Various
Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2004 12:35 am
I have a couple of Matrix games - KP/ATD and CotD. Both are great games so please keep up the good work. Like many other users I have however found numerous problems with CotD - game freezing or not responding at inconvenient times being the most frustrating - any timing on when these will be fixed. Some other issues are:
1) I've played only the first two scenarios but in these it's not clear at all how Napoleon moves. I've set geographic objectives which he only seems to follow sporadically and there's no way that I've found that you can confirm these as there is for Corps etc movement. Also there's no explanation in the rules of the "Attach to Corps" button and the obvious didn't seem to work - i.e. although Nap was in the same hex as a Corps and I selected that Corps from the list, he just seemed to stay put when the Corps itself moved.
2) The supply rules are complicated and extensive but do they have a real effect on the game? I let the computer run supplies and most of the time all my corps were "out of supply" according to the messages. Nevertheless, it did not seem to affect their fighting ability and I crushed the Austrians (admittedly under computer command). On supply expenditure, the rules seem to imply that each unit of a corps will use up 1 unit of supply per day (if available) regardless of size and type. Is this correct.
3) Unit sizes are shown in increments of 500 (infantry and cavalry). I'd suggest going to 1000 increments in future as it's intuitively much easier to see the size of your army - eg 20 = 20,000 men not 10,000.
4) I agree with many other participants on the limitations of the AI, especially in KP/ATD - it's often just daft, whether attacking or defending, and provides no serious contest. But in defence of the game designers there are so many variables in games like this (far more than in chess for example), you can never get an AI that comes close to reality.
5) One variant that would be interesting for KP etc would be to expand the fog of war options such that that enemy's defence strengths were not fully known before an attack is committed. It just doesn't seem realistic always to be able to check the odds and add in one or two more units to achieve a perticular mathematical advantage. If defence strenghts were unknown it I think it might better reflect the decisions a commander would actually have to make.
Anyway these are just quibbles - I'll be one of the first to buy the Normandy campaign!
1) I've played only the first two scenarios but in these it's not clear at all how Napoleon moves. I've set geographic objectives which he only seems to follow sporadically and there's no way that I've found that you can confirm these as there is for Corps etc movement. Also there's no explanation in the rules of the "Attach to Corps" button and the obvious didn't seem to work - i.e. although Nap was in the same hex as a Corps and I selected that Corps from the list, he just seemed to stay put when the Corps itself moved.
2) The supply rules are complicated and extensive but do they have a real effect on the game? I let the computer run supplies and most of the time all my corps were "out of supply" according to the messages. Nevertheless, it did not seem to affect their fighting ability and I crushed the Austrians (admittedly under computer command). On supply expenditure, the rules seem to imply that each unit of a corps will use up 1 unit of supply per day (if available) regardless of size and type. Is this correct.
3) Unit sizes are shown in increments of 500 (infantry and cavalry). I'd suggest going to 1000 increments in future as it's intuitively much easier to see the size of your army - eg 20 = 20,000 men not 10,000.
4) I agree with many other participants on the limitations of the AI, especially in KP/ATD - it's often just daft, whether attacking or defending, and provides no serious contest. But in defence of the game designers there are so many variables in games like this (far more than in chess for example), you can never get an AI that comes close to reality.
5) One variant that would be interesting for KP etc would be to expand the fog of war options such that that enemy's defence strengths were not fully known before an attack is committed. It just doesn't seem realistic always to be able to check the odds and add in one or two more units to achieve a perticular mathematical advantage. If defence strenghts were unknown it I think it might better reflect the decisions a commander would actually have to make.
Anyway these are just quibbles - I'll be one of the first to buy the Normandy campaign!