Isonzo News

[h2]Rifleman[/h2]
Riflemen make up the bulk of the force and are equipped with rifles, grenades and support equipment. Vitally important for both taking and holding ground.

Today’s topic is the Rifleman class: the core of the team, for which there are unlimited slots available. The base of the class is the standard issue main battle rifle and bayonet, but later unlocks will include reserve issue rifles and rifle grenades. The rifleman is also the backbone of the team and can assist other players in a number of ways, being able to resupply ammunition to teammates, provide fire support with their rifle grenades, and more.

Italian Fante Rifleman

The Italian ‘Fante’ soldier (Fante translates as ‘infantryman’) is equipped with the standard issue Modello M1891 Carcano rifle, while the Austro-Hungarian KuK ‘Landwehr’ carries the M1895 Mannlicher. Riflemen who want to use rifle grenades will have to surrender their bayonets. For secondary equipment, Riflemen can take a single hand grenade, or the ammo box - more on that later in the post!

The Austro-Hungarian army had changed from white to dark blue uniforms towards the end of the 19th century, and they would go on to switch again to a darker uniform in late 1915 - of course many troops would continue wearing the blue uniform seen below. Experienced Riflemen will unlock the newer uniform as a visual customization option.

Austro-Hungarian Landwehr Rifleman

[h2]Ammo Crates and Resupply[/h2]
One of the Rifleman’s signature abilities is the ammo crate. In longer engagements your allies may run low on ammunition (especially Assault troops using light machine guns) and in these situations a well placed ammo crate can make all the difference between a successful assault or one that runs out of steam. There are two basic strategies for good ammo crate placement - put it near a spawn point, which will give newly arriving reinforcements a starting ammo boost without them even needing to use the crate, or place them near the front line behind cover, where troops in action can grab fresh bullets and magazines as they need them.

The ammo crate is a perk, but there’s also an ammo box secondary equipment option - this allows the Rifleman to resupply his comrades directly, but more importantly he can resupply static weapons like heavy machine guns, mortars, and even mountain guns. These heavy weapons can provide a lot of extra firepower but run through ammo quickly, so this is an extremely valuable service to perform for the team!

Handing out ammo with the ammo box.

[h2]Rifle Grenades[/h2]
We looked at rifle grenades in detail back in blog number six but to recap, Riflemen can use rifle grenades to provide explosive fire support at long range. It takes a bit of time to load the grenade and some practice to get good at aiming them, but they can be very powerful.

Using a rifle grenade in fighting at the Gorizia train station.

[h2]Perks and Bandages[/h2]
For more combat oriented Riflemen, you can get more accurate rifle grenades with more spares carried, or a stability boost for more accurate rifle fire. Most of the perks are support based though - the default Ammo Carrier option allows the construction of the ammo crate discussed above, Point Man increases your impact when capturing areas - you count for more than one person, which is very important when both enemy and friendly troops are present in a capture area, since only the team with the most soldiers present will make progress towards capturing the zone. Another option is the Chaplain perk, which doubles your bandaging speed. What are bandages? In short, when you get wounded in Isonzo you will probably find yourself bleeding. When this happens you will continue to slowly lose health, and can die. To stop the bleeding, someone needs to apply a bandage. You can do it yourself, but it’s much faster if a teammate helps you out.

An ammunition crate.

[h2]Class report complete![/h2]
With this closer look at the Rifleman, we’ve covered all the class options available in Isonzo! Every class has different strengths and weaknesses, and they’ll need to work together to fight at their best.

You can wishlist Isonzo on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556790/Isonzo/

[h3]See you next time, soldiers... to end this devblog, we leave you with a little surprise. Exciting news will follow June 14. Stay tuned![/h3]

We covered artillery support options in a previous dev blog, and the Chemical Regiment follows the same format with five choices, with later options having increasingly long cooldowns. The chemical warfare options have a slightly longer cooldown than the artillery and aviation call-ins, because gas and smoke remain on the battlefield for longer.

[h2]Smokescreens[/h2]
There are two smoke options available. The most basic Chemical Regiment call-in is a two shell small smoke barrage which will provide a small cloud of smoke that will stay in place for 80 seconds. This is most useful to blind specific enemy strongpoints or heavy weapons. Drop it in front of a machine gun or a bunker’s firing slot and you’ll effectively take them out of the fight for more than a minute!

Italian troops advancing under the cover of smoke.

The other smoke option is number three in the list of Chemical Regiment call-ins, and deploys a creeping smoke barrage. Ten shells in a row from the target, using the same aiming system as seen with the creeping artillery barrage. This smoke also lasts 80 seconds, so the advantage to this choice is that you can create a proper smokescreen across a wide area. When you need to cross open ground or could use some cover to destroy enemy obstacles, the creeping smoke barrage will give you the concealment you need.

[h2]Gas Barrages[/h2]
While smoke must not be underestimated, we know that gas barrages are what comes to mind first when people think of the Chemical Regiment. There are three gas barrage options, each using a different form of gas. In reality of course there were a lot more than three types of gas, but for gameplay purposes we’ve labeled our three gas options based on some of the most common / notorious gasses used.

Tear Gas
The second option in the chemical call-in list is tear gas - something like Xylyl bromide. First used in January 1915 by the Germans against the Russians (some say the French used it in 1914 against the Germans, but that was likely a somewhat different tear gas) it failed utterly due to cold conditions and wind blowing it back towards the German lines. Despite another failure near Nieuwpoort in Belgium, it was easy to manufacture and thus remained in use. You’ll also see it described in game as ‘White Cross’ - this is based on a German designation for any gas that affected eyes and mucous membranes. In Isonzo two shells are deployed, and the gas lingers for 80 seconds, the same duration as smoke. A gas mask provides complete protection.

Italian soldier using a rudimentary gas mask.

Phosgene Gas
Classified as a ‘Green Cross’ gas in that it affected the lungs, phosgene was originally developed in 1812. It was an important part of the chemical industry during the 19th century, and so relatively easy for warring nations to produce. The first major use during the war was by the French in 1915, while the first use on the Italian front was 29 June 1916 when the Austro-Hungarians deployed it against Italian positions on Monte San Michele. It was often mixed with chlorine, because while phosgene was more potent than chlorine, it didn’t spread as well - a problem mitigated in a chlorine mix. In Isonzo the phosgene gas call-in deploys 4 shells leaving gas clouds that remain for 95 seconds. It has a stronger effect than the xylyl gas, and will incapacitate soldiers more quickly if they are not wearing their gas mask. Again, wearing a mask will completely protect you.

Austrians used phosgene gas on Monte San Michele in 1916.

Mustard Gas
Developed into a military form fairly late into the war (first used by the Germans at Ypres in 1917), mustard gas is so named because it has a strong odor resembling mustard plants or garlic. The gas itself is colorless, but tends to take on the brown-yellow color when mixed with other elements to be a more effective weapon. A particularly toxic compound, mustard gas causes burns to skin, with prolonged exposure leading to the equivalent of second or even third degree burns. Worse, a gas mask alone won’t provide full protection, since it can penetrate cotton and wool to burn covered skin.

Gas spreading after shells land.

In Isonzo, mustard gas is the fifth tier Chemical Regiment call-in, where it is deployed in a five shell barrage. The gas remains for 110 seconds. Wearing a gas mask will protect you (at least it can be considered to keep you able to fight despite any longer term effects) but otherwise mustard gas will incapacitate you very quickly indeed. You’ll have to drop what you’re doing and don a mask immediately!

[h2]Isonzo Intel complete[/h2]
That’s all for this week! We have one more dev blog coming in the future about the Aviation Corps call-in options, and of course much more about the rest of the game. See you then, soldiers!

You can wishlist Isonzo on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556790/Isonzo/

Barbed wire is one of the most common battlefield obstacles you’ll find in the WW1 Game Series, whether you’re fighting in France and Belgium with Verdun, on the Eastern Front with Tannenberg, or here in Isonzo. It slows you down, tangles you up, and will cause injury with potential death if you don’t free yourself.

[h2]Why not just cut it?[/h2]
You might wonder why soldiers couldn’t simply cut through wire, or perhaps lay down some fabric or material to allow a crossing? Those things are possible… but the scale of barbed wire usage makes it a lot harder than crossing a modern day barbed wire fence. For instance, take a look at this photograph:

How long would it take a cut a decent sized path through all this?

First World War generals tried using artillery to reliably clear paths through wire - it didn’t work. Later in the war they tried tanks - sometimes it was effective, but other times wire would choke up the tracks and leave tanks disabled. Wire cutting was effective, but slow and very dangerous under fire. Often wire cutting at night using stealth might be the best way to clear a route, but naturally the enemy wouldn’t just sit back and allow that to happen. There would be scouts, raiders, wire laying parties, and more out in no-man’s land at night.

The Italians in particular had trouble dealing with barbed wire earlier in the war because they lacked good equipment for the job. This is part of the reason why the Italian ‘Compagnie della morte’ or ‘Companies of death’ gained such a reputation. They were mixed groups of infantry and engineers who wore body armor and heavy helmets to go and cut wire or blast gaps in it - some argue they can be considered predecessors of the Arditi shock troops.

Italian Company of Death engineers with their body armor. We know we use this screenshot a lot, but it’s a good one!

[h2]Types of wire in Isonzo[/h2]
In Isonzo, there are three types of wire: player built wire, weak point wire, and prebuilt wire. The prebuilt wire is similar to the wire seen in previous WW1 Game Series games. It will slow you and injure you, and cannot be removed. It represents the thickly laid and firmly built wire that was very difficult to get rid of even with tools and time.

Weak point wire is different - while it has the same effect, it can be built and cut by players repeatedly during the game. Defenders can construct wire at these gaps in the wire, and attackers will want to remove it. This wire appears on the minimap as a sort of mini-objective, like forward spawn points and heavy weapons. It represents the entrance and exits to trench lines that would have been used by scout parties to enter no-man’s land, which is why the wire is thinner and possible to cut at these locations.

One of the weak spots in a belt of pre-built wire.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]Assaulting a weak point in the wire under intense machine gun fire.

Every sector has parts where the attackers will need to break through thick belts of prebuilt wire by cutting it at these weak points, almost certainly while under fire - this provides cinematic moments in the battle, but it also emphasizes the historical importance of wire during the First World War!

Continuous wire belts in several sectors on our Sixth Battle of the Isonzo maps.

Last but certainly not least, there is the player built wire! Engineers will be able to construct short stretches of wire anywhere on the map which is flat enough. This wire can be cut by opponents, or destroyed by large explosions. While there is a limit on how much wire you can lay (both a team limit and a per engineer limit) it’s quite generous.

[h2]Wire in use[/h2]
How you use this wire as an engineer is up to you. Obvious choices are narrow paths and entrances that you want to seal off, or perhaps along the top of trenches if you want to stop enemies jumping in and aren’t worried about the wire getting in the way of your shooting out. Remember that your wire can be cut though, so it is an obstacle rather than a complete denial of an area. If you need to delay enemies longer, you’ll need to lay multiple lines of wire.

An engineer constructing some wire to block a trench.

However, you can also use it to funnel enemies in a particular direction on open ground (given the choice, many people will simply take a clear path rather than stopping to remove your wire), or place it on the sides of a heavy machine gun to get in the way of flanking enemies aiming to backstab the gunner. Again, being an obstacle is enough! Enemies will be able to circumvent or remove wire you lay, but even delaying them for a few seconds might save your machine gun or prevent a sabotage bomb being laid.

Two types of wire are available: one is a fairly simple short stretch of wire of the type that was historically used to block communication trenches (that connected the front line and rear area trenches) in battle to prevent attackers advancing. The other is inspired by the ‘cheval de frise’, which translates as ‘Frisian horse’. This is a sort of catch-all term for spiked obstacles, originally a reference to skilled Frisian cavalry and their powerful steeds hundreds of years ago - you’d want good anti-cavalry defenses to fight them!

A section of player built ‘Frisian horse’ wire on the left, with the simpler wire choice to the right. Each type of wire has a separate build limit, so make sure to use both!

And that wraps it up!
The barbed wire in Isonzo is interactive and player driven, and we think you’ll be surprised how much fun it can be to work with. Whether you’re laying it down or clearing it out, wire can change the course of battles. Isonzo is available to wishlist already! See you next time...

[h2]Engineer[/h2]
The Engineer supports the team by handling engineering tasks such as constructing static weaponry, cutting wire efficiently and deploying extra defenses and obstacles around the battlefield.

Italian engineers constructing wire on Monte Sabotino.

Military engineers have been a feature of armies for a long, long time. Since early siege engines required specialists to build and operate them, engineers have accompanied armies. Also responsible for field defenses, engineers were vital throughout the First World War for all sides. On the Italian Front, the mountainous terrain would pose a constant challenge to both sides as they struggled to build defenses, supply their troops, and launch attacks in the rugged terrain. Engineers were responsible for more permanent fortifications, logistics systems like cranes or cable cars, and their work was important for offensive actions too.

Part of the Austro-Hungarian tunnel complex carved out from the Marmolada Glacier in 1916.

In the Dolomite region, there were more than 30 mines detonated between 1916 and 1918, with explosions large enough to change the landscape: peaks lowered, cliffs shifted. The tunnels for these mines would be dug by engineers. We also saw back in Isonzo Intel #12 how Italian engineers prepared mountainside walkways to get the jump on defenders!

Austro-Hungarian engineers.

[h2]Equipment and Skills[/h2]
Engineers can choose from a few different rifles, sidearms, and grenades if they wish, but combat isn’t their primary task. Instead they should be focused on supporting their team in a few different ways. First off, engineers can build heavy weapons in pre-set locations on each map. This includes heavy machine guns and mortars - the firepower of these weapons can be game changing.

Second, they can very effectively build and cut wire - often there will be nearly impenetrable lines of wire facing attackers when the battle begins, only needing defending engineers to close up a few gaps. These chokepoints will be high priority areas for both sides. Attacking engineers can more quickly cut wire, or potentially even blow it up to prevent the defenders repairing it.

But engineers are not limited to these pre-set points of interest when building…

[h2]Construction System[/h2]
In Isonzo, certain classes are able to build fortifications which can be freely placed anywhere with enough clear space. The Engineer has the widest variety of things to build, all focused on providing cover to allies or providing obstacles to enemy movement. All buildable items in Isonzo have a maximum amount which can be built at once - there is a per team limit, and a per player limit. So as an Engineer your team might be able to build 20 sandbag positions, and you personally can place 5 of them. It takes a short time to put things together, and you can deconstruct them as well (including enemy items). Let’s look at what kind of things you can build…

An engineer built sandbag position.

Sandbags
There are two forms of sandbag available, one straight piece of sandbag wall, and one curved sandbag position. The curved sandbags are ideal for standalone defensive positions where you want to provide a little cover against flanking enemies. The straight sandbag walls work better when combined into a larger position, or as an extension to map features like buildings, stone walls, and ruins. In some places you might be able to use sandbags to hinder enemies trying to climb onto ledges.

Construction UI.

Barbed Wire
Barbed wire works exactly as you’d expect, slowing and hurting soldiers who get caught up in it. There are two types available, but we’ll go into more detail in a future dev blog.

Sniper Shields
These specialist items are small metal shields with a firing slot in them. When carefully positioned they will protect a soldier from enemy fire while allowing them to shoot back. However, finding a good spot with a decent field of view through the tiny slot is not easy!

An engineer constructs a sniper shield.

[h2]Perks[/h2]
Engineer perks tend towards construction and demolition. The Sapper Company perk gives a bonus to planting and defusing sabotage bombs, making it equally useful when attacking or defending. Support Company gives a bonus to operating heavy weapons: for instance faster reloading and aiming. This has natural synergy with the Engineer’s job of constructing those heavy weapons, allowing them to then provide better fire support to their team. The Death Company perk gives players body armor they can equip during battle. As with the marksman armor, it protects from explosions and suppression - useful when trying to build or sabotage under fire!

Armored engineers in action.

[h3]We hope you enjoyed meeting the engineer…[/h3]
See you next time and don’t forget to wishlist Isonzo!

[h2]Artillery[/h2]
Artillery must feature heavily in any WW1 game worthy of the name. It is generally considered to be the largest cause of military casualties during the war - perhaps more than 50% - and it affected tactics and strategy alike. Since Verdun artillery has been a gameplay feature of the WW1 Game Series. Then it was called in by squad leaders, while in Isonzo it is the Officer class who handle support requests, as detailed in a previous Isonzo Intel.

Artillery such as this 149mm Italian piece also appears on the battlefield in Isonzo, as sabotage objectives or incidental detail. There are also the mortars which are functional weapons!

[h2]Types of Artillery Support[/h2]
Every support category in Isonzo has five different options, ranging from short cooldown to long cooldown. For the artillery, mortars and field guns are the two shortest cooldown options. They fire four shells (medium for mortars, heavy for field guns) at the targeted flare marker. As you’d expect, they will kill, injure and suppress nearby soldiers, with the heavier field gun shells having a larger area of effect.

A mortar impact from the most basic artillery call-in option.

Having good cover will protect infantry from artillery shells, so artillery call-ins will be less effective when targeted on trenches, ruined buildings, and areas with a lot of large rocks. Of course there’s always the chance that a shell will land in a trench, with predictably gruesome results. In addition, because of the rocky landscapes in Isonzo, artillery will cause stone fragments to fly around and therefore has a larger range in which players are wounded.


Heavy artillery
The third artillery call-in option is the heavy artillery. This represents the super-heavy siege howitzers used by each side, with their enormous shells. The Austro-Hungarian Škoda 30.5 cm Mörser M.11 fired 305mm shells, while the Italian Mortaio da 210/8 D.S. uses 210mm. Only a few shells are fired but the power of them is enormous.

Left: Austro-Hungarian Škoda 30.5 cm Mörser M.11, Right: Italian Mortaio da 210/8 D.S.

The trend at the start of WW1 had been towards lighter, fast firing artillery pieces. These were devastating against enemy troops in more open ground, but as the war of movement ground to a halt and trench networks were constructed, the militaries involved quickly realized they had a need for heavier guns which could penetrate fortifications. You can expect the super-heavy shells of this call-in option to be more effective even against fortified positions like trenches or ruins - even if they don’t kill everyone present, injury and suppression effects can make them vulnerable to an infantry charge.

A super-heavy shell from a siege mortar.

Barrages
The last two options for artillery call-ins are the barrage, and the creeping barrage. The barrage calls in 10 heavy shells on an area, which will almost certainly eliminate any defenders outside of cover in a larger area than the earlier call-in options. The creeping barrage fires 16 shells, but has a special feature - it is aimed, and the shell impact locations will gradually move from the starting point in a direction specified by the officer calling it in.

You’ll choose the direction of the creeping barrage as you call it in, using the flare location as the starting point.

Creeping barrages were a technique developed to allow friendly infantry to advance behind the cover of the barrage, so that defenders would have to stay in cover until the attackers were almost on top of them. They were ‘creeping’ because they had to move forward slowly, at the rate of an advancing infantryman. This was a complicated business to organize with WW1 technology and didn’t always come off correctly, but when it did work out it was very effective.

A 6x speed version of a creeping barrage in action. These can be truly devastating

As a final note on artillery barrages, remember that officers targeting a second flare on a location will boost the next call-in aimed there, which for artillery means more shells fired. This has a greater impact on the two barrages, with 25% more shells coming down during a boosted creeping barrage.

Bombardment on the Carso with rocks flying about

[h2]Particles[/h2]
We spent a lot of time on making artillery impacts feel powerful, and our particle system plays a large role in that. The dirt thrown up, the smoke left behind, it’s all particles. And it’s not only useful for explosions! We’ve used it for tree leaves fluttering through the air, ambient dust to capture the feel of certain environments and weather conditions, and much more.

Particles in action on the wooded slope of the Gorizia map. The leaves at the start of the GIF are particles.

[h2]Albini & Figlio Binoculars[/h2]
The Italian officers and mountaineers in Isonzo can make use of these Albini & Figlio binoculars for observation and spotting - often a good idea before calling for artillery support! You don’t want to waste your creeping barrage on a section of trench with only a handful of enemies after all…

Italian Albini & Figlio binoculars.

Binoculars (also called field glasses) were in huge demand during WW1 with many officers buying privately when they could. Not only useful in ground combat, they were also vital for sailors to spot other ships or submarines, and used for aerial observation from balloons. In Isonzo they are useful for observing the battlefield, and you can also ‘spot’ enemies which marks them on the mini-map for your entire team.

[h2]More call-ins to come![/h2]
There are two more categories of call-in that officers can utilize, the feared Chemical Regiment and the dashing Aviation Corps. We’ll get to those in future dev blogs. See you next time!