Les renforts arrivent dans Regiments

En bref. Voilà un bon point de plus pour les amateurs de STR et de troisième guerre mondiale, du moins celle qui n’eut jamais lieu à la fin des années 80 entre l’OTAN et le Pacte de Varsovie. En effet, MicroProse a offert pour Noël une importante mise à jour ajoutant deux opérations, quatre nouveaux régiments, une carte supplémentaire, l’introduction des compagnies dans le gameplay, de nouvelles unités, et puis encore diverses améliorations et corrections de bugs, comme évoqué dans le communiqué suivant.

Au passage je vous rajoute la feuille de route qui en septembre dernier donnait une bonne idée de la suite à venir en 2023. Les ajouts indiquées ici correspondent à la section contenu gratuit (FreeLC).

Pour plus d’informations sur Regiments, voyez cette page sur Steam ou celle-ci chez l’éditeur.

Communiqués

« Second Wave » Update is Live
Trailer & Detailed Changelog

This update arrives as a regular patch; if the Steam doesn’t auto-update Regiments to the latest version – just restart Steam, this will force it to look for updates. You can see the updated installed succesfully by the banner in the main menu (well, and the new content).

Two new Operations

‘Doctrinal Approach’ puts you in command of an entire East German mechanized regiment in a pitched fight against well-entrenched West German units.

‘Task Force McMains’ is a classic scenario – a US mechanized Task Force defends against a Soviet attack in the Fulda sector.

Both operations happen alongside the other June events and are unlocked if you’ve completed the ‘Reaction’ Operation.

Skirmish mode additions

Four new regiments enter the fray:

British 1st Queen’s Dragoon Guards – part of the Corps Border Surveillance Force, this recon-focused formation would be one of the first to engage the advancing Warsaw Pact forces.

British 20th Armored Brigade – an epitome of ‘slow and steady’ concept, 20th utilizes a mix of Chieftains and FV432 APCs.

British 33rd Armored Brigade – 33rd, attached to reinforce I BE Corps, was already present as Task Forces available to the Belgian forces. Now reversed, 33rd Armored Brigade itself is a UK core force with several Belgian task forces present.

West German 53rd Heimatschutzbrigade – a second-line homeguard formation, utilizing older equipment like M48G tanks and KanJagdPanzer tank hunters.

Some of the old Regiments received adjustments, and quite a few task forces were changed or updated with new units.

A new map – Route « Sherwood » is also available in all Skirmish modes.

Companies

Companies are a new game concept – several platoons controlled as a single element.
They will be primarily used to represent formations that don’t have enough officers or communication equipment to maneuver with individual platoons. Companies concentrate a lot of firepower, but can be slow and unwieldy to control.

Companies are commanded by issuing orders to the command platoon. Subordinate platoons will follow it and copy its behaviour, but are impossible to control directly. If the command platoon is lost or begins to retreat, the whole company will retreat too.
Companies will move in a line formation by default, switching to column on Fast Move order.

For now, Companies are present in the ‘Doctrinal Approach’ operation, and two Skirmish regiments – 53rd Heimatschutzbrigade and East German KdA group.

New units

Update introduces new units and make some of the already-present ones fully playable.

In addition to the already playable Challenger, Warrior, Rapier and FV100-series, UK forces receive:
– Chieftain mk.6, mk.10, mk.11
– Centurion AVRE
– FV432 APC and Self-proplled mortar
– FV438 Swingfire anti-tank system
– FV436 Command Post
– FV433 Abbot self-propelled artillery
– Gazelle recon helicopter
– TOW-armed Lynx anti-tank helicopter
– Bedford truck

West German forces now also include:
– M48GA2 tank
– Jagdpanzer Kanone 90mm
– Iltis utility vehicle
– Heimatschutz infantry

Warsaw Pact forces also received a pair of units:
– BMP-1 with Malutka ATGM present
– Strela-1
– T-64BV, while already being in game, wasn’t available in any of the Task Forces or Regiments in the release version – it has now been introduced to 332nd Tank Regiment in Skirmish (the bulk of the WarPac reinforcements are still scheduled for the next DLC)

You will also notice a few anti-air platoons focused on infantry-portable anti-air missiles. Unlike the regular MANPADS teams attached to IFV platoons, these are considered to be fully connected to the air-defence radio network – and feature noticeably improved engagement envelope and reaction times.

And many other additions:
– Regipedia improvements
– Ability to select exact nations for AI in Attack & Mobile Defence modes
– Random map selection in Skirmish
– Ability to restart a Skimish game without having to exit back to menu
– Event Cards with randomized events no longer can be rerolled by restarting the phase
– Updated Bloom effect
– Zone labels scale with Icon Size setting
– Minor tank stats pass (primarily addresses the overly optimistic Leopard 1 armor values)
– Supply platoons speed adjusted 55 -> 65 km/h
– Free Camera can be enabled during deployment & post-battle review
– When waypoints are displayed via Shift, current move command displays the actual path a platoon will follow (but not the queued-up commands, that may come later)
– Nation-specific supply trucks are now properly utilized in Skirmish modes
– Incremental improvements to a variety of vehicle models
– A great deal of bug fixes

Thanks for you attention!
Keep calm and carry on.

 

Regiments Roadmap 2022 – 2023

A look at the planned additional content

We’ve got a lot of questions about what lies ahead for Regiments – and while some answers were given here and there – let’s sum it up as an actual roadmap.

As with all plans, these are likely to be adjusted in the process – for the same reason, we’re not providing any dates, for now, just the order of priority.

Regiments ‘lifecycle’ is planned to last roughly a year, until the autumn of 2023, when a decision would be made on how to proceed further.

Content Packs

The new content will be split into 4 major add-ons, preliminary named and structured as follows:

‘Immediate Reserves’
This add-on will introduce several more units to the existing nations and add the first playable UK Regiments to the Skirmish modes. One new Operation along with 1-2 maps are also planned.

‘Northern Group of Forces’
Netherlands and Poland, along with the remaining UK elements, will make an appearance in this DLC, along with several operations and new maps.
Heliborne and motorized infantry is also scheduled to appear here.

‘Central Group of Forces’
This DLC will focus on the South German Front, adding Czechoslovakian, French, and Canadian battlegroups.
The ‘Custom Operations’ mode is likely to be introduced with this update, allowing to set fighting sides, regiments, stages, length, and other parameters for one of the Operations templates.

‘Final Update’
Scheduled to appear close to August 2023, this DLC will wrap up the additional content. At this moment, it’s hard to define its scope – anything from a small farewell content pack for existing nations to a different front outside of Central Europe is on the table.

Most likely, the first content pack will be released free, while the next two DLC will be paid ones.
It will only concern the content like new units, regiments, and operations, of course – new mechanics will be rolled into the game regardless of whether you purchase the content pack or not.