Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront News

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Hi everyone!

It was great to receive so many positive messages after the previous devblog, thanks for your support! We are working like hell on our game, and the pace is picking up. This is partially due to the fact that we have taken quite a number of new staff on board. You will see results of their work very soon.
Let’s take you through a number of steps we have taken since the last update.


The engine generated a lot of questions (pun intended) when we indicated that there will be many new possibilities. These have to be tailored to our game, which is what we are doing at the moment. Thanks to the BestWay programmers adding many new features, we were able recently to show a new animation type on our YouTube channel and we will produce many more of these in the future.


Many community members want to see a trailer of some sort, and so we are working to make that happen. This depends on a number of things we are working on, such as new textures and animations. We are on it at the moment.


We also want to do a total remake our store page pretty soon - it’s been a long time since we last updated it so that would be a good idea. The content on our current store page is a bit outdated and we want to get rid of the placeholders that suggest we are building a mere sequel to the MoW series using old 3d models; this is not the case and we want the store page to reflect this. To be continued.


What’s in store for the next updates?
We plan to give you a “catalog” devblog soon, that shows you just about everything we have made so far. This will include all of the tanks, vehicles, artillery, infantry, support vehicles and more. We will present another new mission. We expect to be ready to start the beta. We will be working on a trailer. You name it, there’s lots of stuff to do in our summer holidays!


Another question that is asked very often is about workshop support.
Gates of Hell will have full steam workshop support and you will be able to use all of those new objects in the editor, which will be included in the package.


The reason you have not seen any in- game footage is that we are porting to the new engine, which includes us getting a new user interface. The one we use for testing the new engine is a placeholder interface. We think it does not look good enough to show you, and besides that, it would be kind of misleading and people would not comment favourably for sure. However, as soon as we can, we will show you loads of gameplay screenies and videos.


We were slightly surprised to find out that many Gates of Hell followers didn’t know we are an indie studio. Maybe we were not open enough about that in the past? Well, now that it’s in the open, we also realise that many of you have been following and supporting us for quite long. This is highly appreciated, so we keep pushing to get you the best and most realistic game ever that was built on zero budget. Thank you all!


We appreciate the support we get! We also value your opinion. The best place to make sure we see what you think about the game and how you would like it to be is our community forum. Feel free anytime to give us your views and ideas. Many of them have been put in the game already!

That’s it for the moment, but before we go, here’s some stuff we want to show you:

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Meanwhile, this is where you can find other posts and stuff we don’t put on Steam:

• Vkontakte
  https://vk.com/gates_of_hell_game
  
• Facebook
  https://www.facebook.com/gatesofhellgame/
  
• Youtube
  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMrTBgEINlBPIAKwUieLwtw
  
• Twitter
  https://twitter.com/gatesofhellgame
  
• LinkedIn
  https://www.linkedin.com/company/18888916/

That’s it for now. Thanks for checking us out! We think we’ll have a new update for you next month. In the meantime, enjoy your summer…

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Hi everyone, time for a special update.

After many questions from the community we thought it would be a good idea to tell you more about our development schedule. Let’s say we want to show you why we are so sure we will have EA this year.

At the end of last year, we scheduled for mid- 2019 with the intention of publishing on the start date of operation Barbarossa (june 22nd). We now know that 2 things will take us past that date; these are the engine update and content building.


The new engine itself is quite advanced. Best Way have put in a tremendous effort, working out some great new features and as a result it is a big step up from everything that came before it. It’s the engine of the future.
For Barbed wire studios this means a lot of labour intensive coding work, to make sure we get all the translations right. This “porting” process is time consuming and requires specific skills, and so this depends on just a few guys that can do the job.


As a result of upgrading the engine, we need to re- test and review almost everything we have created so far, while at the same time we are still building more maps and missions, creating new 3d models and textures, etc.
The reason why we had no in- game footage so far is that the UI was/ is not yet ready; it would have been misleading to show you footage with a placeholder UI.


As soon as we can finish porting to a final engine version, testing can start immediately. We have everything in place and we are ready for the beta. Almost all of our testers are still on board; we are thankful for that. Meanwhile, if you agreed with us to be on the reserve list, keep an eye on your e-mail inbox.
Testing will obviously not be done in a week; with already over 20 hours of gameplay to test we are in for another massive job.


The package you will get is nothing other than the beta version with most bugs ironed out. In that sense, we are almost done developing the EA package when the beta starts. Obviously, bugs need to be eliminated but that is usually much quicker than building the game. To make a long story short; we expect to announce EA quite shortly after the beta test.


The engine update will be done in 2 steps in our case. First we will finish singleplayer content on our current (WiP version) engine, then we will do the same for multiplayer when we have the complete & final engine.
We expect this to happen during the summer, after which we test the beta & prepare release of EA. It’s hard to predict when exactly this will be, but it is clear it will be this year.



Well, that’s it for now. We hope you can see that we are right to be optimistic and we look forward to release this year.
We want to thank you, the community, for sticking with us! Your support is much, much appreciated and that is very important for an indie studio like us. We love how you react to screenshots and updates, so we will keep producing more of those. In fact, let’s not just talk, let’s give you a set of screenies right now:

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• Our indie team consists of 15 parttime devs from 9 countries
  
• The development budget available is $ 0,00
  
• The counter for unpaid man-hours for this game now stands close to 26.000
  
• The first GoH development updates appeared in august of 2015
  

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Hi everyone, time for another dev update.

We had loads of reactions to the previous one, which is very nice to see! However, we do not sit still and right now it’s time to showcase another mission that will be in Early Access. This one will be included in the USSR campaign.
Besides working on missions, we are putting in a huge amount of work porting the new GEM engine to GoH, which is progressing well; but that is too boring to write about in a devblog.



This update is about the battle of the Kerch peninsula, the scene of bitter fighting in the spring of 1942.
The struggle for the peninsula had already started in december 1941, when a daring counterattack was planned by chief of staff Fyodor Tolbukhin. The operation started with an amphibious landing of the Soviet army at Kerch, followed by more landings in Feodosia.

By I77 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33341035

The German 46th infantry division, tasked with holding the peninsula, was overextended badly and the Feodosia landings forced the Germans to retreat 120 Kilometres west to avoid encirclement.
In the months that followed, attacks and counter- attacks were conducted by both sides.
All the time, the Soviets were constructing defensive lines, hoping to be able to halt the German attack which was being planned by von Manstein. When the fifth (!) offensive started, the German attack broke through the first defense line in the marshy south of the peninsula; the place where an attack was least likely.
This is where our GoH mission takes place; you (the player) will not be spared!



It is now may 1942, and you have orders to re- deploy your unit a couple of kilometres east at the next defensive position. You have been granted use of some trucks to move your men and equipment. Neighbouring units will do the same.

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After loading up, your column moves east. But after a few kilometres, a nasty surprise appears on the flank!
Somehow, an enemy tank has broken through with infantry support! What now?
Get those trucks to cover, get your men to spread out, deploy the anti- tank gun! A fight develops in which you need to destroy the enemy tank.
It’s fine if you succeed, but surely there will be more enemies soon. This could be a matter of minutes! You need to dig in for cover immediately, or get overrun by the next attack.

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Indeed, there is evidence of an enemy breakthrough. You will have to dig in and defend while waiting for orders from your commander. Wave after wave, the Germans come forward. The battle is fierce and bitter. Meanwhile, you see air battles taking place right above your position. Fortunately, the VVS can operate from the nearby Taman peninsula to defend against the countless tactical support missions by the Luftwaffe.

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After fighting off a number of attacks, the order comes to retreat to the main defensive position. Get a move on! You can’t afford to lose too many vehicles though, as the supplies they carry will be needed for the next attack wave. Will they be able to get to the next line in one piece? Maybe, if they use the beach instead of the road? Whatever they do, you will stay behind to cover the retreat.

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So you stay and fight, but things get worse; the enemy has also broken the second defense line and you are being threatened from multiple directions. What now? You have nowhere to go while the roar of aircraft engines and explosions gets louder. You think to yourself: “surely, this is what hell looks like, and I am in front of its gates”.
Then you decide to fall back to the evacuation point, save yourself from hell and fight another day.

That’s the mission. We expect you will find it really intense; what do you think?

General Tolbukhin fought in both world wars and his ashes are buried in the Kremlin wall
The landings at Kerch were the first ever large scale amphibious operation of the red army
von Sponeck, the commander that retreated from Kerch against orders, was court- martialed and sentenced to death in january 1942
The Luftwaffe used SD-2 bomblets to attack the retreating soviet infantry, causing horrific casualties
Operation “bustard hunt” lasted 11 days and inflicted a total of 28.000 Soviet casualties with some 155.000 being taken prisoner. German casualties were 7600, of which 1700 killed.
Traces of the fight, remains of the tank ditches, bomb craters and trenches are still visible today. You can use the satellite view in google maps to see it.

That’s all folks! Do you like this mission? Let us know! We will publish the next update in 4 weeks; in the meantime, feel welcome to share your views in our forum!

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Hello everyone, we’re back for another devblog.

Time is flying and more of our scenario designs are being turned into complete missions at the moment. We promised you - the community - that, as compensation for the long wait before EA, we would increase the mission content. This means we are busy working on a growing collection of historical missions, making sure these have great replay- and entertainment value. This may be the most difficult part of (historic) game development; It’s a historical scenario for sure, but is it nice to play? In this update we want to explore this, presenting a mission we have just finished, and which will be available for the German SP campaign.

This mission is set at the time of the Kursk battles. The battle itself is well- known, and we think our readers do not need explanation as to what happened there in july 1943.
The south pincer of the German offensive has reached Prokhorovka. North of this position lies the town of Petrovka; this is where our story takes place.
But first we’ll introduce you to the guy that is the main focus of this story, Günther Rall.



We’re talking about the 3rd most successful fighter pilot ever.
Rall was shot down no less than 8 times during WW2, and in july ‘43 it is one of those days for him. After a fight involving several LaGG’s, his engine receives hits and he turns for home, but he doesn’t quite make it there; the engine loses power too quickly. He has to make an emergency landing. He comes down between the lines, near the road that is part of the attack route for army detachment “Kempf”; their route leads past Petrovka (Belgorod Oblast) towards the town of Tim. The scene is set near Petrovka. The moment Rall touches down, he can hear there is a fight going on already; he immediately realizes he has landed right between the lines!
Rall writes: “fortunately, an energetic Panzerkommandant pushes forward and offers me a ride to our lines”. He was lucky once again.

Above: “Somewhere on the eastern front” a carefully posed shot of Rall “after having just shot down his 250th victim”.


In this mission we will put you in the shoes of the “Panzerkommandant” whom Rall mentions in his book. In our mission, you are the spearhead of army detachment “Kempf”.
You have just observed that a Bf109 is flying low and trailing smoke, and it touches down for an emergency landing in the field, not far from the road - right in front of you, just about a kilometre away!

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Fortunately for Rall, you quickly lead a column forward, far enough to reach him at his plane and quick enough to outrun the Soviet forces, who are equally interested in this pilot and his plane. The bitter fighting you were in for most of the week has unfortunately depleted your unit and you do not have a lot of choice in what you can spare to rush forward.

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What you don’t know is what to expect on this road… soviet defences all around Kursk are layered so deeply that the German offensive will not even reach the last line. Fields are possibly mined, so maybe you have to keep your tanks from going off- road? You can’t be sure of anything here.
There’s only one thing for it: push forward a small number of tanks with infantry around them, and surprise any defences along the way; you are in a hurry to retrieve that unfortunate pilot!

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You also need to be quick. Soviet artillery is ever- present and soon the defenders will understand what goes on and relay the information to the nearest artillery battery. How long do you have before the Katyushas are deployed and ready to fire?
If they don’t open fire, what is the reason? Are Soviet tanks about to counterattack?
Well, you will see when you get there…. get a move on!

Needless to say perhaps; we use the real life location for the map; the way in which roads are lined with bushes and hedgerows, the scattered buildings, the fields, craters, everything is modeled after the real 1943 situation as closely as possible.

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This mission will be part of the German SP campaign and will be included in EA. We are still on schedule to have EA this year.

• What’s your forgotten battle? We have opened a mission suggestion thread in the forums. You are welcome to share ideas there.
  
• The G-6 subtype of the Bf109 was not Rall’s favorite. He had received his G-6 just a week before he crash-landed it.
  
• We will include an exact replica of Rall’s personal aircraft in the mission.
  
• Airfields on the eastern front were mostly improvised, so Rall usually didn’t look as fresh as in the photo, like most eastern front pilots.
  
• Rall fought on western and eastern front, and very often says that the Soviet opponents were extremely tough, fighting for every metre of ground, and he says the Soviet air force were quick to learn and VVS tactics improved rapidly from the outset.

Well, that’s it folks. We hope you liked this update.
Do you think you will like to play this one? Let us know!

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Hi folks, it’s time for an update.

After the “shrubbery update” it’s back to something completely different. This time we want to tell you about a mission we’re building which is - of course - based on an epic real battle.

This one is from 1942, when “Fall Blau” was supposed to give Germany control of the oil fields of the Caucasus and which was supposed to include the conquest of Stalingrad. It was a “make or break” battle that was arguably the nail in the German coffin on the eastern front.

The part of the offensive that went for the Caucasus was called “Operation Edelweiss”. The directive was passed by Hitler on 23 July 1942. The main force was accompanied by a large number of oil industry workers, supposed to go to work in the oil fields immediately following the battle.

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In August 1942, German mountain troops (1st & 4th Mountain Div.) were being monitored closely at Hitler's headquarters. The moment they would reach the black sea was eagerly anticipated.
Hitler is said to have exploded in anger when he heard that his troops had scaled mount Elbrus to plant a flag. As Albert Speer recalled:
“I often saw Hitler furious but seldom did his anger erupt from him as it did when this report came in. For hours he raged as if his entire plan of the campaign had been ruined by this bit of sport. Days later he went on railing to all and sundry about "those crazy mountain climbers" who "belong before a court-martial." They were pursuing their idiotic hobbies in the midst of a war, he exclaimed indignantly, occupying an idiotic peak even though he had commanded that all efforts must be concentrated upon Sukhumi.”
So why did the German mountain troops climb the “roof of Europe”? It turns out it was the pet project of the commander of 1. Mountain Division, Hubert Lanz. As the XXXXIX. Mountain Corps advanced into the Caucasus Lanz ordered his personal aid, Heinz Groth, to assemble a team to climb Mount Elbrus. The Corps commander, Rudolf Konrad, didn’t like the idea but Lanz went ahead with it anyway. The main objective of the XXXXIX. Mountain Corps was the Kluchorski mountain pass, the main “road” through the mountains towards Sukhumi. On August 17th a bataillon led by Harald von Hirschfeld stormed the pass in a daring night attack. Lanz promptly decided to rename the closest summit to Mount Hirschfeld. Lanz, a passionate national-socialist and mountaineer, had a similar cunning plan for the Elbrus: he wanted to impress Hitler by renaming it “Adolf-Hitler-Spitze” (A-H-Peak). That plan quite evidently backfired badly.

Gebirgsjäger in action hauling supplies up a mountain slope.

So how did the German troops get up to the 5642m (17.000ft) summit?
They used a base camp which they had taken before, which is at 4100m (13.000ft). This base camp (Priut-11) was named after the 11 scientists who had built the first refuge at that place (“shelter for the 11”). It had only been rebuilt and finished as a hotel in 1940.
The iconic building had been designed by architect Nikolay Popov. It was rather luxurious, with heating and electricity in the rooms; the Germans took it by ruse without firing a single shot. The mountain troops enjoyed the amenities of the luxurious hotel and a team climbed the peak in a snowstorm on August 21st. Two days later they repeated the climb when the weather conditions were better. Despite Hitler’s negative reaction the climb was a propaganda coup for the Wehrmacht, which attracted Joseph Goebbels attention. He sent Ernst Ertl, an expert mountaineer and war correspondent, to restage the event so the German propaganda machine had good quality pictures to print and show everywhere, which Ertl did on September 7th.

The Soviet Transcaucasus Front at first didn’t think the Germans would be foolish enough to force the crossing of the Caucasus mountain range and was concentrated on the defense along the black sea coast and on defending the border with Turkey. When it became clear that German mountain troops were pushing south General Ivan Tyulenev quickly and effectively organized the defense of the mountains ending all hopes for the German mountain troops to achieve a meaningful breakthrough. As part of this defensive effort Soviet units launched counter attacks against the most forward German positions, including a counterattack against the mostly symbolic German outpost at the Elbrus base camp.

This happened on the 28. of September 1942. The stalemate that had existed since august was broken by the Soviets, who had formed a special NKVD detachment of about 100 men to recapture the hotel.They were led by Lieutenant Grigoryants and armed with machine guns, mortars and sniper rifles.
The German mountain troops were surprised at first but reacted quickly. Machine gun fire echoed between the mountains for hours.
Slowly the battle turned against Lieutenant Grigoryants and his men. After the battle, only 4 of them got back alive. The Lieutenant’s body was one of many that were left behind on the mountain slope. Thus ended one of the most unusual battles of the war.
Meanwhile the Germans did not reach their objectives (to push past the Caucasus to the Black sea coast) and had to retreat hastily when Stalingrad was surrounded.


In GoH you have the choice of playing this mission as either single player or as a cooperative battle.
Supplies and reinforcements can not be called in; you have to make do with whatever you have available, because the real life situation does not allow rapid deployment of reserve troops or whatever.
In the mission, when playing as Soviets, you get a chance to use alternative tactics in an attempt to take the hotel either by stealth and surprise or by sheer speed of attack. Using snipers you can try to take out the enemy machine gunners when you open fire.

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The height difference of the real situation is copied into the map. This means that from one end to the other, the map has a 90m height difference, exactly like the real slope.
Being this high above sea level, the ambience is very cold and windy. The attacker is exposed to the wind and the enemy; there is nearly nowhere to hide, so you need some stealth to get close enough to Priut 11 before you can attack.
Once you are close enough you can try to use speed and the element of surprise to complete the mission.

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When playing as Germany, you will have to defend in such a way that the NKVD troops do not outflank you, or kill your machine gunner.
By prioritizing your targets and by using the hotel structure to your advantage you may or may not be able to stave off the attack.

Troops will be equipped with the weapons they carried in real life; machine gunners and snipers are equally important and can turn the mission around completely for you - but only if you use them well!

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• Most transport for the Gebirgsjäger was done with mules
  
• MG34 and MG42 gunners within the Gebirgsjäger units carried more ammunition than regular infantry MG gunners, but there were fewer of them.
  
• Priut 11 was lost in a fire in 1998, when a tourist accidentally put a pan of gasoline on a stove in his hotel room, thinking it was water.
  
• Fall Blau was actually re-named “Operation Braunschweig” on June 30th 1942, two days after the beginning of the attack, but the original name stuck.
  
• Further reading about priut 11 can be found in: Kev Reynolds, “The mountain hut book”
• Further reading for German readers about the 1. Mountain Division can be in found in: Hermann Frank Meyer, “Blutiges Edelweiß : die 1. Gebirgs-Division im Zweiten Weltkrieg”, Berlin 2008.
  

Last but not least; we are working on a new game trailer and other content to renew our steam store page. We hope to have that ready soon, so we can tell you in one of the next updates.
Well, that’s it for this one. We hope you can see that Gates of Hell is turning into the first RTS game in which your knowledge of historical military operations and tactics can actually give you the edge in combat. That is certainly the case in this mission! Are you ready for realism? Tell us all about it!