Hi
Also I see the AI doing a lot stuff in the night, that's maybe a nice idea if your troops are rested and you want to surprise the enemy but if they are just exhausted it's a crazy idea and should only be done in breakout operations and not to simply advance on an objective.
So how is the AI experience for the other players?
Cheers
To be honest, not good. Both level of fatigue and rest policy have caused problems since they were introduced (BFTB?).
So, for me it's the other way around, as basically, at nightfall, it feels like all units that carried out attacks, that had defended perimeters, or that had contact with the enemy during the day, cannot move anymore, and there is no chance to make such units move. Even units with a level of 48% fatigue will either not move at all, or move some 200 meters before falling "asleep" again, sometimes some sub-unit seems to have a way higher fatigue level, but detaching the "zzz"-guys won't solve the problem.
While it's understandable that foot units have to rest, it's absolutely unrealistic with wheeled and armored units.
I've brought this up in the COTA forums already, back then, when the stock version had some light problems with levels of fatigue. The demo of BFTB i played featured a completely new fatigue policy (as far as I could tell), and it seems to be either the same or even worse with CO2, to be honest.
For instance, every German tank unit's vehicle had an assistant driver (sometimes fully trained, sometimes halfway trained), who could take over and operate the vehicle in a sufficient manner, when the main driver needed some rest. British forces had the same policy, afaik, and the US Army probably introduced similar measures, at the time.
With the current fatigue policy an Axis or Allied tank unit will stop dead right in the open, once it has hit a certain fatigue level. Tanks were some of the most precious units in WW II, and usually were not - except for situations where they ran out of fuel (but where it was still attempted to move them to somewhat safer or favourable positions) - left in the open to get plastered by tactical bombers, defensive AT fire or enemy tanks. If a tank had enough fuel, the driver position could ALWAYS be filled with a soldier that wouldn't fall asleep on the steering "wheel". IIRC, the radio operator served as assistant driver, sometimes the loader would do it, and even in some instances, crews had 2 assistant drivers (radio op. and loader).
A little historical excursion:
Especially in 1939 and 1940, millions of Pervitin (brand name, basically Methamphetamine) pills were taken by German soldiers. Patented in 1937 and introduced to the German market in 1938, it was marketed as drug to enhance the patient's performance, to increase the ability to concentrate/focus and to fight axiety, and it was even put into candies, truffles and chocolates. Pralines with Pervitin were known as or nicknamed "Hausfrauenschokolade" (housewife's chocolate). Pervitin pills were then issued to soldiers, drivers of vehicles and pilots, when the war started, basically with the same aims (to keep them focused/awake).
NCOs sleeping on a carriage (on the move) around 1940:
Military surgeons found Pervitin to be the ideal tool to keep soldiers motivated and awake, despite the possibility of getting harsh side-effects (which ranged from dizziness, psychoses to cardiac failures, in addition to the apparent danger to get addicted).
Some authors refer to the drug as a pharmaceutical weapon in Germany's arsenal.
They were later nicknamed "
Stuka-pills", "
Göring-pills" or "
Panzerschokolade" (Tank chocolate), where the latter consisted of chocolate pieces that were blended with certain amounts of Pervitin. A Pervitin-free version was Scho-ka-kola, 2 round chocolate disks cut like pizza pieces (8 pieces) and put in round tin boxes, which contained a high amount of caffeine and which was issued to many soldiers early in the war (it became a luxury item later in the war), but also dubbed "Fliegerschokolade" (Aviator chocolate), as it was part of Luftwaffe rations, usually.
Especially pilots took these pills (or ate the Pervitin-chocolate) to stay awake, especially during the long flights for bombing runs in England (starting from bases in Norway) during the Battle of Britain, but also in every other theater, crews of tank units took them during the sickle push/cut towards Dunkirk that unhinged vital parts of the French forces and the BEF in 1940, as well as foot soldiers, during that campaign. The usage (and also the drug's abuse) hit such high levels, that between
April and June 1940 the Wehrmacht had ordered (and received)
35 Million Pervitin pills.
British newspapers reported about a German "magic bullet" used by the Germans, which referred to Pervitin, somewhere around 1940, IIRC.
Post-war accounts state that the pills were handed out like candy, between 1939-1940.
In mid-1941, the Reichsopiumgesetz (Reich's opium law) installed a prescription requirement, but the drug was still issued at the front, just on a (somewhat) more controlled level. At this point, huge amounts of soldiers had gotten addicted already, and then urged their families, in letters, to send them Pervitin (which they did), in cases where the units' surgeons denied to prescribe or hand out the drug. So soldiers still had access to the German "Wunderpille", one way or another.
Pervetin was used throughout the war by all German military branches, and the use even experienced some kind of renaissance during the Battle of the Bulge (see below). Scientists and psychatrists studying Hitler's medical files came (1980) to the conclusion that he got addicted to Pervetin in 1943. The Germans saw it as
medicine,
not as a drug, at the time, despites its side effects.
*********
Back to historical march performances and procedures:
In Russia, during the retreat from the Mius river - for example, German Inf units dug in, slept in shifts for 4 hrs, then worked on the trenches or foxholes again, slept for another 4 hrs, and defended the perimeter, all of that during the day, when the Russians chased hard, and then they marched at night, as that was the only time/condition where they could disengage and sneak away. They then marched pretty much the whole night, and dug in at first daylight, again, for days, sometimes for a week or even more. I've found this policy in numerous war diaries covering German retreats, and it was used on all fronts.
For foot units, military planners worked with the following numbers during peacetime:
An infantry group would be able to perform daily marches of 22.5 kilometers, and would have to get a full rest day on the 3rd or 4th day. In wartime, 50 kilometers were possible very well (note: forced march !). Within a 48 hrs frame, the highest performance was considered to reach 100 kilometers (Cavalry units), and 70 kilometers with foot units, with the performance of foot units significantly decreasing on the 3rd day, but where these foot units were still fit for action and fit for short marches even on the 4th day.
German veterans, who had participated in the French campaign in 1940, reported that even march performances of 80-100 kilometers (48 hrs) were reached, as their superiors kept kicking their asses, but at least 80 km sounds believable, since most of them reported that the shoes of many soldiers had started to disintegrate on the 3rd or 4th day.
I do know that Dave has a different opinion here (he expressed a different one in the COTA forums, at least), but the experiences he collected in an Australian artillery unit, or the experiences of other users who served in the military, do not match the historical performances of German and Allied foot units, even if his (or their) unit(s) consisted of tough nuts all the way. ( no offense, of course
)
In 1944, right before the Ardennes offensive, quite some local (means Coy level) commanders were offered the delivery of large amounts of Pervitin, so that they could hand them out right before the pushes started. Some commanders ordered their soldiers to take them, others just offered the pills and let their troops decide what to do, still others either denied to issue them or didn't think the pills could up their soldiers' perfomances/morale. US veterans, though, reported about some German units that kept storming/coming fearlessly in some sectors and wondered about some "weird" glance in their eyes. There are a dozen German TV documentaries covering the use of Pervetin in WW II, and military historians backed up the findings in there, some of them expressed that the high level of military use of Pervitin was surprising to them.
When the Daily Mail (UK) picked up the findings in 2011 and 2013, they put it a bit harsh in their headlines (well it's a tabloid paper, after all
): "Junkies in jackboots", or "Nazis on Narcotics: How Hitler's henchmen stayed alert", but almost all of the details presented in the article are correct.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...men-stayed-alert-war-taking-CRYSTAL-METH.html
That said, keeping in mind that this kind of doping occured millions of times on the German side, and considering that even "clean" soldiers were able to cover extreme distances within 48 hrs (often just with one or another 4 hrs -break), the current fatigue system in the game does not reflect historical performances and procedures, and it also kills the fun (user experience), as not even 2-4 hrs of rest would enable them to move a bit again.