At 11 am on November 11th 1918, the Armistice of Compiègne went into effect and, for many, marked the end of World War I. A good moment to remember those who have fallen during this long and bloody worldwide conflict.

In Verdun (and Tannenberg, our Eastern Front World War I game), you have the optional to commemorate the Armistice in-game. Watch the poppy flower turn red in two minutes of silence and earn a special remembrance medal. There is also a filter overlay for your Facebook profile picture to show your compassion. You can simply add the filter on you Facebook profile image by clicking here: {LINK REMOVED}https://bit.ly/3iCMVcq

The Armistice was a strange event for the soldiers still fighting. The last soldier to officially be declared KIA in the war, a minute before the Armistice came in effect was US Sergeant Henry Gunther. He was demoted from the rank of Sergeant to private. Seeking to reclaim his rank, he rushed into battle and fell, just a minute before the fighting stopped. It teaches us that life is more important than ambition.

Henry Gunther certainly wasn’t the only one to fall on November 11th, 1918. In fact, the day had over 11000 casualties. A part of which was because of continued artillery fire, because the soldiers did not want to bother loading up all the remaining ammunition once the fighting would stop, since rumors of an Armistice would have reached several trenches already.

You might think that after the Armistice went into effect, the whole world would burst into song and cheers. This didn’t happen everywhere though, as apparently on the front, the soldiers felt empty and there was a lot of silence among them. A British corporal said: “…the Germans came from the trenches, bowed to us and went away. There was nothing with which we could celebrate, except cookies.”

What it must have been like to be a part of World War I is something that generations born after the conflict ended have been wondering. We have records, diary entries and other accounts to remember what it was like to fight in the trenches or forts. Something we try to share with all of you on a daily basis.
More information on the Armistice can be found on our social media channels.

The Bloody Autumn event has come to an end in Verdun. This seasonal event was based on The Battle of Ypres 1914, which was one of the most violent battles of World War I. While historically, that battle ended in a stalemate, the results during this event do have a winner!

The Entente suffered 1.537.161 casualties while the Central Powers lost even more with 1.604.116 fallen soldiers, which makes the Entente faction the winner of the Bloody Autumn 1914!
Considering the Battle of Ypres 1914 had around 295.000 casualties in total, it’s pretty clear that the digital Battlefields have seen a lot more blood spilling than in real life, thankfully!

The number of casualties includes the struggles on the Western Front as well as the Siege of Przemyśl on the Eastern Front of Tannenberg. For this event we only counted the kills that involved a player, so bots vs bots fights have not been counted.

Look out for more Seasonal events coming soon where you can earn more special medals across Verdun & Tannenberg!

A tense screenshot by Verdun player ‘Jon Pettet’ on Steam!

On the 5th of November 1918, allies agreed to take up negotiations for a truce. French general Ferdinand Foch would be writing up one of the most important documents in human history soon after. The Armistice of Compiègne was signed on November 11th 1918 and went into effect a couple of hours later. A day to be remembered, but we will have more on that next week…

The autumn can be very harsh to soldiers on the front. Not only do wind and rain make for less visibility, the circumstances were abysmal. Just imagine having to spend the night in a muddy trench with no shower, clean clothes and having to fight for your life the entire day.

The First Battle of Ypres was an attempt from both the Central Powers and the Allies to outflank each other from reaching the Belgian border. It is also referred to as ‘the Race to the Sea’. This quickly turned into a battle of attrition, with both factions deciding to dig into trenches, thus setting the stage for much of the Western Front of World War I!

© IWM
As with our previous seasonal events, all fallen soldiers from each faction will be tracked throughout this campaign event! However, we made a big change that will affect the number of kills. This time, whenever a fight only involves bots, this will not count towards the faction total of the campaign. Only when a player is involved with a kill or is being killed, it will count. It is not required to serve one side during the entire campaign. But that still remains the question, are you Team Central Powers or Team Entente?

The amount of kills earned to each faction can be seen on the main menu. You can earn a special medal during this event. All you have to do is to participate in the battles of Verdun to earn one! You have until November 2nd to do so!

There is a way to upgrade your special medal as well, but more on that in a bit...

Along with the campaign, the latest update for Verdun also fixed a few minor issues. These changes are applicable to version 314.22671

• Changed artilley arc calculation to include target height – artillery may be slightly more precise as a result
  
• Fixed collision on haystacks in the maps Aisne and Champagne
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause Campaigns to appear without them being active
  
• Fixed campaign medals potentially being awarded during 'coming soon' time
  
• Fixed a bug that let LMG players teleport across the map
  
• Fixed jitters on MLE1892
  
• Added truncation on very long player names, although this shouldn't be very noticeable on PC
  
• Campaigns After-Action Report now displays separate casualty stats for match and campaign totals
  
• Fixed clipping and floating bullets on RSC 1917 & 1918
  
• Fixed motion impacting bullet impact effects

If you have any feedback, be sure to let us know through the Steam community discussion boards!

The Bloody Autumn seasonal event is also active on the Eastern Front! The campaign in Tannenberg is based on the Siege of Przemysl. Participating on both fronts will earn you upgraded special medals, so make sure you are equipped for both the Siege of Przemysl ánd the Battle of Ypres!

Last but not least, we wanted to share this amazing screenshot ‘ReallyRiles55’ on the WW1 Game Series subreddit, who found something that might remind you of a spooky event…

The battle is over, so who won? Well, we tracked the casualties of both sides to see who was taking fewer losses. At some points in the war, commanders were reduced to this kind of attritional combat, simply trying to drain the enemy of soldiers and will to fight. The Entente quickly gained a lead in the casualty advantage (meaning they had this many less casualties), and held onto it throughout the campaign. Between days 6-8 there was a pause as the Central Powers rallied a little, but it didn't last and by the end the Central Powers had suffered 69,817 more losses than the Entente.



However, in the overall context of the campaign, this number is tiny. With both sides combined there were more than 11 million casualties. In our previous campaign, there were less than 9 million casualties over a similar length of time, suggesting the battlefields were more active than previously.

If you want to read more about how these numbers stack up against historical figures (TL:DR they're enormously higher) you can take a look at the post when the last campaign ended. These losses would have been devastating for both sides, and the difference is so small as to give neither side a meaningful advantage. Tragically this sort of battle was far from rare during the First World War.



We'll be announcing winners from the Facebook giveaway very soon! Tins of mints and game keys will be finding their way to lucky winners. Keep an eye on our Facebook page to be the first to hear who won!

The campaign is over. Take a well deserved rest... or head straight back out to the trenches!

At the time of writing, Central Powers casualties are 2,437,263 while Entente casualties are at 2,403,869. That's a difference of 33,000 in favor of the Entente. But there are more than six days to go, and things can change quickly.

At this time in 1916, much of the focus was on the village of Guillemont. General Ferdinand Foch and Field Marshal Douglas Haig had planned to capture the village on this day in 1916, but it didn't come off. Haig considered the attack had been inadequately supervised by his subordinate Henry Rawlinson, and hadn't had enough manpower assigned.

A follow-up attack was planned for the following day, on the 25th, but bad weather and a need to replace exhausted divisions caused a delay until September 3rd. When it happened, this attack would finally result in the capture of Guillemont from the Germans, but the cost of fighting in the area had been very high for the Allied forces. Despite air superiority and increasingly accurate artillery fire because of it, the Germans put up a strong, capable defense.



The First World War was, as the name suggests, a truly global war. One nation far from Europe who joined the conflict were the Japanese, who declared war on the Central Powers on August 23rd in 1914, and moved against German territories in their sphere of influence. They also sent teams of nurses to France, Russia and Britain. As the war continued, Japan would export large quantities of war material to Entente nations. They also exported a number of rifles - one of which you can use in Verdun's sister game Tannenberg.

The first Arisaka Type 30s were built in 1899, and were the standard issue Japanese rifle until 1905 when they were replaced by the Type 38 - however, a lack of supply meant that some units kept using Type 30s until into the Second World War. Desperate for weapons, Russia bought around 300,000 Type 30s from Japan, and they received more from the British who had ordered them from Japan to arm troops until production of the Lee-Enfield could ramp up. It's possible that a number of these rifles would have been present in some capacity during the Brusilov Offensive.



The battle continues... since this post was begun, casualties have risen to 2,450,007 Central Powers and 2,416,463 Entente. There are six days remaining.

Our campaign begins part way through the real offensives that inspired it. The Battle of the Somme had been raging for 51 days already by this date in 1916, and would continue for more than three months. While there were of course pauses and recovery periods during the battle, it's still a long time to sustain offensive operations.

On the Western Front, the fighting was brought to an end by weather rather than a decision by high command. November 18th saw the last real action of the Battle of the Somme before the rain and snow became too much. Until January the following year the real enemy of soldiers on both sides would be the atrocious weather conditions.



Get 60% off Verdun and Tannenberg until August 24. If you know someone who hasn't played either game yet but might love both, you can point them to the WW1 Game Series bundle, which is 15% off - taking the total discount on everything in there to 75% off normal price!

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

As the campaign runs we'll be posting updates along with some history facts, but in Verdun and Tannenberg you can see current casualty rates in the main menu and after each battle ends.

Good luck!

The summer can be a good time for launching an offensive. Dryer weather and less harsh conditions make supplying your forces and maintaining morale easier. Which is not to say that summer in the trenches was by any means pleasant. The summer of 1916 saw two major Entente offensives begin, intended to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun, and we will be running our own campaign event this summer as well...

This campaign is inspired by the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front, and the Brusilov Offensive on the Eastern Front. These were major operations for the Entente forces in 1916, and had mixed results. While the Brusilov Offensive was a great success, smashing the Austro-Hungarian army and gaining territory, the Battle of the Somme was a bloodbath that didn't lead to any major change to the front lines. There's more to it than that, of course - but we'll get into details later this week.



Every fallen soldier on the Western and Eastern Fronts will be tracked. If you fight in a public Frontlines or Maneuver match, your actions will contribute to the campaign casualty totals. While the campaign is running, you will be able to see whether the Central Powers or the Entente are currently faring better. The campaign begins on Thursday.

Earn a campaign medal!
Everyone can earn a special campaign medal by fighting in battles during the event. You can earn a bronze, silver or gold medal. To get gold, fight in five battles on each front - five battles on the Western Front, and five on the Eastern front.

In our last campaign the Entente suffered slightly less casualties, but the difference was so minor as to be effectively a draw - like many major battles of the First World War, in fact. Perhaps this time will be different?

We'll be running a giveaway during the event and posting some interesting history facts. You can read the Steam news right here on the hub, or follow our Twitter, Facebook or Discord!



Ready your rifle and sharpen your bayonet. Less than a day to go...

The latest Verdun update includes some tweaks to improve soldier movement around sandbags and to prevent unreasonable climbing of the landscape. You're grunts, not acrobats after all! Read the full changelog on the Steam Hub. A few things of particular note:

• Updated sandbags to have more accurate colliders.
  
• Improved checks to limit climbing exploits.
  
• Fix for instant respawning bug.

We are proud to announce the release of Tannenberg on Xbox One and PlayStation 4! This release has been done entirely in-house, like with the Verdun Remaster. The result is looking great, and we can't wait to see what people think. If you know console gamers who might be up for some WW1 action on the Eastern Front, let them know!


Along with the console release, a new map based on the fortress of Przemyśl has been added to the Steam version. Austro-Hungarian defenders held out for 133 days before being forced to surrender. Today also sees the console release of Tannenberg!

You can find all sorts of interesting bits and pieces in the artwork tab here on the Steam Hub. Below are a few of our recent faves!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2080092667 This GIF of an Australian gun crew really gives you a sense of how powerful these artillery pieces could be. Thanks to Big_Pek for the upload!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1585962268 Storm troopers attack in this piece of artwork uploaded by Augy. Very worth clicking through to see the whole image!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1168459076 An amusing clip of Charlie Chaplin uploaded by Troldskog. Verdun in a nutshell indeed!

Do you have some interesting WW1 content to share? Post it on our Steam Hub, or you could come and visit our Discord!

Our Eastern Front shooter Tannenberg is getting a new map on July 24th, at the same time as a console release! Both bits of news are featured in this trailer:


We can announce the release date for Tannenberg on Xbox One and PlayStation 4: July 24th. Like the Verdun Remaster, we've handled the development of Tannenberg for consoles entirely in-house, and it's shaped up very nicely. If any of your console owning friends might enjoy some WW1 action, let them know!

The release will also be optimized to make full use of the extra power offered by the Xbox One X and PlayStation Pro. You can already pre-order Tannenberg for Xbox One.

Tannenberg is 60% off, and Verdun is 65% off! If you’ve been waiting to complete your WW1 Game Series collection, or introduce a friend with a gift, now is the perfect time. Especially with a new map to be released for Tannenberg in just a few weeks…



Przemyśl was a fortified town that was the site of the longest siege during WW1. For 133 days the defenders held out against the Russian army, but were ultimately forced to surrender. In-game, you'll be able to fight around the bunkers and gun positions of the fortress.



Discuss the new map (or just chat) on our Discord!

It was this day 106 years ago that Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip fired two shots that would be the spark to ignite the First World War. His first shot hit the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in the neck, his second hit the Archduke's wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in the abdomen. Both died.

It was June 28th, 1914. A month later, the Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia on July 28th would mark the start of the First World War.


Painting of the assassination.

Princip only had the chance to attack the Archduke because of a series of unlikely coincidences. He was one of six assassins organized by a secret society called the Black Hand. They were posted along the route of Franz Ferdinand's drive, which was published beforehand, and armed with pistols or bombs. The first two assassins that the motorcade passed chose not to try an attack. The third assassin was Nedeljko Čabrinović, who threw a bomb. It bounced off the roof of the Archduke's car, disabling a car behind and injuring about 20 people. The Archduke disembarked to examine the damage before the motorcade continued. Čabrinović took a cyanide pill and jumped into the Miljacka river, but the cyanide was expired and the river was shallow - he was apprehended by police shortly afterwards.


Colorized photograph of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

From this point the speed of the car prevented any further attempts, including from Princip as the motorcade passed him. Even with blood from the injured still on his clothes, the Archduke proceeded to give a speech as planned at the city hall, but then decided to visit those injured by the attack in hospital. His driver was not properly informed however, and took a wrong turn leading down a street where Princip was still standing. Even this might not have been fatal, but on being informed of his mistake the driver stopped the car, then stalled it while trying to reverse... practically in front of Princip, who drew his pistol and opened fire. His third shot was intended to kill himself, but he never had a chance to pull the trigger before being captured.

Both Princip and Čabrinović suffered from tuberculosis, and had already known they didn't have long to live before joining the assassination attempt. After his capture, Princip said: "I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be freed from Austria."


Gavrilo Princip in prison.

They were both were sentenced to 20 years in prison. However, their tuberculosis along with harsh prison conditions meant that Čabrinović died in 1916, and Princip in 1918. Four of their co-conspirators were hanged, and others imprisoned.

It seems likely that even without the assassination of the Archduke, something would have triggered the First World War. Tensions were high in Europe, and although the assassination served as a reason for Austria-Hungary to issue the July Ultimatum - a series of demands, some outrageous - to Serbia, no doubt they would have found another reason in time.

The Serbian response to the ultimatum, which accepted many points but not all, led to the recall of the Austro-Hungarian ambassador and, ultimately, war.