GW: The Warcard system was first used in Carriers at War and has been redesigned for Battlefront. In essence, it gives the scenario designer much finer control over formations, and much better information on which the formation can base its decision making. For instance, the British 1st Airborne at Arnhem is given a region, marked on the map in the AI editor, in which to operate. Key defensive hexes are designated to ensure that important hexes are not left undefended, and secure locations picked for HQ, Supply and Artillery units. 1st Airborne can be told to counter-attack any intruders within its region and if that fails and a specified number of key hexes fall to the enemy, then the Warcard will be discarded and a new card, with a smaller perimeter, chosen. Should they hold out long enough, other cards essentially tell the unit how to evacuate across the river. Another special card takes care of the vital task of ensuring that Frost’s battalion makes its historic dash to the bridge. The flexibility and feedback from the new system give the scenario designer much greater control over units and a much greater facility to have AI units react to different contingencies, making for a much smarter system.
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ACG: The game features improved play by email security. This is important for players who are looking for a challenge beyond the AI. Please give us a few more details on what this feature is.
GW: Actually, I don’t want to go into details. Let’s just say that we now have more options for checking that everything that has happened in a PBEM game has been free of any interference.
ACG: One of the features eagerly awaited by everyone, is the ability to edit and create scenarios. Please describe what features the editing tools will provide, and how much freedom scenario designers will have.
GW: With Battlefront you are given exactly the same tools as we used to create the scenarios in the game. You can edit existing scenarios, including the AI or make entirely new scenarios with new maps and OBs. In other words, you can do whatever you like.
ACG: The game will come with four scenarios, Market Garden, Saipan, Gazala and Novorossisk. The first three are familiar to those who have been gaming for a while; but why Novorossisk?
GW: We wanted a Russian scenario, since they’re usually popular and having done some Eastern Front unit graphics will make it easier for the scenario creators to get started. Novorossisk is a medium sized battle with the interesting twist of being by far the Soviet’s largest amphibious operation. It’s also typical of Russian Front warfare. While both sides have some elite troops, they’re all short of men and supplies, and have to make do with what they have.
ACG: Supply and Command and Control are getting some emphasis in Battlefront. Please describe how these will affect gameplay.
GW: Every unit now belongs to a formation which has a HQ on the map. This HQ will only authorize attack supply to subordinate units within its command range, and can also give significant combat bonuses. If you have units outside command range they won’t be able to attack for long before they run out supplies and they will be at less than optimum strength. So while we don’t stop people from moving units anywhere on the map, they are strongly encouraged to keep them together and within Command Range.
Static HQs cannot authorize attack supply and give combat bonuses on the turn after they have moved, whereas Mobile HQs can still do so, though often at a reduced rate. This helps to regulate the tempo of battle and provides an important distinction between HQs of different abilities.
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