Spring:1944 - Guide

USER PLAY GUIDE

Hello, and welcome to the Spring: 1944 Play Guide! This Guide will, hopefully, allow you to familiarize yourself with the basic tenets of Spring: 1944. This guide will most likely be updated in the future as new issues arise and as more gameplay elements are introduced (and as inevitable complaints about gameplay are made:) ). So check it out, and hopefully you'll learn something!

Gameplay Mechanic

The overall game mechanic of Spring: 1944 is quite a bit different from most other mods (and even most other RTS games), so it's natural for players new to the game to feel a little confused at what's going on. However, that mechanic does rely on some fairly simplistic concepts that, once you learn, you'll be able to understand.

The first mechanic is, of course, resources. They function a fair bit different than the Metal/Energy of most TA mods. For instance, in most mods, units have both a Metal and Energy cost which, combined with their Buildtimes, essentially makes up how units are balanced. Outside of when they are being built, there is really no maintenance of resources required for their operation. In Spring: 1944, however, things are a bit different, as explained below:

Command Points, aka "Metal"

Command Points take the place of Metal. They represent an abstract and arbitrary "importance-factor". In short, the more Flags you have placed, the more Command Points you have available, which determines how "worthy" you are as a Commander. Every unit has a Command Point cost, which essentially dictates how important it is to you; units like Riflemen are astonishingly cheap, as a lone rifleman isn't really capable of much at all. A Tiger tank, however, is quite a formidable machine, and as such, will have a high Command Point cost.
Flags themselves are placed in strategically important locations on the map. On most OTA-style maps, this will mean potentially dozens of different places. On 1944-specific maps there are far fewer of these locations, making the conquering and holding of strategically important locations a high priority for each player, as overall territory ownership translates into how many Command Points you get.
Flags will generate more command points the longer they are alive, eventually tripling their output.

Logistics Supplies, aka Ammo, aka "Energy"

Logistics has changed and developed into a system drastically different from OTA "Energy", and deals with the Storage and Distribution of logistics, mainly ammunition, for use by combat units.
Every combat vehicle with a weapon larger than a machinegun has been given a set, limited amount of ammo that is used up every time it fires, and naturally, when this ammunition is expended, the unit will stop firing, and will be essentially useless, except for any machineguns it may have.
In order to get more ammo, the unit must be within a certain distance of a "Supply Distribution Depot", or simply a pile of supplies, that it can draw ammo from.
Unlike OTA, energy is not used by building units, or even used by buildings being activated or units moving. Instead, energy is used when vehicles are being resupplied with ammo, the rate of which is determined by the specific weapon being restocked (naturally, a 37mm cannon shell is going to cost less than a 155mm artillery shell).
In order for this to make sense, we've had to remove the constant, continuously flowing supply of logistics (energy) common in OTA and replace it with a dynamic in which players are given a finite amount of supplies periodically, say, every 3 minutes. When this "resupply" occurs, the player's max storage will be filled to the top. As such, the driving factor becomes producing sources of logistics storage rather than logistics generation; logically, the more storage you have, the more logistics you'll be able to receive every time you're resupplied.
This periodical resupply is finite, and will force players to use their limited supply of ammo carefully, or risk his forces running out of ammo. Ontop of this, players will have to be careful about how liberally they use their vehicles and tanks; attacking the enemy will necessitate moving your units out of the zone of ammo resupply, limiting how long they can remain in a fight, atleast until you build some distribution closer to the new front. And ontop of all of that, different units have different levels of ammunition; the German Konigstiger, for instance, is able to carry 24 rounds of ammunition around in it, while the IS-2 will carry only 6. These factors necessarily are factored into the overall cost of a unit.

The Importance of Line-of-Sight (LoS)

Line-of-Sight is critically important in Spring: 1944. Unlike most other games, almost all units have LoS ranges that are much smaller than the range of their weapons; riflemen are capable of shooting out of LoS, as are all tanks and especially artillery. What this means is that creating an effective fighting force capable of destroying the enemy requires you to ensure you have well-developed "intelligence" that can see the enemy without him seeing you. There are several units whose specific role is to provide this intelligence; Scout Infantry and Halftracks are the most common type; other Scout vehicles, such as the Soviet BA-64, the British Daimler, American M8 Greyhound and German Sd.Kfz. 250 are light-weight and fast, making them excellent scout vehicles that can zip ahead to spot the enemy and return home. Scout infantry, however, move rather slowly, moreso than other infantry, but their biggest advantage is that they can move while hidden (ie cloaked), as they sneak ahead to scout out the enemy. Their Line-of-Sight range, however, is smaller than other infantry; as they're creeping along, they can not afford to be sticking their head out of every bush, climbing every tree, etc, to expose themselves and get a better look at the enemy. Instead, their job is scouting out certain small areas. In this role, despite their smaller LoS, they are very important.

High-Explosive (HE) and Armour-Piercing (AP)

Many types of weapons in Spring: 1944 have two different kinds of ammunition: High-Explosive and Armour-Piercing. Each type has its own roles, and, usually, each type is used against a specific type of target. High-Explosive, for instance, is far more useful at killing infantry, destroying lightly-armoured targets and structures, as its high area-of-effect (splash damage) is capable of doing damage over a larger area. Armour-Piercing, on the other hand,is reserved for use against hard enemy targets, namely battle tanks, which can withstand most High-Explosive shells. In some cases, units will have one or the other type of ammunition; smaller towed weapons like the M8 Pack Howitzer, the LeIG 18 Infantry Gun, and the ZiS-3 Field Gun have only high-explosive ammunition. Other units, as anti-tank guns and tank destroyers, have only Armour-Piercing. Some, like assault guns, battle tanks and certain (but rarer) towed weapons have both. Units with only High-Explosive ammunition will find it difficult to combat hardened enemy armour; units with only Armour-Piercing ammo will find it difficult destroying structures and will NOT be able to fire at infantry (they'll usually tear right through light vehicles, though). Units with both will be able to selectively choose which ammunition type it uses against which targets, making them tactically more flexible than single-ammunition units (but, more than likely, more expensive).

Dynamic battlefields

There are several aspects of the gameplay in Spring: 1944 which are highly dynamic. In lamens terms, this basically means that there is no x + y = z predictability during a standard engagement. One of the most notable aspects of this dynamic style of gameplay deal with tanks. The aforementioned Armour-Piercing ammunition, for instance, takes advantage of dynamic penetration rates, which gradually fall off the further the shot travels, to reflect a real shell slowing down, rolling, and generally becoming less efficient at punching through armour the longer it interacts with the friction in the air. It isn't important for you to know the specifics of this, though. All you need to know is that when you're firing armour-piercing ammunition at a tank, the further away that tank is, the less damage you'll do to it. Plain and simple. This means that when facing an enemy who generally has stronger tanks with better guns, you'd better get your ass (and armour) in gear and try to close the distance so that you'll be playing on more even ground.
Another dynamic mechanic we've just introduced is the long-awaited flanking bonus. Now most of us know that tanks, in the real world, generally have thick front armour and thin rear armour; this is mainly because if a tank like the Tiger were to put 100mm of armour on every surface, it would probably double in weight and have a top speed of 3kph. Therefore, armour designs focus on a strong frontal armour, which is, statistically, the direction most of the enemy's shots will hit during battle. Until now, this hasn't been possible to do (well, it was, but incredibly, incredibly difficult, more of a hack job than engine-supported, and it'd come out incredibly crappy and inaccurately). But thanks to lurker, tanks will now have weaker rear armour, and slightly stronger front armour. What this means to you is that it will always be more beneficial to try and flank your enemy, and hit him from the side or rear, where his armour is weakest. This will be especially useful for smaller, lighter tanks, which will be able to use their speed to run circles around heavy, bulky tanks like the Tiger and IS-2, and hit them in their vulnerable rear.
The effects of this vary from vehicle to vehicle and have been accurately represented based on that tank's actual, real-world armour. Tanks like the KV-1, for instance, which were designed to support infantry in close-quarters battles, have very thick side and rear armour, and has virtually no vulnerability. Other tanks, such as the Tiger and IS-2, have very vulnerable rear armour which can be exploited by much lighter tanks. So always remember, go after your enemy's rear-end, and make sure you protect yours!

Offense is the best Defense

That is, essentially, the credo we took in designing this game. There are very few actual defenses; infact, machinegun nests are essentially the only ones available. There are also mines and anti-tank obstacles which can be constructed, but these were designed more for area-denial than defense. Since the release of the Lite Beta, there have been many players who have tried to "porc" up around their start position and try to fight a defensive war. While this may work in other mods, it does not work in Spring: 1944!. First off, success is completely reliant upon your ability to expand, capture flag points, create forward positions and push the enemy back. If you refuse to do this, and stay within the confines of your main base, you will be destroyed; your base will simply be bombarded by artillery from halfway across the map, to which you will have no defense (and rightly so).

That being said, what courses of action can you take? First off, expanding early in the game is paramountly important. Infact, your first course of action should be to build riflemen and send them off to build flags and form initial defensive lines as far away from your main base as possible. The Command Points they will be securing will allow you to quickly expand, building more infantry and vehicles to launch attacks and hold your lines with. Minefields and vehicle obstacles can then be built to create choke points and cut off possible flanking routes. This is how the game is played; it is far different from what most are used to, and all we ask is that before complaining that things are "unbalanced" or "unfair", you try to play the game as it is meant to be played, and you keep in mind that everyone has the same limitations and same capabilities as you. It's simply a matter of learning the game (and, in some cases, unlearning what you've come to expect in other games).

<3>Sim City Bases in Spring: 1944 are different than in most Spring mods. There has been a real shift of focus away from large numbers of structures, and those fewer structures that we do have are minimalized and rather weak (with a few exceptions). The standard Supplies (energy) structures are basically piles of fuel and ammunition on the ground, or in a flimsy shed, with almost no protection whatsoever; barracks are generally simple wooden or aluminum-sided buildings; yards or factories are essentially some ammo crates, fuel drums and other assorted refuse confied within a piddly wooden fence. As such, these structures are rather vulnerable to attack. Whereas other mods may emphasis a closed-up, heavily fortified base, Spring: 1944 favours a more decentralized and sprawling design, as a base that covers a larger area is less prone to an artillery strike taking out great swathes of structures, and hard attacks that penetrate your defenses may only destroy a couple of structures rather than your entire base. So it is very important to spread things out to ensure that raids and strikes do not cripple your economy or ability to produce units. Not only that, but having your yards spread out allows you to spread your forces more efficiently. The only drawback is that this makes defending your territory and your assets a little trickier, as there's more ground to cover. The best way to reduce this threat, as explained above, is to launch attacks on your enemy's base before he can do the same to yours.

No, there are no Flashes here...

Tank rushes in this game are simply not a viable tactic. Almost all units suffer a loss of accuracy while moving, tanks included. If you constantly have your units running at the enemy until they're practically kissing, you'll find that your units get shot up far more than the enemy's. What's more, infantry who remain stationary for several seconds will drop to the ground and essentially "dig in", giving them a boost to their health. So having your own infantry running at them without stopping will result in nothing but a massacre.

Fight, don't Move

Because of the accuracy loss while moving mentioned above, it is far more advantageous to use the Fight order rather than the Move order when moving units. That way, if they spot an enemy, they'll stop to shoot. Getting used to it may be a pain, but it'll quickly become second nature to hit 'F' everytime you want to move your forces.

Unit Guide

The following is a brief look-over of the different unit types in Spring: 1944.

Infantry

Infantry are good for two things: First, they're the only units that can destroy your enemy's flags. Secondly, they come in a wide variety of roles, meaning you can usually find an infantryman for any job. They are numerous, cheap, and can/should be fielded in large numbers. Infantry in Spring: 1944 are subject to what we call "Suppression" -- certain weapons, mainly the explosive type, as well as machineguns and sniper rifles, will force infantry to take cover. Infantry will do this by immediately stopping and diving to their bellies. They can still fire, but while being suppressed they can not move. If infantry are suppressed a LOT, like from a barrage of artillery or lots of machineguns or tanks, they will become pinned outright, and will not be able to fire until the horror stops. Most infantry will also drop to their bellies when idle, just incase some enemies come out of nowhere, but will be free to get up and move. When on their bellies, infantry get a big armour boost and are much more survivable. Most infantry will also hide (ie cloak) when idle. Below is a description of each infantry type. There's no need to break them down by faction as most infantry are common to one another or have universal differences, such as:

German Infantry are the infantry everyone else is compared to. They are well trained, well equipped, have good accuracy and are stronger and faster than average.

American Infantry are the "average". They're not quite up to par one-on-one with their German counterpart, but they're not to be underestimated, either. They're somewhat weaker.

British Infantry are the "elite". Britain maintained a small yet incredibly well-trained army throughout the war that saw battle experience to rival that of the Germans'. They are slightly stronger than German infantry.

Soviet Infantry aren't very good at all. They're weak, slow, have poor training and poor weaponry. However, they are incredibly numerous. Also, Soviet submachineguns (PPsh-41) were incredibly numerous and are available in far higher numbers (lower buildtimes) than SMGs of the other Nations.

Riflemen
Infantry soldiers armed with standard bolt-action (or in the case of the US, semi-automatic) rifles are the most common type of infantry. They have a medium-power, medium-range rifle that's best for killing other infantry and not much more. It fires slowly though, so they're really only useful in large numbers. Riflemen also have grenades for short-range anti-vehicle and anti-infantry.

Submachinegunners aka Assault Infantry
Infantry armed with submachineguns like the German MP40, British Sten, American M1 Thompson, or Russian PPsh-43. SMGs are short-ranged weapons, less than half the range of rifles. They're devestating against other infantry and even light vehicles at close range, though, as they spray bullets all over the damned place. But at range they're extremely vulnerable to almost anything. Assault troops also have grenades.

Light Machineguns
Light machineguns like the American BAR, British Bren and Soviet DP are basically like automatic rifles. They have medium range and a high rate of fire, and can pin enemy infantry. The Germans do not have a LMG.

Medium Machineguns
Medium machineguns are a more stable and efficient platform for automatic support fire. Only Germany and the USA have medium MGs -- the MG42 and M1919 (.30 cal). They can lay down a torrent of fire at long range and are excellent in groups of two or three to pin down large amounts of enemy troops.

Observation Infantry
Perhaps the most tactically important unit type outside of riflemen, Observation infantry are armed with binoculars and a pistol. They have the largest LOS in the game. They are best used to increase the LOS (greatly) of your forces, or alone as scouts to recon the battlefield. Observation infantry also have the ability to "detect" nearby enemy artillery firing, which will appear as flashing bullseyes on the ground outside of LOS.

Snipers
Snipers are stealthy killers with a one-shot weapon. They can pin. They're best used to pick off important targets, like enemy observation infantry or engineers, from long range.

Anti-Tank Riflemen
Anti-Tank rifles, specifically the PTRD, are large-caliber rifles with armour-piercing ammunition. The PTRD is a 14.5mm gun capable of penetrating light armour. They're most useful against light vehicles where a single shot could hit the engine and knock the vehicle out. Against heavier armour, though, they're useless.

Anti-Tank Infantry
Panzerfausts, PIATs, Bazookas... they kill tanks. They're fairly short-ranged. But they kill tanks. The Soviets have only the PTRD for infantry Anti-Tank defence.

Mortars
Mortars provide infantry with immediate long-range explosive power. Mortars are excellent at pinning and can wreck lightly armoured vehicles. They're best used out of line of sight, to rain death upon your opponent from a hidden location.

Flamethrowers
Flamethrowers should be used against fortifications, particularly bunkers. They're also good at killing tanks, if you can get them close enough.

Towed Weapons

Towed weapons are just that -- weapons that are towed by other vehicles. On their own, without transport, they are almost immobile; they move at a snail's pace and have almost no maneuverability whatseover, requiring them to be carefully deployed else the enemy attack them from the sides or rear, where they will be unable to respond. To get around, towed weapons require transport of some kind; the most common of these are the transport trucks, which are capable of carrying a single gun, however transport halftracks are also capable of doing the same.

The Soviets followed a different design than most others. While other Nations developed fairly straight-forward artillery, the Soviets designed most of their guns to be dual-purpose -- they would be able to fire indirectly, as conventional artillery, but also directly against closer targets. As a result, Soviet light artillery has both High Explosive for indirect bombardment and Armour Piercing for direct firing against armour, a unique trait among the Nations in Spring: 1944.

Infantry Guns/Pack Howitzers
These are somewhat like ultra-light artillery -- guns designs to be used by infantry for point-support. The German leIG 18 and US M8 Pack Howitzer fall into this catagory. They're pretty much rolling 75mm High Explosive guns. The Soviet 76mm ZiS-3 is also used in a similar manner. Though the gun and gun carriage itself are longer, and afford the ZiS-3 longer range and better accuracy, its light caliber makes it less useful as bombardment artillery and more for direct support. It also has Armour Piercing ammunition.

Anti-Tank Guns
Anti-Tank guns are powerful anti-armour weapons which are capable of dealing massive damage to enemy tanks for an extremely small pricetag. The German 75mm PaK 40, US 3-Inch M5, and British QF 17-Pounder are all also used as main guns in battle tanks. The Soviet 57mm ZiS-2 isn't (although it would've made a good gun), and is a smaller caliber than the others, but is still a powerful anti-tank gun with its super high velocity shell. Anti-Tank guns have only AP ammunition and are almost useless against infantry.

Light Artillery
Every side in the war used a light artillery piece. The most common was the 105mm, used by both Germany (leFH 18) and US (M2 Howitzer). These are long-ranged, powerful guns which serve as the standard light artillery piece of their respective nations. The British 25-Pounder is a smaller piece with less range and blast power, but is an effective man-killer and fast-firing. The Soviet 122mm is the largest of these pieces, and has significantly greater range and power. Artillery is best used in batteries, raining shells down upon enemy strongpoints and infantry formations, in both attack and defense.

Light Vehicles

Light Vehicles are essentially any vehicle not a battle tank. Some, like the transport trucks, are unarmed and unarmoured. Others, like armoured cars, have light cannons, machineguns, and full protection from small-arms.

Transport Trucks
Transport Trucks, like the Opel Blitz, Bedford QL, ZiS-5 and GMC 2.5t, are multi-role transports that can carry either a truckfull of infantry (10-12) or a light towed gun (infantry guns, pack howitzers, anti-tank guns and light artillery). They're very cheap and can be produced in large numbers to ferry equipment from your base to the battlefield quickly; set them on repeat and have them constantly loading infantry from one point, and dropping them at another.

Halftracks
Halftracks are like trucks, except with a defensive machinegun, a bit of armour, and more all-terrain capability. They're more expensive, but still worth it if you want your transport to join the fighting after it's dropped off its cargo. Halftracks also have a fairly large LOS (though not as big as observation infantry), making them useful to hang around your armoured units. The American, British, and Russian halftracks are all identical (essentially), being armed with the large M2 .50 caliber machinegun. The German halftrack has slightly more armour, and is armed with the 7.62mm MG42.

Scout Car
Scout cars like the Russian BA-64 are lightly-armoured, lightly-armed, fast vehicles that essentially have one purpose -- scouting the enemy. The BA-64 has very light armour and is armed only with a DT medium machinegun.

Armoured Cars
More combat-dedicated armoured vehicles like the British Daimler, American M8 Greyhound and German Sd.Kfz. 250/9, are built both for recon and for light combat. The Daimler has a 2pdr 40mm, the Greyhound has a 37mm, while the Sd.Kfz. 250/9 has a 20mm automatic cannon. All are capable of getting into a scrap with light armour but against dedicated tanks, they're really only a distraction. Still, they're fast and quickly available so they'll form a good part of your early forces. The British AEC Mk III is a heavier armoured car with increased armour and a gun equal to that of a medium tank, it should be used as a support vehicle to provide greater explosive power.

Armour

Tanks are the main battle unit, apart from infantry, that you'll make use of. All tanks have two types of ammunition for their main gun -- High Explosive (HE) and Armour Piercing (AP). High Explosive ammo is used against soft targets, such as infantry, light vehicles, and structures, and can be identified ingame by their bright yellow colour. Armour Piercing ammunition is, obviously, used against armoured targets, and can be identified ingame as red shots that will slowly fade to yellow -- we've introduced dynamic armour and armour penetration. Unlike most other games which have weapons doing a set amount of damage universally to all units, with its only variables being area-of-effect dropoff, we've developed a rather comprehensive dynamic damage system for almost all weapons. This technique takes into account the effective penetration power of large-caliber weapons at different ranges. As we all know from elementary science class, when objects (such as a tank shell) move through the air, they encounter resistance, also known as drag, which slows down the object the longer it travels through the air. As such, the penetration power of any armour-piercing weapon will slowly drop off the farther it's shot. This does not apply to high explosive ammunition -- its destructive power comes from the explosion of its shell when it lands, not the speed at which it impacts a target.

This dynamic damage translates into a more dynamic game; while tanks (some more than others) have very large firing ranges, firing at targets from far away will never be as effective as zooming up and letting off a shot at close range. To our knowledge, this is the most extensive use of dynamic damage in any Spring-based mod to date.

Ontop of dynamic range-determined damage, we've also developed a system for dynamic unit armour strength. Again, as we all know, tanks in the Second World War (and even today) rely on armour thickness for protection; some vehicles had very little, while others had immensely thick armour capable of deflecting almost any shot, and as such it is our duty to reproduce this. What this means is that not only is the damage against a target from a particular gun determined by the range of the target, but also by the penetrating power of the weapon and the armour thickness of its victim! Thus, smaller tank guns like the 37mm will have a hard time destroying medium tanks, and find it impossible to harm heavy tanks, requiring players to consciously think about what types of tanks they need to field to do what job; necessarily, light and support vehicles are needed to perform various lighter roles, while heavy tank guns capable of defeating heavy armour are also needed. The hope is that this breaks up the monotony of the "one-unit-spam" problem that plagues so many games; light vehicles will always be more available, more numerous, and much cheaper, but will be unable to defeat heavier, thicker-armoured tanks. So choose your forces wisely!

Tankettes
"Tankette" was an almost diminutive term given to extremely small tanks. The T-60 is a Tankette, as was the German Panzer I and British Vickers Light (both of which will not be in the game). Armed with a 20mm automatic cannon, the T-60 performs much like an armoured car, except tracked, with less visibility and a lower top speed but a tad more defense against small-arms and better off-road ability.

Light Tanks
In this category, we have the American M5A1 Stuart with its 37mm gun and Russian T-70 with its 45mm gun. Both tanks are equals on the battlefield -- their usefullness lies in their cheap costs, maneuverability, and multi-purpose roles, where they can take on soft targets such as infantry and light vehicles, as well as effectively combat enemy recon forces and even do some damage against enemy medium tanks. Their ability to get into and out of battle quickly is their strong point, but they will surely meet their demise if told to attack heavy tanks.

Medium Tanks
Medium tanks come in two categories - basic and advanced. Basic medium tanks, like the M4A4 Sherman, Cromwell, T-34/76 and Panzer III/IV, have medium armour and medium weaponry, which are capable of destroying anything given the right distance and time, but aren't really all that good at it; their role is more general purpose, capable of fulfilling a central role in your forces. They're the cheapest battle tanks, though, and will still make up a good portion of your armoured forces. Advanced tanks, like the M4A3(76) Sherman, Sherman Firefly, T-34/85 and Panther, are late-war medium tanks, all armed with excellent tank guns capable of doing a great deal of damage. They're somewhat weak when it comes to soft targets, though, as their high explosive armament isn't as great as tanks with general purpose guns.

Assault Guns
Assault Guns, like the German StuG III and Russian Su-76, are basically light/medium armour with tank guns attached. Their gun is fixed-forward, though, making them less maneuverable than tanks, but their weapons are usually dual-purpose. Ontop of that, they're cheaper than battle tanks. The american M8 Scott fulfills a similar role, providing high-explosive support for infantry -- However its weapon is turret mounted and does not fire AP rounds.

Tank Destroyers
There's really only one of these at the moment -- the German Marder. This is a lightly-armoured vehicle armed with the good PaK 40 anti-tank gun. It lacks high-explosive ammunition so is almost useless against soft targets, but against enemy armour, it is an extremely cheap yet effective weapon, capable of knocking out most Allied armour from long distances.