Slitherine Announces Battlefield Academy

[SeanD]

[center]Slitherine to launch new battlefield strategy game[/center]

A turn-based strategy game like no other will be landing soon at the Slitherine and Matrix Games store.

Approachable, absorbing and visually impressive yet detailed, Battlefield Academy aims to revolutionize the strategy games market with a blend of intuitive design and compelling game play driven by cutting edge technical innovation.

Inspired by an original online game concept devised by the BBC, the game has more than 30 battles in a range of theatres of war from the North African desert through D-Day to the to the snowy Ardennes mountains where the Allies battled to repel the final German offensive.

The team at Slitherine worked with Professor John Buckley, Military Historian at the University of Wolverhampton and a keen wargamer himself, to make sure that the strategy, tactics, scenarios and available firepower of the battles fought in WW2 were turned into realistic AI behaviour, powering expertly crafted battles.

The game engine is also completely script-driven, allowing players to create their own missions and scenarios in a simple and effective way.

The revolutionary server-based Play by E-Mail Slitherine system completes the package, for a gaming experience that will certainly please both hard core wargamers and newcomers.

The game will be available at www.matrixgames.com and www.slitherine.com.

Features

Control British, US, Polish, Canadian, Italian & German forces in 3 epic campaigns covering more than 30 varied battles.

Select from a vast array of equipment including 100 units from 6 nations - Shermans, Fireflys, Panthers, Tigers, Stukas, Hurricanes, P47s and much more!

Gameplay features include ambushes, line of sight, artillery barrages, airstrikes, scouts, morale, APCs, flame throwers, heavy bombers, snipers and suppression.

Your units gain experience as they fight. Get promoted to Veteran and Elite status and gain new skills.

Addictive multiplayer modes using Slitherine’s revolutionary multiplayer server that’s linked into an online ranking system.

Huge modding opportunities. The game has been designed so that its easily moddable and accessible scripts control all aspects of combat, user interface and the game's appearance.

[eagle4now]

Looks cool... something I would want to add to my many collections of Matrix titles... I have applied to the beta test program.... hope to hear something soon on that!
matrix and Slitherine are awesome!

[themetalcrow]

by completely scripted engine, do you mean it's linear and not dynamic or random?

thanks garrett

[SeanD]

Not sure I understand your question MetalCrow. The engine is scripted in such a way that it is easy for your to fine tune scenarios to your liking. Basically the script-based engine allows for greater accessibility to modders. Does that answer your question?

[V22 Osprey]

Sean, I think he's talking about the Campaign System. As you know, most games have linear campaign where everything is scripted(example: when player A reaches Point C or Turn X, Plane B comes and destroys a tank) so that events happen te exact same way, at the exact same time. By "completely scripted engine" it makes it seems as the campaign isn't dynamic, like the next battle will always be the same and the AI will always play the same way each time you play. Scripting isn't necessarily bad, but if too much of the game is scripted, it can kill the replayability of the scenario/campaign and thus the replayability of the entire game.

[billyjj]

at this point I would take a 100% linear single player with *NO* replayability provided that the game was FUN and bug free.. 3 campaigns that should be enough to have some fun with for a while, multi-player will be what you re-play over and over anyway... and btw the Sherman tanks in this game are so cute

[Obsolete]

and btw the Sherman tanks in this game are so cute

Hmm, I never thought of Tiger-bait as CUTE before.  But I guess they do look like little Ducks