4 – Combat Mission 3
If you’ve been an avid reader of the website, or you might have come across some of my articles on wargames, you probably have noticed that I am a massive fan of the Combat Mission series of games because they’re just the most accessible, semi-realistic representation of World War 2 (and modern) combat at the tactical-level you can find this day and age. So, the fact that during the last Home of Wargamers, it was confirmed by Matrix that Combat Mission 3 is in active development is enough for it to earn a spot on my list of wargames to look forward to, because I really want to see where the Combat Mission team is taking this fan favorite wargame series going forward. To be fair, the moment more details are announced about the game, it’s probably going to occupy the top spot.
3 – War in Spain 1936-1939
War in Spain 1936-39 is a new, highly detailed operational wargame that simulates the entire Spanish Civil War from the Nationalist military coup in July 1936 to the Republican defeat in 1939. Developed by the team behind War in the Pacific: Admiral’s Edition and slated for a January 2026 release, the game introduces a new Land-Sea-Air engine that meticulously models the conflict across the entire Iberian Peninsula. The scale of War in Spain is going to be exceptionally granular, with Orders of Battle (OOB) and combat resolution tracked down to the individual vehicle, aircraft, gun, and squad level, while operations are conducted at the division, brigade, regiment, and battalion levels. The reason the game is so high in this list is because the Spanish Civil War, despite being one of the most pivotal conflicts of the 20th century, is highly under-represented in wargaming, and the fact that it’s getting a game with this level of attention to detail and love for the subject matter is out of this world.
2 – Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War
This one came out of nowhere, and it was just recently announced at the Home of Wargamers 2025. Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War is a grand tactical military simulation that places you in command of NATO or Warsaw Pact forces during a fictional “Cold War gone hot” scenario in Central Europe. This wargame is going to be the third in the series, and it’s going to continue its focus on the operational level of combat, utilizing its trademark asynchronous WEGO turn system. In this system, both players issue orders to their battalion, brigade, or regimental forces, and then a variable slice of time unfolds, with the action playing out based on the orders, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and the battlefield’s chaos. Unlike traditional turn-based games, the “turn” length depends on the command, control, and communication (C3) state of your forces, modeling the friction of modern command (the OODA loop).
Supporting this incredibly unique turn-based system is a very deep, data-rich simulation, covering a massive roster of real-world equipment from 1980 to 1989 for nations like the US, UK, West Germany, the Soviet Union, and their allies.
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