A Rise of the Reds addon, Hanpatch expands the vanilla experience with stat changes, new units, new mechanics and bug fixes, with as few alterations as possible to the original gameplay.
Fighting alongside the multi-national battlegroups of the European Continental Army, battle-hardened units of the national militaries of Europe form a critical component in the war effort. Many of these units have survived four years of continuous, high-intensity fighting, often outnumbered and even isolated against the Russian forces. Their combat experience makes them superior to standard "blue" ECA troops and field commanders can summon them to the Deployment Zone to support their operations.
When General Aleksandr launched his ill-fated invasion of England in September 2047, the country's south-eastern coastal region of Kent was subjected to an opening attack by the Russian Air and Airborne Forces in an attempt to disrupt British support behind the beachheads. They achieved an early success in the destruction of most of the Royal Artillery's heavy Claymore howitzers in the region. However, most of the lighter-weight Mortar Tracks, dispersed organically with their parent units at the beaches, had survived and greeted the Russian invaders with a hail of shell fire at Kingsdown and Ramsgate.
Following the defeat of the invasion, General Zhukov reportedly delivered a scathing critique of Aleksandr's planning for the operation to senior officers of his army: "The god of war [the artillery] wields many arms, of which the great missiles, multi rocket launchers and howitzers are merely the most spectacular. But the idiot failed to account for the real bread and butter of the artillery, which is the humble mortar found in every weapons company. Once again, far too many of our men and women had to pay the ultimate price for his arrogance and incompetence."
"The god of war [the artillery] wields many arms, of which the great missiles, multi rocket launchers and howitzers are merely the most spectacular. But the idiot failed to account for the real bread and butter of the artillery, which is the humble mortar found in every weapons company. Once again, far too many of our men and women had to pay the ultimate price for his arrogance and incompetence."
Wise words.