A Dozen New Screenshots!

[JosephL]

Howdy Folks. I Just uploaded a dozen screens for the game info page. A bunch of them tell the story of the German defense in... some city I don't recall the name of. Or at least how *I* defended the city.

Watch the "story" below:

http://www.matrixgames.com/files/games/ ... proach.jpg
Russians Approach the City

http://www.matrixgames.com/files/games/ ... heTrap.jpg
Infantry are in position throughout this city, a rocket barrage is set to destroy the town. There will be no survivors.

http://www.matrixgames.com/files/games/ ... Strike.jpg
Spring the trap!

http://www.matrixgames.com/files/games/ ... trike2.jpg
The Rockets continue to fall

http://www.matrixgames.com/files/games/ ... trike3.jpg
Yes, in case you are wondering I DID just sacrifice the lives of all the infantry in that city along with the enemy.

http://www.matrixgames.com/files/games/ ... trike4.jpg
Shelling complete... Destruction was massive.

http://www.matrixgames.com/files/games/ ... vivors.jpg
These friendly guy's transport broke down on the way here or something. Now they seem quite happy to have been left behind.

http://www.matrixgames.com/files/games/ ... ctory!.jpg
Victory is ours!
Sure, I lost 4 anti-tank platoons (out of the 6 in that city) 2 transports, and 1 panzer... but the enemy casualty list is two pages long (Ok, not quite, but it DOES scroll down beyond one page)

Keep in mind these are BETA screenshots. The game may change between now and release in terms of tactics, power, positioning, and the way any particular screen looks. I had a lot of fun beating this scenario; after four scenarios of defeat I finally won through the use of an intelligent tactic... very rewarding. Of course, I don't know if the 6 AT platoons would agree with "intelligent" tactics... but the armor was safely positioned outside the city.

[Becket]

Oh, yum! Thanks very much!

[mbelew]

Hey, that's funny, I played that map last night too in the Russian campaign. The *first* time I tried it, I wanted to respect the city (it is, after all, on Russian soil). That didn't work. On my next try, I did just about what you were doing to the russians; I let the Germans have it with my artillery. Getting my spotters in there was a trick since there's some snipers up in that church bell tower. I'm still in the middle of that game, I'll let you know how it goes.

[z1812]

Hi All,

Just wondering how effective artillery is against tanks. Historically it wasn't very effective. I was wondering if during the rocket attack tanks were killed?

Regards John

[JosephL]

Well keep in mind guys that this is basically the first DAY of beta... so the effeciency of rocket attacks is probably going to change.

This was a much more successful use of rockets than I had previously seen. In previous games the result of an entire rocket barrage was one tank got track damage...

It was hard to tell in THIS scenario what was going on with the rockets. There were simply too many rockets falling for me to tell what was going on I made it out to be, in my story, that the rockets were doing all the damage... but the reality is I had 4 divisions of ELITE Panzer IIIs and IVs (or was it 3 and one division of AT artillery...) lined up in a semi-circle around the city that were destroying tanks left and right as they either were forced to move away from the town at "Rush" speed, which meant they couldn't fire back, or stand and fight while being pelted by rockets AND my tank fire.

For the record, as I said, this is the first victory I have seen against the AI since I started in alpha. It's much harder than these screenshots make it out to be At the same time it is NOT a hard game to play. The AI will take over for the player if you don't give them direct orders. So if your tanks get ambushed and you didn't give them an order they won't just stand there, they'll at least fight back. It makes it very easy to sit down and play without reading the manual... though I don't reccomend playing without reading the manual

-Joe

[Becket]

Heh. After the experience of the W@W beta, I feel for you JosephL. One screenshot becomes the game. [:)]

I take it with a grain of salt. Tanks have horribly thin top armor and I would think they'd try to leave an area getting that heavily saturated (especially if they are green tankers). That a few get taken out by the rockets doesn't particularly worry me, since with random number generation anything can happen. That the rest got clocked by the Elite panzers seems entirely appropriate. It would be interesting to know if they panicked.

Note: I have lost tanks in CM to heavy artillery saturation. [:)]

[mbelew]

From the angle of entry, it looks like the AI also called in an artillery strike. Unfortunately Joe called them in on the city he was defending. War is hell after all.

What happened:
Joe called in a strike against himself hoping the AI would enter the city.
The AI called in a strike too, but on the enemy, then entered the city.
Joe's dudes ate it by just sitting there
AI's dudes ate it by running in on the town

We can't fix Joe's tactics, but maybe we can fix the AI's? hehe

[Erik Rutins]

Yeah, I checked with Joe and it looks like an arty bug was at work in terms of the duration of the barrage as well. With that said, excellent eye candy. [8D]

Regards,

- Erik

[JosephL]

Well it's a mystery- but LET THIS BE A LESSON TO YOU ALL.

I won't hesitate to sacrifice the lives of countless men and infrastructure to walk away the winner... that smouldering wreckage is mine for ALL TIME.

-Joe

[Andreas1968]

ORIGINAL: z1812

Hi All,

Just wondering how effective artillery is against tanks. Historically it wasn't very effective. I was wondering if during the rocket attack tanks were killed?

Regards John

I disagree. First it depends entirely on what kind of artillery you are talking about. Anything above and beyond field artillery level (105mm) has a good chance to do minor damage that renders the tank combat incapable - tear off antennas, damage cupolas and vision slits, etc. pp. Not to mention direct hits on top that will be very bad news in most cases. See e.g. Ritgen's description of what happened to his battalion during Perch in Westfront 1944. Tanks were aware of that, as can be seen in 'The Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby', describing Shermans trying to maneuver out of a mortar barrage.

All the best

Andreas