[First Impression]

nice report.

thanks

For me, ToW3: Korea is a significant step forward since ToW2. Still there are some very annoying bugs present that thwart the effort put into development of this game. After playing five turns of North Korean campaign (with Historical Units Set option turned on), I'll try to point out both positive and negative aspects of the game in an objective and unbiased way.

Strategic mode

I will begin with the newest addition to the series that everyone has been waiting for - the strategic mode. The map of Korean Peninsula of PRK Campaign is divided into eleven areas (let's call them provinces from now on. More provinces are available in Campaign Generator. Something around 17 at once, so quite a lot). North Korean forces start the campaign with two of them under their control, each one containing pre-deployed battle groups: 203rd Tank Regiment and 1st Infantry Division.

The strategic screen is divided into four parts. On the right side is the very nice looking map, which we can zoom and move either by GUI buttons or by mouse drag/wheel. On the left side of the screen lies a panel with battle log, where information on campaign progress is displayed, available support and battle groups.

Each battle group can have up to two support types (Close support aircraft with Anti-Tank/HE/Fragmentation bombs, various light and heavy artillery including off-map mortars, tank reinforcements, etc.). Support assignment is achieved by drag-and-drop operation. Removal of already assigned support is accomplished also by drag-and-drop from the battle group icon back to the support placeholder. Strangely, this action also moves the map, which sometimes can be a little annoying. Placement of new battle groups is done the same way. Drag-and-drop from battle group placeholder to an empty province. I have not found a way to remove once placed group (not that I needed to).

Battle groups movement range is determined by their type and fuel they have available. Tank Regiment for example can move up to three provinces per turn, infantry division - only by one. Only one group can occupy the province at a time and the movement is done in real time, so you can't switch places of two neighbouring formations in any way. This can quickly lead to trapped units and front line choke up, if you're not careful and you fill rear provinces with new battle groups.

I don't know how it's with US of A campaign, but after three turns of PRK campaign I found my units disappearing from battle groups after having fought the tactical part of the game. (posts: 4, 5, 8 and 10 of http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=95541 thread) so after turn five I found myself unable to continue the campaigns due to lack of troops in the battle groups (even though I have not lost a single unit). I couldn't pull new, fresh formations to the front line due to every province on the way being occupied by other battle groups (and the units in the back of the front line was infantry divisions that can move only one or two, when motorized, province at a time). Unless this bug is fixed, and I'm pretty sure it's a bug, the strategic part of game is, well, unplayable for me.

Tactical battles

Here things are much better.

First of all, there are much less units participating in a single battle than in Kursk, which has a great impact on the overall performance of the game. It runs much smoother now. The Korean landscapes are very beautifully modelled and textured, with narrow mountain passes everywhere. Quite difficult terrain to fight in. In this circumstances even a small force can blunt or even completely stop enemy advance.

Battles are more dramatic and dynamic with tracers everywhere. Distant explosions and machine gun/small arms fire sound great. It's a real candy for eyes and ears.

The new fragmentation damage algorithms as well as the cover ground layer works extremely well, decreasing significantly infantrymen mortality rate. If in a proper terrain and with a bit of luck, troops, can survive even quite devastating bombardment. The Trenches-of-Death and suicidal weapon pits are finally gone. They now give very good protection against all kind of fire (with an exception of high mortar lobs). If under enemy small arms, machine gun or HE/Fragmentation shelling, you really want to crawl into them.

The new squad control system is really a slight change in squad selection. Now a single click on any member of a squad selects it as a whole. Selection of single soldiers is done by ALT-clicking him. It would work, if the advance order would dynamically adjust the position of the soldiers according to nearby cover and the direction they will be facing. Unfortunately group movement is just the same as in the previous instalments and strictly follows the formation shape you have currently selected for the squad (line, column, wedge, custom). It is not cover dependant. Therefore, I found the new squad control method very confusing, especially the ALT-click-a-soldier, so I quickly disabled it, thus reverting back to the old selection method which, I think, gives you much better control over pixel soldiers. Until the group infantry movement works like on the picture below, I think I'll stick to micromanaging.

You now have the ability to area fire with machine guns. This, with an addition of a new morale system (which works great), makes suppressing enemy positions very helpful during assaults. Under MG fire, the enemy will fire back only occasionally and if under very heavy fire they might even route. So give'em as much hell as you can before storming their positions. If a friendly infantry is close enough to hostile unit with low morale, the enemy might surrender. This is represented as a hostile unit becoming a neutral one. All inventory items being in his possession can be taken by your troops. I do not know though, whether the surrendered soldier can be saved, or not. Anti-tank gun crews will panic too if under heavy fire which is (in my opinion) much more realistic than having them remaining in their positions in some suicidal trance.

Heavy machine guns are now moveable which adds even more of tactical element, especially to defence missions. They, as well as mortars, can't be loaded on trucks though, but I rarely found the need to relocate them over greater distances.

Engineers have finally gained the ability to lay/clear mines which is carried out by two separate commands. Each engineer has either 10 anti-personnel and 2 anti-tank mines or X anti-personnel and 5 anti-tank mines. Engineer squad leader also has mines in his inventory but he cannot lay them, so I think this is a bug. You can queue mine-laying operations by holding SHIFT and clicking on the multiple points on the ground. Sometimes though, engineers stop laying mines from no apparent reason. Also, there's no information on finishing mine-laying orders (apart of a simple info that a mine has been placed), so in queueing - babysitting is required. Mines can really help in defensive missions if enemy tank activity is suspected.

Most of the maps have plenty of entrenchments available (still being a part of the map in this instalment), although only a small part of them are available for your units to man during the deployment phase. Still present, is an inability to move the units between the disposition rectangles either overlapping (see http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=95566 thread) or between disposition islands (not that there are any). There are nine tactical maps, all of which are not dependant on the province, meaning that you can find yourself fighting the same map ins different peninsula regions. Each map is divided into six types of engagement: PRK Assault, USA Assault, PRK Attack, PRK Defend, USA Attack, USA Defend and are located in the Generator/Campaigns/PRK or USA directories. Strangely, Mission Editor has trouble reading the files and asks for permission to save each XML into Missions directory. I think that's because the Mission Editor bundled with ToW3 is actually a ToW2 editor. The difference between each map's engagement type is in the location of disposition zones and unit type slots that can participate in the battle, so I think this, and the small amount of maps available, could make the campaign a bit repetitive after a while. There are also some errors with disposition zones. Some missions have multiple overlapping deployment areas or units outside of them. This can be fixed in the mission's XML file.

Sneak and movement types of orders have been removed from the game, so it's now necessary to babysit scout troops and order them to lie prone if enemy activity is suspected nearby. The lack of movement order in tanks means that if you want to advance the tank with its turret facing forward, you have to give it a rotate order first. So it's two commands now instead of one.

Unfortunately, the support a battle group has assigned, can only be used after you win certain amount of victory points in a battle. This means that you cannot use the support at the very beginning of the tactical phase, until you destroy some enemy materiel. While in case of an air support which requires ~500-800 VP it might not be a problem, you will find the artillery support costing 1000 to not be of much use. By the time you win 1000 or more points, it would be just mopping up the map from the remains of the forces you have mostly destroyed. So no need to call arty. I didn't expect that 1C will repeat that mistake from Kursk/Caen. I think that the cost can be zeroed by a player by a simple change in one of the files.

All in all, best in the series. But 1C has to fix that awful bug!

[Bug report]

Complete shutdown of TAW; Korea when retreat button is pushed with battle of Pusan.

Play American forces; Campaign US Counteroffensive.

Third Battle America forces attack North Korea in Pusan area. (

After retreat button you get retreat screen and after pushing'continue' button Defeat screen appears> move back to the strategic map but TOW; Korea shuts down completely and go back to Windows desktop.

[how to win Ón the Way to Tebessa?]

Im playing US in battle On the Way to Tebessa.

the German Power is extremly strong and I cannot even win in Novice mode.

what's the best strategy to win this battle?

['Best Game in 35 years' Award]

I remember playing with Airfix armies playing battles for hours and hours when I was a kid more then 40 years ago.. TAW2 bring back those great memories.

With a 30 inch screenplay in 2500x1600 resolution, the views are astonishing.

[Theatre of War 2 : Korea]

Announced in Russia:

http://photofile.ru/users/dizzy/3826138/

thanks for sharing..

['Best Game in 35 years' Award]

Good to see something other than those "unplayable" comments.

I too have seen amazing detail in both TOW2 and Kursk. The first patch for Kursk is a bit long in coming, but the internet attack and other issues can't be ignored.

This is 1C's flagship sort of, so we are confident in future support of the game, and expansions we will pay for.

Yes, it is always easy to comment badly on a game..

The gameindustry has exceeded the movie industry long ago but has shifted their game perspective. Twenty years ago or so, there were many simulation games on the shelfspace in retail and many on the horizon. Now it’s a dessert with a few oasis’s.. But I’m not complaining.

This game is immersive overwhelming for newcomers in this genre but take time to learn and be patience.

It takes true vision, dedication and leadership to build an simulation and push it to this level. As I wrote already and I will say again; IMHO, with almost every military simulation played over the last 35 years, to me; TAW2 is a masterpiece.

['Best Game in 35 years' Award]

The details are astonishing.. Artillery crews that look around when they are in rest or pushing the artillery to a new place. Tank crew jumping out of a severe damaged tank, taking cover. Platoon of soldiers taking cover in a open field. Etc etc. Amazing. What a great joy it is to play this game.

When commanding the troops in setup phase, you literally can look on the same level like soldiers, artillery or tanks are viewing the area. This feature is crucial for despatching your troops in the field.. Micromanagement every soldier giving him direct specific orders.

and what I like are the loooong battles.. if you think you are there, forget about it.. new enemy is approaching. there is always a catch.

C1, please give us more troops to command.. :-)

 

['Best Game in 35 years' Award]

C1 Company,

I follow this game since Codemaster announced it long time ago and

playing TAW2 for quite some time now, I can say that this simulation belongs in my top 3 games ever since I played PONG..

Yes, it's not perfect but nor am I.

Im giving TAW2 my personal 'Best Game in 35 Years' Award.

And let me tell you, that is quite some achievement.. with 35 years of solid gaming, I have played it all..

Being a Blue Ocean Strategist in real life, I admire the dedication, strong believe and focus to build this game that is not mainstream genre and only for a Niche market.

This game is so detailed it scary. Playing hours after hours without saving it gives you a good feeling what it's like to command a battalion. It's one of a kind.

Well done C1 company.

Im very curious what will be next.. bigger battles with more troops I hope.. Want to be able to command with troops that support an General command..

I know, I know, CPU issues.. But with SSD and more multicore CPU's.. maybe in couple of years?

regards

A big fan.

[Steel Avalanche challenge]

The only way to complete this mission (i think) to wait for enemy on reverse slope of the hill and behind houses on the station to shoot at their sides. First reinforcement is almost doomed, because they are forced to cross large open space under fire, but sometimes some of them make it to the station. Second one is vital to success, SU122 are only ones that can destroy Tigers from front with their 4 HEAT rounds. Use HEAT only against Tigers, shoot HE at other lighter tanks (122mm HE in most cases will take out Pz III and IV). Keep at least 2 of SU122s behind last buildings as last line of defence, they can kill last enemy tanks that wiped out all your other forces and bring you victory.

In short, avoid long-range frontal engagements: most German tanks in that period of war are tougher and have superior guns. T-34-76 should avoid frontal engagements against Tigers even on close range.

today I played the battle again and again and again. Honestly; played scenario at least 20 times. On Medium difficulty setting is a absolute no go. This scenario is not realistic if you need to win. 20X german tanks are just to much. a real shame..

[Steel Avalanche challenge]

In 'hold position' tanks will not rotate their hulls. Order them to 'rotate' to direction where you are expecting an attack, and then order them to 'hold position'. Tanks will rotate turrets to face present enemies, though, while SPG will not move (and thus ignore all targets outside of their narrow fire sector).

txs for your reply (I was aware of this) but any headsup on my question??

[Great game!]

Like most of us, played all strategy games. but this this is Mother of all strategy games!

[Steel Avalanche challenge]

Save every 5 minutes can't be the solution..

My 2 reinforcements are blown to pieces and nothing stays alive, unbelievable!

[Steel Avalanche challenge]

Im fighting and fighting, but the German tanks are overwhelming..

Destroying 15 tanks but still 8 remain.. tried serval tactics; waiting in country slopes, behind train stations claw strategy, hold ground strategy, concealment strategy.. nothing works. My soldiers are shot down if they heroicly sprint towards the enemy tanks.

any ideas, fellow generals?