battle narrative

[The Guru]

In 2014, it can be frustrating to "witness" an epic computer battle without any animation or special effect of any kind. That's ok, TEAW is not that kinda game. Yet, a little more narrative depth for battles would be welcome, and is that's pretty easy to do.

I would really like to have some adjectives thrown in once in a while to stimulate the imagination and compensate for the somewhat arid and static representation of combats. In addition, it would help towards a better understanding of what is going on, which is not a luxury on a rather confusing game environment.

Indeed, the strictly rigid dicotomy "I scored a victory" or "I scored defeat" ( I have yet to see stalemates, even if some battles pretty much looked like it judging from the outcome) doesn't say much about what really happened. On top of that, it can actually be completely misleading! I had a German force outnumbered 10 to 1 lose 200 casualties and inflict 2800! Of course they ended up retreating... but that's not a "German defeat - with an exclamation mark! That's a outstanding defensive success! I also had von François on a very bad day lead 75.000 men against 16.000 Russians and lose 5.200 men vs 1.800. Ok, the Russians were dislodged in the end, but that is hardly a "German victory"...

A little narrative density would be easy to accomplish with a bit a vocabulary qualifying the performance
Crushing defeat, tactical/defensive success, pyrrhic victory, unconclusive firefight, stalemate, outstanding triumph, etc etc etc

The victory/defeat thing, clearly only a indication of who had to retreat in the end, could be replaced by X or Y "retreated", if possible stuffed up with indications such as
orderly withdrawal, precipitate or headlong retreat, ignominous rout etc etc etc

Additional indications such as ambushes, surprises, encirclements, surrenders, successful implementation of battle plan manoeuvres,or their failure, etc etc etc would be very very welcome too

speaking of battle plans, some of them have a meagre explanation of their pros and cons and game effects, others have absolutely nothing! I can hardly understand why... wargamers like to have an idea of what they are doing and why.

I guess there is not enough room on the battle screen for that, but it could be on an additional pop up, or even, at least, on the message log. Specifying who fought who would be a good idea too - currently, all you get is a "we had a victory or here and a defeat there", which is not much help when you have a few stacks in the area and are trying to retrace what happened.

It is easy to implement, and would bring a lot more colour and flavour and, in the end, a lot more immersion for the player, which, as I said, would not be a luxury.

There is great potential, but I cannot help but feel the game was a little rushed and is still a little unfinished at this stage. It's ok for me, I'll wait for the patches and I happy to contribute to the discussion.

Edit: I replayed the Tannenberg scenario. I had a battle featuring Hindenburg vs Rennekampf. Both were in offensive posture. The Germans lost 2.800 men, a few guns; the Russians , 0 men, 0 horses, 0 guns (!!). It was... a German Victory! Message log says "you won a victory at Gumbinnen".
What happened? I can only guess... who attacked who? was it an artillery bombardment? a bug? why a German victory?Anyway, that's a good illustration of this lack of narrative problem....


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[Ace]

Are you using beta patch?
Battleplans do have explanations in beta version

[ajarnlance]

Are you using beta patch?
Battleplans do have explanations in beta version

Thanks to Ace for adding some very informative explanations to the battle plans. I do agree Guru that the battle descriptions could use more variety and, in some cases, accuracy.... some more narrative development would be very welcome to add some flavour and dramatic flair.

[The Guru]

Where do I get that patch?

[TXcavalier]

Where do I get that patch?

There is a sticky for the beta patch right above your post.

[The Guru]

Ok, there is some improvement with the patch, specially regarding battle plans, and thanks for that! It really could use a little more depth (specially for the You won/you lost thing that tells you nothing about the battle and sometimes contradicts the outcome as given by the info screen)