HPS France '14

[Fallschirmjager]

Does anyone have it? Looks interesting but also uses the dinosaur Panzer Campaigns engine so I am wary. The game also includes campaigns. Are these branching campaigns like the American Civil War and Napoleonic series?
Looking at the limited screenshots it looks like the game has a good mix of maneuver warfare and siege/defensive scenarios.

[06 Maestro]

It looks like a great a great game, but one that would take a huge amount of time to play. There some smaller scenarios, but at Bn level?? There are TOAW scenarios that can give the same setting-looks like anyway.
I have never played any PZC, so am not familiar with the system. I can't imagine having to give orders to every single unit on the map-that would be insanity.

I too would be interested in hearing the prospective of an owner of this game.

[Fallschirmjager]

There are too few screenshots but I guess you are right, battalion level with company level for machine guns. That would require a lot of time to play. I would have to seriously consider a purchase since I get so little time to play and games that require forever for a single turn frustrate me.
I would still like some input for anyone who has some.

[MajFrankBurns]

Can't take any more time to play than WitP. But, i am like you I don't like a lot of games that take my entire gaming session just to play one turn. That's why I'll never buy or play WitP.

[V22 Osprey]

Just got it today, and you won't be disappointed. This definitely isn't Panzer campaigns, it plays completely different. The only thing these 2 games have in common is the interface, graphics, and scale. The sounds are very authentic and immersive, they even added sounds during movement, so now you will here the clucking of horse, the movement of infantry and the sound of a train now when moving units. The Sounds in France '14 are arguably best of ANY HPS game.You will have to adjust a bit. MGs can fire two hexes, and I would say they have a more direct role in combat than in Panzer/Modern Campaigns. Casualties are definitely represented....I dare anyone to charge an infantry Battalion straight into an entrenched MG company and see what happens. I honestly would say it isn't a "dinosaur" engine anymore, the engine completely down to AI has been overhauled. It feels like what it should be- a completely new game.

[Fallschirmjager]

How big is a hex? Still 1 KM? And are turns still two hours? The absence of much night combat would make things interesting.

[V22 Osprey]

Just checked the user manual....yep scale is still 1 KM and 2 hours. Night combat is definitely discouraged, in fact during night turns, you here crickets and creatures, not background fire. Moving at night is automatic disruption.

[V22 Osprey]

Oh, also the campaign games are the Panzer Campaigns' Campaign games...it's just the large grand mega scenaro, although there are like 5 or so different campaigns in the game itself. The game has a perfect mix of small, medium and Large scenarios.

[06 Maestro]

Are units given orders as formations, groups by dragging a box, or some other method?

[UniformYankee]

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager

Does anyone have it? Looks interesting but also uses the dinosaur Panzer Campaigns engine so I am wary. The game also includes campaigns. Are these branching campaigns like the American Civil War and Napoleonic series?
Looking at the limited screenshots it looks like the game has a good mix of maneuver warfare and siege/defensive scenarios.

The game is certainly based on the PzC engine, though does have some code mods like patrolling capability for cavalry and plotted indirect fire for heavier artillery. Map graphics are fresh as well and the 3D zoom out view is very useful as not being too tiny (like the 2D zoom out view is) and also offering a better view of the terrain.

Cavalry and MGs are squadron/company level, though cavalry can build-up to regiments and break-down to squadrons. Infantry and Artillery are battalions. Engineers seem to be either company or battalion, at least some of them are rather small and some are larger - but have not compared game OOB to real OOB.

The designer seems very focused on reproducing historical outcomes so the "campaign" is broken down into sub-campaigns, early, middle and late. The early campaign starts August 22 and ends 10 September. The middle camaign runs from 17 September through 17 October and the late campaign runs from 18 October and ends 10 November. In addition to these "campaigns" there are numerous smaller scenarios such as "Marne" and Ypers".

So far, playing the early campaign as the Germans against the AI, the turns are very long, first turn not as long as WITP or AE, maybe only 4 hours of actual moving. But subsequent turns, I think will be at least 2 hours, so longer than WITP or AE. Just watching the replay on "Fast AI" takes over 15 minutes (not sure exactly as I walked out of the room). Stacks of like units can be moved together with no penalty, so this is an accelerator, but having to plot much of the artillery through the cumbersome "artillery dialog" is a decellerator.

My primary "issue" is the lack of a more complete campaign scenario starting from the beginning of the war. The designer says he did not do this because it would not evolve as the historical campaign evolved. I'm fine with designers give us scenarios that represent their vision. But can we not have it both ways? How much additional incremental effort would've been required to provide the "at start" positions and allow more turns? Well, it would be a considerable effort, I admit, but given the effort that was already required to give us what we have, perhaps not so great, incrementally.

All, in all this looks like a more polished and complete effort, than a number of the more recent PzC or Modern Campaigns, so I suspect I will play it longer as well.

[SlickWilhelm]

Does it support widescreen resolutions?

[UniformYankee]

ORIGINAL: Slick Wilhelm

Does it support widescreen resolutions?

I'm running it on a 1920x1200 display.

[MajFrankBurns]

Does it have areoplanes?

[Fallschirmjager]

ORIGINAL: UniformYankee

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager

Does anyone have it? Looks interesting but also uses the dinosaur Panzer Campaigns engine so I am wary. The game also includes campaigns. Are these branching campaigns like the American Civil War and Napoleonic series?
Looking at the limited screenshots it looks like the game has a good mix of maneuver warfare and siege/defensive scenarios.

The game is certainly based on the PzC engine, though does have some code mods like patrolling capability for cavalry and plotted indirect fire for heavier artillery. Map graphics are fresh as well and the 3D zoom out view is very useful as not being too tiny (like the 2D zoom out view is) and also offering a better view of the terrain.

Cavalry and MGs are squadron/company level, though cavalry can build-up to regiments and break-down to squadrons. Infantry and Artillery are battalions. Engineers seem to be either company or battalion, at least some of them are rather small and some are larger - but have not compared game OOB to real OOB.

The designer seems very focused on reproducing historical outcomes so the "campaign" is broken down into sub-campaigns, early, middle and late. The early campaign starts August 22 and ends 10 September. The middle camaign runs from 17 September through 17 October and the late campaign runs from 18 October and ends 10 November. In addition to these "campaigns" there are numerous smaller scenarios such as "Marne" and Ypers".

So far, playing the early campaign as the Germans against the AI, the turns are very long, first turn not as long as WITP or AE, maybe only 4 hours of actual moving. But subsequent turns, I think will be at least 2 hours, so longer than WITP or AE. Just watching the replay on "Fast AI" takes over 15 minutes (not sure exactly as I walked out of the room). Stacks of like units can be moved together with no penalty, so this is an accelerator, but having to plot much of the artillery through the cumbersome "artillery dialog" is a decellerator.

My primary "issue" is the lack of a more complete campaign scenario starting from the beginning of the war. The designer says he did not do this because it would not evolve as the historical campaign evolved. I'm fine with designers give us scenarios that represent their vision. But can we not have it both ways? How much additional incremental effort would've been required to provide the "at start" positions and allow more turns? Well, it would be a considerable effort, I admit, but given the effort that was already required to give us what we have, perhaps not so great, incrementally.

All, in all this looks like a more polished and complete effort, than a number of the more recent PzC or Modern Campaigns, so I suspect I will play it longer as well.

Very nice info, thank you!

[UniformYankee]

ORIGINAL: MajFrankBurns

Does it have areoplanes?

Haven't seen any "areoplanes" - but there are a few "aeroplanes" - recon only - on the German side - at start.

[SlickWilhelm]

ORIGINAL: UniformYankee

ORIGINAL: Slick Wilhelm

Does it support widescreen resolutions?

I'm running it on a 1920x1200 display.

But is it running in a windowed box or 1920x1200 fullscreen? That's the res I'd be running it at, too.

[V22 Osprey]

Like all HPS games, it plays in a window:

[sol_invictus]

Damn the Mapmod graphics look fantastic! I can't wait until my copy arrives. Now if HPS would just release a Seven Years War and a Wars of German Unification series my life would be complete.[&o]

[SlickWilhelm]

That does look very nice. Easy to read. Don't know that I'd ever be able to finish a game of it since the scale is so small, but then again I said that about Forge of Freedom and managed to finish multiple games of that. 

[eastwindrain]

I like to play around with the various graphic mods which are available and found this helps grasp the lie of the land.