Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa

[JudgeDredd]

@JD:  Your point about them not announcing prices in advance is very well taken.  Frankly never occurred to me and it is, indeed, (seemingly) unnecessary and certainly weird.

I think i read on Matrix that the reason they did not publish the prices is because of the negativity and shock that some people respond with.

I know. But my point is - get that out the way before release. They aren't avoiding it by waiting to announce it on day of release - they just spoil their release day

Turns out this pricing is acceptable seemingly. But that's not been the case in the past

Like I said - ain't my business but I always thought it was a strange way to do things.

[JasonPratt]

Some... interesting design changes from past DC games.

1.) No strategic movement. And yet rail travel is still a big thing (as it should be). Not sure how this parses out yet.

2.) Units cannot be voluntarily reassigned to different HQs. Fair enough, that might have been too much control in Fall Blau, but eliminating it entirely seems to be jumping off the horse on the other side. Wouldn't this be a political-point issue? Or for Stalin, wouldn't the previous system be nominal after all?

3.) No on-map arty or air assets, and no missions can be assigned. If this is an issue of scale, I kind of agree about the lack of on-map assets; not sure I agree yet about being unable to assign missions. I suspect you actually can but the method is very different (and may be very different between arty and air comparatively).

4.) Can't voluntarily disband units. This kind of makes no sense; it ought to be possible to assign shattered units to the force pool (to the rear for rest and recovery let's say) and/or re-assign them to beef up another unit. But maybe they only mean the system takes care of that automagically, which would be okay.

5.) No more roads on the map. Only double and single rail lines. Roads are assumed to exist on the rail lines, and to be all-season roads. Roads are assumed to exist off the rail lines, but turn to mush when applicable. I guess at this map scale this is a reasonable compromise.

[JasonPratt]

More importantly, who wants to DARE to DAR together?! {not a euphamism}  :D

[-budd-]

the hell with the price debate. Lets move on to important things like impressions, AAR's, Youtube vids. I'll be getting it just not right now and i want to be tortured with how good it is. Then i'll see if i can wait it out, it's a lesson in game buying discipline, i have to warm up the discipline for the holiday sales.

[BanzaiCat]

the hell with the price debate. Lets move on to important things like impressions, AAR's, Youtube vids.

http://grogheads.com/?p=9448

[sandman2575]

3.) No on-map arty or air assets, and no missions can be assigned. If this is an issue of scale, I kind of agree about the lack of on-map assets; not sure I agree yet about being unable to assign missions. I suspect you actually can but the method is very different (and may be very different between arty and air comparatively).

I think this is an improvement. Air war in previous DC games was probably the weakest component, to the point of being virtually broken in Case Blue.  I'm very glad to see this abstracted.

[-budd-]

read that when it came out ;)...I need new material.

[Philippe]

One of the Soviet decisions which becomes available whenever one of their units is surrounded, is to order a unit to break up into smaller formations and commence partisan activities.  When the Soviet player does that the unit vanishes from the map and partisan activities in the area of operations of the relevant Army Group increase by a small amount.

The way artillery works is that you tell all of the higher level artillery assets from an Army Group to support either an Army or a specific Division for the next four days.  Panzer Groups are deemed to move too fast for this kind of support, so you can only support them with Air assets.  Air support works in much the same way as Artillery.

There's a lot more to the air support than this (especially on the logistical side), but what you won't do in this game is go crazy trying to figure out which small air squadron is closest to a potential target, because individual air units aren't shown on the map.  But air support is still important, and how you use it (or fail to use it) effects game play.   

[Jarhead0331]

And yes, there is a flag and symbols mod.

Where exactly can one download this?

[Philippe]

It won't come out on the day the game gets released.

But it's almost midnight.

(I'll make a separate thread so it will be easier to find six months from now).

[JasonPratt]

Okay, after about an hour of reading the manual, I feel unreasonably confident I can simulate a Stalinesque competency at shoving murdering commanding my troops against the Hun onslaught.

Anyone wanting to try a double-view AAR as the Germs?

[Barthheart]

Jason, I'll have a go at you as the Germans if you'd like.  :)

Can't promise it will be fast as I have a lot of balls in the air right now but it will speed up as we go.

[JasonPratt]

Squee!

I mean, balls!

I mean, uh, squee balls!  O:-)

Should we go through the Matrix PBEM++ thingy, or through the game engine's route?

[Barthheart]

Either way is fine by me.

I suggest we use these options or let me know what you'd like to change.

[-budd-]

O great, a well presented AAR to show off the games greatness. Might as well just buy it now. Looking forward to your AAR guys.