Messages

1

Suggestions / Re: finnish soldiers

« on: March 15, 2009, 07:30:51 PM »

Okay. Finns had to fight a lot of battles, but this battels were not so critical like a tankbattle of kursk or the winterbattle of moscow. And i think it is a porblem fot coh to simulate this winter battles and this heavy differenc between finnish army and red army - one side tousends of tanks, guns and soldiers and on the other side some hundrets of battaillon and some caputred tanks support by two german StuG-Abteilungen and so on. i think finnish war does not have enought "material" for a game like CoH. Perhaps more for other games

Actually, the eastern european RTS, Men of War, would probably be very well suited to such a job. It does a lot on trying to approach realism(even simulating not only the thickness but also angle of plating when calculating it's hit-location system that it makes uses of for vehicles, as opposed to a CoH-like "health" system for vehicles), but also it's campaign itself is centered a lot around the idea of a small force tackling a much larger force of opponent(the second russian mission itself put you in charge of roughly one hundred soldiers tasked with defending a train station against a much larger german force with no reinforcement options on your side. You litterally have to use all you have to hold long enough for the train to finish being loaded... which, without reinforcements or unit production makes for one hell of a mission ^^;

Heck, if I recalls well, the /devs/ themselves are holding a poll to know which nation people wants to see added in the game, either for multiplayer, single player campaign or both. So far, Italy and Japan are leading(with Japan already confirmed for a free content patch next month), but I think the finns were a possible choice for single player action.

Edit: just realized mentionning a game that has nothing to do with CoH might be out of place here, so feel free to move the post elsewhere or just plain delete it. I'll probably make a post about Men of War elsewhere on the forums though as I feel it's high focus on the eastern front might be of interest to some of the other RTSes fans here.

2

Suggestions / Re: Volksturm

« on: February 20, 2009, 01:20:26 AM »

Well... that's pretty much it. Look at Battle of the Bulge mod's Volksgrenadier for an even better picture.

3

Suggestions / Re: Volksturm

« on: February 19, 2009, 02:35:07 PM »

Ditto, at best these should only be used specifically for a battle of berlin campaign mission.

There's so much that went on the eastern front itself without even going to that battle, too, where the german army was pretty much broken already since a long while. That battle was more the agony of the third Reich more than anything else, since there was little the german army could do anymore.

Also, the "true" volksgrenadier weren't civilian conscripts but rather members of other branches of the army whose division/squad or such had been destroyed or disbanded, and were then later regrouped into the so-called "volksgrenadier" battalion, where you could then see a downed luftwaffe pilot fight with a rifle right next to a tank driver who lost his tank but is now hauling around some panzerfausts that he was given.

Which, in general probably show the place the valksgrenadier would have in an eastern german army considering the amount of troops that were relegated to such squads due to the high turnover rate of the germans back then. Probably, I'd see them well as a call-in for a "desperate defense phase" doctrine based on the period of the russian counter offensive that started pushing back the germans or the battle of stalingrad. Their abilities wouldn't be that great, but they could haul over panzerfausts and make barricade out of debris(basically, a sand-bag-like line of debris that could act as both cover and impromptu tank trap(albeit ones still crushable by heavy tanks).

4

Suggestions / Re: New member, and thoughts on the potential of the eastern front's german army

« on: February 18, 2009, 07:24:34 PM »

My pardons. I didn't meant to insinuate you were not going to. Actually I was referring to the fact, based on my memory, that any german faction probably could only come after the russians themselves were made first.

Though I am thankful you appreciated my read.

And the scorched earth example was meant less to be a proper scorched earth, but more a representation of how desperate the germans had become(if my memory serves me well) during the later stage of the war such as when (during the battle of stalingrad iirc) the germans basically were fighting thooth and nail to prevent the russians from retaking Stalingrad. In a way, it probably should be an urban fighting doctrine, with the option to have troops get into "ambush" when taking cover within a building and I probably would see some kind of debris barricade being made as well(which could also be used, if such a battle is ever included, for a Battle of Berlin) that could be layed out in lines like sandbags(and provide similar cover) but also serve a double duty as tank traps(though, to keep them balanced compared to PE's roadblocks, still be crushable by heavy tanks).

5

Suggestions / New member, and thoughts on the potential of the eastern front's german army

« on: February 17, 2009, 06:28:39 PM »

Hello. I've been a long term fan of DoW1's modding community and a recentish one of CoH's thanks to various mods such as Europe in Ruins, Battle of the Bulge and, more recently, discovering the Eastern front mod.

So far, I've looked at the plans for eastern front and, I have to say, they are really great looking in regard to the russians. And though I know devs have mentionned how they prefer to concentrate(understandably) on the russian faction first and foremost, I cannot help but think an army based on the german force could easil be very interesting and original in its own way enough to truly set itself apart from the forces stationed in the west due to the different situation in the east.

Currently, the german factions of CoH represent the forces that fought in normandy, which fighting was pretty much the germans trying to defend themselves against the allied onslaught. This is very well established in the bunkers and defensive doctrine of the wehrmach and how all of its infantry is able to to lay sandbags and barbed wires. Even the Panzer Elite, a faction known for its mobility, see many elements of a defensive role in each of its doctrines(scorched earth is centered on this with booby traps, barbed wires, tank traps and sector artillery, tank hunters does so as well with its ambushable hetzers and luftwaffe has both the flakvierling and the flak 88 at its disposal) somehow reflecting a bit the defensive roles even those mobile forces were forced into due to the allies' invasion.

However, in what role did the German army start on the east? As invaders. And though they were (relatively) quickly put in a defensive stance, they didn't remain there as long as the army in the west had to setup the kind of defensive infrstructures of bunkers and such that were presents in the west. In fact, due to this nature on base structure and visuals the Eastern Germans probably would have bases more alike to the Americans', with quickly made structures of wood and nets and quickly made field engineering shops, than the bunker structures of the western Wehrmacht. Heck, their MGs nests might very well be wooden pillbox rather than the concrete bunkers of the west.

Then, the air war. In the west, the use of the air force was almost entiredly devoted to trying to stall the long range western bombers from bombing germany's industry. In the east, though, the luftwaffe fought mainly by providing close ground support to troops like the russian's air force did. That alone could make an eastern german army able to call on a luftwaffe doctrine closer to that of the american's, with possible strafing runs or maybe a Stuka's dive bomber bombing run(which could be focused into a rapid-response bomb strike able to take out most tanks or emplacement, but in a very focused blast and little warning other than the very audible "horn" of the stuka's) and supplies drops(on which the eastern german army depended a lot... though the quality of such was often lacking it might still be implemented).

And also, I could very well say maybe another variant of the "scorched earth" doctrine adapted to this faction, to represent how desperate they got later during the war, with possible options such as being able to build defensive trenches, use of demo charges(rather than goliaths, though I'm not familiar if they could have been more prevalent in the east than the west) which could be setup like commando's and maybe the uses of barricade roadblocks akin as to how I heard they were set by the PE in the original version of OF(aka: in lines rather than tank-traps like "blocks") to represent the more desperate attempts to stall the russian's advance.... though I'm really unsure how the germans truly fought during that period of the war.

And then let's not forget all the other vehicles and weapons that were used in the east as opposed to the west which could also be an opportunity to bring out some more older models like Panzers/Stugs 3, the Elefant/Ferdinand(which could be a doctrine call-in for a doctrine representing the early war offensive when they were most used.... in fact, an eastern german faction could very well see it's doctrines based on such phases, such as the luftwaffe superiority period, the armored offensive and then the more desperate defense periods... just a thought like that though).

Edit: technically, though, in a "period approach", then an eastern german army could potentially even use a battle-of-the-bulge style doctrine system where units, even built in your base, depends on your doctrine.
That way, though the luftwaffe/armored doctrine could both see relatively well trained "standard" troop choices, a "desperate defense" doctrine could see the uses of volksgrenadier as an addition to the basic infantry or even some captured T-34 russian tanks(which practices german often made use of, putting a german flag or swatiska ontop of the tank so bombers on their side wouldn't mistake them for the enemy) for their armor along with older models called from the reserve.

Also, my pardons if my writing is hard to read at times. Sadly english isn't my first language.