Hello everyone, Griffin here, Game Director and Lead Designer for Master of Command: Seven Years’ War. If you enjoy what you see today, please consider wishlisting our game and following us on Steam—it’s the best way you can support the project. You can also join our Discord via the link below, where I'll be answering questions you may have based on this post.
If you want to watch this development log, you can do so here: Youtube Link
As noted in the last dev log, everything you see today is in Alpha, and many visual elements are placeholders.
Campaign System Overview
In our previous dev log, we covered combat in Master of Command. Today, I want to introduce the campaign system. Our approach to MoC's campaign design differs from what you’d typically see in most historical strategy games. Instead of being a ruler overseeing a nation's economy, diplomacy, military, and technology, you play as a commander, overseeing your army. You will manage food for your force, invest in expanding your camp, and hire new troops and officers. These officers are your governors, and your army is your nation. As Voltaire famously said, “Where some states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state.”
Starting a New Campaign
When beginning a new campaign, players can select from one of five nations: Prussia, Austria, Russia, Britain, and France. Each nation begins with a unique “Strategem,” which provides strategic perks that significantly impact your forces. For example, the Prussian stratagem “Junker Aristocracy” means your artillery gains less experience, but your officers start at higher levels. Another example is the Russian stratagem “Extended Supply Lines,” where your army consumes supplies 50% faster but gains manpower passively throughout the campaign. Every national stratagem has both a bonus and a penalty.
But that’s not all that sets each nation apart. After selecting your nation, you can choose from three different army compositions, each with an additional stratagem that defines what makes that army unique.
- “Cantonist Levies” come with the “Canton System” stratagem, automatically supplying manpower anytime you visit a village for the first time
- “Freikorps Volunteers” boost your campaign speed by 20%, but your force suffers a passive attrition rate of 1% every day.
- “Old Corps” makes heavy infantry upgrades much cheaper, but the experience gained for the army as a whole is slowed by 10%.
Each army composition, besides the first one for each nation, must be unlocked by completing challenges during campaigns. For example, to unlock Russia’s “Cossack Contingent,” the player may need to complete a full campaign while only utilizing cavalry. We’ll explore army compositions and challenges in more detail in a future development log. For now, let’s jump in as the Prussian Cantonists and begin a new campaign.
Procedurally Generated Campaigns
Campaigns in Master of Command are procedurally generated, meaning everyone’s Seven Years’ War will play out differently. Players are given three theaters to fight in across Germany, with each theater comprising two choice regions and one theater headquarters. The theater headquarters is contested once one of the choice regions is taken. The player's army can’t be in two places at once, so you must choose whether to confront a Russian force stationed in Western Pomerania or Lusatia before pushing out the Russian headquarters in East Prussia. After each region is taken, the next one becomes more difficult. This continues until three theaters (or six regions) have been secured, and the war is won.
We received a question from Union Raptor on our Discord: “Does the size of the enemy theater headquarters change based on how many casualties you inflicted in previous regions?” The answer is no; the difficulty in MOC is very consistent. This means if you’re winning, the game will not punish you by spawning more armies, nor will it reduce enemy numbers if you’re struggling. This way, a successful strategy can lead to a very successful campaign, but a weak strategy might leave you underequipped against higher-caliber armies later in the game.
Choosing Your Starting Region
When deciding on which region to start in, you can select between each region and read the modifiers and terrain that are displayed. The terrain of regions is always consistent, so anytime you fight in Lusatia, for example, there will always be Foothills and Forests as dominant terrain features. However, the modifiers in the area are completely random. For example, the player will need to decide whether to fight in an area with a Provincial Barracks, meaning you'll have more opportunities to recruit infantry, but the region is Blockaded and items are more expensive. Alternatively, you could go to Western Pomerania, which has a Military Academy with more officers but Plundered Towns that reduce the number of available items for purchase.
Entering the Region
Regions are made up of procedurally generated terrain, so it’s impossible to memorize an optimal path to towns, villages, and objectives. You may also notice the map looks different from our initial concept; it was originally turn-based but is now fully real-time, just like the battle system.
The objective in each region is to knock out the enemy headquarters stationed there. The enemy's headquarters starts weak but grows over time. The player's army might be capable of taking them on as soon as you enter a region, but by the time you get there, the enemy could be as strong or stronger. Therefore, it’s wise to stop at populated areas to levy troops or engage in smaller skirmishes to gain experience and loot, which can be sold in towns.
Terrain matters in every region: roads increase movement speed, forests slow it down and reduce visibility, and mountains also slow movement but increase vision. Winter campaigns introduce more extreme terrain conditions and less food, making logistics more challenging.
Enima from our Discord asked how the supply system will work. Unlike in our previous game, Fire & Maneuver, you’re not managing a network of several armies. Instead, your army travels independently without a discernible frontline. That being said, food is constantly consumed every day, and depending on the terrain, your army may require additional provisions, such as when moving uphill or through mountains.
Managing Resources and Recruitment
When you arrive at a town you have options to purchase three different manas: Food, Manpower, and Ammunition.
Aside from purchasing manas, you can also head over to recruitment and pick up an additional recruit. You will have to manage your camp before purchasing recruits since you only have room for a single division at the start of a campaign, so you can save up money to open a second division for your new recruits.
We will explore customization further in a future development log, but players can alter the appearance of their troops and the flags they carry into battle. You can also rename regiments.
Val from our Discord asked if you can modify your artillery poundage. In MOC, you can not only equip different muskets but also different sabres and cannons for your artillery regiments. All of this is fully customizable.
Random Encounters and Battles
Across the regions, you will find many in-game encounters. These are random events triggered by investigation. For instance, while investigating a broken caravan, you can find some supplies to pick up. Tread carefully as there is always a risk of an ambush.
When you spot an enemy force, you will have the option to flee or fight. Fighting will thrust you into a battle while fleeing will damage your morale and manpower.
In the previous dev log, forming battle lines was clumsy; now, it’s easier and customizable. The density of lines you draw impacts the troops’ firepower, speed, and morale.
After winning the battle, your troops will gain much-needed experience. You will also capture some loot and get to decide what to do with the prisoners.
After battles, your officers will grow and earn traits, such as Heinrich August gaining his leadership trait. We’ll show this off later, but officers develop traits through combat experience that boost the performance of their troops. Officers may die in combat, but they provide morale buffs to more troops the closer they are positioned to the frontline.
Recruits can also be upgraded. Instead of deleting units to make room for better ones, in Master of Command, you can promote troops down a unit tree. We’ll showcase the unit trees for all factions in a future development log.
2716 Caesar on the MOC Discord asked how the casualty system works. After battles, the losses sustained are permanent. If you have 100 men left out of a regiment of 1,000 at the end of a battle, that’s what you return to camp with. However, some casualties are considered injuries and are returned through your manpower pool. It’s your job to refill regiments after losses, and if necessary, visit more towns for manpower reserves.
Once your army is strong enough, you can take on the regional headquarters. If this fight is won, you get to choose a new stratagem to keep for the rest of this playthrough, which will stack with your faction and composition stratagems. Through stratagems and officer traits, players can develop a very particular playstyle, but because these rewards are always selected from a random pool, players also need to learn to adapt to what they’re given and try new strategies.
That’s everything I have to show off for today. Hopefully, you like our unique approach to Master of Command’s campaign system. It was built specifically with replayability in mind, and with 15 unique army compositions across Prussia, Russia, Britain, Austria, and France, it means you could easily spend over 100 hours mastering each of these armies across varied and dynamic campaign playthroughs. If you end up liking one particular composition, we’re also planning on letting players continue after winning all three theaters in a campaign, to conquer the rest of the map.