![]() ![]() ![]() Our Allied campaign starts with the 1942 Torch landings, and that gives us a mostly natural difficulty progression. Once we’d done the redesign (some changes are still ongoing), headlining with the Allied campaign comes naturally. I always wanted to cover the Allied campaigns of WWII, but I felt that the system needs to be expanded and redesigned first. Tomislav: We did not produce an Allied campaign for UoC1 because the game design was very specific to East Front, narrowly focused on that specific kind of manoeuvre warfare. RPS: Why did you decide to make UoC2's campaign an Allied one and begin it with Operation Torch? The exact front lines won’t be 1:1, but key areas like objectives and bridgeheads will generally carry over.” Capturing all of them might still be sort of possible, but it’s definitely not the optimum thing to do in the campaign.” It should splice together scenarios better too - “Not only do you earn prestige, but the end situation in one battle will determine your position at the start of the next. *UoC2 won't fetishise objectives the way its predecessor did - “The player doesn’t have to take all bonus objectives and has a decision to make: some objectives provide interesting toeholds for future battles, other give handy intel and supply bonuses. So once you’ve played through the content, and you’ve got the hang of the system, the game sort of lets you down because there’s little left to do other than optimize (i.e. We are at least partly to blame though, because the simplistic UoC1 campaign didn’t give the player enough of a feel of progression and continuity*. It’s entirely what you make of it in that respect. Just about every game can be a puzzle if you choose to pursue 'brilliant victories' all the time (or some other form of maximum score). Tomislav: I have to admit I am not impressed by the whole “puzzle game” take. Do you expect to see it in UoC2 discussions too? RPS: “Puzzle-like” is a phrase that crops up fairly often in forum discussions about the original UoC. It’s a trade-off that’s relevant both to your style of play, and the campaign at hand. With every HQ upgrade, you can choose whether you want to add more intel or some other, say operational or engineering capability. On top of everything, because intel is an HQ function, FoW ties into overall campaign progression. There are also active intel measures you can take, like air recon or interrogating prisoners. ![]() For example, locations of enemy supply networks and HQs are made fully known. Because a naïve version of FoW leaves you completely in the dark as the commander - much more than was the case historically, I believe - once we’ve hidden all the enemy units behind FoW, we expose select enemy information to you. It gets pretty scary when you combine FoW with a capable, non-passive AI. ![]() Tomislav Uzelac: Fog of War, without any doubt. RPS: Of UoC2's new mechanics - Fog of War, HQs, supply hubs, airborne ops etc - which one is most transformative, tactically speaking? I very much doubt Vickers Wellesleys will appear in UoC2. The dev diaries that have emerged at regular intervals over the past four years and the answers and images arrayed below certainly suggest that all is proceeding swimmingly and we're in for something truly exceptional this autumn. With a release date finally announced (Q3, 2019) the pressure must be rising in Zagreb. Hopefully, the collaboration and the silence* indicate busyness only. I'm not sure what to make of yesterday's unexpected partnership announcement (2x2 are now working with fellow Croatians Croteam to “make Unity of Command II the best wargaming title to date”) or the fact that Tomislav Uzelac sidestepped the questions I put to him about UoC2's surprisingly long gestation and 2x2's current composition. Fog of War gathers in their map hollows like spilled milk. If there is a common thread it's a fog-bejewelled one. Radio Commander, on the other hand, is a real-time enigma, a Vietnam War battle sim that has no obvious antecedents. Unity of Command II, the highly anticipated sequel to a WW2 wonder that managed to be handsome, historical, friendly and fierce, is hexy and turn-chopped, a refined relation of that great populariser, Panzer General. When it comes to theme, structure, and expectations, the two upcoming wargames Flare Pathed below have flip-all in common. ![]()
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