Histwar

[Jack ONeill]

All,

Thanks Tank. I wondered if he was talking about HistWar but wasn't sure.

Gun,

Yes, I'd take another shot at it too, if they come out with an upgraded Demo.

Jack B)

[mitra76]

Mitra - you are discussing Histwar I guess? My understanding of what your criticims are:

The long range artillery fire is too powerful.

There is an unwanted feature that in historical mode orders for corps suffer a delay but if you want you can send instant orders to each regiment.

The game engine produces mostly frontal slugging matches with little room to maneouvre. The way the game introduces delays in order transmission feels unrealistic and so surprise attacks are impossible.

Its so much easier to issue orders on the 2d minimap than the 3d battlespace that the game suffers in that you spend too long looking at the 2d map and not enjoying the 3d battle.

Yes exactly; it exist the possibility to have 30 km maps for 100000 men's armies and historical delay with full fow but it appears like the bigger part of community doesn't use it.

[Saddletank]

I presume there is multi-player. Perhaps I should finally buy it and try it...

[mitra76]

Yes there is direct ip multi and PBEM. But the multi is strange: you command (you or ohter players in your team) as CiC or corps' commander, but pratically:

1 - if you play 1vs1 you must take the direct command of CiC and of all the corps commanders: no AI for Corps works in multi.
2 - When you play as Corps commander you have the immediate vision of this one zone but the orders to your corps works like they were from the CiC (with the same delay). So practically you have n CiCs with no FOW because Corps COmmanders give immediate vision.

[Jack ONeill]

Well, that's pretty sucky.

Jack B)

[mitra76]

Positive things:

good map and oob editor
possibility to set the doctrine of army
no complex to learn how to play
1 to 1 men ratio in units

[con20or]

There is an unwanted feature that in historical mode orders for corps suffer a delay but if you want you can send instant orders to each regiment.

Why is that? Is that how they model couriers?

[Marching Thru Georgia]

After all these negative comments which are for the most part accurate, I feel duty bound to give some positive ones. Histwar is not a lower level tactical game, at least not yet, but an army command level game. Very few orders are given during the battle, so most of your time can be spent riding or flying around the battlefield watching your master plan being put into action. This is no different than SOW at the army command level. Yes, orders are given via the command map, as in SOW HITS play, but that is probably reasonable as the army commander is not likely to be on the front line, but far to the rear. After all, Napoleon had platforms built so he could sit and watch the battle through a telescope.

The fighting behavior of the three arms is very believable. It is combined arms, and not the linear fighting of SOW and therefore much more complicated. True there is some bizarre behavior, but overall the game does a very creditable job in utilizing all three arms as they were described in historic accounts. Battles are not one giant slugfest with all units engaged at once. Instead the corps and division commanders advance and commit their troops in a more deliberate piecemeal way. There are real gaps between the brigades, divisions and corps on the field. Everyone is not shoulder to shoulder. Melees do occur, but are rare. In these regards, Histwar surpasses SOW.

The real weakness of Histwar is a mediocre AI. As far as I can tell, all AI commanders are the same. There is not any individuality and therefore no chance for brilliance or stupidity on the field. Worse, every battle will be fought in essentially the same way. Obviously SOW is far superior in this aspect of play.

I prefer SOW for it's AI and play it much more than Histwar. But when I want a good napoleonic fight with all the nuances that entails, Histwar is hard to beat.

[mitra76]

Couriers don't appears on map, they are simulated. I supposed this is due to still to complete parts of game: it should exist a gameplay modality where you play only as corp commander, so in this case your orders are directed only to regiments, but actually this is not still implemented nor the bigrade and division level of orders.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

SaddleTank wrote:

There is an unwanted feature that in historical mode orders for corps suffer a delay but if you want you can send instant orders to each regiment.

Why is that? Is that how they model couriers?

Breaking the chain of command and giving direct orders to a regiment or brigade is essentially TC'ing that unit. Although the player can do that from anywhere on the map, in real life, the general would most likely be very close to that unit. Therefore, there would be very little delay. If the player is directing the battle from a helicopter, he probably has a radio too.