Although I'm struggling to finish the LoV I decided to give a perspective of overall good and bad points of the mod since I'm close to the end:
Good ones:
1) Incredibly long campaign (around 70 scenarios), with scenarios of about 30 turns on average. LOTS of hours of fun. Probably the most fun of any official or custom campaign ever made with GTPG included. Players VERY thirsty for PC action have to play LoV!
2) Versatile scenarios. Mixtures of large combats, naval skirmishes, special bonus scenarios. Defense and offense etc...
3) Clever scenario designs. Very good unit placements and enemy retaliation scripts. I could say maybe even too good. Most of the time scripting is even better then the original games (PC, AK and AC). Niki obviously knows his job and does it with much love and attention to details.
4) Addictive feel. More addictive than any prior campaign that I played. The wast theater of war lures player into wanting more and more.
5) Nice unit additions, gifts, ships added to the core, rail guns, planes, heroes, V1 and V2 rockets etc...
Bad ones:
MAJOR ONE:
1) Incredibly long campaign again
It depends from the perspective that you look at it. Definitely not for inexperienced PC players. Campaign is very time consuming so it can be very discouraging at times. You finish one big and hard scenario just to encounter several more. My breaking point was UK44 which had 80 turns. I just couldn't play it. Luckily Niki has made that scenario optional.
I think LoV is taking me more then twice the time needed to complete GC East (39-45) which says something. Or at least that is the feeling I get. It takes me around 4 hours to finish one average scenario. Scenarios of about 40 turns takes me 5-6 hours. Combine that and you get 70x5 hours ~ 350hours. Considering I can play around 2 hours on average daily as I have a job and a girlfriend, that is about 5-6 months of play which is enormous for a SP game.
Also related to this is the fact that in original PC usually there is a "breaking point" where enemy doesn't spawn new planes or tanks. This is the time when a player can go on autopilot and risk more then usual (expose units etc). In LoV most of the times this is not the case. Player has to be on his toes 99% of the time, otherwise he can loose a precious unit late in scenario in a bombing run when he thinks everything is over... I recall Africa scenarios being especially notorious with this.
MINOR ONES:
2) Inconsistent in-game messaging. Sometimes you are warned of enemy movements and counter attacks (spawns) most times you are not. This especially applies to AI planes that are a real pest and could come anytime. Original game didn't have messages for this (as far as I recall), so maybe it would be better to remove messages of this type altogether then for player to expect messages and then be surprised by sudden attacks.
3) Sometimes there are weird deployment zones. For example in Getysburg tank battle player is given patches of 3-4 hexes to deploy his units without a chance to create defensive line in time. So the first AI punch inevitably creates loses no matter how clever you place your units. It takes several moves to consolidate forces and make a solid defense. This could be a simulation of scrambling for defense or sudden attack by US troops though so maybe I didn't consider that. Similar problem is in Tea Party scenario. Left part of the map gets only 9 deployment hexes while right gets 28. Both are equally important. Luckily with consecutive deployments I was able to circumvent this and deploy many more units on the left.
3) Perfect enemy placement. There is no tank in close terrain or infantry in open. Ambushes are created on purpose so never should any vulnerable unit be left without protection. Enemy units are placed having in mind their movement, sight range, terrain type and other factors so that they are rarely in disadvantage. Too much fortifications and entrenchments for my liking also. Especially in US and Africa.
4) Problems of compatibility with PC 1.21. Prestige gain is sometimes problematic and unbalanced. However this could be circumvented with custom prestige boost (if too little prestige) or reduction. I personally played on colonel settings with 130% prestige and 1.21 rules (cap included). So it was kind of a trade off.
Finally Niki I will try to watch your replays of DLC East. Maybe by understanding your playing style I might have a better chance of finishing LoV. Cheers
Ph-Get-NY.rar
I will probably play LoV till the end of the year now