2 Things I Don't Understand.

[bru888]

I'm in favor of leaving the artillery alone in this game. The developers just got done fine-tuning it after lengthy discussion and I believe they now have it right. If they introduce artillery as support in nearby combat, it's going to throw off the game balance they have achieved.

Further, I see recon as scout and intel, not as combat strike except in certain situations like hunting down weakened enemy units. As such, I don't see recon capturing key points and cutting supply lines. The recon profile is a small, fast unit, not an occupier. And again, there is a question of game balance. Say the developers were to give recon this capability. With their speed, enemy recon units would be constantly squirming through holes in your lines, taking your supply points and forcing you to chase them around. I can just see the complaints coming in about that!

The one thing I do agree with here is what Erik said about the unlimited flying time of airborne recon. That is not realistic and I believe providing for its need for refueling like any other airplane would not upset any game balance.

[GiveWarAchance]

After playing the game some more, I agree with the game design of having recon being just a recon unit driving around without securing towns and roads. The recon cars are very effective and can take out damaged enemy units very well so if they were made able to occupy land like full infantry battalions, it may overpower the recon units and power gamers would only spam recon and no other units which would turn this nice war game into a silly game of Civilization like when they buy whole armies of artillery in Panzer Corp plus a few tanks only (I actually saw that insane 'advice' posted in reply to players finding Russia too strong in PC). Overall I think I like all the game rules as they are now and don't want ham-fisted adjustments done to please power gamers. This is just my feeling anyways.

[Mojko]

Artillery in this game works differently compared to Panzer Corps. This is because efficiency damage is not recovered at the start of your turn like in Panzer Corps, but rather at the start of your turn while your unit did not take any action and did not suffer an attack from enemy unit (the attack doesn't even need to do damage). This basically means that a unit that is hit by heavy artillery once is immediately weakened and has to spend one turn to pull back (prevent any further damage), one turn to recover and one turn to get back to the fight. Having a support fire on any artillery unit would be ridiculously OP.

If you know how to use the artillery to your full advantage and keep the enemy efficiency low you can already do ridiculous things. For example in the Viipuri scenario of the Winter war campaign (middle difficulty), I was able to completely halt the Soviets and eventually destroyed all Soviet units and captured Leningrad. I did this by deploying large amount of artillery by removing their transports, thus freeing up more supply.

Adding the ability to capture territory to the recons class would be OP as well due to the supply mechanic present in this game. Recons are fast, have two moves per turn, have quick retreat, perform ok in combat and have small supply cost. It would be easy to have 3 to 8 recon units dedicated to cutting supply of enemy units.

Overall, after trying out multiple play styles, I came to the conclusion that the most resource efficient unit composition is as follows:

- lots of mountain infantry / marines (no transports)
- medium amount of engineers (no transports)
- no heavy infantry
- lots of heavy artillery
- medium amount of anti-infantry tanks
- couple of AA / AT guns that can switch
- air force with only fighter (anti-small air) and tactical bomber
- no ground recon, no strategic bomber

Infantry is always at the front and takes most damage. This is ok because it takes much less RP to repair infantry compared to tanks. You should almost never attack enemy unit that has not been hit either by artillery, engineer or tactical bomber. Engineers are your meat shields, they are very cheap to replace and destroy enemy entrenchment and efficiency. Tanks should be used only to do massive damage on enemy infantry and support units (artillery, AA gun...) which have already been suppressed. Avoid attacking tanks with your tanks unless they are heavily suppressed or damaged by tactical bombers. If you do all this correctly vast majority of RP spent on replacements should go into engineers and other infantry, much less to tanks and fighters and almost nothing to artillery and tactical bombers. With this tactic I was able to beat Blitzkrieg campaign with 2000RPs in surplus on middle difficulty.

[GiveWarAchance]

Thanks Mojko. I have to ask about earlier topic in thread....

He's probably referring to my custom Blitzkrieg 39-40 (moving into 41) campaign, the last post on this page:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 74&t=65107

Hello Erik. I think I installed the mods but only Finland war mod shows up. Your mods don't. I put them in My Documents... yadda yadda... mods folder same as Finland mod.
Should the unzipped folder be put elsewhere other than mod folder?
I like how you made early Philippines and Kokoda Trail mods cause I like Pacific war very much. I read an interesting book about Kokoda Trail campaign and the Japanese struggle to survive against the the Aussies and terrible starvation problems.
The interior of Borneo I think is the official most horrendous terrain on the planet to try to move about in.
I also love Germany army too so I want to play your Blitz 39-41 campaign if I can get it to work.

[Erik2]

Thanks Mojko. I have to ask about earlier topic in thread....

He's probably referring to my custom Blitzkrieg 39-40 (moving into 41) campaign, the last post on this page:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 74&t=65107

Hello Erik. I think I installed the mods but only Finland war mod shows up. Your mods don't. I put them in My Documents... yadda yadda... mods folder same as Finland mod.
Should the unzipped folder be put elsewhere other than mod folder?
I like how you made early Philippines and Kokoda Trail mods cause I like Pacific war very much. I read an interesting book about Kokoda Trail campaign and the Japanese struggle to survive against the the Aussies and terrible starvation problems.
The interior of Borneo I think is the official most horrendous terrain on the planet to try to move about in.
I also love Germany army too so I want to play your Blitz 39-41 campaign if I can get it to work.

Blitzkrieg is a custom campaign, not a mod.
So it should be placed in the Campaigns folder similar to the Scenarios folder (not in the campaigns folder inside the mods folder)

[GiveWarAchance]

Thanks Erik.