JTS East Prussia '14 Released

[Al]

Know that Ed and Company put a lot of work in to this. Thanks for another great game.

[Ricky B]

As was said, there are some good, fluid battles to be fought here. And he notes are like getting a historical book on top of that, although short at only 160 pages, LOL.

Good job Ed.

Rick

[Bioman]

Looks like a lot of work was put into this game but the colors in the unit information block are almost impossible to read as there is not enough contrast between the unit names and the background color. IIRC France 14 had the same problem when it was released. I hope that this will be fixed soon as for me the game is almost unplayable as it stands now.

Hmm, I really don't understand what you mean here. It has been adjusted to be darker actually, to make things easier to read (and to address your complaint), but to say that it is unplayable even after that? Not sure what to say there other than .PNG and .JPG images tend to make things worse than they really are.

But anyway, if you want the blank background, just copy over the old Unitname.bmp file from F14 or any Panzer Campaigns titles and that might work for you.

The problem was the white lettering with a light brown background color. It made the writing almost impossible to read and the yellow lettering was even worse. Importing the Unitname.bmp and the unit box bmp's also solved the problem.

Thanks for the help.

[fetmun]

Sorry for my bad English. In previos JTS title Panzer Battles Kursk Designers note included information regarding scenarios scripted for playing versus AI. It is intersting, is current title East Prussia 1914 has such scenarios, how many and how much attention was included in developing this game regarding playing versus AI? Thank you!

[Xaver]

A little question Volcanoman, you plan release an unit mod like the F14??? i like Jison art for units but maybe i prefer your "rough" soldiers mod, the 2nd one you do for F14 for me is the perfect combination between "clear uniforms" and "true soldiers look".

I like game a lot, is a curious mix of PzC+Napoleon... maybe i think game lacks some what if scens with UK sending troops to help rusians with a surprise land near Konisberg and AH sending early help to, nothing special only a few divisions (for example naval division with an add-hoc formation for UK and 2 infantry and 1 cavalry division from AH).

I think this could be a great serie if you can expand it to less know fronts and with similar fluid battles like in EP14, Meggido, Rumanian Campaign, Brusilov... maybe here i dislike the lack of support for team games using PBEM add this could improve the value of JT engine.

But great work guys, keept it working

PD: i try made darker the russian brown but i cant... i do it using Paint.net but after increase darknes the icons dissapear

[Hoplite]

Great news. One question:
HPS version of France '14 won't get updated? Number 7&8 in the patch notes won't be compatible with 1.3 version. Not possible to pbem with 1.4

[ComradeP]

I'm really curious what penalties are imposed on the Russians, I guess I'll find that in the designer notes.

My biggest fear with campaign-sized scenarios is that as you are the commander and HQ's don't directly influence non-quality values for units, historically poor commanders won't have as much of an impact on the battle as they did historically. Likewise, poor initial deployments are compensated by having plenty of turns to move units around in. 206 turns is fairly tight, however.

In theory, it seems unlikely that a player will fight as poorly as the historical Russian forces during their initial invasion of East Prussia, as he knows where all of his units are and he can make everyone cooperate.

The simplified logistics and command system, which imposes no limits on how many units can be concentrated in a single area or units under a certain HQ also favours very efficient unit control. In a long scenario, the penalty of units being placed far away from eachother can be nullified over time if you have the time to move them. Of all the Panzer/First World War Campaigns battles titles thus far, this is probably the title where poor C&C from one side dictated the outcome to a significant extent.

I'll probably buy it after the summer.

Edit: As usual, the designer notes are well written. The way the game forces penalties on the Russians also sounds good. I'm looking forward to testing the Fragile Morale rule, as players tend to direct (for the period) serious amounts of violence at single units during a breakthrough, which could cause units to break (and thus often shatter if you can cut off retreat routes) more easily than might be intended. Still, the OOB isn't huge and you don't have numerous units to spare, so this might be more of a problem for Galicia or the 1915 and 1916 campaigns on the Eastern Front than East Prussia.

[Mr Grumpy]

I'm really curious what penalties are imposed on the Russians, I guess I'll find that in the designer notes.

My biggest fear with campaign-sized scenarios is that as you are the commander and HQ's don't directly influence non-quality values for units, historically poor commanders won't have as much of an impact on the battle as they did historically. Likewise, poor initial deployments are compensated by having plenty of turns to move units around in. 206 turns is fairly tight, however.

In theory, it seems unlikely that a player will fight as poorly as the historical Russian forces during their initial invasion of East Prussia, as he knows where all of his units are and he can make everyone cooperate.

The simplified logistics and command system, which imposes no limits on how many units can be concentrated in a single area or units under a certain HQ also favours very efficient unit control. In a long scenario, the penalty of units being placed far away from eachother can be nullified over time if you have the time to move them. Of all the Panzer/First World War Campaigns battles titles thus far, this is probably the title where poor C&C from one side dictated the outcome to a significant extent.

I'll probably buy it after the summer.

Edit: As usual, the designer notes are well written. The way the game forces penalties on the Russians also sounds good. I'm looking forward to testing the Fragile Morale rule, as players tend to direct (for the period) serious amounts of violence at single units during a breakthrough, which could cause units to break (and thus often shatter if you can cut off retreat routes) more easily than might be intended. Still, the OOB isn't huge and you don't have numerous units to spare, so this might be more of a problem for Galicia or the 1915 and 1916 campaigns on the Eastern Front than East Prussia.

I am glad you read the designer notes as the game does address the issues you raise, when you first look at the Russian forces with their effective MG/FG units and a majority of units at C quality you might be forgiven for thinking it would be an impossible steam roller to stop, but scratch under the surface and you will find a lack of heavy arty, poor cavalry, low supply and by far the worst aspect are the minimal command ranges, often only 1 hex for brigade HQ's, now unlike PzC if you are outside the command range you take a drop in morale and are very likely to go low ammo, this makes advancing with the Russians a real art as your HQ can only support a small proportion of your horde!
Think you can fix this with taking advantage of the generous stacking values to crowd around the HQ? Think again, ranged
FG/ MG fire and arty barrages (the Germans are very well equipped with medium/heavy arty) and you have the recipe for massive losses before you can come to blows with the German line!

Playing the Russians well will be a real achievement in this title, the Germans may be less numerous and on face value not have advantages in morale and weaponry, but the Russians C&C is rotten to the core.

[Compass Rose]

In collaboration with the new release of JTS East Prussia '14, Amazon is offering Collision of Empires: The War on the Eastern Front in 1914 (General Military) [Kindle Edition] for $1.99 (Normally $29.95).

http://www.amazon.com/Collision-Empires-...of+empires

Get it while you can and make sure to tell them that Ed sent you!

[Volcano Man]

Wow lots of questions, briefly:

Re: Artwork mods, maybe I will create a traditional artwork mod at some point, but that would have to wait until I have free time and I get bored. I personally like Jison's artwork so much that it has caused me to have no desire to make any mods for it, but like I said, I might do it just for the sake of being bored.

Xaver: I see you mentioned the Russian counter color twice now. Their counter color is based on their uniform color, so in that respect it is good, plus we want to reserve a darker brown for... some other nationality. But all I can say is that if you aren't happy with it then just edit the one image of the unit counters to make them whatever color or darkness you fancy.

Hoplite: We are working on both the JTS and HPS France '14 update now. All I can say is that it will be available "very soon".

fetmun: The scenarios are always adjusted for AI play, but my personal preference as a game designer is not to make AI tailored scenarios (with different VP levels). I believe in giving the scenarios AI orders, but if the AI can be utterly destroyed then reward the user with normal VPs for a big win. Maybe some people do not like that approach, but I personally don't like to fill a game up with a plethora of otherwise duplicate scenarios.

Regarding game design decisions (ie. Russian etc), all I can say about that is to read the notes. If there is something I did not elaborate on then I will be glad to explain, if I have the time. However, the Russian forces in EP14 are designed to be capable, yet have flaws, as was historically the case. The effect is that, as a Russian commander, you are fighting the enemy and you are trying to take care to minimize your weaknesses (so, in a way you are fighting two enemies: the Germans and your own weaknesses). These inherent weakness are each small by themselves, but when taken as a whole if they are mismanaged then they will add up and could spell disaster (or at the very least, ineffectiveness or paralyzing). Personally, I have gotten pretty good at controlling the Russians myself, but it takes practice and skill, and that is the good thing about it IMO -- not just anyway can play them well. I don't think the Russians could be represented any better than they are, so I will not digress into any theoretical debates on how they should have been, or whether or not they are too weak or too strong (their representation in EP14 is literally a product of several years of evolution and refining). And that is my primary intent with the FWWC series -- every army is designed to be unique, not just carbon copies of each other with different names and quality and combat ratings.