Order of Battle to feature the Kriegsmarine!

[AlbertoC]

Order of Battle returns to its roots with this DLC and it expands to the icy waters of the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, pitting the Kriegsmarine against the might of the Royal Navy and its allies.

Order of Battle: Kriegsmarine features a subject rarely touched upon by other games and never with such level of detail: you will follow the German navy in its years-long campaign to challenge the Allied supremacy of the sea.

This will put you in situations which you’ve never faced before in the Order of Battle series. You will fight as the underdog and support land operations, perform convoy-raiding missions, lure enemy ships into deadly ambushes and make extensive use of submarines. Fight through historical and what-if scenarios alike and demonstrate you are the real master of the seas!

The game will feature iconic ships such as the Bismarck and the Scharnhorst, introduces a wide range of submarines, naval bombers, flying boats, gun boats, destroyers, cruisers, and it’ll be even possible to make use of the Graf Zeppelin carrier!

Kriegsmarine will start its beta soon. We are looking for willing and active beta testers to help us finding bugs and give us suggestions. We need your help, so if you’re interested click here and join the beta.
This beta will also be the first testing phase of the new skirmish mode, a much-anticipated feature in Order of Battle.

[ParadogsGamer]

Can't wait for this one

[Erik2]

Signing on to the beta of course.
It will be interesting to see what the Royal Navy has got unit-wise.

[Andy2012]

Can't wait for this one

Do another lets play, please. Beta preferred. I will watch, others too. Promise.

[bru888]

This is good!

[WarHomer]

Yes this is awesome, and I´m looking forward to it.

One possible criticism though, how does this tie in with the other DLC´s?

I don´t know about everybody else, but as an old time PG/PC player much of the fun for me is the carry over of units in long campaigns. Marines, Winter War and now maybe this are relatively short campaigns and then it´s good bye to your units and this really bothers me, even to the extent that I usually don´t bother playing the last mission.

I do see the challenges to putting the German navy on the map, since most of the German fighting was on land og in the air, but couldn´t it have been done alongside the Wehrmacht campaign, maybe with a separete prestige counter for the Kriegsmarine and then every once in a while there would be a naval mission and even some land missions where you could use support from your Kriegsmarine? This could tie in well with missions in Africa and the Mediterranean, but also in Norway, Battle of Britain, the Baltic Sea and quite a few awesome "what if"-missions.

I think it would add quite a lot to the replayability and diversity of the game.

And dont forget that Germanys Plan Z at the start of the war planned for around 800 surface ships, including 4 Aircraft Carriers and 10 battleships, so with some war luck quite a nice surface navy for the Germans would not be a total fantasy.

Just my two cents.

[Longasc]

Now that sounds interesting!

I very much like the naval system of OOB. My mostly Infantry campaign with the "Marines" DLC lost me a while ago, the presumably difficult invasion frightened me enough to delay it for weeks already. And, to get to the point: Infantry, Infantry, Infantry, Infantry.

I just don't feel as much attached to Infantry units as to big battle ships or a huge big fat tank. I also can second Homer, the progression of units throughout campaigns is also lacking. I only did it so far from boot camp to Pacific Campaign and ended up taking barely any unit due to the lesser experience they would have had instead of starting with 1 star due to specialization.

But well, regarding the Kriegsmarine DLC, will probably get it right away, as I quite liked the naval battles in the Pacific.

[ParadogsGamer]

Can't wait for this one

Do another lets play, please. Beta preferred. I will watch, others too. Promise.

Working on it

[Andy2012]

@paradogsgamer: Will check your channel frequently. Do tell us here, please.

[kverdon]

Though I liked the Naval aspect of the Order of Battle series the best, I really, really have to doubt that the Kreigsmarine was the best choice for this series. The Surface Navy of the the Kreigsmarine was a 4th rate naval force at best with outdated ship designs. The Battle of the Denmark Straits was a lucky one for the German Navy which scored a victory over an antiquated WWI Battle Cruiser (a failed premise itself). The Bismark design suffered from a number an antiquated design features (4 dual turrets, centerline Aircraft storage and lack of a dual purpose secondary to name a few) that made the design inferior to contemporary USN/IJN and possibly even French and Italian designs. The Germans also never managed to create a carrier capable torpedo bomber though it is possible that the Naval variants of the Me-109 and Ju-88 would have been OK by 1940-42 standards. The problem with the concept is that the Kreigsmarine was fated more to suffering the fate of the Bismark/Schnarnhost/Graf Spee than for success. Ie, overwhelmed by superior numbers and firepower.

The only glimmer of success the Kreigsmarine had was in the UBoat war. Even this is a stretch as outside of a few months of success the Uboats normally failed in the war of sinking more transport tonnage than was produced. This was especially true once the US and Henry Kaiser mass produced transorts came online. This is compounded by the fact that submarine combat is an arena that Order of Battle deals with the worst in the Naval Aspect. I would rather like to see them refine their series and bring on some campaigns that let you grow your core units, aka Panzer Corps or stick to the Pacific and make a bigger, more granular campaign there.

[Andy2012]

Though I liked the Naval aspect of the Order of Battle series the best, I really, really have to doubt that the Kreigsmarine was the best choice for this series. The Surface Navy of the the Kreigsmarine was a 4th rate naval force at best with outdated ship designs. The Battle of the Denmark Straits was a lucky one for the German Navy which scored a victory over an antiquated WWI Battle Cruiser (a failed premise itself). The Bismark design suffered from a number an antiquated design features (4 dual turrets, centerline Aircraft storage and lack of a dual purpose secondary to name a few) that made the design inferior to contemporary USN/IJN and possibly even French and Italian designs. The Germans also never managed to create a carrier capable torpedo bomber though it is possible that the Naval variants of the Me-109 and Ju-88 would have been OK by 1940-42 standards. The problem with the concept is that the Kreigsmarine was fated more to suffering the fate of the Bismark/Schnarnhost/Graf Spee than for success. Ie, overwhelmed by superior numbers and firepower.

The only glimmer of success the Kreigsmarine had was in the UBoat war. Even this is a stretch as outside of a few months of success the Uboats normally failed in the war of sinking more transport tonnage than was produced. This was especially true once the US and Henry Kaiser mass produced transorts came online. This is compounded by the fact that submarine combat is an arena that Order of Battle deals with the worst in the Naval Aspect. I would rather like to see them refine their series and bring on some campaigns that let you grow your core units, aka Panzer Corps or stick to the Pacific and make a bigger, more granular campaign there.

Ah, the naval specialists weigh in. I like it.

Even though you are right that the Kriegsmarine was a footnote compared to the Wehrmacht, there is still fun to be had with some battles. And if this DLC is cheaper, then why not?
And I do think you should look at the pace of expansions and their choice not only from a historical point of view, but also from a financial one. (This is a business after all.) The devs want to build something bigger here and need cash flow. Going Kriegsmarine first means having cash in hand and implementing necessary units for the next DLC. If you have the Kriegsmarine in place with German navy units ready, you can do Afrikakorps convoy missions and later on other hypotheticals (invading England and the US) and so on. I am also pretty keen on improved navy battle mechanics.

[ikbenrichard]

Awesome. Can not get enough of order of battle.
Nice to see some scenery change, although land/air is still my favorite

[ikbenrichard]

Though I liked the Naval aspect of the Order of Battle series the best, I really, really have to doubt that the Kreigsmarine was the best choice for this series. The Surface Navy of the the Kreigsmarine was a 4th rate naval force at best with outdated ship designs. The Battle of the Denmark Straits was a lucky one for the German Navy which scored a victory over an antiquated WWI Battle Cruiser (a failed premise itself). The Bismark design suffered from a number an antiquated design features (4 dual turrets, centerline Aircraft storage and lack of a dual purpose secondary to name a few) that made the design inferior to contemporary USN/IJN and possibly even French and Italian designs. The Germans also never managed to create a carrier capable torpedo bomber though it is possible that the Naval variants of the Me-109 and Ju-88 would have been OK by 1940-42 standards. The problem with the concept is that the Kreigsmarine was fated more to suffering the fate of the Bismark/Schnarnhost/Graf Spee than for success. Ie, overwhelmed by superior numbers and firepower.

The only glimmer of success the Kreigsmarine had was in the UBoat war. Even this is a stretch as outside of a few months of success the Uboats normally failed in the war of sinking more transport tonnage than was produced. This was especially true once the US and Henry Kaiser mass produced transorts came online. This is compounded by the fact that submarine combat is an arena that Order of Battle deals with the worst in the Naval Aspect. I would rather like to see them refine their series and bring on some campaigns that let you grow your core units, aka Panzer Corps or stick to the Pacific and make a bigger, more granular campaign there.

Perhaps in the future, i do hope so.

[bru888]

Ah, the naval specialists weigh in. I like it.

Even though you are right that the Kriegsmarine was a footnote compared to the Wehrmacht, there is still fun to be had with some battles. And if this DLC is cheaper, then why not?
And I do think you should look at the pace of expansions and their choice not only from a historical point of view, but also from a financial one. (This is a business after all.) The devs want to build something bigger here and need cash flow. Going Kriegsmarine first means having cash in hand and implementing necessary units for the next DLC. If you have the Kriegsmarine in place with German navy units ready, you can do Afrikakorps convoy missions and later on other hypotheticals (invading England and the US) and so on. I am also pretty keen on improved navy battle mechanics.

I agree with Andy in both aspects.

First, let's face it: As a game, OOB cannot and should not be strictly a rehash of history. How else to make Rising Sun and Winter War interesting to play as the Japanese and Finns? Actual history is merely the background to this game.

Second, I want this franchise to do well. I am in it for the long haul and what Andy says about cash flow is important and right on. So, unless what they are selling as an intermediate revenue grabber is complete garbage, I'm buying it. Eventually it may lead to bigger and better things and I'm not just talking about Afrika Korps. I'm talking about expanding to other episodes of conflict throughout human history.

[adherbal]

Another reason we are doing the KM is because it gives us the opportunity to expand the Germand and British naval unit rosters required for the Skirmish mode. The latter will not be restricted by historical limitations so we want the German nation to be played on all types of random maps, including naval ones.

[214ironbrigade]

I'm really hoping to be a beta tester on this. It looks exciting.

[bcnkor5]

Order of Battle to feature the Kriegsmarine! Do not forget this project,:

Projects Carrier Graf Zeppelin. FW 190 with torpedoes.

And you could also add another sea faction:
the Regia Marina, Italian for battles for control of the Mediterranean.

A DLC with only the English and German navy faction looks a bit short

[kondi754]

I think there will be rather aircrafts like this.

[214ironbrigade]

I think there will be rather aircrafts like this.

Air group of the Graf Zeppelin!

[dannie013]

any knew new about kriegsmarine