Swamprat
Posts: 129
Joined: 8/30/2005 From: Shrewsbury UK Status: offline
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Well, it's been said many times so far, but this is a game. Not implying 'only' a game, but to get a game to model real life is difficult. Maybe 'Experience' should be given another name, 'cos it appears to be causing a lot of confusion. It doesn't just affect actual experience, but training and even army culture, ie. Majority of German troops who fought British Paras at Arnhem/Oosterbeek were in fact completely green and had been thrown together into ad-hoc battle formations, something the Germans were famous for. These troops performed brilliantly because of training, army culture and ethos, good staffwork, experienced cadres in the right places. I think that when troops in the game are given 'experience' ratings, it is an attempt to recreate not bravery or actual experience but their performance in the war. Examples - If Brits are given experience levels that reflect empire experience, then in 1940 battles they will do quite well against Germans, leaving one to think 'hang on, how come they didn't do so well in real life'. Fact is, Germans were trained in modern warfare, Brits were trained to beat down natives and march towards enemy trenches with artillery support. With Rumanians, Italians, etc. setting their Experience levels is an attempt to recreate an effect in the game that reflects leadership, training, and how they actually fared in reality. And because the game AI is just a computer AI, sometimes you have to skew things a lot to get the desired results. There are problems of course, brought about by the sheer complexity of the war. For instance, British Eighth army in 1943 was an experienced, battle hardened force. The British troops of the First Army however, in exactly the same time period, were green, poorly equipped and led by optimists with little idea of what they were doing - Cue the disaster at Kasserine. So, when doing the OOb for 43, which Brits do you represent? Frankly it's not always possible to get it right, regardless of what you do. I have to agree wholeheartedly with Wild Bill's last point though. Make troops less than 40 in this game and they become nearly useless. Even at 45, though you do get to have more if True Troop cost is on, you'll spend most of the battle pressing the rally button until it yells back at you 'Stop Hitting Me!' . And in the end, as it's a Game, and even though we'd like realism, it has to be playable. I'd love to be able to play Hungary or Italy, in 8.4, but unless my online or PBEM opponent is happy to let me remove the Historic Troop levels then I just don't pick them. By the same token I like Historic Germans but daren't purchase allies in same Game because it would be a waste of points. Experience of smaller countries, and Russia at beginning, needs to be raised a bit, and morale needs to be raised a lot. BTW, is HTH a Mod that goes in my mod file, or a different game altogether? And where can I get it?
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