Slitherine

So far game play experience is living up to our expectations.



I'm finding myself having a much larger variety of units. I'm really enjoying the StuG IIIG especially.
And I lost air superiority in this scenario, so I've really bulked up on mobile AD units. A Hurricane IID killed my SE Tiger I on this map, and it can do pretty decent (2-4) damage against a Jagdpanther or King Tiger in clear skies.

Jagdpanther is still pretty all-powerful, but at least with it's much higher price (450 increased to 600) it's not so easy to mass purchase anymore.
Wurfrahmen is also very cost efficient, but we should have a price increase for that unit coming soon to better suit it's excellent attack power and mobility.

How has everyone else's experience been so far with the new balance changes? I know our BETA testers enjoy the new and improved StuG IIIB, but I can't share those details of DLC 1941 publicly yet.

Balancing in the transport classes woul be nice to see.

I would realy like to have horse tranports implemented (patched into the "old " dlc aswell, for some enemies and the maps), as a very cheep (10,20 prestige) alternative to the opel blitz. At this point, the opel could be made more expensive (25-50 prestige additional). It should be not trivial to have only modern opels at the beginning of the war (I rememeber, in PG I realy struggeled the first missions to gain the prestige for beter tranports).
Further, selling back old transportation means schoul be possible, up to know you have to spend the prestige, first for the blitz, then for the sdkfz at full price again. I think this should be an upgrade path, though these vehicles are formally not upgraded into each other. Here, some prestige increase in the degree of the opel could be sensible. I just don't want to have to buy each vehicle totally new, and losing the oldfor nothing.

So "+ horse", "blitz more expensive", "upgrade to sdkfz"

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I further would like to have additional BF 109 types available, during one dlc (The drawback of one single dlc is, that it is kinda boring, upgrade wise). That is, different versions, e.g. of the 109 e in '39, each differing for 1 stat anywhere. E.g.

basis variant
e-1 could carry a little bomb, +2 ha/sa, -1 air defense/attack (slower now ), same prestige
e-7 specialise for heights, +1 initiative, -1 airfence, same prestige
e-8 additional tank, has more fuel (+20), +1 initiative / -1 air defense, +20 prestige
e-9 stronger machines, +1 air attack +1 initiative, -15 fuel, +30 pretige

(I know that the type declarations are not that correct formally, but I think you get my point). Obviously they should be in one upgrade path. So you can customize your core, more, I would realy like to have some choices there. You could easily implement that (same picture for all of one type), even for later dlc / equipment variants.

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General balancing, I would like to be ale to customice them more. E.g. a menue where I can chose which level of the ki I want, and for the bonus settings, how much of them I want (in percent, like I would like 10% less available turn, 25% less pretige, 1 additional strength point). SImilar to the prestige options in PG.


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Specifiy balancing, since there were some complaints about the early german tanks, I think the attack values are okay, but one could give them some +1 / +2 initiative. They were weak, but hat an extraordinary good communication. Maybe that would help to use them better.

The difference (prestige) between 7.5 and 10.5 sould be bigger. +1 range is realy a huge deal. Same like with transports, it should not be trivial to get /upgrade everything to 10.5 instantly.

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And some statistics evaluation of each single map / of the whole compain is realy needed (maybe at least a table about all dv/mv/loss awars and the units death/kill statistics, like in PG). Same goes for multiplayer. A replay function is realy missing there.



Best regards (experiance have all been obtained on fm level)

Ranta

I particularly like the way the air units have been re-balanced. Tactical bombers are now great tools, whereas before their use was questionable. Hm, maybe I like it so much because it's me doing most of the bombing

I was mostly playing 1941 scenarios and like the StuG IIIB "artillery" change. I am swooning about this unit as it turned out to be much better than expected. Maybe it got even a little too good but in general I think it can stay his way. It is some new kind of unit type and I like it very much.

I like the changes. Tactical bombers are now useful against late war tanks, while not being overpowered. And the kingtiger is now manageable, even in open terrain. Managed to kill one in open terrain with tactical bomber, 3ATs and a comet. So while still a force it isn't ridiculous anymore.

Ranta wrote:Balancing in the transport classes woul be nice to see.
...
Further, selling back old transportation means schoul be possible, ...
...
So "+ horse", "blitz more expensive", "upgrade to sdkfz"

Agree on these three points.

Ranta wrote:The drawback of one single dlc is, that it is kinda boring, upgrade wise.

It is.

Kerensky wrote:So far game play experience is living up to our expectations.


Wurfrahmen is also very cost efficient, but we should have a price increase for that unit coming soon to better suit it's excellent attack power and mobility.

Been posting about the Wurfrahmen for months on how it is over powered. I actually think all the artillery should go up in price by 10 %.

Not a bad showing on Hylan Valley for our new and improved StuG.

I very much like the changes to the towed AT class. Now that they are slightly cheaper and more effective I actually consider using them now, especially if i can put them into trenches. A great change.
I also like the changes to the Russian tank arm. Its good to see early models of the T- 34 slightly cheaper, while the later models are more effective. KV 2 is much improved. A monster in Barbarossa but well past its prime by Kursk. The cheaper and tougher PzIV's and stugs seem a little more survivable against the next generation of russian tanks (at best) and are an option to consider for a desperate German commander now. Improvements to tac bombers and AA guns also seem to play out well. I'm not seeing tanks and troops shooting tac bombers out of the sky anymore. I think the AA guns are nicely balanced now, strong enough to put you off bombing runs that aren't really worth it but not so powerful as to devastate your planes.

I don't think the changes to late war infantry are playing quite right. Allied armour is now lucky to hit 1 strength against wehrmacht in towns while suffering massive losses in return. I tried charging a wehrmacht city with armour as a test run in "Germany West" a few times (admittedly a dumb tactic) and suffered huge 6 -1, 8-0 , 5-1 losses, even with mass attack. Although i supported the change it seems like the tanks can hardly damage the troops now (and they should, assaulting tanks was not for the faint of heart). A good idea but maybe a bit overbalanced now.

Not real keen on the 13 strength Marder either and wouldn't mind seeing some artillery assets a bit harder to come by but overall a great patch with many improvements.

Some nice comments about the new StuG IIIB I had to share:

I must say, I am really impressed with the artillery balancing now. Each of the artillery has a very clear niche with distinct advantages and disadvantages now. There is no clear artillery that is superior to the others. The durability of the STUG and it's effectiveness at supressing armored units makes it an awesome addition to the squad.

Beware of the fortress at Brest, it packs quite a punch. But the Honey Badger of the Wehrmacht, the StuG IIIB, gives a shit! It is an incredibly useful unit and does exactly what I expect a Sturmgeschütz to do. This stat rework really worked! It also reduced and absorbed the attacks of the KV defending Brest.

Not everyone is happy about it though, there's a few comments that is it overpowered now. Anyone else have some input on the new StuGIIIB, if you're tried it in multiplayer or the stock campaign?

I always thought the old version stug (IIIA in France & IIIB) was modelled pretty well and was an effective unit that the allies no answer too. You could position it like a tank and it provided support to all other front line pieces so I'm not sure if it needed too much adjusting. It was already quite powerful and very useful. The new model has better initiative so it tends to get the first shot off which is now also more damaging. I could see it being quite hard to handle in Barbarossa.
It shouldn't be bothering KV's very much