Interesting that Scott has been playing Wargame Airland Battle as the next game in the series has been announced.
That's what they were waiting for.
But seriously, word of Red Dragon was announced back in October, but not much news since then.
Wargame Red Dragon takes us to central Asia between 1975 to 1991 with 5 new nations, among which are China and North Korea.
I am a bit annoyed by this. I would rather have had them stay with WWIII in Europe rather moving to a completely different theater (I hope OTS doesn't make this mistake with Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm. I know there is a lot of pressure for WWII or Vietnam.). In fact, I think I would rather have a series of campaign packs that add new maps/units around Europe than have them focus on a new stand alone game. To be fair to Eugen, they said that they were forced to launch a new game because the new gameplay mechanics they wanted to incorporate into the game would have taken far too much work to patch in then to just write a whole new game.
We now will have naval shipyards to complete construction of the first frigates, corvettes and other cruisers for the maritime and river areas that will provide fresh strategic opportunities!
This concerns me. Wargame is already a frenetic clickfest at times. I am scared to think of the complexities that naval warfare might bring. Eugen has said only *some maps* will have naval units, so maybe they are aware of the dangers of overloading the player. I don't want Wargame to turn into Supreme Commander!
A new solo campaign plunges players headlong into a hellish war around Korea....
There are actually going to be 12 campaigns!
Red Dragon will feature a dozen solo campaigns. They will be distributed over the timeframe and sides to give the players the opportunity to experiment a wide array of situations, armies and equipment.
Unlike AirLand Battle, which has a single strategic map over which different battlegroups and scenarios were set, each of Red Dragon's campaigns will have its own strategic map. Size, lenght [SIC] and number of battlegroups involved will also vary greatly depending on the campaign.
Some campaigns will be individual scenarios, while some will be linked together into an operation of larger scale.
Looks like Eugen is still trying to get the campaign system right.
I remain a bit disappointed by the ALB campaign as it seems like an afterthought to me and not the immersive campaign we all hoped it would be. Guess that is why I stick with custom sandbox games.
Other good stuff:
The AI will be able to use player-created decks. At last! I hate not being able to give the AI one of my decks so I can play against it and see how it performs.
Just cosmetic, but jets will now have flares!
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Lastly, the replay function will now have a rewind. This was added for the e-sports angle, but I am glad as it will make creating AARs easier!
There is one thing I really want to see: the ability to pause and give orders. It is a real shame Eugen hasn't seen fit to include this yet as I think it would not only make the game more accessible to people who have trouble playing RTS games, but I think it would also make the game itself flower is a whole new way. Such a missed golden opportunity....
I also would like to see formations for vehicles. It is so silly we have a formations tab, but all we can do is "spread out" or "split/rejoin".
The launch window is March 2014, but Eugen has said they their record for meeting initial windows is not good (ALB was scheduled for March but slipped to May).
So, it's done when it is done. Seeing how we don't even have a vid of gameplay yet, nor even any screenshots of naval vessels in action, I don't think three months is likely for a launch - unless Eugen joins the "smash and grab" club of releasing broken and incomplete games. If we lose the French, we lose everything....:OHNO:
