Rise of the Reds Update: Swamped Options

[MARS]

Leytenant Darya Morozova
20th Guards Army

"When we went into the Netherlands in August '46; I'd say that was the point where things got really messy for us. The Poles held their ground quite well but they just couldn't stand against the momentum of our initial assault and the Germans put up a decent fight even though we had annihilated the entire Luftwaffe on the ground. But still: We knew that they wouldn't be pushovers so we brought our A-game. The Low Countries were a different story however. General Aleksandr just didn't think of them as a real threat, I mean: About 26.000 ground troops with only a bare-bones tank force against the entirety of our 20th Army? What could possibly go wrong, right? He thought this'd be a cakewalk and even though General Zhukov told him otherwise, he just wouldn't listen. No - It was another one of his 'grandiose strategic gambits'; the kinda bullshit stunts where he'd send us, the rank-and-file Army folks, to get slaughtered and keep the enemy busy long enough for his Shock Divisions to land a critical and hog all the fame for it. In this case, he wanted Zhukov and us to rush through the Be-Ne-Lux countries from the north-east, forcing the ECA to draw troops away from the French/German border so the Shockers could just power through and, as he called it, 'do a victory parade on the Champs-Élysées by Christmas'. Needless to say, that didn't happen. At least not until half a year later with much of Paris bombed to ruins."

"But yeah, we followed our orders as usual. General Zhukov warned us that the Dutch were crafty fellas and that their top commander, one General Willem van der Meer, was known for his...'pragmatic' approach to combat: He had simply ordered to open the floodgates and let the North Sea roll in, turning the entire countryside into one giant swamp. Cold, greyish brown mud as far as the eye could see. The sight alone gave some of our guys suicidal thoughts after seeing literally nothing else for months. The stuff was everywhere: It was in our boots, our trousers, our jackets, our rifles, our provisions and our vehicles. Cross-country manoeuvres became flat-out impossible. I've seen entire tank platoons go down in the bog and sink before anyone of the poor folks could get out. Our movement was pretty much entirely restricted to the roadways on top of the dykes that were left intact. The mere fact that they -were- still intact should have tipped us off but we still fell for it: There was this one instance near Groningen where our entire vehicle column with over thirty trucks, BMPs and tanks was powering down the road. Suddenly, a massive explosion took out the Sentinel at our front. We jumped off our vehicles and got into position, expecting an ambush, when another vehicle got blown up, followed by several others. As it turned out, the Dutch had left this road perfectly intact for us to use and littered the area with those horrible Mole mines; you see the soil heave up in front of you and BAM! That thing jumps out of the ground and blows a dozen guys apart at the waist. All you could do was hide under something heavy. That's what I did. A few of our folks panicked and ran off into the mud fields, only to get blown up by shrapnel mines. And as if that wasn't enough, the convoy came under fire from a bunch of turrets hidden all over the place. I spent almost half an hour cowering in the mud under the rear of a broken Kodiak until Father Leonid sent a single Mi-26 to pick up what was left of our battalion."

"It took us a total of four months until we had secured our mission objectives and it goes without saying that Aleksandr's 'gambit' didn't work out this time around. Some of our people actually started cheering on the first day they saw snow that year because it meant that the mud would freeze solid, allowing our vehicles to drive over it. But you know what the worst part of this entire thing was? We barely ran into any actual, organised resistance or, for that matter, Dutch people! It seemed as if the entire population had disappeared along with the military. They must have evacuated the whole country before the flood rolled in, leaving us to fight a mud battle against an army of intelligent landmines and robotic turrets. This is the kinda stuff that gives me nightmares ever since..."

This structure is a stationary defence version of a ship turret used on the destroyers of the Royal Netherlands Navy, albeit with an upsized 140mm cannon that excels against tanks. Operated by a highly autonomous fire control computer housed inside the peculiar 'pod' structure, the turret can spot, identify and engage hostile ground vehicles without any human input. The massive cannon is fed by a fully automatic loading system capable of cycling shells at a staggering rate. In addition, the Gun Turret can switch between two types of ammunition: A general purpose anti-tank round and a unique 'Penetrator' round whose core consists of a complex, synthetic material that is harder than diamond, allowing the round to pierce clean through multiple targets along its jet-stabilised flight path and making it more effective against a tighlty packed mass of vehicles.

The ability to predict the movement of enemy forces is an essential skill in defensive warfare. Beyond that, the ability to redirect their movement in order to funnel them into pre-determined killzones proves even more advantageous. As such, these seemingly crude obstacles consisting of sandbags, razor wire and Czech hedgehogs can be set up for a variety of practical purposes: In the narrow streets of a city, they can force the attacker to take risky detours or waste precious time on their removal. In open fields, they can easily disrupt the formation of an entire army thus exposing it to a hail of defensive fire. In short, the Tank Trap Barricade allows the European defenders to 'model' a battlefield according to their own plans, thus nullifying any offensive advatange the enemy may have and wrestling the initiative of battle away from him.

The Bulldog is a fully self-automated defensive emplacement developed and used by the Royal Netherlands Army. Taking inspirations from the hidden fortifications of Switzerland as well as the historical Maginot line of France, these turrets have been placed alongside key strategic locations in many European countries, ready to pop out of the ground and engage hostile invaders upon activation by senior command. Depending on the operational clearance of the commander in charge, the Bulldog can deploy its weapons according to three operational routines: The most basic mode, dubbed 'Argus' after the faithful dog of Odysseus, uses its dual 20mm gatling guns to riddle enemy footsoldiers and light vehicles. The second mode, named after the two-headed dog 'Orthus', adds a set of shaped-charge rocket launchers for use against armoured targets. Finally, the third and most powerful mode, named 'Cerberus' after the three-headed canine guardian of the underworld, uses both previous weapons in addition to a set of vertically launched surface-to-air missiles. This allows the Bulldog Turret to defeat a variety of threats and it can also be ordered to retract into its underground shelter to repair and conceal itself after an attack, making it useful as an ambush weapon by itself or as a component of a defensive line.

As an additional bonus in the light of the current ModDB 'Mod of the Year' vote, we are proud to present you this awesome trailer that'll give you an exclusive glimpse of some new ECA content.

And last but not least, here's two new, faction-themed wallpapers for your desktop:

ECA Wallpaper 1280x1024, 1920x1080
Russia Wallpaper 1280x1024, 1920x1080

[Serialkillerwhal...]

Niiiiiiiiice.
I just have to ask, is the bulldog stealth? it looks the part.

[TheForce]

Can't wait to play Tower Defense with those barbed wires and turrets

[The_Hunter]

Niiiiiiiiice.
I just have to ask, is the bulldog stealth? it looks the part.

Only when its underground

[Planardweller]

Wow, just WOW!
Railgun-based Pandora. AA sonic tanks (a Yay! in itself), something what could be an aurora at 00:14. Cluster bombs for eurofighters. Also, huge zeppelin? That is Glorious!!!

Grats to the RotR-team.

[wb21]

That ECA airship and howitzer caught my attention. Other than that, loved those defenses and that detailed Zhukov lore.
Will the AI properly build those barricades around their base, and with the MTG Zhukov out, does this mean it'll be Zhukov-exclusive stuff in the next update?

[Shredder]

Best update... EVER!

Good job SWR

[Nemanja]

[The_Hunter]

*ze image*

[Arrakis]

Great Update!
A question about the Bulldog: What does "Depending on the operational clearance of the commander in charge" mean? Is it a global upgrade, a individual upgrade for each turret, or will the Bulldogs get their upgrades automatically depending on tech level/ General's promotion level?

[Nemanja]

I almost started crying through trailer . . .
Also I had to stop it 10023394805 times.
At first it looked like ordinary little update,
but it turned as a best update I ever saw.

[MARS]

Great Update!
A question about the Bulldog: What does "Depending on the operational clearance of the commander in charge" mean? Is it a global upgrade, a individual upgrade for each turret, or will the Bulldogs get their upgrades automatically depending on tech level/ General's promotion level?

It means that you have to unlock the Bulldog as a three level gen-power.
Level one = Argus mode = Gatling guns
Level two = Orthus mode = Gatling guns + rocket pods
Level three = Cerberus mode = Gatling guns + rocket pods + AA launch tubes

[teamnicke]

AT LAST!!!!! =) REJOICE!!!!!!!!
Love Zhukovs MTG, Nice touch on the picture
Just one question. Is it really long before we get to se the topol-m???? =)

ohhh.. and really nice update as usual!!!

[Planardweller]

It means that you have to unlock the Bulldog as a three level gen-power.
Level one = Argus mode = Gatling guns
Level two = Orthus mode = Gatling guns + rocket pods
Level three = Cerberus mode = Gatling guns + rocket pods + AA launch tubes

Is that only for Bulldog, or some other defenses too?

This post has been edited by Planardweller: 2 Dec 2012, 20:38

[Arrakis]

It means that you have to unlock the Bulldog as a three level gen-power.
Level one = Argus mode = Gatling guns
Level two = Orthus mode = Gatling guns + rocket pods
Level three = Cerberus mode = Gatling guns + rocket pods + AA launch tubes

Thanks. Three promotion points for one defensive structure, didn't see that coming. But I guess it makes sense for a defensive general within a defensive faction.

[Panzer4life]

I enjoy the update. Sad to see a proud Russian General brought down to the depths of hell due to the loss of his son. But a question about the ECA mobile artillery, wasn't the ECA heavy arty to be the Claymore? Also, what was the final round, it looked nuclear.

[MARS]

The Claymore is basically just a mobile version of their Howitzer structure. This is an entirely different unit, although it's also going to be one of Charles'

[Anubis]

HOLY JESUS IN PIJAMAS! This was extremly unexpected. And a frekin great update as well.

[Nemanja]

Which means that fires barrages and longer reloads than other Artillery types ?

[DELETED MEMBER]

So we can assume the heavy anti air of the ECA is that beam thing of the video?
i see that, what appears to be a IFV with 6 wheels, the eurocopter full of itano circus, the fatass airship, a compact artillery and fucking huge artillery(pandora? i through my theory about mass accelerator artillery was shot down but looks to use a similar principle)

[Megazord]

Not that I'm judging, but looking at the level of awesomeness in this video I am almost certain that the next version won't be balanced well and we'll need to wait until release of 2.0.

[Col._Sandfurz]

Whuuuuuutttt!!!

Awesome update!! Especially the video!
I watched ist several times to recognize the new things..
I will not ask too many questions about it, because you will tell us everything.. (not)Soon(enough)...

Things I mentioned:

Howitzer (thus already known it looks awesome!!)
Heavy anti air is some kind of direct energy weapon. Seems to be a micowave or laser thing (those systems afaik project heat onto a surface and it looks like something in the vid)
There is some kind of a 6x6 wheeled APC that can repair stuff (you can see it while the Padora shell is in the air)
The Padora, being some kind of I guess magnetic propelled artillery, rail/gauss cannonen..
First public image of the new tiger heli. I love the white missile trails, but I am not so sure about the rocketpods under the nose of it. The color of the tiger is pretty nice
Some kind of a mobile mortar/Howitzer, guess it is the tier 1 arty. (looks like the Donar SPH)
Awesome bombingrun of Rafael aircrafts with clusterbombs

The bulldog defence is a great idea! Am I right assuming that it will be exclusive for Willem?
Also love the gun turret. Will it be available for all generals?
We can see the Leopad and Jagdmammut with an upgraded tank gun (blue muzzle flashes) Will this upgrade boost the tanks range or also its fire power?
last question, regarding the story:

As the russians will finaly tanke Paris, will they also try to attack the UK?
Is this (Paris) the farthest they come until US comes and help the EU or China plans some things in Russias backyard, forcing the Russians to stop the war against Europe (<= these are assumptions.. you do not need to tell me if they are right, nevertheless you wouldn't even if I would ask you)

Thx for the answers and keep going!!

[ArsenalXA4]

[sarcasm]That gun turret looks mighty familiar...[/sarcasm]

[piratep2r]

something what could be an aurora at 00:14.

I think that is just a boris airstrike mig, unfortunately. I think the twin tails and red stripe gives it away.

 Screen_shot_2012_12_02_at_2.59.16_PM.png ( 36.65K ) Number of downloads: 36

 Screen_shot_2012_12_02_at_3.00.44_PM.png ( 91.5K ) Number of downloads: 17

I am curious about building those barbed wire barriers. It seems to me that if you need your excavator to build them, if they are going to be in a useful place your excavator is going to be very vulnerable. Wonder how they are going to get around this, because I don't see myself using them much in really fun ways ahead of my lines since it seems likely my excavators would just get sniped by planes or helis.

Pretty sure engineers can't build them either, based on another forum topic.

Also, I thought this update was amazing; good job whoever did that video!

Hooray for rise of the reds!

This post has been edited by piratep2r: 2 Dec 2012, 21:18

[H3adSh00t]

(Offtopic)What i remember from seeing the first pic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RJXP1tfSBM

Russians shuld avoid using mud XD.
(On topic)Awesome update as always.