WARNO Early Access Preview – Check it out, it already has a ‘no’ in the title

WARNO To be Wargame: Red Dragon with Steel Parts mechanics and more, but that doesn’t mean it’s good. Same as before Wargame batch items, WARNO is a Cold War real-time strategy (RTS) game, albeit with a much more limited scope. This time, it’s set right in 1989 – literally the worst occasion to set up a Cold War game. The technological balance has greatly benefited NATO, while the Warsaw Pact’s pre-emptive stance has shifted to a much more passive defense. The kids wanted Apaches, Bradleys, and 120mm M1A1s, though, so that’s what they got.

Games in WARNO like it was in Wargame. You build your deck, go to the field, spawn whatever units you can afford, wait for the stock token to grant you more units, etc. Units can carry up to three weapons per type, the vehicle still has directional armor, the infantry still uses men as HP and both can still be healed with the supply truck. Command units do exist, and according to the manual, they actually boost the veterans of the surrounding units by a level while also acting as old territory takers.

This is for Wargame Passive RISE

That doesn’t matter much in the Early Access version, as you only have the easiest access to Skirmish (multiplayer and PvP) and Armory modes. In Armory you can build forces based on the 3rd Armored Division or the 79th Guards Tank Division, just like in Steel Parts. Only thing, you know, there’s not much of a choice when you have a division for each faction.

Not available Steel Parts battle stages, so you just build your deck as you normally would. You have trigger points (50) and category (tank, infantry, etc.). The split type determines how many positions you get for each category and their prices. Seeing how both available divisions are armored, don’t expect to conduct infantry attacks. However, there are a few good features here. You have a lot of filter options, and you can choose (though not entirely freely) what transport certain infantry units can take.

The Western Forces group has relaxed the uniform regulations to the point where you can wear your best Afghan attire.

A strange thing in WARNOthough, revolves around companies and platoons. Usually, common, normal, Wargame allows you to call each unit individually, so you can load each portion of your force into the blender as much as you like. But here, the platoons – made up of three slots, up to 4 copies each – are these prepackaged groups that you can call into at once. Notably, once a unit is put into a platoon, it will be removed from your regular party. So if you have a total of 12 M1A1s (HAs) and 4 of them are in a platoon, you are only free to call in 8.

Sergeant, the new system is FUBAR!

Even so, the feasibility of such clustering is a matter of point cost. A platoon of M1A1 (HA) scores about 1,000 points. However, platoons stick to another new system: command groups.

Now, like any other modern RTS, Wargame depends a lot on micro, and whoever can make their unit the best wins. WARNO tries to lighten the load by allowing you to feed control group units – you know, what you do when CTRL + 1 a range of selected units – via an AI command. You tell such a group to capture an area, and they will try to do that, going into a defensive position if they survive. What’s better is that you can even fortify these damaged formations with the touch of a button (as long as you have points and clones left).

If you look at the bottom of the screen, you can see the TACGROUP of the T-80s. I can’t select any of them individually anymore.

There is also an additional cool feature WARNO get from Armored Brigade: you can set, both for individual units in the field and in settings, the Rules of Interaction (ROE). Does a unit waste anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) on unarmed transports? Will it take the shortest path, the fastest path, or a more covered path? How will it act once attacked? Wish we could order ROE samples and simply stick them on to whatever unit we are satisfied with in the deck building stage.

But, back to the main problem with AI: it doesn’t really work in practice. Teams with an anti-aircraft component will leave PC-controlled groups behind, and trying to pick an individual member of such a unit is nearly impossible. There isn’t really anything stopping the carriage from leaving after taking it off, er, down. So in theory this is a nice and welcome feature, but implementation depends on both your AI and your programming abilities. Currently, it doesn’t really work.

With all this nonsense going on the screen, I don’t have time to explain anything.

Oh no, WARNO!

That is WARNO present. More like an open beta than an Early Access title, it has all sorts of bugs, missing features (oh tutorial, where are you?) and glaring balance issues. For example, a helicopter can head straight for an AA vehicle and destroy it with missiles. You have to maneuver the AA vehicles in particular to get within their pitiful range and hideous vision to fight back. Meanwhile, the US is calling on Kiowas to equip the Hellfire (a reconnaissance version of the Bell 206, which you’ve seen crash in every movie made before 2002) to snipe tanks at extreme long range.

Calling in dedicated anti-aircraft jets doesn’t help much, as they shoot at helicopters at hand-to-hand pistol range if they can shoot at them. And while the aerial battles look nice, that’s the only part that works. You’d think an F-111 dropping eight cluster bombs would do more than trashing several UAZ-469s (for some reason, 5 health points each compared to 10 on the American M151) , but cluster bullets don’t seem to do much, regardless of platform. In fact, artillery is preferred. Except the cannon firing looks like a cartoon mess, and so does the rest of the firepower on the ground.

Here is an example of cluster bomb effectiveness that also shows terrible interface design decisions.

I want to bring up Warhammer 40,000 won, because Eugen, with three War games under its belt, decided to model the Bradleys with portals firing straight from Chimera. This is an interesting mistake considering the team has so much experience. The game’s cryptic title (short for “warning command”), is meant to be a warning that an active command (OPORD) is coming. This is meant to show that they are huge war nerds, but the game still has this nonsense.

At this point of development, WARNO is completely not worth your money. Two armies, a handful of maps, and a mountain of stuff isn’t worth $40 USD. Games are not healthier than games Crossfire Legion version I previewed it – and it’s a closed beta that you can’t buy yet. My advice to new players is to wait and existing players to keep their skills sharp in the future. Wargame and Steel Parts. It’s basically like a game.

Still not enough time in the game to see the unit up close