Hello!
Welcome to the final blog post of 2020! It surely has been a long year for all of us, no doubt.
At Eugen, we have tried our best to steer the ship through 2020s dark waters and stormy weather, and we sincerely hope that you’ve liked what came out of our creative spaces and (home) offices during this time. We never stopped working!
As a matter of fact, we’ve got plenty of interesting things planned for you in the new year! Exciting times are coming.
Before we adjourn for the holiday season, we wanted to give you a deep dive into our third Nemesis DLC, including listing all the new units and variants. Expect Nemesis: Battle of Rimini to be released in the not-too-distant future!
Keep reading to find out more.
Nemesis: Battle of Rimini Updated
Let’s rewind. Nemesis: Battle of Rimini takes place at the end of summer 1944, when the Allies are dead set on breaking through the Gothic defensive line in Italy. The Adriatic coastline looks most promising. If the British Eighth Army can enact a breakthrough here, near Rimini, it might force the Germans to redeploy precious forces. This would weaken the center and allow the American troops to punch through and push towards the coast. With one flank rolled up, the road to northern Italy would lay open. This Allied plan became known as Operation Olive.
However, the offensive doesn’t exactly go as planned. The Allied focus, including supplies and manpower, is aimed at other theatres, mostly Normandy and in the south of France with Operation Dragoon. Not only that: due to tempestuous weather, Operation Olive bogs down quickly. Even though the opening battles take the Axis defenders by surprise, tenacious resistance by, amongst others, the paratroopers of the 1. Fallschirmjäger makes it slow going for the Allied units. When 2nd New Zealand Division with the 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade steps into the fray, it only results in a slow grind through the rain and mud, until the now ruined Rimini is finally liberated after weeks of heavy combat.
1. Fallschirmjäger
Once considered elite and at the forefront of early war German airborne operations, by the time Operation Olive swings around, the 1. Fallschirmjäger has been decimated in the costly battles of Crete and Italy. The veteran paratroopers recapture some of their lost glory through their legendary defense of the Monte Cassino monastery. Depleted in strength, the 1. Fallschirmjäger is reinforced by fresh Grenadier recruits and elements from 162. (Turk.) Infanterie-Division - Osttruppen from Soviet minorities. Excellent while defending, the battlegroup can count on considerable support forces, especially in anti-tank and anti-aircraft units.
What can you expect of the 1. Fallschirmjäger?
- The Recon tab is limited, with few slots and all options being scouts on foot.
- A powerful advantage of this battlegroup is the quality and availability in its Infantry tab; there are quite a few slots available with lots of choice. For instance, players can select various elite Fallschirmjäger variants (including a new Fs-Stosstrupp assault squad) which come equipped with the Raider trait. These units are supported by regular Grenadier with MGs, and cheaper Ost-Legionäre (with the Disheartened trait).
- What Tanks might lack in variety, it makes up for sheer firepower. All options are Tiger Es!
- A regular Support tab, with a standard mix of MGs from Maxim to Fallschirmjäger MG-34s with the Raider trait. Some LG 42 can also be found in a fire support role.
- Excellent Anti-Tank forces are at the player’s disposal: light Püppchen and PaK 177 (captured Italian 47mm Elefantino), PaK 40, Nashorn, Jagdpanzer IV and PaK 43.
- The Artillery tab is basic with mostly mortars on offer, including 81mm and 120mm. Towed gun pieces are light mountain 75mm guns (with HEAT rounds) and standard 105mm howitzers.
- The battlegroup’s AA tab is very good, with many open slots. Options are cheap, including classics such as towed 20mm, 37mm and 88mm, and the self-propelled Breda 20mm mounted on an Italian SPA-38 truck.
- The Air tab is average, with fighters and fighter-bombers, although some bomber units can be found. Two captured Italian planes can be deployed: the recon biplane CR.42 and the Re.2005 fighter.
2nd New Zealand Division
As a hybrid combined-arms battlegroup, the 2nd New Zealand Division was a bit of an odd duck among the Allied forces. Having fought in the North African and Mediterranean theatre as part of the British Eighth Army, the veteran formation featured the attached 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade. Notorious for its troops’ looting behavior, the Kiwi formation contains some weaponry of questionable origin, including captured German and other “liberated” Allied materiel. The 2nd New Zealand Division doesn’t have any real shortcomings, being balanced on both the offense and defense.
What can you expect of the 2nd New Zealand Division?
- This battlegroup has a large amount of choice in the Recon tab, including some Greek units equipped with radio, as well as heavy turretless Stuart scout APCs and armored cars (Staghound).
- There is quite a bit of variety with the Infantry on offer: from Maori heavy infantry squads fielding captured MP-40 and twin MG-34, and featuring the Fanatical trait, to Greek mountaineer squads with the Raider trait, and Diggers as regular Commonwealth infantry.
- The Tank category is rather standard with either Stuarts or Shermans 75mm deployable.
- A pretty decent Support tab, with typical Commonwealth units. More captured materiel can be found here, including MG-42 and “liberated” M2 .50 cal MGs. Several fire support vehicles are available: Sherman Ib (short 105mm) and Staghound Mk.II ( short 76mm).
- Anti-tank forces are pretty regular with 6-pdr towed guns (either New Zealand or Greek operated, the latter bringing the Raider trait), Wolverine and 17-pdr guns.
- Basic Artillery tab with mortars and 25-pdr guns, all of them coming in either New Zealand or Greek variants. Some heavy off-map Canadian artillery support is available.
- Not much in the way of anti-aircraft units, with only a select number of Bofors guns and captured Italian 20 mm Breda pieces mounted on Morris trucks.
- An average Air tab, with plenty of options but mostly limited to older equipment including fighter and fighter-bombers, and a few recon fighters and light bombers. The new Beaufighter and Baltimore bomber can be deployed as well.
Nemesis: Battle of Rimini’s new units and models
The following new units can be found in Nemesis: Battle of Rimini:
New Units
- (NZ) Maori - heavy infantry.
- (Greek) Oplites - mountain infantry.
- (Greek) Anichnefetis - mountain scouts.
- (Greek) Baltimore Mk. V - bomber.
- (British) Beaufighter Mk. X - heavy fighter.
- Fs-Stosstrupp - paratrooper assault squad brimming with automatic weapons.
- Ost-Legionäre - infantry with Disheartened trait, entirely equipped with Soviet weaponry.
- Re.2005 - captured Italian fighter.
- SPA-38R - captured Italian truck.
- SPA-38R Breda - self-propelled captured Breda AA gun.
New Variants or Models
- (NZ) Carrier .30 - recon carrier with two M1919 MGs.
- (NZ) Carrier .50 - recon carrier with one M1919 and one M2 .50 MG.
- (NZ) Staghound Mk.II - fire-support version with a short 76mm.
- (NZ) Morris C8 - artillery tractor.
- (NZ) Morris C8 Breda - self-propelled AA gun.
- (British) P-40F Kittyhawk - fighter/fighter-bomber.
- (Canadian) Spitfire LF Mk.VIIIc - fighter/fighter-bomber.
- (South African) Spitfire LF Mk.IXc - recon fighter with clipped wings. South Africa will be classified as British here… for now.
- (Greek) Spitfire LF Mk.Vc/trop - fighter/fighter-bomber.
- (British) Boston Mk.III - currently only featured in French battlegroups as the DB-73.
- P-51C Mustang - only featured in Polish battlegroups as the Mustang Mk.III. Note that these will be deployable as part of the famous “Red Tails”, the first African-American fighter group.
- Lince - Italian-built variant of the Daimler Scout car.
- Grenadier (MG-42) - regular Grenadier unit but equipped with an MG-42 instead of MG-34. As fresh recruits, they can’t be deployed with veterancy.
- JU 88A-4 - bomber, previously featured in Hungarian and Finnish battlegroups.
- CR-42 - Italian biplane, previously only featured in Hungarian battlegroups.
- PaK 177 - captured Italian Breda 47mm guns. Already featured with Romania, though as a fire support gun. As used by the 1. Fallschirmjäger it will be a light anti-tank gun.
A small model fix: the existing Soviet Spitfire Mk.Vb has been updated (for all players, not only DLC owners).
Nemesis: Battle of Rimini will also ship with a new Allied Ace: the Greek fighter pilot Marinos Mitralexis, famous for performing one of the first ramming attacks of the war - and surviving to tell the tale. Mitralexis took down an Italian bomber over Albania in 1940 with his plane’s propeller. This Ace kept fighting with the Allied Hellenic Royal Air Force. Mitralexis’s plane in-game will be the Spitfire Mk.Vc/trop.
Which Nemesis DLC can you play already?
Nemesis: Battle of Sandomierz Bridgehead is our first Nemesis DLC and available for free now! It features the 16. Panzerdivision and the 97th Guards Rifle Division from the Eastern Front, bringing several new units, including the most powerful German tank of World War II, the Königstiger (H).
The second Nemesis DLC, Nemesis: Lvov Offensive is available now for €4.99 / $4.99! This Nemesis DLC contains the German 20. Panzergrenadier-Division and the Allied 10th Guards Tank Corps, bringing new units such as the heavy tank destroyer Elefant, the unique Bef. Tiger (P) and Bef. Panzer V/IV tanks, Muniwagen Panzer III, Flakpanzer T-34(r) and Flakpanzer Panther, and captured T-5 Pantera.
Coming up next
If you want to reach out to us, do this through our Steam forums and Eugen forums, or check our (Facebook and Twitter). Looking for an online game? Visit the kick-ass Discord server or Reddit page.
This will be our last post for 2020. From the whole Eugen team, we wish you all the best and prosperity, not only to you but also to your friends, family, and loved ones.
Stay safe, stay healthy, stay strong. See you on the battlefield in 2021! Happy holidays, commander!