Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

If all hex are neutral and in the middle it would be a huge advantage to know which way you are going to play with and in some cases you want to do a setting which depends on it.

So is there a way to know which side you start the game or control it somehow ?

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

There is a list somewhere I think - wont be all encompassing there are hundreds of possible combinations.
Can often guess based on geographic location, does not work if do what if battles like Brazil vs Germany.
Alternatively save the map deploy your HQ unit to find out, restart the battle and load the map.

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

or while viewing the map, try hitting "Redraw V Hexes" till you get a spread out option which will change the outlying Victory Hexes to the flag of that side and then hit again till you get the centralised neutral grouping you desire.

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

Yeah, but in my experience it can change randomly with the same map.

Some maps are also built so, that player would want to start from certain side when going first let's say for example there is a map where you are supposed to defend a city that is placed on left side of the map in a meeting engagement battle. In a map like that i would prefer the one starting right to be player 1 so they arrive in the city at the same time, making it a meeting engagement game.

In instances like that, it would be nice to be able to coordinate which side you start with and i have a memory that i had a way of doing this in the past but i do not seem to recall how, or do i remember wrong.

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

It is afaik never random, and it wont change once you get to the view map stage either.


The method I described will always work.

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

This is true. If you have a situation where all are V hexes are clustered in the middle showing neutral a press of SHIFT _ or pressing the redraw V-Hex button will redraw the pattern and unless you have the game set up to only place 3 seven hex clusters you will, after a couple of presses see your sides flag on the side of the map you will start from

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

For most opponent pairings, you will get to know which side they play from after a little experience. However that can change e.g. UK vs Gemany in the desert in WW2 to Europe. In MBT though against some partisan opponents, the side can be random (I think vs VC, and PLO are ones?).

It is not a problem in the attack as one side owns all the V-hexes but can be confusing in the meeter as all are usually neutral. In the original SSI game, one clutch was allocated to each player and one to neutral - meaning the only battle was really for the middle clutch, but since the one on your side had your flags then you knew what side you were on. But there was no way to change the map or placement other than exiting and restarting the entire process in the original game.

We are thinking of a way for players to see what side of the map they have assigned in a battle, probably in the View Map function for the next release. It could be an "extra" flag on each map side (but some players may report that as a bug as there are 2 too many flags! :rolleyes:) or perhaps on the Battle Report button we can report left and right side of the map alongside the battle type and the 2 players.

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

Somehow i thought the option was in preferences / Battle screen.

Could have possible been in the map editor.

I do remember accomplishing this somehow.

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

You are thinking of the scenario editor, where you can choose who goes on the left and the right.

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

No no, it affected normal meeting engagements with custom made maps.

Does not really matter though as player 1 can always skip the first turn.

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

Mobhack,
Around when will be the next game update?
Thanks for keeping this game great!

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

Around the same time it usually is...... Late March if all goes well

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

I think the simplest solution to this problem wound be to have player one's forces always start on the left side of the map and player two's forces always start on the right side of the map. Simple, a person reads left to right, right? I find its only a problem when you make a map and use in a random battle. Dives me crazy, especially when you worked on a map for hours, then use it in a random battle, and discover that the wrong guys are defending the wrong terrain or on the wrong side of the river. What's that old saying? In **** river without a paddle.

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

But players expect the Germans to be on the West and the Russians on the East side of the map. Even though in the game, there is no East and no West, unless a scenario designer labels his map with a direction.

Its just convention, and the players are used to the Russians on the right and the Germans on the left after a couple of decades of the game being in existence.

You get used to what side is assigned for the majority that always line up the same way with a given pairing. It is really only when trying a new combination pair (or one of the few pairings that does give out random sides) that people find the "problem", and in the meeting engagement generally since the V-hexes there are all neutral.

Basically, if you are generating a random battle with a pairing that is new to you then just set up a meeter and buy the HQ only as a throwaway. Then you can see the side assigned and also in the view map screen you can try the random map assignment multiple times and see what the battle location maps are for the pair by generating 20 or so. Then exit the throwaway test and set up the actual battle.

However, if we label what the sides are in some way then this goes away.

As for your custom map - you need to know the pairing that you are designing for.

But player 1 always on one side and player 2 on the other would have been the best design decision, if it had been taken in the original SP1 game at launch, IMHO. It's sweet and simple.

Re: Choosing sides in Meeting Engagement
 

Apart from in a campaign this would work well , switch your deployment to the right side simply by playing as player 2.