Long War 2, the upcoming XCOM 2 mod for PC from Pavonis Interactive, includes some dramatic changes to the strategic gameplay side of the game. This mod completely overhauls the Geoscape and how you engage in XCOM’s operations throughout the globe.

Players are now tasked with managing the Resistance within each region they have contacted. Each region has a certain number of rebels who may be assigned to one of three different tasks: scrounging for supplies, recruiting new rebels and soldiers, or gathering intelligence to generate new missions. You’ll also be able to deploy a single adviser – a scientist, engineer or soldier – to each region to provide bonuses to a particular task, and may improve a region’s defenses by capturing ADVENT MECs and repurposing them through the advanced Specialist perk, “Full Override.”

Rebels can die during retaliations and other missions, and even some can be Faceless in disguise. Keep this in mind when assigning tasks to your rebels, Commander.

ADVENT won’t be sleeping while this is all going on, Commander. The enemy has employed a new strategic AI that will be operating counter to your own efforts, under the same goal of finishing the Avatar Project. ADVENT will try to move forces from adjacent regions to your location; if ADVENT feels safe in a region, it’ll try to construct research facilities to further the Avatar Project. If you’ve managed to drive ADVENT out of a region, they may return in force to try and take it back.

Additional changes include the ability to deploy multiple squads simultaneously to infiltrate several enemy targets at once. Each of those missions will be played individually. We’ll have more info on some of the other changes to Tactical gameplay in the future.

That’s it for this update, Commander. Be sure to follow XCOM on Twitter and Like XCOM on Facebook to keep up to date with the latest information on XCOM 2. If you’re looking to enlist with the Resistance, join the 2K Forums!

Pavonis Interactive, formerly Long War Studios, is the development outfit responsible for great XCOM 2 PC content such as the “Alien Pack” and the “Perk” and “Laser Pack” mods.