2026 Half-Yearly Update

Hi all,

Like years before, the months fly by, and we are more than halfway through 2026.

Firstly, an apology. I (David) missed publishing the Quarter One review. There are plenty of excuses, including being in Hue, Vietnam, on a battlefield tour at the time, but we will try to cover all the previously planned content in this week's post. 

Speaking of battlefield tours, I am very fortunate, as mentioned in my prior post in 2022, to have walked the ground where history was made. Normally, I travel once every two years, but I am in the midst of three trips in less than twelve months. The trip to Vietnam was with some US and Australian veterans, and there will be an upcoming trip to the Falklands with some UK compatriots. These men are in, or approaching, their 80s, and for most, this is their final tour. I decided to join them for their final hurrahs. Beyond Vietnam and the Falklands, we plan to be in the Baltics in September/October. A highlight of that trip will be time on the Courland Peninsula, but there is much more on the agenda. I am arriving back when the Quarter Three review is due, but I should hopefully be able to piece that together.

There has been no shortage of deliverables over the previous six months.

Before listing those, a big thank you to everyone who supported us during the recent Summer sale. We continue to see both first-time customers and familiar faces adding to their collections. The Summer and Winter sales make up a significant share of our annual income, and without them, we would have to scale back our plans.

Moving on to the news, if you haven’t read our 2025 End of Year Update, you can find it on the following link: 2025 Update.

We have managed to match 2025 and release three new titles in the first half of the year.

The second game in the Sword & Siege series, covering the Crusades, is, unsurprisingly, called Crusades: Book II. Released in February, this is a fitting continuation of the conflicts included in Crusades: Book I. The author of the Crusades series, Rich Walker, is not resting on his laurels, releasing an expansion pack for Crusades: Book II with both a new campaign and 10 new standalone scenarios. The expansion pack is included in Crusades II if bought after July 3rd and is now part of the official update.

March saw the release of Dani Asensio’s latest East Front title, Panzer Campaigns: Donbas ’43. This title builds on Dani’s prior work, particularly Panzer Campaigns: Rumyantsev ’43. Dani has been a prolific developer over the last couple of years, and we are very thankful to have his services.

Mike Cox delivered probably one of the most consequential titles since WDS launched in 2021. The release of the American Revolutionary War in April received strong reviews and praise for its content and historical accuracy. Releasing this title during the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence has ensured a broad audience for its content.

The wider team's effort to get these games out the door has been significant. Thank you to the programmers, artists, developers, and testers. You all know who you are.

Beyond the debut of the American Revolutionary War, the second major April release was our first titles available for purchase on Steam during Medieval Fest. In this article, we explained our move to Steam and what we hoped to achieve. Both Crusades: Book I and Crusades: Book II were our launch titles on Steam, with Crusades: Book II the first title we have discounted soon after release. This is not a precedent!

Following Medieval Fest, the third title in the Sword & Siege series, Age of Longbow Volume I: Hundred Years War, was available for purchase from May, and in July, both the American Revolutionary War and the War of the Austrian Succession were released. Thirty Year’s War will be available in August.

The move to Steam has been a learning experience. The required lead time is longer than we expected, and significant coordination and planning are needed to get a title live. It is very different from our own website, where we control the process end-to-end. We have had various rejections for things as simple as a corpse on the cover art for the Thirty Years’ War!

Steam works on both wish lists and reviews. Without them, you are rarely shown to prospective customers. We appreciate everyone who has done either. For reviews, installing a game via Steam and then reviewing it carries additional weight with their algorithm. We explained in this blog post how to use the provided Steam keys and how both wish lists and reviews support us.

The need for dedicated demos has also been an unexpected challenge. We had planned to link directly to our demos for each game in a series, as needed. Unfortunately, Steam requires the demo to match the title it is attached to. This means the generic Musket & Pike: Vienna 1683 demo can’t be used when showcasing that series. Where possible, we will provide a Steam-only demo for each game. These demos will have very limited content, usually the Getting Started scenario, and maybe one other scenario, and are intended as a taster of the title overall. We have not yet decided on whether we will place our normal demos, standalone on Steam, at this time.

That said, we now have a clearer understanding of the overall process, and Aidan, our Steam store lead, is refining it. As Rich mentioned in the Steam Announcement blog post, we need to allow for longer lead times to accommodate wish-listing and other implementation considerations.

The good news is that we are starting to see momentum in both purchases and people activating their game keys on Steam. We expect that to continue as we make more games and series available. That said, Steam is an expensive distribution platform. We are lucky to see 50% of gross revenue. Steam's cut (30%), chargebacks and returns, and VAT & state taxes all significantly reduce the net amount. Buying directly from our website reduces much of that impact.

One area we hope to address is whether we can integrate both Steam and ‘native’ WDS installations into the WDS menu. That would let you start a game from the WDS menu, regardless of the platform. We will let you know whether this feature is available when the next version of the menu is released.

Finally, the oft-asked question: what and when are other series coming to Steam? We are working on it. The experience to date has shown the level of preparation required and the time Steam needs to review and accept titles. We expect you will see further announcements in the second half of the year, though we still have significant work to do.

Our ‘Game of the Week’ promotion celebrated its second birthday in February, and we finally featured every title in the catalogue. We have started again, including titles released since the program began.

Below are this year's Game of the Week blog posts and titles, in chronological order. With additional book recommendations and supporting YouTube videos, there is value in exploring topics of interest.

We have continued with the update cycle across multiple series.

The Squad Battles series finally began its oft-mentioned rollout using the updated Burden of Command graphics. The 4.03.4 patch cycle kicked off with Advance of the Reich, followed by Red Victory and Winter War. These titles were followed by the Western Front’s Eagles Strike.

In quick succession, based upon player feedback and additional game features, version 4.03.5 was rolled out starting at the end of May. Both the Pacific title, The Proud and the Few, as well as the Squad Battles Demo: Grenada, led this patch round. Eagles Strike, Advance of the Reich & Red Victory, as well as Winter War, completed the 4.03.5 update round.

The Sword & Siege series saw a flurry of updates in April. Version 4.04.1, released after Crusades: Book II, patched all titles to the same standard. In quick succession, versions 4.04.2, 4.04.3, and 4.04.4 followed.

The Musket & Pike series uses the same engine as the Sword & Siege games. Alongside the Sword & Siege updates, Musket & Pike progressed through versions 4.06.1, 4.06.2, and 4.06.3.

Blog posts and email continue to be an important way for us to communicate with and engage the community. We have doubled down on informative blog posts that offer deeper insight into gameplay, game design, and other interesting topics. Many of these have been written by WDS staff, subject-matter experts, and game developers. I want to highlight our community manager, Thomas (forum name: Llaird), as the author of many of these new articles. He is also responsible for the On this Day forum posts, which tie each day to a historical event. If you haven’t visited this thread (all 42 pages!), it includes not just anniversaries but also links to relevant books and YouTube videos. A full twelve months of articles will be reached by the end of the month. Thomas proves, with his writings, that you want him on your trivia team, at least for the history questions!

Below is a list and links to the last six months of published articles.

Of note, we have published more informational articles in the last six months than in all of 2025. We hope they are of interest and shed some light on the factors we consider as we navigate the creation of historical games.

One item planned for the ‘missing’ Quarter One Update was some additional Situation Maps created by Paweł Pietroń. Paweł created the Panzer Campaigns: Moscow ’41 and Stalingrad ’42 situation maps, which were included in last December’s News Shorts article. Panzer Campaigns: Donbas '43 also shipped with three of Paweł's maps, one for each included campaign.

Paweł has provided additional maps for Korsun ’44, Moscow ’42, Orel ’43 and Smolensk ’43. These maps will be included in the next patch cycle and will also be available directly from the downloads for each title on the WDS Store.

Alternatively, you can click the link above the applicable map to download it.

Situation Map - #0125_01s_Korsun-Full-Campaign

Situation Map - #1206_01 Grand Campaign Moscow '42

Situation Map - #43_0712_01_Operation_Kutuzov

Situation Map - #43_0914_01_Smolensk_Roslavl_Offensive_Operation

Looking Forward

We have hinted at several changes for the rest of the year, including additional titles on Steam, updates to the menu program, and more.

We can confirm that series that have not been updated, such as Strategic War, Squad Battles, and Panzer Battles, are all making material progress.

We have also green-lit Panzer Campaigns: Donets Front ’43, the title mentioned in the Ukraine and the Summer of 1943 blog post. The first master scenario, covering the positions of all units on July 5th, 1943, as the Kursk offensive was launched, has been laid out. You can see the jump map below.

This campaign scenario includes all units and reinforcements for July and August. Please note that the objectives shown (yellow dots) are artifacts of the three base scenarios that were originally combined to place units in their general areas. A lot of work has already been done, building on Dani’s work in Panzer Campaigns: Rumyantsev ’43 and Donbas ’43, with additional details beyond those. Penal Companies, anyone? All forces had to be redeployed because unit positions differed materially across dates, and to fill gaps where no prior scenario was available for guidance.

There will be AI orders included in this title, but we want to reiterate that this will be a stronger head-to-head title, akin to the large campaigns in Modern Campaigns: Danube Front ‘85.

We are also considering additional AI enhancements that will make it easy to hand off tasks to the AI, if desired. For example, you can ask the AI to handle all indirect fire, essentially freeing the player to focus on other tasks.

The initial testing of this super-sized scenario shows it is no more demanding on an average PC than the Danube Front or the larger campaigns in Moscow ’42. This is just the first of several included campaigns, so there is still a lot to do, but this proof of concept confirms the title’s overall viability.

Normally, we would share a lot more detail about what is coming up across various series. Unfortunately, we are going to hold back on disclosing too much for now.

Why? Because we have some news items that will merit dedicated blog posts, and the timing of any announcements is currently unknown.

We expect a number of these to land in the remainder of the year; it is premature to share too much at this stage.

Thank you again for all your support, both through your purchases and your feedback, reviews, and other interactions. It has helped enhance our profile as a developer of military simulations and has spurred us to keep building diverse titles.