What if the Warsaw Pact had attacked NATO in the mid-1980s. Or the other way around? Study this titanic conflict, within its most emblematic theater, Germany and Central Europe. Will you be able to achieve your goals without escalating into an uncontrollable nuclear conflict?
Before we go any further, thank you all for your support! The game has been a success that continues to prove itself. As promised at the time of release, updates to fix what needs fixing, to improve the advanced game and the base game, and to add content (without DLC, free to all who own the game) will continue to come in over the months, most likely for years to come, just like other SGSs!
This major summer update introduces the following fixes, changes and additions:
• First version of a rules manual specific to SGS NATO (which will also, in many cases, be specific to all future Modern Warfare games). For the time being, this manual exists only in French and English, but further translations are more than likely, and the manual will be densified over time (more than fifteen pages, covering the subjects most frequently raised by players at present) ;
• New counters added! Around 200 additional counters, primarily for defensive tasks, to make the breakthrough mechanism significantly more interesting; "second echelon" engineer unit counters have also been introduced for the Warsaw Pact, as well as some airborne mission counters (such as the mission counters representing Warsaw Pact aircraft attacks with air-to-ground precision weapons) ;
• Reintroduction of the breakthrough mechanism, correlated with the addition of the defensive counters mentioned above. The game's entire order of battle has also been reviewed, to refine the units that can break through, those that can accompany breakthroughs and those that remain behind breakthroughs, defending against the possibility of the enemy counter-attacking to encircle units that have broken through ;
• Introduction of a new option card which allows the game to be played without tactical nuclear or chemical weapons, using only conventional means (which does not render the nuclear tension index obsolete, it remains active and if it reaches 140...) against the AI (but can also be used in PBEM or hotseat) ;
• Marginal rebalancing of Warsaw Pact air capabilities; while not a major upheaval, several Warsaw Pact air units have seen their air-to-air or air-to-surface capabilities slightly improved. Warsaw Pact aviation is still very difficult to use, so you'll have to optimize its capabilities by playing with combinations of mission-mission units ;
• Re-balancing of minefields: although still difficult to neutralize, minefields no longer border on the impossible (unless you're very lucky) in some cases. The solution has been found not by reducing the effectiveness of minefields, which are still particularly effective counter-mobility tools, but by increasing the Pact's anti-mines capabilities (notably with advanced engineer units) and by increasing the number of rounds in which mines can be neutralized.
They're still a pain, but with a well-organized offensive action, the chances of success are now significantly higher (although there's always a risk of failure)!
• Bug fixes: the game has been tested, and re-tested, but with now around 3,800 counters and over 600 cards to play in the biggest scenarios, gremlins are inevitable. The bugs reported on the Steam forum and elsewhere have now been corrected !
The next few weeks - as far as I'm concerned - will be dedicated to work on SGS Fall Weiss (not to mention the release of many other SGS games). Most likely before the end of the year, a major new update will be released for NATO (though this won't prevent smaller updates in the meantime), including improvements and possibly new naval content. Attention will also be paid to the base game. As for the addition of small scenarios, the next one will - if possible - be included in the next big update!
Enjoy game(s) and have a great summer!