CSI Sweep: Germany East 43

[bru888]

By invitation from Erik.

No descriptions or images for Victory and Defeat? I believe defaults will take their places instead . . .

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There seems to be a word missing here. I am guessing it's either "Sincerely" or "Up" :

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[bru888]

Kharkov-43 v. 1.3

"Orphan" here:

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You start the Soviets off a bit low in land supply. Intended?

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This is a neat little vignette. I just have a question and a suggestion. The question is, the other four "Soviet officer capture points" are primary objectives surrounding Kharkov. This fifth capture point is way out of the way in some God-forsaken, unnamed burg over to the southwest. Why not Balakliya? (If you decide to move it there, don't forget to move all three hexes: Check Hex Owner, Spawn Unit, and Event Popup focus.):

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The suggestion is, you have the first two Event Popups pointing at Sector A. Any of the captures could happen first, so there is no given order of capture. I'm thinking all five Event Popups should focus on the point of capture, not Sector A. If you are going to announce a capture, you should point at it instead of the interrogation center to avoid confusion.

A further minor quibble: You award specialisation points to both Wehrmacht and Waffen SS when in the mission briefing, you mention only a single specialisation point. Same thing with the "Kill tanks" and "Kill air units" - you promise only one point but award both factions with one each.

One other suggestion, which I do not usually make in CSI sweeps - make scenario design suggestions, that is - If you are going to have a goody like the SU22 capture, and it's not mentioned ahead of time anywhere, why have it in a far off place in the northwest? The scenario will be over long before the SU22 is captured because it is away from the primary objectives and the player will not know to go there. Only if he stumbles across it, rambling around the map, will it ever happen.

I see you have the great Kaciaryna Kasyanova flying around in her Ilyushin Il-2. When I play this campaign, I will not fire upon her! She may strafe away at will, with my blessing.

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[bru888]

Belgorod v. 1.3

"Orphans" here:

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Same comment as above about promising a specialisation point and awarding two, one for each faction.

[bru888]

Orel v. 1.3

Wrong objective here:

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Missing target hex here:

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From this point on, I will refrain from mentioning the thing about awarding two specialisation points when only one is promised.

[bru888]

Ponyri v. 1.3

"Orphans" here. The conscripts definitely and, since the ground units are in focus in this view, I'd say it's the 37mm gun as well, not the plane (I've been checking planes manually on the Units List in case you start any off in hangars):

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I don't trust this; the Soviets have several hangars on the map - they are structures as well - and if they get destroyed, will they not count toward this objective? I would specify Unit Types Bunker and Concrete Bunker instead:

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You've been giving 50 and 50 but here you give the poor Waffen zilch! Nada!

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The same thought about the KV1 came to mind as the SU22 in Kharikov but at least here you have Soviet units in the area to battle, attracting attention.

[bru888]

Olkhovatka v. 1.3

Two "orphans" here:

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and one up here:

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Same comment as above because you have Soviet hangars on this map, too. I would specify Unit Types Bunker and Concrete Bunker instead:

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I'll mention this at this point: In a couple of scenarios so far, you use U.S. Infantry under the Soviet flag. I am aware of Lend Lease equipment of course, but I don't remember us lending them U.S. soldiers! (Here's where you provide a link to some arcane item about a battalion of lost American volunteers who fought alongside the White Russians after World War I, were cut off and captured, spent the next 20 years in Siberian gulags, then were offered a chance to "volunteer" once again . . .):

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You really think this is going to work, huh? Theoretically it should, I suppose. Say, how dare you make a target of her?!?

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This one is going to fire immediately since it points to a hex that the Germans already own:

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To be continued . . .

[GabeKnight]

You really think this is going to work, huh? Theoretically it should, I suppose. Say, how dare you make a target of her?!?

But it's an innovative use of that trigger, though. Never seen an objective built this way. Cool idea to award the "wounding" or capture of enemy commanders.

Still,I agree with Bruce that Erik shoud've picked another target than HER...

[Erik2]

Guys, note that there is a trigger for every Soviet commander.
No discrimination

[bru888]

Kursk Armory North v. 1.3

The objective is to "Hold/capture all 9 [primary] objectives" and you point to nine of them in the mission but you actually have 10 primary VPs on the map. The airfield just east of Kursk is also a primary VP, the tenth, and so will count toward the primary objective.

In the briefing, perhaps use "redeploy" rather than "de-deploy"?

Back when he was participating here, I remember the developer saying that limiting the amount of times Any Event is used as Trigger Events would save AI processing time and speed up gameplay. To that end, perhaps use Capture VP Event for the Armory triggers instead?

Then again, many of your AI team triggers are also Any Event so maybe that's old news.

[bru888]

Yakovlevo v. 1.3

"Orphan" hiding way over here:

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[bru888]

Oboyan v. 1.3

"Orphans" here:

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and here:

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The objective is "Capture/hold all__objectives at scenario end." Note the double-spacing where the number of objectives would normally go, as if you hesitated to enter it before finalizing the number. There are nine primary objectives on the map (including two that the Germans start out owning) and the trigger is set up for nine, so perhaps put "9" in the mission description.

If you bought what I said about Any Event above, you may want to make the airfield triggers Capture VP events.

No AI teams for Soviet La-5 fighters spawned in T6, T8, T10, and T12:

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[bru888]

Kursk Armory [South] v. 1.3

I see that this is a mirror image of Kursk Armory North only with the German army approaching from the south this time. However, the scenario name is still "Kursk Armory North" when it should read "Kursk Armory South."

"Orphans" here:

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here:

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and here:

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Same comment as in Kursk Armory North about there being 9 primary objectives while there is a 10th primary objective on the map, the airfield east of Kursk. Also the suggested "redeploy" for "de-deploy."

However, it's a bit odd here in that, in Kursk Armory North, the objective was to Hold/capture whereas in Kursk Armory South the objective is merely to Capture. In KAN, the trigger is Turn Start/Scenario turn limit. In KAS, it's just Capture VP Event. Intentional?

And again, you're using a lot of Any Events when Capture VP Event might be better for gameplay.

[bru888]

Prokhorovka v. 1.3

Three "orphans" here:

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You will incite mutiny if you don't award the Waffen SS their promised resources!

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Bad link to objective:

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This image is not in the folder:

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[bru888]

Dnipropetrovsk v. 1.3

"Orphan" here:

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There's this glob of neutral hexes in the middle of German territory, including one of the primary VPs. Intended?

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By the way, that's the ninth primary VP on the map whereas the objective is "Capture/hold all 8 objectives at scenario end." This neutral VP will count toward that objective.

The wording of the briefing is confusing: "You must hold at least four of your objectives to ensure victory, but to truly defeat this attack, you will need to push the Russians back over the Dnieper completely and reclaim all lost objectives." It's simply to hold 8 objectives at the end; there is nothing in the scenario about losing if the Germans hold only 3 or less at any time.

You probably should include the T-34s in the Aux trigger Unit Types:

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This image is not in the folder:

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You are missing one of the Soviet commanders out of the usual four: "Commissar." Intentional?

[bru888]

Kremenchug v. 1.3

"Orphan" here:

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Two more neutral globs but I see what you are doing here; AI teams 3 and 4 are headed for these points. That must mean the neutral VP in the previous scenario was also intentional but there, it doesn't make much sense as an island in German territory even though you are driving Soviet units toward it as well. At least in this scenario, the nine objectives match the mission; there is no 10th primary VP:

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This briefing, "Your objective is to hold on to as many of your objectives as you can for as long as you can. If you must, you have permission to withdraw from the East Bank of the Dnieper, but no further!" does not seem to coincide with the primary objective of "Hold all 9 objectives until scenario end" in that two or three of the objectives are indeed on the East Bank of the Dneiper.

[bru888]

Kiev-43 v. 1.3

I was troubled by this introduction of a Romanian factor, with income, so that it might be possible to purchase core Romanian units when Romania is not included in the core definition in the campaign editor. However, this is the last scenario in this campaign and I seem to remember that the trouble arises when undesignated core units are forwarded from one scenario to the next.

However again, and this is where your expertise must take over, I see that you are providing for importing cores from one campaign to the next. This one, for example, allows the Germany West 39-40 and Germany East 41-42 to be imported (is this feature even working?). So what happens if Romanian core units are created in this scenario and your next campaign allows importing this core but does not define Romania as a core faction?

On the other hand, (I'm literally scratching my head at this moment), what was that issue, exactly? Come to think of it . . . it was providing for a core factor in the scenario editor, allowing the player to acquire such core units, and then not including that faction in every ensuing scenario. Yes, that was it.

So, please excuse the "thinking (typing) out loud." You should be fine in this situation.

"Orphan" here:

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This situation is hodge-podge, hurly-burly, wiggly-piggly!

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But I get it. This is a Soviet paratrooper drop. The thing that I quibble is the inclusion of the artillery. I suppose that was possible even though these were large guns. However, two of these guns start off without supply. Is it your intention that the Soviets go for the nearby supply points for this reason? If so, nice touch.

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You mention and point to 11 primary VPs as objectives but there is a twelfth, Kaniv, which will confuse things.

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I believe you need to define these four aux unit types or else losing a German core unit will also defeat this objective:

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The Soviet T9 trigger is set for Turn 11 and you have another T11 trigger.

I like the snowstorm sequence, particularly "The sandstorm effect is used as a substitute for a snowstorm." I might just skip ahead to see what that looks like. But here's a question: On Turn 11, when there is the snowstorm warning, the player is told "You are ordered to ground your air units." Are you looking for voluntary compliance? Because if so, it's an exploit. Though I cannot think of a way to force this (all Axis air units exit) because the scenario does not know how many Axis planes would be surviving at that point for it to restore on Turn 16 when the "Luftwaffe can resume the air operations."

That's it for this one. I think some of your other German campaigns could use some sweeping, and I have my eye on your Forgotten Army campaign as well, but I'll hold off for a while and let you catch up.