Slitherine

bru888 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:45 pm

uzbek2012 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:59 pm
To be, or not to be !?

What is this, in English, please?

No problem Comrade ! This is a French submarine from the time of the WWII

https://wwii.space/%D0%BF%D0%BE%D0%B4%D ... %B8%D1%8F/
https://radio-rhodesia.livejournal.com/357601.html


https://en.topwar.ru/9281-podvodnyy-kre ... ancii.html


And an online translator sometimes helps )

P.s.
https://smolbattle.ru/threads/%D0%9F%D0 ... %8B.57632/
https://pikabu.ru/story/podvodnyie_avia ... oy_4952312

Thanks, uzbek. Your contribution:


It is the third in a series of three popup messages for when the French fleet appears.

bru888 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 5:46 pm Thanks, uzbek. Your contribution:


Screenshot 5.jpg
Screenshot 6.jpg
Screenshot 8.jpg


It is the third in a series of three popup messages for when the French fleet appears.

Thank you for making us fans happier

https://spayte.livejournal.com/2029360.html
https://translate.yandex.ru/ocr

Very nice addition, indeed!


Well, of course, you refer to "the valiant Casabianca" in the second line of this (English) text....

ColonelY wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 9:19 pm Very nice addition, indeed!


Well, of course, you refer to "the valiant Casabianca" in the second line of this (English) text....

Heh. Thanks. For recurring errors, it's either "Casablanca," which I am on guard against, or "Copacabana," which seems to be up and coming. No matter; I believe we are finished with Casabianca after this.

Going back to our discussion of Goumiers, I introduce them in Operation Vesuvius as follows:


They will appear in Operation Diadem, of course.

I can´t wait...

Mascarenhas wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:34 am I can´t wait...

Free France 1940-1945 v0.30 has been uploaded. It includes the new Operation Vesuvius scenario as well as these changes:

- Rearranged the scenario order so that Operation Diadem is next, to be followed by La Combattante.
- Improved a few old and inserted a few new campaign event messages between recent scenarios and beyond.
- A couple of minor changes to Dakar.

Free France 1940-1945 (twelve scenarios)

Regarding Operation Vesuvius, this one is complicated. Perhaps I should lay out what is choreographed so that anybody who is assisting in a beta capacity will know what to look for. There is only one objective to start with; ultimately there are 4 primary and 3 secondary objectives.

1. An uprising begins in Ajaccio. The player must take Ajaccio in six turns with Corsican National Front partisans and OSS Operational Group raiders. (Opposition is weak - second rate Italian coastal defense units.)

2. When step 1 is done, the player must take three more western towns in a similar manner. Additional OSS Operational Groups and CNF partisans are spawned.

3. Completing step 2 begins the main part of the battle. The partisans and raiders from steps 1 and 2 disappear. (Other friendly AI partisans are spawned and placed at key interior locations as roadblocks.)

4. One of the Italian garrison divisions, Cremona, rebels and sides with the CNF. At the same time, the Sturmbrigade Reichsführer SS division, which is already on Corsica, appears north of Bonifacio to crush both the Cremona division and the Resistance.

5. That goes on for a while; the chief goal is to prevent Reichsführer from retaking Ajaccio.

6. Then, about five turns later, the Free French army and navy appears, along with U.S. air support. The landing at Ajaccio is underway.

7. One turn after that, the action really ramps up:
- The other Italian garrison division, Friuli, is impressed by the scale of the Free French landing and decides to join the Allies. They are based in Bastia.
- However, the 90th Panzergrenadier Division, having crossed over from Sardinia, appears just outside Bonifacio. In Bonifacio itself, several battalions of the Italian 184th 'Nembo' Parachutist Division who have chosen to remain loyal to Fascism also appear. The Blackshirt battalions belonging to the Cremona and Friuli divisions are also spawned further up the coast; they are also loyal to the Axis and are up to no good.
- Luftwaffe units appear for the first time in this turn as well. The rebellion getting out of hand and the appearance of Free French troops off of Ajaccio are the reasons for the Germans to commit their air support.

8. At this point, the main objective becomes "Liberate Corsica"; that is, hold/take 12 primary VPs around the perimeter of the island. Meanwhile, the French navy is pursuing 15 Axis auxiliary vessels clustered on the east coast, but not before securing the landing at Ajaccio. There is some nautical opposition here and there.

9. A key secondary objective is now "Do not lose Bastia" or because "Losing Bastia will mean that a substantial number of German units will have escaped to mainland Italy. [There will be several more enemy land units to face in Operation Diadem.]"

10. The problem is, from step 8 on, all German forces are converging on Bastia because they have been ordered by Hitler to evacuate to Italy; Nembo paracadutisti will be clinging to Bonifacio, and the reneging Blackshirts will be roaming around, trying to disrupt things.

Got all that? Have fun, I hope.

Here we go!

Feeback for Mareth line scenario : nearly perfect !! Awesome map! Very well done with many choices and possibles encirclements. The only problem is the tanks support by the est-side, the tanks are too slow and can't never arrive in time to help by the north.

One idea to improve the scenario : why not the possibility to destroy the italian supply fleet ? a kind of enemy supply fleet chase instead of make them vanish ?

bru888 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:42 am [...] Free France 1940-1945 v0.30 has been uploaded. It includes the new Operation Vesuvius scenario as well as [...]

Wonderful, now that's some good news!

First look at this scenario, feedback for its first parts (until the Frenchies do show up for the landing):

***
During deployement and first turn, one see several deploy hexes a little everywhere around the map and a bridge (near the middle) strangely out of fog of war for no apparent reason… as all these are useless for now, some cleaning, please.
***
Intro messages:
2/5: The 2nd word “King” may appear with a capital letter…
3/5: Move the cam over Bonifacio (in the SE) as you’re talking about it… (the player is still discovering the map at that point)
4/5: Then move the cam back (as focus back on Corsican resistants)
***
Very first pri obj txt, the “Ajaccio uprising in 6 turns” ends with “[…] in order to capture them.” Well, it’s more about destroying or, at least, disabling them, right? (They’ll be blown up as other structures a little later.) So, a little adaptation here…
***
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)…

It appears, disappears... ghostly... turns around the island... make us somehow "feel" it...
The very first OSS (near Ajaccio) have been landed sooner anyway, but there we've some immersive option...
***
Once Calvi is taken, only one of the two coastal guns is properly destroyed as it should… the western one stays (whether it was already damaged by the fights or not)…
***
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?
***
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…
***
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...

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?!

Translation of the most relevant parts from previous link about the "Bataillon de Choc":


The shock battalion is an elite unit of the French Army formed in May 1943 in Staoueli, Algeria. Trained in parachuting and commando methods, its aim was to provide support to the French Resistance organizations in order to reinforce their action. All the chasseurs are volunteers and united around the same doctrine recalling their diverse origins. It is "the power of the legion, the lightness of the hunter, the chic of the rider".

The unit was in turn engaged in France and Germany during the Second World War, then in Indochina and Algeria before being disbanded at the end of 1963.

[...]

In 1943, Battalion Chief Gambiez persuaded the general staff of the need to create a special unit "capable of providing, when the time came, powerful assistance to the elements established clandestinely in the landing zone". He agreed with the views of the special services directorate, which decided to create an assault battalion in Staoueli, starting on May 23, which would later be called the shock battalion.

A former section leader of this famous unit, the writer Raymond Muellea recounted its adventure during the Second World War in his book Le 1er Bataillon de Choc (The First Shock Battalion) published in 1977 by Presses de la cité. He summarizes the destination and use of the unit in the first paragraph of his introduction:

"Born of the special services, intended for the special services, the "shock battalion" was rarely used according to its vocation. "

In Gambiez's mind, the "shocks" were supposed to be parachuted or infiltrated into the enemy's apparatus, capable of lasting in a climate of insecurity, of destroying, paralyzing and harassing the adversary.
They were to be the French equivalent of the British SAS, the German Skorzeny commandos, and the Chindits units in Burma, and for this purpose they received parachute commando training. But apart from a few special actions in Italy and in occupied territory carried out by individuals or by a section, it was essentially used as a precursor to the major operations of the 1st Army and took part in classic front-line fighting. According to Raymond Muelle, it was suspected of being "Giraudist" in the eyes of the BCRA [from de Gaulle... De Gaulle vs Giraud, an old story!] in London, which would have been one of the reasons why it was not perfectly used in occupied territory according to its vocation and capacities.

In any case, it was a glorious unit to which General de Lattre de Tassigny awarded an eloquent citation in 1946:

"A new weapon, forged for new exploits, the battalion gave its measure of perfection at the first call. "

The unit's baptism of fire took place at the end of the summer of 1943 during Operation Vésuved for the liberation of Corsica. [...]


As I have written in the previous post:

ColonelY wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:51 am [...] [/i] Perhaps this unit does deserve an short but cool and immersive event, by the way?!

Now, there should be enough relevant info to build-up some cool and immersive event, as well as putting them as SAS (from which they were - strongly - inspired).

Oh, and by the way, at that time we should have (largely) enough RPs to use several times the sneak attack of units such as SAS (10 RPs/attack), so it shouldn't worry us too much.

jeffoot77 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:33 am Feeback for Mareth line scenario : nearly perfect !! Awesome map! Very well done with many choices and possibles encirclements. The only problem is the tanks support by the est-side, the tanks are too slow and can't never arrive in time to help by the north.

One idea to improve the scenario : why not the possibility to destroy the italian supply fleet ? a kind of enemy supply fleet chase instead of make them vanish ?

There is a timer so that when "Breakthrough at Tebaga" happens, the reserve tank brigades are delayed before being offered to the player. The reason is, I don't want the reserves immediately thrown into the battle on top of activating XXX Corps on the Mareth Line. Let's have a few turns to see how the battle goes first, since the player must decide to split the reserves between two roads on either side of the mountains, or concentrate them on one road or the other.

But I see your point; these tanks move rather slowly in desert terrain, even on roads, so it takes quite a while for them to get into the action. Therefore, I have reduced the number of turns on the reserves Trigger Timer from 4 to 2. That should help. Thanks for this suggestion.

As to your other suggestion, to make an "enemy supply fleet chase," instead I make the sign of the cross with two index fingers in order to ward off evil. 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.

ColonelY wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:51 am During deployement and first turn, one see several deploy hexes a little everywhere around the map and a bridge (near the middle) strangely out of fog of war for no apparent reason… as all these are useless for now, some cleaning, please.

I am going to drive up my post count by answering some of your comprehensive feedback individually, because the alternative of trying to answer it in an annotated, bold blue font reply is too time-consuming given this length. All of which feedback is most appreciated, believe me.

So here goes: The deployment hexes around the edges of the map are there by design. They are naval unit hexes that allow the player to undeploy a ship and move it to another portion of the coast in the next turn. This stems from two things: When I began designing this map, I had no intention of including much of a naval portion, so I failed to allow for sufficient sea room for sailing around the island! If you notice, the island touches the map edges on north, south, east, and west. ¡Ay, caramba!

But then I realized that this could be overcome by allowing the player to undeploy and redeploy his ships using exit hexes, all of which are labeled. Moreover, the player may appreciate this feature, rather than having to laboriously sail his fleet around the island. Also, the touch points prevent the player from maneuvering the Ajaccio landing fleet to elsewhere on the map, which always irks me. This is supposed to be based on history, folks, not on gaming the scenario, so moving the invasion to Bastia might upset some arrangements, you know?

But this is funny; it must have been nervousness, a twitching mouse finger, to allow for deploying a cruiser on a bridge over a creek. It's not coffee anymore; I have eliminated that (and feel much better for it, by the way). Deployment hex removed.

ColonelY wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:51 am Intro messages:
2/5: The 2nd word “King” may appear with a capital letter…
3/5: Move the cam over Bonifacio (in the SE) as you’re talking about it… (the player is still discovering the map at that point)
4/5: Then move the cam back (as focus back on Corsican resistants)

The way I learned it, a title is capitalized if it is followed by the person's name. Such as Admiral Portier, who was an active admiral before becoming de Gaulle's (fictional) chief of staff.

My introductions have been criticized has too lengthy and time-consuming, although they will remain a part of my designing motif for this campaign, regardless, for the reasons that I stated recently in this thread. However, I want them to be quickly read and not too distracting, so where I can, I eliminate moving the focus around for introductions unless it really is advisable. Here, the player already knows where Ajaccio, Bonifacio, and Bastia are because the camera moved to these locations in the briefings. And if the player did not attend to the briefing, the heck with him altogether.

ColonelY wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:51 am Very first pri obj txt, the “Ajaccio uprising in 6 turns” ends with “[…] in order to capture them.” Well, it’s more about destroying or, at least, disabling them, right? (They’ll be blown up as other structures a little later.) So, a little adaptation here…

Ah, very good. You know where this came about? Of course not, so I will tell you. Originally, it was "capture" but two things subsequently happened. By the time the player takes Calvi, capturing coastal guns would perhaps become a bit tedious, so I decided to "capture" those coastal guns automatically. Then, the action around Bastia came into focus; how would those guns be "captured"? (The OSS Operational Groups are long gone by then.) So, those guns became an objective to destroy. Which lead to the further thought: Why were we capturing these guns, anyway? They would not be used, given the flow of the battle eastward. So "capture" became "destroy" for all of them but I forgot the mission description for the very first set of guns near Ajaccio. Fixed, thanks.

ColonelY wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:51 am 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.

ColonelY wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 11:51 am Once Calvi is taken, only one of the two coastal guns is properly destroyed as it should… the western one stays (whether it was already damaged by the fights or not)…

This may be one of those times when "sometimes it's the game," as I said above.


The trigger is clearly linked to each gun with a Remove Unit effect, but only one of them is killed. Same trigger with same Event and Condition, and only one effect fires. Why?

It's this type of thing that frustrates me the most when designing. Something underlying in the game, some odd corruption, creeps in, which is scary. This is minor, hopefully, else the worst case is that the scenario is useless. At the very least, like the appearance/disappearance of the Casabianca, it must be worked around or omitted. That bugs me.

Let me see if I can find what the problem is.

bru888 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 5:10 pm [...] Let me see if I can find what the problem is.

Well, as an easy solution, one can always simply remove this coastal gun...

Because if you're playing and encounter the situation of your very last picture, well... So if it stays problematic, better simply removing it completely...