Wargamer's Corner

Well, but if you can force infantry to deploy earlier than it should, by threatening it with long range shots, that might help...

JTS Panzer Campaigns Japan '45 was just updated to 1.01, so I fired it up again. It's very nice. The new interface that they have been switching to over the last two years has greatly reduced (but not entirely eliminated) excess clicking, and the terrain is somewhat better looking than before.

The nice thing about the game is that they've solved the problem of portraying defending units holding for a while, but then giving way. In the past, it's been hard for them dial in the correct balance between morale and strength and fatigue, so units have either defended for far too long, or given way like wheat before the sickle. This matters most in situations like coastal invasions, where it's the *pace* of advance that determines success. And of course, for an Operation Olympic game, that matters.

The game is kind of nailbiting in that you're in a constant meatgrinder, 2 hours a turn, kilometer per hex, and paying greatly for every advance. It really sells the setting.

Japan '46, which is the planned follow-on of Operation Coronet, has just been released with the same engine. That's become a no-brainer buy for me. The Panzer Campaigns engine works best for me in operations of maneuver, and coastal invasions are a cool problem to explore.

Matrix Games is having a 30% off of nearly everything (barring really recent releases) until Monday. Also, Armored Brigade is now on Steam, with a 30% off bundle that *does* include the new France/Belgium module. Total is $45.45 for the next few days. And finally, if you bought the game before today, Steam Keys can be generated in your "My Page" section at the website.

This is a steal. The game has come a long way, and there are good plans for the future. Each nation portrayed needs different tactics and often has markedly different gear from the others, so this is good fun all around.

So far, the base game includes units from the USA, West Germany, East Germany, Poland, CCCP, the UK and Finland. Maps are Ft Irwin, Fulda Gap, North German Plain and Southeast Finland. Yugoslavia and Italy are added in the first add-on, along with a border-based map to fight within. France and Belgium are in the one released today, with an Ardennes map. Total of about 1400 units so far, with about 300 of them being air units. There is a battle generator in the base game; select an area of an existing map, pick your forces and battle type (in *extensive* detail), set weather and terrain state and morale and training and all sorts of other things, and then go.

This game is up there with Combat Mission and Graviteam's stuff, just centered on 80's and 90's NATO conflicts (so far). And more to come! Jump in, the water's fine!

Has anyone else seen the twitch stream of the new Command: Modern Operations? (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/506108414)

They've integrated TacView so you can watch the battle in 3d in real time. It also shows flight paths and a whole bunch of other details. TacView is a separate add-on but it looks like a must.

I don't know the price of Command: Modern Operations yet, but I know that it releases on Thursday and I'll probably end up grabbing it.

Read the manual. TacView is lacking a lot of unit models, and crucially, it shows every unit in the fight. No fog of war if you use it, at this point. So understand it’s limitations.

This is a minute one buy for me, but not with TacView. Not yet.

Robear wrote:

Read the manual. TacView is lacking a lot of unit models, and crucially, it shows every unit in the fight. No fog of war if you use it, at this point. So understand it’s limitations.

This is a minute one buy for me, but not with TacView. Not yet.

Yeah I saw the fog of war issue in the demo. I'll probably check out the demo of TacView but I'll wait to buy it until they get FoW in there. I wonder if they will even implement FoW in TacView.

Unity of Command 2 is out, if you liked the original, you'll like this one.

I never got into the first one because it felt more like a puzzle game than a war game. (Although I like puzzle games too so maybe I should revisit it)

It's all about the supply mechanic, everything else is secondary.

PWAlessi wrote:

I never got into the first one because it felt more like a puzzle game than a war game. (Although I like puzzle games too so maybe I should revisit it)

I found the very first mission to be impossibly puzzlely (it was such a small battlefield) but things opened up after that

How are the turn limits? They were strict enough in the first game that experimentation seemed impossible.

PWAlessi wrote:

I don't know the price of Command: Modern Operations yet, but I know that it releases on Thursday and I'll probably end up grabbing it.

There will be a 50% discount for existing CMANO owners that will be good until 2020-JAN-31. They still haven't released a price. I'm anticipating $80 like CMANO and some of the other big Matrix/Slitherine niche games, plus I figure the overwhelming majority of early purchases of CMO will be CMANO owners. Even a bit more would not shock me.

Yep. It's $80 list, reduced to $40 for existing owners, AND it looks like any previously purchased DLC transfer to the new license. Downloading now.

Edit - Oh, and it's almost a 6GB download, so no worries that it's just chrome slapped on the old model.

Yeah they are really making an effort to be backwards compatible which is pretty nice. I haven't bought yet but I probably will soon. The only DLC I bought was Chains of War because it was the only one that added mechanics; the community pack had me pretty well covered on scenarios.

At $40 it's a no brainer for me. I just got it. I'll be trying it out when I get home.

Have you fired it up yet Robear? I'm most interested in the changes that they made to ground combat. I'm hoping that ground based joint ops scenarios are more viable now.

Nah, I have to work today. So this evening, most likely, unless I'm brain-fried.

They have made it clear that ground combat is pretty basic, although it is much enhanced from before. Check out the designers notes they've been publishing at Matrix. Where ground units were kind of hackish before, now they are actually somewhat differentiated and there's a basic set of terrain effects to limit and channel movement. Still a lot more work they need to do for this aspect, but at least they have started on it.

Took a peek at lunch, and the first thing the game did was to offer a pick menu with about a dozen choices for a quick battle. "Your unit is", "Your opponent is", weather, starting distance, rules of engagement, etc. That's new. Plus, there are a series of information and order buttons across the top of the screen. Looks much more ergonomic now.

Can't wait to dig in.

Tried to fire up a quick battle. Crash. Sigh.

Okay, it worked next time around. Still something confusing about the interface, so I'll redo some of the tutorials. But it worked fine this time. Got to fire some torpedos at a Soviet SSN.

http://www.grandtactician.com/theciv...

Summer 2020. Can't wait!

Robear wrote:

Okay, it worked next time around. Still something confusing about the interface, so I'll redo some of the tutorials. But it worked fine this time. Got to fire some torpedos at a Soviet SSN. :-)

I started setting up a custom scenario, but I didn't remember how to set a lot of things in the editor.

After that, I started doing Uncle Tom's (I think that's his name) tutorial again just to refresh my memory. That worked fine for me. The map looks really good to me. Can't wait to play some more.

There's an article floating around (Wargamer, Matrix, Steam) that explains what happens to your CMANO game and DLC when you go to CMO. On Steam, the DLC and standalones like Northern Inferno convert to CMO DLC (as I understand it) automatically. If you bought from Matrix and did not install under Steam, then you can download the new versions for CMO from your My Games page, and you'll get an installer that lets you set them up for CMANO or CMO. The idea there is to let CMANO players continue with that engine if they like.

So all the sunk costs are recovered. Very classy, especially for those of us that remember the first decade or so of Matrix pricing.

So I've now played two scenarios in Armored Brigade. The first was a premade, "Armored Cavalry Squadron vs. Tank Regiment," where I defended against a numerically superior Soviet force. It was a bloodbath. The game called a draw after both sides practically ran out of functioning units. Pour one out for the MANPAD guy who fired a hail-Mary shot at a distant SU-25, thus revealing himself to the T-65 that was 50 meters away.

The second was a generated meeting engagement just east of Bastogne (because hey, Bastogne). My computer-picked force had a lot of self-propelled mortars, but the match was pretty much decided when my only M1 tank platoon crested a hill and saw what may have been every BMP on the map, covering the valley like a buffet spread. Between them they had about 20 kills.

So I'm starting to get the basics. But in both scenarios I had two AH-64s and I'm still not sure how they work. I gather I have to assign them a position and a direction to watch before starting. Can I reposition them after they show up? In the second scenario they fired a lot of shots but no other units had eyes on their targets so it just looked like they were shooting at terrain. Do they not report sightings to me?

Try testing them out in the Ft Irwin map. Lots of terrain you can choose there that will answer questions.

As I recall, you specify a path and locations to search from. They follow that when they are called. As for the sighting, I suspect they are not on the same frequencies as the ground troops, but I need to check with the manual about that. I’ll take a look when I get a chance. Also, where you playing a body on the field? That limits what you can see.

Helos have Entry Points, Battle Positions, and Target Registration Points, each of which is designated before the fight begins. Remember to use terrain to shield them as they approach their BPs, and provide LOS from the BP to the TRPs. BPs can be changed during the game. When at a BP, the helo will search for targets and engage via pop-up tactics, which will likely make them targets themselves.

Only Scout helos will report sightings to the player. Combat helos will do their stuff and then head back. So I think I was right about them not having radio contact with the player's HQ.

I believe that you can only move between the 2 pre-designated BPs. You can’t create new BPs once the battle starts.

You're right. I was not reading it carefully enough. The BPs can be changed *between* during the game, but not *added*.

I picked up CMO over the weekend- I haven't put a lot of time into it yet, but so far it doesn't feel very different from CMANO. I've only played a few tutorial missions though.

There are some flaky issues around the new interactive message log- it doesn't seem to work after the first scenario you play in one sitting. The raw text log works OK and I think it's probably better anyway; it's more clear about the order of events. I haven't gotten the new bubble notifications to work yet.

I also need to spend some time figuring out when my units will do things automatically by doctrine, but since I don't yet understand it I'm not sure how much of that is really a change.

I think the interface is better, anyway. Gotta put more time into it, I have not really played with ground units yet.

For $40 I’ll do the update, but I’m waiting to dig in until it sounds like it’s baked a little more.