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Author Topic: Men of War: Assault Squad 2  (Read 3567 times)

Uristits

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Men of War: Assault Squad 2
« on: May 08, 2015, 06:00:39 pm »

Men of War: Assault Squad 2 is pretty much the best platoon level war world 2 simulator out there right now. Slugs are based on momentum and are influenced by densities and composition such as wood, rocks, concrete, or metal (including helmets), flesh and also on slopes and angles. Due to this when you have larger but not large enough shells hit tanks if the angle is right they will fly in just about any direction, leading to some pretty interesting visualisations. Most tanks have 3 different types of shells: armor piercing, high explosive, and composite shells for extra umph, but with shorter range. It pretty much ranges from pistol calibers, smg, rifle, assault rifle, Machinegun calibers, .30 cal, .50 cal, 20mm, 37mm, 40mm, so on and so forth until you get about 152mm and in certain highly unlikely situations 300mm, which is more like a rocket mortar than a shell.

Units are also individuals. Its not squad based (It is but it isn't) but rather an individual person. An individual unit has an inventory, holds a weapon, ammo and items to use, like anti-personnel grenades or anti tank grenades, smoke grenades kettle bombs, dynamite, tank traps, barbwires, landmines both AP and AT, knifes, bandages and so on.

Vehicles need multiple people to operate at peak efficiency as tasks can only be done by a person at a time, so a single person in a tank will only reload, or drive, or aim the turret or man the turret gun. Tanks are also segmented with engine, tracks, turret, main gun, and the hull itself, along with other miscellaneous parts like tread protectors or side panels to prevent rpg detonations. Tanks can be permanently destroyed, but often times they can be repaired. Theres also cars, halftracks, recon vehicles, motorcycles, jeeps with both mgs, AT guns, and bazookas on them, depending on the faction.

You also have artillery like mortars, rockets, emplacements, and the like, and other emplacements like flaks, heavy mgs. There is also AT guns for tank ambushes.

Because its a physic simulator it means that if a unit cannot be hit, it won't be hurt. A bullet has to physically touch a soldier to harm him, unless its such a large caliber that it shocks him to death, or is an HE. Its unlike company of heroes in that you get shot at you will eventually die. So if you are under heavy fire you can often just prone and stay out of fire and survive, until you get flushed out by a grenade or suffer death.

Which brings me to grenades. They actually fragment. its the fragments that kill you, not some abstract radius. You can play the game in slow motion and actually see this. Yes there is a slow motion. Its particular nice to see a slow motion artillery barrage.

Terrain is fully destructible except for very base foundations, like a concrete floor. that's just not going to be destroyed, but theres no point to destroying it in the first place. buildings crumble and are sectional too, giving the game a very war torn feel. You might have a village scene where one house is intact but his neighbors is half gone while another is completely obliterated due to being at the scene of the pivotal conflict. Because of this sometimes you get games in which you literally fight over craters in the earth, lending a very poetical feel to the game. You send your men to die for a damn hole in the ground, only for them to be killed by the enemies next wave and it starts over again. Yeah I didn't mention but craters will appear if a big enough HE shell hits the ground, allowing for at least some type of cover to hold.

So here's how a multiplayer game usually starts. For assault squad its basically multiple capture the flag/king of the hill. You hold your men there for a bit and the flag becomes yours, then you can leave it. If someone else shows up on it they will lower your flag and raise theirs. You however very rarely stay on the flag but rather you move from cover to cover as its better to push your enemy as far away from the flag as you can.

So for normal settings you have enough manpower to buy a jeep, or a motorcycle, or a small group of elites, or an assault squad with majority SMG's or a regular squad with majority rifles and a machine gun. You can also buy single troups to fill in gaps, or specialized units like flamethrowers or snipers or officers for scouting. All squads also get a squad leader which has one more level to his weapon increasing his accuracy and reload rate, and depending on faction he gets a unique weapon like a rifle grenade launcher or a STG44 which is an advanced assault rifle. So you get this situation where you are the first on the scene of a battle, and you pretty much encounter each other and try to win the first engagement or atleast hold your ground. Then based on how it goes you order more supplies and based on appropriate buys for the appropriate situations you win the game.

 from that first encounter you pretty much start expanding your battle lines so you get the biggest line of sight that you can which also makes it where you start to flank, and you can then send squads further to do little missions and operations. You move people with intent and goals, if you want to win. You buy a vehicle to clear a position so you can take that position, or you buy a siege tank to launch shells at an AT gun or other emplacements. or you buy a tank with the appropriate caliber and proper armor to destroy another tank. And you try to buy a tank that meets your needs exactly. You don't need the biggest tank for an operation, but just the right tank.

Oh and you also have different tiers of troups. Like conscripts are basically handed a rifle and a grenade, have no stamina or endurance. Regular troups are regular. Then you have sub elites, and elites, which end up having advanced weapons and RPG's and machine guns and basically a giant satchel of grenades, not to mention insane stamina (which is basically sprinting) and endurance (higher HP).

then you have special points which you get 10 of. basically they are appropriate to a faction. For russia 2 points will get you charge, which will give you a whole bunch of average troups. germany will get brandenburgers for 2 points which are stealth units for going behind lines, equipped with 4 panzerfausts which are basically disposable rocket tubes, or 7 points for a veteran tiger, a tiger with enhanced reload speed and accuracy.

Basically play this game, the multiplayer is stellar, but sadly its not as populated as I would like it to be. I'm pretty sure there was a previous post for men of war, but even so a new post needs to be created.

Oh and if you do get this watch "Judska" and "Strat29" on youtube before you get into multiplayer. There is a metagame, and its not that hard to understand but most people get into this and get torn the fuck up on multiplayer and think its insanely difficult when in reality they had no idea on what they should be buying or where to place stuff or how to counter and things like that. You can also watch them to see if you are interested in the game. I reccommend watching Judska first as his is more entertaining with better editing but Strat29 is more meats and potatoes with more indepth information. He pretty much spreadsheets this game to learn it better. Not that his videos are like that mind you, just a bit drier but more informative.

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Ozyton

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Re: Men of War: Assault Squad 2
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2015, 06:20:24 pm »

I remember playing Men of War and really enjoying it despite the extremely cheesy voice acting. I fondly remember destroying an enemy armored car through a brick wall thanks to the penetration system. I also think ammunition can cook off, though I've only noticed it once when a halftrack seemed like it had firecrackers going off inside of it (presumably its MG ammo cooking off). Did you mention that you can control individual units and fire their weapons like an overhead shooter? You can control anything from a tank to a machine gunner, mortar crew, and you can theoretically control airplanes too (not recommended).

One thing I don't like is how (at least in previous games, not sure about this one) your soldiers fare better prone in the open than they do behind sandbag walls and other cover, despite there being a cover system of sorts. I also don't particularly like the prominence of automatic weapons in the game (similar issue I had with Red Orchestra 2 actually). There's no reason to use rifleman, as far as I can tell, when engagement ranges are so short and everyone has automatic rifles or SMGs.

I did think it was cool how you could lay down barbed wire or sandbags or tank traps, but the placement is rather finicky and I don't remember it being particularly useful especially with the aforementioned prone advantage.

I haven't played Assault Squad 2 so I don't know what new stuff they have added. I was always more interested in co-op than competitive MP anyways.

nenjin

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Re: Men of War: Assault Squad 2
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2015, 06:23:01 pm »

As a fan of CoH, I've always been told I should be playing MoW instead. Yet when I tried MoW1 I think, some Vietnam-looking level, I remember not being all that impressed. Or at least, I felt like the scale wasn't really right and I remember being mercilessly hunted by helicopter AI to the point I got frustrated. I don't think I ever game skirmishes a whirl, which is what I'm more about. I should probably give it another go.
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Ozyton

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Re: Men of War: Assault Squad 2
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2015, 06:30:26 pm »

As a fan of CoH, I've always been told I should be playing MoW instead. Yet when I tried MoW1 I think, some Vietnam-looking level, I remember not being all that impressed. Or at least, I felt like the scale wasn't really right and I remember being mercilessly hunted by helicopter AI to the point I got frustrated. I don't think I ever game skirmishes a whirl, which is what I'm more about. I should probably give it another go.
Stay away from the vietnam one, I've heard it's not that great. The thing with Men of War and Company of Heroes is that people in CoH don't need line of sight to hit things. For example, if there's a somewhat steep hill with a tank on top and infantry coming up, the tank will engage the infantry despite its guns not being able to depress enough to do so, and their bullets will go through the ground because they aren't actually bullets, just fancy graphics to give the impression of bullets. You also don't have people who lay prone 5 feet from a machinegunner until you hitr the retreat button to make them break olympic record speeds back to base.

That isn't to say MoW gets -everything- right though, but it does feel a bit more... I don't know the word... it makes more sense? However the fact that machineguns and bombs going off all around people doesn't scare them at all is kind've a shame, it would be nice to be able to suppress people then flank around much like people did in reality.

jocan2003

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Re: Men of War: Assault Squad 2
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2015, 08:55:59 pm »

Yeah i love MoW assault squad 2, but sadly DCG mod isnt updated yet to run with it. DCG stand for dynamic campaign generator.

Basicly you create a 8campaign* compose of numerous operation, you have to take care of your troops, they can level up, roster is somewhat random you choose where you wanna fight, from normandie to africa going to pacific settings. Depending of the theatre oof operation youll encounter diffenrent enemy.

TLDR this is a must have for MoW fans.
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Uristits

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Re: Men of War: Assault Squad 2
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2015, 01:28:29 pm »

Words

1. Voice acting has improved for assault squad 2. German and Russia and Japan are good since you probably can't understand the tones in the first place but they sound pleasing to the ear, america and UK are still not the best but they are better.

2. If you hit the ammo storage in a tank the tank explodes.

3. I did forget to mention, but every unit is direct controllable, as in it reverts to a WASD and mouse based game by holding control or toggling E, allowing you to pull of fancy shots or hit a tank exactly where you want it for maximum damage.

4. Soldiers do not fare the same in prone! While being prone does in fact increase your accuracy and make you a smaller target, you still do not have anything to hide behind! In case of an overwhelming force you cannot duck behind a wall or sandbag, which is what happens when you are shot at or suppressed. A soldier getting shot at while behind cover hides behind the cover, resulting in him not being damaged unless of course he is being flanked in which case the bullets are going to hit him anyway. A soldier proning behind the cover of a wall or sandbag can still throw grenades and get grenades thrown at him, and a soldier behind cover still holds ground, which the game is essentially about, the controlling of ground and lanes of fire.

5. Riflemen are more accurate, and often instant kill when shot within 20 meters and come with a sandbag wall, and are cheaper than SMG's. I use them for line of sight in fields where the majority of the combat will not be happening unless a flank happens and then if it does I know about it and the rifleman has some chance to survival because of said sandbag allowing for him to retaliate or retreat so I still have the unit (you pretty much want to conserve as many troups as possible in multiplayer). Some factions like USA have M1 garands which fire extremely quickly, and all factions have access to elite marksman, a group of 5 4-star rifleman with advanced rifles, and they just pick lesser troups apart. They are extremely accurate, they have quick fire rates, long range, high damage.

6. They've added an automatic reload system for supply trucks and ammo crates where you just walk up to them and it gives you stuff. Units get veterancy for killing things which improves stamina, reload rate, accuracy, healing rate and other stuff by a really small amount, or turret speed, reload rate for tanks, probably other stuff too

Competitive multiplayer is where its at though. Its really where this game shines.
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Uristits

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Re: Men of War: Assault Squad 2
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2015, 01:29:09 pm »

As a fan of CoH, I've always been told I should be playing MoW instead. Yet when I tried MoW1 I think, some Vietnam-looking level, I remember not being all that impressed. Or at least, I felt like the scale wasn't really right and I remember being mercilessly hunted by helicopter AI to the point I got frustrated. I don't think I ever game skirmishes a whirl, which is what I'm more about. I should probably give it another go.

Play assault squad 2. Thats the game you should be playing.
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Uristits

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Re: Men of War: Assault Squad 2
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2015, 01:34:30 pm »

Stay away from the vietnam one, I've heard it's not that great. The thing with Men of War and Company of Heroes is that people in CoH don't need line of sight to hit things. For example, if there's a somewhat steep hill with a tank on top and infantry coming up, the tank will engage the infantry despite its guns not being able to depress enough to do so, and their bullets will go through the ground because they aren't actually bullets, just fancy graphics to give the impression of bullets. You also don't have people who lay prone 5 feet from a machinegunner until you hitr the retreat button to make them break olympic record speeds back to base.

That isn't to say MoW gets -everything- right though, but it does feel a bit more... I don't know the word... it makes more sense? However the fact that machineguns and bombs going off all around people doesn't scare them at all is kind've a shame, it would be nice to be able to suppress people then flank around much like people did in reality.

If you shoot at people they duck behind cover, THAT IS SUPRESSION. Which allows for an easier run up to throw a grenade at their cover, or for a better flank.

If you haven't experienced flanking its probably because you haven't been playing the multiplayer. That is one of the key steps to winning the game is flanking. Even just 1 or 2 people a little bit closer to their right side or left side causes so much more damage and eventual death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbSk81E2ZmE&list=PLqzo_p9193XJ5Gcy8WnetCmNw289p3IIy&index=1

Shows flanking and how much it works.
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Ozyton

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Re: Men of War: Assault Squad 2
« Reply #8 on: May 09, 2015, 01:45:40 pm »

About the sandbags etc. I was referring to how when I was playing a gainst a friend his rifleman/smg squad tore apart my rifleman/MG squad who were ebhind cover because you are less accurate when 'crouch'ed despite being able to (theoretically) rest your weapon on the cover.

At least that's how it was in the original MoW, I dunno if they fixed it in the later games.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2015, 01:48:42 pm by OzyTheSage »
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Uristits

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Re: Men of War: Assault Squad 2
« Reply #9 on: May 09, 2015, 01:58:09 pm »

About the sandbags etc. I was referring to how when I was playing a gainst a friend his rifleman/smg squad tore apart my rifleman/MG squad who were ebhind cover because you are less accurate when 'crouch'ed despite being able to (theoretically) rest your weapon on the cover.

At least that's how it was in the original MoW, I dunno if they fixed it in the later games.

Might've been an issue with spacing. Mgs are pretty potent when kept far away and the rifles used as spacing and distractions. MG gets like laser pointed accuracy when on cover.

Like you should place the Mg in the position where it sees as much as possible and everything else is placed around it for protection.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2015, 02:00:35 pm by Uristits »
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