Initial Thoughts

[Great_Ajax]

Just a few thoughts after several skirmish battles.

1. Skirmish needs a 'clear deployment' option for attacker and defender. I never like the initial dispositions of forces and I end up spending about ten minutes removing troops so that I can better organize them where I want them. The attacker needs the ability to choose his deployment as well.

2. Unit selection options result in some odd mixtures. Would like to build more homogenous types of units but this is very difficult to do. Would like to build a Waffen SS, Fallschirmjager, or Guards force. Instead, we get a mix of Waffen SS squads, Fallschirmjager , Ost Troops which results in a very odd and un-historic mix.

3. Some unit types are offered in odd quantities. I played a mission where I had to lead an assault with 16 Marders. I would recommend sorting units by a common (Company Units) , uncommon (Battalion and Regiment Support), rare (Division Support and Corps Support), and ultra-rare system (Army Support). Common units should be your backbone of your combat force such as infantry squads and main battle tanks and they should be available in high quantity such as 8-16 units. Uncommon units are battalion and regimental support units and should be readily available in platoon size quantities such as 4-6 units and would include Heavy MGs, Mortars, Anti-Tank Guns, Infantry Guns, etc. Rare units would have a % chance of showing up as support in platoon sizes only (4 Units). Ultra-rare units would have an even less % chance to show up and should only be available in either a section (2 units) or a platoon (4 units).

4. Skirmish mode screams for the ability to customize your force more - Armored, Mechanized, Infantry, etc. This option would adjust which units would be common, uncommon, rare, and ultra-rare.

5. The ability to select the training level of your force would be nice - Green, Regular and Veteran. Regular would be the baseline. Green would make all units green but the force would get a % more points to spend. A Veteran force would get less % percentage points to spend.

6. Ultimately, I think it would be fun to be able to select Branch (Waffen SS, Fallschirmjager, Heer, Luftwaffe, Guards, Partisan, Naval Marine), company type (Armored, Mechanized, Motorized, Infantry, Cavalry) and training level (Green, Regular, Veteran)

7. Panzerschreks seemed weak. Got multiple bounces off of T-70s in a village.

8. Allow defenders to purchase fortifications and trenches.

9. Armored cars need some kind of recon ability to help make ambushes become spotted.

10. Love the air superiority action!

11. Platoon and Company leaders might be fun - HQ sections.


Trey

[Tac2i]

Good suggestions. I just played a skirmish as Russian defending vs attacking German AI. The attacking German force had lots of Marders and a fair number of them kept firing on a hex where it thought I had a unit. This was a large wilderness map too and I saw zero German infantry. I easily held 3 of the 4 objective hexes. The German AI should have captured at least two of them with all the fire power it had. Admittedly, the terrain was not well suited to a 100% armored force which is why lack of any infantry was surprising.

[Tac2i]

Issue: In one skirmish game the Germans had a 120mm mortar inside a pillbox. I can see a mortar operating from a trench but not a pillbox.

[LandMarine47]

Issue: In one skirmish game the Germans had a 120mm mortar inside a pillbox. I can see a mortar operating from a trench but not a pillbox.

BA was made for mortars to be shot out of impossible places, most players even place them in houses and bunkers during battles

[pipfromslitherine]

Bear in mind the level of abstraction in BA. Imagine the mortar is in a constructed implacement, rather than specifically a inside a pillbox with a roof

The other suggestions are all very interesting. I'll read through and see if there is anything that makes sense for us to add.

Cheers

Pip

[OnTheContrary]

Issue: In one skirmish game the Germans had a 120mm mortar inside a pillbox. I can see a mortar operating from a trench but not a pillbox.

BA was made for mortars to be shot out of impossible places, most players even place them in houses and bunkers during battles

Oh wow, I had no idea the engine actually allows this - I always assumed they cannot fire from such position and thus placed them elsewhere.

Seriously, this shouldn't be too much work to fix. Just designate hexes with roofs as 'closed' and require mortars to be in an 'open' spot to be able to shoot. I'd really love to see this fixed, Pip!

[morge4]

I seem to recall somewhere that Slitherine mentioned that just because there is a building/bunker in a square, it may not take up the full square and the mortar can be firing from outside.

[OnTheContrary]

I seem to recall somewhere that Slitherine mentioned that just because there is a building/bunker in a square, it may not take up the full square and the mortar can be firing from outside.

That's just a really bad excuse. If Slitherine intends to stick with it then have the mortar team lose ALL cover and make them exposed if they fired last round. That way you're at least modeling the fact the mortar team climbed on top of the bunker to shoot the damn stuff semi-realistically.

[Tac2i]

A better explanation would be that there is a concrete firing pit attached to the pillbox that is not graphically represented.