Rapier

Played the first german mission on normal setting. I won the mission comfortably - my losses were 2 men from a scout team, 1 aircraft shot down and 2 panthers were tracked but no tank crews hurt. The game and scenario ran nicely throughout and I did enjoy the battle. However, a number of things occurred that seemed strange. After setup I began by crawling 2x 4 man scout teams forward to look over the ridge line. This is post patch so the scouts have their 90 scouting ability. I also had the men hold fire. Unfortunately, all this achieved was the deaths of 2 scouts. Russian artillery targetted them and eventually killed 2 men. At no stage was any infantry or artillery visible on the russian ridge. This doesn't seem right to me. I folowed up by moving my 4 panthers across to the eastern side (right hand) of the map and moved forward approximately where the road travels north crossing the anti-tank ditch. As my tanks came through the trees they received significant incoming fire. Multiple targets appeared and the panthers began engaging. I don't really see why infantry, HMGs and artillery all became visible once the panthers appeared but nothing when my scout infantry were being fired upon. I moved 2 panzer IVs and 2 stugs on to the ridge to join the ensuing duel. The duel turned out to be fairly one-sided with only 1 panther sustaining damage to its tracks. Once I gained 500 points I was given artillery support that proved extremely deadly. However, the game dynamic for artillery support seems strange. When I spend 500 points I can click the artillery button. Right clicking a target is no problem. Obviously I don't want to expend all artillery on the same target. Left clicking the support button stops the firing but the button becomes greyed out and un-usable again. When I accrue a second 500 points the button becomes active again. Pressing the button to re-target a new location for my artillery does not cost another 500 - I just can't re-target unless I have accrued the 500 points again. That doesn't seem right to me. Ground attack aircraft support cost 1300. The support was ok but did really seem worth the cost. A second wave of aircraft also cost 1300. I lost one aircraft to a HMG (I'm guessing as the russians had no AA guns). This cost me a further 500 victory points. Quick question regarding the vistory points: Are they used to allocate resources for the next mission? For example: If I hadn't used my 2 airstrikes and had completed the mission with the same outcome would I have 3100 extra points (2x 1300 airstrikes + 1x 500 downed aircraft = 3100) to spend on the next mission? After dealing with most of the russian artillery I tried to cross the anti-tank ditch. Counter intuitively I couldn't get my tanks to cross where the road crosses the ditch. The next crossing to the west proved adequate. I managed to get 2 panthers across before the third panther was tracked right on the crossing. Not sure what disbaled it. However, the 2 remaining panthers with supporting fire from my ridge proved adequate for clearing the russian trenches. I brought up a unit of infantry to capture the first objective. Holding the town (second objective) proved very easy. The 6 russian tanks in the counter-attack were dispatched with no losses to my men. In summary: 1. I don't see why my scout teams can't see artillery firing at them? 2. Why did all manner of russian units become visible once the artillery started firing at my panthers? 3. Is the dynamic of how artillery support is called working as intended? 4. Do victory points inside a mission relate to available points for the following mission? 5. Why couldn't my tanks cross the AT ditch using the clearly visible road? Any replies to these questions would be appreciated.

I've just received my email telling me my pre-order is ready for download! Unfortunately I'm at work for another 4 hours....

First time I tried this mission I sat and waited for the panzers to breakthrough.... and was owned Second attempt I raced my 3 stuart tanks through the centre pass to come up behind some allied artillery. My tanks supported the allied artillery and stopped them being out-flanked. Both my light tanks and the artillery were able to score side shots on several panzers. This small force did well but was overwhelmed. However, they inflicted heavy enough casualties that my 105mm artillery (waiting at the bottom of the first pass) were able to take out the rest of the german assault.

Beyond the Faid Pass - straight forward attacking mission was fun - played mission twice but both times my tanks were owned by the final counter-attack and therefore I had to be saved by 2 supporting allied tigers (it felt like I didn't really win it) Sidi Bou Zid - I enjoyed this mission because it's the only real defensive mission and I get to kill everything with 88s !!! Sbeitla - interesting map with interesting challenges in the mission - a mix of close quarter and long range combat Kasserine Pass - again, interesting map and nicely designed mission - quite restricted conditions to operate within (I believe many would find this frustrating) - challenging mission for me as I had numerous tanks disabled from side shots - need to use the cover to your advantage, can't try rushing this mission Thala - easiest mission for me (almost too easy) - could get good angles on most enemy artillery and engage them one at a time. - airpower was deadly - counter-attacks walked straight into my fields of fire and got slaughtered Tebessa - straight forward attacking scenario - loved it because only mission I get to use tigers !!! Summary: Liked them all but best mission was Sbeitla, closely followed by Kasserine Pass. Worst of a good bunch was Faid Pass because it felt like I lost and was only saved by my allies 2 tigers.

Thanks Moon. Will do.

I've recently ordered a CD copy of ToW2. While I was waiting for it to arrive I thought I'd play some ToW. I re-installed ToW from my CD and when I started the game it asked me for my license code. I input the licence code but was told I have used all my allocated copies. Over the years I've upgraded my PC as well as a hard drive failure or two and, at a guess, have loaded ToW my allowed quota of times. Now it seems I can't play ToW even though I originally bought the downloaded version and a CD copy as well. Is there anything I'm able to do to be able to use my CD copy of ToW?

No matter what else is said here, the fact is that there are times when your tank is loaded, has LOS but refuses to fire. The enemy which has a more difficult target is firing at you but your tank sits there waiting to die. It is possibly the most frustrating bug in the game. It happens. No matter how others try to explain it. Using "area fire" is a work-around for this bug. A poor work-around but at least your tank fires....

I won't get into the argument about what units should be in the game or not. However I certainly agree that the lack of a quick battle option will severely reduce the longevity of ToW. IMO the quick battles should use a select group of maps. You should pick how many players, how many assets and, possibly, a game time period. Click "Go" and you're in business. I can't believe that this is so difficult as to have not been able to be put in the original game.

I think my starting AT capability was 4 AT guns and 4 T34s. Early on I received 3 T34s in the left reinforcement area. Later reinforcements are 1 SU and 5 T34s on the right and 3 T34s and 3 SUs on the left. With those sort of assets the mission is quite doable. All the germans appear on the map from one direction. It is relatively easy to approach up the left and right sides of the map completely hidden. Therefore, getting side shots on the german armour is not hard. As previously discussed the ferdinands only need to be tracked. Only 3 tigers appear. They split up and attack seperately. Concentrating numbers on each isolated tiger will win the day. I like this mission because it one of the few where the player has large numbers of armoured units.

The context of my post related to allowing an infantry squad to be caught in the open by armour and then expecting the "AI" to save them for you. Or having to individually target enemy soldiers with your own tank... I personally don't mind micro-managing my troops but I do understand that some people don't enjoy playing games that way.

If you wish to make the game easier.... you can via difficulty level or modding. Simple fact. I've had problems with freezes and have had to use the ToW_1.4.exe file to play post patch. Have just finished the first 2 Moscow missions and won both on hard setting... on first attempts. No save / reloads btw as I think thats just abusing the random number generator. If I lose a battle I will restart it from scratch. Yes you don't have many T34s... I'm sure that historically correct. However, I hide my AT guns and only opened fire when panzers were within 500m. You have a large numbers of AT rifles and normally there is another soldier beside him with 50 extra rounds. The RPG-40 grenades are simply awesome. Once in range they rarely miss. Since the patch it would appear infantry are easier to keep alive. Its even possible to sneak a man close to a tank now. Losing battles continually will mean your men are inexperienced. Thats the way the missions / campaigns are designed. [ July 03, 2007, 06:53 PM: Message edited by: Rapier ]

Spartan The game designers don't want to program the game so all you do is start the mission and then sit back and watch the battle. The AI shouldn't do everything for you. It is purposely designed so the AI will do some fairly basic stuff for you. However, it has to be tuned ( "dumbed-down" so to speak ) so the player controlling the units will deliver a better battle result.

Ta mate. I will try that.

------------------ bus said.... It’s really odd since this is the first game which is lacking out on my computer , and I can only say that other have told. This game is a really mess. It’s sad because ToW seams to have so much potential… ------------------ Plenty of other games play just fine on my PC too. I am getting very frustrated by having to mess around with my computer settings due to what I can only surmise are programming deficiencies.

I have exactly the same problem as Tom Sims. When I first starting playing ToW the issue was happening regularly and often. I was unable to finish any mission without "hanging". I checked the boards and turned off shadows and maxed pagefile size which helped. I was able to run for several hours now but would still occasionally hang. Since applying the patch last week I now hang continually again. I even had a runtime error during the first Moscow mission. I have tried missions from the new Moscow add-on and old missions. I am back to square one and unable to complete any missions with hanging / freezing / not responding. Good game guys but getting past a joke.