Le 14 juillet has arrived!
Or, as our Anglo-Saxon brothers like to call it,
Bastille Day,
the national holiday of France. The coolest thing? We have parade after military parade, including the oldest and longest in Europe!
Such a glorious day needs a glorious
WARNO DevBlog, and what better fit than lifting the veil on some of the new
French units coming to our game!
[h2]A small tease[/h2]
Bastille Day celebrates the anniversary of the
Storming of the Bastille on the 14th of July, 1789, a key event in the French Revolution. Fast forward several hundred years later, and we get kick-ass military parades and flyovers in Paris, going down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées.
Today, we’ll join in at showing off all things related to French military hardware. The focus will be on several French mainstay units, but not all; we left some of the most exciting ones for later. Not to worry!
We are currently still hard at work on
MASSENA, featuring our West and East German territorial commands. The
Strike Team is testing
MASSENA milestone as we speak. In the meantime, as you can see, we are already working on detailing and fleshing out the French and British divisions!
[h2]The fruits of our labor[/h2]When the French Army in the late Cold War-era is mentioned, the first vehicle that comes to mind is the iconic
VAB (
Véhicule de l’Avant Blindé) wheeled APC. This unit entered service in 1976 and, by 1989, could be found in every role and variant: from APC (with a 12,7mm machine gun), IFV (with a 20mm autocannon), command, recon (with a battlefield radar), anti-tank, etc. In
WARNO, the VAB will transport France’s regular infantrymen, the
Grenadier-Voltigeurs.
Next up: French mechanized infantry ride into battle in an
AMX-10P IFV. Less spacious, this infantry fighting vehicle accommodates a smaller combat squad called
Chasseurs. Just like the VAB, the AMX-10P comes in a great amount of variety: IFV, command, recon, and anti-tank.
By 1989, the French combat soldier has finally switched its early Cold War small arms for the iconic
FAMAS assault rifle. A few unlucky units (some
Sapeurs variants) or second-line units (
Réservistes and
Prévôté, the latter being
Gendarmes within the French Army) had to make do with older
MAT-49 SMGs and
MAS-46 rifles. The squad automatic weapon is the ubiquitous
AANF1 machine gun, while anti-tank capacity is provided by either the
LRAC F1 or the excellent
APILAS recoilless anti-tank weapon.
[h2]Some more eye candy[/h2]Let’s take to the sky with our next unit. You can call this another icon: the
Gazelle light helicopter, coming in version
Lisse (unarmed),
Canon (20mm),
HOT (anti-tank missiles) and
Celtic (anti-aircraft), in both recon and direct combat roles.
We already revealed the
Puma and
Super Puma helicopters in our previous
MASSENA previews. These heavy-duty choppers will be the main workhorse of the French heliborne assets, either as transports for
Aéromobiles infantry, command, or as supply variant (the
Puma Kangourou).
This tease wouldn’t be complete without France’s Cold War main battle tank: the
AMX-30. Although by 1989, the
AMX-30B2 was the most common version deployed, as with other nations, the French Army retained some of the older
AMX-30B versions, equipped with the
Obus G “sniper HEAT” rounds. This special ammunition was perfect for long-distance shots at light armor, soft skins, or older generation main battle tanks: they fared less well engaging more up-to-date armor such as T-72s or T-80s. That’s why from the AMX-30B2, the French switched back to kinetic rounds.
That’s all for this French-themed sneak peek! We will present more details (and still unrevealed French and British units) when we do our deep dive into the upcoming new
WARNO divisions.
[h2]See you on the battlefield[/h2]As always, the
Eugen offices close for some much-needed holidays in August. This means that no significant updates or milestones will be released at this time. However, our DevBlogs will run until the end of July before our break.
Join the passionate
WARNO community. Check the latest news on the
Steam News page or visit the
Steam Forums. Get to together with other players on either the excellent
Discord server,
Reddit page, or our
Instagram.
See you on the battlefield, commander!
[h2]Death from above[/h2]
