by Peter Robbins, 9 November 2026
What I have in hand is version 1.2.0 of Battleplan. This release version has come a long way from the original Alpha I was able to get some play time with back in December of 2025. Wow, time flies when you are having wargaming fun! Things have definitely improved since then.
Yes, the game had a rocky release, based primarily on considerable stability issues for certain types of cards with certain levels of driver versions; but Michael Long, the sole developer on the project, answered those calls for aid and has delivered a solid set of patches to answer the stability issues a good portion of users were initially experiencing. My use of 1.1.1+ and higher has not given me a single crash yet, knock on wood. I don’t want to belittle what users went through, as it was quite apparent there was a stability issue or two that needed attention.
The game itself, overall, has not changed a huge amount since the version I played, but every aspect of it has been refined to be more user friendly, and intuitive in controlling the units of the game and in understanding the results of their virtual orders. I’ll be concentrating on what I can see as palpable uplifts in functionality since that original offering. The closest experience end users may have similarly was how it operated during the open Public Beta in March vs the Release version and the most recently patched versions. I don’t think the Public beta was miles ahead of the version I played. Just for context sake.
So stop blabbering Peter and get on with it! We shall dive in a good bit now.
So what is Battleplan?
I’ll start with their own description of the game, but then I’ll translate that into What To Expect overall for player agency and decision-making throughout.
Both store sites (Matrix | Steam) describe Battleplan as:
Battleplan is a historical, WW2 real-time strategy game of unparalleled realism and simulation. Fight across massive battlefields created from real-world geographic data. Create your army by customizing your order of battle and chain of command. Draw directly on the map to create elaborate plans.
How does planning work in the game? How is it input? How are those plans changed throughout a given game-day? And what are the repercussions of making too many changes? Let’s try and show you the answers to all of those questions and more with a play through of the two training scenarios and the first full scenario Cherbourg. I may then give a shot or two of the following two scenarios, but the intent of this article is not to overly spoil the overall content of the game.
You get 10 scenarios, all D-DAY+ oriented on the western front. Suffice it to say, you get all of the major battles you expect to see of note all the way to the end of the way. Will there be DLC for Battplan? I hope the answer is yes.
Do I feel like they give you enough content for the full core game? Absolutely, Yes, especially for this price-point which is $30 US upon my reviewing the game.
Now that is a solid price for what overall is a commendable attempt at a full on Strategic Command level wargame for the very large operations found in late war Western Front. You will enjoy this game. Is it perfect? No, but it’s getting there. I’ll try and wrap up this article with a short list of what I think could still be improved, but honestly, that list is shorter than I expected. Keep in mind throughout that ONE developer worked on this game, for several years, and PRE gen-ai tooling at that. ONE dev. Great game when you keep that squarely in mind.
Bravo Michael Long for a pretty darn solid game with a unique approach to orders planning, at an affordable price. I would describe this wargame overall as innovative and ground breaking, but did it bite off more than any one developer can chew? I think personally it has been successful at its core goal, giving you the feeling of commanding large amounts of troops during pivotal operation sized scenarios.
The scale feels a bit smaller than historical reality (I’ll call this the Christopher Nolan Effect – see: Dunkirk), but I can forgive that as it’s the decision making at Corps to Army level that Michael was going for, and I think he has given us a noble result. This was a difficult goal to pull off and maintain an attractive “game” for both wargaming grognard and strategy gamer alike. I think he struck a nice chord somewhere between the two. Does it keep your attention and entertain you? That may be a personal choice when it’s all said and done. More as we poke at the detailed innards of this game below.
Game Specs
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Community Hub on Steam
The above lists the details of each of the updates provided since the October 12th public release of Battleplan. Needless to say, it was a rocky start for some users, but the developer Michael Long has taken it on the chin and kept his cool throughout. Bravo Michael for keeping your legs under you and knocking out fixes left and right. The version I started playing with is v.1.1.1 and from my personal experiences with it, it’s stable for me. He admits there may be a small amount of lingering crash issues, but it should be very specific to a small population of users; and he asks that you send log reports and player logs to the email address michael@foolish-mortals.net. |
Read The Manual
The manual is detailed, and is clearly written. Thank the heavens they took the time to write this, as there are a lot of features I didn’t even know existed. The manual is solid. Read it before you get into the main scenarios, maybe just after finishing the two training scenarios would be my suggestion.
click most images to enlarge
Training Play Thru
One of the first noticeable differences in this release version is that orders are now split into three Zones when you choose the default Regimental Plan choice as you provide orders. This allows for slightly more control over a main effort, support and reserve for a given Division’s orders. Take note that most orders are done at the Division sized unit level. That is composed of many battalions worth of company sized individual unit markers. You can choose now between using Nato markers and colors, or Nato markers with BLUE for friendly and RED for enemy (what I’ve used in most of my pics here) or you can choose 3d modeled troops that represent the unit types for each company depicted. This is very much where the unit scaling issues I mentioned in the Overview are a derivative of. Its difficult to depict an entire Division properly at the intended scale for such a game. Everything feels about three times too small ; which again, you tend to forgive and forget as you play through and the units behave as you ask.
The above pic gives you a closer view to the Regimental Plan formatting. Noticing the color coded autonaming for each of the zones. That coloring then aligns to the three plans seen for the Division in the orders pane top of the bottom interfacing. Makes it easy on the eyes to line that up. You can then adjust the orders by clicking on any one of them and select new orders. You can also mouse-over the area, see the individual companies applied to each zone, and physically move those companies from one zone to another within the overall plan. Makes it easy to adjust things as needed now, and gives slightly easier control over the ordering as a whole. Most of the order types have not changed much since the January version of the game, but there are a few more specialist unit orders available which is nice to see added.
Above we see the plan taking shape and routing the enemy in front of us. Individual battles are shown as dashboards tracking the units involved and the current overall combat power for both as blue and red markers on a scale (see bottom left of screenshot above showing the battle tally).
Below is a sample of moving companies between the zones in a regimental plan.
Scenario Play Thru
Cherbourg
Below are some example specific orders available for drawing directly on the map.
Above are two shots showing the in-game codex on how Supply is handled. I feel in some ways that you don’t have as much control over this as I would have liked to have seen. You see a lot in the way of its depicted flow, but you don’t have a huge amount of control of that flow all said and done player agency wise. This is an area of the game I think that could be slightly improved. Considering the Army / Corps level nature of the game, logistics becomes the game, and it’s kind of slapped on a bit from my vantage point. The supply flows are nicely depicted, but it’s more of a “depiction” than a game element you have any control over. You have a certain number of depots, most of which are already defined and in place for a given scenario. If you lose one, you could generate a new one in another safer area; and that is about the level of control you get for the gameplay.
Caen
Above is the start screen for the Caen scenario.
With additional historical information as you slide down the briefing screen, seen below.
As shown above, Caen is a very difficult scenario. You have to survive a significant counter attack by way of laying out significant amounts of minefields to protect your dug in British and Canadian forces alike.
After a few waves of initial probing attacks, a main effort by the 21st Panzer comes to light by way of our added Aerial Recon orders in the area, as shown below.
Eeek. This will not end well I foresee. And….. my usual Caen performance has not changed since the original Demo release 😄
The above onslaught continues and I fail miserably. Such is life on the frontlines as an Army commander when tough German Panzer Divisions counter attack well.
Final Thoughts & First Impressions
Battleplan is a unique and innovative game. It still has a bit to go before it is perfected but what is present in this game will keep you entertained for months on end. Many of the scenarios are very difficult for the Allies. You need to get good at repulsing counter attacks or you will suffer what I suffered during my Caen play thru further above. They will pummel you if you do not get your engineers up and set minefields to protect approaches towards your reserves and supply depots.
Orders making is very intuitive now in this release version of the game. It was not horribly before in the DEMO version of Battleplan, but they did make it just a little simpler to draw and order on the map. I like the inclusion of the varying zones for a Regimental Plan. That gives you just a bit more control over the execution of orders IF you want to use them. You can still plan out the orders in the original method without those zones included if you prefer that method. As an Army commander, you may want to just let the sub-commenders take care of business at that level of detail.
One thing I would fore-warn as player, if you are moving companies around manually, you are getting a little too close to the front lines for the original intent of the game. Yes, you can adjust things a bit, but if you are wanting to control things at a company level, well, this game may not be for you. Its sweet spot is Army level command and control, and getting used to keeping your divisions well supported with artillery, recon, engineers, scouts, the whole nine yards. Most divisions are already setup as such as combined arms group, so just beware of doing anything too customized as you build up a unit and add commanders to it.
Oh, and one nice touch for this newer version is the ease of splitting units and merging them. This is definitely easier than in the original demo revision level of Battleplan. You can do this via the divisional unit icons if you just want to merge two together for each of operational planning; OR you can use the order of battle screen to click on a given line between subordinate and direct command, and that splits the sub-unit off as its own order-able maneuver formation.
You are commanding at the Army level. Battleplan rewards thinking at that general’s level of decision-making. Don’t over micromanage or you will lose sight of the big picture that you are responsible for.
Battleplan is a solid Army level command and control orders drawn directly on the map planning game. Its addictive watching your individual units attempt to follow those orders; and follow them they do reasonably well. I’ve not seen too much jankiness in how they execute orders in this release and patched version of the game.
For $30, this is a strongly recommended game if you are looking for the ability to command at Army level, and feel like you are making similar decisions to the three and four star generals that historically took the field on the Western Front. Good scenario coverage throughout, and an intuitive interface marry into a good game for this price point.
Bravo Michael Long and Slitherine on what will slowly become a closet classic. I think as it patches forward it will have its release headaches redeemed and remedied alike.
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