL functions as an emulator of a pretty sizable amount of wargames; there’s a pretty damn good amount shoved into that Java program. The range of games is large, and to be frank, organizing one of those monster wargames that hasn’t made the jump to digital is probably much easier to manage on VASSAL with COVID and adult availability times being factors. And, importantly, it’s free! While it’s no substitute to gaming in person, it’s certainly better than nothing.
The other main digital substitute is good ol’ Tabletop Simulator, which is, first off, not free. BUT don’t click away yet, it is fully rendered in 3D as opposed to VASSAL’s 2D hexes. There are tons of player created modules for games out there, and some official modules you can purchase from Tabletop Simulator to add some games with professional polish to your inventory. The best part of Tabletop Simulator in my opinion, however, is the fact that you can flip the table, which really brings the best parts of in-person gaming to the safety of your quarantine PC.
But, importantly, let us not forget that there are a decent amount of solitaire tabletop wargames out there. Recently, we even featured one here: Silent Victory is a US-focused sub-game set in the Pacific Theatre of WW2 (yet another WW2 game!), Joe liked it a lot when he got his hands on it, other notable entries in this field are By Stealth and Sea and Castle Itter, both are recent games, coming out within the last two years, and both are solid additions to your quarantine collection.
One important plug at the end of this section would be to check out the lovely ‘Wargamer’s Wife‘ article by Sacha, there are a lot of accessible wargames here that would be great for a board night for you and your significant other (or roommate, or child, etc.).
WHAT’S TO COME FROM 2021?
Unfortunately for everyone, it looks like COVID will not be vanishing come the New year, as much as we’d all like it to, with recent estimates putting the end of the pandemic toward the end of next year. This of course means that you should certainly consider continuing to stock up on those solitaire wargames and digital games, because we’re not going anywhere for some time.
It’s not all bad news though! There are a lot of pretty spiffy games looking to release next year. For one, we have the venerable Gary Grigsby’s War in the East 2 to look forward to at some point next year. Mr. Grigsby is known for very groggy games, so if you are a grognard, you have a big thing to look forward to. Burden of Command, a World War 2 tactics/role-playing game, is also slated for next year, alongside the official release of Ultimate Admiral: Dreadnoughts, a ship-designing wargame during the early 20th century. There are plenty of others coming down the pipe too; you can take a look for yourself in the latest edition of our ‘Upcoming games‘ list.
It’s hard to call this a ‘good year’, considering the… well, everything, but I would say that it was at least an okay-ish year for wargames. We had a lot of solid additions to our World War 2 collections, some quality time with our solitaire games, and hey, we have more to look forward to soon. So, keep your chin up, and consider taking that mega-game out into your emulator of choice. After all, we’ll be here awhile, why not game while you wait?
