Allied: Cauldron

[produit]

Beta2, FM, Triumph 16/16. Ending prestige 182.

End of Overstrength of 15. I am starting to lose strength points. The scenario is hard, but doable. I lost no units of the 150th Brigade, but I lost a (B) hex.
Nice map, difficult, because you have to hurry to protect the 150th Brigade.

Concerning prestige, I upgraded perhaps too much, but that is a huge change compared to previous scenarios. I am no more "flowing" in prestige...

[Flaygor]

Beta 2, Colonel.
Very challenging scenario and nicely constructed as others have noted.
Had the issue with German Pioneer being awarded medal. M5 Stuart, one of my fave tanks from way back, is totally pants compared to it's AG stats! But I'll tweak it with the editor once the full game is out
Far too many trucks zooming around aimlessly and too many engineers reduce the mine barrier in only a couple of turns. This amounts to a lot of activity not specific to the actual battle. I also found it weird that the German artillery was busy clearing the front row of mines while happily letting me position my artillery and infantry to assault the 88"s.

My main observation at this point, is that a lot of these scenarios, while both well designed and challenging, seem more like DLC content than the original core game. I feel you may alienate people new to this genre with scenarios they will struggle to get past this early in the campaign and thus lose interest. Everyone here is at an advanced level and rarely gets beaten, but are you targeting this at veterans or trying to get new followers who will graduate to DLC's later?

I am also stating this view because people were happily getting through this on FM on beta 1, but are they finding it as easy on beta 2 with OS limited and higher refit amounts? I am playing on Colonel for balance but still found this hard to beat first up and your prestige just melts away.

That said, Allied General had some desert scenarios that could still catch me out after 15 years of playing them! This is also my first ever beta so be gentle with me.

[Tarrak]

Replayed the scenario on beta 2. It's still as annoying as it was in beta 1. If played with the chess cheat the scenario may be OK but with the randomness of the dice saving the 150th in the time given is bloody hard. The enemy seems to always roll one dice where it inflicts massive casualties and then you can't just reinforce while being permanently surrounded.

The enemy air power is still way to high. You have no chance to combat them. At some point, just after is shot down a 10 strength Italian fighter a 12 strength MC202 and two Bf 109 ganked on my Hurricane and killed it. This was four enemy fighters and at least one more bomber flying around at same time. This all while my airfield is outside of the range of my planes. I need two turns to arrive at the battlefield, can remain there for two turns if lucky and then off i got to refuel. Seriously the enemy air power in this scenario need to be toned down. It's difficult enough as it is without being totally overwhelmed by millions of enemy planes.

Overall i must say this is the scenario from AC i like the least so far from start to D-Day.

[monkspider]

Cauldron
Beta 2
General level
ending prestige 5138
DV 20/20


It seems like throughout this beta test I have been having trouble with scenarios that everyone else found easy. For once, it is the opposite! It seems like most people were having trouble with this one, and although it wasn't trivial, I didn't find it especially challenging. I must say, this is a nice change of pace. Seeing that wall of 88's for the first time was pretty frightening, but I didn't find it that difficult to keep the 150th brigade alive, I only lost one unit, the AA after a Panzer III forced it to surrender. My losses were much lighter than the last battle, with only my air units taking significant losses. A very enjoyable scenario with an interesting challenge with both defensive and offensive elements. I always iike scenarios where you have to keep a smaller aux force alive until you can link up with them.

[Razz1]

Beta2
General
start 7367
end 2994
Triumph

Without the OS in beta 2 the game is harder.
On this map, the German tanks are a little too strong.

Lost several good units on this map.

[okiemcguire]

10) Cauldron - Beta 2

Level: Colonel
Prestige Begin: 5732 At Deployment: 1462 End/Vict: 28/3028
Results: Triumph 17/17

Core consisted of 4 Artilleries, 4 Crusaders, Churchill, 2 Recon, HW Inf, Inf, 2 Hurricanes, 1 Typhoon, and Beaufighter/
Also purchased P40 and Mosquito for range to assist 150 Brig.

Armor broke through the 88 screen and got to the 150 Brigade in the nick of time. They were down to 4 units and low ammo. Had to constantly shift defensive posture and resupply. At times evacuating couple of "B" tiles. The 150 AA dwindled the axis air attacks. P40 and Mosquito was able to help a little due to range. The reamining air forces were helping clear a corridor after the 88s were gone.

As stated in other posts, it was tense at times for the 150 but manageable.

[demyansk]

I just played this scenario and only got the first level victory. The one thing that is difficult about these desert scenarios is the lack of airfields for my air units. They don't really help much in this scenario. My 150th got smashed

[sgocart6298]

Opening Communique

"Unless he smashes through the fortified box held by our 150th brigade and he cannot resupply adequately, (and) he'll find himself trapped behind our line."

run on sentence and easy fix is to eliminate (and) above.

[Ballacraine]

I liked this scenario a lot.

Interesting to see AI attacking minefields.
It added some tension to the scenario, I thought.

Destroying their supply dump didn't appear to result in any bonus?

Some captured equipment would be nice.

I haven't had any at all in AC?

Balla.

[Flaygor]

Some captured equipment would be nice.

Balla.

I haven't come across any either, but adding captured equipment to the map is probably a last minute thing and as we've seen with the latest upgrade for PC (1.14?) more heroes were added later.

More of a concern to me is I am up to D-day and I only received one SE unit, whereas it seems other players have several. Could use some free cannon fodder! Maybe a top up to the set level of SE units before D-day would be nice to have?

[Ballacraine]

Victory Hex 22,5 (Knightsbridge) does not allow placement of bought units at any point during the scenario

Balla.

[uran21]

Victory Hex 22,5 (Knightsbridge) does not allow placement of bought units at any point during the scenario

Balla.

One can buy new equipment only at supply hexes which are cities, airfields and ports IF they have a flag. Any other hex having flag or being objective is not supply hex.

[Ballacraine]

Yes, well that is an odd one.

What is the appeal of the victory hex, if it does not hold key assets such as supply?

Balla.

[uran21]

Yes, well that is an odd one.

What is the appeal of the victory hex, if it does not hold key assets such as supply?

Balla.

AI loves them and sometimes their capture/hold is related to victory conditions for the player. I do not think, mountains, bridges, desert or sea ,for that matter of fact, should be supply hexes. Imagine saving some units, like 150th Brigade in this scenario, by buying bunch of new units in the brigade box. Being a victory hex is key element in its own right.

[Ballacraine]

OK, but perhaps we need another town where we can supply from, as there seems to be only one place in this scenario.

Balla.

[zappel]

Beta3 - Colonel - DV at turn 16

Yes, that's good old PC-style: a nice scenario which will be really hard on a higher difficulty. The lack of additional airfields was really a pain, the short-distance Spitfire did only one dogfight before they have to be refilled, so the Mosquito is a good alternative.
The axis engineers were did their job and eliminated minefields even then there was not need to do so. If they had fun, let them do it. At the end of the scenario italian Kamikaze-trucks ran into ambushes so I lost valuable ammo for the rest of the italian forces. I cleared the map at turn 15 and got only a victory because I moved the white-marked forces in the desert. After reload and move them back to area B I got the triumph, so victory-conditions seemed to work.
A really ambitious scenario i like to play and I'm looking forward to the final version to play it as Fieldmarshal.

[Schildy81]

The first really tough scenario. But really nice.

Difficulty: FM
Start Prestige: 2330 (after upgrade/purchase) End prestige: 1602

Core at this point:
2x HW Inf; 1x Engineer; 1x Commando
1x Crusader MkII; 3x Churchill MkII; 2x Daimler AC
1x M7 Priest; 3x BL 7.2 inch
2x Spitfire MkIX; 1x SE Spitfire MkIX; 1x Hurricane MkIIc
2x Mosquito MkIV; 1x Lancaster MkI

[JLChamberlain]

Cauldron
Colonel
Starting Prestige: 5037
I feel like I finally had ample prestige to set up my core (closer) to how I want it. Now, if only I had more deployment slots . . .

Upgrades: Hurrican mk1 -> mkiic, SE Spitfire MkII -> MkVB, Wellington MkIII -> Mosquito MkIV, Beaufighter MkIIF -> Mosquito MkIV, 2x Crusader MkI -> MkIII, M3 Stuart -> Grant Mk1, Valentine II -> III, Humber AC -> Daimler AC, 2x Bishop -> Priest, Stirling MkI -> Lancaster MkI

Triumph
16/16 (wish there was a way to end this one a few turns sooner)
End prestige: 262

On my first playthrough, the FlakFront was tough - the AI alternated AA and AT mode 88s, making it a tough nut to crack. This playthrough, they didn't do that, and it was much easier to concentrate either air or ground forces against them.

I really like this scenario - the desperate straits the Aux forces are in really reatchets up the tension.
The long range for air operations is a pain in the neck - but the good kind. I had to improvise and carefully pace my air sorties.

My one complaint is that the briefing text is ambiguously phrased - it sounds like the defending units can't leave the box, but they can. Perhaps you just need to make them victory locations, and say those locations must remain held and not flip, like the airfields on Crete.

[Brenmusik]

All those 88s! Keeps the RAF honest. Hard to break through, but not too difficult. Started at the southern end and worked up. It would have been embarrassing if there had been a second German offensive.
Two A/cars and the Bishop were sent the northern route to support 150 Bde. they were not enough, lost one too many of 150. My biggest problem with keeping the outpost alive were the enemy lorries “parking up” against the beleaguered British so reducing their ability to resupply. The Axis troops habit of breaking off attacks to go hunting distant minefields was a plus though, include the airforce too.
A thought about mine sweeping, could there be a random eliment to it, (for both sides). There many accounts of delays due to paths not being cleared “to order” - one strength point dropped per field cleared per turn, regular as clockwork is too good to be true.

Cauldron lorries.jpg (150.83 KiB) Viewed 3900 times

[okiemcguire]

Cauldron - Beta 3

Level: General
Prestige Begin: 7668 At Deployment: 3883 End/Vict: 2056/+2380
Results: Triumph 16/16

Core consisted of 4 Artilleries, 1 Crusaders, 5 Churchill, 2 Recon, HW Inf, Commando, 1 SE Spitfire IX, 1 Hurricane IIC, 1 Typhoon, 1 Mosquito, and Beaufighter

Armor broke through the 88 screen and got to the 150 Brigade in the nick of time. Had to constantly shift defensive posture and resupply. The 150 AA dwindled the axis air attacks. Beaufighter and Mosquito was able to help a little due to range. The reamining air forces were helping clear a corridor after the 88s were gone.

As stated in other posts, it was tense at times for the 150 but manageable. Destroyed Dump and captured Airfield.