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Theatre of War

WW II RTS from the makers of IL2 Sturmovik. Realistic engagement ranges and weapons behavior. Polish and French campaigns.
Not played enough yet to have a good feel for it. Only available from the Battlefront site (demo and full version).

Oooh, there's a demo? I must try it. As soon as I get my damn bandwith back ...

the single battle in the demo is

THE LAST FRONTIER April 16 1945 on Seelowe heights

Oooh can we play as 'nah it'll be easy what could go wrong' Zhukov?

It looks neat. Huzzah for Internode hosting!

Well I have a couple hours into the battle and training missions now. I do not neglect the possibility that I am doing things incorrectly, but thus far I have noticed that AT guns die virtually instantly. One time of about six I made it past the first section of the defensive training. Every other time the damn Panzer IIIs stop, fire once, and kill both my AT crews. Of course all the other soldiers have gunner skills of oatmeal, and only manage to make themselves easy targets if they leave the trench to reman the guns. The AT Rifles can stop one tank if they are lucky, so the others just chew through my line with impunity.

Seelowe was fun, but my reenforcement armor must have been crewed by retards. Starting fresh, they managed to run completely out of AP ammo and only destroy 2 of a group of 4 advancing IS-2s. That and my PAK 40 died the typical instant AT gun death of doom.

The ATR guys can disable tanks with track hits quite often, but that training mission seems like luck to me. I can have my AT gun hit a track with it's first shot, then be consistently unable to hit the immobile, broadside-on disabled tank. The ATRs can also damage the turret of the Pz IIs, so the AT guns are only really needed for the Pz IIIs. However, I can disable the IIIs almost instantly, and then be unable to actually destroy them, even in the time it takes the infantry to cross to firing range.

Wow, it kind of looks like what would happen if Creative Assembly got their hands on World War 2.

I can only imagine our future complaints about it.

"They're having urban sieges without carpet bombing! Bastards even coded the mid level bombers too!"

"Why in the name of christ do the Poles keep attacking my 5 Panzer Divisions with 1 squad of infantry and a general?"

I did the first tutorial mission then went straight to the Seelow Heights- wow, they really like putting you in a hopeless, losing battle, don't they?

I really like the game. The tank damage model during combat alone and the sheer detail on all the equipment is fantastic.

Rekkon wrote:Seelowe was fun, but my reenforcement armor must have been crewed by retards. Starting fresh, they managed to run completely out of AP ammo and only destroy 2 of a group of 4 advancing IS-2s. That and my PAK 40 died the typical instant AT gun death of doom.

IS-2s in BRITAIN??? Wtf???

For whatever reason, I couldn't get a working version of the demo until now. I must say, the game is quite ambitious. I actually really like it, it just needs to have a few bugs worked out. Also, AT guns need to be rebalanced. As it stands they are useless against armor.

Now all they need to do is give us a world map, building and upgrading functions, and call it "World War 2: Total War".

CaptHawkeye wrote:Now all they need to do is give us a world map, building and upgrading functions, and call it "World War 2: Total War".

That would be crazy awesome.

As for the AT guns, I think it might be that the game makes them too visible. No way around it in the training mission as you get like one tree in your deployment area, but I tried to keep my PAKs concealed in the Seelow battle without much difference. Having been in the gunner position of a T-34/85 I know that even a modestly camoflaged AT gun at short range is damn hard to spot.

Having been in the gunner position of a T-34/85 I know that even a modestly camoflaged AT gun at short range is damn hard to spot.

Are you speaking from personal experience?

I am indeed.

Been there the last two Augusts. The exact layout varies, but in general one of the employees drives it around a course (and through a pond) clearing very minor obstacles. In two places he has anti-tank guns positioned that 'fire' on you, signaling the driver to stop. The commander gets the gunner on target, and once he returns fire, the tank continues to the next cannon. First time I was the commander, second the gunner, and I could not find the first gun to save my life.

I read through that website. Holy shit, the guy has literally got T-72s and T-55s for sale. I'll take it!

I need to get down to Morristown sometime apparently. Christ, a chance to drive a T-34/85? I don't see how anyone with a even a slight interest in history could afford to pass it up.

As for the AT guns, I think it might be that the game makes them too visible.

If that's the case, it's likely something that can be fixed soon. We should be able to give AT guns a kind of "camoflauge". Since the concept of an AT gun revolves around the idea that you will see your enemy before he sees you. So it would also help to increase initial shot accuracy. I understand a British 6 pdr shouldn't single handedly stop an entire armoured division, but it should provide a challenge at least.

Oh yes. Be sure to make a reservation and see if you cannot bring friends. I imagine one of his people has to be in the tank, but that leaves four other crew slots. First time there, we had our Battlefield 2 group manning everything save driver. He even has mock shells in the ready rack the loader can shove around. A normal run is two people, gunner and commander. Commander spots targets and gets the gunner roughly pointed in the right direction. Plus with no intercomm, you get to communicate which way to turn the turret by kicking the gunner! Not if the new owner requires two people per ride or not.

He also has quite a few WW II weapons. Since that was our group's interest area, we got to fire a BAR, DP, Type 99, Kar 98, Springfield, Luger, Colt, Maxim, Browing .30 cal, Grease Gun, Thompson, MP 40, Sten, etc. Second trip he had the MG 42 working. I have photos and video laying around if anyone cares.

It took them so long to release the English version?

That is a fail.

I own the game already. To put it simply... it sucks compared to S:HOWWII and Blitzkrieg series. I'm a bit sad. Good game, but not even half of what it promised to be.

CaptHawkeye wrote: If that's the case, it's likely something that can be fixed soon. We should be able to give AT guns a kind of "camoflauge". Since the concept of an AT gun revolves around the idea that you will see your enemy before he sees you. So it would also help to increase initial shot accuracy.

That it does. Without concealment towed anti tank guns are near useless.

I understand a British 6 pdr shouldn't single handedly stop an entire armoured division, but it should provide a challenge at least.

One anti tank gun is near useless unless you have very constricted terrain. However once you have a battery or more of them, you can star to hold off some very large attacks. N squared in action. One British infantry battalion with six 6pdr guns was credited with 37 tank kills at the second battle of El Alamein most in the space of about an hour. The feat was considered so remarkable that an official investigation was launched, which ended with multiple medal awards after they went out and counted the wrecks.

In general a towed anti tank gun would be lucky to kill two or three tanks before it was spotted from its muzzle flash and destroyed. The only real exception to this far as I can tell was the German 88mm guns which could engage at much longer ranges then any other towed AT weapon of the war. Some Soviet guns had a similar raw ability to kill tanks, like the A-19 122mm howitzer, but the accurate range was less owing to lower velocity.

Stas Bush wrote:It took them so long to release the English version?

That is a fail.

I own the game already. To put it simply... it sucks compared to S:HOWWII and Blitzkrieg series. I'm a bit sad. Good game, but not even half of what it promised to be.

I've always considered getting Heroes of WW2. I played the demo and really liked it, but wasn't sure if the full game was worth it.

Another thing that annoys me about AI. For whatever reason, tankdestroyers such as the Jagdtiger and Stug 4 will not fire at enemy tanks which are within javelin throwing distance. Even if they are clearly in their line of sight and fire. I lost my Jagdtiger over and over again this way.

S:HOWW2 is a pain in the arse from time to time. The friendly AI is goddamn retarded and there is WAY too much micromanagement.

Another thing i've noticed about playing the game is that infantry are absurdly mortal. At short range, a single tank can pretty much wipe out an entire trench line even if said line is armed with panzerfausts and shrecks. Nevermind how brutally slaughtered they are outside of trenches.

I understand infantry should be in a very bad position fighting armor in open ground, but at short range, they should at least stand a chance. As it stands, infantry have only panzerfausts for use against tanks and they have too little ammo and range to be used a lot. Shrecks, well, they can't seem to hit the broadside of a mountain. Infantry need more variety in their anti tank weapons. Regulars should come with some kind of sticky charge (not those pathetic anti tank grenades) or anti tank mines.

Also, if infantry are in a prepared trench line, you'd think they would have access to more than just a few panzerfausts.

Of course, this is just the demo.