7 PzD Ghost Division France 1940 Mini Campaign

[JCE]

Hello Terminator,

I tried to change the orientation of the troops but it seems it don't work for the already deployed units, so to work i'll have to remove all of them and redeploy everybody (not fun).
It seems i don't have access anymore to the 20mm Flak 38 (switchable), it don't appear in the available units but i'm pretty sure it was when i created the scenario (as the motorcycle unit), i guess the game was patched between now and then and the special units were removed in the process (intentionnaly or not) - i don't see any other explanation.

JCE

[terminator]

Hello Terminator,
I tried to change the orientation of the troops but it seems it don't work for the already deployed units, so to work i'll have to remove all of them and redeploy everybody (not fun).JCE

There is an easy and fast technique to make it
- choose the good Facing
- Select Units List
- Select Display reserve units
- Put the unit in the reserve
- select the unit and redeploy the unit on the Hex (Shift+Lect-click)

UnitsFacing.jpg (961.35 KiB) Viewed 3833 times

PS : Take care of the invaluable 20mmFlak38

[terminator]

Hello Terminator,
It seems i don't have access anymore to the 20mm Flak 38 (switchable), it don't appear in the available units but i'm pretty sure it was when i created the scenario (as the motorcycle unit), i guess the game was patched between now and then and the special units were removed in the process (intentionnaly or not) - i don't see any other explanation.

JCE

http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 20#p708898

[JCE]

I was able to change the orientation of all the german troops easily, thanks for the advice!
The 20mm flak 38 is safe.

JCE

[GabeKnight]

"7PzD Ghost Division - Beta V1.1"

Hi JCE,
so far I'll agree with the other posts, this is really a good one. Comparable to Erik' GermanyGrand, maybe even a notch harder. Good map design and enemy positions. And I really liked the diverse secondary objectives. Well done!
Played the first three scenarios, and one thing that may need balancing are the RP's to the player between scenarios. All the scenarios should be no problem for veteran players or when played a second time, but it may be way to little for "casual" players to repair the damage done to their core. Some counter-attacks are quite fierce if one's not adequately prepared for them, resulting in high losses. You may want to increase the turn limits a little, too.
I didn't want to reload many turns or restart the scenarios, so I've played in one session:

"7PD-1-Dinant"
- Didn't expect it to become fairly hard after the initial phase of the mission, and my overconfident approach cost me quite some losses with my forces all scattered around. My fault, of course.
- I've missed the "destroy fortress by inf." sec. obj. because I forgot about it and was too lazy to reload... ...but otherwise everything worked.

"7PD-2-Flavion"
- the sec. obj. trigger "88 in AT mode" doesn't work like that. Maybe because of the two (duplicate?) conditions. I did destroy one of the Char B1's with a direct fire hit.
- the initial armoured counter-attack from two directions combined with the simultaneous plane's attacks was quite much, to be honest, while still recovering from some heavy losses from the previous mission. Didn't expect that and had to take even more infantry losses. Even more devastating were the high HP losses to my expensive arty being bombed by air. I seriously should've restarted the scenario at that point... Maybe make the enemy attack in two waves?

Screenshot 205.jpg (426.34 KiB) Viewed 3804 times

"7PD-3-LaSambre"
- knowing what to expect from your missions by now, this one went more smoothly as I've played WAY more cautiously. Still may want to increase the turn limits a little.
- the advance through the Mormal forrests was well made!
- don't know what happened exactly, but there were NO MORE three "Somua" tanks to destroy within my play-through. I'd suspect one of them may have left the map. Oh, now I see: one of them got a wrong AI team setting: 1 instead of 4! So he did run, the coward!
- the event title "Tactical Bombers Strike B1 Tanks!" is too long and doesn't fit inside the popup window
- I'd change way more "supporting" units out of important supply/victory hexes from "static defense" to "local defense"
- you may want to rethink either the spawning point of the sec. obj. "destroy Somua S35" reward or making it a core unit instead

Screenshot 207.jpg (606.99 KiB) Viewed 3804 times

Thanks for a good time so far!

[kondi754]

Yes, it's a really great job.

[JCE]

Hello GabeKnight,

Here the thing, 7 PzD had a hard time during the France Campaign* (and Barbarossa too) so i tried to have this feeling during the games and that's why i don't want to lower too much the difficulty.
Nevertheless i took into account your remarks & did some changes for the V1.2, adding a few turns for scen 1 & 3, changing the Flak 88 objective in scen 2 (only one B1 in the village is the target), lowering the aircrafts in scen 2, removing the Stuka objective in scen 3 and replacing it by a more interesting objective for the medium/long term (and more accurate with the 7PzD OOB for Barbarossa)/i experienced the same fleeing Somua during my testing but and i just saw it had the wrong AI setting (it flees from the start), some IA settings changes too for other french troops at LaSambre.
So all good now, here a new wetransfer link to download the Beta v1.2 wit all these changes: https://we.tl/WJByeYFXKV
To kondi: i guess you'll want to see more scenarios added to the campaign, know that i'm working to add 5-6 scenarios for Barbarossa if i've time and motivation.
Best,

JCE

* = 7PzD was surprised to see a lot of B1 Bis at Flavion and tried to use the Flak88 efficiently (they will do it again at Arras against Matildas..)

[JCE]

Anybody tried the last scenario "Arras"? How it went?
Best,

JCE

[kondi754]

I'm at 3rd, I did not install the latest version, I play without any facilities.
The 2nd scn difficulty level was ok for me, so it makes no sense to play from the beginning.
I will try to finish it tonight, then will be Arras.

[kondi754]

I try to finish it fast, so sec objectives stayed unresolved.
I've spotted only 1 Somua tank, probably the other 2 were in the south of the map
Good battle

Ready for Arras...

[kondi754]

I'm after 13 turns of 25.
The battle is not too difficult so far. I managed to complete all side tasks.
I have some observations but I would like to wait until the end of the battle, because maybe they are premature.
Although I can already write that I have doubts about the compatibility of events on the map with the real battle of Arras even at this stage of the scenario.
It seems to me that 7 PzD's units should be deployed completely differently on the map at the beginning of the mission...

[terminator]

First scenario Dinant (1.02) , cosmetic suggestions :

- French troops do not have the good facing. You can use the same technique as for the German Army, the Ai will be kept.

- the river Meuse stops in the edges of the map :

Meuse(1).png (180.3 KiB) Viewed 3720 times

You should add a water tile at the edge of the map, like that :

Meuse(2).png (112.47 KiB) Viewed 3720 times

The result (could be better without the graphical bug...) :

Meuse(3).png (140.38 KiB) Viewed 3720 times

[terminator]

First scenario Dinant (1.02) , secondary objectives :

This secondary objective is not clear :

damage.jpg (30.66 KiB) Viewed 3718 times

I began to play without having understood the sense of this objective until my tactical bomber was attacked by fighters.
This objective is a suicide mission : less you play well more you have of chance to achieve this objective, more you play well less you have of chance to reach the objective (?)

[kondi754]

The last scn is definitely too easy. Perhaps it is the effect of changes at the earlier stages of the campaign.
First of all, I miss the next British-French attack after crossing the river. The second half of the game is rather trivial.

There is incompatibility with the historical battle, if I was doing it, I would order the player firstly to capture all 5 VPs west of the map in the shortest time, e.g. 6-7 turns.
Of course, the towns nad villages along the way would be unprotected or weakly defended.
The player would have to quickly send tanks and motorised infantry forward, while the other units would appear on the map after capturing these 5 VPs, because the player would get substancial amount of CPs at that moment and could place the rest of the infantry, artillery and aa/at guns on the map.
Then there would be a British attack from Arras on such extended German troops and would be directed at the infantry and German artillery on the eastern side of the river.
French tanks, on the other hand, would attack Rommel's armored forces in the west.
In my opinion, this battle should look something like this.

[JCE]

Hello Kondi,

Battle of Arras is very difficult to simulate without placing directly the player units like in a standalone scenario as PzRgt 25 was westward (and attacked from the SW in the evening - see the map) and British troops attack the 2 infantry regiments which were on their own but managed the situation with the 88s. That's why i limited the Command points to 50 then 60 and 70, just to simulate every 7PzD units are not available since the beginning. Allied troops get the surprise but the 88 once again did a great job and Germans won the day.
Nevertheless i reinforced the allied troops and changed some triggers but this battle should not be so hard. (Barbarossa will be more difficult)

To Terminator, i'll reorient static allied troops no problem and try to add deep water tile at the edge of the map. For the "take 5 damage from enemy aircrafts" it's not really a secondary objective but just a way to add the 88mm Flak battalion the division get for Fall Gelb - i just could add it since the beginning or from a popup event - i will think about it.

Best,

JCE

[kondi754]

Hello Kondi,

Battle of Arras is very difficult to simulate without placing directly the player units like in a standalone scenario as PzRgt 25 was westward (and attacked from the SW in the evening - see the map) and British troops attack the 2 infantry regiments which were on their own but managed the situation with the 88s. That's why i limited the Command points to 50 then 60 and 70, just to simulate every 7PzD units are not available since the beginning. Allied troops get the surprise but the 88 once again did a great job and Germans won the day.
Nevertheless i reinforced the allied troops and changed some triggers but this battle should not be so hard. (Barbarossa will be more difficult)

JCE

I only wrote how I would do it, but you decide, its your work.
I miss those German tanks advanced far ahead and when returning to the battlefield came upon the French armored units.
Regardless of our different visions of this battle, the Allied units are not enough
I think there should be at least 2 waves of Allies attack

[KhanDam2]

hello,

I was born in Arras and i'm would play this mini campaign but the We Transfert Links are Dead

Where can i obtain the campaign or some one can post for me or send me by email please

Thanks in advance

Regards from France

Cheers

[terminator]

I use MediaFire for a long time, it costs nothing and works very well

[Horst]

I've also used MediaFire for a long time, but it often canceled my uploads in the end. It also doesn't show the upload speed. The worst "feature" of MF is that is verifies every file extremely long before and after uploading.
Mega is much better with a generally higher speed. You can even pause/resume all uploads without trouble:
https://mega.nz

[JCE]

Hello All,

Here a new link to download the campaign: https://we.tl/GIPasTQR9t
Version v1.3:
- Sc1/Dinant: River near map border fixed
- Sc1/Dinant: i removed the "take 5 damage to your aircrafts" for just a popup event to get the Flak 88 battalion
- Sc4/Arras: reinforced allied troops, changed some triggers

The wetransfer links i used come in handy with a release every week or so but effectively for a final version i'll need a permanent solution, if someone is interested to host it that will be great.
Best,

JCE