New Horizons Version 12 news

Greetings fellow Command & Conquer fans; a new year, a new version of the New Horizons mod for Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge, that being Version 12. An in keeping with a promise I made many versions ago, that each major new number of release would bring either a new campaign mission or a new playable country, I have delivered the much-planned 3^rd new country, this time belonging to the Allied/NATO faction. As always, I highly recommend reading the articles on the previous releases to learn more about what’s new, should you be interested.

3^rd New Playable Country

Having previously added Belarus and China to the list of playable countries on the Soviet/CSTO faction, I have now added another to the Allied/NATO faction. The country in question has the 2^nd largest army of the NATO members, so for me, this was an obvious omission that logically should be included. It is also a host country for U.S. nuclear weapons. And that country is of course Turkey! Turkey has always had a strong place in history, for better or for worse, operating as or under various empires, known for trade, culture, a tourist destination, but also as a major belligerent nation (it has a, let’s say, a ‘contentious’ relationship with just about all of it’s neighbours, usually a result of attacking and/or occupying them). Although sometimes overtly (and even covertly) snubbed by it’s fellow NATO members (such as it’s long-term attempts to join the EU, or it’s lack of support when the Turkish government nearly collapsed in a coup), it is extremely useful to NATO as an attack dog on a leash; it is currently a very convenient launch pad for the proxy war on neighbouring Syria, where the Turkish armed forces have occupied northern parts of the country, and shamelessly embedded with terrorist groups to subdue local populations. This is very in line with other NATO masters (or vassal states) whom are in tandem illegally occupying other parts of Syria, such as the U.S. base in Al-Tanf, French & U.S. forces occupying the oil-rich regions in the east, or Zionist Israel’s occupation of the Golan in the west (all of which benefit from the damage done by their terrorist proxies to Syria).

Much effort has been made to create a unique set of possible choices when playing as Turkey, but before I get into that, I’ll first mention some basic new unique units available…

BMC 350 Kirpi

Manufactured by BMC, this Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle can carry 13 troops, and is currently used in occupied Syrian territory. Although Turkey is embedded with the likes of Al-Nusra, Nour al-din al-Zenky, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Al-quaeda etc. etc., Turkish armoured vehicles have inevitably offered some protection to Turkish troops whom have been (and occasionally continue to be) attacked and/or killed by these same ‘allies’.

In New Horizons, the 4x4 version of this vehicle has been modelled (with a great deal of care, I might add, which I hope any Turkish players will appreciate!). Remember when using it, that it is Not a battle tank; it is an APC for moving troops around, and is therefore not suitable for heavy fighting. It is armed with a remote machinegun module on the roof.

Here is a screenshot of it modelled ingame;

You can even have the option of building empty ones, or for an associated higher price, you can roll them out of the factory filled with a variety of troops (plus some of the various aforementioned name-juggling terrorist proxies for company).

Bayraktar TB2 Drone

Previously, I added the MQ9 Reaper drone to the Allied/NATO faction’s arsenal; thus offering the means to a relatively cheap, fast to manufacture air force. Such drones have been used widely for aggression against various victims of NATO. Turkey has decided to take an extra step by going to their in-house domestic manufacturing, and thus they produce the Bayraktar TB2. Most recently, these were used against the Armenians ( with the Armenians led by a compromised, incompetent political figure) in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, as part of Turkey’s assistance to the Azeri’s attack (including the thoughtful shipments of the same terrorist proxies that were used in Syria and Libya). These drones did manage to do some significant damage to the poorly organised Armenians, and even destroyed some of their empty and/or parked air defences (which otherwise could have been put to good use in the right hands).

Gameplay-wise, this can be considered as a more modern version of the MQ9. They are good for picking off stray targets, or striking areas with moderate-to-no air defences (same as the MQ9).

See screenshot further below for how the drone looks ingame.

2 Paths To Choose

As I alluded to earlier, I aimed to create a unique set of possible choices when playing as Turkey, which I shall now explain. Turkey is unique in Europe, in the sense that it is seen as a great divide, a meeting point between European and Middle eastern / Asian cultures, but also, because of it’s potential outwith NATO. As hinted earlier, Turkey isn’t exactly (in NATO’s eyes) seen as a shining exemplary beacon of their ‘democratic’ values; what with Turkey’s history of invasions (hypocritical from NATO’s standpoint), genocides, the previously mentioned snubbing by fellow members, the recent hardcore islamisation of the country from inclusive secularism, and the years of blackmailing European nations (rightly or wrongly here) with the threat of unleashing waves of immigrants (from countries NATO, including Turkey, helped destroy). Turkey has also shown some signs of it’s alternate potential as a strong independent actor; it even managed to get NATO’s wrath by choosing to buy Russian S-400 air defence systems, which in turn led to NATO terminating Turkey’s role in the F-35 cash cow program. Right up until the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ (also known as proxy wars of terror, following the Zionist Greater Israel Project), Turkey was a hugely popular Tourist destination for many NATO and non-NATO-member citizens alike, including Russian citizens.

As such, players will have 2 options, each with their own benefits and drawbacks.

Option 1; Build a Russian embassy.

This will allow you to build an export variant of the S-400 air defence system; one of the most powerful, longest-ranged air defence systems in the world. Being an export variant, it will have some limitations; such as difficulty targeting certain CSTO aircraft.

You will also be able to buy Russian Mig-29’s. I have even given these imported versions their own unique look; including colour scheme, and Turkish flag.

All of these are in the screenshot below (also included Bayraktar TB2 drones in shot);

Option 2; Build an Israeli / Zionist Occupied Palestine embassy.

Building this embassy will immediately bring one small drawback; you will slowly lose resources (as all NATO members do by giving funding and equipment to this apartheid state). However, by choosing this embassy to build, you can fully embrace the Oded Yinon Plan, a.k.a. ‘Greater Israel Project’, by then having the option of building a Daesh/Islamic State oil smuggling depot; from the outbreak of the terrorist proxy war unleashed on Syria, Turkey (and indeed, NATO) profiteered directly from stealing Syrian resources. This theft of resources was so brazen, Russia publicly published footage of large columns (some were several kilometres long) of Daesh/ISIS oil smuggling tankers driving Directly to the Turkish border (bad news, for these illicit dealings anyway, is that Russia also then publicly published footage of their aircraft pummelling these columns with their aircraft). Through paying these constant tributes via this embassy, you will however be granted cheaper infantry (10% cheaper, in fact).

See screenshot below;

Building this embassy, and subsequently the Daesh/Islamic State oil smuggling depot, allows you to directly build/train terrorists (Islamic State/Daesh/ISIS, also sarcastically referred to as Israeli Secret Intelligence Service by some), including machinegun-armed pickup trucks and suicide-borne improvised explosive device (SBVIED’s) laden vehicles Directly from your War Factory; unlike playing as the U.S., where you can only build/train them from a CIA Black Site, here you are embracing the unashamed cooperation that Turkey has with them in real life. After all, it doesn’t matter to whom NATO is allied to, so long as it benefits them. Operation Timber Sycamore, anyone? Or Operation Gladio? Or the (recently-disclosed Israeli) euphamistically-named Operation Good Neighbour?

Note; choosing one path of cooperation will cease further possibilities of pursuing the other path. For example, if you own a Daesh/I.S. oil smuggling depot, you will Not be able to build a Russian embassy.

Both embassies were modelled with great care based on actual respective embassies based in Turkey, so I hope they are appreciated!

Overhauled Su-57 Model

After doing a nice job of the Turkish-themed Mig-29, I took the liberty of giving the Russian Su-57 model a paint job; the overhaul is based on an Actual theme used by the Russian Aerospace Forces;

Here is the new paint scheme ingame;

Miscellaneous:

Last but not least, the mysterious Miscellaneous changes; various light debugging, and neatening of code/files has been done, a new(er) version of Phobos extension was added, and of course I had to teach the AI how to operate using the new country Turkey!

I sincerely hope wherever you are playing from, that you enjoy the new additions, as well as all the stuff from previous versions. As always, have fun!

Command & Conquer Westwood Fans
Red Alert 2 YR: New Horizons
C&C: Yuri's Revenge
C&C: Red Alert 2