Hello commanders!
We hope you are well. As you might be aware, the latest WARNO milestone - KELLERMANN - has just been released. It brings not only new maps but also the map editor (in early Alpha state) and a host of unit and balance changes.
And there is more to come. In today’s post, we’ll look at some additional divisional housekeeping plus historical background on the long-gestated Tank Rework.
Let’s go!
Divisional Housekeeping Continued
As you know, we are doing some WARNo divisional house cleaning and updating our unit roster across the board. You can read the first details in the previous post here. Some of these changes have already found their way into the last milestone, but more is to come.
Today we’ll look at upcoming updates to the US 82nd airborne (currently still in its old “shape” but soon to be graced by a new look… and two new units), the US 3rd Armored, and the East German Kampfgruppe der Arbeiterklasse Bezirk Erfurt or KdA.
For you eager beavers out there, please keep in mind that each division will be addressed. So, if XX divisions has been updated, and its counterpart YY on the other side hasn’t, rest assured (and with a bit of patience)... it will.
82nd Airborne Division
As we talked about, airborne divisions are getting streamlined, losing their Forward Operating Base, as well as heavy armor plus other attached units. We aim to get them closer to their original TO&E. While the Soviet VDV of the 35th Air Assault Brigade already got the “treatment,” soon it will be the American 82nd Airborne’s turn. The paratroopers will lose access to the 194th Armored Brigade’s units, plus some other changes. What can you expect? (Keep reading to find the previously teased new American unit!)
Units to be removed:
- M577
- M1IP
- M125 MORTAR
- M3A1 BRADLEY CFV
- FOB, as with all airborne divisions
There are some additional changes:
- One 3-point TANK slot will be removed. In turn, a 2-point RECON slot will be added.
- Two new units will be introduced:
- M551 ACAV (aka M551 Two Boxes). This variant is used in a recon role and is a SHERIDAN tank lacking the Shillelagh missiles. It carries more 152mm shells and MG ammo.
- M1047. Under this obscure US Army designation hides the… USMC LAV-25. As the Army was looking for a replacement for its aging Sheridan tank, it borrowed 14 vehicles from the Marines for testing. These were assigned to the 82nd Airborne in the late 80s, which in real life brought them during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. The M1047 is a fast-wheeled recon vehicle, armed with the same 25mm chain gun as the Bradley IFV, but lacking a TOW launcher.
3rd Armored Division
The American tankmen of the 3rd Armored Division will see some changes to their firepower. In this case, we found the division too strong in the “wrong” areas. For the 3rd Armored, it wasn’t the tanks, but rather the air power, with its lethal combo of planes and helicopters making it a bit too powerful on the battlefield. That’s why we refocused this division with the following changes.
- One 3-point TANK slot has been changed to a 2-point slot.
- One 3-point ART slot has been changed to a 2-point slot.
- One 1-point HELO slot has been removed.
- MECH. RIFLES has been removed. The few present depicted rare HQ service troops, but were relied on a bit too much as frontline combat troops in-game. That’s why we removed them, with the division focusing once again on smaller fireteam half-squads in Bradleys.
- M270 (HE) MRLS removed.
- A-10 removed (all of them).
Please note that the 3rd Armored Division will benefit from the Tank Rework (read more about it further below), which will offset some of the above changes.
Kampfgruppe der Arbeiterklasse Bezirk Erfurt
Last up, the “worker soldiers” of the East German K.d.A.. Unlike the rework affecting the two airborne divisions, the K.d.A.’s turn in the workshop wasn’t because the division was too powerful. Instead, it lacked a specific flavor, overlapping (and being overshadowed) by the very similar Warsaw Pact’s Berliner Gruppierung. That’s why we went to work and gave it some much-needed depth.
The new K.d.A should better reflect the ad-hoc second-line reservist battlegroup, hastily cobbled together to protect heavy SAM and artillery sites in the Warsaw Pact’s rear. To make this a reality in WARNO, we added quite a few new models (destined for our Army General campaign but unused for multiplayer so far).
Tank changes
- T-55AK replaced with (new) T-54BK.
- Two cards of T-55A replaced by one of the (new) T-54B.
- One card of KPz. PT-76 removed.
- One card of T-62MK added.
- One card of T-62MV added.
- One 3-point TANK slot changed into a 2-point one.
The idea behind these armor changes is that the division has a wide choice of tanks, but no card can be taken twice. You’ll be forced to use several tank types. Note that the Tank Rework will also have an effect in this case (more about that below).
As for the T-62; these older generation tanks will all end up in this division and this formation only. That’s why they will be removed from other divisions, such as the Soviet 39th Guards. Most Soviet tanks or motorized rifle divisions in East Germany kept a handful of T-62 on duty after transitioning to the T-80. But these were kept in the barracks for training purposes only, not intended to be used in wartime. However, in the case of an enemy breakthrough or an airborne drop deep in the rear, these worn-out “school” tanks would be called upon to fight.
Infantry
- All SPETSNAZ removed.
- All VOPOS removed.
- One card of (new) RESERVISTEN (s.MG) added.
- One card of (new) ZAGRADOTRYAD added. These are heavy Soviet “combat” military police, mirroring the squads from the US 24th Infantry Division. The name stands for “blocking troops,” those infamous units tasked with keeping soldiers on the frontline… by any means necessary.
- Two cards of SICHERUNGS added (now equipped with AT weapons).
Miscellaneous
- Two cards of (new) K.d.A. AUFKLÄRER added.
- One 3-point RECO slot removed.
- One card of ZU-23-2 AA was replaced with one (new) ZPU-4 quad heavy machine guns.
- One card of (new) GR.WFR. M43 82mm mortar added.
- Both cards of RM-70 replaced by the (new) BM-24 240mm MLRS.
Once again, our intention with the refreshed K.d.A is to emphasize the “reserve” flavor of the division. We are giving it a motley assortment of everything, but with some limitations on the numbers that can be deployed.
Tank Rework, Part Deux
You might remember, but we have been reworking how tanks operate in WARNO with our Tank Rework. We are back to give you more details.
So, all the upcoming changes related to tanks have been researched, vetted, and organized for quite some time now. All of it is meant to give WARNO’s armor, range, accuracy, and other values the same set of real-life-inspired hard data as its core foundation.
The Tank Rework will pivot on the following research and will give older generation “medium” tanks, such as the T-55, M48, etc., a boost. While they will be nowhere near modern main battle tanks in terms of performance, they at least can distinguish themselves better from armored cars and IFVs below them. In turn, some of our “heavy” tanks (Leopard 2, Challenger) were a bit overestimated and will be brought down a peg to more reasonable values.
What does this mean?
ARMOR
The armor scale Eugen uses for its tanks in WARNO has its basis in real-life considerations:
- Armor 1: resistant against small arms.
- Armor 2: resistant against 12.7mm ammo.
- Armor 3: resistant against 14.5mm ammo.
- Armor 4: resistant against 20/23/25mm ammo.
- Armor 5: resistant against 30mm ammo.
After this, we abstract a bit, but the general idea is to boil down an Armor number to tank protection levels against HEAT, KE, and their historical counterparts. We created a massive collection of documents to guide how and when vehicles get their Armor levels.
Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA) throws a wrench into the process. While it dramatically improves HEAT protection, it does almost next to nothing against Kinetic Energy (KE) munitions. Previously, tanks with ERA would receive a blanket +2 Armor. We didn’t think this was very accurate. That’s why we use the new ERA Unit Trait.
One major element of the Tank Rework is making the average Warsaw Pact and NATO tank feel more relevant. For instance, we are talking about the Leopard 1, the AMX-30, the early Patton, or the T-55 or T-62. As these first and second generations of tanks will form the core of many a nation’s armed forces (including future ones), it is paramount that the gameplay with these “medium” tanks feels good and useful as the lowest common denominator.
GUN RANGE
Shooting shells over large distances involves not only a tank gun and the ammunition used. We are also talking about the effects of fire control systems, optics, rangefinders, reference sensors, etc. All these augment accuracy, especially on the move, but also how far a tank can fire.
We settled on a Gun Effective Range, which is the range a tank can engage a target with all the types of ammo available - and expect a good effect. In real life, this lies around the 2km mark, give or take. This is why we chose 1925m as the baseline Gun Effective Range.
This range can be modified by two elements: laser rangefinders, allowing for quick, accurate range measurement, and automatic fire control computers. These two technologies came to fruition in the Cold War, resulting in more advanced sensor input to improve tank accuracy.
The above, in WARNO’s case, directly impacts the range of a tank gun.
- Baseline tank range is 1925 m.
- Having a Laser Rangefinder allows for a 2100 m range.
- Having an Automatic Fire Control Computer allows for a 2275 m range.
ACCURACY
Already touched upon, but there was a host of other tech and equipment that could influence the accuracy of a tank gun. The following influences the general accuracy found on a WARNO’s tank:
- Coincidence Rangefinder.
- Stereoscopic Rangefinder.
- Meteosensor.
- Fire Gating.
- Manual Entry Ballistic Calculator.
- Muzzle Reference Sensor/ Thermal Cowling.
Of course, accuracy decreases while on the move. Only with the advent of stabilizers did accuracy while moving increase sufficiently so that targets could be hit while traversing cross-country. Cold War tech can be divided into four different groups:
- No stabilizer - can not fire on the move.
- Single-axis stabilizer - 40% less than static accuracy.
- Twin-axis stabilizer - 20% less than static accuracy.
- Twin-axis stabilizer with stabilized sights - 10% less than static accuracy.
Tank Rework Expectations
The above details should give you an insight into how we proceed with giving each tank in WARNO is place within the hierarchy. We don’t assign random numbers. Instead, we do our due diligence, backed up by mountains of research, to find the real-life equivalent in terms of accuracy, tank gun ranges, armor, and more.
The upcoming Tank Rework will see some profound changes, but you have to wait a little bit longer until we can give you solid gameplay details!
Milestone KELLERMANN out now
WARNO’s latest update is out. In case you have missed the news, or are wondering about all the good stuff that has arrived in our game, look below!
- The new map editor. Read more about it in last week’s DevBlog.
- The new map TENSION Previewed here!
- Two “new” map 10v10 variants of ROCKS, including Destruction and Conquest modes.
- Veterancy rework. Explained in this DevBlog.
- First divisional rework. Part of our house cleaning effort. Check out the details here.
- False Flag trait and new civilian 3D models. Talked about in this DevBlog.
Until next week
That’s it for this week’s DevBlog.
Join the passionate 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, commander!
