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As a reaction to the devastating GLA attacks on vulnerable infrastructure, many countries have moved away from nuclear energy. Most prominently, the nations of Europe have started their visionary Solaris project. In order to bridge the gap until its completion by 2040, many conventional but highly efficient power plants utilising fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas were constructed, triggering the Russian resource boom of the late 2020s. In-game, these civilian Power Plants provide the player with additional power units upon capture, allowing for risky but potentially rewarding early game build orders that postpone the construction of one's own power plants. As before, the GLA does not require any electricity to operate, but they too should be greatly interested in capturing these facilities, for they provide them with an increase in unit production speed. After a decade of warfare against GLA holdouts around the world, many militaries found themselves drastically oversupplied with expensive weapons and ammunitions when the GLA was finally driven underground. Now that peace was once again restored, the arsenals were reduced in an attempt to cut down on the overburdening costs. Much of the materiel was sold or locked away in secured facilities to await its controlled destruction. In-game, this large munitions depot houses several tons of ordnance. Upon capture, players will automatically sell these pieces on the global market, providing them with a steady income that surpasses that of an Oil Derrick. In addition, friendly units within a visible radius around the facility benefit from a notable firepower boost. Due to the volative nature of the contents, these structures go up in a violent explosion upon destruction. The Coastal Gun Battery is a massive calibre dual cannon turret whose shells pack enough destructive power to tear ships apart. Despite its dated-looking appearance from the outside, its control room is packed with sophisticated computer equipment and a fully automatic loading mechanism, allowing the structure to be operated by sending just a single soldier into it. While the massive range and enormous firepower may be enough to deter hostile ships - or any enemy surface unit for that matter - from approaching, the gun is too cumbersome and slow to deal with multiple fast targets and is quickly overwhelmed when they manage to close into its minimum firing distance, necessitating the deployment of more versatile units and defences to cover it. On top of these new additions, 1.7 will also feature all the classic tech structures that were introduced in Shockwave, including the Repair Pad, Radio Station, Airport, MG and Flak Bunker as well as the mighty War Fortress. That's all for now. Be sure to check out our other pages on the web where you can find exclusive information, up-to-date news on the mod's progress and more.   This is SWR, signing out. |
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 Undetected by the attackers, only half a dozen soldiers had made it into the Shelter alongside General Orlov. Meanwhile, the GLA fighters were too busy looting the camp for their private possessions and celebrating the bloodbath they had committed. The inside of the container was cooking hot, the air heavy with the stench of sweat and foul breath. Hours passed; they could tell by the movement of a lone spot of sunlight that wandered across the floor as it fell through the air pipe. General Orlov was sitting in a corner of the container with his jacket and shirt taken off, but his cap still on. Sasha squatted in the opposite corner, his hands clutching desperately at the small, golden Orthodox cross dangling from his necklace as he whimpered the Lord's Prayer, waiting for the heat to overtake him. Orlov pittied the boy for his suffering but admired his faith, for he himself no longer had any. The haunting memories of countless black operations had taken that away from him. But as always, he had to keep his composure, for if he lost it, so would his men. He tried to assess the situation: At this point, the GLA would likely expand into the surrounding villages to loot and pillage, forcing anyone old enough to hold a rifle into their ranks while murdering those who refuse. He wondered about Wolfgang, how long it would take for his tanks to arrive; whether they would arrive at all. He never counted on the European high command to take the initiative, but deep down, he hoped for an exception, a soldierly gesture of camaraderie: The Ukrainian civil war of 2036, which subsequently split the country into two, was the first sign that things were going awry between the up-and-coming Federation and the reinvigorated nations of Europe, as was the sudden break of long-standing fossil fuel treaties after the Continental Alliance established its famed Solaris energy project three years later. But for as long as a balance of military power and economic development on both sides could be maintained, so could peace. Suddenly, Orlov was shaken out of his increasingly delirious thoughts by the sounds of an attack on the surface. "Is this the reinforcements?", the tired soldiers wondered with weak voices. "Possibly", Orlov replied. "But let's not rush out too soon. Ready yourselves!" With their last breath, everyone picked up their rifles and assumed firing positions towards the hatch. Suddenly, it swung open and a deep, mechanic-sounding voice bellowed down - in Russian: "Is there anybody in here? The situation is clear, you can come out!" Orlov scouted ahead and was greeted by a towering man in heavy combat gear and a gasmask. "Major Yakov Pushkin of the 1st Shock Division, Sir! Our General is over there!", the brute reported while Orlov was still blinded by the setting sun, trying to make out just what exactly was going on. The camp was razed and there was nothing left of the GLA while several Russian attack helicopters patrolled the surroundings, occassionally firing salvos at targets in the countryside. Platoons of other peculiar men much like the Major controlled the area while one operated an odd-looking support weapon that looked like a miniature version of these so-called 'Tesla Coils' that Orlov had read classified reports of.  Next to the Trooper stood another gasmasked man with a PDA in his hand and a fine necktie sticking ouf of his noticeably less filled jumpsuit, taking careful notes of the weapon's performance as it was tested on a group of terrified GLA combatants that made the grave mistake of surrendering. "Orlov?" he wondered as the General doused himself with a bottle of water and approached him. "Excuse my impoliteness, but I didn't recognise you at first. I am General Nikita Ivanovich Aleksandr of the Advanced Weapons Research & Development Corps", he introduced himself while handing over his PDA to Major Pushkin to carry on with the testing as another prisoner was pushed in front of the Tesla weapon. Orlov was irritated by the complete absurdity of the situation and promptly refused to shake his hand. "What's happening here? I was expecting Wolfga...General von Kuerten; the 10th Panzers; the Germans!" Aleksandr sighed: "Germans? Comrade, I am sorry, let me give you an update: Our forces have been hit hard across the entire theatre and are retreating towards their regional headquarters. The Germans you've been expecting turned tail and ran like cowards halfway through the border region." Orlov was shocked: "I cannot imagine Wolfgang just running away like that! He seemed like a man of integrity". Aleksandr let out an inappropriate chuckle: "Never trust someone's outside appearance, Orlov. Quite honestly, I too would have expected more from the famed Tula Division, let alone the Spetsnaz. Anyway, we are done testing and it's time to pack up. Get yourself and your remaining men on one of my BMPs; we're falling back to Juba!"  In the next version, Shock Troopers will no longer be able to switch between two types of ammunition. Instead, their electro-rounds will be completely replaced by an entirely new weapon to complement their rocket rifles: The Advanced Weapons R&D Corps' Handheld Tesla Device is a miniature Tesla Coil capable of projecting deadly bolts of lightning that disintegrate infantry and short-out the systems of enemy vehicles. We are also proud to present you with the first in a new series of Meet The Generals updates. In addition to revealing the generals that are presently unknown, we will also also release updated, more elaborate profiles for the ones that have already been shown, starting with General Orlov.  This concludes our little "Orlov in Africa" mini-series. If you want to read it all again in one go, feel free to follow these links: In addition, we'd like to use this opportunity to present some artwork by our concept artist ImperialGerar (AKA JihadCodex). You can find many of his other works over at DeviantArt    (click for larger image) That's all for now. Be sure to check out our other pages on the web where you can find exclusive information, up-to-date news on the mod's progress and more. This is SWR, signing out. |
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After last week's naval update, we're going back to General Orlov who still finds himself in a messy situation which is going to get worse before it gets better. "This is outpost Molotok, come in! Anyone, please come IN!" the radio operator yelled in a fruitless attempt to get through the signal interferences that turned every message going in and out of the base into a garbled mess of static, occasionally broken up by distorted fragments of speech. Across the entire region, Russian forces found themselves in the same chaotic quagmire. Back home, President Suvorov had cancelled all his meetings, observing the unfolding crisis alongside his chiefs-of-staff, who had all been used to comfortable desk work after General Aleksandr's glorious victory over the Sino-American task force at Kurmuk in 2040. Now, they could only sit and watch impotently as Africa was falling and with it the dream of a Russian "tropical" empire. Suddenly, someone inside the command tent noticed a group of armed fighters at the entrance. The operators scrambled for their pistols, but the strangers lobbed a number of Molotov cocktails into the tent, immolating it along with every poor soul inside it. The rebels chuckled at the sight and moved on, only to get gunned down by an enraged General Orlov as he and Sasha, the last remaining Spetsnaz trooper, fought their way through the base. Meanwhile Arkady Federov and his co-pilot climbed into the cockpit of their Mi-24. Foregoing any system checks in the heat of the moment, they tried to get the rotors to full power as fast as possible to evacuate the General. "We're almost there, Sir, hurry!" Sasha reassured Orlov who remained silent and looked at the carnage around him as if in some kind of daze. Columns of fire and black smoke rose from all corners of the base while the air was filled with the sound of wild gunfire and frantic screams.  Suddenly, he made out a flying object approaching rapidly from beyond the horizon and signalled Sasha to halt. "You see that thing? Is that a plane?" the General wondered. "Ha! Looks like frontal aviation's coming to bail us out!", Sasha exclaimed with new-found hope, raising his fist to cheer. But then, the suspicious plane opened fire, completely mauling the helicopter along with its pilots in a murderous barrage of 20mm rounds. "P-P-Planes!?" Sasha uttered in total disbelief. "They have planes now!?". Mere moments later, the sound of chopper blades once again rattled through the air, but this time, it came from a squadron of low-flying GLA helicopters that swept in from behind the hills, unleashing a rapid volley of wire-guided missiles onto the remaining vehicles while a second squadron rained down rockets on the fleeing Russian soldiers who were now abandoning all their posts and fleeing for their lives. This was the cue that snapped Orlov out of his temporary daze. "Everyone! After me! Follow me to the Shelter!" As he ran, he grabbed Sasha, who was still frozen in shock, by his shoulder and pulled him with him. What he and everyone else oft-ironically refered to as "the Shelter" was indeed little more than an improvised contraption of metal cargo containers burried in the sand, with only a small hatch and a short air pipe sticking out at the surface. Originally set up to protect personnel and equipment from mortar barrages, no one wanted to spend much time inside these "steel coffins", for the lack of proper air conditioning made them exactly that. But Orlov knew that the battle for his base was lost and that anyone caught out in the open would be slaughtered. Their only choice was not to fight, but to hide.  For the first time in the organisation's history, the GLA felt confident enough in their new Central African territories to build and maintain crude airfields. These rudimentary facilities have all the necessary equipment to maintain two planes as well as an infinite number of helicopters. Given the proper connections, cell leaders can also use them to requisition other services. However, air assets are still a very rare commodity and thus strictly limited in numbers. Thus, every cell that wants to engage in aerial operations requires advanced clearance and may only maintain one Airstrip at a time. A fast, light attack jet that has been pieced together from several Cold War era fighter planes. It is armed with a set of powerful 20mm autocannons that perform deadly strafing runs and carry excessive amounts of ammunition, making reloads unnecessary. Alternatively, the cannons can be replaced with rockets allowing for a more immediate and precise harrassment of light vehicles, supply lines and construction dozers. Originally a French helicopter from the previous century, the Gazelle found its way into the GLA arsenal via the absorbtion of African military defectors. It starts out with an assortment of unguided rockets that can be replaced with a set of wire-guided anti-tank and anti-air missiles. The Gazelle is very light and thin-skinned but makes up for its lack of protection with great speed and agility.  |
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| Greetings, dear fans. As you may remember from our ongoing mini-series of updates, General Orlov is in great peril, but despite this, we decided to break up the pattern a bit with this week's update. And now for something completely different: This is Eric Brice reporting live from Washington DC where a huge crowd of protesters has gathered in front of the Capitol Hill today. Demonstrations from various different groups have been a common sight in the American capital for decades but this one stands out: A sizeable portion of the protesters are members of the United States military, the Navy in particular, who express their discontent over this year's controversial National Defense Authorization Act. The law which with all likelihood will be approved by Congress this week includes the largest budget cuts in the history of the US military. The savings amount to almost half of the country's annual spending which, even today, four years after the global war on terrorism came to an end, still exceeds the dreaded mark of one trillion Dollars, putting a constant strain on the stagnating economy.  "My name is James Hernandez, I'm 26 years old and currently a Seaman onboard the USS Lincoln. They told us that most of our Nimitz-class carriers are going to be mothballed cos they're too damn expensive and that 'the role of super-carriers in modern naval warfare is to be re-evaluated', as the brass say. I guess they're still scared shitless by what the GLA did to the Reagan back in '27. They're gonna decommission like half the entire fleet and replace it with a few newer ships that have a ton of AI assistance, so much of the personnel's being laid off as well. Seriously, man? I've got a wife and a kid to take care off. My dad used to be a Marine for his entire life, my grandfather's been in the Mexican forces back in his day and so on. The military has always been a safe bet for our family but...Well, I guess I'm gonna be the last in that line. Life's a bitch..." But the NDAA isn't just controversial due to the scaling-down of equipment and personnel: The law also states that most of the many old vessels, including capital ships, destroyers and boats, are to be sold with little regard as to who. Proponents say that the current geo-political climate is stable enough thanks to China's leading role in international peacekeeping and that the technology of these ships no longer represents the cutting edge of the US military's modern day arsenal. Thus, they conclude that the danger of these ships, should they ever wind up in the hands of a rogue state, would be very controllable but many members of the Navy disagree with that assessment. Captain Karen Thompson is one of them:  "These ships may no longer be 'cutting edge' but they're still advanced enough to shift the balance in smaller, regional conflicts between emerging powers. The financial situation of our country has degraded to a point where long-term geo-strategic planning has simply become a luxury so the government is going to sell them to pretty much anyone who's willing and capable to pay the price. But the way we see it, this policy is going to backfire on us really badly. For all we know, these ships could easily end up with the Russians or the Chinese. For their naval forces, the technologies on these vessels including the various sub-systems like radar, weapons, fire-control, electronics, et cetera, are still quite modern and they could easily use them to jump-start their own developments. Better buy a decent ship from someone else than build the entire thing from scratch. And this isn't like Iran back in the day, whose F-14s were rendered useless when we ceased to provide them with spare parts and system updates after the revolution. These are global industrial superpowers we're talking about and they are very well capable of reverse engineering our tech. In a nutshell, we may very well be arming the countries that could be our greatest adversaries in some future conflict." In any case, the servicemen and -women here will continue their protests as will the public debate over these controversial developments. This was Eric Brice reporting to you live from Washington DC. Back to you, Christine. The Naval Yard is a Tech building that only appears on a select number of maps that are designed with naval units in mind. Upon capture, every faction in version 1.7 will be able to produce the same naval units from this structure. They will later be replaced by more unique faction-specific ships but those will require a large amount of work, so we decided to give everyone an early opportunity to have a basic, but fully functional navy in the upcoming version. The Battleship is armed with a pair of deadly twin-cannons that have enough range and firepower to create an intense barrage. However, their line of sight and accuracy are lacklustre, necessitating the use of forward scout units. While extremely devastating against any target on land and structures in particular, the ship has no air defences, is extremely slow and cumbersome and thus easily overwhelmed at close range. A single one of them also costs a fortune! Destroyers are support vessels that are armed with precise, long-range missiles for surface targets as well as a CIWS turret for defence against air targets. With their decent mobility and armaments, these ships are best used to protect Battle Ships and harrass smaller targets near the shoreline. Despite being lightly armed and thin-skinned, the Gun Boat still serves an important purpose: It has the longest vision radius of all the ships, making it a useful scout for Battle Ships. It can also compensate for its lack of protection through speed and agility, allowing it to close in with Destroyers and even Battle Ships to overwhelm them within their minimum range. The naval units are only available on a handful specific maps that have been modified to include the Tech Naval Yard and are currently undergoing extensive testing. So far, we haven't encountered any major problems and I can reveal to you that they definitely add some interesting new gameplay dimensions on the maps that have them. However, before any miscommunications arise, I shall conclude this update by stressing once again that this is a temporary navy. It will be completely replaced by a more diverse, faction-specific selection of ships filling in similar unit roles in a later version, so don't get too attached to them.  Have a look and give us a Like! |
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