newbie here, few questions

[derfel12]

hi,

just picked up this game from steam a couple of days ago and 1st impressions are it looks better than COH in that its less arcady and a lot more realistic which is good.

ive played a couple of battles online last night and while they were good they tended to turn into tank/artillery fests with not much infantry stuff goin on. are there servers that limit the amount of tanks and artillery and if so where do i find them? also seems hard to find english speakin people, are there servers somewhere that cater for english speakin people?

i also found MP very laggy with low frame rates even with all settings turned down whereas in SP i have no such problems although i suspect this was due to the MP battles having stormy weather. does anyone else experience this?

also, how about mods. any standouts i shoudl try, and are they used online as well?

cheers

[Birdy]

heh, yeah it can be hard to find english speakers, I've only had 1 game out of the... lost count how many, but I've been in alot!

as for mods, There's only about 2 that alot of people play with, panzermod 1.2 and GSM. (Panzermod is usually russians playing it, while GSM is usually more western Europeans.

multiplayer is usually not too laggy for me, although when you play with a guy that has a crappy computer the lag can spike to everyone (Don't quite understand why, all other games just let that one person be laggy and doesn't effect the rest of the players...)

[stabiz]

There are game modes that force players to use infantry more, like "infantry only" ( ) and "no artillery", and of course capture the flag/zone control. The most common game modes however, are "all units" and "tanks only". Tanks only are mostly played by Russians for some reason, while all units usually turns into artillery take off. You can of course counter this by using scouts and such, but you`ll learn that by playing. MoW multiplayer is awesome most of the time, so just hang in there.

Oh, and there is a big patch coming that adds the Japanese army.

[Rebs]

Ah yes the infamous arty camping till they get heavies. Its very annoying, you try to use infantry but if you do, youll get shot by hummels hiding behind houses, this seriously sucks in tramway depot as the arty has ranges over the whole map. If you dont use arty youll lose all the points you spend to the arty, wich also sucks, bigtime

[DemonicSpoon]

ive played a couple of battles online last night and while they were good they tended to turn into tank/artillery fests with not much infantry stuff goin on. are there servers that limit the amount of tanks and artillery and if so where do i find them? also seems hard to find english speakin people, are there servers somewhere that cater for english speakin people?

Tanks aren't really an issue...Hidden AT guns, bazookas, AT nades, and well-used tank destroyers annihilate them. tank spam fails miserably..you just need to get a bit better. Also, don't play "Combat". That mode lends itself to camping with tanks/arty/etc and not actually fighting. I personally like "Battlezones", though "Frontline" and "Victory point control" can be good as well. VP control is only playable with artillery off, though.

As far as artillery...There are ways to counter artillery, but artillery is still stupid in the game. The group of people I play with actually wins more when we play with artillery, because we can use it well and many people do stupid things with it. We still play with arty off, however, because it's a stupid game mechanic and promotes sitting back and shelling stuff instead of fighting...not to mention mortars, which require you to bring in artillery of your own to counter if he's competent. If you think artillery is annoying, then play with artillery off.

Personally I prefer "None" resource mode as well. Because things are put on timers, all units are useful, whereas in No Refund, bringing in an M4a1 Sherman is pointless when a Panzer IV H will be on the field two minutes later...early tanks are very rarely useful. This is purely my preference, however.

[GenSeaman]

Personally, I think victory flag and battlezones are dumbed down versions of pure combat.
They are two modes that basically tell you : "Hey, go to these circles to win."
Since the circles are spread everywhere it forces the teams to cover the map to prevent flanking.
Whereas in combat there are no directions to follow.

When I first played, I thought battlezones and VF were the best because combat was probably a camp fest made of waiting and poking.
But the truth is if you camp in combat you will lose too. The main reason is that you won't have enough room between your spawn and your front to give room to your artillery, while the other team has room and can position artillery at different echelons, some to kill your artillery and some to shell everything else.

Besides, in combat, like in all game modes you need a frontline to tell where the enemy is making a push, and avoid getting flanked. You need a front to secure your machinery too. Sad will be the team that doesn't take measures to form this front.

BZ/VF modes push the players to fight each other right away but at certain locations, while combat gives you more leisure to choose where you'll form a front. I also dislike the locations of the circles. VF in towns make sense. It means take the town. But VF elsewhere is a nonsense. The circles you have to grab have no significant value most of time. If at least the circles were positionned on strategic locations like high altitude points, or bridges then it would give sense.

I would like to state that the only time pure combat mode doesn't make sense it when the attacker has lead in points and slows down in order to reduce loses and deny points to the enemy. That leads to game breaking situation where the attacker is best to just fall back and gain time while preserving points.

As it is right now I personnally view the BZ/VF modes as games within the game itself. Although they are fun games don't get me wrong. If you think combat has no objective, I'll give you one : get to the enemy spawn, surround and block any sorties.

I would also like to state that I don't understand what the F is up with tanks only game. that is a nonsense too.

[DemonicSpoon]

Combat is broken because there's no point in pushing. You're perfectly fine setting up on your 1/3 of the map and camping endlessly. There's no incentive to push. Any miniscule advantage you get by having more places to put your artillery (I don't see how this is even a bonus) is overtaken by the fact that taking territory is harder than holding territory, and you will lose things in the process.

But the truth is if you camp in combat you will lose too. The main reason is that you won't have enough room between your spawn and your front to give room to your artillery, while the other team has room and can position artillery at different echelons, some to kill your artillery and some to shell everything else.

Oh yes, that's exactly what I want...artillery spam. That sounds like a ****load of fun.

[LogisticEarth]

Personally my favorite mode is Battle Zones, with Payback turned on and set to around Company of Battalion troop size. Payback restricts the tank and artillery spam, and makes the battle more about being able to hold onto objectives as long as possible, or take them from the enemy.

Combat is just about killing enemy stuff. It's fun, but it's just a deathmatch. It makes no sense to advance because you're FAR more likely to lose units while trying to take an area. Since Combat is all about keeping your stuff alive and killing the enemy, advancing doesn't make much sense.