First Impressions

[Alex1812]

The first impression was good, realy good. Asymmetric WEGO system is unusual and very interesting decision for wargame.

[Russian Heel]

My first impression was joy at the decision to not be cool and use Я instead of R in the box and title screen art, then a bit of head scratching at the use of modern Russian insignia as the Soviet player's stock avatar choices, and then pleasure at the challenging and rewarding game play I had in the first scenario I played.

[jnpoint]

So far I'm too impressed by the AI.
I hope the tutorial scenario isn't easy, because I have serious problems Maybe I'm not that good at operational/tactical warfare.

[deadsunwheel]

ORIGINAL: Bletchley_Geek

Regarding the Command Cycle length, I am at a loss at understanding how to affect it. During my playthrough as the British, I always kept my cycle length under 20 minutes (and by the end of the scenario, it was of about 10 minutes). As the Soviets, I started with a quite lengthy 25 minutes cycle, which improved as the game continued. I always kept my units within command radius, and tried to keep my HQ's out of harms way (and moving them from time to time, just in case).

A 25 minute cycle isn't actually that bad when things start going pear shaped on the field. The worst delay I have managed was about 43 minutes. That said though a lot of it was due to my own making. I was playing as the US trying to cover far too much ground with too few units in a high EW environment. Needless to say the forces of international friendship and cooperation had a field day and Capt. Bannon was forced to limp along home.

Cheers!
Kris

[Mad Russian]

ORIGINAL: Russian Heel

My first impression was joy at the decision to not be cool and use Я instead of R in the box and title screen art, then a bit of head scratching at the use of modern Russian insignia as the Soviet player's stock avatar choices, and then pleasure at the challenging and rewarding game play I had in the first scenario I played.

About those insignia's. We have looked high and low for any and all Russian insignia. Unlike Western nations they don't have a regulated system for insignia's. It's hard to find anything on them at all. In many cases what we did find were WWII era. If that was all we could find we used those.

In many cases the insignia's have changed over the years. Many of them have changed after WWII more than once. So, it's a bit of a challenge to get those to be time sensitive correct.

I tried.

I will take any and all help with them that you guys can give me.

Thanks for playing the game.

Good Hunting.

MR

[Mad Russian]

ORIGINAL: jnpoint

So far I'm too impressed by the AI.
I hope the tutorial scenario isn't easy, because I have serious problems Maybe I'm not that good at operational/tactical warfare.

I think you will find you are in good company. [:D]

The ability of the AI in the scenarios has been commented on at length during development. It will beat you bloody if you don't use good tactics.

The scenarios are a mixed bag. Each one very different from the others. At times some of them have very similar equipment lists but the mission and terrain is so different they don't feel similar.

You will find a very few of the 'normal' engagements. T-80's vs M1A1's are certainly here! [&o]

But so are other matchups. [:D]

Over the years, I've become known for making scenarios that are not the normal slugfests but more maneuver matchups with forces, or situations, you don't normally find. We'll see if I've managed to put that to work here in this game as well.

Good Hunting.

MR

[freightweezul]

Played the Tutorial scenario 4 times now, 3 as the Brits and once for fun as the Soviets. We absolutely must have Emcon for the Tunguska's air search radars. One of those guy's big selling points is the ability to use optical control for both weapon systems in high threat environments. Once the 155's start raining on the unspotted unit we turn of the 'shoot me' signs and scoot.

I love the game so far and intend to play a LOT and recommend it to all my wargaming buddies. Some minor typos such as "suicidal" instead of "suicidally" and the like. Nothing that matters. I would like very much if the contour LINES were marked but I suspect that would be a large programming/graphics change. As is the contrast between different elevations is color only and not very great. I'm not color blind but I still do some squinting even on a large 2048x1152 monitor.

I find selecting multiple units to be slightly flakey and unresponsive at time. I will try changing the delay to something lower. You lot should be proud of a great game.

-james gerbino

[Mad Russian]

ORIGINAL: freightweezul

I would like very much if the contour LINES were marked but I suspect that would be a large programming/graphics change. As is the contrast between different elevations is color only and not very great. I'm not color blind but I still do some squinting even on a large 2048x1152 monitor.

-james gerbino

Thanks for your kind words James.

We did a lot of work on the graphic representation of the map. Because, so many things were going to change from FPG's maps to where we were trying to go with FPC's maps lots of map methods were kicked around.

This is the one we came up with. At first, it takes some getting used to and you will be using the check elevation or LOS tools frequently. After a short time the lay of the land starts to become second nature and you will find yourself using those tools less and less.

We had actually intended on doing more graphics work to the maps and simply ran out of time. That, and the fact, that I took the maps from the 4 that came with FPG to 26 for FPC. I thought the greater number of maps outweighed a few more graphics changes to those we did create. I got all the support from the team I asked for in regards to map creation.

So, what you see for maps, is on me. For better or worse.

Good Hunting.

MR

[CapnDarwin]

James,
Thanks for the kind words. We will be tweaking the radar arty magnet issue for the first update. We saw it last week as well, but too late to correct. Contour tool would be a bit of a challenge, but we can add to the wish list. I need to start a typos thread so I can collect the errors and update the PDF documents.

Multi-select can get twitchy. I shift click the first unit then the other units I want, looking to see the thin yellow selection indicator and finish back on the starting unit if it failed to highlight.

Thanks again and enjoy the war.

[jnpoint]

Will there be any help or guidance to get anywhere, what good tactics are in a modern war anno 1980's?

[TheWombat_matrixforum]

I got a "Contested" result and adequate performance evaluation as the Americans in the "A Time to Dance" scenario, and a marginal victory as the Soviets; I swung a tank battalion north across an undefended bridge and managed to catch the cavalry forces in the central part of the map in a nice (if costly to me, too) crossfire. Both scenarios ended with one side getting whittled down to the point of near destruction, the 70% threshold I think. Very tense stuff.

One thing I've wondered about is the decision to go with a rather coarse orders model. Either it's no limits on orders, or a strict limit with no multiple selection/multiple orders. I would think a compromise solution that would have higher fidelity perhaps would be a scaling model, where giving orders to a formation, say a battalion, would cost like two orders, while giving the same order to each unit and the HQ of the battalion separately would cost like four orders. This way, you could do something that isn't really possible now, which is give orders to a higher-echelon formation and have the AI figure out where the sub-units go (a la Command Ops), and you could provide a strong incentive to not micromanage units. But I'm gathering that there are design reasons for the current system? It works, well enough, but I keep wanting to just give an HQ orders and have it figure out the rest!

[TigerTC]

ORIGINAL: TheWombat

One thing I've wondered about is the decision to go with a rather coarse orders model. Either it's no limits on orders, or a strict limit with no multiple selection/multiple orders. I would think a compromise solution that would have higher fidelity perhaps would be a scaling model, where giving orders to a formation, say a battalion, would cost like two orders, while giving the same order to each unit and the HQ of the battalion separately would cost like four orders. This way, you could do something that isn't really possible now, which is give orders to a higher-echelon formation and have the AI figure out where the sub-units go (a la Command Ops), and you could provide a strong incentive to not micromanage units. But I'm gathering that there are design reasons for the current system? It works, well enough, but I keep wanting to just give an HQ orders and have it figure out the rest!

I agree. Right now, it doesn't make sense that I can't give formation orders. Since the game strives to recreate the orders process (through delays and limited orders), it takes less staff time for the brigade to issue a battalion order than to issue 3-4 separate company orders.

[CapnDarwin]

Jnpoint,

Mad Russian has started a tactics thread up in the War Room sub-forum. I would ask questions in there. The team and others will beha ppy to answer.

[22sec]

ORIGINAL: freightweezul

Played the Tutorial scenario 4 times now, 3 as the Brits and once for fun as the Soviets. We absolutely must have Emcon for the Tunguska's air search radars. One of those guy's big selling points is the ability to use optical control for both weapon systems in high threat environments. Once the 155's start raining on the unspotted unit we turn of the 'shoot me' signs and scoot.

I love the game so far and intend to play a LOT and recommend it to all my wargaming buddies. Some minor typos such as "suicidal" instead of "suicidally" and the like. Nothing that matters. I would like very much if the contour LINES were marked but I suspect that would be a large programming/graphics change. As is the contrast between different elevations is color only and not very great. I'm not color blind but I still do some squinting even on a large 2048x1152 monitor.

I find selecting multiple units to be slightly flakey and unresponsive at time. I will try changing the delay to something lower. You lot should be proud of a great game.

-james gerbino

I've started making maps, and was giving serious consideration into makings some kind of hexside contour line. I too find it difficult to spot the elevation changes. One huge plus, at least in my mind, is this game allows for so much customization.

[cbelva]

ORIGINAL: BROJD


I agree. Right now, it doesn't make sense that I can't give formation orders. Since the game strives to recreate the orders process (through delays and limited orders), it takes less staff time for the brigade to issue a battalion order than to issue 3-4 separate company orders.

Say what??? I worked as a brigade asst. S-3 and I would disagree with you on this. Brigade has several battalions and a lot more supporting cast. In fact we sometimes look at companies too.

[TigerTC]

ORIGINAL: cbelva

ORIGINAL: BROJD


I agree. Right now, it doesn't make sense that I can't give formation orders. Since the game strives to recreate the orders process (through delays and limited orders), it takes less staff time for the brigade to issue a battalion order than to issue 3-4 separate company orders.

Say what??? I worked as a brigade asst. S-3 and I would disagree with you on this. Brigade has several battalions and a lot more supporting cast. In fact we sometimes look at companies too.

Which order is simpler to analyze and implement for a BDE staff:

A) 1-34 IN move to VIC of coordinate XY1234 and form blocking position astride ASR Red Storm.

b) A/1-34 IN move to VIC of coordinates XY1235 and form blocking position north of ASR Red Storm.
B/1-34 IN move to VIC of coordinates XY1233 and form blocking position south of ASR Red Storm.
C/1-34 IN move to VIC of coordinates XY1224 and BPT to reinforce A/ or B/1-34 IN.
HQ/1-34 IN move to VIC of coordinates XY1214.

[Brausepaul]

This game needs a short Let's play video [:)]

[Barthheart]

OK, this game is fun! Just ran through the tutorial scenario without reading the manual and only reading the first few pages of the quick start manual.
Managed a decisive result (82%). Both my attack helos and the Russian ones scored 3 commendations each for effectiveness, both racing in and doing lots of damage to the others units... but mine happened upon the Russian HQ and tore it to pieces. [8D]

Can't wait to really learn the system and start on some of the larger scenarios.

Great game guys!

[22sec]

My current map with contours added to help better identify elevation changes. Thoughts?

[Monkie]

I like the contours, that would really help.