Well?!

[jungelsj_slith]

How is it?! I just bought TAOWIII, so I don't think I could justify the purchase of another "box game" (as she calls them) at the moment. I'm itching to know what people think of the new features. Gimme something to read at work!

[JudgeDredd]

Nothing to report yet...working my way through the tutorial...but I'll tell you this - I started about 8pm last night and didn't get to bed until gone 12!

[Awac835]

i feel with you. I also just bought TOAW3 , but did plan on buying this to, but didnt excpect TOAW to come out in atleast a couple of months [&:]
well im going to by COTA as well since ive planned to get it for a long time. it will just mean that i drop my plan on getting Harpoon ANW when it comes out.

[Temple]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

Nothing to report yet...working my way through the tutorial...but I'll tell you this - I started about 8pm last night and didn't get to bed until gone 12!

Four hours?


Rookie.... [;)]

[Agema]

Well, I played through a relatively quickie, Tempe Gorge Crisis. What can I say... it's like HTTR but a bit more complex and the roads are more important [;)]

In brief, I blocked up the main bridges, and was alarmed when a huge force crashed through my defences in one of the more minor bridges having been held up for all of an hour or so, threatening to cut off two and a half battalions of my force. I managed to extricate all but two companies, and ended up in a collapse backwards with my rearward units half-mingled with advanced German columns. Three blocking positions each just under battalion strength gave me enough respite on the main road, and held the Germans up long enough for me to exit all my support troops and one front line battalion. The rest were too fatigued to get to Larissa. Marginal victory. Great fun.

[Adam Parker]

Molotov, this game is worth the investment. TOAW offers a scenario collection kit of sporadic-quality mini-games whilst this title is a complete game unto itself, consistent and coherent. And given its setting unique in PC war gaming.
Smooth 591 meg download using Star Downloader - I swear by that now thanks to Erik's advice long ago.
This game is big with spralling maps and a need to learn about - and pay attention to terrain. The real appeal of this title to me is the time frame - no Panthers or Tigers or Shermans here, just gritty blitzkreig and a pre-Barbarossa TO&E. And a Commonwealth that knew it was make or break. An Allied win in this theatre would have changed the course of WW2 and the world as we know it today.
The interface is familiar yet new. I've now got to crack the tutorial manual open.

[jungelsj_slith]

ORIGINAL: Adam Parker

Molotov, this game is worth the investment. TOAW offers a scenario collection kit of sporadic-quality mini-games whilst this title is a complete game unto itself, consistent and coherent. And given its setting unique in PC war gaming.
Smooth 591 meg download using Star Downloader - I swear by that now thanks to Erik's advice long ago.
This game is big with spralling maps and a need to learn about - and pay attention to terrain. The real appeal of this title to me is the time frame - no Panthers or Tigers or Shermans here, just gritty blitzkreig and a pre-Barbarossa TO&E. And a Commonwealth that knew it was make or break. An Allied win in this theatre would have changed the course of WW2 and the world as we know it today.
The interface is familiar yet new. I've now got to crack the tutorial manual open.

Oh for sure. I definately plan on getting it, just need to get it past the wife. I'm really excited about it, especially the time period/place. Since I'm waiting, I can at least get the box this time, instead of just the electronic download. I should have waited on TAOW and got COTA first. Looking forward to it.

[Temple]

I just got through the "What's New" section of the Getting Started Manual. Holy smokes, I had seen a list of the changes before, but when you see them discussed in detail it's amazing. Well, I'm glad I got my money's worth out of my copy of HTTR because I doubt after playing COTA I'll feel like "regressing" back to HTTR.
 
BTW, thank you [&o] for including the high dpi versions of the docs. They look great printed out!

[Tzar007]

I played part of the tutorial, and then jumped into the Storm Over Iraklion scenario as the Germans. So far so good!

My first impressions are:

• Clean and sleeker interface: the maps feel brighter, more detailed, more sharper and crisper. The interface is sleek, especially the click buttons at the bottom of the screen (could have prefered a popup menu though when you click on them, would be faster than cycling through the items with multiple clicks, but that could be another improvement for BFTB, righ ? [;)]).
• The data on the units is better organized, smarter use of the space and tabs.
• The new LOS area tool is fantastic and very useful to try to understand what the enemy can and cannot see.
• As far as gameplay goes, HTTR players won't be lost. AI seems as strong as ever, and it manoeuvers friendly units much better than in HTTR, with the arty being in a filler role, stopping when the advance guard sees danger, etc. By the way it's nice to see the role of each unit in the formation identified on the unit tab (advance guard, main guard, line filler, etc).
• So far I haven't experimented with supply (my base hasn't paradropped yet [:)]) but I read entirely what there was about supply in the reference manual and I am much impressed and excited.
• All the manuals are awesome, among the best I have ever seen for a wargame, and I have seen a lot. That is professional work guys.

I am preparing my first COTA AAR with the Storm Over Iraklion scenario. I should start posting the first screens today.

In a nutshell: YOU CANNOT GO WRONG WITH COTA, BUY NOW !!!  [:D][:D][:D]

And for all of you who still hesitate "because it's a real-time game...I'm an old-timer...prefer turn-based games...", do yourself a favor and feel what it's like to be acting like a real commander-in-chief and decide at what level and when to intervene in the battle that is happening on the ground. Just buy it and give it a few hours, you won't regret it at all.

Congrats to Arjuna and all the Panther Games team !

[Tactics]

[font="times new roman"]I played one tutorial and then moved on to the first mission. I forget the name, but it was a 4 day mission with German paratroops needing to take a city, airfield and a bridge.  It was NOT a nice clean orderly landing like in HTTR.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]I had units spread to hell and back.  The supply line thing wasn’t lighting up, so, I wrongly assumed that they’d be supplied by air. Dumb, I know, but that’s what I thought.  12 hours in and I had split my forces in to two.  I held the city, but still wasn’t getting it lit up as an achieved objective (enemy units still in the perimeter); I also had units pushing in the airfield.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]I felt good. But there was still 3 ½ days left.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]Then the supply went on. Not sure why it took so long, but half my force went out of supply.  With nothing left but bad attitudes, my men were forced to run.  It would have been hard without the supply feature, but with it……..I got my ass whooped.[/font]
[font="times new roman"] [/font]
[font="times new roman"]I alt-tabbed out.  I felt humiliated. [/font]

[blastpop]

Oh for sure. I definately plan on getting it, just need to get it past the wife.

That is why I sell some of my old stuff on E-bay, get PayPal money and use that to buy the new stuff I want. I don't feel as tho I'm depriving my wife of "new shoes" everyweek... [:D]

[RayWolfe]

ORIGINAL: blastpop
I don't feel as tho I'm depriving my wife of "new shoes" everyweek... [:D]

You don't seem to realise that they NEED all those shoes. We don't need games, we just want them. [;)]
Ray
PS If she only gets one pair a week, you're a very lucky man.

[Banquet]

Just got it installed.. looks great so far. Love the reversible mouse wheel scroll [:)]

The map info from right clicking is great, the oob display is really handy. I think the supply model is going to take this game to a new level.

I love the maps (on CotA and HttR) they remind me of the vector drawn maps you get on some GPS units. It just looks right for a commanders map. I saw some actual WWII military maps on the internet recently and was struck by how similar the Panther maps look.

Anyway, enough from me - now I play!

[MarkShot]

Tactics,

See end of tips thread for further info on supply scheduling.

[Crimguy]

Haven't bought it yet b/c of the newborn.  Glad to see the initial feedback is so positive.  I did get a chance to fire up HTTR for a few minutes last night to reacquaint myself.

It'll be on my hard drive within the week.

I'm curious how happy everyone is with the supply model?

[Dogbert]

So far I have noticed 2 big improvements over the earlier games:

1) Tanks and mechanized units feel a lot more realistic. They have a huge advantage over foot units in mobility, and armored units have a great freedom of movement when there are no capable antitank units to oppose them. In the earlier games I often found that even my king tigers were inexplicably knocked out and routed by units that shouldn't really be able to hurt them at range. That said, Infantry units in prepared positions can take a lot work to dig out... as it should be.

2) With the new supply system, I have found that Artillery can no longer keep firing all day, you have to prioritize your fire missions and watch the ammo in case you have an emergency later. Also, Artillery units seem to work up fatigue a lot faster.

[Banquet]

ORIGINAL: Dogbert

1) Tanks and mechanized units feel a lot more realistic. They have a huge advantage over foot units in mobility, and armored units have a great freedom of movement when there are no capable antitank units to oppose them. In the earlier games I often found that even my king tigers were inexplicably knocked out and routed by units that shouldn't really be able to hurt them at range. That said, Infantry units in prepared positions can take a lot work to dig out... as it should be.

On the flip side of this infantry can move in terrain that AFV's can't get to. I love the terrain in CotA and, when you add in the mixed mode movement, it makes it so much more important to know and understand the map. Great stuff!

[MarkShot]

Dave put a lot of work into the supply implementation. There were a number of issues pulling different ways:

(1) Realistic modeling of the movement of supplies, stockpiles, and transportation net.

(2) Avoiding an excessive CPU performance hit which might be incurred by the myriad of interactions that could be generated by an accurate and detailed representation of supply. (Thus, supply is abstracted and there aren't visible simulated convoys moving along the roads. Checks are made at certain key times in the process as opposed to dynamically every minute.)

(3) Not altering the nature of the game play such that the game became an exercise in low level logistics management and scheduling.

(4) Introducing an underlying system that would be flexible enough that later enhancements could be added to allow for things like letting the player prioritize supply allocation, etc...

---

I think Dave did an excellent job of balancing the above to arrive at a model that greatly enhances realism and game play over RDOA and HTTR.

There are certainly areas for improvement. Things which we have discussed for example are:

(1) Improving communications about supply - for example you get a message about supply losses. You hit the END or HOME key (I forget which) to go to the message and it takes you to the base as opposed to the unit.

(2) Improving communications about supply - you can be successfully interdicting the enemy's supply line, but you receive not communication of this that Company XYZ just shot up a column of 10 trucks carrying desparately needed ammo by the enemy. The messages you get only apply to your side.

(3) The process of moving supply bases is perhaps a little too easy and should be a more time consuming and arduous process.

(4) Make the AI incorporate interdiction and protection of supply lines directly into its planning process. At the moment, supply lines are mainly handled as part of the scenario design process by using low value objectives to form a supply line.

I am sure you will all think of many supply related items to add to Dave's every expanding wishlist when you have had more time with the game.

[MarkShot]

Actually, with arty I find that arty fire tends be more smoothly spread throughout the day with four potential resupply points in 24 hours.

In RDOA and HTTR, the guns would always come alive at 03:01 and often having depleted their ammo by noon.

(In fact, I often have my guns stand down at night unless something critical is going on, since you can develop a much better target portfolio in daylight.)

[Dogbert]

Hehe maybe I'm just a duntz... never noticed my arty running dry in HTTR.