Hello. Before we start can you introduce yourself?
Hello, I am Alexis Le Dressay, creative director at Eugen
In Wargame European Escalation (WEE) the player will be able to play as NATO (USA, UK, Germany and France) or as the Warsaw pact (Russia, Poland, Ukraine and the Czech republic).
Can you tell us if each and every one of these nations are playable (if yes, what are their strengths and weaknesses) or if we will have to pick a side in which to choose our units?
Wargame is based on a fictional confrontation between East and West from 1975 to 1985.
At the beginning of each game the player will have to choose its side: NATO or Warsaw Pact, which will give him access to all the units of each nation that is part of the specific alliance to build his strike force.
The player is then free to build a force of only one nationality, like an airborne squadron of the 101st Air Assault (with UH-60 Blachhawks, OH-58 Kiowa, helicopter-borne riflemen …), or a multi-national force. This way he can assemble, if he wants to, a Franco-German brigade made up of Flakpanzer Gepard & Panzergrenadieren of the Bundeswehr en Marder 1A4, supported by the French AMX-10 RC light tanks and the anti-tank infantry equipped with MILAN.
On the other hand, he will be able to defend the Warsaw Pact against a NATO offensive by lining up the dreadful Czech support units like the self-propelled Dana artillery, supporting T-64B tanks of the Soviet Guards and Schutzen from East-Germany…
With experience, players will discover the pros and cons of each unit which usually follow their countries doctrine: heavy but slow tanks for the British, quick but fragile for the French, expensive and precise for the Czech, etc…
But in the end, the players will always have to create their force under a single banner: NATO or Pact!
Finally I would just like to point out that players will be able to play OTAN vs OTAN or Pact vs Pact battles in multiplayer.
We speak a lot of WEE like a R.U.S.E. 2 but the game mechanisms don’t seem to be the same. What are, for you, the 3 major differences between these two titles?
WEE is a pure wargame with all the depth of these types of games. All units are rendered in-game with all the realistic parameters. For example the localized armor, precision of weapons and optics are some of them. The moral of the units, the use of cover and defensive positions are others. The player must handle units, weapons, munitions. We are not in a RTS logic anymore. We are much closer to the spirit of a chess game. But players must be reassured, we have worked a lot on the accessibility and I must admit I am pretty proud of how easily the game is handled.
For the multiplayer, we stay in the R.U.S.E. spirit. That means trying to know where is the opponent and what he is doing, but in an all other manner!
Indeed, players play the games with a deck of units that they have built themselves. It’s as if they built their own army. Added to that, each player has a number of reinforcement points to choose units within their deck. From there, the goal is to know, anticipate and react to the
opponent’s tactic. Information becomes vital!
During a match against players or the computer, what will be the victory conditions?
They are, for now, by points. But we are thinking of other possibilities that could be decided by the players at the beginning of the games.
At the beginning of the game the player will have to choose his units with a point quota. Could you explain to us the unit selection procedure?
Like I said above, the players will choose their side: NATO or Warsaw pact. From there they will build their deck.
Of course a good player will build a balanced deck and not only choose to put the most expensive units in it.
During the game, how can a player earn command points to call in reinforcements?
The maps will be divided into sectors (much like the ruse sectors in R.U.S.E.). These sectors will give either command points or a reinforcement route or nothing to the player that controls it.
Thanks to command points, the player will be able to obtain new units. But in order to make them arrive on the battlefield, you need a reinforcement route.
To control a sector is easy but risky because the player has to bring a command vehicle in the sector and it is a particularly expensive and weak-combat unit.
A player is always aware of the sectors controlled by his opponent and he only needs to find and destroy the command unit!
Depending on the climate condition and the terrain, units won’t have the same precision and a chance of hit percentage will be shown.
What will the indicator look like and what will be the statistics shown?
That isn’t totally true… The weather has no influence on weapon precision but on visibility. That means it becomes harder to detect enemy units when the weather is bad. Note that units with the latest optical and the trained recon units will hardly be influenced by the weather!
You said in a former interview about the EugenNet that the goal was “to give the players an environment adapted to the RTS games”
Is it a will to establish yourself durably in the small world of the RTS/Wargames?
Indeed, Eugen Is a studio entirely dedicated to strategy games. We have been around for 10 years and have created RTS games exclusively.
What are your goals?
We seek primarily to improve the quality of our games to offer the best game experience possible.
We are all strategy fans and the games we choose to create correspond to what we like.
For example, we were big fans of games like Close Combat and Steel Panther and Wargame:
European Escalation comes from them in a way.
How will the ranking system work (the ranked matches)?
With a combination of an ELO and a league system.
Will it be possible to create tournaments directly on the EugenNet?
Absolutely.
What about social gaming?
It is something very important and we spend most of our time on it. WEE will include a friend system as well as team management (both in ranked and normal games).
Furthermore, players will have to unlock all the units of the game to use them in their deck. All this has one goal: allow players to play together more often.
For now you announced the possibility of having observers in a game but nothing was said about the different settings available for a match.
Will there be other multiplayer modes than deathmatch? If yes which ones? Will there be a time limit like in RUSE?
Time limit is a game option like the others. We think we will keep it. Other options will be available. I have no definitive list yet.
Will it be possible to change the game speed?
It is clearly and option we are thinking about right now.
What will be the player and observer limit in a game?
We think It will be 10, but maybe we’ll be able to increase this number!
Modding and mapping will be available.
Could you tell us more about the map editor and the modding for WEE?
The map editor won’t be released with the game. We are now working on simple tools to use. The players will build maps on any CAO software. Or goal is to offer a powerful tool to the community.
Will you be launching a beta test soon?
Absolutely! We need the community to balance the units and the pace of the game.
Thank you for answering at out questions. I’ll let you finish with a last word.
I hope (I am sure) that all those who liked RUSE will love like crazies our new creation.