I had military and ex-mil friends play this game. At first, they approached the first mission like a typical RTS, which of course failed miserably when they were cut down by the machine gun. Then I told them to try and think in a military mindset, as if they were really conducing small group tactics exercises. They commando crawled all of their infantry, the two-man machine gun team to a defilading position with the enemy MG, and two assault teams crawling hidden towards two enfilading position with the enemy. There was covering fire from their MG, and then a simultaneous toss of grenades. It was all over in like six seconds. That was when I knew this game was awesome.
We play coop on weekends now. Sometimes they scare me because they instantly go into military mode when playing this game, using terms and signals and three-letter acronyms to communicate. I try to keep up. They take this shit seriously.
Is there any sort of manual for this game? I'd love to know how I can figure out the range of my units, what all the cursors mean, etc.
I finally beat the first mission last night, and I can safely say this game is pretty damn awesome. The point at which I realized this was when I hijacked a tractor, hooked up an artillery piece to it and ran it around, shelling the flank of their forces.
Is there any sort of manual for this game? I'd love to know how I can figure out the range of my units, what all the cursors mean, etc.
I finally beat the first mission last night, and I can safely say this game is pretty damn awesome. The point at which I realized this was when I hijacked a tractor, hooked up an artillery piece to it and ran it around, shelling the flank of their forces.
Finished mission two last night. Normally I wouldn't brag but in this case "Mission two" means "A two hour ordeal in which my 200 guys died almost to the last man." There were two real tricks that helped me finish it off- slowing down time and stealing enemy tanks.
I've noticed that if you can knock out a tank's turret, the crew will often bail out and begin fighting on foot. At that point you can wait until the wave of enemies dies down and then get your own tank crew in there, drive it back to your rear lines, and fix it up. By the end of the game all three of my starting tanks were long gone and I was holding the final line with a column of German armor. I think the final count was something like 35 enemy tanks destroyed. Not bad, Russians!
Mission three is already proving to be a bitch. I hate Alexi so, so much.
Is there any sort of manual for this game? I'd love to know how I can figure out the range of my units, what all the cursors mean, etc.
I finally beat the first mission last night, and I can safely say this game is pretty damn awesome. The point at which I realized this was when I hijacked a tractor, hooked up an artillery piece to it and ran it around, shelling the flank of their forces.
Finished mission two last night. Normally I wouldn't brag but in this case "Mission two" means "A two hour ordeal in which my 200 guys died almost to the last man." There were two real tricks that helped me finish it off- slowing down time and stealing enemy tanks.
I've noticed that if you can knock out a tank's turret, the crew will often bail out and begin fighting on foot. At that point you can wait until the wave of enemies dies down and then get your own tank crew in there, drive it back to your rear lines, and fix it up. By the end of the game all three of my starting tanks were long gone and I was holding the final line with a column of German armor. I think the final count was something like 35 enemy tanks destroyed. Not bad, Russians!
Mission three is already proving to be a bitch. I hate Alexi so, so much.
I actually managed to progress through mission 3 using only Alexi's trusty throwing knife or deadly knockout punch to the back of the head and keeping stealthy before I was discovered by a guard, shot, reloaded the game, and then discovered that I could rescue the embattled soldiers on the other side of the map.
The fact that the game allows for that sort of freeform method of solving missions is really what makes it for me.
I survived mission two by the skin of my teeth. Just about every Russian under my command was killed and when the train left the station their were literally Germans 10 feet away chasing it as they got mowed down by those machine guns on the last car. As for mission 3, that took me SO MANY tries to complete and I never really figured out a great way, just plowed through the best I could and kept running out of ammo. Very fun game.
I got into the SS headquarters in the third mission by taking one of the rescued soldiers, putting him in a gas truck, and driving it into the building with predicable results.
It's pretty great in that it rewards out of the box thinking by having an engine so intricately detailed that things react the way you expect them to. Shooting through a wall with an armor piercing shell just to hit one guy on the other side is very satisfying.
Oh man, everybody should do the first mission of the German campaign stat. We just finished our coop of it, and we had four guys assaulting four different directions. The map is huge and the troop sizes are about three companies' worth on each side.
The best part is when one of my friends was well and truly suppressed by one tank in a tank pit on the west side of the map. He asked one of our other guys to capture the 88 battery on the eastern side of the map so he could call in a fire mission. The guy captured the 88s with some difficulty, and the guy on the west side called for a fire mission like you would in the military. Coordinates, observer and battery confirmation, stating number of shots and guns used. It was kind of scary. They took out the tank after one adjust fire mission, and two fire for effect missions, with two guns two rounds in effect each.
That sounds awesome. I really need to get some friends involved in this for co-op play.
As far as the game engine goes- it is so freaking detailed sometimes. There's a map later in the game for the Russians that has you defending a frozen river against a line of German tanks. The tanks kept hitting me on my left flank where the river was small, and across the bridge at center. Nothing was coming across my right flank and I couldn't figure out why until it was time for the counter attack.
Turns out the frozen river wasn't just a texture on the ground, and it wasn't as frozen as I had thought. Three tanks were lost to Mother Russia's icy embrace that day.
That sounds awesome. I really need to get some friends involved in this for co-op play.
As far as the game engine goes- it is so freaking detailed sometimes. There's a map later in the game for the Russians that has you defending a frozen river against a line of German tanks. The tanks kept hitting me on my left flank where the river was small, and across the bridge at center. Nothing was coming across my right flank and I couldn't figure out why until it was time for the counter attack.
Turns out the frozen river wasn't just a texture on the ground, and it wasn't as frozen as I had thought. Three tanks were lost to Mother Russia's icy embrace that day.
Hahaha I did the exact same thing. I sent some tanks across, wondered why they never showed up, and checked back to find them in the river. The ice even cracks realistically around them.
In World War II the German Tiger tanks used to not drive through houses because there might be a basement which the Tiger would fall in to because it was so heavy.
That sounds awesome. I really need to get some friends involved in this for co-op play.
As far as the game engine goes- it is so freaking detailed sometimes. There's a map later in the game for the Russians that has you defending a frozen river against a line of German tanks. The tanks kept hitting me on my left flank where the river was small, and across the bridge at center. Nothing was coming across my right flank and I couldn't figure out why until it was time for the counter attack.
Turns out the frozen river wasn't just a texture on the ground, and it wasn't as frozen as I had thought. Three tanks were lost to Mother Russia's icy embrace that day.
That mission was fantastic. I just happened to take a screenshot when I saw a Panzer IV plunge into the freezing water. (Spoilered for h-scroll rape)
this game sounds so good. how representative is the demo of the full game?
You do more missions with a small number of units, but there are plenty of large scale conflicts as well. That's the main difference between the demo and the full game, haven't tried multiplayer yet.
Tycho, you should put how to do direct control (I just hold Ctrl), and what the recticle means on tanks/artillary (basically just the physics bit at the bottom), as it really changes the game dramatically.
Tycho, you should put how to do direct control (I just hold Ctrl), and what the recticle means on tanks/artillary (basically just the physics bit at the bottom), as it really changes the game dramatically.
Good idea. It's hard for me to think about what's useful because I've been playing for so long that most of it is 2nd nature. OP rather substantially updated; more tips are always welcome.
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
edited May 2009
Just played the demo mission and I've got some major whines about this game. First and foremost would be the camera controls. Having the camera movement keys mapped to anything but the arrow keys by default is just stupid and I had no clue how to turn the camera angle. Why the game doesn't use the old "hold click here and move the mouse to turn the camera" deal is beyond me. I'd gripe about the manual controls too (what the hell is all this number pad garbage?), but that looked like it was pretty easily customizable so that's not really an issue.
Second is the AI target priority system. Hitting the big targets in a timely manner isn't a big deal, but it gets totally flummoxed by advancing infantry. Instead of laying into them primarily with the coax machine gun, it tries to shoot everyone with the main gain. Then everyone runs up against the tank and stays nice and safe because I have a tread shot off. Not to mention the fact that having infantry that close to the tank drives me insane. I just keep waiting for them to sap the tank and it never happens.
Those gripes aside, this combat engine is delightful. Being able to shrug off hits on a tank's front armor is like something out of a dream after years and years of tanks having hit points. You also get a hard lesson in why keeping a tank facing the enemy is so important; even if your armor doesn't mind the hits, your treads will go "eeeee!" and fall off. Then you're stuck in a big, metal coffin. Seeing infantry get mowed down by machine guns like they should is also really nice. No, RTS genre, just because a soldier lays down it doesn't mean he gets some crazy resistance to bullets; it just means the gun has to aim slightly lower.
Funny demo story: while figuring out the controls, I got the treads knocked off my tank by some kind of very light artillery (didn't get a good look before I blew it up). The German infantry then come crowd around my tank where I can't shoot them. Then the same gun which knocked out my treads proceeds to wipe my hull clean while trying to ineffectively blow up the tank. Once the infantry were all dead, I made a nice, big crater out of the gun and sent someone out to repair the treads. The village was subdued soon afterward.
Can't you turn the camera angle by holding down the middle-mouse button? It was pretty intuitive for me, even the direct controls. And I don't know why you control them with the numpad, since you can use the mouse for aiming and the arrow keys for moving anyway. All of it can be rebound anyway, so it's not like it's as big an issue as you make it out to be.
EDIT: Or was it the WSAD keys? Hmm...time to check.
As for infantry crowding around your disabled tank, well it's the best idea isn't it? And what can they do if they lack the sufficient explosives to take care of your tank?
Also, be careful about repeated hits to armor plates, since repeated hits stresses the hull, and can cause it to buckle and collapse with enough degradation. In this manner, a shot with too low a velocity or caliber that could not penetrate your front armor can, given time and ammo, make it vulnerable enough to any shot. Lastly, as absurd as it may sound, beware of your tank's bottom armor. Seriously, when you cross a crest or ridge-line with your tank at a relatively slow speed, your bottom armor shows, and people just fire into it and obliterate your magazine. Goodbye tank.
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
edited May 2009
I'm on a laptop using a touchpad, so using the middle mouse button isn't an option. I did a brief hop into the game, so I didn't mess with the controls; I didn't see an option to change controls for the mouse at all, though, which irked me. It's not I'll play the game seriously with a touchpad, but it's still annoying.
Also, I found out the hard way about the effects of repeated impacts to the hull. I was up on a hill with a tread knocked off (again) with a couple armored trucks hammering away at me with light cannons. I thought I was going to be fine until my tank up and exploded. :P
EDIT: Taking a closer look at the controls, I now see the camera controls under "Camera Controls". Imagine that.
Not that I dislike CoH, but it feels too much like a game than an actual WW2 battle-simulator-doohickey. This game, on the other hand, is wonderfully realistic to the point of hilarity (i.e., tanks falling through ice, tractors).
stupid demo is being difficult in downloading. also, from the snippets I've heard, I need to find a way to disable voices.
GuyMontag on
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I still cannot get this demo to install for the life of me. The Filefront and Gamershell versions both tell me that a .dll is missing, and the Steam version doesn't seem to be doing jack shit when I click on it. Highly tempted to just buy it, but that's usually not a wise move...
CoH is a great game, and has its own purpose, namely that it is much better suited to competitive play. WW2 serves only as an inspiration to it, not something you emulate closely. Men of War is the latter. I fully expect that when the patch with the Japanese finally comes, I'll be playing with less than stellar weapon accuracy and paper thin tank armor. That shit would never fly in CoH. But this is what makes Men of War so interesting, I think.
If someone found some way to import the voice sounds and cues from CoH into this game to replace the shitty voice acting, I will be the happiest man alive. If there's anything you should praise CoH for, it's the sound and voice acting. They make the game.
EDIT: To Zenitram: maybe try asking on their forums?
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Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
edited May 2009
Ahaha, I just had the most heroic and ridiculous victory possible in the demo. Instead of being able to put my tank at the top of the hill like I wanted, the tank decided to get bogged down in a bit of sand going uphill and I had to put it in a much worse spot to attack the convoy at all. I miss the armored truck leading the column but get his attention. On the other side of the hill, another armored truck decides to join the party. Within a couple minutes, I've been surrounded by infantry, killed one armored truck, have two other armored trucks pinned on the other side of the hill, had both treads knocked off and my engine is damaged.
I manage to kill off the infantry, but I can't repair the tank with the two armored trucks waiting out there; I also can't attack the trucks with the tank because it's stuck. I send out one guy who miraculously manages to AT grenade one of the trucks and survive. The other truck is pinned and can't get a shot at my tank, so I start repairs. That trucks scoots out enough so I can destroy it with the main gun, but I'm still down two tracks and an engine.
While I'm repairing, a German tank starts coming down the road. I think I'm completely screwed at this point, but the tank drives straight down the road, around the hill, and directly into the sights of my tank on the side of the hill. First shot takes out the main gun, next shot wrecks the tank. I get my tank repaired just in time for yet another truck to show up and knock out a track AGAIN; desperately, I send out a soldier to AT grenade the truck. He succeeds, everybody gets back in the tank, and repairs begin again. Just in time for two new German tanks to show up.
This time, they head right up the hill and stay out of my reach. I lose one of my four soldiers to an AP round (he was outside trying to fix the tread) and I think I'm completely screwed again. My remaining troops pile out and take cover behind the tank which is now getting hammered. I send out one guy to AT grenade one tank; he kills the tank, but gets shot by a couple stray infantry on the way back to cover. Then I send out one of my two last remaining troops to AT grenade the other tanks. This guy is so awesome, he hits the tank twice and only takes some mild wounds.
Bam, enemy forces destroyed, mission complete. What's today's lesson, kids? DON'T PICK A CRAPPY POSITION JUST TO GET SOME EARLY HITS ON THE ENEMY! Oh yeah, and tank tracks totally suck.
If someone found some way to import the voice sounds and cues from CoH into this game to replace the shitty voice acting, I will be the happiest man alive. If there's anything you should praise CoH for, it's the sound and voice acting. They make the game.
All the MoW data files are just renamed zip files, and the voices are stored, neatly organized, in folders according to campaign/missions, as plain WAV files.
The resource file for voices is this one: X:\Path\To\Men of War\resource\voice_eng.pak
Just unzip it with 7-Zip, WinRAR or whatever and replace files inside as you wish and then just re-zip and rename it back to *.pak
Tank tracks do suck. I have a very difficult time using tanks because it seems like every advance I make is inevitably stalled when the treads are blown off my armor. I find that the real key is to screen your tanks with infantry from way, way ahead. Your guns have a much longer range than your tanks can actually see. If you let your men spot for you, you get a lot more shots off before you take a hit.
If someone found some way to import the voice sounds and cues from CoH into this game to replace the shitty voice acting, I will be the happiest man alive. If there's anything you should praise CoH for, it's the sound and voice acting. They make the game.
All the MoW data files are just renamed zip files, and the voices are stored, neatly organized, in folders according to campaign/missions, as plain WAV files.
The resource file for voices is this one: X:\Path\To\Men of War\resource\voice_eng.pak
Just unzip it with 7-Zip, WinRAR or whatever and replace files inside as you wish and then just re-zip and rename it back to *.pak
Holy shit, since I have the extractor for the sga files for CoH, I may just try this.
Hey guys, I would like to share my brief overview of the 4 factions in multiplayer
I mostly played with 350-400 reinforcement points battle zone game with reinforcement type set to "None".
Germany:
- Starts out with good towed AT gun
- Early tanks are a bit on the weaker side due to poor armor.
0 Panzer IIIj: don't bother with this, get puma or pz4
0 Panzer IV G has a decent gun, but its poor armor means it should be treated like a towed AT instead of a real tank.
0 Panzer IV E: its shell has a pretty steep trajectory for a tank gun, couple with its powerful HE shell, you can use it as an ad hoc artillery quite nicely for taking down buildings and killing infantries.
- Pretty good rocket and conventional artillery
- Jagd panther is a beast, easily worth its price, but it runs out of fuel extremely quickly.
- Has arguably the best heavy tank in game, the King Tiger. It is pretty much invincible to all attacks coming from the front at all but point blank from the largest gun of other nation. Its main gun is not only powerful, it also shoots very fast for a gun of this class.
Soviet:
- Starts with poor AT gun, but if you wait for a minute, you can get a slightly better one
- Great AA tank, good for taking down houses quickly and killing infantry.
- Finest artillery in-game in both conventional and rocket department.
0 SU-122 is very accurate, closed top, too bad they lengthened the reload time.
0 ISU-152 can double as artillery, but its reload speed will drive you nuts if you try to direct control it
0 Katyusha, period.
- Has a big selection of light tanks, but most of them are pretty useless. I recommend T70 and T60.
- Has the legendary T34 , but the early version lacks AT firepower, no problem if you are facing Panzer IV G, but the better armored M4A1 outclass it slightly. If possible, wait to get the 1941 model which features a much improved gun (and a lot more MG).
- Late game is complete wreck..
0 IS-3 has decent armor, but terrible gun (long reload, and poor penetration, you will also run out of ammo fast).
0 SU-100: your only hope for taking out opposing heavies, good thing you get it quite early, so use it to clear the field of tigers and panthers so you don't have to worry about them when KT hits the field.
US:
- Starts out with good towed AT gun
- Very good starting medium tank, M4A1 eats Panzer IV G and T34 for breakfast.
- Almost everything comes with 50cal machine gun. Very good for tearing apart armored car or taking out tracks of heavier vehicle (or even the main gun if you can get close enough).
0 Hidden goody! There is a bazooka inside the M20 scout car with plenty of ammo!
0 Take down the 50cal once your tank is knocked out, your infantry will need it to fend off enemy elite infantry.
- 90mm gun found on M26 and M36 buffed to be much more powerful, so US mid-late game is at least on par with the other factions.
0 M36 still suffers from getting penetrated from seemly impossible range despite its high armor.
- In the heavy tank department, T29 is great, only slightly weaker than KT.
- Decent conventional artillery but less useful rocket artillery.
0 M7 Priest has decent armor and a 50 cal to protect itself from armored car raid
0 Calliope has a good AOE..but it's not reliable for disabling tanks.
UK:
- Starts with a comparatively weaker AT gun, the 6 pounder
- Which would get replaced by the best towed AT gun around mid-game, the 17 pounder.
0 only complain: slow rate of fire
0 and you are stucked with this for the rest of the game..use it to the fullest while you can
- Thanks to lend-lease..UK also has M4A1 as its starting medium.
0 Cromwell: why does this thing even exist..? worst in almost every respect when compare to M4A1.
- Big ol Churchill is probably the worst heavy tank...but it stands unopposed by the medium other factions are using when it comes out.
- No self-propelled artillery. WHY?!
0 Heavy Howitzer is not noticeable better than the other team's.
0 25 pounder now has better HE shell. But still a bit gimmick.
0 Rocket artillery: Land Mattress, average coverage and average firepower
0 We can safely say the brits has the worst artillery in this game.
- A39 Tortoise is very good for its price, but it makes me want to kill myself every time I direct control it.
0 Also extremely vulnerable to artillery
0 Finally something different than 17 pounder, shoots crazy fast, too.
- Centurion tank, although in theory has very effective armor due to the high slope, still get penetrated easily at long range from late German tanks.
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surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
edited May 2009
This game is fantastic, well worth the price. I'm enjoying the hell out of it
Ok just played the demo.... they're not kidding around are they? I mean, giving you one tank against half a dozen armored cars, 4 medium tanks and a whole mess of infantry and AT guns?
Wow... guess I know what I am in for when I get around to buying this!
Docken on
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surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
edited May 2009
Ok just played the demo.... they're not kidding around are they? I mean, giving you one tank against half a dozen armored cars, 4 medium tanks and a whole mess of infantry and AT guns?
To be fair that's a KV1, which early in ww2 totally dominated the early german tanks :P
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Chainsaw WabbitRogue Academic Level 12are not what they seemRegistered Userregular
edited May 2009
First of all, let me just say that this game is so far beyond awesome it comes out the other side.
Especially because I've just figured out how to play it properly. I normally detest RTS (Combat Mission, on the other hand...rowrrrrr) But if you turn the game speed all the way down (BSP) then you're in bullet time. Yes, bullet time. With PzKpfw IVs. And antitank rifles. For. The. WIN.
Anyway, at this speed it's actually a civilized game. Things go from "Ohshitohshitgermanseverywhere" to "Oh bother, I do believe they've overrun the factory office. I say, I do believe I'll send my chaps over there for a spot of outflanking."
Just one thing peeves me: Am I missing something, or do you have to finish the Russian campaign before you can play as ze Germans? What the hell?!! Why can't I play as guys who have motorcycles with sidecars right away?
Posts
I learned some lessons though and I think this game is pretty damn awesome.
We play coop on weekends now. Sometimes they scare me because they instantly go into military mode when playing this game, using terms and signals and three-letter acronyms to communicate. I try to keep up. They take this shit seriously.
I finally beat the first mission last night, and I can safely say this game is pretty damn awesome. The point at which I realized this was when I hijacked a tractor, hooked up an artillery piece to it and ran it around, shelling the flank of their forces.
So awesome.
Isn't there a PDF manual in the game directory?
I've noticed that if you can knock out a tank's turret, the crew will often bail out and begin fighting on foot. At that point you can wait until the wave of enemies dies down and then get your own tank crew in there, drive it back to your rear lines, and fix it up. By the end of the game all three of my starting tanks were long gone and I was holding the final line with a column of German armor. I think the final count was something like 35 enemy tanks destroyed. Not bad, Russians!
Mission three is already proving to be a bitch. I hate Alexi so, so much.
Not in the demo version at least.
I actually managed to progress through mission 3 using only Alexi's trusty throwing knife or deadly knockout punch to the back of the head and keeping stealthy before I was discovered by a guard, shot, reloaded the game, and then discovered that I could rescue the embattled soldiers on the other side of the map.
The fact that the game allows for that sort of freeform method of solving missions is really what makes it for me.
Indeed there is (direct download link).
I'm downloading the full version at this very moment.
Have I mentioned that this game is awesome?
The best part is when one of my friends was well and truly suppressed by one tank in a tank pit on the west side of the map. He asked one of our other guys to capture the 88 battery on the eastern side of the map so he could call in a fire mission. The guy captured the 88s with some difficulty, and the guy on the west side called for a fire mission like you would in the military. Coordinates, observer and battery confirmation, stating number of shots and guns used. It was kind of scary. They took out the tank after one adjust fire mission, and two fire for effect missions, with two guns two rounds in effect each.
As far as the game engine goes- it is so freaking detailed sometimes. There's a map later in the game for the Russians that has you defending a frozen river against a line of German tanks. The tanks kept hitting me on my left flank where the river was small, and across the bridge at center. Nothing was coming across my right flank and I couldn't figure out why until it was time for the counter attack.
Turns out the frozen river wasn't just a texture on the ground, and it wasn't as frozen as I had thought. Three tanks were lost to Mother Russia's icy embrace that day.
Hahaha I did the exact same thing. I sent some tanks across, wondered why they never showed up, and checked back to find them in the river. The ice even cracks realistically around them.
In World War II the German Tiger tanks used to not drive through houses because there might be a basement which the Tiger would fall in to because it was so heavy.
That mission was fantastic. I just happened to take a screenshot when I saw a Panzer IV plunge into the freezing water. (Spoilered for h-scroll rape)
e: hahahaha oh my god the american voices
edit: hmm, can't get it to work, says I'm missing a .dll file...
Good idea. It's hard for me to think about what's useful because I've been playing for so long that most of it is 2nd nature. OP rather substantially updated; more tips are always welcome.
Second is the AI target priority system. Hitting the big targets in a timely manner isn't a big deal, but it gets totally flummoxed by advancing infantry. Instead of laying into them primarily with the coax machine gun, it tries to shoot everyone with the main gain. Then everyone runs up against the tank and stays nice and safe because I have a tread shot off. Not to mention the fact that having infantry that close to the tank drives me insane. I just keep waiting for them to sap the tank and it never happens.
Those gripes aside, this combat engine is delightful. Being able to shrug off hits on a tank's front armor is like something out of a dream after years and years of tanks having hit points. You also get a hard lesson in why keeping a tank facing the enemy is so important; even if your armor doesn't mind the hits, your treads will go "eeeee!" and fall off. Then you're stuck in a big, metal coffin. Seeing infantry get mowed down by machine guns like they should is also really nice. No, RTS genre, just because a soldier lays down it doesn't mean he gets some crazy resistance to bullets; it just means the gun has to aim slightly lower.
Funny demo story: while figuring out the controls, I got the treads knocked off my tank by some kind of very light artillery (didn't get a good look before I blew it up). The German infantry then come crowd around my tank where I can't shoot them. Then the same gun which knocked out my treads proceeds to wipe my hull clean while trying to ineffectively blow up the tank. Once the infantry were all dead, I made a nice, big crater out of the gun and sent someone out to repair the treads. The village was subdued soon afterward.
EDIT: Or was it the WSAD keys? Hmm...time to check.
As for infantry crowding around your disabled tank, well it's the best idea isn't it? And what can they do if they lack the sufficient explosives to take care of your tank?
Also, be careful about repeated hits to armor plates, since repeated hits stresses the hull, and can cause it to buckle and collapse with enough degradation. In this manner, a shot with too low a velocity or caliber that could not penetrate your front armor can, given time and ammo, make it vulnerable enough to any shot. Lastly, as absurd as it may sound, beware of your tank's bottom armor. Seriously, when you cross a crest or ridge-line with your tank at a relatively slow speed, your bottom armor shows, and people just fire into it and obliterate your magazine. Goodbye tank.
Also, I found out the hard way about the effects of repeated impacts to the hull. I was up on a hill with a tread knocked off (again) with a couple armored trucks hammering away at me with light cannons. I thought I was going to be fine until my tank up and exploded. :P
EDIT: Taking a closer look at the controls, I now see the camera controls under "Camera Controls". Imagine that.
stupid demo is being difficult in downloading. also, from the snippets I've heard, I need to find a way to disable voices.
If someone found some way to import the voice sounds and cues from CoH into this game to replace the shitty voice acting, I will be the happiest man alive. If there's anything you should praise CoH for, it's the sound and voice acting. They make the game.
EDIT: To Zenitram: maybe try asking on their forums?
I manage to kill off the infantry, but I can't repair the tank with the two armored trucks waiting out there; I also can't attack the trucks with the tank because it's stuck. I send out one guy who miraculously manages to AT grenade one of the trucks and survive. The other truck is pinned and can't get a shot at my tank, so I start repairs. That trucks scoots out enough so I can destroy it with the main gun, but I'm still down two tracks and an engine.
While I'm repairing, a German tank starts coming down the road. I think I'm completely screwed at this point, but the tank drives straight down the road, around the hill, and directly into the sights of my tank on the side of the hill. First shot takes out the main gun, next shot wrecks the tank. I get my tank repaired just in time for yet another truck to show up and knock out a track AGAIN; desperately, I send out a soldier to AT grenade the truck. He succeeds, everybody gets back in the tank, and repairs begin again. Just in time for two new German tanks to show up.
This time, they head right up the hill and stay out of my reach. I lose one of my four soldiers to an AP round (he was outside trying to fix the tread) and I think I'm completely screwed again. My remaining troops pile out and take cover behind the tank which is now getting hammered. I send out one guy to AT grenade one tank; he kills the tank, but gets shot by a couple stray infantry on the way back to cover. Then I send out one of my two last remaining troops to AT grenade the other tanks. This guy is so awesome, he hits the tank twice and only takes some mild wounds.
Bam, enemy forces destroyed, mission complete. What's today's lesson, kids? DON'T PICK A CRAPPY POSITION JUST TO GET SOME EARLY HITS ON THE ENEMY! Oh yeah, and tank tracks totally suck.
All the MoW data files are just renamed zip files, and the voices are stored, neatly organized, in folders according to campaign/missions, as plain WAV files.
The resource file for voices is this one: X:\Path\To\Men of War\resource\voice_eng.pak
Just unzip it with 7-Zip, WinRAR or whatever and replace files inside as you wish and then just re-zip and rename it back to *.pak
Holy shit, since I have the extractor for the sga files for CoH, I may just try this.
I mostly played with 350-400 reinforcement points battle zone game with reinforcement type set to "None".
Germany:
- Starts out with good towed AT gun
- Early tanks are a bit on the weaker side due to poor armor.
0 Panzer IIIj: don't bother with this, get puma or pz4
0 Panzer IV G has a decent gun, but its poor armor means it should be treated like a towed AT instead of a real tank.
0 Panzer IV E: its shell has a pretty steep trajectory for a tank gun, couple with its powerful HE shell, you can use it as an ad hoc artillery quite nicely for taking down buildings and killing infantries.
- Pretty good rocket and conventional artillery
- Jagd panther is a beast, easily worth its price, but it runs out of fuel extremely quickly.
- Has arguably the best heavy tank in game, the King Tiger. It is pretty much invincible to all attacks coming from the front at all but point blank from the largest gun of other nation. Its main gun is not only powerful, it also shoots very fast for a gun of this class.
Soviet:
- Starts with poor AT gun, but if you wait for a minute, you can get a slightly better one
- Great AA tank, good for taking down houses quickly and killing infantry.
- Finest artillery in-game in both conventional and rocket department.
0 SU-122 is very accurate, closed top, too bad they lengthened the reload time.
0 ISU-152 can double as artillery, but its reload speed will drive you nuts if you try to direct control it
0 Katyusha, period.
- Has a big selection of light tanks, but most of them are pretty useless. I recommend T70 and T60.
- Has the legendary T34 , but the early version lacks AT firepower, no problem if you are facing Panzer IV G, but the better armored M4A1 outclass it slightly. If possible, wait to get the 1941 model which features a much improved gun (and a lot more MG).
- Late game is complete wreck..
0 IS-3 has decent armor, but terrible gun (long reload, and poor penetration, you will also run out of ammo fast).
0 SU-100: your only hope for taking out opposing heavies, good thing you get it quite early, so use it to clear the field of tigers and panthers so you don't have to worry about them when KT hits the field.
US:
- Starts out with good towed AT gun
- Very good starting medium tank, M4A1 eats Panzer IV G and T34 for breakfast.
- Almost everything comes with 50cal machine gun. Very good for tearing apart armored car or taking out tracks of heavier vehicle (or even the main gun if you can get close enough).
0 Hidden goody! There is a bazooka inside the M20 scout car with plenty of ammo!
0 Take down the 50cal once your tank is knocked out, your infantry will need it to fend off enemy elite infantry.
- 90mm gun found on M26 and M36 buffed to be much more powerful, so US mid-late game is at least on par with the other factions.
0 M36 still suffers from getting penetrated from seemly impossible range despite its high armor.
- In the heavy tank department, T29 is great, only slightly weaker than KT.
- Decent conventional artillery but less useful rocket artillery.
0 M7 Priest has decent armor and a 50 cal to protect itself from armored car raid
0 Calliope has a good AOE..but it's not reliable for disabling tanks.
UK:
- Starts with a comparatively weaker AT gun, the 6 pounder
- Which would get replaced by the best towed AT gun around mid-game, the 17 pounder.
0 only complain: slow rate of fire
0 and you are stucked with this for the rest of the game..use it to the fullest while you can
- Thanks to lend-lease..UK also has M4A1 as its starting medium.
0 Cromwell: why does this thing even exist..? worst in almost every respect when compare to M4A1.
- Big ol Churchill is probably the worst heavy tank...but it stands unopposed by the medium other factions are using when it comes out.
- No self-propelled artillery. WHY?!
0 Heavy Howitzer is not noticeable better than the other team's.
0 25 pounder now has better HE shell. But still a bit gimmick.
0 Rocket artillery: Land Mattress, average coverage and average firepower
0 We can safely say the brits has the worst artillery in this game.
- A39 Tortoise is very good for its price, but it makes me want to kill myself every time I direct control it.
0 Also extremely vulnerable to artillery
0 Finally something different than 17 pounder, shoots crazy fast, too.
- Centurion tank, although in theory has very effective armor due to the high slope, still get penetrated easily at long range from late German tanks.
Wow... guess I know what I am in for when I get around to buying this!
To be fair that's a KV1, which early in ww2 totally dominated the early german tanks :P
Especially because I've just figured out how to play it properly. I normally detest RTS (Combat Mission, on the other hand...rowrrrrr) But if you turn the game speed all the way down (BSP) then you're in bullet time. Yes, bullet time. With PzKpfw IVs. And antitank rifles. For. The. WIN.
Anyway, at this speed it's actually a civilized game. Things go from "Ohshitohshitgermanseverywhere" to "Oh bother, I do believe they've overrun the factory office. I say, I do believe I'll send my chaps over there for a spot of outflanking."
Just one thing peeves me: Am I missing something, or do you have to finish the Russian campaign before you can play as ze Germans? What the hell?!! Why can't I play as guys who have motorcycles with sidecars right away?
CR