A REPORT ON AWARDS FROM SIDEOUT
Awards Commentary
Napolean Bonaparte once wrote that “a soldier will fight long, and hard, for a colored piece of ribbon,” and to that end, we have begun the push to revamp and revitalize our old player and high command awards programs for both the Allied and Axis sides.
Where does one start with such a daunting task? As I was tasked with getting the ball rolling on this endeavor, I decided to break the awards down (for both sides) into two categories. First category was Valor, to recognize those courageous and sometimes foolhardy actions in game, and the other was for Skill or Proficiency with a given weapon, vehicle, or aircraft. Let me briefly break down each one, by side:
AXIS
Valor:
While this is still a work in progress, we have pretty much identified the direction for valor going forward, frankly the Axis side being much the easiest (9 levels of Iron Cross which is historically accurate) and the Allies being much more difficult with 3 countries (at least) awards to consider. All 9 levels of the Axis Iron Cross have been identified, scrubbed, polished, and are ready for award. Here is the beginning award, the Iron Cross, Second Class.
This is the most famous of all historical Axis awards, and one that was very common, with well over 4 million awarded during WW2. As this was a progressive award, the next award would have been Iron Cross, 1st Class followed by Knights Cross of the Iron Cross. These would be the first 3 levels of awards for valor.
ALLIES
With the beginning of each Campaign starting in Northern Europe May 1940 time frame, we decided to dust off an Iconic French award, the Croix de Guerre as the counterpart for the first three levels of valor. For the purpose of the game only, we decided to go with Croix de Guerre (bronze) as the counterpart to the Iron Cross, Second class. Here is what it looks like:
This would be followed by Silver to match against IC 1st Class, and Gold to match against Knights Cross.
The work in progress remains to identify what the next comparable levels will be, French or British.
Proficiency/Skill
These awards represent the bread and butter of our game world. Players on both sides perform the same basic tasks everyday, and we have attempted to develop a series of awards to recognize the skill in the performance of those tasks. To name a few:
Supply running of trucks and setting Forward Mobile Spawns (FMS) is something that no attack could be successful without occurring. Supply award for both sides comes in bronze, silver, gold Allies: 
Axis: 
Blowing up/destroying enemy forward bases (FBs) and forward mobile spawns (FMS) is a critical component of the game. This award recognizes the combat engineers that destroy these on a regular basis, in this case a 1st, 2nd and third award indicated by the bomb in the center of the ribbon: Allies 
Axis 
Last example we will show illustrates a difference between the two sides as the Allies were much more prone to just award ribbons, whereas the Axis awarded ribbons, medals, and badges, though not necessarily at the same time. Axis were much more prone to awarding a Armor badge, Infantry badge etc for demonstrated skill.
Here is award for AntiAircraft Marksmanship:
Allied (bronze) 
Axis (bronze) 
The criteria for the earning of awards, whether it is for valor, or for skill, is as was historical, subjective. Subjective that is, to the officers on the battlefield, and it is no different here at WW2Online. Players witnessing other players going above and beyond should call this out to High Command Officers by private message, who will duly recognize over public channels in game if appropriate, and ultimately the awards are posted to our Game Forums. You can always email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the details and we will forward it to the appropriate high command for you.
There are of numerous other awards completed and/or in progress, but suffice it to say that Napolean’s words were not lost on the developers at CRS!
Stay tuned to the Community Report for updates to the Awards Program as they occur!