Order of Battle: World War II

Publisher: Slitherine Software · Studio: The Aristocrats · Creator: Andrea Nicola

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Anecdote

Developed by the Italian studio The Aristocrats under the direction of Andrea Nicola and published by Slitherine in April 2015, Order of Battle: World War II revives the great tradition of the hex-based turn-by-turn wargame inherited from Panzer General. The title offers an expandable platform onto which more than a dozen expansions have since been grafted, reconstructing every theatre of the war: Pacific, Pacific Aces, Morning Sun, Rising Sun, Burma Road, Sandstorm, Blitzkrieg, Winter War, Kriegsmarine, U.S. Marines, Endsieg, Red Star, Allies Defiant, Panzerkrieg. The player takes on the role of a historically attested commander — Manstein, Patton, Chuikov, Yamamoto — and leads a dynamic campaign in which each scenario won unlocks elite units and strategic decisions for subsequent missions. The troop specialisation system, commander portraits with variable charisma, and the management of permanent reinforcements bring a career-management dimension unprecedented in the genre. The graphics engine offers an elegant three-dimensional representation of units on hexagonal maps, complete with combat animations and dynamic weather conditions. A single mission lasts between one and three hours, and a full campaign around thirty hours. The designers consulted order-of-battle records from Italian and British military research centres to accurately reflect the real composition of divisions. The Slitherine community maintains an open editor that has generated more than five hundred community-made scenarios. Order of Battle has become the contemporary benchmark for accessible operational WWII wargaming, standing at the crossroads of leisure and rigorous simulation. It is regularly used in military studies circles as a pedagogical tool for illustrating combined-arms doctrine.