Slitherine

I was very fond of the Panzer General games by SSI and have started with the tutorial games in Panzer Corps.

So far I've noticed the following.

1. It's quite hard to see on a unit if it has a truck attached if the unit didn't use truck movement. You can click on the unit to see the movement allowance, but maybe it's better to have some kind of symbol showing that the unit is motorised.

2. Is it possible to have Load game directly in the System Menu? If you select load and haven't saved you can get the same message as you get now when selecting Quit to Main Menu. It saves some clicks to be able to load directly. I have to learn the game mechanisms the hard way and then it's good to load immediately to retry a different approach to check if that gives me better results.

3. It would also be nice if the game remembered the last save game so if I click save I don't have to select my save game every time. Having a quicksave / quickload function is also good (e. g. F5 for quicksave and F8 for quickload).

4. Combat is sometimes strange. E. g. I bombard an infantry unit in a city and it drops from white to yellow or orange morale. That means it will inflict less damage if attacked again. I then attack with an infantry and the unit loses quite some steps and my unit loses fewer steps. So far so good. But the unit that was attacked is now back with white morale even with fewer steps. So the next unit that's going to attack will receive quite a bit more losses. So you need to use the artillery again to drop the morale. Is it actually possible to GAIN morale after being attacked and losing several steps? I found that rather strange.

So far Panzer Corps looks quite a bit like the original Panzer General and I like what I've seen so far. The battles after awhile is quite challenging because you're faced with flak defending against airstrikes and artillery against ground attacks. Enemy armor are lurking in the rear so you can't rush ahead using truck mode either.

I'm still learning the basics and I hope to get into the real campaign soon.

Stauffenberg wrote: 4. Combat is sometimes strange. E. g. I bombard an infantry unit in a city and it drops from white to yellow or orange morale. That means it will inflict less damage if attacked again. I then attack with an infantry and the unit loses quite some steps and my unit loses fewer steps. So far so good. But the unit that was attacked is now back with white morale even with fewer steps. So the next unit that's going to attack will receive quite a bit more losses. So you need to use the artillery again to drop the morale. Is it actually possible to GAIN morale after being attacked and losing several steps? I found that rather strange.

Strength color represents suppression, not morale, and it means just this: when the unit was bombarded, some folks rushed for cover and temporarily lost their ability to fight. You exploited this well with your first attack, but this advantage does not last all day, unless you have another arty unit to bombard again.

Your second point:
Noted as in Post#2 Article#9 of The List
viewtopic.php?t=24157

Your third point is somewhat related to
Post#2 Article #12
In that the game lacks 'memory' for a variety of features.

Strength color represents suppression, not morale, and it means just this: when the unit was bombarded, some folks rushed for cover and temporarily lost their ability to fight. You exploited this well with your first attack, but this advantage does not last all day, unless you have another arty unit to bombard again. Wink

On the other hand though, doesn't it make sense that when several units attack on target they in reality attack it simultaniously? Surely that's the whole point of attacking from multiple directions

I probably need a functional tutorial too because I always thought any unit could cause suppressed strength on an enemy unit after attacking, which would remain so for the rest of the turn. Took a while before I learned only artillery does that, and only for the duration of one consecutive attack.

adherbal wrote: On the other hand though, doesn't it make sense that when several units attack on target they in reality attack it simultaniously? Surely that's the whole point of attacking from multiple directions

Yes, but again in reality one arty unit is not enough to suppress the whole city, so in the end it only effects attack from one direction. And the solution is also simple - just bring in more arty units. Bombard - attack - bombard - attack.

In an abstract game like this I really don't see a problem with justifying ANY approach. The question is, do we think that a change is warranted from gameplay point of view? I think, the answer is no, lasting suppression for the entire turn is too powerful.

I'm fine with this way to attack. We just need to know how things work. So if it's mentioned in the documentation or tutorial then players won't get a surprise.

I think the mechanic is fine. It means you can use 2 artillery units on a city more effectively - supress, assault, supress, assault.