WARNO News

Hello Commanders,

As we head into the festive season, we wanted to share what's coming next for Ranked mode. Here's everything you need to know during the holidays, plenty to think about while you enjoy your well-deserved break!



[h2]End of Season 3[/h2]
Season 3 of Ranked will conclude on January 6th, 2026, coinciding with the release of Nemesis 5. A reset will take place on the same day, marking the official beginning of Season 4. To honor your achievements, just like last season, the Top 20 will be permanently displayed on our Discord server, a testament to the season's finest performers and a record of your tactical excellence.
We'll also do our best to display statistics for all players from Season 3, giving everyone a chance to review their performance.

[h2]Season 4: Your Maps, Your Choice[/h2]
Since last season, we've significantly expanded our map pool, growing from 13 to 23 available maps. This season, we're increasing the rotation accordingly, from 8 maps to 12 maps of your personal favorites.



[h2]How Voting Works[/h2]
The voting system has been redesigned to truly reflect your preferences. Instead of simply selecting 4 maps, you'll now rank your 12 favorite maps in order of preference. This ranking system gives us a clearer picture of what you actually want to play, ensuring the rotation truly represents the community's voice.

For full details on how to cast your vote and the complete voting mechanics, head over to our voting site, everything is explained there.

[h2]Vote here![/h2]
Voting will be open until the evening of January 4th, 2026. The results will be announced on January 6th alongside the release of Nemesis 5.



We're excited to see which maps you'll champion this season. Cast your vote and shape the future of Ranked!

Want to know more about Nemesis 5? Check out the full DevBlog that explains everything about this release!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1611600/announcements/detail/510726144262144829
See you on the battlefield, Commanders.

Once again, we wish you wonderful holidays filled with joy and relaxation. Spend time with those you love, and we'll see you refreshed and ready for Season 4!

Don’t forget the vibrant WARNO community. Check the latest news on the Steam News page or visit the Steam Forums. Get together with other players on either the excellent Discord server, Reddit page, YouTube or our Instagram.

Ho, ho, ho, commanders!

Welcome back to this very last WARNO DevBlog of the year. We’ll have some exciting news about Nemesis #5, some other bits and bops, and also share with you some early holiday season greetings before the Eugen team retires for the Christmas holidays!

Onwards.

[h2]Nemesis #5 Release Date[/h2]
First up is Nemesis #5 - Southern Flank. We have a confirmed (yup, hold on ‌to your hats) release date, which will be January 6th, meaning the second week of 2026. We need to finalize the last details and make sure that the Strike Team has had a good chance to play around with the DLC’s two new divisions. They will also be allowed to stream it soon!



Nemesis #5 - Southern Flank keeps the SOUTHAG theme, focusing on two new battlegroups in the southern reaches of the West German front, near the Austrian border. The DLC features the Spanish División de Infantería Mecanizada «Guzmán el Bueno» n.º 2, or Mechanised Division No.2 "Guzmán el Bueno" for NATO, and the Czechoslovakian 2. Motostřelecká Divize, or 2nd Motor Rifle Division fighting for the Warsaw Pact.



You’ll get to play with an arsenal of new units, from light M47E2 tanks, GUERILLEROS commandos, OBÚS 105/26 REINOSA howitzer and L-10D3 300mm MLRS, to POHRANIČNÍCI mountain warfare border guards, SU-7BKL ground attack aircraft, and R-330T TARAN recon vehicles.



[h2]XM-477 SLAMMER[/h2]
The Nemesis #5 will also see a (by that time slightly belated) Christmas gift in the form of an extra unit for the existing US 101st Airborne Division: the XM-477 SLAMMER (see more information here). This is a great example of a repurposed weapon, or “how not to let unused helicopter rocket pods go to waste”!



This particular weapon system was invented and tested by the armorers of the 101st Airborne, and was made up of six 19-rocket Hydra pods slapped together on a makeshift towed MLRS. It was envisioned to boost the firepower of the division’s airborne troops once feet were on the ground. Being unique to this division, it will in WARNO come with the Airlifted trait.

This new weapon will become available when Nemesis #5 - Southern Flank releases in the new year!

[h2]Until The New Year[/h2]
This Christmas break means that we won’t be back until the week of the 5th of January. When we return, we will give you an updated roadmap for all the cool things coming to WARNO in 2026!



And not only that, but we’ll also do a showcase of the new deck creation UI as soon as possible, including new division descriptions (the scribes have been hard at work).

From the whole Eugen Systems team: we wish you happy holidays and all the best for 2026!
Don’t forget the vibrant WARNO community. Check the latest news on the Steam News page or visit the Steam Forums. Get together with other players on either the excellent Discord server, Reddit page, YouTube or our Instagram.
As always, see you on the battlefield, commanders.

Commanders!

Gather round! The results for the hotly contested Nemesis #6 vote are in.

As always, we salute the WARNO community’s unrelenting propaganda and psy-ops efforts in swaying the ballot. And what we liked even more was that we all kept the vote calm, cool, and collected. A well-played mission!

So, without further ado, let’s see which Nemesis option can be crowned the winner…

[h2]Nemesis #6’s Winner[/h2]
With thousands of votes cast, the clear victor of Nemesis #6 is… wait for it… Nemesis #6.2 - The Magdeburg Counterstrike!



The full breakdown of the vote:

• Nemesis #6.2 - The Magdeburg Counterstrike came out ahead with 52,48% of the vote.
  
• Nemesis #6.3 - School’s Out! hit second with a respectable 29,75%.
  
• And Nemesis #6.1 - The Mountaineers came in last with 17,77%.

So, that makes it official: Nemesis #6.2 - The Magdeburg Counterstrike will be released for WARNO as one of the future Nemesis DLCs!

Nemesis #6.2 - The Magdeburg Counterstrike will now enter Eugen’s design and production pipeline. The DLC’s release will be when it is ready (no fixed date yet).

Meanwhile, the other two Nemesis options will - for the moment at least - be shelved. Perhaps we will dust off the ideas for a run-off vote later down the line or cannibalize some divisions for other offerings.

[h2]Nemesis #6 - The Magdeburg Counterstrike[/h2] Nemesis #6 - The Magdeburg Counterstrike will feature two armored-centric battlegroups (both number #1!) with NATO’s US 1st Cavalry Division and the Soviet 1-ya Gvardeyskaya Proletarskaya Motostrelkovaya Diviziya or 1st Guards Proletarian Motorized Infantry Division.



Find more details below:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1611600/view/621061805456752699

New units and weapons to be featured in Nemesis #6 - The Magdeburg Counterstrike:

• The US 1st Cavalry Division will bring such units as the M2 BRADLEY IFVs (in various configurations), CAV. TROOPERS fireteams, the M109A2 (GLCP) firing laser-guided shells, the upgraded M1 MOD main battle tank, plus British CHALLENGER MK.2, M3 BRADLEY CFV recon vehicles, M3 ETAS, anti-air M2 BRADLEY BSFV, and YCQM-121A PAVE TIGER Electronic Warfare drones.
  
• The Soviet 1-ya Gvardeyskaya Proletarskaya Motostrelkovaya Diviziya features up-armored T-72 URAL-1, as well as a few T-72AV fitted with reactive armor, plus towed MT-12R RUTA (radar-guided) 100mm anti-tank guns, MT-LB ATAKA missile tank destroyers, the R-330T TARAN, a MT-LB-based SIGINT vehicle, the rare PERO UAV, MiG-25PD interceptors, and the YaK-28PP Electronic Warfare-capable plane.

[h2]A Short Roadmap Update[/h2]
Before we leave you to mull (and likely heatedly discuss) today’s Nemesis #6’s results, a short update on a couple of other WARNO-related things first highlighted in the Roadmap (see below).
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1611600/announcements/detail/807959368541667351

• Nemesis #5 - Southern Flank. We have finished modelling all the units, and we are now busy polishing and giving them their final lick of paint. As we speak, the two divisions are already being tested by the Strike Team.

• LANDJUT: We are now fully engaged in the production of all the new models for this upcoming WARNO expansion.

[h2]WarYes is back![/h2]
And now for something a little bit different, but nonetheless equally important. WarYes, your favorite community-managed tool for all things related to WARNO, is back with some funky new upgrades and looks.



WarYes is reloaded with a new UX and several updated features. Head honcho Toucan has, for the past month, been busy reworking the website to make it much easier to use and maintain, while also updating its visuals. Authentication is now done exclusively via Discord, meaning no more pesky separate accounts and logins. You are now able to access the website via https://waryes.com (no more typos!).



WarYes now also has a table view to see all the units in WARNO. You can sort, filter and compare, as well as configure which fields are visible, plus column order and width. Nice!



There’s also a new Unit details page that is much easier to read.



And the same goes for the Weapons page.



Unit comparison also received a major overhaul. Comparisons now show in a table rather than just showing unit cards. You can pick what fields you want to compare and even compare multiple weapons.



Toucan also improved the compact summary view of decks. There are a heap of smaller, detailed reworks and changes under WarYes’ hood, but they are too many to list. Regardless, make sure to check out all the changes of the newly revamped WarYes yourself.

[h2]Until Next Time[/h2]
That’s all for this DevBlog. We’ll be back soon!
Don’t forget the vibrant WARNO community. Check the latest news on the Steam News page or visit the Steam Forums. Get together with other players on either the excellent Discord server, Reddit page, YouTube or our Instagram.
See you on the battlefield, commanders.

Welcome back, commanders!

While the voting for Nemesis #6 is underway, we wanted to take today’s DevBlog to highlight some gameplay changes coming to WARNO in the near future: the artillery rework!

Why, you might ask? Well, we want to balance the impact artillery has on the WARNO battlefield and give players more tactical options. We already lifted a tip of the veil of our thinking in this previous announcement a couple of months ago.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1611600/announcements/detail/497196316182447458

[h2]Upcoming Artillery Rework Status[/h2]
What’s the current status of the artillery rework? Simply put: we are progressing steadily. Our goal remains the same: make artillery less impervious, while enhancing the overall WARNO tactical experience. We’ve got several key improvements in the development pipeline, which we hope to be able to roll out in the not-too-distant future. So, what can you expect?

[h3]Set-Up and Take-Down Timer[/h3]
As already announced, we will introduce a timer on when you can use artillery. After the rework, artillery units will have a set-up delay before they are able to fire, as well as a take-down timer afterwards. Once an artillery unit stops moving, it must remain still for a short period before it can actually shoot. After letting loose its salvo, the artillery unit’s crew needs a moment to prepare before the unit can move again. This two-part delay will be identical across artillery types, whether towed or self-propelled.

This update will ensure that towed artillery, generally more fragile, isn’t further penalized, while self-propelled guns will not become even more dominant.

We’ll be clear: this timer pre-setup and post-firing will make artillery more vulnerable - not less useful. The delay is meant to create windows of opportunity for counterplay or counterstrikes, without removing artillery as the potent long-range unit it currently is.

[h3]Artillery Commander[/h3]
With the upcoming artillery rework, we’ll also introduce the new Artillery Commander, a unit concept we already previewed. It will be a new trait, very similar to the Artillery Leaders from Steel Division 2, but called Fire Directon in WARNO.


These special units will be available in the ART tab of your battlegroup. They are designed to boost subordinate artillery systems within their area of effect. We are creating some new models to represent them accurately, while the actual in-game modifiers are still being tweaked as we speak.

[h3]Mortars and Howitzers[/h3]
In their current form, mortars and light-caliber howitzers struggle to be effective options on the WARNO battlefield. Heavier gun pieces (155mm, 203mm, etc.) are accurate and very destructive when they hit, but ineffective when they miss.

Our goal is to update the binary choice commanders now make when it comes to artillery: “sniper or nothing.” We want all artillery, including mortars, to have a more tangible area of saturation effect, moving away from impact point-focused gameplay and more towards a noticeable area-of-effect experience.


To achieve this:

• Mortars will receive a damage boost and larger splash radius. This will greatly improve their effectiveness as short-range artillery pieces. Their Suppression area of effect will also be upgraded significantly.
  
• Not being satisfied with the current mortar shell trajectories - which, in our opinion, are excessively high and result in too much time between firing and impact - we will update them. However, several WARNO engine limitations require us to rework deeper, back-end core systems to gain more flexibility in tuning physics and projectile trajectories. This work is currently underway on the development side of things.
  
• Howitzers will see a slight reduction in their direct damage, but a wider splash radius in turn. Their Supresssion will increase as well. This makes them more potent in suppressing enemy units, even without directly hitting them (you know, shockwaves and shrapnel flying around your ears).
  
• Mortars will generate greater Suppression splash compared to howitzers of equivalent caliber. This reflects that mortar shells fall more vertically than howitzer shells, which in turn creates a larger area of effect. This adjustment will balance both gameplay intent and realism.

We see the above changes as fundamentally altering the artillery gameplay experience. Mortars and howitzers will affect a wider area with each salvo, making it easier to suppress multiple units, even with smaller calibers. Lighter howitzers (105mm and 122mm) become much more interesting, and mortars gain utility beyond just creating smoke screens.

[h3]Napalm Artillery[/h3]
A short note, but flame effects on the battlefield - as those left by napalm-type munitions - will also be rebalanced. The effectiveness of fire on a unit now scales with armor type: strong against light armor, reduced against medium armor, and minimal against heavy armor.

[h2]Anything Else?[/h2]
That’s not all. We are working on quite a few other changes, which we hope to roll out in stages. For instance, in the first announcement, we talked about adjusting artillery salvos based on tactical needs. This is not something that we have forgotten about, but we have pushed this back on the timeline for a bit.

Keep in mind that maybe not all updates will be included in the initial release. Note that everything we’ve presented in today’s DevBlog is still in development, will affect all divisions, and is subject to change.

The next big question is when? We are very busy getting this into your hands as soon as possible (but with a big Eugen trademark on when exactly). Our goal is to test everything thoroughly with our own QA, plus the excellent Strike Team.

[h2]WARNO’s Nemesis #6[/h2]
As you should know, the vote for Nemesis #6 is currently in full swing. Make sure to cast yours until Tuesday, December 9th at 12:00 (CEST) / 11:00 AM (BST) / 6 AM (EDT). We will publish the results on Thursday, the 11th of December.

Check out the potential offerings below!

• Nemesis #6.1 - The Mountaineers presents the high-fighting mountainous forces of NATO’s French 27e Division Alpine against Warsaw Pact’s Polish 5 Podhalańska Brygada WOWew.
  
• In Nemesis #6.2 - The Magdeburg Counterstrike goes number #1! with the two mobile armored battlegroups of NATO’s US
  1st Cavalry Division and the Soviet 1-ya Gvardeyskaya Proletarskaya Motostrelkovaya Diviziya.
  
• The Nemesis #6.3 - School’s Out! sees the proposed introduction of a new class of units, Instructors, boosting the battle efficiency of the Nemesis’ two divisions' mass of recruits and reservists to new highs! The battlegroups are NATO’s West German Verfügungstruppenkommando 42 versus the Soviet 71-ya Zapasnaya Tankovaya Diviziya.

[h2]Until Next Time[/h2]
Let us know what you think of the artillery rework. And don’t forget to cast your vote for Nemesis #6. You get until Tuesday, December 9th to do it!
Don’t forget the vibrant WARNO community. Check the latest news on the Steam News page or visit the Steam Forums. Get together with other players on either the excellent Discord server, Reddit page, YouTube or our Instagram.
See you on the battlefield, commanders.

[h3]This patch includes some important fixes and a feature:

Feature:
[/h3]

• [p] You can now see dedicated servers or lobbies that have a modded map without having the correct map mod activated.
  These will appear with an "(Unknown Map)" label. You can join them just like any other modded server or lobby. When you click join, a popup will ask if you want to download the mod. After confirming, the mod will be downloaded, the game will restart, and the mod will be activated and you automatically join the server or lobby.
  [/p]

[h3]Code Fixes:
[/h3]

• [p] MODDING: Fixed a crash when entering a lobby if you have no deck and have installed a mod that removes all vanilla decks[/p]
• [p] MODDING: Fixed deck names not being displayed in case of an error message on a deck[/p]
• [p] MODDING: Clarified an error message[/p]
• [p]MODDING: Fixed a typo in an error message (for modders) when checking deck modifications[/p]
• [p]MODDING: Fixed support for different sizes of modded units when calling for reinforcements[/p]
• [p]MODDING: Fixed crashes that occurred with the weapon orientation of certain modded units [/p]
• [p]Fixed crashes that occurred when errors occurred while loading the game[/p]
• [p]Fixed a crash related to the Cliff map when a player gave a smart order to helicopters above water.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p]Important: we remind you that we always do our best to avoid impacting mods. However, this is not always possible when significant bugs need to be fixed. A “compat” branch followed by the previous version number is always available, allowing you to continue using your mods. These branches can be accessed by going to the Steam library, right-clicking on Warno>Properties>Betas, and then choosing the branch from the drop-down menu.[/p]