From Press Release:
London, UK – 8 November 2026 – Games Ground, the annual international gaming festival and trade fair in Berlin, and Slitherine, a leading publisher of strategy games, have joined forces to bring something new to the European gaming scene: Dominion Days, the first 100% strategy-focused showcase of its kind in Europe. On 7 and 8 November, a large, customized hall had become the home of strategy at Games Ground, giving players two full days to command, conquer, compete and discover, all under one roof.
With the same passion and dedication, Slitherine hosted its biannual showcase at Dominion Days, unveiling the company’s upcoming games, with two surprising announcements, and exciting news for strategy fans.
Steel Platoon: a New RTS WWII Game with RPG Elements
Steel Platoon is a real-time strategy game with RPG elements set on the Eastern Front during WWII, created on the most recent version of the Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance engine. Players take command of a Red Army lieutenant and his forces, controlling infantry, tanks, artillery and support units in real-time combined-arms battles. The gameplay focuses on positioning, cover, terrain, maneuver and choosing the right units and tactics for each situation. The aim is to deliver realistic and tactically demanding combat while remaining more accessible than a hardcore military simulation.
During the event Marco Minoli, Director of Publishing, and Alberto Casulini, Business Development Manager, talked extensively about the choice of the scenery, the Battle of Moscow, the 15-mission campaign, and the main characters.
One of the highlights was the discussion of the RPG elements in the game. In Steel Platoon, these elements revolve primarily around persistent unit progression rather than traditional character-driven role-playing mechanics. Infantry squads and vehicle crews can survive and carry over between missions, gaining experience and improving their capabilities over time. This progression can unlock additional abilities and customization options, allowing experienced squads to become significantly more capable and distinct from newly recruited units.
Steel Platoon has a unique take on WWII RTS, as it is built around the idea of consequence-driven warfare. It combines the immediate battlefield decision-making of a real-time tactics game with persistent progression more commonly associated with RPG and campaign-management systems. Realistic combat makes positioning, cover, terrain, armor penetration and vehicle components important, while persistent squads and crews ensure that the consequences of those battles extend beyond a single mission. Steel Platoon will be available during 2027 on PC.
The Rising Cult: the New Real-Time Tactics Game where Players are Cosmic Horror Villains
Alberto Casulini, Business Development Manager at Slitherine, had the pleasure to announce this new RTT game with Jakub Dobi and Johanna Kaipainen from the development team. Together they talked about the inspiration behind the game and the myth, the transition from working without a publisher to working with one, the development process and the rich lore behind the campaign.
The Rising Cult is a game set in the 1920s in which players take on the role of cosmic horror villains, leading a cult on roguelike raids across a city. Players set up stealthy ambushes before summoning monsters from the Cthulhu Mythos to finish the job. Between expeditions, they expand their underground lair, recruiting cultists and researching new monsters to strengthen their forces.
The gameplay is a unique mix of stealth-tactics encounters and roguelite elements, where players can enlighten enemies: terrifying them until they break, then turning them into units that can be used, sacrificed for power, or brought back to the Sanctuary as cultists.
Every mission feeds into the next: players bring their spoils back to the Sanctuary, grow their cult, and uncover more of the story along the way. The Rising Cult will be available during 2027 on PC.
Warhammer Blood Bowl
During the event, Mathieu Valero, Lead Developer at Cyanide, explained the reasons behind the decision to postpone the release of this long awaited game until early 2027. The game’s history and the feedback received during the latest playtest have reinforced the team’s belief that the game needs to be as polished as possible, as disappointing the fans is not an option. To ensure the best possible version of the game, more development time is needed, especially considering the many changes that will set Warhammer Blood Bowl apart from Blood Bowl 3.
In fact, Warhammer Blood Bowl will introduce significant improvements to the digital version of Blood Bowl the video game, marking a new beginning by aligning the game’s rules with the latest tabletop edition. Passing has become easier and more reliable, eliminating Wildly Inaccurate Passes, while several players who are not specialized throwers have received improvements to their passing abilities. The new Secure the Ball action also helps low-agility teams pick up the ball more reliably when opponents are not contesting it. In addition, new and updated skills and traits introduce fresh tactical possibilities, creating new strategies and potentially changing the game’s competitive meta.
The update also brings Rumble mode, a 7 vs. 7 format similar to the tabletop Sevens rules, offering faster matches that are easier to learn and more accessible to newcomers. Two new free factions, the Tomb Kings and Bretonnians, have been added to the base game, each offering a unique playstyle and greater strategic variety.
To improve the experience for beginners, the game now features a clearer user interface and more streamlined tutorials, making it easier for new players to understand the mechanics and get started. Finally, the introduction of new Star Players adds further variety to team building and gameplay, and the UI will know improvement as well.
Many more changes are on the horizon, including the evolution of the business model all with one goal in mind: to ensure the best experience possible, fun and enjoyment, and a healthy dose of touchdowns, broken bones and a rabid crowd.
As promised in the initial announcement in July 2026, when Warhammer Blood Bowl launches in Early 2027, anyone who owns Blood Bowl 3 on any platform will receive the game for free, along with all in-game purchases they have made, including additional teams and cosmetics.
Veil of Ashes: A Deep Dive into the Game
During Sunday’s Slitherine Next portion there was an in-depth discussion with the developers of Veil of Ashes about the game, its gameplay dynamics and the state of development.
Michael Patzer, Game Designer and Project Management, and Felix Schweitz, responsible for Company Management, Map Building in the development team delved into the development process, from transition to developing with a publisher, to the involvement of the community.
Veil of Ashes is a real-time strategy game set in a dark universe with steam-powered war machines. Players command infantry, tanks, and colossal behemoths across destructible battlefields. There is no basebuilding, so players request units directly to the field. With two distinct factions currently in development, each with different strengths and weaknesses (and a third one also in the plans), all of this can be experienced in Single and Multiplayer.
The developers also explained how the main focus of the game is the units and the features connected to them. This includes the armor system for vehicles and Behemoths, as well as the Condition Effect System. With this system, the goal is to simulate damage to internal parts, like a damaged engine.
Broken Arrow: the Future of the Game
Félix Habert, Creative Director at Steel Balalaika, discussed the challenges of developing the Russian Guard DLC alongside the Public Test Environment (PTE), which required multiple adaptations to accommodate changes to the live branch. The Creative Director also highlighted the strong audience for single-player content, paving the way for the announcement of the upcoming War on Air DLC. Scheduled for release in December, War on Air will feature six missions telling a parallel story from the perspective of Russian defence forces stationed around St. Petersburg and the Estonian border.
On the multiplayer front, Habert highlighted the positive impact of FACEIT tournaments and the Face-Off format on game balance, helping the community develop new strategies and shape the evolving meta. Recent balance changes reflect the impact of the Russian Guard DLC and represent another step towards gameplay improvements planned for testing in a future PTE (Public Testing Environment).
The future seems very bright for Broken Arrow’s fans as it is confirmed that players will soon benefit from new match history and replay features, allowing them to download replays from the servers, watch matches from different perspectives, adjust playback speed, pause, and rewind. Finally, Single-player content will also benefit from a new save system designed to provide greater flexibility when playing through missions. Players will now be able to save during the campaign:
The system will introduce:
- Mission checkpoints
- Quick saves
- Automatic saves
- Manual saving
These features will be supported across existing campaigns and single-player content, allowing players to approach longer missions at their own pace. The save system will be exclusive to single-player content and will not be available in multiplayer or cooperative modes.
Radio Commander: Pacific ‘41: an update on the innovative point of view on the Pacific theater of the WWII
Radio Commander: Pacific ‘41 is a realistic command simulation set in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Gameplay focuses on building situational awareness through radio communications, analyzing incoming reports, and making strategic decisions under pressure.
Grzegorz Trzeciak, developer of the game, brought up the core concept of the franchise, recapping the previous instalment and explaining what makes the series unique:its deep roots in real historical military operations during WWII, its behind-the-scenes approach through radio communications, and its gameplay built around situational awareness. Radio-based communication, tactical decision-making and limited battlefield visibility are the challenges and tactical layers that the players will have to face.
The developer has encouraged fans to join the Beta active right now to ensure the best game experience possible.
Dominion Days is a dedicated space for strategy games, designed to be a place where strategy players don’t simply pass through on their way to the next attraction, but can fully immerse themselves in the games and community they love.
The idea is simple: give strategy players something they rarely get at large gaming events, a space built entirely around the games they love. With Slitherine at the heart of the initiative, Dominion Days will bring together a diverse community spanning historical strategy, grand strategy, wargames, tactical games, and other forms of deep, systems-driven gameplay.
To achieve this goal, Slitherine’s first edition brought together twelve strategy game demos for players to try, the latest news about Slitherine’s future at Slitherine Next, a Broken Arrow 1 vs 1 tournament, the first Warhammer Blood Bowl tournament, 20 European content creators and journalists, and much more passion for strategy gaming.
