Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: ogre

ORIGINAL: Joel Billings

It's one thing against a good human player and another against the AI. At the moment, people looking to play against the AI and have a more competitive game should consider using a house rule where they don't invade more than 30 hexes away from an Allied airfield. In the first patch coming later this week, we've made Italian surrender in July and August less likely, but we have not yet looked at the issue of shipping losses when invading through enemy controlled sea hexes. It's possible this will need to be tweaked some, but I'm betting against us being able to get something into the first patch for this as it will take some additional analysis and testing and we just don't have the time before the Matrix holiday shutdown.

I have a long term recommendation, if ya'll haven't already considered it:

Ever thought about implementing a variable order of battle (OBs), to include locations? This would be a player option starting a game. Then the computer would choose from several OBs unknown to the player.

One problem with historical "starting points" is we have so much knowledge related to enemy dispositions. We didn't have that in real life. Granted, there is the fog of war when it comes to units...but we still have a general idea of dispositions.

With the variable OB, the player will need to do a better job at recon, and be careful on the bold moves. A weakly defended beach in historical OB context could be heavily defended in one of the variable OBs, and vice versa.

ORIGINAL: Carterjon

I wonder if more German troops might have been released by High Command from other theaters if there had been an Allied landing in the North of Italy, rather than the meager historical reinforcements in response to Avalanche/Salerno? I seem to remember that the Avalon Hill Anzio game had conditional reinforcements if the Allies landed North of Rome, or perhaps I am mistaken. It has been 40 years since I last played it. Damned good game.

ORIGINAL: MisterBoats

In the '43-'45 campaign, I've just taken the "boot heel" of Italy. Taranto is still occupied by the Germans, but Brindisi fell after a stout defense by a FJ regiment. The temptation of the ports and the airfields was too much to resist. Also, I'm not hemmed in by mountains in every direction. With Sicily about to sink from the weight of the air squadrons on it, I was able to maintain strong interdiction coverage over the southern third of the mainland.

Now, I am seriously considering a June '44 invasion of the north Brittany coast. It may be a bit out of range for the fighters, but the benefits are tantalizing. Chiefly: no hedgerows for the first few weeks.

I think that Montgomery invaded the boot heel in September (as have I), and Patton ordered several "on the fly" amphibious invasions (very small scale) west of Messina. I wouldn't consider a Po valley invasion, nor one at the Pas de Calais, but ones that are slightly different than history are perfectly feasible. I love this game!

ORIGINAL: Red Lancer

That sounds great in theory but do you have any idea how long producing a playable scenario takes? Adding randomness or multiple starting options would make the task nigh on impossible to complete in a reasonable timescale. There is also a group of people who see any deviation from history in a scenario setup as a failure on the part of the designer.