ME

[Crossroads]

I bought it, I'm playing it, but only a couple of games so far. On the downside the time period is really long, so, unlike WWII scenarios, you can't just pick any 'ol scenario and be somewhat familiar with the equipment. A tank like the Sherman seems to have been modified pretty drastically by various countries post WWII. So for me, hardly an expert, which one am I using? By the time I get my head wrapped around it in one scenario, it might be the total opposite in another.

Another negative for me is the terrain. Of course it's the dessert, I just don't find it interesting like I do the Eastern Front scenarios and the WF Europe scenarios. No fault of the developers, of course, just the way it is.

On the plus side, it's a new game utilizing the CS engine, and whatever improvements come out of it should help the future WWII games as well. I should add that the CS forum is a game forum, not a WWII forum. I suspect there are some out there who are interested in the history of the middle east post-WWII and can learn a bit playing out some of the historical scenarios.

Where I agree (so far) with Ed is that the historical battles are often not a lot of fun to play. The ones that are have usually been tweaked a bit by the designer with play-ability in mind, adding extra points for objectives, for instance. Way too early for me, but so far I haven't liked the scenarios I've played/playing. Just not much fun. I've said it before, the developer community need to take us away from these early stock scenarios and into something better.

So far, at least at the Blitz, most of the ME posts have been negative, though there were a lot of members initially buying the game and playing it. Where are they and why aren't they posting? Not even 50 reported games played, so far. Does anyone like ME? Who's still playing it and why? Who gave up on it and why?

Dave

Thanks Dave. Regarding the historical battles: this indeed is a difficult era to portray with many of the battles having historically been lopsided. Tweaking victory conditions is one way to alter the balance as far as the history conditions go; other aspect that hopefully will help is the Adaptive AI. As scenario designers including ourselves become more familiar with it, it will be possible to further adjust a scenario to reflect the battle it portrays. 

In the meanwhile, Blitz Ladder with its reported games offer the players a very good tool for feedback. In addition to rating the scenario, all detailed feedback is appreciated. I will post a separate message to encourage this, hopefully.