Post news Report RSS Victory Day again!

Another Victory Day, more information about the factions, update about what happened at PAX east and more!

Posted by on

Greetings all!


Many years ago on this day, our ancestors, their brothers and sisters, together defeated the fascist beast. We must never forget their sacrifice.

We wish you all a (rather belated) Victory Day once again, and to give you a little update!

At current, the core of our team remains rather focused on taking After Reset, to Steam Early Access, so we do not have much time to dedicate to Red March. But we haven't forget our fans and continue to prepare a series of articles about the Red March universe. Today's publication of additional basic information about the factions is part of that present from us to you, in gratitude for your continued support.

Now, onto the main event: Additional faction background. First up, another look at the United Nations!

United Nations

"Peace through strength."

- Roman Emperor Hadrian in the first century AD.

"Those who play with the devil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword."

- Buckminster Fuller.

The United Nations is one of the main factions of Red March. The UN will go to any means to protect themselves in critical situations, in particular, the European component of the alliance. In the campaign during the approach of Soviet Troops to the Alps and their break through of the Maginot Line, the EuroCorps begins to use last ditch weaponry, for example, chemical and neutron weapons, even on its' own territory. The UN is not a faction with clean hands, they are led by harsh militarists and are resolutely ready for anything.

At a glance
Playing Style: Hit and Run, precision strikes.
Preferred Theatre of Operations: Aerial warfare.
Strengths: Air superiority, mobility, rapid expansion, good transport possibilities and map control, excellent camouflage and defence.
Weaknesses: High prices, few heavily armed units, fragile and unreliable experimental units.
Intended Players: Fans of the classic Command & Conquer games.

Gameplay features
UN advantages lie in very strong and accurate weapons. The strongest part of the UN forces are infantry and aviation. Infantry has access to more powerful weapons than used by other factions, but this is offset by weaker armour. Armored infantry and support usually destroys dangerous targets from afar, or approaches foes from the flank and in the rear, as well as using hit and run tactics, while UN aviation is well suited for holding the skies and smashing foes with impunity. Base-building for the UN will largely be the same as in the classic C&C games up to Red Alert 2 inclusive, and UN forces will use something similar to the MCV from C&C series.

History

Origin
After the victory over Nazi Germany, the confrontation between USSR and western capitalist countries escalated again, and the Fulton speech by Churchill and Truman demonstrated an attitude towards the USSR that broke the last hopes for peaceful coexistence of the two political poles. In a repetition of what happened after WWI, the western world embraced anti-communist hysteria, and all the successes of the Roosevelt policy of good relations with the Soviet Union crumbled. In 1949, an attempt was made to form a military-political organization that would unite the western allies into an anti-communist bloc. But this idea was transformed into a program for the creation of a supranational superstate like the USSR with a single trading space, a common set of laws, standardized military equipment and an attempt to create a unified armed forces.

Foundation
The United Nations was founded in April 4, 1949. Originally Prime Minister Winston Churchill planned to create a military-political bloc called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) from western anti-nazi and anti-soviet countries, but after lengthy consultation and analysis of the soviet threat, the leadership of the founders of the future bloc decided to create a roadmap for the global integration of their countries into one supranational super-state (a multinational confederation or federation). For such an ambitious project, a different name was required, and in the end this union was called the United Nations.

Atlas Shrugged
With the UN's foundation with a common border and a common trade zone, mafias in Europe and America also merged. European and American corporations, during bloody, invisible wars, merged into syndicates that began to fill a variety of industries and even take control of entire countries.

Big business and corporations continue to have close ties with politicians and the mafia. Now this triad is promoting their own interests in UN policy, forcing the UN to intervene in local conflicts around the world, forcing favorable contracts and even demonstrating outright aggression in small countries (Victory in the Vietnam War, for example, will allow the receiving of massive contracts for production and access to large reserves of resources in Vietnam). The Military-industrial complex is constantly receiving new orders for more hi-tech weapons, the arms race and development of new technology escalates, and there is always an opportunity to earn huge amounts of money for venture capitalists.

Industry therefore grows at an incredible pace, with continual opening of new branches, and it demands more resources that are desperately lacking. To provide guaranteed consumption, many corporations are using private military companies (or even just mercenaries) to participate in civil wars in the third world in exchange for access and the development of local resources on favorable terms. After a syndicate emerges victorious, the state is first subordinated to the UN and it's syndicates with capital, before being politically strong armed into the Union.

Despite the appearance of being a beneficial supra-national government, far beyond the reach of average citizens, money and cynicism rule the United Nations.

Secret government
Despite national governments declarations to the contrary, the UN is effectively controlled by several groups that make up the secret government. The Gray cardinals, the Patriots and the Committee, for example, grew out of the mafia, various corporations and even old political clans. This conglomerate consists of both secretly and openly influential people, public figures, politicians and businessmen. But even above them rises the mysterious Inner Circle, who are known of only through conflicting conspiracy theories. Some marginal claims are that the Inner Circle has ancient roots, while still others claim that it has its' origin in the 19th century. Which of these is true is unknown.

Whichever is true, this underground organisation controls nearly half of the human world and uses the structure of UN for their own purposes...

Future
The United Nations remains a fragile union. This association exists only as long as there is the threat of the Soviet Union. In addition, the relationship between the core countries remains sufficiently strained, due to conflicted interests and the trappings of the UN.

Meanwhile, oblivious to the doings of the powers that be, the average people of the UN continue on their lives as all people do, and vote for leaders who are either powerless in the face of the UN, or whom acquiesce to it's strength. As such, though led by the self concerned and wealthy, the UN is not inherently evil, it is still a collection of individuals with noble aims, such as the spread of democracy, representation of nationalities, eradication of disease and poverty across the world, whose conflict has resulted in a nightmarish super-power almost as much at war with itself as with it's foes.

Behind the scenes
In real history U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt first proposed the use of the term "United Nations" in order to refer to the Allies during World War II as an alternative to another title - "United Power". The source of this idea was Winston Churchill, who quoted in correspondence with Roosevelt the poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", where the phrase "United Nations" referred to the Allies present at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The first official use of the term occurred on 1st January 1942 in the Declaration of the United Nations. During the later stages of World War II the Allies used the term "United Nations" to refer to the Anti-Hitler Coalition.

The terms "Allies" and “Western Allies” however, continued to apply as the name of American, British and French armed forces stationed in West Germany from the period of 1945 to 1994.

Next up: the Pact! While some information remains to be added, we're rather happy with what we have got here. Enjoy!

Warsaw Pact

"If tomorrow the war, if the enemy would attack,
If the dark power strike, -
As one man, all the Soviet people
For a free Homeland rise."

- Song "If tomorrow the war" from the same soviet film.

The Warsaw Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, in the West better known as the Warsaw Pact (it used to be known as the Warsaw Treaty Organisation, but that name has now disappeared due to a more famous organisation taking the acronym), is a military defensive alliance of the USSR and its european satellite states. It was pretty much formed as a direct response to United Nations.

At a glance
Playing Style: Superior firepower.
Preferred Theatre of Operations: Ground warfare.
Strengths: Many heavily armoured units, many powerful AoE weapons, perfect anti-air, mass production.
Weaknesses: Slow basebuilding, weak light vehicles and airplanes, mobility worse than UN units.
Intended Players: Fans of the classic Command & Conquer games.

History

Origin
After the Federal Republic of Germany joined the UN and with the escalation of the Cold War, the Soviet Union decided to set up its' own military bloc as a response to the UN. The Warsaw Treaty Organization was to be a united force of European socialist states that would protect their interests.

The peoples of Europe remembered that many of their own former governments had fought on Hitler's side and plunged their nations into the depths of that terrible war. Czechoslovakia, for example, did not forget the betrayal by the West of the Munich Agreement. By contrast, Soviet support of the Polish resistance and relieving the exhausted fighters of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 did much to endear the USSR to the Polish people, and it is not the only such story from the liberation of Europe. As such, though some countries are still erasing the remnants of fascist government, public opinion still maintains that the USSR is the best hope for the recovering nations of Eastern Europe.

Formation
With public thought this way, the treaty was signed by Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania, the USSR and Czechoslovakia on May 14th, 1955 at the Warsaw meeting of the European states to "Ensure peace and security in Europe". The Treaty entered into force on 5 June 1955.

The Future
It was, and still is, held that the Soviet Union can provide security in Eastern Europe in the case of a new war, as western armies will inevitably go through the borders of these countries. The concept of an anti-communistic "sanitaire cordon" continued to play its' role even after WWII in Western thinking, and the USSR remains convinced that buffer states are necessary for the continued survival of the Socialist dream, especially facing so dangerous a foe as the UN. It is therefore, not surprising that rumours abound of pro-independence supporters in Eastern Europe disappearing, as do descriptions of trench-coated men knocking on politicians doors in the morning, and of darkened train carriages, with black-out curtains, travelling non-stop to colder climes in the East. But of course, such rumours are entirely baseless... aren't they?

What else? More concept art was added to the gallery! Here is one particular favourite from the update, ATS-NIK's rendition of our heavy APC.This is our old concept art, but we've updated it and now you can enjoy it in high resolution.


As demonstrated above, our new concept art watermarks have been added, a format we will continue using for the future, including our final choice of logo for the Warsaw Pact.

We develop many small details of our RM universe. That's why we started drawing concept arts even for infantry weapons. Meet - it really existed modification of AKM with a OKG-40 Iskra grenade launcher, not gone into mass production in real history.


In other news, I was around at PAX East last month and bumped into a number of awesome people while there, such as Jesse Cox, Markiplier, EatMyDiction, Chilled Chaos, ZeRoyalViking, TehSmarty and the team at Firefly Studios, currently working on Stronghold Crusader 2 (Awkward pictures included for your amusement)





All in all, it was a fantastic experience; No promises about a presence next year, but it is something both Watcher and I are quite keen on doing, so here's hoping. If we do manage to get a booth, we won't hesitate to let you guys know!

Now, what about the future? Well, I will be busy making a new BBC broadcast this month featuring another YouTuber, regarding the exciting upcoming US elections in the Red March universe, and you can expect more details to come regarding some of our more innovative game concepts such as faction customisation, General choices and... Well, I can't give everything away right now, can I?

Stay tuned, and, as ever comrades, see you on the March!

-Vengeful

Post comment Comments
Xar105
Xar105

this game gonna be like red alert 2 ?

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
Watchdream
Watchdream

Well... Yes and no. Red March similar to RA1, RA2, Company of Heroes, Wargame: Red Dragon and many other RTS. But yes, our main source of inspiration is Red Alert.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+6 votes
Nemanja_
Nemanja_

What happened to Yugoslavia in this scenario ?
They were founding members of UN,commies and non-NATO/WP.
Are they part of Red March's UN or neutral ?

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
Watchdream
Watchdream

We'll reveal it soon :) Already written texts about it.
But Yugoslavia is likely to be in Pact.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
DarthC
DarthC

"Soviet support of the Polish resistance and relieving the exhausted fighters of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944"

guys, I know it is ment to be an alternative universe, but AFAIK you based it on the aftermath of real WW2, and IRL, there was no such thing in WW2 as Soviet help to non-comunist Polish Resistance during Warsaw Uprising, up to the point that Red Army stopped on the outskirts of Warsaw, which allowed Germans to destroy the Resistance... (just nitpicking from a historical standpoint...)

(aside from the last few lines about WarPac, the whole article feels like "bashing evil western imperialists" and making USSR the saviour of mankind... although there are not many games that change the stereotypes of "good west" and "bad east", switching it other way around is no less simplifying...
or maybe I overlooked the part where it might say that this article is written from ingame "soviet perspective" ;) )

Other than this personal issue, good work :)
I wish you good luck to create the game ;)

Reply Good karma Bad karma+3 votes
Vengefulnoob Author
Vengefulnoob

You raise good points, Darth, however we are indeed, basing the alternate history scenario on an alternate iteration of ww2. In particular in the Red March timeline, the USSR understands the importance of supporting Eastern Europe early on in the war for any future hostilities, going so far as to relieve Warsaw. In addition, numerous pre-war designers are still alive and tactics and strategy more refined than they were in our timeline.

As for pro-Pact bias; we're working on it, as you can see, our pact section is much shorter than the UN one, so we have little mention of leadership, hostile management or the general dictatorship of the Pact, and that is problematic since we want the UN and Pact to be equally as bad as one another, but for wildly different reasons.

Reply Good karma+3 votes
DarthC
DarthC

thanks for explaining it to me :)

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
Watchdream
Watchdream

"but AFAIK you based it on the aftermath of real WW2"

Nope, serious differences from our history begins from 1931 in RM timeline. WWII was similar to ours, but did not repeat it exactly.

About Warsaw Uprising IRL:
The Red Army was not able to help, because close to Warsaw troops were in very poor condition: 1st Belorussian Front had by this time the supply lines that stretch over 500 km; 3rd Armored Corps, rushing toward Warsaw, in the end result of the German counterattack was surrounded, lost 100% of materiel (vehicles and other), saved only 10% of the personnel. Here is a graveyard of soviet vehicles and soldiers now called "Red Army's inaction". Therefore, it is not clear what and how the Red Army had to take Warsaw, before having a three armored divisions of the Wehrmacht and two SS Panzer Division + few infantry divisions.

The last paragraph was written just for lulz and atmosphere :D Therefore, it does not pretend to show true information in game world.
We will write a detailed article about life other factions, but now we can say little about it.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+2 votes
DarthC
DarthC

thanks for explaining it to me :)

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
Post a comment

Your comment will be anonymous unless you join the community. Or sign in with your social account: