itkotw2000 -> First thoughts + bugs? + wishlist (11/18/2016 5:55:10 PM)
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First off, I love old school, hex based, turn based, strategy games. I consider NATO counters a must have too. Needless to say, I love this game, but there are some things I don't like. A lot of issues I have with the game did not become apparent until I invaded Russia. As I write this post, I looked back in the manual and I see a few things work as intended, so they are not really bugs per se. They are just a wish list of changes My review is based off of play as Germany. 1. Circling units and cutting them off has no great impact - When my units invade Russia, my fast divisions create pockets and the slower divisions mop up. I have about 2/3 of my units advancing and 1/3 mopping up. But at a one to one ratio with the enemy, my units have a hard time. From the first day of my invasion I have had supply problems, because supply seems to radiate from cities and not from rail lines. So in my current game I have two good examples. First, I have a Russian division surrounded in the Pripyat marshes, it has been under attack since July of 1940. I have two german divisions and two Italian divisions attacking, but they can not kill that one division. When I click on the division, it shows zero supply for them, 19% readiness, 7% morale. BUT NOW IT IS JANUARY 1941! My four divisions still cant crack that one unit in 6 months. Sure, I could use all of my air power on the Eastern front or use armored divisions, but why? How is that one unit surviving? To add insult to injury, that Russian unit gains much more experience than my units, so now that unit has 3 exp and I only have 2 units with 1 exp. THE ENEMY, SURROUNDED, HAS THREE TIMES THE EXPERIENCE! Insane. One of my divisions took part Poland and the Western Front (3 honors total), but this Russian unit is three times as experienced? I call BS. In my other example, similar to the Pripyat marsh, I have surrounded units (west and south-west of Riga), but they just wont die. Once again, it is January 1940. One pocket is at the town Ventspils. When I highlight the enemy units it shows they get 3 supply from the town and the unit beside the town gets 2 supply. My unit is 3 hexes west of Riga (I own Riga). Riga has supply of 5, so my unit has a supply of 2 (one less per hex). The supply from the south is no better. My unit has the same level of supply as the enemy. Unbelievable. My unit is sitting on a rail hex from Riga or you could say it is beside the rail hex from Liepaja (which leads straight to Berlin), but that doesn't matter because supply doesn't come from rail hexes, only towns. From what I can tell, my Army will have to fight that Russian division until the end of time, or until I can spare more units. 2. Enemy can reinforce units in pockets, this happened to me when I surrounded units in north Africa. Two British armies kept reinforcing faster then I could kill them. I had to turn my tanks around to kill them fast enough. A part of me thinks units should be able to reinforce some because pockets usually have broken, routed, troops running around that could be reorganized, but this should not be allowed turn after turn, for weeks. This post is getting too long. I will go to the lightning round and just list some thoughts - 1. Unit morale should matter. Low morale units should shatter. I have see a surrounded division with less than 10% morale hold out against four attacking divisions for months. Morale drops but doesn't really matter. 2. Rail lines should carry supply at a higher rate. Roads should carry supply so so and hexes with no rail or roads should be limited (greatly). This is a problem in Russian, where a surrounded unit getting supply from a town will get better supply than a unit sitting on a rail line that leads straight back to Berlin. Another example - I have units in central Greece getting supply from Bulgarian capital (Sofia), OVER A BARE MOUNTIAN HEX, because Sofia has supply of 10 (unit is 7 hexes away giving supply of 3). The next closest town is 2 hexes away (even has a road link), but it only has a supply of 4 (my unit would only have 2 supply from the near by town). 3. Units not surrounded should recover readiness much faster than surrounded units. 4. Units surrounded should not be able to reinforce. 5. Units adjacent to enemy unit should be allowed to upgrade. Currently, you have to withdraw the unit (1 turn), upgrade (another turn), then move the unit back (yet another turn). It would take months to upgrade a few units. It might be faster to build new units, with upgrades, then kill off old units, instead of rotating units. Expensive, but faster. 6. Paratroopers should have a chance of defeating a unit if they are dropped on top of one. It took 6 months to take Malta, after a long air/sea bombardment. Paratroopers cant attack the hex they land on, they have to land beside. I agree that dropping paratroopers on top of an enemy division is not a good idea in most cases, but in the case of Malta, I had the British AA division down to 1 strength, and single digit readiness and morale. I know Malta is a special case because it is only a single hex, but it should be possible. I think with the British unit down to 1 strength, the paratroopers should have had a great chance for success. 7. Partisan units should have lower strength, maybe 3, but slightly more numerous. I have to send infantry divisions to fight partisans because garrison divisions aren't strong enough. I will come back later and post more. I am going to restart my game from an earlier save
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