Nokturnal

Sorry mate, i should of clarified my post was mainly directed at the few complaints i've seen about the manual being too small and resulting in claims to never buy from them again and so on(some on other forums too). Those who feel the wording was inappropriate/misleading well that's an entirely different complaint and seems justified. I've still not got my copy so i haven't had a look at the 'manual' however i had suspected it would be much smaller simply because the game mechanics have not changed since ToW 2: Africa, so there wouldn't be much need to repeat what had already been explained and spend the extra $$$ printing full and complete manuals. Though obviously it would of been almost a necessity for those who don't own Africa but got Kursk anyway, as the game is difficult to grasp at first. That may be why i don't feel lied to, but i can certainly see how it could be considered false advertising. I only spoke up because i like to support developers who stick to PC gaming, this seems to be a dying breed. They may of made a few mistakes here and there, but they're sticking with us and trying so i gotta love em. Anyway i shall leave the discussion to others now, my 2 (or 4) cents have been given.

Wow, so much outrage just due to a manual not being what you had hoped. I can see where you are all coming from, i too bought the pre-order and was expecting a large manual, from what i've read here i may be dissapointed. However, the GAME is what i wanted and what i paid for, not the manual. I realise some got the pre-order purely for the manual, and that might make them feel as if they wasted the extra $$$ But is a little coloured booklet being smaller than expected really worth all the complaints and hatred? Does the company not produce good games that you enjoy playing? Or are you only here for the pretty booklets? (note the indicates an attempt at humour..) Personally i only got the pre-order so i could get the game on pre-order, the manual was a bonus. If it doesn't live up to my expectations it won't make me feel cheated or not want to purchase from the company again, maybe i'll just stick to buying the digital versions if i don't want to spend as much money next time. I buy games from Battlefront (or 1C) because i prefer the direction they take, realistic features, alot of replayability, WWII settings and so on. If you think about it, that's why you all come here too, for the games. So take it on the chin, learn your lesson and by all means keep giving your opinions on the matter - Just don't crucify the company for one issue, or maybe in the future we won't even have a manual to complain about, pdf or physical. Alot of other developers have already given up on even releasing a manual.

No worries mates, i had alot of fun with that tool in Africa that's why i went looking for it in Kursk. Not sure why it was renamed, but i guess it's because they had came up with the in-game generator. I'm just glad it was left in, it'll keep me occupied until the campaign becomes playable again.

Well...I can't edit because it's been too long, but the name of the file you want is Simple Editor. It's located in your ToW 2 Kursk director under the MissionEditor folder. With that i set up a quick 4v2 infantry squad battle as seen in pic below

There are two methods of creating missions. Using the generator allows you to simply choose the division (and whether it's large/small etc..) the other (must be mission creator or something) lets you pick the specific units and place them on the map giving yourself whatever units you desire and picking the start location etc..

Well you can always make scenarios yourself using the tools provided, by doing so you can organise the forces for each side and limit their # of tanks etc.. The mission generator (or is it battle generator) will make it a fairly easy task. Keep in mind though, the reason these missions probably don't occur in-game (they might, i've not completed it...) is because Kursk is well known for being the biggest tank battle of all time (or atleast of WW2) and because of this, it's more logical to have the missions revolving around tanks and other vehicles, as was the case in the war. Some argue that the battle actually showed the triumph of infantry/artillery over armour - But considering the issues people have with managing their infantry i don't think it would be wise to force people to try win the battles with infantry only.

Unfortunately i've experienced this too. I'm not sure if my PC would be considered "super" but it's deffinately not average. Windows 7 x64, i7 950 (3.0ghz i believe), 6gb RAM DDR3 and an Nvidia GTX 275. It runs perfectly when i throw together a battle with the generator, but the campaign missions seem to have too many units on screen and it becomes quite unplayable. I didn't have fraps running but it took about 30-60seconds for 1 second in-game to pass... I am happy to continue to play in the generator till these issues are fixed but i'm also curious as to how they came about? Tow 2 Africa ran fine, though i don't think i ever saw as many units on screen as there are in the first mission of the Kursk campaign.

Actually, it happened quite often - I'll agree it wasn't a rule, but more a suggestion if the tank happened to exhaust all ammunition and was in a position to use such a tactic. However there are over 50 accounts of tank-ramming being used in Kursk alone, so it's far from just a few anecdotes. It was recorded and described as a "tactic" especially in encounters such as Kursk. That being said, i don't think it would be necessary or worth while to be added as a feature in ToW Kursk. I'm not sure how much time or effort it would take to implement it, but that time should be spent fixing and updating the game rather than adding features such as this.

It does work, however i've noticed that when the game is paused it doesn't seem to allow for waypoints, the unit will just go to the final position you mark.

Not even out for 24 hours and we've got a patch on the way, very good to hear.

Yes, it will. I believe the "defend" command is more of a "rotate" button for vehicles/AT guns - That's how i've always used it. However, if you order it not to engage targets it will not fire or turn the turret. (haven't played in a while, but i believe this was how it worked..) Same goes with the movement command - If they are left on "free mode" they will engage at will, and if you order them to attack a visible target without having LOS, they will move until they are capable of targetting it. Whereas if you've told them not to move and then order them to attack a target when they haven't got LOS, they will not do anything unless the target moves and is able to be hit from the current location.

Well if Africa was anything to go by, we will be given the groups of missions for each playable force, with varying date/times that the specific battles occured on. The missions themselves should be moddable, though for information on that you'll need to speak with someone capable of doing such things. I recall people saying they were able to simply(well it may of been difficult..) edit a mission and add extra vehicles to make it easier to win. There was also a balance mod which added vehicles, mostly for the brits but a couple extras for Germany/America too. Which means if people are willing/able, we might see additional units in time. As for the generator, with Africa we were given the option of making our battle within the time frame of the African campaign, so i would assume it'll be the same with Kursk. Also we'll hopefully have freedom when choosing what units are featured in our custom-made missions so it should create quite a bit of replay-ability.

Well to the best of my knowledge it's got the same graphics, the only major difference in terms of visual is the nice green grass and new vehicles. As you pointed out the damage model info is new, also mortars (on-map) make an appearance, and we also now have the ability to select an area of fire (when targetting the ground, hold right-click and you can drag to select a wider area). The only other major feature i can think of is the new way in which points are implemented - You accumulate victory points for destroying enemy units and also (i believe?) accomplishing the tasks your superiors give but as opposed to only being shown at the end of the battle when improving your units abilities, they are now shown in-game and are used for calling artillery/air support and also for reinforcements. Additionally, when you return to the screen to spend your remaining victory points on improving your units, you can also decide which units receive medals (out of those who earnt it). I'm not sure if there are others but the manual might mention them. http://battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_flippingbook&book_id=16&Itemid=394

Uh, i don't mean to be a smart arse - But perhaps you should just research what happened in Kursk in 43? Below is the information from the Kursk homepage here on Battlefront. It explains what divisions you will be controlling, and the time frame. From that i'm sure you could find some light reading to pass the time until the game is released.

Quite a while? It hasn't even been a month yet. It's barely even been 20 days... They announced a Q1 release (i believe?..) and there is still another month before that period is over. http://www.battlefront.com/community/showpost.php?p=1182497&postcount=7 According to that, it's only a matter of days now.

MoW does indeed model armor penetration, however it doesn't seem as accurately done as ToW in my opinion. Though i believe they may of made it less realistic to make it more entertaining. If you want an example of how ToW differs from the others, set up a battle in the generator giving yourself 1(or 2..) Tiger tank(s) and put it up against 5-10 weak and useless tanks that wouldn't of been able to defeat a Tiger in real life. In a game like CoH you will eventually lose your tank(s) due to the hitpoints dropping, as you say a shot to the rear is more effective, but even multiple shots to the front of a heavily armored tank in CoH will result in it eventually being destroyed. In MoW, it seems that even the weaker tanks can get in a lucky shot on a heavily armored vehicle, i've lost tanks when i don't think i should of, but they have done a decent job with the angles and such. In ToW, they've followed history well and a tank that should survive, will survive. I've done something similar before on the flat open desert map that somebody put up in the repository, 4 Tigers against about 20-30 Stuart tanks. I don't think i lost a single tank, but they all were destroyed fairly quickly. Well that's what i've discovered anyway, there are folks from the 1C team that post here so they should be able to explain how MoW differs from ToW. In Kursk it will be alot easier to tell how they've modelled the penetration, because of that handy F4 button.

When you select to attack the ground you can either click a location and place a small square, or click and hold then drag your mouse to create a rectangle (a larger area of fire). You must of dragged it without realising..?

I believe what Sneaksie was saying is, you use the "attack" command, not the "attack ground" command. Meaning you select your troops, and tell them to "attack" anything and everything till they reach the location. Sort of like a "move and attack" command, as they used to have for Starcraft and other old RTS games. As for the comment about the grenades, i've noticed that too. It seems the best way to use grenades (other than letting the infantry do it themselves, which has deffinately improved) is to throw at the ground nearby. When i simply select the grenade and then do as you said, tell them to attack an enemy, they'll almost always get cut down before getting close enough to throw it. I've had a bit of success with the blindfiring at suspected enemy locations, i'm not sure if it's able to scare them into revealing themselves but it does occasionally kill some . Also quite an effective technique with AT guns that have alot of HE shells. But i think this would be more useful when playing against a human opponent, as they wouldn't know that you didn't actually have LOS they may be forced to get up and run.

You're welcome pcelt, and thanks Moon .

When told to move they will take no notice of the enemy and simply proceed to the location. (Infantry will move on the double) When they are told to Assault (storm), which is the default movement order when you right-click, they will move in short bursts and stop to fire. (or fire on the move if experienced enough) If you simply tell them to attack a target it depends on whether you have given them permission to move or not. If not, they will only attack when the target is in sight and then ignore it after it's moved out of sight. If they are allowed to move freely they will keep going after it, but they don't seem to take cover or try to keep concealed, they move as the crow flies and often this results in them being caught out in the open and getting taken out.

As they are using basically the same commands, you can take a look through the ToW 2 Africa manual located here: http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_flippingbook&book_id=11 The only command i can think of that isn't covered in that manual is the new hit damage hit info mode which you activate (and cycle through the few possible modes) with F4.

Just like to say thanks for the demo too Nice to have something to occupy the time while the full game comes. I like the new system of spending points after a battle. Choosing who gets promoted/awarded is a nice touch.

Thanks for the reply. I'll tell my mates to be quick about it if they want the printed manual.

Moon - Regarding the manual, purely out of curiosity..How many are being printed? 100s? 1,000s? Is it likely to sell out before the official release of the game? It's not a concern to me as i've already placed my pre-order, but some friends of mine probably won't be persuaded to buy it until they've seen me play it. Just wondering if they'll still have a chance to pickup the manual. But if not then they can still get it online so it's no big deal.

Apparently the game will be a stand-alone expansion, as the game files won't be combined, i doubt it will be possible to re-use troops from one theatre in another. Awesome idea though! Just finished the German campaign and i'd say most my surviving troops are eager to move on to Russia .