NOTE: I tested the Armored units, as well--check page 2.
...And the results are interesting.
My first test was to plunk down one "standard" infantry squad for each side--the Mission Editor default composition--and space them one grid square apart, facing each other, using open, flat land on the Desert Island. Â I made the Resistance friendly to both sides, and inserted myself a distance away in the guise of a Resistance officer. Â It was to be a "best of ten" type event; whichever side won the most battles would be declared the better group. Â I then decided to upgrade it to a "best of twenty," to try and get more accurate results and rule out chance, if possible. Â Mind you, this was only tested with OFP version 1.46, and doesn't use any of the new Resistance weapons or units.
Here's how it went down:
USA: Â 7, USSR: Â 13.
That's right, the Americans got a good, old fashioned butt-whoopin' in more than half of the engagements. Â I couldn't figure out why. Â The equipment and armament was more or less similar, the skill level of the soldiers was set to the default, identical level; yet the Soviets came out on top in this type of balls-out, open field combat.
I then decided to up the ante a little, by changing one of the regular Soldiers on the West side to a Heavy Grenadier. Â Although he tended to miss a lot of shots, the ones that DID connect often took out multiple foes. Â The odds were more than evened:
USA: Â 12, USSR: Â 8.
This development let me to wonder if the Western troops weren't doing better because they didn't have enough firepower, weren't throwing out enough lead. Â I decided to see what happened if I made every soldier on the West side into a Machine Gunner. Â I also decided to just do a "best of ten" for all my following tests. Â The results weren't pretty:
USA: Â 2, USSR: Â 8.
It seems that for actual accurate fire, Machine Gunners are more or less useless (at low skill levels, anyhow). Â Sure they, did a lot of rock-and-roll, but all it produced was a lot of holes in the sand behind the East guys. Â The more methodical, more aimed 3-shot bursts from the AKs made Swiss cheese of the West.
So, remembering the successes that the additional Heavy Grenadier had brought to the West, I decided to outfit all of them that way. Â It was pretty darned impressive. Â Although they couldn't put down a constant rat-tat-tat like the East could with their automatics, the volleys of explosives more than made up for the lack of consistent volume. Â A row of puffs from the barrels of the grenade launchers, and soon a wave of death would encompass the soldiers of the East, who flailed about like helpless ragdolls before the onslaught of my new "shock troops." Â Too many dying too quickly to fight back. Â The results:
USA: Â 10, USSR: Â 0.
Pleased with the results, but still looking for a more conventional remedy to the Red menace, I then decided to see how the West would fare ditching the M-16 for the G36. Â Quick, accurate fire riddled the East--who would have thought that the change would have made such a difference? Â Both the G36 and the Steyr netted these results:
USA: Â 8, USSR: Â 2.
Results with a squad of H&K wielders were even more lopsided; Ivan just couldn't seem to make solid contact, and looked confused in the hail of whispering projectiles:
USA: Â 10, USSR: Â 0.
Seeing the value in both bullets and explosive projectiles, I opted to try a squad of Grenadiers, with decent results (although they didn't employ their grenade launchers as often as I would have liked):
USA: Â 8, USSR: Â 2.
With the sniper rifles, there was no contest. Â Even at these low skill levels, the sound of rifle fire cracked constantly. Â Eastern soldiers fell to the sand, faces ruined, torsos mauled:
USA: Â 10, USSR: Â 0.
And for some odd reason, just the opposite happened with the exclusive use of the XMS; the Americans just couldn't seem to get any firepower together, as the Russians clobbered them handily each time:
USA: Â 0, USSR: Â 10.
So, I had learned that if their more specialized weaponry was employed, the Western soldiers could overcome the open-field superiority of the East. Â But in one-for-one, standard squad conflicts, the ball was definitely in Russia's court. Â I decided that a boost in skill was in order for the Americans to see if I could bolster their efforts some. Â I bumped the skills of a standard squad (as described in the inital test) up to a full one-hundred percent. Â Needless to say, the results were much better, and not surprising at all:
USA: Â 10, USSR: Â 0.
The West was efficient and deadly, and swept the test even when I lowered the skill level to fifty percent. Â I then decided to raise the skill levels of all the soldiers on BOTH sides to one hundred, anticipating that once they were on even footing, the Russians would once again net more victories. Â For this test, I thought it might be advantageous to return to the initial "best of twenty" format, temporarily. Â I was right about the results, only the Russians did even better this time than in the initial tests. Â I couldn't figure out why, except to note that the Russian Machine Gunners seemed to rock-and-roll a lot more often (and a lot longer) than the Western guys:
USA: Â 5, USSR: Â 15.
My last series of tests was to take place in a different environment--the woods of Everon. Â I picked a spot that was densely forested, but on level ground. Â Again, the opposing squads were "standard" infantry squads of default skill level. Â They wouldn't start shooting at each other from such a distance of one grid square's width, so I made a simple "Search and Destroy" waypoint for each squad which would force them to run into each other. Â And run into each other they did, with very surprising results; the West, which had seen such vicious ass-beatings in open combat, took to forest warfare like a fish to water:
USA: Â 9, USSR: Â 1.
Again, I wasn't sure what they did well. Â It was much more difficult to determine just what was going on during the battle, since being the "combat cameraman" in the woods was a lot different (and more dangerous! than peering through binoculars from a distance. Â Stray bullets and nearby grenades killed me several times as I tried to stay on the heels of one or another of the forces and observe the battle, but eventually I learned what was a safe distance to keep and still keep an eye on things. Â
But, in this environtment full of cover and obstacles, how would the Americans fare with the Heavy Grenadiers that had done so well in the open field? Â I didn't think that the weapons would be as practical in such an enclosed space, with all the trees around. Â I had to stand WAY back for this test! Â Turns out that I underestimated the versatility of the troops:
USA: Â 10, USSR: Â 0.
Black Ops with their H&Ks also fared well, losing in only one engagement. Â Even two "standard" squads facing off in the forest with skill levels at the max resulted in major victories for the West.
And then, I decided that I had learned enough, and was going to stop messing around with OFP for one night  Just wanted to report my findings, in case anyone might find them interesting!
GroßdeutschlandSoldat
