BrucErik CSD Studio

[Erik2]

Wow.... this is simply impressive, Bru.
It will of course take me some time for to wrap up and test this large scenario.

I guess you need some well-earned leave before moving to the next scenario. I've put 04Sendai-1, a medium-sized Marines scenario in your folder.

[bru888]

Thanks. I sneaked 04Center-2+ into the folder just now.

This screen shot is from your original 04Center-1. In your "Jap" folder is only a trigger for their commanders:

Screenshot 2.jpg (436.17 KiB) Viewed 3823 times

This screen shot is from the 04Center-2 that I uploaded last night. Somehow, when I imported triggers, I managed to import and overlook the very Partisans folder that I was discussing in my last post about 03Packard and that needed to be edited for the flaw in trigger conditions:

Screenshot 1.jpg (842.32 KiB) Viewed 3823 times

So, to avoid confusion, I removed this folder from 04Center-2+. It still needs to be edited in 03Packard, I would surmise.

[Erik2]

Bru, here's an idea regarding the landbased US air.
I'm considering removing all resource income for these units. The idea is that the air forces would deplete over time after heavy involvement.
I think the player will still be able to mount considerable ground support simply due to the number of air units involved.
Thoughts?

[bru888]

Bru, here's an idea regarding the landbased US air.
I'm considering removing all resource income for these units. The idea is that the air forces would deplete over time after heavy involvement.
I think the player will still be able to mount considerable ground support simply due to the number of air units involved.
Thoughts?

Hmmm.

One thought: You do have quite a lot of air support in these scenarios. Enough to carpet bomb enemy territory. So, handicapping them a bit may be in order.

Another thought: Players will complain about not being able to repair their cherished Liberators. It might be better to even up the odds by reducing American air strength and enhancing Japanese aerial defenses. Just a bit (I exaggerate the carpet bombing thing).

For example, in 04Center, you had only two Jap AA guns on the map until I added a couple on top of Mount Kirishima. Only three Jap fighters, flying out of an airstrip which, when GabeKnight or Conboy plays this, they will say "Don't even bother with the fighters. Bomb the crap out of the airstrip."

So I guess what I am saying is, rather than take away something that the player enjoys doing and finds challenging — managing resources and unit repair — even up the air war a little more. Not drastic, but surely the Japanese could muster up more air defenses at this stage, which is still early in the invasion of the Japanese homeland.

[Erik2]

03Packard:
Deleted old duplicate Partisan trigger folders.

04Center:
Assigned all Jap units.
Added a few Jap bunkers near secondary objectives.
Added Jap land commanders.
Added Jap resource income.
Added 1 Marine land commander reward to the hold-5-turns objective.
Replaced Marine LVT-1 with LVT-4.
Doubled US/Marine resource income.
Brought US reinforcements forward a couple of turns.
Reduced number of turns to 36.

Removed optional US air, not needed.

[bru888]

Funny how the Japanese just decide to create cities by merging and renaming localities. I've seen this before in this campaign; this time, I was confused because there is (today) a city named Sendai north of Tokyo on Honshu. The Sendai that we are looking at here on Kyushu is now called Satsumasendai. Wikipedia says, "The modern city of Satsumasendai was established on October 12, 2004, from the merger of the city of [another, local] Sendai, the towns of Hiwaki, Iriki, Kedoin and Togo, and the Koshikijima Islands (which consisted of the villages of Kamikoshiki, Kashima, Sato and Shimokoshiki, all from Satsuma District)." So it was Sendai in 1945. Wherever you are getting your templates from, they seem to be historically accurate.

Sendai.jpg (19.39 KiB) Viewed 3390 times

Satsumasendai.jpg (21.2 KiB) Viewed 3390 times

I was wondering whether "Satsuma" means "New" but according to The Free Dictionary, it is "a seedless mandarin orange originally cultivated in Japan." Of course, the town should remain "Sendai" on your map.

[Erik2]

Hello there Master Bru-San.
I used one of the John Tiller games as map/OOB-templates. The research in his games is usually spot-on.

[bru888]

Screenshot 2.jpg (159.66 KiB) Viewed 3343 times

[Erik2]

Planning a court martial?

[bru888]

04Sendai-2 is in your folder.

Changes:

• Adjusted the primary objectives to be a line of towns in the north.

• Oddly enough, by chance two of those chosen towns were both named "Tashio." This was confusing (even though, who knows, maybe it was true?) so I changed the one furthest east to "Yusui."

• Adjusted the Japanese supply roads objective as follows:
- Made it "supply routes" to take the railroad into account.
- Paved the coastal road north of Akasegawa to conform with the objective description.
- Placed two bunkers to guard the paved road and railroad near Mochii; these bunkers must be destroyed.
- Four bridges must also be blown by the player in that area, so I moved your Bridge-3 trigger to a bridge just east of Togomachi (after connecting the nearby rivers).

• Added supply route guards and town garrisons.

• Placed AA units in their AI team slot, but left these empty: 330 Inf, 329 Inf, 328 Inf, 351 Div misc. They are all set for Local Defense = 5 to begin and I did not move any of the Jap units that would comprise these four teams.

• What I did do was to provide a mechanism for each of these AI teams, 330 Inf, 329 Inf, 328 Inf, 351 Div misc, to fall back and defend the primary VPs. These are AI Teams 2, 3, 4, and 5. Here is how it works:
- At Turn 5, AI Team 2 (currently 330 Inf) merges into AI Team 9 Defend Akune.
- At Turn 5, AI Team 3 (currently 329 Inf) merges into AI Team 10 Defend Tashiro.
- At Turn 5, AI Team 4 (currently 328 Inf) merges into AI Team 11 Defend Maratsuka.
- At Turn 5, AI Team 5 (currently 351 Div misc) merges into AI Team 12 Defend Jonodan.
- As each of those towns fall, their assigned team moves toward the last two VPs, Utsura and Yusui, and join their defenses. (Don't forget; for the enemy AI to win, it only has to hold onto one VP so, if by chance, the player walks in to Utsura and Yusui early, then he will have less time to take the other four VPs. Otherwise, Utsura and Yusui will be the Japs' last stand.)
- So, now that you know where each AI Team is going to, I suggest populating AI Teams 2, 3, 4, and 5 so that each team is closest to Akune, Tashiro, Maratsuka, and Jonodan, their assigned destinations. Also, maybe place these teams closer to the front for some initial resistance, whereupon they fall back (Turn 5) and make a stand along the Akune-Tashiro-Maratsuka-Jonodan-Utsura-Yusui line.

• Changed "Do not lose any landbased aux air units" objective to "Do not lose any land-based aircraft," the important change reflecting all of these planes being core, not aux. I gather that, even if you tweak the composition of the air fleet, core vs. aux, the point would be to not lose any of them merely because they ran out of fuel. I wrote the trigger accordingly.

• Regarding the "Locate and destroy HQ/supply" objective, it's the three concrete bunkers that you had placed on the map. I randomized their locations a bit. Prize: +50 Marine resources — see if that is suitable according to your schedule or alter it as needed.

• Redirected the railroad to run with the coastal road between Nagayama and Otsu because it bugged me that a train would have to pass through a coastal gun emplacement. Certainly, the proximity would be feasible in real life but in the game, it would bother me.

• Accordingly, changed Bridge-1 trigger from "Road Bridge" to "All."

• Tweaked a road south of Okawa to allow another coastal gun at a logical point (Fiery Death).

• Accommodated a hex north of Akasegawa that was just begging for a fifth and final coastal gun (Hail the Emperor).

• Added your orginal coastal guns to AI Team 1, bringing the total in that team to 10: 5 coastal guns, 2 supply route bunkers, 3 HQ/supply.

Additional Notes:

• You have in mind the schedule of commanders (including same commanders in each scenario on one junction level?). So please continue to check, consider, and edit my choices of commanders accordingly, including the two offered in this scenario.

• I know that you go back through each scenario to adjust gameplay balance in order to provide a modicum of challenge. With that in mind, I call your attention to 28 American fighters and bombers versus 0 Japanese planes and 6 AA guns. Similarly, 3 U.S. battleships, 5 cruisers, and 5 destroyers against 0 Japanese vessels and 5 coastal guns. The Japanese, defending their homeland, would still have some aerial and naval resources left, even if just kamikaze planes and converted gunboats. They surely would have more AA guns. Also, this being speculative, maybe think about Jap "secret weapons" toward the bitter end.

• I don't know what was wrong with this; perhaps the wrong faction for the exit hexes?

Screenshot 2.jpg (943.51 KiB) Viewed 3307 times

Alliance should matter, not individual faction, but when I replaced all of these with Blue U.S. Army exit hexes, the planes at least are not faced with immediate out-of-fuel danger:

Screenshot 3.jpg (946.19 KiB) Viewed 3307 times

Now, apparently the fact that those hexes are one-way (no redeploy allowed) makes all of these land-based planes low on fuel to start — the low-fuel indicator comes on every turn. If you are familiar with this, then fine.

• Here is something else that I noticed. With the exception of a few infantrymen and one priest, all of the U.S. units are core. You are handling the core situation on the campaign level and adjusting CPs accordingly. Don't, then, forget about these carrier-based planes. As you know, you don't need any CPs if core units are already on the map. That being the case, everything would be fine except for 8 U.S. Navy planes that begin the scenario based on carriers. Without air CPs, they will not be able to take off.

Screenshot 1.jpg (233.72 KiB) Viewed 3307 times

• The scenario description mentions tunnels so you may want to add a few (but not on the desination hexes for the randomized HQ/supply bunkers, please).

• In this scenario, and a couple of other recent ones, the Japs have no income. Intentional?

[Erik2]

I have put the next scenario 04Tsuno-1 in your folder.
One more to go.

[Erik2]

04Sendai:
Jap start the battle.
Added US landbased air deployment hexes (no fuel warnings).
Replaced US air/land/sea core units with command points.
Added US deployment hexes.
Added Jap resource income.
Added Jap kamikaze air/naval/land unit spawns.
Added Jap specialisations.
Replaced duplicate commander reward.
Reduced number of turns to 30.
Brought Jap reinforcements forward.
Added 'check owner' triggers to Jap reinforcement hexes.

[bru888]

Added US landbased air deployment hexes (no fuel warnings).

Aha, so that was it! With the other thing — I got rid of the red flight danger hexes — so it was a combination of issues. So, even though you provide proper exits, you have to place air deployment hexes to avoid fuel warnings. Hopefully the "no re-entry" provision holds, regardless. I believe that is your intention.

[Erik2]

I might change the no-reentry with a no-resource-income for all scenarios.
Maybe I mentioned this earlier.
This could simulate the wear and tear of the land-based air.

[bru888]

I have put the next scenario 04Tsuno-1 in your folder.
One more to go.

It looks like two more after 04Tsuno if I am reading this right.

Branch overview.jpg (926.44 KiB) Viewed 3152 times

[bru888]

Sendai: beaches blocked by escarpments; no seaborne invasion possible.
Tsuno: coastline blocked in most areas, but four beaches are open to invasion. U.S. reinforcements in turns 4, 5, and 13 arrive by land.

I assume you will make your U.S. dispositions according to the design that you have in mind; that is, whether initial deployment is at sea or on land or both. Right now, U.S. forces seem "understaffed" even with those reinforcements, yet I detect no deployment hexes on land or sea.

[bru888]

Nobody does enemy castle objectives better. Nobody.

Screenshot 4.jpg (960.36 KiB) Viewed 3137 times

Screenshot 2.jpg (181.5 KiB) Viewed 3139 times

[Erik2]

Your home is obviously also your castle.

[bru888]

04Tsuno-2 is in your folder.

Changes:

• Added Mount Osuzu and four local shrines.
• Added to the line of coastal town primary VPs to be taken as the U.S. advances north: Minashi-Takonabe-Onigakubo-Nakazato-Tsuno-Yamasu-Mimitsu.
• Rearranged the terrain a bit to accommodate Sadowara Castle, which is now a secondary objective.
• Sakamoto was too far north to serve as a Jap supply road secondary objective for two reasons:
- on the edge of the map, it cannot be easily seen
- it's further north than the primary objectives, so if it had to be taken, why is it not a primary objective in itself?
• So, I established 4 secondary Jap supply road objectives along the west edge of the map.
• Moved the town of Mino one hex to the northeast in order to preserve its name and at the same time accommodate Supply Road D. I physically (digitally) picked up and moved the town myself, pixel by pixel.
• Responded to a petition from the townspeople of Amatsuke who requested that a nearby road be moved one hex to the northwest so they could have the honor of a coastal gun emplacement nearby.
• Seized a rice paddy by virtue of eminent domain for a coastal gun site so that the people of Imabyu could enjoy the same honor. (Funny; they were not as thrilled. Rice is precious at this stage of the war.)
• Provided AA coverage for these newcomers.
• Added garrisons to all victory points.
• Assigned Japanese land units to AI teams according to how you labeled them, except I borrowed three units of the 516th for "burial detail."
• Re-distibuted engineer units to the four main teams. (And made them engineers; 3 out of 4 were infantry before.)
• Gave an AA unit to each of the four main teams. (And grouped them with these teams, not the AA team.)
• Labeled the Hitosuse River and established it as the initial Jap defensive line. Rearranged the Jap units accordingly.
• Choreographed two teams to fall back along the primary VP corridor as the VPs fall, and two teams to counterattack from the west and then go to seek & destroy. See if you agree with these plans.
• Provided for supply for both sides. Initially, U.S. supply is only from the south.
• Added two more coastal bridges to be blown, plus every bridge over the Hitosuse River on Turn 1, with popup message.
• U.S. to move first, since they are the aggressors.

Additional Notes:

• You have in mind the schedule of commanders (including same commanders in each scenario on one junction level?). So please continue to check, consider, and edit my choices of commanders accordingly, including the two offered in this scenario.
• The land-based U.S. aircraft seem squared away this time but recall what you were saying about "I might change the no-reentry with a no-resource-income for all scenarios."
• However, the same problem with the carrier-based planes occurs here. As you know, you don't need any CPs if core units are already on the map. That being the case, everything would be fine except for 8 U.S. Navy planes that begin the scenario based on carriers. Without air CPs, they will not be able to take off.
• With your Kamikaze air-1 and Kamikaze air-2 random triggers, options 2 through 5 and 7 through 10 are missing spawn unit effects. As is, each trigger has only a 20% chance of generating a kamikaze plane.
• Moreover, the random triggers themselves have faulty conditions. You are calling for the airstrips to be in place, but the corresponding target hexes are not indicated.
• I took a second look at American reinforcements and perhaps this will be enough force, so additional seaborne land units may not be called for. However, with those open beaches, you are leaving the temptation to use (quite wisely, militarily) some of the warships to enable embarking troops and invading those beaches (the warships provide some supply, too). Intended?

[Erik2]

04Tsuno-3:
Increased kamikaze air spawn.
Removed top left supply objective. It simply took too long to capture after all other objectives were taken.

I've put 05Northern-1 in your folder.
This is actually the last scenario. I think the original Kirishima was renamed 04Center at some point.