Normandy, The Beginning of the End

Started by jmkinki, November 16, 2017, 02:23:05 PM

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bob48

Nope, not at all.


And, the reason I didn't buy Paths to Hell is because I don't want another EF game. I was very much hoping for a later war, NW Europe game.
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

Barthheart

#16
Any Commonwealth troops? Probably not... it's not like the British Empire and the rest of the Commonwealth did anything during the war.....   :tickedoff:

bob48

Quote from: Barthheart on November 16, 2017, 03:06:51 PM
Quote from: mirth on November 16, 2017, 03:03:58 PM
Sounds complicated :P

Only fer the likes of you....  :P

And coming from a bloke wot brought Last Blitzkrieg  BCS game - now if that's not a complicated game I don't know what is!
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

bob48

Quote from: Barthheart on November 16, 2017, 03:09:26 PM
Any Commonwealth troops? Probably not... it's like the British Empire and the rest of the Commonwealth did anything during the war.....   :tickedoff:

Nope, very disappointing. We have discussed this sad state of gaming affairs on several occasions, have we not.
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

Barthheart

Quote from: bob48 on November 16, 2017, 03:11:06 PM
Quote from: Barthheart on November 16, 2017, 03:09:26 PM
Any Commonwealth troops? Probably not... it's like the British Empire and the rest of the Commonwealth did anything during the war.....   :tickedoff:

Nope, very disappointing. We have discussed this sad state of gaming affairs on several occasions, have we not.

Annoying... should start our own gaming company.... Brits and Canucks Conquer the World.

bob48

Quote from: JudgeDredd on November 16, 2017, 02:53:52 PM
Is it solitaire?

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/186822/alone-storm-solo-play-expansion-war-storm-series

I assume that this has now gone off the current scene since Compass are no longer involved. Its not shown on their website now anyway.
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

jmkinki

Quote from: bob48 on November 16, 2017, 03:16:17 PM
Quote from: JudgeDredd on November 16, 2017, 02:53:52 PM
Is it solitaire?

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/186822/alone-storm-solo-play-expansion-war-storm-series

I assume that this has now gone off the current scene since Compass are no longer involved. Its not shown on their website now anyway.

Hi guys!

Thanks for your messages. Regarding to Alone in the Storm, it is still at Draco Ideas timeline. We want to try to include at the same Kickstarter campaign than Normandy, but there are a lot of work to do. We are not sure if we have enough time to prepare it for January.

I'll keep you informed about AitS too.

bob48

Thanks for that info. For myself, I was hoping that 'Help Arrives' would see the light of day, as I often play 'A las barricadas'.
'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers'

'Clip those corners'

Recombobulate the discombobulators!

jmkinki

Quote from: bob48 on November 16, 2017, 05:10:08 PM
Thanks for that info. For myself, I was hoping that 'Help Arrives' would see the light of day, as I often play 'A las barricadas'.

Unfortunately, I can't advance to you a release date for Help Arrives. But don't worry, becuase it is in our timeline. In fact we have changed the status of Help arrives from ALB expansion pack, to a stand alone game. Perhaps Niko in the following days, can provide more information about the coming games.

ArizonaTank

Quote from: Barthheart on November 16, 2017, 02:47:49 PM
What do you like about the system Bob? Are there leaders?  ^-^

Scale is roughly the same as Avalanche Panzer Grenadier series.  But I think War Storm treats leaders and leadership much better.

But check out the rules to see for yourself: 
http://www.compassgames.com/downloads/Path_to_Hell_std_rulebook.pdf
Johannes "Honus" Wagner
"The Flying Dutchman"
Shortstop: Pittsburgh Pirates 1900-1917
Rated as the 2nd most valuable player of all time by Bill James.

jmkinki

#25
Greetings friends,

We have decided to start a series of articles in which we will delve into some of the units that take part in Normandy, The Beginning of the End, as well as to describe aspects of the game that you will find in this new installment of the War Storm Series.

The War Storm Series titles recreate combat situations at the tactical level, emphasizing the role of the officers in the battlefield and how their leadership have a real impact in the units´ morale, another key aspect implemented in the game.

Below, you can see a couple of examples depicting two officers, one per side:

Captain Ryman belongs to Company Fox, an Airborne Infantry unit.



On the other hand, Sargent Stichtenoth is an NCO from Company Anton, an Infantry German unit.



For those familiar with previous titles of the saga, you may notice that we have maintained a common structure and a well-known lay-out for these markers. Let´s review them:

In the top, you may find the national flag and the rank plus the name of the officer, being the latter a detail to merely increase the atmosphere but with no real effect in the game. Notice than even though some of the ranks depicted may not be an officer, for gaming purposes, it will be considered as such, regardless the rank stated on the counter. That is to say, it´s more related to a concept of leadership rather than to stripes.

To the right you may see a lateral strip with a color that will vary depending on the unit type. In the examples above, both officers are taken from Infantry units.

In this strip, you will see a graphic of the rank and immediately below a yellow-colored figure, which represents the officer´s morale value. This value will be his company´s morale too. In subsequent articles, we will provide more details and we will broaden in what circumstances during a battle a morale check must be performed.



Just below the morale value, you may see the officer´s movement factor. In both examples it´s 5 and the type of movement set is by foot.

A portray of the protagonist is also printed along with their Company´s letter. There you can see two values printed, the leadership and command range.

The leadership factor, represented in a yellow-colored circle, it´s a modifier that adds a bonus to all the platoons within the officer´s commands range.

The command range depicts the distance to which the officer is able to effectively communicate to the platoons that are part of his Company. Therefore, in both examples these officers may issue orders up to 2 hexes away. This implies that once you activate an officer, all the platoons that are within range will be automatically active to obey the officer´s orders.

With this we will finish this entry, anticipating that in the following developer log we will go into details about what happens if an officer falls in battle and how this concept it´s implemented in WSS: Normandy the Beginning of the End.



jmkinki

Greetings friends,

We are going to describe today one of the most important concepts in the game: Morale.

A soldier, in the clamor of battle, is not that perfect slaughter machine with a total lack of feeling that we often see on movies and videogames.

They are human beings that rely on their mental strength and on their unit´s cohesion to commit dangerous tasks, overcoming their fears in a hostile environment such as a battlefield.



In War Storm Series this reality is implemented by several mechanisms:

First, every Company as a single entity, has its own morale value. This value will have to be checked in situations in where the soldiers have to face frantic moments, such as:

    - One of the platoons is eliminated.
    - The officer in command falls.
    - The Company suffers casualties after an armored assault.

If a unit doesn´t pass this roll check, you will have to deal with a delicate situation on the battlefield: the Company, depending on the level of failure, may withdraw or even might become routed, and thus it will lose the combat effectiveness.

On the other hand, the morale of a platoon it´s equal to its parent company except for the fact that the leadership value of the officer in command may be only added if he is within command range.

When must a platoon do an individual morale check?



Among others, to become active if it´s out of command, i.e., out of its officer´s command range. In this situation, the platoon won´t be activated automatically with its officer and the rest of units that are within command range.

This depicts the tendency of units without a leader of staying under cover and avoiding taking risks.

This way, this allows you to activate during the Activation Phase, both, an officer and all his platoons within his command range and also individual units which may be out of range.



Command Range – the officer has a command range trait of 2. The farthest platoon will be out of command, and therefore it won´t get the officer´s leadership bonus and won´t become active either once the officer is activated.

Other situations in which is required to check a platoon´s morale is, for instance, to initiate an assault or to cross a barbed-wire area. If the check results in a failure, the platoon will finish the turn taking no action.

Obviously, the number of loses during the battle will also affect to the morale, and thus, you will soon learn how critical is every single GI on the battlefield in the War Storm Series.

jmkinki

#27
Greetings friends,

Normandy, the beginning of the end and Alone in the Storm are now live at Kickstarter.



Normandy, "The Beginning of the End", is the fourth installment in the War Storm Series (WSS), and precisely from today, Tuesday the 16th of January, you may reserve your copy.

Furthermore, at this campaign it is include Alone in the Storm an expansion pack that enables solo and cooperative games mode, implements fog of war and many other features. And most important, backwards compatible with previous titles of the saga (La Baitalle de France 1940, A Las Barricadas, Paths to Hell). You can buy both as a pack or this expansion pack separately as an addon.

You can get Normandy for $46 pledge level ($39 at early bird first 48 hours) or Normandy + Alone in the Storm for $85 pledge level ($79 at early bird first 48 hours).

Here you have he link to the Kickstarter campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dracoideas/normandy-the-beginning-of-the-end?ref=e1iwc0

Best regards,



Jose Manuel

bayonetbrant

The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

Barthheart