Verisimilitude

Please take this post in the spirit in which it is intended, and I understand that some folks simply won't care less. That's cool.

But me? I like military history, esp. WW2.

The liberties the original CoH took with this were perfectly okay for me, because the Normandy Campaign / NW Europe theatre was the end-game for the Western Allies. So Pershings, RR's, Ostwind fleets (despite their nonsensical inclusion) made sense within the internal consistency of CoH, i.e. the verisimilitude jived for me as a player. The average one-hour long 2 v 2 has as much armour in it (for two company-sized Wehr units) as a division in late 1944.

So what?

Well, CoH2 covers June 1941 - April 1945. Units, doctrines, uniforms and all of the rest of it changed dramatically. Soviet light armour deployed against the German Schwerpunkt in 1941 was utterly obsolete by 1943-44. Similarly, the light tank fleet that motored across the Ukraine was utterly different from that at Kursk.

So, how do the CoH2 devs / designers (who I know love military history and have put a shit-load of work into getting this right) display that variety whilst maintaining some sense of verisimilitude within the game they have created? Does it matter? Who cares?

I do care, but am also chilled out enough to understand that liberties _have_ to be taken. But where is the line? Are small BA-20s storming Berlin in 1945 something that bothers you? Or Panzer II rolling eastwards in 1943?

If I wanted a sim, I'd play Men of War.

I dont care that much for what units were were. My ww2 historical knowledge extends to knowing what units existed, and as long as no 20 barrel ostwind appears as a super unit, I'll consider it within bounds.

Expect tanks, units, weapons and other stuff that were mostly used on Eastern front with different costs, other Tiers and maybe doctrines.

One thing that displeased me in alpha was Elephand as a build able unit in T4 (or T3, dunno)

If I wanted a sim, I'd play Men of War.

Why not just use attack helicopters and drones then?

The question is a good one....at what point does it become unrealistic to have units fighting that weren't there?

If I wanted a sim, I'd play Men of War.

Yes.

I think as long as units have style and work well then anything goes (within reason). But no Chronospheres, no Iron curtains, no weather machines. no psychic Russians.

Im more concerned about the overall UI and artwork of the game than I am about the units. It didn't feel like it was streamlined and it was clumsy to play.

One thing I would have LOVED to have seen put in would have been attack dogs. Id really like to see how it spiced up the sniper mechanics and added a cat and mouse aspect in there. but I guess i'll have to settle

I would be surprised if the campaign didn't give that sense of change in the story, and if the units weren't accurate in time (to a certain level). It is a bigger timeframe, so it may be interesting to see how and if unit composition changes.

In multiplayer, accuracy will surely need to be stretched, and it should be more competitive and interesting. There surely won't intentionally be any intentionally obsolete units, even if they historically were so. They could compensate with specialized roles or cheaper cost, or simply exclude a few units from multiplayer.

Its a balancing act, but accuracy like that should be preserved if it works with the desired gameplay.

Also, Versimilitude. I just looked it up and learned a new word

If I wanted a sim, I'd play Men of War.

If you took coh but had extremely accurate units, it would be a pretty shitty sim.


I'm guessing units will focus 43-44 with a few extra in the campaign and a couple multiplayer+campaign 45 units.

I thought CoH had a certain 'comic book' type visual style to it. I know the textures are getting on a bit now, but even at the time (2006) I remember thinking the art style was more like a graphic novel than real life. And I think that exaggerated style allows for a certain 'unreality for the sake in cinematics'. That is one of the reasons I love CoH, I think. And, coupled with the sleek - heavy investment in each unit - gameplay, it makes for a really great game

+1 very nice post.

I think light russian tanks from very early '41 and finish war won't be included in game at all. They have t-70 to serve as light tank in multiplayer.

If it comes to campaign accuracy, they have t-34, kv-1,kv-2 for early years and t-34-85, is-2 for berlin.

Expect tanks, units, weapons and other stuff that were mostly used on Eastern front with different costs, other Tiers and maybe doctrines.

One thing that displeased me in alpha was Elephand as a build able unit in T4 (or T3, dunno)

You seemed to forget about WFA and the brits.

But I'd like to see the Elephant back in T4

this post was made back in 2013

I don´t like what the Panther has become in Coh2. It was famous for excelling on range, taking out tanks more than 2km away. Here it gets outranged by Su-76s, Su-85, Fireflies, Jacksons etc. Instead you are supposed to use it as a nascar and drive into the enemy - a role which Panther crews avoided like the pest. It suffered from the conditions in the narrow hedges of Normandy. I think it should be redesigned completely.

Long live 2013.