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Headquarters: World War II
Asid:
Headquarters World War II is a fast-paced turn-based strategy game where your battlefield tactics are as important as your army management skills. Experience both sides of the war, battling in Europe as the USA, the UK, or Germany. Storm bunkers, occupy houses, win tank duels.
Home page
Steam
Single-player/Multiplayer
Genre: Tactical
Turns: Turn-Based
Complexity: Intermediate
Period: World War II
Theatre: World
Unit Scale: Single units
Players: 1-4
AI: Yes
PBEM: YES
Editor: YES
Reveal Video
About
HeadQuarters World War II is a fast paced turn-based strategy covering the Battle of Normandy in the three plot-driven campaigns and a number of skirmishes. Choose your side, form your force, assign heroes, level up your units, and use Headquarters skills to overcome the enemy.
Features
• 3 campaigns (United States, United Kingdom and Germany) and 9 operations each
• Upgrade your units by levelling them up, acquiring new abilities or assigning heroes
• Positional armor
• Destructible buildings
• Crew system for individual units
• 6 Skirmish maps
• Multiplayer up to 4 players
• Scenario Editor available
Face a real tactical challenge
The game's combat system is based on an easy to learn - hard to master approach. Deceptively easy at a first glance, it offers lots of possibilities:
• Units have front/side/back/top armor and their positioning matters a lot
• Fences and other obstacles offer a directional cover that depends on the angle of attack
• Different terrain types offer various bonuses and affect Line of Sight
• Destroyed vehicles and other large objects affect the battlefield and provide cover
• High Ground mechanics allow multiple levels of terrain elevation that affect Line of Sight and combat effectiveness
• Destructible buildings with different stages of demolition create unique challenges
Enjoy the striking visuals
All units and scenery are created with the finest attention to detail using Unreal Engine 4 to achieve a very realistic visual style:• Realistic unit models with proper physics in place
• Visceral elements of devastation - burning tank hulks, ruined houses, shell craters, smoke, death, and destruction. You will witness this and many other horrors of the war
• Varied surroundings - your troops will come across war-torn battlefields as well as peaceful villages with cattle and fields of grain. Mind your tanks - this quaint beauty is quite fragile
Go through numerous battles
See all sides of the story by completing 3 campaigns with 9 operations in each. The game features United States, United Kingdom, and German campaigns all set in the Normandy landings period of the war.
Manage your troops
Between the battles, you can upgrade or change your units, level them up, and assign heroes to them, granting unique abilities
Keep your crews safe
Every unit has a crew - and the crew is the heart of any unit. Losing different crew members results in different penalties for the unit. Losing a gunner means the unit has fewer attacks, losing a driver means the unit has reduced mobility, and so on.
Be victorious in any skirmish
Test your skills against an AI on each of the 6 skirmish maps. Different victory conditions require versatility in your planning and tactics.
Prove yourself as a masterful tactician
Play skirmish battles against real opponents or 2x2 team battles with friends. The game supports multiplayer battles with up to 4 players both with real-time connection or using Slitherine’s CombatHQ system.
Play your own game
Use the Editor tool to create your own skirmish/multiplayer maps and share them with the community.
Asid:
Dev log #1 - Thick armour is important up until your tank is hit from the rear
Tue, 11 October 2022
Hello guys!
It is Oleksandr from Starni Games. I have been working on the Headquarters: World War II game design from the very first days of pre-production (almost 2 years ago) and today I am happy to finally reveal some of the key mechanics to you and discuss them in detail.
Normandy landings
Headquarters: World War II is a tactical level turn-based strategy game. So, you can expect a realistic scale, with many factors being considered during each attack, including a major impact of your troops’ positioning. The game is set during the Normandy landings and has 3 campaigns: the British, the Americans, and the German sides. It also has a robust multiplayer for up to 4 players in a match. Now, let’s talk about a few of its key features.
Hill fortifications
Directional armour
All armoured vehicles in the game have directional armour - that means usually front armour is most powerful, side armour is less powerful, while back and top armour are most vulnerable. This idea can be found in many tactical games.
StuG firing
However, in many games, it is often a very basic representation, where if your attack angle is somewhere between front and side, it would just choose whichever is closest. In Headquarters: World War II, we calculate the exact angle of attack and arrive at an adjusted armour value based on the front/side armour value and the attack angle.
Flanking the enemy tank
For example, if you attack an enemy tank at 60 degrees to the side, it will have 1/3*Front armour value + 2/3*Side armour value = Adjusted armour. There could also be a third side - top armour - taken into account if you are firing from an elevated position.
Flanking from elevation
Directional cover from walls, fences, and other obstacles
Following a similar idea, if the unit is hidden behind a wall, but attacked from a certain angle - it would only retain part of its cover. For example, in this case, it would only get half of the cover from the wall.
Tank vs Infantry
Attacking angle and its implications
Now, let’s discuss how these rules affect gameplay. As an attacking force you will have to try and attack from the best angle available, and every tile you move closer to the enemy unit’s flank or rear gives you an extra edge.
Getting to the enemy’s rear
As a defending side, you will have to consider your unit’s positioning - which way your armoured vehicles are facing - and the possible routes of the enemy’s attack. Always make sure the enemy cannot attack your units from the rear and try to avoid being flanked.
Attacking from the rear
During a recent playtest my AT Infantry squad managed to ambush my colleague’s fearsome Tiger II tank in the woods (tank on the forest road, infantry in the forest) and attacking its side made quick work of the powerful adversary.
AT Infantry ambushes the Tiger II
Burning Tiger II tank
AT Infantry celebrates its victory near burned down Tiger II wreck
Combat prediction feature
The game is quite simple to start playing - just move your tanks and fire at the enemy. However, there is a greater depth to it once you start really getting into it. To allow you fully enjoy the “easy to learn, hard to master” approach we have two modes for Combat prediction - the feature that shows all the combat details and modifiers that affect your next attack. One is a brief combat prediction - a simple summary, another is a detailed combat prediction where you can see all the parameters. You can switch between the two as you play by pressing a single hotkey.
Short Combat Prediction
Full Combat Prediction
This feature allows you to filter how much information to receive at each moment of the game. At first, you might want to just play and enjoy the tank battles without going too much into details and feeling overwhelmed. Later on, as you’ve grasped the basics, you might want more info to better understand the intricate game mechanics. Once you have fully explored the game, you would probably once again disable the extra info as you already know what to expect and would only occasionally turn it back on to clear up some confusing situations.
Short Combat Prediction
More to come
Fortified positions on the cliff
I cannot cover all the juicy stuff in one Dev blog and this is just the tip of the iceberg. In the next Dev log, I will tell you more about:
- Randomness implementation in the game
- 4 possible attack outcomes
- How morale works
- Buildings and their destruction
- Cover and profile
*Please, note that some UI elements are not final and are subject to further change.
Serenity
See you next time!
Asid:
Dev log #2 - “The element of randomness - a curse and a blessing”
Mon, 14 November 2022
Hello!
It is Oleksandr from Starni Games with the second Dev log entry. Today, I will tell you more about how the attacks work in Headquarters: World War II and how randomness is implemented in the game.
Why invent a new system with 4 hit types?
On the very first days of preproduction - around two years ago - we asked ourselves a very important question: how do we approach the randomness of a battle?
One approach that could be seen in other wargames would be to make an attack either hit (and destroy a tank) or miss (and deal 0 damage) with certain chances. That means that the difference between the two outcomes is extremely stark. In this scenario, if you have a 10% chance to miss and you miss, and after that, your opponent hits and kills your tank - that is truly nerve racking. So, we wanted to preserve the unpredictability of battle, but make it less severe.
Another approach would be to deal an X amount of damage with each attack, with no “miss” chance, and will require a number of attacks to take out an enemy unit. This approach did not fit the tactical-level WWII game well, as oftentimes a single tank could be taken out with one or two good hits.
So, we tried to come up with the approach that fits this type of tactical game best in our opinion. It allows us to both show the unpredictability of battle, but also avoid the combat results being decided by a “coin toss”.
How do 4 hits types work?
In Headquarters, we have 4 hit types: Bull’s eye (a perfect hit), Hit (a good hit), Graze (a slight hit), and Miss. The higher your accuracy - the better your odds of having better hit outcomes. The final accuracy (after all bonuses and penalties) could be between 0 and 200, and if it is above 80 - your miss chance would be 0. This way if the situation is favorable - your attack would never miss. If however, your odds are not great, you could miss, but there is also a lot in-between Bull’s eye and Miss, so multiple outcomes are possible. At low accuracy values, you have Bull’s eye chance at 0, and at high accuracy values, you have the Miss chance at 0.
How much damage every hit type does?
Bull’s eye - Damage x3
Hit - Damage x2
Graze - Damage x1
Miss - Damage = 0
The base amount of damage dealt depends on the attack and defense values of the units. So, this is where the armor and unit facing from Dev log 1 comes into play. If you attack the Front armor of a heavy tank, your damage would likely be 0, so even if you hit Bull’s eye, you would still deal 0 damage and that would be called Deflected attack.
Is the damage also random?
Unlike the hit type that is decided by random (based on probabilities you have according to your accuracy), your damage is not random and you can see exactly how much damage would every hit type deal in the combat prediction window before the attack.
Are there any other elements of random?
From the early stages of development, we wanted to avoid randomness in many aspects of the game, so there are no random effects, random spotting, or other stuff like that - we wanted the tactical talent to be the key to victory. So, deciding which hit type your unit lands is the only random element at play - and you could control it to a degree by adjusting your position and getting a better accuracy value.
How does Morale help control randomness?
There is also a way to counter your units being “unlucky” which is the Morale mechanic. Every time you attack the enemy unit it losses some of its Morale. The amount lost depends on the Damage modifier, but not on the hit type. So, whether you land a Bull’s eye or a Miss the Morale loss would be the same. This means even if you miss a lot of attacks you could Demoralize the enemy unit with constant bombardment and eventually rout it.
How is the cover mechanic implemented in the game?
There are 3 types of cover: low, medium, and high. However, not all units can take advantage of it. All units have a certain profile - low, medium, or high. So, a unit with a high Profile, for example, a Tiger tank, cannot hide behind a low cover and does not get any bonuses from it. Infantry, on the other hand, has a low Profile and can take advantage of all types of cover.
Coming up next
In the next Dev log, I will focus more on the interaction with the terrain and destructible buildings, as well as our approach to the visual style of the game. I will tell you more about:
- Highly realistic graphics
- Different types of terrain and interaction with them
- Buildings and their destruction
- Destructible environment
- Elevated terrain (Hills)
- Line of fire
See you next time!
Asid:
Dev log #3 - “Dynamic battlefield - visually appealing, yet easy to devastate”
Wed, 8 February 2023
Hello!
It is Oleksandr from Starni Games with the third Dev log entry. Today, I will tell you more about the highly realistic environment in Headquarters: World War II and how you can interact with it to change the battlefield as the combat progresses, by destroying buildings, walls, and other objects.
The visual appeal
One of the key aspects of Headquarters: World War II is that despite a very serious topic - World War II, it has visually appealing peaceful towns (until you start demolishing them that is), making a stark contrast between this peaceful beauty and the war raging around and threatening to start wreaking havoc any moment.
The finer details
We put a lot of work into creating a very detailed environment - we have misc items on the tables in the yard and even mushrooms in the forest you could zoom in and look for.
Buildings destruction
The vast majority of buildings in the game can be destroyed, changing the way they affect the combat. Each building has 3 states: regular, damaged, and destroyed.
Each has its own set of bonuses it provides to the unit occupying it, which diminish as destruction progresses. So, if a building that served as the advanced position for your troops has collapsed - a sensible option would be to move to a better position.
Obstacles destruction
Apart from buildings, there are other things you can interact with - various walls and other things that could block your path. Landing a couple of shots near them could destroy the object. Another approach would be to drive your heavy tanks right through the pesky roadblock. They also provide combat bonuses, and your ability to destroy them depends on the type of unit - jeeps cannot punch through stone walls, but tanks could.
Dynamic battlefield
Being able to destroy objects on the battlefield adds an extra tactical layer to combat. Being able to react quickly to these changes, or creating new opportunities yourself - is one of the key elements of the game.
Coming up next
In the next Dev log, I will focus more on the different terrain types and explain the elevated terrain mechanics. I will tell you more about:
[*] Different terrain types
[*] Elevated terrain mechanics
[*] Terrain’s interaction with the Line of Fire
[/list]
See you next time!
Asid:
Headquarters: World War II - Dev log #4 - “Terrain rules the battle”
Wed Mar 15, 2023
Hello!
It is Oleksandr from Starni Games with the fourth Dev log entry. Today, I will tell you more about various terrain types and how they affect the battle in Headquarters: World War II. I will also explain how the elevated terrain works and how your troops can benefit from it.
Difficult terrain is an Infantry domain
Only Infantry units can move into Forests and Rough terrain, and enter buildings. This makes Infantry units much more versatile and survivable. They can move where tanks and other vehicles cannot.
Infantry units can get excellent Cover in the woods or in the building, and they will be a really tough nut to crack. So, Infantry gameplay is all about the right usage of terrain. Now, let us go over the key terrain types in more detail.
Forest is the best place for your Infantry to defend from
Forest tiles offer great cover, and extra camouflage (meaning your troops are harder to spot), and it blocks the line of fire, making units behind the forest safe from direct long-range attacks. To sum up - it is an excellent place for defense or ambush of the enemy armor.
The enemy vehicles have to move by road through the woods, and cannot go off the road, while your AT Infantry could move through the forest freely, making it easy for them to maneuver around enemy vehicles to get the best attack angles and breach their armor.
The enemy column is in shambles, and the Infantry is victorious this time. And rightly so - tanks are much more powerful units overall, but they are at their best in the open terrain where they can put to use their advantage in range and firepower and tear through the Infantry lines.
Rough terrain is the next best thing
Infantry can take cover in Rough terrain, even though the bonuses are smaller than in the woods, and the Rough tiles do not block the Line of fire. Still, it is very advantageous for the Infantry to take good positions in Rough terrain if there are no better options.
High vegetation is the perfect hiding spot
Try to look for the enemy Infantry in the middle of the sunflower fields - that is far from an easy task. All kinds of High vegetation terrain offer good bonuses to camouflage and cover, but only to units with low Profile (mostly Infantry and a few smaller vehicles).
Large units like tanks do not gain extra camouflage or cover in the fields, so while they can enter High vegetation tiles (unlike Forest and Rough) they will not be getting any bonuses.
The smaller units will get the bonuses, so fighting in the fields would be a tricky task for the armoured units, but much more manageable than in the woods.
Now to the craziest thing in any war - the city battles
The city is somewhat similar to Forest terrain, as there are lots of buildings for the Infantry to hide in that provide great cover and block a Line of fire. However, buildings, unlike forests, can be destroyed, reducing the bonuses they provide. Though, even a fully destroyed building still offers some cover.
When storming cities and villages you have a few choices, one of which would be a scorched earth tactic - demolishing buildings one by one to leave the enemy forces without superior cover, at a cost of losing lots of time. Another - smarter approach would be to give your vehicles an Infantry escort that would move through the buildings to locate the enemy Infantry positions and guide your vehicles through the town relatively safely.
The key to successful city battles is the proper coordination between Infantry and motorized units. The flamethrower squads are especially useful when storming fortified enemy positions. And scouts or snipers could give advanced warning of the enemy ambushes and hiding places.
Will you just raze the city to the ground with tanks and artillery, or would you try to capture it almost unscathed by using superior tactics and troops' coordination? The choice is yours.
A king of the hill
Hills in the game are presented as an Elevated terrain mechanic which works as follows: all tiles on the map have not only X and Y coordinates, but also Z - the height, or Elevation level. So, you can have part of the map where the Elevation is 0, some parts where the Elevation is at level 1, 2, and so on. Currently, the highest Elevation level is 5.
Each level of elevation gives a unit extra spotting and camouflage, meaning you see further from the Hill, but the enemies have a harder time seeing you from below. What is even more important though, is the difference in the elevation of the units in combat affects the accuracy - the unit with a higher elevation level receives an accuracy bonus for each level of advantage in Elevation.
What is more, if your unit is higher - your attacks start to partially hit the enemy's top armor - where the armor planting is the weakest. We calculate the angle of attack and take into account a portion of the top armor exposed. You can always see all the detailed calculations and angles in the extended Combat prediction window.
Last but not least, Elevation could block a Line of fire in some cases depending on how the units are positioned, so you cannot fire “through” a hill.
It all may sound like a lot to take in, but basically, what you have to know from the start is that being on higher terrain is beneficial both for scouting and for attacking the enemy forces. Armored units are more vulnerable to attacks from the hill, while all units have better accuracy when firing from above.
Coming up next
In the next Dev log, I will focus more on the units' composition, various units, and their types. A lot of nice unit pictures are incoming, as well as, an overview of what we will have in terms of units overall.
See you next time!
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