Commander - The Great War Announced!

[IainMcNeil]

Slitherine are proud to announce that we are working on the next iteration of the Commander series: The Great War. The Lordz Games Studio are developing a completely new engine to allow bigger and more complex maps to be displayed and better support for low end machines with a much faster graphics engine. A selection of new screenshots and some great looking box art are already available on the product page, with lots of information about the game features and new design ideas.

The games stays faithful to all the successful elements that have made this series so popular amongst wargamers.

Details
At the heart of the conflict, when men fought for every inch of land, only visionary leaders could make the choices that would lead their troops to victory. The remarkable sequence of events that inexorably led to the 'Great War' is written in our history books and pictured in our movies. Now a turn-based strategy game captures this time of war with unprecedented realism and accuracy.

Developed by The Lordz Games Studio, Commander the Great War is the latest release in the popular Commander series to bring the thrill, excitement and mind-breaking decision making of these difficult times to life.

A completely new engine runs faster and allows players to enjoy the epic hex based campaign map in full wide screen. Slitherine's revolutionary play by e-mail system will also bring a whole new level of excitement in Multiplayer battles.

Check out the Teaser trailer for the game here : http://www.youtube.com/user/SlitherineG ... 3hBS0TBF1s




Features
• A huge hex based campaign map that stretches from the USA in the west, Africa and Arabia to the south, Scandinavia to the north and the Urals to the east.
• A Grand Campaign covering the whole war from the invasion of Belgium on August 5, 1914 to the Armistice on the 11th of November 1918. Various smaller scenarios are also available, focusing on a single campaign or front, such as the Verdun 1916, Kaiserschlacht 1918 and Eastern Front Campaigns.
• 16 different unit types including Infantry, Cavalry, Armoured Cars and Tanks, Artillery, Railroad Guns and Armoured Trains, Cruisers, Submarines and Battleships, Fighters, Bombers and Zeppelins. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, based on their historical performance in the various theatres throughout the war.
• Attach historical Commanders to your units. Each have their own specific strengths, so decide wisely which Commander is most suited at which front. Three types of Commanders are available: Generals for ground units, Admirals at sea and flying Aces to strengthen your air units.
• Invest in research and technology to improve your units. Aircraft evolve from fragile tools of aerial observation to deadly ground and air attack planes. Artillery barrages become ever more accurate and powerful. Focus on Armour technology and unleash a dreadful new weapon on the battlefield: the Tank.
• Detailed and realistic combat that models supply, morale, terrain, leadership, equipment, training and fog of war.
• Multiplayer via hotseat or Slitherine's revolutionary PBEM server.
• Easy to learn, hard to master game play.
• An all new engine, supporting any display resolution from 1024x600 upwards and includes full wide screen support.
• Extreme moddability using the LUA scripting language, allowing players to alter many aspects of gameplay including combat, research, unit stats, terrain effects and many more.







The product page with more scerenshots can be see here : http://www.slitherine.com/games/ctgw_pc

[MrsWargamer]

VERY cool news.

I hope it comes to the Nintendo DS, but regardless, I will be getting it when it arrives.

Not normally a WW1 fan, but I AM a fan of the Commander engine.

[Wodin]

Not sure how accurate of the game these screenshots are...but having tanks researched and interrupter gear in Aug 1914 seems strange.

I hope it is as realistic as possible and sticks to a reasonable timeframe for research updates.

[adherbal]

The screenshots are only for demonstrational purposes really

The only tech the germans have in 1914 is "industrial warfare" (tech names may change) which means they are better prepared for war than for example the French with their bright blue & red uniforms. This tech is marked yellow meaning it is done, while all others are white = not done. It's an early design for the research screen though, so things might still change a bit.

And yes timeframes will be more or less realistic, but still allowing "what if" scenarios. For example you can invest significantly in Tank research as the german player, allowing tanks that only ever reached prototype stages to fight on the battlefield. But this comes at the price of slower down other areas of research, such as submarines and aircraft for example. So whether you'll be producing LK II tanks or Fokker D.VII's at the end of the game is up to the player

[Wolfe1759]

Very exciting news.

The War to End all Wars is a bit under represented compared to the one that came next.

Particularly like that there will be smaller scenarios as in CNaW and using the FOG multiplayer system.

Must say the graphics look rather nice as well.

The waiting begins to go over the top

[Surtur]

A DS version would be so awsome!

[joerock22]

I'm very excited about this. I don't think you could have picked a better setting for the next Commander game. I've always enjoyed reading about World War I, especially the great German victories on the eastern front against the Russians, but I've never played a WWI strategy game. This will be my first!

[syagrius]

Cool screenshots indeed. A suggestion is to make possible to produce 2 kinds of artillerie: field artillery that would be more mobile but less effective (French Canon de 75, German 77 etc..) and siege/heavy artillery, very cumbersome but with lots of smashing power. That was the two kind of artillery in WW 1

And also combat gases should be in the tech list also, no matter horrible they were (chlorine, mustard etc..)

Way to go!

[TheGrayMouser]

Cool screenshots indeed. A suggestion is to make possible to produce 2 kinds of artillerie: field artillery that would be more mobile but less effective (French Canon de 75, German 77 etc..) and siege/heavy artillery, very cumbersome but with lots of smashing power. That was the two kind of artillery in WW 1

And also combat gases should be in the tech list also, no matter horrible they were (chlorine, mustard etc..)

Way to go!

Hmm, from the scale of the game I would guess lighter artillery would be considered organic to the infantry units (which might be considered corps?)
I cant imagine poisons arnt included on the tech lists!

My only comment /wish list is that the map extended a little further into Africa

Oh question for the developers... Is the Bolshevik rev. part of the game, ie a probablity that Russia might be knocked out the war or anything along those lines?

[lordzimoa]

Oh question for the developers... Is the Bolshevik rev. part of the game, ie a probablity that Russia might be knocked out the war or anything along those lines?

We are looking at various ways to mimic the probability of historic events throughout the grand campaign, set certain parameters that will trigger historic events like your example above.

[adherbal]

It will probably be linked to the performance of the russian army. If linked only to a specific historical date, players would just kamikaze their entire russian army a few turns ahead, because they'r going to lose them anyway.

field artillery that would be more mobile but less effective (French Canon de 75, German 77 etc..) and siege/heavy artillery, very cumbersome but with lots of smashing power.

The Artillery unit represents massed artillery pieces, mostly of the heavier & heaviest kind, along with massive ammunition stockpiles, used to bombard the enemy positions ahead of a major offensive. Their range is 2 hexes so they can fire from behind a line of your own infantry. Field and lighter pieces or artillery are considered part of the Infantry (corps) units.

[Aryaman]

Very interesting game, is there a release date?

[lordzimoa]

No exact date yet, aiming for Q4 2010.

[pomakli]

Hi!

I saw a turkish flag on the screen.

Is the Ottoman empire also playable?

Thanks

[lordzimoa]

Yes, you can play with the Ottomans, but you always play with all countries within a coalition.

In CTGW you can choose between the Central Powers or the Entente Allies and you play all countries that are part of one of those sides.

[pomakli]

Thank you for the answer; waiting for an another wonderful game from your studios!!7

[Crazygunner1]

Looks very exciting....looking forward to sink my teeth into it!!!

Crazyg

[scarfacetarraff]

No exact date yet, aiming for Q4 2010.

Still?

[adherbal]

Let's say the shot is more likely to hit the first half of 2011 We shouldn't be setting any precise quarters or months anymore until the game is near finished.

[Tholdiel]

This one looks very intersting indeed I recently bought Lorz Napoleon I played the demo the only issue I see with that 1 is with Steam and I hope you guys never get with steam. Be nice If I could get into Beta aswell I did some betas with slitherine before