History VideoGame / WargameRedDragon

** Yugoslavia takes this even further than other countries, to the point some of their units can probably fit right in ''Steel Division''. They have access to the [=MG42=] of WWII fame [[note]] their version is almost identical save for a slightly modified extractor and chamber to ease extracting steel ammo [[/note]], and they deploy the M8 Greyhound, [=M18=] Hellcat, [=M36=] Jackson, and [=T-34/85=]. Their reservists use M1 Thompson [=SMGs=] and come in [=M3 halftracks=], while their special forces use the [=StG-44=].

* The [[NorwegiansWithNoAmmo Norwegian]] armoured contingent can choose to make use of the M24 Chaffee light tank from 1943, in all its unmodernized, gas guzzling, cheap as dirt glory.

* ArbitraryMaximumRange: Averted. While most shells and rockets hit the ground if they miss, missiles can easily exceed their stated range and go flying off into the wild blue yonder and, if one is unlucky enough, back down onto a command vehicle kilometers from the front line.

* UsefulNotes/CanucksWithChinooks: This iteration of Wargame adds several prototype units- that were phased out or rejected due to the end of the Cold War- to Canada's arsenal.

** Yugoslavia takes this even further than other levels, to the point some of their units can probably fit right in ''Steel Division''. They have access to the [=MG42=] of WWII fame [[note]] their version is almost identical save for a slightly modified extractor and chamber to ease extracting steel ammo [[/note]], and they deploy the M8 Greyhound, [=M18=] Hellcat, [=M36=] Jackson, and [=T-34/85=]. Their reservists use M1 Thompson [=SMGs=] and come in [=M3 halftracks=], while their special forces use the [=StG-44=].
** The British and ANZAC use the Bren Gun and the M1919 machine gun. All three Commonwealth nations make use of the Sterling (or in Canada's case, the C1) SMG, which was designed in 1944 and officially adopted in 1951. It should be noted that, unlike the T-34, these aren't used by cheap units, with units using the Sterling and the Bren actually being special forces or shock infantry. In fact, the only militia unit available to the Commonwealth, the British Territorials, don't use any of these, instead carrying the [=L1A1=] and M72 LAW.

** Individually, ANZAC is a combination of Australia and New Zealand troops, most likely to bolster the numbers of the new faction.

** The Patriot missile and ATACMS, both expensive land-based artillery in real life, are theater-level weapons. In this game, they're pared down to simply being an airplane sniping platform and precision cluster munition launcher, respectively. Only the US can use them, they take a metric week to reload, and they can one-shot more or less anything they hit.

* AnachronismStew: Several of the ships, tanks, and aircraft weren't even being ''tested'' when the game is set. While it could be excused that rising tensions would increase the rate in which ''some'' of the examples were developed, it is a bit hard to justify ships such as the LaFayette Class frigates which weren't commissioned until '''1996''', a good five years after the games 1991 cut-off date.
** The Kongo Class Destroyers are an especially egregious example as the last one wasn't completed until 1998. However, in the Soviet Campaign, there are four of them backing up the US Fleet as it responded to the Soviet invasion of Japan. This fleet can be successfully intercepted and sunk by the Kuznetsov Battlegroup which can have up to '''five''' Udaloy II Class Destroyers.... which weren't even finished until '''1994''', and which only one has ever existed.
*** The Kongos presence in that campaign could partially be justified as they are similar in appearance to the Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer (which they're based on), and have similar capabilities. The Udaloy could also be justified as the Udaloy II is a modified design of the Udaloy I, which heavily emphasized Anti-Submarine Warfare over most else. The Udaloy II, being better able to handle anti-ship, was a better choice for the designers, but for a game so focused on accuracy, it does make one scratch their heads as to why the designers didn't do the research on the very ships they intended to include.
** The American Super Hornet. The prototype didn't fly until late 1995. The type wasn't truly in production until 1997, and it was another two years before the type entered active service.

* ArbitraryMaximumRange: Averted. While most shells and rockets hit the ground if they miss, missiles can easily exceed their stated range and go flying off into the wild blue yonder and, as many players have experienced, back down onto a command vehicle kilometers from the front line.

* UsefulNotes/AussiesWithArtillery: Australia, along with New Zealand, is a new playable country.

* AwesomeButImpractical: In addition to the notes on the first game's page, the resource requirements for most MLRS systems and heavy howitzers have been raised to prohibitive levels. More recent patches have extended the aiming times for most artillery systems.
** Heavy bombers capable of dumping as many as ''thirty'' bombs can flatten entire city blocks, but their turnaround time is abysmal, as might be expected from having to bolt all those weapons onto the airframe. This is one of the reasons cheap light bombers remain popular.

** Superheavy tanks have enough firepower to destroy most other vehicles and enough armor to survive other tanks' guns, but you only get one card of two, maybe three, tanks that your opponent will be sending everything they have to destroy. "Good" superheavy micro involves a lot of babysitting them in smoke, only advancing with them when absolutely needed.
* AwesomePersonnelCarrier: Lots and lots of [=APCs and IFVs=] are available to all sides, since all infantry come with transports. This makes for choices: do you take cheap, spammable [=APCs=] to maximize the number of infantry you could call in, or do you spend more on expensive [=IFVs=] with powerful autocannons but cost as much as some lighter tanks?
** America is one of the factions most capable of this, as a Mechanized Infantry deck can easily field upwards of 100 M2 ([=APC=]) Bradley or M3 (Recon) Bradley variants.
** USSR also use lots of cool [=APCs=], like BMP, BMD and BTR series, with many sporting [=ATGMs=].

** West Germany is also particularly well known for their Marders, which are armed with potent 20mm autocannons and very accurate anti-tank missiles. Then there's the Marder 2, which doesn't have missiles but makes up for it by packing a massive 50mm autocannon capable of knocking out light tanks.

* BoringButPractical: Most fighting is going to be done with cheap line infantry, cheap transports, mortars, and cheaper tanks like the base model Abrams and the T-72A. Using top-of-the-line units can certainly control the battle, but they are expensive and limited in number, making them a massive risk to expose and potentially lose. More numerous, more affordable units with decent stats can grind more efficiently.
* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: Very cheap, very ''old'' units are available ''en masse'', if you want a lot of units on the field right now. All the REDFOR factions get access to the T-34 tank of WWII fame, but North Korea takes things a step further with the ability to field SU-76M tank destroyers, a unit that was obsolescent by 1945. (South Korea also has the option to field old M18 and M36 tank destroyers; the M-18 in particular is the fastest tracked unit in the game.)
** [[UsefulNotes/FinnsWithFearsomeForests Finland]] takes this even farther, with units equipped with weapons dating back to ''before'' WWII (The M/39 rifle and the Suomi SMG). Finland is also the only REDFOR nation that doesn't get the T-34, though they do get the British Charioteer, an upgunned WWII Cromwell, and the Sturmi, a [=StuG=] III. They also have units that use the Lahti anti-tank rifle, from 1939.
** Yugoslavia has a post-war variant of the M8 Greyhound, a version of the M18 Hellcat (called the SO-76 Helket), a version of the M36 tank destroyer (called the SO-90 Džekson), the [=M5=] Halftrack, the Super Bazooka, a version of the MG 42[[note]]While the version was created after the war, it's almost an exact copy, just with a lower rate of fire and no anti-air sight[[/note]], the [=StG=] 44, and the Thompson submachine gun. They almost qualify as a faction from ''VideoGame/SteelDivisionNormandy44''.
** The British and ANZAC use the Bren Gun and the M1919 machine gun. All three Commonwealth nations make use of the Sterling (or in Canada's case, the C1) SMG, which was designed in 1944 and officially adopted in 1951. It should be noted that, unlike the T-34, these aren't used by cheap units, with units using the Sterling and the Bren actually being special forces or shock (SBS, NZSAS, Royal Marines, Gurkhas, etc). The only real exception is the Canadians, who only give the C1 to small weapons teams and their Pioneers, and the ANZAC Diggers also use the Bren). In fact, the only militia unit available to the Commonwealth, the British Territorials, don't use any of these, instead carrying the [=L1A1=] and M72 LAW. In fairness, the Sterling wasn't phased out until the mid-80's in most of the Commonwealth countries.
** Israel has access to a post war version of the Sherman (granted, the version was first made in the 1970s, but the version of the T-34 used by most of the REDFOR factions dates to 1969, with the only exception being Yugoslavia's version, which is from 1977). Unlike with the T-34, it isn't a cheap tank but instead a cheap tank destroyer and fire-support vehicle. They also have access to a version of the [=M3=] Halftrack, which they pretty much only use for their militia unit.
* UsefulNotes/CanucksWithChinooks: This iteration of Wargame adds several prototype units, that were phased out or rejected due to the end of the Cold War, to Canada's arsenal.
* UsefulNotes/ChineseWithChopperSupport: China is a new playable country.
* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: A patch note indicates that the ability for the AI to smash your units despite not having scouts has been removed. This doesn't stop them from sending out multiple fighters that occupy the same space, swamping your aircraft. Wonder why you 170 point F-15C just got taken down by a 65 point [=MiG=]-21? It wasn't a single [=MiG=]... it was 5-6 of them all flying in exactly the same space, as the AI can spam them faster than you can send out planes manually.

* CoolPlane: ''Lots of them''. While there are no propeller planes, there are still a wide variety of planes available. From cheap trainer/light attack aircraft such as the [=A-37 Dragonfly=], iconic fourth-gen aircraft such as the [=F-14=] and [=MiG-29=], to planes that were still in/never left prototype stage such as the Lavi or the Novi Avion. If the nation hyper-theoretically had/operated/designed a plane in the period from 1945 to 1995, chances are it is in here.

* DeathOfAThousandCuts: For balance reasons, "HEAT" type anti-armour weapons will inflict at least 1 points of damage when it hits a target, even if the target's armour cannot be pierced. (The other type of anti-armour weapon, kinetic, cannot inflict damage on a target if it cannot pierce its armour. To compensate, the armour-piercing value of kinetic weapons increase as you move closer to the target.) This,together with the fact that all land units, except the non-combat unit FOB, have at most 10HP points means even the most heavily armoured modern tanks can only take 10 hits from HEAT weapons (such as infantry RPG, the main gun of some tanks, all ATGM)even the said weapon is hopelessly outdated. This makes it dangerous for tanks to go into forest or towns, as even a few militia squads have a reasonable chance of scoring a few hits on a modern tank with their otherwise harmless rocket-propelled grenades.
* DoNotRunWithAGun: Most units' accuracies will go straight to hell when fired on the move, unless they're very well-trained infantry with a CQC-capable squad automatic weapon, or a vehicle with a high stabilization stat. It's a bit more intuitive than in ''Airland Battle'', since individual weapons' accuracies are displayed as two stats: stationary and moving.

* UsefulNotes/FinnsWithFearsomeForests: Finland is a DLC country.

* GlassCannon: ATGM units and helicopter gunships don't last long when they're engaged, but they can easily inflict many times their own cost against an armored advance. French tanks take this dynamic, too: light armor, high mobility, powerful guns. Perhaps the purest manifestation is the Chinese PTZ-89 tank destroyer, a tinplate-armored light tank packing a 120mm cannon that rivals the main gun on super-heavy tanks like the [=T-72BM, M1A2, or Leopard 2A5.=]

* HomeGuard: Reserve troops, like West German Heimatschutzen or British Territorials, are available troop options, for when you need a lot of low-cost troops to hold urban sectors. Mostly armed with a very poor assault rifle and launcher. The US and USSR, having large, professional militaries, don't field reservists.
** Danish/Swedish reserve troops get an MG. While the Swedes are armed with bolt action rifles and the BAR, the Danish have a submachine gun and the coveted [=MG3=]. This bumps them up to 10 points, basically making them inferior regular infantry.
** Chinese Yubeiyi and North Korean Juckwidae are 15-man units with assault rifles or submachine guns available in large quantities, keeping with the "popular militia" organization they have.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: You'll sometimes wonder if the gunners on board the various ships were honorary graduates as you'll watch shot after shot after shot just sail harmlessly past the intended target until one fluke shot actually lands ''on'' the target. While this could be justified for some of the 'less advanced' ships like the ones without complex stabilization systems like those of the Chinese and North Korean fleets, it isn't as justified for the more advanced ships which DO have those systems.
** They do however avert this trope when engaging enemy anti-ship missiles. It's not uncommon to see the Kongo's 5 inch gun just snipe an incoming P-270 Moskit out of the sky. On top of that, the CIWS of most ships almost never misses its mark when missiles are incoming.
** Old model anti-air missiles and [=ATGMs=] also suffer this. Justified as those missiles don't work well in real life. When a unit is shocked or panicked, they usually miss their targets.
* UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles: Israel is a DLC country.
* UsefulNotes/KaijuDefenseForce: Japan is a new playable country.
* UsefulNotes/KiwisWithCarbines: New Zealand, along with Australia, is a new playable country.

* MilitaryMashupMachine: While many countries slap autocannons onto their tanks to deal with helicopters, North Korea takes it to a new level by installing MANPADS on a lot of their tanks and [=IFV=]s, allowing them to bring their own air defense. Flimsy air defense, but one nonetheless.

** Individual wise: ANZAC is a combination of Australia and New Zealand troops, most likely to bolster the numbers of the new faction.

** Taken to extreme measures with the North Korean B-5, it drops one bomb, but said bomb can basically obliterate anything caught in its a blast radius.

* UsefulNotes/NorthKoreansWithNodongs: North Korea is a new playable country.

* PowerCreep: Zig-zagged. The new nations added have powerful units that make them stand out, but most of them are minors with deficiencies that put them on the weaker side, such as China having good later-era ATGM vehicles but otherwise unimpressive and ANZAC completely lacking helicopters and heavy armor. Returning factions also receive new units to keep them viable that may even out-perform their counterparts, such as the East German [=LStR-40=], a 90's variant of the FJB-40 that possess more firepower than the equivalent SAS, and the US Patriot, the longest-ranged anti-plane AA there is.
** The DLC nations, in order to encourage people to buy them, have more well-rounded arsenals that can stand on their own or with a coalition, and often have conceptual or anahcronistic designs as powerful units. To build off of the [=LStR=] example, Finland gets the Erikoisrajajaakari, a unit with a similar loadout but also possess recon capabilities. They also get F/A-18 Hornets that are better armed than their American or Canadian counterparts, which they only bought after the collapse of the Soviet Union. However, it is not outright BribingYourWayToVictory as good strategy and micro can always overcome material advantages.
* PunnyName: Many of the maps: Jungle LAW, Strait to the Point, Another D-Day in Paradise, 38th Perpendicular (38th Parallel rotated 90 degrees), [[Music/{{Europe}} Final Meltdown]], etc.

* SelectiveHistoricalArmory: One of the issues with the naval combat. The game's cutoff point for including historical units is 1995, but [[Main/AcceptableBreaksFromReality in the pursuit of game balance]] and [[Main/VideogameHistoricalRevisionism to avoid having the BLUFOR naval deck be entirely American]], there are several units which are much more common than they should be and others which are absent despite being very common. For example:
** The Japanese ''Kongo'' class destroyer is an offshoot of the American ''Arleigh Burke'' class. Only the ''Kongo''s are featured in the game, but only 1 ''Kongo'' had even been built in 1991, and she had not yet been commissioned. However, there were already 3 ''Burke''s afloat and the first had actually been commissioned.
*** Making it all the more baffling, by 1991 there had been 19 US ''Ticonderoga'' class cruisers built, which have very similar (slightly heavier) armament to the ''Kongo'' and ''Arleigh Burke'' class ships. They do not feature at all.
** A similar story with the Japanese ''Hatsuyuki'' class destroyers (11 built) completely displacing the similar American ''Spruance'' class (30 built).
** It is not restricted to naval units. Towed artillery and other mostly-static defenses are not implemented due to difficulties in simulating them in a mostly vehicle-based game. For example, Poland has no mortars because none of them are mounted on vehicles. This contrasts with infantry units lugging around wheeled recoilless rifles or even light multiple rocket launchers like the Inflict (though still not artillery).

* UsefulNotes/SouthAfricansWithSurfaceToAirMissiles: South Africa is an upcoming DLC country.
* UsefulNotes/SouthKoreansWithMarines: South Korea is a new playable country.

* StraightForTheCommander: Like in the prequels. Doing so nets you a lot of victory points, as well as neutralize a key map sector.

** Zig-zagged on some special forces, such as USSR Spetsnaz and Chinese Li Jian '90. They carry thermobaric rockets, which are essentially long-ranged flamethrowers that also deals heavy damage on enemy infantry and light vehicles. These are the most efficient anti-infantry units in game, but are defenceless against armoured vehicles (As they don't carry anti-armour rockets used by normal infantry). Which means they are rather situational and often not worth the investment.
* VillainsActHeroesReact: Is the case with the 3 BLUFOR campaigns, where the player has to withstand a communist assault with limited defenses before turning the tables with late-arriving reinforcements.
* WarIsHell: While not depicted outright, long and rough matches can see both sides lose the vast majority of their forces in the span of a single hour. Having multiple platoons wiped out in a second by carpet bomber strikes or whole tank columns shredded in an ambush aren't uncommon occurrences.
* WorldWarIII: War in Korea or various other parts of Asia are part of the campaign. The most fitting example is the "2nd Korean War" campaign, with the direct belligerents being Communist China, North Korea and the USSR fighting against the United States, Canada, Federal Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan.

* RareVehicles: Tons of the damn things, even if they never left the drawing board. North Korea can field the T-90S as mentioned above. America has access to the [=COMVAT=], a Bradley variant with a modified main gun (and no [=ATGM=] launcher) that never made it out of the prototype stage. Canada has the Chimera, a monster of a tank destroyer that never left the concept stage due to mechanical issues with the weight of the vehicle versus the strength of its engine.

* NotTheIntendedUse: Blowpipes are infamously awful MANPADS, having such low accuracy that they'll only reliably and quickly kill the flying units they're supposed to be used against by spending far more points on enough Blowpipes (and putting them all together) than the flying unit they'll kill. However, they're only five points plus transport. This makes them more preferred to use them as CannonFodder upon your flanks to cheaply place a warning system on them.

* ZergRush: Can be done with lots of small ships or cheap tanks. Its effectiveness has been toned down somewhat in recent patches; in the past, "spam T-55s and T-34s" was a popular option. Of particular note is that, due to the game necessitating actual logistics management in the form of fuel and ammunition, throwing so many weak and cheap units at the opposition as possible in order to make them run out of ammo is a perfectly viable tactic. After all, the most modern tank in the world is still just a fancy lump of metal if that cannon can't fire. The aforementioned T-55 and T-34 spam strategy used this ammo drain as it's primary strategy.

* CoolHat: The picture for the US Cavalry Scouts shows them wearing the old school cavalry Stensons, though their ingame model does not actually have them. However, the ANZAC NORFORCE scouts do wear the slouch hats shown on their units picture, and the French Foreign Legion wear white kepis. And, of course, there's always the berets worn by various special forces units and shock troops.

** The Patriot missile and ATACMS, both expensive land-based artillery in real life, are theater-level weapons. In this game, they're pared down to simply being an airplane sniping platform and precision cluster munition launcher, respectively. Only the US can use them, they take a [[MemeticMutation metric week]] to reload, and they can one-shot more or less anything they hit.

* NotTheIntendedUse: Blowpipes are infamously awful MANPADS, having such low accuracy that they'll only reliably and quickly kill the flying units they're supposed to be used against by spending far more points on enough Blowpipes (and putting them all together) than the flying unit they'll kill. This makes them more preferred to use them as CannonFodder upon your flanks to cheaply place a warning system on them.

** The DLC nations, in order to encourage people to buy them, have more well-rounded arsenals that can stand on their own or with a coalition. To build off of the [=LStR=] example, Finland gets the Erikoisrajajaakari, a unit with a similar loadout but also possess recon capabilities. However, it is not outright BribingYourWayToVictory as good strategy and micro can always overcome material advantages.

!!It all comes down to the infantryman and his tropes:

* ArtEvolution: The models for DLC units are notably more detailed than the ones that shipped with base game, which were often recycled from previous games.

* CoolPlane: ''Lots of them''. While there are no propeller planes, there are still a wide variety of planes available. From cheap trainer/light attack aircraft such as the [=A-37 Dragonfly=], iconic fourth-gen aircraft such as the [=F-14=] and [=MiG-29=], to planes that were still/never left prototype stage such as the [=Su-27PU=] [[note]] a prototype two-seat interceptor, later turned into the multirole Su-30 that proved popular on the export market [[/note]] or the Rafale. If the nation hyper-theoretically had/operated/designed a plane in the period from 1945 to 1995, chances are it is in here.

** They do however avert this trope when engaging enemy anti-ship missiles. It's not uncommon to see the Kongo's 5 inch gun just snipe an incoming SS-N-22 Sunburn out of the sky. On top of that, the CIWS of most ships almost never misses its mark when missiles are incoming.

* CoolPlane: Now with anti-ship missiles! Ranging from the Eurofighters to A-10 Warthogs to Su-27PU. If there was an attack/fighter plane that a nation hyper-theoretically had or conceived during the 80s or 90s chances are its in here.

** Danish/Swedish reserve troops get an MG. While the Swedes are armed with bolt action rifles and the BAR, the Danish have a submachine gun and the coveted MG3. This bumps them up to 10 points, basically making them inferior regular infantry.

* PainfullySlowProjectile: [=ATGMs=] travel quite slowly and you could easily make out their progress, but only in comparison to high-velocity cannon rounds streaking across the battlefield. As the missile has to roll an accuracy check every few seconds, slower missiles like the Malyutka are more likely to veer off course. If the ATGM unit gets taken out or loses line of sight, the missile will almost always miss.

* RareVehicles: Tons of the damn things, even if they never left the drawing board. North Korea can field the T-90S as mentioned above. America has access to the [=COMVAT=], a Bradley variant with a modified main gun (and no [=ATGM=] launcher) that never made it out of the prototype stage. Canada has the Chimera, a monster of a tank destroyer that may never have seen production due to mechanical issues with the weight of the vehicle versus the strength of its engine.

** Inverted with some infantry weapons, such as submachine guns capable of engaging targets at more than 400 meters and the M72 LAW having a 525 meter range (real effective range: 200 meters)
** It has to be noted, though that land units' ranges are close to accurate, following in line with the games soft-core simulation tendencies.

* ArbitraryMaximumRange: Averted. While most shells and rockets hit the groud if they miss, missiles can easily exceed their stated range and go flying off into the wild blue yonder and, as many players have experienced, back down onto a command vehicle kilometers from the front line.

** Yugoslavia has a post-war variant of the M8 Greyhound, a version of the M18 Hellcat (called the SO-76 Helket), a version of the M36 tank destroyer (called the SO-90 Džekson), the [=M5=] Halftrack, the Super Bazooka, a version of the MG 42[[note]]While the version was created after the war, it's almost an exact copy, just with a lower rate of fire and no anti-air sight[[/note]], the [=StG=] 44, and the Thompson submachine gun. They almost qualify as a flashback episode to WWII.

** [[UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles Israel]] has access to a post war version of the Sherman (granted, the version was first made in the 1970s, but the version of the T-34 used by most of the REDFOR factions dates to 1969, with the only exception being Yugoslavia's version, which is from 1977). Unlike with the T-34, it isn't a cheap tank but instead a cheap tank destroyer and fire-support vehicle. They also have access to a version of the [=M3=] Halftrack, which they pretty much only use for their militia unit.

* CoolPlane: Now with anti-ship missiles! Ranging from the Eurofighters to A-10 Warthogs to Su-27PU. If there was an attack/fighter plane that a nation hyper-theoretically had or experimented during the 80s or 90s chances are its in here.