Blacksoil: Field Command

BLACKSOIL: FIELD COMMAND

A grim industrial-fantasy wargame about commanding an army that cannot afford another victory like the last one.

The Empire is fighting on too many fronts.

Cities have become fortresses. Frozen alliances are collapsing beneath artillery fire. Noble Houses hoard their soldiers while Imperial regiments bleed into the black soil. Every offensive demands men, shells, supplies and political favours—and whatever survives must still be ready for the enemy’s counterattack.

In Blacksoil, you command the war from both the campaign map and the battlefield. Move persistent regiments between sectors, maintain supply lines, gather reconnaissance, negotiate for House support, prepare local defences and decide how much of your army you are willing to risk.

When battle begins, take direct control of platoons, officers, artillery batteries, specialists and enormous war machines in pausable real-time combat.

Command the Campaign

Every tactical battle belongs to a larger war.

• Move regiments between connected sectors.
• Protect supply routes back to headquarters.
• Reconnoitre enemy positions before attacking.
• Rest and refit exhausted formations.
• Manage finite manpower, supplies, shells and equipment.
• Call upon the Imperial Houses for regiments and replacement soldiers.
• Prepare trenches, bunkers, wire and defensive positions before an enemy assault.
• Develop mutually exclusive army doctrines based around infantry, artillery, mechanised warfare or industrial attrition.
• Hold captured ground against enemy counterattacks.

A regiment in the wrong sector cannot join the battle. A formation committed today may still be recovering when the enemy attacks tomorrow.

Fight the Battle Yourself

Blacksoil’s battles are fought at platoon and section level across persistent, destructible battlefields.

• Select individual sections or entire platoons.
• Draw formation lines and coordinate broad advances.
• Capture and defend multiple battlefield objectives.
• Deploy delayed reserve waves.
• Call finite artillery missions using high explosive or smoke.
• Commit walkers and specialist troops to break fortified positions.
• Use engineers to cross minefields and breach bunkers.
• Keep officers and headquarters close enough to support the line—without exposing them to enemy fire.
• Dig in, fortify captured ground and turn temporary positions into defensive strongpoints.
• Fight through trenches, villages, railway yards, forests, industrial districts and ruined cities.

Artillery can destroy buildings, open new routes and kill friendly troops. Walkers are powerful but scarce. Reserves arrive only after the opening force has survived long enough to call them.

Persistent Regiments and Real Losses

Your forces are not disposable battle presets.

Regiments retain their casualties, fatigue, position and readiness between engagements. Officers and soldiers can be lost permanently. Replacement manpower must come from the correct source: Imperial recruits cannot simply replace the fallen of a Household Regiment, and House support must be earned through diplomacy.

Victories can leave your army weaker than defeats. Knowing when not to commit another regiment is part of command.

Playable Theatres

Field Command Tutorial

A dedicated five-sector campaign introducing supply, reconnaissance, regiment movement, battle allocation, reserve waves, walkers, artillery, House relations, defensive preparation and enemy counterattacks.

The tutorial uses its own save and culminates in an unassisted graduation battle.

The Greywater Front

Lead the Imperial assault against the Cinder Pact during the grinding siege of Greywater.

Break layered rebel positions, manage the cost of repeated offensives and fight through mud, trenches, fortified villages, industrial ruins and the city itself. The rebels possess their own manpower, artillery, fortifications and war machines—and will reinforce threatened sectors if given time.

The Northern Front

Fight a winter campaign against the Boreal alliance across frozen forests, settlements, railway lines and fortress cities.

Persistent weather fronts bring snowfall, blizzards, freezing fog and bitter cold. Forecast upcoming conditions, prepare local stockpiles, maintain heated shelters and protect exposed soldiers from exhaustion and cold-weather casualties. Snow remains after the storm has passed, and both armies fight beneath the same visibility and movement restrictions.

An Enemy That Fights a Campaign

The opposing army does more than wait inside battle maps.

Enemy forces reinforce important sectors, construct fortifications, maintain finite stocks of soldiers and ammunition, and launch counteroffensives against vulnerable Imperial positions. Bunkers, trenches and battlefield damage persist as territory changes hands.

Taking a sector is only half the battle. You must still hold it.

Built for Emergent War Stories

Blacksoil is a game about the stories created between battles:

The veteran regiment that survives with a handful of soldiers. The Household formation stranded without replacements. The defensive line prepared just before a blizzard arrives. The walker held in reserve until the final assault. The costly victory that leaves nothing available to stop the counterattack.

There are no perfectly clean offensives—only the decisions you can still afford to live with.

Current Development

Blacksoil is an actively developed project. The current build contains the Field Command Tutorial and two playable campaign theatres, with continued work on campaign depth, battlefields, factions, units and presentation.

Future development is planned to include additional theatres such as the mountain fortresses of the Crownspire campaign, alongside occult warfare systems, ritual battlefield devices, unnatural artillery, religious technologies and new specialist formations.

Player feedback is extremely valuable. If something looks wrong, feels unfair or simply fails to communicate what the game expects from you, please report it.

The Empire has given you its regiments. What remains of them is your responsibility.