Erik's campaigns, mods and multiplayer scenarios

[ctskelly]

Any mac users have an older version of Germany East 1941 or Germany East 1942? From pre-2021?

I do, from June 2020. Where should I send them? My regular mail is ctskelly at gmail.

And why do you need them? I am having no out-of-the-norm troubles with 2021 scenarios.

[ctskelly]

SquadMod 1.0
Link added in first post.

Designed for 40m-hex scenarios using squad/platoon-sized units.
Artillery units have much increased ranges.
Air units have double movement.
Cav units have increased movement from 6 to 8.
Horse and Truck transports does not consume land command points.
Halftracks still does.
Sniper units have 2-hex range.
The old Heavy Infantry has been split into non-switchable Machine Gun and Mortar units.
MG units have a 2-hex range and slightly different stats based on caliber and rate of fire.

Content:
Banzai 1939-41 v2.0 campaign
Complete rework.

Squad Mod is excellent in the usual Erik fashion. Pure fun. I thoroughly enjoy the new innovations of range. I wonder if ranges would work for all units. Tanks range 3, Inf, range 2, etc. Would completely change the game.

Anyway, back to Squad Mod. It has a few victory condition recognition bugs as usual, but the big problem for me was the first Malay scenario, after Guam. If freezes on loading, so never get past the D-Day beach screen. Looking at the campaign txt file, I noticed "event_22_0_title" for Malay up to 26 for Wake are not in the file. Did you leave something out of those scenarios by mistake?

[Erik2]

ctskelly

Thanks for reporting. The scenario after Guam is actually 'Tonri - Tearing Into Siam' (scenario folder name 08Siam) and there is no beach landing involved.
So I'm confused about wich scenario you mean.
The only beach-invasion scenario after Guam is Wake. I tested this in single-player, works fine.
I had no problems playing through all the scenarios although objective issues may crop up if a player does things differently than me.

[ctskelly]

ctskelly

Thanks for reporting. The scenario after Guam is actually 'Tonri - Tearing Into Siam' (scenario folder name 08Siam) and there is no beach landing involved.
So I'm confused about which scenario you mean.
The only beach-invasion scenario after Guam is Wake. I tested this in single-player, works fine.
I had no problems playing through all the scenarios although objective issues may crop up if a player does things differently than me.

Oh, sorry for my late-night mistake! I meant the game hangs after Tonri, not Guam. As seen in the scenario folders, the next scenario after Tonri should be Malaya1

Cam folder.png (51.82 KiB) Viewed 4255 times

The right post-scenario campaign screen comes up after finishing Tonri,

post scenario.png (201.42 KiB) Viewed 4255 times

But the Malay1 scenario hangs on loading on the D-Day Utah beach image screen.

D-DAt screen.png (573.51 KiB) Viewed 4255 times

[Erik2]

That is odd. I nuked my way through the scenarios and they all loaded fine. Maybe your issue was a one-time glitch?

[Vano2004]

What is the situation with the Korean War ?

[Erik2]

What is the situation with the Korean War ?

I'm not currently working on any new Korea content, but I may return to it at some point.
I'm busy with the BrucErik 'Operation Olympic' campaign and the next SquadMod campaign (Banzai 1942).

[ctskelly]

That is odd. I nuked my way through the scenarios and they all loaded fine. Maybe your issue was a one-time glitch?

Thanks for taking the time to do that. I had redownloaded the Squad Mod, nuked from Guam, and it froze at Malaya 1. Today I set the difficulty at level 3 and nuked all the way to Tonri and Malaya 1 from the campaign launch, but it still froze in the same place, at the Malaya 1 game load.

All I can figure is that being a Mac user, so the OoB game file does not have the latest updates. Slitherine stopped doing Mac OoB updates a half year ago or so. Allies Resurgent will not play for us.

I guess I'll just have to pass on enjoying your genius until the next campaign comes out. So be it. I am still super lucky that guys like you and Bru exist. I played Total War Napoleon again today, and it hit me that every battle is pretty much the same, unlike OoB. It truly amazes me that site listing the 50 best wargames for Mac do not even have OoB in the lineup, with vanilla games like Civ VI instead.

[ColonelY]

I've taken a look at the Germany West 39-40 campaign and found an issue.
This campaign does look excellent, by the way.

*******
Well, the 1939Ge.jpg isn't updated, but that's rather a detail (although...).
*******
The Poles have basically 3 different kind of planes at disposal: the PZL 11 (dogfighter), the PZL 23 B (tac bomber) and the PZL 37 B (strat bomber) - obviously the "B" means "bomber".

The issue is that, in each and every scenario involving the Polish PZL 23 B, it has been assigned to an AI Team of (dog)fighter, having to S&D enemy planes. Consequence: they are not doing what they are expected to do, they aren't bombing here and there...

This has to be fixed. I hope you'll change these AI Team setups rather than putting only PZL 11 fighters everywhere.

Example: for the very first scenario, the Poles have now 2 PZL 11 and 1 PZL 23 B, so 2 fighters and 1 bomber - which is perfect, as the player has 9 LCP, so is likely to purchase one unit of bomber as well (what would have been the Blitzkrieg without any Stuka?). So perhaps 2 fighters and 1 bomber each (player and AI), that's perfect.

Where does is appear? There: 1Poznan & 2DanzigN & 3DanzigS & 9Warsaw
(For example not in the 4Lodz as there is no Polish plane there, etc.)

In 9Warsaw, we've 3 PZL 11, Polish fighters, and 1 PZL 23 B, Polish tac bomber (now grouped as 2 AI Teams of "fighters" in S&D).
The Polish strat bomber PZL 37 B hasn't appeared yet within this campaign... thus, what about adding one unit of PZL 37 B in this last Polish scenario, so that it may at least make one appearance, in the 9Warsaw?
*******
And while you'll be at it, well, there is a little something:
Comparing the two scenarios about Danzig Corridor (North and South, i.e. the 2nd and 3rd scens)...
In short, what about starting the 2nd part of the briefing in 3DanzigS by "The Polish Air Force is still not totally crippled, [...]".
What's this? Well, exactly the same (first part of the) sentence than in 2DanzigN.
Why? The player will take the Corridor South in case of Major Victory (at Poznan) and the Corridor North in case of Minor Victory (or now Draw as well)...
2nd part of the briefing starts with "Because you were not able to cripple the Polish Air Force, [...]" in the Corridor South... What, "NOT ABLE TO" when we've achieved the very best, that is a Major Victory (including taking enough Polish airfields)!?
=> So, I think just the very same start for both of them may do nicely the trick.
(And it's much easier and faster to do this simple copy-cut, compared to explain it and, hopefully, make it more or less clear. )

[ColonelY]

Same campaign, scen 4Lodz - some thoughts, if I may:

1. About the sec obj related to trains... we have to kill all trains, that's fine!
On the map, there are 5 (regular) trains, but they are assigned to an AI team named "Armored trains" and put on S&D... but they can't fire, the poor chaps!
So, are they supposed to move or will they just stay put there for the entire scenario? If they won't move, perhaps putting them a little everywhere on the map from start may look more "natural".
I assume that these (regular) trains won't move that much - so, what about replacing their AI Team by "S&D" to "idle"? Perhaps it will shorten a (very) little the "thinking" duration of AI turns.

2. You've a column of Waffen SS that is expected to be (purchased then) deployed... We can see the flag with the hex named "Waffen SS units must deploy here". Some ideas:
First, why not a real SS flag there? Visually, that would be something. (Easy to achieve by "changing hex ownership" into SS directly at this hex flying this flag.)
Second, why not pre-deploying (at least) an auxiliary SS recon unit (armored car) the top front/North position of this column?
Finally, why not implementing the module found for the Winter Series (preventing the player from deploying there any no-SS units & another preventing any SS unit from being deployed in the South-WEST of the map)?

[terminator]

Will this "old" campaign be updated ?

[ColonelY]

I hope, at least about the Polish bombers not doing what they are expected to do...

[Erik2]

Thanks for both the Winter War and Germany West feedback, Colonel.
Added to my to-do list.

[Erik2]

Germany West 1939-40 2.7
Link updated in first post.

1Poznan:
2DanzigN:
3DanzigS:
Changed air unit PZL 23B to proper bomber assignment.

9Warsaw:
Changed PZL 23B to bomber.
Added air unit PZL 37 B.

2DanzigN:
3DanzigS:
Fixed air briefing.

4Lodz:
Added Polish trains exit map trigger.
Replaced one train with armored train.
Added Waffen SS flag and recon unit.

[ColonelY]

Nice, thanks.

[Erik2]

MicroMod 3.4
Link updated in first post.

2v2 Battle of the Bulge 1.7:

Factions now get resources pr turn income instead of a lump at start. Allied factions get 2 RPs pr unit pr turn and German factions get 1 RP pr unit pr turn.

Fixed issues with adding/removing RPs to/from factions when fuel dumps were destroyed. Doubled the RP gain/loss from 100 to 200. This will benefit the Germans most (if they manage to destroy the depots...)

Changed neutral mines to 'friendly' to facilitate movement behind friendly lines.


2v1 Danzig Corridor 1939 2.3:

Reduced Polish primary objectives from 3 to 2.

Added automatic victory if/when the Germans have captured all 6 primary objectives.

Polish units are now core (excepting police, partisans and armored trains but including the air units). The Polish player may thus disband weak/low strength units and get a few resources back for repair.

Added specialisation Field Medics to the Poles. This should generate a few RPs as well.

Added 20 RPs pr engineer unit enable laying/removing mines or destroying/repair bridges. These resources may of course be spent on unit repair instead.

Decreased number of turns from 50 to 30.

Added more Polish MG nests along the borders.

Removed all German Panzerjäger units.

[stevefprice]

[Erik2]

Happy with the Danzig changes ?

[stevefprice]

Happy with the Danzig changes ?

I'll fire one up and let you know

[stevefprice]

Happy with the Danzig changes ?

I'll fire one up and let you know

3.4 doesn't work for me as I cannot get passed the logon screen.