YonanFlashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm is the second game in the series by On Target Simulations and Slitherine, following 2015’s Flashpoint Campaigns: Red Storm. This game introduces several new systems that enhance, enrich and improve the gameplay experience of the first. It’s an intimidating but highly rewarding game and despite how primitive the graphics in this game and others in the genre can look, it is in many ways a well-thought-out game with very engaging systems that are a solid evolution from its predecessor, but it’s definitely one that takes a dedicated effort to learn.
Flashpoint is a tactical war simulator set during the cold war period where both NATO and Soviet sides are playable with fleshed-out rosters of units and time period accurate weapons, sensors, armour and other systems portrayed in ~~an Excel spreadsheet~~ a series of well-laid-out windows, and all of which impact substantially how the units behave on the battlefield. Units are not “a tank” or even “a unit of tanks” necessarily but can include four or more separate types, such as a Canadian HQ unit with two headquarters sections, four command vehicles, three APCs and three SAM infantry units… but they can also just be twelve T-80s. They follow a full order of battle, representing HQ units in command of sub-units several tiers deep with each unit having accurate equipment. For example, a mechanised platoon in M113A2’s will have .50 cal Brownings, their three mechanised rifle squads will have C7 Rifles, M2 Carl Gustavs and hand grenades, and so on. Depth is the middle name of this game, and it will be repeated in every section of this review.
The Combat system is an interesting “wego” combination of turn-based and real-time in that both players give their orders in a turn-based system, and then they play out over the next unit of time (which changes based on battlefield conditions but starts at around 15 minutes). Combined with Fog of War, this results in you helplessly watching while you see how your terrible big-brained orders played out as units move and engage each other based on your specific orders and their SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). I much prefer this style of combat to the standard hex-based “command each unit to individually move or attack once” in a strict turn-based system which is so common in the genre.
Speaking of the SOP – that is a feature newly added to this version of Flashpoint that lets you give your units default behaviours for how to respond at each stage of their orders, letting you better utilise your forces. Behaviours such as ensuring your recce is more find, shoot and scoot while your tanks might want to hold fire until the enemy is within a certain range, and they should hold their position at all costs – or retreat or reposition based on certain conditions. It’s an intuitive solution that works well but it’s not flawless – it can be replicated pretty well to other units, but with such deep unit rosters and command chains, it is obviously not a simple click away to replicate it across your whole army.
Another new feature is the MoCOO – Modified Combined Obstacle Overlay – display showing at-a-glance terrain and other obstacles, allowing better planning of your movements and predicting enemies. Sadly, this layer cannot be kept up alongside certain others like the LOS or range tools but it’s a very nice option to have to quickly ascertain a large part of the battlefield. The terrain in general is easy to get a rough idea of but, if necessary you can pop up other displays where each tile shows its elevation, cover, concealment, mobility, altitude or defence ratings. As always (in good strategy games at least), exploiting these is important when planning how to use your units.
The depth of the game’s systems is beautiful to see when systems all interact. While your artillery lay down a smokescreen ahead of your troops and they’re maneuvering along the waypoints you set, they will detect enemies, trade shots, maneuver, or retreat based on their SOP, call down on or off-map artillery strikes, all while every other unit around them is doing the same thing. As NATO, this can mean you detect units early and can engage favourably but with fewer forces, or as Soviets you can see your units getting mowed down as ever more of them swarm closer, finally coming into range and opening up, calling in monumental fire support… that lands late on an empty square because of slow orders. The chaos of the battlefield is represented quite well with this system, seeing it play out in front of you while you can’t directly control it is an interesting experience that results in a lot of thinking ahead… and gnashing of teeth. It may not be for everyone though; I know the me of 20 years ago would not have enjoyed it.
The interface overall is very usable. It won’t win any awards for graphical fidelity, and thankfully it doesn’t cripple usability to attempt to do so. These games require substantial amounts of information to be presented concisely and many controls to be available in a context-relevant way and Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm is actually quite intuitive in this regard. It’s intimidating on first look, but it’s not a steep cliff to overcome. By the end of the first tutorial (which does take a while and requires reading through a pdf…) you have a solid understanding of it and are capable of playing – to some extent at least, mastering it and using it quickly will still take a while which is a good thing. Depth is utterly essential in these strategy games; usability is just nice. An example of good usability however is the unit markers which are extremely detailed and learning what all the symbols on them mean will help you take in the lay of the battlefield at a glance.
The most intimidating games are the most rewarding I find. Games that try to tread the line between depth and ease of use like Europa Universalis or Master of Magic are relatively easy to get into and are “easy” fun, but still reward learning the game. Others go digging a hole at the bottom of the Marianas trench like Command Modern Operations (also by Slitherine) and then somewhere in the middle of those is Flashpoint. If you don’t mind a relatively steep but definitely manageable learning curve, Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm will give you something worth the effort. It’s a very deep and engaging Cold War theatre-of-operations level tactics game that rewards good play and punishes mistakes, making you ask for more the whole time. If you’re a Total War or Paradox gamer and want to step into something deeper, you could do a lot worse than Flashpoint, and if you’re already in the deeper end of the genre you’ll feel right at home and find a lot of fun to be had.
This review utilised a key provided by Slitherine and Flashpoint Campaigns: Southern Storm is available on Steam and the Matrix Games store now.
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Chris Inglis
