Treadheads, fans of Warhammer 40k’s Imperial Guard, and steampunks, I have something you’re going to like – a new RTS game starring armies of honking great steam-powered tanks, smashing one another to pieces at the end of an alternate 19th century. Veil of Ashes is the debut game from tiny German studio Greifenmaer, and while it’s still at an alpha stage of development, what they’ve shown off so far is already incredibly compelling.
While there are plans to implement infantry, the heart of the game is massive battles between chunky tanks that never existed but maybe, possibly, could have. The designs look like mutant evolutions of the stranger WW1 and interwar tanks: not the famous British Male and Female, or even the plucky Renault FT, but weirdo stuff like the German A7V or the Vickers Medium Mk1: metal bricks with faces only a mother could love.
Each faction has a range of distinctive vehicles, including MBTs, artillery, engineering vehicles and more, and at the top end are the colossal Behemoths, hulking land battleships bristling with guns. These put me in mind of the 1990s Ork Battlefortress from Epic, and even the landships from Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak – though I’m probably just thinking of their turning circles.
The maps that the team has revealed in development videos and teasers so far are huge, scaled for tank warfare. Artillery fire is directed over such vast distances that the camera zooms out to a Supreme Commander-style overview of the entire battlefield. You’ll also use that view to bring in reinforcements, which are deployed by massive retrofuturistic airships and zeppelins.
Despite the emphasis on scale, there’s some nice crunchy detail for the treadheads aong us. Tanks have different armor values on different facings, which determines whether or not shells will penetrate, so commanding individual tanks effectively can make a difference to whether they live or die. And with destructible terrain and permanent tank carcasses left on the battlefield, there should be a lot of scope for interesting maneuvers.
If that all sounds too good to be true, well, it might be, if you’re only a fan of old-school RTS games. Greifenmaer describes Veil of Ashes as a Real Time Tactics game; that is, an RTS without any base-building, putting more emphasis onto unit combat.
Personally, I like RTTs – I think they’re the most accessible entry point to the genre for miniature wargamers. But as I spend so much time building model scenery, I’d be a real hypocrite if I pretended not to understand why base building is so huge in the genre.
There’s no word of a release window yet, so I’ll be watching this one closely. Every so often I slip an “honorary” 40k game into our guide to the best Warhammer 40k games on the basis of their vibes, gameplay, and atmosphere, and this is a strong contender. I look at the gameplay trailers for this game, and I can immediately imagine a Capitol Imperialis leading a Leman Russ tank company into an Ork Speed Waaagh…
If you’re an Imperial Guard player, or fan of weird interwar tanks, you’ll find a warm welcome in the Wargamer Discord community!
Source: Wargamer
