Command Ops:Battles from the Bulge ( BFTB ) is an operational-level World War II wargame from the award-winning developer, Panther Games. Apart from bringing the engine that brought gamers Conquest of the Aegean and Highway to the Reich, BFTB will also be released with a full set of editors, including an Estab Editor for creating and editing force, weapon, ammo and vehicle estabs and formation effects. When combined with the MapMaker, for editing maps, and the ScenMaker, for editing scenarios, users will be able to create their own battles for any theatre or period, subject to the planning and tactical doctrines embedded in the engine.

Q: What were the motivations behind providing gamers with such a high level of customization and modability?

A: We have listened to our customers and hope they will take up the challenge and opportunity of creating their own scenarios. With the Estab Editor they will now have carte blanch in terms of what forces they can create and what battles they can simulate with the Command Ops engine.

We’re really looking forward to see what the community can develop with this full construction set. We invite users who are contemplating developing scenarios to let us know what subject areas you intend working on. This will be thrown into the mix when we consider our future development options over the coming few months.

Q: What are the future plans for the Command Ops system? Is there a roadmap going forward?

A: As we foreshadowed earlier, we will be focussing on providing more data content. We will be seeking community input to this process, in terms of what battles they would like covered and what battles they would like to contribute to. Our aim here is to provide users with a wealth of good quality scenarios covering the battles they are most interested in.

Once BFTB is released, I think our users will realise that it is the state of the art in WW2 operational level wargaming. As powerful as it is, there are still many features we would like to add to the engine. We will also be seeking community input into what priority we should give to the development of new features.

This process will have to take into account the battles we will cover. Certain battles require certain features. E.g. if we were to cover the Normandy landings, then we would need to add in off-map fire support to better simulate the massive air and naval support the Allies provided.

This will be an iterative process. It will take a bit of time to crystallise into an actual plan of action. I invite all our users to actively contribute. We will facilitate this process by creating one or more discussion threads on the BFTB forum. Many will have their pet items from the wish list. We won’t be able to satisfy them all, especially if we are to give priority to content development. So users need to understand that we will develop this engine over time.

Q: Anything else you’d like to say?

A: We hope that the release of BFTB and its full construction set will excite, enthuse and channel the creative energies of users. There is a huge range of WW2 battles to simulate and we believe that the Command Ops engine is the best means of simulating them. An exciting and rich wargaming experience awaits.