New Features & Enhancements
Airborne Assault: Conquest of the Aegean represents a major step forwared from Airborne Assault: Highway to the Reich. Not only are we taking you to a new theatre and back in time to the early years of World War II, we have made some major changes to the game engine to make it an even more detailed and realistic recreation of WWII combat. For players familiar with our last game, here is a list of the major changes:
Gameplay
Resupply
Rather than the abstracted supply delivery system in AA: HTTR, AA: COTA presents an all-new detailed supply request and delivery system. Units running low will automatically request replenishment and bases will calculate capacity and tonnage and dispatch the required supplies. Keeping a corridor open between your bases and your front-line troops is now very important as surrounded units will be unable to reach supplies.
Interdicting the enemy's supply lines will bring major benefits as failed supply runs will result in losses to the enemy's truck fleet, reducing his ability to transport ammunition, fuel and rations. The whole process is highly automated so you as the player do not
need to micromanage anything; instead, focus on keeping your lines intact and overrunning the enemy's, while your AI staff officers worry about counting the beans and bullets.
You can, however, monitor what's happening by referring to the Depot Tab when you select a Base unit. This will specify a host of information about the status of requests and deliveries. The Unit Info Box F7 key can be used to cycle through the various supply states of all the units, including displaying the current Supply Line Status. The actual supply line links can be displayed for each selected unit using the Display Tool Bar.
Movement
The new Mixed-Mode Movement system is a revolutionary change in the way AA works. Ground slope is calculated and compared with the mobility of units, so motorised (wheeled or tracked) forces are limited to high-mobility corridors while infantry can swarm over the steeper slopes. Slope not only impacts who can travel where, it also dictates the speed at which units move and the level of fatigue they experience while doing so. The movement values for all types of terrain have been adjusted and vehicles will have a much tougher time getting through streams and will be restricted to roads through woods and marshes. This makes gaining control over the road network much more important.
One important thing to note is that when you select a force and give an order to it if the specified location is impassable to that force, the AI will automatically select the closest passable location, beep and display a message that it has moved the location for you. If you still want to occupy the original objective, you can use the new Pathing tools on the Tools Tab of the Side Bar to determine if the location is reachable for Foot or Motorised or the selected unit.. If it is passable say to Foot units you then have the option of deselecting those motorised units and reissuing the order.
Objectives and Orders
A major change in gameplay comes with the new Exit Objective. Instead of being confined within the map borders, players can now fight to pass their troops through the enemy lines and off the map. There is now an Exit Order for you to use when driving your troops through to an Exit Objective in the enemy's rear, or when withdrawing your men through Exit Objectives behind you if faced with overwhelming force. A force ordered to Exit where the exit objective is friendly controlled but where its own location is threatened by enemy forces,will Withdraw to the exit objective. In all other cases it will simply Move to the exit objective.
In some scenarios certain objectives are linked. This is indicated by a linking chain on the Objective Tab of the Side Bar. This means that you have to fulfil just one of the linked Objectives to achieve the assigned Victory Points. There have also been improvements made to the AI that handles some of the orders you give to your troops, too. The Delay Order, in particular, has benefited from a complete rework - forces ordered to delay will now skilfully leapfrog back under pressure, inflicting maximum damage and delay on the enemy while preserving as much of their strength as possible. Similarly the Withdraw order now divided the force into a mainbody which will move to the objective and a rearguard that delays back to it.
One important thing to note for both Delays and Withdraws relates to the setting of waypoints. Where you only set one waypoint, this will be the objective and the first blocking location will be the location of the senior unit ( Subject ) of the assigned force (forceGroup ). This is known as the subjectLoc. Where two waypoints have been specified, the second will be the objective and the first will be the first blocking location. Subsequent blocking locations will be determined by the AI along the route it determines between the first and second waypoints. If you specify three or more waypoints then the last waypoint will be the objective, the first waypoint will be the initial blocking location and the force will establish subsequent blocking locations at each of the subsequent waypoints.
Improved AI
Under the hood, COTA now employs new Force Allocation routines that significantly enhance the AI's ability to allocate the right forces to each objective, including the cross-attachment of force types such as armour and infantry. The Reaction code has been overhauled to deliver an even more realistic simulation of unit reactions to enemy contact, including retreats. Additional Reassessment code allows for an even greater range of options when the AI controlled forces reassesses their plans. The Formation code has also been revised as has the Deployment code for artillery and base units.
New Units and Equipment
You'll find many new units in AA: COTA. The game ships with a completely new database, covering equipment and military organisations from Italy, Germany, Greece, Crete, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Malta, and the Free French. There are dozens of new weapons and vehicles to wield in battle, from the tiny Italian and British light tanks through to monster captured Russian KV-II used by the Germans. New small-arms, anti-aircraft, anti-tank and artillery guns, and mortars have been recreated in full detail, as have new trucks, armoured personnel carriers, self-propelled guns and tanks to carry them.
New Terrain Types and Altitudes
To recreate the coastal battlefields of Crete a new beach terrain layer has been added to the game. The five new altitude layers also allow us to create maps covering the rugged and imposing Greek and Cretan mountain ranges.
New German Parachute Arrival Type
To accurate simulate the unique nature of German parachute operations, a new reinforcement arrival type has been added. This accurately reflects the disadvantages suffered by the Fallschirmjaeger due to their substandard parachute design and inability to jump together with their heavy weapons.
New Weather Data
A new weather pattern has been added to simulate snow. Additional data is now stored for Sunrise and Sunset and for min and max temperatures for each day of the scenario.
Interface Improvements
Display Tool Bar
The new Display Tool Bar, located under the Battlemap, gives you quick access to some of the most important display and game functions. Now you can filter the map display using the Unit Info, Unit Type, Intel and Message filter buttons; display Command or Supply lines, Range Rings, Map Grid, active and eliminated unit icons, objective and task icons; offer and accept surrenders; and load, save, and leave games faster than ever.
Order of Battle Display
Sorting out the command structure of your forces is easier than ever with the new Order of Battle Display Tab (OB). Quickly display the organic command structure of your units, and locate and select your units straight from the Sidebar. Expand and contract the OB force tree by selecting the +/- boxes. Select a unit in the tree to select the unit on the map. Double-click the unit in the tree to select the unit and display its data in the Side Bar. Double-click a unit on the map to have it shown selected in the OB Display.
Tools Tab
The new Tools Tab on the Side Bar contains an array of useful tools. In addition to the existing Threat and Line of Sight (LOS) tools, there is now a LOS-Area tool, which displays all those locations that are visible within 5km of the selected location. There is also an array of Pathing tools to calculate and display the different types of routes between two selected locations. Select the tool, click on the start and end locations and if reachable a route is displayed. The fine red dots indicate the area searched in determining the route. You can also select a unit and then select one of the Unit pathing tools and click the end location to determine the route for that unit. If unreachable a beep will sound and a message displayed to that effect.
Supply Tab
The Side Data displays now include a Supply Tab that displays a graph of the daily supply allocation to each of the Supply Entry Points ( SEPs ) ( whose icons appears on the map. ) The graph comes in three types - lines, columns and stacked columns. Select the buttons below the graph to specify which type. The % value refers to the percentage of the Sides' daily requirements that will arrive at the SEPs each day. The requirements are determined using the at-start forces plus those reinforcements scheduled to arrive by the given day. They ignore any losses.
Message Log
All on-screen messages are now also displayed in the Message Tab ( Msg ). Selecting a message from the list will centre the map on the Sender. You can filter the messages by type by selecting the Flash, Urgent and Routine filter buttons at the bottom of the list. The messages are stored for the duration of the current session. They are not saved in the Saved Game file.
Unit Log
The Force Data displays now have a Unit Log tab that lists each significant action or event that the unit experiences, such as Under Fire, Taking Casualties, Retreating etc. Use this to review what has happened to the unit.
Improved Force Data Displays
The Force Data displays have been reorganised and enhanced with additional data. In addition to the previous data, the General tab ( Gen ) now displays Experience, Training, fitness, Aggression and Stubborness, the number of bridges and non-AFVs, Infantry and Engineer values, the current move effect and type along with the force's formation role and the number of units. There is a new Unit Log tab ( see above ) and a new Depot tab ( Dep ).
For most units the Depot tab displays the Depot ( Base unit ) that the unit draws from. Select this to go to the Depot. For Base units the Depot Tab displays details on current and required supply stocks, current and required transport capacity, the number of requests by type, the number of transport columns and the vehicles and personnel allocated to them and the number of units and subBases drawing from the Depot.
Enhanced Terrain Popup
Right clicking on the map now brings up an enhanced popup that details the dominant terrain types, the X,Y and Z location parameters, move effects for foot and motorized, hit effects for direct and area fire and the current slope in degrees.
Modding Support
AA: COTA features enhanced support for Modding. The MapMaker and ScenMaker have been extended to support the new game engine features. A set of free tools for Microsoft® Excel® is also included with the game, to help you quickly and easily modify the characteristics of the units in your scenarios. You can now provide your own customised briefing and victory messages, including the commanders' signatures. The terrain key for the map is now moddable.
New Import/Export Force List
ScenMaker. Select a force from the Units tab. Right click and select Export. Select Yes or No from the subsequent dialog to also export subunits. Provide a name for the new force list and hit the Save button. To import the saved force list simply select a unit in the Units Tab, right click and select Import, select the desired force list and the forces now appear subordinated to the selected unit. This makes it easy to create generic force lists and build scenarios quickly.
