Panzer Battles - Kursk Version 1.01 released

[Strela]

Hi All,

After a significant amount of work we have the first patch for Panzer Battles - Kursk ready to release.

There are quite a number of changes here and I suggest players take a copy of their existing Kursk directory if they are currently playing any PBEM games. You can apply the patch to one of your versions of the game, but I suggest you complete any outstanding PBEM's using a pre-patched installation. Any new games can use the new 1.01 version. Dogsoldier will give instructions to those of you in the current tournament.

You can get the patch from here;

http://www.johntillersoftware.com/Updates.html




Here is the 1.01 Patch changelog;



Game System Enhancements and Additions

• Hard Fire modifier added to the PDT to allow scaling of combat results
• Elevation modifier in the PDT additionally has an inverse relationship when a unit fires at a unit at a lower elevation. Please note this modifier is per elevation differential.
• Ability to highlight reconnaissance units. Menu View\Highlight\Recon units
• Revised Fog of War. The first X strength of an enemy unit’s strength is shown if they are in a clear hex (or hex with + defensive value such as beach, shallow or water). Showing the first X means single value units would show their exact strength, double digit; #X and triple digit; #XX. The rationale is at this scale unit numbers would be able to be approximated in hexes without cover. Fortifications (IP, Trench, Bunker, Pillbox) are considered cover for the purposes of this rule.
• AA range calculation fixed – it was quartering the impact
• Breakdown percentages quartered in the PDT file (1 for both sides).
• AOF orders revised so that individual unit orders will always override global orders. Resetting global orders will reset all individual orders.
• HQ’s & Naval units will now save movement points when save movement cost is selected
• Isolation determination phase adjusted; corrected a phasing issue for engineers clearing minefields.
• Removed undiscovered minefields showing on the jump map.
• Corrected railroad unit’s inability to move through stacks in a railroad hex.
• Fixed a defensive fire issue where indirect firing units were immune to defensive fire when the artillery dialog was open.
• Passengers that disembark from a fixed vehicle/carrier will become fixed.
• Nato Symbol for M3 Stuart corrected.
• HQ Symbols removed from vehicular HQ’s
• New scenario; #0708_07 Gresnoye by Jeff Connor
• New top down graphics for all units.
• Optional terrain, features & symbols files included (see appendix at the end of changelog)

Scenario Changes

#0704_01 Gertsovka
• Additional AI hold orders included
• All Soviet units begin in fixed status.
• +2 turns to 12 turns long
• VP’s dropped by 10 for each victory level
• New supply source in NE corner
• Supply source in (5,4) removed

#0704_01a Gertsovka
• Additional AI hold orders included

#0705_02 Hill 228.6
• +2 turns to 12 turns long
• Air support added for Axis
• Remainder of II./SS-PzGr.Regt.2 LAH enters on turn 6

#0705_03 III PzK - July 5: The Right Flank
• HQ in hex (43,46) moved to hex (48,46)

#0705_04 Krutoy Log - 7th Panzer through the Marshes (HTH & AI versions)
• HQ in hex (29,2) moved to hex (34,2)

#0705_05 Solomino - Swamp Tigers
• Victory points dropped by 5 per level

#0705_06 XXXXVIII PzK - July 5: The Left Flank
• Units in Hex (21,21) rearranged to (18,20) & (21,19). Hex (21,21) is now a minefield.
• Hex (11,12) now a Bunker
• Objective moved from (21,21) to (21,19).
• Breaks in the anti-tank ditch between (29,22) to (40,20) corrected.
• Anti-tank guns adjusted (various hexes)

#0705_07 Korovino - Clear the Hill (HTH & AI versions)
• Units in Hex (21,17) rearranged to (18,16) & (21,15). Hex (21,17) is now a minefield.
• Hex (11,8) now a Bunker.
• Anti-tank guns adjusted (various hexes)

#0705_08 Cemetery - Where the Panthers come to die
• Units in Hex (5,9) rearranged to (2,8) & (5,7). Hex (5,9) is now a minefield.
• Objective moved from (5,9) to (5,7).
• Breaks in the anti-tank ditch between (13,10) to (15,10) corrected.
• Anti-tank guns adjusted (various hexes)

#0706_01 II SS PzK - July 6: Breakthrough!
• Number of turns increased from 28 to 35
• Victory points increased by 300 for each victory level
• Hexes (28,90), (32,89) & (46,82) now fixed
• Totenkopf withdrawals changed to 50% chance from 1200
• Incorrect Totenkopf withdrawals corrected
• Soviet artillery at (16,48), (31,48), (31,49), (32,47), (36,55), (48,57), (49,58), (50,58), (65,38), (65,39), (67,39), (70,48) now unfixed.
• Soviet front line battalions release on contact with the enemy. This is determined on a battalion by battalion basis.
• AT Ditch breach added in hex (44,99)

#0706_02 Shuravlivny Woods - 155th Guard's Last Stand
• Added a hasty minefield to hex (15,5) and obstacles to (16,5)
• AT Ditch added between hex (0,7) & (19,15)

#0706_03 Yakovlevo - Breaching the Second Line
• Soviet artillery at (10,13), (25,13), (25,14), (26,12), (30,20), (42,22), (43,23), (44,23) now unfixed.
• Victory location in (25,16) moved to (18,13). The German player has to commit to the high ground on the left flank.
• Soviet front line battalions release on contact with the enemy. This is determined on a battalion by battalion basis.
• Axis smoke allocation adjusted to 20 fires.
• 1st Guards Tank Brigade armored car in hex (25,16) is removed and now controlled as a strategy option allowing the Soviet player to choose its starting location. This removes some certainty for the German.

#0706_04 Nechaevka - Das Reich's Full Force
• Soviet artillery at (29,3), (29,4), (31,4), (34,13) now unfixed.
• Soviet front line battalions release on contact with the enemy. This is determined on a battalion by battalion basis.
• Axis smoke allocation adjusted to 20 fires.
• All German StuG’s unfixed.

#0706_05 Pokrovka
• Full TRENCH in hexes (19,16), (19,17), (20,15)

#0706_07 Nepkhaevo - The Meeting Engagement
• Victory point value in hex (7,1) reduced to 50 from 100.
• Minor adjustments to the Soviet setup. Hex (24,11) and environs.

#0707_01 III PzK - July 7: If at First You Don't Succeed...
• Corrected mis-stacked units in hexes (34,34), (34,37).

#0707_02 Batratskaia Dacha - The House on the Hill
• Corrected mis-stacked units in hexes (8,9) and (8,12).

#0707_03 Iastrebovo - A Tale of No Crossings (HTH & AI versions)
• +2 turns to 9 turns long

#0708_01 Voronezh Front - July 8: While the Cats Away...
• Repositioned Soviet Katyusha batteries in hex (52,30)
• Minor adjustments to German setup

#0708_03 Kalinin - The Northern Attack (HTH & AI versions)
• Repositioned Soviet Katyusha batteries in hex (52,30)

#0708_06 Gostishchevo - 2nd Guards Tank Corps Attacks (HTH & AI versions)
• Minor adjustments to German setup
#0711_02 Oktyabrskyi State Farm - SS vs Para's
• Removed the release of SS-Werfer.Abt.102, the unit is not present in this scenario.

#0712_02 Hill 252_2 – Avalanche
• +3 turns to 15 turns long

Appendix – Changing terrain Graphics

New terrain graphics have been provided with this patch. Two new directories are now present under the ‘MAP’ directory. They are ‘Terrain – Default’ and ‘Terrain – Original’. Terrain-Default contains the new terrain graphics while Terrain-Original contains the originally released game graphics.
There are three different terrain graphics;
• Base terrain graphics; these are used for the base hex graphic with differentiation for elevations and ground condition. There are 12 files in all with Normal, Soft, Mud and Snow included with three zoom levels of 100, 50 & 25.
• Hex Features; these files include in hex features such as villages, towns, woods, fields etc. Items that are within a hex are usually within this file. There are 3 files in total covering the three zoom levels.
• Hex Sides; these files include all graphics that impact hex sides such as streams, rivers, bridges, cliffs etc. There are 3 files in total covering the three zoom levels.
• Symbols; these files include all graphics that modify hexes or are game markers such as fortifications, air strikes, supply sources, arrows etc. There are 3 files in total covering the three zoom levels.
• Primary; these files are darkened primary roads as compared to the original release for better visibility at lower elevations. There are 3 files in total covering the three zoom levels.

This patch will automatically replace the originally released graphics. If you would like to restore to the originally released graphics just copy the contents of ‘Terrain-Original’ back into your Map directory. This can be done selectively if only certain elements are to be changed. For example a player who wanted the original fortifications would have to restore only the Symbols files - the remainder of the new terrain would remain in place.
The ‘Terrain-Default’ folder is included to restore the new graphics after any changes are made with the Original graphics.





Here are some example shots with version 1.01;


This update goes beyond just some graphics tweaking but includes some enhancement to the game engine. An example is the new Fog of War changes. Units in hexes without a negative defensive value (think clear) will provide an indication of their size. The left most 'X' will now be a value;






Jeff Connor's new #0708_07 Gresnoye - The Thrust to the West scenario covering Liebstandarte & Das Reich's Panzer Regiment attack to the west on July 8th. This was the operation that was underway when Voronezh Front launched their first major counterattack as represented in #0708_01 Voronezh Front - July 8: While the Cats Away...






Here is the 'Cats Away' scenario showing a range of different terrain at the second zoom level;






Here is Nepkhaevo with the new terrain applied - current ground condition, normal, highest zoom level;






New top down graphics at Prokhorovka, ground condition soft;






200% view of the new top down graphics. More shading has been added to give depth and vehicle colours adjusted to match the side graphics. Finer details such as brown SS smocks and Soviet green helmets have been added;






Thanks to both John Tiller and all on the testing team who have assisted with getting the patch this far - all have been an immeasurable help.

Please feel free to post any observations or issues in this thread.


David

[Compass Rose]

I am sure I am not the only one who will have this reaction, but all I can say is WOW! That is one heck of an update.

Thanks to you and your team for being so dedicated to getting things right and being so open minded in welcoming customer suggestions and input.

I am very confident that all of your hard work will for sure pay off in the long run making this a very successful and popular series.

Thanks Again

[Gregor]

Thanks a lot!

Really an impressive list, looking forward to play more games in the future

[ComradeP]

Thanks for the hard work guys!

Gresnoye looks good.

• AA range calculation fixed – it was quartering the impact
• Breakdown percentages quartered in the PDT file (1 for both sides).

Thanks for these, they should certainly help. The breakdowns being corrected will be important for larger scenarios, like Ozerovskii.

Am I correct in assuming that AA values at range 0 are still doubled, with air units being as likely to be shot down by ground fire as before the patch? I'll still have to take some care with Stuka missions then, but it's nice that AA units work well now.

• Hard Fire modifier added to the PDT to allow scaling of combat results

This is quite vague, but initial tests show a slight increase in tank vs. tank casualties, although that might also be coincidental.

The revisions to fog of war will allow artillery to be used more efficiently, which is nice for the Soviets as they don't have to guess which of the two units is the 96 men double platoon unit and which is the 48 men platoon.

-

For a future patch, if gun vs. tank/tank vs. tank combat is indeed more lethal now, the main combat improvements (from my perspective) I'd like to see are:

-Units, particularly hidden units, being unlikely to be the target of return fire (particularly direct return fire) if they were not firing or moving (often, the return fire doesn't hit the firing/moving unit but hits some unfortunate unit also in the hex).

-Air strikes being more likely to target larger units, so you can no longer either game the system deliberately by placing a couple small units in a hex with a tank unit (for example) or have your HQ units take the hits. Few things are more frustrating than losing a Stuka to return fire by tanks without cupola/turret mounted MG's and then having the Stuka unit kill the HQ tank.

[Xaver]

Nice, i dont expect the patch today... even on this week, yea, i am very optimist

The improvement in look is good, lets see in play.

Ummm the hard fire modificator is global no??? the value affect both sides??? maybe could be interesting made it separate by side (you can avoid rework in other titles the hard attack value, you only need touch the HF mod to adapt to the title).

Well, i do the fast mod for minefields, when i have more time maybe i repaint the defensive works hex borders... i prefer use more visible colours (pink, orange, black...) and if i have a little more time i try move grey counters to regular army units and increase darkness in SS units.



PD: i read in the PzC thread that you need around 18 months of all works OK (no lotto luck, no womans on fire asking for more time from you, no zombie apocalipsis... the usual and daily problems hehehe) to complete a PzB title, IF i dont remember bad you work in PzB2 before the release of PzB1 (i remember a leak with Shermans...) well, all this to ask if we can wait for PzB2 around... september??? i need know if is a post summer release because my budget us under strict control... damn wif... i want say politicals


EDIT: i dont remember talk about Fog of War... maybe the problem i see is that in Nap titles it works ok because you have only battalions units but here maybe helps excesive to select better where use arty in mobile battles (maybe is interesting limit the spot until you do the first shot, i refer to see as you can see now the units in open with numberX you need target the enemy 1 time OR receive fire from enemy unit 2 times or similar), the idea is good and i like.

[ComradeP]

If it leads to too much cherrypicking of targets, maybe artillery fire limits per hex could be decreased a bit further, as they're still generous, or the number of spotters for corps/army artillery could be decreased.

[Xaver]

I see it more like use arty to finish units before they can scape... and not only arty, you can reserve full company fire and use over heavy damage units smaller units or secondary units.

Maybe something they can add (optional rule) a PDT value to made arty capable of "fail" the target and not hit the hex you want ONLY for heavy arty, mortars never fail the target, i think mortars needs a buff and this is a good indirect buff.

PD: are you working in a way to diference between battalions inside the same regiment/brigade??? something like add btl number in the black label where appear unit type name (ATR 1, 45mm 2 etc etc).

[enigma6584]

Most impressive. Thank you.

[Strela]

Thanks for all the positive comments guys.

I posted all the above at 1 AM this morning and didn't have time to provide a little further colour.

Hard Fire Modifier This value is currently set at 1 in the PDT, ie. it is not having an effect. The PDT entry impacts all hard attack shots by scaling the hard attack value. Putting a PDT value of 1.25 means that there will be a 25% lift in the base hard attack value (eg 20 would become 25). This applies consistently for both sides as the scaling for different weapons is already built into the values. We included this value to allow players to customise their games - if they want bloodier armored combat, increase the value. The same can be said for lowering the lethality by reducing the PDT value below 1. The main reason we didn't change the PDT value in Kursk is that it had an impact on other areas such as bunker attacks and we were concerned about tipping balance and other things out the window. We'd be happy to hear peoples experiences as they try various iterations of this variable.


Elevation modifier This value was already in game for units that were firing at a target up hill. The target unit was considered to be able to find hull down positions easily when at a higher altitude. We have now applied an inverse modifier for firing from height down at a target. This has been included for two reasons; firstly there is usually less impact of defensive terrain when fired on from above and secondly units are generally more vulnerable when taking fire through upper armour etc. these modifiers help to really emphasise why taking and holding high ground is a key military consideration. Important note, the elevation modifier is per height level. Being two height levels above or below doubles the modifier.


Fog of War changes No, you guys didn't ask for these! Ed Williams suggested that we have a look at this. When you think about the ranges we are talking about, units in the clear are pretty easy to see and size. We decided players could see whether a hex had more mass than another if there was little cover present. Hence the leading value being revealed. Obviously, this means units that are sub 10 reveal their actual size. This is deliberate and takes into consideration the fact that its pretty easy to determine size accurately - the less vehicles/men in a platoon, the easier it is to count them. As others have pointed out in this thread, it allows more 'intelligent' target acquisition whether with direct or indirect fire. It also means that moving in cover has an additional dimension of not revealing these size clues and should be another consideration when moving overall.


AA range calculation This should now work exactly like PzC/MC. The fire value is not doubled in hex - fly your stukas with (a little) impunity.


AOF changes The way to use these previously were confusing. Essentially a scenarios starts off with whatever the scenario designer has set. Its now easier to reset all values and customise individual units as required.


Isolation determination for engineers There were a few rare instances where engineers were being marked isolated despite clearing the minefield they were in.


Fixed vehicles and passengers This fixed an exploit where passengers cannot be marked fixed while loaded. This allowed players to unload passengers on fixed vehicles in the rear and move them. This is no longer the case as passengers will assume the fixed state of their transport at the time of disembarking.


HQ symbols removed from vehicles Players were getting too much intelligence from this status being shown in the NATO symbology on the counter. It has been changed back to the default for the company. The impact of this is offset somewhat with the new fog of war rules if a unit is moving in the open as it's size will be shown.


All else is hopefully self explanatory.


As far as having a head start on Panzer battles 2 - we did, but have redone a fair bit of what we inherited. For all intents and purposes it was a new game - so our minimum 18 months still stands...!

David

[ComradeP]

This value is currently set at 1 in the PDT, ie. it is not having an effect.

I thought as much after playing a Nechaevka PBEM turn, I guess the Panzer IV's in my test runs just had a good day.

I'm still worried about how likely it is for smaller, well-trained units to hold off a larger enemy force, and I fear Ozerovskii might be a painful experience for the SS in that regard. For Normandy, being able to hold off a large British tank assault with a limited force is also essential for the Caen sector.

By that time, you'll have Panzer IV's and Panthers mostly though, so your hard attack values are significantly better than those of the Panzer III's at Kursk as the Axis as well, but it's mostly the still limited opportunity fire that might do you harm.

This should now work exactly like PzC/MC. The fire value is not doubled in hex - fly your stukas with (a little) impunity.

AA fire values not being doubled is good. I realize the Soviets have few AA units in most cases and will as such have a limited chance of shooting aircraft down in most scenarios, but I felt the ground fire was too punishing and random pre-patch, so I welcome the changes.