Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Arckon
1/ For PBEM does it therefore mean 1 turn will take 2 email exchanges, 1 for your initial orders and then 1 for your reaction phase?

Yes, BUT the system allows both players to do their turns simultaneously, so you don't have to wait for your opponent to finish his reaction before you can do yours, for example. A bit tough to explain, but it does speed things up over the usual purely sequential process.

2/ Aprox how long does the giving orders phase take? I realise it may differ as to the size of the scenario you are playing but anyway to give a rough idea?

Really does depend. It doesn't take long for me at all honestly. The first turn is the longest as you look over the battlefield and set initial orders. Also, when in the midst of a heavy engagement, some players prefer to set their own targets and ammo, others let the auto-targeting handle it and that makes a difference in time as well. For me personally the first turn orders usually take 5 minutes or so, the others take about 1-2 minutes. I often spend more time looking through the replays than giving orders.

Regards,

- Erik

ORIGINAL: Iron Duke
any screenshots of built up areas - villages , towns or cities ?

Sure, there will be some forthcoming - villages and towns.

Regards,

- Erik

ORIGINAL: Hertston
Are there any? The nearest significant city would presumably have been Stalingrad. I found some campaign maps with a few place-names, but I've no idea if they wereany larger than villages or not.

For the most part, you're dealing with villages, some factories/storage yards, collectives and rail facilities as well as vast tracts of land with plains, woods, roads and rivers.

Regards,

- Erik

WOW, this looks like fun, cant wait to see it come to thruation[:)]

2/ Aprox how long does the giving orders phase take? I realise it may differ as to the size of the scenario you are playing but anyway to give a rough idea?

Erik said:
Really does depend. It doesn't take long for me at all honestly. The first turn is the longest as you look over the battlefield and set initial orders. Also, when in the midst of a heavy engagement, some players prefer to set their own targets and ammo, others let the auto-targeting handle it and that makes a difference in time as well. For me personally the first turn orders usually take 5 minutes or so, the others take about 1-2 minutes. I often spend more time looking through the replays than giving orders.

Thanks Erik,
Thats great, stated was going to be compared to combat mission, and when I played that years ago I found the turns just took too long. As long as they are under 15 min a turn I'll be happy.

Erik-

Is a German breakthrough to southern Stalingrad possible in the game?

Erik any chance of a turn save log feature sorta like MTW had? Where one could save all the turns and then watch it like a movie afterwards?

Oh and April sounds really nice. Those guys at Koios have really been burning the midnight oil I guess. I might actually buy two "retail" games this year. lol

And I guess the all time inevitable question: How's the AI??

Very interesting looking.

? ... When navigating the battle field, are the view controls similar to "Ground Control" or "Steelbeasts" where you can fly around the terrain above your vehicle to look at the disposition of your forces and those of the enemies that are visible from the ground?

I'll be watching this one.

hank

ORIGINAL: Hertston

ORIGINAL: Iron Duke

Hi,

any screenshots of built up areas - villages , towns or cities ?

Are there any? The nearest significant city would presumably have been Stalingrad. I found some campaign maps with a few place-names, but I've no idea if they wereany larger than villages or not.

Here are some village and town shots as well as a small refinery area we added.

The graphics are good enough if the gameplay is there. Thanks for the shots.

Looking good.

How are infantry in buildings handled?

Add to that, are multistories modeled?

ORIGINAL: benpark
Is a German breakthrough to southern Stalingrad possible in the game?

No, it really wasn't possible historically given the Soviet deployments so it's not possible here. The German intelligence on what they were facing was not great and once the 2nd Guards Army started deploying in front of them near the Myshkova River, they had no chance. On top of that, Little Saturn was launched against Italian 8th Army, which necessitated the withdrawal of the 6th Panzer (the strongest of the three Panzer divisions assigned to WinterStorm) along with 48th Panzer Korps (which was unable to help earlier due to problems of its own along the Chir). In short, the Germans were in a very bad situation and I'm not sure even Thunderclap could have helped them, had Hitler authorized it. If somehow the 48th and 57th worked together and Thunderclap happened before the 2nd Guards Army was redeployed, then perhaps something could have come of it in terms of at least some of 6th Armee reaching friendly lines, but that's still debatable.

With all that said, the Germans have a very interesting campaign to fight and succeeding in all battles will put you a bit ahead of their historical progress, but the real goal is to preserve and improve your forces - winning at the lowest possible cost.

It's also possible for someone (including us) to design an alternate campaign in the future that explores some more hypotheticals or unlikely situations as well as extending the existing campaign to allow a drive further on as long as the player's forces hold out. Historically though, there were very severe limits on what the Germans could hope to accomplish because of both the operational and strategic situations.

Regards,

- Erik

ORIGINAL: ravinhood
Erik any chance of a turn save log feature sorta like MTW had? Where one could save all the turns and then watch it like a movie afterwards?

Not currently planned, but I'll inquire on what that would take. I'm guessing it would be a major additional feature.

Oh and April sounds really nice. Those guys at Koios have really been burning the midnight oil I guess. I might actually buy two "retail" games this year. lol

Yes, the midnight oil quota at both Matrix and Koios has been extremely high for a while now.

And I guess the all time inevitable question: How's the AI??

Seems good to me already, but Koios are also still tweaking it as we go.

Regards,

- Erik

Hank,

ORIGINAL: hank
? ... When navigating the battle field, are the view controls similar to "Ground Control" or "Steelbeasts" where you can fly around the terrain above your vehicle to look at the disposition of your forces and those of the enemies that are visible from the ground?

I'm not sure of the view controls you reference. However, you can definitely zoom out and zoom in. You never see enemies that your troops/tanks haven't spotted though you can look over the whole battlefield in terms of seeing the terrain. The spotting of your units determines what can be seen and each unit individually tracks what it can and can't see.

Regards,

- Erik

ORIGINAL: benpark
How are infantry in buildings handled?

Infantry can enter buildings and in the case of some larger buildings can be higher up as well, for example a second floor or church steeple. Buildings make infantry much harder to spot and give them some protection against enemy fire.

Regards,

- Erik

Ok on this "reaction" phase. I noticed you called it a "turn based" game. Am I to assume we do all the targeting and firing for each unit ala SPWAW type during this reaction phase? And/or Does the AI automatically do some of the reaction fire if we should miss something more important or that it feels is more important ala Combat Mission? Also can the AI play itself. In other words will it play both sides if I do nothing but load a scenario, assuming is will have individual pickable scenarios as well as a campaign? You did sort of compare it to Panzer General and I seem to recall I could let the AI play itself and just watch. Same here or no?