02 Getting Started Utah Beach

[Nemo84]

So you modified the Parameter Data tables and now, attacking/assaulting bunkers and pillboxes plays out more realistic ?
Can you send me the files ?
And maybe you should send them to Strela to have a look.

Besides that i also agree, the first two tutorial scenarios are way to hard for tutorials.
I expect to win in a tutorial if i follow the instructions. This is bad for new players, especially the die hard bunkers at Utah can be really frustrating. Hope that get tweaked in the first patch now that many players have complained about bunkers / pillboxes being way too hard to assault.

I'm still playing with the values, so I don't recommend you using my files as some of the results are still way off. But I'll explain what I've been looking at, and they you can try some things for yourself. Basically I just use pbparam.exe to edit the PBNormandy.pdt table. There are 4 different tables that each scenario can choose from, but I've only looked at the Normandy one which seems to be applied to most of the June scenarios.

First I tried doubling and tripling the Combat Values for attacker and defender, but this didn't really give satisfactory results so I returned them to default. Single assaults, even when used successfully against disrupted units, would cause 20-30 casualties for the attacker. Defender casualties increased as well but far less excessively, so even a very successful assault by a full company against a disrupted MG section would still kill a lot more attackers than defenders. Units were wiped out far too quickly. Maybe someone with more experience with these parameters could explain in some more detail how they work, the manual is rather vague and I would like to tweak them a bit as well.

Then I looked at the Combat Modifiers at the end of the table and changed them as follows:

• Improved Modifier: -10 (was -20)
  
• Trench Modifier: -15 (was -30)
  
• Bunker Modifier: -20 (was -30)
  
• Pillbox Modifier: -30 (was -40)
  
• Bunker Defense: 10 (was 15)
  
• Pillbox Defense: 15 (was 20)
  

Basically each fortification hex now adds a bit less bonus to unit defense and degrades incoming fire a bit less. There's also a bigger difference between bunkers and trenches, which mostly makes trenches a bit less invulnerable to long range fire and artillery.

When applied to Utah Beach:

• Tanks still kill 1 bunker guy max per shot, but do so a bit more reliably.
  
• Infantry has a bit higher probability of killing someone, both in bunkers and trenches.
  
• Artillery and naval support is still bloody useless against bunkers, but a bit more effective against the trenches.
  
• I did however notice a lot more fatigue and disruption effects from infantry or tank attacks.
  
• Assaults do not seem noticeably more effective.
  

I still want to make assaults a bit more bloody. Each turn is 30 minutes, and 30 minutes of close assaulting a position should cause more than 3 or 4 casualties on both sides combined unless the defenders break. But so far my experiments have resulted in either the default casualty figures or massively unbalanced ones.