Slitherine

Updated First post and added 0.3.0

Shards wrote:Yeah, I initially created this scenario about a year ago, when that was the default behaviour, and I'm too scared to remove them now

Yeah, don't even think about it.

Say, I missed 0.2.8 - I downloaded but did not get a chance to play it. Let me see if I can do 0.3.0 some justice.

Still a few niggles in there, but happy with this run through!
Only 24 survivors!

Shards wrote:Still a few niggles in there, but happy with this run through!

Says you! I (and hopefully some others) will be the judge(s) of this, thank you!

( - Seriously, I will get to this by this weekend and I will post again.)

Hah! I was more happy with my end result of only 24 survivors

Made the mistake of installing and aving a look at this just before bed last night. Ended up getting to bed after 2am..

Really fun, I loved the extended use of the news and triggers, some nice twists and turns, decent sized map to try flanking on, quite a challenge at times too. Nice work.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Updated to v0.3.1

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hf2ef7r9bghhr ... 1.zip?dl=0

- Added Airfield near Kose
- Reduced starting RP by 100
- Increased per turn RP to 25
- Added obstacles to stop AI transports from mucking about in the area near Loksa
- Updated Supply of some towns
- Added a new road
- Fixed an issue in the Mine randomisation
- Reduced length of some Event headers that were leaking out of the popup
- Added a new preview image
- Tweaked the tank counter-attack rules
- Fixed the sabotage of the Tallinn fortress
- Changed the transport spawn location for the Tallinn cruiser as it was getting blocked
- Moved the default Stuka in the East so it wasn't obscuring the infantry in the same hex
- Renamed some of the German Aux Inf to the Estonian Forest Brothers to reflect the nationalist forces that fought the battle

Nice touch, this custom preview! Jumps out at you because it is vivid as well as unusual. (I trust it is not a spoiler to show this but I see it as an indication of attention to detail and quality.)

Alright, look. You know it wouldn't be like me to not bring these things up. You do want it to be tidy, no? Please forgive me then (corrections shown):

"Army Group North is advancing rapidly on Leningrad but its rapid advance . . ." It's "its" not "it's" which is a contraction of "it is."

"Our initial bombardment of their outer defences has led to the enemy pulling its wounded units back . . ." Ditto.

". . . the Russians have created strong defensive lines to protect the evacuation of men and material. You have "evactuation."

"Securing our lines against the Gulf of Finland will dissuade . . ." meaning the enemy will be persuaded not to breakout. Your word is misspelled.

"These guns could be recommissioned . . ." Double-m, double-s.

"Coastal Batteries from the south coast of Finland are also targeting . . ." You have one two many "t's" in there.

Annoying, eh? Well that's me. Feel free to ignore me on stuff like this, as they do in beta half the time! I should add that despite all this, I am impressed with the generally good spelling and grammar in here.

I have to say one more thing before I actually begin play. I am in awe of these triggers. Holy smokes.

No way would I presume to go forensic here (unless I see something which makes me curious to look for a suggestion to make). No sir, instead you get one of these (borrowed from the Matrix forums):
This time I am going to play and enjoy a scenario instead of dissecting it. Here I go.

Very cool reference to Estonian Forest Brothers of whom I had no clue until I looked them up. I wonder, though, whether it would be better to include them as a partisan unit under the German flag rather than as regular infantry:

Yikes. Dead bodies floating face down in the swamp to start with. Creepy.

Anyway, I see what you mean about allowing a Custom Starting Force; it takes all of the core units off the map and restores corresponding command points and resources but it has to be selected as an option in the editor. I learn something new about this game every day!

I choose to play Battle of Tallinn with what you gave me.

Turn 11: Not doing too badly, I think. Fun, challenging so far. Resume tomorrow. Must sleep now.

Thanks Bru!

Thanks for the spell check. I've always been an enthusiastic user of words if not always so great at the spelling bit Too used to having my mistakes highlighted by software nowadays!

For the forest brothers, I left them as infantry as they were quite an effective fighting force that took ground and forced out NKVD forces, so felt that Partisans were just too ineffective.

Feel free to climb through the triggers once you've finished, wouldn't want to spoil any surprises before that

Shards wrote:For the forest brothers, I left them as infantry as they were quite an effective fighting force that took ground and forced out NKVD forces, so felt that Partisans were just too ineffective.

Yes, that occurred to me after I posted my suggestion. If you were to make them partisan units, you would need to throw in at least one more German infantry unit to make up for the loss in firepower.

Well, I am about to resume Tallinn today, so I will post again!

Shards, I assume that you want a frank opinion along with the well-deserved praise, so I will give it to you. If you were able to win this scenario with the way the forces are arrayed in 0.3.1, then my hat is off to you and let's just call me a crappy OOB player (on middle difficulty).

This is my opinion: You have this scenario way out of balance; way too tough. Weenie, you think I am, eh?

Well, let's take a comparative look at the Orders of Battle, shall we?

GERMAN UNITS (Human)
10 Infantry
2 Heavy Infantry
4 Engineers
1 SdKfv Armored Car
1 75MM Fk18 Artillery
1 Sturmpanzer
1 Bf 110E Fighter
2 Junkers Ju-87D Stuka Dive Bombers
1 StuGIII Tank (introduced later on)

SOVIET UNITS (AI)
12 Conscripts
28 Infantry
11 Heavy Infantry
1 Engineer
1 BA-20 Armored Car
2 BT-7 Tanks
8 45mm M1937 AA Guns
4 37mm M1939 AA Guns
4 76.2mm M1939 Artillery
3 85mm M1939 Artillery
3 152mm M1938 Artillery
1 Kirov Cruiser (= additional artillery)
2 Gnevy Destroyers (= additional artillery)
3 MO-2 Guard Ships (= additional artillery)
3 Bunkers
4 Foxholes
1 Fortress
1 MiG-3 Fighter (introduced later on)

You need 26 Soviet AI teams to handle them all!

So, Shards, let me say here what I muttered several times during your scenario: Are you kidding me?

Either I am the world's worst OOB player, I'm missing something like a superweapon that you reveal later on (I did not make it through to the end, sorry to say), or this thing needs a good deal of tuning. This imbalance of forces makes no sense to me.

You are going to say, "The Soviets have no income and you do" but that is not enough to offset this big a disparity. Nor are the two Stukas enough, not up against a dozen AA-guns and six warships. Take the gun at Jumida Point? Sure, but the Soviets calmly train their land and sea artillery on it and reduce it to rubble in a few turns.

From what I can tell, your retreats and evacuations are triggered only when the Germans get to within two hexes of Tallinn ("Start General Retreat"). Faced against that array of Soviet forces, I don't see how the Germans can get there but until they do, they are facing a Soviet force that is more than three times their size.

Heck, why are the Soviets retreating anyway? With their numbers and strength compared to this puny German attack force, all they would need to do is stand and fight.

It's too bad, because this scenario is finely crafted otherwise. From looking at the triggers, there are some things that I would have liked to have seen but I never got there.

Hi Bru, thanks, I appreciate the feedback

I know that I'm skirting right in the edge of the difficulty that I'm comfortable with on this one. It's certainly meant to be a challenge on level 3 difficulty, but it sounds like I might just be in the wrong side of the line!

Do you have a replay of your attempt that you can save and upload? Your turn 11 screenshot looked like good progress, so it'd be interesting to see where you went from there?

Ta!

Shards wrote:Hi Bru, thanks, I appreciate the feedback

I know that I'm skirting right in the edge of the difficulty that I'm comfortable with on this one. It's certainly meant to be a challenge on level 3 difficulty, but it sounds like I might just be in the wrong side of the line!

Do you have a replay of your attempt that you can save and upload? Your turn 11 screenshot looked like good progress, so it'd be interesting to see where you went from there?

Ta!

Thanks, Shards. It's a sign of a good game designer and person to gracefully take criticism. I don't have a replay but I do have my last auto save, attached below.

You can see why I was done at that point. I was saying "How many more are there?" and then "Ach du lieber!" when I did an #orbitalcommand to take a peek. With what I had left, there was no way I was going to get close to Talinn given what I was facing which included remaining artillery, warships in the harbor, and the fortress.

The way that I look at it, for an experienced player (I'll give myself credit for that much, although I may be terrible), on middle difficulty the game should be a moderate challenge that will defeat rookies and fools. Levels 1 and 2 should be very easy and easy for an experienced player. Level 4 should be sweat-producing and level 5 should be for masochists.

I'll keep an eye on this thread because you put a heck of a lot of work into this scenario, I can see. I wanted it. I know what I would do with it at this point but that would not be the same, you know? It's somebody else's creation and I wanted to enjoy it that way.

Still, all this is only my opinion. Obviously, don't change anything if you don't agree. Besides, maybe other people will give their opinions by calling me a weenie to my virtual face!

Thanks, I'll take a look at it later.

As a stand alone, I'm happy for this scenario to be somewhat taxing and maybe need a few attempts to "win", but I don't want it to feel like you're bashing your head against a wall!

I have an idea for a game start option for player to either play the scenario for "fun" or "challenge".