Normandy Patch Update

[wiggum]

I fully agree with Wiggum on all three issues.

At no point does the game or the tutorial ever inform the user how these modifiers work and worse of all when a unit is literally incapable of harming its target due to -100% combined modifiers. As far as I know there is no method of seeing the combined modifier before I even shoot except with a lot of manual calculations. This seems a major oversight in the UI design.

As for disruption/broken status, units do indeed seem quite content to fight to the last man. I constantly read historical accounts of entire battalion+ sized formations stalling on the attack because the lead platoons take 10-20% casualties in a short time. Yet in the game, a company sized formation that takes 60 casualties (50%) in 30 minutes only has a 80% chance of taking a morale test and if it's an A-quality unit that test most likely has only a 16% chance of resulting in a disrupted status. That's 13% chance that a unit which is literally halved in a matter of minutes will be disrupted.
Even an E-quality company, which is considered "inferior", only has a 66.6% chance of becoming disrupted in this situation.

This is also what is causing such massive casualty figures for most battles. Instead of companies bogging down, rallying, bogging down again, withdrawing, routing,... and so on, units at 10% strength literally throw themselves endlessly into the fight until they dissolve. Units, especially under AI control, do not seem capable of withdrawing or faltering. When I played the Carentan scenario, 2 entire battalions of Panzergrenadiers with all their support formations (1500 men, 80 vehicles and 100 guns) literally dissolved themselves fruitlessly attacking my defensive line, with only 7 men and 1 gun total ever routing to the rear.

As for bunkers, I think my opinions on those have been quite clear in the past. In other realistic wargames, the challenge of a bunker is closing with it. The MGs and guns will endlessly suppress your men, and you can't suppress them back except with heavy tank or artillery fire. However, once the bunker is surrounded it is easily dispatched. In this game, the exact reverse is true. The 250m hex scale could be a factor in this, but it still feels extremely unrealistic and unfun.

Thats what i tried to say but with my inferior English could not articulate that well.
I think a tweaking of the DISRUPTION/BROKEN mechanics (make both much more likely in certain situations) would greatly improve the gameplay !

Currently i can throw a C quality platoon against a bunker line, take casualties, run around like a "headless chicken" infront of Bunkers armed with HMG's and Inf-Guns and after 4 turns and 50% casualties (thats 2 hours !) my platoon is still not broken i i still can push them towards the bunkers.
In every other realistic wargame that simulates morale and suppression, this would not be possible, the platoon would (realistically) bog down and, if possible, retreat (which would be the BROKEN status ingame) or even route.

Guys,

The disruption/broken issue is actively being looked at - more to follow.

David

Thanks Strela ! Cant wait for the patch !