Reality
Learned
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2019
- Messages
- 346
1: So my first battle with the S35, all three of my squadmates die to a single Pak 37. My commander takes a light wound to machinegun fire... His shooting accuracy seems to be the same, but his spotting range is reduced to a single hex. This wouldn't be a problem in the H35 or R35, but my brand new tank betrays me, because it is the ONLY French tank where you can't use the Driver as a backup spotter. I am forced to play blind. I do call in reinforcement squad mates with a resupply, but I soon encounter another new german weapon: the 8.8 Only myself and one of my new squadmates survives. I need to go through one battle to get back in range to call reinforcements. Unfortunately they call an air attack on the first round and I am bombed by Stukas. So I only used the S35 Day 9-11.
I played H35(Late) for Day 12-17. The Name of the Save file changed to "fall of the Maginot Line" for the last 5 missions. I would say the whole campaign took something like 3-4 hours, but I could have ran away more frequently or took less fights.
2: The Grit Stat seems to be the sole recovery option for wounds. My commander had 5 in it and he did not recover from Light wounds until the 16th mission. Probbably better to just redshirt if anyone else gets a wound.
3: Playing as 1940 France seems more like a Bonus mode or Easy mode - Because the tanks are so slow, you move 1 hex on a turn instead of the 3-5 that you do in other campaigns. The armor of the French tanks also lets you beat the first 4 maps for free as an unkillable monster. The battle grid extends 3 hexes in every direction and seems weighted to have all active combatants in this area (rather than having to "find" anyone) The concealment mechanics do not apply to this campaign, because your tanks are so loud that you just get ambushed in every battle. The Close combat mechanic against infantry that is disadvantageous in other campaigns (eg they rush your tank) actually works in your favor as an auto-resolve mechanic.
Despite this criticism of it as Shallow, it's actually kind of historically approiate - The French did plan for WW2 very differently than other countries, and their over-armored tanks with terrible engines and guns did have occasions of crazy personal glory during the six weeks. Fun history aside ... in gameplay terms the French forces campaign - A: Is a power fantasy for the first half, because of feeling invincible B: Turns into a kill screen if you play without running away once the German's upgrade their tech to include AT guns and air bombing during week 2. C: Teaches you REALLY bad habits for the rest of the game which mostly encourages a kind of glass cannon stealth approach.
4: I've sampled the other countries and US / Canada / UK / Germany seem like the most tactical - this is mostly because of having separate Gunners and Loaders as crew, which make getting multiple attacks per round less "once in a blue moon" and more something you can plan on. However the game's readability is a little unclear. Not sure if the way the enemy reacts to Fast tanks is because they refuse to act against players with less than a 35-40% to hit, or if the concealment mechanic lasts multiple turns. - I'm planning to do a full playthrough with a fragile Fast tank to counterbalance. Shooting 4 times in a single turn, and not getting my tank stuck in mud for years is a huge relief from the 30 minutes of the other countries that I've seen.
5: The length of the campaigns are unclear, sometimes the game progresses 1 day at a time and sometimes it skips ahead. The French campaign said May 10 1940 - June 16 1940 but my notes say that it took 17 battles. It's tempting to interpret that as a 1 battle = 2 days, but that would make most of the other campaigns freakishly long. The French campaign at least has no credit screen for getting to the end.
I played H35(Late) for Day 12-17. The Name of the Save file changed to "fall of the Maginot Line" for the last 5 missions. I would say the whole campaign took something like 3-4 hours, but I could have ran away more frequently or took less fights.
2: The Grit Stat seems to be the sole recovery option for wounds. My commander had 5 in it and he did not recover from Light wounds until the 16th mission. Probbably better to just redshirt if anyone else gets a wound.
3: Playing as 1940 France seems more like a Bonus mode or Easy mode - Because the tanks are so slow, you move 1 hex on a turn instead of the 3-5 that you do in other campaigns. The armor of the French tanks also lets you beat the first 4 maps for free as an unkillable monster. The battle grid extends 3 hexes in every direction and seems weighted to have all active combatants in this area (rather than having to "find" anyone) The concealment mechanics do not apply to this campaign, because your tanks are so loud that you just get ambushed in every battle. The Close combat mechanic against infantry that is disadvantageous in other campaigns (eg they rush your tank) actually works in your favor as an auto-resolve mechanic.
Despite this criticism of it as Shallow, it's actually kind of historically approiate - The French did plan for WW2 very differently than other countries, and their over-armored tanks with terrible engines and guns did have occasions of crazy personal glory during the six weeks. Fun history aside ... in gameplay terms the French forces campaign - A: Is a power fantasy for the first half, because of feeling invincible B: Turns into a kill screen if you play without running away once the German's upgrade their tech to include AT guns and air bombing during week 2. C: Teaches you REALLY bad habits for the rest of the game which mostly encourages a kind of glass cannon stealth approach.
4: I've sampled the other countries and US / Canada / UK / Germany seem like the most tactical - this is mostly because of having separate Gunners and Loaders as crew, which make getting multiple attacks per round less "once in a blue moon" and more something you can plan on. However the game's readability is a little unclear. Not sure if the way the enemy reacts to Fast tanks is because they refuse to act against players with less than a 35-40% to hit, or if the concealment mechanic lasts multiple turns. - I'm planning to do a full playthrough with a fragile Fast tank to counterbalance. Shooting 4 times in a single turn, and not getting my tank stuck in mud for years is a huge relief from the 30 minutes of the other countries that I've seen.
5: The length of the campaigns are unclear, sometimes the game progresses 1 day at a time and sometimes it skips ahead. The French campaign said May 10 1940 - June 16 1940 but my notes say that it took 17 battles. It's tempting to interpret that as a 1 battle = 2 days, but that would make most of the other campaigns freakishly long. The French campaign at least has no credit screen for getting to the end.
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