Wargame: AirLand Battle trailer strategically mixes war room planning with RTS battling

It's a good job real generals aren't as callous as the average RTS player. I still remember teenage afternoons spent surveying the battlefields of the early C&C games; sending squads of infantry to their death because they were, what? $100. Pocket change. Wargame: AirLand Battle is being a bit more respectful towards the cost of human life, with persistent units that follow across the Dynamic Campaign map that is the subject of this trailer.

I missed the original Wargame: European Escalation, and while my interest had been piqued by the impressively detailed screenshots of this sequel, it wasn't until watching this video that the emergency red strategy phone started ringing in my head. Warmaps! Dynamic RTS skirmishes! Event cards! TACTICS!

The trailer's description explains the map in more detail:

"You will first handle in this campaign your army and your battle groups, on a huge strategic map representing Europe: ordering movements, asking for reinforcements, but also launching support strikes such as intelligence missions, special forces strikes, satellite spying, bombardment, tactical nuclear attacks, etc...

"When a zone is under attack and you need to defend it, or when you send your own battle groups to assault, you are thrown at the heart of the spectacular battles happening in real-time. Your army is persistent all along the campaign: your units and battle groups will earn experience, making them perform better with every battle they survive.... but keep in mind losses are definitive as well!"

Wargame: AirLand Battle is released next week, May 29th. For more, check out our preview .

Phil Savage
Editor-in-Chief

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.