A Veteran’s Day Guide to EndWar Infantry

 

Infantry play an important role on the battlefield of the future.

 

Ninety years ago today the guns fell silent all along the trench lines stretching from the Alps to the North Sea. The War to End All Wars was over. Within 21 years, the world would once again be at war. The Treaty of Versailles planted the seeds of World War II. While wars continue throughout the world today, none have compared to the two world wars.

 

 

 Tom Clancy’s EndWar is set a hundred years after World War I ended. The units you can command are evolutions of the same units that fought during WWI. It was during this conflict that the tank and aircraft were first used in combat. Artillery and infantry both played a major role at the time. Even though modern tanks, gunships, and artillery are so much more advanced, in 2020, the soldier on the ground still decides the battle.

 

 Infantry is often the overlooked unit in EndWar. They are actually some of the most important units. There are two different types of infantry units: Riflemen and Engineers. Infantry are the only units which can secure uplinks and then upgrade them for supports. Therefore, you need to have these units in your force when you deploy to the battlefield. Following are some tips on how to get the most out of your infantry.

 

 Infantry are slow to move. Therefore, load them up in transports to quickly move them to their objectives. Transports also provides protection for your infantry since they are extremely vulnerable to all types of enemy attacks while out in the open. When your infantry are going to fight, make sure they are either in cover or garrisoned in a building. Buildings are great spots for positioning infantry. Both cover and buildings give infantry increased rate of fire and longer attack ranges in addition to providing protection.

 

 Engineers are excellent against all types of vehicles while they are in cover or garrisoned. They are also fast at upgrading uplinks Riflemen, on the other hand, are best used against enemy infantry—especially Engineers. With some upgrades, your riflemen can defeat any enemy infantry—even if they are garrisoned in a building. Riflemen can also secure uplinks fast.

 

 Infantry have some very cool upgrades. While Riflemen can get stealth suits and sniper rifles as well as the ability to deploy anywhere on the battlefield, Engineers can deploy minefields and deploy defenses around uplinks.

 

So next time you are fighting in 2020, focus on your infantry. If you use them correctly, keeping them in cover or garrisoned in buildings, and upgrade them, you will see just how effective they can be.

 

 

Tom Clancy Thriller? No, it’s the news

While the world’s attention was focused on the sensational Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing, Russian tanks were rolling into the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The Russians claimed they were protecting the ethnic Russians living in South Ossetia, a region in northern Georgia, from Georgian forces who had moved in to punish separatist forces. Let’s go back a bit to see how this all came to a head. When Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the people in South Ossetia shortly after tried to become independent from Georgia. Fighting erupted and finally Georgia and Russia signed a peace treaty where South Ossetia remained part of Georgia, but Russian peacekeeping troops remained. Russia also issued Russian passports to the people of South Ossetia, essentially making them Russian citizens.

 

What set off the recent conflict is that Georgia launched a surprise operation last week to restore its control in South Ossetia. This was all Russia needed to launch a full scale invasion with their forces that just happened to be at the border. In addition to driving the Georgian forces out of South Ossetia, Russian troops advanced into clear Georgian territory to capture the town of Gori which is located in the middle of the country along the main east-west highway. Furthermore, Russia captured Georgian military bases and sank a Georgian naval vessel. Russian aircraft bombed the Georgian capitol of Tbillsi attacking not only military targets, but also civilians.

 

From my point of view (I have a degree in history and military history as well as teach high school history), Russia was just waiting for an opportunity to move into Georgia. This former republic has become very friendly with the west and the US is working with it to include it in NATO. Russia, which is becoming an economic power due to its oil reserves, has taken a back seat since the end of Communism and under the leadership of Putin, who by the way is no longer president, but still pulls the strings, has tried to regain its status are a world power with which to be reckoned. Other former Soviet republics are also leaning to the west. It appears that Georgia may be Russia’s example to the rest. Russian foreign policy has often been heavy-handed, especially when dealing with smaller countries. Now it looks like Putin is taking a page out of Al Capone’s tactics from 1920’s Chicago.

 

As for Tom Clancy, it is interesting that part of the premise of the upcoming game, Tom Clancy’s EndWar is that Russia, gaining power by exporting oil after trouble in the Middle East, starts World War III in order to regain its supremacy in Europe. However, with the US busy in Iraq and Afghanistan, will the west be able to support Georgia? Or will they let it fall to Russia just like France and Britain let Czechoslovakia fall to Hitler’s Germany (which also began as protection for ethnic Germans)? Time will tell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where is multiplayer gaming going?

Multiplayer gaming has been around for over a decade. In the beginning, it was only available for computer games and even then you had to be extremely literate in order to connect and play with someone else. I remember playing Microsoft Flight Simulator with a friend. After calling each other and sharing IP addresses, when they had to hang up, and start up the modems. Several attempts later, we were flying together. Since there were no weapons, the game basically consisted of playing follow the leader in Cessnas.

 

First person shooters were the big multiplayer games that everyone wanted to play. However, they were basically limited to deathmatches where you just went around killing everyone else. For me, that was not very exciting. I longed for tactics and teamwork. The first game I played online that really included that was Battlefield 1942. There was no deathmatch in this game. You had to play on one team or the other and the only way to win was to work with your teammates. Plus you got to use vehicles so it was just awesome.

 

The next phase was coop gaming. Just like playing Contra or Ikari Warriors on the old NES, a campaign is more fun to play through when you are playing with a friend. Rainbow Six Vegas and Gears of War actually let you play the single player campaigns coop with a friend. For a lot of players, that really encouraged them to go online because some don’t really want to play against people they don’t know. Army of Two was designed from the beginning to be a coop game and is still pretty popular. Now massive multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft have become incredibly popular as they give players an alternate reality in which to live and interact with other players from around the world.

 

While earlier systems had multiplayer capability (the Dreamcast had a built in modem), connecting was still tough. Then Microsoft introduced Xbox Live when they released the Xbox. Though it cost a fee to play, and still had some bugs, by the time the Xbox 360 was released, Xbox Live was a must. Players who had never even tried multiplayer got to see just how fun playing with or against other players could be.

 

As for the future of multiplayer gaming, it is coming before the end of this year. Ubisoft is releasing Tom Clancy’s EndWar. The main game is focused on multiplayer battles of up to eight players on two teams. At the start, you join one of three factions (US, Russia, or European Union). You are then on that team. If you change teams, you lose all the upgrades and experience your units gained, so it is best to stay with one faction. What really sounds interesting is that the world is divided into territories. Each day there will be set battles you can play. Whichever faction has the most wins for that territory during the 24 hours, wins that territory. Then the battles for the next day are determined based on the previous days results. A game keeps going until one faction completes its objectives such as capturing an enemy capitol or something like that. The concept looks really innovative, so I will be looking forward to playing EndWar this fall.