Hello everyone!
We’re a small independent game software development team from Poland, working on a project of a brand new strategic game. On this blog, we will post content about game development progress and about the game itself. We’re enthusiasts of 20th century history, board games and grand strategy games. If you like it as well, you won’t be disappointed with the game, we promise!
World War 2 Strategy Game
“Virtuti Militari” is a turn based strategy game, set during the World War 2 in Europe. The game is for two players: the Axis player and the Allies player. The game will feature a number of scenarios, the main one being the full 1939-1945 campaign. The gameplay is on a strategic level, with army / corps unit size, and a turn length of 2-3 months.
The game features an easy to learn but difficult to master mechanics of managing one’s forces using Orders and Cards. Orders can be placed on map to move units, boost their strength, give support to adjacent units, burn opponent’s adjancent order etc. while Cards are played in battles (to boost own unit’s strength and get unique effects) and to get Production Points and Air Support.
The game will have a decent AI (we hope so) but the game is designed for competitive PvP from the very beginning.
The game will be available on Steam for 3 main platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux. The game is expected to be released in 2024.
“Virtuti Militari”: key game concepts
- Very little randomness. All information in the game is open, and there are no die rolls to determine who wins the battle. The only random elements in the game are losses inflicted/suffered by both sides in battles (but it is rather small, and can be managed by players) and random events (but they affect both players identically).
- Main assets (Order Tokens and Cards) available to players will change over the course of the game, but all such changes are predefined. For example, Axis player starts the campaign with a very powerful “Blitzkrieg” card, but the card will be removed in Winter 1941. Likewise, Allied player start with very poor set of Orders but they will get better and better Orders (at known turns) as the war goes on.
- Players strategic dilemmas include:
- How to manage my hand? When to play given Card? Should I play a strong card to get more Production Points or maybe play it to get more Air Support tokens (which give a lot of flexibility and create various threats to my opponent)? Or maybe save the card for the expected battle, to boost my unit’s strength and get powerful effects?
- How to place Orders on the map? Orders are placed face down, and revealed simultaneously which means I need to anticipate opponent’s decisions, but since the information of available Orders and Cards on hand is open it leads to a classical dilemmas of “he knows that I know that he knows”.
- Each battle in fact is a mini-game with bluffing opportunities on multiple levels. The information on Cards on hand and Air Support is open but Cards and Air Support tokens are played secretly and revealed simultaneously. Even though there’s no die roll to determine battle result, there’s a huge array of available strategies and possible outcomes.
- Typical strategic problems, known from most other strategic games: which units to build, which technologies to invest in etc.
What does “Virtuti Militari” mean?
The War Order of Virtuti Militari (Latin: “For Military Virtue”) is Poland’s highest military decoration for heroism and courage in the face of the enemy at war. It was created in 1792 by Polish King Stanislaus II Augustus and is the oldest military decoration in the world still in use
More content & screenshots is coming soon. If you have questions or suggestions, drop a comment.