conboy's campaigns

[Steenv]

Ah I did not. So new update, must fix, thx.

[Steenv]

Does anyone have a DL link, my Clint has never been able to update on its one.

[conboy]

I would say get it from slitherine/my page but I can't log in to it now so I can't help you more than that. Maybe you should try to log in that way and see if you can download the 8.6.5 update direct from slitherine. Pisses me off that when you need something, it's broken. My internet has been all beshat since I got a new laptop, and it ain't the laptop. Modern times ...

conboy

[Steenv]

Got it from the WEB. SO first mission, don't get the coastal guns objectiv, don't know why, have both occupies by turn 4?

[conboy]

Thanks for pointing that out. Trigger was set for VP Capture but no flags were on the guns. Now 66 people have that error. I updated the link. Thanks for playing!

Steenv,
thanks for pointing that out, since nobody else has!
If you could let me know how you're doing on the campaign, I'd really appreciate it.

Hope you enjoy!
conboy

[stevefprice]

Hiya conboy, a quick update as I finally got back to it after the tournament round 2 and beta playtest.

Eventually finished Anzio siege 2. Very hard for me on level III, I had to get warbonds twice even though mainly stayed put. I say mainly as early I was whipping backside so expanded out to teach the artillery some manners. Imagine my surprise when the joys of Axis troops magically appearing behind me occurred It may be worth considering have them appear at the map edges earlier and move down as currently it negates a perfectly logical maneuver of counter attacking to push the enemy back.

That did of course confirm what I'd already surmised to you about my style of play so if the idea is to have the player just sit and weather the storm it may be worth a carrot & stick secondary objective.

The right most deployment areas (15th & 7th) are effectively redundant and in hind sight I should have left them the minute the eastern objective was secured since there is no need to hold them. I did as you'd mentioned the key to victory was historical paths to follow and deploy.

By contrast the Anzio breakout was a hoot and I was done with turns to spare although still a tough one.

I nuked the invasion of southern France as I'd already done that as a solo mission.

Currently doing Dragoon II and managing to keep to the script

[conboy]

Steve,
I don't know what might have happened. You (the player) are supposed to be so busy fending off German infantry and tanks that the Artillery is a threat but not an immediate threat, like the Panzer V right next to you, you wouldn't think to abandon your defensive position to attack the artillery 5 hexes away. I didn't think I gave the player any breathing room to launch a counterattack...
I used some of the 1SSF and Airborne units to attack the artillery, keeping in mind to keep the crossroad secondary objective occupied so as not to incite Armageddon, as Gunny might say.
I don't think I want to mess with it too much, especially since nobody else has reported this (Gabe would have cussed me out publicly for it). If you could send a replay it would help but I know you are beyond that now -- but if you it any other major snags send me a link to a replay, if you would.

I very much appreciate you keeping me posted on your progress!

conboy

[GabeKnight]

I don't think I want to mess with it too much, especially since nobody else has reported this (Gabe would have cussed me out publicly for it).

Yeah, sorry, but it seems I'm not the only one who hates that happening...
(And honestly, I don't think I play as aggressive as I did years ago. Additionally, playing on level4 difficulty leaves no room for much error with your scens/campaigns. Your recent creations are rather quite difficult.)

Some feedback on your Operation Avalanche 1.1 campaign:

- played on level4 diff, vanilla version
- huge maps with a lot of action and short routes. Plays very good like this, just the (expected) long AI thinking times are a bit tedious (nothing you can do about that)
- remove the specs from all nations, best the whole screen (don't know the campaign editor much and what's possible and what not).
- campaign tab/army cores: the US symbol should be switched to a round one

01scen:
- I have some core support ships and one core DD and CA each. Not intended I guess.
- Having read Eriks feedback, I don't mind having two "kill aircraft" sec. objectives. Similar ones exist in the vanilla game, too.

02scen:
- the blue team and RAF have no income? They have enough RPs, just wondering.
- "Streppina" is missing in the objective markers (4 US sec.VP), but counted correctly
- there are 10 primVP on the map and not 9
- is it 7 or 8 plane kills (see screenshot; counter)?
- I'd suggest more RP for the Brits (about +15/turn)
- the turn limit is harsh

During the scen I warbonded myself 500RP - all nations got it, but only the UK really needed it - wouldn't have finished in 10 turns else. In the end only about 300 were really needed. This battle was even harder than Eriks untested stuff...

Screenshot 298.jpg (867.04 KiB) Viewed 2612 times

My opinion for a reasonably good "vanilla-like" scen balance (within a campaign) would be to have it played by an advanced/expert player (like yourself) at max. difficulty, elite repairing everything and scoring a major win. Use the RPs spent and add about two turns.
Your scen balance was brutal, to say the least. I think I've lost about 6-8 core infantry units... Holy shit... here, I really wished that I had all the AT switch units from my mod at my disposal...

Thanks conboy, I love scens that make me hate the AI and the scen-designer at the same time while scoring a major win... ....never boring....endless waves of German reserves that I couldn't believe to be able to advance against...but was... ... hard but great!

[stevefprice]

" If you could send a replay it would help but I know you are beyond that now -"

Funny you should ask

I've drop boxed it as extension is invalid

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8b3botz06jk5b ... y.rec?dl=0

Let me know if you can't access it.

Note in this replay I don't counter so much as of course I reloaded a save after it went pear shaped but you can likely work out the point I thought it was a viable tactic

[GabeKnight]

Thanks conboy, I love scens that make me hate the AI and the scen-designer at the same time while scoring a major win... ....never boring....endless waves of German reserves that I couldn't believe to be able to advance against...but was... ... hard but great!

Just to be clear, I mean situations like this...
(...and that's only one part of the map)

Thanks...

Screenshot 300.jpg (996.23 KiB) Viewed 2594 times

[conboy]

GabeKnight said:

I mean situations like this

Gabe, you musta really pissed'em awff!

Thanks for playing and commenting.

I will implement your suggestions, as you are always spot-on.
I was thinking that you wouldn't even try this update with all these units on it. So thanks again!

I am not going to make another scenario/campaign like that with so many units on it -- it is so very hard to get the play balance because replaying to check the gameplay takes forever. Maybe the longest I'll make in the future is 2 hours. I hope! But I wanted to make this one historically accurate since I gave the Salerno landing no play at all in the 3d Division Campaign, since 3d Div didn't participate in the landing but came ashore after everybody was exhausted from the fighting and the Germans were retiring to the Volturno River at that point, except for the rear guard. I tried to put in all the allied battalions that participated.

Looks like in your picture the 82nd is coming to help, and soon the 7th Armoured will land. Darkest hour, dude. Darkest hour.

I am impressed that you beat it on Level 4. I played on Level 3, as always, when tuning it. Once I played on level 5 for about 15 minutes -- never will again, too stress-inducing.

conboy

[GabeKnight]

Operation Avalanche 1.1 cont'd:

03scen
- there's some "bridge blow" trigger from the previous scen (near "Sele R.") still in place; blows after the first captureVP event
- why whas the "Incrocio" hex (north of Salerno) converted from a city to an open terrain hex? Harder to defend like this.
- the three gunboats...
- there's a huge AI-supply-dump (75 supply) east of the "142nd RCT sector" flag. I did deploy a fast tank unit there to cut the whole supply of the south-eastern German front. I'd suggest to place the supply dump into the SE map corner.
- I think you've miscounted the prim.VP somehow, because I had to take them ALL to trigger the victory.
- overall I've used up all of the warbonded 500RPs (from the second scen). But nothing more was needed.

In all of the three scen the southern (US) sector was never a problem to capture/hold/achieve.
(Although I have to admit that after my experiences with the previous scens, I've reloaded the first turn and redeployed some of my forces.)

Screenshot 301.jpg (962.01 KiB) Viewed 2510 times

Once I played on level 5 for about 15 minutes -- never will again, too stress-inducing.

Yeah, that's about the essence of my love-hate relationship with such scens. Playing mid difficulty I'm usually sure to win without any (core) losses or "tight situations" like the aforementioned. But if there's no danger at all to lose, it's no fun anymore...

Sometimes I write feedback while still agitated and thus some remarks may sound a bit harsh. My apologies, but be sure that deep in my core I mean well...

I was thinking that you wouldn't even try this update with all these units on it. So thanks again!

My main problem with huge maps are scens where long distances have to be traversed with countless units - and nothing else to do unless you arrive at some "hotspot". Then there's some limited skirmish and again travelling to the next destination with again countless units jamming the streets...

That was not the case here!

Looks like in your picture the 82nd is coming to help, and soon the 7th Armoured will land. Darkest hour, dude. Darkest hour.

It's the infantry's nightmare: encountering medium to heavy German armoured units in open terrain!!! Even with some (weak) Brit AT-units in support, the losses were devastating. Each attack resulted in about 4-5 HP lost. Arty barrages not included...speaking of...incredible amount of arty units. Mobile or heavy long-range...just great!

Once my armoured reserves arrived, the battle was more or less over for the Germans. Those reinforcements were REALLY needed at the time they arrived. Perfect timing!
The endless waves of fresh enemy armour, arty and infantry were fearsome. Watching the AI's turn and seeing all the new, fresh, overstrength units arrive WAS stressful. The only thing I could do was shake my head and curse the scen designer, namely you. The first-strike punishment on my units was horrible to watch. I knew the flank was open, but I did not expect this kind of counter-attack. I had no real reserves there and basically was praying for salvation...

..BUT in the end I had 9 (>8!) of the prim VP's by turn 9 and all of them by turn 11.

You can see my end game RP balance in the screenshot. Those include the warbonded 500! As said, I always elite repaired EVERYTHING core.

This was hardcore, brutal gameplay. The pressure was incredible. I'd suggest to put it inside the community crate, too. Challenge mode...

Thanks, conboy!

[conboy]

Gabe,
Thanks very much for your comments. It is always gratifying to get your comments.
I'm glad you enjoyed it and your critique will result in much-improved scenarios.

thanks again!

conboy

The endless waves of fresh enemy armour, arty and infantry were fearsome. Watching the AI's turn and seeing all the new, fresh, overstrength units arrive WAS stressful.

Great! I think I got close to what the allied commanders were facing when they realized Montgomery was not going to be able to help. He was supposed to be rushing up from the south with a large force to reinforce the landing, but he didn't make it until after the battle was decided...

[conboy]

All,
I have updated the Operation Avalanche mini-campaign according to the comments I received from reviewers. The official version is v2.0 so if you have another version, please get rid of it because it has errors in it that are fixed in v2.0. Please let me know what you think of it.

Thanks to all who helped!

conboy

viewtopic.php?f=374&t=102239&start=120#p888978

[Navman2854]

Hey conboy, trying to d/l your latest version of the 3rd Inf campaign. The d/l link on page 1 just gives your "Sources" zip file.

[conboy]

Thanks Navman!
Correct link is now in place. Hope you weren't terribly inconvenienced!

conboy

[Navman2854]

Thanks Navman!
Correct link is now in place. Hope you weren't terribly inconvenienced!

conboy

Nah, I'm good. Thanks dude!

[JTFox001]

Just wanted to say, really impressed with this campaign even though I've only played the first combat scenario.

The historical feel with the named units, colours, intro brief etc. is excellent.

On to Sicily.

Cheers

[conboy]

Thank you, JTFox!
Please make note of any errors or shortcomings you might see here.

conboy

[Dwightd]

Conboy

Front and center!

Your operation Avalanche has been selected for inspection.

I am sure we will find it meets the high requirements of a military inspection