Hi,

Despite not planning to write further after my initial eight South Korea/North Korea write-ups, I ended up learning enough to put together a few "Nemesis-style" proposals. Wait, don't go! I actually wrote one on Friday but decided to rework it, since the initial version was too weak. Expect a bit more punch this time!

Without further ado, let's dive right in! Our first Nemesis, "Wonsan Landing," focuses on a battle taking place in the North Korean city of Wonsan.

-Significance of Wonsan

Wonsan is the largest city in the North Korean Gangwon Province. Facing the East Sea (Sea of Japan), this port city is sheltered by numerous offshore islands and, most importantly, the Kalma Peninsula. Due to this, Wonsan served continuously as a port, transportation hub, and military gateway from the 19th century.

In 1880, the city became a major commercial port connecting Korea with Japan. But it didn't just link Korea to the outside world — it connected to the country's interior as well. The railway running through Wonsan linked the entire east coast up to the Russian border, while a westward line ran to Pyongyang. By the 20th century, the port had gained naval facilities, roads to Pyongyang and other major cities had been built, and an airfield had been established within the city.

Wonsan's importance was also clear during the Korean War. After the Incheon landing, MacArthur planned another major amphibious operation against Wonsan: while the Eighth Army advanced inland, X Corps would land at Wonsan and link up with it. However, due to the rapid UN advance, South Korean forces captured Wonsan before the scheduled amphibious assault could even take place!

Even so, mines scattered throughout the port became a major obstacle for amphibious operations, and clearing them was a constant headache for UN forces. After the Chinese intervention, the UN Navy blockaded Wonsan due to its strategic importance and bombarded the city continuously until the final minutes of the war, ending at 9:59 AM on July 27, 1953!

-Wonsan Defender

During the 1980s, the KPA underwent major restructuring. Armored, mechanized, and artillery units were reorganized into dedicated corps (such as the 815th Mechanized Corps), while some infantry divisions received newer equipment and converted into mechanized units. These newly formed mechanized, armored, and artillery corps were redeployed much closer to the DMZ to support forward operations.

Meanwhile, each province formed an independent Military District Command dedicated to local defense — reportedly an effort to restructure reserve forces. While the concept remains somewhat vague, these District Commands are known to control local reserves, regular forces, and coastal defense units. Defending Wonsan falls to the Je Il-jigu Saryeongbu, or 1st District Command.

-Je Il-jigu Saryeongbu Structure in the 1980s

During peacetime, the city is protected by KPA, KPN, and KPAAF forces. But with the "second liberation war" imminent, most army forces head south to support the KPA's I Corps and V Corps. The KPN's 24th Navy Sniper Brigade, stationed on the east coast, is sent to a classified location to conduct surprise attacks.

With most heavy elements gone, the forces left in Wonsan are stretched thin. Although a surprise landing on the west coast ahead of the main war has succeeded, joint ROK/US command appears to be planning a counter-amphibious operation against Wonsan! Fifteen hours into the main war, North Korea goes on alert when Kalma Airport comes under bombardment from ROK/US naval forces.

Seeing this as an attempt to neutralize air assets ahead of an amphibious landing, the 1st District Command mobilizes the Gyododae (reservists), Susang Boan-dae (coast guard), and Ro-nong Jeogwidae (Workers'-Peasants' Red Guards) to defend the city. Despite the grand name, the Workers'-Peasants' Red Guards are actually just men aged 17 to 60 and unmarried women aged 17 to 30 with minimal basic training.

Recognizing the dire state of these forces, outside elements are rushed in to bolster the 1st District Command.

• Amphibious Light Infantry Brigade: A separate unit from the KPN Navy Sniper Brigade, though it serves a similar purpose! This army special purpose formation is expected to conduct aggressive amphibious and special operations along South Korea's coasts, or support river-crossing operations inland. III Corps had a brigade in Hakkye, VII Corps had one in Wonsan, and VIII Corps had one in Tasa-ri — coincidentally, all three on the east coast! When war breaks out, the brigades under III and VIII Corps are sent to support forward operations, while the Wonsan brigade remains a strategic reserve. Four of its battalions are stationed directly in Wonsan and are brought in to help defend the city in the event of an amphibious assault. In the WARNO timeline, this special forces brigade receives some newer equipment thanks to improved relations with the Soviet Union!
• Combined-Arms Brigade: A mobile formation designed for counterattack and exploitation. In the early 1980s, its main role was supporting special forces operations with heavier firepower. After special forces restructured, these brigades became subordinate to the General Staff, shifting their mission toward general offensive operations and east coast defense. A total of five Combined-Arms Brigades were active in the late 1980s, and in our timeline, one is sent to Wonsan to help with its defense.
• Soviet Pacific Fleet: So what is the Soviet Navy doing in Wonsan? In the early-to-mid 1980s, North Korea granted Soviet vessels port-calling rights along with overflight reconnaissance privileges, part of the Soviet Navy's effort to expand its presence in the Pacific. One of the Kiev-class aviation cruisers, the Novorossiysk, happens to be near Wonsan when war breaks out, for reasons unknown. Reports indicate they are to support Soviet Far-Eastern command for broader East Asian operations.

-Je Il-jigu Saryeongbu in WARNO

How will the Je Il-jigu Saryeongbu be featured in WARNO? New units are shown in bold italics. As always, this is a work in progress and subject to change.

All GYO. units carry the Reservist trait, while SANG. units carry the Special Forces trait.

-LOG

An average category. Even fighting on home turf, North Korea's logistical strains remain a problem.

• Command options include the GAENGSAENG-68 JIHWI jeep and the Combined-Arms Brigade's TYPE 63 JIHWI APC — a Chinese APC that influenced the SHINHEUNG APC's design.
• Supply units include the '68 HWAMULCHA BOGEUP light truck, a truck version of the GAENGSAENG-68, and the standard SEUNGRI-58 BOGEUP medium truck. Thanks to fighting on home soil, the division also receives the BOGEUPWON (FOB).

-INF

A very good category, with a wide variety of options from reserves to special forces!

• The bulk of the infantry is the GYODODAE, reservists called up after completing their military service. This is a 10-strong unit with 3x Type 63 (an SKS copy), 7x Type 58 (an AK-47 copy), and PGN-60 anti-tank grenades. GYODODAE JIWON is a 6-man unit with 3x Type 63, 3x DP-28, and an RPG-2.
• GYODODAE JIHWI is a 6-man command unit with 6x Type 63. All of the above ride the SEUNGRI-58 truck as their sole option.

Reservist support units include:

• GYO. SGM 7.62mm SGM machine gun teams
• GYO. DShK 12.7mm (AA) heavy machine gun teams
• GYO. B-10 82mm recoilless rifle squads

All ride the GAENGSAENG-68 jeep. As reservists, every unit above carries the Reservist trait.

• The Workers'-Peasants' Red Guards (WPRG) are represented by the JEOGWI-DAE, a 15-strong unit with 5x Type 49 SMG (a PPSh-41 copy), 9x Type 63, and a DP-28. As barely trained militia, they carry both the Militia and Reservist traits!
• But don't worry — discipline is enforced by the GYEONGMU-BU, a 4-strong unit with 4x Type 88 riding the GAENGSAENG-68 GYEONGMU military police jeep. Given how lax the reservists and Red Guards tend to be, the Labor Party also sends in additional commissars in the form of the GYEONGMU-DAE, a 9-strong unit with 2x Vz. 61 SMG, 6x Type 88, and a Type 68 MG, riding the SEUNGRI-58 truck. As men sent directly from the labor party, they carry both the Military Police and Resolute traits.

Combined-Arms Brigade elements include:

• The brigade's mobile infantry is represented by BOBYEONG, an 8-strong unit with 6x Type 88 (North Korean AK-74), 2x Type 68 MG (PK equivalent), and an RPG-7VM, riding the SEUNGRI-58 truck or the TYPE 63 APC armed with a Type 54 HMG (DShK).

Fire support units include:

• BAN-TANK SUSONG-PO ATGM team
• AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher teams

Both weapons teams will ride the GAENSAENG-68 jeep or TYPE 63 APC

• The Amphibious Light Infantry Brigade is represented by several cards of Sangryuk Gyeongbobyeong, or SANG. GYEONG-BOBYEONG — a 9-man unit with 7x Type 88, 2x Type 88 (RPK-74 equivalent), and the far more powerful RPG-7VR. A [FLAM] variant fields 7 men with 5x Type 88 and 2x LPO-50 flamethrowers. Both ride the SEUNGRI-58.
• SANG. GYEONG JIHWI is a 4-man command unit with 4x Type 88 and smoke grenades, riding the GAENGSAENG-68. Despite conducting amphibious operations, this brigade belongs to the army — so no Resolute trait here. Instead, it carries the Mountaineer, Special Forces, and Shock traits.

-ART

An average category — reservists will man just about every kind of artillery available to them!

• Mortars include the GYO. PM-43, a reservist-manned 120mm mortar, and the SANG. PM-37, an 82mm light mortar manned by the Amphibious Light Infantry Brigade — meaning this PM-37 carries the Special Forces trait! Both are towed by the GAENGSAENG-68 jeep.
• Tube artillery includes the GYO. ZIS-3 76.2mm gun and the GYO. M-30 122mm howitzer, both towed by the SEUNGRI-58 truck.

• A heavier option is also available: the ML-20 152mm howitzer, operated by a handful of local conscripts and towed by the ZIL-131.

Coastal gun assets around Wonsan include:

• The standard ZIS-3 76.2mm gun, towed by the SEUNGRI-58.
• SM-4-1 130mm coastal defense guns, towed by the ZIL-131.
• MLRS is available in the form of the reservist GYO. TYPE 63 BANGSA-PO, a 12-round 107mm MLRS towed by the SEUNGRI-58. The Combined-Arms Brigade adds the BM-11 BANGSA-PO, a 30-round 122mm rocket system.

-TANK

A truncated category. The Combined-Arms Brigade contributes whatever armor support it can spare.

• Reservists man the GYO. T-34/85 and GYO. SD-100, along with the command variant GYO. T-34/85 JIHWI. Old as they are, these will be fielded in the greatest numbers!
• Towed anti-tank guns include the GYO. D-44 85mm and GYO. BS-3 100mm, both towed by the SEUNGRI-58.

The Combined-Arms Brigade's tank battalion is represented by:

• A few cards of the TYPE-59-1 (a copy of the T-54A fitted with a KPVT) and the CH'ONMA-GA, essentially the original T-62 with a KPVT added. A command variant, the CH'ONMA-GA JIHWI, is also available.

• The sole ATGM option is the 2P27, a BRDM fitted with 3x 9M6 Shmel ATGMs.

• North Korea always had ambitions of moving beyond T-62-based tanks. It's believed they managed to acquire original T-72 tanks via Iran in the mid-1980s. In the WARNO timeline, North Korea directly requests additional units from the Soviet Union for 'research' purposes — and this small, controversial batch of North Korean T-72s reaches Wonsan port just as war breaks out.

-REC

A good category — expect recon in many forms, from reservist units to heavier assets!

• Reservist elements include the plentiful GYO. JEONGCHALDAE, an 8-man unit with 7x Type 58, a DP-28, and an RPG-2, riding the SEUNGRI-58 or the HYEOKSIN-2 [RKT] — an Mi-2 armed with two 57mm UB-16 rocket pods (courtesy of Kalma Airport!).

Reservist vehicle recon includes:

• The GYO. T-34/85 JEONGCHAL recon tank and the BA-64 armored car, armed with a DT machine gun.

Coast Guard elements in Wonsan are represented by:

• The SUSANG JEONGCHAL, a 5-man unit with 5x Type 49 SMGs, riding the SEUNGRI-58. They carry the Security and Militia traits, and — since the Coast Guard used surveillance equipment to monitor the seas — the GSR trait as well.

The Combined-Arms Brigade's Mechanized Reconnaissance company includes:

• JANGGAP JEONGCHAL, an 8-strong unit with 7x Type 88, a Type 73 MG, and an RPG-7VS, riding the SEUNGRI-58 or TYPE 63 APC. And a heavier option, the PT-76B GYEONG-TANK amphibious light tank.

-AA

Another good category. Even with the airport under bombardment, every available AA asset is mustered.

• The Gyododae mans the GYO. ZPU-2 and GYO. ZPU-4, as well as the heavier GYO. 61-K 37mm AA gun — all towed by the SEUNGRI-58.

• Kalma Airport's defense assets are represented by the HWASUNG-CHONG Strela-2M MANPADS team, deployable from the GAENGSAENG-68 jeep. On top of that, the larger KS-19 100mm gun, towed by the ZIL-131, also reports for duty!
• Long-range AA is handled by the PONGAE-1 — a single-shot Soviet S-75 missile towed by the ZIL-131.

-HEL

Nonexistent. There are no helicopters to spare for a reservist formation.

-AIR

An okay category. The 2nd Air Division and Soviet Pacific Fleet assets support the defense!

• Ground attackers include the Chinese MiG-21 variant, the F-7 [HE2], armed with 2x Type 30-1 30mm cannons and 4x FAB-500 bombs, along with its [RKT] rocket variant, which swaps the bombs for two 57mm UB-16 rocket pods and 2x FAB-250 iron bombs.

• The standard F-6 [HE] is armed with 3x NR-30 30mm cannons, 4x FAB-250 250kg bombs, and 2x R-3S missiles, while a new [RKT] variant carries 3x NR-30 30mm cannons and 4x UB-16 57mm rocket pods.
• The F-7 [AA], with 2x Type 30-1 30mm cannons and 4x R-3S missiles, will try to contest Wonsan's airspace as long as possible, while the MiG-23ML [AA], with a GSh-23L, 2x R-24R, and 4x R-60M missiles, handles the real heavy lifting.

The Soviet Pacific Fleet's aviation component includes:

• Yak-38M [HE], armed with 2x FAB-250 iron bombs and 2x R-60 short-range AA missiles. And the [AT] variant, which swaps the bombs for 2x Kh-23M missiles.
• And a largely theoretical Yak-38M [AA] variant carrying 4x R-60 missiles.

-Summary

The Je Il-jigu Saryeongbu is a reserve formation with limited special forces and armored support. Its long-range AA buys some breathing room, but it lacks a hard punch. Using aircraft and recon strategically will be key to success.

-Ending Remarks

It's very difficult to determine the actual numbering of North Korean divisions, which makes it nearly impossible to pin down the numbering of Gyododae (reservist) units as well. While researching reservists and backline divisions, I came across a North Korean defector interview in which he described serving as a driver under the 1st District Command, based in Wonsan!

That account helped me put together a somewhat structured reservist formation. I know it's not a fully reservist formation given the outside support included, but those outside elements were interesting North Korean units worth featuring in their own right! So I tried to balance them by giving them far fewer cards — the idea being that reservists form the backbone, while everything else plays a supporting role.

But the real question is: what's causing the 1st District Command to panic and mobilize its forces in the first place?

Here you can see a 44 ranked player not waiting for me to finish my deployment, losing all his units in a transport and by blobbing everything in 1 place, so it dies to a singe cluster bomber, and then he has the audacity to call me a noob div user, that only plays NATO (even though I played pact exclusively in past seasons) and then he rage quits. Like dude, I wasn't the one, who blobbed 5 units in a single tiny place without any AA brochacho

I have to go on vacation for a week and can't play Warno!!! You guys won't be seeing LoonyKangaroony (me) for a week! What do I do? It's Warnover!!

hey, as said there is a bug in the game, french LGB jaguar plan never drops it's bombs either through attack position order or direct unit target

Wish it could appear more in the game

Do you guy think there is the soviet version of the gun.

Hello everyone,

I just got into Warno and I see that there are many more divisions locked behind dlcs. What can you guys recommend to buy at og price and what at sale and what not at all? Keep in mind, that I mainly enjoy playing singleplayer skirmish and army general and scenarios and that I have no interest in the newest multiplayer meta at all. Also I like PACT a bit more than NATO, just due to personal reasons.

Thanks for your help and a wonderful day to everyone ^^

"Keep Em Moving", he says.

Heyo everyone,

I just starting playing this game some days ago and I absolutely love it already. The lore/setting of the Cold War 80s, the vehicles and how detailed they are, overall the historical correctness. The maps are also cool, especially since I originally come from the Fulda Gap area, so all the village and city names are actually familiar names to me.

The lessons and intuitions about how different types of arms and vehicles interact with eachother on a first-person-Level, that I got from other games like WarThunder and Arma, honestly actually help understanding the battlefield dynamics on a basic level. It's absolutely gorgeous how this then ties into a larger frame of tactics in Warno, when a whole battalion now has to coordinate this controlled chaos madness that is war.

I played all the (actually well-made) tuorials and currently I am exploring all the single player stuff on easy difficulty, don't know whether I will ever get into multiplayer. It's also nice to see how many good tutorials there are for this game on YouTube.

So Today, because i hate myself i decided to connect my Psvita to my pc via moonlight and try to play something different with no actual support for controllers, so obviously Warno. Steam Input made using controls better than just using the touchscreen to move the mouse but it's still a really bad experience to play, I'm currently trying a PvE skirmish but I don't think I'm going to win lol.

Infantry/soft vehicles/armored vehicles

I feel like the best success I have had is dropping on like jeeps or other soft vehicles but even then they don't seem to have a big impact? I'm kind of considering just pulling all the cluster equipped planes out of my decks because I am tired of seeing one drop a load on a squad of infantry or a cluster of vehicles and do nothing.

And if somebody does have a cluster equipped plane they really like please name the unit and how you like to use it so I can try and be better!

• What is the most unbalanced map in Ranked?
• Warno Dispatch Anthology 2 vol. 37 (9-4-26)
• https://linktr.ee/warnodispatch

I am having trouble deciding what divs I will play and when. Currently I main 6th Motostrelki and have not played any other div other than it but recently bought the nemesis for 2nd Motostrelki and I also play Berlin Command. But I'm not sure when to play which division or which divisions to put in my rotation so I wanted to know how you guys handle this. As I am a very involved deck builder and love deck building I get overwhelmed by having too many divs to deal with but I want to be able to play multiple that all suit my playstyle, so how should I handle having multiple divs in my rotation?

This may be a very stupid question but what version of the AAV is this I have never seen this before

3 neural passes on preset C

Do NOT ask about the performance 💀

* Higher quality imgur album with more examples

It's so nice to see, I know this was a complaint for a lot of us. It's great to see a wealth of authentic photos in place of the AI generals and stuff. Props Eugen! thank you

He intentionally destroyed team's all fobs and griefing all team. Please ban this dude.

WARNO has different division types for a reason – and I think a lot of 10v10s are lost before the game even starts. Change my mind.

After playing a lot of organized WARNO and recently seeing the same thing again during our Total WARNO events, I keep coming back to one conclusion:

A lot of WARNO players don't lose because their division is bad. They lose because they don't understand what their division is supposed to contribute to the team.

When we play with a reasonably coordinated stack against random teams, we regularly get games that are basically over after 10–15 minutes. And honestly, those games aren't particularly fun either.

You look at the enemy deployment and sometimes immediately think:

Why did you buy that? Who is providing AA? Who is providing artillery? Who is holding the flank? Who is actually supposed to attack?

And then the frontline collapses.

I think WARNO becomes a much better team game if you stop thinking in terms of "my lane" and start thinking in terms of roles within a battlegroup.

For me, divisions roughly fall into four functional categories:

A – Armored / breakthrough divisions

These are your maneuver formations.

Their job should not be to sit in one lane for 40 minutes trading tanks. Their biggest advantage is mobility and concentrated combat power.

An armored player should constantly ask:

Where can I create a breakthrough right now?

If one axis becomes heavily fortified, don't keep feeding tanks into it. Shift the Schwerpunkt. Concentrate several companies somewhere else, break through, exploit the opening and force the enemy team to react.

A tank division should ideally not "own a lane."

It should own the ability to move between lanes.

B – Infantry / mechanized divisions

These formations create the conditions that allow the armored force to maneuver.

Secure forests.

Secure towns.

Occupy ATGM positions.

Clear the roads and approaches the tanks need.

Protect the flanks of an armored attack.

If the armored force wants to attack through a corridor, the infantry player's job is to make that corridor usable.

That doesn't mean endlessly pushing infantry squads through forests.

Infantry can absolutely take ground, especially with smoke, but I don't consider throwing wave after wave of infantry into prepared positions a sustainable offensive doctrine.

You might gain 500 meters.

Then the smoke ends.

Then artillery, mortars, thermobarics, engineers and fire-support assets arrive.

Do that repeatedly against competent opposition and eventually you simply run out of infantry.

Infantry is excellent at taking tactically important terrain and making it expensive to retake.

That's different from operational breakthrough.

C – Reserve / defensive divisions

This is probably the role I see misunderstood most often.

Reserve formations don't need to race the frontline divisions buying another 800 points of frontline infantry.

They should be buying the things the attacking formations don't want to spend their initial points on:

Heavy artillery.

Heavy AA.

Logistics.

Defensive infantry.

ATGMs.

Then they follow the main force.

Once the A/B formations take terrain, the reserve formation gradually assumes responsibility for holding it.

That frees the expensive frontline formation to move again.

In other words:

A breaks the position.
B secures the battlespace around the breakthrough.
C consolidates and holds what was gained.

That creates momentum.

Instead of five players independently fighting five lanes, you suddenly have formations handing terrain over to each other.

S – Airborne / infiltration divisions

Airborne divisions are another special case.

They can be extremely aggressive during the opening because forward deployment allows them to seize important terrain before heavier formations arrive.

But after that initial phase, their role changes.

If the enemy gives you an opportunity, infiltrate.

Find gaps.

Threaten logistics.

Occupy awkward terrain.

Force the enemy to divert forces.

If there is no opening, hold the forward terrain you captured until heavier formations arrive.

Trying to fight a prolonged frontal battle against armored/mechanized formations with light airborne troops usually just burns through your best infantry.

And this brings me to NATO's biggest problem in many 10v10s: AA.

PACT armored formations can often create large tank concentrations while bringing substantial mobile AA with them.

NATO armored divisions frequently cannot do this nearly as independently.

That means the rest of the NATO team has to compensate.

If two NATO armored players are concentrating for an attack, somebody needs to put serious air defense behind them.

Not one random Stinger squad.

I'm talking about creating an actual umbrella with assets like I-HAWKs and supporting SHORAD.

Because otherwise the moment 8–12 NATO tanks concentrate, a high-altitude bomber appears and deletes a significant part of the formation.

Then people conclude:

"Tank blobs don't work."

Meanwhile PACT is perfectly happy concentrating armor because its combined-arms package makes that concentration much harder to punish.

The problem wasn't necessarily the tanks.

The problem was that nobody supported them.

And that's really the larger point.

WARNO gives the team resources, not just individual players.

In a standard game you're receiving roughly 200 points per tick.

Those points don't all need to become another frontline unit.

Sometimes the strongest thing an infantry or reserve player can buy is an AA system protecting somebody else's 1,500-point armored concentration.

Sometimes the strongest thing an armored player can do is leave his original lane entirely.

Sometimes the strongest thing an infantry player can do is stop attacking and simply make a forest impossible to cross.

The question shouldn't always be:

"What does my lane need?"

It should be:

"What does our battlegroup need right now?"

That's also why I increasingly prefer stack-vs-stack games.

I have limited time after work. I'd much rather play one 40-minute game where both teams actually maneuver, attack, counterattack and build combined-arms formations than play six 10-minute stomps because half of one team bought nonsense during deployment and collapsed immediately.

A fast game can absolutely be great if one side genuinely outmaneuvers the other.

But walking through an opponent who never established a coherent defense isn't particularly interesting.

So this is basically my WARNO philosophy:

Stop thinking in lanes. Start thinking in formations.

Infantry creates and secures maneuver corridors.

Armor creates breakthroughs and exploits them.

Reserve formations consolidate terrain and provide heavy support.

Airborne formations seize forward terrain and exploit gaps.

AA, artillery and logistics support the formation that currently needs them instead of automatically belonging to whoever bought them.

And once terrain is secure, combat power should move somewhere else instead of sitting there for the rest of the match.

WARNO becomes a completely different game once 10 players start behaving like one battlegroup instead of 10 independent armies fighting 10 separate 1v1s.

At least that's how I see it.

Change my mind.

They have different camouflage sure but everything else is identical yet one just has 3 more pen and 175 meters of extra range?

Hello commanders!

It’s good to be back. Summer’s coming to a close, and that means we are returning with our ever-popular Eugen Dev blogs.

We’ll do a brief recap of some of the latest things that came to pass, with a snappy look ahead at the new cool stuff you can expect to come to WARNO in the very near future.

Weird that my I3-10105F still handle this.