Battlefield: Europe MOD v2.4

[iceFlame]

I think it would be more important to show landmarks in this scenario...

Agreed. Please don't hide the Kremlin or I won't know what I'm after.

But I do like the idea of the half size 'wavy' flags. From what I've seen they seem to be unobtrusive plus they add the perception of a '3D' type effect as opposed to the 'flat' look of the base flags.

So, win-win IMO.

[LandMarine47]

I think the Player should be allowed to buy small ships (Schnellboats and Destroyers) and await anything larger to be built. Or for lots of prestige, you could perhaps "buy" a capital ship, but the larger it is, the longer you wait for it to be built.

[guille1434]

Well, I made half sized versions of the flags as you suggested.

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing!

[McGuba]

RumpNissen wrote:
Well, I made half sized versions of the flags as you suggested.

Wow, that was quick! Thanks I like these more, too. But, I still have concerns with the victory objectives: I think that star is hardly visible especially on city hexes.
So I made a more glowing victory flag using the vanilla glowing frame. Does it really look unreal? I also made an Iron Cross background for the victory flags, just as an experiment. Or maybe there should be a glowing Iron Cross?
Dunno.

AugustinMalar wrote:
Yes, please put the markings on the opposite corner. I will use them.

Good idea, but it might interfere with the 'low ammo' and 'out of ammo' markers in the lower right corner.

Uhu wrote:
Poland AAR:

Summary: little too easy.

It is meant to be. Generally, the campaign is rather easy up until late 1941. As historically. (However, in France there can be a few difficult moments.) The Germans did not really encounter difficulties until their fiasco at Moscow so they became a bit overconfident. Can the player avoid falling into the same trap?

I didn't used the Reds, because:
- I don't wanted to have anything common with the "bolshevik scum".
- I found it really easy as I already won the scenario to make it even easier.

I thnk it is all right. It is part of the total freedom provided by this mod. However, I can imagine you calling Soviet Prime Joseph Stalin on the evening of September 16, 1941:

'Hallo, Uncle Joe, is that you? Well, sorry but I have changed my mind regarding that previous pact in that I do not want to see Bolshie boots on Polish soil. I hope you can understand this. It was a hard decision, but I had to make it. So, if you could order those guys back from the Polish border, that would be just about great. Thanks. Please give my best regards to your Missus. What? She commited suicide? Whatever. Hope you are well. Bye.'

Suggestions: the Reds should be taken out: at the possible attack the 3 flags in the east should be occupied by Soviet troops and west of them should be some heavy Polish resistance to prevent the earlier German occupation.

I would not take the Reds out, it is not compulsory to use them, but the player can test their effectiveness, speed and such. Do not forget that during the 20-30's Germany and the USSR cooperated in military developments, and they also had some joint military exercises.

Thanks for the AAR, hope to see more.

LandMarine47 wrote:
I think the Player should be allowed to buy small ships (Schnellboats and Destroyers) and await anything larger to be built. Or for lots of prestige, you could perhaps "buy" a capital ship, but the larger it is, the longer you wait for it to be built.

Good idea, but it would need some UI changes as well. And even small ships are quite expensive by default, a destroyer costs 1300.

[LandMarine47]

My personal opinion is to remove it. Seems to be causing lots of hassle and time, so we should stick with Vanilla flags. Although these flags are pretty damn cool! Maybe ask BNC hie he got the flags to look so well!

[McGuba]

My personal opinion is to remove it. Seems to be causing lots of hassle and time, so we should stick with Vanilla flags. Although these flags are pretty damn cool! Maybe ask BNC hie he got the flags to look so well!

I have the same dilemma, lol. Anyway, I think in v1.1 I will keep the vanilla style flags by default and attach the small wavy ones as an optional add-on. Then people can decide which one they want to use. Until then I am waiting for suggestions on how to improve victory 'wavy' flags.

As for BNC's it seems he is using the large wavy flags positioned in the middle - they really look nice on an empty map, or when having only infantry, but once you park one of those giant German A7V tanks in a city or an airfield hex most of the flag will disappear under it.

[iceFlame]

So I made a more glowing victory flag using the vanilla glowing frame. Does it really look unreal? I also made an Iron Cross background for the victory flags, just as an experiment. Or maybe there should be a glowing Iron Cross?

Yeah, to be honest, I'm not feeling it. The glowing frame just doesn't seem to be enough, (especially when the hex is selected - its significance seems washed away). So, for the time being, I'm gonna test the half-sized wavy flags but keep the base victory markers as none of the new ones are doing it for me.

Also, I second LandMarine's idea of making the Kriegsmarine more accessible for the player. Expensive though it may be, I think it would open up additional avenues for tactical exploitation. Which, (if your turn 99 foreshadowing is any indication), may be sorely needed if the player hopes to achieve much beyond historical outcomes. That way the player can think outside the box with combined branch tactics rather than be forced down the road of failing to capitalize on all the new ports gained in 1940 and beyond.

Technically it's ahistorical, but only in the sense that German leadership turned it's back on the surface fleet in favor of the U-Boat arm. But if we adopt your 'inglorious basterds' scenario, (placing the player in charge shortly after Barbarossa), then I see no issue in allowing historical branches to be developed and deployed in accordance with new strategic decisions.

The Germans did not really encounter difficulties until their fiasco at Moscow so they became a bit overconfident. Can the player avoid falling into the same trap?

Overconfident plus the rest of the world was starting to figure out how this new 'blitzkrieg' warfare worked. They may be a bit slow, but give 'em a couple of years to study it and they'll eventually catch on.

Poland AAR:

Summary: little too easy.

I was just going to say, it was a 'little too easy' in real-life as well, so - so far so good.

[Arvidus]

One last suggestion for the victory hex, Taking AugustinMalar's advice.

victory 4.png (6.09 KiB) Viewed 4955 times

Do whatever you wish with my flags, I'm glad to be of service either way ^^

[Uhu]

France AAR:

Summary: not as easy as Poland!!
Start: after several versions I decided to sell 3x Inf (all), 1x PzI, 1xPz II. From the prestige I bought: 2x 15cm Arty, 1x Bf 109E. Later I bought another Bf 109E, than upgraded the remaining Pz i (hero) to Pz IVD and bought a Ju 87R.
***SPOILER WARNING!***
The opening moves were really hard: strong air power of the enemy, too few axis arty so I had to punch again with the aux units forward. After several turns the enemy was softened and finally I gained an opening in the direction of Paris. Still I had strong casualties (at my auxs - core units took only minor casualties). I took Calais in turn 11.
BUT!!!
That was for the 2nd time when I played so far. First I left Calais for turn 18 not to end the scenario earlier and to leave the occupation of the juicy non-vh hexes. Therefore it was a bad surprise that I had additionally occupy another 4 VH's! Of course I couldn't... I think that way the player is mislead. For a better solution I write it later. So for the 2nd try I took Calais than took all other VH's except one to take the non-VH's too. It was hard, the Italians were weak but at turn 18 I could take all other towns/airports except one. I think that is a good result. Nice scenario!

Solution for the misleading objective messages:
I think a zone should be made in the radius of Calais (2 hexes) and if the player enters a message opens which informs him that after capturing Calais he will have other objectives so hurry... And maybe the main objective message screen should show 12 turn for major victory and only after the new objectives would be shown (in message) that for major victory all objectives should be captured by turn 18. Maybe there are other solutions too, but I think the actual version is really misleading.

Now forward to Yugoslavia and Greece!!

[McGuba]

RumpNissen wrote:
One last suggestion for the victory hex, Taking AugustinMalar's advice.

I am already using the lower right corner to differentiate multipurpose units such as the 8.8 cm FlaK 36 as you can see in this image. So for now I think I will go for the glowing wavy flags unless me or someone else come up with a better idea before I release the v1.1 patch.

Do whatever you wish with my flags, I'm glad to be of service either way ^^

Thanks, just like iceFlame I really like the quasy 3D look of the map with the wavy flags what I find superior to the vanilla look. Still general consensus seems to be that people prefer the vanilla flags, so they will be default and I will enclose the wavy flags as optional. Many thanks for your work again.

Uhu wrote:
France AAR:

Summary: not as easy as Poland!!

Sure, historically it was a real gamble, the French had about the same number of tanks as the Germans and nearly two third of the German tanks were still those obsolete Pz.I and Pz.II types with weaker armour than most Allied tanks. So it was definitely not as easy as Poland.

http://www.tarrif.net/wwii/pdf/DL%20-%2 ... 201940.pdf

It might not be a good idea to sell existing core units, IMO. You might be missing the infantry in the hilly terrain of the Balkans, and the experienced tanks in Barbarossa. Also keep in mind that at the start of the Barbarossa scenario you will not be able to purchase new units for a while as there is a 250 unit max core cap and you start the scenario with some 260-270 core units.

You are right, though, with the misleading objectives. I just did not expect that someone would wait taking the last objective until the last moment. So I will implement some change here.

I also think it is a good result. I usually made it in 18 turns, though I used the same core carried over from scenario one - just upgraded what I could. It is good to know that it is possible to make it with a completely different core as well. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Uhu]

Balkan AAR:

Summary: big but manageable map. Nice events, middle difficulty.
Nothing much to say - plenty of work in several theaters but if you manage to fight and move your forces smart, than no big problem will come. Only the time is important that you take Malta and Fort Capuzzo timely.
Nice scenario!

Aftermarth: now, after the campaign in Europe I have the following core:
4x Bf 109F (2 hero, 2x2 star, 2x1 star), 1 Pz IVF (2 star), 3x 17cm Arty (3x3 star), 1x Ju 87R (1 star)
I think it was worth to battle through the three scenarios!!

[iceFlame]

Just a little something for v1.1...

I found a few lines in the equipment.pzeqp file that seem to be calling non-existent icons.

They're calling as follows:

Line 11090 - SS_Wespe.png
Line 11091 - SS_Stug_IV.png
Line 11094 - SS_Hummel.png

None of which are displaying in-game, and taking a quick look in the units folder, I can't find any of them.

[LandMarine47]

Another thing I suggest is perhaps purchasing Armored Trains for the player. They not only act as artillery, they can scout ahead for your train convoys!

[Uhu]

Some additional notes:
- At the Balkan the quantity of inf units should be lowered because there are too many and most units do nothing and therefore there is also no big challange ("Unit lost? No problem: there is another one!" "Van mááááásik!" ) Anyway: with the train system, many extra inf units can be trasported from Europe.
I would suggest 25% to 33% lowering of the inf quantity at least.
- The capture of Malta was far easy. Sure it is risky to make it real hard because the player has not much time to capture it but at least one 40mm AA battery could be placed and maybe a arty unit too.

+ note for the France and Balkan scenarios: it was a great feeling to see and fight the many units of the several nations! It shows that this war was (also) a WORLD War!

Balkan AAR:

Summary: big but manageable map. Nice events, middle difficulty.
Nothing much to say - plenty of work in several theaters but if you manage to fight and move your forces smart, than no big problem will come. Only the time is important that you take Malta and Fort Capuzzo timely.
Nice scenario!

Aftermarth: now, after the campaign in Europe I have the following core:
4x Bf 109F (2 hero, 2x2 star, 2x1 star), 1 Pz IVF (2 star), 3x 17cm Arty (3x3 star), 1x Ju 87R (1 star)
I think it was worth to battle through the three scenarios!!

[Uhu]

As I wrote for Balkan there were anyway too much inf units so I absolute not felt the need for the sold core inf units.
I will look what panzers I will miss in the main scenario but the 17cm guns will be sure an extra power (I think the 4 Range is too much but I will use your settings.).

Hmm, I looked earlier in the scenario editor and as I remember the number of core units is 376 on the map (looked with the statistic option).

It might not be a good idea to sell existing core units, IMO. You might be missing the infantry in the hilly terrain of the Balkans, and the experienced tanks in Barbarossa. Also keep in mind that at the start of the Barbarossa scenario you will not be able to purchase new units for a while as there is a 250 unit max core cap and you start the scenario with some 260-270 core units.

[McGuba]

iceFlame wrote:
Just a little something for v1.1...

I found a few lines in the equipment.pzeqp file that seem to be calling non-existent icons.

Ah, yeah, my origninal idea was to add more camo schemes for the same unit types form 1943, as historically the Germans used many. But, in the end I decided to go for a uniform look and I was just too lazy to remove those referencies from the e-file. Obviiously it has no visible effect in-game.

Code: Select all

[b]LandMarine wrote:[/b]
Another thing I suggest is perhaps purchasing Armored Trains for the player. They not only act as artillery, they can scout ahead for your train convoys!

Good idea, but it might make partisan war a bit too easy: the player would not need to use several infantry units to keep control of whole areas, an armoured train would be just about enough.

Uhu wrote:
Balkan AAR:

Summary: big but manageable map. Nice events, middle difficulty.

Nothing much to say - plenty of work in several theaters but if you manage to fight and move your forces smart, than no big problem will come. Only the time is important that you take Malta and Fort Capuzzo timely.
Nice scenario!

Aftermarth: now, after the campaign in Europe I have the following core:
4x Bf 109F (2 hero, 2x2 star, 2x1 star), 1 Pz IVF (2 star), 3x 17cm Arty (3x3 star), 1x Ju 87R (1 star)

I guess you wanted to write Crete instead of Malta.

'Look pilot, there is an island over there!'
'Yeah, but which one is it, Malta or Crete?'
'It doesn't matter, we gonna take it!'


I noticed another possible "bug": in the next Barbarossa scenario you will only be able to place three air units, so in order to continue with your current core you have to edit the file and add two more air unit placement hexes. I will fix it in the next version. However, it makes me think if it wil not make the campaing unbalanced a bit: in the vanilla campaign there is also a limitation to the max number of air units in most scenarios...

- At the Balkan the quantity of inf units should be lowered because there are too many and most units do nothing and therefore there is also no big challange

I see your point here, but in this scenario, just like in the others, I used historical order of battles to determine the number and type of units on the map in turn 1, so reducing those would make the scenario unhistorical. So, I would rather increase the number of partisans to 'give a job' to those idle units. It will also prepare the player for the partisan war of the next big scenario.

- The capture of Malta (edit: Crete) was far easy.

I think there should be three inf units, but an AA is a good idea as well. I will add something for sure.

note for the France and Balkan scenarios: it was a great feeling to see and fight the many units of the several nations! It shows that this war was (also) a WORLD War!

Yeah, just start the next scenario for even more! I really like to command different units from the frozen north to the hot desert of N Africa, from the open Atlantic Sea to the steppes of Russia. It really gives the feeling that you are part of something gross, a World War, with large capital letters, and not a series of local engagements as in the vanilla campaigns.

As I wrote for Balkan there were anyway too much inf units so I absolute not felt the need for the sold core inf units.
I will look what panzers I will miss in the main scenario but the 17cm guns will be sure an extra power (I think the 4 Range is too much but I will use your settings.).

I found (towed) artillery of limited use in the big scenario as opposed to other PzC scenarios. Mainly because of the large map, I think mobile units such as tanks or tactical bombers are more useful.

As for the 17 cm gun, I took over its stats from deducter's mod, and indeed, it looks a bit 'über', but, because of its high price, it will draw enemy fire on itself like a magnet making it expensive to maintain. I even lost one in one of my test plays, and replacing it was painfully expensive. I think I should decrease its max ammo to 4-5 instead (currently it is 6) to make it more balanced. And / or maybe make it even more expensive. Historically this gun had a very long range, ~30 km / 19 miles so I think it should have longer range than most other artillery to make it unique. Battleships and battlecruisers has range 4 as well, and those guns had a comparable range historically.

Hmm, I looked earlier in the scenario editor and as I remember the number of core units is 376 on the map (looked with the statistic option).

Sure, but many of those units will appear later, such as the 2nd Hungarian Army or the V rockets of the Reich. And by that time a you will most likely lose even more...

[McGuba]

One last thought:

I saw that you started the campaing in Rommel difficulty. I must inform you that I created and tested the big scenario in General difficulty level (that's why it is the recommended difficulty), and I think playing with 50% less prestige per turn will seriously affect your war efforts.

I expect that you will be forced to use green replacements most of the time which will slowly downgrade the quality of your troops, and you will be unable to make some vital upgrades later. Therefore I think it will be very hard, if possible at all, to achieve any kind of victory. So, if you do not reduce the difficulty before continueing I can only say:

Good luck!

[demyansk]

Quick question, after I download the mod where is the exact spot i install the game into again?

[Uhu]

I guess you wanted to write Crete instead of Malta.
'Look pilot, there is an island over there!'
'Yeah, but which one is it, Malta or Crete?'
'It doesn't matter, we gonna take it!'

In true "world conquering" manner
Maybe it's a wannabe-though: a dream (capturing Malta) I wished to fulfill.

I noticed another possible "bug": in the next Barbarossa scenario you will only be able to place three air units, so in order to continue with your current core you have to edit the file and add two more air unit placement hexes. I will fix it in the next version. However, it makes me think if it wil not make the campaing unbalanced a bit: in the vanilla campaign there is also a limitation to the max number of air units in most scenarios...

Is it not possible to put the other aircrafts down in the next turn?

So, I would rather increase the number of partisans to 'give a job' to those idle units. It will also prepare the player for the partisan war of the next big scenario.

Yes, that's a good idea! In that way, after conquering Yugoslavia there would be still some events on the Balkan no the total idle phase while fighting further south.

I found (towed) artillery of limited use in the big scenario as opposed to other PzC scenarios. Mainly because of the large map, I think mobile units such as tanks or tactical bombers are more useful.

Well, it will show: I always use towed arty and I never had problems with that - they have simply more ammo, and mostly better punch which is cruical for me. Only when the Hummels arrive purchase I a few of them. In the GC for example I have 5x 17cm gun and 3x Hummel. Although I lowered their radius back to 3.

I expect that you will be forced to use green replacements most of the time which will slowly downgrade the quality of your troops, and you will be unable to make some vital upgrades later. Therefore I think it will be very hard, if possible at all, to achieve any kind of victory.

I'm really curious: I have the appetite to play a hard game where I can stil make success with good strategy. I always liked the vanilla Defend the Reich campaing where the player have almost impossible tasks. Maybe the experienced and modified core can bring some extra help. Therefore I will leave the radius 4 also in the game.

Good luck!

I hope that will be enough for the total Sieg.

[iceFlame]

The Maginot line looks like a tough nut to crack!



Just playing around a bit with some of the overlays...

Added historical wavy flags and a ribbon from the Knight's Cross as a unit marker. It's not really needed yet, but once they start to mix it up, I find it helps provide a quick visual ID, plus IMO it looks cool.

Having fun playing as well, so it's all good!

*******

Incidentally I wanted to ask about your thoughts on the Ardennes. Obviously the Allies considered it impenetrable to armor, (something the Germans quickly disproved), but how did you decide how many and which hexes would allow passage?