HQ: World War II was revealed during Home of Wargamers. It promises to be an exciting, fast-paced and turn-based strategy game that takes place during World War II. This first development log addresses the obvious focus on armored war.
Oleksandr from Starni Games says it best: “Headquarters World War II, a turn-based tactical strategy game, is an excellent choice. You can therefore expect realistic attacks, where many variables are taken into account, such as the positioning of your soldiers. This game takes place during the Normandy Landings, with 3 campaigns, including the British, American, and German side.
It is a point of pride for the team to have created such a fine-grained representation with its directional armor and how it impacts gameplay. “However in most games it’s merely based on the closest angle, so if you are somewhere in between, the game will just pick the one that is nearest. We calculate the angle of the attack in Headquarters: World War II and then adjust the armour value according to the angle and front/side armor values. If you are attacking an enemy tank from the side at 60°, its armour will be 1/3*Front Armour Value + 2/3*Side Armour Value = Adjusted armor. If you’re firing from an elevated location, there could be a top side armour that is taken into consideration.
The focus of this game is on armoured vehicles, but it appears we can also control the infantry. “A recent playtest saw my AT Infantry team ambush a Tiger II Tank in the woods. (Tank in forest road and infantry in forest). And attacking the side quickly defeated the formidable adversary.”
In a surprising move, Headquarters has implemented something that I have been advocating since quite some time. This is the use of several different combat predictions based on varying amounts of data. The availability of this kind of data is also a great way for players to plan out their moves, and to take into consideration variables when planning a move. Below are two screenshots showing the Short Combat Prediction and Full Combat Prediction.
Next Dev Log we will discuss how the randomness of the game works, 4 different outcomes for an attack and how cover, morale, buildings, and building work.