Long Time player makes comments on PZC

jonnymacbrown · 08-02-2007, 04:56 AM,

I designed an Ardennes 44 scenario, Dark Winter, with four night turns as there are only 8 daylight hours there in December. The 4 night turns were a total of 16(!) hours of night activity. I maintain this is the only realistic game timewise available as sunup is at 0900 and sundown at 1600. I was exausted Ardennes wise at the time and never play-tested it but it is available on Glenn's site. However, it is a good opportunity for anyone interested in the Bulge to expereince some of the difficulties faced by both sides in a winter battle in northern Europe. von ege :smoke:

Gordons HQ · 08-02-2007, 07:31 AM,

I like the idea of more defensive fire, at times there simply isn't enough from defending units. The game seems a little unrealistic and very frustrating when units just sit there while being fired upon.
It leads to gamey tactics of drawing op fire with light units and the hitting the defender with much heavier units. I know we have the option of Manual Defensive Fire, but that somehow loses the spirit of this fine game when PBEM.
Something I think like in SP's when you don't know how much op fire a unit has would be much better if it was possible to program into the game.

Gordon

~~Krak~~ · 08-02-2007, 12:03 PM,

yeah manual defensive fire is very effective. I have always played that way untill just recently. But for PBM it just takes too long. I really think a simple improvement with big bangs per buck (effective defence for bang and programming work for bucks) for the default method would be too cause the defending units to fire off all shots prior to the turn ending, except maybe for arty units. What do you guys think?

Sgt Barker · (This post was last modified: 08-02-2007, 01:05 PM by Sgt Barker.)

Aaron · 08-02-2007, 11:34 PM,

The thing that frustrates me in MC is when my defensive unit has 3 Soviet tank Bn attacking it 1 hex away but it sits there and fires its 3 shots at that damn Helo unit.(No matter how loud i yell at the screen it wont save its shots for those damn tanks) If they could in any way get rid of that happening without changing to manual Def fire that would make be happy. I think manual def fire takes away from the game, your suppose to be overall commander and not have to micro manage small units, i like the fact that they fire def on there own,thats part of the game relying on your unit commanders.

Aaron

Hank · 08-02-2007, 11:38 PM,

I tend to agree with the Sgt. I would rather see a toggle than to make defensive fire mandatory for all units that have a target at the end of the turn.

I assume during this defensive firing phase the attacking player gets no opportunity fire in reply to the defensive fire (assuming again the attacking players units have any points available for return fire).

Its an interesting debate.

CptCav · 08-03-2007, 02:11 AM,

One thing I remember from a minature wargame was that it had a requirement that each type of unit would have a priority list of what it would engage. For example, tank units would have to engage enemy tank units before it could engage enemy infantry units (especially, if the infantry was not in range where it could engage the tank) and infantry units would engage enemy infantry units first. This was based on what was preceived to be the greatest threat to the unit.

I think that this would be good if you were going to have a program that had every defending unit fire off any available shots at the end of the enemy turn. And, as Krak said, I would prefer that artillery was not included in the everyone fires phase (as long as it still prevents it from firing in the friendly turn).

Regards,
CptCav

Aaron · 08-03-2007, 03:50 AM,

Priority yes, 93 tanks would be a priority not the 6 damn Hinds buzzing around that u probably wont hit anyways, id take the destruction of 10 tanks over 1 Hind anyday.

Aaron

CptCav · (This post was last modified: 08-03-2007, 05:27 AM by CptCav.)

While we are talking about an enhancement wish list, it would be nice to have AA fire not impact a unit's ability to engage in direct fire (i.e. not count against the three shots).

Maybe give them a free AA shot?

Regards,
CptCav

Dog Soldier · (This post was last modified: 08-03-2007, 05:51 AM by Dog Soldier.)

CapCav,

In PzC I have not seen that AA fire is deducted. Maybe that is only in MC where your seeing "AA" fire against helos as defensive fire.

To the defensive fire debate, I would add that players consider and plan while on defense to make their turn shots count as defensive fire. These same limitations help a defender in his turn put a hurt on the attacker's point of attack if used wisely.

Dog Soldier