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Get ready to rev up your driving experience with our handpicked selection of Car Freshies! Our article delves into a variety of these stylish, odor-eliminating gadgets that'll turn your car into a veritable oasis of freshness. Whether you're aiming to combat lingering smells or just refresh your ride's interior, we've got you covered. Read on for the ultimate guide to finding the perfect Car Freshie to suit your needs.

The Top 5 Best Car Freshies

1. Ultra-Fresh Champagne & Soirees Car Air Freshener - Vilicci Champagne and Soirees Car Air Freshener" - Elegant, zesty floral bliss that sparks nostalgia for those champagne-soaked, glittering soirees with great company.
2. Smiley Face 'I Didn't Plan on Getting Out of the Car' Car Air Freshener by Simply Southern - Elevate your surroundings with the delightfully quirky "I Didn't Plan on Getting Out of The Car" Smiley Air Freshener by Simply Southern, offering a 30-45 days long enjoyable aroma while adding a fun and positive touch.
3. Exotic Car Air Freshener by Vilicci - Experience the captivating allure of Liquid Fantasy, a premium car air freshener that lasts over a month, exuding a unique, unisex scent crafted with high-quality, long-lasting blends in Canada.
4. Clip-On Vent Car Air Freshener with Aromatherapy - Experience the power of aromatherapy on-the-go with the Refreshing Aromatherapy Clip-On Vent Air Freshener, an effective and compact solution for eliminating bad car odors.
5. DIY Unscented Aroma Beads Car Air Freshener Supply - MUBYOK Unscented Aroma Beads, premium-grade DIY car freshener and environmentally-friendly material, effortlessly absorb fragrance oils for a customizable scent experience that's perfect for gifting and enhancing small spaces.

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Reviews

🔗Ultra-Fresh Champagne & Soirees Car Air Freshener

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As I cruised down the highway with my windows down, the rich aroma of Champagne and Soirees wafted through my car, filling it with the scent of a lavish garden party. I had been using the Vilicci Car Air Freshener for a few weeks now, and it had truly transformed the atmosphere inside my vehicle.
The fragrance is an intoxicating blend of fresh orange blossoms, exotic jasmine, earthy patchouli, and a hint of Turkish rose. This zesty, floral scent instantly transported me back to my last soiree, where laughter, champagne, and good company were in abundance.
One of the standout features of this air freshener is its longevity. I usually replace my car's air freshener every month or so, but with this one, I feel confident that it will last much longer. Additionally, the compact size makes it easy to store and transfer between cars - perfect for those of us with more than one vehicle.
On the downside, the scent may not be as potent for some people as it is for me. While I adore the subtle, fresh fragrance, others might prefer something more bold and powerful. However, this is a highly personal preference, and the overall quality of the product cannot be denied.
In conclusion, if you're looking to add a touch of class and elegance to your car's interior, the Vilicci Car Air Freshener in Champagne and Soirees is definitely worth a try. Its luxurious scent and impressive longevity make it a worthwhile investment for any car owner seeking to enhance their driving experience.

🔗Smiley Face 'I Didn't Plan on Getting Out of the Car' Car Air Freshener by Simply Southern

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I never thought I'd be raving about an air freshener, but the Simply Southern 'I Didn't Plan on Getting Out of the Car' Smiley Air Freshener has completely changed my perspective on car fresheners. As a daily commuter, I had become accustomed to the not-so-pleasant odors that came with being stuck in traffic. However, since hanging this cheerful freshener in my car, those stale smells are now a thing of the past.
The first thing that caught my attention was its whimsical design. With its cheerful smiley face and humorous text, it instantly added a touch of fun to my otherwise mundane commute. Plus, the fact that it's crafted by the renowned Simply Southern brand only added to its appeal.
But what truly sets this air freshener apart from others is its incredible lasting power. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the aroma lingered for well over a month before needing a replacement, making it a cost-effective solution as well.
Now, I'm not going to lie – there isn't a whole lot of variety when it comes to air fresheners. They all tend to do the same job, which is why I usually don't give them too much thought. However, this particular product has definitely made a lasting impression on me.
The only minor drawback I can think of is that the fragrance might not be to everyone's liking. While I personally enjoy it, I can see how some people might find it too strong or overpowering. But overall, I couldn't be happier with my purchase and would highly recommend the Simply Southern Smiley Air Freshener to anyone looking for a fun and effective way to freshen up their car.

🔗Exotic Car Air Freshener by Vilicci

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You know how sometimes you just need a little something to make your daily drive feel a bit more special? Well, that's exactly what the Vilicci Liquid Fantasy Air Freshener did for me. This baby has a unique, sophisticated scent that really adds some flair to your car.
One of the things that really stands out about this air freshener is its longevity. After a week of using it, my car still smells as fresh as it did when I first installed it. The best part? It's not just a simple fruity smell, but a complex blend of premium ingredients. It's kind of like how your favorite perfume or cologne has that perfect balance of notes - well, that's what this air freshener delivers.
Now, one downside I have to mention is that once you activate it, you need to be careful not to touch it directly to your car's plastic surfaces. But other than that, this air freshener is a game-changer. Its high-quality blend and month-long longevity make it a must-have accessory for anyone who appreciates the little things that can make a big difference in their day-to-day life.

🔗Clip-On Vent Car Air Freshener with Aromatherapy

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As a busy mom on-the-go, I'm always trying to keep my car smelling fresh despite the occasional spilled juice or forgotten snack. That's why I absolutely fell in love with the Refreshing Aromatherapy Clip-On Vent Air Freshener. Not only does it effectively eliminate any lingering odors in my car, but it also looks beautiful and adds a touch of elegance to my ride.
One of the best features of this little gem is its adjustable scent control, which allows me to customize the aroma strength according to my preferences and the size of my car. And unlike traditional hanging air fresheners, it doesn't take up any valuable real estate on my rearview mirror, which is a major plus!
Now, one slightly negative aspect that I've come across is the longevity of the scent. It doesn't last as long as I would like, so I find myself needing to replace it more frequently than I'd hoped. But honestly, the convenience and effectiveness it offers more than make up for it.
So if you're tired of battling stubborn car odors, look no further than the Refreshing Aromatherapy Clip-On Vent Air Freshener. You won't be disappointed!

🔗DIY Unscented Aroma Beads Car Air Freshener Supply

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I recently discovered MUBYOK's 3lb Premium Unscented Aroma Beads while searching for a solution to keep my car smelling fresh. As someone who spends a lot of time behind the wheel, I knew I needed something effective. To my delight, these beads did not disappoint.
MUBYOK's Aroma Beads are made from high-quality Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Copolymer, which not only guarantees great performance but also ensures that they're safe for the environment. Their ability to hold up to 30% of their weight in fragrance oil is impressive, meaning they last long and are cost-effective.
I was thrilled to find how versatile these beads are. Not only can they be used in a DIY car freshener, but I also discovered that by placing them in a sachet bag, they can freshen up closets, offices, and other spaces in my home. Plus, they make great DIY gift options for friends and family.
While there's no denying the effectiveness of MUBYOK's Aroma Beads, one downside might be finding a suitable fragrance to enhance their effectiveness. However, with a little creativity and some research, this drawback can be easily overcome.
Overall, I'm really glad I stumbled upon MUBYOK's 3lb Premium Unscented Aroma Beads. They've not only kept my car smelling fresh, but have also turned out to be a useful addition to my home. I would recommend them to anyone looking for a cost-effective, long-lasting solution to maintaining a pleasant scent.

Buyer's Guide

Freshen up your car's interior with the right car fresheners. Choose from various types, scents, and designs to suit your taste and preferences.

Important Features

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• Odor neutralizing abilities
• Long-lasting scent
• Aesthetically pleasing design

Considerations

1. Type of freshener (vent clip, hanging, gel, spray)
2. Scent strength and type (floral, fruity, masculine, feminine)
3. Size and placement options
4. Allergen-free and non-toxic

General Advice

To find the perfect car freshener, consider your personal preferences and the needs of your passengers. Be sure to select a long-lasting, effective freshener that is easy to use and maintain. Additionally, avoid choosing overly strong scents that may be distracting or irritating while driving.
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FAQ

1. What are Car Freshies?

Car Freshies are air fresheners designed to improve the scent of a car's interior. They come in various shapes, sizes, and fragrances to suit different preferences.

2. How do Car Freshies work?

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Car Freshies absorb odors and release a pleasant fragrance to mask unpleasant smells in your vehicle. They can be hung from the rearview mirror, placed on the dashboard, or attached to the air vents.

3. How long do Car Freshies last?

The longevity of Car Freshies depends on the specific product, fragrance intensity, and frequency of use. Generally, they last between 30 days to several months.

4. Are Car Freshies safe for the environment?

Many Car Freshies are eco-friendly, containing natural fragrances and biodegradable materials. However, some may contain chemicals, so always check the product label for safety information.
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5. How many Car Freshies should be used in a car?

One or two Car Freshies are usually sufficient to maintain a pleasant fragrance in most vehicles. Using more than three can create an overpowering scent that may be uncomfortable for passengers.

6. Can Car Freshies be used in other places besides cars?

Yes, Car Freshies can be used in other small spaces like closets, lockers, gym bags, or drawers to eliminate odors and keep items smelling fresh.

7. Are Car Freshies suitable for allergy sufferers?

While many Car Freshies are hypoallergenic, some individuals may still experience allergic reactions to certain fragrances or chemicals in the product. It is recommended to choose a fragrance-free or allergen-free option if you have allergies or sensitive skin.

8. How should Car Freshies be properly disposed of?

After the Car Freshie has lost its fragrance, it should be thrown away in the regular trash. Avoid flushing them down the toilet or throwing them into a recycling bin, as they may harm the environment or contaminate recycled materials.

9. Can Car Freshies be used in conjunction with other air fresheners?

Yes, you can use Car Freshies along with other air fresheners, such as sprays or diffusers, to enhance the freshness of your car's interior. However, be cautious not to create an overpowering scent that may be uncomfortable for passengers.

10. How can I choose the best Car Freshie for my car?

Consider factors like fragrance preference, eco-friendliness, and your car's size when selecting a Car Freshie. Reading reviews from other customers and checking product ratings can also help you make an informed decision.
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With the recent additional content for DAK, I’ve had a lot of ideas poking around in the back of my head about new battlegroups that could be developed and other related ideas for DAK. Having a creative bent of mind, I decided to do a write up of these ideas for publication, ideally to influence what comes out later, but mostly for my own enjoyment. This is what this post contains.
The perspective I’m coming from in this post is that, to me, it would be non-sensical for Relic to develop another sequel to Coh, as the release of Coh3 has demonstrated that you have to compete directly with the predecessors, leading to schisms in the playerbase. Moving to Coh3 made a lot of sense, as the technology required updating, but now that that is done, I feel doubling down on DLC for Coh3 in terms of new factions, battlegroups and content is the way to go, unless some fundamental technology leap happens in the next 10 years. Coh3 should be treated as the ‘platform’ on which Coh is developed. Even if we have to wait another 5 years for another faction, this probably makes the most sense. This way, the effort that would go to porting functionality to a new game, can be spent on creating new content and new features for the already existing game.
In terms of the design of the battlegroups, I wanted to make them thematic, different from existing battlegroups, unique and mostly historically accurate. The interesting aspect of DAK battlegroups is that you have a limited pool of units to work with.
Without further ado, here are my battlegroup ideas:
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Central Idea: Logistics, augmenting Halftrack Deployment System. The battlegroup focuses on mobility and efficient resource expenditure.
Opel Blitz Fuel Truck: The Opel Blitz Fuel Truck should have two effects with the lockdown, when locked down on fuel, it should increase the rate of fuel supply, probably by more than a normal cache, however when locked down in base, it should reduce fuel cost of the vehicles in the selected structure, so kind of like officer supervision. This would encourage more active micro management of the unit. When it dies it should have a large AOE explosion, meaning friendly units should avoid it and also that it can be driven towards enemy units, kinda like a less efficient Goliath that you can't manually detonate, I can’t see this being anything but ludicrously fun. You really could go nuts with the audio design on that. Top Up Vehicle should be an ability that can be targeted on friendly vehicles. Once done, the target vehicle has faster speed, acceleration and deceleration for a fixed distance. Note this is a fixed distance, instead of time, so if the vehicle doesn't move, it won't 'expend' the ability.
Recharge Halftrack Deployment: This feeds into DAK’s tempo playstyle by allowing you to muster units rapidly. The situations where I see this being useful are early in the game when you want to get double call ins early to build out your composition at a discount or later in the game where you’re trying to mass late game armour quickly. For instance, calling in a P4 as a stopgap measure before calling in a Tiger 90 seconds later, especially if you build up a bank in the lategame.
Panzer III Munitions Supply Vehicle: Largely self explanatory, its like the Munitions Store for US, except mobile and provides different buffs. I could see this unit being coupled with ATGs and LeIGs being strong, as well as recharging snares faster, it compliments that infantry and support weapon playstyle nicely. The unit also can drop MG42s and Mortars, which give DAK manpower efficient access to more team weapons, diversifying potential builds.
Vehicle ROF Ability: Self explanatory. Could see it being strong on Marders, Tigers and Stug Ds. You could make this a global ability but here I’ve stuck with a unit ability.
Ability/Upgrades Discount: This essentially makes Unit Upgrades and Unit Abilities 50% cheaper for the duration. Its thematically appropriate and potentially a strong ability. If you could pair this with the Panzer III Muntions Vehicle, grenades would be cheaper but also recharge faster, although this combination could apply to a whole bunch of different things. Strategies where you rush this ability to ‘mass upgrade’ MG34s on the PGs could be a thing, although you’d need a fair bit of munitions banked up. One thing that could be experimented with is applying this to mines, where you could pop this to spam out mines, depending on how expensive the ability is, the calculus might add up.
Panzer I Command Tank: Feeding into that tempo style again, this early game vehicle would have roughly the potency against infantry as a 250, albeit with better armour. However, the main appeals are the capping and mobility bonuses, these would allow you to rapidly gain map control and would give you an edge when switching sides of the map. For flanking manoeuvres, this would also come in handy, one combination that would be strong would be your vehicles ‘Topped Up’ with the mobility bonuses from the Opel Blitz Fuel Truck and your infantry buffed by the Pzr I Command Tank, meaning your forces can get off flanks or respond to threats much faster.
Withdraw & Refit: Again interacting with the Halftrack Deployment System, this allows you to trade in vehicles that are not needed for resources, exactly like with Brits. I could see this being useful when you want to get rid of 250s that you have spare.
Panzer III S-Mine Launchers: This would be an ability on the Panzer III that allows it to launch S-Mines. I could see this being implemented in 2 ways, either exactly like the Tiger S-Mine launcher ability, which would be really strong for flanking AT Guns or chasing down squads, or if that’s too strong, more like the grenade ability on the Sturmtiger in Coh2. Again, this synergises with the Panzer III Munitions Vehicle and the Ability/Upgrades Discount ability.
Panzer III Side Skirts: Self explanatory, improves the armour and health of your Panzer IIIs after a unit upgrade is purchased. I wouldn’t be in favour of this being an instant upgrade to all units. This would again synergise with the Ability/Upgrades Discount ability.
Lorraine Schlepper Mobile Artillery: Finally, mobile artillery, not unlike the Wespe, giving DAK another tool in the box at their disposal.
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Central Idea: Fire, anti-cover. It would be strong against team weapon camp gameplay.
Incendiary Grenade Assault: Its essentially the exact same as the Assault Gren grenade assault, except Panzer Grens have access to it and its better at denying cover. So I see this being useful when you want to dislodge infantry in cover or make a Team Weapon move, as they won’t be able to jump back into cover or move back.
Detonating Shot: This ability is available for; Paks, Marders, P3s, Tigers, P4s, Stugs, Flak 36s. While active, if you land a kill shot on a vehicle, that vehicle will blow up causing AOE damage to nearby units. How good this should be will need to be tested. The basic counter play would be just to split up your units, but that requires micro. On the flip side, using the ability well also requires micro and good timing, so there’s a skill factor involved. This ability can also be used on ATGs and Indirect fire units (including emplacements), and if you land the kill shot on these units while the ability is active, it not only explodes but also, importantly, destroys the weapon outright. So you wouldn’t need to focus the decrewed weapon afterwards. This is pretty strong against team weapon play.
Indirect Incendiary Rounds: Exactly like it was in Coh2 for the same units. It also applies to the 254 Artillery observer. All of these barrages are good for area denial and also killing off emplacements.
21cm Nebelwerfer 42: A heavier version of the Nebelwerfer, relative to Wehr’s one. This would have higher alpha damage on it’s shells and the flame dot damage to boot. Only 5 rockets though.
Incendiary Creeping Barrage: Self-explanatory, area denial tool, good against team weapons and emplacements. Strong for denying VPs.
Double Flamethrower Panzer Pios: Strong upgrade naturally, but expensive. In order to get the double flamethrowers you need to buy each flamethrower for 50 munitions. It makes the squad a massive target.
Flammpanzer I Assault Group: This is very much a shock callin, you’d get this to drive your opponent off the map in the early stages of the game. Relative to the L6/40 with the flamethrower upgrade, this would be more potent as it retains the coaxial MG. Relative to the Flammpanzer III, it would have less health but come earlier. Combined with the Panzer Pios, it’s a strong power spike which would be especially good on urban maps.
Inspired Assault: Exactly like it was in Coh1, it was an interesting ability.
Sd. Kfz. 233 Armoured Car: In the great pantheon of DAK light vehicles, where does the 233 fit? It would be most comparable to the Stummel and the Scott, being effective against Team Weapons and Camp playstyle. Unlike the Stummel, it would be more effective at short range, as it retains an MG42 and has the canister round, as well as having more health. Relative to the 8 Rad, it would be worse at chasing infantry on retreat (although you already have the Flammpanzer I), but it would be far more proficient against units at range, units in cover and team weapons. Relative to the StuG D, it would be faster, cheaper and require less teching, but would have worse armour.
Heavy Incendiary Bomb Drop: Extremely good against team weapon camp, emplacements and units capping VPs. Could potentially neutralise points like the Dive Bomb in Coh2?
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Central Idea: Heavy Team weapon play, this battlegroup is the only one that ‘goes against the grain’ of the DAK traditional playstyle by offering you more of a camp based strategy.
250 Reinforce: Essentially a utility ability that congeals with the rest of the battlegroup. Although I could see it being useful in combination with Assault Grens as well.
Pak 36 ATG: Light ATG, effective against Light Vehicles. Unlike the Pak 38, it requires no tech, so you can get it early and allows you to tech T2 while still having ATG support. The Stielgranate 41 shot improves it’s penetration against vehicles, although at the cost of munitions.
Tobruk Bunkers: Variety of emplacements, lots of photos of the DAK using these in WW2, hence the origin of their name. For defence in depth, these are going to be strong, you could have one of the Panzerturms in the back to prevent light vehicles or infantry from breaking in. The 360 Bunker is not fundamentally different from the Wehr AA piece, however, to make it more skilful, it would be cool if you have to manually switch the firing arc.
Flak 37 AA: A larger and more powerful AA than the Wehr Flak 30. This would be more effective against light vehicles and infantry, although could be made slower to move around, and have slower pack up and setup times, to balance it. My thinking is something like the speed of Pak 40s in camo would be slow enough to make indirect highly effective against them. It would encourage using them in conjunction with a tow vehicle, moving them around the battlefield quickly would be impossible without a tow vehicle, although not strictly necessary.
Rapid Suppression Barrage: This is mostly a standard off-map, except that the shells also cause suppression. My thinking with this is that it should cover a broad area, with a relatively short delay between each shell, with each shell having a large AOE suppression. Perhaps the effect would be best compared to the Nebelwerfer from Coh1, minus the flame. What you essentially use it for is area denial and forcing off squads.
MG131 HMG Team: Essentially a ‘premium’ HMG team, the same way the MG42 and DSKH were considered premium in Coh2. Its suppression and damage would be far better than the MG34. It should perform relatively well against light vehicles, like the .50 Cal did in Coh2. The HE rounds ability I see performing better against units in cover, potentially even allowing you to perform cover suppression.
Sd. Ah. 52 Supply Trailer: The Supply Trailer requires some explanation. My thinking with this is that its a brand new unit type, which loosely can be defined as a support weapon. How it works is that infantry squads can crew it, push it around, vehicles can tow it, etc. When in a position, it provides an aura which in this case gives nearby units additional construction options as well as increasing pio construction speeds and giving vehicles the ability to hull down. However, the unit shouldn't require pop cap and moreover, you can actually manually decrew it and it will still provide you the benefits. So for example, let's say it spawns in your base and you want to setup a strong point, you can crew it with a squad, wheel it over to a house near the frontline and then decrew it. Units within its vicinity would still be benefiting from the aura. When you want to move it, recrew it again, or tow it, to a new location. The beauty of this dynamic is that your opponents can steal these units from you like an ATG, so while they don't take up popcap and would be relatively cheap (say 100 to 150 manpower), you're still incentivised to protect them. You can also attack move them with AT guns etc, would be interesting to play around it. I think it would make for an fun dynamic, but would need to be coded from scratch. It also indirectly makes tow yet more useful. With this trailer specifically, it’s aura will make the area around it a point where you can dig in. Multiple squads would be setting up sandbags, vehicles would be able to hulldown and it can also distribute medical supplies.
Off-map Mortar Creeping Barrage: Fairly straight forward light off-map.
Hold The Line: This allows you to hold onto territory easier. A global ability, while in capture circles, your infantry will be hardier. Moreover, they can also reverse the capping progress of your opponent when you contest the capture with your own unit, although you can’t use this to capture territory that is contested. This will be really powerful in VP wars.
15 cm sIG 33 Heavy Infantry Support Gun: The star of the battlegroup. This would be like an LeIG but dialled up to 11. It would have 110 range direct autofire (so like Free Fire Drills), but with a slower ROF. The team would be able to move it around without tow, but like the Flak 37, it would be incredibly slow, like a Pak 40 in camo. The demolition shot would have a much shorter range, like 50, but be incredible against emplacements, although if you manage to get vehicles or team weapons it would be deadly as well. The trick shot nature of this should make it easier to avoid. So kind of like a Sturmtiger but much easier to notice and dodge, while also being less powerful. Realistically you would need to use tow to get it around, but its not strictly required.
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Central Idea: Vision, having awareness of the battlefield and executing flanks. Conceptually this battlegroup is the opposite of Battlefield Espionage.
Horch 108 Recon: A heavy ‘ultra light’, which sounds like an oxymoron, but to put this on a scale, it would be better than the Krad as a harassment tool, but not as good as the 250. However, the 250 can’t cap and this can, whereas the Krad is cheaper, faster and has more vision while stationary. So there are trade offs to all 3. The Flak 38 gives the Horch better scaling than the krad. Relative to the Dingo, the Dingo should win, but one would expect the fight with the US Jeep to be more even, if not slightly Horch favoured.
Forward Observation Posts: These are equivalent to the battlefield espionage beacons, except they’re focused on providing LOS. You set them up with infantry and they can be faced to an area to provide sight. I could see these being super handy on the edge of the map, overlooking a flanking route.
Sd. Kfz. 263 Panzerfunkwagen: The Panzerfunkwagen would be a solid sight tool. The MG would be roughly as good as a 250, so you might want to use it aggressively early on, but you’d mostly be using it as a mobile sight platform. With cautious movement, you would be able to spot your opponents forces from camo and the Mark infantry ability should have a short cooldown and be free. You’d mark several units and they would make they more vulnerable to small arms. This would reward active micro management.
Timed Infantry Sight: Amazing for executing flanks, you can detect enemy units before they see you. This should make getting around MGs and picking your engagements far easier.
Panzer Commander Upgrade: Exactly like Coh2.
Suppressive Fire: Gives various units access to a suppressive fire ability. Coupled with the sight abilities, you can trigger this before an opponent’s unit comes into range.
Sd.Kfz.6/3 AT Halftrack: Weaker than the Marder in terms of health, the ATHT has the benefit of providing mobile AT without needing to tech T2. The ranged shot works well in conjunction with the sight tools allowing you to get off shots against more powerful vehicles without taking shots in return.
Temporary 222 Recon Group: Double 222s arrive off-map, they are in your control and you can use them how you please. However, after 75 seconds, they turn to AI control and leave the battlefield. By the time they reach the front, you’ll have roughly 60 seconds to ‘go nuts’ and do as much damage as possible. They don’t require manpower, fuel or popcap. This feeds into DAK’s tempo, all-in playstyle. So I could see a player building an 8-Rad and then using this ability, using the sight tools to determine where the ATGs are and then going all in, the 222s are relatively expendable. The 222s should benefit from the armoury upgrades, so in the lategame you could use this ability to jam captures or sneak off to grab a VP. As an opposing player, mines, hand held AT and snares are your friends. 222s should basically require 1 snare to cause engine damage. Some people have said they don't like temporary units, I haven't seen a good argument against them yet.
Bf 110 Autocannon Heavy Strafing Run: A heavy anti infantry strafing run, akin to the IL-2 strafe in Coh2. It would also be of variable length. Let's say X is your first click and Y is your second, which marks the end and direction of the run, the default run is diagram A, but you can drag the cursor of point Y as far as you want, with a maximum of either 35 range or when you don't have enough munitions banked up for the run. This gives you the flexibility of deciding how much you want to spend and where it will land. A well placed strafe on retreat could be devastating. The cursor should highlight the munitions cost as you drag from point x to point y.
Me 210 Light (SC50) Bombing Run: This is a much lighter bombing run than the US carpet bombing. It should be single line and relatively fast, the damage of the shells should be roughly equivalent to 5.5 inch artillery shells.
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Central Idea: Map presence, retaining position. The battlegroup was inspired by the invasion of Crete.
Luftwaffe Ground Forces: Somewhat similar to the Coh1 equivalent, they would be a fairly weak combat squad with lots of utility. In this case, they would have various construction options as well as being able to heal squads. L.P.Z. Light AT Mines would be more spamable than your standard mines, would be cheaper and only detonate on vehicles. If the vehicle is on less than 80% health, it would cause an engine crit. As an alpha damage, probably 75% of the standard mine would be sufficient. It would require 2 of these mines to detonate on a full health vehicle to engine crit it basically. Dosenmines are essentially like S-Mines and would be planted in patches. The M30 Drilling Shotgun Shot ability would be targeted on a squad and would have short range of about 5. You’d more or less use it like you would a grenade, except it like a throwing knife and the Sniper Shot ability, it can’t be dodged. More than likely, you’d get just one of these squads to augment your composition, with PGs as the mainline.
DFS 230 Glider HQ: Essentially a standard glider, you can drop it in to provide in field reinforcement. However, this glider can also heal nearby squads and recrew team weapons. In addition, the DFS 230 has roof top MG15 upgrade, which turns it into something akin to a light MG emplacement. So there are a few ways I see this being useful. One would be to drop the glider so that it covers your cut off, upgrade the MG and it will make it much harder for your opponent to cut you off and you’ll get infield reinforcement with healing. Maps like Famonville and Road to Tunis, this would be immensely useful. Another use would be in intense VP wars, at the end of the game you want to secure a flank VP, you drop the glider in and upgrade the MG, in many ways its like an auto build, quick deploy MG emplacement, that can also reinforce. Great for map control.
250 W/ Flak 38: Fairly vanilla, like the other 250 callins except with a Flak 38. The Flak 38 would have identical performance to the Flak 30 of Wehr, one way to differentiate them would be to give the gun shield heavy cover properties, but reduce the unit to 4 men to compensate.
Ju-87 Multi Vector MG Strafes: Essentially 3 separate strafes that you call in one after the other. The difference between this and a standard MG strafe is that these strafes give you what is essentially a ‘bulk buy discount’, but also, since they can be targeted in 3 totally separate places within LOS, your opponent has to react quickly to dodge all 3 of them. Its acts as a micro spike test, where you quickly throw them down and they quickly have to dodge. The skill of placing them all fast and accurately needs to be matched by the skill in dodging them all. Moreover, when combined with an attack with units, it can create an overwhelming set of threats.
Bomb Drop Overwatch: The most comparable ability to this would be sector artillery. However, in this case, its planes dropping bombs on units that come into the territory. Its not exactly a loiter though as the planes wait off map, they can still be shot down however. In terms of how strong the bombs should be, it would require testing but somewhere between a 5.5 inch shell and the US Dive Bomb would be a good place to start. Ideally a broad AOE, with only a small zone of full damage. This tool would essentially be used for area denial and be really strong in VP wars.
Ready Reinforcements: A fairly straight forward ability that speeds up reinforcement and allows quick return to the battlefield, again allowing you to retain field presence. Another feature of this ability is that it speeds up in field reinforcement and allows infantry to sprint in friendly territory outside of combat, being able to react to hot spots faster.
Junkers Ju 52 Reinforcement Pass: This is most comparable to the Paradrop Reinforcements of US, except where that ability is a stream of reinforcements over a long duration, this ability is more geared towards a burst of reinforcements all at once. There’s an element of skill in its deployment, as you’re incentivised to line up as many squads lengthwise as possible to maximise reinforcements dropped per munitions expenditure. Since its substantially longer than wide, you could have several squads in different engagements all ‘caught’ in the line and all benefiting from the ability. I could see this happening when you have multiple squads spread across the centre of the map and all located within the area of effect. The ability can be used to swing engagements and keep units in the field.
Paradrop 4.2cm Pak 41 Team: Self-explanatory, the performance of the Pak would be better than both the Pak 36 and the 38, as well as being more mobile than the 38. Useful to quickly deploy AT to a trouble spot.
Temporary Bolster: During the duration of the ability, squads can get an extra man. So Panzer grenadiers can go from 5 to 6 (or from 6 to 7), MG34s go from 4 to 5, Paks likewise etc. This applies to all infantry and support weapons. Once the ability ends, the extra model doesn’t leave, but when the squad drops back to normal numbers of models, it won’t return to the bolstered level until the ability is reactivated. What this ability allows you to do is augment the heath and DPS of your squads temporarily, making them more survivable in the field. Obviously though, the extra models are not free, costing both manpower and munitions.
Temporary Fallschirmjägers Assignment: Like the 222 assignment in the previous battlegroup, this involves you taking control of 2 squads which leave the battlefield after a period of time. In this case, 2 squads of MP40 Falls are dropped where you like and then can be used to sow carnage for 75 seconds from when they touch the ground. Their MP40s make them ideal for flanking team weapons, they have smoke grenades and the can throw short range snares. So you could potentially drop them in behind the lines with the intention of catching a vehicle trying to back up from the front line. One massive use of this ability will be in VP wars, where you drop them onto a VP in the lategame to swing the match in your favour. They don’t cost manpower, population or upkeep, but require a lot of munitions.
Historical Accuracy Notes
A few notes on what is inaccurate or anachronistic. The Panzer III Munitions Vehicle, as far as I know, wasn’t used in Africa but on the Eastern Front. There was another, the Lorraine Schlepper Munitions Vehicle, that was used in Africa for the exact same purpose and this could be used instead, but the benefits of the P3 are reduced development cost as some of the voice lines and the vehicle sounds can be reused. I’m also not so sure whether Side Skirts were used on P3s in North Africa, I haven’t seen photo evidence in any case.
The MG131, while used in a ground HMG role, I haven’t seen evidence of it being used by the DAK in North Africa. About ten Sd.Kfz.6/3 AT Halftracks were used, some people might object to that unit on these grounds. I haven’t seen evidence of the Pak 41 being used in North Africa, I’m also fairly sure they didn’t paradrop them. The M30 Drilling Shotgun was used in North Africa…but only by downed pilots. The Madsen Belt Fed MG was a Luftwaffe contract gun, but I haven’t seen evidence of it being used in North Africa. Likewise with the Panzerhandmine 3. Needless to say, all these are exceptions. Otherwise, to the best of my knowledge, these designs are historically congruent.
Design Notes
I deliberately avoided using Italian Units in these designs. Following from what I said about Relic doubling down on Coh3, I feel it makes sense for them to eventually create an Italian Faction, so I didn’t want to cannibalise that faction, especially when the DAK already has plenty of material to play with.
What to do with the remaining units in the files?
There are several other units in the game files that I haven’t used here. This was intentional. Several people having been calling out for the substitute vehicle feature from Coh1:
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As a feature it makes a lot of sense, I feel the community would be far more interested in small and frequent content drops like these instead of cosmetics and they could be priced to be more profitable than battlegroups at less development cost. They would ideally be more frequent as well, bringing players to the game. I feel games like War Thunder and WOT benefit from the sheer variety of units and I can’t see how this wouldn’t apply to Coh. Whenever they release, the units will be similar enough to the units they replace that they won’t disturb balance much, meaning less emergency balance hotfixes.
I feel this is what makes the most sense for the units already modelled, for example, the Panzer II is fundamentally serving the exact same role as the 8-Rad, they’re both 20mm autocannon light vehicles. Its hard to imagine a build where you would build both of them in the same composition and trying to make them different would be clumsy. We see this with the L6/40s, which are also similar to the 8 Rad and have been specialised to be worse against infantry and better against vehicles, to mixed results. Then there’s the 250/9. Adding another autocannon light vehicle via a battlegroup wouldn’t be that different from what we already have but as a substitute vehicle it makes a lot of sense. This logic can be applied to most of the vehicles already in the game files. The substitutions I would advise would be:
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The Panzerjäger I is already in the game files and could be substituted for the Marder. It would have less health and worse pen, but could be made significantly cheaper. This would be an interesting trade off in the composition. Alternatively, there’s the Marder III H which also could be made as a substitute, it would largely have the same performance but could have an MG upgrade and have a different starting price.
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The Sturmpanzer II would have a much larger up front damage, closer to a Brummbär, but would have a lot less health and far worse frontal armour. You wouldn’t be tanking Bazooka shots like you do with the StuG D but it would be significantly more deadly.
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For the Opel Blitz Flak 38, it would be cool if this worked more like the Flak HT in Coh2, with the set up time and suppression. So this unit could be made cheaper and have the same role as the Flakvierling, but be more finicky to use.
Others:
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Conclusion
This is what I would do with the remaining DAK content, short of a rework. The battlegroups are unique, fairly historically accurate, thematic and interesting. The concepts can at least be stolen and repurposed elsewhere. If there’s anything clearly broken or so amazing that it needs a shout out, feel free to let me know. I have other ideas for the other factions but I'm still pondering them.
PS. This is a repost from before, when I initially posted this I didn't understand how Reddit worked.

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Game Information

• Game Name: Halo Infinite
• Release Date: December 8, 2021
• Story Length: 9 Hours
• Completionist Length: 25 Hours
• Setting/World-Type: Sci-Fi Open World
• Genre/Sub-Genre: First-person shooter
• Perspective: First-person
• Development Engine: Slipspace Engine

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Game Publisher and Developer Information

• Developer: 343 Industries
• Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
• Headquarters Location: Redmond, Washington, United States
• Director: Pierre Hintze
• Lead Producers: Chris Hager, Brian Lemon, and Casey Marissa Wu
• Writers: Dan Chosich, Paul Crocker, Jeff Easterling, Aaron Linde
• Technical Director: David Berger
• Design Director: Max Szlagor

https://preview.redd.it/0qa55nag2h0d1.jpg?width=3840&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37c4ddbd760fd4e3ecd1e3b8903ea84dbad6ff16

STORY ATMOSPHERE LORE - 100/100

During the boarding of the UNSC Infinity supercarrier, Master Chief is thrown into space by Atriox, leader of the Banished. The Banished are a mercenary group that was previously part of the Covenant but broke away due to disagreements with the Covenant leadership. You’re eventually rescued by the Pilot, a survivor of the attack, who reluctantly assists the Master Chief in his mission to take down Atriox and the Banished. After destroying the warship, Chief is picked up by the Pilot, and they head down to Zeta Halo to search for a “weapon” in the mysteriously damaged portion of the ring. With these two introductory missions out of the way, you’re introduced to Halo Infinite’s vibrant yet dangerous open world. Across the 16-story missions, you will find yourself going across Zeta Halo and into the depths of the Forerunner installation.
The campaign features wide and sprawling open fields, claustrophobic underground facilities, and everything in between. The pacing of missions in Infinite is well done and isn’t too fast or slow. Missions are not too long, and you can expect to spend about 11 and a half hours on Zeta Halo when focusing on the main objectives, making it the longest campaign to date, according to HowLongToBeat. When looking to see everything the game has to offer, it’s estimated to take around 27 and a half hours to finish.
Knowing the lore behind the factions only adds to how enjoyable it is to fight against each enemy. For example, Brutes are always looking to fight opponents of noteworthy strength, so they approach battles with the Master Chief with bravado and are often happy to battle with the Spartans. Jackals, on the other hand, are typically pirates and mercenaries and will remark about claiming the bounty on Master Chief during combat. They go as far as commenting on canon events during combat, which is a first for the series. For example, Grunts will sometimes taunt you with a remark about the events of Halo: Reach by saying, “Hey Spartan, Reach called! Just kidding - ha!” Sometimes, Grunts dab after killing you, making them even more hilarious to fight. The colorful personalities that make up the Banished mercenaries make them feel more alive and like real characters you’re battling against. Previous Halo games had less personality-oriented enemies whose combat chatter became repetitive and didn’t make for a marginally more interesting battle.

GAMEPLAY - 95/100

WEAPONS

Since Halo: Combat Evolved, a damage system consisting of Kinetic and Plasma has been in place. Hardlight didn’t make a place for itself until Halo 4 and Shock Damage had its inception in Halo Infinite. Most human-made weapons deal Kinetic damage, which is effective at taking down unshielded enemies like Grunts, while Plasma works best against shields. Hardlight is good against any enemy regardless of their shield status, but the weapons and ammo are few and far between. Shock damage arcs between targets and is great for groups of Banished and their vehicles. As the newest addition to the weapon ecosystem, it makes a powerful statement when used in the midst of battle. Much like previous Halo installments, having only two weapon slots forces you into giving encounters some forethought since you’ll want to be properly prepared for the skirmish. It also makes you have to sacrifice certain weapons and pick up others to gain the upper hand in a fight, especially when facing a boss. Ammo resupplies aren’t new to Halo, but the ability to refill certain ammo like rockets without picking up a duplicate of the weapon is new to the series.
As a first for the series, the open-world design makes the open-battlefield style fights from previous games even more exciting by allowing different approaches to fights to be more viable. Previous installments of the series pitted Master Chief against enemies in arena-style fights, which had a repeating cycle of short battles and then exposition. Infinite has a different sense of balance between combat and exposition. One minute, you’re riding along through the ring, and suddenly you stumble upon a battle between Banished forces and surviving Marines. All hell breaks loose. In prior installments, you knew when combat would start due to the layout of an area, but in Halo Infinite, it’s less predictable but in the best way possible. It brings the ringworld to life and has a sense of curiosity as to what you’ll find yourself in next, similar to random encounters in other RPGs.

ENEMIES

In a first for the series, boss fights also make an appearance in the campaign. The boss fights in the story force you to take the damage system seriously because, without them, you’re bound to have a hard time. The bosses come with their own special fighting style. For example, the Spartan Killers, Hyperius and Tovarus, are both battled at the same time in the mission ‘Pelican Down.’ Hyperius wields a unique Ravager, S7 sniper, and rides a Chopper, while his brother Tovarus has a Scrap Cannon and spike grenades. Fighting both at the same time proves to be a mighty challenge since you’re in an open area with limited weaponry. Each boss has an arena that puts you at a disadvantage, like when you fight the invisible, energy sword-wielding Elite, Chak ’Lok, in a small room full of smoke. Another example would be fighting against the lightning-fast Harbinger in the final mission, along with her incredibly difficult waves of enemies. The bosses come in all forms of Banished and remain a constant threat in both main missions and side objectives.
Although the bosses are difficult, Halo Infinite’s standard enemies pose their own threats and must be handled differently. For example, Jackals have to be dealt with quickly since they often show up with marksman rifles that deal heavy damage. Elites are easily recognized by their tall stature and signature mandibles. They’re honor-bound Captains of the Banished whose inspiring presence makes their soldiers more emboldened and less fearful. Taking them out makes the rest of the battle much more manageable. Grunts are the small and frightened cannon fodder of the Banished who often run in fear when their higher-ups are defeated.

UPGRADES

One of the other new additions to the campaign is an upgrade system. Master Chief can now upgrade parts of his kit to make his gadgets much more powerful by finding and acquiring Spartan Cores. Become a walking tank by upgrading your shield to absorb more damage before breaking or greatly improve the agility of Chief by reducing the cooldown between uses of the Grappleshot. Reduced cooldown is an absolute must if you plan on playing around with the grappling hook during combat since waiting for it to recharge can mean life or death. All of the upgrades play their parts and can be integral to having a battle go your way. The Threat sensor can be upgraded to have a permanent mark on the enemy along with a visible health bar. The Drop Wall can have its strength increased and add shock damage to projectiles you fire through it. Finally, the thruster can increase its dodge distance and give you a cloak effect after use. Each ability upgrade plays into how well you’ll perform during a fight since not using them can cause you to take a lot more damage.

OUTPOSTS

Those aren’t the only new changes Infinite brings to the table. Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) are another new addition to the map. They appear as outposts you can claim during your fight against the Banished and serve as fast travel points. Alongside these FOBs comes a currency known as Valor. Valor is earned through completing the various side missions available across Zeta Halo. The currency allows you to unlock supplies and weapons to aid you in dominating the Banished and the battlefield. Your hard-earned Valor needs only to be spent once for unlimited access to the requisitions. From the simple yet reliable Sidekick sidearm all the way to the big bad behemoth of ground warfare, the Scorpion, Valor enables you to bring out any sort of weapon or vehicle for any scenario.

SIDE OBJECTIVE

The open world of Zeta Halo also has many side missions available, such as hunting down high-value targets (HVTs), rescuing UNSC Marines, and capturing abandoned outposts. These missions can be a great break from the story or provide much-needed Valor to help during the story. Undertaking a High-Value Target mission is as simple as going to the marked location and killing the target. The bosses appear as various types of Banished, and each has its own dossier with backstory and potentially useful information, such as strengths, weaknesses, and potential combat strategies. The HVTs also carry a unique weapon that drops when their wielder is defeated and can be purchased with valor for use during missions. When you’re not taking Banished lives, you can instead save those of the survivors of the UNSC Infinity’s crash. The Marine survivors will usually be engaging Banished troops, and it’s your job to make sure they survive. Upon saving the Marines, you’ll be rewarded with Valor as well as some new comrades who are willing to ride in vehicles and fight with you. Aside from the HVT hunting and marine distress signals, outposts are also available. Each Outpost offers several different objectives that need to be completed in order to shut down the facility. The objectives vary depending on the function of the Outpost, and completing a task can cause enemy reinforcement. Similarly to FOBs, the Outposts act as fast travel points after they’re finished and can be used to call in supplies unlocked through Valor.

FIRST-PERSON SHOOTER - 80/100

As a first-person shooter, Halo Infinite’s campaign excels at the traditional formula while adding new gameplay elements like boss fights. In these additions, Infinite delivers a fun and memorable combination of well-paced storytelling and solid gameplay. The RPG elements, like armor upgrades, make for a more engaging experience by giving an enticing reason to explore the levels and open world of Zeta Halo. All of these elements come together and deliver an amazing FPS game that doesn’t disappoint.

GRAPHICS ART DIRECTION - 95/100

Halo Infinite is the most graphically advanced Halo to date thanks to the new Slipspace engine, which allows it to outshine the previous installments by providing new and updated visuals. The engine enables excellent use of volumetric lighting, giving the interiors beautiful rays of light that shine through cracks and around objects. Each of these components lends itself to the world of Zeta Halo and makes it a true marvel to look at. Indoor sections feel realistic through their use of volumetric lighting and high-resolution textures. These elements make the walk through Forerunner facilities feel strange and alien as the lights twist and turn while you maneuver through the halls. Master Chief's damaged armor looks amazing in the cutscenes, where it looks battered and beat from the various battles the suit has seen. Compared to Halo 5, it’s far more appealing in the lighting and detail while remaining much more realistic with its high-resolution textures. It’s small things like this that make all the difference in how you perceive the game and the time put into it.
The art design of the levels works great in conjunction with the Forerunner plot elements introduced in Halo 4 as the beginning of the Reclaimer Saga. We see a lot of the Forerunner technology at work through things like bridges appearing as you approach and the Forerunner Sentinels flying overhead and working on repairs within facilities. These seemingly small details play a big role in making the factions more believable while also allowing the world to feel unique. While some levels in other Halo games felt a little too similar to one another in some cases, each level in Infinite feels completely different while retaining the identity of Halo Infinite. Compared to the first mission, where the halls of the Banished ship are claustrophobic and limit movement while eliciting the feeling of having a daunting task ahead, ‘Silent Auditorium’ brings you within a massive Forerunner facility that feels larger than life and has a feeling of finality to it.
The larger-than-life buildings of the Forerunners combined with the shiny silver exterior that makes up their facilities make for very regal settings. When paired with the grand and open interiors, the areas provide a majestic feeling and truly make the sci-fi notion come to life. The Banished forces come with their own unique looks as well, with their scarlet armor providing a contrast to the environment that allows for them to be easily distinguished from the background. The scarlet of their armor compliments their ferocity in battle since the Banished aren’t ones to run away from conflict, even with Master Chief.

REPLAYABILITY - 85/100

One of the best parts of Halo campaigns is how replayable they are. Whether you’re playing alone or with a friend at your side, the story of Halo Infinite is captivating and gripping enough to make it worth a few extra playthroughs. The side missions and the optional bosses are plentiful enough that you may not be able to complete the extra objectives in a single run. Aside from a completionist run, you can also try your hand at the infamous LASO challenge. LASO, standing for Legendary All Skulls On, is the ultimate test of your Halo skills and can be as infuriating as it is gratifying once you make it through a section. LASO is just one of many challenging ways the community has made Halo replayable and always a fresh experience. Master Chief’s journey on Zeta Halo is easy to jump back into even after beating it and is great if you’re looking to experience a quality storyline in a fan-favorite universe.

FUN FACTOR - 95/100

The Halo Infinite campaign is incredibly fun and makes for a memorable experience with all of its new additions. Between the classic and new formula for Halo, it finds itself in the middle, where new gameplay elements mesh together with the traditional style seamlessly. The game succeeds at giving you fun new things to play around with while remaining true to the original Halo style. You’ll find the most fun moments when the gameplay finally ‘clicks’ and you manage to pull off that awesome sniper shot or kill that boss that’s been giving you trouble. It’s such a satisfying feeling when you manage to latch onto a Brute chopper with the Grappleshot and yank the Banished out of their vehicles. It feels straight out of a movie and makes you truly immerse yourself in the incredible feats Master Chief is known to pull off. These moments of triumph are what add up to making the campaign so fun and can keep you coming back for more.

TECHNICAL PERFORMANCE - 97/100

Through the time played on both Xbox One and Xbox Series X, the game was incredibly well optimized. The graphics were noticeably different between the two generations, but it’s to be expected with the hardware differences. The game ran as smoothly as ever from the beginning to the end of the campaign. The Xbox One had some intermittent lag and stutter, but it wasn’t enough to impact gameplay significantly. The game ran very consistently throughout the campaign experience and made for a very enjoyable experience since it suffered no crashes.

CREATIVE REVIEW

Halo Infinite, released on December 8, 2021, is an ambitious follow-up to 2015’s Halo 5: Guardians. The game began development by 343 Industries just three years later. This sci-fi first-person shooter is the third installment in the Reclaimer Saga that began with Halo 4 and was published by Xbox Game Studios. Infinite was intended to be a launch release for the Xbox Series XS but was delayed due to internal conflict on development decisions. This installment utilizes the new Slipspace engine in conjunction with Faber, a set of developer tools with some of its components dating back to the early 2000s. Since its release, the campaign has been the subject of critical acclaim, with many praising the innovations the new story brought with it. An open world, new armor abilities, and a new faction all come with the installment’s 28-hour story mode. On the other hand, the free-to-play multiplayer was heavily criticized for its lack of content at launch. Since then, Infinite’s multiplayer has gone through several seasons, each of them introducing new content and different cosmetics to obtain through battle pass progression.
When I booted up the campaign for the first time, I couldn’t help but reminisce on all the good times I had both solo and with friends in previous installments. Memories like Grifball on Halo: Reach, dying four thousand times to Jackal Snipers on Halo 2, and Arbiter saving Chief with a flamethrower in Halo 3. I went in expecting something at least a little better than the catastrophe of Halo 5, but instead, I was met with something very different and unique for the series. Let’s start from the beginning: the opening cutscene and mission one. While Chief is known to be one of gaming’s coolest characters, he got humbled extremely quickly. The scene opens with pure chaos ensuing. There’s fire, plasma, and bullets flying everywhere, and Chief is at the center of it all. I felt like a kid in a candy shop, watching him skillfully maneuver and take down several opponents. That is until the big baddie of the Banished came along. The following encounter between Atriox and Master Chief was absolute humiliation for the mean green killing machine. Atriox grabs him, beats him with his admittedly cool hammer, drags Master Chief through the hangar, and then throws him into space. I was in pure shock as to how Chief just got beaten like nothing. Isn’t he a ‘hyper-lethal’ class Spartan? Maybe it was because he got caught off guard. Regardless, I just watched my childhood get thrown to his presumable death, and I wanted revenge.
Mission one sees us go in a Banished Warship to free the Pelican that Echo-216 saved us with from certain doom. It was straightforward, and I got a good glimpse of that classic Halo gameplay loop so many of us loved: Exploration, combat, and then some exposition. It’s a simple yet effective formula that kept me engaged the whole game. In this opening mission, we get introduced to the newest piece of equipment: the Grappleshot. While simple, it plays a huge role in every aspect of this game. As I got the hang of using it, I found that I could use it for more effective maneuverability in combat, something I did the entire game, which saved me many times. I got to the control room and promptly blew the ship to Smithereens, which left me feeling a lot of satisfaction as I mentally recovered from seeing Chief beaten up by Atriox. After the Banished Warship and one other mission, we get to explore the open world of Zeta Halo.
The world is exciting and fun to explore while supporting characters and cutscenes only add to the already gripping story. I quickly fell in love with the campaign and its characters in a way I hadn’t felt since Halo 4. When I wasn’t doing one of the story missions, I was out, causing a ruckus with the side missions. The High-Value Target missions were personal favorites that you’ll love if you’re a fan of boss fights, something Infinite doesn’t shy away from and has plenty of. Each fight feels like a real challenge since they all put you at a distinct disadvantage, like the Pelican Down mission, where you fight Hyperius and Tovarus at the same time with limited space and weaponry. This challenge translated well into a stark contrast between regular enemies and bosses. It made the bosses really feel threatening, a feeling I felt most games lacked since the fight with General Raam way back in the first Gears of War. There were countless battles, a lot of dying, and tons of fun to be had.
By the time I reached the Silent Auditorium, I had amassed an arsenal of weapons that I thought would make it a piece of cake. Spoiler alert: it was far from easy. I struggled on this mission quite a bit and had to take a break and tackle it again the next day. There were tons of enemies of varying calibers and carrying a lot of guns, but that was nothing new for a final Halo mission. It feels like enemy AI was much better this time around due to technological improvements and level designs largely being in favor of the Banished. The Silent Auditorium is a beautiful but deadly level that kept me on my toes and gave me a real sense of finality and importance as I made my way through the Banished army, protecting the final boss. It really makes you utilize every bit of tech and upgrade you’ve gotten up to this point. I had to throw down many Drop Walls, use a lot of Grappleshots to run away and heal, and use more Threat Sensors than I could count. Eventually, I got to the final boss with little ammo and very small amounts of optimism about the upcoming fight. The reasoning is spoiler-heavy, so I won’t say much, but when you get ready for this mission, come prepared to die a lot.
Halo Infinite had a rocky beginning but has a bright future ahead of it so long as 343 Industries keeps up the amazing work they’ve been doing during the past and current seasons. The campaign is on par with the original trilogy, which many consider to be the pinnacle of the series. It manages to define itself as a fantastic third entry to the Reclaimer Saga that had a rough start with the release of Halo 4 and the negatively received Halo 5: Guardians. While the campaign introduces some things that may initially turn away long-time fans, the gameplay and new additions make the story able to be experienced in a new and unique way. This is only furthered by a fantastic upgrade system that keeps you in the fight against an enemy that hits hard and can take a punch. The level design choices utilize the new gameplay additions like the Grappling Hook to their full extent and encourage you to play around with your new toys, see what strikes your fancy, and master their uses. Likewise, the multiplayer has a lot of charm. The addition of new weapons, new maps, and new modes add up and make for an awesome bout of fun with friends or even by yourself. The seasonal releases and cosmetics for the multiplayer only add to the fun with what many consider to be the best customization received since Halo: Reach. It may have been roughly criticized in the beginning, but it’s clear that 343 Industries took the criticism and set out to give Infinite the makeover of a lifetime. Halo Infinite surpasses expectations while remaining humble in its delivery of an unforgettable campaign and an equally addicting multiplayer that keeps many of us coming back for more. It’s amazing to see how far the game has come since its beta, and it’s hard to contain the excitement that comes with pondering what comes next.

SCORE SUMMARY - 92/100

Halo Infinite is a fantastic entry into one of the most well-known gaming series, and it delivers on nearly every front in its campaign. The cutscenes are beautiful, the RPG elements are prevalent but not overpowering, and the core gameplay is reminiscent of classic Halo. The campaign is easily one of the best entries in the series and delivers a stellar game in all aspects.
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Roland Martinez
Reviewer
Favorite Game: Gears of War

Continuing this series on Battlegroup ideas, today is Wehr. Here are my DAK Ideas. To reiterate, I wanted to make these ideas thematic, different from existing battlegroups, unique and mostly historically accurate. Here I use the units that are already in the game files and propose how they could be implemented in an interesting way. Relic seem to have developed several bunker types which they intend to use, so when designing my battlegroups, I did it in a way where these bunker types were used but didn’t make the battlegroup Italian Coastal 2.0, rather fed into a larger idea. I introduce and expand a number of mechanics I have discussed in my other threads:
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Central Idea: All in prevention, counter attack. Your opponent would have a hard time overwhelming you in one all in push. The left side of the tree consists of mostly callins and quick dispatch units for handling flanks quickly, the right side is more logistics themed with multiple reactionary abilities.
BMW R75: Not a lot to say here, similar to the DAK bike except with an MG 42. It could be made to have no reverse, like the Coh1 bike, that was a fun mechanic.
4-Man Pios: Again, self-explanatory.
Sd. Kfz. 251 Variants: This gives you access to other 251 variants, either by upgrading the 251 directly or by calling them in. I’ve chosen these 2 versions that I feel open up a lot more strategies, Mortar HT and Luft tier would be quite good, that tier lacks indirect. Pakwagen Panzer Gren tier would also be strong, as that tier lacks mobile AT. The ATHT would have the same AT performance as the Marder, but would have less HP and no lockdown ability.
Panzer III H: As a unit to add to Wehr’s roster, this makes a lot of sense on many levels. In terms of performance, this would be closer to the Crusader medium tank. In terms of the timing, it would arrive at the same time as the Stug and the Wirbel, but unlike both of those specialists, this would be a generalist for that timing.
Temporary Armour Assignment: This is exactly like the mechanic I described in my DAK designs. How it works is that this munitions only ability is used and a Stug, P4 pair arrive from off map. Neither unit requires fuel, manpower, upkeep or population. They benefit from all the upgrades that affect the normal version, ie vet and armoured skirts. You have direct control over them but after a set period of time, they will turn to AI control and leave. This makes them really good as a reactionary ability (your opponent is doing an all in) or as your own all-in, especially if you’re already maxed out on population. You’re especially incentivised to make risky plays with them as armour preservation is not so important. The number of use cases for this ability are so numerous that I won’t explain it anymore, it should be obvious how strong this is. I think to balance this out, it needs a heavy munitions cost and a long recharge timer.
AI Temporary Elephant Assignment: One of the questions I’ve been asking myself since Coh3 came out is how do you add heavy tanks to the game in such a way that it’s not frustrating to play against and doesn’t break it. Given that the game is set so much earlier in the war and a number of the factions don’t have ready access to tank destroyers like the SU-85 and the Jackson, you can’t simply throw in the Elephant and hope for the best. To be completely explicit, I don’t see how the US with their current roster are expected to deal with a Coh2 style heavy tank destroyer. However, in Halo Wars 2 Blitz game mode, how it works is that you can call in a Scarab and its an incredibly strong unit but after a certain period of time, it spontaneously explodes and the game returns to normal. Why wouldn’t something similar work for Coh3? The risk reward calculus of using it would be; can you get enough damage done in the period available to justify the expenditure? There are a few ways that this could be implemented, you could, for instance, give the player direct control over the Elephant but I’m in favour of doing this slightly differently. Like the Infantry Assault ability for the US Advanced Infantry Doc, I think this should be AI controlled, should be on attack move and should be targeted on a position. After the timer, the unit would drive off map. This way you get the power fantasy of using a heavy tank without the game breaking potential of a heavy tank camping for the entire game between 2 VPs and zoning out all tanks. The reason I prefer this method of implementation is 2 fold; the first is that counterplay is much simpler, you just avoid the area and wait for it to time out. The second is that it has that appeal of being somewhat like a mini campaign mission within the game, you have to defend the tank with your forces as it advances. Your opponent would be easily able to flank it if its on it’s own, but when you support it yourself its more potent. The one exception to this AI control that perhaps should be considered is allowing the player to control the tageting directly, You wouldn’t want the Elephant to shoot at some random infantry while your opponent moves double Archers into position. In terms of relative strength of the abilty, I think if it was implemented in this fashion, the Elephant ability wouldn’t be that strong. I feel direct control over a P4 and a Stug is much stronger than an AI controlled Elephant. To me this is the best way of getting heavy tanks into the game.
Logistics Field Officer: The right side of the tree very much has a logistics theme to it, starting with the officer. The Resource Priority ability works well with a variety of units, one could see this being handy in a situation where you want to increase the ROF of an MG, Mortar or Pak being extremely useful. Situations where you want to increase the ROF on a tank to help it win the engagement would also be strong. Speeding up the recharge on a Nebelwerfer would also be a common use. Source Replacements I could also see being a heavily used ability, either on the field or in base. Finally, given this battlegroup is munitions intensive, the Supervise Resource Extraction ability will allow you to increase your income like a cache does. You could even have some rush strat builds involving the officer, but unlike caches and trucks, the unit can be repurposed to do other things afterwards.
Panzerschreck Trailer: This is another type of trailer unit. I’ve talked about trailer units a few times in my other posts, but here is the rundown: My thinking with this is that its a brand new unit type, which loosely can be defined as a support weapon. How it works is that infantry squads can crew it, push it around, vehicles can tow it, etc. When in a position, it provides an aura which in this case recharges nearby snares faster. However, the unit shouldn't require pop cap and moreover, you can actually manually decrew it and it will still provide you the benefits. So for example, let's say it spawns in your base and you want to setup a strong point, you can crew it with a squad, wheel it over to a house near the frontline and then decrew it. Units within its vicinity would still be benefiting from the aura. When you want to move it, recrew it again, or tow it, to a new location. The beauty of this dynamic is that your opponents can steal these units from you like an ATG, so while they don't take up popcap and would be relatively cheap (say 100 to 150 manpower), you're still incentivised to protect them. You can also attack move them with AT guns etc, would be interesting to play around it. I think it would make for a fun dynamic, but would need to be coded from scratch. It also indirectly makes tow yet more useful. With this trailer specifically, it’s aura will recharge nearby snares faster, however squads can also collect a Panzerschrek from the trailer for a munitions cost. This Panzerschrek is timed, so after a duration the squad will drop it. This is going to really strong in situations where your opponent is doing an all in dive with light vehicles and/or tanks and you need to bolster your AT immediately to hold on. Picking up these Panzerschreks is not cheap, but it makes it much harder for your opponent to dive you and also allows you to go for low AT builds with this trailer as the backup. The way I see this until being used is wheeling it behind a hedge or building near your cutoff and running over to grab a Panzerschrek if its needed. Let’s say your opponent does a double M8 dive, your 2 Grens and a Panzergren pick up 3 schreks between them and your opponent is basically able to do nothing but wait for them to time out. This could buy you enough time to reach T4 or whatever else you were doing. It’s a tool that adds a lot of flexibility to your composition, but remember if you get forced off, your opponent can just steal it and then its your problem!
Weapon Stores: This gives your pios the ability to build Riegel mines but also Weapon Supply Bunkers. Now, the bunker has a straight forward aura that increases ROF of infantry and their grenade recharge times, but it also has another more expansive mechanic of temporary weapon upgrades. I’ve talked about this mechanic at great length in my Luftwaffe Field Division faction design, where the faction essentially revolves around that mechanic, but here I use a simplified version for a Wehr battlegroup. The TLDR is that infantry squads can pick up weapon packages from the bunker to either augment their current DPS or completely change the role of the squad for a short period. For instance, Jagers can pick up Beretta 38s to transform the squad from a mostly mid range unit, to a short range one. Grens can pick up G43s to improve their mid to long range performance and Pios can pick up an MG34. All the options are avialable to you. However, the upgrades are not timed, but depletable. This means that if the squad is not in combat, the upgrade duration doesn’t tick. You have to be in combat to expend the upgrade. The situations where something like this would come in useful are numerous, but to name a few; giving all your grens weapons at any point in the game, augmenting your jagers with MG34s, giving Stosstruppen Berettas so they become a close range powerhouse, or even double MGs. Relative to normal weapon upgrades, these upgrades are inefficient, but for rush strats they can be strong, as well as augmenting your units in the lategame with the extra munitions you have in the bank.
HE Shell Delivery: Improves the splash and anti infantry power of all your vehicles at the cost of penetration. This could be somewhat tricky to use, as your opponent will become aware of its activation immediately and will come in with their vehicles. But situations where your opponent has dug in with ATGs and AT infantry, this ability will be devastating.
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Central Idea: Team weapon play, heavy fire power and artillery. Good for just battering your opponents head on.
SD-2 Line Drop: This is similar to the equivalent ability in Coh1, however the big difference is that you can customise the area where the mines will fall. For instance, you could do a relatively small field on a VP for 50 munitions, or you could do a large line of mines to completely block off a flank with mines. This flexibility allows you to employ the ability in a number of situations and adds some nuance to its employment. It terms of how this would work in game, I feel click and drag would be sufficient, the munitions cost being visible on the cursor. In the context of this battlegroup, it can block off the flanks of your team weapons.
Pre-Sighted Terrain: This feeds into that team weapon focused gameplay, having extra range on your Paks and MGs in an area is going to be really strong. You could even use it with Mortars and Nebels for an extra long range barrage.
7.5cm Flak 264/3(i) AA/AT: The Flak 264/3 is an Italian medium AA piece that fits into what I will refer to as the ‘premium anti tank gun’ category. Similar to how the MG42 and DSKH were premium MGs, this ATG will be better than your standard ATG, at a higher price point. On the scale of ATGs, this will lie between the Pak 40 and the Flak 36 in terms of raw firepower. The damage should be exactly as the Pak 40, however it should also benefit from 10 more range and also the ability to shoot down air. The drawback however is that it should be relatively slow to move, like a Pak 40 in camoflage mode. For small adjustments, this should be fine, but to move it across the map, it would be easier with a tow vehicle. This means there are tradeoffs with this option relative to the Pak 40, the situations where the Flak 264/3 would be better is when you don’t want to invest in a wirbel but still want AA on demand when you need it (2 of these should take down planes pretty quickly), or situations where you’re camping 2 VPs and don’t expect to have to move around much, allowing you to utilise the greater range. Paks are going to be better when you need to move around a lot and expect your opponent to invest in indirect fire.
Flakvierling 38: This gun is exactly as on the Wirbelwind, except it’s a team weapon. Relative to the Flak 30, this would have the advantage of suppression and probably better anti infantry performance. Perhaps starting with the same stats as the DAK Flak halftrack and going from there would be a good place to start.
28cm K5(E) Barrage: Heavy railway barrage, not much to say here.
7.5 cm IG 37: This is essentially work like the LeIG for DAK, it’s a later version of the same concept. Wehr don’t have anything like the Heavy Mortar equivalent and this would be it. This would be handy if you wanted to go Luft tier or tier 4 without having to tech to get Nebels.
Springer Remote Controlled Bombs: Conceptually, this is identical to the Goliath remote controlled bombs, except these bombs are twice the size and are significantly more dangerous as a result. For me, one distinction that could be made would be dialling up their effectiveness against your opponent’s base structures. One thing I feel Coh lacks are tools for crippling your opponent’s tech. Kane’s wrath has a plethora of units and abilities for exactly this purpose and their employment is great to use and even more exciting to watch. So the Spinger should be able to knock out 75% of the health of a base tier structure. So conceivably, you could get a 251, drive it over to or into the base, deploy a Springer and blow it up next to T4, finish it off with Paks or Stugs. This will reinforce that whole dimension of the game, camping on 2 VPs will be much easier to punish.
Sd.Ah. 57 Munitions Trailer: Another style of trailer, as discussed above. Here it would be used directly with team weapons to increase their ROF. It can also be used with indirect, so Rocket artillery would recharge faster. I feel the situations where this would be useful are fairly obvious but one extra way of making it interesting would be if it had an AOE explosion on death. So your opponent would be incentivised to move in with vehicles and target it down. They could also just steal it for themselves.
Wurfrahmen 40 UE (f): Standard rocket artillery. One question I would expect a Wehraboo to ask is ‘why this and not the Panzerwerfer?’. The way I see it, this only has 4 rockets, so its damage per barrage is less. This leaves scope to make the barrage recharge time shorter, meaning you need to micro it more, but also, its less of a wipe machine or do nothing unit. You can also give it a lower price and require less population. Looking at the Walking Stuka in Coh2, that unit either killed everything or missed and was largely a waste of resources and popcap. If you can have the same unit, but with less alpha damage, at a cheaper price and popcap, it should be more consistent over the course of a match. It would also be easier to fit into your composition and would see greater use as a result. This essentially is why I picked this unit. That and because its new and different.
AI Double Wespe Temp. Assignment: Like the Elephant assignment above, this is where double Wespe artillery pieces come onto the field and are controlled by the AI. They attack move to the target, shelling your opponent’s units within range. This ability should be much easier to employ, as they barrage from long range, but also they should be easier to counter (you can just dive them). Since we’re not using new vehicle models, it should be cheaper to develop and its different from the existing off-maps.
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Central Idea: Long range engagements.
MGZ34 MG42 Scopes Upgrade: Simple upgrade, improves range and sight of MGs once they upgrade themselves for munitions.
AI Double Sniper Temp. Assignment: This is most similar to the Wespe ability I just described, except with 2 snipers. What this ability would be strong aganst would be team weapon camp and entrenched infantry, as well as guarding VPs in the lategame. What this ability would be pretty bad against would be an opponent with several light vehicles and tanks which can drive up and elminate the snipers in 5 seconds. Its not like the AI will dodge. This ability is augmented by the numerous sight abilities and units in this battlegroup.
Panzerbeobachtungswagen III: This is most similar to the 254 artillery observer for DAK, except where the abilities are largely air based. The unit has an MG, so it can be used to attack troops early on, but its mostly used for the focus sight ability in conjunction with tank destroyers and team weapons. The SD-2 Ground Burst drop I see being more like the M83 Cluster Mine drop from Coh2. The Ju-88 P-4 Heavy AT Strafe, is actually a 50mm cannon, so different from the JU-87 we have now by having more alpha damage.
Fritz X Guided Bomb Strike: This is probably most similar to the Stuka Dive Bomb in Coh2, however, the big difference is that you can manually guide it to the target. The inspiration for this are the Predator missiles from MW2, however in Coh3, the easiest way of implementing this to my mind is that the player has to keep the cursor where they want the bomb to land. However, if they don’t want to do this, as it prevents other micro, you double click and it will go to where it was last targeted. So the situations where you’d want to perform this micro are quite niche, basically when nothing else is happening for 5 seconds. I think a sensible decision should be to cut off direct control from the player 2 seconds before it hits the target, so its still possible to dodge but harder.
Nashorn Tank Destroyer: Not much to say here, its basically the Archer.
Grenadier K98k Scopes Upgrade: Not a lot to say here, range and sight augmentation for grens.
Ranged Bunker Options: Here we use some of the bunkers Relic has already invented. The mortar bunker is simple enough, but the Observation bunker is a bit more interesting. This emplacement should have a long line of sight, but it should be restricted to a narrow arc which can be refaced. This encourages active micro of the emplacement. It would be strong in matches where this is placed behind team weapons and artillery for spotting targets but would not detect flanks. Somewhat reminds me of the child’s game ‘Spotlight’.
Fusiliers: These are another unit that Grens can be swapped out for. Unlike Jagers and Panzergrens, this unit is purely focused on long range DPS. You could use Gebirgsjager here instead, I use Fusiliers as one of my other designs uses Gebirgsjager.
Range Adjustment: This unit ability increases the squad’s accuracy after each model drop to a maximum of 30%, 5% per model. I could imagine in most situations, this would be a simple DPS boost, but there would be situations where fighting low health squads where this would be especially strong. The same kind of logic applies to the ATG and Tank Destroyer ability, where everytime they land a shot while the ability is active, it increases their accuracy and ROF.
Focused Gunnery: A global sight and range buff for vehicles, at the cost of speed. This blends well with the other abilities in the battlegroup.
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Central Idea: Area denial.
Grenadier & Pio Field Defences: Gives access to a number of build options. Panzer-Stabmine 43 AT Mines are a variation on normal mines, where the emphasis is placed on the heavy engine critical rather than the damage of the mine. So these mines would be relatively spammable, specialised against vehicles and would cause a heavy engine damage critical. The focus here is leaving your opponet’s vehicle stricken and being able to move in with your own vehicles to take it out. However, unlike say Riegel mines, it doesn’t do that much damage, so your opponent will have a much easier time of quickly repairing off the damage. It’s a variation on mines with its own drawbacks and strengths. However, the main structure you get access to is the Luftwaffe Relay Point. This emplacement can call in strafing runs within its vicinity, the AT strafe would be particularly strong if combined with the Stab mine as it would be far harder to dodge. The relay point though can also call in a variety of crate drops with different infantry buffs. Ammunition crates increase ROF, which is simple enough, but the Explosives Crate doubles the squads grenade ability the next time its used. For instance, Grens would throw 2 stick grenades for the price of 1 with a 0.5 second delay between each throw. Naturally, this is pretty strong and also munitions efficient, at the cost of extra micro. The mechanic could also be made to give squads that don’t normally have a grenade, a grenade. For example, it would be cool if Jagers/Pios got stick grenades after picking up one of these crates. I’m not sure what you would do with Stosstruppen, a bundle grenade assault? Sounds overpowered and incredibly fun. Double frangible sounds fine. Camouflage Crates give your squad moving camo for 60 seconds, so you could conceivably pick up this crate on the way to your opponent’s side of the map and use it to ambush or do all manner of things. One question that would need answering is whether or not is should be possible to stack these crate bonues, I could foresee camoed Panzergrenadiers with double bundle grenades being very very good. Perhaps the best way of soft nerfing this combination is to have a shared cooldown timer of 90 seconds on the crates, this should severely limit the number of times a player can get explosives and camo at the same time.
251/17 Halftrack: Exactly like Coh2.
Cannone Da 105/28 Howitzer Emplacement: A general howitzer emplacement, you could use the LeFH but this emplacement already exists.
Panzerturm IV: A mixed AT and anti infantry emplacement. This emplacement absolutely should take up pop cap but also have prioritise vehicles.
Bf109 WerferGranate 21 Rocket Strike: This would fire 4 rockets in unison, have fairly high alpha damage and flame dot damage. You would most use it against team weapons and infantry, especially in denying point caps, but potentially you could use it against vehicles, particularly if they hit a panzer stab mine, to cause them health damage and prevent them from being repaired.
Sd.kfz. 251/16 Flame Halftrack: Similar to the unit in Coh2, except you can also upgrade it with MGs. As a general comment, I feel this unit and flame weapons more generally should have bonus damage against base tech structures. Sneaking flame tanks into the base and burning down your opponent’s tech is so much fun in Kane’s wrath and I feel Coh3 would do well to capture some of that magic. So being able to burn down a tech structure in 30-45 seconds in would give this unit extra utility, currently it fees like the flame units lack flexibility relative to their autocannon equivalents.
Infantry Gestreckte Ladung: This ability is on infantry and it essentially is a grenade that sits between the Bundle Grenade and a Satchel charge on the spectrum. It would have the same damage as a bundle, but a longer fuse and shorter range. However, the charge would have bonus damage against emplacements, buildings and field defenses. The ideal use case would be against units behind sandbags and wire, as it would destroy them completely. Its much more likely to land than satchels, with its shorter fuse time, but is not as a good as bundle grenades which do the same damage with an even shorter fuse. So the bonus against field defences is the main advantage of the grenade. It goes without saying that this ability benefits from the Explosives crate from the other side of the tree.
Decima Squad Infiltration: This squad is most comparable to Stormtroopers in Coh2. You would largely use the squad to charge cutoffs and plant explosives on points, its going to be strong in VP wars. This squad has no camo out of the box but you can get that from the other side of the tree.
Communication Breakdown: This is activated in a circle zone and no off-maps can be used in it for the duration, nor do any global abilities like Designate Assault Position work there. There are many situations where something like this would be useful, for example, preventing someone from calling an off-map in during your assault, preventing an off-map being called in on a crucial VP in a close match. The main use I could see people using this is with their emplacements on the other side of the tree, preventing say bombing runs, etc.
In Deckung!: This abilly mixes well with a variety of the other abilities in the battlegroup. Getting cheaper grenades will allow you to spam them during the duration of the ability, if you combine that with the Explosives crates, it will be yet more efficient. 15 munitions Panzer Stab mines will be strong. The crucial thing with this ability is timing, as you need to use grenades and mines en masse to justify the initial munitions cost.
Other Unit DLC
As I discussed before, I think it would be a mistake for Relic not to include the substitute units feature. In terms of what units should be substitutable, this is what I feel makes sense:
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Finally, as a general change, I feel we need to talk about the Pak 43. The Pak 43 is already in the game files and is presumably lined up for a battlegroup. I feel this unit should just be added to T4 so that stock Wehr has an answer to heavy tank spam (thinking about Matildas and Grants here). Wehr doesn’t have a great answer for dealing with heavy tanks, short of building 3 paks or several marders, neither of which are great from a faction design perspective. They come quite early, relatively, so improving their performance messes with the flow of the game and makes T4 less attractive, why bother going T4 if all the AT you need is in T2/T3? A Pak 43 in T4 has a pleasing symmetry between DAK, Brits and Wehr. If US got he M5 ATG (which they should), all factions would have this common tool. A number of players have been calling out for the Panther to be added to T4, I don’t think that’s the play here, as it would dominate so many other options. The situations where you would build a Pak 43 over a Panther are quite niche (look at Coh2), so having the more attractive unit in stock over the less attractive solution in a battlegroup, to me makes little sense. The Panther would also crowd out Flak 36 Emplacment play. However, the Pak 43 is easier to counter for your opponent, using indirect etc, while also giving you a reason to go for a battlegroup with Panther as the main attraction. Essentially what I’m getting at is that the Panther is too dominant of a unit to be in T4 and the Pak 43 should be there in its place.
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The kitchen is on fire. Welcome to the final part of the Vapiano story where the tables are turning. In the first two episodes we followed Mark Korzilius' journey from setbacks to founding Vapiano, a groundbreaking restaurant concept, highlighting its fresh ingredients, dynamic atmosphere, and data-driven operations that drove rapid success. While achieving initial profitability and garnering attention from industry giants like McDonald's, Vapiano's global expansion has led to stellar revenue growth. However, it has also resulted in the emergence of numerous side projects (or distractions), operational challenges, increased costs, significant investments, and a notable accumulation of debt. This underscores the prioritization of top-line growth over profitable growth. We will continue on this thread and see how the story ends, but I would encourage you to read part one and two for better context. Vapiano P1: Italian Food Made in Germany (substack.com). Let's dig in.
Before Going Public
We are now in 2015 and the year is a disaster for Vapiano's PR department. Employee time stamps are being manipulated, endless overtime for employees and high turnover in managerial roles are reported; mice in the kitchen and even rotten food allegedly found.
The company is confronted with allegations of exceeding working hours among trainees in an article published by Welt am Sonntag, while the same outlet accuses Vapiano of manipulating punch times. The auditing firm PwC is commissioned to investigate the allegations and finds that there is no systematic approach but rather misconduct by individual employees, a mistake that’s being corrected. Internal however, investigations into stamp times are carried out regularly now and beyond its obvious reputational impact, this sucks up valuable management time and attention.
In the summer of 2015 CEO, co-founder and investor Gregor Gerlach, who has been running the group since 2011 is stepping down and Jochen Halfmann is taking over. A new Vapiano People Program with an App is being developed with the aim to better interact with customers that will incorporate innovate features such as mobile pay. The German website sees a launch of new magazine to further promote the brand and there is now a full inhouse blogger and Instagram team being installed. In October the company buys seven restaurants from original co-founder, former co-investor and ex-president previously responsible for internation expansion Kent Hahne (2x Bonn, 3x Cologne, 1x Koblenz and one in Cologne that’s under construction). This package of Vapiano restaurants is very successful and generates net sales of more than 20 million euros in 2014. Hahne opened his first Vapiano restaurant in Cologne in August 2006 and in 2015 with his company apeiron AG, Hahne operates six L'Osteria franchise restaurants, a direct Vapiano competitor, and two self-owned restaurants GinYuu.
Then in November of 2015, the next public relations bomb goes off with allegations regarding the company's quality standards. The company immediately investigates the issue through internal and external specialists but finds no evidence of any quality issues. Nevertheless, knowing that the group is now being closely watched, the company’s already in place hygiene standards are being reinforced. Additional audits and inspections are performed nationally. Further, all Vapianos worldwide are being audited twice by the partners SGS Institut Fresenius and SAI Global. Auditing software is purchased to simplify the implementation of the audits and the resulting measures. Apart from the external examinations, there is a food sampling plan in place being performed continuously. Again, all of this sucks up costs, management time and attention. With all these tumultuous developments the company’s growth engine is undeterred. Revenue grows by a whopping 50 million euros to 202 million euros, an increase of 33%. Impressive. While average spent per customer increases in all countries, the number of customers per day in Germany decreases by 3.3% partially due to the negative press towards the end of the year. Five own, four JV and 19 new franchise restaurants are added that year to the group, the total number of own managed restaurants grows to 51, there are 31 JVs and 84 franchises which bringing the total to 166 Vapiano restaurants. Global restaurant sales are now above 400 million euros.
But while revenue grows by an astronomical 50 million euros, operating profits, alarmingly, shrink again. Gross margins are staying perfectly healthy above 75% but operating costs keep growing disproportionately fast. The Company’s outstanding debt jumps by almost 30 million, close to 85 million euros by the end of the year. With operating profits at 9.5 million euros, alarm bells should be going off right now.
In Q4 of 2015, new CEO Jochen Halfmann introduces Strategy 2020. The new strategy includes five essential points. One, profitable growth in the newly defined core markets of Germany and Austria as well as in the UK, Netherlands, France and USA. Two, operational excellence through strict “best practice” management. Three, further development and digitalization of the concept considering guest feedback. Four, greater focus on long-term employee retention and five, building a modern and sustainable IT landscape. Sound’s good on paper but let’s see how things pan out.
Vapiano's investments (capital expenditures) that year are primarily directed towards new restaurant openings, renovations of existing establishments, and share acquisitions in other Vapiano restaurants from franchisees or JV partners. A significant portion of funds is allocated to the digitalization of the guest experience, including the development of a new app scheduled for market release in 2016 and the implementation of a time recording system across all group restaurants. The world's first standalone Vapiano restaurant with a delivery service that year is built in Fürth, Germany. The company keeps expanding its presence in both inner-city locations and international markets, such as Shanghai, China.
To finance all of this, the group has its own operating cash flow which comes in at 18 million while capital expenditures are 26 million euros plus 14 million for acquisitions. The funding gab is filled with 26 million euros of new debt and a seven-million-euro equity raise. At that end of the year and after the equity raise Gregor Gerlach (through his AP Leipzig GmbH & Co. KG entity) holds 30.1%, Hans-Joachim and Gisa Sander through their Exchange Bio GmbH hold 25.5% and the Tchibo heirs, Herz through their Mayfair Beteiligungsfonds II GmbH & Co. KG hold 44,4%.
But for the first time the restaurant’s concept that was so successful to date is being questioned. Some customers are starting to mislike the operational flow of the concept itself. If you want pasta, you must queue for pasta. If you want pizza you stand in a different queue. A small side salad, yet another queue. "You spend more time carrying trays than an actress in Berlin-Mitte. The audience in the pasta limbo can only consist of people who have worked for an insurance company for a long time and, like Stockholm syndrome, they can no longer get away from the industrial canteen feeling," writes TV host Beisenherz provocatively. While overly harsh in his assessment he's not entirely wrong judging by customers venting their frustrations in forums and social media channels. It isn’t uncommon for those who ordered pizza to have already finished eating while there is little movement in the pasta queue. Long term that doesn't go down well, QSRs competitors like L’Osteria are handling this process differently, with much success.
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Tipping Point

Where are now in the year 2016 and things start to deteriorate visibility. Perhaps not for the leman’s eye but any business minded observer can see that there are problems under the hood. Yes, revenue grows yet another whopping 50 million to almost 250 million euros but half of that growth, comes from acquisitions of restaurants that the group didn’t already own 100%, which is now being fully consolidated within the group’s accounts. Here is a concrete example. In the past, Vapiano SE, the group’s top holding company held an indirect 50% stake in a French subgroup via the subsidiary VAP Restaurants SA, based in Luxembourg, and included this as an associated company in the Vapiano SE consolidated financial statements using the equity method. Due to the acquisition of additional shares in September of 2016, Vapiano SE's indirect share in the French subgroup increased to 75%. This means that Vapiano SE takes control of the French subgroup, which is therefore included in the group’s financial statements as part of the full consolidation. The revenue from the acquired subsidiary now recorded in the consolidated income statement amounts to 12.8 million euros. While that’s great for the top line, the loss of the fully consolidated entity equates to 0.2 million euros. Yes, you are buying revenue, but there are losses attached to them, not profits. A similar case is the Swedish entity that runs eight restaurants with revenue of 11.5 million euros but has losses of 235 thousand euros. So much for Strategy 2020 and “profitable” growth.
That year the group’s operating profits are absolutely tanking, halving to 3.5 million euros. Operating profits are now a mere 1,4% of revenue. Remember original founder Mark Korzilius who talked about operating margins of 25% to 28% at the restaurant level? Yes, there are overhead costs for the organization that sits above the chain of restaurants, but operating margins that low indicates a course correction is needed. What’s telling is that in the annual report, in the management discussion section, the company starts talking about EBITDA as a proxy measure of profitability, rather than operating profit or net income. This wasn’t the case in the years before. Is this window dressing for an upcoming IPO? EBITDA is short for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization. How can you measure profitability of a restaurant chain that absolutely and unequivocally needs capital investment to maintain its restaurant operations, the very source of cash generation, by simply excluding this maintenance charge (depreciation in the income statement)? Vapiano’s own annual report talks about the fact that existing restaurants must be rejuvenated from time to time and that new interior designs have to be implemented every few years. These things wear and tear, they go out of style, kitchen equipment breaks and needs replacement. This business absolutely needs maintenance capital expenditure, why anyone talks of profits before these maintenance costs is beyond me. Fun fact: in the previous annual report EBITDA is mentioned seven times, mostly around restaurant acquisitions and financing, not however as a profit indication for the group. In the new annual report, EBITDA is mentioned 28 times. Maybe it’s just me but belated Charlie Munger liked to call EBITDA: bullsh*t earnings. When in doubt I stick with Charlie. Interestingly, EBITDA for Vapiano keeps growing while operating and net profits keep falling.
Operating cashflow for the group that year is about 21 million euros, but capital expenditure is 30 million and acquisitions for subsidiaries another 20 million. To finance these expenditures another 28 million euros of debt and 16 million of equity is raised. Net debt rises above 130 million euro. The operating cashflow of the group before any capital expenditures is 21 million euros. I am not sure free cash flow would be significantly positive after maintenance capex is paid out; it’s not broken out so we can’t be sure. Granted, I am not on the ground during this time, and I am not in the board room, I am simply reading what’s in front of me, but to me this is starting to look like a distressed situation. Regardless, the following year the company goes public.

IPO

Where are now in the year 2017 and its Vapiano’s first year as public company. The company’s annual report reads the following “Sales revenue, like-for-like growth (LfL) and the earnings figures EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA are used as the most important financial performance indicators for controlling operational business activities.” The very same report however also says: “The majority of the group's investments regularly go towards opening new restaurant locations and modernizing existing restaurants. The latter are differentiated into regular replacement investments that occur during ongoing operations (Maintenance CAPEX) and fundamental investments in the renovation of a restaurant (Remodeling CAPEX). On average, a restaurant remodeling takes place nine years after opening.” It says it right there in their own report; every nine years a remodeling is taking place. Remodeling and updating is not cost free, so why exclude depreciation charges which reflect capital expenditures? I understand that perhaps you would want to strip out one-off opening costs, that’s fine and fair, but don’t go overboard.
The number of restaurants increases by 26 (previous year: 13) to a total of 205. The increase consists of 27 new openings and one closure. Group revenue grows to an astonishing 325 million euros but here comes the shocker, operating profits turn negative to 25 million. Fine, strip out foreign exchange losses of 3 million, IPO costs of 5.8 million and new opening costs of 6.1 million and you still have 10 million euros of operational losses. All the while the debt load of almost 130 million hasn’t materially changed, so those operating losses are before a six-million-euro interest payment. 184 million euros are raised through the IPO of which 85 million go to the company. This money is earmarked for further expansion as the group has ambitions to almost double the footprint to 330 restaurants by the end of 2020. The company is currently not profitable on an operating basis, and still wants to expand aggressively? I don’t get it. The remaining 100 million euros of the IPO money raised is distributed to co-founder Gregor Gerlach and Wella heirs Hans-Joachim and Gisa Sander. The family office of the former Tchibo owners Günter and Daniela Herz with a 44% stake, don’t sell a single share. After the IPO, 32% of all the company’s shares are now in free float.
One year later, in 2018, things get even worse. Revenue grows to 371 million, but operating losses mount to 85 million euros, that’s before interest expenses of 9 million. Even the beloved EBITDA figure turns negative, meaning the operating business before any expansionary or even maintenance capital expenditures is loss making. All regions are experiencing significant deterioration in their earnings profiles. Like for like sales are down 1% across the board. That’s revenue, not profitability. The question naturally arises: is the Group approaching its natural saturation point here or this operational by nature? The operating cash flow is now 9 million while financing cost are close to 7 million. That leaves 2 million for maintenance capital for 74 own restaurants and 76 joint ventures ones. Describing this as financially tight, would be an understatement.
Things are not looking good at this point. Yet the company still grows restaurants by 26 new sites. 64 million euros are spent on acquisitions, new openings, and maintenance costs, financed through a 20 million-euro equity raise and 72 million of new debt. The Company now has net debt outstanding of over 160 million euros. After the equity raise and by the end of the year 2018, Mayfair owns 47.4%, VAP Leipzig, Gregor Gerlach’s entity owns 18.9% and the Sander couple own 15.5% of the company. Yes, the Sanders and Gerlach may have taken 100 million euros off the table, but they still have substantial skin in the game. Plus, Mayfair hasn’t sold a single share and instead injects more money into the company through the equity round. The stock has now fallen from its IPO price of 23 euros per share to under 6 euros by the end of 2018. Something must be done here. And indeed, there is pivot in strategy and a hard push for change. At last, the management team abandons its aggressive growth plan and curtails new openings significantly. Additionally, the team wants to run a thorough analysis of weak locations to then either discontinue or sell sites. In Europe, the operating focus will be put on corporate restaurants and joint ventures in major cities to ensure the ideal size and location to match the respective demographic target group. Outside of Europe, the franchising business is being expanded and at the same time a consolidation of the existing corporate and joint venture markets is being sought. All future investments will be reviewed to achieve higher rates of returns on new openings. Investments are also being made in the renovation of older restaurants. The goal in the future is to also open smaller formats, like Mini-Vapianos (less than 400 square meters) or Freestander at prominent transportation hubs outside city centers (currently in Fürth and Toulouse) to cater to individual location requirements, and to enter new partnerships. I am not sure why management hasn’t stopped all expansion altogether, bringing the ship in order first, getting profitable, clean up, all hands-on deck before considering any further expansions whatsoever. But again, it’s easy to comment from the sidelines; maybe they saw white spaces that would be covered by competing concepts if they weren’t moving fast and aggressively enough. Although pushing internationally means competing with local players such as Jamie's Italian, Prezzo, Pizza Express, Wagamama, Nando's and many more which brings in its own dynamic.
Management also aims to enhance guest satisfaction. This involves refining operational processes, reorganizing the support center, and refocusing on the core offering: providing fresh and high-quality Italian food at affordable prices for a broad audience. The group also aims to reduce waiting times, especially during lunch, while also improving the evening atmosphere. There is even what I would call an evolution, away from Vapiano’s original concept, reorientating the customer journey. The ordering flow is being changed, offering guests synchronized preparations of all dishes while eliminating wait times at the cooking stations. The open show kitchen remains, staying true to original mantra of freshness and transparency but now guests can choose their preferred method of ordering through a mobile app, using a digital order point (kiosk), or by personally placing an order with a waiter. Guests can still freely choose their table and are then informed about the complete preparation of their order through a pager or their smartphone. This is a substantial deviation from the original concept, but a needed one. The group is also exploring and implementing the expansion of take-away and home delivery services but only at suitable locations, not universally across new openings. I am not sure why home delivery is even a priority here; it adds operational complexity. It’s better to clean up shop first and get back to the basics before adding new complexities. To be fair management does try to simplify. There are 49 different permanent dishes on the menu and additional 10 seasonal ones. Customers can choose from eleven different types of pasta. There is simply too much choice, and it makes orders complicated. The company announced to slim the menu down to its most popular and typical Vapiano dishes. There’s no need for an Asian salad at an Italian restaurant. "We have to go back to the roots, i.e. classic, honest Italian cuisine" says COO Everke. Regardless, in November of 2018, the supervisory board pulls the plug on CEO Jochen Halfmann and replaces him with Cornelius Everke. Everke himself has just become COO five months ago. Since 2017 he was responsible for international expansion. From 2011 to 2017 that role was filled by Mario Bauer – put a pin in that name, he’ll play a key role in the groups fate later. Then nine months later, in the middle of 2019, Cornelius Everke quits. He essentially concludes that his skillset and experience in the areas of internation expansion is no longer needed in the foreseeable future. To put it differently: Vapiano has moved from a growth story and has become a restructuring case, and other skills are required for that job. In June of 2019 Everke says the following “(we’ve) made a bit of a mistake when it came to foreign expansion”. No sh#t. Vapiano postpones the presentation of the 2018 annual financial statements three times in the spring of 2019, citing negotiations over an urgently needed loan of 30 million euros. It’s not until the end of May that a binding loan commitment comes through from the financing banks and major shareholders.
We are now in August of 2019 and the corona pandemic is just around the corner. Supervisory board chief Vanessa Hall takes over as interim-CEO and things are unravelling. Visitor numbers are declining; originally, it was planned to sell the US business but halfway through the year the buyer cannot come up with the money. But not all restaurants are performing poorly. The group's poor figures contrast starkly as an example with the experiences of the Swiss-German franchisee, who runs six restaurants. The Sodano family in Switzerland pays Vapiano a royalty of 6% of sales for the use of the brand. Enrico Sodano explains in an interview that they operate largely autonomously from the licensor. If an “accident” were to occur, he could immediately replace the Vapiano sign with Sodano, he says. The family concluded the rents and contracts with employees and suppliers independently. The Sodano family have six locations in Bern, Basel and Zurich, around one million guests every year and 350 employees. Things are going well on the ground. The delivery service they’ve built is offering them a second income stream. Expansion into Winterthur, St. Gallen and Lucerne are being planned; small locations with 150 to 250 square meters and an attached delivery service. Originally, Vapiano restaurants used to be huge but for such a large restaurant to be profitable, 800 to 1,000 guests per day are needed. That’s possible in medium-sized cities, but not in smaller towns which is why the Vapiano group now also supports smaller formats. Back to our corporate drama. The 2019 annual report would be the last report the group files. By the end 2019 the outstanding debt of the company is at an astronomical 450 million euros. Revenue has grown by another 7%, produced by four net new openings through two JVs and two franchise restaurants but operating losses come in at 317 million euros. That sound like an absolute shocker at first but depreciation and amortization charges are 345 million, so that operating cash flow is actually positive but unfortunately capital expenditures and interest payments are so large that they are eating up all of the company’s operating cash flow. Then in the beginning of 2020 Corona hits with full force and the world shuts down. As a result of the measures to prevent further spreading of the virus, the group is forced to cease all global business operations (except in Sweden). While all these shutdowns are happening, the group is the middle of negotiating with its lending banks and main shareholders. There are additional financing needs for restructuring measures, even without a pandemic happening in the background. The situation is so dire that the company starts pleading to the German government to roll out the package of financial help more quickly. Unfortunately, it’s to no end. The rapid closure of restaurants and the resulting lack of operating cash inflows in conjunction with the additional financing requirements, lead to the company’s final knockout punch. In April of 2020, the Vapiano group officially files for insolvency proceedings. The end of an era.

New Beginnings

Because of the pandemic, the majority of the group's subsidiaries in Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United States, Sweden, and China also file for insolvency or seek liquidation. The US business never gets sold in the end and is wound down. In the summer of 2020, significant group divestments occur, including the sale of 75% shares in the group's French subsidiaries, shares in franchisor companies, Australian subsidiaries, German subsidiaries, associated companies, self-managed restaurants in Germany, and insolvency-related sales in the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Sweden. The buyer of the Vapiano brand and one of these bundles of Vapiano restaurants is company named Love & Food Restaurant Holding, a consortium led by Mario C. Bauer – a name I told you to remember. Bauer was a former Vapiano board member and led the national and international expansion, opening 200 sites in 33 countries from 2011 to 2017 until he was succeeded by Cornelius Everke. Bauer didn’t feel comfortable with the IPO at the time but clearly has a lot of managerial and entrepreneurial talent.
The buyer consortium is an absolute A-Team comprised of European QSR top league hitters, including the founder of the Pret A Manger chain Sinclair Beecham; Henry McGovern, the founder and Ex-CEO of the giant international restaurant and foodservice operator AmRest; the Van der Valk Family that runs hotels and Vapiano restaurants in the Netherlands, and co-founder and ex-CEO Gregor Gerlach. The acquisition value is 15 million euros and entails 30 Vapiano restaurants in Germany, albeit that’s just the purchase price which comes on top of any capital investment needed to refresh and return the sites to its former glory. Nevertheless, just as a thought experiment, if you can get each site to 2 million euros of revenue and 400,000 euros in operating profit on average, which wouldn’t be an overly aggressively assumption given the company’s history, you’ve got yourself a package that can deliver restaurant-level operating profits of 12 million euros or more. It’s not disclosed how much capex was needed to refresh the operations, just that fact that the overall investment plus purchase price was a middle double-digit million-euro figure. Stil, it probably was a decent purchase. The same consortium buys Vapiano’s French business for 25 million euros just two weeks prior. After the transaction concludes, the master franchise is given to Delf Neumann and his Gastro & Soul GmbH. Neumann is an experienced operator, and he is ambitious to revitalise the brand with new services and products. For example, instead of pizza, the restaurants will be serving pinsa - a flatbread made from sourdough, wheat and rice flour, topped similarly to a pizza. It targets a more health-oriented customer base looking for a less calory heavy option. The menu overall is expanded by including a variety of vegan and vegetarian dishes.
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Today Neumann’s Gastro & Soul GmbH operates 18 Vapianos on its own account and has 29 franchise sites, amongst other brands. By the year 2021, Vapiano operates 191 restaurants in 34 countries. This is around 50 fewer sites than before the bankruptcy. The number of branches is particularly thinned out in Germany – from 80 to 55. Nevertheless, Vapiano's home country remains by far the largest market, followed by France with 35 restaurants and Austria with 15 locations. “We have shrunk ourselves to health,” says Bauer in the aftermath and there is no further shrinking planned. Quite the opposite, the smell of expansion is in the air again – pun intended. Not as aggressively as before and with a new menu and ordering process.
Overall, the team around Bauer is filled with industry experts with knowledge and networks gained over decades who have a great track record, a long-term view, and the staying power to let Vapiano breath and finds its way back to success. The pressure of being a public company with all the associated quarterly, half-year and yearly disincentives have been removed. The menu is changed and extended with new types of pasta and sauces with significantly more vegetarian and vegan dishes available. Guests can order with restaurant staff, at terminals or on their phones and there are barcodes attached to the tables identify the respective seat. The food is brought to your table, all at the same time if you are in a group, no more annoyances with waiting in line. There is a plan for smaller, 350 square meter locations, with half the number of guests and significantly fewer staff and less set-up costs required to make the economics work. Locations that capitalize on remote work and increased demand for local lunch options, higher population density with shorter delivery routes and therefore cost-effective in house delivery services are targeted. And Bauer is testing the concept of ghost kitchens, which operate without a dining room or service staff, focusing solely on preparing food for delivery services, which for obvious reasons have a very different operational set up and footprint. Original founder Mark Korzilius however is not entirely convinced. He is not a fan of the pinsa for instance and he considers Vapiano's pizza as its cash cow, flagship product and believes that the core Vapiano proposition of Pizza, Pasta, Bar that has given the company its original success is being diluted. He instead admires the competitor L'Osteria, saying they’ve done a better job by focusing on Italian classics, especially the impressively large pizzas that sticks out beyond the plate is leaving every customer in awe. The guys who run L’Osteria are the same guys who have built Vapiano with him in the first place. Bauer on the other hand, like a true business leader, remains undeterred, stating that he is frequently asked whether Vapiano's restart was bold or foolish. He believes in entrepreneurship, franchising, in his experienced fellow partners and importantly the Vapiano concept. By the year 2024 you can find over 140 Vapiano branded restaurant in 27 countries across the globe, including locations far away from its birthplace like Australia, USA, Columbia, Chile, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. And why not? Italian food is, and will remain to be, incredibly popular. Vapiano offers fresh and tasty food at affordable prices in a good atmosphere. This combination of attributes should attract a lot of customers. It certainly has in the past.
For more stories: WIP Thomas Weitzendoerfer Substack