OK I'll get this

[Nikki Mond]

I'll tell you why I sat on the fence playing the demo but decided TOW has perhaps some really good gameplay to offer. You have to play by its rules to appreciate it. Oh, and there are a few annoyances too, I'll get to those later.

So I can win the demo hands down Typical Score, my losses:

soldiers 47, Tanks 4, bunkers 2

Enemy losses:

Soldiers 184, Tanks 24

I realized all soldiers must be yanked away from trenches and hidden in dead ground on the rear slope gullies or rear farm areas to survive. I purchased 2 tanks and 2 tank destroyers, placed them on the rail road track in the valley. They nailed 3 tanks on the bridge. Good scripting to see the remaining russian tanks try to flank me around the canal. My same 4 tanks spun around and waited for the flanking force. They took out 8 more, but the enemy force in total was 24 so eventually they died one by one. But my boyz put up a good fight.

Now micro of my infantry. I appreciated that I did not feel rushed micro managing my infants. I actually had microed my soldiers to throw Panzer vermins and took out 2 SU 100's. I had a critically wounded rifleman and a squad leader shooting ruskies as they ran into the farm yard one by one. Only thing is I "had to" target these russians. The rifleman did not really react to them? Is it the critical injury status that caused it or bad soldier AI?

Just then reinforcements showed up. I knew to send most of the force down the other side of the hill. And had my panthers snipe at the tanks below.

I do like the AI scripting of the Demo. Seemed smart or I played into it. I don't mind hitting the space bar to pause, as a matter of fact I recommend doing it to avoid wasting valuable seconds when issuing target orders. And the experience points you get after battle gives a real sense of following units within the campaign. I awarded tank gunners 100% experience points, hmmm that should help in the following battle maybe?

Some annoyances:

Tank facings, should not change, nothing like a TD exposing its ass when I know better where the T34 is. As soon as the T34 dips out of site the TD wants to rotate away. Hold position means hold position N'est Pas?

Not knowing what my units can see, or what they are targeting. Even Kampfgruppe allowed you to cycle visible targets from the unit menu.

Well I'm gonna get it. The minor annoyances are likely easy to be fixed. And if this game is successful then it may evolve to an even better TOW2. And heck it is perty.

[SlapHappy]

I believe "Hold Position" should at least mean "don't change the hull facing" in the case of turreted tanks. Or maybe it already does?

[Spacehusky]

Nope. Your Tiger will happily turn toward the tank it sees 2000 meters away while a tank emerges from the direction you told it to face and puts a shell in its behind.

[nonickch]

Yup, there needs to at least be a distance modifier on the algo that decides where the unit faces. Mebbe a threat modifier too.

Ofc, there is dire need of a way to stop the unit from changing facing completely. What's the point of having a scout if he refuses to look at the area he's supposed to be scouting?

Who cares if there's a single infantry 1km away on the opposite direction?

[Destraex]

I would hate it if hold position meant act dumb and never change facing. If you want to do that use AT guns. Perhaps using defend aswell as hold position after stop?

[Spartan]

I agree with the comment about micro management. I believe although its hard to tell that I am having to target individual enemy soldiers.

Mike

[FinnN]

Originally posted by Destraex:

I would hate it if hold position meant act dumb and never change facing. If you want to do that use AT guns. Perhaps using defend aswell as hold position after stop?

Unfortunately I sometimes have had AT guns do exactly the same thing - rotating 180 to pick off some panicking vehicle crew whilst tanks advance through brush, even though hold position and hold fire are both selected.

Have fun

Finn