All access unlocked for this Memorial Day Weekend
Not unlike most countries, the United States celebrates the sacrifice of its war dead with a day of remembrance and honor. For the US it is Memorial Day which is now celebrated on the last Monday in May.
Originally called "Decoration Day" the holiday to honor our military men and women who have died fighting for the United States started back in 1868. That first year, American flags were placed on the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers who were buried at Arlington National Cemetary during America's Civil War. That tradition started more than 150 years ago continues today where over 5,000 volunteers gather annually to place American flags on every grave in Arlington National Cemetary. In addition, the annual flag setting has spread to veteran graves in cemetaries around the country. It's just a small sign of rememberance for the ultimate sacrifice.
Here at WWII Online we are hoping to crank up the heat in Campaign 173 by opening all player access to all weapons starting Friday afternoon through Memorial Day Monday! This means
all subscriptions will have all weapons access for 72 hours from Friday to Monday.
No excuse now not to use your favorite toy or one you have been looking forward to trying out and perfecting. Rally up your squadies and get some game time in this weekend!
***Veteran Player Notice (anyone with an account already in our system)***: You can login and play under your "Free Play" subscription now. Full access will be added Friday morning and last until Monday night as outlined.
WWII Online 19th Anniversary Special Event: Operation rapid strike
- When: D-Day, Saturday, June 6, 2020.
- Time: 11:00 AM server time (PST) or 2:00 PM EST or 6:00 PM GMT.
- Where: The "Special Event" server (you will see the server in your Playgate options)
- For Mac users, it's your server selection (Training / Events).
- Duration: Four hours.
- Details: The day is June 6, 1943 yes 1943…
In this “what if scenario” The Allies are determined to strike against the Axis in France before their Atlantic wall is complete and while Axis forces are stretched to the East in Russia. In striking early, the Allies will not be as well-equipped or organized as they were a historically (a year later) and in some cases the Axis forces will be stronger as they have not suffered the historical losses yet, especially in the LW and the KM.
Operation Rapid Strike will be played on the Special Event server. The campaign server will be locked for the duration of the Special Event (4 hours planned). In this scenario there will be only a few light armor tanks in garrison supply so the first few hours of the event will be infantry, navy and air focused. Moveable brigades loaded with heavy armor will arrive to the front lines about 90-120 minutes after the event starts.
In Operation Rapid Strike the Allies have chosen speed (attack in 1943) and closest distance between England and France for the main attack – Dover to Calais!
The Allies will have secured a beach head at Calais and moved less than 30 km inland before meeting Axis resistance (Calais, Wissant, Marquise, Ardres, Boulogne and Gravelines start Allied with all Allied FB’s except Gravelines and Boulogne whose FB’s will be Axis. Allies will have air in Calais
A secondary Allied landing at will be simulated at Vlissigen with Breskins, Ijzendike, Westkapelle and Veere starting Allied giving us two locations for Air, sea and land action. Allies will have air in Vliss.
The key is that the first 2 hours will be fighting without heavy armor and will be air, navy and infantry focused until armor arrives.
We expect to recognize a few top performing players and next week we will roll out the Allied and Axis scoring rules so we can declare a winner for bragging rights at the end of the event.
Mark your calendar and save a few hours on D-Day 2020 to fight along side your squaddies and join Operation Rapid Strike.
Building Texture Updates coming
We've got some more screenshots for you, this time showing some (of the several) work-in-progress building textures that are being revamped. The work of XL2RIPPR and KayBeeJay (environment artists) are really starting to take shape enhancing the visual appeal of the game. Working on textures takes talent to get right, and it certainly simplifies the need to totally re-model a whole building. That's not to say that these buildings may not get replaced with newer - higher poly buildings however (such as the big urban blocks, which yes, are still being worked on).

