We hope you are well! It’s been a while since we spoke about WARNO - Tropic Storm’s new Army General campaign, Cuba Libre!. We know many of you have been waiting for some more dirty deets, especially those commanders who enjoy tackling our campaigns solo-style.
Today’s DevBlog, we’ll highlight two community-requested improvements coming to the mode and Cuba Libre! - enjoyable both in single-player and multiplayer - plus some other Army General features we are working on in the background.
Onwards!
Tactical maps that stay put
Check out the general strategic details of the WARNO - Tropic Storm’s Cuba Libre! campaign by following the link below.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1611600/view/714531147199024333?l=english
First things first: with the coming WARNO - Tropic Storm, one major new feature will be that Army General’s tactical maps will stay consistently located on the strategy map. Right now, when you do battle on the Army General campaign map, the tactical battlefield will change from one turn to the next. While we like variety, we also think it is important to plan ahead by taking the battlefield’s terrain into account, instead of encountering a new map in the same place.
With this upcoming improvement, a tactical map will remain in the same location throughout the campaign. Once a map has been assigned, so to speak, returning a turn later will not reset it. This should give you the feeling that you are fighting over an actual place of tactical importance.
The variety of tactical battles is not going away. Start a new Army General campaign and the maps assigned to a given location will be different from your previous playthrough. You get consistency within a campaign, but you are not locked into repeating the same battlefields at the same points ad nauseam with each new playthrough.
An AI That Commits to The Fight
Also coming with WARNO - Tropic Storm is an AI that commits to the fight. What does that mean? Picture this: in Army General you move several of your pawns into a position for an attack. The enemy retains a sizable force around the objective, so you expect a proper battle once you hit the button. But instead, the AI only commits the pawn under attack, keeping the rest of its battalions out of harm’s way. The battle ends before it begins. You might win, sure, but you would also have gained unnecessary fatigue, complicating future maneuvers.
The Rationale Behind This
Why does this happen? Until now, when the AI had to decide whether to reinforce a defense, it tended to assume the most dangerous possible combination of pawns a human player would bring to the battle. From the computer’s point of view, holding back units it believed it would lose anyway was the most sensible way to preserve its forces. ”The only winning move is not to play!”
However, the strongest possible attack a human player could organize is not necessarily the attack they will actually choose.
With Army General in WARNO - Tropic Storm, we are changing the defending AI’s self-assessment. Instead of treating every available (human) attacking pawn as certain to join the fight, it will make an educated guess about which pawns they’re likely to commit. Their relative strength, fatigue levels, and ability to fight in subsequent turns will be factors the AI will use to shape its estimate. The computer will then decide which of its own pawns it will send into battle.
This also means that - much like its human counterpart - it might make the wrong call. The computer might expect you to hold back a tired battalion pawn only to discover you have brought everything in an all-out push. Or it might prepare for a stronger attack than the one you’ll actually launch.
Mind you, the AI doesn't see your final selection in advance; it has to judge with incomplete information (much like real warfare). This uncertainty means its defensive decisions will differ from one battle to the next, and will not follow the same predictable pattern every time.
The most obvious result will be more opportunities for larger battles in Army General. When several enemy pawns are defending an objective, you should get the substantial battle you expect from the strategic map (instead of fighting the enemy battalions one by one). Important objectives occupied by a full stack of enemy pawns should make the struggle for that strategic objective feel like an actual clash, not a queued-up battle sequence of isolated defenders.
The goal is not to make the AI recklessly commit all of its battalions in a hopeless fight, nor to guarantee a huge set-piece battle whenever the opportunity presents itself. It can still decide to preserve its forces. In our tests, the more varied AI approach has already shown that major battles against a defending AI happen more often, without the computer simply throwing away its army.
Looking Ahead
The following two Army General features are not coming with WARNO - Tropic Storm. These are general ideas; call them directions we are exploring. Details, timing, and what they will look like in the end will be disclosed at a future date.
AA Support Instead of Strategic Interception
One idea we are toying with is AA support being direct and not a strategic interception on the map. As an Army General campaign progresses, both sides can build up enough anti-air coverage to shut out aircraft over large portions of the strategic map. With AA pawns being difficult to reach and destroy, air assets become increasingly less effective or even unusable.
We are considering AA pawns for battle support, much like artillery pawns. They will no longer intercept aircraft before battles. Instead, an AA battalion could join eligible battles within its support range, using an extra support slot dedicated to AA pawns.
This will give players more opportunities to use aircraft while making anti-air support units available in more battles.
Less Fatigue after a Total Victory in Autoresolve
Another concern we are trying to solve is the amount of Fatigue awarded after an autoresolved Total Victory. In its current form, participating pawns receive two Fatigue Points even if the fight was overwhelmingly in their favor and they took little to no damage. This can make autoresolve feel like a poor choice for a battle which isn't particularly interesting to play tactically.
Consider an attack in which you bring four or five battalions expecting a large battle, only for the AI to commit a single defender (something we already try to eradicate - see above). You win decisively, yet all the pawns you brought are now fatigued. Changing the defending AI's behavior should make this situation less frequent.
To solve the underlying Fatigue issue, we are considering reducing the Fatigue points from an autoresolved Total Victory from two to one point. This would make clear-cut wins less punishing for the attackers. It will also help with objectives occupied by many enemy battalions: when these pawns have been defeated across several engagements and repeatedly exhaust your whole attacking force, taking the final objective can feel like a chore or out of reach. This proposed solution should change that.
The campaign continues
Army General is close to our hearts. We know that these WARNO strategic campaigns matter to many of you, too. We cannot wait to hear what you think of the above proposed changes, and - of course - when you have played the updated version in the upcoming WARNO - Tropic Storm.
Keep telling us what makes a campaign memorable, or what gets in the way. Your feedback will only help us make Army General better.
WARNO - Tropic Storm
WARNO - Tropic Storm is just around the corner.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4734100/WARNO__Tropic_Storm/
Check out all the detailed previews below!
- First up is the Western-aligned U.S. 4th Marine Division earmarked for the Cuban invasion. Check out all the details in this preview here.
- The Communist-aligned Cuban 1a División de Tanques gets its place in the tropical sun in this detailed preview.
- The combined U.S.-Colombian division 7th Infantry Division (Light) also contains a hefty covert CIA contingent. Read more about it in this DevBlog here.
- The “red” Venezuelan IV División de Infantería receives its preview in this dedicated DevBlog.
- Newly minted Brazilian allies deploy the mobile 3ª Divisão de Exército as part of the Western-aligned battlegroup. Read more about this division and the prolific Brazilian armaments industry in this DevBlog.
- The last of the Venezuelan divisions, the I División de Infantería, is previewed in this in-depth DevBlog here.
Until Next Time
We are getting close to WARNO - Tropic Storm! We’ll keep you up to date when our next major expansion launches!
Don’t forget to check out the ever-awesome WARNO community. Find the latest news on the Steam News page or visit the Steam Forums. Get together with other players on either the excellent Discord server, Reddit page, YouTube or our Instagram.
See you on the battlefield, commander.
