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blackbellamy

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Posts posted by blackbellamy

  1. keep your armor as tight as possible - if you spread them out you will have the advantage of covering the entire battlefield, but unfortunately when you see the enemy armor it will be rare that you will get fire superiority because not all your tanks will be able to bring fire to bear on one target.

    if on the assault, try to drive up one side so you can eliminate worry about one flank. send in the infantry and/or scout cars first, find the enemy, then move your armor to suppress and eliminate them.

    enemy tanks are not that hard to spot usually - your scout/lead element's main worry is to find any ATG guns, as these usually are not seen by your armor until they fire.

  2. "I really have to wonder how much time the author of these really has spent playing..."

    Why? Would that be an indication that I would be qualified to comment on an amateurish, confusing, and frustrating interface?

    Perhaps if I mention that I am a professional with years of experience testing user interfaces in particular?

    Users should not have to "get used" to an interface. They should not have to suffer for the lack of effort in that area, just because all the mechanics and rules are in there. A lot of developers fall into that trap unfortunately - they concentrate on gameplay and implementing all their rules, and meanwhile the users are looking at crappy graphics, nonsensical element placement, scrolling difficulties, tiny buttons, hard to read text, etc.

    I am a big fan of WiF. Unfortunately I will be staying far, far away from CWiF. I applaud the effort, but the developer spent approx 5% of his resources on the interface, then dashed off to make sure the convoy routes are being properly set.

    I challenge anyone here to download CWiF, then go to http://www.the-underdogs.org and see if they can find a crappier wargame interface from any wargame published since 1985.

  3. CM does have 3d graphics, but underlying all the eye candy is a super detailed and realistic tactical resolution system - i think that (and the excellent moddability) is the main draw for me

    as for WIF (the computer game), if you have ever wanted to look for an example of what _not_ to do with an interface, then just download the beta

    while WIF the boardgame remains my favorite ww2 themed game of all time, it's monster size and complexity does not translate well (or at all) into the current iteration

    you can't scroll the map with the mouse - you can only see like 20-30 hexes at a time (mind you this is a game with like a billion x billion hexes), and giving a unit orders can give you the fits

    the author is concentrating to make sure all the little obscure rules are in the engine (what is the chance tunisia will go allied when germans take over vichy? how about syria?), meanwhile the interface remains an archaic example of the worst of the EGA games from the 80's. Shiiit, Knights of the Desert from SSI had a better interface than CWiF smile.gif

  4. "- friendly aircraft now provide air cover for each others units etc.,

    this was actually part of the original design and always considered a bug on my part"

    whoa!! british air will now react to strikes on french units?

    that's pretty un-historical, no? i mean, british drawing supply from french sources i can overlook, but cap?

    you know, most games or simulations have specific rules prohibiting the french and the english from co-operating closely in order to simulate the historical friction...

    what reason do the americans have to build even a single air unit now?

    i'll try rebasing the entire british air force plus one hq to russia after barbarossa and we'll see how the germans do then...

  5. mincs it's too bad you are letting the game play you instead of you playing the game

    what, you don't like russia building cheap gay corps, so you are 'forced' into buying your own cheap gay corps?

    duh

    why don't you buy some air fleets, huh?

    i don't care if the russian has a double row of cheap gay corps - i can pound a hole in there with 6 air fleets, enlarge the holes with armies attacking their flanks, and then pour 3-4 tank armies through to cut everyone out of supply and create a nice fat zoc so next turn half my army pours through

    it seems like you WANT to play a world war 1 game

    that's fine if that's your style, but don't come here bitching and moaning how this game is gay and how it sucks when you're obviously NOT using air power and armor as it's meant to

  6. the capital supply rule leads to gamey play where you can surround the capital and not take it and the rest of country can't reinforce or build new units

    the same happens when russia is cut in half - meaning if german forces drive through and capture the map edge hexes north of stalingrad and south of the urals - the russian player will be unable to build anything in stalingrad and south of it

    imho the capital should not influence reinforcements and replacements at all - it makes for a nice victory condition but the capitals in ww2 did not serve as distribution center for replacements - historically in russia the soviets formed replacements wherever it was convenient - usually several hundred kilometers east of the front line, regardless of proximity to any population centers

    [ August 16, 2002, 12:49 PM: Message edited by: blackbellamy ]

  7. by the time you go against france you should have built the fourth air fleet

    no french army unit can resist 4 air strikes and 2 ground assaults

    no matter how skilled or fierce the french defender is, he cannot replace the dead units fast enough

    don't worry so much about achieving penetration - simply destroy at least one french army per turn and put a small hurt on one or two others

  8. they key is to be ready for russia

    you have to fight every battle up until barbarossa with two things in mind, first to not lose even a single unit and then to make sure all your units accrue max experience

    i take poland, benelux, france, denmark, norway, sweden - by then yugos are mine courtesy of the revolt and my minors are activated

    the swedish force transports to danzig and is ready to invade russia - after fighting in 3 campaigns all those units are at 3+ exp

    i buy nothing but research until maxed for both axis - i max out industrial, then crank out cheap airplanes, then research jets and build ground units, after which i switch research to anti-tank

    i fight russia normally, for the challenge of it, but if you want to be gamey about it drive a huge force to moscow and surround it, but don't take it - russia will be unable to build new units or reinforce - you can then take the rest of the country easy

    as for the allies, i don't contest any landing due to their airpower - i let them land and get into a battle of attrition in france - it works out well because the americans are low tech with their 10's and the wermacht is at 13 or 14 by that time

    the west front doesnt matter unless they break into germany - if russia falls you will have overwhelming forces coming back to the ruhr and kick the allies ass, so just concentrate on russia

  9. rofl

    i don't think you're meant to invade them i.e. they are only staging areas for incoming troops

    if you get to that point, increase the difficulty levels and fire up another game

    if you're _really_ into blowing up north america and want to make sure you can get ashore, build lots of aircraft carriers smile.gif

  10. Immer, I have also began to win consistently at +2 as the Axis.

    I have taken some steps to make the contest more even.

    I have adjusted Industrial Tech for the following countries:

    Britain: 2

    France: 1

    Russia: 3

    USA: 4

    I have left all other settings at default.

    As a result, France is a bit tougher to take, Britain becomes more invasion resistant, Russia is able to generate sufficient replacements to fill holes in their lines, and the USA becomes a true threat, being able to stretch their 180 MPP's a lot further.

  11. isn't hindsight wonderful? smile.gif

    i do agree that the bombing offensive did draw manpower away for the purpose of providing AA coverage, but the AA guns were manned by 17 year olds, old men, and others who were generally unfit for the rigors of front line combat, so i'm not sure exactly how much of a drain this was on the crack ss/wermacht formations fighting on the eastern front

    as for the diversion of german production towards AA resources, this is undisputable, but i believe the allies achieved this in non-cost effective way

    imho the resources given to the strat bombers should have been diverted to produce more fighter planes and tac bombers, which would have produced similar or higher attrition among axis fighter pilots, as well providing more firepower against front line german units, which might have given the allies better progress, especially through tough patches like the bocage country, and the mountains of italy

    those same resources could have been used to launch overlord earlier, and with greater material resources

    im not disputing that the bombing offensive produced results, but i believe that the amount of resources used and the tremendous amount of allied airmen lost (>50,000?) was way disproportionate to the results achieved, especially during the first 2 years of such bombing

    the one place where the strategic bombing offensive _did_ produce cost effective results was the bombing of Japan, which while not as effective against industry (the Japanese would have fought with sticks if they had to), did produce the realization among the Japanese leadership that the Allies would not land in Japan until each and every one of their cities was a devastated smoking ruin

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