So ends another campaign. It was a closely fought battle, with 538,375 Central Powers casualties to 528,779 Entente losses - a difference of less than 10,000. The Entente came out on top again, but not by a huge margin. In the historical battle there were probably somewhat more losses for the Entente, but the overall outcome of the battle was complicated. Parts of the French army actually made some of the largest advances since trench warfare began in earnest, but nothing close to what General Nivelle described before the battle. He claimed that a breakthrough could be achieved within two days, which absolutely did not happen.

A village devastated by fighting during the Second Battle of the Aisne.

The morale impact of this failure, alongside heavy casualties, led to French mutinies and Nivelle's replacement. While the new commander-in-chief General Petain immediately established a more defensive posture and took time to restore morale among his troops, the British continued offensive action for the rest of 1917. Later in the year there were some limited French offensives such as the successful Battle of La Malmaison, which built on ground captured during the Second Battle of the Aisne.

From today until next Friday 24th, the Second Battle of the Aisne Campaign will be running in Verdun and Tannenberg. Will the Entente or the Central Powers emerge victorious in this epic battle of attrition?

For those who haven’t fought before, our campaign events are special multi-front battles in Verdun and Tannenberg, where every kill is tallied up, and the side which manages to lose the least troops wins. You can earn a medal for participating in the campaign, with a shinier medal for fighting on multiple fronts. The Second Battle of the Aisne Campaign will run from Friday May 17 and end on Friday May 24.



French General Nivelle planned the Second Battle of the Aisne as a breakthrough offensive for early 1917, following the major battles of Verdun and the Somme in 1916. He expected the German Army to be exhausted. His vision was for a decisive victory in 48 hours, and he put his reputation on the line by threatening to resign if the offensive wasn't approved.

It involved a massive coordination of troops, starting with British attacks towards Arras, then French forces beginning their assault further south in the direction of the Aisne river. Ultimately the battle was not a clear defeat for the French, but Nivelle's grandiose claims about achieving a decisive victory made it feel like that for the soldiers suffering massive casualties in the battle. Morale fell throughout the French Army, with units starting to mutiny - often taking the form of holding a defensive position but refusing any orders to attack. Desertions also increased.



Nivelle was fired and replaced with General Pétain, who moved quickly to stamp out mutinous sentiment with a combination of carrot and stick - though mostly carrot. A small number of soldiers were shot for mutiny, but he mostly put effort into improving food, providing better equipment, increasing pay, and allowing for more leave. This worked, and the morale crisis was defused.

In the East, the Russians were no longer fighting under a Tsar - the February revolution had dethroned Tsar Nicholas II, and since March 2 the country was governed by the Russian Provisional Government. There would be no grand Russian offensive until the Kerensky Offensive in June, intended to knock Austria-Hungary out of the war. Instead it would effectively break the back of the Russian Army. But that's a story for another time.


The Tsar blessing troops earlier in the war.

However, it wasn't all revolution and disaster in the East. The Romanians successfully fought off a major German - Austro-Hungarian offensive from July to September, halting the Central Powers advance and inflicting heavy casualties.

Experience first person mountain climbing in the Ascent game mode in our Italian Front FPS Isonzo! A team of Alpini must scale a sheer cliff face to capture an Austro-Hungarian outpost. Climbing is freeform so you can choose your own route up the mountainside - and you'll need to make use of that to try and catch the defenders by surprise!

The Austro-Hungarians will need to stay vigilant against sneaky climbers assaulting or bypassing their forward positions lower down the mountain. Piles of rocks will provide excellent improvised weapons to use in situations where a rifle might not be handy.


Get all the details about how Ascent mode works in the recent Isonzo blog.

The Ascent event is free for all Isonzo players to join, and will run until April 24th. If you don't own Isonzo yet, now's the perfect time because it's on discount!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556790/Isonzo/

We'll see you on the cliff face, soldiers.

This update should make your connection less prone to third party outages.

• Fixed certain connectivity issues with Epic Games Services.

The patch size is expected to be around 20 mb.

Historically with the Battle of Verdun the Germans hoped to inflict heavy casualties on the French by taking vital ground and then smashing their counter-attacks. This plan failed, with both sides suffering enormous losses over the course of one of the longest battles in history.

In our games, so far the Entente always win the campaigns, so we challenged the community to see if they could give the Central Powers an ahistorical victory, with the potential prize a teaser about the upcoming new Isonzo game mode. The result…

It’s not so easy to change the course of history. But, if you look at the numbers below you’ll notice the Central Powers only lost around 7000 more troops during the campaign. In previous campaigns the difference would usually be closer to 40-50,000 more Central Powers casualties.


The final results from the campaign.

It’s still a good performance, and while you couldn’t quite beat our challenge we’ve still decided to share a very mini-teaser with you:


There will be a bigger teaser coming in next week’s Isonzo blog! If you don't own Isonzo yet and want to explore some higher altitude environments, including the famous Ice City of Marmolada, the game is currently on sale:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556790/Isonzo/

It’s the 21st of February, 1916. The German 5th Army has commenced their assault on the fortifications in the region of Verdun, after a small delay due to bad weather conditions. They moved for Fort Douaumont, the largest and highest fort of the region. This attack kicked off the longest single battle of WW1, lasting 9 months, 3 weeks and 6 days until December 18th. A true battle of attrition.

source: https://www.iwm.org.uk

In the end, the Battle of Verdun resulted in a combined total of an estimated 714,231-976,000 casualties, about 306,000 of which did not survive. It ultimately resulted in the victory of the French over a weakened and spread-thin German army. The French forces managed to retake much of the lost ground and key points during their counteroffensive in late 1916.

source: https://wereldoorlog1418.nl


Now, during the Battle of Verdun, heavy fighting was happening on all fronts. Starting Friday, February 23rd a weekend campaign will start in Verdun and Tannenberg. The Allied Powers versus the Central Powers, all casualties will be kept track of and added to the total losses. Whichever side suffers the least amount of casualties during the campaign will be victorious!



However, the Central Powers haven’t been able to secure a win so far! So, to give them a little bit of a push, let’s up the stakes a bit this time around: if the Central Powers manage to come out on top, we’ll give you your first big teaser for the upcoming new game mode in Isonzo!

The campaign will run through the weekend, until Monday morning. Time is of the essence, so get ready to head for the frontlines!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/633460/Tannenberg/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/242860/Verdun/

Time sure does fly. It’s already been five years since the official release of Tannenberg! The Maneuver game mode was a big departure from the gameplay we knew from Verdun, and the Early Access period really helped us nail that down. With several content updates during EA and after the full release – including new maps like Dobrudja and new squads like the Latvian Riflemen – plus all the feedback from you, Tannenberg has been the complete Eastern Front experience for the past 5 years.

To celebrate the occasion, we invited some very special guests. Just a word of warning though: they always get a bit grumpy when they’re hungry, and we’re all out of cake.


As if one enemy isn’t enough, another one bares its teeth. A temporary ceasefire is set in place between you and your usual enemy, so you can both focus on dealing with the new threat: a hostile pack of very hungry wolves.



If you manage to fend off the wolves while respecting the ceasefire, everyone will receive a special Wolf Truce medal. Break the ceasefire however, and you’ll be fighting in a one versus one versus (ca)nine battle of life and death. You won’t even receive a medal to show for it!

The Wolf Truce event will be available from February 13th (right now) until February 19th.


The winter of 1917 was an especially cruel one. Harsh conditions and extensive battles between the Germans and Russian resulted in issues with supply lines and serious food shortages. Hunger was rampant and many perished from malnourishment.

The corpses of the fallen provided a prime opportunity for the locals, however. The wolves too were hungry this winter and were attracted to the bloodshed of the war. Exact numbers are unknown, but the wolf attacks may have been so fearsome at one point that the German and Russian troops called for a temporary ceasefire to join arms in fighting off this new threat.

To what degree these stories are true remains a debate to this day however, as the only sources are a handful of US newspapers.



Remember – don’t try to pet the dogs…

As the year draws to a close, we take a look back at everything that's happened this year!

From the special Christmas Truce and Wolf Truce events in Verdun and Tannenberg, plentiful free updates for Isonzo, all the way to Verdun appearing in a French museum exhibit, it's been a busy year. We also celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the WW1 Game Series - Verdun entered Early Access all the way back in 2013!

Our Italian Front title Isonzo has received several free expansions adding maps and weapons, alongside a number of paid cosmetic DLC packs. Thanks to support from the community, it also won the IndieDB Indie of the Year 2022 award! Let's take a look at everything that's been added to the game this year...

- 4 Huge New Maps!
- 8 New Weapons!
- 2 Cosmetic DLC Packs!
- Mac Support!
- Much more!

If you haven't yet felt the crunch of Alpine snow beneath your boots, Isonzo is currently 67% off with DLC up to 30% off until January 4th.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556790/Isonzo/








We completed a lot of our roadmap milestones in 2023 just as planned, and there are plenty more coming in 2024!

There'll be a new map, more weapons, additional cosmetic DLC packs... and a special game mode! We're maintaining radio silence about the new game mode for now, but keep your ears to the ground and you might pick up some teasers.


Go behind the scenes with map designer Kian as he discusses the creation of Marmolada in this YouTube video - including almost 1000 reference images!



In the aisles of the History Center of the Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Memorial'14-18 you’ll be able to find a special exhibition! The War games. Playing with History exhibit allows visitors to immerse themselves into WW1 history, by having 10 games available to play. We’re very pleased that Verdun is one of those games!

The exhibit runs until May 2024, and entry to the museum and exhibition are both free. If you’re in the area, check it out!



The Christmas Truce is live once again in Verdun, and you’re able to participate in multiple activities together with other soldiers who joined the Christmas Truce. Join a friendly match of football, have a snowball fight or just take a nice relaxing stroll and enjoy the winter scenery.

The Truce event runs until January 7th!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/242860/Verdun/

In October, the wolves returned to the forests of Tannenberg, asking the question: would you cease fire with your human foes to battle a new enemy? Some of you will have managed to hold a successful truce to fight off the canine aggressors, and others, not so much.



We're extremely grateful for all the support from our great community this year, and it's been wonderful to see people enjoying themselves with our games.

We can't wait to show you what we have planned for 2024! On that note, we'll end with a little Isonzo WIP image...

Hello everyone,

The Christmas Truce has returned to Verdun! For the 11th time, you can participate in this historical event on Western Front. Starting today (Dec 21) until January 7th, you can join by simply choosing the ‘Christmas Truce’ option from the Play menu in the game.



On the Christmas Truce map in Verdun, there are multiple activities you could do with your fellow truce holders. Play a match of football (soccer), have a snowball fight, and attend a burial for the fallen.



Gather around the bonfire and listen to classic Christmas Carols in-game and don’t forget to send your Christmas greetings to your loved ones right from Verdun!



On the Christmas Truce map you can find post offices that allow you to send people outside the game digital Christmas cards, which might feel like you're throwing them a life-line!. There are several post offices on the map for you to find, and if you decide to send some Christmas cards, you'll automatically join our giveaway raffle!

Currently Verdun is on sale with 80% off! Right in time for you to join the Christmas Truce or gift a friend the game so you can both experience this historical event together in-game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/242860/Verdun/

Or you can join the latest Italian Front in Isonzo! Last month, we released a free expansion and there’s still more to come in 2024. You can find it with a 67% discount.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556790/Isonzo/

Hello Soldiers,

Autumn has arrived onto the Steam store and you know what that means, it's time for sales! You can now get Tannenberg with 70% off!



https://store.steampowered.com/app/633460/Tannenberg/


Isonzo joins the Autumn Sale as well! You can get our latest game with a 67% discount, so you can still join the White War that dropped in hot recently!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1556790/Isonzo/



And our first game Verdun is also on sale wit the same discount as Tannenberg!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/242860/Verdun/