Somethings to change in this excellent game.

[Anyman]

O.K. let me say first I sent a glowing e-mail to "the lordz games studio" and "Slitherine" for such a great game. I even like it better than Combat Mission: Beyond Normandy.

As I am a retired Army Infantry NCO, and have seen combat, I really like the way the infantry is portrayed as not just cannon fodder to find M.G. positions and piss-off tanks. I also like the "danger close" effect when calling in artillery. Where if you get friendlies to close to the target area they can get hit.

Now on to some things I would like to see. Light Mortars representing 60mm and German 50mm able to move on their own. I know "leg" infantry units and para units did not have the resources to provide motor transport. This is really true for the German infantry up to 81mm mortars as their TO&E had few transport vehicles (motor or wagon) below Regiment and the Germans through out the war remained largely a horse drawn army.

Another thing is stacking or the ability for units to move through panicked units. This would be very handy to bypass units when fighting in narrow streets where an armored unit can move through panicked infantry and blast that pesky M.G. that caused such havoc. Stacking would be handy when there is a limited number of cover spots and you want to place a M.G. as base of fire and have room for your maneuver force also.

Vehicle fording at ford spots instead of infantry style units only.

Combat Engineers able to take out tank traps and obstacles.

Speaking of obstacles and engineers how about concertina wire and mines. Wire stops infantry for one turn, mines removable by engineers and if you follow proper infantry tactics, all obstacles are covered by direct or indirect fire, so you hold your flanks with minimal forces.

And while I'm bashing on a already great game, how about smoke. A infantryman's best friend when crossing open ground or streets.

So now, have I made a point or have I been blowing cloudy pixels up your electronic keister. Tell me what you think!

Sincerely,
Anyman

[pipfromslitherine]

Glad you are enjoying the game! Thanks for taking the time to give us feedback - it's all useful.

Most of your feature requests (like smoke, wire, and mines) are either on the todo list or have been modded in. We definitely want to be able to include them going forward.

With regard to the unit behaviours, there is always some license taken for gameplay reasons when setting them up. It's possible we might consider a 'sim' version of the rules at some point - with 'real' ranges and some of the stats tweaked.

Cheers

Pip

[Vulcan]

Another thing is stacking or the ability for units to move through panicked units. This would be very handy to bypass units when fighting in narrow streets where an armored unit can move through panicked infantry and blast that pesky M.G. that caused such havoc.

I encountered this last night, very annoying not to be able to move through your own suppressed units in a building .. the only option being to expose the 'good' unit to the enemy as it moves round the shaken one.

I'm hoping that this particular gameplay behaviour will be fixed soon.

[Anyman]

Thanks for the quick reply Pip. I know you folks have a ton of posts and e-mails to read. So being prompt and in depth on your reply shows how much you really support your customers and how much honest interest you have in turning out a quality product. Also I was very impressed in receiving a e-mail from your C.E.O. thanking me for taking the time to write and say what a excellent game it is.

Yes, now that you mention it I guess that I was thinking in a "sim" mind set. And what I love about this game is that it is not cluttered by a lot of "has to be exactly precise" or in a train sim I enjoy we call them "rivet counters"

So thank you for bringing me to that revelation.

Now Vulcan, thank you for reading my posting and conferring with some of my observations of the game. Yes I have had to waltz a infantry to the right of a panicked unit, to try and get in range of a enemy rifle unit on the left, only to have them cut down in the open street by a hidden M.G.. I guess I'll have to recon by fire each building that's a threat before moving from cover.

Best Regards,
Anyman

[robc04_1]

Anyman,
It would be interesting to know what wargames you think get the experience as close to the real one as can be expected from a strategy game. What are your thoughts?

Thanks,
Rob

[robc04_1]

Duplicate post

[pk867]

Hi,
As a suggestion have a swap move where units exchange positions. The units with more AP could move or perform more actions after the swap.

[pipfromslitherine]

That's a good idea. Easy to implement too!

Added to the task list.

Cheers

Pip

[mllange]

Woot! I'm pleased to hear you can implement such an elegant solution to a nagging irritation in such an enjoyable title. The game will be much improved upon implementation. Carry on with the terrific work, Pip & Co.

[Merr]

That's a good idea. Easy to implement too!

Added to the task list.

Cheers

Pip

Pip,

I just came up with an idea for resolving "stacking" ...

It uses the same code as a loaded transport, but the unit isn't really loaded, it's just in the same tile. Any attack towards the shown unit gets shared against the loaded unit (or perhaps a 50/50 damage spread for HE). For direct AP attacks, the target needs to be indentified beforehand. The player can toggle between the shown unit and the loaded unit with an "action_button". Code-wise, that moves both units off map, unloads the unit and drops him back on the tile, then the other unit loads on him now. It might be pretty transparent if it happens fast enough.

It's not pretty, but it allows two units to share the same tile. It also could be a way to "combine" two dissimilar units without all the animation fuss ... e.g. Infantry with a bazooka.

Hmmm .... Maybe a team of infantry can help carry that static 50cal or mortar team around ... That's an idea all by itself.

Ok ... my brain hurts ... enough said!

- Merr

[alex0809]

I dunno if stacking really fits to the game since it's so small-scale and there's a bit emphasizis on suppression etc. That would mean that static defenses, ambushes are lot less viable wouldnt it? Since the enemy eg if it has to move in a narrow 3-tile area can just stack up 6 units.

[Merr]

I dunno if stacking really fits to the game since it's so small-scale and there's a bit emphasizis on suppression etc. That would mean that static defenses, ambushes are lot less viable wouldnt it? Since the enemy eg if it has to move in a narrow 3-tile area can just stack up 6 units.

Good point. My first thought about stacking is that it's dangerous. If the player stacks 6 units down a narrow corridor then he's asking for trouble. Since BA is more like a chess game, any stacking would break the rules (that is my second thought). If the Queen could sit with the pawn, then it wouldn't be chess anymore.

Perhaps combining, splitting, and swapping is a better direction to travel.

- Merr

[Anyman]

Hey robc,

Sorry I haven't got back to you sooner. I am lazy on checking e-mail and I have it set up in profile so this game forum e-mails me when a reply is posted to my posting.

So the free games WinSPWW2 (Windows Steel Panthers World War 2) and WinSPMBT (Windows Steel Panthers Main Battle Tank 1945-2012) are great games. It is a "top down" view of the battlefield. You go-I go system (same as Battle Academy). 50 meters per hex, individual squads - guns - vehicles - aircraft, easy to use editor to create your maps and scenarios, units have Line of Sight restrictions due to weather, lighting and terrain. Units can be hidden, dug-in, and ranges can be set so your unit does not give away its position with long range reaction fire.

There is wire, mines, fougasse, and boobytraps. Fougasse is typically flammable liquids in a 55 gallon drum buried in the ground at a 45 degree angle and trip wire or command detonated sending a flaming spray that discourages the enemy. Fougasse is also the French version of Italian focaccia bread.

The AI is pretty good at defense and attack set up when you buy the units for it. If it buys for its self then its panzer blitz with a few random units. The AI handles artillery wisely except for off-map (which gets no ammo resupply) and if you come down a road and the AI spots you using that road it will randomly throw a few shells at the cross roads on that road and crossroads of connecting roads (in range) to foul up reinforcements and follow on forces.

If a terrain hex with flammable material such as dry grass, bushes, trees receives enough firepower it will catch fire, smoke and spread. Same for buildings especially the wooden ones or they can collapse causing injury to the squad inside. Vehicles can enter buildings with a risk of disabling themselves or getting stuck.

Down side to these games is it's hard to determine terrain height by looking at it as it is two dimensional and you have to put the arrow over the terrain and read from the pop-up dialog what it states. Either you have to zoom out so you can see the whole battlefield which makes units small or zoom in then you have to do a whole lot of scrolling to view and work your units. There is no stone walls only hedgerows (Boucage), no fords only shallow water. One annoying thing about WinSPMBT is the AFV's fire AT-Missiles at any armor target first even if it's a APC which the Bradley IFV and the BMP-2 would make quick work of with the 25mm and 30mm (respectfully) main gun.

[robc04_1]

Thanks Anyman!

[Grimnirsson]

It's possible we might consider a 'sim' version of the rules at some point

That would be great since this game has the potential to become a true squad level sim. I see no reason why this couldn't be turned into a form of 3D Advanced Squad Leader

[poop17]

Sound a good idea