My patch thoughts after Hofen Ho-down

[cwchan]

Got the patch and fired up Hofen Ho-Down as the Germans and.... it is a whole new game!

Observations so far:
- the enemy AI can bombard your assault forces from the start of the scenario. Maybe this is a bug as I thought that historically the Americans in this sector were dazed and confused for the first few hours and unable to provide fire support
- to have a chance as the Germans you have to hammer the Americans at two or three spots at once or else the Ami artillery will just cut down each assault force in turn
- your own arty is very effective in bringing down cohesion in the enemy force, even if they are fortified or entrenched. And if they have low cohesion they don't defend as well so your infantry has a chance to close in. This is MUCH improved from the previous version where you could hammer a lone anti tank unit for hours without any effect
- German units are less brittle now and recover from rout status and fatigue much more quickly. Previously any routed German unit would run over to the enemy immediately to surrender and get a hot meal. Now they run to your own lines and try to recover morale and cohesion. This is also true for American units so to wipe out a unit completely you have to surround him and use lots of arty. BUT there is less need to kill units completely as a routed enemy will leave his defences leaving a gap in the line for your units to exploit. I have to try the Eisenborn scenario but I hope that one lone ATG or mortar unit cannot stall a whole German battalion for three hours anymore
- German units are more nimble now. They keep on assaulting a spot until they run out of men, morale or cohesion. Units who are not engaged but dug-in start moving much more quickly after having received orders. Previously the soldiers seemed very reluctant to leave their foxholes
- Panzerschrecks and Panzerfausts are effective again. Previously a pack of 5 Stuart light tanks could waltz through my lines unmolested. Now they have to be much more careful. This also applies to your own panzers or assault guns. Especially the Czech guns (Pz38?) will be decimated by a dug in antitank gun if you are not careful
- enemy arty units are more prone to break under fire. Previously enemy arty units could hold back a company of STUGs or Shermans supported by arty fire for hours

So after limited play time I am very satisfied. Your own soldiers are more agile, less fatigued, less brittle and less prone to be bogged down by one single enemy unit. At the same time the battlefield has become more lethal due to the more effective artillery and antitank gun fire and it *really* pays off to coordinate attacks across the line to overwhelm an opponent or to probe deeply in the rear to kill the enemy's arty.

To sum it up: I am a happy wargamer! Big thanks to the Panther boys!

Chee-Wai

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[GBS]

I too have played Hofen after several trys at the tutorial.I've got to say this is what we signed up for two years ago. So far it is doing all the things we paid for in the beginning. Better late than never.

[cwchan]

Well... you make it sound like the game was not good at all before the patch and that it has been somehow 'fixed' after the patch. I have enjoyed BFTB tremendously befote the patch so I would not agree.

I do feel the game is more fun after the patch because your troops are more nimble but I am not sure if it is historically accurate. I mean: the history of the Bulge is filled with stories of lone American units who held up whole German batallions. I read an account of the Hofen battle where the Americans were outnumber 5:1 but managed a 1:16 casualty ratio before the Germans gave up on the sector.

In my first playthrough post patch I managed to hold Hofen, push two batallions of infantry + a recon company through the woods towards Mutzenich and rout the 400+ men of an American artillery batallion before the scenario end. Yeah, you feel like Guderian reborn where Hofen used to be a slugfest but is it a historically plausible outcome?

cwchan

[GBS]

I don't know. I guess I stopped playing months ago and lost interest because of most of the mentioned things that are now fixed. I've waited for this patch and have started again. The AI still handles me pretty good at times.

[BletchleyGeek]

ORIGINAL: cwchan
I do feel the game is more fun after the patch because your troops are more nimble but I am not sure if it is historically accurate. I mean: the history of the Bulge is filled with stories of lone American units who held up whole German batallions. I read an account of the Hofen battle where the Americans were outnumber 5:1 but managed a 1:16 casualty ratio before the Germans gave up on the sector.

In my first playthrough post patch I managed to hold Hofen, push two batallions of infantry + a recon company through the woods towards Mutzenich and rout the 400+ men of an American artillery batallion before the scenario end. Yeah, you feel like Guderian reborn where Hofen used to be a slugfest but is it a historically plausible outcome?

Well, they're more nimble because they don't get "locked up" so often as they did pre-patch That and perhaps after over one year playing, you now know how to plaster the AI against the wall