First impressions

[Steiner14]

I'm very impressed. The game is more responsive, graphics are faster AND look better, the hotkey-menu is excellent and the action feels more realistic, fluid and logical.

Adjustable waypoints are a dream. Action groups. Yeah! Armor cover arc. Heavenly.

My impression is, that even the pathing of vehicles has been improved. At least i haven't noticed any silly minute long turning sessions.

I also have the slight impression, that units in big houses show a more realistical behaviour in the case of incoming fire (better self preservation?).

IMO the whole action feels more organic.

And playing the Italians is an interesting thing! So much to learn.

Amazing how the different nations feel different in a natural way. Great how the different doctrine of different nations can really be felt by the player and also results in slightly different tactics.

I also like the new order menu.

And what difference the shaders make, when watching the pixelsoldiers.

But there are also a few things i don't like. What i'm missing badly - and the adjustable waypoints remind me all the time about it now - are moving-paths being clickable: clicking a path IMO should select the unit like in CMx1.

In conjunction with this i think it would be even better if no unit is selected, and if "Show all paths" is activated, that all paths are shown (like in CMx1).

I'm also still sceptical, if the 60mm mortars are modelled correctly. In the game they still are extremely effective against entrenched units. Every ATG still seems to be toast within 1 minute. I don't know what the reason is, why they are like Wunderwaffen. Maybe the protection of entrenched units against mortar fire is to weak? Or is the spreading pattern still too less? Or a combination of both?

Currently the 60mms are a 100% guarantee to get rid of every entrenched ATG within one minute.

I also have the impression, that entrenched ATGs (but also other units) still can be IDd to easy. In combination with the 60mm über-mortars defenses still seem to easy to crack.

Regarding the learning effect: i'm still missing badly a unit data window. Wouldn't it be fantastic not only to have the old CMx1 unit data back, but also a second page with a short history of the unit? I know, Steve has stated that they don't have time to fill the content, but if a unit data window was available, i'm sure the community would fill it in no time with content.

The graphics engine also seems to be much faster and to scale better with an increasing size of maps.

A very, very nice product. I bet it will become wargame of the year 2012.