Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront News

Hi everyone, we’re back with an update to keep you posted about current development.
In this one, we’ll show you what we’ve been up to in the mission building department. We’ll also mention some other stuff, keep reading!


We’ve been very busy in all areas and there’s good progress.
The human skins update is still being worked on, we’ve developed new maps, finished the work on the lend-lease vehicles - there’s just never a dull moment. Currently we’re obviously also working to get those bugs out that were reported, and we will keep doing so.

One of the things that gets us close to finalizing the content for “Ostfront” is the 6th German campaign mission. When we push this to the public version, the SP campaigns have been completed (for now).
In this update we will talk you through a battle that took place south - east of Leningrad in february of 1943.


This battle took place when the Soviet operation “Polyarnaya Zvezda” was started. This offensive basically followed another one called “Iskra” which had broken the siege of Leningrad by liberating a corridor along lake Ladoga. The aim was to encircle the bulk of the German 18th army, thereby lifting the Leningrad siege completely. It turned into a hellish battle.

On february 10th, the offensive started rolling. Around 1.000 artillery guns had bombarded the German positions around Krasny Bor. The town itself was bombarded as well. The aim was to attack from the direction of Leningrad, break through to the south- east, where it was to link up with Soviet troops attacking towards the north- west, on the other end of the German salient.

Soldiers of the Spanish Blue Division in 1942

The attack by the 63rd guards rifle division was met by the 5.900 Spanish troops of the 250th Infantry Division, or the Spanish “blue division”, who were holding the east side of the position around Krasny Bor. Unable to retreat into Krasny Bor itself, many Spanish units got surrounded. Since their motto was “No possible relief, until extinction”, they defended their positions, most of them getting killed.
Meanwhile, other Spanish units had inflicted heavy damage to the advancing Soviets from their trenches and dugouts, using Molotov cocktails and grenades. They took an astonishing toll on the attacking tanks and blunted the attack.

Krasny Bor itself, and the railway station as well as the Leningrad- Moscow highway became a scene of utter destruction, while the station changed hands several times and wave after wave of attacks going back and forth while leaving many marks on the landscape. Quite a number of shell holes, bomb craters and trenches were still visible in 2020.

Krasny Bor in 2020; note the zig-zag trenches and the many shell holes

In the end, the Soviet offensive was stopped and the battle turned into a stalemate, in which the initial gains were followed by bitter fighting without big terrain gains for anyone.

The offensive was not successful in taking back the Leningrad- Moscow railway and highway. That meant that the German 18th army was still preventing a complete lift of the Leningrad siege, in spite of the massive effort. Losses had been appalling on both sides.

After the battle, Soviet reports concluded that the fortifications around Krasny Bor, combined with bad reconnaissance and “clumsy deployment of tanks” were the main causes of their 20.000+ losses in manpower during this battle. The Germans considered the Spanish fighting force “terribly undisciplined but unmatched in tenacity”.

Spanish casualties and losses were around 3.900, or 70- 75% in the blue division. It was to be sent back to Germany later, and disbanded. Parts of this mission have been built according to the memoirs of survivors.


The battle of Krasny Bor hasn’t been depicted in RTS games before, and we wish to pay tribute to the huge number of soldiers from many nationalities whose lives were lost in this battle.
In Gates of Hell, you will be facing the Soviet onslaught from your prepared positions, fighting as the Spanish Blue Division. Since we were going to give them this much attention, we added Spanish voices, names and their own nationality in the game, which was a requested feature. This addition will also affect multiplayer, where the Spanish unit will no longer speak German. We hope to be able to add more foreign units with this level of detail in the future.

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We researched the composition of the defending forces and we have depicted it historically. You will command several companies; infantry, artillery and AT detachments are at your disposal. You need to get your engineers to set up mine fields and obstacles quickly.
Suddenly, the alarm is raised; Russian tanks approaching the line!
What now? Fight!
Direct your soldiers to defend the several key areas you don’t want to lose. At every opportunity, loot as much enemy equipment as you can, because there’s not a lot in the way of AT guns at your disposal.
This is going to be a really tough one! Whatever happens, you cannot let the enemy overrun your HQ, which is in the field hospital.
As soon as you think the enemy attack is losing momentum, you will need to counterattack to take back any positions you might have lost.
This promises to be a bloody battle indeed. Good thing you have an actual hospital in the back, that will save many lives.

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Objectives and replay
In this mission, it will be up to you to decide how to stage your defence, and how many secondary quests you want to complete; the main thing is to survive and to hold the hospital HQ!
The mission was designed to have varied attacks; it will not become predictable very soon, because the enemy attacks differently every time you play it. This way we are quite sure it will have good replay value. Like in the Courland mission, we added the option of pre- battle doctrine selection. You will be able to specialise your available reinforcements and play the mission according to your own personal style.
Do you think you’d try this mission more than once with different doctrines? Let us know in the comments!

• Spain, officially not taking part in the second world war, suffered around 22.700 casualties on the entire eastern front
  
• Many of the Spanish soldiers had been forced to take service in the blue division, the real volunteers making up only around 80%. Many of these men were told to enlist, to “clear the names of their families” if they had fought for the Republicans during the Spanish civil war.
  
• The Spanish air force deployed a fighter unit on the Eastern Front, 15.(Span)/JG51, which fought up to the Battle of Moscow.
  
• There also were quite a number of Spanish volunteers fighting on the side of the Soviets during the war.
  
• Any question you might have is likely to get the quickest answer on our Discord server.

That’s it for now, stay tuned for the next update & see you on the battlefield!

• Added humans can heal while in prone stance to avoid being exposed to enemy fire while healing.
  
• Added medics can revive soldiers while in prone stance to avoid being exposed to enemy fire while reviving.
  
• Added ability to switch Direct Control mode (classic/3rd person) while NOT inside direct control.
  
• Added UI button to show player what direct control mode they have pre-selected.
  
• Added Added direct control and direct control toggle to vehicle view
  
• Added empty fuel cans to tanks, armored cars, cars, and trucks inventory
  
• Added new 3d model for Hand-HohlLadung
  
• Added additional Mosin rifleman to Late War Soviet Guards Rifle Squad
  
• Added new tank commander animation to some tanks
  
• Added new FX for less violent tank detonation
  
• Added voice over for soviet soldier in The Cold Supper
  
• Added global intermediate firinc arc for grazing guns (increased gravity slightly for multiplayer, decreased for singleplayer)
  
• Updated chinese localization
  
• Updated MP Fall: added another road
  
• Updated MP barrikady: Fixed terrain and objects
  
• Updated MP Hills: gathered rocks to improve pathfinding
  
• Updated MP Kalinin: Fixed missing trench end, minor edits
  
• Updated MP Steppe: removed one fence around the church
  
• Updated MP & SP Tikhvin: fixed indestructible barn doors
  
• Updated MP Shirayevo: fixed bridge for pathfinding, vehicles should be able to cross it without jumping around
  
• Updated MP Balzerweg: added more and better cover to the destroyed convoy flag, removed lost MG34 from the mission file
  
• Updated Conquest heroic difficulty so AI advances up the research tree faster. Peaks at 17 matches instead of 24.
  
• Updated vehicle view for panzer4d, stug3f, panzer5, tiger2, sturmtiger, tiger1, ferdinand, isu152, su100y
  
• Updated bm13 Katyusha with suspension.
  
• Updated wooden bridge 206 with hitboxes, destructibility and walkable surface
  
• Updated weathers on Shiryayevo
  
• Updated Late War German Tier 3 Fusiliers squad Fusiliers from a MG42 50 drum to 250 round belt MG42
  
• Updated Late War German Tier 4 Gebirgsjager squad Fusiliers from a MG34 75 double drum to 250 round belt MG42
  
• Updated third person max range fire restriction only for guns with top-down view on first person
  
• Fixed netcode/muliplayer burn/fire actions sync (human and vehicle on fire)
  
• Fixed netcode/muliplayer for component state desync (vehicles with broken components not synced between players and server)
  
• Fixed netcode/muliplayer revive sync state
  
• Fixed in conquest actors appearing twice ingame (doubled tank crews on vehicles)
  
• Fixed in conquest resource count rounding bug (number of research points in rewards, etc)
  
• Fixed in conquest crew members of vehicles spawning with the weapons in their hand when they shouldn't.
  
• Fixed crash in scene destroy (should not happen, but GEM doesn't care)
  
• Fixed CP value for ZiS5 transport truck in conquest
  
• Fixed crew count for grille_m in conquest (spawning crew in center of map)
  
• Fixed is2_43 invisible engine part on fire bug
  
• Fixed Spawn at edge of map border of 4v4_hills
  
• Fixed bot purchase date for conquest to include the gaz_aaa_72k
  
• Fixed panzer4g armor durability
  
• Fixed LOD and other settings for sov_2st_build1 (building)
  
• Fixed t26_33 invisible wheelL6
  
• Fixed assault sapper mg inventory to always have helmet
  
• Fixed Late War German Tier 3 Squads CP values. They were un-intentionally lower than Soviets Tier 3 squads by 9-10 CP
  
• Fixed costs of German infantry with random chance to have Panzerfaust in late war
  
• Fixed costs of Russian infantry with SVT40 in late war
  
• Fixed t60 xx model
  
• Fixed localization duplicates
  
• Fixed panzer 5a and tiger1hunt "enumerator number" access route.
  
• Fixed ram volumes not attached to body bone of vehicles
  
• Fixed 1st Person view on tiger2b
  
• Fixed panzer1b turret on xx model
  
• Increased bazooka class weapons penetration distance from 0.7m to 1m
  
• Increased damage done to components after armor penetration from blast waves (HE shells)
  
• Increased blast energy for 200mm+ caliber HE shells and Sturmtiger Rocket
  
• Increased accuracy of 120mm mortars at longer range
  
• Increased accuracy of rocket artillery at longer range
  
• Increased accuracy past max range to still really low (albeit not absurd) values to avoid awkward trajectory issues
  
• Increased cooldown timer for Tank Crew squads to 90 seconds
  
• Reduced restitution physics for wood and ground materials to reduce grenade bounce
  
• Reduced conquest pionier squad from 14 to 12 soldiers
  
• Reduced price of KV1-S
  
• Reduced price of Su-152
  
• Reduced price of KV-85
  
• Reduced price of IS-1
  
• Reduced AT Rifle penetration beyond intended max range
  
• Removed big explosions from tanks when hull durability reaches 0. Replaced with smaller fx. Big explosion remains for ammo detonation.
  

While we’re working towards yet another massive update to CtA - GoH, we’d like to offer you a short glimpse of things to come.
As announced earlier, we are currently working on “Content update II”.
In this blog, we want to present a small part of that update - with more to follow in the next one - in a way that will appear familiar to those that have been following us for years. However, not everything will be “business as usual”, because we’re about to introduce some new elements; keep reading!


We have finished a mission that will be added to our “Za Rodinu” singleplayer campaign.
It will be added at the end of the current storyline; it takes place in october 1944.
A co-op version of the same scenario will be included as well.

Historical background
September/ october 1944. The Red army has resumed its advance after a pause. They had halted in august, when operation Bagration ended; already it seemed obvious that the next step would be an attempt to cut off German army group north from the rest of the front.
The Germans were not very optimistic about their chances, having suffered appalling losses in previous months. To think they would be able to hold on to Courland was not very realistic at all, but evacuation of civilians was not even ordered. Instead, they received orders to dig deep and defend any attempt by the red army to reach the Baltic sea. As far as they were able to, they built a layered defence to consolidate their positions, as illustrated below.

The soviet offensive; note the 4 defensive lines east of Memel/ Klaipeda

After the pause in august- september, the 43rd army under hero of the Soviet Union general Beloborodov advanced to the southwest with the aim to reach the coast south of Klaipeda, or Memel as it was then known.
The 43rd was part of the first Belorussian front, whose objective was indeed to isolate the German forces north of the East Prussian border. They achieved their goals in a matter of days, even in the face of fierce resistance from the “Grossdeutschland” and other divisions; the Soviet assault had become seemingly unstoppable.

Major- general Afanasy Beloborodov around 1950. Source: Mil.ru

The mission in Gates of Hell
Our mission takes place on the 8th of october. The first two defensive lines in front of Memel have been successfully breached and the 43rd army pushes forward to the next.
You’re part of the southern attack pincer and you’re advancing to Baltic sea coast south of Memel. You have been tasked to breach the third defence at the first possible opportunity.

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You may have received reports that your opponents are exhausted, short of supplies and outnumbered, but it would be really bad to assume this will be a walkover.
One of your enemies is known to be a tough cookie, who has survived Stalingrad; don’t expect him to retreat or surrender!

This German unit was there. The officer in the photo is Oberst Willy Langkeit, who got heavily wounded near Memel on october 15th

Your orders are to lead the assault on defensive positions. Speed is of the essence, the enemy might be moving in some reserves and you have to reach the coast the day after tomorrow. You’ll have to balance aggression and caution, and make sure you do not fail your general - or risk an investigation and interrogation by the NKVD! Fortunately, it’s entirely up to you to hand- pick the units you consider to be best suited for this operation.

New elements
This mission, in a way, will pay tribute to where we come from and where we are going.
Where we come from - in a nutshell - is a desire to take as much input from the community as possible while developing something that honors the veterans of world war 2.
This mission was crafted with a lot of repeated feedback from the community in mind. Maybe this was something you suggested? In any case, this is how we used the input.

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It’s a huge battle that can be played in any direction and completed in any order, because “all you need to do” is to complete all of the objectives.
Besides being endlessly replayable because of its layout, the mission takes advantage of the recent doctrine selection feature.
This new gameplay element allows you to choose a doctrine before starting the battle. It will change the entire approach and unit availability and we expect that it will make for a popular cooperative mission as well. We also plan to add further improvements to the cooperative mode in the long run.
Because the mission takes place in late-war, you will experience the tremendous firepower and destructive ability of the weaponry deployed in the last stages of the eastern front conflict.


The update will add the odd easter egg too, but most importantly, you will also find nostalgic throwbacks. What kind of throwbacks? Well, that is for you to find out when we release “Content update II”. We’re already edging quite close and we will announce it quite soon.

• Content update II will be the second free addition to CtA - GoH
  
• There are easter eggs in other GoH missions and maps as well
  
• We are working on the lend- lease doctrine for USSR
  
• We accept suggestions, ideas and bug reports mostly on Discord

That’s it for this update, we’ll be preparing the next one and publish it as soon as we can. Thanks for stopping by; see you on the battlefield!