Commander:The Great War AAR!

[Slick Wilhelm]

what does the privlidged AI get as opposed to regular or not-privlidged?

Hey Slash,

Well, I'm not privy to exactly what the privileged AI gets, as it wasn't fully disclosed by the Lordz. But if I recall correctly, they did mention that it gets more PP than when on the Neutral or Handicapped setting.

I also don't know if the neutral or handicapped AI is operating at full "smarts", but my guess would be that it's not.

It was fun and amazing to see the progress of the AI during the beta. It went from being a pushover to being a monster! Myrddraal, the Lordz developer responsible for the AI, made huge strides as testing went along. Impressive stuff, indeed.

Speaking of the Lordz, those guys were totally dedicated to this game during the time I spent with them. They seemed to literally eat, breathe and sleep CTGW. And they were extremely attentive and open to any suggestions for improvement or constructive criticism about the gameplay, user interface and just about everything. It was a real privilege to get to test this game for them.

In fact, if you've ever thought about wanting to be a beta tester, I would highly recommend trying to get into one of the Lordz' games. It was a very rewarding and interesting experience.

[son_of_montfort]

I'm not sure I understand the battle predictor dialog thingie, it seems to give numbers like 1:3 that don't actually translate to reality. I need to read up on that.

SoM, is my AAR not clear on the combat prognosis box? I really tried to make that clear.


In a nutshell, the game compares many values between both units involved in the potential combat(like hex entrenchment, unit attributes, unit entrenchment, terrain, etc) then it gives you an estimate of what will likely happen if you proceed with the attack.

If you selected "Show casualties in the combat prognosis" in the display settings: The numbers inside the combat prognosis will show how many strength points and efficiency points will be lost by each side. The red number is how many YOUR unit will potentially lose, while the green number shows how many points the AI will lose.

If you selected "Show kills in the combat prognosis" in the display settings: The numbers inside the combat prognosis will show how many strength points will be destroyed by each side.

It's just a matter of personal taste. I prefer to see how much I stand to lose when attacking, so I use "Show casualties". Someone else may prefer to see how much potential damage they inflict on their enemy during the attack, so they would choose "Show kills".

Thanks Slick! I was confused because the red number is on the side that discusses the enemy stats and the green is on the side that discusses your unit's stats. So I was having trouble deciding if that meant losses inflicted or losses taken.

Diplomacy is a weakness in all of these Grand Strategy style TBS games, IMHO. With any of the SCII games, WWII or WWI, you had a hard-coded war to fight, so worrying about diplomacy was pretty much secondary. I suspect the Making History version of WWI will focus more on diplomacy than the others.

[Jarhead0331]

How many men does one "strength point" represent?  I really dislike games that abstract man-power.

[Slick Wilhelm]

How many men does one "strength point" represent?

No idea. Abstractions don't bother me as much as you, especially if the end results and the feel of the game are plausibly historical. YMMV, of course.

[LongBlade]

How many men does one "strength point" represent?

No idea. Abstractions don't bother me as much as you, especially if the end results and the feel of the game are plausibly historical. YMMV, of course.

They aren't so much "men" as they are really angry pixels.

[Jarhead0331]

How many men does one "strength point" represent?

No idea. Abstractions don't bother me as much as you, especially if the end results and the feel of the game are plausibly historical. YMMV, of course.

In a war such as WWI that was characterized by misery and wholesale slaughter, the likes of which had never been seen in combat up to that time, I think this kind of an abstraction is a total immersion breaker...at least for me.

[son_of_montfort]

How many men does one "strength point" represent?  I really dislike games that abstract man-power.

There is an excellent joke in here somewhere... but I just can't find it.

[airboy]

Strategic Command: WW1 Breakthroughs has a lot of very easily moddable scripts.  These can be altered by just unchecking a box without writing any code.

I'm currently working on an AAR where:
Central Powers take no offensive action initially excepting Serbia.
Central Powers take no offensive naval action in the North Sea or Atlantic
Central Powers do not invade any neutral countries - especially the low countries.

I've altered the scripts so there is no automatic entry into the war of the USA or the UK given my strategic choices.  The UK still starts leaning 80% towards the Entente - but no automatic 1914 Entry.

The conventions of Strategic Command and the new game are very similar.  This is not a criticism or accusation.  The logistics and technology of WW1 are driving the design choices.

I'm real interested in the Lordz release - but I'm not going to start anything until I finish my current WW1 campaign and I get into January.

[son_of_montfort]

I had a technical problem with SC:WWI. The scrolling on my machine was slow and jerky. They said something about it being related to Windows 7 machines, but I never could get an adequate fix.

[Jarhead0331]

Slick...I finally read through your AAR.  Within two minutes of finishing, I was downloading the game.  Well done.

[Slick Wilhelm]

Slick...I finally read through your AAR.  Within two minutes of finishing, I was downloading the game.  Well done.

Thanks, Jarhead, I appreciate it. I hope you enjoy the game. Maybe we can play a multi-player match someday.

[Gusington]

Has anyone played PBEM yet?

[W8taminute]

The first thing I did when I got home last night was to buy this game directly off of Slitherine's website.  I was up until 01:30 late into the night before finally saving my game to turn in.

Commander: The Great War is the commander of great games!  Seriously this game really scratches that history TBS game itch like no other has done for me in quite a while.  Your excellent AAR contributed the most to my decision to buy this game and I'm really happy.

[JudgeDredd]

Is this just Panzer Corps in another wrapper? Looking at the screenshots it seems it's Panzer Corps in WWI but with a larger scale (map)

[Slick Wilhelm]

Is this just Panzer Corps in another wrapper? Looking at the screenshots it seems it's Panzer Corps in WWI but with a larger scale (map)

No sir, completely new game engine. I suspect it may look a little like PC because the same team designed both. Kinda of like how a classical music composer's music uses the same harmonics, orchestrations, etc, making their music identifiable to the trained ear.

I've got PC and I don't think CTGW plays like it.