My apologies for the bump, but figured the most recent patch warranted attention.
The much requested campaign patch hit late last week, and it's a doozy. Having played both pre and post past, the overall change to mechanics is substantial. Previously, campaign battles typically resulted in draws, with engagements lasting several days and often became a battle of attrition. The initiative and morale changes are most noteworthy, with most battles now ending in a single engagement, and are often significantly more violent, for lack of a better term. AI is more agressive, and battles overall are more satisfying.
The patch also addressed some balancing issues, but the campaign is the star of the show here. I strongly encourage anyone with this game to give the campaign another shot, it's a completely different experience for the better.
Campaign patch notes:
- Avoid battle is now possible anytime, instead of Retreat, as long as you control a nearby sector and you have a road to go there.
BG will avoid the battle and will not be destroyed if it is intercepted while avoiding the battle.
But it will lose - 1 init and -1 morale.
- Routing or retreating allow you to be "covered" by allied BG and not to be destroyed if intercepted. However, one allied BG can only cover one enemy BG at a time. For example, if the retreating BG finds itself intercepted by 2 enemies, and is only covered by one allied in the defending sector, it will be destroyed.
- BG's initiative and morale rules have changed:
Starting points = 500 + 400x Init (instead of 500 + 500x)
Victory points = 500 + 250x Morale (instead of 500 + 500x)
As a consequence, battles are less likely to end up as a Draw.
- Draws now inflict -1 morale (instead of +1 morale) and still -1 initiative as in any battle.
As a consequence, battlegroups will "bleed" after each draw, thus making victory easier to achieve after every combat.
- Income of command zones in the campaign has been largely increased:
* +1pt zones are now worth 2pts
* +3pts reinforcement zones are now worth +5, +4 or +3pts, depending on the number of reincorcements zones in the map (respectively, for 3, 4, 5+ zones).
- R&R will restore +2pts init +1pt morale.
- Many battlegroups have been reinforced with more units, fitting more balanced roles than before. Especially in the AA category which is now more consistent.
- Added a Save game button in strategic view to allow manual saves of the campaign.
This comes right after the Quit fonction added in tactical battles in a previous patch. You should now have a nice flexibility with Save & Quit functions.
Or too fast-pacey for some, which is valid (even though it's already much slower-paced than what you'd expect in the genre, just not compared to an actual wargame). There's a pretty sizable active thread on the Somethingawful forums (they even have a general grognard thread, geez).
