Gen’l,
There were many legendary generals in the American Civil War, like “Stonewall” Jackson, “Old Pete” Longstreet, “Grumble” Jones, “Bull Head” Sumner… each with their own unique stories. In the Grand Tactician DLC, it’s your story.
The Way to the Top – or Not.
Whiskey & Lemons will introduce a new career mode. You will start by creating your character, determining your Civil War personality via a questionnaire, and taking command of a regiment.
As a regimental commander, you are but a small gear in the huge military steam engine. You will have very limited influence over the war, and you will receive orders from your AI commanders. According to your actions and performance, you will generate prestige and get promoted to higher places, where your actions will matter more.
As the DLC campaign will be regiment level, on a zoomed in campaign map, divisions will be the smallest units moving on the campaign map. Single brigades can also be used as garrisons to protect important terrain.
Once commanding a division, you will be able to control the unit on the campaign map. With increased prestige you will be able to influence politics or projects, but this is very limited before rising to the top, commanding the armies of the Union or the Confederacy – provided that you will ever make it that far. Or want to – you can play the whole campaign without accepting any promotions, if you so wish.
Your Story.
There are many things that can get in the way. Your previously mentioned personality could be one of them. Personality is determined on six axes: Loyalty, Piety, Social Life, Heroism, Stress Control and Political Views. These may provide positive and/or negative traits to your career.
You may also attract companions that will be part of your staff. For example, if you are known for lack of loyalty, you may be followed by a Committee Investigator, reporting to the military brass, who may end up limiting your freedom of action by giving political guidance you cannot ignore.
There are also other new features. You will be able to choose to buy your own equipment, recruit your own staff and carry out actions that all will influence your, and your nation’s Civil War journey. You may also get injured in combat, with some of your injuries becoming permanent disabilities.
When you start to gain fame, you may end up with a grudge with some of your fellow officers. This may have a serious impact on your performance in the battle-field, like what happened between Bragg and his lieutenants. And getting rid of them may prove difficult, as it will require further prestige to overrule choices made by the President.
It will be very different, if you become known as “Old Tippler” due to your drinking habits, keep falling off the horse during battles and get into drunken fights with your fellow officers, or as “Skedaddle Joe” due to lack of courage and losing the respect of your men.
Everything you do and experience during the campaign, will be recorded into a Biography. When the campaign ends, you may read your whole story, and see how you compared with historical civil war commanders.
The Other Things.
We’re looking to release Whiskey & Lemons during Q2 of 2023. The plan and development has suffered some real-life related delays, mainly caused by a war in Europe, where the development team is from.
But, while on some fronts there have been delays, on others extra progress has been made. We’re constantly working on the game engine even if the DLC content has not proceeded as earlier planned.
Also the band is recording new music to the game. Along with the DLC release, we will also release the new music as a Soundtrack, the same way we did with the game’s original music – meaning buying the soundtrack is not mandatory to hear the music in the game. The Soundtrack II (working title) allows listening to the tunes outside of the game, and the revenues will go to support our great band, Wasel and the Weasels.
With the DLC release, we’ll also release the next major patch, which is focused on fixing reported issues, implementing some player wishes (like different color fire arcs on paper map), and some performance improvements.
Most Respy,
The Grand Tactician -Team.
Comments
Brett Wychopen #
Thank you for your dedication. I love this game and look forward to the updates/dlc’s. Thank you, very much!
Oliver Spencer #
Exciting news on the DLC and even more exciting on enhancing the current game – hope there can be fixes in battles to be less glitchy and for casualties to be more in tune with the Civil War era – but all in all great news!
Adam Howard #
Awesome! I’m really looking forward to it, you guys are great!
Jeff Coleman #
I think this is the first strategy game I have ever played where I was so immersed in the game that I get mentally exhausted trying to anticipate what next to do. Becoming elated when it turns out right and disgusted with myself for not realizing something. Like not noticing a road or trail around my flank, or how tired my soldiers were, or that my artillery does not have the range I thought it had. Thankyou so much! Not since I was a kid playing Avalon Hill board games with my older brother have I had so much fun.
Zaine #
Ok, I wanna understand this. Can you play the entire war from any rank you want in any army you want in any theatre I want throughout the DLC OR will you be limited in what you can do in a semi-dynamic but also sort of linear campaign. For example, Could I choose to start as a regimental leader in the Department of the West and decide to rise to Division Commander and then play the remainder of the war this way? Could I then, in my next playthrough, decide to start in the Army of Northwest Virginia and rise to just brigade commander for the remainder of the war? Or is it more that you are restricted to one theatre in career mode and can’t decide where I wanna start? Is it also the case that the career mode map is zoomed in through the entire war or does it zoom out after you reach a certain rank?
iv (Author) #
Oliver,
We’re also fixing remaining issues in the main game, and doing our best. =)
iv (Author) #
Zaine,
The DLC campaign will be regimental level (single units in battles are regiments instead of brigades) and the map is zoomed in (centered around Virginia in the eastern theater).
When the campaign starts, you are a regiment commander and can choose one of many units, already in the armies, to command, You may later become a brigadier, then a division commander, etc. But this is not mandatory, if you want to remain in the lower ranks. You may also move to a different army.
Zaine #
Ok, less comprehensive than I wished, but I am still excited!
If this kicks off well, a career/campaign hybrid mode would be amazing. This mode being standalone from the separate career and campaign modes for maximum player choice. I am completely fine with the AI controlling the course of the war if I choose to remain a cog in the machine the entire time instead of the whole force commander. And then, If I so wish to be top commander like at the start of the campaign then I could theoretically earn my way to that spot. But, also you could extend this to individual Corp and Army commanders so we could have the option of controlling the entirety of a force but only in one theatre of the war (if that makes sense). Especially If you can choose (and maybe sometimes get ordered) to move between armies. How cool would it be to be fighting on the western front (big fan of that front) until winter of 62 and then your division is ordered east to fill some gaps. Keeping in mind the player should retain some control over this. maybe through the means of political influence and connections. Oh, that would be beautiful
Either way, can’t wait!
Loic #
Hello Gen’l,
I am back playing the game after more than a 6 months pause and I must say that the changes are huge and the game really amazing now. Already finished a couple campaigns in the past weeks.
I am looking forward to testing this new game mode today, I wonder though if this was not adding up too much work on your team while imo there are still many things to attend in the core experience:
- balance of the policies, like diplomacy not being that useful actually
- impact of the buildings in campaign maps, like it seems that the campaign lasting 3 years maybe 4 max is not long enough to see the fruits of all the money invested into buildings. Like I noticed that my economy or weapons/amunition availability does not change if I invest to build buildings or not
- maybe the balance of the damage in battle and the amount of casualties can get pretty high
- the artillery is often having issues to find proper lines of sights in the open. We should also be able to place batteries even in a hill with trees, like in real life, troops were able to cut trees to place guns. It would be clutch to be able like we place parapet, to place artillery positions in the forests that can shoot
- And of course I guess you guys have a long log of bugs to fix
I really love the game and cannot say how much I appreciate all the work you have put into it and how active you are with the community. I think the game is great but I think there are many things that could need tweaking or polishing so I wonder if bringing in a new game mode is a good strategic decision.
Best of luck with your work and life in Ukraine, you also get all my support for that
skzz #
Just a thought that if part and parcel of this is a strong refocusing on ironing out some of the jankiness and ui issues in battle mode this would be both an awesome experience and a real clever way to get paid to do a much needed overhaul. Love it
Paul #
“and the map is zoomed in (centered around Virginia in the eastern theater).”
I’m very curious which states are included? Are the other bordering states to Virginia only a portion of those states? Would love to see the map if you have one!
Nobuna #
Hello, we are slowly getting closer to the middle of Q2. Could we have news of the progress of the DLC?
iv (Author) #
Nobuna,
Soon… =)
Al Jabb #
Of course the game news is great as well as really interesting – though I am saddened by the conditions under which you must work. :(
Looking forward to the DLC, the patch and testing the progress. Campaigns are definitely improving, but with so much left to be done it is of course premature to make any sort of graded judgement of the final product. Here is hoping you continue to provide the interaction with the community and support displayed so far!
~Good on Ya’!
Savage #
Wondering if there was any update on the upcoming release of this DLC? Just curious as we are nearly 2/3rds of the way through Q2.
iv (Author) #
Savage,
Soon we will have more information to give. A bit hectic, at the moment =)
rafterman90 #
Bossman,
We need more *Tyrone Biggums scratching neck*.
Studwick #
Hope you haven’t run into any trouble. The silence regarding some key details is somewhat ominous.. looking forward to an update on the various DLC systems
Rogers parker #
Y’all are awesome after reading bout the intricacy and mechanics of this game I’m gonna get this and stalker since most of Y’all are in your in ukraine I’m hoping some how some way my money goes to the complete victory and unconditional surrender ( grantpilled) surrender of the Z’s
Ben #
I didn’t know most of you guys were in Ukraine! This makes me love your game even more. Very much looking forward to this DLC… any ideas on a release date?
iv (Author) #
Hello Ben,
None from our team is from/in Ukraine, but the war has an effect on our working on the game. We are not professional developers (as in this would be our only job) but do this on our spare time, and have other full-day jobs – some of these jobs are affected heavily.
Ben #
Ohhh… well then I have no idea what that guy was talking about above lol…
But anyway… that is impressive that you guys made this game outside of your working hours. That’s an incredible accomplishment, such an awesome game.
Any idea when this summer the DLC will go live? Can’t wait!
joseph colao #
Thanks for all your hard work I’m looking forward to Whiskey And Lemons and the soundtrack.
Richard Mason #
When will whiskey and lemons dlc come to gog.
iv (Author) #
Richard,
Shortly. Our partner Forthright Entertainment takes care of Epic and GOG releases. There’s a small delay with the non-Steam platforms, but usually not more than 1-2 days. Of course, taking weekends into account. So, hopefully on monday, no later than tuesday.
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