Panzer Battles Demo - Released!

[Jagger]

I enjoyed the demo so much that I bought Battles for Normandy.  Interesting to the see the size mix of scenarios in the Normandy game.  Quite a number of corps and army size battles.  Myself, I couldn't possibly see doing larger than division size and fortunately, there are a large number of regiment/brigade and division sized scenarios.  Now I just need to figure out how to play the game well.   After a few quick scenarios, I seem capable of putting together a reasonably respectable offense but I am having trouble putting together a decent defense.

Also I would really like to see human deployment of setup forces.  Considering the amount of time and effort required to create a quality scenario,  variability in initial deployment would significantly extend the life of most scenarios.

[wiggum]

Will you update the sounds for PZB 3 ?

Especially EP '14 has some far superior gun and explosion sounds. Would it not be possible to use those ?

[Punisher]

I also bought "Panzer Battles of Normandy" last month as I couldnt wait for the Demo to come out. The only thing Battles of Normandy is missing is smaller scenarios . I love the counter graphics and maps but I gravitate more to Squad Battles size because of time constraints. I hope we see more small size battles coming soon for Panzer Battles Normandy :) Excellent work on the Demo and good mix of both the Eastern and Western Front, as well as the Mediterranean and Pacific theaters!

[Xaver]

The French T activations for Hannut might favour the Germans too much, I'm sceptical about the chance of the French repelling a concentrated infantry assault. They don't have much infantry, and there's no reason to go to the northern part of the map.

French infantry also suffers from the same problem as Soviet and British infantry in this engine: their SA values are just too low to deal with German motorized infantry. Allied infantry tends to get murdered by those 11/12 SA A quality units.

Was the scenario initially tested with unfixed French forces or French forces activating 1 or 2 turns after the German forces? I can think of several ways to crush the French with a human wave supported by tanks currently, where most of the French forces remain out of play for the entire game or until it's too late.

If the Soviet player uses his tanks correctly, Bogodukhov is likely to get messy for the Germans.

Flanking Kharkov makes for an interesting man vs. tank scenario, though the length of the scenario can be a problem for the defender (like in Normandy, where a number of scenarios are so long that the defenders are grinded into a pulp over time).

Mersa el Brega makes for a nice war of movement type scenario, both sides have a chance to do well I'd say.

Tenaru is rough for the Japanese. The Marines might be overrated at B quality. Trained but untried units are D quality in Normandy, and most of these marines would still be green, so maybe C quality for facing opposition during the initial landing. I don't know much about the combat history of the Japanese units involved, so I can't comment on them deserving their B rating or not.

From my experience in PzC Hannut scen the option for a french human player VS another human player is the use of armor to improve the infantry defensive value to prevent they be overruned... at same time concentrate arti and fire over german infantry to burn it because german armor cant move french armor ussing assaults.

In PzB i feel is similar but worst because damage german infantry is slower and harder because is to split... you are not going to suffer masive battalion fire inferno like in PzC but the company fire is strong enough but damage them is harder but even the platoons can do a great job smashing french infantry... maybe made germans B quality??? at least infantry??? could be a variant.

For me Hannut scen in PzB needs an alt version where introduce incremental release options for french units... something like start at 5% in turn 1 and every turn increase it a 5% extra... in 10 turns you can have 50% release chance... the idea is add them at battalion or company level to simulate a certain iniciative in french side but very chaotic with not a clear idea of what could be activated and when... this help to made less predictable french reaction for german player.

Tenaru as you say maybe needs a variant with C quality for marines... and add extra units for japanese.

Mersa... maybe a variant where add some italian reinforcements and more troops for british... the scen "Rommel delayed" from Tobruk title is a good base, i notice the presence of an extra RTR in the OOB... that M13-40 are pretty and add them in a variant with full british OOB in battle + 1 italian unit to help germans...

I have here a question about scen edition... is possible create a new OOB were you only change the quality of troops and use it in an scen??? i refer open the scen, save it as alt version and change the OOB used in alt version for the alt OOB???

Ummm the coding of certain units NATO symbols in portrait used in Demo is going to be used in new titles??? because made modding harder... if i want have now in black SS units i need open all the portraits hardcoded in grey to copy paste over them the black NATO symbol... or use the portraits from PzB1-2

[Strela]

Yes you can copy the OOB's and modify/create your own.

So yes, you can create your own ALT scenarios if you like.

As far as 'hard coding' of graphics for the unit images, it was done the same way in PzB 1/2. You can remove the hard coding if you want and once done you can change to your hearts content...

David

[Strela]

Will you update the sounds for PZB 3 ?

Especially EP '14 has some far superior gun and explosion sounds. Would it not be possible to use those ?

Wiggum, thank you.

You know what - I never knew that.

Now testing those sounds in the PzC series and wow - what a difference. I'll look at what I can do for Panzer Battles.

Thanks for the heads up.

David

[Hoplite1963]

Hi Strela

Really like the new Panzer battles demo, it is particularly good to see some 1940 coverage. However at some point are their plans to update the documentation that comes with it “users manual” “help files” etc to cover the new toolbar buttons ?

Many thanks
Ian

[wiggum]

Will you update the sounds for PZB 3 ?

Especially EP '14 has some far superior gun and explosion sounds. Would it not be possible to use those ?

Wiggum, thank you.

You know what - I never knew that.

Now testing those sounds in the PzC series and wow - what a difference. I'll look at what I can do for Panzer Battles.

Thanks for the heads up.

David

I already replaced them. I just skipped through them side-by-side and replaced the PzB Sounds with the EP14 Sounds which is easy since they portray the same weapons/situations and have the same file names.

I also fiddled around with the maps some more.

Adjusted the "cliff" hexsides to be less huge for European and Russian maps:


Made a special version of these subtile height hexsides for the desert maps:


Modified the Pacific maps to, well, look more like a Pacific Island:


Having these folder structure is great. I think it also would be possible to have different Turnbox and Blankscreen Artwork for each "theater".

Maybe this could expand to the sounds too. So the pacific could get a different background sound with a bit of ocean in the background and the desert could have a bit wind noise.

So many options for making PzB more immersive !

[Strela]

Hi Strela

Really like the new Panzer battles demo, it is particularly good to see some 1940 coverage. However at some point are their plans to update the documentation that comes with it “users manual” “help files” etc to cover the new toolbar buttons ?

Many thanks
Ian

Thanks Ian,

It's on my very long to do list. I'll probably look at this for PzB 3 and retrofit back to the other titles during an update phase.

I had done a very big pass on the manuals just under 12 months ago and am not looking forward to doing it gain... one of those necessary evils - particularly for the Demo which is targeted at new players.

David

[Strela]

Thank Wiggum,

Yes I agree it's easy, I just want some feedback from the team before doing a blanket change.

Very cool imagery.

David