A longer war on the steppe
A ground war round used to be over almost before your platoon reached the first town: under four minutes, start to finish. The sky over it was always full of Corsairs, and the Bradley's autocannon threw beautiful sparks off an Abrams without ever scratching it. All four have changed.
Rounds you can fight a campaign in
The war for the Brick Steppe's three towns now runs about three times as long. A side needs 2,100 points to take the round, not 700, and the clock's ceiling is half an hour. Most rounds now last ten or eleven minutes of real fighting. That's long enough to lose the north village, regroup, bring the Sd.Kfz. 7/1 up behind the Abrams and take it back. An early mistake no longer decides the round before you can answer it.
A quieter sky
Each side now keeps one strike plane over the steppe instead of two, and a downed one takes three-quarters of a minute to come back instead of twenty seconds. The Corsairs still roll in on columns caught in the open, and the half-track still earns its place. But the war on the ground is the war again: about one wreck in ten comes from the air now, down from one in four, and most of the time there's nothing overhead at all.
The Bushmaster bites
A single 25 mm round still can't beat an Abrams' plate. It sparks off, and the sparks still tell you you're on target. What's new is that the plate remembers. Keep the Bradley's sight on one spot and the hits add up. After a few rounds the gunner sees ARMOR CRACKING and every hit after that costs the tank a little. Hold on longer and a round can WORK THROUGH, putting spall into whatever that plate was covering:
- **the flank or front:** the engine, a track, or the driver
- **the rear:** mostly the engine bay
- **the turret:** the gun, or the crew working it
Work-through damage never reaches the ammunition rack. A Bradley can cripple an Abrams, but it can't blow the turret off.
Where you aim matters. Ten seconds on an Abrams' flank takes about a seventh of its strength and usually knocks out something. Half a minute takes about half, and it is still a tank. The same fire on its front gives less than half as much.
If you're the one in the Abrams and your own plate starts cracking, the HUD will tell you. Angle off, get out of that line of fire, or call the repair crew, who patch every worn plate when they finish. Pauses count too: if a gunner stops for more than a few seconds, the plate's count starts over.
A fresh start every round
When a round ended, you used to stay exactly where the bell caught you: deep in the enemy's town with a dead engine, or still stuck on the treeline you were trying to get off. Meanwhile the enemy got fresh hulls back at their start line. Now, when the next round deploys, every crew returns to the motor pool. The hull picker comes up with your last tank still selected. Hit ROLL OUT with no wait, or pick something else for the new round.