Played through '41 with similar changes. I like it for Artillery and AA Guns, for AT Guns...wastedswan wrote:I would like to tell you guys about a simple change I made to the equip file that adds a WHOLE lot more depth to the game. All you do is set the movement of all towed guns to zero. Simple eh? But so much depth. Guns must now mount transports to move - gone are the days of run and gun assault artillery. This turns them into a predominantly defensive unit.
Certainly they were a defensive weapon. Rommel's successes with the 88 involved luring the enemy into pre-emplaced batteries. It's very difficult to emulate this tactic against the AI. I can establish a line, bring up the 88, then fall back to it once it's setup. This works well enough. The issue is time. I can rarely afford to wait the extra turn or two to make use of the fixed guns. A self-propelled piece works almost as well in an ambush but can go on the offensive. But I guess this is all historical.
However, they should still be useful against a fixed line, and with this change it's impossible. You can't bring up the gun because it'll be blown up in its truck while adjacent to the enemy. This is a vanilla problem in my opinion. The truck shouldn't last through the enemies turn unless you used your maximum movement points. And you should be able to attack after moving in a truck, but at an initiative penalty based on how far you moved.
I've restored 1 movement to very light guns (<1000lb) and 1 movement on roads only to medium guns (<2000lb). I've also given them more initiative and close defense, but they still feel pretty useless to me. Not sure where to go from here.