Mandella
Posts: 10
Joined: 10/13/2011 Status: offline
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I read suppressed as being pinned down, unable to maneuver except possibly to find better cover. There's countless accounts written during WW2 about infantry units being pinned down and unable to advance, especially green/poorly trained units. This is aptly shown in the lower morale rating of certain units (Volksgrenadier/Italian for example). Not only should the inability to function while suppressed be stressed, it must be in effect for all units, whether soft targets like infantry/AT Guns/trucks or hard targets like tanks and armored personnel carriers. They shouldn't be able to advance on the enemy at all and only move to their own lines looking for better cover. I've seen tanks be used on PBEM games that are highly suppressed (a minus morale rating) yet be able to advance and draw fire away from friendly units, causing the effects I've been talking about in my previous post. A tanker has the same feeling of stress in their iron box that an infantryman would when under heavy fire. The quality of the troops would determine how hearty they are at standing up under fire, which is aptly shown with a higher morale level unit. They can simply take more mentally. I'm not sure how accurate the designers of Battle Academy wanted the game to be? There are facets of this game that are very good. You really do have to adjust the tactics depending on what side you are playing. A Sherman crew is going to have to be a lot choosier of their tactics than the guy riding in the the turret of a Panther. Each unit brings out, in fine fashion, its strengths and weaknesses. I feel that an effective fix for these inconsistencies would be to have more restrictions on what suppressed units can do. They shouldn't be able to advance, especially towards a known enemy unit or the enemy "front lines". Following in trace of front line friendly units would be ok as that would happen but being used offensively has to be cut out. That would greatly eliminate the inaccurate use of a unit that should be unusable and force a more proper use of tactics. Units getting suppressed tends to stall an advance, a very real and well know occurrence. I wouldn't worry so much about hidden units. They tend to be found out sooner or later. It isn't that hard to figure out where that AT Gun is that just knocked out your lead tank, just use your head! I would definitely put the effects of hidden units below that of the effects of suppression. If a suppressed unit that is retreating gives away where a hidden unit is, then that's a lot more plausible to happen than letting a suppressed unit do things that are completely against known fact. Hidden units are in woods/buildings/rough terrain and tanks can't go there, so that's irrelevant. Infantry that are suppressed shouldn't be able to move much at all, maybe one square cause, well, they're pinned down and really shouldn't be able to move much anyway. That should help eliminate the problem of an infantry unit retreating through a hidden unit. I hope there can be found the proper solution to this problem. I don't mean to nit pick the game apart. I just would like to see it become a little more of what I think it's capable of being. It's already very good and the Slitherine staff has made admirable steps to fix problems (the reverse capability of vehicles was an excellent fix). Oh, and as far as the improper use of transport vehicles goes, simply make it so a truck can't go further forward than the furthest front line friendly unit, unless, of course, it is carrying a friendly infantry/artillery unit. That would eliminate a truck being used to capture enemy VP's deep behind enemy lines and relegate it to it's intended role. I've used half tracks to advantage as recon vehicles, particularly in scenarios where there's a lot of open terrain. This would be an accurate use of these vehicles as they were well known for this. If someone wanted to use an armored personnel carrier to raid deep behind enemy lines, that might throw up some discontent but it's probably impossible, given the capabilities of this game, to stop. At least they were used as an assault vehicle and it would be easier to take than somebody's Opel Truck cruising behind your lines eating up your VP's. I'll address another problem I've seen at a later time.
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