Men, make sure you’re wearing your primary color camouflage out there.
It’s been the year of the surprise digital board game release: BattleLore Command, Yardmaster, and Stalag 17 all arrived on the App Store with no warning at all. Ambush releases have quite a mixed record this year; BattleLore is nothing less than excellent but Trainyardz and Stalag 17 were… well, less than excellent.
Here’s one more release rolling under the rapidly descending App Store door, just hours before the holiday approvals freeze takes effect. An iOS and Android conversion of Dan Verssen’s big WWII operational-level tabletop wargame from 2008, Field Commander Rommel is $12.99 on the App Store and comes with three full scenarios: France 1940, North Africa 1941, and D-Day 1944. It’s also on Android, the Mac App Store, and it’s coming to PC forthwith.
This new release comes to us from Finch Digital, a statement to which the obvious question is:”Who the heck is that?” I put the question to Craig Finch himself, who told me all about his operation and this new game.
Wargaming’s most popular general gets some more airtime.
So who is this guy, anyway? “I have been programming business applications for the last 20 years,” Finch told me over email earlier this week. “I felt that it was time for a change. I’m a heavy wargamer so naturally that interest and my skillset collided. Over the last few years I’ve been learning game programming, specifically with Unity, and this is my first title. When I felt my game making skills were up to speed, I started querying various designers looking to port their existing games.”
Dan Verssen Games are the undisputed masters of the solitaire wargame. If the name rings a bell, you might be recalling the first DVG digital effort, Phantom Leader, an iPad fighter squadron management game that I really enjoyed despite its many flaws.
Phantom Leader clearly didn’t set the world on fire, as DVG has only started to tiptoe back into digital games now, two years later. Earlier this year they announced a new tie-up with Scotland’s Hunted Cow to bring out a new title in 2015, and now we have the surprise launch of Field Commander Rommel.
“[I]t was really Dan’s decision [to port Field Commander Rommel],” Finch said when I asked how he’d chose a game out of DVG’s vast catalog to port. “I think part of the thinking is that he would like to get all the Commander games ported, and just figured to go in release order. I’m not sure if that will be the roadmap though, we are also discussing potentially going with something that is more active like his new Tiger Leader game, or something with multiplayer such as Warfighter or Down in Flames.”
Field Commander Rommel is on the App Store, iPad-only and just single-player. I’m going to review this one myself and I’ll have some thoughts for you ASAP. You can follow Craig Finch’s Finch Digital on Twitter and Facebook.
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