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- This item has a Codex entry: Battle of The Selle
— In-Game Description
Giant's Shadow is a map that appears in Battlefield 1.[1] First revealed in the promotion of the Battlefield 1 Ultimate Edition on Origin, the map released for free post-launch on December 20, 2016, with Premium members and those who pre-ordered any edition gaining access to the map a week in advance on the 13th.
The map takes place during the Battle of the Selle in October 1918 as part of the Allies' Hundred Days Offensive, and features the British and German armies fighting for control of Le Cateau-Wassigny Railway in the open fields along the Selle river. A crashed airship serves as the map's centrepiece. The Armored Train is the map's behemoth. The patch that added the map also introduces the new gadget for the Support class, the Crossbow Launcher.[2]
Overview
The terrain of Giant's Shadow is that of a gradual valley, comprised mostly of farmland, with a few built up areas on the periphery. A crashed airship, which has split into many sections upon impact and half-buried in the hillside, provides both the immediate visual and strategic focal point of the map, due to its prominent position on the high ground squarely in the map center. The surrounding hillocks, fields and dirt roads of the valley's lower ground are devoid of cover save for a few scattered "islands" of boulders, trees and roadside ditches. Traversing the valley floor can therefore be perilous when on foot, as players can be quite easily picked off at range from the enemy controlled high ground.
The Village and Railyard, on the north and south ends of the map respectively, offer more considerable cover, as well as the possibility of close-quarters fighting. The map also features a shallow river, running parallel to a single-track railway in a curved path from the north-west, passing through the Village on the map's northern side as well as the nose section of the downed airship before continuing to the south-east. Due to its location in a valley, the fog on this map is noticeably thicker than on others, should it roll in during the battle.
Behemoth
The Behemoth of this map is the Armored Train, travelling into the map boundaries from the losing team's side of the map. Its track runs across the map east to south-west, putting the train in proximity to the Junction, Lower Crash Site and Railyard objectives.
Control Points
| Control Point | Conquest | Domination | Rush | Incursions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| German Deployment | 
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| Sector 1 | ||||
| Village | A | Sector 2 | A | |
| North Village | B | |||
| Junction | B | Sector 3 | C | |
| Lower Crash Site | C | Sector 4A | 
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| Upper Crash Site | D | Sector 4B | ||
| Logging Camp | E | |||
| Railyard | F | |||
| Supplies | A | |||
| Maintenance Yard | B | |||
| Luca's Stable | C | |||
| British Deployment | 
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Conquest
Conquest takes place across the map's full length, with combat generally concentrated within the map center. Four control of the six points are found relatively close to one another in the midst of the crashed airship, while the flags closest to each team's spawn lie further afield. The handful of ground and air vehicles should be used to augment infantry pushes across ground that is mostly unsuited to them. Furthermore, the plentiful light vehicles such as scout cars and motorcycles can be used to quickly bypass the frontline and reach the more distant objectives. There are six objectives in Conquest.
Equipment
 German Empire
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| Light vehicle(s) | |
| Tank(s) | |
| Fixed-wing aircraft | |
 British Empire
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| Light vehicle(s) | |
| Tank(s) | |
| Fixed-wing aircraft | |
Deployments
In Conquest, the German Empire deploy from the hillside on the north-western edge of the map, while the British Empire start on the valley floor to the far south.
German Deployment
The German army starts from a farming courtyard nestled in the hillside dotted with windmills to the north-west. Their main route of advance, lined with drystone walls and roadside divots, carries them downhill towards the Village, although it branches off before this point, allowing vehicles to bypass the objective along the perimeter of the surrounding fields to the east and south-west. A QF-1 AA gun is emplaced by a sandbag wall in the southern corner of the courtyard.
British Deployment
The British team's main base is a small farmhouse on the southern side of the map. Two roads lead north, parallel to one another, away from the house and accompanying stable buildings and towards the Logging Camp and Railyard objectives respectively. The surrounding terrain consists of tilled fields and stubby foothills. A QF-1 AA gun is set up in the courtyard near a large oak tree to the south-west.
Flags
The Six flags are arranged in a zig-zag formation from north to south. The crashed airship and its twin objectives divide the map lengthways into north and south, and commonly acts as the map's Conquest frontline.
Village
The Village objective is found at the base of the hill close to the German spawn, on the north side of the river. A fairly expansive urban area, the main road running through this area is lined with red-brick houses and their accompanying backyard enclosures, bordered by high walls. The north side of town consists of one and three-storey residential buildings and private gardens, while on the other side of the main road, lining the river bank, are larger, more open compounds consisting of more rural structures. The capture zone is concentrated around the north-side houses, and encompasses a high-walled backyard scattered with bundles of lumber. The control area extends to the upper floors of some the buildings, requiring close range fighting to seize. Vehicles can be used to blast holes in the building and perimeter walls to grant new sightlines and routes of access.
The Village will spawn one Motorcycle and one Scout Car when captured. It additionally provides one extra tank spawn if the flag is taken by the Germans.
Junction
The Junction objective is located alongside the southern bank of the river, and parallel to the map's single-track railway. A stone bridge across the water connects to the main road (although is not entirely necessary as the river is generally shallow enough to ford), which crosses the railway on its route through the Village to the north - the objective name refers to the intersecting of these three elements. The area is overlooked to the south by the hill holding up the crashed zeppelin. The capture point itself is characterized by a cluster of small buildings situated within a level clearing, encircled partially by head-high brick walls and a seated berm. On the north side of the clearing is a stone stable; to the south, a cottage; and to the east, two semi-detached houses, one of which includes an upper level. These represent the extent of the (destructible) cover here, although the stone embankment to the south-west can provide vital shielding against the high ground, as can the river bank and the raised rail track.
The flag provides one Motorcycle spawn. A QF-1 AA gun is emplaced in the back yard of the houses on the east side of the capture zone.
Lower Crash Site
The crashed airship, embedded within the much-coveted central high ground, spans most of the horizontal play area. The surroundings, scorched and mostly featureless, make approach to the objectives difficult should they be controlled by the opposition. The north-eastern objective is situated at slightly lower ground, and encompasses the sunken nose of the airship, partially submerged in water about the bend in the river. The capture radius does not extend beyond the tattered walls of the airship's skeleton, which block lines of sight, therefore concentrating engagements within the makeshift tunnel of the behemoth's interior. Those seizing the objective can either take cover in the swamped nose section or the debris uphill to the north, while the open area accommodating the train line can allow vehicles to provide their support.
Yellow helium tanks litter the ground inside the shattered frame of the Airship, which become an explosive hazard if shot or driven into. Outside the airship, an FK 96 field gun spawns near the aircraft's midsection to the north-west.
Upper Crash Site
The tail end of the airship came to rest at a slightly higher elevation that the rest of the Airship's fragments, allowing fighters in position along the far south "ridge" to fire down onto the lower ground of the interior. A narrow roadway cuts through the sides of the wreck, creating a no-mans-land in the capture zone between the upper ridge and the rubble and debris adjacent to the flag itself. Here, as with the rest of the map, control of the high ground is the key to winning the objective.
Additional yellow containers are scattered within the middle section, making the low ground even more perilous to fight in. Fallen gun canopies on both the north and south side of the blimp can be used as makeshift bunkers, as their 20mm armament remains mounted and sighted towards the base of each side of the hill. Another FK 96 is dug in on the opposite side of the midsection, to the south-east.
Logging Camp
The Logging Camp is located on the southern-half's west side, downhill from the Upper Crash Site, and uphill through a large muddy field from the Railyard. The area consists of a rectangular shed-type building with rafters, surrounded by piles of lumber. The objective, being situated on level ground overlooked to the north and west by rolling hills, offers limited directional cover, with the path between this flag and the airship being obscured partially by trees and outcroppings. The position does, however, allow for an effective defense against those slogging through the morass to the south-east.
The objective spawns just one Motorcycle when held.
Railyard
The Railyard objective is found adjacent to the river on the map's south-eastern side. The main road to the British spawn and the map-spanning rail line end up parallel at this objective. On the eastern side is an expansive network of siding, most of which are cluttered with stationary railway cargo cars. On the west side, a row of multi-story houses preside over the lower ground. The capture zone on this objective is quite large, and offers many places for capturing players to hide. Securing the objective may require house-to-house fighting, rooting enemy players out from inside or under train cars. Take note that tanks are a common sight here, as the flag itself and the nearby British base can spawn them - such vehicles can be useful in clearing out the enemy, should you wish to demolish the buildings and rail carriages instead of fighting for control of them.
The objective spawns one Motorcycle and one Scout Car upon capture, also granting an additional Tank spawn if captured by the British. A QF-1 AA Gun is emplaced on the platform between the main road and the rail track, directly adjacent to the flag itself.
Rush
In Rush, the German forces are tasked with attacking southwards from the windmill-imbued northern high ground, crossing the river and valley floor before taking their final objective within the Crashed Airship. The British must defend their communication lines to block the German advance.
Sector 1
The initial objectives are within the farm courtyard typically characterised as the German's Conquest spawn location. The British start behind the hill, advancing up to the plateau to form their defense, while the Germans must charge downhill from the northern-most windmill, through open fields with few permanent cover positions. A single tank is allocated to their side to assist with the assault.
Sector 2
The second pair of objectives are within the Village at the base of the hill. One is typically on the north side of the main road, proximal to the Conquest flag's exact location, while the other is usually located around the south-eastern outskirts, close to the river bank. The Germans are issued with a single tank and a KFT Scout, while the British also recieve a tank for support.
Sector 3
In the third phase, the attackers must cross the river to reach the Junction clearing.
Sector 4
In the final phase, the German team must forge their way uphill across exposed ground to bomb the telegraph posts emplaced within the airship interior.
Domination
Domination takes place around the Railyard on the map's south side. The play area includes the shunting area lined with cargo cars to the east as well as the backside of the houses up a short hill to the west.
Supplies
The Supply area is identified as a small shed on the north-east side of the play area. The capture zone, which extends a considerable distance southwards, is partially surrounded by a wooden fence, which provides a destructible line of sight blocker, as well as two rows of train cars further to the south and west, which form a more permanent obstruction.
Maintenance Yard
The Maintenance Yard is a small objective situated on the platform on the map's southern edge. The capture radius includes two rows of train cars that can be used as cover, by either going inside them or lying underneath them.
Luca's Stable
This objective, which confusingly shares a name with an objective in Monte Grappa, is positioned on a raised foundation behind the row of buildings to the west. The capture zone includes an initially intact stable building, while the flag itself is surrounded by piles of lumber and a tall wooden fence.
Team Deathmatch
Team Deathmatch takes place around the Railyard.
War Pigeons
War Pigeons takes place in the same area as Team Deathmatch.
Incursions
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Giant's Shadow is redesigned exclusively for the Incursions gamemode. Unlike standard gamemode maps, Incursion maps feature two spawn points for each team's deployment, connected by three progressive control points that must be captured in order.
Action takes place in an area corresponding to the original map's Village and Junction. The namesake downed airship visible in the background to the southeast. The village is more dense with small buildings, and has more changes in elevation.
Gallery
Trivia
- Giant's Shadow appears to be based on the final map of the first War Story, Through Mud and Blood.
- In the Polish version of Battlefield 1, this map is named "Upadek Kolosa", which means "The Fall of Giant".
- Despite the map's historical setting during the Allies' Hundred Days Offensive, in the Rush game mode the Germans are the attackers and the British who are defending.
- In the game files this map is named MP_Giant.
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