Amaris' Battle of Ortona - Little Stalingrad - MULTIPLAYER

[GottaLove88s]

Guinea pigs required...

In homage, to Amaris' absolutely wonderful Ortona (Little Stalingrad) campaign, I've adapted for multiplayer... Please see Amaris' original link for the full details of his incredible single-player scenarios. Frankly, his mapwork is a joy to behold -> viewtopic.php?f=105&t=33874#p343529

For multiplayer Ortona...

1. Run BA on your Mac, PC or iPad
2. Choose Campaigns (at the bottom)
3. Choose Download Community Scenarios (at the top)
4. Choose Download a Campaign Package from the Internet (top right)
5. Type http://bit.ly/BA88ortona into the URL box
6. Click the green tick
7. Back at the campaigns list, select "Ortona MP" and click Download the Selected Campaign (bottom centre)
8. This should download everything that you need
9. Go back to the first page of BA and choose Multiplayer
10. Log in to Multiplayer as normal
11. Either go to the My Challenges tab and create a New Challenge. This list will now show the Ortona MP...
12. Or go to the Accepts Challenges tab and look for an opponent...

After all that, you can play Ortona MP on any platform... Phew!!

You'll get an epic 28-turn opportunity to assault the Italian town of Ortona (as the Canadian 1st Division) or to defend it (as the newly re-inforced elite German 1st Para Division, Fallschirmjägerdivision). In December 1943, this deepwater port approximately halfway up the east coast of Italy is vital to the Allied charge northwards. Hitler has ordered that "every house and tree" must be held "at all costs".

The winner holds the most (of seven) VP flags at the end, but you will lose automatically if your opponent takes your final flag at any time. The Canadians must secure their foothold.

Other adaptations for multiplayer (modded by RF900 and Enric, thanks guys!):
"Walking mortars" and MG42s - Mortars and heavy machine guns can move one space without transports
Merge - Wounded infantry units can merge together (max 5/5 afterwards)
Swap - Adjacent units can swap positions (which allows you to move AT guns one space by swapping places with an adjacent tank or infantryman)

This is an early draft entirely based on Amaris' phenomenal map, so it's likely that the final release may require eg. changes to units for force selection. Please feedback any map comments to Amaris, and post any VP, bonus or unit selection comments here.

I've just put up an "Ortona MP" challenge if anyone is ready to play...?

GL88

NB. More history here
http://www.canadaatwar.ca/page44.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Parach ... _(Germany)

[GottaLove88s]

HINTS & TIPS:

* Several units come pre-promoted. By late '43, the German 1st Para had become battle hardened through prior actions in Poland, Norway & Denmark, France, Mainland Greece and Crete, the Soviet Union and Sicily... You'll need those extra skills... Remember that the enemy have them, if you're the Canadian.

* Canadian Seaforth Highlanders soon recognised that "mouse holing", or house to house fighting by using piats to blow passageways through the walls of adjacent buildings was the only way to advance. Fighting in the open streets was signing your own death warrant. "Mouse holing" became the standard for house clearances in all future urban assaults of WW2.

* For the German, this is a game of secret entrenchment, ambush and escape. Your enemy has scouts and can see you from two spaces away, in the open. Use your own scouts to know when you've been detected. Canadian 25-pdr artillery barrages are less effective onto houses (and were supposedly near useless in Ortona in reality) but you don't want your frontline suppressed as the Highlanders arrive. For a sneaky German player, can you take the Canadian's only flag? If the Allies lose their foothold, this advance is over.

* The Canadian has two options: (i) charge of the light brigade, you have a tank force, and a small number of paras... Can you force a break in the defences and surge through?, or (ii) slow and steady, with artillery and mortar support... A war of attrition, where you bombard, he bombards... Your units are cheaper but his are better trained... Throw the dice... You may also have a heavily armoured Churchill Crocodile flamethrower... Use it to full effect, but beware your 100 defence armour will not protect you, if German flamethrower infantrymen find you... You'll quickly be a Quebec toast waiting for the maple syrup.

* The German should expect the Canadian to win the two central, neutral flags fairly quickly... But the Canadian should expect to take very heavy losses taking either of the next two, German flags.

[leci]

Hiya - can this be played on iPad?

Cheers

[GottaLove88s]

When Amaris ok's the MP version, and Pip has a chance to review and upload it, yup this will be (future tense) playable on the iPad... I guess I'd give it a week or so... Sorry for the little delay, Leci...

[leci]

No worries and many thanks.

For the Germans, Italy was a 'close run thing' and in fact as a stand alone campaign ie no draining of resources to lost fronts, Germany would have won. The German ability to hold and defend while imposing high attrition rates on the Allies was, in military terms, outstanding.

Leci

[GottaLove88s]

Thanks Leci, You're right, Italy has a lot of potential for BA... Really looking forward to "testing" Amaris' Ortona... I'm sure there'll be plenty more to come... Have you thought of scenario-ing something yourself? You obviously have plenty of deep knowledge...

[GottaLove88s]

To whet your appetite, here are some screenshots from current Ortona MP games in "play testing"...

1. German Force Selection

BA has a 64-unit limit per player, from which you have to make a force selection. Within this restriction, Ortona is pretty generous. Here, the German has picked a 44-unit force, heavy on infantry, with a couple of StuGs and a Puma in support. This is street fighting extreme where tanks used badly are no more than mincemeat...

GermanSelection.jpg (129.94 KiB) Viewed 9076 times

2. Canadian Force Selection

The Canadian has chosen a 46-unit force, also heavy in infantry, including Piat AT bazookas, Bren MG platoons, mortars, engineers... Don't leave home without your scouts... Croc is on the menu if you like it. Just don't get it overcooked by Jerries' flamethrowers... Matching the real order of battle for the Canadian 1st Division in '43, this general has taken a squad of Shermans for infantry support... Streets are narrow so this will be close support... Enemy paras and engineers hide everywhere...

CanadianSelection.jpg (126.95 KiB) Viewed 9076 times

3. So easy at the start...

Ortona MP opens with a Canadian Sherman strikeforce entering the town along the main road, several tanks have been pre-promoted after hard lessons learned on the roads and beaches north from Sicily... The woods and houses are literally filled with your infantrymen... With 40+ units and Amaris' gorgeous map, how could you lose? You're going to feel invincible... for about two turns... Then all hell lets loose... Good luck gentlemen

Canadian Start.jpg (205.4 KiB) Viewed 9076 times

[GottaLove88s]

FURTHER HINTS & FIRST COMMENTS:

Am playing Amaris and Morge4 in a couple of debut, figure-it-out games... it's hard to know where to start because the initial number of units (40+ for both sides) and the massive map are overwhelming...

Unfortunately, the enemy is rather good at helping to resolve my "problem" of too many units... It's possible to lose 2-6 units in the first two turns... if your opponent has scouts ahead and aggressively attacks what he sees... Standing at the front of a building, two spaces away from another building, is as dangerous as standing out in the open, if he's got a scout facing you... GROAN...

So far, Ortona MP appears to be a game of force concentration... Elite paras are lethal to both sides... Amaris is teaching me that if you bring 3 or 4 infantry, paras or engineers into combined assaults, the first and second attacker might get damaged... the third will certainly suppress the enemy if they're not already... the fourth will likely take a kill... One-on-one, and even two-on-one skirmishes, in street fighting are random, no more than a dice throw... Ortona takes skill, patience and cunning... Unsurprisingly, I'm being handed my ass on a plate, lol...

40+ units are quickly whittled back to around 10, sometimes in less than 10 turns! RF900's Merge and Swap places commands are proving absolutely essential to survival, and maybe, just maybe, victory.

[GottaLove88s]

PS. When you play, remember that the VP flags are the key to winning... it's too easy to get stuck into streetfighting to the death... when all you need are some fast scouts left behind to pick up the flags... Maybe...

[GottaLove88s]

PPS. Despite the massive number of units, maybe 90+ units including both sides together at the start, and the large 64x32 map, Ortona MP doesn't need 35 turns to complete... Wild street skirmishes erupt within 5 turns, continue for another 10-15 turns... and then it's all about who's got anything left to capture the VPs... Pending feedback, I'm going to reduce the Max Turns to 25... All feedback welcome. Let me know what you think?

[falco148]

I just downloaded the Ortona MP files in my BA multiplayer file but the scenario doesnt appear anywhere when I open the game. Am I missing something?

[GottaLove88s]

Hi Falco, Are you using Mac or PC? On Mac, you should unzip the Ortona_MP folder into \Documents\My Games\BBCBA\Multiplayer. Once you've done that, run BA, click Multiplayer, log onto the MP server in the usual way, click the "My Challenges" tab (at the top), then the "New Challenge" arrow (at the bottom). You should find "Ortona: Little Stalingrad" somewhere at the bottom of that list. Propose a game and I'll accept... Let me know if that's not working for you? (Sorry if that's teaching Gran'pa to suck eggs, but that should work ) GL88

[GottaLove88s]

ONE MORE HINT:

First games are showing that the 25-pdr artillery piece can be a useful decider in favour of the Allies... Three options for the Germans here:
(1) Use airstrikes or artillery barrage to take it out (it rarely seems to be moved far)
(2) Send a German para to take it out (the flank that would access it is wooded and typically unguarded)
(3) Pull back into the German half of the 64x32 map, suck in the Allies with you and their 25-pdr will be neutralised (only has a range of 30 squares, is not mobile by itself, while the Bren carriers are busy moving other mortars and infantry, besides being very easy to kill)

[GottaLove88s]

Pathe newsreel of Ortona... to get you in the mood...
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/battl ... -in-ortona

Plenty of Shermans and AT guns in action... infantry recovering from their wounds...

[GottaLove88s]

A test-player was wondering if it was historically accurate to include Tigers or StuGs in force selection for Ortona... the honest answer, is I'm not 100% sure...

Germans definitely had Tigers and PzIVs in that sector because they were used with devastating effect on the Orsogna-Ortona road... so it's not impossible... and they certainly add realism to the gameplay with the "that's juuuuuust great, you've got Tigers" MP effect, lol...

Photos from 18th Armoured Regiment, Italian Campaign
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarl ... a-c28.html

PzIV.jpg (25.97 KiB) Viewed 9032 times

TigerBagged.jpg (38.86 KiB) Viewed 9032 times

[GottaLove88s]

Extract from Mark Zuehlke's Ortona: Canada's Epic World War II Battle
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ortona-Canadas- ... 174&sr=8-2

...From his position on the outskirts of the village, [Canadian tank commander] Amy caught only occasional glimpses of the infantrymen as they ducked from doorway to doorway or scurried from cover to cover. He was paying scant attention to the firefight going on between German and Canadian infantry. His concern was to keep an eye on the approaches for enemy armour, which he expected to arrive imminently. This task was complicated when the Germans set a haystack in front of his position on fire, sending a thick screen of smoke drifting across the enemy's probable line of approach.

Amy told his driver to shift the Sherman to one side of the burning haystack. When the move was completed, he looked northward and saw a German tank bearing down on him. Swivelling the turret, Amy engaged the tank at a range of 150 yards, quickly knocking it out. Moments later, one of his other tanks destroyed another advancing Panzer that came within forty yards. As the German tank started to burn, a Seaforth infantryman, who had been helplessly hiding in the grass just in front of the advancing enemy tracks, jumped up and rushed over to pat the Calgary tank on the side. "You big cast-iron son-of-a-bitch", the soldier cried, "I could kiss you".

The German armour-led counterattack continued, a dozen tanks supported by infantry rolling in from several directions. [Infantry squad leader] Gibson poked his head around the corner of a shattered building and saw what looked to him to be a new Tiger tank coming down the lane with infantry riding on top. Gibson realized that the tank would have to come around the corner he was hiding behind and that the lane was so narrow the monstrous machine would be unable to make the turn. Looking over his shoulder, he was delighted to see a Sherman creeping down the street toward him. Gibson ran to the Calgary tank. Pointing the corner out to its commander he yelled up, "There's a big Tiger coming around that corner. He can't get around that corner. It's too narrow."...

[GottaLove88s]

Tiger versus Sherman

Archive photograph of a German Tiger captured by Kiwi 22nd Battalion, at La Romola ( about 200 miles NW of Ortona). Sherman M4 parked next door. Check out the difference in track widths... and the primary gun... Poor Sherman looks like a toy... And that's only at T1!

http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/etexts/WH2- ... aP019a.jpg

Tiger v Sherman.jpg (60.7 KiB) Viewed 9008 times

[jcb989]

sweet! here I come! lol

[falco148]

Thanks GL88. Just found out what the problem was. I put the folder into the Progam files/BBCBA/MP file, NOT the My games/BBCBA/folder. Everything appears to be working now. I put an PBEM game up to play just now if your still interested.

[falco148]

I sent password via PM.