AAR HSG First of Many

[Mad Russian]

And it does cause the game end.

The Germans have control of three of the four victory locations. Hopefully with the losses the Russians took that will be enough for a German Victory.

This SS shows a good graphic example of the view locator on the Tac map. Look at the Tac map and notice the dark shaded area. This is where I'm actually looking on the Tac map.

I can click anywhere on the Tac map and it will take me to that location without having to scroll over there on the larger game map area. When you combine this with the units you have selected in the game map area flashing on the Tac map then you can easily move anywhere you want to go that interests you with a single click of your mouse.

The view is also adjustable from ground level to directly over head. All camera angles are easily moved and very smooth.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

It's a Decisive German Victory!

Great news for the Fatherland!

The end of game screen shows that we got a 67-44 victory. (PCO rounds up.) Each squad, fire team and vehicle has it's combat record shown here. Any decorations or promotions to higher levels of experience are also shown on this page. This is a great improvement over past versions of PC. Now the game will support tournament and ladder play without having to do any other calculations than just reading the scores.

The end of game screen is set to show the high scorers for each side. Unit names under the each Player Performance results banner show the units experience levels, yellow are elite units, black are veteran units and green names represent green units.

Since this was not a scenario in a campaign there is no recovery of damaged units.

You can also go back to the game map and look at the final positions and dispositions of your battle group.

This battle went as many in the east did. The Germans were superior command and control which they used to outmaneuver their Soviet opponents. But German losses, while small were eventually to reach a point where they could not be replaced.

This was just one of many thousands of such engagements to take place over the next four years

Good Luck with your own many encounters on the eastern front with PCO.

Good Hunting.

MR

[eniced73]

MR,
Thanks for this. Always thought about picking this game up but never did it will CM installed on my computer. After seeing this though I am going to pick it up and try it.

One thing that I dont care for is the VL flags. Why did they opt to go for two flags instead of one? Is there an option or will it be mod friendly enough to change this? Another one is the tracers. I never really cared for them either and would like to know can they be modded?

[junk2drive]

MR placed the two flags, that is not a forced feature.

Yes the tracers can be modded. They are png files.

[Mad Russian]

ORIGINAL: eniced73

One thing that I dont care for is the VL flags. Why did they opt to go for two flags instead of one? Is there an option or will it be mod friendly enough to change this? Another one is the tracers. I never really cared for them either and would like to know can they be modded?

They didn't opt for two victory flags. I did as the designer. I can do what I want with the Victory Locations. There are three types of victory flags. German controlled, Soviet controlled and neutral. The side with the most influence on a flag within 100 meters controls it.

I put the two flags in there to allow for more flexible contest of the battle area since I knew it would be small and on a road. This allows for one side to have units in the field controlling it and the other side in the woods controlling them and to have that victory location split for points because each side could control one flag.

Here is a screen shot of another battle I'm working on where you can see a German and Soviet controlled flag and also one that is neutral all in the same part of the village.

The tracer colors are based on German and Soviet tracers during the war, but yes, they can be modded.

Good Hunting.

MR

[DasTactic]

Thanks for the AAR. Really enjoyed it.

Would pulling back a bit when the number of enemies got high and your ammo was running out have been a viable strategy? Basically setting up an ambush for them to advance into? Just trying to get a feel for the different strategic choices.

[junk2drive]

Definitely. That is what withdraw is for. If the unit has an MG with ammo left, you can still use it after the main gun ammo runs out. Ideally you would back out when you get the low ammo warning. War is not ideal though.

I would hope that withdrawing past some friendly units would lure the opponent to follow and maybe ambush him with unseen stationary units.

[rickier65]

ORIGINAL: eniced73

... Why did they opt to go for two flags instead of one? Is there an option or will it be mod friendly enough to change this? Another one is the tracers. I never really cared for them either and would like to know can they be modded?

The VL choice is made by the scenario designer. One of the features that was added fairly recently is the abiliity to set VL as neutral at start. If I recall, MR actually changed this to one nuetral VL at each location for his final version (though I could be mistaken).

Also, tracers can be modded. one of the very first mods I saw was a tracer mod done for PCK.

Thanks
rick

[Mad Russian]

ORIGINAL: Das123

Thanks for the AAR. Really enjoyed it.

Would pulling back a bit when the number of enemies got high and your ammo was running out have been a viable strategy? Basically setting up an ambush for them to advance into? Just trying to get a feel for the different strategic choices.

Yes, I could have pulled back, but when they didn't advance then I was pretty sure I could put my remaining tanks in a position to gang up on them and take them out one at a time.

Pulling back would have given me the added advantage of bringing some of my broken down PzII's targets. In this case though the Russians couldn't move forward because of mechanical issues of their own.



Good Hunting.

MR

[Geordie]

The biggest thing I like about this game is that you can actually just play it with nothing but the mouse. I do like that in any modern game. No clunky interface to Wade through.

AAR, or should I say DAR, is looming good there.

[heinrich55]

Mad Russian,
I hadn't seen you over at TSDII for a while, and now I've found where you've been spending most of your time.

Thanks very much for this AAR. It was great to follow and see how the game mechanics were used. I am looking forward to your Clash of Titans thread. This game looks absolutely fantastic. I believe you and Erik and the crew have won me over.

The posting of AARs is a really slick way of generating interest. Please keep up the good work.

Heinrich55

[Mad Russian]

How have you been? I drop in at The Scenario Depot II to keep up with any reviews, or comments, on my scenarios. I've just not done anything CM related since before last Thanksgiving. I have so many scenarios on TSDII that nobody seemed to notice my absence!

Not sure if that's a good or bad thing.....[&:]   [:D]

Good to see you here and hope that you find our work for the past few months to your liking. I think you will.

Good Hunting.

MR

[junk2drive]

ORIGINAL: eniced73

MR,
Thanks for this. Always thought about picking this game up but never did it will CM installed on my computer. After seeing this though I am going to pick it up and try it.

One thing that I dont care for is the VL flags. Why did they opt to go for two flags instead of one? Is there an option or will it be mod friendly enough to change this? Another one is the tracers. I never really cared for them either and would like to know can they be modded?

As of today you can toggle them on/off

[heinrich55]

MR,
I'm doing well - transferred from the west coast to the east coast. Now looking at a possible hurricane hit. [8|]

Some of us miss you over there. Your scenarios are still the ones to compare against. You raised that bar pretty high.

Will you re-do some of your scenarios for this game? If you've done this already, how do they play out compared to your previous efforts? Just curious. I've enjoyed the heck out of so many of them, especially the historical ones.

I continue to be impressed more and more with this game system. Watching this particular scenario play out, and the commentary and explanations that you, Erik, junk2drive, and others are showing us is quite a positive force. I really like what I see.

Heinrich55

[z1812]

Thanks for AAR. It was quite enjoyable and informative.

regards John

[Mad Russian]

Heinrich....DUCK!

You may well get a hurricane this week.

I'm not sure if I'll redo any of my old scenarios here or not. Probably I will to take advantage of the new system and as you say, to highlight those differences for those that have tried my scenarios before. Do you have any requests that you would like to see converted? I could do that as a project here so others could see the process of making a PCO scenario if you like.

There are ongoing changes to PCO and that makes it interesting to make scenarios. We'll see what turns up in the end.

Good Hunting.

MR

[heinrich55]

MR,
I'll dig through my favorites and let you know which scenarios I think would be really interesting. It's a little late tonight though.

Heinrich55

[heinrich55]

MR,
I went through the ones I played, and here are my suggestions. There are quite a few. They were all great, but they also represent a cross section of large, medium, and small size encounters. I think they would work well in this game system and could show off the flexibility of this game engine. I didn't order them as most favorite on down. If you want me to, I can do that, but it wouldn't be easy. They were all great in particular ways based on the battle's parameters.

HSG KC Untstfhr Muehleck
HSG Giesen's Bridge
HSG B Bussard
HSG KC Lt. Oberloskamp (My AAR on this one was one of my best - such a cool scenario)
CSDT-B14-Eisen Faust **Note, I think this was Warmongers, but it was such a great scenario. I'd love to see it in this game.
HSG KH Bloody Road
HSG AG Dangerous Information
HSG EW A Tiger By The Tail_2
HSG EW Dinosaurs Eat The Eggs (Jagdtigers, how could I resist!!)

So, there you have it. You really have a gift for developing scenarios. I'm not the only one who appreciated all your hard work.

Heinrich55

[Mad Russian]

The KC series won't work well here in PCO because of the way commanders are handled in each game.

HSG Giesen's Bridge, CSDT B14 Eisen Faust are both by Warmonger.

I've tried Bussard and I might do that one a bit later.

Now Bloody Road could be a real possibility.

Currently there are no Jadgtigers or Sturmtigers in PCO.

I have done Dangerous Information. Still working on it to get it to play the way I want.

I have also done a 2km map for the CMBB battle HSG B This Isn't France. It has turned out very well in PCO.

I hope that I can get some of the scenarios to work here like I did in the CM system. But where PC really shines is the campaigns and after we get this update finished I want to do some campaigns.

Good Hunting.

MR

[heinrich55]

I was a bit disappointed that the KC series won't work in this system. I always thought the inclusion of HQ units or tank commanders with modifiers for their special talents was a great idea. So many times I've read where the actions of a single officer or tank commander tipped the balance of a battle. Perhaps this might be included in the infantry re-make coming after PCO. I would hope that would be included.

I knew you wouldn't be able to resist doing Bussard or Dangerous Information.

Having seen the new video on the map maker, I am quite impressed. I've never been a scenario designer (thought about it though), but might have to try my hand at it, seeing how amazing the map maker is and how seamlessly it works.

I'd really like to see you take a shot at Bloody Road. That was such a blast to play.

Heinrich55