Armoured Brigade 2
 

Novembre sees not just the release of the anticipated Sea Power, but also of Armoured Brigade 2. Both games look extremely promising to me.



AB2 will be sold by Matrix exclusively in the beginning, but by that you also buy a Steam key, and can later add it to the Steam library once the Steam release has been done. I can understand that such a small studio wants to harvest the lion'S share of the income alone without sharing it with Steam. But there is already a Steam page for AB2. Just know that initially you will need to buy it via Matrix. Release date is I think Novembre 15th.



AB2 is AB1, with a full 3D interface this time, and overworked game mechanics. It looks good for what it does, imho, maybe not as good as the Combat Mission titles, but then Combat Mission often runs like a pregnant cow. In all videos I saw, AB2 runs smooth.



I liked AB1, but was not convinced by the interface and the way infantry fought, the AI also was too limited, imo. I am eager to find out how the new game will do in these regards. I will buy it for sure. There is a longer dev stream, thatb idnicates that infantry has become very relevant in the new game. In AB1, it was just cannon fodder.



I also await an Alien Vr game in later Decembre, so with AB2, Alien VR and Sea Power this really promises to becone a real cozy gaming winter. :)



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gbf_M8YpIw

Release Novembre 19th : Tuesday.



A long battle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh1uAQ8CwYQ


A shorter battle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxtijdism-o

Aaaaand - its out now. 36 Euros (Germany, -10% durign release phase). Expected to be released on Steam as well later in 2025.


Release trailer:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJZR4Cl3Jew&t=7s

And now I remember again why over ten years ago I stopped to buy from matrix store any longer - their shop software works worse than sh!+. Impossible to alter the old and outdated email adress in my old account, cannot log into that special subpage of my profile needed for that, and do not get email links as instructions promise, tried with security off, cookies on, three different browsers, two diffrent machines, addblockers and other addons paused and turned off. It was like this already 10, 12, 15 years ago, and obviously they have learned nothing in that time.

Will wait some more months into 2025 and then buy via Steam. That way the game developer looses money, well, his problem, not mine.

Idiots. But hey, if you dont need money and are too lazy to secure deals, then nothing's wrong in pissing off potential customers.

Auf Nimmerwiedersehen, ihr Deppen! :salute: What you haven't learned in the last 12 years, you likely will not learn in the next 12 years either.

Hm. Didn't want to wait that long, and opened a new account, i dont play the old stuff from 2007 anymore anyway. Weak me.



Buying and download went smooth. Checking it out later this afternoon.

I am impressed. The 3d makes a huge difference, Ai also seems to have improved.

https://youtu.be/zoWkEK5M2LI?si=tTdREY2ZPVkn23bc

Holy Moly, this thing rocks!

I must amdit that mastering the itnerface, especially the needed fast map manipulation, is a bit anti-intuituve and needs time to get used to, the controls in parts are a bit - well, I find it hard to adapt, but slwoly I do.

But I just did an intense battle of urban warfare obver my beloved old town and Lübeck, a complex map with plenty of water and bridges, and I ran into a counterforce during a meetign engagement, both sides around 4-5 companies big. Initially it was a relatively underwhelming small scouting and searching thing, but somehow Redforce managed to slip past my recce and suddenly sjhowe dup reight in the middle of the town, and then all hell broke loose and it all degenerated into a very bloody, messy chaos, and absolutely intensem, with the aciton all over the palce and me runnign into unforseen surprises severla times. Mind you, no scripted mission this was, but a generated fromt he quick mission generator. I had to freeze action severla times, suffering from command overload. It endeded sort of Shapespearean - almost everybody was dead in the end. I tried to disengage, but he did not let me. Pewh, this was intense!

This is Combat Mission Shock Force 2 - but SQUARED, with much bigger forces, and much bigger maps (if you want).

I located on the map my two schools in Lübeck, and the two houses where we lived in the 70s. :)

It seems to me the AI acts much more competently than in the first game.

Love it. This is probably my pick for "Game of the Year". This will get played a very lot.

AB2 is now released on Steam, currently with a -10% discount.

With some months spent on it I say its an excellent wargame of its matter. Needs some time to learn, but its rewarding.