The free War Footing demo lets players test Strategist's Den Games' defense mobilization strategy title on Steam before purchasing the full release. Serving as the Minister of Defense, you manage procurement, national stability, and force deployment across a turn-based weekly schedule before an invasion forces your lines into operational combat. The demo features a standalone, accelerated scenario with an updated tutorial to introduce the core procurement and battle resolution loops.
War Footing Demo Overview and System Requirements
War Footing tasks you with organizing a nation's military structure under strict financial and diplomatic constraints. Instead of commanding individual tanks across a tactical battlefield, you operate from the defense ministry, signing arms deals, licensing hardware, allocating budget reserves, and deploying formations to front-line sectors.
The demo runs natively on lightweight hardware and includes full save-anytime support. Official Steam data confirms the following platform specifications and release details:
| Category | Specification / Detail |
|---|---|
| Developer / Publisher | Strategist's Den Games |
| Platform | PC (Windows via Steam) |
| Demo Cost | Free download on Steam |
| Full Game Price | $11.99 (launched October 15, 2026; $10.79 with 10% introductory discount) |
| Operating System | Windows 10 (64-Bit) |
| Processor | Dual-Core 2.0 GHz |
| Memory | 4 GB RAM |
| Graphics | Integrated Graphics |
| Storage Required | 500 MB available space |
| Input and Flow | Playable at your own pace, playable without timed input, save anytime |
What Is Included in the Demo vs. Full Release
The demo provides a compact slice of the game's broader campaign mechanics. In development updates leading to version 0.9.5, the developer aligned the demo with the full release's balance tweaks and interface upgrades, while constraining the scope to a single operational setting.
| Feature Area | War Footing Demo Build | Full Game Release |
|---|---|---|
| Scenarios | 1 accelerated scenario | 8 distinct scenarios (including Cold War Gone Hot, Industrial Giant) |
| Equipment Catalog | Selected roster from the wider catalog | Over 180 equipment types across small arms, armor, artillery, aircraft, and SAMs |
| Economy System | Updated v0.9.0 economy (tension-based income, 4 priority sliders, pay-over-time) | Full economy model with multi-scenario budgeting |
| Tutorial | Updated guided introductory flow | Complete manual and baseline scenarios |
| Achievements | Not active in demo | Full Steam Achievements supported |
Early pre-release web builds used a manual "Lobby" button to generate funds, but official announcements for update v0.9.0 confirmed that mechanic was eliminated. The current demo uses an automated national income model that scales directly with border tension, letting you divide revenue across four strategic priorities on the politics screen.
The Weekly Operational Loop
Every turn represents one week of preparation or active defense. The preparation phase typically lasts between 20 and 35 weeks depending on how geopolitical tension events unfold. Skipping critical steps in this sequence often leaves sectors uncrewed or units under-equipped when the invasion begins.
- Review Intelligence and Status Reports: Examine enemy buildup across adjacent border zones, check domestic political stability, and identify upcoming delivery arrivals before altering budgets.
- Adjust Budget Priorities: Distribute incoming weekly funds between production, research licensing, procurement, and diplomatic initiatives. Avoid burning all reserves early, as emergency events and maintenance costs demand cash reserves.
- Handle Procurement and Licensing: Order finished hardware through foreign arms suppliers or purchase production licenses to manufacture equipment domestically. Update v0.9.0 permits signing up to 6 concurrent arms contracts with split payments over time.
- Train and Outfit Formations: Raise combat units ranging from company to brigade echelons. Units placed in deployment zones gain experience and readiness over time, even while awaiting final equipment deliveries.
- Manage Logistics and Medical Evacuation: Ensure adequate recovery vehicles and transport assets are active. Assigning medevac vehicles in the logistics screen mitigates severe domestic stability losses from military casualties.
- Deploy Forces to Sectors: Assign units to front-line sectors or hold them in reserve one province behind the border. Moving units into a front sector when invasion warnings escalate does not strip their readiness.
- End Week: Confirm allocations and advance the turn counter.
Key Combat and Equipment Mechanics
Community testing and official patch notes highlight several distinctive rules that dictate how combat calculates in the demo:
- Operational Combat Resolution: Combat resolves automatically sector by sector each week. Players do not issue micro-level tactical movements during a clash, nor can you manually launch counterattacks into enemy-occupied zones once a sector falls.
- Sector Loss Triggers: Update v0.9.1 and v0.9.2 tuned retreat logic around relative combat power and vehicle losses rather than raw casualty counts. Losing expensive armored vehicles or suffering unfavorable power ratios causes formations to yield ground.
- Armor and Infantry Protection: Developer notes for build v0.8.0 established that the presence of armored vehicles directly reduces infantry casualties during assaults. However, unarmored garrison battalions equipped with high-tier anti-tank guided missiles (such as Javelins) provide strong defensive stats per dollar spent.
- Aviation and Air Defense: Helicopters do not count against airbase capacity limits, reducing maintenance overhead compared to fixed-wing squadrons. Fixed-wing fighters (like starting F/A-18 Hornets or ground-attack A-10s) can conduct strikes on turns without active ground battles, but ground-based SAM batteries (including RBS 70 and Patriot systems) are essential to prevent hostile strike craft from inflicting free damage.
- Domestic Production vs. Imports: Buying equipment licenses allows cost-effective mass production over long horizons, whereas direct foreign imports provide rapid, low-volume reinforcement at higher per-unit costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I download the War Footing demo?
The demo is available as a free download directly on Steam via the official War Footing store page (app ID 4727860).
Can you recapture a sector if it is lost in the demo?
No. In the current combat structure, defensive battles resolve in sectors holding your troops. If a sector falls completely, the line does not feature an offensive counterattack command to push back in, and your nation incurs an immediate stability penalty.
Why did the Lobby button disappear from the demo?
The developer removed the manual Lobby button in update v0.9.0. It was replaced with an automated income system that scales alongside rising border tension, accompanied by four budget allocation sliders on the politics screen.
Can the demo run on low-end laptops?
Yes. The minimum requirements demand only Windows 10 (64-bit), a 2.0 GHz dual-core processor, 4 GB of RAM, integrated graphics, and 500 MB of disk space. UI scaling fixes implemented in patch v0.8.1 ensure usability on compact screens.
How do I prevent stability collapse from combat losses?
Stability drops sharply when combat casualties go untreated. You can counter this by purchasing transport vehicles or transport helicopters and assigning them to medical evacuation (medevac) duties on the logistics screen before the invasion commences.
