Couple Questions..

[SlyBelle]

I'm trying to determine if I should take the plunge...can't really decide between this game and the Panzer Command games from Matrix.

I did download the demo, but couple of questions:

1) Is every battle huge? I find it very difficult to manage games that have tons of units I have to monitor.

2) How exactly does the battle generator work? Is there a screen shot somewhere that shows the options?

3) When in the game, how can you easily tell what soliders are in the same unit? Is there a way to see visibly who the leader is and then place orders to only them? It got very messy fast for me and could not in the heat of battle tell who belonged to who.

Thanks!

[Thork]

I don't really know Panzer Command but...

1. the map size is 2km² - even a little too small I think...

Max Units are limited - don't know the correct number but It's manageable if you pause a lot... Anyway It's a lot of micromanagement which I like...

2. I don't have the Uberpatch yet... but It should be pretty simple depending on some given parameters/options...

Results should be fine as far as I've read.

3. It's pretty simple to tell every soldiers unit, role, name, leader... but you still need a lot of micromanagement because you need to give orders to individual soldiers at many occasions.

Still you won't get stressed "in the heat of battle" if you just use the pause...

I think many ppl complaint because of micromanagement because they don't use pause as much as necessary.

Anyway, I like it

[SlyBelle]

Thanks for your thoughts....the thing that has me most worried is the micro-management....may be a little too much for my taste, although the graphics and such are very appealing to me.

Maybe after the future add-on it will take care of some of the micro-managing.

[PanzerkwVIIIMaus]

it's easier than you think it is sly. it isn't like have 4 guys give covering fire and send 2 to flank. mainly, it's to have them capture heavy weapons and support armor. by supporting, i mean like taking out at guns and keeping tanks distracted

[helm123]

SlyBelle,

It all comes down to the amount of micromanagement you feel comfortable with. I myself really dont like to micromanage anything so this has really limited the game for me.

Not a fan of RTS at all, but I figured that hell Id su8pport battlefront.

[MG TOW]

I played panzer Command and its a fine game also in its own right. But my preferrence is TOW. I find the turn phases in PC a little disjointed for my taste. And I don't like the abstract infantry. But in PC infantry can occupy buildings.

In Tow everything is in motion. No abstraction. They are actually really different Games and not comparable. They only look the same in a picture and there the similarity ends.

below is a screenie of the battle generator. You have to step through a handful of screens. First you select the map, map size, deploy area, who attacks/defends NEXT, then you select the players and the units, NEXT then select the offmap support, weather etc. Its NOT clunky at all, quite logical, but it is utility-like. The homemade battles come out pretty good.

[ March 16, 2008, 11:35 AM: Message edited by: gundolf ]

[SlyBelle]

Originally posted by helm123:

SlyBelle,

It all comes down to the amount of micromanagement you feel comfortable with. I myself really dont like to micromanage anything so this has really limited the game for me.

Not a fan of RTS at all, but I figured that hell Id su8pport battlefront.

I guess maybe I wouldn't mind micro-management so much if it wasn't combined with other elements. Meaning, if it was a small scaled game and more turn base, that would allow me to pay more attention. But from what I understand of TOW, it is real time, plus large number of units, and requires micro management. Just might not be a good combination for me, althought I have to admit I like the graphics and the fluid nature of it a tad better then Panzer Command. Although a new version is coming out that seems to have a lot of interesting features.

[SlyBelle]

Originally posted by gundolf:

I played panzer Command and its a fine game also in its own right. But my preferrence is TOW. I find the turn phases in PC a little disjointed for my taste. And I don't like the abstract infantry. But in PC infantry can occupy buildings.

In Tow everything is in motion. No abstraction. They are actually really different Games and not comparable. They only look the same in a picture and there the similarity ends.

below is a screenie of the battle generator. You have to step through a handful of screens. First you select the map, then the area, whoo attacks/defends NEXT, then you select the players and the units, NEXT then select the offmap support, weather etc. Its NOT clunky at all, quite logical, but it is utility-like. The homemade battles are come out pretty good.

Thanks for the screenshot and description. Now it has me interested since I'm thinking I could really easily create my own situations where I can limit the amount of units I need to command. Interesting indeed.

[SlyBelle]

Forgot to add another quick question on the battle generator....when you go to select units and unit setup, is there a random option? I guess I would hate to setup a single player game, but know exactly where my enemy is located and what types of units they have.

[MG TOW]

If the AI is defending you are going to know where you positioned the units. Thats a problem.

2 other shortfalls in the game as mentioned are non-enterable buildings,and No unbuttoning of tanks. Incidently I never found micro managing too much problem in the game. Your squads can be controlled as one unit for movement and formation as you liklely noticed in the demo.

[SlyBelle]

Further good points....thanks again for the input. I may just see what the new panzer command has to offer before I go for TOW (at least until the future add on comes out).