Adam Parker
Posts: 1848
Joined: 4/2/2002
From: Melbourne Australia
Status: offline
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Second time into a proper Overlord campaign as the Allies and things are looking much better from a fun POV.
The interface polish that BiN has brought to the series really shines. Running a turn is simplicity in itself and the key concern a player is left with, purely rests with strategy. There's honestly no tedium to be had here for the force pool on the Allied side is very manageable as the game gets going and running 5 beaches, thinking forward, is a lot easier than coordinating 2 Soviet army flanks in Korsun Pocket. The Normandy campaign to a Westerner is of course much more comprehendable and I believe this familiarity helps.
As for the AI, well, going by what I am seeing now, it seems to have settled (of course this is nonesense as I haven't just pured foundations for a building or laid the fretwork for a deck!) but it seems much more at home now. Reasons for this may include:
1. Allied naval firepower left a few burrs in the Atlantic Wall this time around. The British in particular suffered terribly with 1 regiment losing 3 battalions at Juno. Allied losses seemed to have distributed themselves broadly this time albeit for a smooth ride at Utah.
2. The 6th AB whilst again landing very near Caen didn't blow any bridges owing to some shoddy clicking on my part. As opposed to HPS's Panzer Campaigns you can take a move back unless you reveal something previously unknown. This is great when you genuinely make mistakes (be honorable folks!) Yet, like PzC, do reveal something and your mistake stands! Well one AB regiment went just a little too far by a wayward click and missed its west bank bridge destination! Cest la guerre 
3. This has led to a more fluid German response at Caen. The HJ still sits partly adjacent and to the east but they have amassed some might 4 turns in, threatening a stack of 4 entrenched AB and Commando units holding the bridge immediately northeast of Caen. Whilst countering with a 2 division-sized push to the west myself, I've needed to divert an entire infantry division to AB's locale, in order to obviate a definite 3 hex attack shift the Germans may be willing to employ very soon out of and east of the city! Turn 5 will tell.
4. I've also learned to handle Omaha a bit better. Oh the landings as aforementioned were more ugly this time (though not catastophic owing to some maritime brilliance on my part  ) But the German AI seems to be respecting this front more now - less blase with its unit placement. A battle is forming ahead and I'm planning for it. The German 352nd has been winged but remains strong with 4 regiments on map (as a sidenote, it's interesting to research the readiness of this Wehrmacht division in your free time. A key placed division whose pre-invasion practice included the throwing of 2 grenades per soldier!).
5. Utah lastly, scares the pants of me! The Allies via the 101st and the 4th Inf have gained some decent hits but Jerry is playing a cautious game of escalation with me. The battle for the Omaha-Bayeaux sector will be key to a solution there.
Summary: After absorbing a rule book that shouldn't have been so frustrating (as it really has the hallmarks of a classic if a little more care had been taken) and receiving some key rules/interface answers here, I'm really having the most fun out of war game for a long while. There's no boredom yet and once I do tire after exhausting this main campaign scenario, there are some nice smaller versions to play - and then the promise of an adequate AI as the Allies, when I then decide to play every armchair general's dream in donning the hat of ObWest and seeing what damage a 1944 German OOB could really have done, had OKW not interfered.
There's a lot of gameplay yet to prove itself in order to personally validate the AI. But overtly, do I see $90AUD of value here? Pretty much. At least you don't have to pay another $30AUD to print the rulebook unlike War in the Pacific. That task with BiN is very manageable on the average home color printer at less than 60 pages.
Corps artillery restrictions, division frontages, landing congestion... these are issues I'd like to see enhanced eventually. But if I may, I'll take back my initial view of there being little "atmosphere" on the march. Some nice rules additions and tweaks do make this Normandy game grow on you and you can picture the frames of Longest Day, Band of Brothers and Combat as units move to their rendezvous. Find yourself a good book and settle back to a fair period of gameplay. If the editor proves as robust as promised, the life in this title should kick around for quite a while.
Stable but still unplayable for me at the highest screen resolution, some rules whose answers you'll need to find here, a few glitches calling for a patch but officially cirumventable by playing the AI as "Computer - " and as previously mentioned, definitely possessing that "just one more turn feel", this game rates a good 8/10 as a fresh approach to Normandy out of the "digital" box. A steep price but definitely not "wargaming lite". A classic war game in feel with a modern twist.
And don't forget the ALT maginifying glass - its a beautiful tool just like a pair of tweezers shifting the cardboard over the screen 
Adam.
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Take 2 and it's a go - 
RE: It's like the AI has learnt - 
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