Hello there!

We hope you are well! As you know, we are getting closer to the release of the next expansion, the Mediterranean-themed Tribute to the Liberation of Italy. The launch is on February 3rd!!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1640470/Steel_Division_2__Tribute_to_the_Liberation_of_Italy/

We will also push some general improvements and changes to Steel Division 2 with the new expansion. This update will be available to all.

Let’s check what you can expect.

A Set of Updates

The following items are just a selection of the changes we intend to ship with the Tribute to the Liberation of Italy expansion.

Vehicle Flamethrower Buff
Flamethrower vehicles in Steel Division 2 have a very short aim time, letting them shoot first but subsequently suffer from a wait in between shots. This leads to the second shot coming quite late; an enemy unit will likely have been able to shoot back once or twice in the intervening period. We have improved the rate of fire for flamethrower vehicles, allowing them to fire multiple shots in rapid succession.

Map Changes
We have replaced several flag objectives to balance the Ostrowno map. And, we have added the Destruction mode to our new Kostritza map, which came as part of the free Reinforcement Pack #12.



Tank MG Surpress Buff
Tank-mounted machine guns (except for larger caliber 12.7mm and 13.2mm) are not considered effective enough against infantry. We have slightly increased their suppression.

Obsolete and Light Tank Price Improvement
We have checked the prices of light tanks (such as the T-70, Toldi, BT-7, and so on) and other obsolete armored vehicles (French Beute tanks, Valentine 2-pdr, 7TP, etc.) to make them more appealing. Depending on the model, we have decreased the prices by 5 or 10 points.



Panzerfaust-armed Squads Availability Buff
The availability of Panzerfaust-armed infantry squads (Grenadier, Panzergrenadier, etc.) was deemed too low. To make them more appealing, these squads have been buffed from 6/12/18 to a 8/16/24 availability rate (or 8/16/- depending on Combat Phase). They are still less available compared to their counterparts not equipped with Panzerfausts.

Commonwealth Rifle Squads Availability Increase
British, Canadian, New Zealand, Polish (and soon, South African) infantry Rifle Squads have been hit too hard with the recent availability nerf. While previously they were too numerous per card - compared to other infantry - now they are too rare. We have increased their availability a bit from 6/12/18 to 8/16/24 (or 8/16/- depending on the Combat Phase).

AA Unit Change in Soviet Divisions
We will replace 1x card of 37mm AA units with 1x 25 mm AA units in various Allied Soviet divisions. This was teased with the 358 Strelki battlegroup, in which we replaced some 37mm AA guns with the less widespread (but still present within Steel Division 2’s timeframe) new 72-K 25mm AA gun.



17. SS and 352. Infanterie Change
Thanks to feedback from the community, we understand that the Volksdeutsche units of the 17. SS-Panzergrenadier “Götz von Berlichingen” (featured in the Tribute to D-Day DLC) should be equipped similarly to other Panzergrenadier squads of this division. This means they will feature two light machine guns while being Disheartened. This change would also affect the same type of Volksdeutsche unit of the 352. Infanterie (from the Back to War DLC). However, as there weren’t supposed to be any Volksdeutsche in this division, we changed them to Osttruppen to reflect the historical disposition of the formation’s forces.

Panzer Lehr Batlegroup Changes
The historical elite Panzer-Lehr division had a special feature that saw all of its Panzergrenadier battalions equipped with half-tracks, compared to the one out of four battalions in regular Panzerdivisions. These soldiers also carried a lot more Panzerschreck anti-tank weapons into battle.

We have decided to make the Panzer-Lehr more unique in-game by creating a new Panzergrenadier squad armed with Panzerschreck instead of Panzerfausts. This squad can only be deployed in half-tracks and will replace all existing cards of Panzergrenadier (Faust), as well as non-Faust squads in this division only. These changes are still being tested and are not confirmed yet.



Panther buff
We will change the number of Axis Panther tanks available in Combat Phase A from 1 to 2. This makes them more appealing to deploy at the beginning of a game. These changes are still being tested and are not confirmed yet.

Au revoir and until next week!

That’s all for this one. We’ll be back next week with more news on the Tribute to the Liberation of Italy expansion.

Keep a close watch on our Steam forums to keep up to date with the latest Steel Division 2 talk. Looking for an online game? Visit the kick-ass Discord server or Reddit page.

See you on the battlefield, commander!