Hi there
Been thinking about ground strat for several months and was going to post but Pyro and Hitech said they weren't going to use vehicles and didn't like AI. Now since vehicles are included, I thought I'd throw up my 2 cents
TRAINS ROADS, RIVERS, BRIDGES, TOWNS
When you log on, you have to decide whether to command a battalion of 50 tanks, an army corps of engineers or a tanker squad (5 tanks). You can log on and start immediately at the front under someone else command.
The war starts with 10 battalions for each country. As commander of a battalion, you start at the train station in the rear. As long as no bridges are taken out, you can move your force as far into enemy country as posable. Once engaged, even if the player (command) gets dumped or logs off, the battalion stays where it is someone else can take over either as commander, or squad leader. If your tank gets blown up, you can transfer to next tank in line. When all 5 of your tanks are destroyed, your truly dead. You'll have to transfer to the next squad in the battalion.
As bridges are taken out the engineers move up to repair or build pontoon bridges. (train bridges are made of tougher stuff and would require a heavy bomber attack to take 'em out). Also train tunnels could be used to hid trains and prevent nme attack. Theres also gun carriages so these aren't easy targets at all. If the train is destroyed, the remaining tanks on board would have to debark at that point.
The parts of the map we have now with farmland could be highly detailed with a small village, church, business center small farms, barns and hay stacks to hid tanks.
If a battle should take place here, the buildings tanks etc that are destroyed, remain destroyed for the duration of the war.
Paratroopers become key players in securing crossroads, brides, small villages until the main force arrives.
Once villages, bridgeheads, airfields are secured, the battle line moves up to that point. resupply becomes an issue. This is where AI comes in as nobody is going to want to drive a truck or lead a column of trucks to the front. A commander can request a resupply at any time. Speaking of AI, once on a road you can hit the X key for auto the tanks trucks etc in your command stay on the road unless attacked they automatically go into defensive position.
Someone mentioned a few months ago about having a limited number of planes available at front line airfields. I like that idea. 20 planes assigned to each field near the front. Unlimited number at rear fields. The player gets extra points for flying replacement planes to front line fields. This would allow tank battles to take place without so much harassment from the air. Also, if you are part of the air war, there is a bulletin board in the tower with requests for air support from ground commanders and their locations.
The war is decided when the nme main city is surrounded by at least 2 battalions Articles are signed and we all go home to make babies. All the ground forces are reverted back to their starting points. The new game starts out as the phony war (spring and early summer of 1940) and doesn't get heavy until someone decides to move his battalion up and crosses the country border.
This concept could take 2hours to win the war if the commanders would cooperate with each other or could take 2 months depending.
=Bears=
