Turn review

Liebchen · 02-18-2007, 05:31 AM,

I like to play scenarios and I prefer to watch my opponent's moves for obvious reasons. In some larger scenarios, though, this can take quite a long time.

I have played some (as yet incomplete) campaigns against the AI. I would prefer to play humans, but am afraid to sit through a replay of an entire turn in a campaign setting. With the AI, for some reason, I have no problem setting the A/I to fast A/I processing.

I wouldn't want to do this to a player's turns, however. Players are usually more imaginative and sneaky than the A/I.

So I find myself never playing a campaign against humans.

So here's my question: Do any of you play HTH games without watching your opponent's turns? If so, do you ever regret missing something.

For those of you who play campaigns HTH, can you offer coping techniques for what can sometimes be a 20 minute replay of an opponent's turn?

Sgt Fury · 02-18-2007, 05:44 AM,

Hi,

Do you know about the F7 and F8 keys and how they speed up the replay? I actually do watch replays at F8 fairly often (but you can't blink!). If I see some action in an area that concerns me, I may watch again at slower speed, or at least part of the replay at slower speed.

I tend to watch less replays when I am on the offensive as a defensive mistake or oversight can be more costly in my view.

Fury

von Nev · 02-18-2007, 06:08 AM,

On balance I tend to watch my opponents moves early in a campaign or scenario to try to gage how they play. What I am looking for is how aggressive they are especially when they are on offense. If I find that the are less likely to be aggressive or do not take advantage of some opportunities that I see are available to them, I adjust my play accordingly by taking more defensive risks. Also, when there is a critical defensive battle, like near breakthoughs in my my lines, I definitely watch the replay. If there is a breakthough, to get an idea of how many enemy units have moved through the gap, I literally count units and then during the start of my turn I count the units I can see. If there is a difference I use my air recon to try to find them. I do this at the beginning of my turn. This helps because then my reinforcements tend not to run into them while in travel mode and I can plan my next defensive line.

Later in a campaign or scenarios I tend not to watch their moves especially in the very large campaigns.

Marty

P.S. If I know my opponent tends NOT to watch replays I also adjust my play accordingly. For example, I will "hide" units that he can see in travel mode on the bottom of stacks (especially ones with more than 4 units), as I adjust the lines I will move units in travel mode through hexes he can see, and I will also use armor units as raiding parties. Typically these tanks/vehicles start behind the lines so he can't see them, they will rush forward and clobber some infantry units then retire back to a hex that I know he can't see. I tend to do this with units of new divisions that arrive on the battlefield so that my opponent remains unaware of them being there. All my opponent sees is a bunch of his infantry units with casualties but he does not know how they got damaged. Typically they think it is from arty (which is ok if they think that since they typically do not adjust their play).

Dog Soldier · 02-18-2007, 07:02 AM,

During large campaign games, many players are courteous and move units that are far behind the lines at the end of their turn. In this way each player can watch the replay up to the point where the action stops, then bail out to start their turn with the Esc key.

In this way both sides can play large campaign turns fairly quickly.

Dog Soldier

**Ricky B** · 02-18-2007, 09:57 AM,

Personally, I rarely watch the replay unless something unexpected or unknown happens - such as men dying when I can't see who it attacking them, per Von Nev's trick ;-). In most cases, I can figure out what is happening, or there is little I can do to react anyway, so the replay's are fairly rare for me. For example, playing the Stalingrad Campaign against Fury and his partner, I never watched it as I knew what was happening each turn, including the melting away under fire of my units around the city.

Rick

Marquo · 02-18-2007, 02:45 PM,

I always watch the pbem replay at fast forward. There is no asset more valuable in a PzC game than adequate intelligence. At high speed it takes no more than a few minutes to an entire replay; and nothing beats seeing enemy units moving off in various directions, appearing, disappearing, etc.

In fact, it is quicker than watching the AI move it's sorry ass. Further, for anyone who doesn't watch, reading Von Nev's post should send shivers down your spine. There are those who have an intuitive grasp of the game system such that giving them even the slightest advantage only means one thing: pain and humiliation.

Let's just say that there are those who know how active an opponent has been by simply noting the size of the file :whis:

Marquo :)

**Mr Grumpy** · 02-18-2007, 08:09 PM,

What an interesting thread, i assumed all my opponents watched their replays, so all my effort to not even give my opponent a glimpse of my units moving in and out of sight is wasted! :hissy:
The times i have seen a unit in T mode disappear down a road in a replay and when i air recon where i guessed it was "hey presto" a lovely target for my airforce! :kill:

I find you can learn so much about a new opponent from replays aswell and Marquo is correct, you know when an attack is building from the size of the game file. :smoke:

jonnymacbrown · 02-19-2007, 08:15 AM,

"During large campaign games, many players are courteous and move units that are far behind the lines at the end of their turn. In this way each player can watch the replay up to the point where the action stops, then bail out to start their turn with the Esc key. In this way both sides can play large campaign turns fairly quickly."

I agree. I just play the game as fast as I can, taking care of action first, and rearward movement last, especially as I've noticed over the years that rearward movement first can cause all kinds of problems for one's self! von ege :cool:

Al · 02-19-2007, 08:33 AM,

I do watch my opponent's turn with the fast AI on. I have found that will give an adequate enough idea of how he moved.

Dog Soldier · 02-19-2007, 10:54 AM,

I think folks should take heed of RickyB's advice. I can not remember a tournament at this club where he was involved that he did not win the title.

For myself, I watch the replay only when I have the time for it. I do it more for the enjoyment of watching the other players turn than for any real intelligence.
The only exception is when you are lucky to have units in the enemy rear that can spot the columns moving down a road as Foul mentioned. the radios in PzC are of the best quality for calling in air strikes, until the recent upgrade concerning units out of command range.

Dog Soldier