I might have overdone it, so it is time to make a statement about SPWaW. From all my messages left on this topic, one might draw conclusion that I am in the business of flaming SPWaW and Matrix effort.
NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM TRUTH.
I
love what I see. It is wonderful. It is challenging, it is realistic, it gives a new life to already excellent SP concept (one of my favorite games ever, anyway), and I wouldn't argue if I didn't care. If it was not for the love affair
with SPWaW, I would never come to this forum to say a word, simply because I don't have confidence in my language skills.
Having said that, let me return to the subject of this topic.
I already told you what stupid mistake I did, I planned to have a massive armor detachment in my core force. That's what "SP - the original" gamer would do. That's a
serious mistake in SPWaW. I realized that quickly enough. But it would be cheating yourself if I gave up
. I clenched my teeth and tried to live with my decisions, even if it means ending up in coffin to pay for it. Reality of war. That’s what this thing is all about. That's why it is so addictive.
Another reason why I decided to stay in campaign is that new feature in SPWaW, where you can freely upgrade any unit class to anything else. If I live long enough, I might have a chance to replace some of that armor with infantry to create more balanced force.
I survived Poland, did extremely well in France and Low Countries, and had a lots of prestige points to upgrade my force. Now I am in the desert. If I was in Russia, my massive armor force would be slaughtered in no time. But I might just get away with it in desert, right? Wrong!
Right now, I have 39 (!!!) PzIIIEs in my core force, and that is how I learned to hate my guts for having them.
SPWaW is not a “tankies game” but it sure is a game of maneuver. And there are two parts in winning the maneuver game: use maneuver to position your forces where they are needed, and DENY your enemy a chance to maneuver his forces. I would argue that op-fire as a concept is crucial as a tool for denying maneuver to your enemy.
Guess what, if you have massive PzIIIE in your force, it is not only your vulnerability of the armor playing against you, you are denied a chance to effectively use Op-Fire in desert. 37 mm HE is not only useless in desert, it is a gift to your enemy. You raise a cloud of dust and previously spotted infantry disappears from your sight.
And why I am so loud about the Op-Fire? The very first scenario that I am playing in the desert is killing me. I call it “A thin red line”. It is “my advance against their delay” with British as opposing force. No mines, at least I haven’t seen them yet. British infantry has entrenched themselves in an unobstructed line that runs from North to South. You can’t bypass them. You have to punch a hole in that infantry wall. Long day for Afrika Korps.
Their tanks are back, and by the turn 13 they are, more or less, gone. No Matilldas, none yet. But still you have one or two 2-pounders lurking on me from behind. I can not disable my PzIIIEs main guns. And what pbear (and previously AmoSgt) have suggested about restricting your op-fire, does not work in the desert. You need your main gun to suppress odd enemy tank that pops up from nowhere, every now and then. Every hex is a kill zone. Open and wide, desert is mercyless.
When you are in the business of puncturing such a line of infantry, the most serious problem is spotting your enemy. Before you dig them out, you need to draw their fire and force them to reveal themselves. And no, scouts are not working against dug in British infantry. I tried slowly (one hex per turn) advancing my scouts, closely followed by panzers, so that panzers draw enemy fire. Doesn’t work. British see scouts first, every single unit fires at poor leg scouts with impunity. They ignore tanks
!Ending situation: your scouts are routed, nobody saw a trace of the British. Back to the drawing board again.
The only chance I got to fire at them is in op-fire. And most of my op-fires are given to PzIIIEs, since these bastards are most frequent units in my force. See how 37 mm HE is ruining my day?
Tommy, I understood long time ago what is the principal answer to my question. But I enjoyed every word of discussion on this topic, really. It was nice reading, and I am grateful to all contributors.
I am not trying to force Matrix to act about this. They said that 6.1 is the final version, and I respect that. I want them to concentrate on the new engine, to be honest. In addition, I am almost sure that it would be serious trouble to change fine tuned op-fire code to fix this 37mm HE issue. I am not asking for that.
And I would not waste all this ink if it was not for the Mega Campaign that I am waiting for. Knowing what your weapon does and when is very important. Lots players will have to command PzIIIs in the MC, I suppose. In the desert!
