Lancer's officer mod

Advanced Tactics is a versatile turn-based strategy system that gives gamers the chance to wage almost any battle in any time period. The initial release focuses on World War II and includes a number of historical scenarios as well as a full editor! This forum supports both the original Advanced Tactics and the new and improved Advanced Tactics: Gold Edition.

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pzpat
Posts: 79
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2003 4:51 am
Location: California

Lancer's officer mod

Post by pzpat »

I like it a lot. Probably won't play ATG without it, and if I get used to it I'll go to the other mods. Some observations from my first game using the mod. I am towards the end (52 VP's of the necessary 68) of a 4-opponent game on an X-large map.

The officers' cards are cool. The "ULTRA" card lets you seen enemy units on any one hex on the map. I just don't understand why reading intelligence reports would incur a chance of injury or death. Haven't been able to use "Organize Wargames" yet. The "Command Focus" card would better the relationship between a higher and his lower commander if I could get the card to work, but it hasn't in the 20 or so times I've tried it. No HQ becomes highlighted. And assigning a risk of injury or death equal to leading a charge, to such a peace offering, seems a little out of place.

The Supreme Commander acquires experience4 points partly depending on the number of HQ's under him. If he has too many HQ's, that number lessens. That works fine on smaller maps, but not on larger ones. I have 7 HQ's. My quota is 8, but if I get an HQ without an officer there's a 10 AP penalty. My command quota is 12 officers. I've had to hire 14 because of premature commander deaths and the dismissal of the 2 worst of the worst. I got a reprimand for stealing officers from other fronts. Two questions: 1- I'm the Supreme Commander--who's reprimanding me? And 2- What other fronts? This is the map of the world, and I'm doing all the fighting.
The numbered HQ's of my opponents that I have identified are up to 25, 29 and 31, plus the HQ's named after places, while I have my 7. Many more than half of my troops are fighting outside the areas of HQ influence, and it's difficult and expensive to reinforce them. I think that HQ quotas should be refigured to take into account the size of the map.

Lastly, leaders who become involved in heavy fighting acquire experience points faster than the Supreme Commander until they outrank him. Then he loses more points. To avoid such loss, I've had to swap him out a couple of times.

I really do like the mod, but it could use a little fine tuning. Anyone have any answers?

Pat
lancer
Posts: 2963
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2005 8:56 am

RE: Lancer's officer mod

Post by lancer »

Hi Pat,
The "Command Focus" card would better the relationship between a higher and his lower commander if I could get the card to work, but it hasn't in the 20 or so times I've tried it. No HQ becomes highlighted. And assigning a risk of injury or death equal to leading a charge, to such a peace offering, seems a little out of place.

The Command Focus card can only be played by your CIC (officer in charge of your Supreme HQ). Additionally your CIC can only play it on subordinate HQ's if they are commanded by an officer and have one or more staff present.

The base level of risk is set to the lowest rating (injury 10%, death 3% - charge risks are much higher) but it represents your CIC getting in a plane and visiting the subordinate HQ in person. A little difficult to inspire somebody by remote control over a radio link. Planes also, on occassion, fall out of the sky, get shot down, crash land, etc.
The officers' cards are cool. The "ULTRA" card lets you seen enemy units on any one hex on the map. I just don't understand why reading intelligence reports would incur a chance of injury or death.

Intelligence gathering can be hazardous at times. Dark alleys, trenchcoats, dangerous redheads...
I got a reprimand for stealing officers from other fronts. Two questions: 1- I'm the Supreme Commander--who's reprimanding me? And 2- What other fronts? This is the map of the world, and I'm doing all the fighting.

The mod assumes that, while you might be in charge, you're not god. A good analogy would be the German High Command in WW2. Yep, you might be in charge of the Eastern Front but there are other fronts and that funny little bloke with the moustache is at a higher level than any of you.

The analogy doesn't hold water if you're playing on a giant map of the known world with map looping in effect (what other front is there? Mars?) but it's not possible to cover all permutations so I've taken a position similiar to the above where you are, in a small way, answerable to a higher authority.
I think that HQ quotas should be refigured to take into account the size of the map.

The idea of the command quota is that your CIC needs to grow into the job and that you're going to have to work your way through a period where you don't have enough HQ's to go around. That's a deliberate decision on my part to create interesting decisions and to place a higher value on officers with experience. Eg. General Wally might not be the greatest commander but he can handle 'x' amount of subordinate HQ's while Major Brilliance can only manage half that. You'd love to fire 'ole Wally but all that experience...

Having said that I don't play on really big maps myself so I have a bit of a blind spot in that area. Some tweaking might be in order.
Lastly, leaders who become involved in heavy fighting acquire experience points faster than the Supreme Commander until they outrank him. Then he loses more points. To avoid such loss, I've had to swap him out a couple of times.

Once again, deliberate. Also historical. Successful field generals were always a threat to the CIC. Hail Ceasar!

Cheers,
Lancer



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Tac2i
Posts: 2078
Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2005 5:57 pm
Location: WV USA

RE: Lancer's officer mod

Post by Tac2i »

I would second that the HQ allowance, especially at start, needs to scale with map size. I like the idea of scarcity but map size needs to be taken into account.
Tac2i (formerly webizen)
lancer
Posts: 2963
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2005 8:56 am

RE: Lancer's officer mod

Post by lancer »

Hi,

I've uploaded a new version of the Enhanced Mod Suite that scales HQ allowances for map size and number of regimes. More info here...

Version Upgrade Notes

Cheers,
Lancer
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