Colmar Pocket Breakthrough Scenario

[conboy]

Comrades,
I don't know if I'm ever going to get my campaign to the point that I can even ask for playthrough help and reviews.

But meanwhile, here is a scenario from that campaign. It's the Final Phase of the Colmar Pocket.

I know it's ready to play but I need some feedback on it regarding fun quotient, any errors, etc. Replays are requested, if you can find the time.

I put 5 extra CPs on some allied factions in case you have a wipeout and want to use RPs to backfill.

Bru, Erik, if you could peek at it, I'd appreciate it. But I know you're very busy.

Thanks in advance!

(link updates error in awarding secondary objective)

http://www.mediafire.com/file/o7edj5ip8 ... 1.zip/file

[Mascarenhas]

Another very good one. No flaws and challenging. French air available since the very beginning, I suggest keeping it as is. And first objectives perhaps at the end of t7. But I think it´s not impossible.
Congratulations

[conboy]

Mascarenhas:

... French air available since the very beginning, I suggest keeping it as is. And first objectives perhaps at the end of t7. ...

Thanks! I think I inadvertently left some air deployment hexes available in the North on the deployment phase that I shouldn't have. Thanks for playing and commenting!

I may have set the objectives a little tight if you had some trouble even with French air available from the start...

thanks again!

conboy

[Mascarenhas]

My pleasure! Keep up the good work!

[bru888]

A couple of minor map issues.

This happens when a road runs along a river for consecutive hexes; generally, a road/river crossing has to be "clean":

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This just looks weird; suggest moving the road so that it bends fully in the hex just to the north:

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I haven't looked at the triggers yet to see if I can find a purpose, but I assume those neutral hexes here and up north are intentional.

[bru888]

Two things with this mission and trigger. First, the mission points to this extraneous hex to the northwest instead of the true objective down south:

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Second, you have this trigger timed for "Capture VP Event." I see your premise, though. You are checking "@ Turn 7 Start" whether the player has done all this stuff by Turn 6. Then the correct event should be "Turn Start." Else there would have to be some other VP captured during Turn 7 for this trigger to work.

[bru888]

There is a mismatch between "Phase I Objectives (Allies)" hexes and the corresponding "Phase I Objectives (Germany)" hexes. Hill 162 (which should be rough terrain, by the way, so that it looks like a hill; as it is, you are pointing to a valley between two other hills) and Cernay check out but the German "Hold Maison Rouge @Turn 7" objective targets this bunker instead of Maison Rouge:

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[bru888]

I missed this for "Accomplish All Phase I Objectives" but picked it up with "Accomplish All Phase II Objectives":

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Each of these triggers should also fail the corresponding AI objective, in my opinion. It's probably immaterial; a victory is when one side wins all of its objectives and if neither side does so, it's a draw. But I like good housekeeping because there may be a situation which my fuzzy brain cannot grasp right now whereby not failing the other side's corresponding objective may make a difference.

[bru888]

Answer to my neutral hexes question above: "NOTE: Dangerous ice floes are marked as impassable areas (yellow borders) on your map."

Now I'm questioning this trigger; it is saying, "If any VP is captured (here or elsewhere), and the bridges here are still operational, then have this AI team counterattack." Your intention?

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The thread title is plural, "Markolsheim Bridges," and one nearby bridge makes sense but the other effect points to the VP where there is no bridge:

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Normally, I advise against having 71 units in one AI team but this will be fine, I suppose, because the task is "Static Defense." Were that to be "Move to Hex" or even "Local Defense," I would think there would be significant "Thinking" downtime. As it is, the 31 with that latter task in AI Team 2 may be the source of any downtime that you do see:

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Your technical designing skills keep improving! This is less than normal for me to nitpick (although, this scenario also seems to be more streamlined than your previous efforts; when it comes to designing, simpler is usually better). I don't have the time to play it now - I must return to my own frozen wasteland up north - but it looks to be well-designed and a good addition to your portfolio.

[conboy]

Thanks, Bru, for your time and comments.

I'll get back to you on the forum with how I addressed them - you found some strange stuff going on in a couple of triggers and provided some valuable insight on how to improve some other ones. Strange that those errors you pointed out didn't manifest themselves somehow in errant victory criteria.

Hopefully I'll get some more feedback on fun quotient from the players.

I also hope I can finish the campaign and get back to some fun stuff, like the GabeMod and the output from you and Erik. I think I'm still several weeks away ...

thanks again!

conboy

[conboy]

Bru, thanks! Here's my action plan and comments:

Answer to my neutral hexes question above: "NOTE: Dangerous ice floes are marked as impassable areas (yellow borders) on your map."
Correct.

Now I'm questioning this trigger; it is saying, "If any VP is captured (here or elsewhere), and the bridges here are still operational, then have this AI team counterattack." Your intention?
No, it should be turn start not VP capture.

The thread title is plural, "Markolsheim Bridges," and one nearby bridge makes sense but the other effect points to the VP where there is no bridge:
Thanks – will remove the non-bridge and fix text. There might have been one there once upon a time…

Normally, I advise against having 71 units in one AI team but this will be fine, I suppose, because the task is "Static Defense." Were that to be "Move to Hex" or even "Local Defense," I would think there would be significant "Thinking" downtime. As it is, the 31 with that latter task in AI Team 2 may be the source of any downtime that you do see:
I’ll wait and see what the players say. I think it works, but I had trepidations about so many static units. Hopefully the 31 won’t foul things up. The units respond individually, not as a whole (I hope!).

I missed this for "Accomplish All Phase I Objectives" but picked it up with "Accomplish All Phase II Objectives":
Each of these triggers should also fail the corresponding AI objective, in my opinion. It's probably immaterial; a victory is when one side wins all of its objectives and if neither side does so, it's a draw. But I like good housekeeping because there may be a situation which my fuzzy brain cannot grasp right now whereby not failing the other side's corresponding objective may make a difference.
I wonder why this didn’t affect the victory conditions, which seem to work okay! Nevertheless, it’s not SOP to set them up the way I did so I’ll fix. And troubleshoot to see if it messes anything up.
UPDATE: The reciprocal Phase II objectives were in the Phase II Objectives (Germany) folder.

There is a mismatch between "Phase I Objectives (Allies)" hexes and the corresponding "Phase I Objectives (Germany)" hexes. Hill 162 (which should be rough terrain, by the way, so that it looks like a hill; as it is, you are pointing to a valley between two other hills) and Cernay check out but the German "Hold Maison Rouge @Turn 7" objective targets this bunker instead of Maison Rouge:
Copy dat. Will check and fix.

Two things with this mission and trigger. First, the mission points to this extraneous hex to the northwest instead of the true objective down south:
I’ll check and fix. Strange that this thing played without awarding a victory to the Japanese … I checked this stuff a million times! Anyway, thanks for not blasting me for wasting your time.

Second, you have this trigger timed for "Capture VP Event." I see your premise, though. You are checking "@ Turn 7 Start" whether the player has done all this stuff by Turn 6. Then the correct event should be "Turn Start." Else there would have to be some other VP captured during Turn 7 for this trigger to work.
Agreed – turn start.

A couple of minor map issues.
Thanks for pointing these out! I can quickly fix these map issues.
Bru, thanks again for checking this out. Meantime, I’ll pull it down and fix.

Anybody that played this, please zap me with some comments!

Thanks, all.

conboy

[bru888]

Anyway, thanks for not blasting me for wasting your time.

Doing this for myself and others is never a waste of time.

[conboy]

Okay, all:
I incorporated Bru's comments and Mascarenhas play comments. (Let's try the delayed French Air, Mascarenhas...)

File is ready to play. Please provide feedback on enjoyability and any issues. Also, replays are very much appreciated, if you can find the time to save and send.

Here's the link:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/d120d05e4 ... 1.zip/file

Thanks again,

conboy

[GabeKnight]

File is ready to play. Please provide feedback on enjoyability and any issues. Also, replays are very much appreciated, if you can find the time to save and send.

Sorry, conboy, no replay from me, because I played with my mod, and you probably woudn't be able to reproduce the gameplay reasonably. But I'll attach a few screenshots, maybe they help. If you have specific questions, ask away.

Colmar_Pocket_Scenario_1.1, lvl5 difficulty, played out of my mod

I remembered your past scens and wanted to try to play on level5 difficulty. Conclusion: Spot-on medium balance, plays basically as the "usual" vanilla campaigns. Nice!
Played good, a rather large map, but the action took place on only very tight spaces overall, no endless moving my units. Well done, good map, thanks!

Some issues/suggestions :

- The French and Free French have some land CP too much (~5)
- disable the purchase of units for all factions. I guess it's not wanted that I'm able to "upgrade" some units to better/different ones.
- For one, you don't need to add air CPs for aux units (the two aux. strat. bombers later in the south). Also, please just spawn them. Like this, they were "lingering" in my forces tab and I couldn't do nothing with them. I was looking for some deployment hexes I may have missed somewhere on the edges first. And later I coudn't even deploy them into my hangar. It distracts and confuses IMO
- are the 10 air CP for the player intended or some left-over?
- with my playthrough, the Phase I objective validated on start of turn 8, not seven. I took a quick look with the editor, and I'm not sure, maybe it's because of the "captureVP event" that Bruce mentioned, instead of "turn start". But maybe it's the turn settings. I suggest to always use "<" or ">" instead of "=", when applicable. With computers, the "equal to" sign is super specific. If there's some minimal counter error that produces something like 7,000000001 internally, the "=7" might not work. Just sayin', to be on the safe side.
- ....and you forgot the whole triggers for the sec. objective altogether...

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[GabeKnight]

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[conboy]

Gabe,
Thanks very much for the feedback. With your comments and Mascarenhas', I am fairly confident that it plays well.
I checked your comments carefully and I will get them into the final version. Thanks especially for your comments on the CPs. I couldn't quite figure out how to do what I wanted to so if it goofed you up a little bit, I'll fix the French Air deployment and the other CP issues.

Thanks again -- my download counter still says ZERO downloads, I was beginning to wonder...

I hope to get a few more play comments back and then I'll input the corrections and upload on the von Paulus page for formal presentation.

Gabe and Mascarenhas, Thanks! You too Bru!

jt

[Mascarenhas]

I thank you, mate, and will wait anxiously for the final version.Good job!

[Erik2]

Colmar Pocket 1.1
I came a bit late to the party.
Here are some random notes, I played using 8.3.9 beta

Nice scenario in the conboy tradition; excelent research, detailed orders, force boundaries etc.
My only problem is that I tend to forget the briefing and order my troops around on rather whimsically (is that a word?).

Briefing Roufflach vs Rouffach map label.

The aux French air units no longer have any air deployment hexes Disappeared between v1.0 and 1.1 (?)

The French 5 LCPs are a bit odd since you can only purchase a 4 LCP infantry (with a truck).

Some of the mines are core units.

There are no German defenders at Harth.

Maybe wait with the Netherland resources and LCPs until they actually arrive?
They accumulate a lot of resource points.
Actually, I never saw any sign of the famous double dutch. No units, no messages.

If possible, it would be nice to see the number of phase I/II objectives captured vs the total. Nice for following the progress.

Resource income is quite generous, maybe a bit too much.

Maybe add some specs for both sides, especially air spces.
Maybe add commanders? Especially for the Germans as the scenario is on the easy side.

Mttlach was undefended and captured relatively early.

All objectives met by turn 17. I was expecting a major victory, but 'only' got a vic.
I had fun though.
Replay attached

[conboy]

Erik,
Thanks for taking time out -- I know you're really busy.

I'll review your comments -- Mascarenhas and GabeKnight already hit some.

Erik's comments:

Nice scenario in the conboy tradition; excellent research, detailed orders, force boundaries etc.
My only problem is that I tend to forget the briefing and order my troops around on rather whimsically (is that a word?).
Thank you for the compliments. You see that I also put in route markers and force boundaries as reminders. Good sir, you have a knack for turning a set-piece battle into a melee! But you resolved all the tactical problems admirably.

Briefing Roufflach vs Rouffach map label.
Thank you. It's Rouffach.

The aux French air units no longer have any air deployment hexes Disappeared between v1.0 and 1.1 (?)
I fixed that per Gabe's request -- the final version has the French air deploy automatically.

The French 5 LCPs are a bit odd since you can only purchase a 4 LCP infantry (with a truck).

Took them out. They were to replace wipeouts but it's not needed and sows confusion.

Some of the mines are core units.
Core? Maybe assigned as German units, but core? Anyway I'll check it out.

There are no German defenders at Harth.
Thank you for the comment.

Maybe wait with the Netherland resources and LCPs until they actually arrive?
They accumulate a lot of resource points.
Actually, I never saw any sign of the famous double dutch. No units, no messages.

They were the 128th Division that was putting pressure on from the west. You played them very well.

If possible, it would be nice to see the number of phase I/II objectives captured vs the total. Nice for following the progress.
I don't know how to make it count specific objectives. From what I can tell, it just counts Primary Objective flags and Secondary objective flags as a whole. I set it up using the list of Primary hex names as for each Phase of the battle.

Resource income is quite generous, maybe a bit too much.
I don't want to mess with that -- Allies had the upper hand in supplies by a long shot.

Maybe add some specs for both sides, especially air specs.
I fixed the Allied Air so they have scrambling and pilot rotation.

Maybe add commanders? Especially for the Germans as the scenario is on the easy side.
Mascarenhas said it was challenging, you said it was easy, Gabe said it was just right.


Mttlach was undefended and captured relatively early.
I watched you battle the Germans around Mittlach for at least 14 turns. You took a slow and steady approach, just as I would have wished. Are you sure it was Mittlach?

All objectives met by turn 17. I was expecting a major victory, but 'only' got a vic.
Sorry, Gabe pointed that out. I didn't put in the trigger for the Mittlach secondary objective. It's in there now.

I had fun though.
Thank you! That's what counts! And thanks so very much for sending the replay. It gives me a very good impression as to how others see/play the scenario. Your replay made me sure that I am going to put a more enforceable boundary between the US and French in the North!

thanks again -- good luck with the new campaigns. Hope I get to play some of them one day but I'm determined to finish the campaign I'm working on. Also want to do some PvP. Soon, I hope.

conboy

[GabeKnight]

Some of the mines are core units.
Core? Maybe assigned as German units, but core? Anyway I'll check it out.
[...]
Maybe add commanders? Especially for the Germans as the scenario is on the easy side.
Mascarenhas said it was challenging, you said it was easy, Gabe said it was just right.

Re mines: Yeah, the mines were (two or three) no-mans-land core units. Looked a bit weird, no other gameplay implications. They are near the player's units in the north-eastern part on the road by the river.

Re difficulty: Depends on your target audience, I guess. Playing on middle difficulty, I consider all the stock campaigns easy and Eriks stuff (usually) challenging to hard; for most parts because of his very generous enemy RP income model. Your scens, conboy, have about the same turn/income/enemy strength balance as the stock scens IMO. Thus the "just right" statement of mine.

Playing at level 5 seemed appropriate for me to not consider the scen "easy" anymore. And the severe enemy arty barrages during the first turns made my boys wish they've rather stayed at home...