2.0.4... First thoughts

[GottaLove88s]

First thoughts on 2.0.4... mostly Meeting Engagement and Winter Village, typically against the same opponent playing as Allies and as Germans, so we could get both a feel for the different units and strategies:

Suddenly, BA plays as a completely different game... Up until 2.0.3, MP with force selection was a case of buying enough infantry to act as scouts hidden in buildings and forest, so that artillery could see where to bombard, and tanks could settle in good ambush spots (or rush to defend risk areas) while gobbling up VP flags.

With 2.0.4, MP has become a more complex game... It feels like genuinely combined-force operations... You still need enough infantry to act as spotters and to gradually work through towns... Tanks still follow up to take out strongpoints and to mop up VPs... But it feels necessary to be more careful... Flag rushes become more risky, because maybe he transported a 6 pdr or a Pak40 into that neighbouring forest... It feels more cautious and considered (or for some, maybe still with the crazy charges, but they'll be quickly resigning the games where their rushes get caught).

Winter Village has replaced Meeting Engagement as my new favourite, because it's faster into the action but still has a good mix of terrain to try different strategies with mixed unit sets. Meeting Engagement is still great but it's now more "grand strategy"... where do I think he'll come from?... where are his panzers now? so should I put my 6 pdr AT here as he rounds the corner? can I get it there in time?... this map feels huge, even with transports... I wonder if 25 turns is enough? Haven't finished one yet, so will feedback more later. It's worth noting that Germans have Wirbelwind AA but Allies have no AA and the scenario does include fighter-bombers (viewtopic.php?f=90&t=34843)

Small gripes on the impossibility of taking out well organised teams of the strongest German tanks aside (viewtopic.php?f=90&t=34833) which could be softened by adding in M26E3 Pershings, M4 Sherman Fireflies (viewtopic.php?f=90&t=34798&p=329006&hil ... ly#p329006) or even modifying with the surrender on zero morale/uberstreng King Tiger reaction fire model, I'm liking 2.0.4 a lot... it's clever, it's complete, it's fun and very playable... I suspect not everyone will like the new complexity, so it's worth putting in that slider to vary spending budgets on force selection... less than 1,000 would make for much snappier games on smaller maps (viewtopic.php?f=90&t=34841)... but if you like strategy, and you've got the patience to see it through, this is The One. Thanks Pip, Iain and all at Slitherine

[GottaLove88s]

PS. Not urgent, but please add to wishlist: Could we have an option to "deploy" our units for the larger maps... I seem to spend the first 3-5 turns of Meeting Engagement, moving my forces around to mix Shermans with M36s and infantry, because they all start at the edges of the map grouped with similar unit types (btw, have you randomised the starts now? I noticed one opponent got Sherman's right into the centre of the map very quickly, which didn't happen in earlier releases... randomised starts make a lot of sense... up until 2.0.3, it was too easy to "know" where his scouts would come from, where his artillery would start, and it was reasonably easy to figure out what the first 2-3 moves might be and set artillery appropriately... neither side can do that now)

[IainMcNeil]

Thanks for the feedback. The reason deploy is not in is that we have no way to allow 2 sides to deploy. It is on the wish list but unlikely to be any time soon.

[GottaLove88s]

Thanks Iain. Understood. It's a nice to have rather than a killer requirement...