I don’t have any screenshots of P-47s blowing up tanks (though that’s entirely doable), but I do have an anti-tank rocket run from an atrocious game I played against the AI as the 91. Luftlande against the 15th Scots (basically the least favorable matchup currently possible).
One of the nice quality of life improvements is the ability to issue orders during the pre-battle deployment phase, which requires less frantic clicking in the opening minute of the game than was needed for Wargame. The problem is that I’m both out of practice and dealing with all of the changes to available order types and pathfinding mechanics which are still giving me trouble.
I picked this up the other day. I really enjoyed Wargame Airland Battle, but never had anyone who was willing to learn it. Luckily, this time I have a friend who’s interested in the subject matter. It also seems like this has been streamlined a bit compared to Wargame, which is really great. I’m enjoying the new game mode quite a bit, though been getting destroyed by the computer player.
Also, for anyone who doesn’t know, the “C” key is the most important hotkey in the game.
Wonderful game. Have about 30+ hrs in MP now and it keeps on getting better. The slower pace is perfect for the scale and time period. Seeing things develop, with ability to employ multiple strategies is a thing of beauty. Heck of a comeback for Eugen.
They’ve been rolling out patches so I doubt they’re on vacation. Besides, bug reports don’t typically warrant a response, especially in a beta. I’m sure they have QA looking through the forum for issues and entering them into bug tracking software.
General question on Eugen games. From watching the Paradox Dev streams, I’ve noticed Steel Division has a game speed control that allows faster and slower play along with bullet time semi-pause. I picked up European Escalation a while back and just fired it up and it doesn’t seem to support any game speed changes.
I tried to poke around the net to try to get more information. Is the following correct:
European Escalation - no game speed changes, no orders when paused
Airland Battles - no game speed changes, no orders when paused
Red Dragon - no game speed changes, orders in bullet time
Steel Division - game speed changes in single player, orders in bullet time
European Escalation - No game speed controls or pause. Single player is scripted. Unlock units with grind.
Airland Battle - No game speed controls or pause either. Single player is two layered, Can be played co-op or vs as well. Lots of improvements; jets, infantry can enter buildings, etc.
Red Dragon - Speed controls in SP. Retains the strat-layer type campaign. No more multiplayer in campaigns, just single battles. Minor improvements, naval gameplay is a dud. TONS of units to play with. Like well over a thousand.
Steel division - Speed controls in SP, dunno about MP. Still in beta. Balance is not yet being worked on as they are still pushing out patches that fix crashes on startup.
I played a 1v1 vs a friend of mine today. He played as the German infantry division and I played as the US armor division. By the start of phase B, we were pretty much at a deadlock, with both sides controlling about 50% of the map. I then started building up a unit of ~5-7 shermans with support and started to just rampage through the countryside. I used rocket artillery to dislodge one of his stronger AT/AA emplacements, and broke right through his line. From that point on, he could only do damage control, since his forces weren’t fast enough to respond. By the end of the game, I had deployed almost all of the tanks I could and they dominated the battlefield. Don’t get me wrong, AT in this game is still pretty lethal (especially AT guns), but an armor division has deployed most of their tanks, I think it is near impossible to stop.
If a Luftlande player hasn’t secured both a territory advantage and air superiority by the middle of Phase B, then the game is basically over. They really don’t have much that can deal with Sherman or, even worse, Jumbo spam other than:
HS129 spam
Pak 40 and 88 spam (impossible until Phase C and requires a huge deck investment up-front)
Extremely judicious StuG use
Extremely lucky Fallschirmjager/Abwehr/Grenadier AT shots
The 12th SS just stands up better in virtually any matchup currently possible and taking the Luftlande is tantamount to shooting yourself in the foot before the game even starts. That’s actually the main reason I haven’t clocked much time in the beta as of yet.
One of the things about the Wargames was that you had to learn to deal with the task and information saturation. There would be alerts from all over the map and troops clamoring for help all over and you still had to keep your wits about you to implement a coherent strategy.
It’s a tough lesson because learning it feels like you are drowning in a pool of shit, but you feel like a cool british major once you get it.
You’ll casually stroll up to a buttoned up tank swishing your stick this way and that, pat it on a hatch and coolly tell it that that house over there contains the jerries, and might they be obliged to put some rounds into it. Then merrily saunter on as all hell breaks loose behind your back.
I get it, and I’m able to play it, however slowing it down would enable more elaborate strategies, there is optimal placing, and a alot of things that just gets lost…the game is VERY picky on positioning your units…and when you barely have time to give them 5 seconds, this leads to a lot of sub par stuff going on…
Lasso units and sending them forward is not optimal gameplay.
