Nival, an independent game developer renowned for their strategy games, have announced the largest update so far for Blitzkrieg 3 in the form of the new and much requested PvP mode: Active Defense.

Blitzkrieg 3′s multiplayer is a simulated front line, in which one player attacks the key points of an opponent’s fortified garrison while the other player defends them. Up until now, the multiplayer mode in Blitzkrieg 3 was always “asynchronous” where the defending side was chosen from players currently offline. After feedback from its community, Nival has now introduced real time PvP to Blitzkrieg 3, where both players – attacking and defending – are directly controlling their units in real time.

“We were looking for some really fresh ideas for the continuation of the Blitzkrieg 3 series, and the “attack-defense” tactical scheme as the basis for online battles seemed to be an interesting solution”, commented Sergey Orlovskiy, founder and CEO of Nival. Orlovskiy continued, “While in a real war sides are never put in symmetrical conditions, the PvP modes in games invariably present abstract duels in which opponents fight in equal conditions. The only wide-known exception to this so far has been CounterStrike and we thought that implementing this tactical scheme as the basis for online battles not in a shooter but in a strategy genre might be that fresh idea that will breath new life in to the RTS genre.”

In this sizeable update the in-game matchmaker will look for players online initially. If players are not able to directly control the defense of their garrison the AI will do it for you, exactly as it was before.

Blitzkrieg 3 is currently in Steam Early Access and the playing community continues to provide valuable input and feedback in to the development of the game.

The Early Access launch trailer can be viewed here.

For more information on Blitzkrieg 3 head to the games official website.