Commanders, Patch 1.2 is now live. Prepare for smarter enemies, tougher decisions, and an even more brutal battlefield. Brutal Difficulty Update We've rebalanced existing campaign maps to make Brutal difficulty a true challenge worthy of its title:

• Enemies now start with more units (mission and difficulty dependent) and deploy them more aggressively.
• Maps support having extra properties based on the difficulty setting, giving the enemy increased income, and forcing you to fight harder.
• Our new AI system makes fewer mistakes and will punish yours.

The ability to configure extra units and properties for your own maps will be coming as part of 1.3, enabling you to make Brutal Skirmish maps for others to play too. Using gameplay data from across the community, weve analyzed player performance and grouped difficulty levels into target skill cohorts. The campaign has been rebalanced with these benchmarks in mind:

• Standard Designed to be completed by our average player with moderate challenge.
• Hard Tuned for the top 25% of players, likely requiring strategic restarts and tight decision-making.
• Brutal Aimed at the top 10% of players, offering a serious test of skill, planning, and perseverance.

Well be actively monitoring player feedback and performance metrics over the next week to fine-tune these difficulty targets if needed. Your input will help us shape an experience thats both fair and fiercely competitive. AI Update Our AI has been completely reworked from the ground up. Heres what to expect:

• Smarter Enemy Behavior: The AI now adapts to your tactics, coordinates flanking maneuvers, prioritizes key threats, and makes better use of terrain and timing.
• Improved Decision-Making: Expect enemies that think more like playersand punish mistakes accordingly.
• More Reliable Allies: Friendly AI now acts more intelligently in support roles, improving the feel of team-based operations in our 2v2 skirmish missions.

Our AI now better understands the battlefield. It looks further ahead at what the player might do, and plans its own moves accordingly. No more running a Bomber into SAM range to immediately die.
Notice the Helicopter now actively avoiding the SAM's attack range. It's also not diving in due to the Flak-Cannon protecting the SAM. The build table has been tweaked, and the priorities have changed. The AI no longer saves up for the expensive units, but better evaluates based on need and builds those instead. Battle Powers are better evaluated, not just for their value change, but how they will impact the AI's contested frontlines. Sorry to those players hiding a Destroyer in the corner of the map to attract Mordred's power - that will no longer work. Our new AI now understands the faction unique units and units with special actions. This means the AI can now build and use Medics. It also fully understands the Rhino's push mechanic. If you leave a vehicle in front of a river, expect to get shoved into it! We've also made the AI deliberately make some bad moves to "progress the game". We've counterbalanced this by giving them more units on higher difficulties. This stops the game stalling, but keeps the net difficulty the same. The intelligence of the AI is still dependent on the difficulty setting. Higher settings look further ahead, whilst lower settings are still open to making more bad moves. Standard difficulty will accept a worse value trade than Brutal would. Skirmish missions should also play better with this update (or any mission where you start with no units). The updated AI is better able to read the early game. It will know it needs to build units to capture properties initially. It will decide where it wants to send those units and do a better job of spreading them out as it does. This is much more like how a human player would start a Skirmish or PvP game. Multiplayer Turn Timers
Warside's multiplayer was always meant to be fast-paced, with moves being made under pressure. To improve this, we've added turn-timers to multiplayer games, with the following modes:

• Standard - 3 minutes per turn.
• Blitz - 90 seconds per turn.

Matchmaking games always use Standard timers. For your own lobbies, you can choose your timer setting or disable it entirely. The timers are based on our existing multiplayer data, but we're open to adjusting them and welcome your feedback on our forums. Additional Changes As part of this update, we have also included the following smaller changes and fixes:

• Added some additional Skirmish missions for some mission concepts we wanted to try.
• Changed "Fog Of War" mission to end the mission if the outpost is captured, rather than being optional (and then a standard "eliminate all units" mission after). The mission can still be won by eliminating all units instead of capturing the outpost directly.
• Fixed trigger on "Krakens Wake" mission, where a player could win early by destroying all units without moving the Cargo Truck. This meant a story event didn't trigger, and left some players without enough context to explain how that mission ends. This mission no longer ends by eliminating all units - you can only win by moving the Cargo Truck to the flare location, even if the enemy has no units left.
• Fixed Decker using Medusa's theme music instead of his own.
• Fixed animations not being shown for ground-to-air attacks in the ice environment.
• Fixed vehicles not leaving craters when they explode during combat cutscenes in the ice environment.
• Swapped Demetria for Boreas on "Endgame" mission. Demetria's power can hurt allies, and although she only used it for a positive net trade (for the whole team), it wasn't fun if the player was on the receiving end of the friendly fire.
• Root and Disarm no longer apply to buildings (no game impact, since buildings can't move or shoot, but less flashing icons).
• Various font fixes for players using Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages.
• AI will move units in clusters (if unaffected by enemy positioning). This prevents the camera jumping around as much during the AI turn, especially on larger maps.

[ 2025-05-23 23:34:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Commanders, Were thrilled to launch Update 1.1, packed with new content and features you've been asking for. Skirmish Mode Our brand-new Skirmish Mode lets you take on AI opponents across a selection of new missions and existing PvP maps. Its perfect for honing your tactics and exploring different commanders.
We've made an additional set of missions just for this mode, and we'll be adding more with each patch. Included in this patch are some naval-only maps, some new 4-way FFA battles (with and without fog), and a new split air & naval 2v2 concept.
Skirmish mode also shows any missions you have created in the Editor, so you can now configure and battle on your own maps without going through the Editor. This is just the first stage! As we continue moving through our roadmap, we'll be adding a new interface to discover maps made by our community, giving you an unlimited stream of content. Commander Dossier Players often gave feedback that we did not provide enough information about our commanders and their abilities. We initially attempted to do this via dialogue during the campaign, but we didn't have it for everyone, and it was clear the dialogue wasn't enough anyway. Players wanted the ability to look up in detail what each commander could do. With 1.1 we have introduced new commander dossiers. These are accessible during any mission via a new "Intelligence" option in the mission menu.
These show a short bio about each commander and a description of their power. You can switch between the commanders playing in the current mission to inspect them. Multiplayer QoL Queue times for multiplayer games can sometimes be high, especially at off-peak times. It was easy for players to lose focus, or tab out of the game whilst waiting, only to miss a game which was found. With 1.1 we have added a new audio cue when a matchmaking game is found. This will play even if you minimise the game and do something else. We also now flash the taskbar (Windows only) if you are not in the game and a match is found. This is just the beginning. Catch you soon for our 1.2 update. See you on the battlefield, Commander.

[ 2025-05-12 17:18:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone, this is Andy, the developer of Warside. Its no secret we had a bumpy release week. Since then, weve been making (almost) daily updates to fix these issues. Weve already squashed a large number of bugs and will continue to improve Warside based on feedback from the community. Id like to personally thank everyone who has given us their honest feedback. I started building this game because Im a massive fan of the genre, and Im here for the long haul to make it the best it can be. The game is now stable, with the major launch issues resolved. From here, we will group our content updates into major releases. We intend to launch the first three updates fortnightly, starting with version 1.1 at the end of this week. The upcoming 1.1 update will include two of the most sought-after features:

• A CO dossier to browse the Commanders youve met during the campaign.
• A new Skirmish mode, allowing you to have one-off battles against AI outside of the campaign mode. We will be releasing additional maps that weve built just for Skirmish, and you can also play any custom map youve built in the editor (you can do this already, but we want to put it all in one place with a better UI).

The roadmap culminates in version 2.0, delivering our new Co-op Campaign, as well as some bonus material. These are all free updates and will be delivered to everyone. For those of you who might have missed our content updates these last couple of weeks, Ive compiled these in a list below. We hope youre looking forward to these content releases as much as we are. Again, sorry for the rough launch. If you were one of the players who tried us early on, wed love to have you back for another look. If youre happy with the game and the progress weve made in the last two weeks, then wed love for you to leave a review that would go the furthest in supporting Warside and making it a success. Best, Andy These issues have now been resolved:

• Fixed matchmaking using only a single map from the pool.
• Fixed custom & friends only lobbies being unavailable due to high load.
• Fixed a soft lock if one player accepts a multiplayer game, but another doesn't.
• Fixed labels on Main Menu reverting to all say Campaign.
• Fixed players receiving no income on certain difficulties or MP games.
• Partial fix for Commanders not consistently using powers in campaign mode.
• Fixed units not playing their sounds when moving on the map screen (audio during combat animations was already working as intended).
• Fixed explosions not playing the attached explosion sound effect on the map screen.
• Fixed most combat animations not showing for ice biome.
• Fixed crash with LCAC being unloaded against screen edge.
• Fixed AI Battle Power evaluation so they are more likely to use powers instead of waiting for a better target (this will also increase campaign difficulty).
• AI can no longer directly attack from fog.
• AI can no longer see units through fog when evaluating battle power targets.
• Fixed crash on fog-of-war mission when a player-owned unit died in an area with reduced vision.
• Swapped "Battle Power" and "End Turn" buttons on mini-menu to make it harder to miss-click and accidentally end your turn.
• Deprioritised mission objectives for AI when using Battle Powers to stop the AI cheesing an instant victory (even though it was the correct move for them).
• Reduced power charge rate for Mordred on The Last Stand mission to lower power spam relative to the size of his starting force.
• Fixed controller support on multiplayer lobby & matchmaking menu.
• Selecting the factory in the first mission now correctly clears the highlight.
• Fixed controller issue where unit inspector could not be closed if mouse was over the health bar.
• Updated UI translations for Simplified Chinese (with generous help from community member Karnie).
• Fixed issue with Scourge's Battle Power having incorrect poison damage values.
• Fixed music continuing to play during Mission Editor after playing a mission through the editor.
• Fixed edge case with movement calculator where some units were not showing the final tile as available.
• Fixed rare crash with some fog-of-war interactions.
• Increased volume of unit movement effects on map by 5-7db so they are easier to hear against the music.
• Fixed issue with status effects not expiring if the player that triggered the effect was eliminated (e.g. in 2v1 or FFA battles).
• Fixed Blaze sometimes using her repair ability even though her army was at full health.
• Units being carried inside other units (such as a Truck, or Transport Helicopter) are now included in the used-units count when ending turn via the mini-menu.
• Minor localisation fixes.
• Fixed trigger during The Last Stand not correctly activating the unlock sequence for next missions.
• Added patch so that players who have already completed the mission will retroactively unlock the last chapter without needed to replay The Last Stand.
• Added Decker into commander pool for PvP games.
• Added Boreas into commander pool for PvP games.
• Rebalanced Special Forces mission.
• Rebalanced The Blight mission.
• Switched Phoenixs power from a poison effect to a burn effect.
• Fixed controller navigation when choosing a commander in pre-game before a multiplayer game starts.
• Fixed a crash when a unit with pass-through (such as a Bike) could get "double ambushed" when multiple units were hidden in fog along the chosen path with no gap to stop.
• Fixed a crash when navigating between The Blight and The Last Stand missions.
• Fixed Boreas playing Scourge's music instead of his own.
• Added revised translations for units, commanders, and battle powers. Our translation partner has revised these, so hopefully they read better now.
• Updated UI localisations for French (thanks to community member roiwirven).
• The Icefang unit now uses the correct sprites, both on the map and during combat cutscenes.
• Phoenix has reduced priority when using her Battle Power to target her own troops. She still can still do it (as its part of her story) but she will now only do it if the trade with the player is positive. This slightly increases the difficulty when facing her in missions.
• Fixed decorations missing from the campaign map when switching between states.
• The Flame Tank unit now uses the correct sprites, both on the map and during combat cutscenes.
• Changed combat rounding so a unit under 1% after taking damage will now be destroyed, rather than remaining at a fraction of a percentage point.
• Fixed issue where replaying and completing a mission on a lower difficulty would overwrite the higher rank.
• Fixed incorrect wave colours on Forest and Desert backgrounds for naval units.
• Fixed an issue where save game data could save units with 0 hp.
• Fixed issue with path finding sometimes not including tiles at the edge of a unit's movement.
• Fixed the default full-screen resolution setting when playing on a Steam Deck.
• Removed resolution options where the suggested options were larger than the device's physical screen.
• Fixed issue when controller support would be lost after leaving a multiplayer game.
• Rebalanced the mission "Endgame" to make it (slightly) more of a challenge.
• Added shader caching for unit shaders. The Lavabird splash-screen will now need to be displayed for a few extra seconds to give enough time to compile the shaders. Loading or starting new missions should be quicker, especially on older hardware.

[ 2025-05-05 15:00:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Fixed issue with path finding sometimes not including tiles at the edge of a unit's movement.
• Fixed the default full-screen resolution setting when playing on a Steam Deck.
• Removed resolution options where the suggested options were larger than the device's physical screen.
• Fixed issue when controller support would be lost after leaving a multiplayer game.
• Rebalanced the mission "Endgame" to make it (slightly) more of a challenge.
• Added shader caching for unit shaders. The Lavabird splash-screen will now need to be displayed for a few extra seconds to give enough time to compile the shaders. Loading or starting new missions should be quicker, especially on older hardware.

[ 2025-04-30 23:08:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're back after the weekend, and the updates continue...

• The Flame Tank unit now uses the correct sprites, both on the map and during combat cutscenes.
• Changed combat rounding so a unit under 1% after taking damage will now be destroyed, rather than remaining at a fraction of a percentage point.
• Fixed issue where replaying and completing a mission on a lower difficulty would overwrite the higher rank.
• Fixed incorrect wave colours on Forest and Desert backgrounds for naval units.
• Fixed an issue where save game data could save units with 0 hp.

[ 2025-04-28 20:04:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

• The Icefang unit now uses the correct sprites, both on the map and during combat cutscenes.
• [spoiler]Phoenix[/spoiler] has reduced priority when using her Battle Power to target her own troops. She still can still do it (as its part of her story) but she will now only do it if the trade with the player is positive. This slightly increases the difficulty when facing her in missions.
• Fixed decorations missing from the campaign map when switching between states.

[ 2025-04-26 07:09:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

A smaller update today, but the daily patches continue...

• Fixed controller navigation when choosing a commander in pre-game before a multiplayer game starts.
• Fixed a crash when a unit with pass-through (such as a Bike) could get "double ambushed" when multiple units were hidden in fog along the chosen path with no gap to stop.
• Fixed a crash when navigating between The Blight and The Last Stand missions.
• Fixed Boreas playing Scourge's music instead of his own.
• Added revised translations for units, commanders, and battle powers. Our translation partner has revised these, so hopefully they read better now.
• Updated UI localisations for French (thanks to community member roiwirven).

[ 2025-04-25 04:52:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

We took a couple of days off for the Easter break, but we're back and normal daily patching resumes. This update is a bit larger than normal and combines both Tuesday and Wednesday into a single patch.

• Fixed trigger during The Last Stand not correctly activating the unlock sequence for next missions.
• Added patch so that players who have already completed the mission will retroactively unlock the last chapter without needed to replay The Last Stand.
• Added Decker into commander pool for PvP games.
• Added Boreas into commander pool for PvP games.
• Rebalanced Special Forces mission.
• Rebalanced The Blight mission.
• Switched [spoiler]Phoenix's[/spoiler] power from a poison effect to a burn effect.

We'll continue to attack the campaign bugs for the next few days, but we expect them all to be squashed by the end of this week.

[ 2025-04-24 07:13:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's the weekend, but we're still going...

• Increased volume of unit movement effects on map by 5-7db so they are easier to hear against the music.
• Fixed issue with status effects not expiring if the player that triggered the effect was eliminated (e.g. in 2v1 or FFA battles).
• Fixed Blaze sometimes using her repair ability even though her army was at full health.
• Units being carried inside other units (such as a Truck, or Transport Helicopter) are now included in the used-units count when ending turn via the mini-menu.
• Minor localisation fixes.

This week has been intense, and we're taking the Sunday off for Easter, but look out for a bigger patch at the start of next week. We've been busy.

[ 2025-04-20 08:19:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

A slightly smaller patch since it's a public holiday here, but we're still working.

• Fixed issue with Scourge's Battle Power having incorrect poison damage values.
• Fixed music continuing to play during Mission Editor after playing a mission through the editor.
• Fixed edge case with movement calculator where some units were not showing the final tile as available.
• Fixed rare crash with some fog-of-war interactions.

The first stage of work to upload custom maps to our dedicated servers has been completed. We need to do some supporting UI work before the feature is enabled for everyone, so look out for that in a patch very soon.

[ 2025-04-19 06:37:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

• AI can no longer directly attack from fog.
• AI can no longer see units through fog when evaluating battle power targets.
• Fixed crash on fog-of-war mission when a player-owned unit died in an area with reduced vision.
• Swapped "Battle Power" and "End Turn" buttons on mini-menu to make it harder to miss-click and accidentally ending your turn.
• Deprioritised mission objectives for AI when using Battle Powers to stop the AI cheesing an instant victory (even though it was the correct move for them).
• Reduced power charge rate for Mordred on The Last Stand mission to lower power spam relative to the size of his starting force.
• Fixed controller support on multiplayer lobby & matchmaking menu.
• Selecting the factory in the first mission now correctly clears the highlight.
• Fixed controller issue where unit inspector could not be closed if mouse was over the health bar.
• Updated UI translations for Simplified Chinese (with generous help from community member Karnie).

[ 2025-04-18 04:43:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Fixed units not playing their sounds when moving on the map screen (audio during combat animations was already working as intended).
• Fixed explosions not playing the attached explosion sound effect on the map screen.
• Fixed most combat animations not showing for ice biome.
• Fixed crash with LCAC being unloaded against screen edge.
• Fixed AI Battle Power evaluation so they are more likely to use powers instead of waiting for a better target (this will also increase campaign difficulty).

[ 2025-04-17 02:39:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi, this is Andy, developer of Warside. Not going to lie, we had a rocky launch yesterday with some game-breaking bugs that affected players first experience of the game. We were slowed by a partial Steam & Steamworks outage right after we launched, which delayed our deployment of the bug fixes. These issues have now been resolved:

• Custom lobbies are now once again available to play with friends.
• Fixed matchmaking using only a single map from the pool.
• Fixed a soft lock if one player accepts a multiplayer game, but another doesn't.
• Fixed labels on Main Menu reverting to all say Campaign.
• Fixed an issue with currency income that made the game unplayable
• Fixed an issue with a missing Play Mission button on the editor, so players can now play custom maps.

We apologize to players who experienced these issues at launch, and have worked to resolve these quickly. If you encounter any further bugs, please report them in the Bug Bash Thread on the Steam forums so we can get them fixed ASAP. We have a few features we are still patching up. We'll be making daily updates this week, and the game should be in a good state before the weekend.

• Skirmish mode for local player vs AI matches.
• Fix for campaign mission The Last Stand not correctly triggering it's event sequence.
• General tidy of campaign mode and fixing the reported issues.
• Increase in campaign difficulty for the higher difficulty settings.

We also apologize for the missing local coop component to the game. This was intended to ship with together with our console launch, but in hindsight, we didnt communicate this effectively to our community. We are continuously developing Warside and will add this feature as planned. We have been monitoring your feedback on our Discord and in the Steam forums, and in the coming weeks, we will work to add and improve features you have been asking for, including:

• Steam achievements.
• A dossier with commanders so players can read up on them.
• A local coop multiplayer campaign.
• Continued gameplay balancing and difficulty adjustments.
• Localization bug fixes.

We thank you for supporting Warside through our launch, and we are committed to continuously developing and improving the game. If you were affected by launch bugs and left a negative review, please try playing the game again with the fixes in place, and if youre enjoying the game, please switch your review to positive that would go the furthest in supporting Warside and help us to serve our player community. On a personal note, I'd like to once again apologize for the mess. There were some difficult external circumstances, but ultimately, the fault still lies with me. I hope I can make it up to you in the coming days, and get us back to where we expected to be. All the best, Andy from Lavabird

[ 2025-04-15 23:21:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Fixed matchmaking using only a single map from the pool.
• Fixed custom & friends only lobbies being unavailable due to high load.
• Fixed a soft lock if one player accepts a multiplayer game, but another doesn't.
• Fixed labels on Main Menu reverting to all say Campaign.
• Fixed players receiving no income on certain difficulties or MP games.
• Partial fix for Commanders not consistently using powers in campaign mode.

[ 2025-04-15 22:36:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Warside has arrived!

The wait is finally over, Warside launches on Steam today! Check out our launch trailer: [previewyoutube=Mcrt3aWs4s8;full][/previewyoutube] From all of us at LAVABIRD and First Break Labs, we are so excited for you to have the opportunity to finally experience Warside in all of its glory! Best of luck, Commander.

[ 2025-04-14 14:00:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

HUGE NEWS, COMMANDERS!

Attention! The wait is almost overWarside is officially launching on April 14th! After months of intense development, playtesting, and invaluable community feedback, were thrilled to bring you the full release of our turn-based tactics game. [previewyoutube=zeVa4x_qmpo;full][/previewyoutube]

Mark Your Calendars!

April 14th is the day the war truly begins. If you havent already, wishlist Warside now to be notified as soon as it goes live! Add to Wishlist Now Are you ready to choose your Commander and dominate the battlefield? Let us know in the comments, and well see you in the fight! Stay sharp, the battle awaits.

[ 2025-03-12 12:24:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

A New Warside Demo Enters the Battlefield

We have exciting news, commanders! A new Warside Demo drops TODAY! Check out a new five-mission mini-campaign demo featuring new air units playable for the first time, including jets, bombers, and helicopters! Utilize devastating new Battle Powers in both the demo campaign missions and PvP modes. Take on new missions where Commanders must hold their position on the battlefield and capture objectives, or enjoy traditional turn-based tactics battles. Unleash never-before-seen Battle Powers, like Jacksons EMP Blast, which disables vehicles in an area. Rain energy beams from the sky with Becketts Orbital Strike. Inject chaos into the fray with Mordreds Rage, forcing enemy units to attack each other during their turn. The perfect preparations for Warsides full-scale release next year await in the new demo!

Warside Release Window UPDATE

Warside is a game where the fight for victory never ends even for developers. We've received a lot of feedback from the first demo, and we're working hard to get in all the quality of life features you've been asking for. The team is hard at work making the Warside battlefield an epic gaming experience. The release window is moving to Q2 , but rest assured it's to implement what players have asked for.

Enroll in Warside Basic Training!

Need a refresher on all things Warside before you check out the demo? We hear you, commander! Check out our new Warside Basic Training video to learn the ropes! [previewyoutube=JoepqTZoamw;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-12-18 17:44:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

We're excited to announce that the latest demo of Warside is available today as part of Steam's Next Fest! This version introduces fast-paced 1v1 multiplayer PvP missions, so grab a friend (or a rival) and dive into the battle to experience it firsthand.
The reaction to our previous demo was incredible, and were grateful for all the feedback we have received. We agree with most of the suggestions and are already hard at work implementing improvements. You can expect more updates and tweaks in the coming weeks as we continue refining the game based on your input. If you want to give feedback on the multiplayer demo then head on over to the community forums. We really do read it all.

[ 2024-10-14 17:00:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

The first Demo for Warside is available for download now! Jump into action with Jackson and Beckett across six fun single-player missions, designed exclusively for this demo. No spoilers here the full campaign remains a surprise!
We're still hard at work developing the game, so we'd love to hear your feedback on our community forums or Discord. Stay tuned for our upcoming demo at Steam's October Next Fest, where you'll be able to challenge others in 1v1 online PvP battles!

[ 2024-09-26 20:20:56 CET ] [ Original post ]