CSI Sweep: Germany West 1939-40

[bru888]

Trondheim v. 1.7 (continued)

The "359.Reg" trigger enables the "Connect Trondheim to supply from Oslo" objective. The accompanying Event Popup message should mention this new objective. It does say something about deploying units on the bottom map edge, but I don't see any deployment hexes.

The "939.HKB" trigger generating a Kriegsmarine coastal gun should be made conditional on whether Trondheim and neighboring hexes are in German hands.

For the "Royal Navy spotted" and "French Navy spotted" triggers, the Event Popup message says "British/French warships are spotted. Sink at least one of them." The objective, however, is "Sink two Allied cruisers" (the objective trigger does not differentiate by nation). Therefore, each message should be clarified as follows: British (or French) warships are spotted. In this engagement, Oberkommando der Marine has prioritized allied cruisers as targets. Sink at least two of them. [New Objective]

Heh, I even have a problem with the "Rain" trigger. Weather is set to "Clear" after 10-4-1940. It's clear to begin with; did you intend to start off raining or snowing?

Aren't you glad you asked me to look into such matters?

[bru888]

Trondheim v. 1.7 (continued)

Hey, I'm back! About Trondheim, that is. Two things:

In my humble opinion, you should adjust the balance of the Coastal Guns module. There is not enough time nor muscle to get the job done in time.

Six turns, both supply ships sunk, sole Gebirgsjäger unit successful but out of supply until that VP flag is completely raised:

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Eleven turns, the destroyer also sunk but finally the Gebirgsjäger unit has done its job and there are German coastal guns ready to fire upon the enemy:

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Which worked only because the "Furious" AI team 17 remains Idle. There are no trigger effects anywhere to activate it:

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If the Furious ships were active from when they appear (Turn 5), there is no way this "Capture coastal batteries" could have happened in time. As I said before, I like this module but it needs adjustment, especially once you give an assignment to "Furious" AI team 17. Delay their appearance? Land two Gebirgsjäger units? Use Fallschirmjäger instead (self-supplying for 3 turns)?

[bru888]

Bergen v. 1.7

Scenario Description: "The capture of Bergen would provide the Kriegsmarine with a U-Boote base and port facilities for surface raiders."

"Occupy Bergen" Mission: "You need to place two Kriegsmarine cruisers next to Bergen. This will spawn the invasion force." (Correct "teh" transposition.)

Major Victory: "The Norwegians have been beaten and the British are fleeing the area." (Remove the "h" from "hare" unless your are referring to them as running like rabbits.)

There is a problem with this trigger:

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It requires all five coastal guns to be destroyed when Bergen is taken (Capture VP Event). It stands to reason that one or more coastal guns will be still around when that happens. Thus the trigger does not fire and the "Occupy Voss" and "Occupy Ulven" objectives are never enabled. This gives the player a cheat; in fact, it rewards him for not being efficient about cleaning up the coastal guns beforehand. Simple recommendation: Delete that "Check Unit Count" condition. This way, Bergen can be taken and the coastal guns be eliminated in any order, and the player has a proper challenge in conquering Voss and Ulven.

Hmmm. I'll take that back about an unfair advantage to the player. The AI has mirror Voss and Ulven objectives, along with triggers that award them to the AI should they still be in Norwegian hands at the end of the scenario. If you never activate the human Voss and Ulven objectives, then it's a guaranteed Defeat. Or at best, a Draw. Nobody has complained about this?

Those "Ger coastal fort" triggers will work because they are timed for Trigger Event "Turn Start" (instead of Capture VP Event, which was the problem above). Event Popup message: "Kriegsmarine personnel are manning coastal guns." Also, you may want to include a "Check Hex Owner" condition in the "Ger coastal fort Sandviken" trigger to prevent the coastal gun from spawning prematurely; i.e., behind enemy lines.

Here is a return to that problem of the hex not being cleared of German units when the Capture VP Event occurs; better to make this "Turn Start" or "Move Event":

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Same thing here; what Capture VP Event would be happening at this time? The construction group just got done building an airstrip on the hex. Better to make this "Turn Start" or "Move Event," too:

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This is a "gimme" (a free handout); it awards the specialisation point immediately:

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You probably forgot the "Scenario turn limit" condition but that would have been wrong, too, because this scenario could end early. Instead, you need multiple "Check Objective State" conditions, one for each primary objective, and the Trigger Event needs to be "Any Event" (not "Capture VP Event" because two of the primary objectives are "Combat Event" - "Any Event" covers either set of scenario-ending primary objectives).

Same thing with the final "Bergen-Oslo open" trigger. Also, you have two triggers named "Bergen-Oslo open" - I never trust that situation. I recommend you rename one of them.

The "Ger Bergen, Voss, Ulven" trigger needs to turn on the recurring "Bergen-Oslo open" trigger which is initially off. Also, that trigger needs to complete the objective, not mark it as open.

The "Bergen-Oslo closed" should be off in the beginning, else it will fail the objective immediately. It is activated by the first "Bergen-Oslo open" trigger. Also, it would be better to return the objective to open, not failed, because the situation could change again.

Then the final "Bergen-Oslo open" trigger, when activated by all primary objectives being completed, looks at the supply line and if it is open, awards the specialisation point.

Just checking on this; it's saying if anybody's navy shows up near the hex, spawn the British units:

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Same thing here, only in this case, the trigger is not going to fire anyway because no Target Hex has been selected:

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[bru888]

Oslo v. 1.7

The structure of the campaign is to select one of these scenarios, Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen, or Oslo, win it, and move on to Eben-Emael. The wording in the scenario descriptions and briefings does not exactly match this situation; it appears at one time, these scenarios were meant to be played sequentially? But no matter, the player will not know the difference.

As we have seen, this is not going to work because of the hex not being cleared of German units when the Capture VP Event occurs; better to make this "Turn Start" or "Move Event":

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The "Sea 9.4" trigger is quite specific about placing a cruiser on each of the Oslo port hexes. Suggest the mission description be changed to: Place 3 cruisers on the port hexes of Oslo. The city itself must be conquered by land forces which will disembark from the cruisers. (One of those spawned land units is just a German truck. Intentional?)

The hint for "Destroy all land forts" objective says "After regular German troops have arrived in (not "to") Oslo, use your Fallschirmjäger units to drop near the forts." The Fallschirmjäger units cannot go airborne again until Fornebu airfield has been captured. Perhaps the hint should read "After regular German troops have arrived at Fornebu airfield, use your Fallschirmjäger units to drop near the forts"?

You have all of the seaborne units of the "Art/Eng 15.4 sea" and "Pz/MG 16.4 sea" triggers spawning in the same hex. Normally, the game will sort that out by sprinkling spawns in a one-unit radius. There are six hexes available (the seventh is part of an island) and maybe 8 units spawning at once across the two triggers. Suggest sprinkling the spawn hexes a bit to avoid losing two units.

All of the Kriegsmarine coastal gun spawn triggers will work because the Trigger Event is "Any Event" instead of "Capture VP Event."

On the other hand, there are multiple problems with the "Norway" spawn triggers. The following triggers spawn units that are not assigned to any AI team or to the unused "AI Team 14":
I/1.Art 10.4
Skole 10.4
11.4 Fredrikstad
11.4 Tønsberg
12.4 Tønsberg

Note: I am not bothering with Sola-Kristiansand because it is not included in the campaign tree. It is with alacrity that I now proceed to Denmark. Norway is undoubtedly a beautiful country but after sweeping this mini-Norway campaign, I feel like I have seen it all already.

Thread to be continued . . .

[bru888]

Jylland v. 1.7

Interesting. I didn't know the Danish names for Jutland peninsula (Jylland) or Zealand island (Sjælland) until now. I still would not know if I wasn't reading the folder names. I propose to clarify it for the player.

Scenario Name: "Denmark, Jutland Peninsula (Jylland)"

Scenario Description: "Historically the Danes capitulated after 6 hours at the King's request. This time the Danish commander-in-chief William Wain Prior's decision to fight on is heeded.
This may not be a 6-hour walk in Idretsparken for the Germans.
(This scenario concentrates on the Jutland Peninsula.)"

Looks good, I think. I'll recommend the same treatment for Sjælland:

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Briefing: Reference is made to Værløse airfield. That's near Copenhagen in the Sjælland scenario. Perhaps you meant "Rye airfield"? If so, you should edit the briefing, name the hex, put a plain capture flag on it, and place an airfield under the airstrip unit.

Major and Minor Defeat: "Really Herr General, you could not beat the Danes?"

The "Occupy all 5 objectives" mission points to 6 VP's. I am guessing that the odd one is this unnamed airfield here:

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It seems to balance the map in terms of primary VP locations, so I recommend keeping it. I didn't see any airport in the area on Google Maps aside from Aarhus Airport which, although it looks too far from Aarhus on your map, actually is 36 km northeast of the city. So I suggest naming it "Aarhus AF" (Wikipedia says "The airport was established in 1943 by German occupying forces" but we won't tell anybody, will we? )

So, therefore and if you agree, these changes:

Hex Name: "Aarhus AF"
Mission: "Occupy all 6 objectives"
Trigger:

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The other primary objective, "Connect Flensburg-Skagen," is faulty:

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Simple solution: Activate the "Flensburg-Skagen" trigger and deactivate the "Supply broken" trigger. Also, perhaps a mission description is needed for clarity: "Set up and maintain a supply connection between these two points."

There's a little trick that I do to check how many objective hexes there are on a map. Testing this map shows that there are 9 secondary objectives!

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That's not what you want, obviously. Here is a list of the extraneous flags to remove or change to plain capture points:
- A point one hex south of Hansted (Hanstholmfortet)
- A point two hexes southwest of Fredrikshavn (Trekronerfortet)
- Aarhus (not one of the mobilization centers)
- The tip of land 8 hexes west of Varde and Esbjærg (Blaavandfortet)

Also, for consistency, you should add "MC" to "Hansted" like the other mobilization centers.

"Fyn" trigger folder:
- "Middlefart t2," "Nyborg t2," and "Svendborg t2" triggers are all set for "Turn = 2." If the "Check Unit(s) Near Hex" conditions (Germans near a hex) are not met on exactly Turn 2, AI Team 1 "Fyn" will never activate and will remain idle.

"Jylland" trigger folder:
- "t2" trigger is set for "Turn = 2." If the "Check Unit(s) Near Hex" condition (Germans near a hex) is not met on exactly Turn 2, AI Team 1 "Jylland" will never activate and will remain idle.
- "Aarhus t2" trigger spawns a unit that is not assigned to an AI team.

"German reinforcements" folder:
- In the "Fallschirmjäger" trigger, one of the spawn Target Hexes is out to sea, on the edge of the map. The spawn is probably not included for that reason.
- "10.4.40 Værløse" trigger's "Check Hex Owner" Target Hex is out to sea, on the edge of the map. The spawn is probably not included for that reason. (The spawn Target Hex is also located there.)

Hmmm. I'm going to assume all 73(!) bridge demolitions are properly programmed.

[bru888]

Sjælland v. 1.7

Following suit with my recommendation for Jylland:

Scenario Name: "Denmark, Island of Zealand (Sjælland)"

Scenario Description: "Historically the Danes capitulated after 6 hours at the King's request. This time the Danish commander-in-chief William Wain Prior's decision to fight on is heeded.
This may not be a 6-hour walk in Idretsparken for the Germans.
(This scenario concentrates on the Island of Zealand.)

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Mission Description for "Occupy the 4 mobilization centers": Correct the typo "Get 1pecialisation points."

Major and Minor Defeat: "Really Herr General, you could not beat the Danes?"

Using that trick that I mentioned earlier, we again have problems with too many primary and secondary objective points on the map:

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The extra primary VP is Værlöse. The solution is easy; place an ordinary capture point flag on it. The triggers address the hex directly, so it need not be a primary VP.

We are looking for five extra secondary VPs. The linked objective hexes are Fredrikssund, Holbæk, Avedøre, and Slagelse (perhaps an "MC" after each name is in order, as you did in Jylland). Here is a list of the extraneous flags to remove or change to plain capture points:
- A point two hexes west of Helsingör (Dragörfortet)
- Two points just to the south of Copenhagen (Middelgrundsfort and Flakfortet)
- A point eight hexes north of Nyköbing (Masnedöfortet)
- The tip of land five hexes southwest of Slagelse (Korsörfortet)

For the "Ger Værlöse" and "Dan Værlöse" triggers, you should do the following:
1) Turn off "Dan Værlöse" to begin with.
2) Include in each trigger "Set Trigger State" effects to turn itself off and turn the other on (similar to what you did for the supply connection objective triggers in Jylland).

The "Sink all Danish naval units" could be set for "Combat Event" (instead of "Any Event") to save processing time.

Same for the "Occupy all coastal forts" objective but more importantly, that trigger omits Korsörfortet in its "Check Hex Owner" conditions. (More elegant would be to use a "Check Unit Count" condition looking for "Alive = 0" coastal guns so that the trigger could be linked to the objective and a count appear on the Turn Overview.)

All of the units spawned in the "Avedore" folder have the same Target Hex. Yes, it's over four turns but I wonder if there will be room for all of them to spawn, even so. Especially since the "Köbenhavn t2" trigger fires, activating "Köbenhavn" AI Team 4, only when the Germans are near Copenhagen. Otherwise, they are idle.

I tried to follow what you were doing in the "København" folder. My advice is to double-check these triggers because while I see provisions for activating "Köbenhavn" AI Team 4, "Korsör" AI Team 6, and "Vordingbord" AI Team 9, and I see "Köge" AI Team 7 joining "Köbenhavn" or "Korsör" at some point, I don't see anything but idleness for these highlighted teams:

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All four of these triggers do the same thing; three in one day and the last in the next day. The amount of Income, Command Points, and Resources vary, but why would you have such a dramatic change in total, divided over four triggers?

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Thread to be continued . . .

[Erik2]

I have researched Weserübung to death over the years, I even got 3 board-games on the subject.
I designed my very first PC-scenario back in 1998; the campaign in Norway of course.

My house is a 20 min ferry and 20 min bus-ride south of our capital Oslo.
One player so far have managed to catch this bit.

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[bru888]

Well I'll be darned. I thought I was joking! I was joking, but the joke is on me.

[bru888]

Eben-Emael v. 1.7

Two of the deployment hexes are on an exit hex.

In addition to pointing to Liege and Maastricht, the supply connection objective also points to Juprelle and Riemst. This implies that the connection must run through these intermediary towns which is not technically correct.

Regarding the "Supply" and "Broken" triggers that support this objective, I think you should start the scenario with "Broken" being turned off and include in each trigger "Set Trigger State" effects to turn itself off and turn the other on (similar to what you did for the supply connection objective triggers in Jylland).

For the "Destroy all Allied fortifications" objective, maybe include in the mission description that this means fortresses, bunkers, and concrete bunkers.

Since you provide for a counterattack taking back one or both of the airfields, perhaps the objective should be "Capture and hold both Belgian airfields."

There is a slight variation in "Bridge-16" conditions in that it requires no Belgian unit to be on the spot. Intentional? I have to think so because I cannot imagine you not cloning these triggers and building them individually instead.

[bru888]

Albert Canal v. 1.7

One of the deployment hexes is on an exit hex.

There are no descriptions, nor rewards, for any of the "Do not lose any . . ." secondary objectives. Which is fine - they don't all need to have rewards - if that was your intention.

Regarding the "Supply OK" and "Supply broken" triggers that support the "Connect Maastricht-Antwerp" objective, I think you should start the scenario with "Supply broken" being turned off and include in each trigger "Set Trigger State" effects to turn itself off and turn the other on (similar to what you did for the supply connection objective triggers in Jylland). You may want to elaborate in the mission description that it is a supply connection that must be maintained to win the scenario.

Since you provide for a counterattack taking back one or more of the airfields, perhaps the objective should be "Capture and hold airstrips."

"Bridge-8" and "Bridge-9" triggers both point to the same hex (circled). Maybe you meant "Bridge-8" to blow this rail bridge to the north (highlighted)?

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[bru888]

Den Haag v. 1.7

Five of the deployment hexes are on an exit hex.

It would appear that German air supply is just 1 short of maximization at start:

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I seem to remember an inquiry about the "Capture Ypenburg airfield" and "Capture Ockenburg airfield" triggers; about how "the AF must be captured by a Fallschirmjäger unit." I am not questioning your design purpose but I can see how that can be overlooked "in the heat of battle." Do all players read mission descriptions (they should, of course) and even so, do they remember what was said?

Also, I can just hear Gabe saying, "Hey, let's do the unexpected. Let's take Rotterdam from the rear with these paratroopers. We'll capture these airfields later."

So, I suggest one or both of these reminders:
- a mention in the briefing that informs the player of headquarters' orders that the Fallschirmjäger have the honor of capturing Ypenburg and Ockenburg airfields (but not Valkenburg for whatever reason).
- an Event Popup message accompanying the "FJs" trigger that informs/reminds the player of this stipulation.

We now know that this will not work if the scenario ends early, as it may with all Capture Event primary objectives:

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Instead, I would do it this way, with a "Check Objective State" condition for each primary objective, and timed for Capture VP Event:

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[See the note in next post.]

[bru888]

Den Haag v. 1.7 (continued)

The supply plane mission is great. Just one minor flaw: Both of the "Capture Ypenburg airfield" and "Capture Ockenburg airfield" objective triggers are timed for Capture VP Event. However, neither of these is a VP capture because "Ger Airfield Ownership" changes hex ownership at Turn 1. Hence, these objectives remain open until some other VP is captured:

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To resolve this minor matter, merely change the Trigger Event to "Move Event" on both triggers. [Note: This changes the arrangement for the "Fallschirmjäger survives" trigger. If you choose to do what I recommend here, then the Trigger Event for the "Fallschirmjäger survives" trigger should be set to "Any Event" because the scenario could end early on either a Capture VP Event or a Move Event.]

"Bridge-2" and "Bridge-3" triggers both point to the same hex (circled). Maybe you meant "Bridge-3" to blow this rail bridge to the west (highlighted)?

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[bru888]

Sedan v. 1.7

Wrong objective to be failed for this trigger:

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You usually post an Event Popup message when a captured unit is awarded. I offer these materials, should you care to use them:

Title: Captured Tanks
Image: captured_Char_B1_(PzKw_B-2_740)
Text: A number of French Char B1 tanks have been captured, some of them still quite serviceable. The Ordnance Department has retrofitted them and designated them as Panzerkampfwagen B-2 740 (f).

Here is that image (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_B1):

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One of the deployment hexes is on an exit hex. [Way at the top right of the map. It is reachable, though. Incidentally, I tested it while I was in the game and yes, this is a chronic error that should be corrected here and everywhere that I have mentioned it so far. A unit placed on this hex during deployment vanishes into reserve on Turn 1 and cannot be redeployed because those hexes are designated as such only during the Deployment Phase. The player then has to wait to take a VP in order to deploy the unit, which is a handicap.]

[bru888]

Sedan v. 1.7 (continued)

I see that you have fixed the supply ships mobility issue. There's still a problem though; one that I discovered when testing this module. Every one of these "Supply" triggers is timed for Capture VP Event:

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The problem is, there is only one VP on the river, Sedan, and not until that VP is captured will any of these triggers activate. Then they will all activate at once, for the Target Hexes then held by Germans! All of these triggers should be changed to "Move Event." Now they will work properly, as I found here:

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[bru888]

Maubeuge v. 1.7

One of the deployment hexes is on an exit hex.

Wrong objective to complete with this trigger:

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This will fire with the first VP capture, of course, but I don't think it's what you intended. Perhaps you meant "Value > 4"?

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This is sometimes an indicator of a problem:

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There are only two British fighters in the scenario. No harm done, though; the other 4 "units" in AI Team 1 are 4 empty hangars. You will recall that these disappear anyway as soon as the scenario starts.

[bru888]

Stonne v. 1.7

Briefing: "Maintaining control of this city and its vital crossings . . ." (Remove the apostrophe from "it's")

I'm not sure about this but, does "Any" here refer to ordinary Capture Points? Because if it does, it will include those flags on the airfields and therefore this trigger will not work properly; maybe make it "Primary":

Screenshot 14.jpg (204.13 KiB) Viewed 2400 times

One of the deployment hexes is on an exit hex.

"Bridge-2" and "Bridge-3" triggers both point to the same hex. This time I couldn't find an alternative site behind French lines to suggest, unless you want to apply one trigger to the bridge crossing on the other side of the river.

AI Team 19 "Center" is marked as Idle. I don't see any triggers that activate this team.

Thread to be continued . . .

[Erik2]

Quick note.
The land deployment hexes are sometimes/often on top of air exit hexes.
There is no way for you to know this of course since we cannot see the exit hex details after it has been entered....

Edit: On second thought, maybe it is a combo land/air exit.

[bru888]

Quick note.
The land deployment hexes are sometimes/often on top of air exit hexes.
There is no way for you to know this of course since we cannot see the exit hex details after it has been entered....

Edit: On second thought, maybe it is a combo land/air exit.

Safer, I think, to avoid them.

[bru888]

Arras v. 1.7

One of the deployment hexes is on an exit hex.

These secondary objective triggers are fine with one caveat. They provide for the Germans to take each VP and earn 1 SP. Then they allow for the Allies to retake the VP and reopen the objective. The caveat is, what then happens when the Germans take the VP once again? There is no mechanism for awarding the objective to them a second time. Yet, you don't want to keep giving them 1 SP for doing so. So then what would be needed is to make these triggers -1 frequency and to create yet another set of triggers to evaluate conditions at the end of the scenario and only then award the 1 SP.

Here's my opinion: Too much complication for too little nuance. Leave these triggers as they are:

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Think of it as your commander yelling at you, "Fool! You are wasting too much time and materiel on taking that village! You get no credit for doing so now that you have lost it, even if you succeed. Get out of my sight! "

[bru888]

Calais v. 1.7

One of the deployment hexes is on an exit hex.

The good news is, that's all I could find in this one!