The problem is that WoT tanks has taught me the answer to that. =) It’s a pretty effective learning tool for recognizing russian tanks. (not so much for german tanks though…)
Assuming a 1941 KV1 and good ammo available for the Pak38 the answer is “yes” in theory and “not very likely” in practice I think, right?
Sounds about right. I pulled that example out of my ass.
It doesn’t sound like a shot I’d want to take, but its been a while and I forget what the penetration on a Pak38 is anymore, much less the armor on a KV.
The strategic layer stuff is really cool, but oh-so badly done in the 1st one. The symbols they use are weird, and its not obvious whats going on. Also I found that this game doesn’t really model cover like say Men of War or combat mission 2, but more like CMB 1 abstract cover value stuff.
So you don’t really position your guys , you just put em where they sorta should be and their bonuses will be applied even if they are just standing in the open.
This didn’t sit so well with me as I’m used to a higher level of detail, but I don’t think the first one was ment to have that layer…
The new strategic layer uses actual graphics for the units, which makes it much easier to see what you’re dealing with.
And I’d go so far to say that the ballistics modeling is as good as Men of War. Every bullet is modeled, and interacts with every surface in the world. I’ve stuck my eye down on infantry in the woods, and you can see tracer fire ricocheting off trees around them, hitting the dirt right in front of them, etc. I’ve even seen an AP tank shell bounce off the armor of a tank and fly about 100 yards away and slam into a building.
Night battles are something to be seen, as tracers all have their own light sources and are flying all over the battlefield.
This is especially apparent when you tell a squad to go into defensive mode near a large crater. They will duck down below the lip, and bullets have a much harder time hitting them. They get hit when they stand up to take a shot, exposing themselves over the lip. It’s definitely not just some “10% less chance of hitting due to tileset being stood on” thing.
Robert: Realistic shells and there ballistics are featured in Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943 could you elaborate a little on this feature?
Vladimir: The game keeps all general proportions in the ammo regarding types and quantities of the shells. Each shell has a certain set on characteristics, including ballistics, armor piercing level on different distances, splinter effect, incendiary effect and so on. The most complicated is the impact of the shell on the armored vehicles. We use pretty complicated model of the armor piercing in the game, taking into account the angle of encounter with an amour, type and quality of the armor, quality of the shell and other factors.
Robert: Is there any possibility for the infantry to hold positions in buildings, hide behind bushes and trees?
Vladimir: There is such a possibility, but entrenchments protect much better both from the bullets and the enemy eyes. There were no stone or brick houses around Kharkov except schools and churches, i.e. only one safe building per village. And a wall of the Ukrainian clay-walled hut may protect only from the pistol bullet.
Robert: Vlad, if you could only pick one thing from Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943, what would the one feature you and your team are most proud of?
Vladimir: It is hard to pick only one feature, but I suppose the most important thing is that we’ve managed to reconstruct all quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the landscapes, vehicles and troops in general in a 1-1 scale model. It helps us to recreate precisely, what was happening in the battlefields of that distant war.
From an interview about the original Achtung Panzer.
Just wanted to follow-up and say this renewed my desire to try to turn a corner on this game. I’ll work on the demo when I get a chance.
BTW, am I correct that he stopped posting right when things got interesting, or am I missing the link to page 2?
Yeah, I couldn’t figure that out either. I think he just stopped?
Also, is there an english demo of either of the games?
So I played the demo and killed like thirty nazis as the poles on some map. The nazis begged for a ceasefire, which was funny, and then I shot some more. Ok.
I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do from here. Shooting nazis is always funny, but I can’t really get into it as the only activity of a game. And the tutorial thing was basically useless information about the menu. Yes I figured out how to create a profile on my own thanks fuck off little brown box of irritation.
I shuffled my dudes around randomly, but that’s no fun. So I’m mostly kind of bored at the moment.
I don’t really know how to respond to this.
So, you successfully killed enough of the enemy for them to ask for a ceasefire. Then you moved units around randomly? And you don’t know what to do? You basically won the battle if they asked for a ceasefire.
I seriously think you should just not even bother with this game as you seem to have little to no interest in the genre and had already pretty much decided you weren’t going to like it before even trying it.
I think you should maybe keep your opinions on what I am thinking to yourself. Gosh, what a Nazi.
The ceasefire was for the tactical map. I ignored it and found some more to kill.
The shuffling dudes around aimlessly part was the strategic map as Poland vs Nazis. The next turn more Nazis spawned behind me and I had no real objective other than “not die”. Which is of little interest when I don’t have a win condition to play for.
I mean would you play chess if the win condition was “not die” and the enemy could shit out queens behind you? I would not. So that was irritating.
The tactical battles were neat looking, but poorly explained. I get that my little bitches have a triangle leading them, and that he has a big circle around him. Guessing this is some sort of leadership radius. I saw the AI had a unit separate from the rest of the company, but I kept mine all together. Is it penalized? Does it not obey orders? Does the big circle not matter?
I captured some flag on the tactical map. It did dick all as far as I can tell. I’m not sure why I bothered.
My big problem with the game is that it doesn’t feel like a game, it feels like a toy. Like, I’m just turning it around to watch the dudes shoot other dudes with dingleberry modeling involved, not to win. If there IS a way to win the Poland scenario, it isn’t explained or even mentioned.
One of the buttons/tooltips on the strategic map interface is a victory points thingy.
For the Poland scenario? Because I reiterate that this scenario was taking place on a tiny map and I was the Poles.
That’s where it is in Steel Armor, which purports to use the same engine for the strategic layer. I suppose it could have changed since Achtung Panzer, or it might not be present in the demo. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t, though.
Does the demo not ship with the game manual in the install directory?
Are none of you able to say how one wins? Because that’s all I’m asking here. That and what the little flags do.
I mean if someone asked questions like these about a game I liked, I’d be able to answer them. Because they are simple questions.
I don’t know what the flags do (besides make the enemy on the tactical map more likely to surrender, maybe?). You win the scenario by holding objective squares, which will accumulate victory points per turn. Capturing certain opponent points will give you a one-time bonus. You win or lose against point totals for various magnitudes of victory or defeat.
Here’s how it works:
On the strategic map, there are victory point symbols, either stars or crosses. I believe there are three different sizes of victory point symbols, small, medium and large. The bigger the symbol, the more it is worth. If you have a unit of a victory point symbol, you control it and you get it’s victory points. You win the operation by having more victory points then the opposing team after a set number of turns has passed (you can see how many this is when you select the operation initially).
When you are attacking or defending, the unit in the attack/defend square, as well as all units in the 8 squares surrounding it, join in on a tactical battle.
On the tactical battle screen, there are flags marking the objective area for all 9 squares on the strategic map. The flags are either German, Russian or blank. What the flag is at the beginning of the round is determined by what forces on the strategic map occupied that square. If there is no unit in the square, it is white.
If you are able to route or eliminate all forces around a flag, and keep your forces near it, it will switch to your team’s flag. This helps immensely determining the victor of a fight, and if you end a tactical battle controlling a flag, your unit will advance into that square on the strategic map, either pushing the enemy unit back or destroying it completely.
A good strategy when attacking is to route the unit out of the square you are trying to capture, switch the flag to your teams’, then call for a ceasefire. This will usually result in you winning the battle and taking over the square on the strategic map.
Capturing all the flags on the battle map will ‘win’ the skirmish forcing the enemy to retreat if they haven’t already.
Well I’m glad someone knows the fuck you win this game. That also explains why my company was in the wrong square when I ended the tactical battle.
The little command circles around the triangle looking dudes in companies. Are they relevant? I’m assuming they are, but that’s just because I’m used to the Total War game system where the generals are indeed super relevant and their circles are the mighty mighty thingies.
Finally, I had a company (or I guess a platoon of a company, one of the not-triangle units) get shot up advancing into trees and was wondering what the shit one can use for scouting operations so that these ambuscades are not nearly so potent. And while I think the answer is “no”, is there any mechanism for handling reinforcement and casualty recovery or are units basically fixed and you are fucked if too many die?
Other than some regrettable UI issues I don’t mind the game too much. And the people who are like “hurr rivets hurr” have mostly been wrong about the demo thank god. No I don’t give a fuck about which kind of tank has the right barrel for anally penetrating an elephant in midwinter. I want to watch tanks run over trees and shoot each other to shit. Also I want entertaining tactical puzzles, which this game has so far done a decent job of providing. If I get to the serious tank fights and it’s as good as the stuff in WiC I will be quite pleased.
Actually that brings up something I was thinking about. I had some APC thingies, but I didn’t see a way to load duders into them. Is that a no go? I used them for manshotting and they did ok for that, but I really would have preferred sticking a company into them and rushing to the rescue of another company that was getting shot up in the trees.