Stacking and Unit Sizes

gaiuslaelius · Post by **gaiuslaelius** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 6:12 am

I'g like to find out if Commander: Europe At War is going to allow stacking; I have read a number of posts regarding this, and am not sure at the moment what stacking will be. Also, although I understand that Corps sized units will be used, I'd like to know the scale of the air and naval units if that is known at this point. Thank you in advance for the information.

Hail and <S>

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 10:10 am

We are not planning any stacking. We think it is just too fiddly. We have ideas for how it might work in the future, but we don't want to try to make too many changes at this point.

gaiuslaelius · Post by **gaiuslaelius** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:25 am

many thanks for the timely response iainmcneil; I greatly appreciate it sir.

te_wooglebug · Post by **te_wooglebug** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 4:35 pm

We are not planning any stacking. We think it is just too fiddly.

Conversely, for me, the lack of stacking is something that tends to make the game more fiddly, not less. This is mostly based on my experience with Strategic Command, where I find it annoying to have to attack with one unit, then move it out of the way so a second unit can move up and attack (perhaps having to move a third unit out of the way first before the second unit can be moved up). This also relates to the "problem", noted earlier, of how to mass troops in a sector prior to an attack. Not having stacking also means that each unit has to be moved individually, rather than just moving a stack of several units all at once.

That said, I recognize that this game is NOT Strategic Command, and the designers may well have come up with clever ways to overcome the problems associated with not having stacking. I also realize that at some point basic design decisions of this type have to be finalized if the game is ever to be completed. I appreciate all the talent, time and effort that is going into designing this game, and very much look forward to the finished product.

firepowerjohan · Post by **firepowerjohan** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:29 pm

The combination of having a big map (150x72) with many hexes (hence big front lines) and retreat rules will make sure you would not need stacking in order to mass assault. In CEAW, you can focus high SHOCK units (tanks, air) in areas where you gonna attack to make enemy lose morale and retreat. With 2 tanks and 2-3 air converging an attack on enemy on open ground, no normal unit will hold ground under these circumstances, as should be...

We gladly appreciate everyones opinion here. I can say we have already adjusted and added some features in the game thanks to player opinions expressed in this forum

te_wooglebug · Post by **te_wooglebug** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 9:32 pm

That sounds very encouraging to me.

stalins_organ · Post by **stalins_organ** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:37 am

One of the major problems in most WW2 games IMO, is precisely the ability to mass vast amounts of airpower against a single unit.

In SC2 you can literally destroy an army with airpower alone from 3-4 hits - it's complete nonsense.

Firstly airpower was not THAT effective befoer the advent of nuclear weapons, and secondly airpower was never that concentrated nor that well organised.

Air power had to be spread out for various reasons - mainly to do with supply, control and facilities - you simply couldn't concentrate attacks from several different airforces/air armies/luftflotten on a small target hundreds of miles from the HQ's of many of them. There weer limited numbers of airbases, and co-ordination against specific front line targets was hard enough within a single air unit let alone across several!

firepowerjohan · Post by **firepowerjohan** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 9:24 am

Nice theory, Stalin. We have thought about that one too. If air power proofs too deceisive and gets too impossible to defend against, we will have penalty for any attack after the first.

For example:
1st Air Fleet attacks corps using its normal values
2nd Air Fleet attacks same corps and will use only 75% of its value
3rd Air Fleet uses 50%
4th 25%
5th 25%
6th 25%
...
...
...

Edit:
Another nice thing is ofcourse that air inflicts high morale losses but very few strength casualties to enemy in Commander - Europe At War. That means air units cannot easily destroy enemy units.

stalins_organ · Post by **stalins_organ** » Sat Jul 15, 2006 1:18 pm

Sounds like a nice simple plan

fundin · Post by **fundin** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:13 pm

I quite like stacking especially in the older type hex games. I guess we are working aa higher unit level now though so its not really needed.

ungers_pride · Post by **ungers_pride** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 2:35 pm

I am going to follow this game closely.

Ian, I like your idea about airpower.

Since this is a strategic game, then airpower should inflict suppression, morale loss, and supply disruption, along with some casualties on division-sized land units.

I do have a few questions:

1) How will the game model casualties?

AFAIK, the game will operate on manpower per nation. So, will the statistics include soldiers killed, wounded and missing (desertions)?

2) Also, will there be a screen or screens that will show us how many units from all nations have been destroyed up to that point in the game?

3) Will we be able to rename units?

4) Will the game award honours and allow us to follow specific leaders through their "career"?

Thanks

Stacking and Unit Sizes

Stacking and Unit Sizes

Ok