Decisive Campaigns: Case Blue is out:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=1069
and to celebrate the launch of the second title the first one, the excellent Warsaw to Paris gets a 10 buck discount!
Congrats Keunert! Looks like a good addition.... just need to come up with the $44 to buy it.
How did you like the beta-testing process? Vic is a great guy to work with.
I look forward eagerly to some honest opinions on this one I've had my eye on for quite a while.
my beta testing was a little limited to playing one of the big scenario's Case Blue Short. Vic really is a great guy. But my testing was due to limited time rather a beta gaming.
i will buy the title anyway.
Sir Slash: the first title of the series DC Warsaw to Paris together with Advanced Tactics Gold are the two games i played most in recent years. Both are designed by Vic. I have no ties with him, i just happen to like what he's doing a lot.
Both games are different but in terms of scale, theme and ui they are just what i love about turn based wargames. I never tried War in the East, it scared me as over complex. DC has rather easy game mechanics, but they are hard to master: there are no odds
to tell you how the attack will turn out, there are different bonus' for multidirectional attacks, for div. coherence and what not.
The new DC title is a little more complex and has lots of additions to the first one. After a few hours of gameplay i really started to like the new stuff. You can now create units (if you lost one) you get reinforcements each turn, there is a dynamic goal system (OKH assigns new objectives during the campaign), if you reach goals you get political points that help you keep the command or enable you to buy new generals, you can ask OKH for more reinforcements or to skip some targets... tons of stuff
the most important for me: the ui is very intuitive and you will get into the game fast. you don't have to use many of the options but i guess mastering them will make you more successfull. the new pbem system also looks very promising (no email sending anymore). if you want to get a feel for the game read the aar's on the wargamer and the armchair general.
This is a really, really nice game. I was a surprised fan of DC:WtP,I was not a big operational fan when I bought it but from the reviews decided to give it a try...I loved it. IMO DC:CB is an improvement in immersion and playability. For me it is currently the best operational series of games on the market (well...turn based that is, Panthers Battles from the Bulge series is right up there as well but it is real time). Right now, if I had to pick an early war game of the the year, DC:CB and NWS's Steam and Iron would be a toss up for me.
If you like WWII operational...even a tiny bit I think this game is a must buy. As much as I enjoy WitE and appreciate the complexity and detail, DC:CB does it better IMHO.
I have a preview of one of the smaller learning scenarios
http://sugarfreegamer.com/?p=38802
Hopefully it can be regarded as a beginners primer to the game, a lot of the new high command stuff in the new title is disabled in these smaller scenarios though.
My only concern is that it is going to be too much like its predecessor. And while, that would seem like a great thing on the surface, I think using some of the same OOBs over the same general european terrain may get a little old.
Thanks to all. I have checked-out the AAR's and other posts about this game as well as Warsaw to Paris and I have been a little suspicious as I've not read anything negative about it, Case Blue I mean. It seems almost too good to be true, but this one looks to be a definate buy.
Jarhead to answer your concerns: the game needed more than some adjustements to cover an operation of several months. Vic did enhance the game a lot and during my first hours i was a little concerned if those enhancements would make the game less playable.
to give you an idea: Vic introduced oil. at the start of Case Blue you have plenty of it. but with every air strike and every motorized move you will use some up. during my beta playtest i reached zero oil after the first week. not taking care of it my Panzers were immobilized and in danger of encirclement. the next weeks i grounded the Luftwaffe to get my tanks moving. oil reserves went up but during that time i more or less lost all my air advantage and from then on i had rather high air losses.
if you capture on map oil production hexes you will have to wait some turns but then get additional oil from it.
another addition is weather. every now and then heavy rain will practically half your movement, sometimes it happened just in the turn i hoped to close a pocket.
leaders is another addition, and all the axis minor fractions with their poor leaders and their own wishes.
I think you are familiar with HPS titles. i would say the difference between DC1 and DC2 in terms of gameplay is on par or bigger than those in the Panzer Campaign Series. the different scale and timeframe alone makes for a different experience: if you fight the french in DC1 you will eventually see the french collapse. in Case Blue the german player may catch russian units by the dozen, but their different reinforcement rate will make you sweat.
I just bought this yesterady. Haven't installed yet. Look like this is a "WITE killer".
if number of posts and reviews say something about sales, i would say War in the East was a huge success while DC1 was going under the radar by Vic's own words.
Keunert: one thing I'm wondering about, and one of the reasons why I didn't buy the original DC, is: is there enough to do for a prolonged time period? There only seem to be a handful of scenarios and, although at least two of them are big, you will finish them eventually (and they're not WitE/WitP-style big in any case) so what is the replayability like?
35 euro's is not a steep price, so I might buy it in any case, but I'm just wondering.
I tested for Vic for one of his first products and although I like what that product eventually evolved to (Advanced Tactics), it's not entirely my kind of game. DC:WtP was theoretically more my cup of tea, but I didn't buy it for a number of reasons. The games are good though, no doubt about that.
Quote from: ComradeP on July 18, 2012, 08:24:45 AM
Keunert: one thing I'm wondering about, and one of the reasons why I didn't buy the original DC, is: is there enough to do for a prolonged time period? There only seem to be a handful of scenarios and, although at least two of them are big, you will finish them eventually (and they're not WitE/WitP-style big in any case) so what is the replayability like?
35 euro's is not a steep price, so I might buy it in any case, but I'm just wondering.
I tested for Vic for one of his first products and although I like what that product eventually evolved to (Advanced Tactics), it's not entirely my kind of game. DC:WtP was theoretically more my cup of tea, but I didn't buy it for a number of reasons. The games are good though, no doubt about that.
I thought the way that random scenario variants were handled, in the original DC, was brilliant. You don't always quite know which ones have been activated or not (if you keep default settings for them) until you experience it first-hand. Makes for extra fog of war which is great stuff.
I decided to buy it anyway. I might post a (series of) AAR's at Matrix considering that there's no AAR on the forums yet and that I enjoy writing them.
Comrade: i think if you want to play DC1 only single player, the content is limited. The AI isn't a challenge after a while. but (i guess not unlike WitE) if you play MP games, the french and polish campaign offer lots of replay value.
With Case Blue you have more scenario's and a bigger campaign. this title offers enough for single players. but with the editor available and the slitherine MP server it should have endless possibilities. i hope some of Advanced Tactic's scenario designers will jump over to Case Blue and enhance the experience.
if you want to have a MP game, let me know. i might do an aar of my side too.
I beta tested Warsaw to Paris and wrote the AAR posted on the Wargamer. Vic is indeed a great person to work with. Nice to see he has another title out.
Vic is really cool. I like him.
Here he is talking about Case Blue
Quote from: Keunert on July 18, 2012, 05:38:55 AM
if number of posts and reviews say something about sales, i would say War in the East was a huge success while DC1 was going under the radar by Vic's own words.
it went under my radar as well :-[
well, maybe it was the summer release month of August?
with all the exciting "Case Blue - talks / AARs / videos" going on, the 10$ off, and the big patch (closing up to DC2) already on the horizon, i couldn't resist and just got me: DC:WtP :)
Now i can learn the ropes of the engine first ...and when the community-made small scenarios pop-up for DC2 i may get that later too (hopefully on a Thanksgiving / Xmas sale ;))
I am a little scared of Case Blue map size so... when i just started my very first try on the Netherlands scenario in DC1 ... and extrapolate.
Haven't played it yet, but I bought it. Vic rocks and so does this game engine. He deserves our support!
An upate:
Full Changelog:
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug with the AI in final stages of defeat taking really long to process
engineering moves.
Fixed a bug caused by playing a regime card in the middle of giving an attack
order (like air attack).
Fixed a bug with big map modus and switching back to small map modus using
PgUp while in the middle of issuing an attack order.
Fixed a bug with the 1st Panzer Army campaign where newly created units or
empty units (by add (sub)unit) where not properly transferred to the next level.
Karl Gerat, 200 hp instead of 40
Aircobra P39 graphic is now correct
Endless battle bug in AI with naval attacks on port should be fixed.
Alfredo Guzzioni combat bonus glitch fixed
Arial Font issue with some systems missing arial is now solved. All Arial fonts are
now loaded from internal font directory.
Stated in intcp mouse over that only fighters will intercept also double checked
that no bombers are actually intercepting by accident.
There was an issue with the Germans getting told they have 1 minor order but not
seeing any items in the list. This is fixed.
When setting replacements to prio they got counted double in request stats. This
glitch is fixed. Also a minor bug has been fixed with some units being allowed to
request too many troops if they were very close to their full complement.
X and T hotkey no longer cause a crash
Fixed a bug where AI kept attacking a port hex until infinity
Fixed a bug where the AIs Stavka unit got corrupted. This bug when it is found
during a running game is fixed with this version on the fly.
An ai related bug
A pbem++ bug with some non US culture-region settings, like Norwegian.
When pbem++ you can now abort registration properly and use login with existing
username/password.
Combat popup artwork for soviet side now correct.
Fixed a Bug with aircraft not doing any structural damage when not faced with
any opponents.
1st Panzer Army campaign save in last turn and reload bug (ComradeP) is fixed.
Karl Gerat ... x5 attack. (still forgot the hitpoints, its on the list for the next
version)
Caprione 311 logo vales and quite a few other aircraft used the right stats but did
not show them in their pop up window=> fixed.
1st PzA replacement troops are now working as they should!
A bug related with playing a card like 'emergency troops' and having certain tabs
open like the OOB tab has been fixed.
When clicking OOB tab close you click through on map => fixed.
Some small fixes in editor and for import zip function.
Editor Add SfType bug fixed.
Improvements
Changed the d100 dice throw for intercept algorithm, this should fix issue with too
often too large amount of enemy interceptors or to often too little amount of
interceptors.
If by some freak accident the pbem++ file (or any savefile) is corrupt the game
will exit more gracefully and actually tell you why it exits.
All scenarios now no longer allow playing an officer card on unit that has changed
HQ in the current turn.
For modding: When loading ZIP game will now display any readme.txt file
contents to player and if a file has been written to the mods/ directory the game
will advise the player to restart the game.
For modding purposes: Regime Pen color is now not used for the natocounters and
all text in the color is now correctly rendered in the Pen color. This should allow
for modding really light counters and using black pen on top of them. If none of
the rgb values of the Pen is above 128 then the text shadow is also dropped.
Message text with Intelligence card reply improved and correct strategic position
of enemy now given. (R)
Renamed reinf group light tanks to light-med tanks to take away some confusion.
So PzIIs, PzIIIs, Pz38s, Pz35s are reinfgroup 'light-med' and PzIVs are reinfgroup
'medium'.
Moved Hungarian Corps to Black Sea Coast in Case Blue Campaign Scenarios.
Also moved a Security division in Uranus to the Black Sea Coast.
Made cargoships and barges weaker and thus more easily destroyed (50% less
hitpoints) as well as reducing the transport capacity of cargoships from 4 to 3
weight points per ship.
Message text with Intelligence card reply improved and correct strategic position
of enemy now given.
Now game doesn't number newly created Soviet Engineer groups, it's more
consistent.
Azov is now a port so Rostov can be kept in supply when encircled, in all
scenarios.
AA / Flak now have higher symbol value so it shows on counter in silhouette mod.
14th Panzer missing from Stalingrad 6th Army, added it to both Uranus scenarios.
16th Motorized added to Case Blue campaign scenarios but not to Voronezh
scenario.
Reduced number of trucks, halftracks and tanks in (to-be pocket of) Stalingrad in
Op. Uranus. (only about 100 German tanks or less left now )
Little bigger font used in combat results.
Hotkey for HQ Power (Key-5) and Air/Art Range (Key-6) added.
Super Higher resolution now supported, bug with 2600 pixel width should be
fixed.
Already registered people with Slitherine (due to playing PBEM++ with another
game) now have option to choose 'already registered' button and use the regular
login in the next screen.
When you switch a unit and play the speed card again it will have less effect.
New mod file lines can be added. After the buttons have all been defined there is
now an optional line that takes the number of graphicfile string replacements. For
each number add a line below. With two arguments: "stringtobereplaced,"
"stringtoreplacewith." This functionality makes it easy to make graphic mods that
don't overwrite existing graphics. I will give some more info on this separately.
o Wheel zooms in and out at location of mouse.
the game rocks... go get it