Matrix Games Forums

I must firstly confess that I am not a long-time fan of HTTR/COTA, shameful as that may be!

I only started playing COTA sometime in early 2009, and it took me a long time to get 'into' the game, as my tastes at that time were either for games like HOI or EU2/Victoria at the global level, or the SSG games, mainly BII.

My first impression of the series weren't fantastic as the forum for the game was largely quiet and restricted it seems to a few posters, but the inspiration for me to dig deeper into the series was the fantastic support by the game developers from Panther Games on here.

I have been involved in game development myself working on both 'Mare Nostrum' and 'The Trenches' Half-Life mod teams, and in both of those circumstances I was involved with the community, and I believe that this is the only way that a real feeling of anticipation before a release is possible, and I highly commend the guys from Aus for doing so!

As far as COTA goes, I was less of a fan because despite being a history buff, I have very little knowledge of the campaigns in Greece, however once I delved deeper, and perhaps my tastes refined as I grew older, the game came into it's own. No longer are we at the whim of a dice roll when modeling combat, there are actual values, with consequences rather than rendering the game like in Decisive battles, as troops of 'x' strength with 'x/y' probability of causing a surrender etc etc.

With the series moving to a more 'mainstream' theatre, I feel that things can only get better. I will certainly be willing to contribute not only to the community of this game, for instance spreading knowledge of it's existence to those not yet 'in the know' but also by creating as many scenarios as my 'real' job allows. I think that if there was a distinct push to get this game into, even semi 'mainstream' circulation, such as other gaming forums and sites, then the Panther squad could be secure in the knowledge that their efforts are not in vain.

One question I do have however, not having knowledge of the basis of the scenario generator, is the possibility of making armies from non-descript factions playable within the engine, i.e modelling the Spanish Civil War with unit info, histories etc. Granted this would be a major de-construction, but it is something that is close to my heart [:)]

And in the spirit of self promotion, if anyone is interested in the International Brigades or the Spanish Civil War in general, i've linked a piece I completed a few years ago on that topic.

Many Thanks to the Panther team.

Flibby

Link: http://www.quickfilepost.com/download.do?get=8bfca13b02c4ff6e1335b54fcd8ee0d8

You can only use the OOB's that come with the game......so Spanish Civil War is out....unless you can talk Dave into doing it....or offer to do it yourself...all depends on whether he is thinking of doing a Spanish Civil war game...I doubt it to be honest so you may get to do it.

Flibby,

Thanks for your feedback. I am going to be making an announcement, that will relate to your question, once we sign off on BFTB - ie when we hand things over to Matrix to publish. This should IMO be in about two weeks time. We have just a few bugs remaining to squash. So stay tuned. I'm not going to say anymore at this stage. Be patient.

Many Thanks [:D]

Interesting.......

Resurrection time

I've been looking for a new Civil War game but there's not much to choose from. What I want to see in a CW operational game is a game where the player can command armies from an overall map of regions (West being from Mississippi River east to the Carolinas; East (s.e.) Virginia south to Florida) so you have two maps to do strategic planning from. Then go to smaller regional or state maps of the areas surrounding the major battles with zoom to the specific areas of conflict (i.e., Shiloh/Corinth/Savannah, Gettyspurg area; Bull Run/Manassa; etc etc), down to basically a 1/4 mile per hex or sector scale (but no hexes or sectors ... just a scale reference).

Command of the units can be changed from square or rectangular unit counters (like every other map based wargame in the world) to the ability to show units in the formations they actually fought in
... which is why I'm posting this here.

HttR/CotA and now BftB have the ability to show a units formation on map. (window a group and it shows its frontage and direction of travel) If you make this tool persistent so that units are depicted on the map as they actually fought, it would make for a great ACW game. I would like for it to not just show lines (as BftB does) but rectangles that reflect the width and depth of deployment ... possibly shaded (red for CSA and blue for Union). ACW battle were fought by units standing shoulder to shoulder advancing or defending against a similarly deployed opponent. (of course this could be easily used for Revolutionary War era, Napoleonic and even ancient Greek and Roman warfare)

If anyone knows of a game like this please point me in that direction. I have Ageod's ACW game; I've looked at screen shots of FoF and GG's War Between the States. None of these do what I would like to see in an ACW game. HPS and JT games use their standard map symbols that just don't do it for me either. What I'm after is the ability to play through battles on a map that looks like the maps you see in reference maps and books on the Civil War.

(my latest regugitation of thought ... plus a wish for something I've never seen before)
by the way ... was there an announcement I missed?

I like the sound of seeing the footprint in more detail...maybe as you zoom you get down to platoon rectangles with in the company footprint...

Yes we did make an announcement when BFTB was released - ie that BFTB would come with a full blown Estab editor.