Hello commanders!
Yes, it’s been a while since our last contact. We offer our sincere apologies! However, with this DevBlog, we don’t come empty-handed.
Continue reading to discover the latest happenings for Steel Division 2.
Development keeps apace
The various Steel Division 2 projects keep churning, even if the pace might be slower. The team is hard at work testing, bug checking, fixing, sharing improvements, etc.
Now, as you know, the Eugen team is small, and we are knee-deep on various projects at the same time, including Steel Divison 2’s “younger” cousin WARNO. This means that our developers need to shift between tasks and games. And invariable, some delays creep in. Rest assured that our designers are hard at work on Steel Division 2. This includes the next major expansion, Steel Division 2: Blood Feud in Transylvania and Nemesis: Siege of Dunkirk.
We can lift the tip of the veil in today’s DevBlog.
Development keeps apace
First one up is Blood Feud in Transylvania: all the video briefings and voice acting is done and integrated into the game. We are still testing the Army General campaign, for both sides, and the Strike Team is looking at the Oarba map as we speak.
Meanwhile, we are making good progress on Siege of Dunkirk with all the models having been finished. However, the rather painstaking work of reskinning the existing models still needs to be done. The Allied battlegroup, CIABG, already exists in alpha form, with all units and equipment, but needs some more balancing and finetuning. Festung Dunkirchen will soon benefit from the same treatment.
Some more details on CIABG
So, how is the Czechoslovakian Independent Armoured Brigade Group actually shaping up? The battlegroup’s main strengths are the TANK and AA categories, backed up by solid RECON and ART. while INF and AT, on the other hand, are below average.
- Infantry is clearly the division’s Achilles heel, with only one card of veteran Czech Motostřelci (motorized rifles) and half a card of Ženisté (assault engineers). The rest of the soldiers are eager but hastily trained FFO squads. These are French partisans retrained for regular army use, the name standing for Forces Françaises de l’Ouest. To round out this category, some British Converted Gunners units can also be deployed.
- A new unit added are Converted RAF squads. These are not-needed admin personnel and ground staff from the British RAF with minimum training. Like their Luftwaffe counterparts, these servicemen are not thrilled with their assigned frontline role and carry the Disheartened trait. Yet, unlike the other crews, they are better equipped with old (and rather cool looking) Vickers K LMG taken from elderly bi-planes (and resurrected from Steel Division: Normandy 44).
- While it might lack boots on the ground, the CIABG has a lot of armor: from Cromwell, Stuart light tanks, a few heavy-hitting Fireflies, as well as British Churchill tanks. The Allied’s ubiquitous Sherman is not present though. All AT guns are of the towed variant - no tank destroyers can be found in the battlegroup’s arsenal.
- In terms of the airforce, Czechoslovakian Spitfire Mk.Vb and IXc will provide the main fighter screen.
- British recon Spitfire and Spitbomber will also be featured, as well as several CS Typhoon variants (rockets, bombs, etc.).
- The occasional heavier bomber support will come in the form of Mitchel II (the American B-25C in British service. This a new unit, not having seen action since Steel Division: Normandy 44.
Until soon!
That’s it for this week. Let us know what you think.
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See you on the battlefield, commander!