We are proud to announce the release of our first expansion pack, Talvisota.
Less than a year since the release of Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront, we are adding a third faction with its own front, which adds an unbelievable amount of content.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/

The three conflicts Finland fought between 1939 and 1945 were quite unique, and have rarely been portrayed in a game. With this expansion, we want to take you back to the winter war (Talvisota), the continuation war (Jatkosota) and the Lapland war (Lapin sota). It will be a unique experience; we have created a big collection of typically Finnish assets to recreate the right landscapes and atmosphere, both for summer and winter landscapes and scenarios.

We would like to thank the Finnish community for their support in the past months. The enthusiasm was infectious and the end result is great - it means we still have a 100% record for native spoken voice acting in Gates of Hell, for example.

A few days ago we released the 4th large & free content update for Call to arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront, available to all Ostfront owners. This free addition means that over the past year, the total amount of content has increased massively.

We will push out roughly half the Talvisota skirmishes today, to gather player feedback before adding more soon; we’ll push the next ones as soon as they’re polished. The collection will be complete very shortly.

Work on the next faction has already started, but for now you can have a taste of something totally unique and deeply immersive - time to get the Talvisota expansion today:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/

If this is going to be your first experience with Call to Arms - Gates of Hell, you may have questions. The quickest way to get answers is our official Discord server, click below to enter:


To get into the game, you could also check our Steam guides, or watch the official tutorials on our YouTube channel.

See you on the battlefield!

We are proud to announce the release of our first expansion pack, Talvisota.
Less than a year since the release of Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront, we are adding a third faction with its own front, which adds an unbelievable amount of content.

Enjoy a new singleplayer campaign in which you fight back the Soviet invaders with the fierce Finnish army and experience newly crafted Skirmishes for all factions!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/


Furthermore, the Call to Arms franchise is on sale to celebrate the release!

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/26447/Call_to_Arms_Gates_of_Hell__Talvisota/

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/15829/Call_to_Arms__Complete/







Follow our developer website to stay updated on future sales, new games and updates. You may also want to join our official Discord to stay in touch with us more closely!

1. - Updated Russian Localization
   
2. - Updated German Localization

• Added infrastructure for the Finland nation (access to Finland dependent on owning Talvisota DLC)
  
• Added early war period to multiplayer
  
• Added early war units to Germany, USSR (80+ vehicles, 20+ squads)
  
• Added New Maps, 2v2_Stalingrad, 2v2_Katrinovo, 2v2_Monastery, 4v4_Lysovo
  
• Added new minimap with fog of war rendering and no clipping on corners
  
• Added garrisoning of buildings
  
• Added New animations, improved the playability of animations.
  
• Added recoil and gun swaying to 3rd person for all weapons
  
• Added many animals which are neutral on maps.
  
• Added late war infantry to conquest
  
• Added cabled electrical poles and supporting mechanic, more ruins and other assets.
  
• Added better destructibility for many buildings with visible parts fracture
  
• Added ability For Specific Cannons To Move With Only 1 Crewman (Example Maxim MG)
  
• Added Ba-64 to Mid war
  
• Added Blood Death fx to humans when the revive-able timer ends
  
• Added Collision Sound and fx When Vehicles Contact Cannons
  
• Added Domination mode support for 4v4 maps
  
• Added small randomization to air bombs so they don't drop in the exact spot.
  
• Added pressure wave damage blastwaves for HE shells: damage can be dealt to units in close proximity even if there is an obstacle.
  
• Added Interaction Code To Remove Vision Blocking For Bushes And Trees That Are Burned or Bare and Should Be Able to Be Seen Through
  
• Added Item pick up sound event to pickup small animations
  
• Added new slope terrain on MP maps
  
• Added TM-35 and TM-41 Soviet Anti-tank Mines
  
• Added new vehicle view diagrams
  
• Added Wire cutting feature
  
• Added that player readiness state resets when changing war period
  
• Added point scoring to doctrine units when the are killed, like standard units.
  
• Added reload button to control panel
  
• Added resupply of sandbag kits to cannons
  
• Added splinter m24 to several high tier infantry, gebirgsjäger, jägers, begleitgrenadiers, grossdeutschland, veteran inf.
  
• Added anti tank ditches for engineers to build
  
• Added several early war units to mid/late periods
  
• Added missing ds39 shooting sounds
  
• Added Axis vs Allies alliances for MP
  
• Added several new more realistic accuracy values for APC, APCR, APCR (arrowhead), HEAT and HVAP shell types
  
• Added New footstep sounds for humans
  
• Added Aim by motion to mortars
  
• Added Explosion fx on cannon self destruction
  
• Added missing colliders to vehicle_xx preset
  
• Added coupling of cooldowns and limits between regular snipers and squads with sniper (doesnt affect doctrines)
  
• Added passengers to t37a
  
• Added support for a cyclic buy option in MP: The same button will cycle between different units each time.
  
  
• Updated conquest units and research tree for all 3 nations
  
• Updated squad formation mechanics
  
• Updated sniper aiming mechanic: is less disturbed by x/y yaw motion
  
• Updated artillery ranges and accuracies
  
• Updated grazing howitzer aiming times and accuracies
  
• Updated mobility and motion mechanics of armoured cars.
  
• Updated localizations for many languages
  
• Updated lighting on dynamic campaign maps for better look and readability
  
• Updated third person veterancy icons
  
• Updated SP Glushkovo, Volokolamsk & Krasny Bor: altitude haze on weathers for better compatibility with other maps
  
• Updated artillery ranges to linear scale, with scaling 250-600m = 2000-24000m
  
• Updated collider of Ba64 so it can perform the same abilities (running over MG/Mortar) as other armoured cars.
  
• Updated many buildings to make them play better
  
• Updated many ground impact fx with dust variant
  
• Updated multiplayer games to default alliances on each side instead of nations
  
• Updated off map artillery and bomb blast damage to be inline with on map artillery of same caliber and explosive filler
  
• Updated stamps displayed on concrete destruction
  
• Updated tankmen textures.
  
• Updated bomb fx and sizes
  
• Updated human 3rd person camera positions to be more like contemporary 3rd person games
  
• Updated Sn42 body armor texture
  
• Updated Several environmental destruction FX, 50% to 90% reduction in particles
  
• Updated Rocket artillery to be a more accurate at shorter distances -
  
• Updated Several environmental destruction FX, 50% to 90% reduction in particles
  
• Updated Ammo counts of rocket artillery
  
• Updated Recoil of smgs
  
• Updated Several smaller body volumes in armored cars to not be targetable to AI. Means AI targets larger, more central area of vehicle
  
• Updated Cooking fx with new ground fire particles
  
• Updated MG and mortar inventory weights so that ammo doesn't split into multiple stacks, breaking resupply in conquest
  
• Updated Smoke trail FX
  
• Updated Vehicle snow grit FX to not contain huge snowflakes
  
• Updated M72 motocycle mgun mount was changed to real one.
  
• Updated Penetration FX of various sizes
  
• Updated blast damages to provide consistent blast damage and blast size based on the shell's size and explosive filling.
  
• Updated optimized tree and wooden object fire FX
  
• Updated explosion sprite in grenade explosion FX
  
• Updated bt5 textures
  
• Updated t37a textures
  
• Updated Bison textures
  
• Updated Sig33B textures
  
• Updated Panzer IVD textures
  
• Updated texture details on several vehicles
  
• Updated colour of standard settings to green
  
• Updated colour of test mode to yellow
  
  
• Fixed queuing of foxholes
  
• Fixed using drop down menu for selecting shell type for tanks and cannons to switch to the selected shell
  
• Fixed AI not reloading when low magazine count and idle.
  
• Fixed AI shooting at some armoured cars with handguns when AT is available.
  
• Fixed mortars turning 90° to fire at targets in MP
  
• Fixed formation not being reset when squad is sent to cover
  
• Fixed 1942_09_Elbrus - script update to disable teleporting and related event to shelter11 building as its now fully enterable and usable.
  
• Fixed 1943_02_Krasny_Bor
• Fixed Mission So that Its skippable & Fixed Narrator Lines Repeating More Than Once
  
• Fixed 1943_07_Petrovka - Removed soldiers with discovered 0 who are also linked in cover in trenches as attempt to fix an issue in coop.
  
• Fixed 4v4_Swamp - Expanded ocean mask as many areas especially small shallow islands had visible water cutoff polygons.
  
• Fixed AI snipers targetting legs
  
• Fixed BA-20 mobility, armor and inventory stats
  
• Fixed CP for some tier 2 soldiers which should be 2CP but was still 3CP
  
• Fixed Crash AI_Delay
  
• Fixed Crash If Ammo2 Box Explodes
  
• Fixed Floating trench on wotan
  
• Fixed Goliath tanks to not be "crew stunned" on blast and pierce damage
  
• Fixed Krasny bor weather contrast
  
• Fixed LOD position for stone wall lamp
  
• Fixed Localization And MP Buymenu
  
• Fixed MP and SP Wotan: vision volumes being enabled for bushes which were practically bare
  
• Fixed Memory Leaks
  
• Fixed Missing Tank Commander In Doctrine Units
  
• Fixed Obstacle Position to Update When Cannons Rotate
  
• Fixed Rocks on industry floating
  
• Fixed Shirayevo weather: light issues which cause the inventories to go dark
  
• Fixed Train turntable
  
• Fixed aiming wheel animation on 15cm sIG 33
  
• Fixed bazooka class weapons didn't trigger death counter for vehicles
  
• Fixed french domination localization
  
• Fixed hay stacks to be pierce able by bullets
  
• Fixed hidden wheel/carriage volumes on cannons to not block bullets after cannon was destroyed
  
• Fixed humans that are in revive state (bleeding out) can be killed by fire damage, strong enough blast damage, direct hit by tank shells and 50% random chance by bullets.
  
• Fixed minor issues with 1v1_farmland, 1v1_kalinin, 1v1_riverbank, 2v2_gelid and 2v2_industry maps
  
• Fixed missing churchill doctrine stats icon
  
• Fixed more environment and building assets obstacles and vision
  
• Fixed pathingID of sdkfz221 and sdkfz222 (had incorrect setting of an unarmoured wheeled vehicle, results in a reduction of speed on offroad or wet surfaces)
  
• Fixed performance for sov2st_build1 building
  
• Fixed rural_wooden_church2: cover, vision, hide-able roof, able to use sniper tower
  
• Fixed some haystacks not showing fire fx when on fire
  
• Fixed stug crew headgear historically as close as possible
  
• Fixed the barrage fire from not working if player moved cursor so its beyond max range of unit
  
• Fixed the barrage fire from using wrong (max range) accuracy value firing when the aimier is not yet aligned in classic DC mode
  
• Fixed trench_pillbox vision and roof to hide
  
• Fixed units getting stuck on fallen tree under the terrain on 3v3_wotan
  
• Fixed visibility and obstacles for several industry map assets to allow better vision and pathing around them
  
• Fixed vision through windows on building: warehouse
  
• Fixed vision, volumes, armor, and obstacles for stalingrad_ruin1,2,3
  
• Fixed volumes and cover for buildings delivery_plant
  
• Fixed whole roof to become invisible when units enter eastern-europe_farm
  
• Fixed range for 37mm_kwk146f to be 160m instead of 170m (no inline with other 37mm-45mm guns)
  
• Fixed 3rd person human view when throwing grenades to be more consistent with other weapons in 3rd person
  
• Fixed direct control accuracy when in 3rd person mode for humans to 2x more accurate than classic/rts direct control
  
• Fixed minimum required crew to move ammo crate and 20mm_flak30 to 2 crew
  
• Fixed non-convex volume on isu152 xx model
  
• Fixed various localization issues with capitalization inconsistences
  
• Fixed mg rotation speed for motorcycles and jeeps
  
• Fixed panzer IV F winter x textures
  
• Fixed wrong texture for ammo crates in MP on winter maps
  
• Fixed stump1_tall and stump2_tall from not breaking on contact with vehicles
  
• Fixed barbedwire (wired_obstacle7) not breaking on contact with vehicles
  
• Fixed wood terrain bomb fx
  
• Fixed the origin of blastwave damage from bombs so that its slightly higher than ground terrain
  
• Fixed 2v2 tikhvin spawns on domination
  
• Fixed 3rd person for MG stands to get the accuracy bonus that should have
  
• Fixed Frontal armor of su100 to have correct thickness
  
• Fixed MG's to have open bipod when linked to the M72 motorcycle
  
• Fixed Missing late localizations for germany
  
• Fixed Bugs and inconsistencies in the MP costs
  
• Fixed Damage reports on self-destruct
  
• Fixed Inconsistency with in game damage message size and font across languages
  
• Fixed Prop "explosion_throw_crew" from deleting crew before they could be thrown
  
• Fixed Rifle bolt animation timings
  
• Fixed Russian_shed1 from not being crush able by tanks
  
• Fixed Trees to be knocked over when hit by HEAT shells
  
• Fixed british 57mm shell localization
  
• Fixed wrong model used on bulleteng_57
  
• Fixed some missing localizations
  
• Fixed soviet MP breeds with german bandages
  
• Fixed sandbags sometimes not being damaged by direct hit of HE shells (not autocannons)
  
• Fixed positioning of high risk stars on conquest map
  
  
• Increased cost of flamethrowers
  
• Increased burst duration for dshk mg
  
• Increased cost of snipers that form part of other squads
  
• Increased limits of snipers per game from 3 to 5
  
• Increased 150mm Nebelwerfer accuracy at max range
  
• Increased FOV of human 3rd person camera
  
  
• Decreased stealth spotting distances
  
• Decreased accuracy of mortars
  
• Decreased CP,MP of infantry on some cases which was being wrongly calculated
  
• Decreased CP of radio signaller from 10 to 3CP in line with other infantry of the same tier.
  
• Decreased MP price of T40 from 220 to 190 MP
  
• Decreased accuracy of small caliber AT guns by 20% (test)
  
• Decreased ammo counts for arty, specifically HE shells.
  
• Decreased cannon mobility top speeds by ~15% (test)
  
• Decreased the resupply cost of 132mm and 150mm rocket shells to be inline with the cost of Artillery HE shells of the same explosive power
  
• Decreased accuracy for 20mm Autocannons slightly
  
• Decreased accuracy of infantry support weapons
  
• Decreased armor thickness of wooden fences to be more realistic
  
• Decreased damage of sniper rifles done to humans when shooting at targets beyond intended range
  
• Decreased distance humans are spotted when shooting (ex. 200m to 150m for human vision)
  
• Decreased distance sniper rifles are spotted when shooting (ex. 200m to 100m for human vision)
  
• Decreased spreading penalty when firing multiple shots, for Heavy MG's (DSHK, .50cal)
  
• Decreased starting ammo count for 28mm PzB41 by 50%
  
• Decreased supply regeneration rate for both crates and supply trucks
  
• Decreased vision of Aircraft, specifically in Multiplayer for off-map airstrikes to help prevent them doubling as a recon plane as well
  
  
• Removed sandbags from 28mm PzB41 cannon (barrel is to low to ground for sandbags to be useful)
  
• Removed construction x models that cause pathing issues from 3v3_barrikady
  
• Removed alpha clipping from some smoke textures
  
• Removed flame fx at the end of flamethrower barrel. Was giving soldier's position away, through fog of war.
  
• Removed "forced grass on" when in human 3rd person views
  
• Removed 1st person view accuracy bonus from indirect fire artillery (rocket launchers, cannons, mortars)
  
• Removed Icon above at rifles when linked to vehicle
  
• Removed rocket arty from being able to auto fire on enemies with unit is player controlled. Seems to be only way to control pz38h_w40 from shooting its rockets instead of cannon or mg at most units

If you require technical assistance to make your mods work, write us in the Workshop Discussions

We also have the previous game version in the beta options in the game, for players to revert temporarily if they wish to play their mods until the authors update them.

Community members! We have an announcement to make.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/

We will release Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Talvisota this week.
Talvisota adds Finland to the experience, featuring the 3 different wars Finland fought from 1939 to 1945. The amount of content is huge, with the SP campaign, skirmishes, tons of new multiplayer maps, dozens of new Conquest (DCG) maps and much, much more.

Check out the Talvisota content on the store page and hit that wishlist button!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/

Community members! In our previous updates we revealed content from the Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Talvisota expansion. By now we’ve shown you some of what will be in it. Before we publish it, however, we will also publish content update 3! This update will be free for Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront owners - unlike Talvisota, which is a paid DLC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/

With this update, we’re adding post-release content for the 24th time. It will give Ostfront owners a lot more content, bringing the total number of tanks, vehicles, maps and other things to the next level.
Let’s have a look at it in detail.

So far, in Call to Arms - Gates of Hell we have covered the mid- and late war only. This update adds the early war equipment to the range; players in MP will be able to select the new war period as well. The new era feels different because of the equipment, and because it triggers players to use rather different tactics as a result.
Early war also means that squad compositions, uniforms and equipment are adapted to the period, plus some of the new units we designed for early war were also retrofitted to the other war periods.
The addition of early war is a rather obvious requirement for any game that covers the Finnish Winter War, since that started in 1939.
With this update, all war periods are covered and the foundations for any future development of fronts and factions are complete. Early war covers the period from the outbreak of WWII until the German invasion of the USSR.

Besides early war, we will add more maps to the game once more. We will add 5 new multiplayer maps.
These bring the total number of MP maps for CtA - GoH: Ostfront to 35 and the number of maps for conquest to 25 for everyone.


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There will be additional vehicles and weapons in the update as well. Last time we counted there were 40, bringing the total number to 290 for Ostfront alone!

Among these you will find a number of classic vehicles, some of which have been requested by many players.
Given the free choice to pick additional vehicles to model, we always take the wishes from the community into account. Needless to say perhaps, but they’re our favorites as well, 90% of the time.


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Do you see the vehicle you requested? Let us know in the comments!

Content update III will be seamlessly integrated in Ostfront, which will be quite straightforward.
Talvisota is integrated differently, since it’s a paid DLC. We feel that everyone should at least be able to play against Talvisota owners. That part is covered; you don’t need to own Talvisota to join any PvP session. However, in such lobbies you won’t be able to play the Finnish faction unless you bought Talvisota. Moreover, as we mentioned in the (blog link), Talvisota includes 20 new MP maps based on Finnish locations. To make sure PvP is equally accessible to the whole community, any player can join lobbies with these maps, but if you do not own Talvisota you cannot host Talvisota maps yourself, but we give you the choice to check out all the new things by joining other hosts’ lobbies. Lastly, Finnish cooperative and conquest lobbies are only available to Talvisota owners.

In the editor, Talvisota expansion items are available to Talvisota owners only.
Ostfront owners can still use the editor like always, but the Talvisota- specific items like maps, assets and units will be grayed out.

For modders, Steam Workshop integrates the ability to mark your mods as requiring any DLCs. If you make your own creations based on Talvisota content, you will be required to flag your mod accordingly.

All in all, content update III is our fourth huge free update - out of 24 in total - in less than a year, and it will become available very, very soon.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/

That’s all folks. Thanks for stopping by, see you on the battlefield!

Community members! In our previous update we showcased missions and maps, this time we’ll focus on the 12 new skirmishes and show you some equipment from the Talvisota expansion.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/

Talvisota will feature 12 skirmish missions. The Soviet Union, Finland and Germany get 4 skirmishes each. Let’s have a look at the list.

Skirmishes for Finland are scenarios from the winter war (1) and the continuation war (3).
These are based on historical records and the actual battle locations, but you’ve probably come to expect that from us; and we’ve picked the scenarios that would require you to attack, not defend. We’ve selected the battles of Honkaniemi (1940), Petrozavodsk (1941), Operation Arctic Fox (1941), and the battle of Ilomantsi (1944).


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For the Soviet Union we have picked a set of 4 battles that are quite iconic too. There’s Smolensk (1941) featuring one of the local Soviet counterattacks, then we have Stalingrad (1942) which needs little explanation. We then make a jump to Operation Bagration (1944) and the battle of Seelow heights (1945).


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The set of skirmishes for Germany has some of the well- known names as well. The battle of Moscow (1941) in icy conditions - a stark contrast to Stalingrad, where our skirmish takes place on and around Mamayev Kurgan in the fall of 1942.
The other missions are about the third battle of Kharkov (1943), and the battle of Berlin.



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That concludes the Skirmishes. Can you predict which one will be your favorite?

There is a chance that this part contains the biggest surprise for most readers. The Finnish army possessed a very wide range of equipment, and some of it was used exclusively by them. Most of it had either been left over from the Finnish civil war, or bought in the years before the Winter war. Some of it was bought or captured during the war.
By coincidence, the Vickers 6 ton tanks in Finnish service were not the only ones to have been exported from Britain; the Soviet Union ordered the same tank, and the red army developed the T-26 from it.
The equipment that was bought during Continuation war was mainly German made or weapons that had been captured by them. Germany brought a lot of aircraft and tanks to Finland, largely for their own use; some of the tanks they used there had been captured in France in 1940. These will be included.

To add to the tally there will be a fair amount of unique Soviet equipment too. The prototype SMK tank, for instance, was sent to Finland and fought its only battle there. Likewise, the T-50 tank went into battle in Finland for the first time, and was used on both sides.
Along these lines there will be a lot of unique equipment.

Here’s a short overview of (part of) the Talvisota equipment:


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Besides this there’s much more finished material, but since we don’t want to spoil absolutely everything, we’ll keep a fair share under cover so there’s some totally new things left for you to discover on release.

The next update will get you up to speed with the way in which we integrate Talvisota and Ostfront. We’ll let you know the status of the (ongoing) beta test and more. In the meantime, you may want to check out our official Discord server, it has weekly small updates straight from the devs; make sure you don’t miss anything, development is fast- paced at the moment!

Meanwhile, we think that wishlisting Talvisota is the best advice we can give:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/

That’s all folks. Thanks for stopping by, see you on the battlefield!

Community members! In our last update we kicked off the SP storyline, showing some new assets in the process. This time, we’ll expand on that idea by describing more missions and maps.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/

We want to give you an idea of the size of the Talvisota expansion pack when it comes to maps and missions, and there is so much to show that we will do this in 2 parts. Let’s have a look at part 1.

We showed the first campaign mission in our previous blog; let’s have a look at some of the other missions.

In December 1939, fierce fighting took place in central Finland. After the battle of Suomussalmi, Soviet troops advanced along the Raate road, and Finnish troops were advancing in the opposite direction. They inevitably met. The battle that followed was brutal, and the way it developed was typical for the Finnish “Motti” battles of the era.
This mission will let you try your hand at these tactics, fighting a numerically superior enemy under icy conditions. The briefing will tell you what the tactics are.
This one is a very famous setting, and we think we’ve reproduced the battle to be very entertaining and atmospheric.


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In 1941, the continuation war started. The aim of the Finnish offensive was to move the border back to where it had been before the winter war. The continuation war will be included in the campaign, represented by 3 missions. The mission near Ino station is the second one of these. We’ve already teased you with an image on Twitter a while ago, and some followers got the hint for sure! In this mission, you will see it in- game.
In the summer of 1941, the Finnish offensive moved south across Karelia very quickly. Since the Red Army had already ordered a retreat from the forward positions, the offensive met little resistance in most places. But somewhere east of Ino station, the railway had been sabotaged and there was no possibility to use the railroad to get away. 2 huge railway guns, commanded by the navy, could not get away. There were army-, air force and other units, which united under one command and defended the guns while the crews tried to demolish them.

In the SP mission, you will have to use your improvisation skills when you’re offered a chance to snatch the biggest single piece of enemy equipment from the defending forces. Sending out scouts, you can determine the easiest path to your primary objective. Then, when the moment is right, you push north to the railroad. Once you are there, it should be easy to find the railway blockade (caused by sabotage) that has kept the Soviet railway guns from redeploying closer to Leningrad. But can you hold on to your gains?
What’s that noise, coming from the south? It’s hard to tell. This is another good time to send a scout forward! When he gets back, he will tell you what he saw…. and you will be forced to improvise a defense, while you try to ward off an enemy attack like you have never seen before.


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Together with the previous devblog we’ve now shown screenshots from 3 SP missions. We’re eager to show you everything, but maybe we shouldn’t spoil every little bit in advance!
Below are screenshots from the other 3. On top of the Finnish single player campaign, there is the skirmish campaign coming with Talvisota which is now undergoing testing, and it’s proven to be an absolute banger, bringing amazing replayability and huge scale of battles. They consist of 12 skirmishes, (4 each) for Germany, USSR and Finland. All in all, Talvisota provides over 30 hours of unique single player experience, which is almost like a whole new game.


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Looking at these, can you guess which other battles and scenarios we’ve selected?

A whole variety of landscapes, each unique to Finland, will feature in our multiplayer and conquest maps. As usual, they are recreated to look like the original battlefields of the 3 conflicts the Finns fought.
Finland is sometimes referred to as “the country of 1000 lakes”. This isn’t exaggerated; in fact, quite the opposite, as any Finn will tell you. The landscape is unique, and this will be visible on every map.
Talvisota comes with 20 new multiplayer maps, and with 23 Conquest (DCG) maps.

Here’s a small selection of screenshots, keep in mind it’s just the tip of the iceberg:



















Finnish architecture and construction methods make for buildings that are instantly recognisable.
Likewise, you will find landscapes there that you don’t find anywhere else.
These are rather obvious reasons to create a complete new set of assets, so that’s what we have done. Buildings, rock formations, structures, a whole host of bunkers and all the natural entourage will be included. The number of options in the editor goes up by a huge margin as a consequence.


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Progress is very good at the moment. We can safely say Talvisota is going to be a big package, containing a lot of maps, assets and equipment which is - to a large extent - exclusive to the 3 wars that were fought in and around Finland between 1939 and 1945. The Finnish faction obviously will have its voice- acting, done by native Finnish speakers. Speaking of which, we are still looking for a few Finnish voice actors, to complement the ones that have already recorded. You can apply for the job on our website.

We have already started testing, and the excitement in the studio is increasing by the day!
In the next update we will be talking about the 12 skirmishes that come with Talvisota, and we’ll show you lots of equipment in that one as well.

So now you know, there’s already about 200 reasons to wishlist Talvisota. Do it today:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/

That wraps up this episode. Thanks for stopping by, see you on the battlefield!

Hello everyone, it’s time to start a series of mission stories - like we have done for “Ostfront” in the past. We’ll also show some new assets in the process.
We intend to do a couple of these, without giving everything away before you even get your hands on it; let’s not spoil everything in advance.

Check out Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Talvisota and add it to your wishlist!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/
Here we go with the first mission in the campaign:

When the Soviet government made demands for territory in 1939, it was clear that war between Finland and the Soviet Union might break out. Preparation for war had already started, and the cornerstone of the Finnish defenses was still under construction.
Known as the “Mannerheim line”, the main defensive position had been modernized in steps. The original plan dated back to 1918; in the years after, the first bunkers were constructed, albeit that these were of non- reinforced concrete. In the 1930’s the line was modernized and expanded. Work on the line was still ongoing when war broke out on November 30th, 1939.


Anti- tank obstacles typically were set up in zig- zag lines and were made from rock, which made them very brittle and fragile to the huge artillery guns used against them.


(HD Link) The order of battle and the initial attacks in november/ december 1939

During the first 2 weeks of december 1939, the Finnish army conducted a fighting retreat from the Soviet border to the Mannerheim line. Small skirmishes had slowed down the Soviet offensive just enough to buy a few more days for the Mannerheim line to be prepared.


The commanders in chief: Gustav Mannerheim (left) and Kliment Voroshilov.

Then, on the 16th of december, the attack on the Summa sector began. The attacks came in waves; several attempts were made and a number of Soviet tanks broke through the line.
This breakthrough was stopped soon after, but the attacks kept coming.

The importance of this line for the Finnish army was compounded by the fact that the line behind it, the Salpa line, was not expected to hold for very long. They could not allow a Soviet breakthrough at the Mannerheim line. Everything was at stake.

The battle has been depicted historically accurately, with the exact line-up of fortifications, trenches and bunkers. Each bunker has been modeled to the real specifications and we researched a lot of documentation to bring this legendary battle to life.

You will be in charge of defending this section of the Mannerheim line. The question isn’t whether the red army will attack or not, the question is when they will attack.
There is no way of escaping this battle, because there’s nowhere to escape to. You’ve been digging trenches and setting barbed wire lines everywhere.
There is an awareness that the south- eastern part of your position is not the strongest. Without knowing how much time you’ve got left, you’ll have to try to set up more defenses on that side.

Soon, the enemy will be here and you’ll undergo your baptism of fire. The shortage of AT guns has prompted a different kind of bunker design, and the whole defensive concept will be put to the test very soon.
People have been comparing the Mannerheim line with the Maginot line; in reality, they could hardly be more different from each other. In some bunkers, the AT guns are positioned to cover the sides of the bunker only. The idea is that the enemy may try to overrun the line with tanks, exposing the more vulnerable sides to the AT guns in the bunker’s sides. They will be allowed to almost break through, only to find out that the areas between the bunkers are actually designed to be killing zones.
That’s all great in theory, the question is: will it work?


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You will have to prepare for the oncoming attack by placing yet more mines. Put them in the way of the most likely attack routes, and just lay as many as you can. Wherever you see fit, dig more trenches. Do anything you can to enhance what’s already there.
The left side of your position faces a very marshy area, which we think is too difficult to cross with any heavy vehicle, but there are no guarantees they won’t try!

If the experiences of the past two weeks are anything to go by, the attack will be massive. We expect the Soviet tanks and infantry will be deployed in huge numbers, so the line will be put through its first serious test. The same goes for your men; they are not battle hardened and you need to make sure they don’t panic!
The barbed wire fences and AT traps are virtually untested, we don’t know if the dragon’s teeth in front of the line will hold back tanks for real. Some testing was done and it seems they might shatter when hit by large calibre shells.

Of course we can’t predict what will happen, but you will have to improvise. One way of doing that is to try and capture enemy equipment. Maybe you should form a raiding party to recover and repair some vehicles? You should always be ready to loot and re- use anything you can anyway! Try to capture a few tanks, they would already be a great addition.

What’s that unusual engine note in the distance? Do we expect more of our troops retreating towards us? No. It must be something else then. The noise is getting louder, this sounds like a lot of engines… there! A tank emerges from the treeline, but what on earth is it?

Man, it’s huge. And look at that, it’s got 2 turrets! This is bad news. Sound the alarm! get into cover immediately and start coordinating the defense!
Then, all hell breaks loose. Take cover! Big shells are incoming on your position. That must be a huge caliber. Where does that come from?
There’s no doubt that a massive attack will begin as soon as the bombardment stops. Tell your men this is the right moment to summon their “sisu” (guts & courage), and that there can be no surrender.


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Back to the present day. We think you will like this mission, for which we obviously recreated the assets needed to historically represent the real thing.
Like for Ostfront, the landscape is recreated to represent the 1939 situation. These landscapes will have a different look and feel compared to “Ostfront”, because we used a new set of textures - and since we recreate maps from the original landscape, the result is quite different from what you see in Ostfront.

The content we produce for Finland makes for a full- blown set of unique tanks, vehicles, guns and infantry which were unique to the wars that Finland fought.
Together with a good load of other assets, this will almost double your possibilities in the editor.
The Finnish houses and other buildings we are adding will obviously look different from their Russian or German counterparts. We have created a good set of new buildings to work with. As you can see in this update, the legendary Summa line fortifications will also be included; altogether there’s a lot you haven’t seen yet, but we’ll definitely show some more in the next devblogs.


HD Link Inside bunker SJ4 “Poppius”

That wraps up this first episode of our blogs on SP missions. More will follow, mixed in with blogs about other subjects. Will you dive in the editor on the day of release? Would you recreate any famous battles? Which ones? Let us know in the comments!

Community members!
We announced Talvisota in our previous blog, which revealed that we will add Finland and the 3 conflicts it fought between 1939 and 1945.
Along with the release of the Finnish expansion pack - and because the winter war started in 1939 - we will release the free Content Update III which introduces the early war stage.
In this update, we will focus on the definition of early war and how it influences gameplay.

With the introduction of early war, the landscape of multiplayer will dramatically evolve.
Early war feels very different from the other periods. Most importantly, Infantry plays a bigger role. In 1939, armor had not yet been developed to the point of being impregnable to anti-tank weaponry. But there were cases - as you will find out - where one needed creative ways to take out a tank or vehicle.
We improved how the AI can use anti-tank grenades in our previous game update, and this is one step of many toward making early war a novel and exciting experience.

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Artillery is ever- present in the battlefield; in a wide array of types and sizes, but there are numerous ways to counter it. New units (which we will announce when we finish implementing them) will be introduced for that reason.

We have also taken this opportunity to further develop the artillery in the game and overhaul it. Firstly, we have given artillery units new max ranges with a mathematical model that best adapts the historical max ranges to our game scenarios.
We are also working on a new feature coming to Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: direct and indirect fire switchability. It will make certain units be able to bridge the gap between classic direct-fire weapons and artillery, and therefore make it more accessible to counter long range weapons. It will affect units which historically had indirect fire sights. We will reveal more about this feature on our developer telegraph channel on our Discord server once we have reached the desired results.


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We created lots of units, squads and assets for the early war periods, some of which were used throughout world war 2. From Legendary vehicles like the sd.kfz.222, to beasts like the 280mm Br-5 (the bigger brother of Stalin's sledgehammer) going through heavy haulers like the sd.kfz.6 and the lightest but spiciest of weaponry like the Maxim quadruple machine-gun. There will be much more; we’ll list them in one of our next updates.

With the addition of early war, in combination with the Domination gamemode - which we introduced in Community Update I - the variety and possible combinations for multiplayer in Gates of Hell have already increased by quite a margin.
With the arrival of the Finnish nation, the battlefields will be spiced up once more! There will be all sorts of new units and locations. We won't stop there, and we have plans to add new game modes and new nations in the future. We will reveal these when we’re ready to do so.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1911520/Call_to_Arms__Gates_of_Hell_Talvisota/

All of the development we mentioned above was required to make Talvisota in the first place. Those that acquire the Talvisota expansion will be presented with a series of unique new units and game mechanics. Finland's military arsenal consisted of previously purchased foreign units such as tanks, artillery and aircraft. Besides this, it had built several defensive lines, comprising a fair number of unique bunkers. During the winter war, they added a lot of captured material to the arsenal; much of it was modified for Finnish use, producing equipment that was used exclusively by the Finns.
Of course, and as you have come to expect from us, we've not simply duplicated the original item; we have implemented all the Finnish modifications and improvements. Finland provides quality over quantity, which can be intensely rewarding and sometimes unforgiving. Above all else, it will be absolutely unique.


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That’s it for our first global explanation on the addition of the early war period.
In our next devblogs we will be more specific on the contents of Talvisota and Content Update III, and how they will be integrated. We also plan to do devblogs about some of the Talvisota SP/ skirmish missions, which are all based on those wintery scenes that made for unprecedented, savage, ice cold and bitter battles.

That’s all for now, thanks for stopping by & see you on the battlefield!