From: tdavie@escape.ca (Thomas Davie) Subject: East Front review( long ) Introduction- East Front is a tactical turn based wargame simulating combat between Germany and Russia during the years 1941-45. Turns are 6 minutes in length, hexes are 250 metres in size. Units are approximately platoon based( 3-5 tanks, or 3 squads ). You can command formations from battalion to corps in size. East Front is an action point based game. In order to move or fire, a unit mmust expend action points. Each unit starts a turn with 100 action points and uses them up as they move or fire. A unit must reserve or hold back sufficient action points if it is wished to have that unit oppurtunity fire during the enemy's phase. The game comes with 50 pre built scenarios and allows you to design your own games, or play various random battles and/or campaigns. In addition to playing against the computer, you can play hot seat against another person, or play 'live' against another opponent over the modem or the internet( with a tcp/ip connection ). PBEM with vcr playback is also available as a mode of play. A coupon is included for a free Talonsoft game( Battleground Ardennes, Gettysburg, Shiloh, Antietam, Waterloo, or Age of Sails )! You must pay $7 shipping for this free game. System requirements: Windows 95, 486 computer, 8Mb ram, 2xCDROM, 60 Mb hd space for a minimal install. Optional modem. DirectX 5 is necessary and is installed along with the game. A video card capable of 16 bits graphics is required. Reviewed on: Pentium 60, 16 Mb ram, 2xCDROM, typical install (107 Mb hd space), 14.4 modem. I do not work for Talonsoft, never have, and I doubt if I ever will. The opinions contained in this review are solely my own. If someone feels like sueing me, go for it :) The sum total of all the categories will be added together and expressed as a percentage out of 100. This will be a numerical rating for the game. Further, a letter grade will be assigned as follows; 100-91 A+ 81-90 A 79-75 B+ 74-70 B 69-65 C+ 64-60 C 59-50 D < 50 F *********************************************************************** [The total numerical rating for all categories is 89.0/105.0 or 84.8%, earning an 'A' letter grade. This is a highly subjective viewpoint. I was prepared to ravage this game if I felt it deserved it. Clearly in my opinion it is an outstanding game. Your opinions may differ. If you want to flame me over them or comment, feel free to email me at tdavie@escape.ca and I'll respond. Cheerfully ignore any spelling mistakes because I have] Please see the bottom of this post/document for final comments *********************************************************************** Sound- /5 This falls under the category of what I consider to be ear candy, consequently, I only provide for a maximum of five points. At it's worst, in a wargame sound should provide audio cues as to whats happening but should be non intrusive; at it's best, sound should add to part of the immersive experience. East Front excels in this area, providing sounds that accompany on screen actions. If a unit moves or shoots, you hear it. If artillery lands, it's there as well. Different weapons have different sounds. Unlike other wargames though, East Front provides the user with ambient battle sounds....the crackle of small arms fire, dull artillery thuds, etc. This provides the user with a sense of urgency even though this is a turn based game. The music that accompanies the game is appropriately military in nature, but can be turned off if felt to be distracting. Interestingly, if playing with Fog of War you can hear the enemy units as they scurry about the battlefield. Nicely done indeed. An added bonus is that different types of artillery sound different! Scored 5.0/5.0 Graphics- /5 This falls under the category of what I consider to be eye candy, consequently I provide for a maximum of 10 points. Since visual appearance is more immediate and 'in your face' than sound, I felt justified in allowing for 10 points. Graphics are important, but cannot become the raison d'etre of a game. Simply put this game is a graphics treat. You can view the battlefield in 2 basic modes; 2d and 3d. The 2d representation is available at 2 zoom levels and looks exactly like a traditional board wargame map. The 3d battlefield is rendered beautifully and is available at 3 different zoom levels. At the normal 3d level, the on screen units look like microarmour vehicles( little model tanks that you'd use to play tabletop wargames ). In particular, I was impressed that during scenarios occuring in winter months the tops of buildings were covered with snow! Look very carefully at the trees in a winter scenario; coniferous trees have foliage, decidous trees do not! Another little bit of chrome is that some tanks have numbers painted on the sides of the turrets. You see these numbers when the tanks turn. Appropriately when units are destroyed the tanks 'brew' up nicely with animated smoke and fire. There is sufficient random variation in any given hex type such that one forest hex will appear slightly different from another of the same type. With hex outlines turned on, you get a real sense of 'space' and a concrete impression of the distances involved in East Front combat. At the normal 3d level, you can easily distinguish individual vehicles from one another. The 'pretty pictures' are what a person first sees when they fire up a game. Scored 10.0/10.0 AI- /10 For a long time I've been used to games that promise 'unrivaled computer opponents' or 'easy to learn but difficult to master'. We've all heard that one before! So I approached this game rather sceptically. I was attracted to the subject matter, but was expecting to be disappointed( now hows that for setting yourself up for a fall? ). I'm glad to say that I've been pleasantly surprised so far. In 6 complete games( 4 tutorial games and 2 randomly generated ones )I'm happy to say that I haven't seen the computer make any boneheaded moves such as move armour into built up city areas unsupported by infantry or move armour platoons forward one by one. In the recent battle I just finished, I was defending a ridge 3 hexes( 750 metres )in length with the objective hex just on top. I placed 2 platoons of PzIVF2's just behind the ridge and waited for the inevitable assault. An understrength platoon of T-34's crested the ridge and got chewed apart. I retook the objective and scooted back behind the ridge expecting the sequence to repeat itself. No; instead some T-34's that were approaching the hill broke off into 2 groups and attempted to go around the hill( they got taken out by some other hidden armour though ). In the meantime the AI brought up trucks to within 1.5 km, dismounted infantry and these approached the hill( they got taken out by artillery ). The battle was eventually a major defeat for the AI largely dur to getting trapped in a crossfire between a couple of 88' sections and some PzIVH's. My fear in this game would be that the computer controlled oppurtunity fire would act idiotically. It's no Einstein, but it's better than I thought( I'd still like the ability to set some kind of defaults Talonsoft even though this has been correctly pointed out to me that this may cause delays in AI processing as the commputer checks each hex entered .vs. set ranges ). What triggers AI fire? Moving units. Unit activity such as unloading or loading re: transports and enemy fire. I've had some wild exchanges as my op firing units triggered fire by the AI which triggered fire by my units, etc. Generally, the computer seems to favour( as targets )closer over farther, moving over stationary and firing over non firing. Thats pretty much the way I want it. I'm happy with this. Although the game makes use of victory hexes, the AI does not seem to make a beeline for them as in other games( most notably Steel Panthers 1/2 ). Consequently it's not as predictable. Hence the replay value should be very high for solo play. It seems to provide very solid play at the average difficulty level( no cheating ). One of the best AI's I've seen in a tactical WW2 wargame yet. Scored 7.0/10.0 Replay Value- /10 50 scenarios are included with the game. You can generate random scenarios as well as create scenarios from scratch. Additionally, you can select from one of 8 campaign games where the battles are randomly generated for you( you take the same force through the whole campaign, but you can of course upgrade your units as new vehicle types become available ). When you tire of playing against the computer, you can try your luck out against a human opponent live or pbem. Scored 10.0/10.0 Modes of Play- /10 As of writing this, 5 modes of play are supported; against the AI, hotseat player .vs. player, modem player .vs. player, PBEM, and live internet play. 16 player mutliplayer is planned according to a package insert. VCR playback is available in all modes of play. *Personal note- lack of modem and/or internet play was one of my pet peeves in the Steel Panthers series*. Scored 10.0/10.0 Detail- /10 Contrary to a number of posts on Usenet, East Front is actually an incredibly detailed game. It is true that abstractions have been made, but I feel that this is done in order to accomodate the scale of the game( 6/250 ). For example, tere is no seperate to hit and damage resolution procedure. The two operations are blended into one in the following manner; Ex; % to hit = 50, penetration at that range =12. So, merging the two we find that the unit is capable of throwing or projecting 6 armour penetration or 'hard attack factors' at that range. Statistically, I find this to be an acceptable abstraction. And, have no fear; attentuation of armour piercing weapons *is* handled. When a unit is selected, a press of the F2 key will bring up a unit info box. Along with a picture of the unit and historical background, it includes an *individualized* movement chart and a hot key selectable weapon data chart. This weapon data chart shows 2 curved lines containing armour piercing and high explosive data .vs. range in hexes. As expected, the penetration attentuates as range increases, while the high explosive factor attenuates only slightly. Losses are individual tanks, or half squads which are called 'strength points'. For movement, there are four basic ground conditions; normal, soft, mud and snow. Each of these affects a unit's ability to move into various terrain types, which include; open, field, orchard, forest, village, suburb, city, industrial, rough, swamp, marsh, and water hexes. Each unit has different action point costs to move into various hex types. This is modified by the current ground condition. 300 unit types are available in the game. Scored 10.0/10.0 Historical Accuracy- /10 In some senses this is related to AI. If the AI isn't good then it probably is not acting historically. In the same manner if the game is not detailed enough you'll get a very watered down impersonation of the type of combat that really occured( for example, you could simulate WW2 by rolling a six sided dice and if it comes up 1-6 the Allies have won the war, but thats not much fun is it? ). So, there has to be a sufficient level of detail such that the units or equipment involved can perform historically and the AI that is in place has to use realistic tactics. At worst, the AI can not perform groslly ahistorically. Further, the combat results must be qpproximately equivalent to their real life counterparts. In some sense, this section ties in to the one on game detail and AI. If the AI consistently chose the wrong tactics, or if there was not a sufficient degree of detail in the game system to allow eastern front combat to be modelled accurately you wouldn't have a historically 'real' game. So, is it real? Well, I can tell you based on my limited knowledge of that particular aspect of WW2( books, other wargames, an occasional movie or 2 )it feels real. By this I mean to say that the units perform as I imagine they would. The T-34 gives early war German tanks lots of trouble; the KV series behemoth tanks are almost impossible to deal with, the German 88' is deadly and so on. Units appear to act realistically. When they take a pounding, they do retreat( if they're disrupted they cannot move closer to known enemy units ). Real life tactics do work, for example the overwatch technique works splendidly( say you've got 4 platoons of tanks, you keep two stationary and you move two forward. The two moving tanks may draw fire, and if they do the stationary ones can open up using their full allotment of action points if you so wish. The idea being that your stationary units provide cover for your moving units. Works beautifully. Combined arms assaults also appear to be effective as they should be; the frailties of armour being compensated for by the strengths of infantry and vice versa. You better not have unsupported armour in a city; it will get chewed up by enemy infantry. Unless you're using the optional armour facing rule, the defense value of a vehicle is the same no matter what side you 'appear' to be shooting at. Fair enough, since at this scale of gameplay( 6/250 )I could make the assumption that the defnse value is a composite rating of the tank's armour with *most* of the vehicles in a unit facing the same direction *most* of the time. This is an acceptable abstraction that I can live with but....a unit can take shots from different locations and still use the same defense value for both attacks. So, the optional armour facing rule( which I use all the time )comes into play. Basically; it works like this; attacks against the side armour only face 70% of the defense strength, and attacks against the rear face a value of 40%. My complaint, and somethign for which I've deducted 2 points is that not all vehicles will share the same distribution of armour thicknesses. hence, a slight inaccuracy, peraps important to some. Finally, if we've got differentiated armour thicknesses, how about a small action point cost to change facing? In short, it feels real. And while it does not have the gloriously obsessive detail of say HPS' Tigers on the Prowl/Panthers in the Shadows it does quite well in my opinion. The final word though has to be 'I just don't know'. I've never been in a war and hope never to be. Scored 8.0/10.0 Manual- /10 This is an area where the game falls down flat in my opinion. While not an inaccurate manual, it is woefully inadequate. A paltry 31 pages in length, it includes 11 screenshots and 10 historical photographs plus various icons from the game. No screenshots are included for map editor, OOB( Order of Battle )editor or scenario editor. No unit nor weapon penetration is included either( NOTE, see addendum at bottom re: version 1.01 patch ). Various terrain effects, combat and morale modifiers are included, but in the online help modules. The combat results table is also included in online help format. Additional imporant information about leaders, headquarters and supply is again found, not in the manual but online. This is a personal belief, but I feel that games should come with thorough documentation and NOT rely largely on online text/databases. In the case of a historical based game, such as East Front, it is even more imperative that good documentation be there( unit organization, data, history, etc ). Still, out of the box, the documentation is not much worse than most other wargames. The version 1.01 patch released on Nov 10/97 addresses some of my concerns. Specifically, two windows help files are included( which can be accessed inside of the game by pressing F4 and F5 )which give complete lists of unit data and complete penetration data for every weapon at ever possible range. Reportedly, a new manual or a manual update will be made available for downloading. With a game as complex and as detailed as this one a large number of keyboard shortcuts are utilized in order to speed up game play. The manual, as is common these days was printed before the game mastered. Consequently, although additional keyboard shortcuts were added( and documented in the readme file ), I'd like to have seen a complete and comprehensive listing of keyboard shortcuts. Scored 6.0/10.0 Interface- /10 Considering that East Front is a Windows95 specific program, I had expected it to conform to standard interface guidelines. However, in at least two areas, the game falls a bit short. When a unit is selected and you press F2 to bring up the unit information box, you can select other units to view, although this requires multiple mouse clicks and since there is no list selection box you've really got no idea how many times you're going to have to click the mouse to get to a particular unit you want to see. It would be nice to have a scrollable selectable list box. In the absence of a hard copy of the unit data, I consider this imperative. Ok, it's a W95 program; why can't I minimize it from the menu bar? There are three ways that I know of for selecting multiple units( double clicking on a hex, multiple clicking through the pop up unit box that comes on screen when you select a unit and shift clicking from a unit list box that pops up on screen when you hit the 'U' key ); the one method that I would like to see added is 'shift clicking' multiple units right in the hex on screen. With a game as complex and as detailed as this one a large number of keyboard shortcuts are utilized in order to speed up game play. Whether or not this is due to sheer complexity of game design or lack of time/laziness on the designers part is a question that I haven't answered for myself yet. Here is an example of what I mean; if you've got a unit selected, pressing the F2 key brings up the unit data box. Why not just have a right mouse click accomplish the same thing? I don't know that this would save any time, but it would add to my perception of interface consistency. Still, once you've played the game for a few days, navigating the interface becomes second nature. As of writing this section of the document, I've owned the game 4 days and feel comfortable with it. One feature that I would love to see in the game is maneuvere by formation, where you can drag and drop mutiple units to a common way point or 'shift click' and drop units to a common way point. Although I'm satisifed with the interface to the point that I feel I can use it productively, I feel that it could be made more W95 compliant and intuitive to the new or average user. Scored 6.5/10.0 Bugs/Support- /10 Personally, I encountered one screwup in the game. The first time I played it, I was running 5 other apps in the background. The game locked up, and when I got back to the Windows desktop, the system colors had switched to military olive drab reminiscent of the game colours. Since then, no lockups, bugs, nothing. I've purchased 10 games in the last two and a half years and this is easily the most bug free of them all( including Steel Panthers 1,2, Battleground Waterloo, Close Combat, Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games, X-com 1,2, Master of Orion, Master of Magic and Age of Rifles ). On the Talonsoft board though, I've read that the game does not recognize previous DirectX installs and this can sometimes lead to sound problems. A few people have also reported not being able to get their CD drive to read the disc. Additionally, it appears that when setting up random battles and/or campaigns child units are often seperated from other units of the same organization and/or their headquarters. These few problems have been addressed in the quickly forthcoming patch( released 10 days after the game it the shelves ). It seems to be the old debate of 'patch me now or patch me well'. People aren't happy if the game isn't patched yesterday and they aren't happy if news bugs are introduced or remain in a patch. One slightly pesky bug that *I* am aware of; prior to update version 1.02s certain of the Russian player campaign games would crash. As of 1.02s this has been fixed but it seems that selecting certain brigade level camapigns as the Germans just do not work. The game though does not crash. By virtue of the quick 1.02s patch which followed ONE day after 1.01, I am convinced that Talonsoft plans to vigorously suppor the game and eradicate bugs. Now a lot of people have raised the charge that the Talonsoft board is a 'love in'. If this is what you choose to believe, so be it. I've had every question that I asked answered. Every piece of email has had a reply( even if it was not what I wanted ). No, not everyone has net access, but if you're reading this YOU do. If I believed the early naysayers on comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic I would not have purchased the game. With help from some people at Talonsoft, I'm enjoying what I consider to be an excellent product. In a perfect world, there would be no bugs. However, in that absence, I'll settle for Talonsoft's excellent support. Scored 8.0/10.0 Extras- /10 These are what I consider to be value added features in the game package. The rating that I assign to these varies, but I generally try to weight them on how I feel they impact the game system. This area is *highly* subjective. PBEM or live modes of play allow the use of any scenario, not just randomly created ones- 2 One scenario( The Real Deal by Jim Dunnigan )contains official transcribed Soviet documents on the battle. This is Pogorelo.doc in the East Front directory. A 47 page document. Nice touch!- 1 Leaders are included in the game. They provide morale and combat bonuses. Photographs are shown for every leader unit. I consider this chrome, but nice nonetheless- 1.0 Organization that has a real impact on the game. From battalion > regiment > brigade > division > army/corp you have got to keep your units organized or they will suffer. If they run low on ammunition and they are out of supply range from an immediate headquarters they will not be able to resupply. Units low on ammunition fire at half effectiveness. This forces the player who wants to do well to keep their units *organized* Trust me, you do not want to run out of ammo!- 2.5 Free coupon for a previous Talonsoft game- 0.5 16 player multiplayer upgrade is planned. If they pull this one off, I'd give it 2 points, but for now 1/2 a point for getting my hopes up- 0.5 Talonsoft has got reinforcements nailed down quite niecely. Simply, a reinforcement schedule is provided which states 'unit name, turn and % number'. So a gaurds tank platoon could have a 50% chance of arriving on turn 5. If it doesn't arrive on turn 5 it will have a 50% chance of arriving on subsequent turns. Under Fog of War/Extreme Fog of War you have less information on when reinforcements will arrive. This feature adds tremendous excitement to the game and enhances replay value of prebuilt scenarios- 1.0 Scored 8.5/10.0 Version 1.01 patch released November 10/97 Personally, I groove on stats. I despise manuals that do not include data of some kind. I'm a numbers freak, which is really odd considering that I failed calculus 3 times before happily accepting a D. Without the patch, I would have rated the manual at 4.0/10.0 Yup, the unit and weapons data are worth that much to me. The following is a list of fixes/enhancements reported in the version 1.01 readme file. -------------From readme version 1.01------------------- 11/10/97 Added word-wrap for organizations and Page Up/Down buttons in Unit Handbook. The Range Dialog graph in the Unit Handbook can now be closed by left- clicking on it. Pressing the F4/F5 keys calls up additional data (not supplied elsewhere) on all the units in the game. F4 shows miscellaneous information; F5 lists the units' nominal attack strength at various ranges. The Menu Bar is 'on' by default if it was 'on' when the game was last exited. Fixed incorrect firing sound when leader is stacked with firer. Ski units now ski (instead of run) when they move. Worked on various aspects of the campaign games: setup, A/I, reinforcements, replacements, mission generation, upgrades, etc. Revised the tutorial document. Fixed Visible Hex FOW info leak. Fixed rotated-map airplane graphics bug. Fixed rotated-map firing animation bug. Fixed bug that sometimes allowed Fields to show up under No-Field conditions. Fixed bug that sometimes prevented units from being resupplied. Fixed bug that caused premature loss of Fatigue. Fixed bug that caused premature recovery from Disruption when stacked with a commander. Fixed 3D Zoom-Out smoke graphics bug. Fixed bug that kept Frozen Swamp from being treated as Forest. Fixed bug that prevented campaign from ending when player's character dies. Fixed No Replay PBEM crash. Fixed bug that caused Two-Player Hot-Seat crash when invoked from front-end. Added Prompt for Scenario functionality for MPlayer. Added processing for lost connection in DirectPlay. -------------From readme 1.02s----------------------------------------- VERSION 1.02 11/97 Fixed bug that caused brigade-level camapigns to crash during generation. Fixed wrong German tank type in Molvotitsy.scn. Implemented solution to "Failure to create Direct Sound object" error. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Conclusion: I've only had the game for four days, but have had a great time with it already. My main concerns were the a)poor manual, b) the lack of unit and weapon data and c) the inability to set your own defaults for opportunity fire. As of November 11/97 two patches have been released. A manual update has independently been provided by Talonsoft and complete unit and weapon data was included in the first patch. Through personal experience I am convinced that the inability to set defaults for op fire is not as important as I thought it was before I had purchased the game. It actually appears to handle op fire intelligently. I can easily recommend this game to anyone who is interested in tactical WW2 combat. I plan on buying the expansion kit when it is released and West Front when it shows up next summer. Ok, I've given the game a good review, am impressed with it and recommend it. How does it *really* play? Well, I start the game, get the Talonsoft logo and then animation and music kick in. I always press the escape key to abort the intro because *my* poor 2xCD can't keep up. You're brought to the main screen where you select a given mode of play. It then takes my computer one minute to load a scenario. When the scenario is loaded you are started off in 3d normal mode( unless you've changed the default settings ). I usually switch to 2d normal view to get a quick overview of the battlefield and then to 3d zoom out to play the game( extreme 3d zoom out gives you a larger overview of the battlefield, but detail is reduced ). I switch to 2d normal view for quicker processing in the AI's turn. Game options that *I* use include the following; indirect fire by the map, extreme fog of war, armour facing effects, unit bases on, action point thermometers on and hex outlines on. I never switch nito fire mode but instead choose to toggle into fire mode temporarily by pressing the control key and holding it down while conducting each combat. The last option I use is 'highlight' formations; with this feature, any unit that I select will have other units of its organization highlighted in red. A very handy feature to have when playing with large numbers of units or big maps. Thomas William Davie Brought to you from Manitoba, Canada The dryest province in Confederation. UIN: 4338515