- Dev Update + New Scenario - 21 September 2026
What is new with CWB?Fixes:Since the last Dev Update various QOL fixes have been made, I won't repeat them all here as the previous patch notes cover them. There are still things you guys have mentioned that I have not gotten around to yet, fear not they are still on my mind.New Scenario:Whilst the rest of this update will be have a Middle Eastern theme today's update brings another Vietnam scenario to CWB. 'Operation Hump' can be found in the 'Misc' tab and will see the player leading the VC in an attempt to fight off a US advance into their valley. Not a large scenario but very much a close quarters, heavy cover, infantry scrap. Very nearly featured the Royal Australian Rifles as opposition rather than the US, maybe they will get a scenario all of their own in the future.Middle East free DLC:The first four missions of the upcoming DLC are ready and cover various Arab-Israeli conflicts…
- Minor fixes and text readability improvements. - 19 September 2026
Fixed an issue where the VP's awarded did not match those displayed in the results screen for the 'Holding On (US)' scenario. Changed the font for the sidebar. At 4k resolution some folk were finding it hard to read. Biggest issue is how Gamemaker renders text as images which means scaling makes it look worse and little can be done. The new changes should make it easier to read. As I have only been testing in 2.5k and 1080p it is hard to check. A few under the hood changes have been made but they are mainly to support the upcoming Middle East Free DLC.
- Quick update - 14 September 2026
Added a 'MODIFIERS' button next to the HOTKEYS button in game. It shows the various things that affect combat resolution at a glance. As ever, the detail is in the PDF manual but hopefully having this info to hand will help.
- FREE DLC Announcement - 10 September 2026
What is next for CWB?As many of you already know the first DLC for Cold War Battles is set to cover various conflicts in the Middle East during the Cold War period. As CWB has been well received and everyone has been incredibly supportive I decided that this scenario pack will be free. Two weeks after launch and there has been quite a few small changes for the better with more being worked on. The focus now is on getting the Middle East content sorted, some of the conflicts like the Iran-Iraq War are rather difficult to get quality information on even today so it may take a little time. If updates are less regular here then you know it is because I am busy reading or trying to find accurate ORBAT's...Not much I can tell you about what will be included yet other than confirming at least one scenario will feature the Sinai campaign in 1956.A tricky situation for the Israeli forces, the Eg…
- Small update - 9 September 2026
Changes: Added AML-90 Recon Troop to Tegel scenario as it was a bit rough on the French. French mechanised infantry Hard Attack value increased to 14. Fixes: Computer recon units would occasionally enter impassable hexes - fixed Various small briefing typo's
- Week 2 update - 6 September 2026
A small update with just a few things to note.Real life has interfered with work on CWB for a few days but a few small changes have snuck in nonetheless...Artillery VP increased a little across the board. This will better reward counter battery fire against enemy artillery although the same applies to your opponent. Missing recon units in the 3rd mission of the Polish campaign now appear as intended.Graphics changes: Subtle changes to some terrain sprites and the river overlays. We have already established that I am no artist but things look a little better now. Trailer will be updated in the coming days and will start replacing screenshots on the store page today. HQ markers on French and PRC counters in the unit browser now easier to read.Thanks for reading and indeed playing, the work continues.Chris.
- Small Patch - 3 September 2026
Fixed a campaign menu bug. Increased the space between the End Turn button and the other buttons to lower the chances of a mis-click. Also changed it's text colour. Removed smoke effect from small arms, MG projectiles.
- New scenarios + QOL changes - 2 September 2026
Dev Update.New scenarios:Two new scenarios have been added with this update, both variations of the end of the UK campaign. Wolfsburg in the Pact tab allows you to to play the scenario from the Soviet point of view with a slightly reduced force albeit of higher quality.Holding on (US) in the NATO tab keeps the Soviets as they are in the campaign but will see the player attempting the task with a US force instead. QOL tweaks:Some of the fonts have been changed to improve readability at higher resolutions. Several small typo's in briefings have been fixed.Vehicle counters will now kick up a little dust when they move.A guide with some useful tips was added to the Community page.As we approach the end of CWB's first week on Steam I wanted to thank you all again for your support and feedback. My main focus now will be on the upcoming Middle East scenarios, no ETA yet as some of the situatio…
- More QOL, turn limit increase - 31 August 2026
With no game breaking bugs or crashes reported these updates have been fairly small affairs and going forward the plan is to have them a little less frequent as I know people don't like a game having to update each time they play. The turn limit has increased by 1 on all offensive scenarios and by 2 on a couple of ones which folk were struggling with. The first Soviet campaign mission for example. Top tip, you can win scenarios without capturing every VP. I hope to write a mini guide on Steam soon to share some further tips to help you all succeed. Of course the manual will be useful too. The text in the keyboard commands overlay is now in a different font as it was a little hard to read on higher resolution screens. The Ropucha landing ship now has a Ship HP stat replacing the usual sub unit stat. This reflects that it is a large vessel that would take some sinking. An increase to it's…
- Hotkeys Button - 30 August 2026
A small update to add a button to the GUI which will display a list of the various hotkeys used in CWB. Hopefully helpful to those who need a quick reminder of commands in the heat of battle. A few sneaky typo's and grammatical errors fixed up too.
- 48 hrs in update and new scenario. - 29 August 2026
Thank you all!What a ride the last 48 hours has been. CWB has reached my own expectations for the first 48 hours and the back end info I have from Steam suggests folk are having fun (I don't collect any of your data but I can see in general how long people play etc) Obviously I can't please everyone and like all areas in life content people tend to stay quiet and get on with things whilst the less happy want to share.I have tried to read all the feedback and welcome the negatives as well as the positives. Even the things that may not work for CWB may have their place in future projects. Some small QOL changes have been made and more will come.For now though thanks to all who played and indeed considered playing, I appreciate your time. Now onto the good stuff.Beyond the Elbe Beyond the Elbe is a re-jiggered version of yesterdays Dutch debut scenario (Which is a little tougher now as it…
- Day 2 QOL - 29 August 2026
A couple of small changes / fixes. Mouse wheel will zoom the camera in and out, old keys still work too. Pg Up, Pg Dn now scroll through the event log. Hex cover value text (The yellow number you see when hovering over a hex is now clearer) A rare but irritating bug which I still have not seen but seemed to cause two different sets of results to show post battle has been squished. Have a good weekend folks, Chris
- Day 1 update & the Dutch join CWB - 28 August 2026
A small update with a few QOL tweaks suggested by players, typo fixes and an issue with victory calculations occasionally being very wrong has been fixed. I really appreciate the time you guys took to point these out, it helps a lot.Whilst I was updating the game I thought it would be a good chance for some of the other content I have been working on to make an appearance. In the NATO category a new Scenario "Double Dutch" will see the Netherlands NORTHAG contribution in a behind the lines tussle with the VDV. The first batch of Dutch units is also in the game and can be seen in the Unit Browser including the well regarded YPR 765. The work continues, the feedback is appreciated.
- Cold War Battles is out now, what's next? - 27 August 2026
Cold War Battles is out now!First a huge thank you to everybody who played the demo and provided valuable feedback and encouragement. CWB is better for it. I won't bore you with too long a wall of text as I know some of you are keen to get to the action.A lot has changed since the demo, mainly under the hood. Visible things include: It is now easy to see which units have done all they can each turn, HQ's are more relevant, weapon ranges can be visualised the same as LOS, the camera will no longer follow hidden AI units, random battle mode was added and more that has slipped my mind. The computer player is even smarter and will focus weakened units, fallback if needed, counter battery your artillery and knows how important your HQ's are.Tips for getting started.The manual is short and even if you don't read it all you should at least check the combat modifiers page to ensure you get the…
- Not long now... - 8 August 2026
It has been a couple of weeks since I announced the August 27th release date with the last update, pleased to say that despite real life trying its best to get in the way that we are still very much on track.Have not spent anywhere near as much time as I wanted on CWB the last couple of weeks so it is probably a good job that the core features were sorted. As well as getting about halfway through writing a manual I have also managed to add some QOL tweaks. Mainly small things like units greying out to indicate they have done all they can that turn, an indicator over the selected unit, more sound variety and so on. Additionally units hard and soft weapon ranges can now be toggled to display visually in the same way as LOS using F2 and F3 (F1 toggles LOS for those who never read the 'How to play' in the demo)The scenario count has continued to creep past the target too with a couple more…
- Dev update and release date. - 19 July 2026
Dev update:Let's jump straight in with the big news. Cold War Battles will release on August 27th at around 17:00 UK time.Makes it all feel a little real now, it is hard to describe the mix of excitement and apprehension.As explained elsewhere the current demo will deactivate sometime in the last couple of days of July. There has been significant changes, mainly under the hood but also gameplay and computer player behaviour improvements as well as some UI and sound improvements. I appreciate this will disappoint some but I did make it clear before the demo released that this was the plan. There may or may not be a new demo around launch to replace it.What's been happening?The biggest milestone in the last couple of weeks was finishing the 4th, 5 mission mini campaign meaning we are at 20 campaign missions and 40 standalone scenarios. Plus of course random battles and whatever new scenar…
- Dev update - The randomness of war. - 5 July 2026
Well things have settled down a little with Next Fest over and the constant updates to the demo out of the way. More than 1200 people who downloaded the demo are yet to actually try it, be quick as changes are rapidly making the demo obsolete and it will likely be pulled around the end of July.Speaking of changes it has been great fun chatting with you all on the community page and implementing the suggestions that I can. The battle log, ability for both the player and computer to merge shattered platoons, not being able to see if enemy transports are carrying troops or not, cover and spotting changes as well as making HQ's more relevant have all made it into the game if not the demo and there are more changes for the better to come.A random discussion about air units being static on map artillery style counters may not have been viable but it did lead to something I never imagined incl…
- Dev update - What's next - 22 June 2026
Post Next Fest update.Firstly I have to thank everyone who downloaded and played the demo, especially those who left valuable feedback. Even though I could go with every suggestion made I did give thought to them all, some of the suggestions like map zoom and a combat log did make the cut and I managed to get them into the demo too.Getting seen on Steam is hard and Next Fest was a great help. Wishlists are vital for visibility pre-release just as reviews whether good or bad are post release. Whilst I set a fairly modest target for Next Fest as this is a fairly niche genre I am pleased to say I comfortably doubled what I had hoped for. Going back through the comments you guys left the most common word used to describe CWB has been fun which is fantastic. I love getting into a deep WDS title or Flashpoint Campaigns campaign but rarely get time to give them a couple of hours, never mind th…
- NextFest and new Demo Scenario - 12 June 2026
Just a quick addendum to the previous update which can be read below.As there has been some key improvements to AI behaviour on the main branch I decided to update the demo to reflect them and give the folk who try this during NextFest as good an experience as possible. So as well as the information below the computer player will now have more chance to retreat units that have suffered badly before bringing them back to the fight when there is less threat. HQ's nearby will try to hold them in place though, the combat log will show in Yellow when a unit retreats.Also the "Relief" scenario was meant to be an introduction of sorts, something easy for players who did not read the instructions... It was not great fun though so have replaced it with an early Cold War Scenario. This also means existing players can get their teeth into something a little different.It has been a busy few weeks s…
- Demo release and Dev update - 9 June 2026
It has been a busy few weeks since the last update!!Demo:First off was getting the demo out ahead of NextFest. Despite the issues around maintaining two code bases I did end up updating the demo more than planned to add things like a combat log, HQ changes and improved hill tile graphics. More recent changes to the full game have not made it into the demo simply because if I do everything twice then the whole process slows down. There has been some really useful feedback from the demo, all of which has been taken note of. I am glad people are having fun with it and was pleased to see it get some external coverage too. New: Fixed AI target selection so adjacent units now correctly focus fire on priority targets rather than spreading the love around. This was intended but not working correctly so the demo has been updated to fix this. Campaigns:CWB will feature a number of mini campaigns…
