Game of the Week, May 6 to 12

Hi everyone,

As we all start another Monday, it’s time for another Game of the Week!

This week’s Game of the Week is Modern Campaigns: Middle East ‘67.

If there was ever a topical title today, it would be Middle East ‘67. With Israel, Gaza and the Middle East generally dominating our headlines, this week’s title will help you to understand the historical background to the current conflict.

Middle East ‘67 is the first Modern Campaigns title to be upgraded to the latest standard. This release is the new 4.04 version. This is the same version as the recently released title, Panzer Campaigns: Spring Awakening ’45 and our recent game of the week, Panzer Campaigns: Sealion ‘40

Middle East ‘67 covers many of the pivotal battles from the early days of the Israeli state through to the 1982 Lebanon intervention. In addition, a hypothetical war using more modern forces is included. The Yom Kippur (1973) War has a range of actual and hypothetical setups, including the intervention of Soviet and United States forces. There are 96 scenarios included, of both battle and campaign size. Below is a list of the major operations included many with multiple scenarios:

• The 1956 Arab Israeli War
• The 1967 Arab Israeli War
• The 1973 Arab Israeli War
• The 1982 Israeli Lebanon intervention
• A hypothetical 2004 Arab Israeli War

The master map (145,748 hexes) includes the Suez Canal in the west, Beirut in the north, and the Sinai Peninsula in the south.

Middle East ‘67 includes the aforementioned playable campaigns, as well as a Getting Started scenario to introduce new players to the game system. The included scenarios are a good mix of small (division), medium (corps) and large (army) engagements. You can read about all the included scenarios and the Designers thoughts here. The number of scenarios has been expanded significantly since the original release of this title.

The Order of Battle covers both the Israeli and Arab sides. The represented forces include the Israelis, US Forces, Syrians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Algerians, Sudanese, Iraqi and Soviets.

There has been a range of books covering the various wars in the Middle East. Following are some representative books for anyone that would like some more background on the operation. You can click on the book images below to be taken to the Publisher or Amazon, if applicable.

Informational

 

This series, Middle East @ War is from Helion, and has over fifty books. Click the image above to go to the dedicated Amazon page or to Helion directly on this link here. 

 

 

 

 

Now for video content:

Smartwargames showcased Middle East ’67 here:

Following are some in-game screen shots of what to expect. Each image can be clicked for a full-sized view.

As mentioned, the build we are making available today is a new 4.04 version. A range of new features are included, and you can read the Changelog here. All new purchases will be this latest version.

If you already own Modern Campaigns Middle East ‘67, please note that you will have a new installer available in your store account. There will not be an update available for existing Middle East ’67 installations.

Beginning with the recent Squad Battles updates, then Panzer Battles then Musket & Pike updates, Civil War Battles and now on to Modern Campaigns - we have been requiring a complete clean install of your games to get the new version. There's a variety of reasons for this - core changes to file formats (moving to PNG files in some cases), new infrastructure for future A/I enhancements, Windows 11 compatibility changes and the enormous size many of the updates have grown to be. Regarding that last point, many of the updates were retaining backwards compatibility with ancient installers, in some cases back to the HPS days! This required inclusion of a huge number of files, and in some cases an additional Batch file to reorganize everything into the new file structures. It was getting problematic on several points, not the least of which was some security software packages were blocking the batch files from running.

So, these fresh installs will resolve all of those problems in one fell swoop. You uninstall your existing copy of the game using the built in Windows "App Management" feature in the Control Panel. You then do a clean install of the game, and everything is in its proper place. 

We will be doing this for every game series we publish, in time - if all goes well during the course of 2024. Once the new "base line" is established we will begin to offer incremental updates again on the site. These will only include files changed since that new baseline for that series. With that said, you can ALWAYS do a clean install at any time, and the installer linked in your Store Account is the most recent version.

So, again, how do you get these new versions? 

You must go and login to your Store Account to download new full installers. 

Notes regarding Store Accounts.

1. If you go to login using one of the above links and it tells you "no account found" - don't worry! - just send us an email at the Help Desk and we will locate your records. It's just a matter of completing the account setup process.
2. When you login you will see all your orders listed there. Under each order number is the word (Downloads). If you click that it will take you to a page where you can do a new download of the game and it will also display your serial number. Again, each of the installers is fully up-to date with the latest patches already included.

 

If you don’t already own this title, what are you waiting for? You can buy it directly from the dedicated product page.

We hope you enjoy this week’s, Game of the Week. It covers a conflict that has continued since World War Two and to influence our lives today.  Like all WDS titles, there is a lot of game play included at a very attractive price.