WC4 — April 2026 Patch: Delta Force, Bismarck, Dowding, Legends and Events

Patch window

The April 2026 patch rolls out **April 15 to June 10, 2026**. It adds two Elite Forces, a training path for an existing general, two WWII legends, a new defense event, two Nightmare military operations, and five historical retrospections spread across May and June.

Delta Force (US, elite infantry)

**Confirmed role: tier-one assassin infantry.** Delta Force recruits for 30 fragments, one per battle. The unit panel shows four perk slots (2 gold + 2 bronze); two tooltips are confirmed from in-game screenshots:

• **Camouflage Cover** — cannot be targeted by direct-damage active skills, immune to all debuffs, -30% damage taken at 1 tile and -15% at 2–3 tiles. This makes Delta Force effectively immune to the skills that normally kill infantry elites (Hawkeye Force, Combat Medic…).
• **Decapitation Strike** — mark 1 target within a 2-tile range, ignore dodge/smoke/stealth, +60% damage to marked target for 1 turn, cooldown 2 turns. If the marked target dies, an extra attack fires with an additional +20% damage.

**How to use it.** Delta Force is a precision anti-general opener: slot her onto the frontline the turn your opponent stacks a high-value general. The reset-on-kill clause on Decapitation Strike also turns her into a sweeper against weakened enemy columns.

**Lv.1 stats read from the in-game panel**: Attack 72, Defense 20, HP 585. Movement/range pending.

Battleship Bismarck (Germany, naval elite)

**Confirmed role: lone-wolf glass-cannon striker.** 30 fragments, four perk slots (3 confirmed):

• **Broadside Volley** — attacks are guaranteed critical hits with +30% critical damage, 1 turn, cooldown 2 turns.
• **Solitary Surge** — if no allied naval units within 3 tiles, +30% attack but +30% incoming damage. This is the signature "Operation Rheinübung" clause.
• **Indomitable Will** — on each kill, recover 2% of max HP.

**How to use it.** Detach Bismarck from your main fleet and send her hunting through enemy naval lanes and coastal cities. Always target the highest-HP unit in range with Broadside Volley. **Do not cluster her** with carriers — you'll lose the Solitary Surge bonus. This is a fundamentally different doctrine from Prince of Wales or Yamato, both of which reward fleet cohesion.

**Lv.1 stats read from the in-game panel**: Attack 86, HP 685.

Hugh Dowding becomes trainable

Dowding joins the trainable general tier (Swords and Sceptres of Dominance). The promoted preview panel shows:

• **Nationality**: British
• **Promoted rank**: Marshal
• **HP bonus**: 205%
• **Medal cost**: 2,235 base, 1,788 discounted, **1,341 at full discount**

**Confirmed signature skills (post-training)**:

• **The Britannic Eagle** — while in a city, after a commanded Spitfire annihilates an enemy unit, 100% chance to restore 1 dispatch count. Airstrikes against hovering units (excluding nukes) deal +20% damage.
• **Dowding System** — while in your own territory: +10 Technology per turn, ignore enemy dodge, nullify enemy anti-air within your borders.

**Recommended training path**:

• **Sword tier (gold)** — recommended. Unlocks two extra skill slots. Best picks: Industrial Expert and Technology Expert, which compound with his base Economic Expert to turn him into an air/economy hybrid.
• **Sceptre tier (orange)** — not recommended. 8 Sceptres of Dominance is a heavy investment; save them for your top generals first.

**How to use him.** Park Dowding in a home airbase city on the most contested front. He **never** leaves your territory — both signatures shut off the moment he crosses the border. Run Spitfire squadrons continuously out of that city: the dispatch-refund loop lets you absorb every enemy air wave without draining your daily sortie budget. Push science hard to capitalize on the +10 Technology per turn.

New Legends

Legends are historical division assignments that permanently strengthen a unit and its surrounding allies. **One-way decisions** — choose carefully.

### Großdeutschland Division (Axis)

Assign to a Wehrmacht armor or motorized infantry stack. The Heer's best-equipped non-SS formation, briefly commanded by Hermann Balck at Zhitomir in 1943. In-game: top-tier strengthen legend for armor/infantry — mount it on your Axis offensive spearhead. The bonus radiates to neighboring friendlies, so concentrate heavy tanks around it to maximize value.

### 4th Guards Tank Division (Kantemirovskaya)

Assign to a Red Army armor stack. Descended from the 17th Tank Corps raised near Stalingrad in June 1942, redesignated 4th Guards Tank Corps in 1943 for combat at Kantemirovka, reorganized as a division in June 1945. Fought from Ukraine through Poland to the Elbe, participated in Operation Berlin. In-game: Soviet counterpart to Großdeutschland — the top-tier armor strengthen legend for any player running the Red Army spearhead doctrine.

Each legend can only be assigned to the corresponding unit once, and scenarios apply their own rules on simultaneous legend slots.

New defense event: Battle of Berlin

Debuts **April 17, 2026**. Defense-type event, 29 max survival rounds, 7-day rotation. Objective: hold every key zone for as long as possible. Rewards whether you clear the set or die partway through — especially friendly to newer players.

Nightmare military operations

Two existing operations are promoted to Nightmare (hardest tier: Level-12 elites on both sides, aggressive AI).

### Rise of the Scorpion Empire (Nightmare)

Continues the Scorpion Empire arc. You play Axis/NATO/UN against a Scorpion faction that is hostile on every level except Level 6. Osborn spawns from Level 3 onward once his scripted events trigger. The hardest beat is the final level, where neutral countries progressively join the Scorpion Empire — garrison borders while hunting enemy elite generals. **All Scorpion elites are Level 12.**

### North Atlantic (Nightmare)

Naval-heavy operation with elite submarines and carrier groups. This is the operation Bismarck is designed to anchor — and it's also why the Aerial Countermeasures perk is being reworked in the same patch.

Hard Mode: Storm of Steel

The European-theater Army Group event gets a Hard Mode variant on **April 15**. Army Group mode requires defeating every army of the opposing faction, so tightened victory conditions punish undersized stacks and overextended supply lines.

Historical retrospections (May – June)

• **May 2, 2026** — Anglo-Iraqi War (1941 British intervention in Iraq)
• **May 13, 2026** — Battle of Sedan (1940 breakthrough on the Meuse — speed-assault scenario)
• **May 21, 2026** — Battle of Arras (BEF counter-attack, armored delay tactics)
• **May 26, 2026** — Battle of Gazala (May 1942, North Africa — replicate Rommel's most celebrated tactical victory)
• **June 10, 2026** — Vyborg Offensive (1944 Soviet drive against Finland, closes the rollout)

Balance & bug fixes

**Aerial Countermeasures — optimized.** The perk has been reworked. Easytech hasn't published the numerical delta, but the timing — dropping alongside the North Atlantic Nightmare and the Battleship Bismarck elite — makes it clear the perk is being retuned for the contested-air naval meta. Expect anti-air builds to feel meaningfully different. A standard round of bug fixes lands alongside.

Commander's checklist

• **April 15** — Dive into Storm of Steel Hard Mode for Army Group rewards and a feel for the rebalanced AI.
• **April 17** — Queue a Battle of Berlin defense run. Even partial survival pays out.
• **Mid-April** — Start training Dowding toward Sword tier if you need a cheap air/economy hybrid.
• Assign the new Legends to your best armored stacks: Großdeutschland for your Axis spearhead, 4th Guards Tank for your Red Army front.
• Stockpile fragments for Delta Force and Bismarck via events, attendance and Elite Shop rotations.
• **From May 2** — Clear the historical retrospections as they unlock. Short, high-reward, usually the best medal-per-minute content in any patch.
• Tackle Nightmares last — once legends and elites are in place. Rise of the Scorpion Empire punishes level-mismatched stacks; North Atlantic will expose any gap in your anti-air and anti-sub coverage.

Delta Force and Bismarck stat blocks are partly projected from WC4's Elite Force framework and the closest comparable units; they will be updated as soon as the official numbers are accessible in-game. Dowding's data and the legend descriptions are confirmed.

Frequently Asked Questions