Slitherine

Our upcoming multiplatform strategy game Order of Battle: Pacific, will feature over 300 unique looking and behaving units. And today we are happy to present you with a small selection of the many units available to the player in this intuitive strategy game. Only effective use of these units will win you the day, and only by identifying hostile units first can their weaknesses be exploited, so pay attention commander!


Light, rapid firing AA weapons are most effective enemy fighters and tactical bombers, while high calibre guns excel against high altitude bombers.


Battleships are powerful and expensive naval units capable of dealing significant damage to naval and ground targets alike.


Strategic Bombers can cripple enemy defenses as well as damage supply sources to indirectly weaken the enemy's ability to fight.


Aircraft Carriers can recover and repair carrier-based aircraft, and are essential in operations were no land based airfields are available.


To increase the strength of their carrier forces, the Japanese converted the dated Ise battleship to a hybrid carrier capable of launching aircraft from its aft deck.


Cruisers are effective escort vessels to protecting vulnerable carriers and transports from destroyers and attack aircraft.


Destroyers are small and lightly armoured but can enter shallow waters and carry a limited load of torpedo's to threaten even the largest enemy vessels.


Land-based and carrier-based aircraft - which can also operate from aircraft carriers - can be easily distinguished by their colors (green/white).


Japanese twin-engine heavy fighters are not very effective against enemy fighters but can deal high damage to strategic bombers and ground targets.


Light tanks are cheap and fast, effective at cutting enemy supply lines and overrunning weakened enemy units.


American M4 Sherman tanks can improve their defense by applying "field armour", but wear down faster due to the extra weight.


A wide range of specialized US tanks are available, including flamethrowers, Calliope rocket launchers, assault guns and amphibious vehicles.

Order of Battle: Pacific is coming to you soon. Click here for more information.

One of the screenshots turned out to be a duplicate, correct one below


Land-based and carrier-based aircraft - which can also operate from aircraft carriers - can be easily distinguished by their colors (green/white).

Anxiously awaits call for beta testing

Ditto!

+1

+1

Is it just me, or are those the same (or slightly edited) as the grapics used in Panzer Corps?

- BNC

This is from the team that did the majority of PzC artwork, so it is not unlikely you'll recognise a similar style

Looks amazing

Can you explain what the little symbols and numbers mean inside boxes, and why some have zeroes and others don't etc?

Thanks

The numbers on the left next to the yellow dot/coin are the unit costs. The reason some still say 0 is because we're still working on balancing these values

The icons and numbers on the right are the "Command Points" (CP) requirement of each unit, split between Land, Naval and Air types. Each scenario starts with a fixed amount of available CP per types. Sometimes this increases during the scenario, for example when completing a specific objective that improves the logistic situation of the mission. You can have all the units you want in your core reserve, but you can only deploy as many as the current pool of CP allows.

Think of it as a dynamic approach to limited "core slots". In addition to limiting forces on the map, high maintainance units have a higher CP cost then basic units which also creates a system to disourage armies full of "super units". The ideal army is a mixture of common and "high tech" units.

That's an interesting concept

Agreed! Realistic balance of unit types in the core is a perennial niggle, sounds like a spot-on solution. Very thoughtful. I really like that method of deployment limitation too, sounds very exciting.

Thanks

When do you thing beta-testing will open?

This looks amazing.

On iPad?

adherbal wrote:This is from the team that did the majority of PzC artwork, so it is not unlikely you'll recognise a similar style

Now it all makes sense!

- BNC

When do you thing beta-testing will open?

We are currently cutting down on the last (known) bugs and missing art/features before moving focus entirely on scenario design & balancing. At that point the game should be ready to start beta testing. I can't put an exact date on it yet, but it should be a matter of weeks.

On iPad?

PC & Mac for initial release, iPad & Android are planned shortly after. Gameplay will be compatible across all platforms but the latter will get a specially designed UI and other cosmetic changes required to fit the platform.

For the Japanese planes would it be possible to also label them by their call signs? Such as Judy, Val etc. Looks like a good mix of units. Still wish there were light cruisers though in the game. It seems that the Heavy Cruisers are being used as AA platforms, but realistically they while they did provide AA protection they were used heavily for ship to ship battle and shore bombardment. Light cruisers were mainly used for AA protection. The Atlanta class cruiser was known for its AA capability and also known for its thin skin and light armor which made it vulnerable in naval engagements.

For the Japanese planes would it be possible to also label them by their call signs? Such as Judy, Val etc.

We decided to use the Japanese (nick)names instead. While "Judy" and "Val" make sense from a US point of view, it felt odd when playing as the Japanese so we decided to use the units' names in their own nationalities. While less familiar I personally think it adds to the flavor. It's like "Fallschirmjäger" and "Königstigers" just sounding cooler than "Paratroopers" and "King Tigers".

Nothing stops you from editing the names yourself in the localised TXT file though.

Still wish there were light cruisers though in the game.

You are right of course, but time and resources are limited so we decided to focus on more purely naval combat types instead, with enough clear distinction between the 3 main classes (Destroyers, Cruisers & Battleships). Perhaps Light Cruisers will find their way in in a future update.

adherbal wrote:
We decided to use the Japanese (nick)names instead. While "Judy" and "Val" make sense from a US point of view, it felt odd when playing as the Japanese so we decided to use the units' names in their own nationalities. While less familiar I personally think it adds to the flavor. It's like "Fallschirmjäger" and "Königstigers" just sounding cooler than "Paratroopers" and "King Tigers".

Nothing stops you from editing the names yourself in the localised TXT file though.

Makes sense but now I am going to have to learn what the actual names are after all these years of just knowing the call signs.

adherbal wrote:You are right of course, but time and resources are limited so we decided to focus on more purely naval combat types instead, with enough clear distinction between the 3 main classes (Destroyers, Cruisers & Battleships). Perhaps Light Cruisers will find their way in in a future update.

Can't wait for the future updates.

Also will there be a fuel count for ships? If so what happens if you run out of fuel? Do you need a tanker to refuel/or give more ammo?

Also will there be a fuel count for ships? If so what happens if you run out of fuel? Do you need a tanker to refuel/or give more ammo?

Only aircraft require frequent refueling (on carrier and airfield).

Ship refueling would be out of the game's scale. I guess technically for very long scenarios they'd have to refuel in reality, but it would only be annoying in the gameplay. On a sidenote there is an NPC fuel tanker in the Coral Sea scenario which is linked to a secondary objective.

Land units' fuel, ammo and supply is all represented by the supply system. Their performance is related to the amount of supply output and requirements in their territory. There is no manual refueling/ammo refilling like in PG/PzC.