WARNO News

Realistic Steam strategy game apologizes for 1.0 mix-up with free DLC

The long-awaited 1.0 launch of the massive scale, ultra realistic strategy game Warno has brought its brand of incredibly detailed war games to a full release on Steam. Following in the footsteps of Arma and War Thunder, Warno is a much more intense and immersive approach to the genre than the likes of Command and Conquer, and it's been met so far with a very positive review score on the Valve platform. A mix-up with the game's new deluxe edition, however, has seen developer Eugen Systems deliver a make-good in the form of free gifts for existing players.

Read the rest of the story...

WARNO Gold Snafu and Update

Hello commanders,

We bring some bad news… and good news.

Yesterday’s launch of WARNO Gold, the belated deluxe version of our game, clearly didn't go according to the plan (but which plan does in the face of battle?).

The bundle’s pricing and actual discount for our dedicated community were not what we had foreseen. WARNO Gold doesn’t carry nearly as much of a discount for Early Access owners as we would have liked. Coupled with technical problems and back-end discount/sales issues, this makes the “bad news” part of today’s emergency DevBlog.

However, we hope to make amends for this little snafu. Please keep on reading for the “good news”!

[h2]WARNO Gold, 1-2-eh-5?[/h2]
This deluxe bundle of ours is turning into a bigger headache than we expected. We originally envisioned to have Gold launch before the game’s official release out of Early Access. This didn’t happen; we encountered difficulties getting the Gold Steam pages approved and validated. Added to this, there were a lot of “under-the-hood” mechanics to do with Steam pricing and discounts that threw a wrench into our release plan.

This resulted in the inclusion of an Expansion Pass, and with Gold’s release, our calculations for the actual discount price were erroneous. The horror! We have punished those responsible and put them together with the latest batch of interns in Eugen’s coal shed for a much-needed “reeducation” program.

This leads us to:

The discount to get Gold does not live up to a special discount previously proposed to Early Access owners, which, in reality, fell far too short of what we had envisioned.

As the Eugen team, we apologize for this mistake.

[h2]WARNO Gold Technical Issues[/h2]
Making a game is hard, but releasing and marketing a game is even harder, or so it seems. One technical issue was that “officially,” WARNO did not launch out of Early Access until the Gold’s launch yesterday, May 30th…

This technical consideration makes it impossible for us to distinguish between Early Access owners from those before the actual official launch on May 23rd and players who joined the battle after that (so until yesterday).

We also can’t just add an extra discount on top of the current discount or the Expansion Pass (Steam doesn’t work that way).

This left us finding an alternative way to make amends. Here it comes!

[h2]WARNO Gold Extra Extra Goodies[/h2]
So, within the limited playing field we currently have, we wanted to offer the following to all WARNO Early Access owners (that is, those who owned the game before yesterday’s Gold launch).

Digital Guides as a Gift
Instead of an actual extra discount - which we can’t do - we will make for free immediately the Digital Guides with a value of $9.99 / 9,99€ (or $7.99 / 7,99€ discounted in the bundle).

Now, these Guides are pretty kick-ass, and we think this goes part-way to righting the ship, but we understand this gift might not be for everyone. Before you raise your torches and pitchforks again, there is more!

Two Brand-New Early Access Pack Divisions
We will add for free 2 brand-new Divisions as part of the Early Access Pack (containing 5 Divisions already). These Divisions need to be first created, designed, developed, etc. so they will come at a future, still-to-be-determined date. This will most likely be after Nemesis: Airborne Assault.

The Early Access Pack is already automatically and freely available to Early Access owners of WARNO. This means 7 Divisions for a DLC with the value of $9.99 / 9,99€ (newcomers can buy the pack separately from now on).

[h2]Once again, apologies[/h2]
That’s it, commanders. Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience. We hope that we have things put right, with gifts of a combined value of $20.00 / 20,00€ for those caught in the WARNO Gold snafu.

Join the 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, commander.

Gold and Ranked Highlights

Hello, hello!

We hope you are well. WARNO’s recent official launch out of Early Access has been the crown of years of hard work, but the Eugen team is not resting on their laurels.

Behind the scenes, we are busy fixing bugs, checking technical issues, updating texts, and tackling a whole bunch of other under-the-hood tinkering.

One of the most pressing problems was, of course, getting the deluxe version of WARNO Gold online as soon as possible. And we finally pulled it off!

Check it out!

[h2]WARNO Gold and Expansion Pass[/h2]
Having had some difficulties getting WARNO Gold online. In order to adhere to new Valve guidelines, we added an Expansion Pass next to our deluxe bundle.

Which means:

Expansion Pass features future access to 4 DLCs (the NORTHAG and SOUTHAG expansions, plus Nemesis: Air Assault and Nemesis #2).
WARNO Gold features the “vanilla” base game, plus Expansion Pass plus Digital Guides.

If you already own parts of this bundle, these items will be automatically discounted from the bundle! For all owners of WARNO, there will be a special discount.

WARNO Gold
So what’s this hullabaloo about WARNO Gold?

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/42053/WARNO__Gold_Edition/

Exactly the same content as the “vanilla” edition, plus:

Digital Guides containing 2 e-books with almost 200 pages in total! - WARNO's Timeline and Designer's Notes respectively on Army General, Operations plus an in-depth Divisions overview.
- WARNO's Timeline goes deep into “how it came to pass,” painting a frighteningly realistic picture of World War III erupting at the end stages of the Cold War.
- Army General gives not only you detailed insights into our five campaigns but also how we set out to create them. A great sneak peek into WARNO’s development.
- Operations give you an in-depth view of how we designed Operations, the scripted scenarios on specific noteworthy battles in our war scenario, and how they are best played!
- Divisions. An exhaustive list of all WARNO ”Vanilla” and ”Gold” Divisions including historical tidbits, arsenal and unit descriptions, advantages and disadvantages, and how to deploy each battlegroup’s armed forces.

Pre-Order of the future NORTHAG expansion which will include:
- 2 new Army General campaigns, 4 Operations, 10 new Divisions including new nations such as NATO’s Belgium, the Netherlands and Warsaw Pact’s Poland.
- This DLC will be priced at $24.99 / 24,99€ on release.

Pre-Order of the future SOUTHAG expansion, bringing:
- 2 new Army General campaigns, 4 Operations, 10 new Divisions including new nations such as NATO’s Canada, Spain and Warsaw Pact’s Czechoslavakia.
- This DLC will likewise be priced at $24.99 / 24,99€ on release.

Two Nemesis DLCs:
- This will be the first two WARNO Nemesis DLC, a popular mini-DLC series concept we introduced in Steel Division2. The idea behind the Nemesis DLC is that every once in a while, we give the community the option of which set of divisions should be developed next. We typically present three different pairs, after which you will vote on your preferred option!
- Like Steel Division 2, the first Nemesis DLC will be predetermined (to be developed quicker). Nemesis: Air Assault will feature two new air assault divisions: the iconic U.S. 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and the Afghanistan War veterans of the Soviet 56-ya OG Desantno-Shturmovaya Brigada.
- The second Nemesis #2 DLC will be the first DLC to be voted on by the community, as described above.
- A Nemesis DLC will be priced at $4.99 / 4,99€.

[h2]WARNO Ranked Highlights[/h2]
We wanted to give you an insight into how WARNO Ranked has changed from its Early Access days to its official Season 1.

No surprise here, but WARNO’s Ranked “Pre-Season” has come to an end. First, we wanted to thank all the players for their valuable feedback and commitment to be the absolute best on the competitive battlefields of WARNO’s World War III. Many a daring commander has stepped into the Ranked arena to prove their mettle, some more successful than others.

Thanks to all of you playing Ranked while WARNO was in Early Access, we managed to improve and beef up our ranking system. But there is more: through all the battles, we saw some rather impressive members of the community ruling supreme (in their own unique way). Let’s do a big shout-out to some of our talented commanders:

Fortitude Fence: With a very distinctive aerial opening game, this player has established himself as the true specialist of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
avrg blob enjoyer: The nickname doesn't lie; this commander excels with NATO’s 5. Panzerdivision and has demonstrated a remarkable mastery of the strategy in which quantity has a quality of its own.
StoBez: A versatile player who has made a fine comeback at the end of the Pre-Season.

Honorable Mentions

Tmanplays: stayed in the Top 10 even when playing with less-powerful divisions - and did so in extraordinarily good spirits.
Yukipaw: Winner of the "live-lav-love-1" tournament organized by the WarYes community. This commander has beaten several top players in the current Top 3. Congrats!

[h2]Ranked Meta-Analysis[/h2]
So, which division came out on top in WARNO’s Pre-Season Ranked? The meta was dominated by the fast and agile paratrooper divisions, in particular NATO’s French 11e Division Parachutiste and the American 82nd Airborne Division. These battlegroups offered a gameplay that was straightforward and rapid, based around the Forward Deployment mechanic, allowing players to advance fast and far, set up quickly, and resist long enough to win. Not the most inspiring of strategies.

In WARNO’s Season 1 Ranked we remedied this by making some corrections to the gameplay and underlying map design. WARNO is a game about combined arms, including mechanized warfare, and we wanted the heavier divisions such as the American 3rd Armored Division or the Soviet 79-ya Gv. Tank. to have a better fighting chance. However, we didn’t want an overpowering “tank meta” that isn’t always fun.
Game design is an exercise of juggling systems and finding the right nuanced balance!

[h2]Looking Ahead[/h2]
Season 1 is only the beginning. Keep sending your feedback and suggestions, as many more improvements will come to WARNO Ranked Season 2 and beyond. In the meantime, join the competitive fun and see who can claim themselves to be the top commander in WARNO Ranked. May the best strategies triumph!

[h2]New competitive WARNO Tournaments[/h2]
Talking about being competitive: SD League is back! There are two major WARNO tournaments coming up in June and July. Check out all the details below.

WARNO League Super Tournament 1.0
This tournament will kick off two weeks after WARNO’s release on the 1st and 2nd of June. The format will be a 2-day Single Elimination Tournament filled with intense, fast-paced action. Sign-up info and rules can be found on this dedicated page.

WARNO League SEASON 1
Based on the well-tested Steel Division 2 League, this long-form tournament will be open to all players of any skill level. Up to 64 players will be put into four skill levels, allowing us to organize fair matches for everyone. More information, including a sign-up form can be found here.

[h2]Let’s go to war![/h2]
That’s it for this week’s DevBlog. We’ll keep you up to date with all the latest happenings as soon as they hit the ground. Be sure to tune in next week as we’ll start diving into the new Nemesis DLC, Nemesis: Air Assault.

Join the 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, commander.

Hyper realistic strategy game and War Thunder rival just hit 1.0

When it comes to war and strategy games, how much detail do you really want? XCOM and Command and Conquer demand a certain amount of attention and expertise, but they're also relatively easy to pick up and play, and they make intuitive sense - stay in cover, don't get destroyed, and try to kill the enemy. The further you zoom out, the more complex, and arguably the more rewarding, the strategy experience becomes. Channeling the realism and military sim pretensions of Arma and War Thunder, perhaps the biggest and most detailed war game there is has just hit 1.0.

Read the rest of the story...

WARNO Out Now!

Deploy for combat, commanders!

WARNO has officially launched out of Early Access. Muster your forces and get ready for battle! The time is now to lead your chosen units to victory on the late Cold War battlefields of WARNO’s World War III.

WARNO’s launch will turn the page on two full years of development. It is the closing of a chapter - only for a new one to open. We will continue to develop, improve, and create new content for WARNO, including major new expansions, nations, divisions, units, Nemesis DLC, and much more!

Note that WARNO Gold is not available due to unseen last-minute technical hiccups. More information below, but we are working on getting this deluxe variant of WARNO up and running as soon as possible!

[h2]WARNO’s Early Access[/h2] WARNO has been in Early Access for a little over two years. It is easy to forget all the features, the many divisions, the number of Operations, Army General campaign, the multitude of milestones, and update patches. So, after two years in Early Access, here is an infographic on WARNO’s official release.

[h2]WARNO “vanilla” Edition[/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1611600/WARNO/

Price Tag: $39.99 / 39,99€

Content:

5 Army General campaigns.
8 Operations.
18 Divisions.
Over 1000 units, expertly researched, modeled and voice-lined.
6 Nations: the United States, West Germany, the United Kingdom, and France for NATO, the Soviet Union, and East Germany for the Warsaw Pact playable in multiplayer and Skirmish, plus Belgium in Army General only.
Extensive Tutorials and a full range of Skirmish, Multiplayer and Cooperative modes.

[h2]WARNO Gold[/h2]
Now, for WARNO Gold which is, as you correctly guessed, missing in action. Unfortunately, while we moved mountains, we were unable to have the Steam page for this deluxe version of WARNO ready for launch. Behind the scenes, we are very busy making sure it will be operational as soon as possible.

When WARNO Gold is available, the option for Early Access owners to upgrade to Gold with a healthy discount will be present.

Once again, apologies from the whole Eugen team.

[h2]EA Pack[/h2]
For Early Access owners, automatically and freely available, a special EA Pack. This DLC contains divisions added as a “thank you” for your continued support during WARNO’s development:

The EA Pack contains 5 “extra” divisions:
The ”Berlin” divisions: NATO’s Berlin Command and Warsaw Pact’s Berliner Gruppierung and 6-ya Gvardeyskaya Motostrelkovaya Brigada.
Plus NATO’s U.S. 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and the Warsaw Pact’s Soviet 27-ya Gvardeyskaya Motostrelkovaya Diviziya.

With WARNO’s official launch out of Early Access, this EA Pack will be made available as a DLC for $9.99 / 9,99€.

[h2]WARNO Launch Update[/h2] WARNO’s launch out of Early Access means a host of updates, improvements and bug fixes. Ranked replay has been reset as well. What else can you expect?

New WARRIOR APPLIQUE unit for the British 1st Armoured Division. More details can be found here.
New SARACEN and SALADIN for the British 2nd Infantry Division. More details here.
Zone rework on maps. Check out some insights here.
Artillery rework with some notable changes, including:
- Dispersion spread adjustments for mortars, howitzers, and MLRS units.
Updated tooltips, more straightforward UI text, new weapons, and other descriptions.
And more …

Find more details by checking out the patch link and notes here!

[h2]New competitive WARNO Tournaments[/h2]
With the launch of WARNO, the SD League is ready to push WARNO’s competitive scene to the next level. There are two major tournaments coming up in June and July. Check out all the details below.

WARNO League Super Tournament 1.0
This tournament will kick off 2 weeks after WARNO’s release on the 1st and 2nd of June. The format will be a 2-day Single Elimination Tournament filled with intense, fast-paced action. Sign-up info and rules can be found on this dedicated page.

WARNO League SEASON 1
This long-form tournament, based on the well-tested Steel Division 2 League, will be open to all players of any skill level. Up to 64 players will be put into 4 skill levels, allowing us to organize fair matches for everyone. More information, including a sign-up form can be found here.

[h2]Let’s go to war![/h2]
That’s it for today’s DevBlog, commander. WARNO and the Eugen team have completed a long journey in partnership with you, the player. We truly appreciate your support and passionate feedback that made WARNO a better game. But we will not rest on our laurels; WARNO’s development continues at pace!

So, as always, make sure to tune back into next week’s WARNO DevBlog.

Join the 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.

Now, get going and get playing. As always, more than ever, see you on the battlefield, commander!