Thanks and Comments

[timc]

SPWAW is a great game. Since I downloaded it however many weeks ago it was, it has
consumed all of my non-working hours. My experience with this family of games goes back
to Kampfgruppe and they keep gettng better. Congratulations to everyone on the team.
You've done a woderful job.

I've played a couple of scenarios, but usually I play the Long Campaign. I completed one
campaign in Europe as an American and am in June 1944 as a German. My comments and
suggestions are based on that experience. I'll limit the list to things I haven't seen
anyone else mention.

Here are a few suggestions for the next release (I figure I better get them in now)
1. The M5 Stuart, SdKfz 222 and Staghound (that I've noticed) use the autocannon type
sound and visual effect. Additionally, the SdKfz 222 fires at aircraft. I don't know
abot the SdKfz 222, but shouldn't the Stuarts and Staghounds have the same sound and
visual effect as the 37mm AT gun?
2. I found that LCI(Mortars) are superb for close in support on amphibious assaults.
But when you use the "Z" key to attack a hex where you know there is a enemy unit the
first round lands on the target hex and the rest of them land on and around the firing
unit.
3. The flag on the "Select a Front" screen is always French.
4. Recoiless rifles are way to hard to spot. As an American I could lose three tanks to
an RCL that remained unspotted. When I would finally get it spotted it (by running an
infantry unit to it) it could be as close as 3 hexes away and a dozen vehicles had been
looking at it the whole time. I assume RCL rifles have the same size/signature as
antitank guns and I don't think that should be the case. I'm not familiar with the
German weapons, but I've fired the US 90mmm and 106mm and the backblast is significant.
5. If level bombers are going away (I'm not unhappy about that) I'll not comment on
them.
6. I would really like to be able to destroy abandoned vehicles and equipment. Since
you can't fire on them (even if you occupy the same hex) you either have to hunt the crew
down and kill them, keep a unit on the hex to keep them from coming back or risk having
the crew sneak back and shoot you in the back. If it's a vehicle, you should be able to
put a round through it, if it's a gun, you should be able to heave a thermite grenade
into the breach or run over it or spike it or something.
7. I would also like to be able to get large caliber towed artillery (105, 150, 155) for
my core force. I like to park an ammo truck with my mortars and artillery so they don't
run out of ammo. Since you can get SP artillery of similar calibers when it becomes
available, why can't you start with towed artillery? Every time I go to upgrade my
equipment and see a dozen or so different kinds of trucks and no artillery pieces, I have
to woner why.

Comments on AI force selection
1. Vichy French (against American) - Good force mix, off-map artillery, sometimes air.
Includes both VF (Vichy French?) and FF (Free French?) Legionaires, but who cares?
2. Germans (against Americans) - Good force mix, almost always the best available tanks,
off-map artillery, air early on which goes away as the war progresses. Once I understood
that I would have to "Advance" against an unprepared enemy who turns out to have 100+
Panthers and Tigers against my 34 Shermans, I learned to deal with it. The AI always had
recoilless rifles instead of AT guns (except for the occasional 88) which bothered me.
3. Italians (against Americans) - YIKES! These were the hardest battles to win. In fact
I NEVER got a win against the Italians (always a draw) for the following reasons:
a. The AI doesn't pick much armor, so you can't get points for destroying it.
b. There is a massive amount of 305mm (!!!) naval guns as off map artillery.
These things can vaporize whole infantry platoons with one volley and are apparently out
of range of counter-battery fire. I found myself very relieved to get away from the
Italians and onto the Germans, who I could deal with.
4. British/Americans (against Germans) - OK mix of tanks and infantry but the AI NEVER
(so far) selects off-map artillery. This leaves a lot of mortars, maybe a couple of
sections of SP guns and a (maybe) massive amount of air strikes to deal with. Doing an
assault against an opponent with no serious artilery is way easy.

[Grumble]

Good 'puts. Let's hope the Matrix bro's have time to incorporate some of 'em.
Here's my take:
1- The PSW222 and PSW234/1 had open tops (well okay grenade screens) and the 20mm was designed for AAA. That's pretty accurate. Agreed about the 37mm on the Stuarts and Staghound. They weren't full-auto capable.
3- That goes way back to 4.2 or so, and has been noted before (of course it's always worthwhile to bring to attention). I think it's one that got "pushed to the right" as other fixes took priority.
4- Agreed. German accounts note the lack of concealment after firing. "They were always more popular with their designers than their users" was a German Fallschirmjager veteran's comment.

[Alby]

Excellent points my man...
Arralen I believe was asking about what the AI purchases....
You have done some studying!!!
You may want to look up that post and help him out.
ALBY

[This message has been edited by Alby (edited February 08, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Alby (edited February 08, 2001).]

[kao16]

Originally posted by timc:

6. I would really like to be able to destroy abandoned vehicles and equipment. Since
you can't fire on them (even if you occupy the same hex) you either have to hunt the crew
down and kill them, keep a unit on the hex to keep them from coming back or risk having
the crew sneak back and shoot you in the back. If it's a vehicle, you should be able to
put a round through it, if it's a gun, you should be able to heave a thermite grenade
into the breach or run over it or spike it or something.

This actually happens (at least in 4.4 and 4.5).

An infantry unit that occupies a hex containing an abandoned weapon (only done it with tanks so far) for a turn will automatically destroy the weapon (no kill credits, and no visual sign that the vehicle has been destroyed).

Either you have an earlier version, or the lack of a visual cue (burning tank) means that you only think you haven't been destroying the weapons - right click on the vehicle sometime after you have had an infantry unit in the hex for a turn (not suppressed of course)

[Arralen]

Originally posted by Alby:
Arralen I believe was asking about what the AI purchases....
You have done some studying!!!
You may want to look up that post and help him out.

Yeap, would be great - especially as far as I havn't got much response so far

But don't hurry - I don't have the time to do another version of the German OOB at the moment; As that should be the first version which has the new formations, I am eager to know what the AI really buys, so I can make those formations appear like really battlefields units (and maybe by the way correct some "this units never appear-issues ).

looking forward to hear from you ..

Arralen

[StuNZ]

Originally posted by Arralen:
Yeap, would be great - especially as far as I havn't got much response so far

But don't hurry - I don't have the time to do another version of the German OOB at the moment; As that should be the first version which has the new formations, I am eager to know what the AI really buys, so I can make those formations appear like really battlefields units (and maybe by the way correct some "this units never appear-issues ).

looking forward to hear from you ..

Arralen

Arralen,

Paul V. commented a while back when I asked about the AI's unit choice that it was pick lists, but that they were looking to improve it for V5.0, so it may pay to hold off a bit?

How have you been determining the AI's choices? I'd started doing it myself, and have German assault vs Russia for 39-45 with german air done if that's any help to you? I'd have more, but as I said, Paul V. mentioned it'd change somewhat with V5.0.

[timc]

Aaaah! I never checked what happens if you occupy the hex with an infantry unit. I'll have to check that.

Two AI force cooment I left out of my original message:
1. French (against German) - OK. Lots and lots of those pesky S-35's, but you just have to deal with them. What sort of bothrs me is being a German and DEFENDING against the Fench in June of 1940. Likewise, I've played US campaigns against the Germans and ended up delaying on my last three missions in 1945. Not a real big deal, but not very reflective of the actual strategic situation.
2. Poles (against Germans) - OK. Lots of tanks, lots of infantry. Again, I pulled two defensive type missions against the Poles in 1939. Could happen based on local conditions I guess.

[panda124c]

Originally posted by StuNZ:
Arralen,

Paul V. commented a while back when I asked about the AI's unit choice that it was pick lists, but that they were looking to improve it for V5.0, so it may pay to hold off a bit?

How have you been determining the AI's choices? I'd started doing it myself, and have German assault vs Russia for 39-45 with german air done if that's any help to you? I'd have more, but as I said, Paul V. mentioned it'd change somewhat with V5.0.

I have often wondered how the AI picks it's forces. It seems that the choice between Infantry heavy and tank heavy is weighted more to the tank heavy, since I hardly ever see a Infantry heavy AI force. I would like to see a more even weighting in this choise. Of course this is all dependent on the game engine being adjustable for this weighting.

The French and the Poles have very cheap weapons which allows them to put two Battalions of units against a company + of German Infantry (in an advance)or worse. The method of using cost to determine the size of forces being picked by the AI does not take into account the rarity of particular types of units. By putting the rarer items at the bottom of the list whould possibly help the 'hords of S-35' that the French show up with.

Here's looking forward to V5.0.