overtenemy
Augur
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2007
- Messages
- 293
Due to inability to change thread name, may start new thread. If I can't find solution feel free to disregard.
Index:
Operation Star
Part 1 Again - The Rebeginnining
Original Recipe
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
After suffering through a great deal of rage and the beginnings of what could be serious heart complications at the hands of technical difficulties in Silent Hunter 4, I've decided to stop commencing Operation Monsun for the time being. Instead, I present...
Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943 is a real-time tactical wargame, with a heavy emphasis on realism and a turn-based operational phase. It's developed by Graviteam, the independent Russian developer also responsible for the tank sim Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942. In my opinion, they are incline incarnate, and while Achtung Panzer was released only earlier this year, it seems to get very little press around here, so much so that I consider it criminally underrated, especially when considering our population of elitist grognards. It's not without its share of quirks, which I'll point out as we go. Its greatest flaw, currently, is the complete lack of multiplayer, but word on the street is that's going to be patched in. It's very easy to pirate, since it features no copy protection that I know of outside of being distributed solely online, but that brings me to one of its greater features: a mere 20 dollar price tag. I pirated it initially myself, and bought it when I saw how awesome it was.
http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.com/201 ... eview.html
That video is of an interview with one of the game's producers, who instead of taking the standard marketing approach of "Hardcore gamers will love it, but casuals can play it!" he rather contemptuously states that it's for adult wargamers, not teenagers or people who play World of Warcraft. If I didn't know better I'd say he was Skyway. But he isn't really fucking around, either. The game features a graph that shows you what gun can penetrate what armor and at what range.
On the right, you can see I have a Panzer IV selected. The solid bars indicate the thickness of its armor, which is also the Y axis. The X axis represents range. The dotted lines are the ammunition fired by a 76.2mm m27, selected on the left. At point blank ranges you'll see, the APHE round is capable of frontally penetrating the Pz IV's armor, but after 300 meters will have to score a hit elsewhere. The top ammunition, apparently, will penetrate anywhere, and doesn't lose effectiveness with range because it's high explosive, meaning it doesn't rely on kinetic energy to do its damage and so loses no effectiveness with range.
Anyway, that seems like enough exposition and advertising. Let's get to it.
There's three difficulty options - whether or not you can see the enemy without LOS, the amount of forces your enemy will have, and whether or not he's experienced. 150% is as high as the second goes, and we have experienced selected.
Because I've beaten both of the German operations, and because I've LPed as an ubermensch recently, we'll be taking the side of the degenerate communist untermensch from the East.
Aren't you glad you read all that? In case you didn't, we'll be defending Sokolovo, a town outside of Kharkov itself. The game does not contain the entire third battle of Kharkov, but instead offers two very small slices of it, with as much fidelity as possible.
IT'S LIKE IM REALLY IN RUSSIA
This is the operational map. This is how it looks two turns later, I forgot to screenshot it initially because there was really nothing for me to do but wait since I had no inclination to move any of my units. The symbols currently surrounded by the red circle are mine. The three green units no the bottom are German - the two on the right are mechanized, the one of the left is a recon unit, also mechanized. It's now attacking, by itself, my Western Flank. But that doesn't mean it's just attacking the infantry unit placed there. Every square represents a square kilometer, and every square around the battle will be present. That means he also has to deal with another infantry unit, and an artillery unit.
It's one of the irritating points of this game that you can't move multiple units onto the same square. It's a whole damn kilometer, there's room damn it. It can be detrimental to gameplay at times.
This is the deployment phase. The Germans, as mentioned before, will be entirely mechanized. They won't have any tanks, but they will consist of infantry squads loaded onto APCs. This is a problem not only because it makes them far more mobile than us, but also because it means our infantry squads will not be able to fight properly out in the open unless supported by an anti-tank weapon of some kind. An infantry squad caught by an APC will get machine gunned mercilessly while its completely unable to offer any meaningful retaliation, unless the APC is foolish enough to get very close. Unlikely. What this means is that positioning is extremely important. You need to pick a good spot and defend, since you won't be able to easily move about the way the Germans do. People on foot are slow. Shit takes time.
Where the trees start and the ground becomes purple instead of green is where the occupied German square starts. You can see the German flag with Anna 1 under it as well - that's the key point for their square. When the battle's over, whoever has the keypoint captured is more likely to own the land on the operational map. I believe it also offers some sort of fighting bonus, but I'm not sure.
I position the infantry squad with a clear view of the road. If they attack directly, this is the road they'll take. On the left, the unit represented by three lines is an AT gun. It'll do considerable damage to their APCs, especially because it's entrenched. That's what the green line in front of them indicates - entrenchment. You may only entrench if you've been in the same square on the operational map for a turn or two. If you move, it won't be available. The circles are how far the unit's commander's influence extends, and the color of the circle is how powerful it is. The regular infantry squads obviously have shit command ability, where Ruzicka is a proper commander. He's the one with the giant orange-yellow circle. Units inside the circle are less likely to flee when shit hits the fan.
This is the infantry unit two squares east of the Germans on the operational map. The land in between us is unclaimed. I set them up to defend, in the event they try to flank around this way.
As for the artillery, I take them out of their home square of West Pokolovo and put them West, with the first infantry squad. First off, this means they may not entrench, since you can only entrench on your home square. This also means the town is left wide open.
It would be possible for the Germans to move right through my two infantry units, covered by the trees, and advance right into the town and capture it. But I accept the risk. In my opinion, you can't defend everything at once. He who tries to hold onto everything will lose everything. Although the town IS in fact the most important area where, the reason I moved my artillery to the position they're at is because it's a large, open field. If the enemy APCs come into their vision, the artillery will light them up at that range, while the APCs won't be able to return fire very well, as they're mostly armed with machine guns only.
With that, the battle commences. Now we wait.
After a few minutes, Eta 2 is captured. They're heading north, apparently. Either they're going to outflank wide, or they're going to drive right into the gaping jaws of my artillery pieces. I move them up a little more so they'll have a better shot.
After a few more minutes, we have the first enemy contact. Often times, when using anti-tank guns, or artillery in this case, it's advisable to hold fire until they're closer, to guarantee a good shot and penetration. But since we have 76.2mm guns, and these are just APCs, I see no reason to hold back.
That line means one of the guns has a good shot and is aiming.
Pow. It's not completely destroyed, but apparently it's immobilized. Yet it keeps moving...
Ah, that's why. The machine is still functional, but the crew are dead, so it keeps driving. Well, we're off to a good start.
I begin moving the entrenched squad over to protect our guns, anticipating battle at this location.
They arrive a little later, yet we've not been attacked. Hrm...
Another point captured, further north. That must mean they're now heading east, to outflank West Sokolovo. Yeah, that place that I left NO TROOPS.
That's the road they're going to be taking. But we're not fucked quite yet. It's just a small change in position to get us a decent shot on that road.
We race to make it in time.
We made it, just as they captured the point before Sokolovo, and apparently we've got an enemy sighted.
The guns let loose.
About four APCs sighted now. One of them is trying to run away, North, off the road.
He doesn't quite make it.
Right track blown off. Sometimes the crew can make repairs to the track, if there's no fighting going on around them, but I don't think they're gonna make it.
Around now we start getting hit by artillery called in by the enemy commander. The black spot on the left there is where it hit, and our first gun is a few guys down, but still operable.
Some of the APCs have opened up on us, as the tracers show. Better take that fuck out quick.
More gun casualties. If they lose too many dudes, it'll become immobile at first, because there's not enough people to pull it. Then, eventually, it won't fire anymore either.
With most of the APCs present either completely destroyed or disabled, a firefight now breaks out between our positions and their infantry. A few of them are apparently ordered to attack us.
Didn't work out so well for that guy. Because their transports are gone and they're running around on foot, I call in artillery, but it won't hit for about 5 minutes.
One of the APCs escaped and is heading northeast, currently. Sokolovo is east. Fortunately, I had long since ordered the southernmost infantry unit to Sokolovo. It should be arriving shortly to take up defensive positions there.
They arrived, but I was too busy watching the firefight by the road, and I didn't modify my orders properly. Meanwhile, that APC that broke away has advanced on Sokolovo. As a result, four infantry squads ran out ahead without taking cover in the houses, and are now being machine gunned. Needless losses ensue, but they all stay combat effective. The anti-tank gun is behind them abit.
I tried to turn one of the guns to engage the APC that was machine gunning my squads by the town, but too late. The APC turned its attentions to the gun, and with a lucky shot took it completely out of commission.
Meanwhile, the squads in town have gotten to safety inside some shoddily constructed communism shacks. The AT gun is on the road, advancing steadily to meet the APC head on. Hope that works out.
Back to the firefight on the road, we've pretty much one. We've had several commanders killed, and an AT gun taken out of commission, but the enemy infantry has either been mopped up or run off East to join the fight at Sokolovo, which shouldn't end well for them. The last functional APC that I can see is about to get raped.
Win
A small amount of infantry made it to the city, and is now being fired at by our infantry, who are in a vastly superior position. They won't last long.
Our AT gun finally made it onto the same road as the APC, while the APC was pre-occupied firing off its gun into a shack. The first shot damages its weapon.
The second immobilizes it, and that'll be that.
The enemy now offers a cease fire, meaning he no longer has any offensive objectives, and decides he'd be better off simply accepting things as they stand. If you accept, the battle is over, and you go back to the operational map with whatever territory you've lost/gained. But I say fuck that - he just got whooped, so I see no reason we should let him keep the territory he's gained. Let's go take care of a few things. First things first. There's an immobilized APC that we didn't finish destroying. Our AT guns are immobile, with not enough people to pull them, so they can't tag along.
Russian infantry carry a secret weapon: potatoes. Or rather, potatoes in the form of molotov cocktails. They're potentially quite good. If they hit, there's a chance they'll light the enemy vehicle on fire. If that happens, it'll be automatically abandoned, even if it's a tank. That taken care of, I split up my infantry to go take back the points the Germans captured.
And on the way I run into a few APCs the enemy left in reserve. My infantry is in an open field, with no support, facing an APC. THIS IS LIKE THAT THING I WAS TALKING ABOUT!!! In an incredibly cheesy move, I accept the cease-fire, so thirty seconds later the carnage ends, but it was still rape. The entire unit didn't break, fortunately, but several squads within them are done for and will have to be replaced. I accidentally clicked out of the battle summary, but since it's our first fight we can just look at the campaign and it'll tell us what's what.
The game decided it was a minor victory in my favor. I lost 54 dudes to their 29, and one artillery gun to their four APCs. As far as personnel losses go, that's just to be expected. Untermensch drop like fruit flies. But along the way I lost two commanders that I cannot replace, and I'm not so sure that fight was really a victory for me. But just the same, though they outflanked us and took some unoccupied territory, we gave them no ground that we held. I'll call it a success for now.
Now you can replace broken squads, replenish units' fuel and ammo and personnel losses. That sounds cool at first, but it's so basic that it just becomes repetitive. The operational phase is a little fucked when it comes to features, and it's one of the fields in which Graviteam definitely stands to improve. Yet I won't bash it overly much, because the fact that the game has an operational phase at all, rather than a string of unrelated missions, improves the experience greatly. That I lost an artillery gun now weighs heavily on me, because it's not just being an expendable unit I'll never see again. It gets even worse with tanks. I punch myself in the fucking face every time I lose one.
Anyway, that'll do it for now.
Index:
Operation Star
Part 1 Again - The Rebeginnining
Original Recipe
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
After suffering through a great deal of rage and the beginnings of what could be serious heart complications at the hands of technical difficulties in Silent Hunter 4, I've decided to stop commencing Operation Monsun for the time being. Instead, I present...
Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943 is a real-time tactical wargame, with a heavy emphasis on realism and a turn-based operational phase. It's developed by Graviteam, the independent Russian developer also responsible for the tank sim Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942. In my opinion, they are incline incarnate, and while Achtung Panzer was released only earlier this year, it seems to get very little press around here, so much so that I consider it criminally underrated, especially when considering our population of elitist grognards. It's not without its share of quirks, which I'll point out as we go. Its greatest flaw, currently, is the complete lack of multiplayer, but word on the street is that's going to be patched in. It's very easy to pirate, since it features no copy protection that I know of outside of being distributed solely online, but that brings me to one of its greater features: a mere 20 dollar price tag. I pirated it initially myself, and bought it when I saw how awesome it was.
http://kriegsimulation.blogspot.com/201 ... eview.html
That video is of an interview with one of the game's producers, who instead of taking the standard marketing approach of "Hardcore gamers will love it, but casuals can play it!" he rather contemptuously states that it's for adult wargamers, not teenagers or people who play World of Warcraft. If I didn't know better I'd say he was Skyway. But he isn't really fucking around, either. The game features a graph that shows you what gun can penetrate what armor and at what range.
On the right, you can see I have a Panzer IV selected. The solid bars indicate the thickness of its armor, which is also the Y axis. The X axis represents range. The dotted lines are the ammunition fired by a 76.2mm m27, selected on the left. At point blank ranges you'll see, the APHE round is capable of frontally penetrating the Pz IV's armor, but after 300 meters will have to score a hit elsewhere. The top ammunition, apparently, will penetrate anywhere, and doesn't lose effectiveness with range because it's high explosive, meaning it doesn't rely on kinetic energy to do its damage and so loses no effectiveness with range.
Anyway, that seems like enough exposition and advertising. Let's get to it.
There's three difficulty options - whether or not you can see the enemy without LOS, the amount of forces your enemy will have, and whether or not he's experienced. 150% is as high as the second goes, and we have experienced selected.
Because I've beaten both of the German operations, and because I've LPed as an ubermensch recently, we'll be taking the side of the degenerate communist untermensch from the East.
Aren't you glad you read all that? In case you didn't, we'll be defending Sokolovo, a town outside of Kharkov itself. The game does not contain the entire third battle of Kharkov, but instead offers two very small slices of it, with as much fidelity as possible.
IT'S LIKE IM REALLY IN RUSSIA
This is the operational map. This is how it looks two turns later, I forgot to screenshot it initially because there was really nothing for me to do but wait since I had no inclination to move any of my units. The symbols currently surrounded by the red circle are mine. The three green units no the bottom are German - the two on the right are mechanized, the one of the left is a recon unit, also mechanized. It's now attacking, by itself, my Western Flank. But that doesn't mean it's just attacking the infantry unit placed there. Every square represents a square kilometer, and every square around the battle will be present. That means he also has to deal with another infantry unit, and an artillery unit.
It's one of the irritating points of this game that you can't move multiple units onto the same square. It's a whole damn kilometer, there's room damn it. It can be detrimental to gameplay at times.
This is the deployment phase. The Germans, as mentioned before, will be entirely mechanized. They won't have any tanks, but they will consist of infantry squads loaded onto APCs. This is a problem not only because it makes them far more mobile than us, but also because it means our infantry squads will not be able to fight properly out in the open unless supported by an anti-tank weapon of some kind. An infantry squad caught by an APC will get machine gunned mercilessly while its completely unable to offer any meaningful retaliation, unless the APC is foolish enough to get very close. Unlikely. What this means is that positioning is extremely important. You need to pick a good spot and defend, since you won't be able to easily move about the way the Germans do. People on foot are slow. Shit takes time.
Where the trees start and the ground becomes purple instead of green is where the occupied German square starts. You can see the German flag with Anna 1 under it as well - that's the key point for their square. When the battle's over, whoever has the keypoint captured is more likely to own the land on the operational map. I believe it also offers some sort of fighting bonus, but I'm not sure.
I position the infantry squad with a clear view of the road. If they attack directly, this is the road they'll take. On the left, the unit represented by three lines is an AT gun. It'll do considerable damage to their APCs, especially because it's entrenched. That's what the green line in front of them indicates - entrenchment. You may only entrench if you've been in the same square on the operational map for a turn or two. If you move, it won't be available. The circles are how far the unit's commander's influence extends, and the color of the circle is how powerful it is. The regular infantry squads obviously have shit command ability, where Ruzicka is a proper commander. He's the one with the giant orange-yellow circle. Units inside the circle are less likely to flee when shit hits the fan.
This is the infantry unit two squares east of the Germans on the operational map. The land in between us is unclaimed. I set them up to defend, in the event they try to flank around this way.
As for the artillery, I take them out of their home square of West Pokolovo and put them West, with the first infantry squad. First off, this means they may not entrench, since you can only entrench on your home square. This also means the town is left wide open.
It would be possible for the Germans to move right through my two infantry units, covered by the trees, and advance right into the town and capture it. But I accept the risk. In my opinion, you can't defend everything at once. He who tries to hold onto everything will lose everything. Although the town IS in fact the most important area where, the reason I moved my artillery to the position they're at is because it's a large, open field. If the enemy APCs come into their vision, the artillery will light them up at that range, while the APCs won't be able to return fire very well, as they're mostly armed with machine guns only.
With that, the battle commences. Now we wait.
After a few minutes, Eta 2 is captured. They're heading north, apparently. Either they're going to outflank wide, or they're going to drive right into the gaping jaws of my artillery pieces. I move them up a little more so they'll have a better shot.
After a few more minutes, we have the first enemy contact. Often times, when using anti-tank guns, or artillery in this case, it's advisable to hold fire until they're closer, to guarantee a good shot and penetration. But since we have 76.2mm guns, and these are just APCs, I see no reason to hold back.
That line means one of the guns has a good shot and is aiming.
Pow. It's not completely destroyed, but apparently it's immobilized. Yet it keeps moving...
Ah, that's why. The machine is still functional, but the crew are dead, so it keeps driving. Well, we're off to a good start.
I begin moving the entrenched squad over to protect our guns, anticipating battle at this location.
They arrive a little later, yet we've not been attacked. Hrm...
Another point captured, further north. That must mean they're now heading east, to outflank West Sokolovo. Yeah, that place that I left NO TROOPS.
That's the road they're going to be taking. But we're not fucked quite yet. It's just a small change in position to get us a decent shot on that road.
We race to make it in time.
We made it, just as they captured the point before Sokolovo, and apparently we've got an enemy sighted.
The guns let loose.
About four APCs sighted now. One of them is trying to run away, North, off the road.
He doesn't quite make it.
Right track blown off. Sometimes the crew can make repairs to the track, if there's no fighting going on around them, but I don't think they're gonna make it.
Around now we start getting hit by artillery called in by the enemy commander. The black spot on the left there is where it hit, and our first gun is a few guys down, but still operable.
Some of the APCs have opened up on us, as the tracers show. Better take that fuck out quick.
More gun casualties. If they lose too many dudes, it'll become immobile at first, because there's not enough people to pull it. Then, eventually, it won't fire anymore either.
With most of the APCs present either completely destroyed or disabled, a firefight now breaks out between our positions and their infantry. A few of them are apparently ordered to attack us.
Didn't work out so well for that guy. Because their transports are gone and they're running around on foot, I call in artillery, but it won't hit for about 5 minutes.
One of the APCs escaped and is heading northeast, currently. Sokolovo is east. Fortunately, I had long since ordered the southernmost infantry unit to Sokolovo. It should be arriving shortly to take up defensive positions there.
They arrived, but I was too busy watching the firefight by the road, and I didn't modify my orders properly. Meanwhile, that APC that broke away has advanced on Sokolovo. As a result, four infantry squads ran out ahead without taking cover in the houses, and are now being machine gunned. Needless losses ensue, but they all stay combat effective. The anti-tank gun is behind them abit.
I tried to turn one of the guns to engage the APC that was machine gunning my squads by the town, but too late. The APC turned its attentions to the gun, and with a lucky shot took it completely out of commission.
Meanwhile, the squads in town have gotten to safety inside some shoddily constructed communism shacks. The AT gun is on the road, advancing steadily to meet the APC head on. Hope that works out.
Back to the firefight on the road, we've pretty much one. We've had several commanders killed, and an AT gun taken out of commission, but the enemy infantry has either been mopped up or run off East to join the fight at Sokolovo, which shouldn't end well for them. The last functional APC that I can see is about to get raped.
Win
A small amount of infantry made it to the city, and is now being fired at by our infantry, who are in a vastly superior position. They won't last long.
Our AT gun finally made it onto the same road as the APC, while the APC was pre-occupied firing off its gun into a shack. The first shot damages its weapon.
The second immobilizes it, and that'll be that.
The enemy now offers a cease fire, meaning he no longer has any offensive objectives, and decides he'd be better off simply accepting things as they stand. If you accept, the battle is over, and you go back to the operational map with whatever territory you've lost/gained. But I say fuck that - he just got whooped, so I see no reason we should let him keep the territory he's gained. Let's go take care of a few things. First things first. There's an immobilized APC that we didn't finish destroying. Our AT guns are immobile, with not enough people to pull them, so they can't tag along.
Russian infantry carry a secret weapon: potatoes. Or rather, potatoes in the form of molotov cocktails. They're potentially quite good. If they hit, there's a chance they'll light the enemy vehicle on fire. If that happens, it'll be automatically abandoned, even if it's a tank. That taken care of, I split up my infantry to go take back the points the Germans captured.
And on the way I run into a few APCs the enemy left in reserve. My infantry is in an open field, with no support, facing an APC. THIS IS LIKE THAT THING I WAS TALKING ABOUT!!! In an incredibly cheesy move, I accept the cease-fire, so thirty seconds later the carnage ends, but it was still rape. The entire unit didn't break, fortunately, but several squads within them are done for and will have to be replaced. I accidentally clicked out of the battle summary, but since it's our first fight we can just look at the campaign and it'll tell us what's what.
The game decided it was a minor victory in my favor. I lost 54 dudes to their 29, and one artillery gun to their four APCs. As far as personnel losses go, that's just to be expected. Untermensch drop like fruit flies. But along the way I lost two commanders that I cannot replace, and I'm not so sure that fight was really a victory for me. But just the same, though they outflanked us and took some unoccupied territory, we gave them no ground that we held. I'll call it a success for now.
Now you can replace broken squads, replenish units' fuel and ammo and personnel losses. That sounds cool at first, but it's so basic that it just becomes repetitive. The operational phase is a little fucked when it comes to features, and it's one of the fields in which Graviteam definitely stands to improve. Yet I won't bash it overly much, because the fact that the game has an operational phase at all, rather than a string of unrelated missions, improves the experience greatly. That I lost an artillery gun now weighs heavily on me, because it's not just being an expendable unit I'll never see again. It gets even worse with tanks. I punch myself in the fucking face every time I lose one.
Anyway, that'll do it for now.
