Developer Blog

Mark from Epoch Xperience interviewed me on developing wargames. So if you can’t get enough of hearing me sprouting off then this is the video for you.

Barry Doyle, the original designer of V & V, is also testing the game and reported the following bug.

German half squad from Sandbags advanced and JOINED the British Commandos in the adjacent building (Axis Turn 4 Advance)!

-Then the German half squad joined the Allied Fire Phase attack

-Then the Commando stack switched sides and “joined” the Germans (German moved to the top of the stack at the beginning of the Axis Turn 5) in the last Turn, and fired on the other Commandos!

I managed to convince him this was a new feature we added called “Infiltration” but would remove it. So sorry you won’t see this in the final game.

Not only was the game unveiled but now you know what I look like. Two unveilings for the price of one!

Today I was testing under what situations the AI should retreat rather than stand and fight.

In the below picture we have three possible situations where the Germans are next to a far stronger British stack.

To the left, we have a German unit sitting in an objective hex. We likely don’t want them to give up that position without a fight.

In the middle, we have a German unit that is surrounded and has nowhere to go. So might as well fire.

On the right, we have a unit that is next to a far stronger enemy and has a good hex adjacent to retreat to.

So lets see how we do in our tests.

Its been quite a while since I have provided any updates. Some time ago I agreed to publish Valor & Victory through Matrix Games and since then have been radio silent until they were ready to make the announcement.

The good news is today it has been formally been announced, You can find more details here: https://www.matrixgames.com/game/valor-and-victory.

And the launch video is here:

https://youtu.be/GMXqxtSGwBM

Fame and fortune awaits…

It’s taken far longer than expected but we finally got tanks into Valor & Victory.

They don’t do much yet but that’s a technicality.

I had the first edition of my magazine printed. That is a little ironic as its meant to be a digital magazine, but hey I wanted a souvenir to leave laying around on the coffee table.

The wife was duly impressed which is a win in my books.

Its been a very busy time here at Yobowargames and I am well overdue on giving an update.

The Digital Wargamer

For some time now I have had this idea brewing in my head of publishing a monthly magazine that provides a chance for smaller Indie wargame developers to showcase their work and also to go behind the scenes a little to show what it takes to produce a wargame.

I also wanted to cover other related areas of what I call digital wargaming that is not well covered elsewhere such as Vassal and Youtubers.

The first edition has now been released and very well received by those who have read it. The four new games talked about in the magazine have also garnered a lot of attention following the release of Issue 1 and I hope rewards the Developers concerned who worked with me and took a chance with a new venture.

You can check out the first edition here. Spread the word!

https://digitalwargamer.com/

Krim: The War in the Crimea 1941 – 42

I have been working with BruinBearGames for some time now on my next game Krim: The War in the Crimea 1941 – 42. This is based on a Ty Bomba game that was first published in his Command Magazine a few years back.

KRIM: The War in the Crimea 1941-42 is an operational/strategic simulation of the German 11th Army’s operations in the Crimean Peninsula from late October 1941 through 4 July 1942.

This game focuses on Mansteins campaign to conquer the Crimea and provides an interesting look at how hard it was to achieve this feat.

We are looking to release the game at the end of June. You can check out the video and screenshots at the Steam page link below. Don’t forget to add it to your wishlist.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1294000/Krim_The_War_in_the_Crimea_194142/

Valor & Victory

A lot has been happening with Valor & Victory behind the scenes. Newly retired developer Bruce has joined me and has been working with me on this game.

We reworked some of the code to allow easier expansion of the core game at a later date. We also worked on enhancing the AI possibilities and now have a core structure in place that will allow us to develop the AI as we go. A lot of this behind the scenes kinda work so visually not a lot appears to have changed in a while.

Bruce has also started work on adding armor to the game. This is a big chunk of work dealing with things like armor facing, passengers, overruns, and hexes containing multiple stacks of different unit types. But when complete the core of the game will be there.

This game has taken a lot longer to develop than I originally expected and having Bruce onboard has been a tremendous boost to productivity. I am still unsure of a release date but we are getting closer to getting an alpha build out  to a small group for first impressions.

PR Guru

I have also been working with PR Guru Davide Pessach on improving my general marketing skills. He works/has worked with such Teams as Unity of Command and the newly relaunched Microprose so I am in good hands.

Marketing and promoting my games is definitely my weakest point and I am hoping with his guidance I can improve in this area and get my games noticed by a wider audience.

You check out some more about Davide here: https://www.takethepotion.com/

Finally

As always ping me an email on questions or comments you have. I love engaging with people who play my games – lance@yobowargames.com.

Stay safe in these turbulent times.

Lance