Yay or Nay: Dynamic Frontlines/Territory in a HoI Game?

[Hippob4]

I was wondering, would anyone be interested in seeing an innovative dynamic territory/frontlines system that Steel Division pioneered but in a (future) HoI game?

I think a dynamic system as opposed to the current grid system could offer a lot of freedom of movement, tactics, and strategy for the player and the AI. Broad offensives, encirclements, delaying actions, realistic sieges and so on,

When I say realistic sieges, one thing that always felt odd to me in Paradox games is that you can attack a province for several days and technically arrive at the province instantly if the battle is won or revert instantly back at the starting province if it fails. For example, historically the German 6th Army pushed further and further inwards into Stalingrad, creating pockets of resistance that lasted months and the Soviets were pushed right onto the Volga river. With the current system, not only does it not model units actually moving and occupying space gradually but you can lose your entire movement progress if the attack halts and so you go back at the starting province

Thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Viper1989]

It would never work with paradox's province based system. The company would have to create an entirely new game engine for limited additional functionality. The system would also be only used for Hoi; none of their other titles would have any use for a dynamic front line mechanic. Not really a good use of development time.

Plus in steel division the dynamic front line removes a lot of fog-of-war since you always know where the enemy is pushing. You might not know the exact number but an experienced player would learn the movement speed of all the units and be able to accurately gauge what forces are coming.

 

[Hippob4]

It would never work with paradox's province based system. The company would have to create an entirely new game engine for limited additional functionality. The system would also be only used for Hoi; none of their other titles would have any use for a dynamic front line mechanic. Not really a good use of development time.

Plus in steel division the dynamic front line removes a lot of fog-of-war since you always know where the enemy is pushing. You might not know the exact number but an experienced player would learn the movement speed of all the units and be able to accurately gauge what forces are coming.

True, developing a whole new game engine would be quite the investment and while I think it could be great for a 20th Century game, I'm not sure if it would work for any previous conflict through the centuries. Maaaaaybe they can use a heavily modified IRISZOOM engine (which Eugen uses from all their games since RUSE) for HoI5?

As for the FoW, I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that because you already always know where the enemy pushing in HoI. The division models are walking towards the enemy province. The question is when they'll get there and what's the force composition. At least with a dynamic territory system, you could actually see the PROGRESS of units, friendly or enemy, on the map and arguably react better.

And i'm not sure what's really that bad about learning the movement speed of units and countering it. Sounds perfectly fine. Hell, I even think it could lead to some great interesting battles and ruses. Like Player A might be noticing that some enemy force is quickly racing across the plains and because of the lack of recon, assume it's this massive tank push so Player A allocates a sizable counter only to realize that Player B's fast moving force are actually motorized or even Cavalry forces and that this was a trick to lure away Player A's mobile units/reserves.

I could also see dynamic territory make for really intense breakout situations where you are trying desperately to open a corridor for your encircled forces to retreat through. In HoI atm, you need to own an entire province adjacent to the besieged units. With Steel Division, opening corridors is a very 'natural' comparatively so.

 

[Dalwin]

That dynamic system is best for operational scale. It would not really be valid for strategic scale. Oprational scale which is what the game you are using as an example is (actually it might even be tactical but it is odd to even care about the front line in a tactical game.)

I would not like a system where I just put a big army on the border and let creep take the objective without actual fighting. No I don't see this as a possible fit for an HOI style game at all.