#tactical wargaming gear

[yodawgiheardyoulikemecha]

Cover art from the 1st ed. Heavy Gear rulebook.

[bryanharryrombough]

Dream Pod 9 is releasing new high-quality PDFs of 22 1st edition Heavy Gear books, generated from the original electronic files.  All 22 books are available in a half-price bundle.

These are great rpg & wargaming products.  I have hardcopies of all of these titles, and this bundle is a great deal.  Highly recommend getting them if you’re into tabletop mecha gaming.

From Dream Pod 9′s press release:

Until now the older Heavy Gear ebooks available on DriveThruRPG have been scanned copies of the original printed books. Dream Pod 9 is happy to announce the release of high-quality electronic format ebooks for the Heavy Gear Classic Roleplaying & Tactical Game publications. The first 22 Revitalized titles are now live on DriveThruRPG for purchase and include the following.

The Heavy Gear Revitalized titles are made possible by the team of Michael Butt (Project Manager) and Brad Fischer (Roaring Mouse Graphics) who managed to converted the old Macintosh Pager Maker layout files and relay them out in modern Adobe format. A big thank you to Michael and Brad for taking on the months of work required to revitalize all the old Dream Pod 9 Heavy Gear products.

[vultures-and-scavengers]

cullen is 100% unqualified.

cullen is unqualified for the role he ends up playing, but also there is NO ONE in thedas who would be qualified.

he is creating an entirely new military and on a massive scale. he is not taking a place in an already established structure. you can be a general who spent their life in the military, but if that military has been around, then you are not creating a power structure, you are taking your place in one. much of this has been organized for you.

and militaries are not just infantry. you need to set up A LOT.

you need construction. you need to be able to house your people. you need fortifications to project your objectives. you need storage space because you will need a fuck ton of supplies. you might need bridges and you might need walls and you need to be able to be flexible with what you have the ability to build.

you need acquisitions. you need to know appropriate amounts of supplies you need. you need to be able to outfit your soldiers with the gear they need, which can change depending on their assignment. you need to know the supplies you're acquiring come from reputable sources and are not sabotaged in any way. you need to have redundancies within your supply chain.

you need transportation. you need to be able to move people. you need to be able to move food. you need to be able to move weapons and armor. you need these transports to be secure and well guarded. you need to (probably) vary their routes so you don't risk predictable convoys being seized. you need animals to provide transportation. you need stablehands who also need housing and pay and food and supplies. you need to feed the animals. you need to fulfill your animals' needs adequately. you need medical care for your animals.

you need personnel management. you need to feed them. you need to manage morale and you need to manage pay. you need to know how to encourage cohesion within units while making sure those units can work with others. you need to assign differing specialties and duties appropriately and you need to provide guidance for how each role should be filled.

you need to train them. this is not just swinging a sword; this is enemy recognition, this is how to work within a rank structure, this is how to operate within a highly regulated environment. you need your people to be educated enough to handle what tasks they need to carry out. you need exercises and wargaming so your people know what to expect from the field.

you need coherent rank structure. you need uniforms so your people know who they are and who those around them. you need to plan units with different capabilities that also fall within a coherent rank structure. you need to have emblems for ranks that are easy to read. you need guidelines and standards for what is expected of different ranks because different ranks have vastly different responsibilities. you need to have standards for promotion and demotion.

you need regulation. you need to ban criminal activity. you need standards for discipline. you need to write all the guidelines and be able to provide them to your units. you need one set of rules that all your units adhere to. you need to balance the needs of the people serving with the regulations that need to be written. you need appropriate ways to alter regulations and then publicize these changes.

you need doctrine. you need to plan out how you fight and why. how do you strategize. how do your larger tactics filter down to the smallest fighting units. how centralized or how flexible is your command structure. how are you appropriately using the resources you have. how do you work with allies. why are your units set up the way they are.

you need health services. you need pest management. you need disease control. you need battlefield medicine. you need standard guidelines for triage and care that all your healers understand so they're not doing wildly different things. you need care for long term issues like broken bones. you need to consider what to do with people who are in long-term care. you need to consider what happens to those who are injured and no longer able to serve.

you need security. you need to know your communications are encrypted, obfuscated, or otherwise made difficult to intercept. you need counterintelligence. you need to have guards on patrol. you need to secure your food and water sources. you need to secure incoming shipments.

this is not at all a complete list. but cullen has to find people who can organize all of this, or he has to organize it himself. he is starting from scratch. the inquisition has nothing at the beginning. there is not a single person in thedas who knows how to come up with all this on the scale that the inquisition will require of cullen and with haste.

the inquisition's army must respond to multiple unprecedented threats: hole in the sky raining demons, tears in reality all over ferelden and orlais, red templars, a tevinter cult led by a returned darkspawn magister with a quasi-archdemon, and an army of mind-controlled wardens and demons.

respond. not plan for. they have to pivot and face these things, which all present different challenges and require different tools and methods to fix.

so yes. he is unqualified. fucking find me someone who isn't.

[pluralsword]

Queer Wargaming with Cards

Yeah we do wargaming.

With cards.

Extremely gay cards.

You know, the Transformers Deck-Building Game XD

It's a wargame in the sense that we've collected a bunch of expansions (we have the core autobot game, the core decepticon game, infiltration protocol expansion, and the war for cybertron core game) that would together enable 4v4 gameplay... we calculated that would mean having a card matrix (the battlefield as it were that gets flipped over to reveal allies, enemies, gear, friendly or enemy strategies, bosses, and locations, and battles resulting in defeated enemies leave ruins) of 6 x 6 (36 cards, with one starting polity) cards, and a 21+21+21+5 deck containing the bosses and more polities... (note the game rules go up to 2v2 or 3v1 or 4 player coop/team competitive but if one wants to get in more content and players you just increase the matrix from a 4 x 4 for four players to say, 4x5 for five, and add two cards to boss stacks, going from a 11+11+11+5 to 13+13+13+5, and so on for more players)

as a deckbuilding game, a core mechanic is collecting cards from the field and adjusting your deck and buffing cards and the like, all actions you take are with cards, whether repairing, attacking, blocking, assisting, recruiting, commanding, damaging, and so on. So inevitably you end up collecting a bunch of blorbos, tactics, and gear...

so it's completely unlike any other wargame in that every player is a sort of mass effect style commander who brings their team of blorbos (including humans and non-transformer aliens), gear, and tactics with them to wreck or charm opponents, lead polities, repair the tolls of war, collect relics, take down enemy leadership, protect each other, complete war goals, along with defending ones own leaders...

which is a very transformers premise, come to think of it, but it also feels a lot like ancient war stories, and very gay equivalent, both because of all that and because well, transformers has been very same-gender love uwu intentionally since 2012 which shows no signs of halting, and hit a gender expansive aspect too (the deckbuilding game so far only has sword arcee and overlord but we are sure more will turn up)... so suffice to say that uh we are glad this is the board game we decided to collect for-

its also a lot cheaper than wargames typically are for army building or what have you, and has a built in cooperative or solo mode if you don't want to fight your friends! for reference the amount of money we've spent on the game to now have a vast number of gal characters who would appear on the board is around the cost of a single Manticore missile tank from a certain grimdark game... (although that series is infamous for being much more expensive than other wargames)

speaking of women:

With the cards we have there are 11 different options for playable characters (the leaders of your decks) who either were introduced as gals (Arcee, Elita-1, Slipstream, and Windblade), have at least one gal iteration (Starscream, Skywarp, Ironhide, and Optimus Prime) or would have been canonized as gals but either that was turned down at the time or character cut from a continuity budget (Ratchet and Jazz respectively). If we had the Dinobot expansion that would put us at 12 since Swoop is a gal in Cyberverse.

also the alt modes are on the flip side, transforming is a key mechanic since you need your alt mode to move around usually (respectively, Ratchet: ambulance, Arcee: sports convertible, Elita-1: sports muscle car, Slipstream: fighter jet, Windblade: VTOL jet, Starscream: fighter jet, Skywarp: fighter jet, Ironhide: van, Optimus Primes: truck without the trailer, Jazz: sports car)

Dunno about you but that's a lot of options who are gals for any board game usually... and they vary vastly in capabilities, for example:

-Arcee (from the core/autobot set simply known as the transformers deck-building game) has a skill lay out that is built around moving quickly and gathering maneuvers to use selectively customize personal prowess while playing cards that, in our experience, tends to defeat/eliminate the most enemy npcs on the board (at least until the war for cybertron expansion). she also has strong synergy with her own npc card and the energy blades whose art of hers held by her from the same set.

On an obscure lore note, since the Matrix of Leadership card can be picked up by anyone who can play 8 power (having the power and the touch here doesn't seem to function on a morality basis but hey it doesn't always do that anyway), if you do it with her you can effectively play Arcana Magnus, which is close to the name that was considered for her if she had won the choose a Prime poll for the Power of the Primes toyline (for which she ran on a platform of giving up her career as a warrior, serving with honor, and focusing on reparations in the aftermath of the Great War)

-Windblade (war for cybertron bonus pack) can boost one of her cards while on a site (because of her cityspeaker thing) and can for 1 energon also teleport to allies / sites (another reference because of titans often having spacebridges, but also she's a flyer), and then draws a card she has card draw... on top of that for 2 energon she can recruit an enemy of 2-4 power so she can recruit from the start of the game without the matrix of leadership (which is the only other way to do this, from the core/autobot set)- so effectively politician Windblade has made it into the cardgame (which was so exciting to us), and she can also move allied players to an adjacent space when switching to alt mode, her team versatility is very different from Ironhide who is all about focusing on blocking attacks for teammates, or Ratchet who doles out assists and repairs like no tomorrow (this also uniquely positions Ratchet to defend friendly Autobot bosses)

-Slipstream (war for cybertron) is the first real starter sniper/gunship of the lot, she can give her starter cards +1 range and can also battle enemies not in her space with +2 range and +2 power which makes her a killer to rival arcee, and has card draw or can self heal 2 damage and in alt mode can choose a card from her discard to put on top of her deck so she is the deck engine blorbo (insert blue/red deck joke here)

-Elita-1 (war for cybertron) on the other hand has a sort of turn by turn engine because when she recruits an autobot they go on top of the deck for the next turn, so she can determine her next turn draw, and also can boost autobot cards- and most importantly, for each autobot she controls on the field in play, she can deal 1 damage to a target character, so um... Elita can completely mess up enemy players/teams, if she has five Autobots played on a turn she can hit someone in the same space as her for 5 damage... which means -10 points at the end of the game if not repaired! she is a menace even compared to the Decepticons in other other sets because of the amount of damage she can deal mid-late game. If one wants to reimplement the core game co-op/solo rule of a team loses when a character takes 5 damage, but instead do it as the player is taken out until getting at least a damage repaired (for the record we came up with this variant, but otherwise it's a death by a thousand cuts situation where you can keep racking up damage), this makes Elita extremely dangerous for shutting down opponents and also the ideal Autobot wielder of the Star Saber, since that card is in part for dealing damage to other players

-Skywarp (infiltration protocol bonus pack) on the other hand is all about scouting (Jazz from the autobot/core game bonus pack is even more so), utility, disruption, able to teleport upon transforming to altmode, flipping adjacent regions' cards face-up when playing a starter card for the first time on a turn, and able to either cause a friend to discard a hand and draw again -1 (which is handy if your pal does not like their hand and especially if they know what cards are next), or can do the same thing to an opponent to try to mess up their next turn or defensive actions they might take

-Optimus Prime's War for Cybertron variant is the strategic counterpart to her own (for clarification, Transformers Universe Optimus Prime and Yellow Splendid Convoy are she/her Optimi) autobot/core game card autobot card boosting and card draw/blcok capabilities and to Elita-1's guerrilla cqc style: this Optimus can block an attack from anywhere in the field against any player, while having the ability to draw a lot of cards or just build up victory points while on a polity

-Starcream actually has interesting counterplay to Elita in that she (she was a gal in the French dub of TFTM) can spend energon to give 1 damage dealt to her to a target player anywhere... and aside from this can also can battle Decepticons allies to gain their defeat rewards instead of adding them to her deck. Very Starscream

Some reviews of the game said it is lackluster with the lack of energon utility and having a lot near the end of the game- a rule was implemented in War for Cybertron capping the amount of energon one can have to 12, and also another rule (unsure if this was a rule before) established that cards spent to fight people could not have their move points be used after, so the game is now significantly more difficult hehe

We've played it a bunch of times with friends prior to acquiring War for Cybertron, it is easily one of our favorite games not just because of the intentionally queer-coded alien robots' art and personalities being all over the game, but also because the dynamic card synergy is enjoyable and the bosses can really mess you up if one doesn't have the right build. We aren't getting into this because we'd be here all day but the npc's personalities are certainly there: e.g. well known for her martial artist bodyguard iteration, Chromia (war for cybertron) helps players to gather maneuvers and to buff them in combat/diplomacy, along with having significant move and combat/recruiting capabilities herself (this could, for example, help Windblade collect combat and scouting cards, or enable Arcee to be even more deadly). There's other things we haven't tried yet, the Infiltration Protocol expansion comes with the eponymous six phases of Decepticon resource extraction invasion from IDW1 as a playable mode, and the bonus pack (which we have tried) came with Metroplex (who is an Autobot boss location rather than playable card), and also has a 1 vs team mode where the solo player is buffed significantly

anyway, we had to ramble about it because this game is cool as hell

[fioras-resolve]

I’ve been reading your posts about permadeth in FE and I have to tell you that you really should be looking at wargaming and tabletop to help you with the tactics game. Imagine you were playing Tomb of Horrors; would it be more tolerable for someone to generate 20 characters and just Do The Meat Grinder, or have the meat grinder situated in a way where you can go through with Your Guys and not rando generic #7, 4, and 12

Imho, permadeth in a game life FF Tactics and Tactics Ogre just makes your opponent the grind itself, and difficulty gets front loaded because players will just grind until they can’t lose Their Guys anymore.

The ultimate freedom of not having permadeth is being able to put your players in fucked up dark souls fights and telling them “no, this is your challenge now.”

Another tip, in my hypothetical Tactics/Wargame your power level is based on your gear and wealth, not xp.

Daybreak Hearts actually won't have permadeath! It just wouldn't make sense, it's a character-focused game with a very small cast, so allowing any of them to straight-up die as an emergent behavior would kill a substantial amount of the game's core. It also won't have EXP, because I want to design each level really precisely around a consistent set of stats. If this becomes a series then it'll definitely feature character progression (and regression) but these will be tied to specific plot beats, e.g. a character has a change of heart or gains a disability or gets a new weapon. that kind of thing.

As for me needing to play tabletop and wargames, I knooooooooow, it's a big blind spot for me. It's difficult for me to find the courage (or motivation) to schedule a playtime with another person and stick to it, I already do badly in social occasions! There is actually a game shop less than 15 minutes from me, but I had a very not good experience with someone I met there, so I'm still sort of recovering from that wound.

[convergencegameparts]

Convergence Game Parts

Website: https://www.convergencegameparts.com/

Address: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

Convergence Game Parts specializes in crafting high-quality 3D printed terrain and accessories to enhance your tabletop wargaming experience. From medieval kingdoms for Settlers of Catan to modular palisade wall segments, our products are designed to bring your gaming world to life. Our services include limited runs, custom orders, and educational events on 3D printing to help you personalize your gaming setup.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ConvergenceGameParts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PartsGame

Keywords:

board game upgrades

tabletop game design

custom board game pieces

game night essentials

3d printed miniature figures

custom gaming tokens

3d printed gaming accessories

modular tabletop terrain

miniature wargaming accessories

bletop gaming accessories

3d printed game components

custom terrain for tabletop games

personalized gaming pieces

custom catan enhancements

gaming event supplies

3d printed scenery pieces

bespoke game piece printing

customized gaming accessories

gaming workshops and events

tabletop enhancement services

board game customization

tactical wargaming gear

rpg game piece design

sci fi tabletop accessories

fantasy gaming elements

dungeon themed upgrades

unique tabletop solutions

miniature wargaming parts

role playing game enhancements

futuristic terrain design

personalized gaming gear

customizable game components

tabletop scenario printing

tactical wargaming accessories

game piece design services

sci fi and fantasy terrain

3d printed tabletop elements

custom game board enhancements

innovative gaming accessories

miniature figurine printing

tactical rpg upgrades

bespoke tabletop creations

board game crafting

personalized gaming experience

3d printed gaming gear

tabletop design services

unique game night accessories

custom miniatures printing

role playing terrain solutions

tactical game components

tabletop innovation services

customized scenario pieces

board game customization services

fantasy rpg accessories

bespoke gaming terrain

sci fi board game elements

tactical rpg terrain design

personalized board game upgrades

3d printed game board elements

tabletop gaming customization

rpg miniature design

bespoke gaming pieces

customized tabletop supplies

board game scenery printing

miniature wargaming solutions

tactical game night accessories

3d printed rpg elements

personalized board game pieces

tabletop terrain customization

gaming accessory innovation

bespoke rpg upgrades

sci fi tabletop printing

unique board game enhancements

tactical rpg game pieces

customized tabletop scenery

3d printed miniature enhancements

bespoke gaming components

fantasy board game accessories

tactical wargaming enhancements

personalized rpg elements

customizable game night supplies

board game crafting workshops

miniature painting workshops

rpg scenario printing

tactical game night essentials

bespoke board game elements

sci fi rpg terrain design

unique tabletop gaming components

custom miniature wargaming parts

[glyphwright]

Was looking through some RPG rulebooks recently, and had developed enough opinions on the topic of NPC stat blocks that I had to get them out somewhere. Check below the break for a rant.

I've come to a unilateral and flawless conclusion: if you have a tabletop RPG or a wargame with big squads of people/NPCs, if you can't put the unit's stat block on a Yu-Gi-Oh card with no art and have it be legible, I want no part in it.

Was looking through some systems for a tabletop campaign idea I had, and found one that I won't name but thought I'd really enjoy. And for the most part, I did! I loved so much of the player-facing systems and was gearing up to start really digging into this campaign when I hit a snag with the system.

See, the system is a 2d6-rolling skill-based system. Which is awesome, I want to get away from D&D type stuff and this was a really good path to go. There are 24 skills split up into 3 categories of 8. Really nice way to categorize things. But... All the enemies ALSO had numbers for all 24 skills. Plus the other stuff that's actually important for running mook NPCs in an RPG battle.

The enemy stat blocks felt so bloated, my eyes just kind of glazed over while reading them and all interest in the system dried up. And that kind of disappointed me!

Throwing my mind to wargames and skirmish games for a reference here, I'm reminded of both Battletech and Battletech Alpha Strike, two opposing ends of the unit card spectrum.

Battletech Classic has BIG record sheets, each mech is its own 8.5"x11" piece of printer paper. However, because the system is crunchy and simulationist, all these gubbins and tables are necessary for play, and each player only runs 3-5 of their own mechs, which really limits the overhead on what they need to have in front of them.

On the flip side, you get Alpha Strike. The Alpha Strike rules cut down heavily on the simulation and crunch in order to streamline the game, for an alternative ruleset that plays faster and can also more easily support large amounts of units. Everything fits on basically an index card, and if you cut out the art you can make the card even smaller if you made a custom layout.

Outside of Battletech, I think these unit cards for Warhammer 40k Kill Team are also very readable. This has a lot of empty space, as the unit itself is pretty simple, but it has all the necessary numbers on it without making my eyes glaze over because there's no chaff numbers.

I probably haven't been looking long enough at other systems, but I hope that combat heavy tactical tabletop RPGs start picking up some formatting styles from skirmish games. I feel it would do so much (for me at least) to make things easier and faster to run.

If anybody who took the time to read this knows about any combat-focused TTRPGs with really slick formatting on unit stat blocks, let me know, I wanna check them out.

[yodawgiheardyoulikemecha]

Well this brings back memories. Used to play a lot of Heavy Gear (mostly Heavy Gear Tactical*) and still have all of the 1st-3rd edition books.

Not planning on playing Blitz or this new Blitz-based RPG, but enjoying seeing a new generation discovering the game. The setting absolutely rocks!

*the pre-blitz Heavy Gear wargame

Heavy Gear, the 4th edition RPG book, by Dream Pod 9, is set on the world of Terra Nova and beyond where mini-mek known as Gears roam the battlefield, play as an inhabitant of Terra Nova, or as members of the Invaders from Earth and its subjugated worlds, and decide the fate of Terra Nova itself!

[onetigris]

Have you ever imagined you can quickly switch between various mask themes? Just Pick a face to wear on 1TG and rock the field with the best loadout.

[doolallymagpie]

Had an unexpected surge in confidence about painting faces after the Duke, so here’s the head for Thalia Kirst (Power Armor)

[ultrajaphunter]

(via What NATO’s New Strategic Concept Gets Wrong - Modern War Institute)

For the first time in more than a decade, NATO has announced a new strategic concept. Hailed as a historic action, and adopted after a summit in Madrid, the concept provides much-needed strategic clarity by naming Russia the most important and immediate threat to transatlantic security. But it also reinvigorates misguided and potentially dangerous tendencies for small NATO member countries. The concept renews and strengthens dependence on external security guarantees, requires continued maintenance and development of unsustainable (and, in some local contexts, irrelevant) “mini-US” conventional militaries, and disincentivizes small members from finding alternative, affordable, and independently effective defense solutions.

The Madrid concept revitalizes the Cold War approach to conventional deterrence while ignoring twenty-first-century strategic realities. Other than Poland, every other Eastern European state is in a highly disadvantageous position when it comes to potential Russian aggression. They are in very close proximity to Russian forces, their populations are a fraction the size of the Russian population, they have little operational depth to mount a multilayered conventional defense, and their militaries are small, insufficiently equipped with modern weapons systems, and enjoy limited access to resupply routes. Any defense strategies grounded in these countries’ current conventional capabilities are doomed to fail and leave them wholly reliant on the whims of more powerful allies.

Instead, small countries should develop defensive approaches geared less toward fielding a small hyperconventional, NATO-interoperable force—which would likely be significantly degraded in the initial stages of a Russian invasion—and more toward fielding formations customized to their unique operating environments, rationalized for budgetary and manpower considerations, and sustainable with or without the alliance’s conventional might. NATO membership remains crucial, but small members’ defense strategies must enable them to, at best, defend their sovereignty during a slow, bureaucratic response from the alliance, and, at worst, go it alone. Such plans cannot be built on small members’ current conventional military frameworks. These armies are not fit for purpose in NATO’s collective deterrence model and they never will be.

Outmatched and Outgunned

After the end of the Cold War, with the loss of intellectual and material support from their sponsors, small NATO countries’ militaries underwent an identity crisis. Faced with continuous budget cuts, reductions in numbers, and large-scale retirement of conventional capabilities, they struggled to find relevance. Materiel decayed alongside institutional knowledge in the art and science of conventional warfare. In turn, homeland defense capabilities withered. Post-9/11 NATO pressures and incentives exacerbated the process, with small alliance members developing and fielding expeditionary and special operations capabilities to conduct counterterrorism and counterinsurgency far from home. Organizational tables, weapons development, and equipment acquisition processes adapted to such operations. Military training and educational institutions overhauled curricula to develop the leaders prepared specifically for these missions. Doctrine writers and tacticians redesigned tactics, techniques, and procedures, and training facilities morphed to accommodate effective predeployment training of these expeditionary formations. These and many other changes created highly specialized military establishments in small NATO members that fit the purpose of the day but lacked applicability to homeland defense.

Following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, numerous wargames and simulations in the Baltic countries and Poland revealed critical strategic flaws. The Crimean wake-up call forced Western European countries to reckon with the eastern threat, leading them to pledge new defensive capabilities that would protect their sovereignty and ensure national survival. But while the last decade has witnessed major changes in many NATO members’ approach to defense, all of these changes rest on the misguided idea that small countries can build and maintain capable, US-style, conventional forces that present a credible challenge to the Russian war machine. This is far from reality. Small NATO countries lack sufficient materiel, infrastructure, training, and raw human capital to mount a credible, large-scale, conventional deterrent to Russian coercion and aggression. The current conflict in Ukraine should be an eye opener for small NATO countries. If Ukraine, with its large territory, a population of more than forty million people, a conventional military numbering more than two hundred thousand soldiers, and a continuous influx of modern Western weapons struggles to resist Russian aggression, then a country ten to fifteen times smaller is likely to face tough odds in a similar situation.

Small member countries cannot afford to purchase and maintain the most advanced military hardware in sufficient quantity. Net importers of military hardware, they depend on foreign providers for supply and resupply. Their training and education systems, including faculty, curricula, and facilities, remain woefully inadequate, while recent national and European Union laws and regulations prioritize environmental protection and limit several training activities necessary for building professional mass conventional armies. Above all, a lack of available human capital restricts these states. The abolition of conscription in small NATO member countries rendered their militaries dependent on spirited but diminutive formations of volunteers. These limitations may be difficult to accept, but political and military leaders must acknowledge reality and develop national defense strategies that optimize their resources for the fight these states are likely to face with or without NATO support. Small member countries must radically redesign their militaries and NATO must empower and advise them in this endeavor.

Porcupine Strategies

Against a numerically and technologically superior enemy, underdogs only have a chance for victory if the weak side wages an unfamiliar way of war. Given this logic, small countries should develop their own ways of fighting as different from hyperconventional American warfare as possible, thereby presenting a grave dilemma to Russian strategists rather than a meager NATO tripwire. Small countries do not need to reinvent the wheel. Recent history is full of examples of weak state and nonstate actors successfully standing up against the most advanced militaries. Learning from and adapting these approaches to unique local contexts is how small NATO members can create disproportionately costly outcomes, in blood and treasure, for a Russian incursion. Simply put, small NATO members must develop technology-enabled, resistance-based porcupine strategies.

This approach cannot be ad hoc or haphazard, based on loosely defined amateur homeland defense forces. It demands state-owned, purpose-built, professional military organizations and tailored hardware to succeed. Just like prior paradigms, this transformation requires military formations, rank systems, career paths, training and education pipelines, and weapon systems built for a specific type of war. While some foundations will survive, most solutions should radically depart from current approaches. Universally accepted principles that have long shaped conventional militaries should be fundamentally reimagined, if not abandoned entirely. Previously sacred elements of modern military culture should become relics. The time for cautious steps that do nothing to break down orthodox concepts is over. If small NATO states want to ensure their survival they must start harvesting from the edges of strategic thinking instead of blindly emulating Western military conventions. They must develop asymmetric approaches based on systems that are small, numerous, smart, stealthy, fast, mobile, low-cost, survivable, effective, easy to develop, maintain and preserve, and difficult to detect and counter.

Where NATO is concerned, this adaptation would be win-win. Small members could employ more affordable, independently sustainable defense approaches, strategies that would enable their success even if left to fight alone. At the same time, instead of having weak, conventional tripwires along its eastern flank, NATO would have multiple layers of credible, independently capable porcupines supported by the conventional might of larger NATO states. A collective resistance-grounded defense concept would present a stronger deterrent, significantly raising the costs of aggression compared to a resurrected Cold War deterrence paradigm. Instead of forcing its small members to attempt the impossible, NATO should incentivize and support local solutions that best exploit the unique strengths of each small country, creating a wicked, costly, and multivariate mosaic of problems for a revanchist Russia. Unfortunately, NATO’s new strategic direction does not point to this outcome.

Dr. Sandor Fabian is a former Hungarian Special Forces lieutenant colonel with twenty years of military experience. He is also a non-resident fellow at West Point’s Modern War Institute and a Curriculum Developer and Advanced Studies Team Leader at LEIDOS supporting the NATO Special Operations School.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the United States Military Academy, Department of the Army, or Department of Defense.

Image credit: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

[yodawgiheardyoulikemecha]

Heavy Gear: When All Hell Breaks Loose

The second Heavy Gear print ad, featuring the Jaguar in it's final form with V-engine and the "standard" Jaguar helmet (although this would soon be modified, partly to facilitate miniatures production). Note that this Jaguar is carrying a snub cannon, which would not be the Jaguar's standard armament when the Heavy Gear RPG/Wargame was released later (stats for the snub cannon armed "Predator Jaguar" were published in a later supplement).

[bryanharryrombough]

Another batch of high-quality PDFs of 1st & 2nd edition Heavy Gear books, hexmaps & counter sheets.  These are expensive, but currently available in a half-priced bundle.  A great deal if you’re a fan of mecha gaming - tabletop rpgs or wargames.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #497

Top Ten PC Games No One Talks About Anymore

Blimey, Quake is rather good, isn’t it? Have you heard about it? I really hope so, because it’s only twenty-five years old. I mean, Jesus. What’s up with that? Quake is meant to be the future. It’s full of true-3D polygonal texture-mapping and real-time dynamic light-sourcing. Fancy it being a quarter of a century old. That’s ridiculous. “Old” is for things like, I dunno, Space Invaders or The Godfather or I Wanna Hold Your Hand. Stuff that our parents heard about before we were born. It’s not – it’s absolutely not – used to describe something that people bought 3D accelerator cards for. It’s not used to describe a game that popularised online gaming.

But old it is, getting silver anniversary cards and everything. No longer the angry, hungry young tiger, devouring its ancestors and growling at upstart rivals like Duke Nukem 3D – sure, you’ve got non-linear levels, interactive scenery, and toilet humour, but we’ve got grenades that bounce with real physics – Quake is now an aged beast of the forest, resplendent, battle-scarred, weary with gravitas. Quake is the game that shaped the now, but it does not represent the future anymore. In fact, arguably its greatest rival – Unreal – is the game with the lasting, living legacy, its progeny building the next generation of gaming with one of the most popular and impressive engines around, the framework underpinning everything from Gears to Jedi to Fortnite. Quake blew us all away, but arguably it ceded the conflict, secure in its status as one of the most important and influential games of all time. Quake II got plaudits for actually having a proper story and an engrossing single-player campaign (and coloured lighting!), and its immediate descendants such as Half-Life changed the nature of what FPS games could do, but in a funny way it feels like Quake has long since retired. A sleeping titan. It got old.

So it’s great that they rereleased it on modern systems! The version of Quake released last month is basically the game I remember, but tarted up a little around the edges, with texture filtering and dynamic shadows and other stuff that I couldn’t manage on my Pentium 75 back in the day. It plays great – it’s slick as anything, and you go tearing round the levels like a Ferrari with a nail gun, blasting dudes and ducking back around a corner before you get hit with a pineapple in the face. It’s the first game I’ve played in a long, long time that evokes the feel of classic PC first-person shooters of that era – which, y’know, kinda makes sense as it is a first-person shooter of that era. But that style of fast-paced run-and-gun, circle-strafing gameplay has gone out of fashion now, with FPS games usually favouring slow, methodical, tactical combat, or larger-scale open-world warfare usually involving vehicles. Whether it’s a straight-up no-frills blaster like Quake, or a game that takes you on more of a linear, narrative journey, like Quake II, or even just a multiplayer-focused arena shooter, like Quake III Arena, it does feel like a dying artform, like a style of gameplay that could do with a resurgence (and, to be fair, there are games on the horizon that look like they’re harking back to the era, so that’s cool).

But it’s not just first-person shooters like Quake that I feel have slipped from gaming’s shared consciousness. Maybe it’s my age (it’s definitely my age) but there seems to be quite a lot of games that were a big deal twenty or so years ago that are utterly forgotten now, whereas some – Doom, Duke Nukem, Command & Conquer, Age of Empires – are often namechecked or rebooted (even before the full-on 2016 reboot, Doom must have been one of the most re-released games of the last thirty years). But there are lots of others where sometimes I feel like I’m the only one that remembers it. And that’s where this list comes in: inspired by the excellent re-release of the Quake franchise, here are some other great PC games of that general era that I feel still need shouting about, even if I’m the only one doing the shouting. Maybe they don’t all need a full-on remaster or whatever, but it’d still be nice if they got a bit of modern gaming love.

No One Lives Forever (2000): coming at a time when most FPS games were still Doom-style blasters with little in the way of real plot, NOLF was different: stylish and funny, genuinely well-written (as in the dialogue), with interesting objective-based missions and a cool female protagonist. It skirted similar ground to Bond and the then-white-hot Austin Powers franchise. Two games were made and then, as far as I’m aware, it evaporated into a mess of tangled rights, hence no sequels or remakes. A shame, because it was great.

MDK (1997): the next game from the people who made the multimedia phenomenon that was Earthworm Jim, MDK was a really cool slice of sci-fi style, all sleek level design and intriguing features. It had a supremely bonkers plot which bled through into a game with a sense of humour, but mostly it was the run-and-gun gameplay and innovative use of a scoped weapon – possibly (don’t quote me on this) the first sniper rifle in a videogame. An even wackier sequel followed, but despite its cult status, that was it.

Star Trek: The Next Generation – Klingon Honor Guard (1998): it’s probably fair to say that Star Trek has not had as many great videogames as Star Wars, perhaps because Trek’s historically straightlaced earnestness just didn’t translate as well as bashing someone up the chops with a laser sword. Honor Guard shook things up by casting you as a Klingon, showering levels with pink blood and going Full Worf. It was the first game to licence the Unreal engine, and had a cool level where you walked along the outside of a ship like in First Contact. Also: shout out to the Voyager game, Elite Force (2000), which was another really good FPS set in the world of Trek, with intriguing gameplay wrinkles as you fought the Borg. It also let you wander round the titular starship between levels. Trek deserves more quality action games like these.

Earth 2150 (2000): the nineties on PC really saw RTS games come down to those who liked Command & Conquer or those who liked Warcraft, but as the decade drew to a close other titles chased the wargame crown (including Total Annihilation, which would have made this list, except I feel like the Supreme Commander franchise is a sequel in all but name). 2150 was notable for its Starcraft-like mix of three factions with contrasting play styles, and its use of 3D graphics and the ability to design and build weapons of war that could lay waste to armies and bases with spectacular results. I think the genre has ossified into something more hardcore, and this was probably an inflex point where idiots like me could still get a handle on things.

Midtown Madness (1999): Microsoft has a history of building up great racing franchises and then abandoning them, but their “Madness” line of games in the late nineties/early noughties was terrific and much-missed. Back when tooling round actual 3D cities was still new and exciting, this was a no-holds-barred arcade racer, with some gorgeous shiny chrome effects on the cars, and very nippy handling. It was great fun smashing up VW Beetles and the like. It was surpassed, I guess, by Project Gotham on the Xbox, and sadly the whole franchise was then forgotten, despite the ascendent Forza franchise mostly shunning city driving.

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines (1998): part tactical war game, part puzzler, Commandos was famous for its gorgeously intricate graphics and its difficulty – I mean, it was way too hard for me. But its beautiful top-down design and its slow, methodical gameplay was compelling, as you evaded Nazis and solved missions with a team of unique units with special skills. Sequels followed, and western spin-off Desperados, but there’s not been a true follow-up for quite some time, despite promises; and few games have echoed its style or look.

The Pandora Directive (1996): okay, so really this is just a placeholder for an entire subgenre of game that appears to have been forgotten: interactive movies. I know, there are flirtations with this from time to time; and many of these games featured obtuse puzzles and relatively little gameplay strung between FMV scenes. Pandora was great though; a first-person 3D game with loads of old-school adventure aspects, as well as FMV, it was a noir-tinged detective story but set in the future. The Tex Murphy series (of which this was the fourth instalment) has had sequels – the most recent one was sadly cancelled only this year – but many other games of a similar ilk, such as Phantasmagoria and even Wing Commander – have fallen by the wayside. With in-engine graphics now allowing the fluidity and expression of cinematic renders of old, shooting movie inserts doesn’t seem like it’s worthwhile; but I still always loved a point-and-click game that featured digitised actors milling about. Toonstruck, anyone?

Marathon (1994): before Halo there was… Marathon! Back when I used to lug my Pentium round my mate’s house so we could play different games on different machines side-by-side, he’d bang on about this Mac-first series of games, like Doom but better, with an intricate plot and complex levels. And y’know what? He was actually onto something. There’s a style and an earnestness to the Marathon franchise, along with many concepts that would be refined in Halo years later. With Bungie now seemingly committed to Destiny, and Halo in Microsoft’s hands, I’m not sure what could possibly become of this, their forgotten FPS forebear, especially as it shares so much DNA with its offspring.  

Outlaws (1997): LucasArts are famous for two things, really: their Star Wars games and their adventures. But they made loads of other stuff too – including this intriguing Western shoot-em-up. Back when Western games were rarer than Western movies (which were rare at the time), this quirky and difficult cowboy-em-up saw you rounding up outlaws in typical oater locations such as saloons, trains, and mines. It had great music and a really intriguing set of weapons, including (don’t quote me on this) the first sniper rifle in a game. Sadly Outlaws’ success could be described as “cult” and it never got a proper sequel. and, weirdly, despite the success of Red Dead Redemption, we’ve never had a bit Western-themed FPS again. Which is really odd.

Soldier of Fortune (2000): I pondered whether to include this one, as if I’m honest I’m not sure I want this licence brought back. But I can’t deny the game was a huge deal and has seemingly been forgotten. A relatively gritty and realistic combat game with a huge variety of excellent real-world weaponry, its big hook was its incredibly detailed damage modelling, that could see you blowing limbs off enemies, or splitting open heads, or disembowelling them. Whilst its OTT violence made headlines, the granularity of its systems meant you could be more tactical, shooting weapons out of hands. But really its biggest controversy should be its association with a big old gun magazine.

There are many, many other games that nearly made the list - I almost had a Top Ten of just FPS games, for instance. Little Big Adventure was here, till a sequel was announced the other day. Hexen and Heretic I think still have a place in FPS history. Toonstruck, although without a sequel, was only really a cult hit at the time, and I feel the people who’d love it already know about it. I do tend to overthink these things, y’know.

So maybe not all of these could make a comeback, but all the same I don’t think they should be forgotten, and it does make we wonder what games will fall by the wayside twenty or more years from now. That game about the big green space marine dude in a mask – what was that called again…?

[sjrresearch]

Why Not Wargame World War I or Vietnam?

Historical Wargaming, like many hobbies, has fads. One year, Ancients might be big, or it may be Colonials. The next, World War II. But two periods have not, at least in my own observation, gotten their day in the sun. At least not in US wargaming circles (and I will be speaking almost exclusively to that, as I am less familiar with, though still knowledgeable of, the British wargaming scene). 

These periods are the First World War and Vietnam. Both were major conflicts with plenty of research materials available (unlike, say, the Grand Chaco War). Both have libraries of rules and boardgames written for them, but neither, at least not at the cons I’ve attended, are quite the attention-getters that other conflicts do. Why is this? I have some theories as to why.

Just a disclaimer, this is mostly an opinion piece, and your mileage may vary. 

American and British Views of the First World War and Vietnam

Let’s face it. Most American wargamers are patriotic folks. We want to play wargames where “our boys” feature prominently. World War II more than fits that bill. World War I does not. By the time the American Expeditionary Force arrived in France in strength in early 1918, the German Army was on its last legs. The Americans arrived in theatre in time to push the Germans off the proverbial cliff when the last German offensive in the west failed. Our active participation in the First World War was barely six months. Our fleets fought no major battles, and by the time we were shuttling troops to Europe, the U-Boat and raider menace was a shadow of what it used to be. In the air, American heroes were made, such as Frank Luke and Eddy Rickenbacker, but they, too, missed the worst of the Allied fortunes of the previous year.

In short, while American forces improved the overall strategic position of the Western Allies, the US Army was poorly prepared for the modern battlefield. Many of the American offensives, in the beginning, used the same types of massed frontal assaults that the British and French had abandoned the previous year due to the horrific casualties involved. The US Army often had to buy equipment from the British and the French to supplement their own needs, as our own industry had not geared up for war by the time the war ended.

In short, our role in the First World War was a minor one, relatively speaking. And that carries through to American wargamers. British wargamers learned a quite different lesson about the First World War from their school classes and their families than we did. We had 4 million men in the military for the First World War, half of that went to France, and half of that saw any combat. Compare that with the Second World War, where you had 15 million Americans in the military. So, for many wargamers of a certain age, they were more likely to have a World War II veteran in the family at some point than a World War I veteran. 

In Britain, this was different. Over 5 million men in Great Britain enlisted, which was almost 25% of the male population at the time. Add in the fact that the British lost almost 750,000 men worldwide over four years and the United States lost 110,000 in the space of five or six months, a different image of World War I appears. In the US, it is a conflict we do not game much because nobody pays much attention to it (though, with recent movie releases such as 1917, this seems to be changing). In Britain, World War I is seen as a national tragedy. It is of boys being sent off to the slaughter at places like the Somme and Passandachele. And since Britain is in many ways the “mecca” of hobby wargaming, it is inevitable that a feeling of “No, that’s just not something we want to game out” took hold for an awfully long time.

Moreover, the Western Front was not a war of movement except at the very beginning and end. That is why most boardgames on World War I tend to concentrate either on other theatres (the East is extremely popular), 1914 or 1918. Miniatures games tend to center around the same, or game out the war in the air or at sea. 

Vietnam is the opposite in so very many ways. American participation in the conflict was massive from the beginning, and the conflict lasted ten years. Approximately 2.7 million Americans served in Vietnam, and the war showcased some advanced weapons systems on both sides. But it was an unpopular war at home that tore the social fabric of the time asunder. Wargaming in this country truly came of age in the 1970s, and Vietnam was still seen as a “dirty” war, again, one not worth gaming. In British wargaming circles, Vietnam has been big and never really stopped being big. I remember all my British “glossies” (slang for the British Wargaming magazines, named as such for their glossy covers) full of articles on Vietnam. 

There was a small uptick in gaming Vietnam in the mid-to-late 1980s in this country, as various movies came out from Hollywood, but the nature of the conflict is not easy to game. Vietnam epitomized the old saying about combat: “Long periods of boredom punctuated by short, sharp moments of sheer terror.” There were long periods of time where patrols would go out and find…nothing. Then a patrol would go out, and all hell would break loose. That is not easy to game. That is the larger truth at the tactical level about counterinsurgency. It’s not how many guerillas you kill, but it’s what you do to use “soft power” to undercut their support. That said, I have seen some good miniatures games on the subject, but most board games on Vietnam seem to be focused on the strategic and operational levels. 

Add in the popular beliefs about Vietnam and the men who fought there. None of them were true, but the media popularized them in the day, and popular opinion demonized the soldiers who fought there. Going back to fads, it was not hard to see why American wargamers to this day get a little queasy about gaming Vietnam.

Availability of Games and Miniatures

I am happy to say that times are a-changin’, as the old protest song from the Vietnam-era goes. Perhaps with World War I, there are no veterans in living memory, and there’s better history being done now (especially new history on the tactical innovations developed on the Western front putting an end to the pernicious myth of half-trained boys being slaughtered by uncaring commanders). And with Vietnam in this country, we are starting to see more Vietnam veterans opening up about their experiences and game designers and rules writers listening to them. 

So, here is an overview of what is out there both board gaming and miniatures-wise:

Board Games World War I

Ted Racier has written quite a few games on the First World War. It is not a period I game for the most part, but I played the 1918 game back when he published it in Command magazine. I personally think it was one of the three best games Command ever published, and I am glad to see GMT is bringing it back.

We all know what I think of this game, and I think it was a welcome window into the strategic realities of World War I. It is still one of the best Card Driven Games of all time.

I do not own this game, but the premise of doing a worldwide game of the First World War does intrigue me. It seems to put proper focus on economics and diplomacy, with the war of movement slowing down into an attritional model. All in all, it looks good, but if someone who has played it could let me know how it plays, that would be appreciated.

This game has been out for a while, and I had also heard a lot of buzz about it when it was released. Clash of Arms could have had a solid game in this, and I played it once. The rules needed a lot of work and probably could have used the “living rules” concept that other game companies used.  

Board Games Vietnam 

A note, this is not all-inclusive as there are a lot of Vietnam board games out there. I had to cherry-pick which ones would be of the widest possible interest. 

For a while, this game by Victory Games was the game on the Vietnam War. It was truly a monster game and covered every aspect of the war, from pacification to how dedicated the combatants were. It was well-designed and state of the art for its time. Sadly, it is out of print and not cheap to come by, but it is worth it if you can find a copy.

Downtown is probably one of the best games on what goes into planning and running an air campaign out there today. GMT still has the game in print (it is one of two games on Vietnam I own), and I have played it on VASSAL a few times. I really do like it. The designer, Lee Brinscombe-Wood, has gone on to write An Elusive Victory (The Arab-Israeli wars in the air) and The Burning Blue (The Battle of Britain), and Red Storm (A hypothetical Third World War in the skies over Germany) were also written all using the same rules system. The game details well the frustrations faced by the Americans over the skies of North Vietnam. You can purchase a copy here.

Mark H. Walker did some really neat work with his Lock ‘N Load series, and one of the first games in the series was about Vietnam. Lock N’ Load is a system that is at the same level as Squad Leader but is a bit simpler to play, but no less nuanced nor fun. I own the 1st Edition of Band of Heroes and will one of these days go out and get the new versions of the series. All of them play the same, with an emphasis on putting tactical decisions into the hands of the player, keeping the game moving and fun, with most scenarios taking no more than an hour or two. You get all the troop types: US Army, USMC, ARVN, NVA, VC, and yes, even Australians (for those wanting to game out the movie Danger Close). You can get a copy here. 

Meatgrinder is a game from the folks at Against the Odds magazine about the last stand of the ARVN at the town of Xuan Loc in 1975. The rules are beautifully written, and the articles that come with the game are incredible reading at times. It is games like this that remind us that there was still a war going on after the US pulled out in 1973, and the fall of South Vietnam had consequences. And it is just a great story of a hell of a stand. You can purchase a copy of the issue and the game here.

This was the game that was on everyone’s minds when it came out in 2014. The COIN series is an innovative set of games designed around a common rule set that games out insurgencies like Cuba in the 1950s, Columbia in the 1990s, and Afghanistan today, as well as Vietnam. I have yet to play any of the COIN games, but I want to. They are all highly recommended and address the problem of counterinsurgency quite well in a strategic context. You can purchase a copy here.

Miniatures Rules for World War I and Vietnam

Richard Clarke has a reputation with Too Fat Lardies for putting out good rules with card-driven mechanics. It is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it can produce a good game. I haven’t played Through the Mud and the Blood myself, but it has very good information on the various armies of the Western Front and the tactics they used, with the rules author making a fine argument that the tactical innovation opened up the stalemate of the Western Front in 1918 (it did). Too Fat Lardies’ products can be found all over the internet or in PDF or physical format on their website.

Peter Pig’s rules are meant for larger-scale fights, where each stand of troops is about a company in size, and the 6’x4’ board is sub-divided into squares and plays something like a board game. I will not say it is my cup of tea but may swear by it. You can buy digital copies via Peter Pig.

There are several rules for World War I also on Wargames Vault, and some, like Westfront, sound intriguing, but take a look for yourself.

Even though Force on Force is still sadly out of print, their Vietnam sourcebook and rules were probably one of the best rules sets out there for gaming the Vietnam war. Happily, PDF copies are still available for sale from the publisher for $20.00. You will need the base rules to play as well, but those are also available on PDF from the publisher.

Two Hour Wargames (THW) has been blurring the line between RPGs and Wargames for a while now and promising (and delivering) games in under two hours. Their Vietnam game is no different, as the game is centered around the idea of your “character” controlling a squad, and like most THW products, the game has very simple rules. There is also a campaign generator for scenarios you can play out on the tabletop. It is a great fun, pulpy take on Vietnam and is well worth the $20.00 price tag. The rules are for sale in PDF and can be found here.

Next week, we’ll discuss miniatures themselves, as that’s going to take an entire article in its own right!

 --

At SJR Research, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse SJR Research’s service on our site at SJR Research.

--

(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)

[clearkoalacollective]

Game Giveaway, COVID-19 Edition

Hey, everyone! If you’re stuck at home with nothing to do, I’m here to help! The usual rules apply: first come, first served, be nice to each other, don’t be greedy.  You'll need to do your own research on the games to make sure your computer is capable of running them. I'm not giving any recommendations because I don't know anything about the vast majority of them, and I don't want to point out the "good ones" so they get snatched up quickly. I will update the list as games are claimed, so every title on the list should still be available, but I'm only human, so I apologize in advance if you request something that's already been taken. Multiple titles on the list mean I have multiple keys for that game. Send me a message with the title you’d like and I’ll send you the key!

1 Screen Platformer

11-11 Memories Retold

A Glider’s Journey

Aaero

Aaero

Acceleration of SUGURI 2

Action!

Action Henk

Adventure Boy Cheapskate DX

The Adventure Pals

The Adventure Pals

Almost There: The Platformer

Ame no Marginal -Rain Marginal

Ancient Planet

Animal Super Squad

Anna’s Quest

Anomaly 2

Anomaly Defenders

Anomaly Korea

Anomaly: Warzone Earth

Anomaly Warzone Earth Mobile Campaign

ARMA Gold Edition

Artemis: God-Queen of the Hunt

Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation

Assault Android Cactus

Auto Age: Standoff

Avernum 2: Crystal Souls

Avernum 3: Ruined World

Back to Bed

Balancelot

BalanCity

Battle Riders

Battlevoid: Harbinger

Beckett

Bezier

Bit Blaster XL

Black the Fall

Blackwake

Black Mesa

Black the Fall

Blackwake

BlazBlue: Chronophantasma Extend

Bleed 2

Blockstorm

Bomb Defense

Border Force

Borderlands 2 Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Bounty Train

Carcassonne - Inns & Cathedrals

Carcassonne - Tiles & Tactics

Cathedral

Chasm

Chime Sharp

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare

Chivalry: Medieval Warfare

Chronology

Clatter

ClusterPuck99

Colt Express

Company of Heroes

Copoka

Cosmonautica

Crawl

Crazy Machines 3

Crusader Kings 2: Dynasty Starter Pack

Cthulhu Realms

Cursed Castilla (Maldita Castilla EX)

Dead Island Definitive Edition

Dead Rising 2

Deadlight: Director’s Cut

Death Squared

Deep Dungeons of Doom

Defend Your Life: TD

Deponia Doomsday

Deponia Doomsday

Dimension Jump

Distance

Distrust

Downtown Drift

Draw Your Game

Dreadlands

DreadOut

Dreaming Sarah

Duck Game

Duskers

The Dwarves

Emily Is Away Too

Endless Legend - Classic Edition

The Escapists - Alcatraz

The Escapists - Duct Tapes are Forever

The Escapists - Escape Team

The Escapists - Fhurst Peak

Euro Truck Simulator 2

Evergarden

Everything

Everything

FaceRig

FaceRig Pro

The Fall

fault - milestone two side:above

fault milestone one

Fearless Fantasy

Feather

F.E.X. (Forced Evolution Experiment)

Fidel - Dungeon Rescue

Fight’N Rage

Figment

Filthy, Stinking, Orcs

Finding Paradise

Flat Heroes

Flinthook

Fluffy Horde

Forged Battalion

Forts

Framed Collection

FreeCell Quest

Frog Detective

Full Throttle Remastered

Galactic Civilizations III

The Gardens Between

Gloom: Digital Edition

God’s Trigger

GoNNER - Press Jump To Die Edition

Grey Goo Definitive Edition

Guild of Dungeoneering

Guilty Gear Xrd REV 2

Guns of Icarus Alliance

Gurgamoth

H1Z1

Hacknet

Hacknet

Hacknet Labyrinths DLC

Hand of Fate 2

Hard Reset Redux

Headlander

Hearts of Iron III Collection

Her Story

Hero Defense

Hexcells Complete Pack

Highway Blossoms

HIVESWAP: Act 1

Holy Potatoes! We’re in Space?!

HoPiKo

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

How to Survive 2

Hurtworld

Husk

Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru Part 1

Idol Magical Girl Chiru Chiru Michiru Part 2

Immortal Redneck

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut

Infested Planet

Invisible Inc.

The Journey Down: Chapter Three

Jump Stars

Kalaban

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes

Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucky Route Zero

Kero Blaster

Kimmy

Kingdom: New Lands

Kona

Lakeview Cabin Collection

Lara Croft GO

Laser League

Last Day of June

Layers of Fear: Masterpiece Edition

Lion Quest

Loot Rascals

Lost Castle

LostWinds

Love is Dead

Love Letter

Machinarium

Machinarium Collector’s Edition

Magicka

Maize

Majesty 2 Collection

Marooners

Masquerade: The Baubles of Doom

Master Spy

Memoria

Memory’s Dogma CODE:01

MetaMorph: Dungeon Creatures

Metrico+

Mimic Arena

Minecraft: Story Mode

Minion Masters

Mirage: Arcane Warfare

Misadventures of Laura Silver: Chapter 1

Monstercat Gold 1 Year

Moon Hunters

Moonlighter

Motorsport Manager

Mr. Shifty

Mr. Shifty

Must Dash Amigos

Mysterium - Hidden Signs (expansion)

Mysterium - Secrets and Lies (expansion)

NAIRI: Tower of Shirin

Narcissu 10th Anniversary Anthology Project

NBA Playgrounds

Nemo Dungeon

Neon Chrome

Neon Drive

NeuroVoider

Nex Machina

Ninja Senki DX

No Time To Explain Remastered

Offensive Combat: Redux!

Okhlos

Old Man’s Journey

On Rusty Trails

Outlast 2

Override: Mech City Brawl

Oxenfree

Pac-Man Championship Edition 2

Painters Guild

Paper Fire Rookie

Paperbark

Paradigm

Paradigm

Paratopic

The Park

Partial Control

Passpartout: The Starving Artist

Pirate Pop Plus

Planet Alpha

Pony Island

Pool Panic

Potatoman Seeks The Troof

Pretzel Rocks Premium (1 year)

Primal Carnage: Extinction

Primal Carnage: Extinction

Project CARS

Project CARS 2

Prototype 2

Pumped BMX+

Purrfect Date - Visual Novel/Dating Simulator

Puss!

Q.U.B.E.: Director’s Cut

Q.U.B.E. 2

Quest of Dungeons

Rapture Rejects

Rapture Rejects

Rebound Dodgeball Evolved

Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad

The Red Solstice

Refunct

Regular Human Basketball

Regular Human Basketball

Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition

Resident Evil Revelations

Restream (1 year)

ReThink

Rising Dust

Rising Storm 2: Vietnam (includes 2 DLCs)

RIVE: Wreck, Hack, Die, Retry

Road Redemption

Rock of Ages 2: Bigger & Boulder

Rogue Rocks

Running with Rifles

Rusty Lake Hotel

Samorost 3

Sanctum 2

Satellite Reign

Scanner Sombre

Scanner Sombre

Scanner Sombre

Scrap Garden

Scythe: Digital Edition

Seasons After Fall

Serial Cleaner

SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell

Seven: The Days Long Gone

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun

Shadowrun: Hong Kong - Extended Edition

She Remembered Caterpillars

Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom

Silence

SimplePlanes

SkyScrappers

Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition

Slime-san

Slipstream

Snake Pass

Sniper Elite

Sniper Elite V2

Songs of Skydale

Sonic Mania

Sorcerer King: Rivals

Soul Axiom

Space Run Galaxy

Spectrum

The Spiral Scouts

Splasher

The Stanley Parable

State of Mind

Staxel

Staxel

Steamworld Heist

Steamworld Heist

The Stillness of the Wind

STRAFE: Millennium Edition

Stronghold Legends: Steam Edition

Styx: Shards of Darkness

Subterrain

Sudden Strike 4

Sundered

Sunrider: Liberation Day - Captain’s Edition

Super Chicken Catchers

Super Daryl Deluxe

Super Rude Bear Resurrection

SuperLuminauts

The Surge

Swords and Soldiers 2 Shawarmageddon

Tales of Berseria

Team Racing League

THE TEAR

Teslagrad

Think of the Children

Thomas Was Alone

THOTH

Throne of Lies: The Online Game of Deceit

Ticket to Ride: First Journey

Tiltagon

Tiny Echo

TIS-100

Tom Clancy’s The Division + Survival (uPlay)

Tormentor X Punisher

Tower of Guns

Tower Unite

Toy Odyssey: The Lost and Found

Train Valley

Tricky Towers

Tricky Towers

TumbleSeed

Tumblestone

The Turing Test

Twilight Struggle

Uurnog Uurnlimited

Verdun

Victor Vran

Virginia

Void Bastards

Wargame: Red Dragon

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus

Wasted Pizza

Wasteland

Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut - Standard Edition

We Were Here Too

The Window Box

Witch It

Wizard of Legend

WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.01

WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.02

WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.03

World to the West

Wurm Unlimited

XSplit Premium (1 year)

XSplit VCAM

Yoku’s Island Express

Yume Nikki

YUMENIKKI -DREAM DIARY-

Zero Reflex: Black Eye Edition

Ziggurat

Zombie Army Trilogy