What are we playing?

[LoooSeR]

Unreal 2 is broken, i think.

 

[LoooSeR]

After all introduction missions were done i finally was able to make a choice

Shpetsnaz!

 

And what time is it? Right, it is time to invade Poland!

 

..and futher!

 

Spoiler

IIRC there are differences in unit combinations and maybe tactics used by enemy commanders, thats why in mission briefing they are shown to you. Although he is Euroweakling, he can't handle all my gear bought for all those oil money!

 

Commander's MAZ surrounded by mobile armor modules with AKs.

 

Time to crush their important structures with Glorious not-Kharkovite tanks! Smash those trees, fences and fuck up ther bicycle roads!

 

... and it is our duty to stop European from making those ugly small urban cars with their micro green economical engines!

 

You made a wrong turn right into 125 mm smoothbore one-way tunnel!

 

Yeah, right, RUN! hahAHAHA

 

AND YOU! RUN!

 

TOO SLOW

 

And as always, Russians hacking something. 

 

Air support is Ka-28s. Or Mi-50s. I am not sure.

 

 

 

 

STATUS: CRUSHED BY MOTHERLAND

 

Those sneaky Euroweaklings are trying to raid Moscow and i was tasked to defend Heart of our Rodina!

 

Spoiler

I will command this counter-attack personally! Where is my Shashka?

 

Those European vandals broke windows on this old architectural monument! WE MUST AVENGE!

 

 

   Helicopters are doing recon job for now, until we will find those window brakers. It would be easy to use smoke from their VW-made green diesels to find them, but problem is that all cars in Russia produce a lot of smoke, so direct LOS is needed.

 

   Streets are empty, probably thats why Europeans managed to drive right into Kremlin without being stuck in a traffic jam on Sadovaya for 2 days. Damn you, Sobyanin! You are TOO efficient mayor of Moscow! You solved traffic jams by outlawing cars in Moscow!

   Oww, enemies are trying to capture point Delta, now we know where they are.

 

 

 

Time for artillery to do their job. (Re-started mission after walking out to do a job)

 

NOT ENOUGH OF PATRIOTIC PLACARDS

 

And again, hacking

 

Ow, tanks found enemy infantry in Kremlin's gates, trying to ambush us on the way to Delta.

 

But we outgun them!

 

   After destroying this ambush mission became kind of intense, so i forgot to take more pics of action, lol.

 

Skirmish was happening inside of walls of Kremlin, while helicopters were having to fly around, and hit ground targets where they could.

 

 

 

 

"Oil +47.3%. Multiplying Fathers Glory"

 

 

Tank unit that flanked D and smashed European IFVs near it.

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

   Forgot to tell that i am playing on Expert level of difficulty (2nd out of 3) in EndWar, which is hard-ish.

 

   Now Motherland give me ability to pick a battalion that i will lead right into Paris and reel on tracks of our tanks all Euroweaklings and Imperialists!

 

Spoiler

 

Oh man, those upgrades

 

 

 

 

 

   And it is time to look at the map. Missions can be choosed from a list, that is composed by a game automatically after each turn based on situation on the global map. I will also post screenshots from replay, as during mission i didn't made enough screenshots (was intense operation). 

Spoiler

 

Let's hit Western Europeans in their little houses and countrysides by mighty fist of Shpetsnaz!

 

Load up and let's roll. APCs received additional armor on sides.

 

On the background - giant Mi-26/Mi-24 hideous hybrid delivering tanks to crush enemies faster.

 

 

Crush their fences!

 

Smash their trees!

 

Fuck up their arable land and don't forget to sprinkle it with salt!

 

 

Fuck the police!

 

 

 

During some of missions a regular army is participating in battles, but they are weak and disposable, they didn't wrestled wolfs and bears in their childhood.

 

Only re-watching replay i understood that my tankers are more angry than APC drivers

 

 

 

Regular army troops of Russia and European Union reached each other, frontline established. Time to win.

 

 

 

Those conscripts are in bad situation

 

Regular army soldiers need help, APC dropped combat engineers and rush to forcefully land those Eurocopters with a hail of steel.

 

Perfect timing!

 

HAHAHA

 

 

Helicopters are retreating, leaving their own infantry to deal with mighty armor of Russia alone. Time to mow the grass

 

 

Helicopters tryied to save them, but too late!

 

 

Capturing server hubs, so we can upload compromising e-mails to some European politician laptop.

 

   Tanks advancing futher to secure another server hub to upload some kompromat. Ecology-obsessed weaklings decided to combat us here with tanks and IFVs. Their mistake!

 

   Behold my combat genius! IFVs are trying to push my tanks from the right flank, with their tanks trying to flank from the left. I order tanks to get out of small hill and use it and server hub as a cover against tanks, which will give them enough time to crush those oversized 8x8 wheeled APS/IFVs deathtraps and then fight tanks with support of helicopters. 

 

Tanks retreat, keeping themselvs outside of range of enemy tanks while unloading main cannons on those idiots in 8x8s.

 

   EU forces starting to retreat. Tanks already understood that this engagement is going badly and retreating to village near sea coast, while APCs/IFVs are getting pummeled to the ground but mighty boot of Ural tanks.

 

 

BUHAHAHA YOU CAN'T RUN FAST ENOUGH FROM WARRIORS OF RODINA!

 

 

Kamovs arrived to hunt down EU armor. Black smoke is rockets being launched. Was made so black and dirty to pollute European air!

 

 

Reinforcements arriving to clean up remains of enemies and install banner of Putin!

 

 

 

Tanks and APC/SPAAG are covering main long range weapon of my battalion

 

 

Artillery was ordered to mix enemy infantry and combat engineers with durt around them.

 

 

   After i gave this order, my attention was in other place. So only recording of this battle revealed a fate of those enemy soldiers being an object of artillery's special attention. 

  They rushed through forest to the same village where one of tanks unit tryied to find cover after failed attack. They lost majority of unit while doing this. One soldier was killed by shrapnel meters in front of house, wich itself became a big trap of rest of enemies.

 

Kamovs dealing with reinforcements of Europeans. IT IS TOO LATE YOU DUMMIES. BOW DOWN BEFORE TSAR PUTIN. EMBRACE ORTHODOX CHURCH. INTRODUCE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE IN YOUR SCHOOLS. LEARN PUSHKIN. ALL MALE NOW MUST DRINK TOO MUCH ALCOHOL AND DIE BEFORE THEY GET TO THEIR RETIREMENT AGE!

 

 

 

 

 

   Next operation, this time those idiots decided to counter-attack. Their forces will be destroyed!

 

Spoiler

I remember this guy. Weakling.

 

Combat engineers and APC/SPAAG will advance and establish forward positions in middle of this area, so it will act as a choke for attackers.

 

I WILL CONQUER THIS RESORT SO OUR FUNCTIONARIES WILL BUILD THEIR DACHAS HERE! 

 

Their air support is ambushed and destroyed. That Lukas is good and loosing.

 

Those idiots assault my positions in their 8x8 oversized APC that i saw from many miles!

 

With obvious results!

 

Tanks were assault our positions too late to achieve anything other than spreading their parts on slopes of this resort!

 

SO WEAK

 

THOSE HIPPIES ARE TERRIBLE AT WARFARE. YOU ARE TOO LATE! I BROUGHT ARTILLERY AND ESTABLISHED IMPENETRABLE DEFENSE! 

 

Last soldiers of Lukas. They are cought in open terrain as a flock of sheep for slaughter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

And we continue our conquest of Europe. This time our target is Ramstein air base. 

 

   First attempt ended with Europeans hacking power grid of my house, turning it off for several seconds. It was enough to game to not save my GLORIOUS VICTORY. Also, WMDs from this point are used frequently by enemies. 

 

Spoiler

   Combat engineers are deployed to near servers, to upload very questionable porn to designated political victim's computer.

 

Tanks are advancing futher, to meet hordes of desperate European army regulars head on.

 

   In a distance 2 guard towers are visible - this is main entrance for enemies to inject troops into military complex. Closing it will allow to secure almost whole base from easy access for those bourgeois weaklings. Mighty T-100s will be a good barricade.

 

   Some of those hostile regulars managed to enter base already, so we need to cut the way in and clean base from leftovers

 

   REMOVE HIPPIES. 

 

   ARE YOU RUNNING, AGAIN?

 

 

Taking points outside of airbase.

 

 

  SEE, GAME! I WON! I HAVE EVIDENCE!

 

Europeans evacuating pilots of downed gunships.

 

 

Mi-24-looking creation that is used to deliver and evacuate infantry units.

 

 

Second attempt. If game wants me to crush westerners 2 times, i will do it!

Load up, we need to smash westerners again!

 

Spoiler

 

Combat engineers are doing their job, playing with your browser history

 

Side entrance, never was used by foes

 

Regular Russian army conscripts are cannon meat, but they can slow down my opponents for a while.

 

   In EndWar your camera is attached to units and you can't freelook around a map. Binoculars are useful to search targets even if they are not spotted and not displayed on the tactical map.

 

   My plan is to block entrance, shatter their forward units and then use a lull in combat (until their reinforcements arrive) to advance and trap enemies in their LZ, to avoid running around whole map to hunt them down, those damn hippie cockroaches. 

 

   EU gunships are going deep into the base, while my APCs/SPAAGs are mowing down infantry. Time to counter them and leave Kamovs to deal with cannon meat.

 

    HAHAHA YOU ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE, BUT ONLY DOWN!

 

   Entrance is closed, now EU armor is trapped on this bridge. 

 

 

   More of them are trying to push, but Shpetsnaz IS STRONG AND EUROPE IS WEAK (actual voice line in the game)

 

   Europeans are desperate and are using WMDs (in this case - giant laser from space). Several units were hit and evacuated. BUT SHPETSNAZ IS TOO STRONG.

 

Bridge is now cleared

   

   Now Kamovs are crushing their armored units meters away from their LZ.

 

   Entrance is a graveyard, as those idiots were traying so hard to push. But Shpetsaz have chest of steel!

 

   Another groups of baddies are going to become part of this road. BUHAHAHA!

 

   Artillery arrived to their positions and it is time to enjoy victory fireworks!

 

 

 

   Another infantry squad getting hit across the river by our tanks. Time to feed worms, Frenchies!

 

 

   Artillery joining the action. Fireworks!

 

   Armor arrived, but they will be dead in a few moments

 

 

 

   Retreat, jerks! Don't forget all this junk you left! 

 

   Even more Euro tanks dropped into this slaughter! So much practice targets for my units to earn their badges!

 

    Hacking is done, time to re-position.

 

 

   Another squad of victims are running towards their well-planned end.

 

 

 

   EVEN MORE OF THEM! HOW MANY MORE I SHOULD KILL, UNTIL YOU RUN OUT OF CANNON MEAT?! Maybe they use now Romanians in penal battalions to fight with Shpetsnaz?

 

 

 

HAHAHAHA

 

 

   After this bloodbath of a battle.

 

They were in the middle of delivering more meat to my grinder, lol

 

   All those MG turrets...

 

 

 

 

   A leftover of one unit of regular EU army on the edge of the map

 

 

 

   Meanwhile US is invading EU through Spain.

 

   Preparation for next operation.

Spoiler

 

 

 

   Next target.

 

   While US Trump's forces are taking over EU, Shpetsnaz is invading US!

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

   Counter-attack? They will be crushed.

 

 

   Artillery clearing areas near LZ.

 

   This time enemy commander have unique style of capturing points. He uses bunch of units - tanks, IFVs and infantry, with air coverege of this whole party. That formation would be harder to crack than what i used to see. But not impossible for me and my hardened Shpetsnaz soldiers! 

 

   While i was capturing base, they were trying establish their positions outside of base. 

 

   Forces are on the way to smash them!

 

 

   Combat was intense, so missed part of action. We came to the point of using WMDs in this battle as well. Part of my units were hit by kinetic rods from SPAAAACE. But that will not help them! I have big missile to smack them hard.

 

   Retaliation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Europeans decided to use a moment to get a piece of North America.

 

3rd operation!

Spoiler

   This guy use a lot of gunships, according to briefing. We will take this in consideration.

 

   My battle-hardened forces prepared to hit Europeans.

 

   First victims. Going to lure them and feed to SPAAGs.

 

 

YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SURVIVE!

 

Destroy their fences!

 

2 units were evacuated after receiving serious damage from this idiot commander ramming his command vehicle and tank unit into my frontline units. He lost them all!

 

   He is trying to flank. My SPAAGs are needed here for another ambush.

 

 

   Tanks equipped with Flamethrowers are infantry-chewing machines.

 

 

   A stream of Russian forces entering the battle + 2 artillery batteries deployed

 

 

   Another group of choppers cought

 

   Rare enemy armor unit in this operation. They are not going out of this alive!

 

   Infantry is cought in the open. This is end for them as well.

 

 

   And yet another one.

 

 

   Artillery is making their barrels hot. And level those puny European houses.

 

And they were last!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Oedipus Wreckx-n-Effect]

I require modded Skyrim. Again. Because I'm basic. 

[LoooSeR]

My conquest of US continues. Oh man, so many territories to invade, so many choices where to put United Russia political party banners!

 

Spoiler

Let's raid this base, it will weaken US forces in the region.

 

   This commander prefer heavy use of AFVs and combat engineers. We need to crush 3 buildings to win in 15 minutes.

 

   I did this mission 2 times, as first time i was out of time (needed just 10 more seconds), as buildings apperently are made out of superior capitalist concrete and need around 3 mintues of non-stop shelling by 2 units of AFVs (8 vehicles in total) to be destroyed, as was discovered during first time i played this mission (and this type of operations). So if we shell them one by one, at least 9 minutes of uninterrupted trigger time to destroy enough structures to win.

 

   Giant aircraft carrier is where 3 critical structures are located. My plan to push from 2 sides (1st way near building A, second is through point Z to building B) and see where my forces are doing better, then reinforce them and assault there. Each building is protected by UGVs, which act as stationary turrets. They are capable to deal with infantry, helicopters and APCs, so during first attempt i rejected quick rushes as valid tactics. During second playthrough battle plan was improved and a superior way to deal with Americans was put into action.

 

   I want to add to American members of this forum that i didn't destroyed all those civilian buildings. And Russian Air-Space forces are completely innocent, too.

 

   I bet those places are destroyed because civilians were allowed to own fully automatic weapons just a day before Russian Shpetsnaz arrived here.

 

 

   Advancing to point Z. What is this "Private property" thing that security guy was yelling before disappearing under front wheels of APC?

 

   When infantry leaves vehicle, camera for a moment feel inner Michael Bay and become shaky cam.

 

   While Z is being captured, central group of Shpetsnaz is clearing defences of first building

 

 

   Destroy this warehouse with iPhones! Take that, American bastards!

 

   Note how much time is needed to destroy this storehouse.

 

 

   While main units are busy, we call regular army to defend position Y. Ewww, this thing is ugly.

 

 

Just in time to kick those oversized IFVs!

 

 

   Trying to push futher.

 

   At this point i didn't made screenshots as time was running out faster than what was needed to level buildings. Restarted operation, now instead of using central group of units to push, leaving 2nd group lightly armed, decided to utilize second group more, while leaving less forces near Y. Idea was to create a combine arms forces, with both groups having tanks, APCs/SPAAGs and infantry. Helicopters will be "firefighters". This would be risky and harder to do, as there is a chance to loose high-ranked veteran unit and 2 separate frontlines will need my attention. Those Americans are harder to deal with than Euroweaklings.

 

   See! We didn't bombed civilians!

 

   Taking Z. This time Americans are trying to counter our push on left flank.

 

 

   Hacking US server hub.

Uploading compromising emails to Hillary's computer.....complete

Hacking sanity of Americans.... complete

Uploading frog white power memes..... complete

Deleting all compromising files on Donald Trump.....complete

 

   Haha, you can't stop us!

 

 

   That American commander continue to throw his armor units at us, but Russia is strong and Americans are weak!

 

 

   Hacking American tanks..... complete

   

   Those tanks are now disabled and are easy pray to Kamovs. Or Kamils? Mimovs? Ayway, don't use Hex-shaped crap on your tanks, this means that hackers have 100+ attack bonus against you, cause computers and stuff!

 

   WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?

 

Building S with overpriced iPhones was leveled, now structure A with low-quality beer is our target.

 

   Meanwhile forces on left flank pushed almost to building B, clearing the way for infantry. After making sure that no air support is present on battlefield for Americans, APCs came back to pick up infantry and push B with tank support.

 

 

Enemy continue to attack central group of Russian forces, while this group of tanks, APCs and combat engineers managed to flank almost all American forces.

 

   UGVs are easy to smash for this serious assault force

 

   Few minutes later. Tanks were dealing with JSF infantry that was re-directed to counter attack, while combat engineers and SPAAGs were leveling 3rd building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Now our battalion was tasked to defend Ramstein base from US attack. Damn, we already started to change placards from German to Russian! Enemy leader is know for using wide range of units and tactics, so my unit composition and tactics should be up to task.  

 

Spoiler

   That is big horde of Americans

 

   Seriously, that is a lot of Imperialists

 

   Are they using European human hordes tactics as well?

 

   First stage - completely removing US regular army personal from critically important positions and 2nd stage will be securing F, B, Z, D and A, if possible. This will mean victory for us!

 

   SPAAGs are working on implementation of "no fly" zone. Currently they are explaining "no fly" part of it to those American invaders of Russian Ramsteinovskaya base.

 

   Enemy used artillery covered by AFVs, but SGB tanks, helicopters and airstrikes cleared the way for tanks to these squishy SPGs.

 

   Another group of Gunships that don't understand Russian placards near entrance to this base. A team of translators from Russian to "understandable" was quickly dispatched. Meanwhile, point B and Z were captured with little resistance, while serious firefight with enemy infantry and IFVs took place near D. Also, enemy used their WMD (kinetic rods) to strike entrance of base, that i used as choke for attackers.

 

   Reinforcements arrived to close a gap. My opponent will attempt to push here, for sure. After capturing D he will have 5 minutes to counter-attack and re-take at least 1 point. I was able to hold line for 3 minutes, using combination of airstrikes, hacking and tank/artillery shelling.

 

   He is massing his troops on other side of the bridge. Artillery is harrasing them, but there is just too much of enemies to kill. I am assembling all forces under my command near entrance, but it might be not enough to keep them away and save my veterans from defeat. Americans starting their concentrated onslaught. 

 

   2 full tank groups are pushing through field of previously destroyed decadent Westerners. They will be joined by IFVs and infantry squad.

 

   They don't know that i have a big surprise for them. My veterans are too precious to give them away in close range slaughter! Both tanks units are ordered to retreat, luring enemies into my trap. After retreating they were ordered to move to position A under cover of walls, effectively flanking attackers and they will be supported by combat engineers with anti-tank weapons. They will be able to kill anybody that will survive this little missile...

 

   BUHAHAHA

 

   THAT IS WHAT I CALL CLOSE RANGE SUPPORT!

 

   This little trap worked perfectly!

 

   I smell victory.

 

 

 

 

   I really enjoy this game. Maybe because of difficulty level, i had 1 mission that went very wrong for me, and each battle after "training" operations was a challenge.

[LoooSeR]

   More of my EndWar playthrough. Will decrease number of "usual" combat screenshots, as who is interested already got an idea how fighting looks in this RTS.   

 

   We have a battle for Springfield with... Europeans! 

 

Spoiler

   Open fields. I need to deploy big number of units and spread them to establish a frontline to hold a hordes of Europeans trying to get out of EU, which is falling appart because of war on 2 fronts with US invading through Spain and with Mighty Russia, invading from everywhere else, hehe.

 

   That should work. Server hubs will be my point defence, Milovs/Kamils would be for recon and quick strikes. First time using command vehicle during non-training missions, it gives me a fancy 3d holographic map to use. It is unupgraded, so other abilities are not avaliable for use.

 

   Time to fight for Springfieldograd!   

 

   Attack, my little conscripted Ukrainians!

   

   And gunships are getting hit first. Artillery is delivered, so all enemy ground units are going to suffer. 

 

   Kamils spotted enemy Command vehicle. He is not going to survive.

 

   Infantry from B helping cleaning remains of enemies after firefights and artillery exchanges. Enemy tried to push from both flanks of B, although his timing was off, allowed to deal with each group of attackers individually.

 

 

   That one was easy. Weaklings.

 

 

 

 

 

   Europeans are trying to take "their" land back. Copenhagengrad is ancient Russian Slavic city!

 

Spoiler

   Ohh man, those guys are in a bad spot. Really bad spot.

 

HAHAHA

 

 

   Plan was simple - drive to points L and B, take them, destroy forward units and then trap enemies in army base by parking tanks and AFVs in 2 entrances, while artillery is shitting on enemies inside of that base.

 

 

 

 

 

   Just 8 minutes was needed to do that!

 

   Artillery have much higher kill/battles ratio than almost all other units in my battalion.

Spoiler

 

Gender-swapping one of light infantry soldiers to female sniper

 

 

   Ramsteinovskaya base is being assaulted. Again!

 

Spoiler

   Shpetsnaz arriving to sort this shit out. How many times we need to completely trash enemies on that 1 bridge so they stop assaulting us here?

 

 

Why we didn't put nuclear reactors there instead already? Ohh, yes, because we are busy with killing invaders each day.

 

 

 

 

   My usual tactics of using front entrance as a choke is working again. Enemy commander isn't that good here, so it worked very well.

 

 

 

   Now it is time to push Americans out of Europe. Again this Jordan Taylor guy. This will be not that hard.

 

Spoiler

   Good combination of forces that works for me. And works well against him.

 

 

Double gunship squads? Double points for leveling my troops!

 

   SPAAGs arrived to finish helicopters

 

   That guy decided to rush with all forces through the middle with everything he have on the field.

 

   Together with his command vehicle! Look at those cute little drones he brought with it.

 

   That vehicle can eat a lot of fire.

 

   But my concentrated fire made him run away like a true coward he is! And he didn't managed to sruvive.

 

   Controlling a military base near this region allowed to use army reinforcements.

 

   Failed flank attempt by enemy. They were quickly mowed down.

 

 

   One of those little UGVs fell from bridge into water, lol.

 

One of last units.

 

   Nice view. Some maps have pretty thinks to look at between destroying decadent westerners. I will rename this bridge as Kadyrov's Path.

 

   Rushing me is a bad idea, cause Russia is stronk and America is weak!

 

   Army units can be upgraded. Currently my battalion uses stock version of Army support, small number of units and without tanks.

 

 

   

   Evacuating survivors.

 

[LoooSeR]

   While i was dealing with Americans in Spain, regular Russian Army managed to lose Copenhagengrad to Europeans. Our Shpetsnaz battalion was tasked with re-liberation of our city from the vile hands of the European invaders.

   It is you, Lukas. Again. I will remind you that you are bad at tactics. 

Spoiler

   My standart unit composition. On the map you can see 2 roads going from his position to my LZ. Space between those roads is takeb by a giant Trump-esque wall. So we need to concentrate forces there to dominate our enemy and take victory! 

   APCs with light infantry will be supported by tanks, while APC with engineers can fight against AFVs by themselvs. Closer to middle of this battle both groups will have tank and artillery support.

 

   Unusually high number of troops can be deployed in the start of this mission. I am not sure how exactly this game mechanics is working, probably because i have 2 territories under Russian control near Copenhagengrad, and thats why more units were allowed to be moved to battlefield from the start of operation.

 

   As usual enemy helicopters are first to be destroyed. Enemy leader tries to use them to harass my forces before they can reach advantageous positions, that's why i always place SPAAG/APC in a first wave, to massacre those idiots.

 

   Artillery and second tank section are reaching this battlefield. Artillery will be used to suppress counter-attacks and soften enemies positions. Also, artillery is best weapon to deal with infantry in forests and buildings.

 

   Position like this is great target for artillery. Especially with "Chemical shells" special attack. This group was defending infantry unit, that was trying to capture point L. They will be crushed by Sheptsnaz task force of combined firepower of Tanks, Artillery, APC and infantry inside of those APCs, using recently installed upgrade "Firing ports".

 

   Second entrance to the base is cleared from AFVs. Enemies are fleeing in panic and abandon their positions!

 

 

 

   And just simple views of Copenhagengrad after several battles inside of this city.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Small destroyed vehicle - my APC, bigger one - enemy command vehicle.

 

 

   In less than 7 minutes!

 

   One of my defeats. Was defeated like 3 times (won 11 so far). Never continue to play after defeat, as after them game just become 1 battle longer before my glorious victory, i just loaded game from previous turn and contuned from there. Didn't made many screenshots as i was busy with trying to snatch a victory. But it shows well how fast you can lose the fight in EndWar if your tactics are not good enough for a task.

   After Glorious victory in Copenhagengrad, my next step was to hit Europeans in this region, to avoid loosing region below European-controlled territory.

Spoiler

   This piece of Western Europe is nearly useless as it is. This swamp doesn't generate income or give any additional ability to Russia. 

 

   This guy is commanding special ops battalion, which may indicate a different tactics than what i normally see. Also, his rank is higher, so his units and battalion abilities are probably more advanced/received more upgrades than my battalion. Terrain is not good for mobile warfare - a lot of chokepoints and impassable places for AFVs.

 

   I decided to go with my nearly standart composition of units. Infantry would have been loaded to APCs and sended to capture points, while tanks with helicopters would advance to the middle, where they, with artillery support, will smash enemies. Command vehicle would be a defence for artillery, as i expected that enemy can deploy infantry behind my battalion.

 

   Bad terrain for vehicles. Map didn't showed that part of my entrance to the point D have a big train on the way, which only increased choke-... umm...-ness of this place.

 

   After spotting upgraded helicopters i understood that enemies are at least as well armed as my battalion.

 

   This is a result of fight. Just 6 minutes . Enemy went with all units taking D, used road between S and D to trap my forces there, spamming EMPs (which paralize vehicles) and shelling them with double artillery group, while sending tanks covered by IFVs in head on attack. Bad terrain and EMPs didn't allowed to me to retreat and wait until APCs with infantry arrive from F and Z. When i started to see how quickly artillery rounds started to fall on my tanks, it became obvious that central part of this map is lost.

   This battle could be won with different composition of units - no tanks, more combat engineers and light infantry, just 1 group of infantry with APC to capture points and upgrade them during first stage of this operation. Using forests as cover and concealment, they could push right to artillery and destroy it. EMPs would be useless against them. After that deploying artillery and tanks to kill rest of enemies. Helicopters could be left unused.

   But i wil remember this guy and how double artillery tactics is effective if used against AFV-heavy composition of units. 

 

   So then i realized that previous fight was a bad dream and went to fight against Americans in Spain. 

 

Spoiler

   Enemy commander used helicopters to cover units, so i decided to lure them out of cover of their AA right into jaws of my blood-hungry SPAAGs.

 

   Yeah, you weaklings will work well to bait those choppers.

 

   After my helicopter retreated to regular Army units, those choppers took my bait and started to waste their time in our part of air shooting at Ukrainian conscripts. Idiots! They will be killed a few moments later.

 

   Will skip rest of battle, as it was usual deal. Although should have made more pics of my rush against enemy artillery position. Helicopter were disabled in that attack, but it worked well for me. 

   For some reason evacuation chopper glitched, and stayed there. Good for me, he was spotting enemy forces there, which allowed to artillery to have a good selection of targets.

 

 

   Americans evacuating their survivors from tanks, smashed by airstrikes 

 

   AA and anti-infantry cover of artillery

 

   Ewww.. look how many wind turbines they have.

 

 

   Those Europeans have no decency at all!

 

   It is good that we will put nuclear reactors here. Right, comrade sneaky artillery spotter?

 

   We will re-name couple of streets here as Lenin's streets. And Kirov's highways.

 

   Church of St. Nikolaus II. No Pussy Riot allowed here!

 

 

   We will have this town administration located in this castle. 

 

   Arrabidnaya is now part of Evropeiskaya oblast' of Russia!

 

   Damn, those Canadians are colluding with Europeans. 

 

[Alzoc]

Ever tried the Wargame series @LoooSeR?

 

If you didn't I think you would like it.

 

As far as solo campaign goes, European escalation is nice and Red Dragon is alright.

As for Airland battle if you intend to play the solo only stay away from it.

MP is good like any Wargame but the solo is extremely frustrating due to poor design and dumb AI.

[LoooSeR]

9 minutes ago, Alzoc said:

Ever tried the Wargame series @LoooSeR?

 

If you didn't I think you would like it.

 

As far as solo campaign goes, European escalation is nice and Red Dragon is alright.

As for Airland battle if you intend to play the solo only stay away from it.

MP is good like any Wargame but the solo is extremely frustrating due to poor design and dumb AI.

   I tried, played 1 or 2 campaigns and stopped after that. I think one mission in particular made me quit, because i feel like AI was both dumb and uninteresting, and was cheating on top of that. Mission design frequently was not very good IIRC, which also was frustrating. Maybe i will try it again, but not anytime soon.

   More realistic take on RTS was only good part of those games, rest was either unpolished, not very well designed, or just unfriendly to player like me, who are not that much into RTS games.

[Alzoc]

1 minute ago, LoooSeR said:

   I tried, played 1 or 2 campaigns and stopped after that. I think one mission in particular made me quit, because i feel like AI was both dumb and uninteresting, and was cheating on top of that. Mission design frequently was not very good IIRC, which also was frustating. Maybe i will try it again, but not anytime soon. 

   More realistic take on RTS was only good part of those games, rest was either unpolished, not very well designed, or just unfriendly to player like me, who are not that much into RTS games.

 

It's true that it needs a significant time investment to start getting into it.

Was the same for me, retried several times over the course of a few years before sticking to it and enjoying it.

 

One of the most frustrating thing in the beginning was to understand which units you really needed in your deck and not wasting points on units which would be useless (and not having enough point any more to unlock the really useful ones)

[LoooSeR]

9 minutes ago, Alzoc said:

 

It's true that it needs a significant time investment to start getting into it.

Was the same for me, retried several times over the course of a few years before sticking to it and enjoying it.

 

One of the most frustrating thing in the beginning was to understand which units you really needed in your deck and not wasting points on units which would be useless (and not having enough point any more to unlock the really useful ones)

  Yes, this also made me angry at times and playing this game in general felt more stressful than fun. But i don't remember much of details from this game other than huge maps and distances of firing being more than what can fit into average monitor screen. 

 

   Oh, i remember what also was very fucking annoying to me - logistics. Logistics itself isn't a problem, but high level of micromanagement in this game to achieve good results is what was really annoying. 

[Alzoc]

12 minutes ago, LoooSeR said:

  Yes, this also made me angry at times and playing this game in general felt more stressful than fun. But i don't remember much of details from this game other than huge maps and distances of firing being more than what can fit into average monitor screen. 

 

   Oh, i remember what also was very fucking annoying to me - logistics. Logistics itself isn't a problem, but high level of micromanagement in this game to achieve good results is what was really annoying. 

 

Well it's the complexity and depth of the game which makes it both frustrating in the beginning and rewarding once you start mastering it (although I'm just at the phase where I start really enjoying it and still far from "mastery").

Breaking the back of an armored assault with a few concealed ATGM teams, spotters, AA cover and tanks to acts as pivots and mobile defense is much fun.

[LoooSeR]

8 minutes ago, Alzoc said:

 

Well it's the complexity and depth of the game which makes it both frustrating in the beginning and rewarding once you start mastering it.

   Logistics is busy work that is not a reason why i play games. It would be better if player had "rearm" button and everything else was done by AI. I don't want to deal with spreadsheets and don't want to master them in my free time.

   It is not like i don't like games with higher level of realism - for example i played a lot of Men of War and addons, also played first game in the series from 2004, which in the West was released under different name. Wargame probably didn't managed to fit in my "efforts put - reward i got - time frame for getting reward" understanding of fun in games.  

[LoooSeR]

   My fight with Westerners continues. Battles in Europe became a strategical stalemate with back and forth attacks with little changes in bigger picture. Combat on US soil starting to become a similar case, Europeans managed to sneak in US Northen states via Canada. Now they are attacking Grissom military base, which i conquered from Cowboys.

 

   Alexis Matz. I remember you. One of rare tough Europeans. He is ranked higher than me, so his forces are better equipped than my battalion. This battle will be a real test of our commanding skills and i will snatch a victory from your dead hands, Matz!

 

Spoiler

   So my unit composition is slightly changed from standard loadout. I can't just "rush B" Matz, as it will be a road to very quick defeat. Plan is to spread and use AFVs as much as possible before they will be defeated, inflicting maximum casualties to Matz battalion. While AFV are doing their part, my more infantry-heavy force will establish defence line outside of artillery range and engineers will try to put mines in some of chokepoints, before AFVs will be out of battlefield.

   After that, infantry will become my frontline units, fighting with what will be left of Alexis battalion. Main focus is to save artillery for second stage of this battle, thats why commander vehicle was deployed, even if in first stage of battle it will be useless, but after that this MAZ will work as a distraction for enemies and AA support for artillery.

 

   Kamils are used to recon Matz forces, try to see what units he deployed. 

 

   He went with 2 artillery units as i saw in my bad dream the other night. Helicopters will be used as much as possible to destroy at least one of them. Meanwhile infantry is working on hacking enemy AA defences to establish air support, which will be very usefull.

 

   19 left to crush. Already have air support, wich will be important on 2nd stage of this battle when we both will have only few units to work with.

 

   After some time and several groups of AFVs "exchanges" i have only few units under my command. In the distance you can see enemy infantry, capturing points outside of base perimeter.

   Only combat engineers of Shpetsnaz infantry are on the battlefield. They are setting up minefields to cover our rear and allow to slow down enemies if we need to retreat. We need to use all tools to allow artillery to survive as long as possible. I will not give up, Alexis!

 

   Matz defeated 5 of my units and lost 8 of his. It is still not good enough, 11 left and there is only 3 of my battalion units are on the ground. At least artillery is still able to mix enemies with dirt.

 

   Combat engineers fighting with hostile group of combat engineers, that jumped inside of a hangar for cover. Command vehicle is working as a tank, abosrbing as much damage as possible. Defence line was able to hold after a group of tanks assaulted it (their leftovers are visible).

 

   Europeans are continue to push, helicopters arrived and now engineers are in trouble.

 

   Artillery is still able to put a fight, but i have only 2 units left. Light infantry were just delivered and already managed to kill Matz's light infantry with help of air suppor (marks on the road are from autocannon fire from a plane). Combat engineers are retreating after suffering serious casualties. 

 

   One of last infantry units on this battlefield managed to meet each other in CQB. Enemy is cought in the open, they are as good as dead.

 

   Matz pushed his panic button, so did i. No retreat! No surrender! No save files loading!

 

 

   Fuck you, Matz! Russia is stronk and Europe is weak!

 

 

I won so hard that a region, from which attack was launched, was taken back!

 

   To the next battle! Our target - another American military base. Capturing it will give Russia better positions to push deeper into US soil and smash imperialists, destroy overpriced gadgets, and their American dreams of world domination!

   Opponent is ranked same as me, this will be a battle of equal-equipped forces. Securing Grissom base allowed to use air support in this battle. Not sure on skills of this Roger Funk. 

 

Spoiler

   Went with unusual group of units to test different tactics. And Roger will be my test rat!

 

   Decided to utilize tanks as well in this battle, as there are long open spaces present on this base.

 

 

Crush their fences!

 

   Regular US army is an appetizer for Shpetsnaz! Enemy didn't suicided his helicopters right into my SPAAGs, like those weaklings are usually doing. Roger have some brain cells in his cowboy head.

 

   Artillery spotted, it is providing support for IFVs. We need to take it out, as it will create big problems if left uncrushed.

 

   Tanks are already out of battle, but i have my death grip of artillery!

 

   This military base layout is not very good for AFV, their mobility is limited here. I decided to tie enemies in a battle in the single place, near server hubs S. This meen battle of attrition, but i have artillery and airsupport, while Roger Funk lost his artillery and don't have any air support with exception of helicopters. If i will manage to do that, victory will be possible.

 

   After first wave of assault on S my forces are not in a good shape, but main caliber of battalion is still fully capable. Enemies near position F. I need to lure them here and press them 2 meter under the ground surface with artillery rounds.

 

 

    Hahaha! Each defeated squad making me closer to victory! 

 

   Somewhere there Americans are preparing their plan to take Z and D, flanking me from the right. Shpetsnaz need to counter their vile plans! Artillery is relocating to prepare for next assault of Cowboys.

 

   And here they are! They are not going out of this alive!

 

   Air support allows to shit on IFVs before they even reach a frontline. 

 

   Soon enemy will be able to use WMDs, so we are trying to kill as much as possible before that. 

 

   Americans just used their WMD, leaving me with few units. But thise groupe of gunships is his last forces in this base.

 

   Just before being shot down, they launched all rockets they had against light infantry. Bastard.

 

   They were running away almost to map edge, but Kamils were able to revenge. Leftovers of infantry are being evacuated, so my veterans are saved.

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

   Battle for USA is not stopping but Ramsteinovskaya is now a target for American raid operation. My Shpetsnaz battalion is tasked with defending 5 buildings to avoid near regions on global map loosing air support. Those pesky democrats are trying to soften Russian defences so Europeans can hit us!

 

Spoiler

   I remember Marcus, he use generally balanced forces with exception of fuck ton of helicopters. Shpetsnaz will crush them. 

 

   Majority of forces will be deployed during this operation to defend Ramsteinovskaya Air forces base.

 

   Cowboys have 15 minutes before major Russian Army forces will arrive. But we will make them dead before our forces arrive!

 

   Each building is protected by those Stronk automatic turrets.

 

   Can kill infantry, APCs, air units. If needed, i will retreat under their protection.

 

   Will try to capture A to bait enemy into usual place of enemy humiliation - the bridge of death and WMD strikes. Also, this 3D holomap is avaliable only if commander truck is on the battlefield.

 

   Gates of death are waiting, enemy_faction! Euroweaklings and Americans already died here in tens or even hundreds.

 

   1:30 minute in this battle and no enemies or helicopters are spotted... Where are they?

 

   Yankees are capturing Yankee point. How fiting. I shifted my defences, enemy is probably decided to not assault through Gates of Defeat and Misery.   

 

   That is a lot of helicopters. Probably all his units are there as well. Need to see what is happening there...

 

   And here is where upgraded MAZ commander truck is becoming usefull - it can launch UAVs to scout areas. As we see Marcus decided to assault from secondary entrance, which was not used so far by my opponents in earlier operations.

 

   Assault in the progress. I have no artillery avaliable for this operation, so i decided to go infantry/SPAAGs/Kamils combination.

 

   Defence turrets is damaged, but still working. Need to kill American invaders faster!

 

   Assault is in full force. Infantry is needed on the Great Wall to fight invaders and push them back!

 

   More of Americans trying to attack Ramsteinovskaya base. Enemy under number 10 is a command vehicle with armed drones. 

 

   Combat engineers sneaked into a guard tower and now engaged in combat with enemies. Cowboys managed to take one of guards towers at the entrance.

 

   More infantry is trying to get inside of my Russian base. They can try to establish forward position inside of base perimeter, from which they will assault futher to critically important buildings, like chapel of United Russia and Mausoleum with Lenin body copy!

 

   And drones that are supporting commander APC. Will try to destroy them before dealing with what they are guarding.

 

   Combat engineers are in good position to combat AFVs entering base and they are capable to spam RPGs at enemies inside of guard tower.

 

   Light infantry arrived as well, now enemy infantry will not be able to rush foward with tanks without becoming dead.

 

   Sniper is working on Cowboys that are holding guard tower. Fighting is calming down, this is a chance to clear walls of our base from decadent westerners!

 

   In desperate attempt to save infantry enemy rushing with his command vehicle, to become a pray from Kamils.

 

   Last enemies are going down. It is a matter of seconds before invaders and their cunning plans will become a history!

   

 

 

 

   Excellent results for this battle, refreshing to see no units being defeated after previous 2 very hard operations.

 

 

 

   Next battle! While i was busy protecting one base, Euroweaklings insidiously attacked other base in America, and captured it. Shpetsnaz will take it back from their cold hands and will crush them with mighty tacks of our tanks!

 

Spoiler

   I will use my already tested tactics here of baiting enemy into one big fight in the middle of this base.

 

   For this tactics commander vehicle is not needed, our battalion will need all firepower it have! Thats why 2 artillery units will be deployed. Helis will scout far enough for artillery to reach spotted targets, while tanks, SPAAGs/APCs will provide resistance to Europeans on the ground, holding them long enough for artillery to humiliate and murder them.

 

   For Rodina! We will take Ft. Campbell back and rename it as Kambellovskiy Kremlin!

 

   Look at those shiny helicopters. Too bad i have 2 units of AA guns on wheels propelled by anger of all tankers to helicopters!

 

   Crush their fences!

 

   Europeans already started to shit on our regulars, but this is only a start of their demise.

 

   Enemy already massing troops in the middle of base. This is good, artillery will not need to relocate to reach them and club their heads.

 

   21 enemies?! We are confronted by hordes of Europeans! This is great opportunity to defeat more Euroweaklings in single battle!

 

   Tanks of both sides are joining this piece of action. A lot of infantry units are near F, which is good as we will have local parity in numbers.

 

   Enemy tanks are done. But there is way more of hostiles in this base. This base is teeming with self propelled medals dispensers!

 

   Artillery is found and they will become a history, even if they are supported by 2 infantry squads.

 

   Fake democrats continue to throw their troops into this level A meatgrinder, making that their defeat is from their own hands!

 

   Even more are coming to position S. Everybody will experience Russian Shpetsnaz hospitality! 

 

   Nearest forest is just vomiting infantry squads one by one to be murdered by concentrated fire of artillery, SPAAGs and tanks!

 

   Those are last hostile troops in this base. So much killing and destruction is good for Europeans. Maybe they will finally understand that the only way to deal with Shpetsnaz is too sign a complete surrender!

 

   Battle with Americans here was much harder. Cowboys were able to put harder fight with less troops. Those Europeans are true weaklings! HAHAHA!

 

 

 

   2 infantry squads on the left part of base are regular army conscripts who managed to completely miss this slaughter of incompetent battalion in just 6.5 minutes. Apperently only Alexis Matz can put a major fight in this army!

 

Aborted operation (game crashed and in the same time needed to go), but part of it look cool enough to post.

Spoiler

   Ramsteinovskaya is again under assault by Americans

 

   This guy is into tanks according to briefing. Never saw him before. Let's see how it turn out. Also, LZ locations are slightly different and much closer than usual. I will have no time to set up serious defence.

 

   Decided to use artillery-heavy task force for this battle, as we will be close to action. All enemies will be in range of artillery explosives delivery system. Same for enemy, thats why i will bring 2 of them. Also, no light infantry squads, only anti-tank engineers for infantry support of tanks and APCs.

 

   Wow! That is a lot of regular army forces. This battle will be fun.

 

   Helicopter unit is probably scouting and waiting for regulars to arrive and then fill them with holes.

 

   Head on/encounter battle begins.

 

   Encounter battle means a battle of attrition and who will out-survive this bloodbath. Also, Steven likes to spam EW/EMP to stop my vehicles. More-infantry heavy composition of troops is probably a not bad idea for dealing with this battalion.

 

   I feel with this amount of EMPs only infantry will be left to deal with each other.

 

   Something unique - Artillery with minefield trap placed in front of them, blocking bridge for my forces to cross. If needed, artillery can retreat to other side of the river and bait Russian forces into this trap. Not bad, but helicopters are not afraid of landmines! Also need to take this into account if we will meet again, Steven and 16th armored battalion.

 

   Less and less vehicles are left to fight for Ramsteinovskaya.

 

   I have only infantry to deal with attackers. This will be a very close end of this battle.

 

   Enemy have little of forces left, too.

 

 

   Only one infantry squad left. At least artillery is efficient with spreading parts of my opponent's soldiers around the battlefield.

 

   And at this point game crashed. Maybe for better, although combat engineers are in cover and maybe they would be able to shot down helicopters and spot them for air support.

 

[LoooSeR]

   And here is Unreal 2 review.

   

   Game was released somewhere in 2003 IIRC, and developed by Legend Entertainment (not by Epic). Unreal 2 is connected to Unreal 1 by the fact that both games are FPS and have "Unreal" in their name. Those shooters are so far from each other, that the Unreal 2 could be a completely different series of action games. Unlike first Unreal, Unreal 2 was a little bit more known and popular, you can find plenty of mods for it as well.

   Before doing this reivew i decided to look up ratings of this game and i was surprised that most of them are close to what i would give it. 

 

   Visuals

   Game was released just before a big step forward in terms of graphics happened in 2004 (Far Cry, DooM 3, HL2). Unreal 2 have a strange shadow rendering tech that is somewhere in between of static light map shadows era of 3d games and full real time shadows/light system of something like DooM 3, which is visible during indoor levels. This game is representing intermediate level of rendering tech, which leave it's traces on visuals. Outdoor enviroments lack details, while indoor maps look generic and lacking in "depth" of details because of strange lighting. Overal visual part is mediocre and aged not so well, but sometimes art design is pretty good.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It appears that objects can have only 1 shadow, which game "juggles" according to near light source. Sometimes you can visibly see how game engine switches light source from which shadow is rendered

 

 

 

Look at details. A lot of polygons, but because tubes are not darkened by a shadow of nearby objects, it is lacking feel of depth and look less.. "rich"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Characters and plot.

   Unlike Unreal 1, in second entry in this series there is a lot of plot and many characters. I will not retell all story in details, but it wasn't anything really special and game ends when story become less sci-fi-generic and actually started to interest me. Main hero is ex-military, doing routine things, then aliens attack, ancient alien civilization artifacts, hunt down X amount of artifacts on X amount of planets, fight with factions XYZ, of course there will be betrayal of power-hungry character to take this artifact for him and rule the universe or something.

 

 

   Between each mission main hero is arriving back to his ship, where he talks with his crew about something using very basic dialogue tree, but none of dialogues are interesting to hear and sometimes you know what it will be before they even start to speak. At times they are voiced badly.

 

Spoiler

 

 

   Crew of your ship consist of other underdogs/rejects like sexy super smart chik with dark-ish past, not sexy engineer guy with dark-ish past and alien pilot, who is nice alien trying to learn what is human, and who is a prince on his planet. In right hands you could do a lot with this collection of charachters, but in reality Sexy chik is just there to vomit mission objectives in tractical-sounding briefings (which are nearly useless, as those levels are linear as hell), while engineering guy tries to explain how killing works in weapon Z (laser rifle! Umm... you see it is just a standart raligun!), and alien is just a lot of wasted potential as he doesn't do anything other than act confusedly about humans and tries to do something outside of what princes are doing on his planet. 

 

 

   All charachters of your crew are saying things and doesn't do anything at all other than standing around and vomiting their dialogues into your headphones. During missions they don't even appear on the map to do anything other than say things. Usually you don't even get to interact with anybody on level, with 2-3 exceptions that i remember. One was dumb guy, and second was overly proud with himself scientist, who was there in order to our hero to be angry with and have angry talks on the radio because script writer needed to justify his salary.

 

 

   World building is as terrible as charachters. I didn't believed in it for a second. In fact, for several missions you don't even know what is happening and who are those aliens, why? where? what? who? are left unanswered until mission... 3 or 4 IIRC, where all world building is done via short dialogue about Corporation X, mercenaries Y (i don't even rmember their names, something like "Ghost Ankles" or Ishtaar Corp or similar) and aliens z trying to get to artifacts because reasons. 

 

 

   Plot itself is also predictable with all "unexpected" twists only twisting my face into a grimace of annoyance. Wasted potential is most obvious on the ship. You can climb into technical/engineering rooms of your ship, where you can open panels. I thought for a moment that there will be a sort of event where main hero will need to run around the ship and do something inside of those panels, while swearing and bantering with rest of crew, while ship is going through some sort of black hole/energy anomaly/whatever. But nothing like this happened. Plot also degrades into simple revenge mission after crew was killed by "unexpected" betrayal and actually one kinda unexpected relevation, which sparked my interest as alien artifacts were made to make one low energy alien race to become giant creatues firing black holes from their hands. Although problem is that script writers forgot to explain that this race was supposed to be weaklings of the universe, who were threated as second grade life form, pushed away from bar counters by tall blond mans or something. 

 

 

Spoiler

"I am not evil at all!"

 

 

 

   So plot and charachters exist, but there is almost nothing interesting about them. They feel more like an attmept to sell Unreal 2 engine to RPG-making developers, than a genuine attempt to add something to Unreal singleplayer formula. And you can't even start next mission before hearing all "necessary" dialogues, creating a HL2 sindrome, where gameplay is interupted by humans speeking with each other and player being trapped inside of a room, jumping on random crap and smashing boxes. 

 

   Gameplay, maps, pacing.

   Unreal 2 as a FPS is basically on opposite end from Unreal 1 in terms of gameplay, level design and pacing. First mission of second Unreal basically explains how rest of missions are generally laid out - a very linear shooter with 2-5 enemies fighting with main player at most in each corridor/area. Maps are very small and almost always very tight, both in size of corridors and size of each section of level. Frequent loading screens only increase this feeling. Probably was made so to bump up details and quality of picture. Unreal 1 had bis ass levels where you could find yourself lost, in this game it never even comes to "big" part. Movement of main character was slowed down a lot to compensate for small maps. Game lost this feel of a "singleplayer" arena shooter of Unreal 1.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

   On top of that all mission objectives are generic and simple. Few escort and several "defend X" missions only shows how generic Unreal 2 is. A mission where you get inside of unknown structure and take out artifact, after which local security system start to freak out and you need to quickly run walk in your slowed down speed out of facility was re-used at least 2 or 3 times. It is not as basic as button hunting in first Unreal, but not that much better.

 

   Unreal was able to still be not bad by the fact that combat was at time interesting and fun, when level designers decided to have arena-like part of map filled with certain type of Skaarj AIs. At those parts game was an arean shooter in a sigleplayer enviroment, fast movement, dodging incoming rockets, chaning distance because of unique qualities of each weapon and so on.

   Unreal 2 have nothing like this. AI is way less advanced than in original game or than multiplayer bots in Tournament series and have very simple behaviors. Enemy design is also generic - dudes with assault rifles or mutants with melee attacks/spitting poisonous crap at you, or "Jaggernaut" type of enemies (mercs wearing armored exosuits and armed with rocket launchers or Skaarj heavies), who are of course slow and have HP bars wider than average corridor in this game. 

 

 

Spoiler

 

   Combination of generic enemy design with generic CoD-style AI make enemies to be uninteresting and boring to fight. Well, developers could at least make their defeat to be fun, but they also decided that they should not do that. Almost all weapons are generic as well. Assault rifles, grenade launchers, shotguns, pistols, sniper rifles and so on. Few weapons are less "stock" - gun that fire spiders and shotgun secondary attack that set people on fire. I had fun with weapons only during one level where spider-type aliens were roaming military lab. In the early stage of it level designer gave a flamethrower to a player, which is pretty powerfull and creates a not bad spectacle.

 

 

   Pacing at times is also somehow... off.Maybe because of frequent loading screens or other problems with gameplay that don't make me feel something more than "average enjoyment level - generic". A mission on a dam was rather well paced for the most part (infiltration, assault, CQB, retreat with some sniping) and a almost-horror level closer to the end was good, but majority of others were pretty bad i don't even remember any of those just 2 weeks after completing this game.

 

   In fact i nominate Unreal 2 for worst first mission ever played by me. It is incredible linear, corridors are tight, enemy spawning was atrocious, basicall worst level design decisions put into a single map (frequent spawning behind player without telegraphing, throwing agressive fast high damage enemies with huge pool of HPs at a player with few starting weapons, enemy are using weapons with fast projectiles that can bounce of surfaces several times coupled with tight corridors, locking player in small room for combat section, etc). If the first level of this game will not make it's victim want to uninstall this game, then you should think about creating an Youtube channel where you will review trash PC games.

 

   In original game pacing was more natural and player-driven, as a player could choose his path, could try to hunt secrets or to fight enemies, could pick a moment to retreat and disengage from fight, which means that player could adjust gameplay to his abilities and tastes to a certain degree. Very little of this is left in Unreal 2.  

 

   Boss fights are also not that interesting, as bosses are killed by big amount of firing and nothing really more then that.

   This boss have not-totally generic mechanics where his second half separated from him and tried to find a cover from you.

 

   Conclusion

   Generic shooter that lost almost everything what was promising in the original. "RPG" elements are underdeveloped and boring, plot is generic, charachters and their interactions are "stock", action is generic. Unreal 2 feels like a sketch of a good game. I think there are more reasons to play Unreal than Unreal 2. Avoid wasting your time in this entry in Unreal series and don't bother with it. 

[LoooSeR]

   WW3 continues, and this time... with the same amount of action! 

   Our campaign in United States continues, we are advancing in central part of USA through American armies and piles of dead bodies of hordes of Europeans. Before we can advance futher strategical command decided to soften enemies in the region by raiding American Air forces base, destroying several key structures to deprive nearby regions from air support and tip the scales in our favor. Raid will be launched from Kampbelovskiy Kremlin against Maxwell base via air.

 

Spoiler

   Target locations suggest that we can destroy Foxtrot (Hacking....Russification of names in progress.... complete) Fedya first, then Dima and Liza. D and L are located inside of base, so concentrated assault is needed. Also, our forces will have 15 minutes to destroy them, we need maximum firepower on the ground and sadly we can't bring artillery to this operation.

 

   Assault forces were choosen to be 2 tank platoons, 3 infantry squads with more of combat engineers in the mix and single SPAAG/APC for armor support (armor will be assembled in a single assault formation). Helicopters will be brought to this battle during active phase of operation. Tanks would be our fist to smash through enemy defences and destroy structures, while infantry will provide support, hacking of servers and act as a defence line to retreat to, if needed. 

 

   Raid started, now it is a race against time and enemy resistance. But my Sheptsnaz battalion is battle hardened force equipped well for such operation! 20th Armored battalion will utilize its biggest advantage over others - we have a shitload of tanks. We will crush Cowboys under our tracks and shatter their fighting spirit with a humiliating defeat today!

 

   Combat engineers are rushing towards building near base entrance to tie any counter attack before hostiles can leave a choke of base exit, so rest of raiders can reinforce engineers and gloriously defeat counter attacking americans!

 

   Long central road of base is visible. Tanks will have generally good LOS on any defenders of this military complex and utilize their advantage of having cannons. Enemy gunships are already visible in the distance.

 

   Not many air vehicles are used by enemies in this fight, which mean not many SPAAGs are needed for this operation. Unlike a majority of European incompetent commanders, Americans generally don't suicide their helicopters into our SPAAGs.

 

 

   Combat engineers are good against any land or air vehicles while in cover. So rushing to protected position is the best way to use their so-called "Kornet" RPG-7s. Also, check Ushanka in desert camo (on the right). Well, at least it is not Multicam Ushanka (oh god... that would be glorious).

 

   Tanks already reached target "Fedya" and starting to clear it from defence UGVs. 13 minutes left.

 

   Tanks have upgraded autoloaders, cannons, thermobaric rockets that are for some reason fire like classic flamethrowers, and additional protection kits. They are most powerfull units against anything on the ground with exception of combat engineers in cover.

 

   While unit Griff Gromyko just starting to level air control tower, unit Rhin Rybalko is going around the target to catch last UGV and secure area completely so infantry can hack server hub Yankee. 

 

 

   Target Fedya is basically done, 2 tank units are shelling it.

 

   First defenders showed up and were stopped by combat engineers. 3rd tank unit Minot Malinovskiy was just deployed and now it is going straight into crushing enemies. Fedya is destroyed, so 2 other tank platoons are now moving towards base entrance.

 

   Malinovskiy is also well-equipped tank platoon and they will spearhead attack into main base itself, where most defenders are going to put a fight. This group of IFV looks like were trying to recon raiding forces, but were ambushed by Grizzl Griboedov infantry squad and then smacked hard with 125 mm caliber clubs of Malinovskiy. 

 

   Attack begins, all raiding forces were ordered to move to Dima. And yes, i am deploying 4th tank platoon, so there will be 16 tanks in this battle, highest number of tanks our Shpetsnaz battalion ever deployed to a single battlefield. We will completely trash those defenders and squish all base personal with naked steel tracks of our Glorious Ural tanks! They will feel indestructible might of Soviet Union and Red Arm... umm .. i mean Russian Federation and Russian army! 

 

   Defences of target Dima are smacked in the face with a main caliber of T-100. Light infantry is hacking Yankee to give us more support.

 

   

   American helicopters showed up again. Enemy commander was affraid to use them, so i managed to destroy Fedya almost without any resistance. But battle for Dima will be much harder, i suspect that enemy commander will try to assault our forces with everything he have. 

 

   Main counter attack begun. Enemy used IFVs and dropped infantry (currently is being shelled by Malinovskiy platoon). Another group of American infantry was advancing from left flank, where it was cought. 

 

   Another infantry squad with tank support is advancing on the left flank, again. Zmey Gorynych is tasked with stopping them.

 

   After few minutes of combat around Dima, all defence forces were defeated near it and Dima itself became piles of inferior imperialist concrete. Gromyko suffered casualties, but still combat capable. Enemy tried to counter our steamroller with helicopters, but our highly experienced anti-aircraft gunners made them re-consider their choices. Path to Liza is open and we have whole 7 minutes to re-design it into piles of construction garbage.

 

   American base commander from this point will not able to do anything with our forces. We are crushing all defences and murder all foes in the sight. No American now can get even close to Sheptsnaz Guard Brigade assault formation!

 

   Infantry unit that was defending position S is under combined attention of 2 tank platoons. They will disappear in a seconds.

 

   Victory is almost in our hands!

 

   SPAAGs were not long time equipped with additional laser-beam riding missiles launchers.

 

   SPAAGs are being re-located to counter approaching American choppers. Tanks will deal with target Liza.

 

   

 

   Light infantry missed all cool action. Poor guys.

 

 

   Tanks were in the middle of starting another assault on next target before realising that we won this battle already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Now, after such a successful operation Russian forces can continue to push south, deeper into US territory! 20th Armored will spearhead assault.

   I think i saw this map before...

Spoiler

   Situation is simple - enemy is ranked same as me, so i expect same level of equipment. Terrain favor a single big battle in the middle of it, which mean that enemy forces will be concentrated in a single spot, or close to that.

   My plan is to maximize firepower against ground targets, thats why 2 tank platoons and 2 artillery batteries are deployed, with standart anti-air support. Light infantry will be busy with hacking server hubs and uploading kompromat, and with watching for possible attacks through 2 flanking corridors. Engineers would be positioned in houses near center of map and provide cover for artillery from air attacks.

 

   Hey, i thought that pushing to the south was meaning more warmer places to fight, hence a desert camo. Somebody find intelligence officer and send him to Magadan to chop god damn trees!

 

   Thanks to our Glorious and Victorious raid on Maxwell (re-named Maxbad, amiright? Sorry.) Cowboys don't have  airsupport. Serious combat in the middle of this battllefield was fought a minute ago, was to busy with crushing imperialists, so no pics of first wave being destroyed. Rest of enemy forces were desperate to assault this position, and all of them managed to suicide themselves into Shpetsnaz battle tanks.

 

   Another infantry squad that tried to sneak into this position is now under concentrated fire of 6 different units! American commander is desperate on top of being as incompetent as Euroweaklings!

 

   Just few seconds later.

 

   Choppers are dropping from the skies like a snowflakes during Russian winters!

 

   Another group of gunships that will find out how hard is Earth surface in just a few seconds. They were trying to cover a group of suicide troopers, rushing through open field against my battalion.

 

   hahHAHAHAHA

 

   This is complete humiliation of Nathaniel and his Special operation battalion! His tactics are very... special. They can't stop our battalion! They never will defeat us! Send a message to Magadan to intelligence officer that briefed us before this.... operation, no not operation, a slaughter, that his assessment of American commander was completely wrong!

 

   Cowboys are running in the fear! Fields of defeated adversaries bring glory to the warriors of the Rodina!

 

 

   We defeated enemy while being painted in the wrong camo! 

 

 

   We will rename this village as El'tsinskaya.

 

 

   Yes, comrade Suvorov, i fought American foes with weapons that they lacked - competent battle planning!

 

[LoooSeR]

   So while our battalion was busy with destroying American bases and conquering their lands, somebody in Kampbelovskiy Kremlin was busy with losing base to European hordes. Shpetsnaz detachments just captured Chattandoga region, but Europeans with help of corrupt Canadians managed to cut advancing forces from Grissom base supply lines. 20th Armored battalion was urgently turned back to retake Kampbelovskiy Kremlin straight from the march and re-establish supply lines.

 

 

Spoiler

   My battle plan for this operation was standart for this base - create a big fight in the middle of it, that will suck all enemy troops into it and spit em out dead.

 

   Artillery and tanks will rule the battlefield with support of SPAAGs and helping hand of infantry.

 

   Part of server buildings are still in our hands, we arrived just in time to push Europeans back!

 

   Soldiers didn't even had time to repaint our tanks from desert camo we used in snowy mountainous area. I hope that an officer responsible for our intelligence is enjoying his time in the fresh air with an axe in his hands and all Siberian forests to cut down in front of him.

 

   Eurocopters already buzzing around with their zero-emissions environmentally-friendly engines trying to hunt down and kill base personal. Lying bastards!

 

   Europeans as almost always decided to suicide their choppers into 8 SPAAGs, hidden behind small forests.

 

   Oh my god, with each time there is more and more Europeans to defeat! Thats why our battalion deployed so many tanks and artillery, this is the only way to eliminate them all.

 

   Hordes and hordes of Europeans do crush, piles of medals for Russian warriors. Another group of Eurochoppers are approaching. Kamils are the bait.

 

   And those guys are prey. 

 

   Tanks assaulting positions of Euroweaklings.

 

   Malinovskiy platoon was on a tip of attack, heroically covering squad of combat engineers that were caught in the open while rushing to a building to take cover. 3 enemy units destroyed in this attack for a price of 1 tank knocked out of action? I take that!

 

   Only after task was completed Malinovskiy platoon is retreating to recover, with other tank platoons stepping up. Gromyko finished another group of foes. Artillery is relocating to prepare for more combat around point S, enemy commander will very likely to try to counterattack.

 

   Enemy artillery is found and will become a history in few moments

 

 

   Tank unit in the front was target for artillery and now even more hostile helicopters are trying to kill them. This tank unit will be evacuated after suffering casualties.

 

   Less and less enemies are presented on the battlefield and their leader is starting to use desperate attacks.

 

 

   It is now obvious that Euroweaklings lost this battle. Run! Being humiliated is not as bad as being dead, dear pseudo-democrats!

 

   Tryied to sneak an infantry to our positions? Too bad, our tanks are equipped with really scary close range anti-infantry weapons.

 

   Hunting for what is left of enemy battalion

 

 

   Searching for another group.

 

   Found! Victory is ours!

 

 

   Smash their fences! Crush their trees! Fuck the Military Police!

 

 

 

 

   While our battalion was busy with re-taking our newly conquered bases and advancing deeper into US, somebody did incredibly poorly on European Union frontlines.

   After thousands of attackers were totally destroyed by our Shpetsanz Guard Brigade detachment near and inside of Ramsteinovskaya base, it was sended to attack United States and bring victory to Glorious Motherland. Dastardly BigMak consumers decided to use this moment and assaulted Ramsteinovskaya again, capturing it. Frontline was penetrated, and US advanced into Belarus in the north and now is assaulting Sevastopol in attempt to take Crimea, trying to capture Ukraine from 2 frontlines.

   Our Glorious Shpetsnaz battalion, being acknowledged as great defenders and capable attackers, was tasked with mission of utmost importance - to defend Sevastopol Navy base from imperialist invaders, to push them back from our land and re-take Belarus.

 

Spoiler

   We will have air support from Moscow itself!

 

   My opponent is Nathaniel, once again. I defeted him in US, probably thats why they transfered him into support role of attacking Crimea. Attack in Belarus is probably more dangerous for main land Russia as it is fewer steps away from Moscow than current assault on Crimea, but Sevastopol is a symbolic objective, that i will not leave it for those dogs to maraud!

 

   Battle plan is to establish an impenetrable defence  in 2 chokes, one of which in the middle looks like will be main point of attack, as it gives less time to defenders to react and almost no place to retreat, unlike northen way. Southern corridor will be almost empty, as it is long and tight, making units there easy to spot and a pray for artillery.

 

   Battle for Sevastopol is starting now. Cowboys established their positions outside of this base already after landing from the sea. If my prediction of level of enemy incompetence is right, artillery will play a critical role in my plan. Also, we had some time to paint our vehicles back into green.

 

   Looking at detailed map only reinforce my assumptions. Main combat will happen on the bridge between point D and S. Near D there is only few houses for infantry to grab on during enemy assault. Main forces should be located here. Area near B allows to bog down attackers in urban fight with more ways to retreat and regroup, if needed. It also have 2-3 chokepoints, where Americans can be ambushed and slaughtered.

 

   Nathaniel is trying to recon big bridge and our side of it. 

 

   SPAAGs are rushing to counter gunships, while trasnporting infantry to position D.

 

 

   Jumping our of an APC under shower of spent cases is a certainly an experience!

 

   A wave of attackers is rushing through this bridge right in long arms of artillery gunners.

 

   Don't get too close to Shpetsnaz tanks, or you will be fried, mr. Imperialist!

 

   Hostile artillery rounds in the distance. We need to find it and crush them.

 

   Another wave of attack.

 

   And another one.   

 

   All of them will be defeated!

 

   Using small breathing time helicopters were tasked to hunt down artillery and make it disappear from the map.

 

 

   Yet another group of attackers failed. Nathaniel is showing his incompetence once again!

 

   Kamovs continue to terrorize enemies in their rear, until Americans brought even more of gunships.

 

   Meanwhile i advanced my forces closer, so artillery could shell deeper into attacker's positions. 

 

   Infantry in the building protecting SPGs from guests, including from air.

 

 

   Infantry advanced to guard towers to provide better view on attackes, if needed they can leave positions and take cover in buildings few meters behind, covered by military base walls, forcing enemies to get closer to establish LOS again, right into eyes of tanks and APCs deeper inside of base.

 

   I am paranoid about another assault attempt, so combat engineers are setting up minefields.

 

 

   Kamovs caught a group of battle tanks advancing to bridge of slaughter.

 

   Helicopters destroyed them. Only very few attackers are left. Nathaniel is probably already rubbing his WMD button.

 

   Troops, that were damaged on main frontlines were swapped with units near position B. And we set up mines here as well for a... whait a minute. Pripyat?

 

"Pripyat 2020". What?

 

   While troops were re-locating, Americans hit me with WMDs, 1 light infantry squad is dead, 2 armor units needs evacuation. I will pay back, Nathaniel!

 

 

 

 

 

"Peace to the world" 

 

 

   Bridge of death.

 

   SPGs survived because they were under cover of walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hey, after we sended that 1 guy to Magadan, Russian army managed to push Americans back! I bet that he was a traitor of Rodina. Make him cut trees with a toothpick!

 

   New toys, now tanks are SPAAGs.

 

   Combat engineers also got new flamethrowers. Don't know why they need it, if they have RPGs and thermobaric rounds, but if they want to carry it then why not?

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

  After Glorious victory in Sevastopol, our Shpetsnaz battalion was transferred back to US soil, to clean up European hordes, invading America through Canada. 

   We are fighting on familiar battlefields with those Europeans. 

Spoiler

   Antonio was defeated many times by me in many battles, this will not be an exception. You are terrible commander, Maldini!

 

   Ususal combination of different types of units. Antonio prefer to use more of gunships, we will keep SPAAGs close to assaulting forces. Also, tanks now have their own AA capability, so they will add to combined anti-air firepower.

   Plan is simple - using forests strips near central area we will create an ambush for enemies. Helicopters will be called in after operation starts, acting as a spotter for artillery, which will soften targets moving through town. I will enter town itself, as it is costly and unnecessary. Europeans will be crushed and destroyed!

 

   Main forces are moving to blocking positions near point B. Tanks will be parked on the road to town, outside of it. SPAAGs/APCs will be near them, hidden by trees and covered by combat engineers.

 

   As usual - Kamovs lure Eurostipuds into AA trap.

 

 

 

   A second group of customers who want to taste our AA systems!

 

   Artillery is ready to deliver HE to Euroweakling foreheads. I was expecting even more of Eurocopters, so 3rd platoon of SPAAGs were called to support troops.

 

   Yet another group of Eurocopters are trying to meet our SPAAGs. Maldini is using his forces terribly.

 

   Probably he didn't saw where exactly SPAAGs were after killing previous group of helis and thought that he can get away with attacking tanks. Also, 2 groups of enemy IFVs were supporting them, driving right into Shpetsnaz tanks, parked near a road leading out of town. 

 

   One platoon of IFV is defeated, second one is going to join them in few moments, as they are targets for 5 squads of our forces!

 

   Tanks probably should have been first to assault with helicopters, mr Maldini?

 

   Oh, helo mr Maldini! 

 

   Combat engineers acted as forward spotter and APCs support, which mean they eaten a lot of damage from combat. They are retreating.

 

   Meanwhile on my left flank infantry tried to flank us and try to get to artillery. Pictured: "They are fucked"

 

   On the right flank there is also an infantry attack.

 

   And in the center as well!

 

   Maldini's attack obviously falied.

 

 

   Last desperate attempt to do something for Europeans. Victory is ours again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Was evacuating defeated weaklings. Copter is equipped with cushions and safe spaces, thats why it is so big, even if it just evacuates few survivors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   That was an easy win for us, we wi.... umm what? WTF?

   That sneaky bastard attacked and took region from which i was assaulting him! What the hell? Antonio Maldini is a slippery snake, like a politician. I will drive him back into Europe with my tanks!

 

Spoiler

   I didn't came up with good strategy for this military base, so i will improvise. Although i know that forces will need serious AA cover and significant artillery support. Also, now Maldini have air support from captured base itself, he can conduct airstrikes against Shpetsnaz forces.

 

   My "balanced" task force for such battle make sense - i am familiar with abilities of this force and it is able to fight on 2 fronts in the same time, if needed.

 

   Maldini may be a slippery character, but he is terrible commander.

 

   Helicopters reveal regular European cannon meat. Still looking for main forces.

 

   Here are they, not far. Maldini tried to flank my positions by driving some of his forces just outside of base itself. Also, tank platoon was hit by airstrike and lose 1 vehicle already. I am deploying even more tanks to counter that!

 

   Now artillery, tanks and SPAAGs will be very important. Maldini separated his attackers in 2 groups, second one assaulting position F. As you see we are already defeating Euroweaklings! 

 

   Kamovs pulled teeth of hostile artillery.

 

 

   Yet another group of Euro suicide choppers. Idiots are losing their powerfull tools because of awful commander.

 

   Enemy infantry will be buried under this building in less than a second.

 

   Mr. Maldini, driving your command vehicle like a mad is not a good idea. Especially right into my main assault formation!

 

   More forces are arriving to this position.

 

   UGV escort of command vehicle is crushed. Now time for a main dish.

 

   In desperate attempt Maldini ordered to this nfantry squad to attack this assault formation. They are as good as dead. Almost all units under my command are engaging either that ifnatry squad or command vehicle. There is nothing they can do to stop us from winning this battle!

 

   YOUR AIRSTRIKES WILL NOT STOP US! 

 

   HELICOPTERS WILL NOT SAVE YOU, MALDINI!

 

   Kamovs destroyed last manned unit of Europeans.

 

   Only this copter UAV left. This is complete humiliation of Europeans and proof that they are weaklings! They managed to lose a battle while having almost total air superiority!

 

 

 

   After driving Europeans out of America, it is time to re-take Kopenhagengrad! Our battalion after battle for Grissom air forces base was immediately loaded on planes and went back to European frontlines, to conduct an assault and re-establish our positions in the region. We didn't even had time to paint our vehicles in proper camo.

 

Spoiler

   My battle plan is standart for this base - assaulting through 2 roads on left and right flanks and parking outside of military base exits, using them as a choke for Euroweaklings. Only problem will be hostile artillery, but it will be dealt with by Kamovs. I don't remember how good Lars as commander, we will see how he compares to Maldini or Alexis Matz. Although i fought against him earlier, still no memories. He is probably "generic" leader.

 

   Standart task force, able to push in 2 directions. 

 

   I see that Lars deployed 2 helicopter units. Let's see if he knows how to use them. He can youse them to just keep an eye on us for artillery, or to wait for easy target to hit and run.

 

   Oh yeah, i see how competent Lars is, suiciding his copters into ALL of my forces ONE BY ONE! Haha ha HAHAHAHA

 

   

 

   Second group of Suicide choppers are getting attention of 2 SPAAGs platoons.

 

 

   Tanks joining this slaughter with their own AA HMGs!

 

   Helicopters arrived to spot for artillery. Forces advancing to positions L and B.

 

   Ground battle started. More tanks are called in, Lars decided to push way more forces to Lima, to stop us from hacking it and uploading something bad to Internet!

 

   Helicopters spotted Euro artillery just in time!

 

   Artillery just started to shell Gromyko platoon.

 

   Kamovs are rescuing their comrades by rocket barrage of artillery location.

 

   Serious combined arms battle on the road to Lima, enemy have tanks, IFVs, infantry. Artillery is providing critical support here, as enemy hordes outnumber Shpetsnaz forces here.

 

   B is taken already, combat near it is hard to call "combat". More like tanks parked and shelling infantry, hunkered down in this death trap of a guard tower. Another group of choppers is spotted. I think i know what will happen.

 

   Why some American commanders are better with their helicopters? IDK, but those pseudo-democrats apparently using them as penal battalions or something similar.

 

 

   Artillery continues to be usefull and capable tool of Russian Shpetsnaz Guard Brigade.

 

   They are done. 

 

   Victory! Oh, wait, countdown was canceled. Lars deployed probably a single unit to try to do something about his complete and insulting defeat.

 

   I see them! They are not spotted on HUD because of camo crap. I will groundifre you, scum, with artillery!

 

   How well camo works if your pieces are flying away from the rest of your body?

 

 

 

   This battle wasn't hard. Yes, it does looks like only Alexis Matz is a worthy warrior in United European States army!

 

   We defeated enemies while being painted in the wrong camo. Again!

 

   I like how big wheels on those things compared to normal cars.

 

 

 

   Looks like American frontlines are now silent, all forces here exhausted. This is good, as our battalion can work more on advancing in Europe.

 

[LoooSeR]

And small brake from EndWar.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

   After small lull on WW3 frontlines, Imperialist armies started another round of fight for Southern Europe. Euroweaklings are slowly losing their territory to US and Russia.

 

Spoiler

   This American commander likes to use IFVs and combat engineers, but can change tactics according to situation. I think i will fight against him for the first time. We will see how it goes. Battlefield have 2 natural chokepoints where main combat will take place, one between D and S on a bridge, second one on a factory at point Yankee Yanov. Yanov is hard place to fight - it is a chokepoint that consist of 3 chokes - road just outside of factory ground near body of water separated from factory by a hill slope, another choke is factory territory itself, located on elevated ground, and last one is a road between factory and road outside of it.

 

   Not much can be deployed before operation. Infantry is a must, without it we can't hack elections around the world by capturing server hubs and pooring vodka on them. In Russia special forces budget and reinforcements are based on amount of hacking we done, after all. 

 

   Plan is to take all points on my side and then concentrate forces near southern bridge and factory. After that i will try to push where it is easier and capture additional uplink to defeat Cowboys.

 

   Infantry is loaded, now APCs are delivering them to servers. Helicopters will work as a recon.

 

 

   APCs got more upgrades - now they have sat TV dish for dismounts!

 

   Attack, my little conscripted Ukrainians!

 

   A lot of forests is a not bad ground for infantry. This is also a problem for tanks as they can't utilize their range advantage for maximum.

 

   Americans yet again don't suicide their helicopters into my SPAAGs. They are doing this because they are smarter. They are planning to do something bad. They are crafty imperialists. They plan to turn my own forces against me?!

 

   RPGs and flamethrowers are necessary for hacking.

 

   Factory with road outside of it visible. I suspect a lot of fighting will happen in this general area.

 

   I like how even transport helis are painted in desert camo. It would be great if this thing also used those giant Iskander-sized ATGMs against enemies at least once.

 

   Regulars are usefull to find where is enemy artillery. In order for my tactics to work, we need to hunt down hostile artillery at any cost!

 

 

   I traded my helicopters for American artillery burned remains.

 

   Gonzalez finally decided to attack my assault formation with his gunships.

 

   While SPAAGs were busy with air, tanks had their own battle with Schwarzkopf tanks

 

   Probably this is too much AFVs per bridge...

 

   Enemy tries to assault Sierra, but fails. Infantry will take D and then S, so i will have superiority!

 

   Ow... 4 of my veteran units are KIA?! WTF?!

 

   Comrades! We need to fight back! We need to avenge for our fallen warriors! Hold the line! Kill all invaders and take no prisoners!

 

   Those savage imperialists will be destroyed at any cost!

 

   While infantry and artillery is holding enemy, reinforcements arrived to deal with Cowboys.

 

   Enemies are pushing hard, with combined formation of IFVs, tanks and gunships. This will be a major clash, head on.

 

   Yes, like this!

 

   We are pushing deeper! They can't stop us!

 

   Shpetsnaz forces penetrated bigmak destroyers defences and are pushing futher to their LZ. We will crush them and pay for our fallen comrades!

 

 

 

   Place where we lost 4 units (KIA).

 

   We need to kill them all and take more server hungs to win faster. Enemy will be able to use his WMD soon.

 

   More of Cowboys being crushed and killed.

 

   Victory is almost in our hands!

 

   Ahhh... 5th platoon was killed, only 3 units left on the battlefield. Good thing is that my WMD is also ready to be used against Gonzalez mudak!

 

   PAYBACK, asshole!

 

   A whole fleet of evac choppers.

 

 

 

Spoiler

   I was not sutisfied with this battle, as 5 veteran units were killed. Decided to re-play this fight with Gonzalez.

   Small changes - combat engineers instead of light infantry. Gonza like to use AFVs and choppers more than infantry. And combat engineers can hack faster. Plan is to win (again) but with less bodybags in our helicopters.

 

   We need to do this hard fight again. Means that i am putting my veterans in serious risk, yet again.

 

 

 

   Artillery is arriving. They will play probably even more critical role then in previous [not so good] victory.

 

 

 

   Southern bridge will become a death tunnel with minefields playing main role. They are not only against AFVs, but also can hit helicopters, hehehe.

 

   Enemy is trying to see how strong defences are here.

 

   And they picked northern route. At least i was expecting that main attack force will try to push from this part of map.

 

   Result of this attack.

 

   WMD was used, again. At least this time no KIA.

 

   Shpetsnaz starts to push Americans back.

 

 

   Now they are trying to push us back. We are retreating to use a raod as a choke for attackers. 

 

   After few minutes of combat for this road. Tanks are driving through our minefields, that i prepared for attackers in order to cover our retreat and lure them into our Glorious trap.

 

   Another attack. They are going to be destroyed.

 

   Enemy IFVs were driving so enthusiastically... right into our minefield!

 

   Haha, victory, again! At least this time no units were completely lost.

 

 

 

 

   Enemy gunships probably can detect minefields, so thats why he didn't pushed through southern bridge. At least no Shpetsnaz forces were needed to cover this place and were used in much more serious place - factory.

 

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

   After battle in southern Europe, fighting shifted north to Belarus. Europeans are trying to attack here, our Shpetsnaz battalion was tasked to defend our land and push invaders back. US frontlines are still frozen, but Americans are trying to continue advancing in Italy and Greece.

 

Spoiler

   Terrain is not very good for mechanized forces and partially favors infantry. Artillery is also very usefull here. Plan is to try to push to several uplinks and establish defence line in the north side of this map. After initial fighting i will adjust tactics according to what he will have on the field and how capable my forces would be.

 

 

   Tanks are arriving first after APCs and infantry, their cannons would be more usefull than helicopters in first moments of battle, and helicopters are much faster to deploy as they are just flying directly to battlefield.

 

   Hacking first servers.

 

   Light infantry will provide defence for position B from European regular army cannon meat.

 

   As usual, conscripts helped to find enemy artillery.

 

   Excellent, now it will be easier for me to deal with Euroweaklings. 

 

   Advancing to position Zulu. Euro Infantry was caught in the open, they are going to be slaughtered. Light infantry will hack server hub B.

 

   Kamovs are trying to see what happens near hostile LZ.

 

   Our opponent decided to try to push through central area, but IFVs vs tanks is a really fast way to lose central area to Shpetsnaz.

 

   Additional tank platoon arrived to stomp enemies in areas near server hub D.

 

   Now tanks with help of infantry will attack it and clear areas around so we can capture it and hack some elections.

 

   Europeans used their WMD, after position D was hacked. Weaklings, can't really hurt us by conventional weapons! Infantry unit tried to sneak through forests, but was found by tanks. They are using those Euroweaklings as practice targets.

 

   I also can drop big bombs, Lars!

 

 

   Forces are advancing to enemy position S, so we can either destroy them all, or hack their one and only uplink to win this battle.

 

   Eurocopters are trying to stop our Glorious attack, but they can't do anything about it!

 

   More forces arrive to Sierra, we will crush enemies no matter how many soldiers left in Lars's pockets! 2 tank platoons are trying to counterattack, but i have tanks, combat engineers and artillery to smash them like bunch of cockroaches.

 

   Infantry delivering their heavy payload. First tank platoon was already destroyed, second one have just a few moments to understand their humiliating defeat!

 

   Artillery support adding more explosions to this battlefield.

 

 

   Infantry unit was defeated and now it is time for this 3rd tank platoon to become part of local scenery.

 

 

 

 

   "B"? You can't dodge a laser, comrade general.

 

Advancing futher into last regions under EU control. Americans are pushing in southern regions, but this war is taking too long, finishing Europeans is currently more important.

   Hey, look who is fighting against Shpetsnaz in this region. Alexis Matz himself, probably the only Europoean commander who is not totally incompetent. I will put a lot of attention to tactics of this battle, Matz. During this battle we will be able to call for a help from regular army units, which is usefull as we don't have airsupport. Task is to destroy all units that Matz will be able to send into this battle.

Spoiler

   Usual balanced composition of task force was chosen so we will have a flexibility and ability to fight on 2 frontlines in the same time. Majority of fighting will happen in the middle, as there is no natural obsticles for direct assault to my position. Small town in the center should become my defencive position, so Matz will not be able to sneak infantry squads there and turn this small town into big anti-tank trap.

 

 

   Early battle helicopter attack? Are you trying to copy other European commandrs, who suicide their choppers onto my SPAAGs? I know you are better that that, Alexis. 

 

   It really does look like attempt to lose his choppers very early in this battle, like many many times before, done by other commanders. What a catch with this stupid attack, Matz?

 

 

   Holy shit! 3 groups of Eurocopters!

 

   Trying to clear regulars and run away, Matz?!

 

   Cat and mouse game is on!

 

   Tanks are able to fry anybody with their thermobaric... flamethrowers.. huh? Tanks also received upgrade in form of 2 AA HMGs.

 

 

   Luring enemy IFVs deeper into this village and setting up a crossfire.

 

 

   Softening attackers. Matz is trying to push tanks with infantry support, in attempt to capture buildings and use them to push me. Artillery and Kamovs are doing everything to stop this from happening.

 

   Eurocopters were covering tanks, but not for long.

 

 

   Enemy infantry under fire, and our regular Army units arriving to battlefield.

 

   Regular army troops are good for soaking some damage from enemies and on top of that they can deal some damage to enemies by themselves.

 

   Tanks are clearing my left flank from Euroweaklings troops in order to open a good flank attack road to Alexis attack lines. In such open fields tank have range superiority over infantry.

 

   Alexis went crazy with amount of choppers he dropped into this fight.

 

   Tanks using their advantage to chew up that infantry squad.

 

   Another target visible near a wall. This road is good flanking position.

 

   I like how tanks are "unfolding" into a line formation. AA HMGs are also used against infantry in medium ranges.

 

 

 

  After that infantry was mowed down a fighting subsided for a brief moment.

 

 

   Single tank platoon attack. They are going to be dead, 4 units are working on that.

 

 

 

   Kamovs on recon mission

 

   Kamovs lured Eurocopters into a trap.

 

   More of regular army troops arriving to help us.

 

   Another suicide attack. Matz, this is bad. What is wrong with you?

 

 

 

 

 

   Matz understood that he lost this battle and dropped his WMD on me. Light infantry is KIA, but everybody else are going to see another day. Well, i also launched a missile against LZ location of Euroweaklings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LoooSeR]

   Glorious Russian army continues to push deeper into last parts of EU-controlled territory through northen path. EU capital - Paris - is a next target for our attack. In order to take a capital, we need to win 3 different battles in this city.

 

Spoiler

   Europeans are commanded by Thierry in this operation, his battion rank is similar to ours, which generally mean a clash of equals. Battlespace layout suggests that ground forces can conduct only flanking attacks through 2 sets of bridges. River divides map in 2 parts, with 3 uplinks on each. I suspect that position D will be a main battlefield for us, as it is located relatively close to enemy LZ. Taking L by flanking attack is a bad idea, as it is far and located near other enemy points, so securing position W probably will be my winning ticket.

 

   2 frontlines suggest my usual forces composition.

 

   City probably was bombed hard by American raid earlier. Shpetsnaz infantry will find cover here easily.

 

 

   As usual with Euroweaklings, Eurocopters are going to be destroyed first.

 

   Luring them into my trap. Those Eurocopters will be crushed. Idiots!

 

   They are basically done. Time to fill those streets of Paris with dead bodies of enemy infantry until they manage to cross bridges and assist to my opponent main forces.

 

 

 

 

   Thierry called for armor support, so we need our tanks to be presented on this battlefield.

 

   Kamovs are softening enemy tanks while 2 tank platoons of Shpetsnaz Armor is arriving through power of bastardized Mi-26.

 

   Tanks didn't managed to arrive to their intended position on the battlefield and already are countering flanking attack by fast wheeled Euro APC/IFV. Artillery is moving to roughly central part of my side of the river, SPGs will be positioned between Fedya and Boris in order to reach for enemies on borth closest bridges.

 

   I like how flamethrowers are usefull against every type of enemies in medium/close range.

 

   Combat engineers are going to block entrance from the bridge on my right flank and place some mines there as well.

 

   Meanwhile our enemies, as i suspected, were pushing D and managed to take it, threating us with a shameful defeat. But not for long, as Shpetsnaz light infantry is already there, murdering many Euroweaklings and their eco-friendly killerbots to tear a victory from their dead hands and manipulators!

 

 

   One of many groups of Eurocopters that were heartlessly killed by SPAAGs and tanks with AA HMGs.

 

   After we crushed uplink Yankee and hacked server hub D my opponent became desperate and used WMD. 1 tank platoon is KIA, but rest of forces are combat capable. Short-sighted fool! Because of his actions he allowed to me to nuke position Wiskey!

 

   Yet another group of Eurocopters that got right into my trap. Now tanks are acting as SPAAGs.

 

   Reinforcements are arriving. Enemy still tries to push D. Few attempts to attack from L through a bridge, covered by engineers failed, and hostiles abandoned their attempts to assault after seeing minefields and combined forces of engineers, tanks and SPAAGs.

 

   APCs are hunting for one more group of Eurocopters, probably filled with penal battalion pilots. SPGs position is covered with minefileds, if they need to retreat. Those minefields also work against low-flying suicide-copters.

 

   APC/SPAAGs hybrids and Tank/SPAAG hybrids are very usefull against Euroweaklings Hordes!

 

   Euroweaklings arranged another assault on D and managed to re-take it, using effects of their WMD attack. SPAAGs are using their missile to scare EuroAPCs.

 

   Another possibility of defeat? Good thing that artillery this whole battle was shelling attackers and forces on other side of the river. APC delivered infantry to counter Euroforces. We will re-re-take D from Theirry's henchmens and will defeat all Euroweaklings, that attempted to put their foot on our side of the river!

 

   You are not going anywhere! Our Shpetsnaz battalion shot down so many Eurocopters, enough to fill this river!

 

   One of many attempted attack on engineers near a bridge on my right flank. Flamthrowers are also a good AA weapon, hahaha.

 

   Tank platoon that managed to push attackers into their graves now found itself in a crossfire from hostile tanks and helicopters. Artillery is helping to them, but they need to retreat so SPAAGs can finish those noisy Euro suicide rotorcrafts.

 

   Gotcha! At the same time, Thierry is putting together his desperate assault to counter Shpetsnaz infantry from re-re-hacking server hub "Dmitriy". We need to hold for a few minutes before our Glorious Victory.

 

   Kamovs are harrasing attackers and slowing them down. 

 

   Euroattack continues, but it is just too god damn slow to matters. Artillery is doing their hard work on redesigning Paris embankments and highways.

 

   Infantry in forests can ambush attackers. But our foes have just seconds before their defeat.

 

   Yes, it is hard to assault through piles of dead infantry soldiers and destroyed AFVs.

 

   Last enemy unit is going to be killed before this battle ends!

 

   HAHAHAHA, Take that Euroweaklings! Waves of Suicide choppers didn't managed to stop us! Russia is strong and Europe is weak!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Napoleon quote during Russian assault of Paris? How fitting.