Tunisia'43 1.02: The balancing effects of the 25% reduction of Hard Attack Values

[Strela]

The last Tunisia'43 patch introduces a 25% reduction in raw Hard Attack values for tanks and ATs.

Due to the non-linear effects of direct hard attacks, a flat 25% reduction of raw Hard Attack value translates into a 44% reduction when the Hard Attack value is less than the Defense value, and translates into a 13% reduction when the Hard Attack value is above the Defense Value. This seems to shift the relative performance of tanks. E.g., before, the kill ratio of Tiger vs Sherman was 2:1 (only taking Hard Attack and Defense into account), but now it has become almost 3:1. For Pz-III(lg) vs Valentine, the old kill ratio was 3:1, which now has become 4.5:1. (Assuming that the Hard Attack of Valentine was 6 before the reduction).

Any thoughts on these changes in relative performance of tanks? Which kill ratios are the most realistic ones?

Hi Bayes,

As one of the designers with a knowledge of the values that are used in Panzer Campaigns, I can confirm there was a decision to standardize across the series using the Mcnamara values that Ed Williams had used in his Alt scenarios. When JTS reviewed some of the original values we found some discrepancies regarding HA values that actually overstated them based on range and a couple of other factors. The HA values were dropped as you mention but other factors such as the range modifier in the PDT file were also adjusted (from 3 down to 1.5) which had a bearing also.

You have to understand that there are a huge number of parameters that go into combat result calculation and though your comparison is valid, it only covers part of the variables involved. A lot of testing was done after the HA values were changed and the designer community are comfortable that nothing has substantially changed from the base values you saw previously.

I expect you will see these values in all games going forward and that Ed will probably retrofit them into his Alt scenarios as he releases updates.

Hopefully this will give you some insight on why the changes were made.

Finally, as mentioned in the design notes etc, editors are included in all JTS games so you can change any values you disagree with. Its another value add in a great series of games.

David