deducter wrote:
Without motorization, I can't move my infantry around the map fast enough to keep up with my tanks. If I get my tanks next to a city, I need my infantry available to attack on the next turn. Many players, myself included, use various 2 move infantry, like pionieres and grenadiers. Those take forever to move around the map without trucks or half-tracks. In fact most players only have pionieres, although I prefer a mixture of all the various infantry units.
I formed my core into a fictional XIVth Panzer Corps of two divisions: Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring and 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich. Each of them, appart from the recon, anti-air and anti-tank unis, consists of three tank and four motorized infantry batalions. In the HG division there are two fallschirmjäger, one panzergrenadier and one sturmpionier batalion. The Das Reich has three panzergrenadier and one sturmpionier batalion. There is then more infantry in my corps than tanks. I simply wanted my divisions resemble in some way the historical units ( they are still too tank heavy in comparison to their historical counterparts ). But given the current limitations of the motorized units, I'd be much better off trading the two infantry batalions of each division for tanks. I would just dread building my core in such a ahistorical way.
The German divisions from the Barbarossa era, rarely had more than 150 tanks and were better balanced than the Soviet tank divisions from 1941. During the Operation Barbarossa Wehrmacht fielded four Panzer Groups, each one of them having various structure, consisting of panzer, motorized and infantry divisions. On the other side of the front, the Soviets did not deploy any Tank Armies. The main mechanized operational unit of the Red Army in 1941, was so called mechanized corps. Each one of them had a identical structure of two tank divisions ( 375 tank each ), one motorized division ( 275 tanks - the German counterpart had no tanks ), independent motocycle regiment, anti tank battalion and other support units. In theory each Soviet "motorized corps" had 1031 tanks, more than any of German panzer groups.
The Soviet tank corps of more than 1000 tanks mentioned above, was a totaly failed concept. They were way to heavy and impossible to operate on the mobile battlefield. The number of tanks made them also nearly impossible to refuel. The actual Soviet tank armies from the years 1942-45 had never more than 500 tanks, but they still lacked the infantry.
Back to the game - having my "divisions" balanced in more less historical way, time and time again I notice that the tanks that form only about 30% of my batalions, bear the brunt of the fighting and are responsible for 70% of the fighting. My infantry is usually followng them in the second or third wave, sometimes clearing some secondary objectives ( that could be otherwise bypassed or even ignored ). Normally at the end of the scenario, when I know that nearly all the enemy units are destroyed, I bring in the sturmpionier batalion in order to clear the final, well entrenched objective. Due to the vulnerability of the mounted infantry to the enemy counterattacks, sometimes I don't mount it at all and move the units at a slow paste, like they were the old fashioned, foot-marching infanterie.
deducter wrote:
Again, I think your suggestion is interesting and worth investigating, but it is certainly beyond the scope of a simple patch. I certainly think they will break the balance of the DLCs, although its effects on MP is not quite clear and may even be positive. Perhaps you should try out modding, like what El Condoro's did in his Red Dawn mod, and see if that works well.
Unfortunatelly my best achievement in terms of modding so far, is that only recently I figured out how to install and enable the user made modes
To say that my IT skills are
"limited" would be an overstatement, so I have to rely on other people's work and I am grateful them for it! That was the whole purpose of starting this thread - igniting a discussion and inspiring others. I realize that changing the one of the game's mechanic seems like a big thing, but I wouldn't be affraid of it. From the other hand, I don't feel that the changes proposed could seriously damage the games balance. I am not asking for increasing the offensive potential of the motorized units ( that yes - it could dramatically enchance the potential of the attacker ). I opt for enchancing the defensive capacity, which could be achieved when the attacked unit dismouts automatically when attacked. Some may say that it could affect the effectiveness of the AI counterattacks, but let's be honest - the AI moves the units blindly and predictably, so when some moreless equal force ratio is maintained in the scenario, the human player can always outsmart it. The requested change of the motorized infantry mechanics would be also very beneficial for the human vs human games. The players could finally employ against each other more rational tactics, that rightfully belong to the canon of the XXth century mobile warfare.
Panzer Corps is a very young game, so I think that it would be still to early for the developers to adopt a conservative and inflexible attitudes
Sure, the profesionalism demands long process of testing before implementing some changes. But I think that we are all very passionate about the game, the changes are always refreshing and a creative discussion is always the first step. Then only our imagination can set the limits.
