We Can Change Soldier Nationality — But Where Are Their Squads?

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This new mechanic is a huge step forward, now we can finally make cohesive squads. Not only that, but you’ve gone the extra mile; changing a soldier’s nationality also updates their name and appearance. Honestly, I didn’t expect that level of detail, I was half expecting you to lazily only make the system touch the soldiers voices, thank you for doing it right and defying my doubts

But that brings us to a key issue and the point of this topic, one that limits how useful this new nationality change mechanic really is:

What squads are we actually supposed to use this new feature on?

The British only have four infantry squads in the tech tree. That’s barely enough to form a cohesive lineup, and many squad types are missing entirely (and yes, the US still lacking a mortar squad should be fixed too). But even that looks generous next to Italy, who are practically invisible with half the tech tree squads of Britain and their non-existence outside of the Tunisia campaign.

So, what good is nationality customisation if the squads tied to those nations aren’t present for anyone who didn’t grind the old pre-merge Tunisia campaign?


The easiest solution? Restore cut content.

When the campaign merge happened, a lot of content ended up on the cutting room floor. Many squads just didn’t fit neatly into the new tech tree format. The lucky few were kept. The rest became “legacy squads”, and with them a lot of subfaction flavour and variety vanished from the game.

This was a tradgedy for subfaction representaiton in the game, and something that should be rectified.


How should these squads return?

Some have suggested putting them in silver chest so we can gamble for them. But that would be a bad move, randomness won’t help. Some players would get what they want, others would waste silver on squads they don’t care about, and the result would be frustration for most.

Instead, add a dedicated “Squad Shop” section to the store, where players can buy legacy squads directly for 10,000 silver each.

Why 10,000? Because that’s what legacy squads currently sell for. For people who have previosly sold their old squads, this would effectively turn that investment into a zero interest loan, you got the silver in the past, and now you can buy them back for the same price. For new players, 10k silver is roughly 20 average matches, a fair trade of time and investment vs reward.

Over time, this shop could evolve for other purposes:

  • Event reward squads could be added here, so people can choose what rewards they’d like
  • New free squads could be added into the game here, like a new US guerrilla squad

It would become a new system in and of itself, begging to be used for other bits than just returning old squads.


Final Thoughts

Some might worry that returning legacy squads would “ruin the uniqueness” for current owners. But let’s be honest, these squads were never intended to be exclusive. They don’t have unique gameplay features or special perks, they were just regular squads that got left behind during the merge because they didn’t fit neatly into the new tech trees. Their “uniqueness” is entirely accidental and arbitrary.

Bringing them back wouldn’t devalue anything, it would simply restore what was once universally available to everyone. And it would finally allow players to build complete lineups for underrepresented factions like Italy or the British Commonwealth, without forcing them to rely on one or two token squads.

Some might also suggest just adding new squads instead. But that’s not a viable solution either. Creating new squads from scratch takes time and dev resources effort that could be better spent elsewhere. And for long-time players, this would only further overcrowd an already bloated squad list, making it even harder to manage and keep track on. Restoring the legacy squads is by far the best option. We’ve got them, lets use them.

This is a practical, low-cost way to enrich the game, one that makes full use of the new nationality system. Let’s not leave half the factions in limbo. It’s time to move past token representation, let’s make Enlisted fairer and more complete for everyone.

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Queue the ordnance crybabies saying we can’t have legacy squads due to vehicle cycling.

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A small issue, and quite a lame one for all concerned. Yes, cycling panthers is a problem, but not just for the opposing team, that’s one less guy to push the point, it’s a double edged sword.

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Should also add that I think German and Soviet cut squads should also return, it’s just that Italy and Commonwealth are the subfactions to benefit from it the most.

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I have a huge advantage over those without legacy squads.

If only thanks to all the presets I can make.
Or the pure Commonwealth or Italian ones.

Those who sold them for what amounts to a fistful of dust… I laugh at them.

But those who came AFTER the merge or simply never had time to grind… I shouldn’t have such an advantage over them. I feel sorry for them.

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They could only but 2 gambler boxes with the 10k you get, not even worth it

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Definitely cam get behind this, and wouldn’t be nice if you can also sell clothes you bought for let say 8 appearance orders and get all 8 back?

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Exactly.

Those who willingly parted with those FOR those low silver amounts basically scammed themselves…

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Seems too good to be true… or even something that our devs would consider. Would be funny if there actually was interest, as in the longer you keep a legacy squad the more you can sell it for, but honestly just ask for something like 15000, devs have to eat too

Yes, you’re laughing at me. :expressionless:
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why did you do that… They were invaluable…

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At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, as I figured I would drop all the silver into building my Allies, which I maxed out several complete levels of squads. Along with taking the silver to disband my legacy squads, I disarmed every other faction, and sold the weapons and sent every soldier I could to the rear to collect the silver and dropped it all into my Allies. I think at one time I had about half a million silver. :rofl: At that time, I only wanted to play Allies, so I built them quick.

If I had it to do again, I wouldn’t have sold off all my legacy squads. We live and learn.

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Thank you for your post.

I agree.

Side note since I havent been able to try the new update yet.

Can I change the uniforms of the soldiers in the Allied APC squad? That’s been my biggest concern not having an all British/Commonwealth lineup (nothing against the GIs, just personal preference).

I also strongly disagree about purchasing legacy squads. They should be free. British radiomen or machine gunners for instance, they should never have been removed in the first place.

So add them back and let everyone use them. I fail to see why players should have to waste 10,000 silver on a squad just to have national variety or an all-national lineup due to DF’s messed up merge.

Furthermore, now that nations can be changed I would really like to see more customisation options.

Ive probably made like 30 posts now about adding Australian and New Zealand uniforms especially. These are the easiest Commonwealth uniforms to add to the game because they already exist.

Make the Australian guerilla uniform freely available to all squads (unlike USSR or Germany it’s just a standard Australian Army uniform).
Likewise at the very least add the Australian slouch/digger hat and New Zealand lemon squeezer hat to the customisation options.

As stated like 30 times before, we have precedent for this. The British Army officer’s peaked cap from the premium Sten Mk III squad was made freely available to everyone, so why not ANZAC headgear?

Plus if the entire uniforms from the premium/event Australian and New Zealand squads are made available that will not in my opinion negatively affect players who purchased those squads because the whole point of those is the unique weapon such as the Austen or Charlton rifle.

Once that is done DF please add CANADA patches. All you have to do is take existing British uniform assets and allow players to add a CANADA patch to either shoulder. That’s it. That’s all we need, and we have much needed Canadian uniforms in game. It’s really not that hard people.

Eventually it would be great to see British Indian customisation too which would be the most ‘work’ though only in terms of a new turban headgear asset, INDIA shoulder patches and some Indian face/hand appearance options.

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It feels even worse for those of us who never got the chance to obtain legacy squads. . . we want them back just as much as everyone else (if not more).

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Good idea. It is annoying when squads come with a default mix of headgear for example so it would be great if one could ‘trade in’ let’s say a field cap for a helmet.
Or since they do provide some sort of protection maybe a helmet would be worth like 2 field caps or something.

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They can’t eat silver so I don’t see why it matters. Anyway, you know how to make deals, ask for more but expect less.


No, but that should become a thing though, maybe through a foldered second APC squad with a British made truck for instance.

I understand the sentiment, in a perfect world I would have been abel to choose what squad nationalities I want to bring from the tech tree, like a one time choice at the point of unlock. However, we sadly don’t live in a perfect world, and I expect the only way to get more squads is through a system which makes you work for them. The good thing about this system is that you don’t actually have to play the specific faction you want to unlock new squads for, you could use the silver you gained from other places to unlock things, which would be way better than having to put up with the yanks just so you can play as the Brits in the future.

Totally, it should be the players choice what part of the commonwealth they want to play as, and they need more gear options anyway (especially in the Pacific and the Bulge).

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Look at it this way.
You said yourself that it takes 20 games to get a certain amount of money. By selling a legacy squad, people are essentially robbing the devs of 20 games of playtime by getting that silver for free (and for a f2p project, having a large online community is important). By making people play those 5 extra games, players help the project —> get devs their food.

And P.S. - now that you say ask for more expect less, I would not be surprised if they made them cost 100 Gold or something so that they got that money directly.

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Don’t give them any ideas now… it should be free for everyone…

Great suggestion as always! I was happy to see that I can finally change my Germans into Italians. But then I realised that 1. I don’t even have all the pre-merge squads for the Italians to set up a viable line up. 2. The Italians themselves are curiously disguised as the Germans in all the maps outside Tunisia. Unless they address this dual problem I don’t really see the point of this entire nationality change system to begin with.

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Hearing their voices is really the bare minimum but the squads would be perfect.

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