Armored Brigade News

This update expands scenario design possibilities. The scenario designer can place the AI side formations, pillboxes, and obstacles in the Mission Editor.

The AI counter-attack aggressiveness can be adjusted for each scenario separately, allowing more customization over the opponent's behaviour. Two new scenarios are added to the base game to showcase these features. Also, the planning tools are improved, so the player can draw colored lines on the map and attach text to the map markers.


Version 1.056 Changelog

• Fix: The Mission Editor scenario list didn't scroll to the correct page after returning from an edit mode.
• [engine] All AI formations, pillboxes, and obstacles can be placed and locked in the Mission Editor. Now it's possible for the scenario designer to plan the AI side defensive positions.
• [engine] Mission objectives have an adjustable timer. An objective cannot be captured after it has timed out.
• [engine] The AI counter-attack system has been tweaked. The counter-attacks are more aggressive than before, and the base chance can be adjusted for every scenario in the Mission Editor.
• [scenarios] Add new scenarios: 'Battle of Inkeroinen' and 'Elastic Defence'.
• [ui] Improved planning tools: The player can draw colored lines on the map and attach text to the map markers.

Armored Brigade Nation Pack: France - Belgium - Gameplay Stream, with XTRG - 30 October 2019

Did you miss the live stream? No worries, it is now on youtube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AgHbEkhvAU&feature=youtu.be

France and Belgium are ready to join the conflict with hundreds of new units and aircraft, on a completely new map centred around the Bastogne area.

To celebrate this important milestone, Armored Brigade (base game) and the first Nation Pack (Italy – Yugoslavia) are being discounted, you can get them at 30% off. This promotion will last an entire week, until November 8th.

In addition, you can get the Armored Brigade Complete Bundle – featuring all the Armored Brigade titles – 15% off.

If you are eager to see the new factions and map in action, then don't miss XTRG playing the game today on our official Twitch Channel! https://www.twitch.tv/slitherinegroup

The stream will start at 9 pm GMT – 5 PM EDT – 2 pm PDT

In a few days the new DLC of Armored Brigade, Nation Pack: France - Belgium will be available: the release date is October 31st. In the meanwhile, discover the features of the Belgian Army by reading the thorough examination below. If you want, see also the French corps analysis here.

BELGIUM

The Belgian I Corps, with two mechanised divisions, was the southernmost corps of Northern Army Group, or NORTHAG. While the I Corps was permanently assigned to the forward defence role in Germany, supervision of the home territory was the responsibility of the Forces of Interior. Latter included not only the training and reserve cadres bolstered by local Gendarmerie, but also the elite and battle-hardened Para-Commando Regiment. While unfortunately not much is available regarding the Belgian tactical defence doctrine, the Belgian Army was generally rated by NATO as well prepared and with consistent high readiness, determined not to repeat the failure of 1940 war.



However, persistent issues with small defence budget meant that much of its equipment remained obsolescent; its main battle tank, the Leopard 1(BE) was of 1960s vintage and its M75 and AMX-13 Mod 56 APCs, as well as its Alouette II helicopters were almost museum-pieces from the 1950s. Despite the proven high proficiency of Belgian tank crews, the armoured “punch” had to be boosted from time to time by British tank formations. There was a modest rearmament program in 1975-1985 period, upgrading primarily APCs and artillery, increasing the numbers of ATGMs and replacing most of the Air Force’s fast jets with modern aircraft.

"People waxes and wanes according to the worth of its army: the army lives or dies on its infantry”. Such was the extreme point of view expressed in the German recruiting booklet Offizier im Grossdeutschen Heer (1942).

Hence, it is probably true that the centerpiece of Belgian Army in Armored Brigade are its (mechanized) infantry forces, strongly reaffirming the need for combined arms operations. While this lesson is true for any armed force, lack of technological advantage in pretty much any aspect over probable Soviet opponent in Belgian case imply that the combined coordinated action of infantry, armor and artillery is not only essential to success, but to survival itself.

However, the various obstructions provided by variations in terrain elevation, vegetation and built-up areas can block or inhibit the capacity and advantage of the enemy firepower. This opacity creates opportunities for cover and concealment. Exploiting terrain gives opportunities to mitigate the effects of enemy quantitative and firepower advantage through such techniques as using cover, camouflage and dispersal to reduce the ability of the enemy either to find targets or to apply combat power against them. Understanding and manipulating “ground” is often crucial to success in land warfare.

Since Belgians have slim chances of winning while fighting head-to-head against a quantitatively and qualitatively superior enemy on a battlefield of unprecedented lethality, intensity, and density, they must almost completely rely on combined arms, terrain and mobility. Here you can observe Belgian battalion using low hills as cover in meeting engagement with Soviet armoured force.

Mobility is not an absolute, but must be measured relative to the difficulty of the terrain and to the mobility of other friendly or enemy forces. For a combined arms team, the least mobile element may determine the mobility of the entire force. Without mobility, the principles of mass, maneuver, and offensive cannot be applied, and surprise becomes very difficult. Protection means both security against enemy surprise attack and capability to allow offensive maneuver or defense on the battlefield. This battlefield protection may be accomplished by using terrain defilade and defensive fortifications, or by employing artificial means such as smoke screens. Machine gun, mortar and SPG sections should be detailed to follow the leading companies, whenever infantry or armor.

Belgian Army gave particular care to reconnaissance, since 1975 organized and equipped according to British model. It was deemed vital, being planned, continuous and progressive, taking full advantage of concealment, defilade, and terrain.

Armored Brigade new DLC, Nation Pack: France - Belgium, will be released on October 31st. Below you'll find an in-depth analysis of the French army, looking closer to its strategies and features. The specs of Belgium will follow soon.

France

As mentioned previously, while the bloodletting of World War I has left the French military a firm believer in the prevalence of firepower over manoeuvre, so did France's defeat by Germany in 1940 led it to a similar swing in the direction of mobile warfare. Their Cold War tactics were tank-heavy and closer to US Armored Cavalry Regiments (or, indeed, their own pre-WW2 Division Légère Mécanique) in that their formations were not intended for holding ground. Like the DLM of 1940, the mechanized regiments were to operate like the earlier dragons portes, locating and delaying the enemy and preparing the situation for a counter strike by the tank regiments.

By the 1980s the French army had transitioned to small armored divisions and saw an increase in the proportion of infantry, though French “divisions” never amounted to much more than a brigade in real terms. These divisions were composed composed of task-organized combined arms regiments (essentially large battalions) which mixed tank and mechanized infantry companies on a permanent basis. The French doctrine saw these divisions operating on rather wide frontages, with uncovered flanks if necessary, and seeking to outflank the enemy rather than engage him head-on.

Here we can see dismounted block-force in the village laying ambush to the advancing Soviet armoured column, delaying them long enough so French light tanks and supporting paratroopers can organize to strike on flanks.

Backing up the draft-based armored and mechanized divisions of the Metropolitan Army were the expeditionary forces of the Force d'Action Rapide, a collection of volunteer-manned light armored, parachute, mountain, airmobile, and marine units. Although mainly intended for overseas use due to their all-volunteer manning, their capabilities would have been useful in an overall NATO-Warsaw Pact conflict.

“Boxing maneuver”. Deliberately lured deep into the French lines, Soviet unit is encircled and destroyed by weaker, yet more mobile French force.
Head-on engagements were eschewed except as a way to fix the enemy for an enveloping maneuver, and fighting in built-up or wooded areas was similarly to be avoided due to the low infantry strength of French formations and the advantage the artillery-heavy Soviet Army would have in such grinding attritional battles. In this regard the French army differed from the Bundeswehr which, although also a maneuver-oriented force, intended to fight for every inch of the battlefield.

The deadly effect of grinding battle against Soviet Army in the urban area.

The weak point of the French ground forces was equipment. The French strategic nuclear deterrent took up such a large portion of the defense budget that in many respects French forces lagged behind other premier NATO armies in certain technical aspects. The most notable French weakness was the failure to field a modern main battle tank during the 1980s comparable to the Leopard 2, M1 Abrams, or even the rather less successful Challenger 1. The highly sophisticated Leclerc MBT finally entered service only in the 1990s. As a result of the French MBT lag, the French forces would have had to rely more heavily on anti-tank guided missiles, such as the MILAN, HOT and SS-11. Another quite noticeable weakness in-game terms is lack of stabilization on most of the French guns.

Speed and maneuver without stabilization will likely result in heavy casualties if “all guns blazing - on move” approach is applied. Player should rather use greater mobility of French forces to dictate the tempo of operations: quick redeployments should be used to set ambushes and flank attacks to inflict damage and then disengage before enemy can bring his firepower to bear.