long Campaign

[Charles22]

evan said:
Thanks Mobhack for the tactics lesson.

Can a unit be provented from opertunity fire at certain targets.
i.e. an 88 opens up on a Tin can of some sort; gets hammered by return fire and then the T34 comes over the hill last of all and the 88's are at 99 surpression and can neither be moved or fired at the target I need it for.

Related to this is how the AI decides on Arty targets as some things (88's for example) attract every piece of Arty the AI can lay it's hands on while another unit thats actually doing more harm is ignored?

And thanks Charles22 as well; much bigger map than I;ve being using. I'll now refer to the manual to see if it tell's me how large a map can be made. BTW did you have to alter settings for game length?

I have the cd version, but I think all versions let you change the map dimensions on the setup screen.

I haven't personally found a need to alter the length any, but sometimes I at least consider altering the visibility. Again, I can't be sure the non-cd version allows all that altering, but whatever lengths the game has given me for those larger battles, it still seems to work quite well for me and the AI. The reason that may be so is that while my map is much taller than the default, the width is somewhat narrower. That may also be another reason why I decreased the width to what I specified (though come to think of it, that may be wider still than the default) because there might not had been enough turns to really flesh out the battles and capture everything. I think what actually happened was I went with maximum height and width, and ended up finding that only the maximum height was desireable. It would be pretty radical to make the width more narrow still, with that much height, but I thin 130-140 wide is pretty comfortable for how long it takes most of the mobility to reach the front. Another thing to think about, as far as the AI is concerned with width, is the more width you have, the more time it gives for the AI to separate it's foot units from it's mobile ones while with an attack mission. The AI does tend to load a good portion of infantry so it's not a total disaster with a much wider scope, but it does make it easier than it should be to defends against. It also gives me less time to react.

If I advance a recon unit up 20 hexes from a defensive front, and thereby spot a column, with a narrower map I have less hexes that I would dare to do such reconning, thereby giving me less reaction time.

One other thing about a very tall map like that one, and that is that is gives you some sense of having an area so tall that you "have to" have some separation of forces in order to hope to hold the map on the defensive. This in turn gives you the rather unique feeling that you're commanding more companies than you really are, simply because to render aid to the other is going to take time. I can't help but feel that when on the defensive, I am playing mobile defense as so often the Germans had to do in the USSR in the later years. It is a rather interesting way to play, as opposed to the big blob force that can almost hit any unit from any spot of the map. Ranges and speed matter a great deal when there is so much real estate. I played SPWAW for so long where I could never get a map over 80 hexes high, and often was forced to play only 20-40 hexes high. Now how ridiculous is that? I have typically anywhere from 100-130 units, and I have only 20 hexes in height? 80 hexes wasn't too bad for that size of a force, but I never had a problem where a middle force couldn't wipe out the map with open desert ranges for example, and 200 hexes will give you that flexibility in spades (no tank gun range over 80 I think). You play with a defensive blob on that map, and you will have the AI eating your lunch on some flank quite easily. I do try to play a game where I try to keep the AI from taking any objectives, as I'm reasoning that it saves civilian lives, but ultimately if I do have to back off, it's something of a consolation if I retake them later and therefore liberate them. Attacking with such a tall map isn't quite as interesting, but defense is a world of fun.

[Shan]

Some very good points there - Mobhack, of course, knows the game better than anyone I guess. Works well - but only if you are disciplioned enough and stick to your set of rules, or SOPs. Too often, however, the temptation is just too great to get some more cheap kills - which usually ends up in a disaster for me. I only say: Molotov &Co.

That said, I also prefer to play on larger maps with a rather small force, like Charles22 mentioned - esp. for meeters, but also for delay + defence, later in the war. My ideal force is almost fully-armored, with mobile arty and AA, as well as ammo carriers. The Ruskis often maneuver around in my rear, but this does not bother me when I got my battle group concentrated and doing one job after another. Job done - mount up and deal with another enemy force. AI seems to be confused a lot by such tactics.

This also works for delay+defence - the Germans had trouble to maintain a continuously manned front line and resorted to defending strongholds only, which should overwatch any gaps. During the long retreats, those temporary strongpoints often wouldnt survive any attack and weren't meant to - the real fighting was done by the reserves. Mobile reserves are kept in the rear to deal with any break-throughs and launch counter-attacks. I am planning to create a little campaign which is based on this way of fighting.
A few scouts, trying to sneak past the attackers and check out the enemy rear, are also useful, even thought this is very risky. If they manage to get past or take out the ubiquituous enemy AA + AT units guarding the rear, they are often able to take out the arty as well - and force the AI to turn around some of his attackers, trying to intercept the intruders which by then will have set up a nice little ambush. Fronts reversed, attack weakened, enemy confused, and if you stumble over the enemy HQ unit an early rout may be the result!

[evan]

Thanks Charles22; yep the Dl version does have those edit features and I'll get around to trying your suggestions when my current campaign runs out of victories. (another skirmish with the Russians should do it.)

And I was afraid I was going to need the CD version.

As always thanks for the answers.

[philjat]

Hi all

i'm falling in WSPWW2 from some time now, and i'm trying long campaign. I'm starting with a german core 2 Inf coy and 2 Panzers platoon, now after 6 battles some unit are veterans and i would know if the computer unit stay at normal experience or if there are some veteran enemy unit to coming ?

Hope my english clear, sorry for if not good.

second one, i've found the filter for unit in the range directory, but i've not understand it very well, so where i can found explanation in the manual ?

Thanks for the game and answers.

Philippe (from fRANCE)

[Marek_Tucan]

Re enemy experience, the enemy units would be of the given countrie's given timeline quality as set in country attributes. If you say wanted enemy ultra-elites, you may alter the settings in Preference screen prior to the battle.

[DRG]

The AI does not advance units in experience during a campaign as a human player does when playing a campaign. It always starts each game with "standard" troops.

Don

[Mobhack]

Your core will increase in quality, and therefore cost, plus any additions you make to your core as you progress will add points value to your core, before you buy any support troops in a battle.

As your core value (+ any support bought) increases, so the AI side will get more points to spend, and so field a larger force against you as time goes by.

Cheers
Andy

[Charles22]

Yes, that's one aspect of my game that could use vast improvement, as my ventures into the rear, are generally unsatisfactory on the offensive. What's even worse about it is that I am generally attacking in force with armor at that time, not using scouts alone for example. It's almost as though the best units are the immobile guns, and we're often not even talking ATG's

I guess the idea of sneaking something back there doesn't have a lot of appeal for me, because it's usually there that I suffer the most. I'm maybe only scoring even or 2-to-1, whereas the limited results I derive from the rear aren't serious enough to threaten my usual decisive victory (maybe 80% decisive victories), they are the worst time I have. I think the problem is that since I have met the enemy core, even though I'm attacking the rear in soem kind of force, I leave the infantry on the ground and therefore don't spot the rearward guns very well. I wouldn't even dream of sending scouts by themselves, but, otoh, you have given me an idea, oh yes.

How's this for some slaughtering? How about those brandenberger units? I'm not talking those sissy scout units, I'm taling the full 10-12 man units. Ah, those guys have two LMG's too and a choice of sniper rifle, ATR, some sort of mine, and something else (as the optional weapons). They're my infantry bad boys and I have them with the mines. I only have 3 of them in core, but team that up with my core halftracks and I got some offensive rearward punch there, if I can find a way to get them through. Considering how I play, it would probably be best to load them up that way when the rear assaults are to start, and send them sneakily out first. Disembark them at some good spot and see if they can start sniffing a few things out. Though they will be spotted fairly easily, they sure can take it with that many men, and hopefully I can keep the HT's around to lend support should they get roughed up until they can get coherent.

I can't envision me being able to get anything through an enemy defensive front unless it were a small scouts units, and even then I would have to add quite a few turns onto the battle to hope to be able to move slowly enough for them to at least not be spotted by the frontline units.

Oh yeah, for those who wish to try tall maps, be aware that with the Germans, if you're fond of PZIV's for example, their general lack of guns will prove often harmful and the same goes for the PZIIB, etc. You have to achieve a certain ratio of better quantity of both AP/HE gun shells and MG fire from your armor. I generally don't have too much of a problem with infantry ammo, but then I don't fight with them as much, though I must generally a total of 20 platoons in core. In the early going you need a certain amount, maybe 5-10, of the units that give you quite a lot of MG's and/or main gun ammo. My favorite to fulfill that is the PZIIIB/D I think it is. Like 2 or 3 MG's and great ammo on the 37mm gun. The more PZIV's you have, though probably your best mobile anti-tank, the more ammo trucks or depots you will need. I don't buy those in core, but I buy 4 ammo trucks. One for my main armored group, and one for the lesser armored group. The other two I save for my 4 IG guns, which are my sole core ground artillery. I like IG guns because I don't really need transport for them, since they can move on their own. One or both of the remaining ammo trucks feeds these four guns for a limited time.

I can't tell you for sure that playing a tall map uses more ammunition, because if anything you're more inclined to use more units that way (more actually fighting as opposed to a centralized blob force), since you basically have to, but it sure seems like you do. Now this tall map thing is pretty new to me, and I have never played far enough into the campaign with that style of play, to try it in France and beyond, but, oh, things could get verrrry interesting in the USSR, could they not ? Oh, waves of BT tanks send shivers down my spine thinking how the ammo will disappear. Don't just have PZIV's and PZIID's as your armor or you're in for some hurt.

[evan]

Philjat; welcome,
In the Manual at the end is a section on CD version enhanced features (or something of that sort) and there is an explaination in there.

Filter does not work on the download version however.

Correct em if I'm wrong.

[Charles22]

I would make a new topic on the following question, but I don't see how to do it anywhere. How do you make new topics?

Anyway, I saw on the forum a few weeks back that somebody had found a legitimate bug, and the respondent said that he had fixed it, as though there's another patch which will have that. I'm not in any sort of rush, but I am wondering if such a patch will come anytime soon. I don't want to start playing again if the patch isn't that far away, because I will restart when the patch comes. Thanks.