Prepare oneself, commanders!
The latest milestone for WARNO, GROUCHY, has a release date! It will arrive next week, on Tuesday the 13th of February! With this major update, we are happy to introduce finally the new Army General mode! The new mode comes with one campaign - BRUDERKRIEG - plus four Army General tutorials.
GROUCHY brings much more, however: a new map, configurable map “ambiance”, tank rework, divisional updates, new vehicles and traits, VFX updates, and more.
Happy? Happy!
Let’s go and give you a preview!
Milestone’s historical namesake
You know the drill. Each and every WARNO milestone features a name given by a Napoleonic military commander. It is a bit of a Eugen tradition. If you are keen to read more about the actual milestone, you can safely skip this section. For all of you who are interested in some military history, keep on reading.
The son of a small but old noble family, Emmanuel de Grouchy started as an officer in the Royal Guard before embracing the French Revolution by 1789. He fought in almost all the major wars, becoming undoubtedly one of the best cavalry commanders of the Grand Armee. However, he is most famous for his role in Napoleon’s Battle of Waterloo (more on that, further below).
Napoleon regarded him with suspicion due to his opposition during the Brumaire Coup. However, Grouchy’s skills couldn’t be overlooked. After campaigning in Germany and Spain - where he was the governor of Madrid during the French occupation - he continued to see action in Italy and Russia. Here, he was present during the initial invasion, the hard-won victory at Borodino, and the painful retreat from Moscow.
Claim to Fame
After the return and a personal fall-out with Napoleon, he returned with a bang in 1814, commanding the entire cavalry of the Grande Armée. Out of action after being wounded, he pledges allegiance to Louis XVIII, but when Napoleon returns, he is the first to support his old commander. Rallying troops, this loyalty will earn Grouchy his marshal's baton, the last ever being granted by the Emperor.
Grouchy’s claim to fame came during the Battle of Waterloo. While Napoleon and Ney were focused on Wellington’s multinational army, finally catching him at Waterloo, Grouchy was pursuing Blücher’s Prussians. He was under the impression the Prussian army was in disarray, but on the fateful day of the battle, Grouchy was - in fact - being lured away by a single decoy Prussian Corps. Grouchy wouldn’t budge from his marching order, even though the main battle could be heard erupting to the west. Learning of Napoleon’s defeat, he retreated without losing a man. After the war, he fled to the United States before returning to France, where he died in 1847, having recovered all his titles and ranks.
Now, Grouchy, in military history, is famous for being the reason why Napoleon lost at Waterloo. If only he had “marched to the sound of battle.” This dark legend continues to stick to Grouchy’s reputation still to this day. He is one of three marshals not to have a boulevard named after him in Paris (the other two were “traitors”), and Grouchy is derided for eating strawberries rather than joining the battle. A bygone word for “being late.”
Hence our decision to name this WARNO milestone after GROUCHY. No more than fitting with Army General’s hotly anticipated, much commented, eagerly awaited release!
Milestone GROUCHY features
So, what does the GROUCHY milestone bring on Tuesday 13th of February?
- Army General’s four tutorials. These explain everything from movement to combat, action points, AA interception, reinforcements, what you must do to win, and more! Read more about the tutorials here.
- The first Army General campaign, BRUDERKRIEG, playable as both NATO and WARSAW PACT only in single-player mode. Versus and cooperative online will be added later. This is an “extra” campaign on top of the four Army General campaigns originally envisioned to be featured in WARNO. We converted an initial prototype into a condensed campaign, with BRUDERKRIEG pitting the armies of a divided Germany against each other. Note that this campaign is shorter and more compact than the other campaigns, which are larger in scale (some are truly massive!). Still, BRUDERKRIEG should give you plenty of fun, Army General experience, and battle time! Read more about the campaign in this DevBlog here.
(insérer vidéo intro Bruderkrieg - voir lien plus haut)
- A brand-new urban map, HESSE. We previewed it in last week’s DevBlog.
- Tank Rework and divisional “house cleaning” Part 2, both topics which can be read in this DevBlog, plus “house cleaning” Part 3 (which is detailed in this post here).
- New vehicles and unit Traits: Electronic Warfare helicopters equipped with the Jammer trait can now be deployed in WARNO.
- New configurable map ambiance. From now on, in the game creation lobby, players will choose which lightning setting they want to play the map on. You’ll get the option between night, morning, or afternoon. Note that in Army General, this ambiance setting will automatically match the in-game time depicted. This is just the first batch of ambiance options - more will follow!
- Major SFX pass, including:
- Tracer rounds for machine gun, flak, autocannon, etc. will have their correct NATO/Warsaw Pact specific colors.
- More compression effects on explosions (read: shockwaves).
- Reworked and optimized MLRS smoke trails.
- Reworked and optimized airplanes and helicopter flares.
Until next week
GROUCHY is close to being released. This means that from this weekend onwards, our Strike Team and your favorite WARNO YouTuber will be able to stream and video preview the milestone’s content to their heart’s desire.
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 soon, commander!
