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Armoured Commander II News

Armoured Commander 2 still has plenty left to do, but it already feels like a complete game



Today we're taking a close look at something a little different in the world of wargames. Rather than another grand strategy or hex-based tactical wargame, we're diving into the nitty gritty of combat through the lens of a humble roguelike. Roguelikes, for those unaware of the genre, are generally characterized by roleplaying game statistics, randomly generated levels, permanent death, and often minimalistic graphics.

Armoured Commander II is an Early Access throwback title bringing a traditional rouge-like to 2020. Instead of daggers, goblins, and dungeons, you're taking the role of a WWII tank commander who must survive battle after battle in a chosen campaign from 1939-45.

At first glance the simplistic graphics of Armoured Commander II might be difficult to understand, but the specks and symbols soon fade only to be replaced by the world they try to evoke. There's something especially liberating about this kind of ASCII graphic setup. Like one of the most popular ASCII games still played today, Dwarf Fortress, the trade off to Armoured Commander's graphical limitations is that there is virtually no limit on content.



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Update 7.0.3

A new update today (7.0.2 was just a minor fix and wasn't announced) that brings a number of new additions and fixes, including a new fog environmental condition. As always, please do report bugs and crashes on the discussion board. Full changelog follows:

Changelog for 7.0.3

ADD: Arrow keys as alternate inputs on Ammo Load menu
ADD: Fog weather conditions; can be light, regular, or heavy; affects spotting chance, fire attacks, and air support spotting chance
ADD: Missing Support Weapon Team definitions to late-war campaigns
ADD: German-service S35, R35, and H39 tanks as player tanks and enemy units in Barbarossa to Moscow campaigns
ADD: ZiS-30, T-34-57 as player tanks and enemy units in Barbarossa to Moscow campaigns
ADD: Hummel (Sd.Kfz 165) and Wespe to late-war Allied campaigns
ADD: 40mm AA Gun as enemy unit to Axis campaigns
ADD: Missing transported unit definitions for several campaigns
ADD: Rarity check for support units and for player reinforcement random event

CNG: Minor changes to river generation function
CNG: Advancing Fire now checks HE and MG capability across entire player squad, uses that to determine odds of being effective
CNG: Spotting while BU now carries a small penalty
CNG: Early-War German campaign skill is now "Combined Operations"
CNG: Air support attacks not possible during Fog conditions

FIX: Bridges no longer generated between zones on Campaign Day map if either zone is impassible
FIX: Squadmates can no longer pivot during their activation if they moved with the player earlier that turn
FIX: Crash after player immobilized by landmine

Update 7.0.1

A small patch today to fix a few issues that emerged after yesterday's major update:

Changelog for 7.0.1

CNG: Simplified display of gun types/names
FIX: Incorrect to-hit and AP modifiers for APCR and APDS
FIX: Crash when waiting in place and 1+ tank positions are empty

Major Update 7.0.0

Update 7.0.0 is now live on the main branch, my thanks to everyone who submitted bug and crash reports while it was in testing. Any bugs or crashes please report them in the discussion forum.

Please note that saved campaigns from the previous version 6.1.3 are not compatible with this update. If you have a campaign in progress in the old 6.1.3 version, you can switch to the legacy 6.x branch to complete your campaign. Simply open the game's properties, click on the Betas tab, and select legacy_6.x from the drop-down menu.

The two biggest changes in this version is that you can now get a report on what types of enemy resistance you are likely to meet before moving into a zone, and all campaigns now have Unit Support, which you can use to call in allies before moving into an enemy-held zone.

Full changelog follows:

Changelog for 7.0.0


ADD: New Commander skill: Improved Recon, Recon reports on enemy resistance will be more accurate
ADD: LoS highlight on scenario map when AI units are attacking
ADD: Unit Support: Player can call in friendly groups of units before entering an enemy-held zone
ADD: If player is attacked in own zone, chance that some support units will be nearby and will join the battle, no support level cost
ADD: Rare ammo types: APCR, APDS, and HEAT; added to units where historically appropriate
ADD: Some unit types may have limited amounts of HE or AP depending on calendar date
ADD: Ammo Scrounger skill: Increased number of rare ammo available at start of day
ADD: Acclimatized (Desert) and Acclimatized (Nordic) skills: Reduced chance of gaining fatigue from Extreme Hot/Cold conditions
ADD: Panzer IV F1 to Barbarossa to Moscow (Germany) campaign
ADD: Panzerfaust; Germany riflemen squads in mid- and late-war will randomly be equipped with them
ADD: Demolition Charges and Molotovs; riflemen squads randomly equipped with them
ADD: Weapon stat for AA MG allowing operation when not CE (will be used for eg. AA MG on M3 Lee)
ADD: Display of air/artillery unit portrait when doing support attack
ADD: Conceal/Reveal Self movement command
ADD: Crewman fatigue now modifies weapon attacks and bog chance
ADD: Crashes now output a timestamped crashlog to the {home}/ArmCom2 directory
ADD: Player crew may be Shaken if a fellow crewman is KIA
ADD: Friendly reinforcement (either a possible player tank or a unit from unit support) random event for scenarios
ADD: Steam Acheivements for 8 of Diamonds to the Ace of Diamonds
ADD: BT-5 M34 and BT-7 M37 as player tanks to Barbarossa to Moscow (Soviet Union) Campaign and as enemy units in Germany campaign

CNG: Enemy units are now spawned into zones on the Campaign Day map, player can get a rough idea of enemy presence during recon
CNG: If player withdraws from a scenario, surviving enemy units will still be in that zone
CNG: Support levels now reduced by 5, 10, or 15 points (equal chance of each) upon a successful request
CNG: Support Weapon Teams now defined per nation and included as part of enemy spawn table
CNG: Units transported by enemy units like trucks and APCs are now defined by the campaign rather than being generic for that unit type
CNG: Enemy air and artillery support units now divided by nation
CNG: Reorganized Ammo Load menu
CNG: RoF slightly harder if no target yet acquired, slightly easier if target acquired
CNG: Reduced AP of Grenades
CNG: All AI attacks are now indicated with a pop-up message, not just those targeting the player
CNG: Unjam weapon attempt no longer automatic, crewman must be on correct command to attempt, and Mechanic and Gun Maintenance skills each give a bonus to this attempt
CNG: Scenario map hex highlight colour to yellow
CNG: Minor changes to bail-out action modifiers
CNG: Base crewman fatigue level to -2
CNG: Change to how Campaign Day map zone control is handled for campaigns set in North Africa
CNG: If player withdraws from a scenario and has to cross a river during the subsequent move on the Campaign Day map, automatically finds a crossing point
CNG: Advancing fire with no HE or with limited HE (using MGs only) is possible, but less effective
CNG: Poppy display on main menu is now generated rather than loaded from .xp file; different appearance from 1st-11th November

FIX: Player bail-out will now end if only crewmen not yet in safe location are dead
FIX: Rounding error in display of player tank VP modifier in After-Action Report
FIX: Crash when Player Commander returned to action during a refit week
FIX: Zone control being reset after moving into a new Campaign Day map area made some objectives impossible to complete
FIX: Crash when crewman's critical injury worsens and leads to death

Major Update 7.0 and Developer Stream

I'm going to be releasing the new major update on the default branch later today, as well as streaming some gameplay from the new update. I'll also be joined by an avid player who's helped contribute a huge number of new units and new campaigns recently.