WarSlice

What Is WarSlice?

WarSlice is a turn-based tactics game from Deep Strike Games, coming to Steam in Q1 2027 for Windows. If you grew up on Advance Wars, the shape is immediately familiar: a tile map, infantry and tanks, commanders with unique bonuses, and victories won by positioning rather than reflexes. The self-description on the store page is "easy-to-pick-up but deep," and the feature list backs that up with a 30-mission campaign, online PvP, local shared-screen battles, and a built-in map editor.

You fight for the glory of your chosen faction across the frozen tundras of the Kingdom of Rhon. Each army is led by a Commanding Officer, and WarSlice's twist is that your CO physically joins the battle. Park your CO near the fight, build up a power charge by attacking nearby, then burn a Ultimate ability that can flip a losing engagement in one turn.

A free demo is already on the game's Steam page, and the campaign supports replay with a Hard Mode variant of all missions.

WarSlice Details

How to Play WarSlice

Winning: Two Roads to Victory

Every map ends one of two ways, and knowing which road your army is built for shapes the whole match:

Annihilation. Destroy every enemy unit. This rewards aggressive play and armies that trade efficiently. If your CO buff favors combat power, pushing kills and denying retreats is a valid plan.

Nexus capture. Seize the enemy's Nexus structure. This rewards mobility and misdirection. Infantry that quietly walks past a stalemate front line toward an undefended Nexus ends games that the kill race would have lost.

Read the map before turn one. Wide-open maps favor annihilation builds; chokepointed maps with side paths make Nexus rushes terrifying.

Commanding Officers: Your Build-Around

More than 11 playable COs exist at launch, and each boosts their units differently. Three principles apply no matter which one you pick:

1. Your CO's unit is the strongest thing you own. The store page states it plainly: a CO's unit is far stronger than any regular unit. That means it should be doing work every turn, not sitting on your back line as insurance.

2. Attack near your CO to charge the Ultimate. Power charge builds from attacks made near your CO. Play the CO into the center of your battle line and the Ultimate arrives several turns earlier than it would from a cautious position.

3. Time the Ultimate for a swing turn. A fully charged Ultimate "tips the scales." The best uses are either breaking a stalemate (delete their strongest unit) or enabling a capture push (clear the Nexus defenders in one burst). Save it for a turn that changes the map's shape.

The Unit Economy

Infantry capture properties. Cheap, expendable, and the only path to income and Nexus captures. Every turn your infantry is not capturing something is a turn of tempo lost.

Light Tanks are your workhorse. The store page calls them out by name as the powerful front-line unit. They win head-on fights, protect your infantry column, and screen your CO from Focus fire.

Trade math wins wars. Turn-based tactics at this level is arithmetic: never take a trade that leaves your attacker weaker than the defender's counterattack, and always ask whether the tile you end on can be punished next turn.

The Campaign: Kingdom of Rhon

The story campaign spans 30+ missions across the frozen tundras, replayable as often as you like, with Hard Mode versions for a real challenge. Practical advice for the campaign grind:

Learn one CO deeply before sampling the roster. Campaign missions teach map patterns; a CO you know inside-out turns that knowledge into clears.

Replay early missions on Hard after finishing. The game invites replays, and Hard Mode is where the CO mechanics you skipped in Normal start mattering.

Demo first. The free Steam demo covers the game's opening, which is enough to learn the capture-and-charge rhythm before launch day.

Multiplayer Guide

WarSlice launches with both online battles and shared/split-screen PvP, plus Remote Play Together for couch-remote play. For PvP:

Nexus pressure beats greedy economy. Human opponents punish free tempo. Keep at least one infantry lane pushing toward their Nexus so your opponent has to spend units defending instead of building.

CO positioning is readable. Your opponent can see where your CO sits and when the charge is close. Feint the Ultimate: park near a juicy target, let them commit defenders, then swing elsewhere.

The map editor is the long game. The built-in Map Editor lets you design original maps, which means community map pools will form around the game. Asymmetric maps with risky Nexus routes produce the best PvP stories.

Tips and Tricks

Charge faster by pairing your CO with Light Tanks. Tanks attack every turn and stay near the line, feeding charge while doing real damage.

Captures are worth more than kills early. Properties compound every turn; a kill is once. When in doubt, take the property.

Count tiles before committing. With no time pressure (Playable without Timed Input), there is no excuse for ending a unit on a tile the enemy counter can reach.

Adjustable Difficulty exists for a reason. The campaign's Hard Mode is the intended challenge spike. Normal exists to teach you the roster, not to prove anything.

Wishlist and watch the demo's patch notes. The game is pre-launch, and Deep Strike Games still has time to adjust CO balance based on demo feedback, so the meta you learn now may shift by Q1 2027.

FAQ

When does WarSlice release? Q1 2027 on Steam for Windows.

Is WarSlice like Advance Wars? It is the closest structural match: tile-based turn-based combat, property captures, CO units with unique buffs, and a mission-based campaign. The on-battlefield CO and Ultimate charge system is WarSlice's own addition.

How many Commanding Officers are there? More than 11 at launch, each boosting units in different ways.

Is there multiplayer? Yes: online PvP, shared/split-screen PvP, and Remote Play Together.

Does it have a map editor? Yes, a built-in Map Editor for designing original maps ships with the game.

Is there a demo? Yes, a free demo is available on the WarSlice Steam page.

How long is the campaign? Over 30 missions, all replayable, with Hard Mode versions.