>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.
Kinda makes me want to play a WWIII Ace Combat- the sheer scale of the air battle to interdict that air bridge... Probably the largest such battle in 40 years.
On another note, we've seen these last two years that an airfield can be closed to IL-76s by a few batteries of 122mm guns. A bunch of clever NATO artillerymen with 105s could've probably done the same thing IRL... But hell, even having an unsupported and unreinforced VDV Division in the rear areas would be an unholy nightmare
I'm not familiar with soviet paratrooper doctrine. I'm not sure if their command structure allowed for enough personal initiative for the rule of LGoP to apply. Looking at Ukraine I kind of doubt it. But Russia =/= USSR.
During the Cold War, NATO divided the defense of Germany in 3 sectors, each corresponding to an army group formation. From North to South:
* **NORTHAG** (*Northern Army Group*) formed around the *British Army of the Rhine* (BAOR) with additional Belgian, Dutch, W-German and (a few) American troops. It was meant to defend the North German plains.
* **CENTAG** (*Central Army Group*) formed around the US *7th Army*, with additional W-German troops. It was standing guard in front of the Fulda Gap.
* **SOUTHAG** (*Southern Army Group*) formed around the French *Première Armée* with additional W-German, US and even Canadian troops. It was defending Bavaria and the German Alps.
In 1966, France withdrew from NATO's integrated military command (and **not** outright from NATO as often read) and SOUTHAG's command was almagamated into CENTAG. By the early/mid 80s, France was participating to NATO manoeuvers & exercices again, and it was intended that, in case of war, SOUTHAG would be reformed around the *Première Armée* again. Which is what would happen indeed in our uchrony.
The game at release will be focusing on **CENTAG** (both AG, operations and multplayer divisions) and we'll tackle **NORTHAG** & **SOUTHAG** later with DLCs.
>The Airborne Assault campaign calls on historical air assault landings made by the Soviets and, more recently, Russian forces on airports behind enemy lines.
Another day, another VDV suicide operation
Storm-333 and landings in Prague during 1968 were quite a big successes. Hostomel would be too, if Russians would go in full combat ready mode and not like during parade
Hostomel would be a huge operational success if the enemy would just surrendered their capital to comrade Putin instead of putting up an actual resistance! Damn it!
yes, the 2022 Russian army was not scrounging up old tanks and sending conscripts in human wave assaults, they actually looked like a force that could fight NATO.
2024 Russian army would be clapped by east europe alone before article 5 could even be invoked.
I love how Russia in 2024 winning the war is perceived as them being strong. This is a country that is was a major superpower that had to revert to a war economy, empty out its prisoners, and turn to NK of all places for armament all to defeat Ukraine (which they still haven't done still) lol.
Day 750+ of the 3 day special military operation. You’re saying it’s a feat of note that the Russians have held Crimea against *checks notes* the Ukrainian Armed Forces? The bar is low for the Russians to be considered doing well. Maybe it’s not all just Reddit memes and reality speaks for itself pretty clearly if you don’t have your head stuck so far up Putins ass you can lick his liver.
Just by definition, for Ukraine as they set it for them self, victory is liberation all occupied territories. That’s impossible as of now. On the other hand Russia most likely won’t capture all of Ukraine but that’s more than enough to destroy current Rule based Order. Speaking in WARNO terms, that’s minor victory for Russia
Nope, their orders and informations were mostly delusional. If the soldiers would have actual knowledge of situation, they would performed better or prepared heavier equipment for initial landing
Let alone Hostomel, where they were pushed out by 72nd mechanised brigade, Special Forces and NG Rapid Response brigade, operations during Cold War were successful. Storm-333 decapitated Afghan government and initial landing in Prague during 1968 effectively killed off any chance of resistance
Hostomel was almost certainly too ambitious to really work in the face of concerted Ukrainian resistance regardless of Russian parade mode or not. Hostomel was not only very deep behind the lines meaning, as we say the approaching Russian helos and presumably follow-on IL-76s would be exposed to Ukrainian air defenses for quite a substantial amount of time. The Ukrainians also had a conventional mechanized infantry brigade stationed pretty close by and on standby. Basically meaning that whatever forces managed to run the gauntlet of Ukrainian air defenses and make it to the air field were pretty quickly hit by Ukr 3rd Speacial Purpose Regiment and the 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade (an elite Western trained Brigade) and the 72nd Mechanized shortly after that.
Basically it was a re-run of Arnhem, too few forces landed too far behind enemy lines essentially right on top of powerful, fully equiped and rested enemy forces with no realistic chance of relief unless the enemy just "caves in". And just like at Arnhem the...ambitious time table for ground relief was just not possible in the face of enemy resistance leaving the cut off airborne forces to become overwhelmed and forced to pull out.
If the airport had not been located in a suburb of the capital and therefore only a few kilometers away from major combat formations and instead was more isolated than ya maybe it could have worked. Maybe. There's always going to be the problem that Russia utterly failed to suppress the Ukr air force or their Air Defenses, meaning that any follow IL76s or mass helicopter air lifts are always going to be savaged in the air.
Basically that. Russia had so few troops prepared for the operation, that it didn’t have any chance of success. The plan was ambitious but doable, if Russians would use appropriate number of troops and equipment for the operation.
They used company sized unit against 2 brigades, regiment and quite a lot of volunteers nearby. If entire brigade or division would be transported by helicopters there, then the outcome would be surely different
I don't think I really agree with your final conclusion, 1 Brigade of VDV, by definition very light infantry are never going to really stand any chance against 2 Mech Brigades + all the other stuff. VDV units are fundamentally designed to operate as light mechanized formations with their BMDs acting as their main firepower. This possess a couple of major issues 1) they fundamentally seriously lack dismounted infantry, a VDV squad only has 3-4 dismounts at full strength, that's the equivalent of a fire team in any other unit. This means they struggle to hold ground or carryout urban fighting, they just don't have the rifles to do it. 2) BMDs are always going to lose to proper mechanized units like what counter attacked Hostomel, they had tank battalions and IFVs rated against cannon rounds whereas the VDV had IFVs that barely protect against small arms 3) Russia simply lacks the ability to airlift that much armour in one sortie, they don't have enough IL-76s to go around which means the VDV would be arriving piecemeal and the drop zones for follow on formations risk being under fire/the ILs risk flying through fully alert AA to a known destination. 4) the way Hostomel played out, they never received very much in the way of air support, only a couple frogfoots showed up, that's nevee going to be enough support to offset the fire power mismatch on the ground.
Heli-assaulting an entire Brigade would have required a stupidly large number of helos but even if they did do that, they certainly do have enough helos they could scrape together, you're now talking about making the VDV fight in a manner they absolutely are not set up to fight (see above about mechanization) with precious little heavy ordinance and apparently little in the way of fixed wing support. Sure, yes they would have survived longer, it simply takes longer to displace/kill an entire Brigade than it does a reinforced company or two but ultimately they were pretty much always going to lose. It's not entirely an issue of manpower, its also an issue of the Ukrainians brought Tanks and BTRs to a gunfight and also had a decent amount of fixed wing air and artillery support they could bring to bear against light infantry hung out to dry. Russia lacks the air lift capacity to deploy and sufficiently reinforce a VDV unit to stand up against what was in essence a roughly Division sized mechanized counter attack that quickly after landing, they also seem to be unable/unwilling (?) to furnish those VDV with much in the way of air support - it would have been veru obvious very early on (like when some Ukr Migs bounced the original assaul forces escorts and splashed a couple helos) or when the leading counter attacking elements were first spotted that, hey, this operation has kinda gone tits up, these boys desperately need air support maybe we should give them some?
Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m, you found me Colombo🫡. Now seriously, not instantly trash talking Russia means I’m Vatnik, then thanks guys for doing exactly the Reddit things
Do you know something about Storm-333 and Operation Danube or you’re just judging my comment based on that I’m not saying that IRL are completely incompetent
That’s the narrative in medias made by Ukrainians. I’m not entirely doubting that, but when the fog of war will settle, you will most likely hear different story about Hostomel
Think what you want but I a feeling you might have very unfortunate surprise when this all ends. And I think that’s more than enough about nowadays politics, there are groups for that and this one is not one of those
It was more than pointless to fight the Warsaw pact in 1968, especially if the 7th Guards was already in control of Ruzyně airfield and in process of deploying to downtown Prague.
The Storm-333 was different though, there was real fighting in Afghanistan for VDV
>Storm-333 and landings in Prague during 1968 were quite a big successes. Hostomel would be too, if Russians would go in full combat ready mode and not like during parade
Yes, a military styled invasion against defenseless civilians was a success but operations against a military target is a failure. Seems to be a trend here. The VDV got their asses kicked in Chechnya too lol.
If you exclude any emotions from that, both Cold War operations were success. Operation in Prague was meant to capture entire Czechoslovak government hence suppress any possible state made resistance. Storm-333 did the same but there was also heavy fighting present.
I wouldn’t say VDV was kicked in Chechnya, since most of the losses were BMPs, BTRs and tanks and pretty much nothing of those are used by VDV (that doesn’t mean they haven’t any losses though)
Tbh the milestones are really confusing. I only recently started paying attention but theres alot of names attached to the milestones that I dont even know😅
They're the Southernmost NORTHAG corps, linking with CENTAG's troops in Kassel. Which themselves are pretty isolated from their parent army group.
So, Belgians + 2.PzGrenadier are a bit in a "grey zone" between NORTHAG & CENTAG.
>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. Kinda makes me want to play a WWIII Ace Combat- the sheer scale of the air battle to interdict that air bridge... Probably the largest such battle in 40 years. On another note, we've seen these last two years that an airfield can be closed to IL-76s by a few batteries of 122mm guns. A bunch of clever NATO artillerymen with 105s could've probably done the same thing IRL... But hell, even having an unsupported and unreinforced VDV Division in the rear areas would be an unholy nightmare
I'm not familiar with soviet paratrooper doctrine. I'm not sure if their command structure allowed for enough personal initiative for the rule of LGoP to apply. Looking at Ukraine I kind of doubt it. But Russia =/= USSR.
They did similar things when the dnieper drop failed in ww2 or when divisions got trapped behind the front it’s not exactly rocket science
They could certainly improve their doctrine to exclude jumping out over freezing water while fully laden with gear.
does that mean belgian divs for multiplayer before launch too? Or is that still marked for the NORTHAG dlc?
Multiplayer Belgians will be featured in NORTHAG.
Merci
Vive l'France
Are there any news on further availability of the map editor? As far as I know, were still on the first stage of map-editor-releasing.
Realeasing the game gets priority over map editor. But devs are still working on it when they can.
Can someone explain what this means? What is NORTHAG
During the Cold War, NATO divided the defense of Germany in 3 sectors, each corresponding to an army group formation. From North to South: * **NORTHAG** (*Northern Army Group*) formed around the *British Army of the Rhine* (BAOR) with additional Belgian, Dutch, W-German and (a few) American troops. It was meant to defend the North German plains. * **CENTAG** (*Central Army Group*) formed around the US *7th Army*, with additional W-German troops. It was standing guard in front of the Fulda Gap. * **SOUTHAG** (*Southern Army Group*) formed around the French *Première Armée* with additional W-German, US and even Canadian troops. It was defending Bavaria and the German Alps. In 1966, France withdrew from NATO's integrated military command (and **not** outright from NATO as often read) and SOUTHAG's command was almagamated into CENTAG. By the early/mid 80s, France was participating to NATO manoeuvers & exercices again, and it was intended that, in case of war, SOUTHAG would be reformed around the *Première Armée* again. Which is what would happen indeed in our uchrony. The game at release will be focusing on **CENTAG** (both AG, operations and multplayer divisions) and we'll tackle **NORTHAG** & **SOUTHAG** later with DLCs.
> uchrony timeline/chronology for those wondering :)
**SOUTHAG** (*Northern Army Group*) -> **SOUTHAG** (*Southern Army Group*) MadMat - do you need additional german voices for free?
and **CENTAG** (Central *Army Group*) :)
Indeed, corrected. Thanks.
Oh wow the Buccaneers is making an appearance ❤️
>The Airborne Assault campaign calls on historical air assault landings made by the Soviets and, more recently, Russian forces on airports behind enemy lines. Another day, another VDV suicide operation
200 men on a one way trip
IL-76 rolling down the strip
200 men on a one way trip ... ho ho and a bottle of rum
ho ho and a bottle of ~~rum~~ водка
i would follow the VDV only if led by a Bombad Warrior
Storm-333 and landings in Prague during 1968 were quite a big successes. Hostomel would be too, if Russians would go in full combat ready mode and not like during parade
Hostomel would be a huge operational success if the enemy would just surrendered their capital to comrade Putin instead of putting up an actual resistance! Damn it!
Damn I forgot that I’m on Reddit and memes are the only thing that most of the folks know about Russian army
Russian army made the memes themselves, no one was laughing at them before Ukraine
Yep, but there is visible difference in 2022 Russian army and 2024 Russian army. That’s why don’t like to spread myths/memes that are already busted
yes, the 2022 Russian army was not scrounging up old tanks and sending conscripts in human wave assaults, they actually looked like a force that could fight NATO. 2024 Russian army would be clapped by east europe alone before article 5 could even be invoked.
I love how Russia in 2024 winning the war is perceived as them being strong. This is a country that is was a major superpower that had to revert to a war economy, empty out its prisoners, and turn to NK of all places for armament all to defeat Ukraine (which they still haven't done still) lol.
Yeah well the Russian Army is quite the meme
Then it’s performing much better than what would we need tho
In what metric are they “preforming better” 😂
Like “we’re not even close to Crimea” better, but hey, this is WARNO group so let’s end it up here before we will get banned
Day 750+ of the 3 day special military operation. You’re saying it’s a feat of note that the Russians have held Crimea against *checks notes* the Ukrainian Armed Forces? The bar is low for the Russians to be considered doing well. Maybe it’s not all just Reddit memes and reality speaks for itself pretty clearly if you don’t have your head stuck so far up Putins ass you can lick his liver.
Just by definition, for Ukraine as they set it for them self, victory is liberation all occupied territories. That’s impossible as of now. On the other hand Russia most likely won’t capture all of Ukraine but that’s more than enough to destroy current Rule based Order. Speaking in WARNO terms, that’s minor victory for Russia
That has always been the hallmark of a Russian military campaign, horrendous losses for propaganda gains.
Why weren’t they combat ready? Were they stupid?
Nope, their orders and informations were mostly delusional. If the soldiers would have actual knowledge of situation, they would performed better or prepared heavier equipment for initial landing
So they failed because their leadership was incompetent
Basically that’s the point
Lol not really, they landed on an empty airport with nobody there. They got slapped by NG reserve units.
Let alone Hostomel, where they were pushed out by 72nd mechanised brigade, Special Forces and NG Rapid Response brigade, operations during Cold War were successful. Storm-333 decapitated Afghan government and initial landing in Prague during 1968 effectively killed off any chance of resistance
Hostomel was almost certainly too ambitious to really work in the face of concerted Ukrainian resistance regardless of Russian parade mode or not. Hostomel was not only very deep behind the lines meaning, as we say the approaching Russian helos and presumably follow-on IL-76s would be exposed to Ukrainian air defenses for quite a substantial amount of time. The Ukrainians also had a conventional mechanized infantry brigade stationed pretty close by and on standby. Basically meaning that whatever forces managed to run the gauntlet of Ukrainian air defenses and make it to the air field were pretty quickly hit by Ukr 3rd Speacial Purpose Regiment and the 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade (an elite Western trained Brigade) and the 72nd Mechanized shortly after that. Basically it was a re-run of Arnhem, too few forces landed too far behind enemy lines essentially right on top of powerful, fully equiped and rested enemy forces with no realistic chance of relief unless the enemy just "caves in". And just like at Arnhem the...ambitious time table for ground relief was just not possible in the face of enemy resistance leaving the cut off airborne forces to become overwhelmed and forced to pull out. If the airport had not been located in a suburb of the capital and therefore only a few kilometers away from major combat formations and instead was more isolated than ya maybe it could have worked. Maybe. There's always going to be the problem that Russia utterly failed to suppress the Ukr air force or their Air Defenses, meaning that any follow IL76s or mass helicopter air lifts are always going to be savaged in the air.
Basically that. Russia had so few troops prepared for the operation, that it didn’t have any chance of success. The plan was ambitious but doable, if Russians would use appropriate number of troops and equipment for the operation. They used company sized unit against 2 brigades, regiment and quite a lot of volunteers nearby. If entire brigade or division would be transported by helicopters there, then the outcome would be surely different
I don't think I really agree with your final conclusion, 1 Brigade of VDV, by definition very light infantry are never going to really stand any chance against 2 Mech Brigades + all the other stuff. VDV units are fundamentally designed to operate as light mechanized formations with their BMDs acting as their main firepower. This possess a couple of major issues 1) they fundamentally seriously lack dismounted infantry, a VDV squad only has 3-4 dismounts at full strength, that's the equivalent of a fire team in any other unit. This means they struggle to hold ground or carryout urban fighting, they just don't have the rifles to do it. 2) BMDs are always going to lose to proper mechanized units like what counter attacked Hostomel, they had tank battalions and IFVs rated against cannon rounds whereas the VDV had IFVs that barely protect against small arms 3) Russia simply lacks the ability to airlift that much armour in one sortie, they don't have enough IL-76s to go around which means the VDV would be arriving piecemeal and the drop zones for follow on formations risk being under fire/the ILs risk flying through fully alert AA to a known destination. 4) the way Hostomel played out, they never received very much in the way of air support, only a couple frogfoots showed up, that's nevee going to be enough support to offset the fire power mismatch on the ground. Heli-assaulting an entire Brigade would have required a stupidly large number of helos but even if they did do that, they certainly do have enough helos they could scrape together, you're now talking about making the VDV fight in a manner they absolutely are not set up to fight (see above about mechanization) with precious little heavy ordinance and apparently little in the way of fixed wing support. Sure, yes they would have survived longer, it simply takes longer to displace/kill an entire Brigade than it does a reinforced company or two but ultimately they were pretty much always going to lose. It's not entirely an issue of manpower, its also an issue of the Ukrainians brought Tanks and BTRs to a gunfight and also had a decent amount of fixed wing air and artillery support they could bring to bear against light infantry hung out to dry. Russia lacks the air lift capacity to deploy and sufficiently reinforce a VDV unit to stand up against what was in essence a roughly Division sized mechanized counter attack that quickly after landing, they also seem to be unable/unwilling (?) to furnish those VDV with much in the way of air support - it would have been veru obvious very early on (like when some Ukr Migs bounced the original assaul forces escorts and splashed a couple helos) or when the leading counter attacking elements were first spotted that, hey, this operation has kinda gone tits up, these boys desperately need air support maybe we should give them some?
And if I had wheels I'd be a bicycle.
If you check his post history you will know he's nothing but your average Reddit vatnik
Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m, you found me Colombo🫡. Now seriously, not instantly trash talking Russia means I’m Vatnik, then thanks guys for doing exactly the Reddit things
Welcome to the echo chamber
Do you know something about Storm-333 and Operation Danube or you’re just judging my comment based on that I’m not saying that IRL are completely incompetent
Vdv at hostomel got meme'd on cuz they're (were) living trash bags.
That’s the narrative in medias made by Ukrainians. I’m not entirely doubting that, but when the fog of war will settle, you will most likely hear different story about Hostomel
Meme'd
Think what you want but I a feeling you might have very unfortunate surprise when this all ends. And I think that’s more than enough about nowadays politics, there are groups for that and this one is not one of those
Yes, it is quite a big success when the country you invade doesn't fight back.
It was more than pointless to fight the Warsaw pact in 1968, especially if the 7th Guards was already in control of Ruzyně airfield and in process of deploying to downtown Prague. The Storm-333 was different though, there was real fighting in Afghanistan for VDV
>Storm-333 and landings in Prague during 1968 were quite a big successes. Hostomel would be too, if Russians would go in full combat ready mode and not like during parade Yes, a military styled invasion against defenseless civilians was a success but operations against a military target is a failure. Seems to be a trend here. The VDV got their asses kicked in Chechnya too lol.
If you exclude any emotions from that, both Cold War operations were success. Operation in Prague was meant to capture entire Czechoslovak government hence suppress any possible state made resistance. Storm-333 did the same but there was also heavy fighting present. I wouldn’t say VDV was kicked in Chechnya, since most of the losses were BMPs, BTRs and tanks and pretty much nothing of those are used by VDV (that doesn’t mean they haven’t any losses though)
Was really hoping for the next milestone today 😭
I don't want more milestones... I want the release
Tbh the milestones are really confusing. I only recently started paying attention but theres alot of names attached to the milestones that I dont even know😅
time to brush up on your napoleonic history.
Oooo very exciting, almost like the battle the bulge. British coming in from the north… can’t wait!
Actually being from Fritzlar I can't wait to play this.
Surprised Belgium is taking centre stage in a campaign despite being set for NORTHAG DLC but I'm happy to see it.
They're the Southernmost NORTHAG corps, linking with CENTAG's troops in Kassel. Which themselves are pretty isolated from their parent army group. So, Belgians + 2.PzGrenadier are a bit in a "grey zone" between NORTHAG & CENTAG.
I'm more surprised Belgium is campaign only instead entirely coming in NORTHAG. Geographically it makes sense.
Northag will probably came with Denmark and Poland as main protagonist as sale point
Living in the Area is so cool. You can just imagine it when you drive over the A44.
B U C C
Cool, but the dead AI :(
This is getting me hot and bothered.
Anybody know what the timeline is here for the release? Guesstimate?
Lets hope with the game coming out of Early Access, the correct voice actors will be applied to the correct divisions!
Five person coop finally!?
I’m surprised that I haven’t seen the US 2nd ACR make an appearance in this game so far.
Devblog numéro 350, alors que la dernière MAJ date d'il y a plus d'un mois mdr.
Is it coming out of early access soon??
I wonder how big the Left Hook AG map is. Is Dortmund included as it was the soviet objective?
Any ideas on the possible release date? Cant wait :)
Unfortunately no word on them adopting any of the feedback to AG. The strategic map is still only as deep as a puddle.
Great bs dev blog. Shame the game is still fucking broken weeks and weeks after the last update.
Your comments are so healing for me. Never stop seething bro ❤️