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gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

Alchenar posted:

Advice that could be taken by our current Netherlands player...

I'm still working on the turn!

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gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
I think finally figured out all the recent hubbub on the WITE forums: Apparently the "difficulty checks" for the various dice rolls done during logistics and combat is different if a unit is directly attached to an Army versus being attached to a Corps HQ.

Attaching a unit to a Corps means you have the Army (and Army Group/Front and High Command) to catch you if you fail, but attaching a unit to an Army means the roll you have to pass is so much easier that you still pass more rolls anyway, even without the added "protection".

The Axis don't get any penalties for attaching units directly to Army HQs (the Soviets having no choice), German commanders tend to be better overall, and having units attached to Army HQs means a bigger pool of units that can activate as Reserves of each other. All this is leading to gameplay where the Axis are incentivized to skip the Corps HQ entirely and just use Army HQs, particularly for defense, and then just attaching Support Units directly to divisions to work around the 5-hex SU commitment range.

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

Who made that great tutorial guide for WiTE that focused around the Leningrad scenario? I desperately need it, and any other helpful guides anyone can recommend besides the Grey LP.

Oh, and I was browsing the Matrix forums and I noticed this post by a staff member.


These are the people programming these games?

Link to that Road to Leningrad "Operational Boot Camp" on the Matrix forums.

I also wrote a guide to it myself, although mine focuses more on controls and interface rather than strategy. Pastebin here. I think I covered most of it except the air war and rail repair.

gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Apr 22, 2013

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

DeceasedHorse posted:

panzer corps Africa corps

The Panzer Corps Mega Pack is set to release tomorrow. No idea on the price, but it's basically a compilation of all 10 DLC campaigns that were made over the last year or so. That's about ~100 scenarios that you can take your Core through, and supposedly these new campaigns make heavy use of scripting and triggers to create challenges beyond just "get all these objectives by x date". You'll get to escort units, repel triggered counter-attacks, have your objectives change mid-mission, and scramble across multiple points on the map as the Allies launch staggered invasions on several beaches.

Qwo posted:

Oh man, thanks for this! I stumbled across the Rome AGEOD games a while back but totally forgot what they were called. How good are those AGEOD Rome games (Alea Iacta Est, Birth of Rome, etc.)? I tried playing Europa Universalis Rome recently and all it did was give me the sads.

AJE is one of, if not the best of the AGEOD games. For reference, the other good ones are American Civil War, Rise of Prussia and Revolution Under Siege. The bad ones are Pride of Nations and World War One. Don't know much about Napoleon's Campaigns (probably good?). Wars in America isn't really bad, just that the scenario set is uninspired.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

EightDeer posted:

I looked at Slitherine's homepage, and I'm a bit confused by the large array of products sold under the name Panzer Corps. Let me see if I have this franchise straight:

1) It's aiming to be an updated version of Panzer General.
2) Panzer Corps: Wehrmacht is the original game.
3) Panzer Corps: Afrika Korps is an expansion for PC:W.
4) The full, branching campaign from PG (AKA the main reason to play it) has been chopped up into many DLCs, one per year and front, e.g. 1941 West and 1941 East are two separate DLCs.
5) Panzer Corps: Allied Corps is an upcoming release that lets you play the Allies. It's not a standalone expansion; it's a new full game.

Two things I didn't quite get:
A) The main page for PC:W mentions core units and a campaign. I thought the campaign was sold as DLC. What's going on here?
B) Is PC:AK a stand-alone expansion or not?

* It's aiming to be an updated version of Panzer General

* Panzer Corps Wehrmacht is the original game

* Panzer Corps Afrika Korps is a STAND-ALONE game. You don't need PC:Wehrmacht to play it, and the campaign only covers North Africa, with speculative scenarios in the Middle East and India

* PC:Wehrmacht already has a full branching campaign, and it's pretty much a remake of Panzer General's campaign, minus the North Africa scenarios. And I mean remake as in the Norway, Barbarossa, Stalingrad and all the other scenarios are carbon-copies of what you'd find in PG.

* The DLC campaigns are totally brand new. Imagine a dozen scenarios just for Poland, or a dozen just for 44-West. Because there are so many, the scale is a bit smaller. Think Panzer General 2 where instead of capturing Moscow you're fighting over the highway at Volokolamsk, or instead of Warsaw you're outflanking the Poles at Ciecanow. Well, you still get a Warsaw scenario in the 39 campaign DLC, but as a final fight centered around just that city.

* The DLC campaigns mention core units because you can string all of the DLC campaigns together and bring your core units across the whole thing. Whereas you might have nursed your tank unit across a dozen battles of Panzer General or PC:Wehrmacht's original campaign, having the Mega-Pack means you get to fight with your core for 30 battles or more. The experience rules are changed somewhat though, so you don't have 5-star superunits by the Battle of France.

* Panzer Corps: Afrika Korps being a stand-alone game means it's compatible with the DLC campaigns. You don't need PC:Wehrmacht to play the Afrika Korps game, and just having the Afrika Korps game means you can still play the DLC campaigns.

* Panzer Corps: Allied Corps is yet-unreleased, but is going to be a stand-alone game as well.

====

Achtung Panzer Operation Star is on sale at IndieGameStand for the next 3 days. Not a stellar game from what I've heard (Combat Mission is still better?), but hey, it was only a buck.

gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Apr 23, 2013

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
I had a few hours to kill this afternoon, so I read through the WITE manual's chapters on air units and tried to write a summary plus a compilation of stuff I've picked up along the way. Maybe some of you will find it useful

===

Basics

* Air Groups are the actual "squadrons" of a single plane type that actually flies the missions. Air Groups can either be assigned to Air Bases to actually fly the missions, or they can be assigned to the National Reserve.

* Air Bases need to be placed in Clear, Light Woods, or City hexes in order for its assigned Air Groups to fly missions.

Air Group Assignment to Air Bases

* There are many designations for Air Bases, but mechanically they are all window-dressing, with one exception: For the Soviets, Level Bomber and Transport Air Groups need to be assigned to a "VVS" designated Air Base, and set to fly Night Missions, for those Air Groups to attempt to fly partisan re-supply missions during the logistics phase.

* A maximum of 9 Air Groups can be assigned to an Air Base. There are no limits on how many aircraft those 9 Groups actually represent - they could all be 40 aircraft Gruppes (German) or Air Regiments (Soviet)

* Air Bases have a certain number of Support Squads, which is visible from the (right-click) detail screen. Every plane needs a corresponding number of Support Squads. The total number of Support Squads needed by all the aircraft assigned to an Air Base should be below the actual number of Squads in that Air Base, in order to avoid a penalty to repairing damaged aircraft during the logistics phase.

Aircraft that go unrepaired after a logistics phase have a chance of being "written off" and destroyed outright).
Keeping Support Needed under Support Available will also prevent ready aircraft from becoming damaged (through lack of maintenance)
Keeping Support Needed under Support Available will also cause larger reductions in fatigue.

* For the Axis: Air Groups of a certain nationality can only be assigned to Air Bases of the same nationality.



* Fighter-Bomber Groups need to be assigned specifically in the Air Group detail window if they are to fly in the Fighter role or in the Bomber role. However, these Groups come into the game already trained in one role or another, and asking them to fly in a role that they were not trained in will penalize them in combat.

* Air Groups also need to be assigned specifically in the Air Group detail window if they are to fly Night Missions.

Air Base Assignment to Air Headquarters

* Air Base units can only be assigned to Air Headquarters units, with some exceptions:

There are German Air Bases that are attached directly to Land Army HQs. These Air Bases cannot be re-assigned to any other HQ.
German Air HQs designated "Fliegerkorp" can only be assigned Air HQs designated "Luftflotte", or to Land Army Group HQs.
German Air HQs designated "Luftflotte" can only be assigned to Land Army Group HQs.
Axis Minor Air HQs can only be assigned to Land Army Group HQs of the same nationality.
"Slovakia Air Command" and "Finnish Air Command" cannot be reassigned

Soviet Air HQs can only attach to Land Front HQs or Land Military District HQs.

Trick: It was discovered that there are actually no limits to what Air Groups can be assigned to the Air Bases that are directly attached to German Land Army HQs. The developer intent was for these Air Bases to be stocked with Recon Air Groups, to provide recon for the Army as it advances, but any Air Groups can be assigned to them. The trick is to assign Level Bomber Groups, since they require LOTS of fuel. This causes the Army HQ to requisition a lot of fuel from the supply net during the logistics phase. The next part of the trick is that the game makes no distinction between "aircraft fuel" and "vehicle fuel". The final effect is that the land units under the Army HQ end up getting a lot of fuel being made available for them, even if the only reason for the extra fuel draw was to feed the Level Bomber Groups. This is rather powerful for keeping Panzer Armies topped up on gas. This doesn't happen anywhere else, because in all other instances, land units and Air Bases report to completely different HQs. Some may consider this gamey/exploitative

* There is no limit to the number of Air Bases that can be assigned to an Air HQ.

* An Airbase needs to be within 5 hexes of its German Fliegerkorps HQ, or within 15 hexes of its German Luftflotte HQ or 45 hexes of its Soviet Air Command/Air Army.

* Air Bases assigned to different Luftflotte HQs or Air Army HQs will NOT participate together in air missions. Air Bases assigned to different Fliegerkorps HQs can still cooperate, if both Fliegerkorps report to the same Luftflotte.

Morale

* An Air Group, regardless of whether it is assigned to the Reserve or is active in an Air Base, increases morale at the rate of [100 - currentMorale / 10] per turn. An active Air Group may still lose net morale due to combat, though.

* Soviet Guards Status: If all of the Air Groups assigned to a single Air Base have collectively destroyed so many aircraft and/or ground units, the Air Base may earn Guards status, which gives the assigned Air Groups a 10 point morale boost over National Morale

In 1941, the threshold is 400 destroyed aircraft/ground units
In 1942, the threshold is 600 destroyed aircraft/ground units
In 1943 and later, the threshold is 1200 destroyed aircraft/ground units

National Reserve

* Assigning an Air Group to the National Reserve increases the experience of its pilots and lets the Group reinforce to full strength faster. Assigning an Air Group to the National Reserve also gives it an increase of as much as 15 morale just for going into the Reserve.

* An Air Group that is transferred to the National Reserve will not actually show up in the Reserve until the next turn, and so a unit transferred TO the Reserve cannot be transferred FROM the Reserve to an Air Base within the same turn.

AI-assisted Air Base Management



* There is a setting in the Air Base details called "Aviation Commitment" and "Aviation Range" and is intended to help the player automate the managing of Air Groups between the Air Base and the National Reserve.

Aviation Commitment ranges from 0 to 9 and tells the AI to try and keep that many Air Groups assigned to that Air Base. For example, if Commitment is set to 5, the AI will try to keep 5 Air Groups assigned to that Air Base. If there are less than 5 Groups assigned to the Air Base, the AI will draw the strongest available units from the National Reserve. If there are more than 5 Groups assigned to the Air Base, the AI will send the weakest assigned units to the National Reserve. The AI will also send Groups to the National Reserve if it determines that the Group is too weak (and then replace the Group with fresher units from the Reserve if it dips below Commitment level)

Aviation Range then ranges from [less than 20 hexes, less than 40 hexes, more than 40 hexes, all ranges]. This determines the kind of aircraft that the AI will try to assign to that Air Base. If, for example, the Aviation Range is set to [more than 40 hexes], then Air Groups using old Soviet I-15 biplanes will be removed from the Air Base and re-assigned to the National Reserve. The AI will then try to replace these with Groups flying planes that do meet the range requirements, especially if removing the ineligible Groups causes the Air Base to fall under the Commitment level that was set.

Ordering Air Missions

Recon - press F5 to order Recon missions. Right-clicking will cause a Recon mission to be flown with the AI deciding on the planes to use. Shift-right-clicking will let you select which specific Groups will fly the mission. Note that there is a limit to how much "Detection Level" you can get from flying recon missions. I believe it's a maximum of DL 5 for front-line units, while units that you don't have direct contact with are limited to DL 3.

Bomb Unit - press F6 to order Bomb Unit missions. Right-clicking will let the AI choose the Groups. Shift-right-clicking will let you select specific Groups. This mission is used to damage/destroy ground unit elements, softening them up before a ground attack.

Note that if you only select Fighter Groups, then the game will simulate a "Fighter Sweep" wherein your fighters will try to shoot down as many fighters as possible, hopefully so that follow-on attacks will encounter less defending fighters. You do however need to have bombers within range, even if you never include them in the Bomb Unit missions. These sweep missions are best used targeting Air Bases directly.

Another trick is that Bomb Unit missions can be used to drive up the Detection Level of a unit, since the maximum DL you can get from Bomb Unit missions is higher than Recon.

Bomb Airfield - press F7 to order Bomb Airfield missions. Right-clicking will let the AI choose the Groups. Shift-right-clicking will let you select specific Groups. This mission is used to damage/destroy aircraft on the ground.

Bomb City - press F8 to order Bomb City missions. Right-clicking will let the AI choose the Groups. Shift-right-clicking will let you select specific Groups. This mission is used to damage/destroy industry in cities. Note that if you have units that are supposed to be isolated, but are receiving (beach-head) supply because of a Port, you can use the Bomb City mission to damage the Port until it can no longer be used as a supply source. I have heard that this may require a lot of bombers/attacks, though.

Air Transport - press F9 to order Air Transport missions. Right-clicking will let the AI choose the Groups. Shift-right-clicking will let you select specific Groups. This mission is used to air-drop supplies and/or fuel to friendly units.

Shift-right-clicking will let you specifically choose whether to drop supplies or fuel, and is the only way to force Level Bomber Groups to participate in such missions. Note that this mission is very effective at distributing fuel, perhaps ahistorically so, especially if the German player uses his Level Bombers to significantly increase the transport capacity.

Interdiction - this mission is flown automatically during the opponent's turn. Whenever a spotted enemy unit tries to move, there is a chance based on its Detection Level that an Interdiction mission will be flown against it. Similar to Bomb Unit missions, Interdiction missions will try to damage/destroy ground unit elements, but it will also try to reduce the enemy's MP, possibly causing their movement to fall short.

Ground Support - this mission is flown automatically whenever ground combat occurs, whether offensive or defensive. Similar to Bomb Unit missions, Ground Support missions will try to damage/destroy ground unit elements, in the hopes of turning the final CV odds in your favor.

Note the hotkey X will toggle whether or not any Ground Support missions will be flown at all. This is important for two reasons:
There are some missions that can only be flown once per turn (covered later). Disabling Ground Support will prevent your bomber units from locking themselves out of these once-a-turn missions.
Late in the war, the Luftwaffe may find itself badly outnumbered and outclassed. Limiting Ground Support will allow you to prevent your planes from flying into missions where they would only get chewed up

"Miles Flown"

A Group can only fly so many miles per turn, based on the cruise speed of the plane being used and the morale and experience of the Group. The short version is that you want to keep the morale and experience of Groups from dropping, before it becomes an artificial cap on their range and/or the number of times they can fly missions.

The other thing to note is that moving the Air Base on the map will cause the Air Groups under that Air Base to accrue mileage.

The final thing to note is that certain missions CANNOT be flown if the Air Group already has any accrued mileage:
Bomb Ground Unit
Bomb City
Bomb Airfield (night)
Air Transport (night)
Air Transport (day, for Level Bombers)
Air Transfer


This effectively means that these missions can only be flown once per day, and that moving an Air Base automatically prevents the Groups under that Air Base from flying these missions.

The other remaining missions can be flown repeatedly until a Group maxes out its Miles Flown:
Recon
Bomb Airfield (day)
Air Transport (day, for actual Transports)
Ground Support
Escorts for any kind of mission

What this means is that you should, as much as possible, run all of the once-a-turn missions first before anything else.

Air Doctrine



Pressing hotkey D will take you to the Air Doctrine screen, where you can change several settings:

Percent Required to Fly - this tells the AI which Groups are eligible to fly missions. If this is set to 30%, then any Group with at least 30% of its maximum TOE of aircraft are ready, will fly missions. That is, a Group with a maximum TOE 40 aircraft will fly if it has at least 12 ready aircraft. A low setting will allow more Groups to participate, which a setting of 105% or higher will effectively cause zero missions of any kind to be flown at all.

Ground Support/Ground Attack/Airfield Attack/Interdiction Attack/City Attack - this tells the AI how many bombers it should send on these missions. Every time you ask the AI to launch a mission, it does its own calculation on how many bombers to send, based on availability, target strength, etc. This setting acts as a multiplier on that calculation. If the AI thinks it needs to send 10 bombers against a target, and this doctrine is set to 50%, it will only send 5 bombers.

Ground Support Escort/Ground Attack Escort/Airfield Attack Escort/Interdiction Attack Escort/City Attack Escort - this tells the AI how many escorts to send with the bombers, as a percentage of the bomers. That is, if the AI decides to send 5 bombers against a target and this doctrine is set to 300%, the AI will try to commit 3 times as many fighters as there are bombers, or 15 fighters.

Fighter Intercept - this tells the AI how many fighters to send as interceptors when defending against enemy strikes. That is, if the AI detects 10 incoming bombers during combat and this doctrine is set to 100%, the AI will try to send just as many fighters as there are bombers, or 10 fighters.

Note that if you use shift-right-click, then the doctrine settings are effectively ignored, since you yourself are selecting which Groups will fly. The exceptions to this are Interdiction, Ground Support and Interception missions, since those are always effectively AI-controlled and so you'll still have to manage the doctrine settings at least for them at the minimum.

Finally, while the AI may commit enough Groups to try and fly a 100 bomber mission, the game does simulate mid-mission aborts due aircraft reliability, morale, experience, fatigue and other such factors. Particularly for the Soviets in the early war, it may be necessary to crank the doctrine levels high and reduce the Percent Required to Fly just so your missions will arrive on-target with a decent number of planes.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
Bomb Unit destroys men, tanks and guns
Bomb Air Base destroys airplanes (parked on the ground)
Bomb City destroys factories (and houses/manpower)

Interdiction also destroys men, tanks and guns, but it's a separate mission designed to represent fighter-bombers out on patrol hunting troops marching in columns along roads, as opposed to Bomb Unit being a case where you deliberately attack a specific ground position.

Ground Support also destroys men, tanks and guns, but it's a separate mission from Bomb Unit so you can try preparatory attacks on the target first before committing your ground attack.

Bomb Air Base and Bomb City are separate actions because Air Bases are, unlike most games, "mobile" units that can move to non-city hexes.

I suppose the categories could use some refinement, but this a grognard game. We don't deserve such things.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

uPen posted:

One really important thing I didn't see mentioned that I had to learn the hard way:

As the Soviets (and maybe Germans?) if you want more airbases you need to have an average of 6 or more air groups in your existing bases. It doesn't matter if you've got 2,000 air groups sitting in the national reserve waiting for a new base, the game only checks the number of groups actually deployed to bases and if that number is equal to or greater than an average of 6 per base you can get a new air base. This is really annoying because having 6 or more groups in every base can catastrophically overload a lot of your airbases causing them to suck up a shitload of trucks.

Right! This is mentioned in the manual, but I didn't remember to put it in. Good catch:

"Whenever the number of Soviet air group units exceeds the number of Soviet air base units by a ratio of more than six to one, up to one new air base unit will be automatically created per turn. The new air base unit will be randomly assigned a IAD, BAD, NBAD, SHAD, or VVS designation and will be placed in an open town near Magnitogorsk (X183 Y54). As with other newly created Soviet units, the air base unit will have no movement points on the turn it appears and will be a nearly empty shell requiring replacements and supply to become a ready unit. Soviet air groups in the national reserve are not counted when determining if new Soviet Air Bases should be created."

There's also this other rule for the creation of new Air Groups:

"New Soviet air group units (aviation regimental sized) are automatically created by the computer based on the size of the production pool. The computer compares the production pool of a particular aircraft versus the number of air group units using the aircraft type. If it determines that there are more than sufficient aircraft to meet the needs of the current air group units, than additional air group units will be formed. Up to five new air group units may be formed per turn. The new air group units are initially attached to the Soviet National Air Reserve."

Neither of these rules apply to the Axis though, and if the Luftwaffe is managed well and isn't being smothered you may even build up a large pool of planes that you can't get out in the field. The bottleneck of Air Bases and Air Groups is supposedly representative of German issues with not having enough pilots to fly all their planes.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy

Quixzlizx posted:

Strategy & Tactics: WW2 is on sale on the Google Play store. Has anyone here tried it? I'm not expecting a masterpiece, but it'd be nice to know whether or not it's hot garbage.

Edit: Not really related, but I didn't want to double post. Matrix on their pricing model. What about Unity of Command?

I just bought the game. I'll try to post a trip report.

As far pricing, I don't really mind the high cost of grognard games - it's when it's expensive AND the UI is poo poo AND the games are needlessly complex that I don't like.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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I do wonder if Slitherine is going to make Pacific Corps eventually. We still don't really have a decent WW2 carrier ops game outside of the decades-old Carriers at War.

Riso posted:

I tell you, if I knew how to program I'd be making GBS threads out dozens of boardgame conversions for the pc for 25$ a pop for the grog crowd.

You know they would love and buy it.
This is pretty much me too. While I know there are some boardgames out there with rules that are as complex as any of Matrix's hardcore offerings, most wargames are supposed to be playable with dice and maybe a pencil and paper at most, which keeps their designs dead-simple. I mean, wouldn't it be nice and a lot easier to get into if WITE just used the rules for Battle for Moscow?

It's also my dream that someday someone will make a PC conversion of B-17 Queen of the Skies, except with a bunch of graphical bells and whistles so you get to see all the action in its 3D glory, including a flak shot that causes the ball turret to get stuck and the resulting landing.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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Alchenar posted:

The people in charge at Matrix know that their products are terribly designed but don't care. They are wargamers who sell to wargamers and their first priority is to maintain that status quo rather than actually try to make some money for their partners and tell them to quit using their trashy interfaces that were considered bad in the 90's.



Check out all the Times New Roman! But nope, obviously the reason why sales are so poor is because it's a niche genre!

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

HELL SERPENT
Lipstick Apathy
I think maybe the Unity of Command guys are reading this thread, because the Red Turn DLC just got a discount for Gamersgate, knocking it down to 2.49 USD

Also coming out of left field is another War in the East scenario pack, The Lost Battles:

* Smolensk 1941
* Operation Mars / Jupiter
* Battle for Moscow (Operation Typhoon + Soviet counter-offensive late 1941-early 1942)
* Operation Bagration
* Vistula to Berlin, 1944-1945
* Courland Pocket, 1944-1945
* Liberation of Leningrad
* Operation Konrad (Budapest 1945)

* Winter Counter-offensives (Operation Mars/Jupiter, Uranus and Saturn late 1942-early 1943)
* Stalingrad to Berlin (full campaign with a late 1942 start)

gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Apr 26, 2013

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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Matrix Games sale alert :alarm:

They're running a "Deal of the Week" promotion: Forge of Freedom and John Tiller's Battleground Civil War get knocked down to 19.99 USD

Opinion: Forge of Freedom is a mediocre game. The good parts are that it has both tactical and strategic play, and that the difficulty levels are very adjustable, and the gameplay is somewhat easier to learn compared to AGEOD's American Civil War*. The downside is that the game is stuck in eye-bleeding resolution without windowed mode, and problems with the strategic modeling and realism make it feel like you're playing Risk sometimes. I'd say hold off (and get the AGEOD game instead) unless you really want the tactical+strategic integration.

I don't own John Tiller's Battleground Civil War, but having played his Panzer Campaigns series I imagine it's a fairly simple and intuitive system, with the advantage of giving you all the battles instead of having to purchase multiple individual games.

* There's a third strategic level ACW game, Gary Grigsby's War Between the States, but I have no idea how that measures up.


The real kicker here is the implication that Matrix Games might actually start running cyclical sales more often.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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Obfuscation posted:

Forge of Freedom is from the same guys as Crown of Glory, right? CoG is the only game ever where I've truly enjoyed tactical battles that are bolted on to a strategic engine, but from what I remember the UI was kinda bad and you could only play at a tiny fixed resolution.

Yes, it's from those same developers. I admit that the tactical integration is done well, particularly with cavalry/scouting having an effect on the terrain and your deployment, but the resolution just feels painful to try to work through. GH's goon-participation LP also exposed quite a few weaknesses.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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Looks like they just released another patch for WITE, version 1.07.07, to fix the squads-not-upgrading bug. Probably too late to save the Axis in uPen's LP, but anyone with games running in the mid-to-late-war should look at upgrading.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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I can try writing something to cover basic controls and concepts, but I've been holding off because I don't really know as much about this game as I do WITP/WITE. For example, I only just discovered this morning that there's a toggle control if your units will retreat after taking 25% losses, or 50% losses, or stand-and-die, which might have come in handy playing as the Netherlands :suicide:

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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A quote from Computer Gaming World that always stuck with me was "the mark of a good strategy is being able to engineer a good position for yourself at the end of the other guy's turn"

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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Uncommon Valor is basically War in the Pacific with a somewhat more primitive interface and a narrower scope. This is both good and bad insofar as there aren't as many buttons to dick around with, but also that there's less automation/refinement to the buttons that you do have to press. I'd say it's worth the 20 bucks if you're interested in the subject matter but don't want to go whole-hog on WITP:AE just yet.

As for the other game, I'm allergic to Steel Panthers. Combat Mission rules!

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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Sir_Seth posted:

What's the difference between Steel Panthers World at War and the WinSP games? World at War just seems like an outdated version of the WinSP games.

As far as I know, Matrix's WaW has a lot more "content" in the form of scenarios, campaigns and mega-campaigns. I'd still consider WinSP to be better because you're not stuck in eye-bleeding 800x600

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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ArchangeI posted:

Of course, they advertise it exactly nowhere on their lovely vintage 2002 website and will use the fact that it hasn't singlehandedly payed for a new private jet as proof that sales don't work.

It's on the front page of their website, and is even also on their facebook page:


gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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I'd be down for a Case White PBEM. I'm even on the night shift nowadays so maybe that'll sync up with other people better.

Megadyptes posted:

Speaking of wargame companies being dumb regarding prices and sales, I was just browsing through the AGEOD forums to check out what's new and came across this thread about AGEOD breaking away from Paradox and moving over to Matrix for publishing.

If AGEOD is abandoning Steam, why does Alea Jacta Est have a Greenlight campaign?

Jakse posted:

How grognardy do you like to get? Stratcom has more depth and more variety in scenarios, but CtGW looks great, plays smoothly, and makes a poo poo ton of sense. It is done by the Lordz studio of Panzer Corps fame. I loving love it personally, but I don't have a lot of experience with Stratcom so don't just take my word for it.

Seconding Commander the Great War as an excellent game. It also has HEXES, unlike StratCom's square tiles.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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I think it's something like "We acknowledge that putting games on sale will cause a bump in revenue for those other guys like Dustforce, but it just doesn't work for the grognard games genre because these games are so hardcore that even if we dropped a 60 dollar game to 20 dollars, so few people are going to pick it up that we lose more money from the discount than we gain from the extra units sold."

Which is really a 2-part problem:

1. They've never done these big sales before for their more recent games. A bunch of people are interested in WITP and WITE and Decisive Campaigns and whatnot, but these weekly sales aren't going to expand your audience any when you're selecting the decade-old titles instead of the ones that aren't rear end-ugly and are programmed to run on modern OSes. Of course the hobby is going to remain small if the pricing model for the new hotness (and even the slightly-less-new hotness) stays so exclusive.

2. The games need to be good. A bunch of people are interested in WITE because it's the most accessible Gary Grigsby design in ages (which is kind of like saying Mt. Kilimanjaro is easier to climb than K-2, but whatever), but nobody's going to buy Pride of Nations no matter how hard you discount it because it sucks, and nobody's going to buy Bombing the Reich even at 10 bucks if the point of the game is scrolling through hundreds and hundreds of spreadsheets with an interface that resembles DOS's Lotus Symphony more than anything else. Seriously, some of these games skate by only because they're literally your only options for a particular subject-matter.

gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 07:10 on May 9, 2013

gradenko_2000
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ArchangeI posted:

Jesus christ, the 90ies called and want their webdesign back.

90's web design, you say? http://hpssims.com/

gradenko_2000
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I never bought Don to the Danube, but Lost Battles looks interesting enough to be worth a buy.

Don to the Danube's scenarios sounded like they suffered from the original scenario's problems where the game would end just as you got to the really good stuff - the Soviets would defend for 17 turns, but were never able to take a money-shot themselves, while the Germans could just advance willy-nilly without regard for covering their asses in the eventual counter-attack.

These new Lost Battles seem like they have more of a give-and-take date range.

Jakse posted:

So uPen levels of Za Rodinu aside, what is an acceptable Soviet goal through the first summer in terms of land held and casualty ratio versus a human player? Also how variable is the variable weather? I really, really need mud.

Don't quote me on this, but I think you can expect to lose Leningrad, but you really have to try and hold Moscow and not let AGS advance farther than Stalino. Taking historical numbers of losses (8 milion in the first year?) is a death-knell.

Random weather is generally known to favor the Soviet player, as there's always that one turn of early mud that just covers the whole map and kills off German momentum.


That still looks a lot more alive than Ctrl Alt Del's Digital Overload.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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New weekly deals from Matrix:

Commander: Napoleon at War - it's the Napoleonic version of Commander The Great War, which means it's light and easy playable and covers the whole of Europe. The only drawback is that like its WW2 cousin, the first iterations of the Commander series were coded in java, which means the interface is a bit gummy to work through and the resolution is fixed.

Crown of Glory - it's the Napoleonic version of Forge of Freedom, which means you move armies around on a Risk-like strategic level and then fight out the battles on a tactical level. I don't know much about how good this title is, admittedly - only that Grey Hunter LP'd it (requires archives) and that the devs felt like that LP spread word of their game so much that they gave him a free copy.

Both are going for 19.99 each.

gradenko_2000
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Jakse posted:

How long to destroyed German units freeze in War in the East? Does it lower their maximum possible morale or just gently caress the units over by having them build it back up?

Also is 10 a good amount of support units for armies? I have all my armies outfitted with SU's and some great generals but I still hit my AP limit until I hosed up my OOB switching around an army and had to pay a bunch to fix it.

Whenever a German unit surrenders/shatters, it comes back the next turn on the western map edge, set to Refit mode, and set to Frozen for 6 turns.

The rebuilt unit will have a morale ranging from:
50-60 in 1941 (National Morale this year is 75)
48-60 in 1942 (National Morale this year is 70)
47-60 in 1943 (National Morale this year is 65)

46-60 in 1944 (National Morale this year is 60)
45-57 in 1945 (National Morale this year is 55)

Since the maximum amount of morale the unit will randomly spawn with is lower than the National Morale in 1941-1943, the unit should still gain something like 1-2 points of morale per turn as it rebuilds in Refit mode. However, it's still a potentially huge loss because well shepherded units are going to have much more than 70-75 morale in the first two summer campaigns.

For your other question, I think 10 support units would be just at the limit of getting penalties for SU commitment. You should be aiming for about 6 SUs in an HQ.

Note that construction units, which never particpate in combat, do not count against this limit, so you can stuff as many of those as you want into an HQ.

Note that SUs directly attached to units, as in German Divisions or Soviet Corps, do not count against this limit, so you can have as many as 9 SUs in combat: 6 from the HQ and 3 from the direct-attachment.

gradenko_2000
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Quixzlizx posted:

Regarding the graphics, I kind of wish UoC had NATO counters. After constantly staring at WotE LPs, I feel like I could soak in more information with them than with UoC's bobbleheads. I think the intuitiveness of the UI is much more important than how nice the on-map graphics look.

I'm 90% sure that there's a mod, endorsed by the devs even, that converts the sprites to NATO counters. I just happen to be a dirty ol' casual that prefers sprites, is all.

And Unity of Command is really the best and the thread could alternatively be titled "Grognard Games Megathread - start with Unity of Command"

Necroneocon posted:

So not one picked up WitE expansion Lost Battles? It's only 15 bucks and they are great scenarios.

Why so much price talk in this thread? Last thread we actually talked about games. :smith:

I held off until the weekend because I don't have that much free time anymore, and getting sucked back into WITE is just going to piss off Alchenar that I'm not doing my turns fast enough. The scenarios look fantastic though and I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into Uranus.

gradenko_2000
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uPen posted:

I wasn't really going to get lost battles after getting burned on Don to the Danube (the scenarios are mostly pretty bad/cut off too early) but after looking over a few and reading an aar I think I'm going to be getting it this weekend too :(

Yeah I didn't get Don to the Danube after Three Moves Ahead's review of it where they did say that most of the scenarios end before you get to the real meat, but the date range and turn length of Lost Battles all but guarantees both sides get to have fun

gradenko_2000
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Nenonen posted:



JUTLAND :negative:

Uhm, I don't mind simple, Panzer General like modelling of naval units in a game where the focus is on the land campaigns. But why this, whyyyyyy???

A Jutland-dedicated game doesn't really look that much better:



(although I still prefer this to Stormeagle's Jutland / Distant Guns)

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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Decisive Campaigns question: How does command-and-control work in this game? I usually just move my HQs to be as close as possible to their respective subordinate units, or at least try to catch everyone within the "green zone", but I don't really know what any of this means. I'm also wondering if I'm causing something bad by moving the HQs every turn. Finally, how do you deal with the units that are directly attached to Army HQs instead of Corps HQs? It's sometimes a little difficult to keep them in the "green zone" of the Army HQ when they're so spread out.

EDIT: The new Matrix deals of the week are blah. Time of Fury is terrible and Panzer Command Ostfront is a mediocre Combat Mission-like.

gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 11:23 on May 20, 2013

gradenko_2000
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Zamboni Apocalypse posted:

Quick "should I throw myself on this unexploded game" question: in wandering through the Android appstore, I've found the "Conflict-series" by Joni Nuutinen, which look all old-school grognardy with the hexes and counters and all, but I'm at work and have no actual access for my device.

Are these worthwhile, or should I put my $2.99 each towards my post-apocalytic Cheetos cache instead?

I'd recommend "German Eagle vs Russian Bear" instead. The graphics are downright dire, but the game does a pretty good job of modelling the Eastern Front on a grand strategy (Strategic Command/Clash of Steel) scale and the rules are very easy to follow.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dk.eaglebear&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS5kay5lYWdsZWJlYXIiXQ..

Posting pictures of that new WITE mapmod from my current game. Functionally it's not so different (and in fact maybe the city names are too small and the river lines are sometimes hard to parse), but just having a different map to look at is a breath of fresh air:





EDIT: The Lost Battles are a good opportunity to practice Axis defenses. But is there a way to check how many replacements or much TOE% a specific unit gained?

gradenko_2000 fucked around with this message at 11:31 on May 21, 2013

gradenko_2000
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UncleSmoothie posted:

Why's Time of Fury so bad? I'm looking for an operational level game with a little more detail than Panzer Corps and it looked to fit the bill. Any recommendations?

The AI is terrible, the units have a really generic feel, and generally the game is just really unpolished. That studio, Wastelands Interactive, churns out these games like they were from a Soviet T-34 factory, clunkiness and all.

For operational-level that's deeper than Panzer Corps, your best bet is still Unity of Command, or perhaps Decisive Campaigns. If you like the Europe-wide scale, Strategic Command from GOG also works.

gradenko_2000
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Necroneocon posted:

Strategic Command 2 Gold and Strategic Command WW1/Breakthrough are really good games that are deeper than Panzer Corps and more a bit more deeper than Commander: The Great War.

The devs post constantly on the forums and everyone is very helpful. I really like supporting them because they really reach out the community and really care what people think.

I really need to get the later Strategic Command games. What would give me the most bang for the buck? WWI? Even their Pacific War title looks good and oh god stop making me want this I do not have 95 bux

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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I would love to see the Russian Civil War!

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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What is Distant Worlds like, anyway? I never actually read that LP

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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New Matrix deals: 19.99 USD for Carriers at War and 29.99 USD for Harpoon Ultimate Edition.

Carriers at War is incredibly tempting at that price, but I already played (an older version of) that game from about 2 decades ago and this one, despite the new interface, is still really limited as far as scenario selection goes.

Harpoon on the other hand makes me wary because it sounds like it just throws a bunch of "versions" of Harpoon at you sight unseen and with no guarantee on quality or playability, like those level packs/compilations for Duke Nukem 3D.

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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The second part of the WITE MapMod is up, this time with new counters:


The especially notable thing about it is that the creator moved the "soft factor" indicators to horizontal hash marks to the left of the unit icon - this makes it possible to view soft factors even while Fort levels are being displayed.

http://www.hist-sdc.com/MapMod/index.htm

gradenko_2000
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gfanikf posted:

Actually in fairness to Matrix Harpoon Ultimate Edition is on sale for $29.99 right...and I am really tempted to get that. Seriously for all that's in the package, it's actually a good deal...though I guess that's only because of what the normal price is for patches on games I already owned at one point.

The Ingress-StrikeOps-Egress 3 mission "campaign" where you take multiple CVBGs into the North Atlantic to wreak havoc on the Kola Peninsula is still one of the best strategy experiences I've ever had.

gradenko_2000
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What would be the best/cheapest way to jump into the newer WW2 West Front Combat Missions? Just Battle for Normandy?

gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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Reposting my user-interface guide to WITE. No tactics, but it should teach you enough about the interface to start working on Road to Mink/Leningrad. I think the only part I didn't discuss is rail repair, Reserve activation and actual strategies. For that last one, you can work through Grey Hunter's LP (on the LP archive) for a German perspective and uPen's on-going LP for a Soviet perspective.

Let us know what else in particular you'd like help with. WITE's a big game.

===

The Basics:

Set the Axis to Computer, the Soviet to Human and the Difficulty to Normal. Pick Scenario, and select "Velikie Luki '42 Tutorial"

As the Soviets, you have one unit at the top-most hex-row. This can be identified as an Infantry unit by its counter icon, and as a Brigade-sized unit by the single X at the top of its counter. Mousing over the unit will tell you that it is the "44th Ski Brigade"

Also in the counter for the 44th Ski Brigade is a read-out of "1-16". The number to the left, 1, represents its Offensive Combat Value (CV). The number to the right, 16, represents its Movement Points.

Notice that the German units in the grey counters have their read-outs separated by an equals sign. The infantry regiment to the south-east of the 44th Ski Brigade has a read-out of "1=3". The number to the left, 1, is still the unit's Offensive CV. The number to the right, 3, is the unit's Defensive CV.

If the separator of your read-out is a dash, then it's displaying Offensive CV-MP. If the separator of your read-out is an equals sign, then it's displaying Offensive CV-Defensive CV. You can switch which is being displayed for your own units by hitting the "Z" key on your keyboard, but your opponent's units will always use the equals sign. They're not moving on your turn, so there's no need to know how many movement points they have.

Movement:

Look at the second hex-row and left-click on the 19th Guards Rifle Division. It's the Infantry Division one hex East of the front line, with 3 Offensive CV and 12 MP. After you left-click it, it will be the currently selected unit, and hexes will light up showing up to how far it can move. Mouse-over one hex to the West, and you should see the movement indicator giving you a read-out of "11". This means that the unit will have 11 MP left if you make it move to the hex you are currently mousing-over.

Try mousing over different hexes to see how the read-out changes. Moving one hex to the East will cause the unit to be left with 10 MP, because you would be moving to Rough terrain, compared to one hex to the West leaving you with 11 MP since that's Clear terrain. You can also see that moving TWO hexes to the East will cause the program to compute a 3-hex movement path, since that is a more efficient use of MPs than moving to the Rough terrain.

Go ahead and move the 19th Guards Rifle Division one hex to the West, putting it in the same hex as 21st Guards Rifle Division.

You will notice that the read-out for that hex will now indicate 5 Offensive CV, 16 MP (and 5 Defensive CV if you switch display modes). When dealing with multiple stacked units, the game will always display the total CV of all units in that hex, and the MP of the unit with the most individual MP.

Ordering a Deliberate Attack:

If you haven't already done so, left-click on the stacked 19th and 21st Guards Rifle Divisions to select them. Left-clicking on a unit will always select all of the units on the stack. If you only want to order specific units in a stack, left click the large counter icon on the right-hand sidebar to deselect units that you do NOT want to order, but in this case, we want to order the entire stack.

With both Guards Rifle Divisions selected, indicated by a purple border on the counters, hover your mouse over them, then hold down your SHIFT key, and bring the mouse over the 44th Ski Brigade on the top hex-row. The Brigade should now also be selected, indicated by a purple border. Still holding down your SHIFT key, bring the mouse over the German Infantry Regiment directly West of the two Rifle Divisions. The mouse should should an icon of an explosion, indicative of a Deliberate Attack. Still holding down your SHIFT key, right-click the German Regiment.

You should see the combat resolution screen, followed by the German Regiment retreating.

What just happened? Reading the combat resolution screen:

Since the combat resolution screen probably disappeared after a few seconds, we need to bring it back up again to be able to read it. Press F11 to enter Show Battles mode. You should see a red tank icon appear over the hex you just fought over, indicating a Soviet attack had taken place there. Click on the red tank icon to bring up the battle results.

On the left, you will see which Axis units were involved in the fight, and then the Soviet units on the right. Each unit will have its unmodified CV in parentheses next to the name, such as the 21st Guards Rifle Division with a CV of (25).

In the middle of the combat resolution screen, you'll see a breakdown of casualties per side, the final CV odds, and the result of the combat, which in this case is a retreat.

To explain further what happens in combat, we would first have to talk about what CV actually is: Every squad, vehicle and gun in a particular unit has a CV value. A single rifle squad has a CV of 3, for example, while a Tiger Tank might have CV of 9. This is totaled for the whole unit, although what we see on counters and in the combat resolution display are abbreviated values for the sake of display. CV represents the unit's ability to take and hold ground.

The CV value that is displayed next to the unit's name is the unmodified CV, or simply the total based purely on the various squads and vehicles and guns. What happens during combat is that this CV value can change. Some of it we can predict ahead of time: Being inside fortifications or defending across a river will increase your Defensive CV. Others are less predictable: The CV of a unit can unit can be doubled or halved or otherwise vary depending on whether its leader passes a series of random dice rolls. Finally, CV can change as a result of combat itself: As the various squads and vehicles and guns shoot each other, some of them will be destroyed, and some of them will be disabled. Ground elements that become casualties no longer count towards the CV of the unit.

Once combat ends, the CV of the two opposing sides are compared. The combat resolution screen shows this as the "Modified Combat Value". If the attacker's Modified CV is twice as high as the defender's Modified CV, or Odds of 2:1 or better according to the combat resolution screen, then the attacker wins the combat. If the attacker cannot obtain 2:1 odds or better, then the defender wins. Winning a combat may mean several things: Usually the defender retreats, but they may also rout, or shatter, or surrender.

Special note for Soviet attackers: From the start of the game until Feb 1942, they only need to obtain odds of better than 1:1 to win a combat. After Feb 1942, they need 2:1 odds to win an attack, same as the Germans.

One other thing you might notice in the combat resolution screen is that some units seem to have 0 CV, such as German Nebelwerfer Battalions or Soviet Artillery Regiments. This is because artillery does not help with taking, holding and securing ground, but they are still valuable in combat because any enemy units they destroy will be less CV that you have to overcome yourself.

A rule-of-thumb for launching attacks is that you want to hit the enemy with twice as much Offensive CV as he has Defensive CV. Where it gets more advanced is considering the Fatigue, Experience and Morale level of your units, the Fortification level of the enemy, how many Engineers you have as a counter to Forts, the leader of your troops, the terrain involved, and other such factors.

Ordering a Hasty Attack:

At the fourth hex-row, look for the 9th Guards Rifle Division, one hex East of the front-line. Left-click on it and deselect the 45th Ski Brigade, so you move ONLY the 9th GRD. Move the unit one hex to the West, so that it's stacked with the 257th Rifle Division and the 46th Guards Rifle Division.

After ordering the move, all three Divisions should be selected. Mouse-over the German Mountain Infantry Regiment one hex to the West. The icon should change to an explosion with an arrow, denoting a Hasty Attack. Go ahead and right-click on the German unit to execute the attack.

You will probably have won this fight as well. However, notice that the Combat Val in the combat resolution shows your CV as being somewhere in the 30s, but your counters suggest that your unmodifier CV should be about 50. This is because Hasty Attacks consume less MP to execute, but will cause your CV to be cut in half, to represent an attack that was done ... well, hastily. As well, Hasty Attacks can only be done by units in the same hex. If you have units from two or more hexes that you wish to attack simultaneously, use a Deliberate Attack.

So, to re-cap: Deliberate Attacks are done by holding down shift and mousing over all of the units you wish you involve across multiple hexes, and then shift-right-clicking on the target. They cost more MP than Hasty Attacks, but will use the full CV of your unit. Hasty Attacks are done with an unshifted right-click on the target, and only by units from a single hex. They cost less MP than Deliberate Attacks, but will only use half your unmodified CV.

[At this point you probably already know enough about the game to play and win the Velikie Luki scenario, but read on if you want to find out about other key concepts]

HQ Units:

Go back to the top hex-row and select the 44th Ski Brigade again. On the right-hand side-bar, you should see it say "3rd Shock Army (5/10)". 3rd Shock Army is the Headquarters to which this unit is attached to. The number 5 indicates that the 44th Ski Brigade is 5 hexes away from its HQ. The number 10 indicates that the 3rd Shock Army has a command range of 10 hexes.

Things to keep in mind with regards to HQs:
* If you exceed the command range of your HQ, you may incur penalties during combat
* If units from different HQs participate in the same combat, they will incur a penalty
* If units are attached to Axis Army Groups, Soviet Fronts or either side's high command (OKH/Stavka), they will incur a penalty
* If a unit is farther than 5 hexes away from its attached HQ, Support Units cannot join any of that unit's battles (I'll discuss Support Units in a bit). Note that a unit may be in command range, but still be ineligible for Support Units, such as being 6 hexes away from an Army HQ.

Now that I have mentioned Support Units, go ahead and click on the "3rd Shock Army (5/10)" line, to select the 3rd Shock Army HQ unit. You'll see that it's the red HQ unit on the third hex-row.

On the side-bar, you'll see that 3rd Shock Army itself is attached to Kalinin Front (and you may find out further that Kalinin Front is attached to Stavka). 3rd Shock Army is 3 hexes away from Kalinin Front, and Kalinin Front has a command range of 45 hexes.

The next pertinent bit of information is the read-out of "23:18" next to the tank icon. The number 23 indicates the command capacity consumed by all units attached to this HQ. The number 18 indicates the maximum command capacity of the HQ. 23:18 therefore means that there are more units attached to the HQ than the HQ can optimally command. This is also called being "overloaded" on command capacity. What this means is that when the units attached to the HQ participate in combat, some of the random rolls modifying CV are slightly more difficult to pass as a result of the overloading (being outside of command range also has a similar effect).

Right-click on the HQ's box in the right-hand side-bar to bring up its details window. See all those Regiments and Battalions beneath "ATTACHED SUPPORT (18)"? Those are the Support Units. They're basically small specialized formations that do not warrant their own on-map counters, but are instead perceived to travel along with the HQ and participate in battles started by on-map units that are attached to the HQ. Whether or not they join a battle is determined by the range of the unit in combat, and whether or not the leader of the HQ passes a random roll to determine participation. Support Units are important insofar as they're your source of some really powerful special units, such as Pionere Battalions or Tank Regiments or lots and lots of Artillery.

I've mentioned leaders a couple of times already, so let's get to that. Beneath 3rd Shock Army, you should see "Leader: Maksim Purkaev". Go ahead and left-click that line to take you to the leader details page. From there you'll see the leader's various stats. In order, they are:

Political: The higher this stat is, the more expensive it is in terms of Admin Points to replace the leader. Higher political rating also increases the chance that the leader will be promoted, letting you assign him to a higher level of HQ without suffering stat penalties. Finally, a high political rating increases the chance that the leader will avoid getting dismissed or even executed if his win/loss ratio is poor.

Morale: A high morale rating will result in better CV modifications during combat, faster recovery of Fatigue, and a better chance of rallying Routed units.

Initiative: A high initiative rating will result in more MPs (all other things being equal, such as supply and fuel), more/better shots taken by ground units during combat, more Support Unit participation, the ability to turn bad odds Hasty Attacks into Reconnaisance in Force attacks, which basically means avoiding heavy casualties, and more Reserve activations.

Admin: A high admin rating will result in more MPs (all other things being equal), more repairs done to damaged units and cheaper Admin Point costs for re-assigning units into the HQ.

Mech/Infantry/Air/Naval: Similar to Morale and Initiative, this represents the ability of a leader to command these specific kinds of units and provides CV bonuses during combat if and when it applies. A leader with a high Mech rating would be a good candidate for being assigned to a Corps or Army with mostly Panzer Divisions assigned.

Finally, at the bottom of the leader detail screen you'll see "Dismissal Cost: 8". Clicking on that will take you to a list of other leaders that you can assign to this HQ, along with the associated Admin Point cost for doing the reassignment.

Close the leader details screen and the HQ details screen to go back to the default view. The last thing I want to mention about HQs is that when you have an HQ selected, all of the units assigned to that HQ will be bordered in blue if they are within command range (again, not necessarily Support Unit range) and will be bordered in red if they are outside command range. Right now, all of 3rd Shock Army's subordinate units should be in range and bordered in blue.

Unit details:

Select the 44th Ski Brigade again at the top hex-row, and look at the right-hand side-bar. Below "3rd Shock Army (5/10)", you should see three percentage numbers. In order, they represent Supplies, Fuel and Ammo. Supplies determine how many MPs a non-motorized unit will get, and will also cause Morale losses if it drops too low. Fuel determines how many MPs a motorized unit will get. Ammo determines how much ammunition a unit has left to fight with and will cause units to perform poorly in combat if it drops too low.

You will also see a button on the side-bar labeled "Ready". Clicking on this will change it to "Refit", and then "Reserve", and then back to "Ready". Setting a unit to Refit mode means it gets priority for receiving replacements. Setting a unit to Reserve mode means it will try (as in not always, subject to leader rolls) to join in nearby battles. Similar buttons exist for HQ units to set all units assigned to that HQ to Refit mode or not.

Right-click on the unit's side-bar box now to bring up its details screen. On the left-hand side you'll see a list of every ground element that comprises the unit, along with how Fatigued and how Experienced it is (a factor in combat). On the right-hand side you'll see several important pieces of data:

"TOE 60/62": TOE stands of Table of Organization and Equipment, and basically describes the ideal number and composition of elements within a unit. A read-out of "60/62" means that the unit is within 60% of its full TOE, counting just the fully-ready ground elements, and within 62% of its full TOE counting also damaged-but-repairable elements. Clicking on this line takes you to a screen describing the full TOE of the unit compared to the currently available ground elements.

"MAX 100": This means that the game will keep trying to provide replacements to the unit until it reaches 100% of its TOE. Clicking this line allows you to set a lower threshold. This is useful in the context of keeping some units at a lower level of TOE than others, so that units in the more combat-active sections of the front get the replacements.

"Morale: 48": Similar to Fatigue and Experience, Morale is another factor influencing a unit's performance in combat. More than just esprit de corps or elan, Morale also means the general profiency of a unit. This generally goes up whenever you win a combat, and down whenever you lose a combat.

"HHQ: 3rd Shock Army": This indicates the HQ that the unit is assigned to, which we already know, but clicking on it brings you to a list of other HQs that you can re-assign the unit to. If you go to the list then click on Kalinin Front, then the unit will be re-assigned to the Kalinin Front. This would reduce 3rd Shock Army's overloading (but cause the Brigade to take a penalty if it gets involved in combat, since it's no longer assigned to an Army HQ). As with re-assigning leaders, re-assigning units costs Admin Points. Note that HQ units themselves can be re-assigned, such as moving Army HQs from one Front to another.

Ideally, any units you plan on conducting combat with will be under the Corps -> Army -> Army Group/Front -> High Command structure (with Soviet units skipping Corps and attaching directly to Armies). Aside from avoiding the penalties from being attached to higher HQs directly, following the command structure acts as a sort of fail-safe: If the Corps-level leader fails his leader check, then the Army-level leader gets a chance. If the Army-level leader also fails, then the Front-level or even High Command will still try to "catch" the unit from failing completely.

The general idea is that you will never have enough command capacity to place every unit under this kind of structure, so any units you want to rest and refit should be assigned to High Command and taken out of the front line temporarily.

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gradenko_2000
Oct 5, 2010

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Flashpoint Germany looks rear end-ugly and CC Modern Tactics seems completely redundant in the face of Combat Mission

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