General News Thread

[Llaird]

In the final part of our "What If?" series, we turn from speculative World War III back to muskets and sabers – and show how WDS campaign games themselves become alternate-history machines. From the Crusades to the 1809 Eckmühl–Wagram campaign and beyond, branching decisions and persistent forces let you refight entire wars and campaigns along new yet plausible paths. Take command, choose your road, and see where history might have gone instead.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/what-if-the-long-tradition-of-alternate-history-in-wargaming-and-beyond-part-iv

[Llaird]

In our new blog post, we trace the "eternal logic" of shock warfare across two millennia: from Parthian cataphracts at Carrhae and Byzantine hippotoxotai under Belisarius, to Crusader knights, pike-and-shot assaults, Napoleonic breakpoints, and WWII armoured spearheads—ending with helicopter-borne Air Cav in Vietnam. Along the way, we connect the history to WDS titles across Sword & Siege, Musket & Pike, Napoleonic Battles, Panzer Campaigns, and Squad Battles.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/from-cataphract-to-tank

[Con]

I have to give you kudos on your excellent articles your team writes
I hope you get lots of people reading them
I really enjoy them and love the different historical themes they explore and how you tie them together with wargaming
Looking forward to the next ones
Con

[Llaird]

Not every bit of news can fill a blog post, so today we are grouping some of the more noteworthy (small) items to share with you. In this roundup, we highlight recent improvements and plans for our blog content, share community-created campaign support documents and maps for Panzer Campaigns Stalingrad '42 and Moscow '41, and provide a detailed progress report on the Squad Battles graphics overhaul — including what's changed since the beta.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/news-shorts-december-2025

[Llaird]

In our first blog post of 2026, we dive into the Anatomy of a Siege — a guided tour of how siege warfare plays across four WDS series and nearly a millennium of war. Storm stone walls with towers, rams, sappers and a short preview of the upcoming ladders mechanic in Sword & Siege: Crusades Book II; grind through Petersburg's trench lines in Civil War Battles; fight room-to-room among rubble and cellars in Squad Battles' Stalingrad-style city sieges; then zoom out in Panzer Campaigns to encirclements, relief attempts, isolation, and final collapse. See why sieges feel so different—yet oddly familiar.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/anatomy-of-a-siege-from-walls-and-ladders-to-rubble-and-cellars

[Llaird]

Happy 2026! Our Year in Review looks back at everything WDS delivered in 2025: four new releases plus a new demo, from Panzer Campaigns: Poland '39 and War of the Austrian Succession to the debut of Sword & Siege (Crusades: Book I and Age of Longbow Vol. I). We also recap Game of the Week, major engine updates and expansions, and the progress of upgrading 82 of 113 titles—alongside a growing forum community. Then we look ahead to a busy 2026: Crusades: Book II, American Revolutionary War, and Panzer Campaigns: Donbas '43, with more improvements across the catalogue.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/2025-end-of-year-update

[Sigwolf]

Really looking forward to the updates of the post-WWII Squad Battles titles.  Fingers crossed we can also one day see the Modern Air Power titles updated, and dare I dream, expanded...   

[RedwoodForest]

Really looking forward to the updates of the post-WWII Squad Battles titles.  Fingers crossed we can also one day see the Modern Air Power titles updated, and dare I dream, expanded...   

I was just about to say that I'd love another MAP game and can't wait for the Squad Battles updates for Modern War.

[Llaird]

How do you turn dusty documents into a fighting force on a hex map? This post walks through the craft of building a WDS Order of Battle from archival records and historical sources: weighing what a return, muster, or report really measures, reconciling contradictions, and filling gaps without pretending certainty. Then comes the translation step—turning names and numbers into units with real strengths, organization, leadership, and condition, tuned to the exact day and hour of the action. It's part detective work, part design, and the difference between a generic roster and an OOB that plays like history.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/from-archive-to-oob-part-i

[Llaird]

Part II of our "From Archive to OOB" series jumps from scarcity to overload. WWI's Eastern Front shows how labels and paper hierarchies crumble under attrition—especially in the Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies.
Then we move on to WWII and Kursk, where "bottomless" archives still mislead unless you align definitions, timing, and what "loss" really means.
From myth-busting Prokhorovka figures to squad-level granularity, it's about turning mountains of data into the force the player actually experiences—without letting myths (or tidy tables) do the counting.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/from-archive-to-oob-part-ii

[Llaird]

Why is it Austerlitz and not Slavkov u Brna? Breslau and not Wrocław? Donbas and not Donbass?
Historical names are rarely simple. They pass through languages, maps, armies, archives, borders, translations, typos, and centuries of convention.
Our latest article looks at how WDS approaches names in historical games: when to use period forms, modern local names, established English battle names, catalog titles, or simply the least confusing option.
From Pointe du Hoc to Stavka, Kyiv, Danzig, and the Romans who were not yet "Byzantines," it is a tour through the messy afterlife of historical naming.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/what-s-in-a-name

[Llaird]

Our 2026 Half-Year Update is here.
We look back at three major releases — Crusades: Book II, Panzer Campaigns: Donbas '43, and American Revolutionary War — along with the first wave of WDS titles on Steam and what we have learned from that move.
The post also covers ongoing patch work across several series, new situation maps, the growth of our historical blog content, and two years of Game of the Week. Finally, we share a careful look ahead at Steam plans, improvements, future series updates, and other work now taking shape for the rest of the year.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/2026-half-yearly-update

[Llaird]

The Vietnam War did not stop at the borders of South Vietnam.
In the shadows of Laos and Cambodia, the CIA, U.S. Special Forces, Air America, and allied local forces fought a clandestine campaign against North Vietnamese infiltration along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
Hidden from public view for decades, this "Secret War" became one of the largest covert operations in modern history. Our latest article explores how these parallel conflicts shaped the wider war—and why their legacy still matters today.

https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/the-secret-war

[Llaird]

WDS Important Update Information

A quick note for everyone updating WDS games: we are now using a new code-signing certificate. As new updates roll out, Windows or other security software may temporarily display a warning when you run an updated WDS executable.

The files supplied directly by Wargame Design Studio are safe to use. This is a temporary reputation issue associated with the new certificate, rather than an indication that the game files contain malware.

We have put together a short support article explaining why this happens and what to do if you encounter the warning:

⁠Why am I seeing a Windows security warning after updating?