The Competition & Teaser Thread

[Strela]

Hi All,

We'd like to start sharing some of the documentation with you that will come with the game.

The first file is the "Visual Order of Battle Guide" created by Michael Avanzini.

This is a 57 page document that showcases 'typical' formations in the game.







Please note that this is a large file at over 32mb and should only be downloaded if you have the bandwidth.

The file is available on the below link and will be available for approximately a week.


EDIT; Version 2 is available on the same link below. This version is corrected for the terminology and other issues identified to date. Thanks Michael for the quick turn around and kudos to ComradeP for his thorough review.

The link is here;

Link to; Visual Order of Battle Guide



David

[Compass Rose]

Very, very nice Michael.

Super great presentation. Those unit pics look top notch and the background page pictures are a great touch. 99% of them I'd never seen before.

Thanks

[Al]

Very, very nice Michael.

Super great presentation. Those unit pics look top notch and the background page pictures are a great touch. 99% of them I'd never seen before.

Thanks

Same here. Very nicely done.

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

Xaver did a great job in the thread, and deserves the game . Me, just call me "Quick Rick" .

Been playing with this for a few weeks now to be ready to support the game, thanks David! It's gonna be BIG .

Rick

Quick Rick is a good nickname untill the girls start calling you by that name.

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

Tried the file twice and told both times file was damaged. Will try again around mid day.

[Strela]

Tried the file twice and told both times file was damaged. Will try again around mid day.

Hi OJW,

The issue must be your end. I just downloaded the file onto another machine here and I had no problems.

David

[Richie61]

Tried the file twice and told both times file was damaged. Will try again around mid day.

Mark,

I e-mailed you a link in case you can't get it.

[Xaver]

Great job, the visual OOB work is amazing and art work... well, no more complains on this part (after Tiller started to fly solo portraits art suffer an important improvement and PzB move a step forward).

I really like a lot the image selected for the penal unit.

Maybe in future Visual OOB can have a "notes" section where OOB guys can tell us a little the OOB evolution, why some things are implement in certain way and in general made Visual OOB a Visual OOB directors cut (maybe this is covered in other document, i remember some of this documents in other Tiller titles... i think now in Sea Lion notes).

I need ask this, why you select a Panther to the game cover??? is the future PzB symbol or is only the selected for Kursk Southern flank?

Again great job and AAR... Yes you can!!! if you want of course

[Strela]

I'm glad to be able to pay for the game, as hopefully that will bring the wishful thinking of Xaver and me closer: Zhitomir.

We are always working on projects....

Maybe in future Visual OOB can have a "notes" section where OOB guys can tell us a little the OOB evolution, why some things are implement in certain way and in general made Visual OOB a Visual OOB directors cut (maybe this is covered in other document, i remember some of this documents in other Tiller titles... i think now in Sea Lion notes).

I need ask this, why you select a Panther to the game cover??? is the future PzB symbol or is only the selected for Kursk Southern flank?

There is an OB notes section in the Designers notes. Three or four pages is probably not sufficient to cover the depth of research and detail included. Michael Avanzini has managed to procure records direct from the Russian archives that no one in the west had seen previously. The primary sources that the units have been built up from has given us an OB that surpass anything that we have seen released to date - in either board or computer game.

Even more impressive is that we have records for essentially the whole war and that will at least ease some of the OB pain for the Soviets.

In regards to the Panther, it is representative of this game only. Its meant to symbolise the German folly of committing to a battle that probably never needed to be fought. The Panther was unprepared for Kursk and the German's were unprepared for the Soviet response.

David

[ComradeP]

It looks great!

A question first: GD's Grenadier armoured battalion doesn't have an MG company? Or is it abstracted into the halftracks for the MG platoons?

There's a typo here and there, not sure if those could still be corrected or if the file has already been sent to the publisher.

Page 1: it could be the font, but it looks like there are two spaces between "battle" and "charts"

Page 2: the abbreviation for the formation the Cossacks belong to is PzC instead of PzK.

Page 3: it says "18th Tank" instead of "18th Tank Corps".

Various: the German word for battalion is "bataillon". For consistency, you could consider changing "battalion" to "bataillon" for German designations or "kompanie" into "company" for English designations for non-specialized units.

Various: the German word for "armored" (for the mechanized infantry) is "gepanzert" (I believe "spw" is a late war designation, I'd have to check).

Various: "Aufklarung" should either be "Aufklaerung" or with an Umlaut on the second a.

Various: "Fusilier" should be "Fuesilier" or an Umlaut on the u.

Various: "Spah" should be "Spaeh" or have an Umlaut on the a.

The variant with an e after the letter that should have the Umlaut looks ugly, though it is grammatically correct.

Variant: technically, there should be a dot after the numerical indication of the company or battery for the Germans.

Various: "Squadron" is always spelled "squardron" for some reason. The German word is "Schwadron". I'm not entirely sure which units used "Schwadron" and which units used "Kompanie". Theoretically, if a unit came from a former cavalry regiment, it would be "Schwadron" but re-designations might have changed that. The aufklaerungs abteilung for the 7th Panzer was a renamed kradschuetzen battalion and had companies as far as I know.

LSSAH had companies for their aufklaerung abteilung in 1943 as far as I know.

Various: "Sturmgeschutz" should be "Sturmgeschuetz" or an Umlaut on the second u. Or simply "StuG". It is also misspelled on page 27.

Page 8: the divisional HQ of the 167th isn't indicated as such.

Page 9: the 14th company is a Panzerjaeger (Umlaut on the second a) company, not a Pak company. Similarly, GD and LSSAH also have a Panzerjaeger company as its 17th/18th company. The 5th company of LSSAH's aufklaerungsabteilung is also a Panzerjaeger company. Pak or Pak Sfl indicates the equipment type, not the unit type in this case.

Page 18: Maybe Stab Panzer Zug instead of Panzer Zug?

Page 19-21: the way the companies are numbered doesn't match how it's done elsewhere.

Page 21: the Cossacks have no description, but that isn't necessary as their size is indicated in their name.

Page 27: Armored Pionier Platoon> Panzerpionier Zug.

Page 28: typo in "batterie" for the 4th. Also: Sfl quad, if you want to give it a special indication, would be Sfl vierling. However, Sfl is good by itself, as it just means self propelled and I'm not entirely sure if the battalion TOE/OOB indicates a special designation.

Page 43: the example SU regiment is called the 1440th, but the HQ is for the 1461st.