Update 5.1.0 is now live on Steam, bringing a number of fixes, improvements, and additions, most notably a new campaign covering the German Afrika Korps during 1941. Full changelog follows:

5.1.0 Changelog

ADD: Afrika Korps 1941 Campaign
ADD: Display of relative facing of enemy units in unit info console
ADD: British AI Units: Bren Gun Carrier, AT Rifle Carrier, Humber II, Crusader I CS
ADD: Hull-mounted weapons can be set to have a larger field of view than just the front facing (eg. Crusader I Hull MG)
ADD: Random scenario event: enemy infantry or HMG teams may fire at player to harrass them, can cause injury to exposed crewmen
CNG: Capture VP value for a zone only displayed if it can be captured (eg. not for most zones on desert maps)
CNG: Capture VP calculation for zones in Spearhead mission
CNG: Changed odds of weather change, should avoid odd weather developing during the day
CNG: Close Combat hits on armoured vehicles also apply firepower
CNG: HE hits on armoured vehicles also apply firepower
FIX: Enemy units could dig-in when they were already entrenched or fortified
FIX: If player withdrew from a battle and there were no adjacent friendly-controlled zones, they wouldn’t go anywhere
FIX: Enemy units now moved to top of their hex stack before activation
FIX: Crash when Player Commander was sent to field hospital for a period beyond end of campaign calendar
FIX: Incorrect handling of Grazing Hit injury result

I’ve just uploaded the new 5.0.0 version of the game to Steam, after the version was tested in the alpha branch for a few days. Full changelog follows:

Changelog for 5.0.0

General

ADD: North Africa region and terrain types for Campaign Day map
ADD: “Delete Saved Campaign” command in Load Campaign menu
ADD: Player Tanks for Italian campaign: L3/35, L3 cc, M11/39, M13/40, 105/28 gun for arty support
ADD: British AI units for North Africa: Stuart I, A10 Mk IA CS, 2 pdr Portee
ADD: French AI unit for Battle of France (Germany) campaign: Autocanon de 75mm
ADD: Indication of ‘None’ for injuries in Crew Menu
ADD: Interpreter exception catching and writing error message to boot log before exit
ADD: Crewmen Grit stat will reduce average length of stay in Field Hospital
CNG: Modified front facing to now be between 330 and 30 degrees
CNG: Crewmen no longer have a ‘Normal Position’, instead a skill is required to work a commander/gunner/driver position without penalty, and another skill required to gain skills specific to that position
CNG: Greatly increased chance of crewmen being sent to field hospital for Heavy or Serious injuries
CNG: Increased base firepower destruction odds for unarmoured vehicles
CNG: Minor display changes for clarity
FIX: Bug where returning crewmen from Field Hospital could not use their Advance Points
FIX: Crash when trying to change master volume level with sounds off

Campaigns

ADD: Option of playing a campaign of fewer days
ADD: Option of adding a chance in campaign weeks for combat days to take place along coast
ADD: Check to make sure that saved game structure is sane, and display a notification if not
ADD: Check to make sure no repeated dates are added to the combat calendar, which leads to time loops
ADD: Display list of crew positions in right column of tank selection menu
ADD: Display of current progress in the combat calendar (Day x/y)
ADD: Display of Day Ended in main panel
ADD: Player has a chance to swap crew positions after getting a new tank but before fresh crewmen are assigned to empty positions
ADD: Campaign option to ignore rarity factors of units
ADD: New Campaign Skill for early-war Italy: “Audacia”
ADD: ‘Natural Leader’ skill for Commanders
ADD: ‘Cautious Driver’ skill for Drivers
ADD: Can tag unit types as ‘captured’
ADD: Can set earliest date that enemy unit types can spawn in campaign
ADD: Display of renderer used, automatic disabling of fullscreen if SDL2 or OPENGL2 not in use
CNG: The final day of a refit period is now used for the calendar, in case a tank model only becomes available to the player later in the refit period
CNG: Player tank selections can now be restricted to only after particular dates, in addition to regular unit rarity factor restrictions
CNG: National Skills now called Campaign Skills

Campaign Day

ADD: Maximum number of certain terrain types on CD map can be limited
ADD: Maps in North Africa now have neutrally-controlled zones, only some zones can be captured by either side
ADD: Zone capture VP values in North Africa increased
ADD: Check when generating map that it can be traversed
ADD: Ocean zone type, only spawned when combat day is along the coast
ADD: Chance of being attacked while waiting for resupply, random time required before resupply arrives
ADD: Key command to clear the current default command and hatch status for a crewman
ADD: Chance of landmines present in a map zone
ADD: Pop-up message if player tank was immobilized, ending combat day
ADD: Temperature for day: hot/cold influences crewman fatigue, extreme heat or cold makes weapon and vehicle breakdowns more likely
ADD: Notification of number of HE rounds used during Advancing Fire
ADD: Loading screen before starting a battle on the tactical/scenario map
ADD: Fatigue check on player crew when moving on Campaign Day map
ADD: Crewman can rest, have chance to lose fatigue, if player Waits in place
CNG: Slight change to map generation procedure
CNG: Minor changes to how certain zones on the map are displayed
CNG: Made display of extra ammo in Ammo Load menu more clear
CNG: Reorganized display of crewmen slightly
CNG: Removed Targets of Opportunity, replaced with Objectives
CNG: Depiction of zone control no longer obscures rivers and bridges on hex zone borders
FIX: Bug where enemy strength levels would not be generated after moving to a new map area
FIX: Bug where player location may be set to enemy control after moving to a new map area
FIX: Advancing fire no longer possible if gun is Broken

Scenario

ADD: Unit destruction VP values in North Africa increased
ADD: Target line turned grey if targetting an enemy out of Line of Sight
ADD: New hex depiction for North Africa
ADD: Woods and Hamada firepower effect for HE hits, display in attack console
ADD: Can set a default hatch status and command for crewmen at start of scenarios
ADD: To-Hit bonus when firing Smoke
ADD: Units cannot test to recover from being pinned in the same turn as they took an effective firepower attack
ADD: Player can choose target terrain type when repositioning
ADD: AI units now take into account chances of armour penetration when choosing attacks
ADD: Console display with info about current map zone
ADD: Type of gun used in artillery support attack now displayed to player
ADD: Sound effects for when player pivots tank, rotates turret, landmine explosion
ADD: Additional detail to decriptions of crew commands
ADD: Nickname or common name of unit displayed in unit info console
CNG: Button Up command now Button/Close Up command
CNG: Ground cover and fortified etc. firepower modifiers no longer stack for HE hits
CNG: Hull Down now only effective 95% of the time for hits incoming from same direction as HD, 80% for one sextant to each side
CNG: Targets hit by HE now only have one of the following applied (if any): Fortified, Entrenched, Dug-In, Airburst Effect, Hamada Effect, Deep Snow, Muddy/Snow
CNG: Targets hit by Area Fire now only have one of the following applied (if any): Fortified, Entrenched, Dug-In, or Terrain Modifier
CNG: Concealed enemy units no longer have a sound effect played when moving
CNG: Adjusted RoF chance calculations slightly
CNG: Withdraw command can now be used when 1+ enemies are within 2 hexes, but the more enemies that are still nearby, the greater chance that action will not succeed
CNG: Slightly increase odds of crew injury if CE when tank is hit by a firepower attack
CNG: New procedure for resolving HE hits on unarmoured vehicles
CNG: To-Hit and To-Effect chances can now range from 0.5% to 99.5%
CNG: Critical Hit / Effect not possible if original odds were <= 3.0%
CNG: Fate point use no longer allowed for AP rolls
CNG: Enemy AI units more likely to attack player if the player has Acquired Target on them
FIX: Smoke hits no longer have possiblity of being critical, and Hull Down save against Smoke ammo is not allowed
FIX: Enemy units being spawned dug-in in terrain where digging-in is not allowed
FIX: Hull Down restriction for firing hull-mounted weapons more precise now
FIX: Operation of AA MG no longer possible while crewman is BU
FIX: To-hit bonuses for Very Long guns at medium and long ranges
FIX: HD can no longer save against Close Combat attacks
FIX: Rare crash when player’s selected target was not cleared properly
FIX: Player’s moving status not being update properly in Player Info console
FIX: Pivoting now maintains order of unit stacks
FIX: AI units not losing Fortified status after moving

I’ve uploaded a build of 4.0.0 to Steam, available now for closed beta participants, and to everyone from Thursday 14th May onward. Full changelog is available on the announcement post.

Armoured Commander II will have its first release on Steam on 14th May 2020. I’m keeping the game tagged as Early Access since I do plan on continuing to expand and develop it further, and all future additions will be free to player who own the game already. Thanks to all the fans who helped to test the game these past few months/years!

I’ve put together a draft guide on how to create your own custom campaigns for ArmCom2, it only applies to the Steam version, but luckily this should be available quite soon.

A few bugs fixed in this minor update, saved campaigns from the previous 3.0.x versions are still compatible:

Version 3.0.2 Changelog

FIX: Bug where advancing fire would still occur even if enemy forces had advanced into player’s zone
FIX: Rare crash when trying to load a saved campaign that had corrupted data

A few bugs fixed in this minor update, saved campaigns from the previous 3.0.0 version are still compatible:

Version 3.0.1 Changelog

ADD: Enemy spotted message now specifies if it was a squadmate who did the spotting
ADD: Pop-up message when a crewman recovers from an injury at the end of the combat day, and is not heading to the field hospital
FIX: LoS Blocked and dug-in/entrenched/fortified displays overlapping in unit info console

Version 3.0.0. is now available for download. This will be the last freely available build as the game will be moving to Steam later this year, but the source code for the core game will always be available on the GitHub repo.

Version 3.0.0 Changelog

General

ADD: Full campaign day journal now included in exported campaign log at end of campaign
ADD: Debug command to select a crewman, select an injury location, and apply a selected injury level
FIX: Improved appearance of diagonal arrows in both 8×8 and 16×16 font sets
FIX: Bug where player would not have to select a new tank after abandoning it during a scenario

Campaigns and Campaign Calendar

ADD: Field Hospital:

• new command menu tab and display in the campaign calendar layer
• chance at end of day that a crewman with one or more Heavy or serious injuries are sent to field hospital for up to one week
• odds and possible length of time increase with number and severity of injuries
• player can view crewmen currently in hospital, but no advances can be used until the crewman returns to active service
• once minimum hospital time has passed, crewmen in field hospital have a chance to return to active duty each day
• at the end of their hospital stay, crewman may rejoin the player tank at the start of the next day in the combat calendar
• player can compare returning crewman, choose which position they would take
• if they reach the maximum possible time in hospital, they automatically return to duty
• if “Player Commander” is activated and player crewman is sent to field hospital, the player misses that time in the campaign and has to start with a new crew
• if length of stay extends past end of campaign, then your campaign is over
• otherwise you return to active duty with a new tank and crew

CNG: If game tries to read a campaign .json file and fails, full error message is displayed for debugging purposes
CNG: End of Day display moved to trigger after return from the Campaign Day interface rather than as part of starting a new day
CNG: Improvements to End of Day display
CNG: Small change to order of events when proceeding from the current day to the combat day
CNG: Campaigns now have a set length of total combat days, but the combat calendar is still randomly generated for each campaign

Campaign Day

CNG: Zones with a Target of Opportunity now have their enemy strength level increased
FIX: Bug where no AI zone captures were possible during a ‘Spearhead’ mission day

Scenario

ADD: “No effect” message displayed if firepower resolution on player unit had no effect
ADD: Player units that are Fast moving and/or Recce have a chance of making 1+ extra move actions
ADD: Indicator of player’s spotted/unspotted status at bottom of time console
ADD: Additional factors now influence the Ambush roll at start of battle
CNG: Spotting system:

• Player and squad start scenarios unspotted to enemy
• Player crewmen now only attempt to spot one random possible target per turn
• Allied and enemy AI units do their own spotting before their activation
  CNG: Units now have blocked or clear Lines of Sight between them
• initial LoS between units is generated at the start of the scenario, before the first spotting round
• LoS is always the same both ways (if unit A has LoS to unit B, then unit B has LoS to unit A)
• friendly units in the same hex always have LoS to each other
• LoS is regenerated when a unit moves or repositions
• chance of LoS affected by terrain for both units and range between them
• if LoS is blocked, no attacks are possible, and no spotting checks are possible
• AI units with no LoS to any enemies will try and reposition, guns have no choice but to wait
• if a new unit is spawned (unloaded passenger or reinforcement), it is added to LoS table of every existing unit
• if player unit is on Overrun attack, all enemy units in hex ahead of them are automatically in LoS

CNG: No attack console display if an unspotted unit is firing at the player
CNG: No RoF chance if weapon is gun and unit has moved
CNG: Increased bonus to RoF chance when a dedicated loader is working the gun, added penalty when no loader working the gun
CNG: Reposition now part of the Movement Phase rather than being a separate command
CNG: Decreased odds of unit smoke upon spawn or after moving
CNG: Reduced movement chance modifiers of Muddy/Snow and Deep Snow ground conditions
FIX: Bug where enemy reinforcements could arrive pinned due to player’s earlier advancing fire
FIX: Bug where enemy units would not attempt to recover from being Pinned
FIX: Enemy units that try to move but are not successful will still have a new terrain, LoS, etc. generated
FIX: Firepower resolution odds can no longer total more than 100%
FIX: Attack procedure would always assume that the first position that could operate the weapon was doing so, and use the crewman in that position for skill modifiers; now it checks and finds the first crewman on the correct command and assumes that they are operating the weapon
FIX: Crash when abandoning tank during a scenario
FIX: Bug where squadmates would be recalled after campaign day was over but scenario still continued

I’ve uploaded a build of the new version of ArmCom2, it still needs testing but I think most of the major bugs and crashes have now been dealt with.

Minor update to fix a crash when a critically injured crewman’s injury improves.