Contract Corps: Lead your Aces

About this game

Latest news

• Announcements·6 Sept 2026Official

  Playtest Date: Starting Sept. 25th!

  Hi everyone,the Playtest will start on Friday, September 25th. Note this will be a closed Playtest, and I will open signups a couple of days beforehand. There will be a form/survey upon mission completion, major bonus points if you can make a video/recording of yourself playing - these Letsplays help a lot getting additional feedback beyond just analytics/forms! You can also contact me at playtest@nightfallfoundry.com for any additional comments/questions/concerns.Thanks,--J
  Read full article on Community Announcements (jwanke)

• Announcements·29 Aug 2026Official

  Devlog #3 - Playtest, Tutorial Video & UI works

  Another month has passed, and I am very excited that we are getting close to the first closed playtest! What the playtest will beTo set expectations, the playtest will be a fixed number (probably 4-5) of pre-defined scenarios/skirmishes. Basically, this will be the first time showing the game to "the outside world", with the goal of getting feedback on a variety of topics and mechanics. I would like to give people an opportunity to help shape the game, and I believe it is best to do so by showing in-progress iterations to get fresh input, especially after working on the game in isolation for a long time. Ultimately, the goal will be to build a small community of playtesters to iterate with more frequently. There will not be a dedicated tutorial yet, so I recorded a how-to-play video for a beginner's mission, which explains the UI and some of the mechanics. Note that this is from a build from this week, so there will likely be some differences to the eventual playtest build:   What the playtest will NOT beThe playtest will not yet contain the full meta loop (so it will not include features such as a loot system, unit customization or procedural maps). This will arrive in the form of another playtest, and if you would prefer to wait for that, this is absolutely fine too - again, I just want to ensure everyone knows what to expect. In terms of a date for the playtest I am still clarifying some personal travel obligations I have to fulfill, but am aiming for either of the last two weekends of September (worst case would be first weekend of October). I will put another announcement with more information up once the date is finalized. UI progressI am super excited about the progress Contract Corps: Lead your Aces is making. I have spent quite a bit of time over the last month revamping the UI, and so just want to showcase the new version in comparison with before:Keep an eye out for the playtest announcement once I have a definitive date confirmation!Until then,--J
  Read full article on Community Announcements (jwanke)

• Announcements·1 Aug 2026Official

  Devlog #2 - Mechanics and Direct & Indirect Unit Control

  Welcome to Devlog #2! Today I would like to dive deeper into how both the player-controlled units (your Aces) and the AI-controlled forces (your Corps) function, the design process behind them and how AI behaviour is handled.To recap: Contract Corps: Lead your Aces aims for a classic turn-based strategy experience, but scaled up into massive conflicts. One of the main design challenges on that scale is to ensure AI units are neither walkovers nor "too dominant". The player must remain the decisive factor for victory - otherwise, the game might be a great simulator but not fun.  Core Mechanics: Resolve, Momentum, Unit LoadoutsAll units share basic attributes like hitpoints, shield strength and movement speed. Unique to Contract Corps is Resolve - it represents both morale and energy.Attacking costs Resolve, as does taking fire. Low Resolve inflicts combat debuffs and eventually triggers Panic, forcing a unit's retreat. This leads to a natural combat rhythm where units periodically "rest" to recover Resolve and restore their combat effectiveness. Your AcesAces are significantly stronger than standard units, but not invincible. If you do rush into a cluster of enemies your Ace will quickly get killed within 2-3 turns.Momentum: Aside from the standard attributes Aces also have Momentum, which can earned through different mechanism such as killing or routing enemy units. Momentum is then spent on high-impact abilities unique to an Ace.Direct Control: Aces are controlled directly in a classic "1 Move & 1 Action per turn" manner.Configurable Loadouts: While standard units carry a customizable weapon loadout, they are mostly restricted to one weapon per unit. Aces can pilot more complex war machines, such as Mechs, which can be configured with versatile weapon loadouts (e.g. dual short-range lasers paired with a long-range AoE missile launchers)Customizable Pilot: Aside from the item loadouts, each Ace will also have their own ability sets, which might be a set of unique ac...
  Read full article on Community Announcements (jwanke)

• Announcements·2 Jul 2026Official

  Devlog #1 - The Design Philosophy: Heroes in a Living Battlefield

  Welcome to the kickoff of the very first Contract Corps: Lead your Aces devlog! Going through development I will be sharing regular updates, covering everything from core mechanics over design decisions to world lore.Today, I want to outline the high-level vision behind Contract Corps.The Design ChallengePersonally, I have been a big fan of squad-level turn-based tactics going all the way to the Jagged Alliance days. However, it always felt a bit restrictive to act as a completely independent squad of 4-12 units instead of being on a wider battlefield.Some games try to add allied AI units, scaling battles up to 30v50 encounters - however, because those engines are not natively designed for it, this can lead to long, slow turns due to AI taking its time to decide what to do, and due to visualizing dozens of individual unit actions.That friction is where the core idea of Contract Corps originates.The Core Concept: You directly control a couple of elite units (your Aces), but deploy them within a wider, AI-controlled army (your Corps). You can still influence your wider Corps, but do not have to deal with the micromanagement of commanding 200 individual units.How 200v200 Actually WorksThis massive 400-unit battlefield then forces us to solve 2 major structural problems:1. Simultaneous ExecutionIf all 400 units acted sequentially, a single turn would take...long. In Contract Corps, your (player controlled) Aces act sequentially, but all the AI units operate in a WeGo model - this means all units plan their individual actions independently (without cheating or knowing the enemies plans) and then execute their actions simultaneously.2. The Turn SummaryWith 400 units moving and attacking at the same time the screen turns into chaos. We now have a system which unravels that action for the player by prioritizing the different events that happen and slices them into:Highlights: the most important events per turn get played sequentially, so the player has time to focus and und...
  Read full article on Community Announcements (jwanke)

• Announcements·15 Jun 2026Official

  Contract Corps: Lead your Aces is on Steam!

  I am incredibly excited to officially open the Steam page for Contract Corps: Lead your Aces! This game was born out of a specific design challenge: I wanted to bring the excitement of intimate squad-level battles to more massive, chaotic battlefields - but turn-based. Bridging the GapTo achieve this scale, Contract Corps introduces a dual command structure:Direct Control: You micro-manage and lead a handful of elite hero units: your AcesIndirect Command: Your wider army (your Corps) fights autonomously, but you can issue high-level instructions such as "Defend this Chokepoint"This approach opens up unique possibilities. Multi-mission operations become highly manageable as you can sensibly organize and split up a Corps of 200+ troops across multiple missions, while still preserving custom unit loadouts and unique ability trees from traditional squad-level games.Performance & PacingA key aspect during development has been to have battles feel fast and responsive, both from a pacing perspective (no watching the AI take a minute for planning its moves) and a functional performance perspective. You won't need a high-end gaming PC to run these battles - I am actively developing it on a 5-year old laptop with an integrated GPU.The Road aheadWhile Contract Corps is still early in its development I am super excited to take you along this design journey. Over the coming months I am planning to release a series of Developer Logs here on Steam to dive deeper into the different systems & mechanics Contract Corps will have to offer.Join the CorpsIf you want to support development, the best thing you can do today is to Wishlist Contract Corps on Steam today. It heavily assists with visibility on the platform and ensures you never miss a development update.Please feel free to reach out anytime with your thoughts, ideas or questions! --J
  Read full article on Community Announcements (jwanke)