Thirty Years War Preview

Greetings,

Today we are going to spend a little time going over the next title in the Musket & Pike series of games. As of this writing, release is scheduled within the next 30 days... so you wont have a long wait till you can get your hands on this if all goes well.

All the content today is still in production, so will continue to be refined prior to publication - but it will give you a decent idea for what's in store. All images can be clicked for full size viewing.

The Thirty Years War was a devastating conflict that took place in Europe between 1618 and 1648. Although largely centered on Germany and, at least initially, considered by many contemporaries to be a religious rather than political conflict, the Thirty Years War was in fact part of a complex series of interlinked conflicts some of which, such as the Dutch revolt from Spanish rule and the lengthy military rivalry between France and Spain, had their origins in the previous century. The sixteenth century Franco-Spanish conflict and the earlier stages of the Dutch revolt have already been covered down to 1600 in a previous title called Renaissance. The present Thirty Years War title primarily focuses on the fighting in Germany and adjacent regions. Although it does also include some battles from the related Franco-Spanish war of 1635-59 - such as the famous battle of Rocroi – the current game does not cover this separate but associated conflict beyond the 1648 termination of the Thirty Years War itself.

The Thirty Years War is often considered one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. It resulted in the loss of millions of lives through military engagements, famine, and disease. The war forever altered the balance of power in Europe, weakened both the Imperial Hapsburg Empire as well as Spain and established France as the dominant power in 17th century Europe, laying the groundwork for future conflicts and the development of the modern state system.

As with all of our titles we aim to capture the essence and "flavor" of the conflict. While every battle that happened during this time span is not represented, a large portion is. Currently the game will ship with 80 stand alone scenarios covering a range of engagements from major actions such as 1st Breitenfeld, Lutzen & Rocroi to smaller battles such as Vlotho. There are an additional 45 scenarios included in two campaigns, one focused on 1622 and the other on 1632.

Thirty Years War will release as version 4.03 with the rest of the series taking the jump about 30 days after release. This will be a huge upgrade which includes all of the applicable changes implemented recently for the Napoleonic Battles Series in the 4.07/.1 round of updates. We'll go into more depth when the game actually releases, but in addition to the new content this game brings forth a plethora of enhancements. The scope of changes spans items like:

• UI changes such as pinning the Terrain Info Box in a stationary position.
• Adjustments to Stack/Firing routines to account for the 100 meter frontage.
• Adjustments to Fatigue accumulation values.
• Enhancements for AI performance.

The above is just page 1, and there are 3+ pages of enhancements and fixes that will be made available in this new release.

Below is a variety of screen shots from the game, from different view styles and different battles. We will also say that we have a demo in development for this series that we should have out prior to the end of the year.

Before we close out todays post we thought we'd share a recent article posted about us over at Tally-Ho Corner.

Until next time... enjoy!