DLC '44 West #09: Falaise

[VPaulus]

Please post here your comments about this scenario.

[Kamerer]

9) Falaise – beta 1

Level: Field Marshal
Prestige: Begin: 14,575. End: 15,425. Net: +850.
Result: DV at 14/18 (?)
Replacements: none used.

Problems:

• • The Orne is discontinuous at 15,12. It also makes an odd dead-end oxbow just NNE of that – perhaps it’s supposed to be a tributary instead?
  • I took all objectives at 14, planning on holding them that turn and four more - but then the game immediately declared victory and thus I only held all of them one turn. I did get the pop-up “…now defend against counter-attack,” but then scenario ended in DV at the end of the turn.

General impressions/comments:

• • Scenario played well, seemed challenging and interesting, but it ended prematurely and I didn’t get to finish it. Looked at battlefield afterward and might not have been able to hold Falaise proper – didn’t leave but two units there. So might have been an mv.

[Kamerer]

9) Falaise – beta 2

Level: Rommel, stock core
Prestige: Begin: 200. End: 725 Net: +525
Result: MV 20/20

Core changes:

• • Upgraded 1x 21cm Nebelwerfer to 30cm.
  • Upgraded 1x 17cm field artillery to 21cm

Problems:

• • I had one day of rain, followed by three days of mud. I think it should take more than just one day of rain to turn dry summer ground into mud? I could see that happening in spring or late fall, or warm winter climate. Just an observation.
  • Pop-up message should say “against,” not “again.”
  • River hex at 15,12 still wrong.

General impressions/comments:

• • With mud, it took until turn 15 to get objectives. I reconned thoroughly to find counter-attack forces a little before before that. I had left covering forces at choke points, but I misjudged the attack direction of one of the counter- groups and thus lost Chambois, and then one Falaise hex. I retook them all at turn 20 and destroyed all counter-attacking forces. If I had an imported core I could would have had more tanks and been able to cover all eventualities and to likely have held them. The three days of mud early may have affected it, too – I would have had at least two or three more turns to move some armour back east, and had my recon done three turns earlier to prepare – the fortunes of war.
  • Would be interesting to see some Polish units on the east side of the Falaise battlefield – I saw them elsewhere in the campaign, and their fight there was epic and well-known.
  • Also perhaps an eastern objective that MUST be held for an MV – simulating an escape route; perhaps Falaise itself or Chambois. Without that, scenario Loss, campaign over, and a “Thanks for visiting the western front!” pop-up.
  • I don’t understand the concept of holding the objectives for five turns, vs. retaking them and destroying the opposing force. Final result seems the same? DV objectives could be to hold them at 15, then hold them at 20 for same strategic result. A DV is possible as it stands, though requires either a little better weather or force disposition than I made.

[zappel]

Beta2 - Colonel-Level - Imported core - DV at turn 19
After the awesome briefing text I was very carefully in this scenario. While the first turns I secured tanks by AA and artillery until I recognized the allied troops were not so terrifying like the text should implicate. After I unleashed my units the mission objectives were taken. I like those counter-attacks at any point of the map. A great mixture of attack and defense.
I won't change anything.

[monkspider]

Falaise
General Level
Default Core
DV 18/18
No losses

This was a classic scenario. Like Zappel, I thought it had one of the all time great briefing texts. It was extraordinarily difficult, but such an awesome briefing motivated me to try to get a DV at all costs. And it was very costly, but pulling it off was one of my most satisfying victories. This is another highly complex scenario that undoubtedly has multiple viable strategies. Regardless, you have to be very careful with how you use your limited forces to deal with both attacking and defending a wide area of territory. Although it was very tough as I said, the scenario overall worked extremely well. I captured all scenarios on turn 15, and only got the DV on the very last turn, with the enemy's last counterattack nearly dislodging me from one of my objectives. Well done!

[Kamerer]

9) Falaise – beta 3/rc

Level: Rommel, stock core
Prestige: Begin: 250. End: 650 Net: +400
Result: DV17/20

Problems:

• • None noted.

General impressions/comments:

• • Weather was clear and dry summer weather all this time.
  • Scenario played nicely this time.
  • Had enough pp even on Rommel to have core overstrength a bit, that helped a lot, too.
  • BTW, I think the map is nicely drawn. The terrain and borders make defending challenging and ground reconnaissance difficult. It suits the scenario well.

[Molve]

I don't understand the implementation of the objective here: "Your objective is to secure and hold all Victory Hexes for 5 total turns. These 5 turns may be non-consecutive."

The intent of the script seems to be that this is achieved by setting the skip parameter to 5. But isn't all this is accomplishing that the script is only run every fifth turn? That is, corresponding to this (very different) order: "Your objective is to secure and hold all Victory Hexes on either turn #5, turn #10, turn #15 or turn #20. Do this and you instantly win the scenario!"

(This is consistent with Kamerer's experience, taking them on turn 14, that is, just before turn 15, and thus immediately winning on turn 15. Monkspider took the objectives one turn later, and thus only won on turn 20, giving off the impression the script is working. In reality the script would not have detected if he lost the objectives during that time, however.)

I would have believed another programming would be needed. I believe this was the coder's intention - to set the script's run parameter to 5, so it can trigger multiple times, and each time incrementing a variable. Once that variable reaches five, that means the script has run five times, which means the objective have been reached!

M

PS. Don't actually think direct variables are supported though. Every scenario with this kind of objective implements it another way, such as by manipulating units for instance. The straight-forward way is to have five scripts, nearly identical.

Script1: run when all victory hexes are in German hands, sets tag A
Script2: run when all victory hexes are in German hands AND tag A exists, sets tag B
Script3: run when all victory hexes are in German hands AND tag B exists, sets tag C
Script4: run when all victory hexes are in German hands AND tag C exists, sets tag D
Script5: run when all victory hexes are in German hands AND tag D exists, sets tag VICTORY

Each of these five scripts have run and skip parameters set to their usual values of 1. They're meant to be run only once each. Only Script1 can run initially since no tags exist at first.

PPS. Tag VICTORY triggers a DV when scenario is run in campaign mode. It does nothing when run as stand-alone. (When run stand-alone, you win as soon as you conquer all victory hexes or wipe out every allied unit, just as is default for most scenarios run as stand-alone)