The Art of Warfare Blogs: TAW Blogs

Vanguard on The Horizon - November

Greetings, 

It's time for Novembers On The Horizon, for those of you not aware of what that is. In Vanguard every month we list several games that Vanguard feels would make a great place in TAW, and we publish them in a blog. Most titles are newer but there are some older ones as well that we feel would be good in our community. If you have any interest in any of these games, please fill out the Vanguard Interest Form please.

Contact the Vanguard Staff if you have any questions about these games or any not on this list.

Black Desert Online is a sandbox, living-world MMORPG. Experience fast-paced, action-packed combat, hunt monsters and huge bosses, fight with friends in a guild to siege nodes and region castles, train your life skills such as fishing, trading, crafting, cooking, and much more! Players will enjoy jaw-dropping graphics, intuitive skill-based combat, and an immersive story encased in our expansive world that’s just waiting to be explored. Accompanied by a Black Spirit, a companion whose destiny is intertwined with their own, players will discover the secret of the Black Stones and the history of their corrupting effects.

FEATURES

• Robust Character Creation Tools - Make the character YOU want to play.
• Seamless Movement Throughout the World – No loading times necessary as you explore.
• Combo-Oriented, Non-Targeted Combat - Take part in fast-paced, action-packed combat with skills that can be chained through combos.
• Unique Weather and Climate - The weather and climate will have various effects on different zones that players can adapt to.
• Day / Night Cycle – Along with unique weather and climate changes, the game revolves around a day/night cycle that alters NPC behavior and triggers various events based on the time of day.
• Instanced Player Housing – From tents to palaces and everything in between, players can furnish and customize their own homes and can hire NPCs to keep your place clean or purchase things from the marketplace.
• Mounted Combat – Utilize your trusted mounts on the battlefield and take advantage of their mobility and effectiveness in combat. Keep in mind, however, that mounts will need to be cared for, housed and protected as they can die in combat.
• Boss Hunts - Group up with friends or other players to hunt down field bosses and world bosses to get that rare loot.
• Siege Warfare - Massive free-for-all guild battles! Join a guild and participate in daily node wars or weekly conquest wars against many other competing guilds. Win the node or castle and claim it for a week to collect taxes to increase your guild funds.
• Ocean Contents - Craft your boat and make sail to the vast oceans to fish, hunt ocean monsters and bosses, underwater exploring and gathering, quest missions, trade, and so much more.
• Taming & Breeding - Catch and tame horses and elephants in the wild to make it your mount. You can also breed horses for better offspring with improved mount stats and skills.
• Crafting - Enjoy all aspects of crafting in Black Desert from tools, weapons, armor, jewelry, boats, costumes, outfits, and more. Just about everything can be crafted in the world of Black Desert Online.
• Profession - Take part and grow your character into a profession that can help your income. With professions like gathering, processing, cooking, alchemy, training, fishing, hunting, trading, farming, and sailing, you can choose to play Black Desert Online the way you want to.

About This Game

• Take Down The Cartel - In a near future, Bolivia has fallen into the hands of Santa Blanca, a merciless drug cartel who spread injustice and violence. Their objective: to create the biggest Narco-State in history.
• Become A Ghost - Create and fully customize your Ghost, weapons, and hear. Enjoy a total freedom of playstyle. Lead your team and take down the cartel, either solo or with up to three friends.
• Explore Bolivia - Journey through Ubisoft's largest action-adventure open world. Discover the stunning diverse landscapes of the Wildlands both on and off road, in the air, on land, and at sea with over 60 different vehicles. Taking out the Santa Blanca Cartel becomes an even richer experience with Tobii Eye Tracking. Features like Extended View, Aim at Gaze and Communications Wheel let you use your natural eye movement to interact and be part of game play - without interrupting or modifying your traditional controls. Now armed with an extensive eye tracking feature set, team communication becomes more seamless, firefights become more intense and exploring your new surroundings becomes more of an immersive adventure.

ABOUT THIS GAME

Explore a vast galaxy full of wonder! Paradox Development Studio, makers of the Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis series presents Stellaris, an evolution of the grand strategy genre with space exploration at its core.
Featuring deep strategic game play, a rich and enormously diverse selection of alien races and emergent storytelling, Stellaris has engaging challenging game play that rewards interstellar exploration as you traverse, discover, interact and learn more about the multitude of species you will encounter during your travels.
Etch your name across the cosmos by forging a galactic empire; colonizing remote planets and integrating alien civilizations. Will you expand through war alone or walk the path of diplomacy to achieve your goals?

Main Features

• Deep & Varied Exploration.
• Enormous procedural galaxies, containing thousands of planets.
• Explore Anomalies with your heroic Scientist leaders.
• Infinitely varied races through customization and procedural generation.
• Advanced Diplomacy system worthy of a Grand Strategy Game.
• Ship Designer based on a vast array of technologies.
• Stunning space visuals.

ABOUT THIS GAME

• Victory is at your fingertips! Your ability to lead your nation is your supreme weapon, the strategy game Hearts of Iron IV lets you take command of any nation in World War II; the most engaging conflict in world history. 
• From the heart of the battlefield to the command center, you will guide your nation to glory and wage war, negotiate or invade. You hold the power to tip the very balance of WWII. It is time to show your ability as the greatest military leader in the world. Will you relive or change history? Will you change the fate of the world by achieving victory at all costs?
• Total Strategic War! War is not only won on land, sea and in the air. It’s also achieved in the hearts and minds of men and women.
• Authentic Real-Time War Simulation! Let the greatest commanders of WW2 fight your war with the tools of the time; tanks, planes, ships, guns and newly discovered weapons of mass destruction.
• Assume Control of Any Nation! Choose from the greatest powers striving for victory, or the small nations trying to weather the storm.
• Turn the world into your battlefield: Experience the full WWII time span in a topographical map complete with seasons, weather and terrain. Snow, mud, storms can be both your strong ally and a ruthless enemy.
• Negotiate or Force Your Will! Experience the advanced politics and diplomacy systems, form factions, engage in trade for resources and appoint ministers to your party.Intense Online Combat: Battle in both competitive and cooperative multiplayer for up to 32 players. Featuring cross-platform multiplayer.
• Give Your Nation a Unique Edge! Experience the flexible technology system, where all major powers get their own unique identity. Develop detailed historic tanks and planes through research and army experience.

ABOUT THIS GAME

Empyrion - Galactic Survival is a 3D open world space sandbox survival adventure. Build powerful ships, mighty space stations and vast planetary settlements to explore, conquer or exploit a variety of different planets and discover the mysteries of Empyrion! 
Fight human, alien and biological hazards and survive in a hostile galaxy full of hidden dangers. Play as a lone wolf or team-up with your friends, build new friendships, create alliances or make war to conquer the solar system. 
Empyrion uniquely combines elements from space simulations, construction games, survival games and ego-shooters. In Empyrion, you can forge your destiny in a galaxy with infinite possibilities!

Space and Planet Exploration - An absolute free-roaming experience awaits you: warp between planets, fly from planet to moons, land on planets and freely walk around to explore your surroundings. Discover the secrets of different alien races and tangle with the native fauna and flora. A sandbox full of different, vivid planets is waiting for you to explore!

Solar System and Open World - The solar system is procedurally generated and features several planets and interesting POIs. Each planet has its own characteristics (planet type, gravity, atmosphere, number of moons, terrain, surface, vegetation, climate, and resources).

Building and Construction - Build large capital vessels, small fighters or mighty space stations and vast planetary settlements by yourself - or download a blueprint from the Steam Workshop and customize it with your very own ideas of form and function!

Survival Mode - Get out of your escape pod, grab what's left from your ship and prepare to survive in a hostile environment. Food and oxygen are rare, resources are scarce, ammo is low and dangers lurk around each and every corner. Keep your eyes open. You need to be smart and well prepared if you want to survive more than a day on an alien planet far away from Earth.

The most highly-rated free game of all time!
One of the most popular online action games of all time, Team Fortress 2 delivers constant free updates—new game modes, maps, equipment and, most importantly, hats. Nine distinct classes provide a broad range of tactical abilities and personalities, and lend themselves to a variety of player skills.

New to TF? Don’t sweat it!
No matter what your style and experience, we’ve got a character for you. Detailed training and offline practice modes will help you hone your skills before jumping into one of TF2’s many game modes, including Capture the Flag, Control Point, Payload, Arena, King of the Hill and more.

Make a character your own!
There are hundreds of weapons, hats and more to collect, craft, buy and trade. Tweak your favorite class to suit your game play style and personal taste. You don’t need to pay to win—virtually all of the items in the Mann Co. Store can also be found in-game.

Death Is Not an Escape.

Dead by Daylight is a multiplayer (4vs1) horror game where one player takes on the role of the savage Killer, and the other four players play as Survivors, trying to escape the Killer and avoid being caught, tortured and killed.

Survivors play in third-person and have the advantage of better situational awareness. The Killer plays in first-person and is more focused on their prey.

The Survivors' goal in each encounter is to escape the Killing Ground without getting caught by the Killer - something that sounds easier than it is, especially when the environment changes every time you play.

• Survive Together… Or Not - Survivors can either cooperate with the others or be selfish. Your chance of survival will vary depending on whether you work together as a team or if you go at it alone. Will you be able to outwit the Killer and escape their Killing Ground?

• Where Am I? - Each level is procedurally generated, so you’ll never know what to expect. Random spawn points mean you will never feel safe as the world and its danger change every time you play.

• A Feast for Killers - Dead by Daylight draws from all corners of the horror world. As a Killer you can play as anything from a powerful Slasher to terrifying paranormal entities. Familiarize yourself with your Killing Grounds and master each Killer’s unique power to be able to hunt, catch and sacrifice your victims.

World of Tanks Blitz is a cross-platform Free-to-Play team-based MMO action game dedicated to fierce tank combat. Throw yourself into intense battles against Steam players and challenge gamers on mobile, Mac, and Windows 10; control and upgrade over 200 legendary armored vehicles across 4 diverse classes; master your tactics on over a dozen maps; join up with your friends in a Platoon to reap in-game bonuses and rewards; and complete Battle Missions to truly test your skills.

Features

• Over 200 iconic vehicles from Germany, Japan, France, the UK, USA, USSR, and China
• 4 different vehicles classes including light tanks, medium tanks, heavy tanks, and tank destroyers
• Strategic 7-vs-7 online multiplayer gameplay 
• 18 unique battle arenas
• In-game chat functionality
• Innovative crew upgrade system
• Cross-platform gameplay
• Constant graphical enhancements and updates, as well as optimization for various platforms
• Real-life physics to create authentic tank movement and damage mechanics
• Detailed tutorials
• Ability to invite your friends to play online 
• In-game achievements
• Free-to-Play with equal access to in-game elements for paying and non-paying players
• Easy to learn, intuitive controls
• Battle Missions that open up fresh, personalized challenges of varying difficulties and enable players to earn bonuses and achievements
• Clan functionality allowing players to unite in their pursuit of victory
• Training Rooms that allow you to team up with friends to master game maps and tactics

HOW LONG WILL YOU SURVIVE?

With over 2.5 million copies sold on PC (digital download) 7 Days to Die has redefined the survival genre, with unrivaled crafting and world-building content. Set in a brutally unforgiving post-apocalyptic world overrun by the undead, 7 Days to Die is an open-world game that is a unique combination of first person shooter, survival horror, tower defense, and role-playing games. It presents combat, crafting, looting, mining, exploration, and character growth, in a way that has seen a rapturous response from fans worldwide. Play the definitive zombie survival sandbox RPG that came first. Navezgane awaits!

GAME FEATURES

• Explore – Huge, unique and rich environments, offering the freedom to play the game any way you want with many unique biomes.
• Craft – Craft and repair weapons, clothes, armor, tools, vehicles, and more with over 500 recipes.
• Build – Take over a ruin, or build from the ground-up. Design your fortress to include traps, auto turrets, electric fences and defensive positions to survive the undead - the world is fully destructible and moldable.
• Cooperate or Compete – Work together cooperatively to build settlements or work against each other raiding other player’s bases, it’s really up to you in a wasteland where zombies and outlaws rule the land.
• Create - Unleash your creativity in creative mode and build the ultimate world by yourself or with friends. Enjoy unlimited access to over 500 in-game items, 1,200 unique building blocks and a painting system that offers over a quadrillion combinatoins.
• Improve – Increase your skills in a multitude of active and passive disciplines. 7 Days to Die is the only true survival RPG with over 60 multi-tiered skill and perk groups.
• Choose – Play the Navezgane campaign world, or dive back in with friends in a randomly-generated world with cities, towns, lakes, mountains, valleys, roads, caves and wilderness locations. The possibilities are infinite with over 350 locations.
• Combat – Encounter over 50 unique zombie archetypes including special infected with unique behaviors and attacks.
• Survive – Experience real hardcore survival mechanics with over 45 buff boosts/ailments along with dynamic cold and hot weather to contend with.
• Destroy – Buildings and terrain formations can collapse under their own weight from structural damage or poor building design.
• Loot – Scavenge the world for the best guns, weapons, tools, armor, clothing, and vehicle parts which have quality ranges which govern attributes to provide hundreds of thousands of item permutations.
• Quest – Find dynamic treasure maps left by survivors and dig for real buried loot. Discover quest notes and complete them for rewards and skill points. Meet Trader NPCs to buy and sell goods.
• Customize – Create your own character or pick a preset and customize in-game even more with a huge selection of clothing and armor you can craft or loot in the world.
• Drive – Enjoy the badass vehicle system where you find all the parts, learn all the recipes and craft and augment your own vehicle.
• Farm or Hunt – Plant and grow gardens for sustainable resources or head out into the wilderness and hunt over a dozen unique wild animals.

If you would like to see any of these games in Vanguard, please fill out the interest form.