The Competition & Teaser Thread

[Xaver]

Well, no night fatigue... interesting but the last changes in PzC/WWI when you move units out of the road in night turns are present??? i refer if units in night turns moving out of road have a chance to be disrupted.

Fatigue for me in PzC never was a problem (other question is in nap, EAW or ACW series here for me if a unit uses action points needs win or have a chance to win fatigue to limit the movement of reserves in battle).

The scen size in turns... i think is only a question of give players the chance to play in the same map the battle, for example, if PzB 1 is ... lets see Kursk and you have both flanks you can play from the first day the full battle in one of them, if you want a linked campaign is not a great problem, ACW-NAP-EAW-SQB system and we have both options (and like in NAP titles you can play dual battles in same scen).

Maybe when i think in play in same map full battle i think in Crusader for example... this full battles in a scen can use special night turns where you use bigger turns and leave action for day turns.

Talking about Crusader... apart ammo the other important value for units is fuel something important in all offensives because you use allways fuel, fight or no enemy.

Lack of 3D for me is not a problem, i allways find confusing 3D in JTCS i prefer a good 2D over 3D.

Range .... well, lets see, the 1 hard range in infantry is an abstraction and cant say if is good or bad... at least expect some units have 0 range like assault units.

But now we need game in our hands... or at least more sweets

[Wodin]

Maybe they are splitting the War in the East into two or three parts as Squad Battles East front was done over two games.

I have to say I'm very excited by this. I'm hoping we finally get a PC wargame that can do City fighting like Stalingrad and do it well.

With this and Combat Mission Red Thunder it's going to be a great wargame year.

[Liebchen]

With this and Combat Mission Red Thunder it's going to be a great wargame year.

Thanks for mentioning this. This is the CMx2 that I've been waiting for.

I was near-addicted to CM:BB for several years and had to break away hard. This is like waving crack in front of an addict's face. And guess what? I'm going to have a relapse. (Pre-order done.)

To be clear, this is a post-Stalingrad title.

[Xaver]

I like CM but not how battlefront sell it... i prefer leave it in the fridge a few years and buy a pack hehehe.

Returning to PzB, new month and new hopes... strange but yesterday i see on TV "Star wars IV a new hope" maybe this is a premonition but we need some B side images, i want see more red uniforms... well if images are from Santa´s support units "natural camo" is better

rhill1956 i dont want be negative but see this posts

https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...#pid384922

https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...#pid384667

[Strela]

It's been a quiet weekend - have you all been waiting for/watching the Super Bowl??


As we have started February, I thought I'd show you a couple more of the new features for Panzer Battles.

The first is some of the new shortcuts on the menu bar. Most of the items are familiar, but there are three new selections that have been added.




Carry/Uncarry is for loading units onto either dedicated 'carrier' vehicles or foot troops onto vehicles. There is a fixed limit of five men per vehicle if it is not designated as a 'Transport' type.


When a unit is transporting other units it has 'Carrying' shown on the Unit Information. On the map a 'P' (passenger) is placed on the counter. Below you can see the way this looks on the three different counter types.




To see who the actual unit that being carried is, just right click in the unit information box and the transported unit is revealed. Note the unit is considered to be in 'travel' mode and is incredibly vulnerable when riding on the exterior of vehicles. There is a parameter data file value where the defence value is set for carried troops. It is currently set to four versus the normal sixteen for infantry. The moral of the story is do not ride into combat on the back of vehicles. Dismount before you reach the enemy.




Though 'Transport' type vehicles are not included in this first release title, they are a powerful addition for the scenario designer. Wherever there is a constraint they can be used. For example a ferry can be setup on a wide river, both restricting the number of units that can cross as well as giving the enemy a way to target and cut/destroy the crossing capability. This limited lift capacity can be used with a range of unit types such as landing craft or even helicopters. Lose your transport vehicles and you're walking or swimming.



Assign Opportunity Fire (AOF) and Recon Spotting go hand in hand.

The AOF feature is probably one of the biggest changes to the original PzC code and has some similarities to the 'Hold Fire' command in SqB. It is designed to control the fire of units that are currently hidden using the 'Persistent Concealment' rule.

Opportunity Fire allows the engagement ranges to be set for four types of weapon systems; Hard Vehicles, AT & Heavy AA, Indirect Fire Units & all Other Units. A matrix of the weapon systems vs. target types is part of the AOF dialog.

Ranges are Never, Short, Medium & Long, with each range equivalent to a third. Short is one third, medium is two thirds and long is full range.

The below values are the Blanket defaults for each scenario. The player can change these during his turn within the game.




As you can, see most weapon systems are set to short or medium other than Indirect Fire Units. The values are designated that way to prevent a unit firing and revealing it's position before it's optimal.

The usage of AOF comes with a lot of nuances.

Firstly, it is only applicable for units that are concealed. Any unit that is spotted will not be constrained in firing.

Secondly, it is only applicable for the Defensive Fire phase of the opponents turn. Players have complete control over their own units during their turn. They can chose to hold fire and maintain concealment or fire at what ever range they like. The AOF table is used by the player's concealed units to decide when to fire and reveal themselves during the opponents turn.

Thirdly, a unit needs to be in cover to be concealed. This is primarily terrain features such as brush, fields or villages/towns etc. Any unit in a clear hex will never be concealed, even if there are fortifications in the clear hex.

Fourthly, once revealed a unit can be concealed again if it is out of line of sight of all enemy units. Once concealed the AOF matrix applies again. For example, if an AT gun destroys a scout car platoon and no other units are nearby, the AT gun will be concealed again.

Fifthly, Recon spotting and air recon can reveal concealed units and in the case of HTH games, players will not know if their units are still hidden or revealed. Recon assets become very important when wandering into areas that you suspect the enemy may be in.


Very importantly, players can set a 'blanket' order for their units and then tailor individual units. Selecting a unit(s) will allow individual engagement ranges to be set. These values will supersede the blanket defaults as long as they are equal too or shorter than the default values.

For example, we have decided to prevent our mortars from targeting hard vehicles as they are much more effective shooting at soft targets. By selecting the units in hex, the applicable engagement field is set to Never and the mortars will never target hard vehicles unless they are spotted.




To help players know which values have been changed from the default values a 'Highlight Reduced Op Fire' report is included. Any unit with parameters below the blanket defaults are highlighted. Remember that players can change these blanket defaults as necessary.

Our three mortars are highlighted below;




Assign Opportunity Fire is an area that the play testers are still learning. It has a lot of applications and allows a range of different tactics. Various kinds of ambushes can be setup and these can be foiled through judicious use of recon assets.

Players are finding interesting ways to use this new feature. One tester set up some of his longer range units up on a ridge line overlooking concealed infantry & AT guns. Firing with the longer range units both revealed them and attracted the enemy units. Thinking that they were attacking the units on the ridge line, the enemy units charged forward to become enmeshed in the hidden forward defences that opened fire when the enemy was at optimum range. This is just one example of the power of AOF. That said it will take practice and time to get use to and players will have to decide when to move forward and how.

All of this brings, recon, smoke and artillery (it can hit 'empty' hexes at 1/4 value) to the fore.

We will be sharing more on what we have learned about playing the game with AOF in the near future.

David

[Xaver]

Thanks for the info

I was beginning to be concerned that you had abandoned us with Santa´s support companies and you be now in a caribbean beach... you know they need some warm on their "cold" bodies

And leaving my on the closet... some questions.

1-if i dont understand bad now units are allways hide until they shot or you recon them... well, recon spotting is 100% effective or it can fail because there is certain parameter to control how it works (i think is not the same spot a company hide in a forest than spot a platoon in a village apart the diferent cover values in terrain).

2-if you move close to enemy without spot and you try move into an occupied hex you assault them or you simple cant enter in hex??? in first option you assault with full value or suffer some penalty??? and in second option enemy shoot you when you spot them???.

3-Raiders... something stupid, if you shot over a vehicle with raiders what value is used in attack over them??? you shoot a tank (hard target) but raiders are soft targets... you use both attack values but hard over tank and soft over raiders???

4-and again talking about raiders, what type of targer is a tank unit with raiders in OF??? is hard target because there are tanks or is soft??? i think in mortars, you have them set as never attack tanks but tanks have raiders and you have medium range here... the clasic tactic of separate infantry and tanks, how works here oportunity fire???.

Again thanks for the info and well, after this week we can start the final countdown???

[Strela]

1-if i dont understand bad now units are allways hide until they shot or you recon them... well, recon spotting is 100% effective or it can fail because there is certain parameter to control how it works (i think is not the same spot a company hide in a forest than spot a platoon in a village apart the diferent cover values in terrain).

Firstly, here is the definition of Recon Spotting;

With one or more recon units selected, this command will attempt to spot enemy units within the Line-of-Sight of the selected units at the cost of 1/3 of the movement allowance of the units. The probability of spotting the enemy units will depend on the distance from the recon unit to the enemy unit, the terrain that the enemy unit is in, the strength of the recon unit, and its quality and fatigue.

So line of sight is required and nothing is guaranteed. Importantly the action of Recon Spotting will usually reveal the Recon unit. If a player has left a recon unit forward to observe it is better to adjust its ratings to 'Never' for all categories to prevent it firing and revealing itself.

The other important point is that units are only hidden if they are in 'cover'. Finding cover is not always as easy as you'd expect and it's harder the more units you're trying to conceal.

2-if you move close to enemy without spot and you try move into an occupied hex you assault them or you simple cant enter in hex??? in first option you assault with full value or suffer some penalty??? and in second option enemy shoot you when you spot them???.

The way the game currently works is that the moving units will attempt to assault if it has enough movement points. If there is insufficient movement points then it is blocked from moving into the hex. The disadvantage is that if the player chooses to complete the assault they have no idea what unit(s) it's assaulting with the risk that the odds could be devastatingly bad. The only softening fire that could be used on the hex would be artillery and that is 1/4 for attacking an 'empty' hex. Cancelling an assault is possible, but the player has no idea what is in the hex unless the opponent reveals the defenders. I rationalise the above as the knowledge that something is in the hex but what will not be revealed until either player chooses to press the attack.

3-Raiders... something stupid, if you shot over a vehicle with raiders what value is used in attack over them??? you shoot a tank (hard target) but raiders are soft targets... you use both attack values but hard over tank and soft over raiders???

Soft attack values are used on the Tank riders while the hard attack values on the vehicle. As mentioned earlier in the thread, there is unlimited defensive fire. Each hex moved the firing unit will decide to shoot at either the vehicle or the riders and use the appropriate attack value. All of this can be modified by the AOF matrix. In the example given above, AT Guns would only shoot at the vehicles not the riders.

4-and again talking about raiders, what type of targer is a tank unit with raiders in OF??? is hard target because there are tanks or is soft??? i think in mortars, you have them set as never attack tanks but tanks have raiders and you have medium range here... the clasic tactic of separate infantry and tanks, how works here oportunity fire???.

Explained in three above I think. In the example you quote the mortars would only target vehicles with infantry riders and not tanks without.

As far as the 'Final Countdown', as they say in the software industry... "Two Weeks"!!

David

[Tide1]

Let me just give a short explanation of the opportunity fire dialog.
You guys make me dizzy

If you adjust an infantry platoons fire not to fire at hard targets say tanks when in range they won't. Saving themselves from getting damaged from op fire when said tank is in range See easy

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

When a game is released, are they released at a certain time like first thing in the morning or does it vary each title?

[Aaron]

I wondered how long it was gonna take you to bring out the big guns.

---

When a game is released, are they released at a certain time like first thing in the morning or does it vary each title?

Well for David being in Singapore when is morning anywhere, and then hes gotta eat his donuts and drink 2 pots coffee then he might release the game sometime mid afternoon depending on where you live it might be 3 am