First Impressions of Field Marshal Difficulty

[Edmon]

Hi guys,

I'm Edmon and I was a huge fan of the original Panzer Corps (and People's General and Panzer General, the games on which these were based). After beating the first game on Rommel, I was delighted to find out they were making a second game.

I have a first impressions video up on my channel, where I am playing on Field Marshal and discussing some of the differences between the two games from the perspective of an expert player. I later plan to have a complete campaign up on the channel, once I have the full game to play with. You can find it here:

https://youtu.be/7FLuJi8PRPg

My channel specialises only in TBS challenge runs, hardest difficulty, self imposed restrictions, etc. I hope you guys will enjoy it!

[Tigga]

The problem is setting the battle predictor to 10% is just completely NOOB mode .. there in fact should be an option to completley remove battle predictor and use your SKILL to work out likely results of a battle

Battle predictor in Panzer General 2 was only ever meant to be a slight indication of a likely result that took no consideration of experience terrain entrenchment or supporting arty .. you were meant to look for all of these things yourself ..... this is what seperated a brain dead moron from a good player.

In this game the manual is vague about what changing the battle predictor does on one end it says zero percent means the battle will be exactly as the numbers show .. on the other end at 100% doesnt not sound at all like the result will be random


"(0% means that the result is always the same as the prediction; 100% means the prediction is only a very rough estimate of the true results),

so it doesnt sound to me at all like the results of a battle will have any randomness .

it just may look random to you if you believe the very rough estimates .. If you truely know and understand the game mechanics you should be able to realise when predictions are not right at all

If you are some math genius you could probably easily calculate exact result predictions yourself with out any game predictions based on terrain support fire entrenchent accuracy initiative unit strenght units close defense hard defense attack rating etc etc..

But really setting the game to 10 percent or 0 percent is very very lazy no challenge The option must be included to set it to NO Battle predictions !!

A real ww2 general looks at everything he knows about enemy his army units and weather etc and makes his choices ... We already have the luxury of being able to entirely examine the enemy units stats right down to leaders it has etc ... we dont need soooo much game ruining advantage !!

So b4 you go to far restart your Campaign 100% prediction which i just assume means very inaccurate predictions and use your own experience and knowledge of the games mechanics and units and

Be a Real General !!

[Edmon]

Originally posted by Back Door Billy:

The problem is setting the battle predictor to 10% is just completely NOOB mode .. there in fact should be an option to completley remove battle predictor and use your SKILL to work out likely results of a battle

Battle predictor in Panzer General 2 was only ever meant to be a slight indication of a likely result that took no consideration of experience terrain entrenchment or supporting arty .. you were meant to look for all of these things yourself ..... this is what seperated a brain dead moron from a good player.

In this game the manual is vague about what changing the battle predictor does on one end it says zero percent means the battle will be exactly as the numbers show .. on the other end at 100% doesnt not sound at all like the result will be random


"(0% means that the result is always the same as the prediction; 100% means the prediction is only a very rough estimate of the true results),

so it doesnt sound to me at all like the results of a battle will have any randomness .

it just may look random to you if you believe the very rough estimates .. If you truely know and understand the game mechanics you should be able to realise when predictions are not right at all

If you are some math genius you could probably easily calculate exact result predictions yourself with out any game predictions based on terrain support fire entrenchent accuracy initiative unit strenght units close defense hard defense attack rating etc etc..

But really setting the game to 10 percent or 0 percent is very very lazy no challenge The option must be included to set it to NO Battle predictions !!

A real ww2 general looks at everything he knows about enemy his army units and weather etc and makes his choices ... We already have the luxury of being able to entirely examine the enemy units stats right down to leaders it has etc ... we dont need soooo much game ruining advantage !!

So b4 you go to far restart your Campaign 100% prediction which i just assume means very inaccurate predictions and use your own experience and knowledge of the games mechanics and units and

Be a Real General !!

What you have said makes absolutely no sense. I don't think you've grasped what the slider does.

Lowering the randomness actually actively harms you and makes the game more difficult because randomness will favour the attacker a lot. first I will explain how randomness works and then I will explain why it is good for you most of the time (I just don't like it).

First: The prediction will tell you exactly how much damage will occur if there is no randomness in the attack rolls. There is no sorcery going on here, it is showing you what will happen if an average number of attacks connect. The predictor shows 100% damage as the outcome.

So with low randomness (I set 10%) you will get 90% to 110% of the predicted damage. Damage you do will be mostly average.

With 50% randomness you can do 50% to 150% damage. The range is wider, it is more random.

Why high randomness is good for you as the attacker:

Say you are attacking a city and you have 3 artillery. In a lot of cases, at 100% damage none of those artillery will get a kill, or maybe they will get 1 kill and 4 supression.

Now imagine instead one attack is 50%, one is 100% and one is 150% due to high randomness.

The 50% attack might not get a kill at all, maybe supress 3 units.
The 100% attack gets 1 kill and supresses 4, as expected.
The 150% attack gets 2 kills and supresses 6.

So now you've very badly damaged one unit, so what do you do next? You follow up by attacking the unit that took the massive hit and ignoring the one that only took a weak hit.

When your attacking with units like Artillery and Aircraft and no return fire is expected (which is nearly all the time if you are any good), high randomness can allow you to punch unexpectedly large holes in a defence. You can then attack the weak point you've created.

With low randomness, you will never get a lucky hit. If an aircraft would do 0 damage, it's going to do 0 damage, you can't ever get lucky. Any breechs in enemy defences you make have to come from your skill and planning, you can't just bombard the enemy for a few turns and then strike when you get a big roll.

I turned the RNG down because I can't stand RNG, not because it's of any benefit to me as the aggressor.

High RNG cheapens your wins. We are strategy gamers, not casino gamblers.

[Tigga]

Can you even read?

[Tigga]

read the game manual b4 you even comment son there is no rng the is just inaccurate predictions you are basing all of your attacks on prediction imagine if there was no predictions

you make your choices based on facts. your units stats vs their unit stats vs modifiers .. predictions are just what sorts out noobs from the decent players ..

dumbing this down to 0% so it tells you exactly what will happen is stupid as hell

there is no RNG only rng prediction the battles are entirely worked on maths you perceive rng because the predictions have an accuracy slider...

Read the manual b4 you play the game.

[Tigga]

"(0% means that the result is always the same as the prediction; 100% means the prediction is only a very rough estimate of the true results),

this is copy and pasted from the manual ... maybe if u read it huh...

[Tigga]

If they let us turn off this stupid prediction you would be a crippled player because you dont know how to correctly use units I guess... dumbing down Pg2 since 2000

panzer clone 2 just another game that seems to want to leech of pg2 and make it worse...

[Kerensky]

Originally posted by Edmon:

My channel specialises only in TBS challenge runs, hardest difficulty, self imposed restrictions, etc. I hope you guys will enjoy it!

I would luv to watch you take on the challenge of Defenders of the Reich Super Scenario, when you are done with the campaign.

Campaign difficulty is achieved best through customization of the game modes. DotR is... something different. And changes every time you play.

[Edmon]

Originally posted by Back Door Billy:

"(0% means that the result is always the same as the prediction; 100% means the prediction is only a very rough estimate of the true results),

this is copy and pasted from the manual ... maybe if u read it huh...

I'm sorry but you fundimentally misunderstand the game. I've already completed the first campaign and had the alpha so let me try and help you understand.

Open a new game in poland 1939 with 100% RNG. You will get attacks against that cav with your tank that will do anything from almost nothing to wiping it out.

Now try with 0 RNG. You will do the same damage (and take the same damage) every time.

It adjusts the randomness of the result, not the baseline expectation.

It does not in any way change what the prediction says OR what the expectation of damage should be. RNG doesn't change how you would make your decisions.

I don't know how I could explain this any better to you. What you are saying is fundimentally incorrect. Your objection seems to be against having a prediction feature at all, which is not something the RNG slider will actually change.

[Tigga]

"(0% means that the result is always the same as the prediction; 100% means the prediction is only a very rough estimate of the true results),


Can you understand English?

Because you are saying you know better than the dev that wrote the manual how their game works.

[Tigga]

No where does it say the slider changes the rng no where does it say there is any rng it only mentions how accurate the slider is compared to the true results..

true results are decided by all the stats and modifiers..

[Edmon]

lol, load up the game and test it. I am done smashing my head against a wall here. I made a good faith effort to explain and told you how you can check it. It may be poorly explained in the game itself but that's not my fault.

[Tigga]

you are done trying to understand english I didnt write the game manual the devs did.

get them to confirm if what they write is correct or not

I have copy and pasted exaclty what it says in the manual Its not my fault you cant understand it

but you are right about one thing the result of any battle should have 0 rng it should be worked out based on the stats and the modifiers which there are many which makes it a complicated process

how ever there should be no prediction crutch . you want to know exactly what will happen which completly removes any skill from the game and it becomes pointless why tell you all the units attributes when they make no difference at all to how you play .

all you are doing is looking for the prediction crutch and want it to tell you the answer this is extremely bad..


and so far all the playing on 100% prediction slider has not resulted in any unexpected results if you understand all the units and how initiative works how the bonus work how close defences and hard attacks and all the other things its not a rng lucky lottory

its mathmatic equations

[heervandering]

Back Door Billy forgets one thing: when people buy a game it's theirs and they play it as they feel like. Personally I do not like RNG because you can have a really stupid outcome like cavalry destroying tanks at full strength. I played PzC1 rather well I suppose with 77% of the achievements without playing MP, nor did I bought the Soviet or Allies DLC. Nobody has to tell me to be a 'real' General. I want to have fun. Long time ago there was a song "It's my life and I do what I want", replace the word 'life' with 'game'

[OwiHH]

alpine infantery on the north norway campaign are insane on highest difficult. i managed to do thee mission on general but not the hardest difficult yet.

[Tigga]

how you want to play makes 0 difference to how the game is made it is either rng based combat or it is mathematical equation based on all the stats and modifiers

the game manual clearly states that all the slider does is adjust how accurate the predictions are no where does it say it changes the rng or that there is any rng to the combat system

"(0% means that the result is always the same as the prediction; 100% means the prediction is only a very rough estimate of the true results)

if you cant understand this sentence that is copy and pasted from the manual i dont know how to make it any more simple

100% is just removing most of your prediction crutch... 0 % helps to remove all skill from the game by telling you exactly what will happen

a rough estimate.. of the true results ie not removing the need for you to look at all the info availble to you to make a choice..

there is so much info there but all you care bears dont want any of that all you want is a nice 0-3 number so you dont have to hurt your tiny little brains