1 comment ·Apr 22, 2024

Game of the Week, April 22 to 28

Hi everyone,

Boy it rolls around quickly - it's Game of the Week!

We have delayed the planned title for this week due to some additional tweaks, but what a ‘substitute’ we have for you!!

The Game of the Week is Squad Battles Eagles Strike.

When we relaunched, Eagles Strike back in January, the popularity of this setting was evident. Many of you voted with your wallets, well now with a cost-of-living crisis, we are trying to motivate those of you that may have been on the fence.

Eagles Strike is the first Western Front, World War 2 Squad Battles title to be upgraded to the latest standard. Feedback on the 4.02 release back in January prompted a lot of suggestions that was incorporated into the 4.03 and 4.03.1 updates.

This release is the latest 4.03.1 version. There is a patch from the prior 4.03 version available here. If you already own this game, the latest game build is available now in your store account on the WDS website. Any new purchases will automatically be of the latest version. If you own version 4.02 or earlier, you will need to do a clean installation of the latest version.

Eagles Strike covers many of the pivotal battles from the invasion of Normandy to the German surrender in 1945. The focus is on the role United States ground forces played in the Allied victory. There are 120 scenarios covering a range of actions as the Allies pushed the Axis back to Germany. Some example operations, many with multiple scenarios:

Normandy: Omaha Beach
Normandy: Utah Beach
Normandy: Pointe-du-Hoc landing
Normandy: Airborne landings in Carentan
Normandy: St Lo
Normandy: Operation Cobra
Normandy: Mortain Offensive
Market-Garden: Airborne Landings
Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes
Alsace-Lorraine
Aachen

Also included are three campaigns with multiple scenarios covering:

Oblt Grawolff: A German Lieutenant In the SS
Lt Colonel Welborn: An American Lt Col in Normandy
Captain MacDonald: A Company Commander

Eagles Strike includes the aforementioned playable scenarios, as well as a Getting Started scenario to introduce new players to the game system. As listed, representative operations from June 1944 through to March 1945 are included with a good mix of small (company), medium (battalion) and large (regiment) engagements. You can read about all the included scenarios here as well as where in Europe they are here and here. Please note, these listing are only for the originally released scenarios, many more have been added and included in this latest release.

Included are 91 maps covering many locations in Western Europe. The largest map of Bastogne and environs contains over 45 thousand hexes at 40 meters per hex. 128 sub maps are also included.

118 Order of Battles cover the evolving 1944 to 1945 force mix for both the Axis and Allied sides. The represented Allied forces include the American and American Airborne. The included Axis forces are the German, German SS, and Luftwaffe.

We included a lot of historical documentation and notes with this title, you can review each by clicking on the images below.

Visual Order of Battles

Vehicles and Weapons Encyclopaedia

Getting Started Guide

There has been a wealth of books covering the fighting in Western Europe in 1944/1945. Following are some representative books for anyone that would like some more background on the various campaigns. You can click on the book images below to be taken to the Publisher or Amazon, if applicable.

Informational

Now for video content:

Game Pew Meow has multiple videos relating to this title. Please note these are streamed play videos. They helped us identify a number of bugs in the original 4.02 release that have now been corrected. See his dedicated playlist here.

Smartwargames showcased a multiplayer game of Eagles Strike recently: