Now that the Steam Autumn Sale has ended, things are starting to heat back up, and this week’s lineup is stacked! A new RTS called Defilade is making the rounds online; Dawn of War IV just showed us what the Space Marines can do, and MENACE unveiled what’s left in the tank for 2026 and early 2027. Let’s dive right into it!

Defilade Is An Impressive New RTS

My YouTube recommended section is being bombarded with recommendations for Defilade, a recently announced old-school isometric RTS set in the modern world. Clearly evocative of the Russo-Ukrainian War, Defilade has a lot of premises, and to be honest, everything looks pretty damn good.

The base idea is that soldiers think for themselves, and while this isn’t new in most wargames, I don’t think I have ever seen it being done in a real-time strategy. Don’t you dare say, “But Men of War does that”. No, it does not. I have nightmares about having to micromanage every brain-dead soldier on all of my 15 squads operating at once.

Like I was saying, the whole shtick of Defilade is that soldiers try to act like real soldiers, and this means using cover properly, looking for ways to survive, and working together to make the best out of a bad situation. The game is now a full-blown RTS title inspired by the likes of Red Alert 2 and Sudden Strike 2, with an isometric perspective, beautiful graphics, base building, tanks, drones, aerial combat, and environmental destruction.

MENACE Roadmap For The Rest of 2026

The best turn-based strategy game of 2026, MENACE has a very promising future ahead. As we wind down to close out the year, the team working on it has unveiled the roadmap for what’s left.

First off is a balancing overhaul to make a significant portion of the available perks and items more useful to players. One new squad leader and one new pilot will join the fray in the next Squad Leader Update, but no further details were given. The game will have an “extended campaign” mode that reduces the progression in the game by half for players who want to take things slow. The biggest change coming to the main story is the main story expansion, making the game 60% complete.

The team also let the community know that one of the first updates of 2027 will zoom into the System Map, adding new mechanics and ways to interact with it.

Smoke and Steel New Trailer Out Now

Smoke and Steel has been doing the rounds online for a couple of weeks now. This 18th-century grand-strategy game with turn-based strategy battles released a new trailer that has skyrocketed in popularity, having reached well over 70K views in a matter of days.

Age of Empires IV – Raiders of the North

I’m so happy to see that Age of Empires IV is still getting some much-deserved expansions after years on the back burner in favor of Age of Empires II. I mean, AoE II is still the RTS golden child, but Age of Empires IV is a game whose respect for history is something I very much admire. Anyway, we’re not here to gush about that; you can read my review of it if you’d like.

We’re here to talk about the Raiders of the North DLC that’s coming out on October 29 and will set you back $19.99 or your regional equivalent. This one will add two new civilizations: The Vikings and the Scots. Four new missions will enter the Crucible mode, and two new biomes (Scottish Heathland and Tundra Summer) will also be making their way into the game.

Dawn of War 4 – Space Marines

We inch ever so closer to the release of Dawn of War IV (coming December 3rd, 2026), so it’s only natural we start to receive more and more information. This time around we have a new trailer covering the Space Marines, and I have to tell you something: I don’t think I have ever seen a trailer that escalates as much as this one! To the point where I was actually getting amped up and nervous! The trailer goes over each individual unit at a relentless pace! It’s super fun. Give it a watch!

Grand Fantasy Empires Looks Fun!

One of the things I want Strategy and Wargaming to do is to help you discover new games. Let me introduce you to Grand Fantasy Empires! Despite the generic mash-up of names that would be a discovery nightmare, this game looks like it’s going to be an absolute blast. It’s a grand-strategy game with real-time strategy battles in a fantasy setting that has the amazing art style of games like Cossacks: Back to War.

Wargame Design Studio Game of the Week

We truly don’t have enough Pacific-focused wargames, do we? Well, if you want to play the pivotal moment when the US Navy turned the tide of the war in their favor, then you can do it by playing Naval Campaigns: Midway. The game is currently 25% off, costing just $29.95, and you will get 51 scenarios, a wide range of maps covering the naval conflicts in the Pacific Ocean, and the real and hypothetical Orders of Battle for the Japanese and Allied Forces.

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