Mmm, I must say that I'm very pleased with current SPWaW 8.403 (+ Enhanced Mod 2009). But there are small details that I would like to see altered/corrected/added/etc. Just a sidenote, that I do not play scenarios at all nor do I fight against computer; I always play PBEMs with human opponents and thus, my points are coming from there
1) Reverse gear for vehicles! This is a MUST.
2) Possibility to issue orders to ground attack aircraft concerning target priority, just a simple button to toggle between 'soft targets' or 'armor'. I'd love to see the ground attack planes strafing/bombing infantry that is advancing in the open
Similar possibility to issue orders to give separate targeting priorities or even separate targeting ranges for AT/AA-guns, for 'soft' and 'armor' targets. It is just frustrating to see a prepared ambush being blown away, because that stupid 88mm FlaK commander decided to fire at the reconnoitering Jeep...
3) possibility to destroy AT/AA-guns and MGs in one shot - this was already back in SP1, however, I've never witnessed a gun or MG being destroyed in a single bullseye shot in SPWaW! Very frustrating to destroy some guns, because you have to kill the crew, one by one.
4) Unit/formation databases should allow more units per country. I just hate it when one has to go to Czech OOB to get some more rare German units into play and even then, the units are commanded by inferior Czech leaders.
5) More unit classes, such as shelters/unarmed bunkers. Maybe even some fixed fortification units should have larger field of fire than the regular 120-degrees? (Btw, I've used some fortification classed units (my own modified OOBs) sometimes, to represent sewers and stone building cellars - should not be too difficult to add into the game, as a feature?
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Also there might be a need to have more infantry-classes and tracked vehicle classes. In some cases there are 4 squad platoons, that should have 3 squads without automatic weapons and one squad with automatic weapon. If both squad types are designated as "medium infantry" (for example), you can end up with 'unrealistic' company where all the squads have automatic weapons. Easy workaround would be to have several but similar classes, such as "medium infantry 1", "medium infantry 2", etc.
6) max formation/max units per side during a battle should be greater than current max values 100/400 (IIRC). At the moment the game allows even app. brigade sized battles, in most cases this is enough, but sometimes larger battles would be nice
7) PBEM-campaigns ; geez, this is something that I've been longing for a long time and actually, I've tried some 'manual' version of PBEM campaigns where we have played sequential battles, taking into account the result and losses of previous battle. This is cumbersome and impractical...
8) Maps larger (wider) than current max of 100 hexes.
9) In the terrain, I'd like to see more height variations, than 0 to 30 (like in SPWW2).
10) Maybe some modification should be done with game generated random maps - at the moment these tend to be way too similar. Just take certain time and opponents, take a random map and behold - almost everytime you'll end up with fairly similar map. Sometimes there might be a stream, sometimes a railroad, but the general layout of the map is almost always the same = boring. In SP1, there was much more variation and in those days, one could have played PBEMs w/ random maps all the time. In SPWaW, I've given up the random maps, I'd rather make a new map myself.
11) Graphical updates - the standard resolution tends to be somewhat coarse nowadays, as many of us have already around 1920x1440 desktop.
So, here are 10 points that popped into my mind, that I think are the 'major' things that bug me in SPWaW...there might be more, but as said, these are the ones that came first into my mind
Oh, and just to mention - if someone thinks that I'm overly critical, please do not take this that way. In my opinion, SPWaW is THE WW2 tactical level wargame - I've been playing this game from the christmas 1995 and I absolutely love the game. There have been many games after SP series started, but all of them are lightyears away from SP! But still, nothing is perfect and IMHO there are small details, that would make the SPWaW even better
-Colonel von Blitz-
--Light travels faster than sound, that's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak--
