France '14 Update 1.03 Released

[Compass Rose]

Good stuff guys! Thanks

[Mr Grumpy]

The history of the Eastern Front in WWI and also Foul's article about how important intelligence gathering was (although saying the Germans stalled on the Marne due to intercepted messages is too much credit),

Agreed, I thought the same thing when I read that.

[FM WarB]

I wrote a college term paper on the Battle of Tannenberg way back when. Rail movement, lots of maneuver space, as it was on the East front, WWI should be a welcome break from the constricted West Front.

My dream would be to somehow link a Tannenberg game with France '14 to make the choice of transferring/allocating German forces more interesting ...

[ComradeP]

An interior line advantage works less well if the player can put pressure on the entire frontline. The German forces included powerful units, but also weak units that shouldn't be able to stop good Russian formations by themselves. The Russian armies were, as always, a mixed bag but their numerical advantage could give the Germans a headache.

On the other hand, if the Russians have to capture Koenigsberg to win (and thus breach a fortified line and a fortified city), the Germans could still concentrate forces in the south, but that would mean adjusting the system to suit its limitations instead of offering a mostly historical experience.

[Xaver]

Ummm the question is if we can see company (at least in german side) and to simulate the advantage that provide germans the "amateur" russian comunications maybe have spotted all the time HQs... at least corps/army HQ and divisional using the wireless feature.

The point in Tannnenberg is that you can play more Napoleonic where soldiers feet win battles hehehe.

[jonnymacbrown]

Ummm the question is if we can see company (at least in german side) and to simulate the advantage that provide germans the "amateur" russian comunications maybe have spotted all the time HQs... at least corps/army HQ and divisional using the wireless feature.

The point in Tannnenberg is that you can play more Napoleonic where soldiers feet win battles hehehe.

I've been saying for the past two years that F 14 is the only actual Napoleonic wargame we have. If you want to experience the mood and movements of Napoleonic warfare f 14 will give it to you; while all the other HPS "Napoleonic" wargames are a version of panzerblitz with Napoleonic nomenclature. jonny

[tquinn]

I concur with Jonny. If John Tiller could redo some of the mechanics of the Napoleonic and Civil War games to have players use up movement points to fire and assault, just like in F'14, it would completely transform the "feel" of these venerable games. Great OOB work. Decent maps but the games produce totally unrealistic results. Fatigue recovery, recon, and strategic movement are not on a par with F'14. I've logged many days on this game and with v.103, it is near perfect.

Thanks to all involved for making a great game better - especially Volcanoman.

What do you say - let's pump major adrenaline into all those old titles and get playing. After F'14, they just aren't fun to play anymore - BUT COULD BE.

[Volcano Man]

Thanks all. Well, I think FWWC still has room for improvement, but I certainly like the chess match like feel that it produces. :)

Perhaps one day the engine could be used for pre-WW1 titles yeah, at least a Franco-Prussian War would be nice. ;)

[Mr Grumpy]

I have to agree with the other posters in that I played a lot of Napoleonic scenarios over several titles and I was disappointed by the results I saw, being a huge Nappy fan obviously I was very disappointed.

[Xaver]

To be fair to fix the pre WWI series engine needs be closer to "Age of rifles" use same value to show unit quality+training+morale+experience ... simple for me works like Flinstones car VS a modern car... both do the same job but you cant compare hehehe, maybe the first problem for me is in casualties and how works skirmishers, in other games this light units can autoevade if you order them dont hold terrain, here they stand yes or yes and many times is a problem and blitzNap... if they can take from PzC you need have 1/3 of action points to assault prevent it a lot and with lower casualties you can do it.

But returning to WWI future (AKA 2014 but later hehehe) any new feature for units??? i think if we are going to have vodka raiders they can use something special... east and cavalry... i think mix the PzC commando units and cavalry, light cavalry can "deploy" in a hex and have a number of hexes it can patrol, company can patrol 5 hexes (5+1+5 11Km not bad) and every extra company add 2 hexes for example.

Waiting something you want is a hard thing hahaha.