Re: Actung Panzer: Kharkov 1943
@Scott, yes, that's what I thought as well. I went back recently to Eve on-line - and quitted again, my burn out stands - and that was perhaps the biggest change in years.
@Redwolf, too bad man. My holidays are done as well, so I won't be getting either much time with Op Star.
In many respects, my initial impression that Operation Star gameplay is very similar to latest iterations of Close Combat is reinforced as I play it more and more. Some screenshots (Graphic Settings were set to "Balanced", as this gives ) from a tactical battle I fought yesterday well into the wee hours of morning.
I fired up the Taranovka German operation (the game comes with two long operations, covering Operation Star in February 1943 and the German Kharkov counteroffensive in March 1943) where you step into command of roughly one Regiment of the hapless 320th Infantry division, which became encircled in that town. The idea is to hold long enough so Leibstandarte - computer controlled "allied" units - can come to the rescue.
The first battle took place on southern skirts of the town, at 3AM - just before dawn - in blizzard weather. I leave the screenshots unprocessed, since lighting seems to be very important.
Above you can see the initial deployment of one of my platoons, sporting a 5cm mortar (that's the icon that looks as a devil with horns). Note the time compression on the lower left: I've set it up to x1.0, but my machine can only handle x0.8.
A closer look on the troops I deployed overlooking the gully. They look a bit "disorganized", but that's because I had set - unadvertently - their formation to "no formation". And the pixeltruppen tend to look for the best cover and deploy in depth.
A look at the tactical map. When I move away from the 3D view my machine can handle very well x1.0, x1.5 or x2.0 time compression. That's a hallmark of a finely done system: what you don't need to see, shouldn't have your machine busy. Actually, this is a very functional part of the interface. You can issue orders on it and track the status of your platoons at a glance. There are however a few glitches here and there, with contour lines not matching between neighboring map cells.
Note the squad I have selected it. Most of its men are deployed along the road - what I wanted - while others have taken positions to the rear in the forest next to the road.
Some action from the second platoon in this battle, who I set to advance into Taranovka itself. Eventually they bump into some Soviet cavalrymen...
Uniforms are very well-done in this game. I could tell these were cavalrymen because of the padded jacket/blue trousers combo. Note as well the HUD "metaphor" in this game. It's one of its most remarkable features I think. The position of your troops and enemy troops is displayed in a clear way, that allows you to figure out easily what's going on even in night battles as this one.
Forty seconds later, my pixeltruppen have dealt with about half of the Soviet squad. Those white icons (circles and little men) mean dead enemies.
Important events - such as finding the enemy - are marked in the tactical map, with a vector signaling the direction they came and a time stamp
In the picture above, my southern platoon make contact with the Soviet main force (a reinforced company)
Those Soviets surprised my guys: note how they've been moving along the gully and just turned up at about 100 meters. The squad commander has been killed, and my demoralized, starved landsers aren't going to hold their ground. In fact, they "panicked". Note that their icon just became a shade whiter-
