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So this game has been out for a year now and I was a real fan of Battles In Normandy. I owned Ardennes 1 and was given Korsun. Battles in Italy left me flat and when the series moved to Battlefront and its new engine, I just gave up.

I am therefore lost in a dizzy void, when it comes to the current engine's rules.

Kharkov I believe was updated in March 2009 with some additions to that engine and the plans to make that engine whole in releasing re-worked scenarios, finally seem to be coming to fruition.

The idea I believe was to re-release ATD, Husky, Shingle and Avalanche. I wonder about the newer Market Garden, Gazzala and the grand daddy of the series Bulge?

Anyway... I need a good PC wargame and if the Kharkov engine is now going to be settled on as the final resting place for the Decisive Battles series, I may now be willing to invest in its growth.

So I ask, what is the best way to learn the rules ahead of time? Is there any value in buying a printed rulebook and disc from the original Kharkov game in wait of ATD? Has the patch added to it or made it redundant?

In summary - is there anyway SSG can post the series rules online to get a new sale out of an old time customer like me and convince me that buying ATD + Kharkov will be worth the $100+ AUD combined that will assuredly be asked?

(Also will there be a Kharkov + ATD deal?)

Genuine thanks,
Adam.

Yes, the Kharkov engine is settled as the SSG engine for Decisive Battle scale games. Husky has been redone and will be released free with ATD. The Kharkov rulebook will work fine for ATD players, most of the changes have been in things like AI.

I don't know yet if there will be an ATD + Kharkov deal, I will try and get that sorted soon.

Gregor

So we aren't going to have a bunch of "free" user created scenarios under the Kharkov engine?

Respectfully a pretty sad state of affairs.

ORIGINAL: sabre1
So we aren't going to have a bunch of "free" user created scenarios under the Kharkov engine? Respectfully a pretty sad state of affairs.

I don't work for SSG so may be talking out of turn, but "user created scenarios" are by definition created by the playing community, and the main people that built most of these (but not all) aren't doing so at the moment. It's down to people playing the games to create such scenarios.

Whether SSG have the time available to up-grade some of the user created scenarios in DBWWII (or if they are 'upgradeable') is another matter I guess, but reading their comments on the various fora they are pretty much fully employed getting ATD and Husky out. [:)]

Well I take it back. I guess I'm just upset that it took so dang long for a new scenario to come out.

I apologize.

ORIGINAL: Gregor_SSG

Yes, the Kharkov engine is settled as the SSG engine for Decisive Battle scale games. Husky has been redone and will be released free with ATD. The Kharkov rulebook will work fine for ATD players, most of the changes have been in things like AI.

I don't know yet if there will be an ATD + Kharkov deal, I will try and get that sorted soon.

Gregor

Hi Gregor!

Does this mean that ATD is coming out soon? (Like within this Sept?) [;)]

[font="Times New Roman"]For what it's worth, there are 3 user created scenarios. Soltsy is a small, fast playing scenario that doesn't utilize all the features of the system, but has an AI and is fun and interesting. Kirovograd is a moderate sized scenario that presents an interesting situation and has an AI. Kalach Bridge is play by e-mail only so I haven't tried it, but it is available. Admittedly, 3 user created scenerios is not a vast number, but the main Karkhov "scenario" is quite large, and there is a lot of replay value provided by the mystery varients. Overall then, I think that there is quite a lot of play value available with this game, and I've found it to have been a worthwhile purchase.[/font]