Matrix confirme que la nouvelle extension de Order of Battle consacrée à la guerre d’Hiver est désormais disponible. Au programme 13 scénarios explorant en détail les affrontements entre URSS et Finlande de 1939 à 1945. Avec donc des batailles ayant bien sûr un cadre hivernal, mais aussi des scénarios s’étant déroulés en d’autres saisons, comme on l’aperçoit dans la capture d’écran en en-tête représentant des combats ayant eu lieu en juillet 1941.
A noter au passage pour accompagner la sortie de ce DLC l’arrivée d’un patch 2.67 qui permet de jouer gratuitement dans le jeu de base un scénario de Winter War, et qui améliore en plus différents aspects du gameplay (voir le changelog ci-après).
Pour plus d’informations sur Winter War, voyez cette fiche chez Slitherine ou celle-ci sur Steam. Et concernant Order of Battle et ses précédentes extensions, voyez cette fiche sur Steam, cette page chez Matrix ainsi que les articles suivants : test de OoB – US Marines, test de OoB – Pacific et test de OoB – Morning Sun. Ou encore notre AAR Order of Battle – Pacific : La fourche (1ère partie) / (2nde partie).
A lire également cet interview de The Artistocrats et si besoin cette brève concernant la récente transformation du jeu Order of Battle : Pacific en un wargame « free to play » désormais intitulé Order of Battle : World War II.
Communiqué
Order of Battle reaches the frozen lands of Finland
Order of Battle, one of the most acclaimed wargames ever made (81 Metascore, 83% of positive reviews on Steam, listed as best strategy game on PCGamesN), gets a new DLC Order of Battle: Winter War.
After going Free-to-Play and over 500k downloads in a month, Order of Battle changes theatre of war for the first time, leaving the beaches of Pacific islands and landing in Europe. This paves the way for a completely new set of units, including Finnish ski troops, panzerfaust-equipped infantry, German Panzer IV and StuG III combat vehicles, several variations of the Soviet T-34, KV-2 152mm-armed heavy tanks and a whole range of iconic aircraft such as the Me Bf-109, Fw-190, Yak-7, Il-2 Sturmovik and Fokker D.XXI.
Take command of the Finnish army and resist the red tide as the Soviet Union assaults you in the Winter War, then take the initiative and launch an offensive to regain lost ground in the Continuation War.
A new campaign with 13 new scenarios, 90 new units, a whole new environment: Winter War completely revolutionizes the Order of Battle formula.
Patch 2.67 – changelog
Gameplay:
• Major rebalancing of all ground units, mostly focused on tank vs tank performance in anticipation for European tank clashes.
• Artillery now deals less damage against low-strength targets, making them less effective at “sniping kills” from long range.
• Paratroopers have “supply stash” which delays the out-of-supply effects for a number of turns.
• Paratroopers have “Quick Entrench” trait, allowing to to dig in faster than normal units.
• Units with “Light Freight” trait can disembark from a train on open hexes.
• Units with “Heavy Treaded” trait suffer double terrain disruption penalties from moving through difficult terrain.Multiplayer:
• 2 new maps added: Winter War based “Arctic Fox” and Morning Sun based “Double Dragons” cooperative map, playable as the Chinese.Bug fixes:
• Some black screen on start-up issues fixed.
• Campaign end screen fixed (no longer displays nonexistent scenario location).
• Disband button and tooltip display fixed when it is unavailable.
• Switch from Strategic Map fixed when using 2D tactical map display.
• Bonus Zundapp Motorcycle unit for owners of Heroes of Normandie game fixed.Editor:
• Dozens of new Soviet, German and Finnish units available.
• Objectives can be changed (added and/or removed) in the middle of a scenario.
• Popup dialog can be called to offer the player unique tactical, strategic or political choices during a scenario.
• ‘AI Team Split” trigger effect can move units from one team to another split based on their strength. This can – for example – be used to split damaged AI units to a different team and retreat them to the rear.
