Hello, hello, hello!
Welcome back. After last week’s mini-insight on “what’s to come”, in today’s DevBlog, we’ll circle back to WARNO’s Army General campaigns.
We will focus on the so-called “Kassel Axis” of our World War III scenario in West Germany. Contained within are the Airborne Assault - chronologically speaking, the first campaign - plus the follow-up larger Left Hook campaign.
Let’s go!
Army General explained
Once again, to make things clear: WARNO will ship with five campaigns, of which one—Bruderkrieg—has already been released. The remaining four campaigns will be part of WARNO’s upcoming official launch out of Early Access. Bruderkrieg is an extra campaign we managed to add on top of the four promised initially.
The base game’s campaigns are set in central West Germany during the first week of the Warsaw Pact invasion. These can be divided into either the Frankfurt axis or the Kassel axis. If you want to read more about the Frankfurt campaigns, check out this DevBlog here, detailing the Fulda Gap and the massive Highway 66 campaigns.
The incoming milestone BERNADOTTE will add new functionality to the Army General campaign mode, allowing you to play with or against other players in either Versus or Coop mode. This means that Bruderkrieg will be - once more - our testing grounds for a little while, while the other four campaigns will be playable both in single-player and online at launch!
Each Army General campaign will feature strategic options, from bringing extra reinforcements or choosing between two different units.
Airborne Assault
The first shots of the war happen on the Kassel axis, specifically the Kassel-Calden airport, which is seized in a daring but risky covert operation by Soviet and East German special forces before daybreak. With more and more Soviet VDV air assault troops being ferried in, an airhead is established in the rear of NATO’s West German 2. Panzergrenadier-Division in the northern sectors of CENTAG.
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With CENTAG’s attention focused on the Fulda Gap, the communist threat on this part of the front was considered secondary by NATO command. Call it faulty intelligence, Soviet misdirection, or complacency. At dawn, massive artillery bombardments and continuous aerial strikes descend on Bundeswehr forces in the Kassel sector. Arrayed in front of the NATO defenses is the Soviet 1st Guards Tank Army, a powerful force keen to join up with friendly paratroopers. For the hard-pressed Bundeswehr defenders, the communists seem to attack from all sides. A Warsaw Pact breakthrough threatens to rip a dangerous gap between NATO commands, bisecting the lines of communications between the north and the south of West Germany.
The Airborne Assault campaign calls on historical air assault landings made by the Soviets and, more recently, Russian forces on airports behind enemy lines. Kassel-Calden’s mission also reflects the use of elite special forces and saboteur squads, with inspiration drawn from the Soviet Operation Storm-333 in 1979.
Airborne Assault Insights
In this campaign, unlike Bruderkrieg or Fulda Ga, NATO starts with an entire division - the Bundeswehr’s 2. Panzergrenadier-Division - already deployed. Some additional smaller formations are on the map as well. However, the West German brigades are spread out, while some require a few turns before they are ready to move.
The Warsaw Pact forces are all Soviets except for a single Nationale Volksarmee battalion. Their attack on Kassel and Göttingen is full-on. A key aspect of this campaign is the communist coup de main behind NATO lines, smack in the middle of the 2. Panzergrenadier-Division’s deployment area. The West German mechanized infantry is torn between performing two missions at the onset of the Pact’s invasion: safeguarding CENTAG’s flank at Fritzlar in the south or maintaining the vital link with NORTHAG in the east.
Not only that, they need to muster forces as soon as possible and crush those pesky paratroopers, sowing chaos in the rear. Aside from a single advanced Belgian recon battalion, the only help CENTAG can spare is air support from USAF and Luftwaffe air squadrons.
Having to focus on two different combat missions while the full weight of the invading Soviet 1st Guards Tank Army bears down on you… NATO is clearly stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Market Garden Revisited
For the Warsaw Pact, the situation on the ground echoes a Market Garden-style operation. A pocket of paratroopers is isolated behind NATO lines and needs to be relieved by friendly armored forces trying to break through the enemy frontline as soon as possible. As long as the communists hold on to Kassel-Calden airport and thus maintain the air bridge, fresh battalions of the 35th Guards Air Assault Brigade will be fed into it. This increases your chance of holding on to the pocket and maybe even increase its size. However, the paratroopers are lightly equipped and armed, and will have a difficult time standing against a concerted attack.
On the ground, the 20th Guards Motor Rifles Division is supported by an armored regiment from the 9th Tank Division, as well as independent helicopter and Spetsnaz forces. This is a powerful formation, but it has to break through the West German defenses, clear the Kassel urban sector, and then split between two distant objectives: either Diemelstadt in the east or Fritzlar in the south. Not an easy task!
Left Hook
The initial Soviet offensive on Kassel didn’t create the breakthrough envisioned by high command, but did result in a large salient in NATO lines. The fighting has been hard for both sides and after a momentary pause, more and more units are being deployed. The front is far from stable. A new phase in the war begins around Kassel after four days of intense fighting. Success for the Warsaw Pact can only come from seizing their objectives, while NATO needs to defend tooth and nail both West German territory and their allies on the battlefield.
A regrouped and reinforced Soviet 1st Guards Tank Army will push again and try to break out of the Kassel bulge. The objective is Dortmund. However, unlike the chaotic first hours of the war, NATO has rallied. Under British command, the Belgian I (BE) Corps is being deployed with additional British units. The Bundeswehr is also reforming. As such, both sides are planning their own counter-attacks.
Both sides see the stakes raised in Left Hook. NATO did not collapse as easily as predicted by the Soviet high command, while the Soviet Army was far from being a spent force with a vast number of soldiers and equipment still available to resume the attack.
Left Hook Insights
This larger campaign takes place a few days after Airborne Assault. Kassel has fallen, the heavily mauled 2. Panzergrenadier-Division pushed back towards NORTHAG. This isolates the West German formation from its parent Bundeswehr’s III Korps in CENTAG. However, the Soviets have failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough.
The timely intervention of a British brigade plugging the line and holding along the Diemel River (the battle depicted in theWARNO’s Operation Hold Until Relieved, linking the two Army General campaigns), has given NATO critical time to regroup and reorganize.
While most of the forces from Airborne Assault have suffered losses, the Soviet 1st Guards Tank Army and NORTHAG are fielding reinforcements. For NATO, it means the whole Belgian I (BE) Corps plus the British 3rd Armoured Division and other smaller formations. The Pact fields the additional 9th and 11th Guards Tank Division. Both sides plan to launch a new offensive to regain the initiative before their opponent can launch their own operations.
The Belgians were initially only meant to be featured as a teaser for the future NORTHAG expansion, but they ended up being added in strength to represent almost half of the campaign’s NATO forces. Other units will be featured more as cameos, including a strategic choice that lets you deploy heavy Buccaneer bombers.
Until next week
That’s it for this deep dive into Army General. Let us know what you think! We’ll be back soon!
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See you on the battlefield, commander!
