some thoughts and points

[Weasel]

Just some thoughts I had while playing today's turns:

1. Facade troop is a pretty excellent scenario, nice feel of urban fighting
2. The AI is real stupid! In my one game my stug turned to face a sherman that was firing at him from long distance, began to aim, and then turned away to face nothing. Of course within 10 seconds the sherman put one in his side and killed him. And before you say he lost sight I had him selected and the sherman was always shown as spotted and the gunner was aiming.
3. Do you think they will ever fix the rarity of the panther in this game? For every panther there were 5 PzIV and about 8 Stug yet the panther has no rarity and the other two do. Once again, with no prior agreement one faces an entire force of cats.

[BBrus]

What you describe has happened to me a couple times, without losses, though. It looks like the gunner has an unclear LOS and doesn't fire even though it does have LOS to the aiming point.

As for the Panther thing, well, Panthers are pretty expensive, and so are the Mark IV variants when compared to M4A3s (which IMHO are significantly better at short-med ranges). If I remember correctly, there are mark IV and Stug III without rarity points. It depends on the version or series. With the same amount of points, the axis player will always deploy less armored vehicles than the allied player.

[raz_atoth]

I would be happy if they'd fix the points costs of the stugs. Right now, a stug costs about 290pts,compared to 250pts a Pz IV and roughly 350 a Panther. As it stands, there are no incentives to buy stugs. I would always buy a Pz IV over a Stug if points are an issue [the Pz IV has a turret and carries more shells, has MGs] or a Panther if the points aren't an issue. Make it 200 pts and suddently a stug becomes more attractive.

With the same amount of points, the axis player will always deploy less armored vehicles than the allied player.

Not necessarily. The axis have an AFV i absolutely love : Marder. It costs almost half the price of a Sherman and the gun is powerful enough to knock almost everything the allies can throw against it.

[BBrus]

You're right. I should have said tanks, not AFVs in general. Marders are great, I'd take Marders over AT guns anytime if there's room to move it around. A misused and underrated piece of equipment, IMHO.

Perhaps stugs are more difficult to spot than PzIVs? I finished a battle a couple weeks ago where a single StuG took out several shermans from some woods at 400-500m and it was never fired at.

[raz_atoth]

Yeah, stugs are marginally more difficult to spot than PzIVs. Enough to justify the 40+ points over a PzIV given they lack a turret,have a lower shell count and (depending on the model) they don't have MGs? Definitely not.

[Toblakai]

I do not understand the prices in some cases. A Marder is as expensive as a PAK40 and a StuG III even more expensive than a Pz IV H. This does not fit to the production costs.

There were build a lot of Panthers and maybe the rarity is realistic, but the Panther is for the price definitely too strong (especially the front amour) in this game.

[Weasel]

Agree with all points, the cost of stuff is out of whack. Even the Sherman is rather expensive if you think that over 50,000 were built. The rarity cost is even more confused.

[Toblakai]

Agree with all points, the cost of stuff is out of whack. Even the Sherman is rather expensive if you think that over 50,000 were built. The rarity cost is even more confused.

Yes, that's the problem between game balance and historical accurateness. That's why I prefer meanwhile scenarios.

[A Canadian Cat]

Agree with all points, the cost of stuff is out of whack. Even the Sherman is rather expensive if you think that over 50,000 were built. The rarity cost is even more confused.

I was surprised to see comments that a Stug was more expensive than a PzIV. I never looked so had to myself - wow. That does seem odd. Although I do find Stugs to last longer in a fire fight (in general) and I have had more trouble dealing with Stugs than PzIVs when attacking them. So, perhaps that explains it.

Regular, Normal, 0 soft factors (forgot to note the date - oops)

Code:

|                         pts    rarity
|Sherman M4A3 75W mid     220       0
|M10                      186     558
|Panther VG early         345       0
|Panzer IVJ early         226       0
|StuG IIIG mid            278       0

Don't forget that the rarity is what accounts for how many of them were around on the battle field. Which ever date you pick the main tank each side used at that time usually has a rarity cost of 0. If you dig around with the types you can find which ever one is common. As shown above.

[raz_atoth]

5x Shermans = 1100 pts

For the same amount you can (roughly) buy:
a) 3 Panthers
b) 4 Stugs

I don't think there are many players out there who would choose b over a, and i guess this says it all.