Matrix Games announces 2021 wargame lineup, including War in the East 2

An image of the map from wargame War in the East 2.

(Image credit: 2 By 3 Games and Matrix Games)

Hello, and welcome to the one article per year that I can use to justify my four years of Latin courses. It's above. I changed "Great Work" to "Greater Work." Anyway, you're here for news.

Matrix Games has announced their top-tier wargames for 2021, all sequels to the publisher's most popular series. The most surprising might be that War in the East 2 is coming in 2021. War in the East 2 will be a sequel to the biggest, most complex, most beloved World War 2 wargames there are: Gary Grigsby's War in the East and Gary Grigsby's War in the West. They're hugely ambitious games and shockingly successful games that let you control an entire front of the war from the operational level. War in the East 2 has a suite of changes, most significant of which is a major upgrade to command and control of your air wings.

If I'm being very honest, however, all the other changes will be gibberish if you haven't played the first two. Suffice to say they're upgrading quality of life and simulation throughout.

Also announced are sequels in a few other wargame series. WarPlan Pacific, sequel to 2019's WarPlan, will cover all the nations at war in the Pacific in WW2. Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm will be a cold war era wargame set in southern Germany and will feature a newly-revamped interface. Finally, Decisive Campaigns: Ardennes Offensive will be another entry in the battalion-level WW2 series focusing on the Battle of the Bulge, with a commensurate focus on new weather and reconnaissance mechanics. You can watch reveal interviews with the developers of those games on Matrix Games' YouTube channel.

As part of the announcements Matrix Games released their sci-fi 4X Shadow Empire on Steam. You can find my review of that game right here, though it has been updated quite a bit since.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.