Delaware Dave

Post the proposed table of contents and possibly the index and let us comment and suggest additions to them. ------------------

I WANT IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please.

mtsbwy1@cs.com

1)A Time For Trumpets - an excellant account of the battle of the bulge. 2)Saving the Breakout - the 30th division at Mortain 3)Tenozan (sp?) for those of you interested in the war against Japan.

I read an account (I think that it was in A Time for Trumpets) of a German tank firing a flare a little behind some American tanks. The American tanks were then silhouetted and made excellent targets. In addition to being silhouetted, the American tanks could no longer see very well as they were basically standing next to a light source and looking into the dark.

Perhaps he is search of tactics for ski troops?

what happens to the pov if the unit in question bite the dust?

Are contour lines in the works? Since most of us can read a contour map and troops are given contour maps to navigate by, it seems logical (maybe fuzzy logic) to have the option to overlay the contours over the battle map. It would aide playability (yeah!) and only take a little away from the graphics (some sacrifices must be made). [This message has been edited by Delaware Dave (edited 09-08-99).]

Taking a lot of prisioners can pose a true tactical problem. In WWI sgt. York captured about 10X the number of men in his patrol and had to escort them to the rear. A variety of things(all bad)can arise from this situation. Similar (but more on a stategic level) problems occured in Iraq with the surrender of thousands of Iraqis to patrols, cameramen, reconnaisance helecopters, etc. Conversely, I don't believe that prisioners in WWII were used as human shields very often. It would make them very disinclined to surrender in the first place. Clearly what is going on in this game is an aberation. The question is what to do with it. Perhaps some historical guidance is in order.

I think that the 64 sq. ft applied only to the opening in the room (i.e., windows). If the room had no windows or doors it would would have to be huge before it would be safe to fire a back blast weapon. The propellant is basically a high explosive under going a low order detonation. No shrapnel, but you have to dissapate the resulting overpressure. I used to have that info when I worked for ICI explosives but don't have it any more. My wild ass guess to safe room size would be around 20'x20'.

Certainly individual soldiers from all of the countries involved in WWII displayed acts of heroism, cowardice, and self sacrifice. Maybe the "flavor or national trait" that everone mentions is best represented on a micro scale and not in a general modifier to all of a certain sides forces. Squads or individual soldiers may become fanatic / cowardly / berzerk / etc. This would keep the game from becoming to formulaic (i.e, if I shell and fire on a squad for three minutes, then the enemy will be so surpressed that I can just walk in) Just another thought to think about. ------------------

Do you have any plans to incorporate an after action report to the game. It would be interesting to know how many units were put out of action by artillery, mg's, etc. I had another question brought about by the city fighting. Can you place a satchel charge on a wall and create your own door. Or an opening in some boccage. ------------------

I assume that terrain that is on fire can not be occupied by any units. If so can a unit with a couple matchs (or a flame thrower) set the terrain of fire on purpose? This could be hell on the attacker if all the cover he tought he was going to have suddenly went up in smoke. ------------------

If the tank engines won't freeze during the game, are you impling that there might be some immoble tanks at the start of the game. It could be interesting on defence to see a couple tanks immobile at their lauger sites.

I have noticed a flaw (at least from my view point) in several other games. The flaw is that infantry and other weapons can fire though the path and location of another friendly unit which is advancing toward the enemy and no adverse effect happen. I would expect either reduced effectiveness of the supporting fire, friendly fire casualties, or forcing the advancing units to crawl to avoid being shot in the back. Do you take this into account?

I'm new to this forum, so if I ask a question that you have already covered before, feel free to just point me in the direction of the answer. And now the questions. 1) In non hex based systems tank movement can be called erratic at best. I have seen tanks come up to an opening and for one reason or another turn their side armor to the enemy. Are you installing some kind of AI to prevent this? 2)Tanks that could not be killed when they only presented their front armor would occasionally panic and their inexperienced crews would turn side or rear armor to the enemy. This is represented in Steel Panthers by a routed tank. In Steel Panthers the routing tank gets to run away with out the enemy having a shot at his vulnerable armor facing. Are you going to add a non good order retreat to your rout / surpression AI. 3) When a tank crosses a wall / fallen tree or other low obsticale, they often showed their belly armor and were very vulnerable. Do you account for this? 4) Armor in rugged terrain (and in normal terrain too) would break down, throw a track, etc. It became very important to have control of the battlefield to recover the losses. Do you address this? 5) Vehicles have momentum and energy, it takes a while to get up to top speed, brake, etc. Ambushes were often set up to take advantage of the fact that these vehicles would have to slow down to take a sharp curve or climb a steep hill. Do the law's of physics apply to your electronic vehicles? ------------------