Dear friends, we are happy to announce the next game update! In addition to work on the next faction , we put a lot of effort into update #70. This update brings a long list of improvements to Conquest, our Dynamic Campaign Generator, and many other changes. We have no doubt that many of you will recognize your own requests. You can try the new version as of now - the Open Beta is available!

Conquest

This open beta is a major rewrite of the AI logic used in Conquest (Dynamic Campaign Generator). These are the main changes:

Dynamic Enemies

Previously, enemy strength was driven heavily by player army value and operation day, while units were selected relatively randomly from the available roster. The new system gives the enemy commander much more direct control over force quality, composition, and battlefield behavior.

Difficulty and Force Composition

Difficulty now affects what the enemy fields, not just how much. Lower difficulties favor older, lighter equipment, while greater difficulties increasingly favor stronger equipment available to that nation and campaign date. These remain weighted preferences rather than hard restrictions, so battles should still give you plenty of variation.

Enemy forces also have a clearer identity. A battle can center on infantry or armor, with smaller supporting elements such as artillery, anti-tank, anti-aircraft, or armor. This ought to create more coherent enemies without making their composition easy to predict.

Attack, Defense and Retreat

Your enemy will now attack in structured waves, instead of a continuous trickle. Early waves act as probes; later waves grow larger. Wave timing also responds to what is happening on the battlefield. The enemy commander can now recognize when an attack has failed and order its remaining forces to retreat, ending the battle.

Previously, once the enemy had exhausted its units or resources, the player could be left waiting for the victory score to slowly reach 1000 with little or nothing left to fight. A decisively beaten attack should now end the battle without that unnecessary wait. Any remaining enemy forces will retreat, destroying any equipment they cannot easily take back with them.

Defenders now begin with dedicated garrisons around objectives, can launch limited counterattacks after losing ground, and will retreat if all objectives are captured. All 114 Conquest maps have been updated to support this new defensive setup.

New Foundations

As you can probably see, this is a significant rebuild of the Conquest AI logic rather than a collection of smaller adjustments. Much of the previous approach has been replaced with a new foundation for how the enemy builds its army and fights.

This update does not represent the final form of Conquest AI either. We’ll continue improving and expanding upon it in the future. Our internal and Closed beta testing has found the changes to be a net positive, even though balance isn't always even between battles.

Sound

This update includes a performance pass on all automatic-weapon audio.

After the Sound Overhauls, the game’s audio system grew substantially: more distance layers, more weapon detail, and many new effects all playing at once. That extra fidelity put far more pressure on the engine’s limited sound voices, especially when several automatic weapons were firing at the same time. The old method played three long sounds for every shot to cover the distance layers, so a single burst could quickly use up every available voice and cut off sounds that were still playing.

Automatic weapons now use a more efficient granular Head/Tail playback method. Where a burst could previously occupy dozens of voices, it now uses only 3–9 voices for the whole duration. This reduces audio dropouts during heavy combat by about ten times, so more weapons and effects can be heard at once. It also prevents those long one-shot sounds from stacking on top of each other, which keeps automatic-weapon fire cleaner sounding overall.

New sounds have also been added for artillery projectiles, rifle-caliber sonic cracks and impacts, and explosions for 75–95 mm HE shells.

Besides these headlines, there are many more changes and fixes. If you want the really extensive version, check the Changelog.

Opting in

To join the beta, switch your game to the beta version. Later, when the beta becomes the live version, you won’t need to do anything to switch back. To participate, go to your Steam library, right-click the game, and select Properties > Betas > Open Beta. You can switch back to the current version at any time, using the same process.

That’s it for now; enjoy the beta!

Dear friends, we are happy to announce the next game update! In addition to work on the next faction , we put a lot of effort into update #70. This update brings a long list of improvements to Conquest, our Dynamic Campaign Generator, and many other changes. We have no doubt that many of you will recognize your own requests. You can try the new version as of now - the Open Beta is available!

Conquest

This open beta is a major rewrite of the AI logic used in Conquest (Dynamic Campaign Generator). These are the main changes:

Dynamic Enemies

Previously, enemy strength was driven heavily by player army value and operation day, while units were selected relatively randomly from the available roster. The new system gives the enemy commander much more direct control over force quality, composition, and battlefield behavior.

Difficulty and Force Composition

Difficulty now affects what the enemy fields, not just how much. Lower difficulties favor older, lighter equipment, while greater difficulties increasingly favor stronger equipment available to that nation and campaign date. These remain weighted preferences rather than hard restrictions, so battles should still give you plenty of variation.

Enemy forces also have a clearer identity. A battle can center on infantry or armor, with smaller supporting elements such as artillery, anti-tank, anti-aircraft, or armor. This ought to create more coherent enemies without making their composition easy to predict.

Attack, Defense and Retreat

Your enemy will now attack in structured waves, instead of a continuous trickle. Early waves act as probes; later waves grow larger. Wave timing also responds to what is happening on the battlefield. The enemy commander can now recognize when an attack has failed and order its remaining forces to retreat, ending the battle.

Previously, once the enemy had exhausted its units or resources, the player could be left waiting for the victory score to slowly reach 1000 with little or nothing left to fight. A decisively beaten attack should now end the battle without that unnecessary wait. Any remaining enemy forces will retreat, destroying any equipment they cannot easily take back with them.

Defenders now begin with dedicated garrisons around objectives, can launch limited counterattacks after losing ground, and will retreat if all objectives are captured. All 114 Conquest maps have been updated to support this new defensive setup.

New Foundations

As you can probably see, this is a significant rebuild of the Conquest AI logic rather than a collection of smaller adjustments. Much of the previous approach has been replaced with a new foundation for how the enemy builds its army and fights.

This update does not represent the final form of Conquest AI either. We’ll continue improving and expanding upon it in the future. Our internal and Closed beta testing has found the changes to be a net positive, even though balance isn't always even between battles.

Sound

This update includes a performance pass on all automatic-weapon audio.

After the Sound Overhauls, the game’s audio system grew substantially: more distance layers, more weapon detail, and many new effects all playing at once. That extra fidelity put far more pressure on the engine’s limited sound voices, especially when several automatic weapons were firing at the same time. The old method played three long sounds for every shot to cover the distance layers, so a single burst could quickly use up every available voice and cut off sounds that were still playing.

Automatic weapons now use a more efficient granular Head/Tail playback method. Where a burst could previously occupy dozens of voices, it now uses only 3–9 voices for the whole duration. This reduces audio dropouts during heavy combat by about ten times, so more weapons and effects can be heard at once. It also prevents those long one-shot sounds from stacking on top of each other, which keeps automatic-weapon fire cleaner sounding overall.

New sounds have also been added for artillery projectiles, rifle-caliber sonic cracks and impacts, and explosions for 75–95 mm HE shells.

Besides these headlines, there are many more changes and fixes. If you want the really extensive version, check the Changelog.

Opting in

To join the beta, switch your game to the beta version. Later, when the beta becomes the live version, you won’t need to do anything to switch back. To participate, go to your Steam library, right-click the game, and select Properties > Betas > Open Beta. You can switch back to the current version at any time, using the same process.

That’s it for now; enjoy the beta!