u/sterrre

Lastnight I was playing tanker with a friend and we were killed by an NVA artillery strike 3 times.

So I went into the practice range and tested both the NVA and American artillery strikes and precision strikes.

For the NVA

The artillery strike costs 200 munitions and has a cooldown of 5 minutes. The ability itself launches 4 artillery rounds at 4 very precise points. These can 1-shot tanks and destroy garrisons. It seems to have a very low deviation, the artillery is very accurate.

The NVA precision strike costs 250 munitions with a cooldown of 20 minutes. It drops 1 large bomb onto a single target. This is also accurate and has a larger blast radius.

Comparing the 2 abilities, with accurate map markers the artillery strike is better hands down, you can strike 4 targets every 5 minutes instead of 1 target every 20 minutes.

For the US

After testing the NVA abilities I switched over to the US. The artillery strike and precision strike have the same costs and cooldowns as the NVA however they work differently in game.

The US artillery strike launches 8 artillery shells across a very wide area with a large dispersion, it is very inaccurate but overall it is more firepower than the NVA.

The US precision strike also drops 2 bombs onto the target but they also have a wider dispersion than the NVA.

Conclusion:

The NVA commander abilities are generally more accurate however the US abilities have greater overall firepower. The Artillery strike for the NVA should almost always be used instead of a precision. And for the US the artillery strike effectively replaces the bombing run, which they no longer have in HLLV.

Napalm is not a 1 to 1 replacement for a bombing run because the fire acts as an area denial ability and it doesn't actually destroy structures like tunnels and garrisons.

So tunnels are the obvious advantage, we can discuss them at the end. But besides tunnels the NVA have 3 other advantages that should be discussed.

The first is the NVA have an advantage in boats. Their boats can drop 300 supplies, acting as both a halftrack and supply truck. The American boats do not drop supplies.

The second advantage is in tanks. The NVA T-55 is a heavy tank while the M48 is a medium, the M48 needs 4 shots to kill the T-55 while the T-55 only needs 3. The M48 is faster and more maneuverable. This is supposed to provide asymmetric tank combat, however if both teams are fielding 3 tanks the NVA has the armor advantage.

And the third advantage is weapon variety, hopefully this will be fixed in future updates. Currently the NVA have access to 2 additional infantry weapons that the US do not have , SMGs and single action rifles. This isn't as much as an advantage, the M16 is competitive against the 3 NVA rifles but it is still something to be noted.

I think that the Americans need buffs in these three areas, the American patrol boats should be able to drop sups. I honestly don't know how to balance the tank gameplay other than adding additional tank variants, the M48 with the 105mm cannon as a heavier option. Light tanks for both factions are coming. And on the last point it's already confirmed that additional weapons are coming.

Now the specific advantages that the Americans have are helicopters, however they are often not very effective. I don't believe using rotors to destroy structures is intended gameplay. The Transport helo has flares and can act as reconnaissance. The door guns are very difficult to aim. And the supply helicopter can drop 2 crates of 50 sups. That is enough for 1 redzone garrison or 2 blue line garrisons. I think that the buff helicopters need is for the supply helicopter to carry 300 sups instead of 100. I'm dubious on the effectiveness of the transport helicopters even if the door guns become easier to aim.

Americans can build 8 garrisons, while NVA can build 5 and 12 tunnels. Americans should be using the helicopters to build their garrison network quickly, while the NVA can use tunnels to concentrate the spawn waves of 3 garrisons into a single point or spread them out deep into the red zone. I think tunnels are in a pretty good spot right now, we just need more opportunities for the Americans to build their garrison network. More sups for the helicopters and sups for the patrol boats.

Anyways, what do you think about the current balancing in the game and my thoughts here?

My players have a good relationship with Fala, one of my paladins is taking lessons to learn how to make potions.

During one of their lessons I'd like to have an encounter where Ziraj barges in injured and asks Fala for help, maybe he has to hide because someone is chasing him.

Who might have hurt him or is chasing him?

I have 2 ideas currently, the Xanathar or Griffon Riders. If the Xanathar chases Ziraj my player would try to help him, they love fighting the Xanathar, if it's the Guard then my players might try to stay out of it.

I just want to know what they looked like, I don't really remember them very well and I don't know what the inside looked like.

I'm running a game set in Waterdeep, if I have npc's speaking Chondathan would my players characters, who only speak common and exotic languages, be able to understand Chondathan as just flowery language ie. modern English speakers listening to Shakespeare, or would Chondathan be difficult for them to follow?

I'm the DM. I don't know why they did this. They found a coffin full of dirt in a dungeon, took a bag full of dirt because they heard something about vampires and dirt. Then they fought a troll, during the fight they plucked an eye out and after the fight they decided to plant the eye in their bag of dirt.

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As a DM what do I do with this?

So for a long time I've ran a sandbox game for my group of friends and family at a local game store. This game store has asked me to prepare and run a one-shot adventure for them. I've never ran a one-shot before, all of my campaigns have been sandboxy and very long. What do I need to know to make a successful one-shot and how do they differ from regular session prep?

I am planning on building it in the same setting as my other campaign to reduce prep time but I'm still looking for advice from others who have ran successful one-shots.

I just saw 4 police motorcycles doing a traffic stop. Did they start a club or something? Why so many bikes?