Campaign event “Alphonse Juin” text: “Alphonse Pierre Juin was gravely wounded
on the Western Front in France”…
Campaign map before scen 10: missing arrows and all the different flags of involved factions…
10MarethLine:
I'll try to it short... without guarantee! 
Indeed really interesting… excellent use of the Greeks, an excellent map, with good reminders (on map as well) about the previous scenario, etc.
Several points worth mentioning though:
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A) On overall difficulty, thresholds, etc.:
=> Major Victory achieved (normal level) at the (end of) 33rd turn…
That’s very much too soon!
At that time, the British 1st and 7th Armoured Divisions have just appeared on the battlefield and the main German forces at the Mareth Line were just about to start their retreat or have just begun it…
I’ve reloaded the savefile just at turn 33 start: the Free French have made already 225 damages (they need 100) and 42 Axis land units have already been destroyed (one needs 40)… the troops from the western groups do count in there of course…
And with the obj “Take El Hamma and Gabès” completed, all remaining Axis troops from the Mareth Line are directly outsupplied… several turns more and their fighting efficiency would be history… as most of these units…
It’s not too difficult in terms of actual battle, which is well-balanced already… but one shouldn’t be allowed to take a win so early, therefore I suggest
:
1. “
Decimate the Axis 1st Army” => from 40 to
60 enemy units!
Force the player to really do some significant damages to the enemy defending the Mareth Line… otherwise there is no chance at all to see any of them even closing near their map exits…
2. “
Earn Free French battlefield excellence” => from 100 to
200 pts!
Otherwise it’s really likely to happen much too soon… and we want the Frenchies to take some active part until the end, don’t we?
*Or both of them still higher, according to our last results (see next posts)... *
3. Add
some garrison in both El Hamma and Gabès…
(
I would have lost few turns dealing with them!)
4. Add some
enemy supply output, like some “reserve”
or something,
between the line El Hamma-Gabès and the Mareth Line(,
or perhaps even spawn one or two supply ships near their coast at some point)… Why? Don’t allow for a direct and complete full outsupplying as soon as El Hamma and Gabès have been captured. Otherwise, dealing with the remaining German forces may really soon become very, very easy…
(By the way, this may come together with one enemy AA unit exactly between the 2 coastal guns, near the sea… so that if the player make the choice to deal some damage to them instead of going directly against the enemy ships…
)
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B) About unit names:
->
This should be checked on overall, but some unit names are too long to be properly displayed, like for example the “8th Armoured / 2ND NZ Division”… here perhaps a “8th Armoured / 2nd NZ
Div” will do it?
With the second, yeah… “
2nd NZ” everywhere!
-> “28th XX Maori / 2
nd NZ Div” => a double space at the location of the XX symbol…
-> “33rd Panzerjäger / 15th Panzer Div” => too long again, and I would suggest here to even delete the “Div” (which would be coherent, for example, with units such as the “39th Panzerjäger / 21st Panzer”)
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C) Some little ideas here and there:
-> Adding one “
Construction Group” unit together with the NZ Division may offer a cool option for the player… choosing where to build a new airstrip in the middle-western part of the map!
-> Perhaps granting one or two
recon plane(s) to the player (
near the Mareth Line) once he takes control of the British troops?
-> The units of the 4th
Indian Division… under the British flag or rather under the
British India flag?
-> Really excellent to see some artillery shots being taken in full AI mod… another set of rounds a little later before we take control? Together with a small British artillery riposte, even?
-> After the naval battle, the remaining enemy air units don’t last very long… perhaps considering the option to spawn few enemy air units (in the North) once, let’s say, for example the obj “Breakthrough at Tebaga Gap” has been achieved… like perhaps 2 bombers and 2 fighters?
(
)
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D) About the naval battle:
“Sink Italian escorts to stop the convoy”…
Very good action there, on sea and in the skies, that’s for sure!
First,
perfectly achievable! (‘Thankfully, we don't have to preserve our naval forces nor American aircraft too much.
)
Second… the transport ships will
surrender…
well, then,
what about really doing it?
This part could be divided, or split, in two… This will represent a little extra-work, but would be better, I think, for immersion.
Listen:
When all enemy ships are sunk => the event that the transport ships are about to surrender! (Without talking about our ships nor the US planes there…)
Either immediately, or at the start of the next turn, change the flag of all these ships to neutral or “unclaimed”…
But keep our ships and US air units one or two turns more…
Then, and only then (after these 1 or 2 more turns, I mean), another event may pop-up, saying that our US air units have to go somewhere else (basically what you’ve explained in the actual event), and then make these surrendered, neutral ships “exit” the map using triggers as well as all our remaining ships. And, at that time, unreveal this whole area (using triggers again)… nothing more to see, so why keeping this entire sector revealed?
Last thing: “When all enemy ships are sunk” => then all remaining enemy bombers should be ordered to go “back to base”, or something, for a while… so that they’ll leave this sector for being ready to fight another fight later (against the NZ Div, for example)…
Why? Well, once it was finished (the naval battle, I mean), there was this huge area left revealed… without any Allied unit there… and 3 enemy bombers, some damaged, sitting there up in the sky, staying put… until some of my fighters (from the southern groups!) show up to say
hello to them!
Well, of course, they shouldn’t stay there doing nothing
, so…
Summary:
With this overall suggestion on the sea/naval side, one would: see the enemy transport ships really surrender, see the remaining enemy bombers (having become rather useless on this side) leaving the sector, see our remaining ships moving either near the surrendered enemy transport ships or rushing to take some shots at coastal guns (taking some revenge there), see the US planes trying to bomb these coastal guns (thus discovering there some AA unit, if not already done) and pursuing the enemy planes… so with the player keeping control of his remaining ships and American planes for one or two turns, before that we “turn off” this part for good, including the “revealing” of this entire area!
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Et voilà !
'Definitely looking forward to play again this awesome scenario.
