SOUTHAG Division #5: 6e Division Légère Blindée

Hello, commanders!

As promised, we are back with another WARNO - SOUTHAG preview! Today is NATO’s French 6e Division Légère Blindée's turn in the spotlights. As well as adressing the freezing issue reported on the forum and our support.

Let’s go!

The 6e Division Légère Blindée’s History

The 6e Division Légère Blindée, or 6th Light Armoured Division, can trace its lineage back to the 6e Division de Cavalerie of World War I fame, and after that, the 6e Division Légère de Cavalerie active in World War II. It was reorganized after the war, turning into the 6e Division Blindée which was, until the 1980s, stationed in Compiègne and then Strasbourg. In 1984, the formation was reorganized into the 6e Division Légère Blindée.

The 6e Division Légère Blindée was one of the most famous French late Cold War divisions (together with the 11e Division Parachutiste) for two main reasons:

• It was the armored fist of the Forces d'Action Rapide (FAR), France's counter-operational maneuver battlegroup.
• It made headlines in 1991 during the Gulf War, forming the core of the makeshift Division Daguet.

Although the fast armored division didn’t see any action during the Cold War, its contribution during the Gulf War garnered much renown. Covering the extreme left flank of the Coalition army under the command of the American XVIII Airborne Corps, during Operation Desert Storm, it attacked over 150km in 48 hours. Excelling in its envisioned fast-moving role, it crushed the Iraqi 45th Mechanized Infantry Division before continuing to advance north. During the conflict, the 6e Division Légère Blindée commanded over 17.000 men, 4.500 being American, the first time this had happened since World War II.

The 6e Division Légère Blindée Detailed

Although an armored division, the Division Légère Blindée concept - as the name implied - meant that they had an even lighter TO&E than a regular armored division in the French Army (such as the 5e Division Blindée). The 12e and 14e Division Légère Blindée were "division école" (school divisions), meaning they were neither active nor mobilization divisions. These formations only existed on paper in peacetime, but in the case of war, they would have quickly filled their ranks with on-duty cadre and instructors.

These light divisions were intended to spearhead the I Corps in West Germany. They traded one of their two AMX-30 tank regiments for a Régiment de Reconnaissance, which was equipped instead with the AMX-10RC. Meanwhile, the two infantry regiments didn’t use the AMX-10P, but deployed either in VABs or softskins. This would have given these divisions less firepower than an armored formation, but unmatched mobility.

But what about the 6e Division Légère Blindée? It had a special and even lighter TO&E compared to the other two Division Blindée Légère. Being the sole armored formation in the FAR, it was intended to be deployed on very short notice anywhere in the world (hence it forming the core of French troops sent to participate in the Gulf War). As a mobile spearhead, it would work in tandem with the anti-tank Gazelle helicopters of the 4e Division Aéromobile.

In order to perform this high-intensity, quick-moving, shoot-and-scoot warfare, the division followed only one rule: no tracked vehicles allowed. Everything in the 6e Division Légère Blindée was wheeled (hence the lighter TO&E). Both divisional tank regiments were reconnaissance regiments, and both infantry regiments VAB-fielding. Meanwhile, all AA and artillery units were towed.

That’s just one aspect of the formation’s uniqueness, the other being that it commands over the most Légion Etrangère regiments, more than any other French division. These regiments make up half of the division: 1er REC or Régiment Etranger de Cavalerie (AMX-10RC), the 2e REI or Régiment Etranger d'Infanterie (VAB infantry), and the 6e REG, Régiment Etranger du Génie (VAB engineers).

These Légion units will have specifically recorded dialogue and acknowledgments, performed by German, Polish, British, Spanish, Czech and Italian voice actors speaking French with their own accent (and some appropriate colorful nation-appropriate swearing).

Legion sounds

The 6e Division Légère Blindée in WARNO - SOUTHAG

How will the 6e Division Légère Blindée look like in WARNO - SOUTHAG? New units are both italic and bolded. Keep in mind, the following is subject to change.

LOG

• An average category. Command units available to the French division include the P4 PC and VAB PC, as well as GAZELLE PC helicopter.
• Supply units featured are a FOB under the name of DEPOT DE MUNITION, medium BERLIET GBU 15 LOG. and heavy TRM-10000 LOG. supply trucks, plus PUMA KANGOUROU./list] INF
  • Pretty good for an armored division. Many infantry units can also be found in the 5e Division Blindée, but in the 6e Division Légère Blindée with only half the availability.
    • These include GREN.-VOLTIGEURS in the same roles, as well as GROUPE ANTICHAR, PREVOTE, ESCORTE PC, MILAN 2, and ANF1 plus M2HB machine gun teams.
    • And the new… CRAP squads. Yup, this is a French acronym for Commando de Recherche et d'Action dans la Profondeur. Since no one in France had mastered English at the end of the Cold War (fact!), we will have to wait until the early 1990s for an American officer to nicely and politely explain that this name wasn’t one of the best ideas of the French Army. The name was changed soon afterwards, but this airborne commando squad valiantly went into World War III combat under this glorious title. The unit features 10 soldiers, armed with FAMAS, AA-52, a FR-F1, and a LRAC F1 recoilless rifle, and comes with the Airborne trait.

  • Then you’ve got the Légion infantry. All of these units (men and machines) come at 1+ Veterancy compared to their non-Legion counterparts (though no free veterancy) and are available at Veterancy 3 (despite not being Special Forces) and with the Resolute trait.
    • CMDT LEGION, 4-man command squad with FAMAS and smoke grenades.
    • LEGIONNAIRES and LEGIONNAIRES (APILAS), are organized and armed along the same lines as their non-Légion counterparts.
    • CMDT LEGION.-SAPEURS are 8-man command squad with FAMAS only.
    • LEGION.-SAPEURS and LEGION.-SAPEURS (FLAM.) are like their non-Légion counterparts, but replace the vintage weapons with FAMAS.
    • LEGION. MILAN 2 and LEGION. ANF1 weapon teams.

  • All of the above units come in either P4 jeeps or BERLIET GBU 15 softskins, or VAB APCs sometimes equipped with MILAN ATGMs. The Légion has its own distinct set of vehicles.
  

  ART

  • Rather average for the 6e Division Légère Blindée, with the armored division not having any tracked vehicles, meaning no self-propelled guns!
  • The battlegroup relies on MO-120-RT61 120mm mortars, both in regular and Légion variants.
  • The only self-propelled artillery unit is the VAB PM-81 81mm mortar, once again in regular and Légion variant.
  • The divisional big guns, though towed, come in the form of the then ultra-modern TRF-1 155mm which was introduced in 1989. While lacking armor and mobility, this artillery makes up for it in range and rate of fire. After the Cold War ended, a designer at GIAT Industrie will have the bright idea to mate the TRF-1 with its standard towing vehicle - the TRM-10000 truck - from which will be born in blessed union the CAESAR self-propelled gun (not to be featured in WARNO mind you).
  

  TANK

  • A good category, though perhaps not as hard-hitting as some other armored division in WARNO. The 6e Division Légère Blindée tank force was small, and part of its armor was used for recon duty.
  • No AMX-30 here, but you do get to play with AMX-10 RC PC, and AMX-10RC SPAHIS, plus AMX-10RC SB LEGION in a "tank" role.
  • Tank destroyers include the P4 MILAN and VAB MEPHISTO, both in regular and Légion flavors.
  

  REC

  • Good as can be expected from a division built up around two reconnaissance regiments.
  • We hope you like the AMC-10RC, because there’s plenty more! The standard AMX-10RC, as well as the new AMX-10RC LEGION.
  • The 6e Division Légère Blindée retired its AMLs, instead relying on VBL RECO and VBL MILAN armored cars, as well as the VAB RASIT radar recon.
  • Infantry scouts include the ECLAIREURS and their new LEGION. ECLAIREURS counterparts.
  • The new DINOPS are engineer-scouts from the 6e REG (hence Légion) specialized in underwater reconnaissance. In WARNO, they are 4-man recon squads armed with MP-5A3, satchel charges, and smoke grenades, carrying the Shock and Airborne trait.
  • Areal reconnaissance comes as the new CL-89 fast drone, which is basically a “recon missile”, plus the SA.330B PUMA ORCHIDEE radar helicopter. Not technically part of the division, the lone prototype of this helicopter (as well as another less successful prototype variant) was attached to it during real-life Operation Daguet. The two prototypes are represented in WARNO by a single card of two Orchidée helos.
  

  AA

  • Average with the division in real-life relying entirely (and uniquely so) on towed and truck-borne 20mm guns and Mistrals, all in regular and Légion variants.
  • The battlegroup can also count on GAZELLE CELTIC, which historically were first deployed in support during the Gulf War.
  • We have also decided to bolster this category a bit by attaching some CROTALE in an unusual frontline role (they were Armée de l'Air anti-air defense assets intended to be used on air bases). This is also what happened during Operation Daguet.
  

  HEL

  • Average. Few but cheap slots, with the division drilling extensively in close cooperation with the 4e Division Aéromobile, especially its anti-tank helicopters. Lacking resilience in direct combat, the 6e Division Légère Blindée's tanks were to spot targets, launch hit-and-run attacks, while the Gazelles cleaned up from above when things got too hot.
  • This means the GAZELLE CANON, GAZELLE HOT, and GAZELLE HOT 2 will be available.

  AIR

  • Air cover will be good, with most of the support provided by the MIRAGE 2000C RDI.
  • For ground pounding, a wide array of JAGUAR fighter-bombers with CLU, HE, and NPLM payloads will be available.
  • Plus two new variants: a [RKT2] with 100mm TB rockets, and a [LGB] version with two BGL-400 laser-guided bombs.
  

  The 6e Division Légère Blindée is extremely flexible on the battlefield, with no noticeable drawbacks or strengths. While not at its best used in frontal combat, the battlegroup is great at outflanking its opponents using superior mobility and retiring again before the enemy can mount a solid defense or counter-attack.

  

  Regarding the freezing issue ...

  We're aware of the blackscreen/freeze issue that's been plaguing the game since the last Warno update, and reported since. We don't know the root cause at the moment, several engineers are currently working on it.

  The black screen is actually the operating system terminating and reloading the graphic driver. In some cases, this doesn't succeed, the PC then completely freezes, and must be hard-rebooted.

  The problem has been mainly affecting NVidia RTX graphic cards. We've been trying to reproduce the issue on many cards ( AMD and NVidia), we only managed to reproduce it on RTX cards. We've even ordered two extra RTX cards specifically to run tests on them.

  We also had some rares cases of black screen on AMD cards, but they were on GNU/Linux+Proton+dxvk. Which means: different OS, different driver, different graphic API. The likelihood for this to be the same issue between NVidia and AMD is extremely low. The symptom looks the same, but any severe error in a driver will cause this symptom.

  In the meantime, we highly recommend to upgrade your drivers, especially the NVidia driver (which has been updated in the last days, with a highly unusual amount of fixes - many of them mentioning black screens).

  We can assure you we are doing our best to solve that issue, which is our priority at the moment, and can only apologize for the inconvenience in the meantime.

  WARNO - SOUTHAG Expansion In Short

  
  WARNO - SOUTHAG is WARNO’s second expansion after WARNO - NORTHAG and showcases the fighting in southern West Germany near the Alps and on the Czechoslovakian frontier.

  In the southern reaches of Germany, the Warsaw Pact with the Soviet Central Group of Forces, bolstered by the communist Czechoslovakians, battles against a reconstituted and counter-attacking NATO SOUTHAG command led by France, with American, West German, Canadian, and reinforcing Spanish troops.

  • 2 new Army General campaigns.
  • 4 new Operations.
  • 10 new Divisions, including new nations Canada, Spain and Czechoslovakia. These include NATO’s 1st Canadian Division and the Spanish División Mecanizada «Brunete» n.º 1 and Warsaw Pact’s Czechoslovakian 1. Tanková Divize and 19. Motostřelecká Divize
  • New voice acting.
  • New units and models.

  Until Next Week

  
  You know the drill. We’ll be back with a new WARNO - SOUTHAG preview next week!

  Don’t forget the vibrant WARNO community. Check the latest news on the Steam News page or visit the Steam Forums. Get together with other players on either the excellent Discord server, Reddit page, YouTube or our Instagram.

  See you on the battlefield.