Good afternoon, fellow citizens. This is SinoNews24 with an update on the most important international events.

Moscow. The wildfires in all of western Russia are still raging uncontrolled. Thousands of refugees are fleeing the countryside as their ancestral lands perish under the firestorm. The entire country is suffering from the hottest, most dry summer in its recent history with temperatures well above 45°C (113°F) during the daytime. The inflammatory peat soil that is iconic for the landscape of the western regions makes it difficult to subdue the flames which already claimed the lives over 20.000 people and destroyed large parts of the country's most vital farmlands. On behalf of President Suvorov, Russia's Prime Minister Valentina Baranova has placed the blame on the Europeans, calling their Solaris satellite network a "nefarious weapon of mass destruction in the guise of a power source" while citing confidential intelligence assessments which came to the conclusion that the use of Solaris as an "orbital strike weapon that could incinerate entire swathes of land" would be technically feasible. The project was met with a heavy backlash from the Federation since its inception in 2039, putting a heavy strain on diplomatic relations ever since.



Berlin. Germany's Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Renewable Energies, Michael Struppe has dismissed the accusations of Solaris being a weapon as "ridiculous slander" and said that the Alliance's strategic military deterrence power still lies within the French and British nuclear arsenals rather than "some crazy spaceborne solar-cannon". "Unlike Russia", he continued, "our scientists do not seek to turn every revolutionary new invention into a terrible weapon of war as a first thought". According to Minister Struppe, the heat wave is "yet another sad proof for the Federation's utter failure to keep up with the development of eco-friendly technologies". Furthermore, he cited Russia's continued reliance on numerous coal power plants as a major contributor to climate change, the effects of which are now plaguing its own people. At the same time, he echoed earlier concerns of the Chancellor that the destruction caused by the wildfires, along with the ongoing crisis of the Russian economy since their withdrawal from Africa, could be another step in the destabilisation and radicalisation of the Federation.



Vladivostok. SN24 correspondents report of another despicable attack on Chinese citizens in the Russian far-east metropolis. Last night, the hardworking store owner Lei Ping and his wife were brutally robbed and murdered by a gang of local racists. The humble couple enjoyed great respect in the city's Chinese community and leaves behind three young children who are currently with their grandparents. Zheng Dao, an official representative of the Chinese community in Vladivostok has condemned the violence and stated that "in the light of many previous incidents and the willful ignorance of the Russian police, we will soon have to resort to forming our own citizen militia in order to protect our homes and families from the hatred of these dangerous extremists". Meanwhile, our Great Chairman Cheung Liu has proclaimed that in the event of a further escalation of these vile attacks, "more permanent measures to ensure the safety of China's citizens will be considered". He also voiced his concerns that the wildfire situation "may very well lead to a massive hunger crisis which would further deepen the rifts among Russia's multi-ethnic population".



Those were the major international headlines for the moment. We will now continue our programme with a new documentary on the Changping Garrison in Beijing, which is under the command of the illustrious General Xing Chen. Older viewers will certainly remember the former infantryman whose exemplary bravery and heroic exploits during China's most pivotal victories in the Global War on Terrorism were later popularised by the heavily acclaimed PLA-funded war movie trilogy "The Hammer". Until next time, SinoNews24 wishes all citizens a happy and productive day!

Cool update. Those new bm versions look much nicer. Especialy the 2 on the right of the pic with the star on the front of the chassie. I'm glad squads are back for china. Loved them with Fai. Also nice we stand together wallpaper. So that is one of the new stuff in the upcoming patch i guess

Welp i guess one of my predictions was right, China got a new infantry unit
its my eyes wrong or there is no render for the one with the cheap rocket launcher?

Can the volunteers garrison themselves inside structures? For example, in bunkers?

Also, really cool update. I always love the story and images you guys make.

Given that it's a squad, and probably has the same logic as the GLA mob ( or the chinese squads in shockwave ) no. It won't be able to garrison.

Nice update.

The Lore bit is so nice.Don`t be shy MARS , we all know you can make them bigger.

Thats disappointing, I find infantry are mainly only useful inside structures or for capturing things. If you also can't transport them, it will be difficult to get them from place to place without being squashed by vehicles or killed my snipers/infantry inside structures. I guess they could be useful for early base defence or putting a couple of squads in your base here and there to protect from GLA general power ambush thing.

Also one other thing, these wallpapers are really excellent, really well done. Will you guys doing any more of these for the different factions? I would love to have a US and a Russia one.

Two things.

What happened to Kwai? Was he promoted to a higher rank then General? Or was he KIA?

Are the squads going to be Exclusive to Chen? Or will he get a better version?

I thought Kwai died from being enormously fat

Love the lore, sad to see Russia burning due to the ECA's 'power supplier'. Russians aren't going to 'cough' 'cough' on some coal factories. Like they have caused any fires in their times. Also, are the battle-masters going to have three different upgrades, similar to the overlords? Oh, when can we get to see Zhukov's and Griffen's MTG?

Looks cool...is the original RotR Battlemaster model still going to be in game?

Great update and interesting lore And yes what happened to Kwai?

Oh man, I'm lovin' the update! Excellent job on the lore and the new models for the BM. I'm suspecting that the volunteer squad might require a Gen point, but who know's.

Everything in this update looks spectacular and I cannot wait for more!

Two more new units to go.

Why is there is no render for the cheap rocket Launcher?

Smiliar DeathStrike's T-80 Scrab Tank "Variant" from Shockwave or smiliar logic as random technicals.

But, my guess is wrong. Also, they have 6 differents Variants, if play China faction.

There's also variants of said soldiers with different hats, not sure why it isn't rendered in.

Also yes, the original battlemaster is still going to be in there, these are additional variants for them

In regards of the Volunteer squad, they are excellent in bolstering your infantry numbers - combined with Red Guard and they can take on just about anything with the exception of air units. We've also been listening to some of your posts and comments regarding China, as you've seen, and are making tests and tweaks to make buffs and necessary nerfs here and there to make China a bit more formidable in PVP games.

Remember, we look more into the PVP side of things than just run-of-the-mill players versus AI games AI discussion since that actually shows the true nature of balance. The AI cheats and ignores cash, cash is irrelevant to them, and will exploit that greatly to the point it seems that some incredibly expensive units are used en masse. That wont fly against players so we look into PVP balance discussion more so than the general complaint of "in my AI game". No offense but it's the best we can decipher what exactly is going on in regards of balance.

Yeah, that may be a bit of an oversight on our part. The launchers will be properly visible in-game.


They cannot be garrisoned. For one, this is due to their Mob-logic and secondly, we don't want them to be jack-of-all-trade kinda units. Even though they can't do anything against air units, a mass of these Squads is still quite powerful. You're not supposed to use them for elaborate tactical shenanigans either. These are literally spam-units that are supposed to keep the enemy distracted and scared while your real units do most of the fighting. They're also dirt-cheap with a price clocking in at little more than 600$ post Patriotism upgrade.


One thing I should mention is that since Overdose is now back on board, he'll be providing the actual render descriptions in the future while I do the lore portion. This is in effect with this update. From the sound of it, I would assume that Kwai either died or retired by the time RotR is set - 20 years after Zero Hour. He wasn't exactly a youthful whippersnapper to begin with and the fact that he 'would be proud' at least implies that he's sufficiently detached from daily PLA life at this point. As for the Squads, they will be available to all Chinese generals. We just threw in the MTG for Chen because it needed updating anyways and kinda fits the content.


The Battlemasters still benefit from the Nuclear Tanks / Depleted Uranium Shells upgrades which of course will also be visible on the tanks, but there won't be Overlord style individual upgrades. Also, do note that this is merely the Russian government -accusing- the ECA of being responsible for the wildfires out of political opportunism. It's not like this kinda thing couldn't happen naturally after all, but the Federation is in turmoil after their failure in Africa, with all the radicalisation that goes with a total economic crash and a humiliating military defeat. As for Zhukov and Griffon, well, they too will be presented as part of an update that somewhat fits their themes in terms of story and/or renders.


Should be, yes.

I know that this is just for propaganda but any retired chinese Battlemaster operator ( and RotR player ) will laugh at this, it might win in a 1v1 fight but it will lose if there are more than two enemy tanks let alone 3 or even 5 enemy tanks.

Although technically speaking, it isn't actually a false statement. A single Battlemaster -can- destroy three, five or more tanks on its own...as long as the tanks are shooting at anything other than the Battlemaster which, while doing its thing, must not be attacked by anything else either.

Very interesting.

One of better updates so far,
one question :
Is this BM variants means that every BM that leaves WF will look different (Technical Logic) or those are variants for each General ?

Yes.

For the moment RF`s attack on the Alliance doesn`t have any ground to stand on , at worst the Alliance can be acused of passivity,I mean Wolfgang responded from the other side of the African continent yet the Americans and the Chinese didn`t even pick up the radio, sure he was turned back but Wolfgang`s discharge was on TV so RF can`t blame the ECA for turning back since the discharge underlines that it was the act of a General not the ECA High Command.

The ECA as a hole is quite passive but maybe there can be a few elements , a few influential individuals, who want to stop the radicalisation of of the Federation but they fail and get caught.

I am sure that you have something up your sleeve.

Nice.. So Amazing Update ^^

Truth be told, it's always difficult to come up with a halfway decent reason for Russia to invade the west in a post-1991 scenario. Most games generally handwave this by having radical communists or nationalists somehow take control of the Kremlin. But this war isn't exactly ideological in nature. It's essentially the result of Russia -finally- getting its act together after several lost decades under a strong, yet non-dictatorial leader, only to have their economic boom cut short due to a.) Europe becoming self-sufficient and thus mostly independent from Russian gas/coal/fuel exports and b.) GLA fanatics taking away their prime access to important future resources while the only thing Europe does is to -detain and punish- the one man who had the guts to -help- them. It may not be a direct justification for all-out war, but it serves to antagonise the two factions to the point where something that might as well be a natural disaster gets turned into a seemingly plausible conspiracy theory (by the highest Russian authority, no less). Plus, the fact that a European politician can't think of anything better than berating Russia about environmental policies while the entire countryside around Moscow is -on fire- obviously doesn't help and paints a rather grim picture of the diplomatic situation between the two. And then there's that other possible conflict brewing in the east, next to China which even went as far as creating a short-lived alliance with the USA that actually engaged in an ill-fated military campaign against the Russians in Africa and is now enacting a 'civis romanus sum' style policy to protect its people outside its own jurisdiction. In short: This isn't actually as much about Russia falling into a classic villain role 'for teh evulz'. They just end up with seemingly no alternative other than warfare because everything else is falling apart around them even though they honestly tried their best to rebuild their country without turning it into an international pariah again. President Suvorov is basically Woobie the Destroyer of Worlds.

that is such a cool innovation,will be there any other new units beside BM Tank and Propaganda Zeppelin with that kind of variants ?

The Russian Federation is by no means a true antagonist,they are forced by circumstances and you have a point with the Solaris project , it was not intended to damage the Russian economy but it did in a big way.ECA was selfish here and it didn`t think of the effects their move would have on it`s neighbours or didn`t give a damn about it.

The loss of the African territories could also contribute to the loss of arable land and a place that the Russian companies could do business with no restrictions even if those countries are undeveloped.Who knows maybe some Russian companies had manufacturing plantes that where used to make parts that where assembled in Russia as final products.This way the Russian companies could take advantage of workforce in Africa and the Russian population would get access to more better payed jobs since the ones with low pay where in Russian Africa.

You have created a nice story thus far , can`t wait for more lore updates.Any chances for lore only updates? I can`t believe Hungary didn`t try anything funny in regards to Romania , Serbia or Croatia.I guess lore updates about playable factions are linked to presentation of units and generals so those are a no-go.

I just can't wait for the patch! I hope game fixes are on the way. Will these units will be included in 1.72?
For now it's like punishment to play PVP or even against AI

Nice update and lore portion, few questions:

1 - Will the volunteer squads get any horde bonus and do they regenerate their numbers if squad members get killed?
2 - Will Chen (also applies to Secret Police as well) get both Nuclear upgrades for their tanks?
3 - Is Chen more focused on horde tactics or heavy assault equipment or somewhere in between?
4 - lore wise; is Jin looking over the situation in East Russia as it was mentioned in his profile card and doing some any operations in East Russia for the ethnic Chinese there and escalating violence against them.

The chance for lore-only updates is rather low. At the end of the day, we're still well aware that most people are in this for the images of actual in-game content, not the fluff. Thus, we'll stick to the current story+renders(+extras) setup.
As for the country's you mentioned, some of them were covered in the 'Built to Last' update. Generally speaking, we mention non-faction countries in updates only if their events have at least a tangential connection to the actual in-game factions, so chances are there won't be much more coverage on these particular places besides the stuff we already posted.



1. Like most Chinese units, they too are affected by horde bonus. As for regenerating numbers, I'm not entirely sure off the top of my head but it kinda seems like they do recover, but do not quote me on that yet.
2. The Nuclear Tanks upgrade will actually become exclusive to General Chen (Red Army) later on, but the Depleted Uranium Shells will be exclusive to all Chinese sub-factions.
3. You can think of him as a cross between ZH's Infantry and Tank generals and as such, yes, he will get some unique units in both categories. Overall, he's about large numbers of cheap units, supported by heavy weapons here and there.
4. Right, the news ticker in the third image actually mentions that General Jin is increasing his border surveillance in order to keep an eye on the situation in Russia and protect his countrymen. As it stands, he doesn't do anything to play the people against eachother on purpose. Unfortunately, from the looks of it, things are getting increasingly heated anyway, as they've come to a point where people consider setting up their own armed militia to protect themselves. Should that happen, said militia could logically receive some underhanded support from the Secret Police, too. Chen on the other hand is just a highly decorated mainstream PLA general whose forces would be among the first to move across the border in the event of an actual escalation, being stationed directly in Beijing and all.

just wondering, is the submachine gun similar to the ones carried by the mini-gunners in ZH ?

No. A submachine gun is comparable to what a rebel holds. Get your facts together.

^ No reason for rudeness though.

The SMGs used by these guys are based on the old PPSh-41.
The realism fans are gonna be up in arms about this one, but we chose this particular weapon due to its iconic design. It simply looks better in a low-poly style than a QBZ-95 or something.
It's got short range, a good volume of fire and works well enough against infantry as long as the entire squad is firing.

Me gusta !

I agree with MARS the drum magazine is what makes the weapon iconic and kick ass!

What weapon is the cheap rocket launcher based?

It WAS used in the Chinese Civil War, so it's not too outlandish.

EDIT: Warpath, my best guess would probably be the Type 69 RPG, based on the RPG 7. Could be wrong though.

Literally?
A tube with 2 holes in it


but it is actualy loosly based of this "PF-89" :

was just asking a question bro. no need to get cranky

anyways the update looks great! cant wait for the release

Nice militia tanks battle masters ya got there

Are you guys serious?

It's just abit of fun dude chill. I found it quite funny tbh.

Yes we are totaly serious

We're also going to give the battle bus a flaming jump ability.



Hope you don't mind

It will be overpowered than.

I would say for balance/theme reasons it'll be better if the horde can only be regenerated by propoganda. Would further separate it from the GLA Mobs.

From a technical stand point that is not possible.

Actually, I did find it funny. I just needed a good excuse to post it here!

I can't believe some of the ignorance in this thread. It's nearly over 9000.

Do you guys going to improve AI because playing on medium is too easy I think?