Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year's, BK Fans!

We hope you all is well with you and your families. To get the year started, we have another small patch that contains some general changes, some changes with RE Doctrine, and some bug-fixes. I know this patch seems small but please keep in mind we're also running a beta to test what may end up being one of the biggest improvements to the mod to date.


1. The Suppression Mechanic

The 'Suppression' ability has been changed. Players complained on the discord that it was too expensive as an ability and too inconsistent in its effects to justify its use or cost.

1. Now always suppresses target squad after set time, no matter the target's cover or other bonuses
   
2. Time to suppress set to 6-7 seconds
   
3. The squad using the ability is 25% harder to suppress when the ability is active
   
4. Cost reduced to 20 ammunition
   
5. Suppression Volley" in PE (ability gained with G43 upgrade) now also works as "Suppression Fire" ability, so it no longer "slows down" its target but it now guarantees suppression after 6-7 seconds

2. Removed HE shot abilities from US 76mm gun, CW 17 pounder

These abilities were bugged on these guns and either wouldn't fire at all but still use player munitions would the ability would activate, or they wouldn't just never activate as the gun kept rotating and packing up repeatedly. The devs haven't found a fix yet, so these abilities have been disabled for now.

3. Infantry Squad Grenade Change

Infantry squads able to throw grenades get a -5 munitions reduction cost to the grenade ability at Vet 3 and Vet 5. This only applies to the "normal" grenades, not stickies, gammon, sleeved grenades, or stun grenades. These changes were meant to give a light buff to infantry to make them a little easier to use as the game went on without being a heavy handed change that spiraled out of control.


1. RE: Churchill AVRE Changes

1. increased cost to 420MP 50F (from 350MP 40F)
   
2. Increased "Fire petard shot" range to 50 (from 35)
   
3. Petard shot adjusted to always land closer to selected place (won't over/undershoot THAT much anymore)
   
4. When in Hulldown position AVRE now slowly repairs damaged vehicles nearby (range 20)
   Can now spawn, RE Sapper squads as well as 6 pounder and 17 pounder AT guns and Repair Bren
[/list]
5. RE Glider no longer deploys repair engineers (the ones who passively repair damaged vehicles nearby)

The Churchill AVRE has been in an awkward position for much of BK's history, caught in the buff nerf cycle for years because the community has never arrived at a consensus to determine where it truly fits in the British faction and how strong or weak it should be. Mostly recently, players contended that it wasn't really useful in its current state (nerfed from being a tad too strong I believe). So the devs have made a bunch of smaller chages that have been designed to make it more useful on the battlefield while not making it oppressive to face on the opposing side. The RE Glider change was implemented with an eye towards not giving the British too much of an advantage in vehicle repair over other factions. We all remember when Blitz doctrine had those repair bunkers and don't want to repeat that painful experience.

2. RAF Changes

1. RAF can now choose in the 2nd truck if their Commandos glider is deployed with a Commandos squad for standard cost (550MP), or with no squad for 150MP.
   
2. RAF can now choose in the 2nd truck if their Commandos glider is deployed with a Sten Commandos or Enfield Commandos

Here, the devs wanted to give the players more flexibility with gliders. Sometimes, someone wants the glider mainly as a reinforcement point in the field, rather than wanting to drop a whole new squad. Now, they have that option.

3.Bren upgrades for Commandos now cost 40 ammo

1. You can no longer get 2 snipers as US
   
2. SAS squad no longer has inconsistent detection radius
   
3. When CW captures Pak36, it will no longer lose camo ability
   
4. Sabotage squad in SE doctrine now properly displays Teller mines
   
5. Penetration values of Bazookas and PIATs vs allied targets set to more reasonable values
   
6. Zeal now provides bonuses when Volkssturm have 7 men squad size and lose 1 man
   
7. Set the penetration of BOYS rifle vs medium tanks to 1% at any range (from 10%)
   
8. Set the penetration of BOYS rifle vs light tanks (practically just Hotchkiss) to 20% at any range (from 10%)
   
9. Lowered speed penalty to Hotchkiss after getting the Stuka upgrade to 10% (from 33%)

As always, we appreciate you guys continuing to play the mod and show it the love we think it deserves. Stay tuned for more announcements, in particular the next fireside chat or beta update.

All the best from myself and the dev team to you and yours!

Wald

Hello to all Blitzkrieg fans!

I’m happy to announce Blitzkrieg Mod's newest 5.3.4 Beta Patch. It’s a relatively small patch that is mostly concerned with bug fixes, detailed below:


Allies:

1. Fixed an exploit where you could bypass the limit of 1 for US snipers.
   
2. SAS squad no longer has inconsistent detection radius.
   
3. When CW captures Pak36, it will no longer lose camo ability.
   
4. Penetration values of Bazookas and PIATs vs allied targets set to more reasonable values.

Axis:

1. Assault Grenadiers with both G43 and LMG upgrades now properly display the option to switch between Tank Button and Suppressive Volley abilities.
   
2. Sabotage squad in SE doctrine now properly displays Teller mines.
   
3. Zeal now provides bonuses when Volkssturm have 7 men squad size and lose 1 man.
   
4. Penetration values of Bazookas and PIATs vs allied targets set to more reasonable values.

Your old replays will not be compatible with this patch.

Don’t worry – we’re not done yet! I’m also happy to announce a new beta – BK Beta Patch 5.3.41! This patch focuses on infantry changes and maps.


Suppression ability change
[expand type=details]
This ability was not used very often because it provided inconsistent results. Sometimes it happened that you spent 40 ammo, clicked on a squad and it didn't get suppressed at all.

We wanted to make sure that the ability actually does what it is intended to do. That is, to suppress the targetted squad every time. We changed the internal working of the ability and now it should always put the target into a suppressed state after aprox. 2-3 seconds after clicking on the target, no matter if the squad is in cover, has veterancy, is elite etc. It doesn't matter how many "received suppression" modifiers the target squad has stacked, they should get suppressed. Note, however, that abilities that "shrug off" suppression (Fireup, Heroic Assault etc.) will still remove the suppression effect that this ability applies.

This ability needs to be tested for possible problems. That may be unintended behavior (e.g. squads still don't get suppressed in some situations) or balance issues - is it still too weak, too strong or "OK", is the cost appropriate to its effect etc.[/expand]
Suppression ability now always suppresses the targeted squad within 2-3 seconds of activation.

Veterancy reduces ammo cost of grenades[expand type=details]
This change was made to make veterancy on squads a bit more rewarding. -5 ammo on a grenade throw may not seem as much but it is still saving you ammo in the long run.

We would like to know if you feel the change is OK, or needs some tweaking. E.g. the cost reductions should come at different vet levels etc.[/expand]

Infantry squads able to throw grenades get a -5 munitions reduction cost to the grenade ability at Vet 3 and Vet 5. This only applies to the "normal" grenades, not stickies, gammon, sleeved grenades, or stun grenades.

Elite Infantry Combat Changes:
[expand type=details]There has been requests to make doctrine-specific infantry sooner available without CPs. We wanted to try this but there is a "but".
Elite infantry with all bonuses and weapon upgrades would be OP and devastating in early game, which is clearly not the intention.
What we wanted to get is a situation where selecting a doctrine will give you earlier access to the "special" infantry that the doctrines in live version only have after investing CPs, but it should be a decision, not a no-brainer. Rangers, Stormtroopers and Gebirgjägers should be in such a position where people don't want to necessarily get them as soon as possible, but maybe get them a bit later when you get your economy going and so potentially losing them won't ruin your game immediately.
If you feel Rangers, Storms or Gebirgs are sort of an "no-brainer pick" in early game, we'll need to come up with some solution to change it. The exception to this is the 101st, as they are more of an "upgraded Riflemen" rather than an elite unit, so 101st squads entering the field earlier than the other doctrinal squads, is an intention.

Report anything that you find off, wrong or broken with this change. We know this will need some more tuning if it should ever get to the live version.[/expand]

1. Ranger squad is available to build in Barracks once Infantry doctrine is selected and WSC is built (LMG and SMG upgrade locked behind CQB unlock)
   
2. 101st is available to build in Barracks once Airborne doctrine is selected and WSC is built (SMG upgrade locked behind 101st Paradrop unlock)
   
3. Stormtrooper squad is available to build in Barracks once Blitzkrieg doctrine is selected and Kriegsbarracks is built (STG44/G43 upgrade locked behind Stormtrooper unlock)
   
4. Gebirgsjäger squad is available to build in Barracks once Luftwaffe doctrine is selected and Logistic Kompanie is built (Scoped G43 and LMG upgrades locked behind Gebirgs unlock)

There have been complaints about the suppression ability, usually concerning the price, saying it's too expensive at 40 munitions for how effective it is. If you guys still think the ability is too expensive, please let us know. We look forward to your feedback on the other infantry changes.


There’s been a lot of debate about how campy Blitzkrieg mod has gotten in the past year or two with a whole host of different causes ascribed to this frustrating phenomenon. Due to current constraints the dev team has attacked this problem from a novel angle and that angle is maps. For years, the dev team has tried encouraging players to play BK mod on bigger maps with high resources because BK mod is balanced around PVP. The larger map sizes help account for the larger ranges and therefore give players freedom to maneuver around defenses, rather than limiting them to head on attacks. The higher resources help get away from the rock paper scissors dynamic of the early game. We find that smaller resource games can magnify early mistakes and can sometimes end a game in 5 minutes. There are a large amount of maps such as Autry, Beaumont, Crossfire, Hillaire, and others that are relics from Blitzkrieg Mod's humble beginnings when it was catered to the PVE crowd. These maps, called lane maps, tend to lend themselves to camping because of their narrow designs.

We realized that this map issue consists of two parts. Firstly, there are simply not enough maps. Players are tired of playing the same old maps with the same old metas. The map pool is both small because of the aforementioned lane maps that PVP players avoid and Workshop maps. Because there's such a large variety of expertise employed in Workshop map creation, game-play on those maps is often an inconsistent experience which is often accompanied by replay issues. Secondly, the dev team doesn't have a dedicated mapper with both enough free time or expertise to create new maps or revamp old ones in a timely fashion. The good news is that I came up with a rather elegant solution. We could simply steal use maps from other mods. I’ve asked around and have obtained permission to use maps from Celution from the Eastern Front, Halftrack from the Battle of the Bulge Mod, and Monolithic Bacon from The Great War 1918 Mod. This way we can use maps that have already been lovingly designed, crafted, and play-tested instead of trying our amateur hands at making or editing our own.

Just to be clear - these maps have not been explicitly designed for Blitzkrieg Mod. We have not edited them in any way, except to change their display names slightly in game to reflect their origin and suitability for PVP. I picked maps with an eye for size - medium maps for 1v1s, large maps for 2v2s, and extra-large maps for 3v3s and 4v4s. Whenever there's an exception to this selection criteria, it's because I thought the map had an interesting design despite its small size. We hope you guys will provide feedback on these maps. Please tell us if you like them, don't like them, or if there's any changes you think ought to be made to these maps (perhaps the resource distribution is wonky?). If there are any technical issues with the maps, please report them in the bug section of the steam forum with the BK Beta 5.3.41 in the title.

There will be three waves of betas for map testing. In total, the dev team may add up to 37 maps to the Blitzkrieg mod if you guys like them all. The first map wave will include 15 maps from the Eastern Front Mod and you can see them below:

[expand type=details]Our kind friends at the Eastern Front mod have granted us permission to use 17 maps of theirs in BK mod. Two of these seventeen maps will come in a later beta patch because of technical issues.

1. Vienna - 1v1
   
2. Magnuszew Bridgehead - 2v2
   
3. Battle of Mahiljou - 2v2
   
4. Dom Pavlova - 2v2
   
5. Karachev - 2v2
   
6. Kursk - 2v2
   
7. Stalingrad Railroad Station - 2v2
   
8. Anapa - 3v3
   
9. Dubna - 3v3
   
10. Kiev - 3v3
    
11. Prokhorovka - 3v3
    
12. Seelow - 3v3
    
13. Tali Ihantala - 3v3
    
14. Voronezh - 3v3
    
15. Zhytomyr - 3v3

[/expand]
While this may not be a huge update in a game-play sense, this will be a huge update with how much extra real estate we’re giving you guys to fight over. The dev team and I hope you guys enjoy these changes and these new maps.

Lastly, I just want to stress that this bigger update is a beta. These changes are not final until the beta is over and the dev team takes feedback into account. If there are any issues with the maps or any other changes in the beta, they won't go to the live patch until they are fixed. If you need help accessing the beta, please follow these instructions[forum.bkmod.net]. There will be further updates and changes to this beta but rather than posting a constant flow of announcements, I'll update a single thread in steam beta patch sub forum whenever something changes.

When we're satisfied that everything's working properly and that you guys like the changes, it will go live as patch 5.3.4 and I will update this announcement's title with the date this patch goes live.

Enjoy!

-Wald

Edit: 13 October 2023 - There was a miscommunication between the devs and I, which was my fault. This is not in fact a small patch and a beta patch but actually just one substantial beta patch.

Hey all BK Fans!

I know it's been quite lately so I just wanted to touch base with you guys and tell you our beloved mod is very much alive. Join me by the fire, won't you?

Development continues apace, albeit at a slower pace. This is because two of our dev members have had things come up in their personal lives that take precedence over their online lives. Despite that, the dev team has been busy. There is a small patch in the works, mainly concerned with bug-fixing. It should release sometime soon and when it does I'll post the announcement both here and on discord along with the patch notes.

But that's not the only thing that's in progress. There have been changes to the BK Mod Steam Forum, BK information is being collected and collated to improve player knowledge and understanding of the BK Mod and its systems, and I want your screenshots! There is one more thing in the works but I will save that for the next dev diary.


First you will see that there are three new BK Steam Subforums.
I've made some changes to the BK Mod steam forums. There are now three new subforums:

[expand type=Details]

1. Blitzkrieg Mod Patches
   
2. Beta Patches and Feedback
   
3. Bug Reporting and Technical Support

[/expand]
The first two sub-forums are incomplete now but when I am done with them, they'll have every patch or beta patch cross-posted into them and a thread that lists every patch and beta patch ever released. The bug-reporting and technical support sub-forum is self-explanatory. I'm doing this as part of one of my directives as dev communications specialist, to make the development of the Blitzkrieg Mod less opaque. That is, it will be easier to see the progression of patches, what was changed when, and why (if possible - many discord conversations that inspired dev patches are lost to the sands of time). In theory, this will help players and devs by answering typical questions related to patches or changes like "Why was X changed and when did that happen?". I expect that the beta sub-forum will become more busy with feedback in the future as all future BK betas get posted in it. As always, I'll be monitoring all these forums and will answer questions as best I can. If I can't answer the question, I'll find out the answer to the best of my ability.


I have a pet project that I've been working that was borne out of my frustration with having to go into Corsix or the game every time I wanted to know a piece of information whether it was how much a unit costed, its weapon stats, its build time, its veterancy bonuses etc, or wanted to compare its stats to any other unit in the game. I realized that I may not be only one who's frustrated by this and also that this barrier to knowledge of the actual stats of the game hamper discussion in the community. Much of dev time is wasted when they are asked to look up stats in Corsix for players who find it difficult to parse corsix or tedious to parse through patch notes. A lot of discussions often go nowhere when people argue about balance when they don't know the actual stats and argue about how things feel in game rather than how things actually are. When it comes to suggestions or proposed solutions to problems, this issue rears its ugly head again because players often suggest things that sound reasonable but are unrealistic or unintended when one considers the actual numbers behind things. I'm not saying this to criticize players but simply stating a fact. It's hard to propose realistic or concrete suggestions when one doesn't know what the numbers behind abilities or stats actually are.

For example, let's say a player has an issue when using the BAR-equipped rifleman squad's suppression ability on an enemy Volksgrenadier squad. He finds it ineffective or too weak for its 40 munition price. It feels like more often than not, it doesn't suppress well enough, if at all. Not knowing how the ability works or what it does number-wise, will cause someone to suggest changes based on feel rather than numbers. They'll suggest changes that will over-tune the ability or that may be completely unnecessary. "Unnecessary - what do you mean?", you ask. I mean that perhaps the player who has an issue with a rifleman squad's suppression ability doesn't know the actual numbers behind cover bonuses. We all know that you can't suppress a squad in a building (building cover) or a trench (trench cover), but did you know that green cover reduces suppression by 90%? If that player knew about cover bonuses, they might then understand they shouldn't use the BAR's suppression ability on enemy squads in green cover. And that is before one factors in received suppression buffs from any other factors such as Officer auras, veterancy bonuses, or doctrinal abilities!

In short, I'm working on a BK Mod wiki that eventually will have all the information you could want about BK Mod, its units, it's patches, various doctrinal abilities, etc. When I make more concrete progress on it I'll put in an update with a link. Here's an example below of some of what I have (it's out of date).

[expand type=Details][/expand]
I hope this helps alleviate your fears about BK's apparent lack of development. Chat again soon!
Wald

P.S. Send me your screenshots or post them in the community hub for a chance for them to appear as the next dev diary's cover image!

Hi all, I'm Walderschmidt, the new developer communications specialist.

The developer team noticed that even though communication with the community has improved since they moved their focus from the now ghost-town forum to the BK Official Discord, lots of players still use the steam forum to communicate their thoughts, feedback, ask questions, and talk about the mod. Unfortunately, given the fact that they work on this mod for free, they can only spare so much time to scour the discord channel, incorporate community feedback, develop the mod, and maintain their normal lives at the same time. This often meant that they rarely looked at the steam forums and consequently couldn't take advantage of another source of community input. You can see this by the dearth of updates in the news section.

To fix this issue, they've appointed me as the new dev communications specialist. That means I will keep up with this forum, cross-posting mod updates as soon as they come out on discord, keep tabs on various threads with feedback, and answer questions every 4th Saturday of the month. Simply ask your questions on the Frequently Asked Questions thread and I will spend a few hours answering them to the best of my ability, or finding out the answers myself. Our first Saturday will be this next one on the 26th of August.

To be clear, I'm not a developer (even though it says I have a developer tag in yellow). I'm just a guy who's been playing BK since 2017 and wants to lend a hand to the dev team.

Feel free to ask me any questions here!

Wald

Hello everybody!

Almost a year has passed since we've embarked on a project that would fundamentally change the mod. For those of you just finding out about these changes and the "beta" now, here's a quick catch up:

For years BK has had a lot of trouble staying balanced between Axis and Allies. About a year and a half ago a survey was released to test a hypothesis on why the balance was always so volatile. The results in the survey found that a key reason why balance was also so difficult was because all the doctrines did not fall under a common design philosophy. Some doctrines were very specialized and required teamwork, but when was well supported became over dominating monsters. Meanwhile, other doctrines were well rounded and independent, able to put up a good fight but never had the same overwhelming end-game power as other doctrines. Additionally, there were clear "rock paper scissors" game strategies where certain doctrines were clear counters to other doctrines. The made it hard for players to play their favorite doctrines if an opponent simply chose a pure counter.

After dozens of surveys to players, long forum discussions, and watching endless replays, the devs decided to make a first "test" changes as a pilot with the iconic armor doctrine vs blitzkrieg doctrine. The results were promising. It was decided that all doctrines would benefit if they were balanced to be playable in 1v1's against all other doctrines. The reworks on doctrines focused not specifically on balancing the game but removing the "rock paper scissors" element of doctrine choice in games. With more standardized doctrine designs, balance should theoretically be much easier in the long run.

The time has finally come where we can release the 5.2.0 patch, an accumulated year's worth of effort in "modernizing" the Blitzkrieg Mod which features new doctrines, reworked classic doctrines, and updated fixes and mechanics. In addition to the feature changes, we also are introducing a new map! Because the mod has been tweaked to make the game 1v1-playable, we created a BK specifically designed 1v1 map. We look forward to seeing games and watching replays of the new doctrines!

As the map name suggests, there is a high probability we will be hosting a 1v1 tournament soon as a way of celebrating the new patch. We were so focused on making sure the patch was bug free and making final tweaks before the release, so we don't yet have all the details just yet. We will begin organizing for that soon enough.

You can see the really big changelog on our forum: http://forum.bkmod.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3804

Many thanks to all beta testers and our forum users for providing a lot of great feedback.

As always, we hope you like the changes and see you in game!

Hello to all Blitzkrieg fans! With a bit of a delay (sorry for that) we officially announce the release of 5.1.7 update for the Blitzkrieg mod.

This patch generally fixes bugs, things that were meant to be changed before but were forgotten and unintended changes. It also focuses on addressing the complaints of Tigers being too useless along with some other balance tweaks.
For more detailed information about the changes, please visit our forum - specifically here: http://forum.bkmod.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3129

Let's move to the part you're most interested in :)

General:
- Static Howitzers will no longer refuse to fire at a position
- Force Retreat abilities will now properly retreat infantry squads with Hold Ground active
- Axis 20mm guns will no longer bounce off of Armored Jeep
- 37mm cannons will not fail to penetrate the über cannon-proof vests of Axis snipers
- Various text fixes and adjustments based on the feedback here on the forum* (see below for specifics)
- Panzer IV F2 has now AP ammo upgrade as first and HE ammo as second, it used to be the other way which made the game literarly unplayable
- Axis 20mm guns will no longer penetrate Cromwell tanks

US:
- 37mm gun now provides light cover to the crew (applied yellow cover because with green the crew suffers from immortality syndrome)
- Lowered the HP of M26 Pershing to 850 (from 1000)
- Lowered the HP of Pershing Ace to 1050 (from 1200)
- Fixed a bug where adding a .50cal to a tank would kick a Tank Commander out of the tank
- Field medics can no longer reinforce with paradrop
- Minimum attack range of Recoilless Jeep gun set to 5 (from 0)
- Rifle HEAT grenades should no longer deal too little damage to Motorbikes and Schwimmwagens
- Rifle HEAT grenades can now only be targetted at vehicles
- Lowered the range of HEAT rifle grenade to 40 (from 60)
- Increased aim time of HEAT grenades to 1.5 - 2 sec. (from 0.25)
- The M12 shotgun (CQB squad) no longer uses depleted uranium in its ammunition (so it can no longer penetrate the armor of JPIV)

CW:
- It should be no longer possible to glitch Tulip rockets so that the second one is "guided" at the target
- 2-inch mortar will no longer have the "Hold Fire" button displayed twice when the unit enters camouflage mode
- Removed deflection damage from 2 pounder gun on Staghound and unpgraded Daimler

WM:
- Applied top MG changes to StuG MG (was forgotten in previous patch)
- Cost of Early Tiger tank lowered to 840MP (from 950MP)
- Cost of Late Tiger tank lowered to 865MP (from 975MP)
- Cost of Tiger Ace lowered to 1370MP (from 1550MP)
- Lowered the cost of Heavy tank factory to 300MP (from 400MP)
- Sdkfz 234/4 (stubby 75mm gun "Puma") now has proper sound when shooting the HEAT/B shot

PE:
- Fixed a bug where double AT grenade required "Experienced Tank Crews" instead of "Double AT Efforts"
- Observation Halftrack will no longer switch places with PaK40 in Logistikompanie
- Removed Periscope upgrade from Flammenhetzer (was forgotten when Periscopes were removed)
- Added 15 Fuel cost to Vampire Halftrack (from 0 Fuel)
- Vampire Halftrack now requires Logistic Company Upgrade

*The text changes and fixes (applied to English texts) specifically:
- M36B1 has now its own description in the Tank Depot (used to have the same as M36)
- Field repairs on US tanks should now properly show the reason why they are unusable when in combat
- 101st Weapon Supply Upgrade no longer mentions weapon cost reduction for non-existent BARs
- .50cal MG nest has now its own description
- Fortified post now informs about its ability to reinforce squads nearby
- Recoilles Jeep will no longer try convince its users that it excels at hunting down enemy snipers
- Staghound no longer states it is a command vehicle
- 88mm Flak36 unlock in Defensive doctrine now also mentions the unlock of 88mm PaK43 emplacement
- Fragmentation sleeve grandes no longer state they can only be used from cover
- Stormtrooper call-in description now states that the squad can infiltrate buildings
- PE Schwimmwagen no longer states it is unarmed
- Fixed description of Light Observation HT
- PE VT no longer mentions 105mm and 88mm arty participating

This update spent several weeks in beta test branch and people reported no problems so hopefully you will encounter none either.

Good luck on the battlefield :)

Hello to all our fans! After 6 beta versions we've finally released the 5.1.6 version of Blitzkrieg Mod!

There are quite a lot of changes and we will publish here just the changelog, if you're interested in more detailed info and reasoning behind the bigger changes, visit our forum here (http://forum.bkmod.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&p=28518#p28518).
We hope you will enjoy this one!

General:
- Added PE markings on Bergetiered and Ammunition Halftrack
- Made changes to various howitzer artillery pieces to make the shells hit a "circular" area rather than "line"
- Corrected AoE range brackets for several artillery units
- Barrage AoE UI indicator (the yellow circle) should now get properly bigger with range (the farther you shoot, the bigger the UI - to more accurately indicate the hit zone)
- Lowered the rear/side penetration chance of 75mm guns (Shermans, Cromwells, Churchills) against Tigers (max range 25%), King Tigers (15%) and Jagdtiger (5%)
- Lowered front penetration chance of 75mm guns (Shermans, Cromwells, Churchills) against StuG III/IV (max range 23%; 14% with skirts)
- Lowered the rear/side penetration chance of Axis Stubby 75mm guns against Churchills (max range 10%), Croc Churchill (5%), Jumbo (35%), Pershings (25%) SP (15%)
- Returned a kicker message when game registers a rear penetration on a vehicle (it says now "Weak armor point penetrated" to prevent confusion with pure "rear armor" hits)
- Changed aim times for snipers 0.75 - 1.25 second (from 0.25; on average it is +1 second but it can be slightly less or more)
- Doubled delay between shots for all mortars (including morter Halftracks; barrage abilities keep their fire rate)
- Mortar smoke barrage abilities now fire 10 smoke shells per barrage (from 7)
- Flamethrowers now have 80% chance to insta-kill occupants of a building, trench or emplacement when they hit them with the flamethrower
- Captured 50mm PaK38 should now deal correct damage to all Axis tanks
- Tweaked hull and coaxial MGs on vehicles to be a bit more useful
- Tweaked Top MGs on vehicles (to compensate for better performance of hull and coaxial MGs)
- General tweaks to .50cals (a bit more accurate, a bit higher RoF, can penetrate light armor)
- Removed damage bonus from all AP abilities
- AP abilities now cost 50ammo to activate (from 75ammo)
- Using HEAT/B or HEAT/C abilities should no longer cause very long (5+ seconds) delay before the shot
- Fixed wrong penetration values when shooting HEAT/B and HEAT/C (in some cases HEAT/B had higher penetration chances than HEAT/C)
- The range of HEAT/B and HEAT/C set to 50 as intended (from 60)
- Vision range of flak36 88mm corrected to 60 (from 85; the actual weapon range remains at 85 but to get the range some other unit will have to extend the view range)
- The AP ammo of flak36 88mm should now be less accurate against infantry
- The HE ammo of flak36 88mm should no longer deal too much damage to tanks
- Construction cone of fire of MG nests should now more accurately correspond with actual the cone of fire when the MG nest is finished
- Removed ammo price from mortar teams
- JPIV L70 damage increased to 100-130 (from 80-120; same gun as Panther gun so same damage)
- Increased Goliath AoE to 10 (from 8)
- Increased damage done to vehicles by Goliath
- Goliath now has higher chance to detrack vehicles and to damage or destroy engines
- Lowered sight range of Goliath to 20 no matter if it is static or moving (from 60 (static) and 40 (moving))
- Goliaths can be detected at at range of 5 now (from 3)
- Fixed a bug where LeiG18 used wrong ammo for barrage which was significantly weaker than its direct-shooting ammo
- All static howitzers (US/WM 105mm, 25 pounder) now fire 8 shots per barrage (from 6)
- All static howitzers (US/WM 105mm, 25 pounder) now reload in 3-4 seconds (from 6-7)

US:
- Stuart no longer needs to buy upgrade to use HE mode (activation: 15 ammo, needs to wait at least 20 seconds to switch back to AP)
- Riflegrenade upgrade is no longer mutually exlusive with other Riflemen weapon upgrades
- Increased the range of HEAT riflegrenade to 60
- Fixed a bug where the "Straffing raid" ability in AB HQ (converted from neutral building) would dissapear after upgrading the AP bullets
- Fixed missing sandbags on M16 in AA mode
- Fixed wrong range brackets of Riflemen M1 Garand
- Tweaked the cooldown of Ranger M1 Garand to 1.5-1.75 (from 1.75)
- Tweaked the cooldown of Ranger M1 Garand at closer ranges
- 60mm mortar barrage cost set to 15 ammo
- 80mm mortar barrage cost set to 25 ammo
- 80mm mortar barrage describtion no longer uses the texts of 60mm mortar
- Fixed a bug where US medics (built in Triage centers) were limited to 1 squad instead of 2
- Medic team (deployed from Triage center) no longer reinforces anywhere with paradrop
- Moved "Medkit" ability of Fortified Observation Point (Infantry doctrine) to slot 8 (from 12) to avoid ability clipping with garrisoned infantry
- Fixed a model bug on M3 Halftrack
- Fixed the range brackets on .30cal Jeep so that the effectiveness does not drop so fast
- Lowered the Veterancy XP requirements of Stuart and Chaffee to 12/24/48/96 (from 25/55/90/135)
- M10 with Bulldozer upgrade will no longer have the "Bulldozer balde" ability visible when camoed (so players can use the "hold fire" ability when in camo)
- Top mount .50cal is now an upgrade for most vehicles (30 - 35 ammo)
- Basic Ranger HP increased by 10
- "Ranger Training" unlock in Infantry doctrine no longer adds +10HP to Rangers
- "Ranger Training" unlock in Infantry doctrine now adds 25% damage reduction to Rangers
- Rangers are now only available in Infantry doctrine
- Rangers now require the "Ranger truck" unlock in order to be built
- Infantry cost reduction unlock no longer affects Rangers
- Fixed a bug where grenades dealt too low damage to emplacements
- Increased the aiming time of M10's HEAT shot to 2.5 seconds (from 1.5)
- Removed the detection radius of Calliope Jeep (it had same radius as .30cal Jeep, but Calliope Jeep is not recon unit)
- Lowered the detection radius of Armored .50cal Jeep to "7" (from 18)
- Added 5 fuel cost to Armored Jeep
- Upkeep of Spotter lowered to cca 4MP/min (from 9.6MP/min)
- Made changes to the HEAT riflegrenade projectile which should help it miss less often than intended (hopefully for good)
- The cost of AT squad in Infantry doctrine should now be properly lowered with Mass Production unlock

CW:
- Stuart no longer needs to buy upgrade to use HE mode (activation: 15 ammo, needs to wait at least 20 seconds to switch back to AP)
- Corrected AoE ranges of 95mm Churchill and Cromwell to 1/3/5/8 (from 1/3/7/7)
- Assigned a Hotkey "B" for 95mm Churchill's and Cromwell's barrage
- Lowered cost of Dingo to 240MP (from 300MP)
- Lowered cost of Dingo to 170MP 5F after Captain is built
- Lowered speed bonus of Flank Speed ability on Cromwells and Comets to +25% (from +50%)
- Increased turret rotation of Comet to 22 (from 16; now it is closer to Cromwell)
- Lowered turret rotation speed of M10 Achilles to 9 (from 13; now it is the same as M10 Wolverine)
- Fixed a bug where Achilles and Comet had old turret rotation speeds when shooting HE rounds
- 2inch mortar barrage cost set to 10 ammo
- 3inch mortar barrage cost set to 25 ammo
- 4.2inch mortar barrage cost set to 35 ammo (from 30)
- Increased maximum range of Wasp flamethrower to 25
- Lowered the Veterancy XP requirements of 2pounder Tetrarch to 12/24/48/96 (from 25/55/90/135)
- Top mount .50cal on Staghound is now an upgrade (25 ammo)
- Camouflaged Daimler Scout Car will now be revealed by bypassing units at range of "7" (from 20)

WM:
- Applied arty changes to Grille (was forgotten before)
- "46mm grenade" ability of GrB39 squad now requires the Tank Factory to become available
- Increased cooldown of "46mm grenade" ability of GrB39 squad to 75 seconds (from 30)
- Increased cost of "46mm grenade" ability of GrB39 squad to 70 ammo (from 50)
- Fixed a bug where 46mm grenade missed a lot less than intended
- Lowered range of 46mm grenade ability to 45 (from 55)
- "HE grenade" of GrB39 squad now requires the Krieg Barracks to become available
- Increased scatter of missed GrB HE grenades (even when they missed they usually hit so close that they dealt damage anyway)
- Increased accuracy of Tiger's main gun to 1/1/0.9/0.9 (from 1/1/0.75/0.75)
- Increased basic damage of Tiger's main gun to 120 - 150 (from 110 - 140)
- Removed Flank Speed from Tiger tanks
- Accurate Long Range Shot on Tiger Ace now requires Vet level 1 (from 2)
- Fixed a bug where standard Geschützwagen shot had AoE similar to HE shots
- 81mm mortar barrage cost set to 25 ammo
- Fixed a bug where PaK38 automatically fired at enemy infantry
- Sdkfz 234/3 ("Puma" with Stubby 75mm) now has the frontal MG active (it was on the model but never shooting)
- GrB39 squad should no longer detect stealthed units in overly large area
- Removed Wolfram ammo from Sdkfz 234/3 (Puma with stubby 75mm) and 75mm stubby Haftrack
- Added the "Fire HEAT/B" ability to Sdkfz 234/3 (Puma with stubby 75mm) and 75mm stubby Haftrack
- Fixed a bug where StuH and StuPa received no accuracy nerf when shooting at targets in smoke
- Upkeep of Spotter lowered to cca 4MP/min (from 5.3MP/min)
- Increased penetration of 20mm gun on Sdkfz 234 and 222 against jeeps (should no longer happen that the shouts bounce off from normal Jeeps and the chance to bounce off of Armored Jeep is also lower)
- Goliath can now be built in Krieg Barracks (requires Assault Phase upgrade)
- Added an option to drop a Goliath to PzB41 Halftrack (Defensive Doctrine)
- Changed settings of Walking Stuka rockets so that they don't kill with 100% chance any infantry caught in AoE
- Applied an improved texture on Sturmtiger (thanks to Panzerblitz1)

PE:
- Changed the base speed of Hotchkiss to 3.6 (from 5.5)
- "Stuka Rockets" upgrade now reduces speed of Hotchkiss to 2.8 (from 4.4)
- "Stuka Rockets" upgrade now requires "Panzer-support" building
- "Stuka Rockets" upgrade limited to 2 at a time (Hotchkisses are still unlimited but you cannot have more than two at a time with rockets)
- Hotchkiss barrage now has bigger scatter (so the rockets will land randomly in bigger area)
- Changed settings of Hotchkiss rockets so that they don't kill with 100% chance any infantry caught in AoE
- Hummel's "Rapid shooting position" (static mode) now reduces the reload time by 25% (from 50%)
- Fixed a bug where Hummel in static mode was actually harder to hit
- Hummel should no longer land majority of shells on the far edge of the hit zone
- Fixed a bug where TH doc's "Periscope" unlock provided no bonus when TDs were in camo
- Changed "range distances" for Henschel cannon
- Lowered accuracy of Henschel aircraft to 1/0.9/0.8/0.7 (from 1/1/1/1)
- Henschel planes no longer have doubled accuracy against certain tank types
- Lowered "ready for fire" delay of Hetzer to 0.75-1.25 second (from 1.5)
- Increased the cost of Panzer-Jäger Kommand building to 400MP (from 350MP)
- Lowered the cost of Panzer-Support Kommand building to 400MP (from 550MP)
- Lowered the cost of transport Halftrack to 250MP 15F (from 300MP 15F)
- Fixed a bug where standard Nashorn shot had AoE similar to HE shots
- 81mm mortar barrage cost set to 25 ammo
- Sdkfz 234/4 (75mm L48 "Puma") now has ambush mode (static mode removed)
- Camouflaged Kettenkrad will now be revealed by bypassing units at range of "7" (from 20)
- Removed Wolfram ammo from 75mm stubby Haftrack
- Added the "Fire HEAT/B" ability to 75mm stubby Haftrack
- Sdkfz 234/4 ("puma" with PaK40) is now revealed from camouflage after firing a shot
- Main cannon of JPIV L70 no longer fires at paratroopers in the air
- Goliath can now be built in Logistic Kompanie (requires Infantry Support building)
- For Ammunition HT lowered the price of "Place Goliath" ability to 50MP 50ammo (from 100 ammo)

Hello everyone!

After many Beta versions, we are updating our live version of Blitzkrieg Mod to version 5.1.5 today!

Changelog:
General:
- increased penetration values vs read armor
- artillery units revised:
- changed ranges based on arty type
- created differences between rocket and shell artillery
- artillery deals less damage to vehicles/tanks (except for direct hits, those deal more damage than before)
- revised reload times on tanks (in general smaller guns shoot faster; some exceptions applied)
- Speed modifier buff of all vehicles on off road terrain dropped by 25%
- Speed modifier buff of all vehicles on road dropped by 25%
- Wheeled vehicles lower their speed by 50% when driving over craters and other "light cover"
- Wheeled vehicles lower their speed by 70% when driving over sandbags, through stone walls and other "heavy cover"
- Halftracks lower their speed by 35% when driving over craters and other "light cover"
- Halftracks lower their speed by 50% when driving over sandbags, through stone walls and other "heavy cover"
- Tanks lower their speed by 20% when driving over craters and other "light cover"
- Tanks lower their speed by 35% when driving over sandbags, through stone walls and other "heavy cover"
- Removed "Spotting Scope" upgrades from all units
- All armored cars now have rotation speed set to 35 (from various values)
- Added some tweaks to AI; it should now build emplacements more apropriately (thanks to Sonsalt)
- Fixed wrong Veterancy UI on all versions of 88mm flak36
- All HMG teams should now take better formation in green and yellow cover so that entire crew uses the cover and not just soldier manning the MG
- Axis MG nests now have wider cone of fire (from 45° left/right to 60° left/right)
- Tanks with a "HE shot" ability should no longer have trouble targetting/shooting MG nests with the HE shot in certain situations
- Implemented new textures for most tanks of Allies (Sherman variations, Cromwells, M10s, Jacksons...Thanks to JustForFun1 for all the work)
- CW campaign should be playable (still in Beta state) now (thanks to drivebyhobo)
1) In main menu click on the AMERICAN campaign
2) Once you get to the "Select mission" screen click on top on the roll-out menu (currently you have shown the US campaign)
3) From the roll-out menu select the CW campaign (you can see there all the campaigns but the others will not work so only go for the CW one)
4) select the first mission and launch the campaign


US:
Riflemen riflegrenades:
- HE grenade:
- changed targetting system to require select a specific target (no longer can fire "on the ground")
- now performs better at targetting buildings and emplacements (still has hard time hitting infantry that is not garrisoned)
- now has better distributed chances of killing an emplacement crew
- HEAT grenade:
- changed targetting system so that it does not miss more often than intended
- increased damage vs light vehicles
- Airborne Recon unit can now use "Hold Fire" ability when they are camouflaged
- Added "Hold Ground" ability to Airborne Recon squad
- M1 Carbine of 101st now shoots faster at all ranges but has lower accuracy (RoF and accuracy set to same level as M1 Garand of Riflemen, Carbine still keeps lower damage though)
- 101st can now upgrade M1 Garands; 2 rifles for 20ammo, possible to upgrade up to 3x (Garands with same stats as Rangers have - shoot slower but more accurately and with slightly higher chance to one-shot infantry)
- removed the BAR upgrade from 101st
- 101st can now use the "Suppressive fire" ability if they upgrade Johnson 2x
- Increased HP of Sherman 76(W) by 10% (from 636 to 700)
- Lowered price of Sherman 105 to 500MP 65F (from 650MP 80F)
- M26 Pershing will now auto-target infantry with its main gun (same as all other tanks)
- M3A1 Halftrack should now display loaded infantry

CW:
- HE grenade:
- changed targetting system to require select a specific target (no longer can fire "on the ground")
- now performs better at targetting buildings and emplacements (still has hard time hitting infantry that is not garrisoned)
- now has better distributed chances of killing an emplacement crew
- Changed MP upkeep of Comet from ~20 to "8" (used to have upkeep of "20" while Cromwells have 7, Fireflies have 9)

WM:
- Crew of the naked 20mm flak 36 should now properly sit where he should be
- StuG III/IV will now be affected by "Blitzkrieg" ability
- Increased scatter of Maultier (from 20 to 23)
- 37mm Halftrack in HE mode nologner deals too much damage to Stuart-type vehicles
- New model for Elefant implemented (works same as before, only visual change; thanks to Gurky, Jagdpanther, VanAdrian and Panzerblitz1)
- Geschutzwagen's "Static mode" should no longer dissappear at certain position on maps
- Panzer IV F2 (Terror doc) can now use the "Fire smoke" ability just as the Luft version
- Fixed wrong Veterancy UI on 75mm L48 Halftrack
- Removed 37mm PaK36 from HQ building
- Added new early AT unit to HQ building - Light AT squad:
- 4 men
- 1x MP40, 2xKar98, 1xGrB39
- Abilities: Fire Anti-personnel grenade, Fire 46mm AT grenade, Fire Smoke grenade, Build sandbags/barbedwires
- Point capture speed 0.75
- Cost 240MP

PE:
-Applied new textures to Fallshirmjäger squads (textures by halftrack)
- Increased basic speed of Hotchkiss to 5.5 (from 2.8)
- "Stuka rockets" upgrades for Hotchkiss now reduce its speed to 4.5 and acceleration by 25%
- "Periscopes" unlock in TH doctrine now increases vision of tank hunters when they are in ambush mode
- Henschel air raid will now send maximum of 4-5 planes each time
- Luftwaffe now has special texture for its Sniper (stats/abilities are same as for the SE sniper)
- The Kar98 sniper rifle has now a bit darker texture (was a bit too bright)
- Observation HT and Bergetiger will not have Axis markings on them (did not have any; texture tweak)
- Removed Flank Speed from Hetzers

You can find more information about current version and the changes on our forum.

Hope you like the changes and see you in game!

Hello everyone!

New version of our beloved Blitzkrieg Mod is UP!


Changelog:

General:
- Increased reload time of most 75mm L48 guns (PIV F2/H/J, StuG III/IV, Hetzer and JPIV) to 7 seconds
- Tweaked stats of 57mm/6pounder guns vs PIVs (includes AT gun teams, T48s, 6pounder churchills; removed -6% accuracy; penetration increased by approximately +10%)
- Tweaked stats of 50mm guns vs Shermans (includes PaK38, Puma; reduced penetration by approximately 10%)
- fixed 1000 VP infantry only mode in CZ language (the desribtion said 1000 VP and did not mention that it is "Infantry only")
- M10 (Wolverine and Achilles) no longer react to movement orders when they are in ambush mode (prevents accidentally leaving ambush position)
- M10 (Wolverine and Achilles) no longer automatically activate Flank speed when they leave ambush (need manual activation)
- Suppression values of LMGs on Jeeps and Schwimwagens/Motorbikes lowered to (approximately) the level of hull MGs on tanks
- Fixed an issue which made several "timed HE" abilities too accurate when shooting at targets in smoke
- Applied new "Reinforce squad icon" (replaces the vCoH reinforcement icon)
- Unified bonuses on vehicles and AT guns when shooting from ambush mode; now they get on the first shot +50% accuracy, +25% penetration, +25% damage (from various values)
- All medic teams should now have proper texts on their Reinforcement button
- All Tank Destroyers should now auto-target enemy vehicles once in ambush mode by default (auto-targetting can be manualy turned off with a "hold fire" button)
- Update Allied Warmachine ability describtion to clearly say what the ability does
- Unified the nerfs of AT guns shooting at armored cars of any faction (they should now all have x0.8 accuracy vs moving armored cars)

US:
- Changed Veterancy bonuses of 57mm AT guns from vCoH to standard BK mod Vet bonuses for AT guns
- Lowered range of T48 to 65 (from 75)
- T48 in camo now receives +5 range (instead of -10)
- Removed "Hit and Run" ability from Wolverine
- Added "Fire smoke shell" ability to Wolverine (25 ammo)
- Changed costs of Shermans (price in brackets applies to Armor doc after Mass production upgrade):
* Sherman M4 410MP 40F (350MP 30F)
* Sherman 76(W) 450MP 55F (380MP 45F)
* Sherman E8 500MP 70F (400MP 52F)
* Sherman Crocodile 440MP 60F (360MP 45F)
* Sherman 76mm Jumbo 780MP
- Removed "Hit and Run" ability from Wolverine
- Added "Fire smoke shell" ability to Wolverine (25 ammo)
- M8 Scott can now use offmap barrage with Tank Commander inside
- Defensive Strafing patrol of AB forward HQ no longer dissapears after upgrading "Strafing AP bullets"
- Tweaked suppression values of BAR's "Suppression" ability - it suppresses a bit slower now
- BAR's "Suppression" ability is now only available to Riflemen in Infantry docrine
- Medic squad (deployed from triage center) can no longer reinforce anywhere via paradrop
- AB medic team can now retreat to AB HQ or to AB HQ Squad
- AB Engineers (called from AB HQ) have now correctly set alternate retreat point as other AB units (instead of Ranger Captain)

CW:
- Removed "Hit and Run" ability from Achilles
- Reworked "Button vehicle" ability
* cost dropped to 10 (from 25)
* range increased to 60 (from 30)
* lower's target's view range by 50% (from 99%)
* makes main gun 50% less accurate (from completely dissabling it)
* disables Top MG
* no longer slows down the targetted vehicle
- Reworked "sector smoke" ability of RA doctrine into an "Offmap smoke barrage" which sends 15 smoke rounds into a selected area
- Fixed an issue that still allowed HQ trucks to crush HMG and Mortar teams
- Lowered turret rotation speed of Achilles to 13 (from 18.5)
- Increased damage output of AVRE vs emplacements (now it should one-shot most emplacements)
- Increased damage output of AVRE vs bunkers (now it should take at least half of bunker's HP on direct hit)
- AVRE now has 5% chance of destroying a bunker completely on hit
- Vehicles in the AoE of AVRE's shot now get a short "stun" effect which lowers the accuracy, reload speed, vision and movement speed for 7 seconds
- AVRE shot ammo cost increased to 45 (from 30) and recharge time increased to 60 seconds (from 45)
- RA Autocar barrage cost increased to 40 (from 25)
- Lowered sight range of Stuart Recce to 40 (from 60)
- Fixed a bug which removed cooldown on Recce's Binocular ability
- Firefly has now basic reload time set for 6 seconds no matter how far the target is (used to reload faster when target was further away)

WM:
- PIV J needs the "H" unlock + "Faster production; comes cheaper right away
- Mass production makes "H" cheaper, does not affect cost of "J"
- Tiger Ace should not longer deal damage to anything just by getting close to it
- Lowered mobility and detection radius of Schwimwagen
- Changed Volksgrenadiers MP40 upgrade from "4xMP40 for 50 ammo" to "2xMP40 for 25 ammo"; possible to upgrade 2x per squad

PE:
- Assault Grenadiers now receive "Vehicle suppression" ability when they purchase LMG upgrade*update
- Vehicle suppression ability:
* costs 10 ammo
* range 60
* lower's target's range by 50%
* makes main gun 50% less accurate
* disables Top MG
- Removed "Hold facing" ability from Jagdpanther to make room for "Hold Fire" ability when in camo

Hope you like the changes and see you in game!