Slitherine

Hi Bru,

Had a look at your save and the replay from that save.

I can totally understand the rage quit at that point That was a harsh counter punch in several places. Ironically though, you'd actually broken the back of the enemy defences on that previous turn and you can see many of the support units heading for the ports to evacuate. I don't think that you would have won the scenario from that position, but you if you'd take a turn or two to consolidate and recuperate, I reckon that you would be knocking on the gates of Tallinn at turn 30.

It was really interesting to look at the replay and how you approached the scenario. Pretty much the same strategy as I'd use in the North, but a completely different approach in the South to what I'd normally use.

Oh, and on the point of why the Russian are retreating, they're pretty much entirely cut off from their lines by the advances of Army Group North and so have to either retreat or starve in that pocket around Tallinn. The Majority of the German forces are pushing on to take Narwa and approach Leningrad, it was only a side force with parts of the 18th Army that was spared to close this particular pocket (thus why numerically it's imbalanced but, in gameplay terms, the Player/Germans are on the offensive).

If anyone else has a save or replay, I'd love to see them

Ta!

Oh, also Bru, I'd say you got slightly unlucky with the randomisation. It had pushed most of the "counter attack" forces over to the West side, so when you broke the Defence Line, they all hit you right at the point of your advances out West rather than into your stronger forces in the East. Unlucky.

(But actually quite exciting to see as the designer )

Updated to 0.3.2

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hv7xrohala9cm ... 2.zip?dl=0

Changes
- Increased RP per turn by 5
- Changed Russian Artillery defence in the North to stop it plinking away at the Juminda Guns
- Added a second recon plane in the South
- Corrected accents on Estonian placenames
- Fixed spelling errors (@Bru)
- Added a start of game dialog box to offer the player the choice of playing in "Standard Mode" or "Challenge Mode". Standard mode adds more RP and CP, extra experience to units and adds a couple of commanders but disables the Major Victory but putting a Cross against the "Escaped Units" secondary objective.

Thanks!

Interesting. I will give it another go, soon.

It's a comfort that Adherbal has been able to complete this mission on the Hardest Difficulty, in Challenge Mode.

Just.

On Turn 30.

Nice

Shards wrote:It's a comfort that Adherbal has been able to complete this mission on the Hardest Difficulty, in Challenge Mode.

Just.

On Turn 30.

Nice

Yeah, right. The man who practically invented . . . no, DID invent . . . OOB cheat codes!

Just kidding! Don't ban me or else I will be unable to render further mere layman commentary on your scenario. You want your work to be popular with the ignorant masses as well, yes?

Shards wrote:It's a comfort that Adherbal has been able to complete this mission on the Hardest Difficulty, in Challenge Mode.

Just.

On Turn 30.

Nice

Do you know if he used a custom core force or the one you provided? And how many survivors? It didn't occur to me to play at level 5, but why not. Should be doable with the changes made since my last play.

Haven't played the new updates yet, just looked into them. The "standard mode" seems to have a difficulty like the usual official scenarios, with enough money & CP to buy an extra tank or arty. This should make the scenario playable to all.
And it's really nice to see the single steps and the progress of scenario design. Thanks for this thread!

PS I'll give it another go, soon

He sent me the replay, can confirm that he used the standard force and no (known) cheats.

He did admit that it took him 5 reloads to crack Tallinn on the final turn through

It's been good to watch the replays from players, spotted a good few minor bugs by watching around the fringes of the battles. Will probably put out a 1.0.0 tomorrow.

Updated to 1.0.0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w7doyviet6424 ... 0.zip?dl=0

Changes 1.0.0
- Reduced Territory flip when taking Loksa
- Fixed issue with Tallinn Centre not evacuating
- Fixed issue with Marjamaa and Loksa not flipping back to completed after subsequently changing hands

Thanks for your help with developing this scenario!

Wow, lots of changes since I played last! Are you still taking suggestions? I see that you have moved on to your next project . . .

If you do still want suggestions on Tallinn, I can offer this one. My screen resolution is 1920 x 1080 so I don't think it's that, but I could not scroll down to read the rest of this vital dialog! What looks like a scroll bar on the right is inoperable (this is 5.2.3, by the way):
However, just by eliminating the paragraph breaks in your message, you can get it into the window cleanly:
Which is important because answering this question one way or the other changes a great deal, I see.

Hmm, interesting, does your mouse scroll wheel not work with that box? Have to say I'm not sure if I tried to use the scroll bar

Heh, you had me in mind when you designed this "Make It Easy" option with the, let's see, extra resources, command points, unit experience, commanders. Admit it! Baby mode, eh? Well, I'm not too proud to take it!
Just curious, though, as to why you chose to fail this objective from the start in this mode:

Shards wrote:Hmm, interesting, does your mouse scroll wheel not work with that box? Have to say I'm not sure if I tried to use the scroll bar

Duh. Mouse scroll wheel works. But that scroll bar definitely does not!

Hah, I'm not exactly distinguishing myself in this thread, am I?

Much better. Difficult but not impossible and I did NOT play on baby mode!

Here's how I did on middle difficulty; not great but not too shabby:
At the end, I felt like I could play again and perhaps do just a bit better. Not too easy to lose interest and not too hard to lose hope - the mark of a very good scenario. This one's a keeper, and I thank you for it, Shards.

Good work Bru!

I fail the 2ndry objective in standard mode to ensure the user can only get a Minor, not Major, victory at the end

Shards wrote:Good work Bru!

I fail the 2ndry objective in standard mode to ensure the user can only get a Minor, not Major, victory at the end

Very good. Please continue to share the fruits of your labor.

1.0 medium difficulty

'Units escaped toward Leningrad' objective already checked in the deployment phase.
On turn-1 it is marked as failed.

The Challenge Mode popup scroll bar does not work. Mouse wheel does work.
I chose standard mode.

Purchases: Ju87D x2, PzIIIJ x1, PzIVF1 x1

In the deployment phase you are informed about a couple of commanders available for assignment. On turn-1 these are pre-assigned. It would be more fun to leave assignment to the player (as the message indicated).

You could use the Kriegsmarine faction for the Estonian Brothers, just to distinguish them from the Wehrmacht forces.

Resources are quite generous, but after playing Panzerkrieg it is a welcomed bonus.

Loksa taken by turn-4. The supporting Stukas then went for Soviet sea transports.
The 5-strength transports could be stronger as one Stuka attack will normally sink one transport. I was able to sunk all transports.

The left front was more difficult. Märjamaa taken on turn 11.

After destroying the Soviet fighter I traded my two recon air units for the cheap Ar 196 fighter hoping it would nibble a bit from Soviet vessels/transports.

Tallinn itself was undefended and I captured it on turn-21. I think there should be a static unit garrisoning the city.

There was some issue with trying to eliminate the last unit. This Soviet bunker appeared to be a figment of Stalin's imagination.

Overall a nice scenario with plenty of action. I liked it.

Edit: A Soviet Guard ship was really the last unit.

Thanks for the report Erik!

It sounds like the scenario went as designed. That bunker was self destructed but the death doesn't always show if the bunker is in the shroud (game bug, not mine).

Would be interested to see how you could do in challenge mode?

Right now I'm working on a German West 42/43-campaign until I hit the point were there are too many unit types missing.
Then I will return to Tallinn, challenge mode.

Happy New Year, Shards. Keep these scenarios coming!