New Panzer Battles game incoming ?

[-72-]

Well, they're working on multiple projects with teams that are either entirely or partially composed of volunteers as far as the scenario design is concerned.

I don't believe there are any volunteers doing the scenario design, although it would definitely be accurate to state that those doing it, are not doing it for their day job.

[Xaver]

Maybe the Normandy title is delayed to the 3rd position and they want try early war title in 2nd... but maybe we could talk about a desert title as 3rd or not.

Other question is Armored battles...

I think they are working in a lot of titles... not only close to release because engine is very new and they are improving it (for example i notice the lack of dust or see movement of tanks inside fields).

[ComradeP]

In case anyone missed it and only reads this thread, Dog Soldier has organized the first Panzer Battles tournament and is looking for 3 more players.

[ComradeP]

No idea why, but I thought the Panzer Battles main map was only 40 square kilometres or so, whilst it appears to be about 80.

That means that, as I see it, there are 3 likely candidates for the Western Front if it's a 1940 title:

-Dunkirk-Lille.
-Hannut-Gembloux Gap-Dyle Line-perhaps Meuse up to Dinant.
-(Givet area?)-Greater Sedan area-Stonne-Rethel.

As there are Dutch forces in the title, the first option seems the most likely.

From the perspective of massed tank battles where both sides have numerous tanks, I'd prefer Hannut/Gembloux Gap.

I'm not sure how well it could be balanced with air strikes taking a turn to arrive. Making all the French units poor quality ones wouldn't really suit the level of training within the 2nd and 3rd DLM. I don't own France '40, so I don't know what kind of quality the units would have, but I imagine most would be D or C rating, albeit with higher breakdown chances. However, ways were found to balance East Prussia '14 as well, so I'm sure it could work.

[Strela]

There is no limit to the size of map in Panzer Battles other physical time to load a large megabyte file.

We have tested a range of PzC maps in PzB to see what the system can consistently handle. Rarely would we use a full sized map in a scenario though for playability reasons, but like Kursk they would be used as a master map that smaller scenarios could be carved out of.

One of the big bonuses of John Tiller's games is that he already has a library of maps covering a range of topics that can be converted to the PzB scale giving us a lot of flexibility on future titles.


David

[Strela]

Some further color for you all.

The Kursk map is 299 x 341 hexes, total 101,959 hexes.

The master map for Panzer Battles Two is almost four times as big at 681 x 576 hexes, total 392,256.

There is no scenario that uses all that area, but it is all available for a broad range of playable scenarios.

The map file is 8.9 mb vs Kursk's 1.4 mb.

David

[Compass Rose]

I dont get it at all why the scenario of the next PB title is such a secret.
I mean it hardly will be canceled and even if, whats the problem.
Other wargame company's mostly tell the scenario of their next game too.

Patience is a virtue and good things come to those who wait!

[ComradeP]

Wow, that's a big map David! Excluding the non-playable areas, that's about twice as big as the Moscow '42 map. Is it the biggest map in a PzC/PB title ever or are there bigger ones?

It does make it more difficult to guess what battle it could be, although with the nations that were mentioned Fall Gelb is still the most likely candidate.

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

Never forget about the large maps and creating a larger scenario or those who will play it HTH or as teams. If you make it, they will play.

[Strela]

Wow, that's a big map David! Excluding the non-playable areas, that's about twice as big as the Moscow '42 map. Is it the biggest map in a PzC/PB title ever or are there bigger ones?

It does make it more difficult to guess what battle it could be, although with the nations that were mentioned Fall Gelb is still the most likely candidate.

The map was done by Dave 'Blackie' Blackburn and really is superb. We have done a few minor tweaks based upon further research for particular scenarios, but all in all its Dave's work.

I'd need to go back and look at the size of the map vs prior titles, but we have as an experiment put the Moscow '42 map through the converter and created a 'monster' map. Don't read anything into that - it was a test to see what was possible. I believe the Civil War - Overland map was larger than Moscow '42 from memory.

The other good thing about the Panzer Battles 2 map is that a large amount of it is used within various scenarios. There isn't heaps of unused terrain, other than maybe water...

David

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Never forget about the large maps and creating a larger scenario or those who will play it HTH or as teams. If you make it, they will play.

OJW, well aware of that!

That said there aren't a lot of reports of the bigger Kursk scenarios being played and they really do lend themselves to team play.

There will be some larger scenarios, but keep in mind we are working these with actions of a day in mind, rather than multiple days.

David