Free France Campaign

[ColonelY]

[...] I had this very thought. [...]

[bru888]

Notice, by the way, that you can focus and see the coastal gun before Calvi is taken:

Screenshot 1.jpg (371.46 KiB) Viewed 1835 times

But afterward, you cannot see it in the information panel, even though it's still on the map. The unit actually has been removed, but there is a fault in the mechanism to replace it with a destroyed version of coastal gun:

Screenshot 2.jpg (351.68 KiB) Viewed 1835 times

As I said, these are the kinds of things that bug me most about this game. Bugs, that is. What is it, 40 minutes so far spent on this nonsense?

However, I will fix it, one way or the other. The design, that is, not the bug which is not even worth reporting.

[bru888]

However, I will fix it, one way or the other. The design, that is, not the bug which is not even worth reporting.

One hour and 20 minutes.

I could have just substituted "Remove" for "Kill" because that works:

Screenshot 3.jpg (360.88 KiB) Viewed 1830 times

But that seems lame.

"Yes sir, we cleaned up all the wreckage right away, leaving pristine beach and Quonset huts!"

"Outstanding, lieutenant! There is a commendation in store for your demolition-clearing skills."

I could have left one gun as wreckage and the other cleared, but what was the point? These are just props. So in the end, I removed the problematic gun and did some urban expansion at Calvi:

Screenshot 7.jpg (351.71 KiB) Viewed 1830 times

It would concern you, perhaps, to know how many times this happens and how many times I need to compromise and work around such phenomena. Please do not hesitate, Colonel and others, to bring things like this to my attention no matter how cranky I sound. I rather know about them and . . . not waste time, but spend it unfortunately . . . than have them go unattended.

[bru888]

For events “Divisione Cremona” and “Key Roadblocks”, move the cam, switch focus… first over these Italian that have now joined us, then over some nice spot more near the center of the island…
EDIT: Well, it's already the case for the Italian Divisione Cremona, so that's fine. But not for the second one... perhaps targetting in the middle of the island?

Agreed. Done; the player will see a few of the roadblocks now manned by partisans.

[bru888]

The Germans who face the Italians are not very aggressive... if we don't tickle them a little, they are satisfied with a few artillery shots... which does not make the defense of Ajaccio very difficult at all!
There, I would suggest to increase their aggressivity level, or putting them to S&D rather, in order to increase the interest of this part as well as a little the challenge too…

Let's try the aggression level first, from 75 to 99. Done. I want this group to try to take Ajaccio during this interlude. Later, they go to S&D and, depending on how many of them are left, try to either take Bastia or defend it if they already own it.

[jeffoot77]

This scenario is complicated enough already and the sea action, while momentarily interesting, is a side-show and would distract from the main purpose of the scenario, which is a land battle.

--> (it is for mareth scenario) : i understand but at the beginning of the scenario and while a lot of turns, there is not a lot to do ! Just advance to "rendez-vous point" after rapidly destroying the ships. The control of the british troops is rather near the end of the scenario . Personnaly I have sent 1 bomber and 2 french fighters from south to north to help for the ships . And I have even destroyed some of supply ships for nothing...

[bru888]

When Frenchies are coming, with the cool event “Nous Sommes Ici”…

We’ve a somehow worrisome secondary objective already checked: “Do not lose Bastia”… well, ok… but it’s at the extreme opposite of the island, it’s under shadow of war, it’s under Italian flag (well, this may be fine due to the presence of some Italian allies there), there is no unit under our command there…
EDIT: Well, actually, it's the same situation even before the Frenchies do show up... the flag, the hex ownership (2 hexes around this location)... it's just that it's less obvious as we're focusing elsewhere... but as soon as this sec obj is enabled, then while scrolling through all red arrows, then...

Yes, this is a bit disconcerting. It's because the Friuli Division shows up one turn later than the "Frenchies." Instead of starting that objective with the Free French landing, I now include it with the spawning of the Friuli Division.

[bru888]

This scenario is complicated enough already and the sea action, while momentarily interesting, is a side-show and would distract from the main purpose of the scenario, which is a land battle.

--> (it is for mareth scenario) : i understand but at the beginning of the scenario and while a lot of turns, there is not a lot to do ! Just advance to "rendez-vous point" after rapidly destroying the ships. The control of the british troops is rather near the end of the scenario . Personnaly I have sent 1 bomber and 2 french fighters from south to north to help for the ships . And I have even destroyed some of supply ships for nothing...

I'll think about it. Meanwhile, your input on the tank brigades timing is now gospel!

[ColonelY]

12OperationVesuvius:

... End of the feedback of my very first playthrough!

MV at end of t 35 / start of t 36 (out of 48)

At the 28th turn, there was only a single pri location left to capture in order to Liberate Corsica. At the 29th, this place became empty of any enemy garrison… Then I had to wait until having destroyed enough auxiliary vessels!
It was then a little annoying, having the entire island under control to use several turns for this… well, perhaps, no, probably, I should have sent more ships sooner toward this exit hex. Probably I’ve lost too many time dealing with Schnellboats on the East whereas they don’t represent a threat anyway (or almost) to our ships… Yeah, I should have focused directly on the targets for this obj instead of dealing with subs and Schnellboats.
=> Still, perhaps reducing this threshold from 15 to 12? (As the main focus should stay inland…)

About the hex ownership change around Bastia, I definitely think it would be better to wait until the “Divisione Friuli” appears… (Okay, it seems to be fixed, already. )

‘Perhaps adding two supply ships together with the landing troops?
Well, we’ve enough supply at Ajaccio, that’s not the point. But one could try some side-landing at the nearby beaches straight to the East (so southwards to the river that the Italians are defending), to create some pincer/flanking move… but then there is some lack of supply… and that’s why I suggest this… then, only one of them may “phone” the info… per symmetry, then, perhaps the second one on the other side…

At this river, during the fight between the first Italian Division and the Germans, the later won’t be very aggressive indeed… mostly artillery fire, then one or two units moving upwards each turn… first taking the flag (the name of the river) and then using one of the bridges… not much. It’s really tempting to cross the river to chase them. Not necessarily the best idea, though, because the arrival of German troops may have quite an effect there…
Perhaps add some warning for the player about staying on a defensive stance behind this river for a while?
Anyway, with their actual aggressivity level, there is no way these German could retake Ajaccio… BUT I see you've already adressed this point.

The Schnellboats in the South stayed idle… they haven’t moved as you’ve triggered them with the defense of an hex that is far away… Perhaps simply putting them to S&D would look better?

With no armored recon unit together with our tanks? A little early to see some US recon model of unit, but perhaps some (old) French “Panhard 178”? If yes, they should be two… These units are now relatively weak so they shouldn’t unbalance the fight…

There is now no XP at all for our (French) tanks, artillery, AA nor AT units…

I’ve seen a little strange thing… the units about to land spawn one turn before their escorting planes and ships… it’s not really a problem in itself, but it’s a little strange and, it seems to me at least, according to the triggers you’ve set up, they should spawn together… If yes, perhaps merging these two triggers may do the trick, but it would take some time…

Anyway, while at it (or not), probably good to deploy our Casabianca sub more northwards… she’s slow to move, so it could help to have her already deployed closer to the exit hex west of Sagone. (She won’t be of much use against Schnellboats anyway.)

The first aerial fight is well-balanced, with 10 planes on each side (if I’m not mistaken )… I’ve seen the usual “issue” with enemy planes being exited but never showing back again.
It’s really good that you’ve planed some enemy air reinforcements, but I would say that, first, they should appear sooner (at turn 30 there was no more action inland and I was just chasing various support ships)… I would say this last wave should come more around turn 25.
Then, I would suggest adding a smaller wave of reinforcements, in the South this time, around turn 20… perhaps only 5 or 6 planes (to replace the ones that have exited for never returning and compensating their first losses), without any event… if they spawn near the eastern border of the map, their arrival should be relatively discrete anyway!
So, the main wave (in the NE) several turns sooner and another extra little wave (in the SE) to maintain some action in the skies…
(And with our planes more occupied by this little extra wave, that’s another reason to reduce slightly the amount of support ships to seek and destroy!)


On the campaign map, before the scenario about Operation Diadem, I’ve only one "pin" related of the XP bonus (+1/2 star) for our pilots instead of the usual two that I shall see (having achieved both)… well, perhaps we won’t have French pilots, but still…


And... I think that's it for now!

So... Et voilà !

[bru888]

About the French units, there are several Tabors and Spahis… but without any number, thus they may look a little like clones…

Well, as infantry, the Frenchies had the first Bataillon de Choc (that is represented - we'll come back to it later), the first regiment of Tirailleurs Marocains (5 units called “Tirailleurs Marocains”) and the second group of Tabors Marocains (5 units all called now “Tabor Marocains (Goumiers)”)…

The later was subdivised into 3 different Tabors… the 1st, the 6th and the 15th… (it’s the 2e GTM, i.e. the 2nd Group of Morrocan Tabors, that can be found here: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goumiers_marocains ).

You’ve put 2 units to represent one battalion (as you did for the “Bataillon de Choc”). We said 1 Tabor is roughly equivalent to one battalion… so 2 units per Tabor… now we have the numbers for 3 of them, so 6 units, but we’ve 5 available…

So, I suggest adding one unit of Tabors (to have a total of 6 of them) and giving some name to them: 2 units called “1er Tabor Marocains (Goumiers)”, 2 units “6e Tabor Marocains (Goumiers)” and the last 2 “15e Tabor Marocains (Goumiers)”… Sadly enough, only the later is just a little too long for being properly displayed… a “15. Tabor Marocains (Goumiers)” would do the trick… then, by overall coherence, perhaps just the number everywhere before “Tabor” or the number followed by a point before “Tabor”?

About the Tirailleurs, with 5 units to represent one regiment, so here 2 battalions and a half, that’s fine! Nevertheless one could complete their name as the “1er Tirailleurs Marocains”.

About the “Spahis Marocains” (8 units), it was 2 squadrons (the first and the second) from the 4th regiment… So it could be “4e Spahis Marocains” and rather “1er Esc 4e Spahis Marocains” (4 units) and “2e Esc 4e Spahis Marocains” (4 units), or rather even replacing the “Esc” of the French escadron by the “Sqn” of the English squadron (to make it more clear for English players – we’ve already done this somewhere in the campaign)… (These would be properly displayed, I’ve made the test.)

Ah, we’ve still some Char B1… But instead of 2 units of them, perhaps only 1 B1 but 1 Somua as well?

About artillery, it was the (3rd group of the) 69e Rgt d’Artillerie de Montagne… the M1 are mountain guns, not the M5… That’s not an issue at all as these M5 offer a double cool variation:
1) Another kind of artillery available.
2) A welcomed opportunity to switch from artillery to AT…
The 2 units of M1 could perhaps be named “69e Rgt Artillerie de Montagne” (this would be properly displayed, I’ve made the test).
***
Motto of “1er Tirailleurs Marocains” is “Le Premier Partout” (=”The First One Everywhere”).
Motto of the “4e Spahis Marocains” is “Toujours Un Plaisir” (=”Always A Pleasure”).
Motto of the “2e GTM” (group of …) is “Rira Bien qui Rira le Dernier” which can be translated as “He who laughs last will laugh best”; its insigna can be found here: https://lakoumia.fr/histoire/les-insign ... -marocains
May be of some use?
***
Now, with which unit to represent the famous “Bataillon de Choc”? Well, first of all, they were paratroopers and commandos ( https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/1er_batai ... te_de_choc - to be translated using online Tools as this time it hasn't even some sort of equivalent in English... Well, see next post about them!), but we’ve a problem there as the French don’t have any commando unit within OoB…
Anyway, it just can’t be represented by regular French infantry ’42 (yes, I know there is no French infantry ’43 yet either in OoB, but picking some “basic” unit to depict some elite formation…).

What to choose?
“US Airborne ‘43” (to put the emphasis on their paratrooper aspect – BUT the “US” is probably much too visible here) or
“Special Air Service ‘43”(to put the emphasis on their commando aspect…)

The later is the more discrete one, the less obviously non-French unit… besides, we know that commando units in OoB have difficulties to hold a frontline (it’s not their job anyway)… but that shouldn’t be an issue at all as now we should have a 6th unit of Goumiers (represented by the excellent model of Gurkhas within this campaign), an unit perfectly able to hold some frontline. So this shouldn't unbalance the scenario at all.

So, these 2 units of “Bataillon de Choc” (like “Shock Battalion”) represented by the SAS model? Does that sounds good enough?

Perhaps this unit does deserve an short but cool and immersive event, by the way?!

I am comfortable as to the composition and labeling of the Free French units. Sometimes, when the order of battle (at the event, by the way, not just in general), is somewhat vague, the "clones" effect is warranted and maybe even preferable to guessing.

Yes, there are two French Infantry units representing Bataillon de Choc (with enhanced experience to adjust for 1942 quality). I preferred that because metropolitan French seemed a bit under-represented versus 26 colonial units. As far as representing them as paratroopers or commandos, two things: 1) Yes, "U.S. Paratroopers" being visible would irritate me (we are trying to keep this as "Frenchy" as possible), and 2) those British SAS units are too weak in combat. I want to portray Bataillon de Choc as combat fighters, not as raiders. We had enough raiders earlier in the scenario.

I did swap one Char B1 out in favor of one of your beloved Somua S35s, however. Last time around for both of these units, I believe.

[ColonelY]

[...] I did swap one Char B1 out in favor of one of your beloved Somua S35s, however. Last time around for both of these units, I believe.

Most certainly, indeed.

[ColonelY]

Oh, and I've almost forgotten to precise one point: ( )

Well, I think it's, as usual, another excellent masterpiece of a scenario! Congrats!

[bru888]

12OperationVesuvius:

... End of the feedback of my very first playthrough!

MV at end of t 35 / start of t 36 (out of 48) It would seem, then, that 48 turns is not a bad turn limit. (But see below, where I reduced it to 42 and why.*)

At the 28th turn, there was only a single pri location left to capture in order to Liberate Corsica. At the 29th, this place became empty of any enemy garrison… Then I had to wait until having destroyed enough auxiliary vessels!
It was then a little annoying, having the entire island under control to use several turns for this… well, perhaps, no, probably, I should have sent more ships sooner toward this exit hex. Probably I’ve lost too many time dealing with Schnellboats on the East whereas they don’t represent a threat anyway (or almost) to our ships… Yeah, I should have focused directly on the targets for this obj instead of dealing with subs and Schnellboats.
=> Still, perhaps reducing this threshold from 15 to 12? (As the main focus should stay inland…) Yes, it was a bit busy off the east coast of Corsica - 20 auxiliary ships cluttering the sea lanes. Reduced that to 16 ships of which 12 must be destroyed.

About the hex ownership change around Bastia, I definitely think it would be better to wait until the “Divisione Friuli” appears… (Okay, it seems to be fixed, already. ) Yes, that is fixed, as mentioned above.

‘Perhaps adding two supply ships together with the landing troops?
Well, we’ve enough supply at Ajaccio, that’s not the point. But one could try some side-landing at the nearby beaches straight to the East (so southwards to the river that the Italians are defending), to create some pincer/flanking move… but then there is some lack of supply… and that’s why I suggest this… then, only one of them may “phone” the info… per symmetry, then, perhaps the second one on the other side… I left the following in for humor's sake, my initial response: "Not on your tintype, sir. You are supposed to land at Ajaccio (as IRL), and there you shall land. ( )" But then I reconsidered and included two supply ships. You are still landing in the area of Ajaccio and cannot stray too far away.

At this river, during the fight between the first Italian Division and the Germans, the later won’t be very aggressive indeed… mostly artillery fire, then one or two units moving upwards each turn… first taking the flag (the name of the river) and then using one of the bridges… not much. It’s really tempting to cross the river to chase them. Not necessarily the best idea, though, because the arrival of German troops may have quite an effect there…
Perhaps add some warning for the player about staying on a defensive stance behind this river for a while?
Anyway, with their actual aggressivity level, there is no way these German could retake Ajaccio… BUT I see you've already adressed this point. Yes, as a matter of fact, all German units are now at 99 aggression. Italian Blackshirts are still at 75 and the Italian coastal defense units are static defense.

The Schnellboats in the South stayed idle… they haven’t moved as you’ve triggered them with the defense of an hex that is far away… Perhaps simply putting them to S&D would look better? That was a typo; Turn = 1 instead of Turn >1 in the "Activate Schnellboote" trigger. I did not want them on S&D from the beginning so that they might interfere with the Ajaccio uprising.

With no armored recon unit together with our tanks? A little early to see some US recon model of unit, but perhaps some (old) French “Panhard 178”? If yes, they should be two… These units are now relatively weak so they shouldn’t unbalance the fight… OK, threw them in.

There is now no XP at all for our (French) tanks, artillery, AA nor AT units… *You know, based on this, and your Major Victory after only 35/36 turns, I decided to cut back the number of turns to 42. All French units now have experience.

I’ve seen a little strange thing… the units about to land spawn one turn before their escorting planes and ships… it’s not really a problem in itself, but it’s a little strange and, it seems to me at least, according to the triggers you’ve set up, they should spawn together… If yes, perhaps merging these two triggers may do the trick, but it would take some time… Here we have yet another anomaly. Three triggers in the same folder, all being activated when the folder is activated; both with the same timing mechanism. Yet, the first one fires in this turn and the other two fire next turn. I have had enough anomalies for one day. Perhaps, someday when somebody in authority sees an issue like this, it will be corrected. For now, I am fine with the delay.

Anyway, while at it (or not), probably good to deploy our Casabianca sub more northwards… she’s slow to move, so it could help to have her already deployed closer to the exit hex west of Sagone. (She won’t be of much use against Schnellboats anyway.) Yes, I moved her up several hexes. She could be useful against auxiliary ships, remember.

The first aerial fight is balanced, with 10 planes on each side (if I’m not mistaken)… I’ve seen the usual “issue” with enemy planes being exited but never showing back again. I don't know. Now "anomaly" is leaping to the brain too quickly, perhaps. The off-map air supply box is checked and there are returnable exit hexes and deployment hexes in place. Perhaps the AI gets "cold feet" at 75 aggression, choosing to conserve resources when there is nothing to be gained? I upped the fighter and bomber aggression to 99 to see if that works.
It’s really good that you’ve planed some enemy air reinforcements, but I would say that, first, they should appear sooner (at turn 30 there was no more action inland and I was just chasing various support ships)… I would say this last wave should come more around turn 25. Okay, I moved the timer up several turns (depending on whether the game wants to pay close attention to the Trigger Timer setting).
Then, I would suggest adding a smaller wave of reinforcements, in the South this time, around turn 20… perhaps only 5 or 6 planes (to replace the ones that have exited for never returning and compensating their first losses), without any event… if they spawn near the eastern border of the map, their arrival should be relatively discrete anyway!
So, the main wave (in the NE) several turns sooner and another extra little wave (in the SE) to maintain some action in the skies…
(And with our planes more occupied by this little extra wave, that’s another reason to reduce slightly the amount of support ships to seek and destroy!) Done and done. Moved up the final Luftwaffe wave by several turns and inserted a second wave (3 fighters, 4 bombers) a few turns before that. Yes, less auxiliary ships now, as mentioned above.

On the campaign map, before the scenario about Operation Diadem, I’ve only one pin related of the XP bonus (+1/2 star) for our pilots instead of the usual two that I shall see (having achieved both)… well, perhaps we won’t have French pilots, but still… Yes, no campaign variable pin because no aerial experience bonus in this one because no French planes. But this is true of Operation Vesuvius. I only just begun looking at OD. Question: Free French air presence in Italy? I think so, but I want to make sure.

And... I think that's it for now! That is a ton of feedback. Thanks for all of it, even if I did reject some of it due to artistic license (or because of those darned anomalies).

So... Et voilà !

[ColonelY]

Well, thinking back to this...

Together with events “Uprising Continues” and “Ghost Submarine”…
When they’re triggered, I think it would be a splendid opportunity to let this Ghost Submarine make its very first apparition on this battlefield (moreover because you’re mentioning it and the fact that this sub brings men, the OSS, on the island)…
Spawn it on the hex very close to both spawned OSS units, under AI control but as purely “static”, just for the duration of one entire turn, before it disappears again (being simply exited by triggers)…

I had this very thought. Casabianca appeared as you describe, when the additional OSS units landed. The problem was, I could not get it to disappear and I did not want it to be floating around, doing nothing for many turns. No matter what I did, I could not figure why it would not go away. Frankly, this type of thing happens - not often, but occasionally - and sometimes it's me, and sometimes it's the game. In this case, hey, it's called the "Ghost Submarine," isn't it? It made its drop and swiftly departed.

... and recalling what produces a change about this recent coastal gun issue...

[...] But afterward, you cannot see it in the information panel, even though it's still on the map. The unit actually has been removed, but there is a fault in the mechanism to replace it with a destroyed version of coastal gun: [...]

and...

[...] I could have just substituted "Remove" for "Kill" because that works: [...]

Hem... With the coastal gun, you could try switching from "Kill" to "Remove" and vice versa... But then, it should be logical to have the possibility to try both options "Exit" or "Remove" to solve this issue with the submarine Casabianca, shouldn't it? So, have you in this case already tried both?

[bru888]

Well, thinking back to this...

Together with events “Uprising Continues” and “Ghost Submarine”…
When they’re triggered, I think it would be a splendid opportunity to let this Ghost Submarine make its very first apparition on this battlefield (moreover because you’re mentioning it and the fact that this sub brings men, the OSS, on the island)…
Spawn it on the hex very close to both spawned OSS units, under AI control but as purely “static”, just for the duration of one entire turn, before it disappears again (being simply exited by triggers)…

I had this very thought. Casabianca appeared as you describe, when the additional OSS units landed. The problem was, I could not get it to disappear and I did not want it to be floating around, doing nothing for many turns. No matter what I did, I could not figure why it would not go away. Frankly, this type of thing happens - not often, but occasionally - and sometimes it's me, and sometimes it's the game. In this case, hey, it's called the "Ghost Submarine," isn't it? It made its drop and swiftly departed.

... and recalling what produces a change about this recent coastal gun issue...

[...] But afterward, you cannot see it in the information panel, even though it's still on the map. The unit actually has been removed, but there is a fault in the mechanism to replace it with a destroyed version of coastal gun: [...]

and...

[...] I could have just substituted "Remove" for "Kill" because that works: [...]

Hem... With the coastal gun, you could try switching from "Kill" to "Remove" and vice versa... But then, it should be logical to have the possibility to try both options "Exit" or "Remove" to solve this issue with the submarine Casabianca, shouldn't it? So, have you in this case already tried both?

Remove effect in a Remove Unit trigger is only for a special purpose. My notes on the subject:

Remove Unit - Remove Effect

The REMOVE setting is allowed only with the "Scenario Start" trigger event.

REMOVE is used to eliminate core units that are no longer needed in the campaign and which would needlessly complicate the core roster. Do this only if there are no plans for exporting the core for use in a subsequent campaign.

To remove a unit during a scenario, use KILL, UNDEPLOY, or EXIT.

"Exit" would not work with Casabianca in the structure of the trigger in which it was provided, just like that coastal gun could not be "killed." I don't feel like any more experimental dealing with anomalies.

[ColonelY]

'Okay, fine.

12OperationVesuvius:

[... About Casabianca sub:] Yes, I moved her up several hexes. She could be useful against auxiliary ships, remember. Yes, precisely... another good reason to have her reach this sector without losing too much time on her way!

[... About enemy reinforcements coming sooner:] Okay, I moved the timer up 6 turns (or so, depending on whether the game wants to pay close attention to the Trigger Timer setting). There, you can see that I am not used to this: the timer is moved "up" for something that has to happen "sooner"?

[...] Question: Free French air presence in Italy? I think so, but I want to make sure.
[...]

Free French air presence in Italy? Yes, there was some... at least the "Bretagne" group. The "Groupe (de bombardement) Bretagne" has supported the Italian campaign while being based in Sardinia... (but it could perhaps just as easily have come from our new USS Corsica). ( https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupe_de ... t_Bretagne )
EDIT: And we've already seen these guys; it was in the Fezzan scenario.

[bru888]

'Okay, fine.

12OperationVesuvius:

[... About Casabianca sub:] Yes, I moved her up several hexes. She could be useful against auxiliary ships, remember. Yes, precisely... another good reason to have her reach this sector without losing too much time on her way!

[... About enemy reinforcements coming sooner:] Okay, I moved the timer up 6 turns (or so, depending on whether the game wants to pay close attention to the Trigger Timer setting). There, you can see that I am not used to this: the timer is moved "up" for something that has to happen "sooner"?

[...] Question: Free French air presence in Italy? I think so, but I want to make sure.
[...]

Free French air presence in Italy? Yes, there was some... at least the "Bretagne" group. The "Groupe (de bombardement) Bretagne" has supported the Italian campaign while being based in Sardinia... (but it could perhaps just as easily have come from our new USS Corsica). ( https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupe_de ... t_Bretagne )

Very good. We will see them in Operation Diadem. Thanks, by the way, for your kind words earlier. After a long day of editing, they (and those from Jeff and Masca) are most welcome and are what keep me going.

[bru888]

Regarding this:

[... About enemy reinforcements coming sooner:] Okay, I moved the timer up 6 turns (or so, depending on whether the game wants to pay close attention to the Trigger Timer setting). There, you can see that I am not used to this: the timer is moved "up" for something that has to happen "sooner"?

If you look closely at the triggers, you will see that everything is scheduled as to when the player completes the "Seize three more towns" objective. Doing so activates folders and triggers within folders that are timed using the Trigger Timer condition which is squirrely at best. (Squirrel-like? Bushy-brained? Unreliable.) So it's not a matter of pinpointing the turn number after that, but relative timing.

Which brings up something I need to say. I push these triggers to the limits, beyond perhaps what they are actually capable of doing although they should be able to do as instructed. This is why I encounter many of these anomalies.

This scenario is especially complicated, loaded with spawns and exits that need to be arranged and timed. I need to cut back on my programming and do things somewhat simpler. Thanks to your help, Operation Vesuvius works but I still have lingering doubts here and there.

[bru888]

Free France 1940-1945 v0.31 has been uploaded. It includes all of the edits made to Operation Vesuvius as discussed above.

Free France 1940-1945 (twelve scenarios)

[Mascarenhas]

In the heat of Vesuvius

I could n´t let it off since the beginning. What a design, what a depth, tremendous creativity, particularly in the switching areas system for naval units. I loved it, and is a crucial feature, in order to achieve all the objectives. Lots and lots of fun and a nice challenge. In my view, resources are unbalanced for American air and overall French. Ok, I understand that the Italians should be under-supplied, given their situation. But why in the heaven USAF and FF would carry so few supplies on an invasion like this? I´d suggest you add 12 cp/round for them.

Besides, the glitch with the coastal guns, already mentioned, I noticed that a pack of Schnellboots in the south-west, near Bonifacio, is idle. Is their fate playing dead chicken?

Thanks a lot for another masterpiece, and congratulations.