In our first dev diary, we offered you a look at what you can expect from the two campaigns of Unity of Command 2’s latest Kursk DLC, and by this point, if you’re interested in it at all, you’re sure to be well-familiar with all its specs and features. So for this dev diary, we’ve decided to share a few insights into the personal stories and design process and ideas of Frank and Hexaboo, for whom this expansion is their first.
Hexaboo
Almost went to Spain
It all began last autumn when Daniel, one of the game’s developers, approached me and asked (making sure there was a little suspense) if I wanted to make a DLC campaign for Unity of Command. Which was a bit surprising, given that the last time I made anything for a video game had been about twenty years ago, which I made sure Daniel knew.
Nevertheless, a ‘soft yes’ was said, with a few ideas for what that campaign could be. A mini-campaign dedicated to the Spanish Civil War was a less-obvious favourite at the time, particularly attractive because I know the language and could get deeper into the research. But then everything froze, as 2x2 were busy putting their finishing touches on Desert Fox.
Set the boundaries
Fast forward to December 2022, and the vague proposal of ‘what if you make a campaign’ crystallised into ‘let’s do Kursk’. Which is where it all began. Given some initial hiatus, figuring out how to work with the scenario editor and sharing thoughts about what unit parameters and new sets of specialists we could use in Kursk, I took the ‘canonical’ list of Red Army operations covering a period of about six months starting with the Battle of Kursk, arranged them month by month and put it all on a map. As you can see, there was a fair bit of space left for ahistorical battles, but 16 scenarios was our limit, so it was an easy decision to keep things between 4 July and 1 December 1943, and strictly historical.
Found dirt in the archives
For half a year, talks and videos about this period of the war became the background noise in my home. Books and memoirs, too, gave a general understanding of the events, as well as the mood on a personal level, but everything you see on the map in the game — individual units, their relative strengths, even the locations of individual specialists — would have simply not happened without archival documents, including the massive daily German Situation East maps, captured Army Group Centre maps, online collections like Lexicon der Wehrmacht, and even the occasional browsing session in the Bundesarchiv.
But there is no way I couldn’t mention the fact that Soviet military documents from the period were declassified wholesale back in 2008, and in recent years, Pamyat Naroda (‘People’s Memory’) has become a vast and continuously growing repository of digitised stuff*, with first-hand operational maps, often meticulously prepared, sometimes at as low a level as the regiment, and obviously colossal quantities of other documents. So when I wondered what weather to set in the Kiev mission, I looked up Voronezh Front’s operations record log for late November, found the reported temperatures and allusions to ‘roads only passable by tracked vehicles’, and BAM! the scenario is full of dirt now! You can rely on us going the whole nine yards, to make your playing experience a gloopy living nightmare!
* As an aside, if you happen to read Russian, you can easily choose a random research topic and become a citizen historian. Because you wouldn’t believe the incredible amounts of overlooked original materials that are really out there.
Frank
Creating Zitadelle 43
When creating the initial concept for the campaign structure of Zitadelle 43, a sister campaign to Kursk, we were looking at a very clear design problem. The Germans were on their back foot for most of this period of the war, and besides some of its summer offensive, the Wehrmacht really didn’t have a great time. So we tried to figure out how to turn this period into actual scenarios, and eventually a full campaign set from the German perspective.
In a bid to escape the obvious and terrifyingly repetitive pattern of fighting endless retreat scenarios, I looked for the most interesting and fluid offensive or defensive battles waged by Germany’s generals in 1943. This effort proved largely successful, especially thanks to German operational maps and digitised maps from the Soviet archives, leading to a relatively short but original historical line of scenarios for the German Zitadelle campaign, featuring the work of many well-known commanders like Erhardt Raus, Hermann Balck, Walter Model, Paul Hausser, and others. I focused on the engagements where the Germans either decided to stand and fight or even took to the offensive again, even if in a limited capacity, making it possible for the player to mirror or even surpass the achievements of real, historical generals.
Finnishing pasta
The Zitadelle campaign branches into some alternative history, offering a couple of new fronts, and one of the trips it takes the player on is to the north. Specifically to Karelia and the almost encircled Leningrad. But the Germans aren’t the only ones flexing their muscles here, as the Finns make their entrance as well. Bringing back the Finnish army for a few scenarios let a breath of fresh creative air in, with Goran, our talented artist, making a new and stunning model for the Finnish armoured division and the motorised infantry Jaakari unit. Facing plenty of terrain obstacles and led by two persistent HQs, the Finns make sure the alt-history branch in the north runs well.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Europe, the Allies also have got some new toys of their own. The co-belligerent Italian army makes a return in this campaign, this time as the opponent of the Wehrmacht. They have their own HQ, commanders, and specialist steps, and I hope you find them to be memorable opponents. Not leaving the Axis empty-handed though, since after all, they were supported by a number of Italian units still loyal to their cause on the Apennine Peninsula. These include, the paratroopers of the Nembo division, or ‘La Decima’, appearing in that game as the RSI Paracadutisti special forces specialist available to the Germans in limited numbers in Italy. There are also a number of captured and re-purposed formerly Italian vehicle specialists like the Semovente or M15/42.
Blessed by our mapmaker
It would also be unfair to not mention the amazing and diligent work our colleague Daniel invested into the game’s maps. Thanks to him, the main Europe map has expanded into Eastern Karelia reaching the White Sea and the town of Belomorsk. There is now also a new and gorgeous map of the Island of Leros and a more detailed map of Ukraine created specifically to accommodate this expansion. His advice and coordination skills were crucial to making sure that the campaigns you get in Kursk DLC are as high-quality as possible.
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And thus, 9 months in the making, Kursk DLC is about to fall eagerly into the hands of the players. We sincerely hope you enjoy playing these campaigns at least as much as we have enjoyed taking this long creative journey, and who knows, it may not be the last time you find us posting dev diaries and feeding you tiny glimpses of our work?
Cheers!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2307940/Unity_of_Command_II__Kursk/
