I was thinking - just a loose idea at the moment...
What if the town capture mechanics changes to "capture and hold the flag" style of urban battles, instead of the current "insert 10 coins" style?
For instance, instead of having to kill all the town buildings and walk in 10 troops at a given time, the objective would be something like;
1) land 20 troops and walk them into the map room
2) drop 3 field supplies on the town (supplies used to set up a town HQ)
3) drop 3 vehicle supplies on the town
4) there is no need to kill all the buildings in the town
5) achieve conditions 1, 2, 3 - and the ownership of the town changes
In other words, the capture conditions become harder, but the there is no need to kill the entire town to capture it, and besides, it would be more fun. Busting town buildings would be optional, a condition to aid the town capture, not a pure necessity.
What I'm visioning is a "capture the flag, set up a HQ, hold the town until supplies arrive to capture it" sort of urban battle. This may sound complex, but it really isn't. Please carefully read the 'process' of capturing the town I will explain below, and imagine what it might be like.
* Initially, a town will be empty of defenses except 3~4 acks.
* When a
defender's M3 or C-47 drops troops on a
defender's town, the troops will walk in and set up defenses at the closest
town building. Five troops will take up one town building - and the town building where friendly troops 'set the defenses up', will be visually confirmable - maybe something like a big flag with Bish/Rook/Knit waving over it.
* When 5 friendly troops "set up" inside a building, the building will start firing 20mm acks from it.
* The attacking side doesn't need to kill all the buildings to capture the town - but obviously, when many many defending troops are "set up" inside the town buildings, it will be impossible to just walk troops in.
* So the attacking side, will have to identify and kill the town buildings which are shooting acks at them. Ofcourse, when the defending side "set up" only 3~4 town buildings it won't be too difficult - fly over the town, see where the shots are coming from, and strafe dead the town building.
* But if the defenses were organized and they have set up massive number of troops inside the town, virtually all the town buildings can each act as ack stations (!!!) Imagine all the town buildings are firing 20mm acks at your plane - this is pretty realistic in the sense that a small number of fighter/jabo planes smack at the middle of enemy controlled city/town would be near suicide.
* So, if many many defending troops "set up" the defenses at the town, then large, massive air strikes are necessary. You may have to turn the entire town into a parking lot to walk your troops in.
* However, that's not the end. Once the town defenses are all taken care of, 20 troops, 3 field supplies, 3 vehicle supplies must be dropped at the town. When these supplies land at the town and troops walk in the map room, the ownership of the town, and the airfield tied to it, will finally change.
* The positive side for the attacking side is that now, the progress of town capture is not limited by a certain time. It doesn't matter if you've dropped troops or supplies 1 or 2 hours ago. The progress is solid and persistent, and no automatic "town building up" will reverse it.
* This progress will be verified by clicking on the town and seeing the progress. It will show info such as:
=================
Town Capture Progress
=================
Required Troops: 11/20
Required Vehicle Supplies: 2/3
Required Field supplies: 3/3
* Therefore, even if it takes a long time, as long as the town and its airspace remains under control, there is always a chance to capture the town regardless of town building reupping or not.
* The town capture progress, can also be viewed by the defending side. When all the town defenses are down and the moment the first required trooper belonging to the attackers enters the maproom unscathed, the town enters a capture phase.
* To reverse the process, the defending side has to land and walk in its own troops. If the defenders walk in 10 troops, it will diminish 20 troops the attackers walked in. 6 defending troops worth 3 supplies.
* In other words, once the attacking troop enters the map room, the defenders have to walk in 1 defender troop to kill 2 attacker troops. The defenders have to walk in 2 defender troops to diminish 1 attacker supplies.
* For example, the attackers killed all the town defenses. They start to walk in their troops and land supplies. The progress is, 8 troops made it to the map room, 2 supplies landed. For the defending side, in order to make this null and void, and be able to station troops inside town buildings at the 'defending phase', it needs to walk in;
4(to kill 8 attacking troops) + 4(to diminish 2 attacker supplies landed) = 8 troops
.... into the map room to regain control.
* Therefore, as harsh as this may sound for the attacking side, once the town is under control by the attackers, and the airfield troops/supplies are down, it would be almost impossible for the defenders to reverse the capture process and regain full control of the town again - as long as the attackers are present.
* To sum it up;
1. In the 'contesting phase'
- five defending troops walk into one town building to set up one 20mm ack
- the moment a single attacking trooper enters the map room, it changes to 'capture phase'
2. In the 'capture phase'
- when defenders drop troops at the town, they do not set up defenses in town buildings. They head for the maproom
- 1 defending troop kills 2 attacking troops made it to the map room
- 2 defending troop kills 1 attacker supply landed at the town
3. For the attackers to capture the town and field
- enter 20 troops into map room
- drop 3 vehicle supplies and 3 field supplies at the town
4. For the defenders to drive out attackers from the town and shift to 'contesting phase' again
- kill all attacker troops and supplies
The Pros This sounds complicated, but it really isn't. It's just a simple set of new rules and conditions which makes town captures change - not necessarily for easier or harder.
As it is, town capture is made difficult because the entire town needs to be dead, and 10 troops must enter when the town is all down. It can take hours and hours to capture one field, despite a horde completely owns the airspace, because a goon hunter can pick out a few goons... and then the town will reup.. and all the progress becomes null and void.
However, in this suggestion, the town doesn't need to be down. Drop the required stuff and the town is captured. This actually makes blitzing the map easier.. !!
If there is an
unprepared town, no defenses set up - an NOE mission with very good preparations: 2 goons for troops, 6 goons for supplies, some fighter/jabo to kill initial town defenses... can take the town in a matter of minutes. Just kill the basic town acks, drop troops and supps and that's it. Or, a well prepared ground assault also could capture a field within a matter of minutes - tanks head in first, knock the acks down, then the M3s come in and bam, its over.
This will force people to respond quicker to defenses - instead of leaving fields empty and undefended, they will have to respond immediately, verify enemy capture phase, and counter it - or the town falls in a matter of minutes.
Also, if a horde takes control of the airspace and works long and persistently towards capturing the town, then every troop, every supply dropped on the town counts. There's no time limit. The town building reupping doesn't mean anything. The defending side must actively enter its own defender troops to delay/push back capture progress. One or two goon hunters will not work, because even only if one or two troops walk in, they will stay there and count. No automatic town up will nullify it.
This, actually makes field captures easier.
However, IF the defenses are well prepared, then things change. Imagine a situation where the defenders guess a big attack is coming. They start moving massive number of troops to the town. All the town buildings are now armed - the town now turns into a gigantic patch of ack formation. It will be like seeing the task group acks on land. This represents a town fully prepared for war, with its AA defenses set up. It will make jabo/strafing much much harder than it ever was, and attacking fighters won't want to venture near the airfield at low alts.
A situation like this calls for large number of air strikes, be it jabos or bombers, to the town, and totally flatten it, to have a chance to capture it.
All in all,
it makes unprepared towns much easier to capture,
and fully prepared towns much harder to capture.
When enemy attack is imminent, some people will grab fighters, others will have to grab M3s and move troops into the town to prepare for a fight.
It's not a real urban battle as in the First Person Shooter sense, but I think it's gonna make the game really really interesting.
