Spanish Civil War Mod & Campaign (v0.90)

[bru888]

Palma:

Fourth briefing: "Finally, Madrid has prepared for some possible rearguard actions by your guerrilleros, if you are both willing to spare a few men and to take the risk" should be "Finally, Madrid has prepared for some possible rearguard actions by your guerrilleros, if you are willing to both spare a few men and to take the risk."

The missions are confusing. It's not just the number of them, 5 each of primary and secondary objectives, but their description and interaction. Specifically:

"Kick out the Italians from Majorca - Eliminate the Italian units, or complete at least 2 of the 3 Italian-related secondary objectives." Eliminate Italians, no problem. What are the 3 Italian-related secondary objectives? I see only one to start: "Take the Santuari de Cura before turn 16." Even after activating two more objectives, it still isn't clear which are "Italian-related." The Fuel Depot seems to be; what is the third one? Only later, and with a look under the hood, do I see that the third "Italian-related" objective is "Disable the coastal battery." Achieving any two of the three objectives removes the Italian land units.

Suggestions:
1) Make it "Disable the Italian coastal battery" and "Destroy the Italian fuel depots."
2) Make it an Italian coastal gun instead of Nationalist. It will be just as hostile to Republican shipping. To be honest, if I had detected the Italian flag on this gun, I would have figured the rest out.
3) "Ciao, belli" message: "...to avoid capture of men and material, the Italian commanders have ordered the retreat of any remaining Italian ground units from the island. Their warships have also been ordered to withdraw."

"Complete at least 2 secondary objectives - Completing every secondary objective ..." Contradictory. And why base a primary objective on the completion of secondary objectives? There is already a distinction between Minor and Major Victory for this purpose.

Suggest mentioning only infantry and artillery qualify for "Inflict 180 damage points to land units" because foxholes, bunkers, guns, and structures are not included.

AI Team 10 Defense sierra needs another order for something to do when it falls back toward Palma.

If the Anarchist Column is killed, then it fails the "Rescue the ambushed unit" objective, fine. But to win the objective, it is merely necessary to have it survive until Turn 7? Can't use a supply connection because this unit can move around. Unit(s) Supply Percentage (set to 100) seems to work, however; it did so in a test that I ran. In any event, better include a Set Trigger State effect in "rescW" that turns off "rescF" because if the Anarchist Column is killed later on, it will fail the objective. I assume the Anarchist Column does not have to survive in perpetuity after being rescued.

What is the purpose of the CNT-FAI cargo truck? Flavor? Leave it in, though; it's a welcome distraction/decoy. If it survives, it helps to scout for land mines!

The BombW trigger is superfluous since the objective is checkmarked as completed, only to fail if our bombers get damaged 15 or more. However, I noticed that you have this trigger being evaluated on Turn 28 out of a total of 35 turns. Intentional? (Apparently so, since the promised air commander is released on Turn 29.)

It's amazing how success in this scenario depends on one very weak unit of guerrilleros. If they don't do their job (one of them, because they can't do both) it does not matter if the main Republican column takes Santuari de Cura; they are cooked because the Italians are too hard to overcome. I wonder... I snuck up and hammered down the Fuel Depot (is 10 to strong and takes too long to hammer?) and things went my way. The next time, I was tempted to hit the airfield hangar and got hammered myself, making defeat a certainty. Is there a game mechanism that allows stealth units to attack structures and not be detected? Whereas, it they attack combatant units, all hell breaks loose?

Now, back to that zany "Complete at least 2 secondary objectives" primary objective. The fail mechanism is very simple. It's the win conditions that boggle...

Recall that it says "Completing every secondary objective" in its description, which is not true. But in addition to that, it looks like every one of these wxxx triggers requires THREE secondary objectives to be completed.

So right there is a misstatement in the mission title as well as its description. My other gripe with this, however, is that this objective is on from the beginning whereas two secondary objectives are not enabled until later. All rather head-scratching.

If it was my scenario, I would throw that clunker out the window. The rest of the scenario is, as is becoming usual, quite clever. I will leave gameplay and balance recommendations to other players.

Such as, do you intend for the Italian warships to be bombarding Republicans? Probably not, for you have them as Idle until if and when they are told to exit.

Trigger 74 and Trigger 74 (Clone) seem to be warnings not to attack the Maestrale and the Grecale but the trigger condition is not set properly. Maybe a "Unit is Visible" condition where the Visible Unit(s) is Italian destroyer and the Viewer is Republican bomber. There is no way to prevent such an attack, as Italians are the enemy here, so it's more of a house rule kind of thing (although I can see Gabe pulling one of his shenanigans, especially if they Italian DDs are activated. )

Trigger 81 sets a campaign variable but it is not spelled properly; the campaign editor has it as "not_aholiday," not "Not a holiday." Just a general comment here: campaign variables can be a pain in the neck. I will try to pay attention going forward, but it's not like I can read your mind to know that you may have forgot to do something that you promised earlier by activating a campaign variable. Review what you have in the Variables tab of the scenario editor and ensure that each one is addressed in every appropriate scenario. (This is an example of why scenario organization is so important; labeling, grouping, use of folders. Not that I am any paragon of virtue, but such campaign variables in what I do are always included in a folder marked "Setup" for triggers reacting to campaign variables, and "Objectives" for triggers that set them up. I don't have to look through every trigger to find them because they also have descriptive labels; "Trigger 81" does not help in this regard.

Ah! Speak of the devil, Trigger 83 sets a campaign variable called "downer" if all five secondary objectives are achieved. So there is method to that madness after all! (Even if the player has no idea what is going on. )

Finally, there is this:

"Foxhole! If I told you once, I have told you up to 60 times to join this Static Defense team! Move your hole!"

"Foxhole! Didn't I just tell you last turn to get into AI Team 2? This is like Groundhog Day, over and over again!"

"Foxhole!"

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[bru888]

Unless there are patents pending, I might steal stuff from this mod. Ha, even if there ARE patents, I might still steal them! Imagine me cackling as I head off into the sunset, goodies in hand. Contact my lawyer . . . if you can find him! Hee, hee!

Such as this goody:

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Ummm, not so fast, Snidely Whiplash. The problem is, I can't locate it in the moddables of this mod!

Wait a minute, I knew this looked familiar. It's already in the game! It's the thing you see when a Construction Group builds an Airstrip for a few turns:

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So there are no patents! And here you were, about to make me an offer to sell me the plans for this "mod" for a bundle of cash. Well, no thanks; all you did was take the noEditor out of its traits.

And it's stable, acting like any other structure, with strength points to be reduced in order to destroy it.

But is there a fly in the ointment? That is, how would it look when destroyed? Because as we have seen, if the developers neglect to provide for suitable wreckage, the player is presented with a "white ghost" image; most unsatisfying.

Test: Republican Renault FT-17 versus helpless Nationalist Construction Site (what an iron pig — it needed three shots to do the job!).

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And Eureka! Beautiful flash, smoke, and rubble!

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No, it's not animated; but perhaps that is a blessing in case somebody thought of using the Oil Pump screech as an accompaniment. Nice find; nice addition; adopted immediately in my own modded game.

[bru888]

Afterthought: On the bare chance that altering Construction Site in units.csv and placing one on the map had unintended consequences, I tested another scenario.

First, I used a Construction Group of my own to begin building an airstrip while I destroyed the other guy's Construction Site:

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Destruction and construction, side by side!

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And everything proceeded as normal:

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Well, well. I remember there is also a Population Center building in Battle of Britain. No doubt I can work that baby into my universe, too.

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[bru888]

Northern blockade:

Well, I get the reason for the screen divider, but it's unfortunate. This is the first scenario so far in which the map itself is a distraction and immersion drain. But it is what it is; the actual distance from Oviedo to Bilbao is over 240 km (150 miles).

But heh, it says "The narrow strip of land controlled by the Republic in the north of Spain" — is it this humongous longitudinal sand bar of no access and no life? (Okay, knock it off, Bruce, before he recruits another forum moderator to censure you and ban your butt! )

Ahh! The Basque Army! And it's under our command. Sweet.

The briefing mentions "attacks at Elorrio and/or Eibar" but neither location can be seen. Elorrio is missing altogether while Eibar is on the map but lacks a flag to show its name.

Why not name the Nalón (near Oviedo) and Nervión (running through Bilbao) Rivers?

As you know, roads and railroads intersecting with rivers can cause unsightliness which, while not affecting gameplay, is easily avoided. The two rules of thumb are:
1) Roads and railroads need to cross rivers "cleanly"; that is, not run alongside or intersect over a river hex.
2) Roads and railroads cannot venture too close to river hexes without creating an unnecessary bridge.

So, there is this entanglement six hexes southeast from Bilbao:

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and this utterly unnecessary "bridge" directly south of Oviedo:

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Provincial governor to Asturias civil engineer: "Fool! Drunkard! Why did you not just route the road a thirty meters to the east? The citizens are calling this "The Bridge to Nowhere" and "Governor's Folly"! ¡Estás despedido!"

Now, I would say the Port of Bilbao deserves a better treatment than this:

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May I suggest this instead, including naming the port as the city itself is inland? The port hex location is unchanged, as is the access to it; same trip and destination but it looks more like a port:

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I suggest re-wording the objectives to: "4 merchant ships must arrive at their destinations" and "All 5 ships must arrive at their destinations" because they are not only supply ships, merchant ships is more of a general term that covers all three types, and these phrases are worded better.

I must be missing something, though. The Udondo immediately moves south and runs into mines, which is intentional judging by the popup message. Its strength of 4 is reduced to 1 as a result. On the next turn, a Nationalist bomber finishes it off and it never gets near to port. Which would be fine if that was a demonstration, but in fact the Udondo is one of the five ships that need to arrive!

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Then, never mind that, on Turn 5 I get word that it reached port anyway. As a converted submarine, perhaps?

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At Turn 5, the trigger merely pops up the message, removes the Udondo (which is already sunk and does not count as exited) and awards the resource points. I make out the ships to be the Udondo, Mar Cantabrico, Ulia, Juan May, and Azteca; thus the Udondo is included in the required number of exited ships. If so, the player needs perfect performance for the primary objective and has no chance at the secondary objective.

Brace yourself, here is more criticism:

You say "Noting down the destination of the ships after each communications could be usefull [sp], commander" but only on the secondary objective, not on the primary one. Moreover, how many of us are going to do this? And, you get the next message while the last ship is still in transit. "Wait, which one was which, again?"

The message for the Mar Cantabrico comes on Turn 5 but the ship does not appear until Turn 8. God forbid the wife wants to talk about whether the dress makes her look fat between Turns 5 and 8. At the very least, it would be a good idea to name the incoming ship in each message.

For, you are expected to steer each ship to its required dock, not the one most convenient. Alright, I get it. At least name the ship in each announcement.

To be continued ...

[bru888]

Northern blockade (continued):

Sighting that first naval mine north of Aviles activates the "Investigate and neutralize the minelaying operation." How does the player do this?

[SPOLER ALERT] German subs are lurking around, virtually laying the sea mines. One German sub is dangerous? The other three are told to Move to Hex and Ignore enemy (the sneaks are laying mines). But SubArr2/AI Team 27 is told be 50 aggressive. He is liable to shoot a torpedo or two. Intended?

Let's say they are all supposed to be dangerous. That's a no-brainer; as soon as we hit one of them in retaliation, the gig is up. Too soon, probably.

But let's then say they are all supposed to NOT be dangerous. If the player is unaware of them, then he doesn't take a shot at them and discover the true culprits, halting them in their tracks.

So, is this why only one German sub has any aggression? To make sure the player takes a shot at them in order to halt their shenanigans?

"BritishArr1" causes a neutral British destroyer to spawn. According to its AI team task, it sails across to the map dividing bar. The player is supposed to sight it and receive the "British!" message about their stupid* neutrality. However, when it comes time to remove the destroyer, the "British1Go" trigger effect looks only at the original spawning hex. (Maybe it should not be looking at any hex; your SubGo triggers do not.)

*I should watch this, I suppose. Hindsight is said to be 20-20. In 1936, the Allies from World War I were fervently hoping to avoid the carnage of 20 years previously. Had they intervened, World War II likely would have started three years earlier. Only we of today know, after the fact, that war was inevitable. I had to look up the word for unwisely judging history by today's standards: "presentism."

AI Teams 12 (on map) and 42 (spawned by "attack 0" in "Attack Bilbao" folder) both target the same construction site. AI Teams 13 and 14 have their own target construction sites. However, nobody is assigned to the two remaining construction sites. AI Team 11 is headed for Guernica (another name that should be displayed prominently!) but that town is initially unoccupied. Perhaps send AI Team 11 to the construction site directly north of Bilbao and reassign AI Team 42 to the construction site east of Bilbao?

For each of those AI teams, there should be a trigger to tell it what to do once it has destroyed its assigned construction site. Even just S&D should suffice.

Speaking of which, I cannot get over your innovative use of the Construction Site unit. Why the heck would it not occur to a developer to free this up for use in the official game? As I demonstrated earlier, doing so does not interfere with Construction Group building Airstrip. Why? Because everything up there is now done by committee, texts, and Google Documents. Stuff gets done only when a DLC designer asks for it and even then, it probably faces bureaucratic hurdles.

"Take and hold Oviedo" objective points to all seven city hexes, which is appropriate for totaling crushing the rebels in Oviedo. Consider something, though: When you say "hold," that usually implies the objective could be opened up again if the enemy takes back even one of those hexes.

Now, I am not saying to go crazy (you would if you did this), programming a ton of repeating Open and Completed triggers for each of those hexes. Personally, I would leave it the way that you have it; that is, the objective is completed, period, when all 7 hexes are in friendly hands. In that case, I suggest the objective be renamed "Crush the rebellion in Oviedo."

"Look, you men. I have had it up to here with you guys sloughing off on secondary objectives and skating by with minor victories. I am telling you here and now that I am making it a PRIMARY objective to complete SECONDARY objectives! If it costs us a victory altogether, I'm OK with that. Care to vote on it? All in favor, ME! Motion carried!" This came to be known as the "ObjObjWIN" school of battle tactics.

Fancy footwork with the mines. I never thought of "building up inventory" like that. Thought of randomizing spawn positions but, eh, is the player going to memorize them? He can't even keep track of which civilian ships have to dock where.

[bru888]

I tell you, I recognize a kindred spirit in you.

When I was done typing the notes above about finding Guernica and recommending that it be labeled, I wondered whether you would have mentioned anywhere why that place is so famous. "It's too early here (October 1936) to talk about the Bombing of Guernica (April 1937) but do you think LN Davoust would have thought to include it someplace else...?"

Sure enough, a search for "Guernica" found it in the campaign folder and text file:

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And you had already included a miniature of Picasso's famous painting Guernica which I was going to find, edit, and post here as a suggestion:

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I salute you. You remind me of me!

[bru888]

University City (continued):

See my previous post on this scenario for some CSI results, particularly about the objectives. Kindly disregard what I said about thinking that the branching for Major Victory was missing for this scenario; that was a mistake on my part, because the branch is "Branch." In this post, I will just add the following comments for University City.

This trigger condition is looking at the wrong objective:

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Related to that, I will question this: none of your enemy bombers is going to do anything but fly around if their AI task team "Ignore enemy" orders hold. This is true of all three bomber teams:

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The Italian tanksWIN and Italian tanksFAIL triggers are both tracking destroyed tanks but one is looking for Amount = 2 and the other is looking for Amount <> 2. This sometimes leads to confusion in the counter display, but it seems to be working alright in this case.

AI Teams 6 through 9, 15 (triggered), and 16 appear to need follow-up orders once they reach their destinations. Seek and Destroy would suffice, unless you have some other notions in mind.

AI Teams 10 and 11 look alright; they have triggered orders that move them a long distance. AI Team 12 has no Target Hex assigned to its move order, but I don't think that team is used.

And unless I missed something, I don't see that anybody is ordered to take the access points of Madrid. That could be a follow-up order for some of the above AI teams.

Perhaps a celebratory popup message in honor of destroying the improvised bridge, with an image like this?

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[bru888]

A Coruna Road:

Good briefing, nice and clear. One quibble: the briefer — who up to now has struck me as somebody's chief aide from his image and the way he speaks — starts out talking like he is just relaying orders but signs off with an exhortation to excel and a "Good luck gentlemen" as if he were promoted while he was talking.

Label the Manzanares River?

Connect this road?

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My fingers were itching to finish this castle. Why only one wall? Ruins? It need not be an objective in itself; the VP in front of it suffices as you have programmed it.

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Rather ingenious mechanism for deteriorating the condition of a Dornier Do15 reconnaissance plane, should one dare to take to the skies in this terrible weather. But again, with labels like "New Folder 1" and "Trigger 1", are you going to have the same trouble I did figuring it out when you try someday to remember what you were doing?

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It's odd to be saying about "The Death Footbridge" that it "is destroyed by our artillery almost each day, and reconstructed by Francoist engineers each night," seeing it destroyed, and not seeing it reconstructed the next "day." Not that you can replicate that, but maybe say something different about it?

Maybe include the "Madrid has authorised the deployment of additional forces" message with each increment of command points. They are easy to overlook.

For "Lose less than 3 International Brigades Units," it says "More experienced International Brigades will fight with us in the future." That seems to imply the need for a campaign variable to be set but there is no such effect in the objective win trigger.

I am wondering whether, with an Aggression of only 20, whether AI Team 4 East Pinza will ever get to its destination. But I see that it does not matter.

It looks like these command points are not awarded to the proper faction:

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A couple of missing units; there are eligible units nearby in each case:

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No destination for this move command:

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The destination for this attack team seems a bit strange:

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When "1st Battalion 6th Brigade" is placed under the player's control by the "turn21reinfMadrid" trigger, it would be good to include this Custom unit name with the spawned unit effect.

In general, I would review the choreography of AI teams to ensure that, as they attain relatively easy and close-by victory points, that they have something more to do such as assisting other AI teams or just Seek & Destroy.

I can imagine gnashing of players' teeth as objectives change here repeatedly. "We were crushing that pocket, then Madrid blew the whistle? Men have DIED defending Majadahonda and thanks to their sacrifice, it is still ours. Now Madrid no longer considers it important? ¡Idiotas estúpidos!" But, that's war.

[bru888]

Valdemoro:

Rather a drab starting point for the briefing. Almost looking exclusively at scrub-oaked plains! Suggest moving the first briefing focus to the upper right corner, where you already have it for the second briefing. The third briefing moves to Valdemoro and stays there for the rest.

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Primary objective flag for Valdemoro?

I love the "Investigate the Valdemoro Hospital" objective. It's how it is introduced that bothers me: "Recon informs us about a fortified hospital near Valdemoro that has not been evacuated despite our overwhelming attack. If we can spare the men maybe we could storm it..."

Storm a hospital? May I suggest this revision? "Recon informs us that there is something suspicious about the hospital in Valdemoro. The building appears to have been fortified and there have been no signs of normal medical comings and goings for quite some time. Investigate it, and if fired upon, you are authorized to attack."

For the "Destroy 15 defensive structures" objective description, you should include foxholes, as in "Weakening the network of bunkers and machine gun nests the Nationalists are constructing..." because that is how you wrote the trigger.

For the "Do not take more than 275/200 damage points" objectives, you should mention that this includes air units because that is how you wrote the trigger.

Also, I notice that there are a few hostile German and Italian units in the scenario, so perhaps the condition should specify Team 2 instead of Nationalist Spain in both triggers:

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For the "Return the trucks to your lines" objective, I suggest:
1. Name the destination hex, like "Supply Depot".
2. Mention it by name in the objective description (you already point to it).
3. So, perhaps: "All three cargo trucks must survive the trip and be parked at or next to the supply depot behind our lines."

In the "spawn trucks" trigger, perhaps the distance for no Nationalist units should be two hexes instead of one because otherwise two of the trucks could be spawned directly adjacent to the enemy. Even more so if one or more of the spawn hexes is occupied by friendly units.

Your "Outer" trigger reveals to the Republicans a couple of mines behind enemy lines?

This trigger condition is looking at the wrong objective:

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Any chance of capturing the German PzKwI tank instead of destroying it? I would love that in my core.

You missed one mine to be revealed for the AI to not stumble across it, just to the east of the central crossroad.

[bru888]

Cartagena:

There is some really great commentary in this campaign — I am looking at the outcome statements in this scenario which prompts me to say so. If I remember correctly, you had a fellow named Rafdobrowolski help you in this regard? You and he did a fabulous job.

However, as I mentioned earlier, "gonna" sounds too American and anachronistic. I suggest replacing that with "going to" in the final briefing.

For the "Rescue the San Prospero from Oran" and "Help the damaged destroyer reach Cartagena" objectives, it would be better to point to the ships in question rather than Cartagena. We already know where Cartagena is.

Heh, the "he59Koningsberg" trigger. "Okay, Herr Heinkel, that's enough now. Leave the Barcaiztegui alone and go to your corner."

And no wonder! "SOS fr... Barcaiztegui! Requ... inmediat... tance! ... SOS! Several fir.... machine chamb... .... radio station and... ... wounded and de... ... i... ... ... emy bombers ... ... ... adrift in ... ... Position ... Other SOS! SOS! "

This may not be important; there is no other enemy ship in the area:

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The only trouble with the trigger below is, you said in the objective description, "... and make sure that it remains afloat for the rest of the scenario" whereas this trigger awards the win merely for reaching Caragena:

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Wow, I am not often stumped during CSI, but I have only a vague idea of what these triggers are doing. I think they regulate, from moment to moment, whether "recovereffects" can take effect depending on the status of the enemy flotilla. I tested it and it works; that's the bottom line (not knowing why is what frustrates me, but whatever ). In any event, you should include "San Pedro" as the Custom unit name in the spawn effect.

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I am also a bit puzzled by the "within a distance of 15 hexes from the port" being satisfactory for rescuing the San Prospero. That's nearly one-third of the way to Oran (white hex in screen shot)! How is that considered safe enough?

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"distancia" turns off "distancia (clone)" if there is at least one Republican ship within 10 hexes of Oran, whereas "distancia (clone)" was supposed to fail the San Prospero objective on Turn 17. Perhaps it was a time limit. But since that second trigger is already off and nothing else turns it on, I assume both of these triggers are residual. (Note to designers: I get it, leaving superfluous triggers and folders in the scenario while they are being evaluated, but if they end up being junk, they should be removed. Not just for the sake of nosey folks like me, but yourselves in the future.)

So let's talk about the barge. It starts out as Republican Command, takes a shot from the Nationalist torpedo boat, and gets "hijacked."

The popup message says "The Nationalists are trying to take the captured barges (plural)" but there is only one barge. That's nitpicking to some extent but the player could be looking around for other barges. A really easy solution? Rename every iteration of the barge unit as "Commercial Barges."

What bothers me more is that the recaptured barge just immediately disappears. I would try to do the following:
1. In Trigger 33, remove the Nationalist barge and spawn a barge, again at strength 9, under Republican Command.
2. Make a coastal village called Algameca, perhaps located as shown below, but without a port.
3. Assign the spawned barge to an AI team that makes it move to Algameca.
4. Mention in the "Ours again" message that "It has been decided to divert the barges to the nearby fishing village of Algameca until this battle is concluded. See that they get there safely."
4. Only when the barge reaches the sea hex in front of Algameca do you make it disappear and mark the objective complete.
5. Make a "fail barge2" trigger that also fails the objective if this last barge is destroyed; actually, any barge as destroyed in the trigger condition will do. There is only one in the scenario.

The reason for me suggesting this is, while it may be a bit too much to try to sail the barge safely back to Cartagena, where much of the action is going on, it shouldn't be too hard to protect it for the short distance to Algameca. And this way, you don't have the odd sensation of shooting "warning shots" at the barge and having it disappear as if by magic.

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All that said, I will merely add that I am in danger of wearing out the word "clever" in reference to your work.

[bru888]

Jarama:

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My thoughts in rapid succession:
"Is he kidding? Clicking the same tree decoration over and over?"
"Oh, wait a minute, maybe it's an orchard. What's that flag say? (turns on locations)"
"It's an 'Olive Grove'. Oh, very good, I can't wait to see how that looks."

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"Okay! Not bad at all."

In the briefings, I always like seeing (or displaying, if I am the designer) the location names of places that are being talking about.

First, and correct me if I am wrong, but the Battle of Jarama appears to have been named for the river Jarama, not a town or a region called Jarama. Therefore, instead of saying "You will be in charge of our defensive forces in the Jarama sector," call it "the Jarama river valley."

While I am on the subject of the Jarama river, I call your attention to this:

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Dozens of hex location names along the lengths of the Jarama River and Manzaneres River. Why? And not one of those hexes has a flag in it so that the player can identify which river is which.

I noticed, by the way, that this scenario takes an unusual (for this campaign) amount of time to load. I don't think it's the extra trees. Could it be due to loading all of these hex names?

Anyway, I would stick a few flags here and there to identify the rivers and perhaps orient the player in the briefings. And perhaps get rid of the superfluous hex location names unless they are needed for some reason. (I will look and see.)

As for the camera focus, here is how I would do it (note where I have labeled the rivers).

Briefing 1 - start at Madrid:

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Briefing 2 - move east to the Jarama River and show Coberteras:

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Briefing 3 - move south far enough to show San Martin de la Vega:

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Briefing 4 - move west to show Nationalist lines:

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By the way, as much as I liked the olive grove, I am not a fan of this bundle of rivers. It looks like deer antlers to me! Is it supposed to be irrigation? If so, perhaps surround it with farmland. If it's supposed to look natural, it doesn't. Perhaps remove some tributaries, especially those that arise in flat land:

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To be continued ...

[bru888]

Jarama (continued):

In the "Cienpozuelos Reattack" trigger, some enemy units are assigned to AI Team 7 Titulcia Attack but that team remains idle. Another effect takes the Republican Command unit 17th Mixed Brigade out of that AI Team, but it was not assigned there in the first place. (A previous trigger, "Call for help," has them in AI Team 8 Defend Titulcia.)

In the "This is no faint" message, the correct spelling is "feint."

This trigger will not fire because the unit is missing. There is an enemy T-26 M1933 tank in the scenario that you could link this to:

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In the "New game" message, could Madrid be "rather convinced" instead of "pretty convinced"?

The "Airstrip" trigger seems to assume that the Nationalists will own the hex because there is no condition calling for that. I would say this will probably be so, but not absolutely for sure.

86 years after the fact, I am proud of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

Maybe with the first Reinforcements message, spell out that land command points have been added.

With their camouflaged trait, we are not going to see these characters until we are right on top of them:

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These two triggers appear to have been intended to be linked by Set Trigger State effects from the "cutnorth" and "cutsouth" triggers — they are not — and the second trigger seems to have things backwards:

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You award this objective on Turn 30 (of 35 total turns) instead of Scenario turn limit?

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Also, maybe it's a work in progress, but the campaign file does not contain a variable called "marcel" (I see, though, that "marcel" is used to award a commander in the next scenario):

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"Paulov's charge" message: correct spelling of "parallele" to "parallel."

Wrong alliance? The BT-5 belongs to the red alliance:

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[bru888]

Malaga:

Good move to define "The CTV, Corpo di Truppe Volontarie, the Italian expeditionary force in Spain," in the briefing.

Heh, "Wars are not won by successful evacuations, but they may be lost by disastrous ones." Is that you? Come on, where did you lift that one from?

No reason to move the camera during these briefings, but I wonder if the initial focus could show both Malaga and Granada and remain in place for when they are mentioned together in the third briefing:

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One benefit I am getting from doing this work is a knowledge of, and confidence in, some of the more unusual trigger effects such as Change Unit Type.

That module works perfectly but the subsequent enforcement trigger needs a tweak. This is what you get when you subsequently place a Guerrilleros unit on the map; the unit stays on the map which means you keep getting this message:

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So I would change the Remove Unit effect in "Foxhole3" to Undeploy.

First "Digging their heels in!" message, correct "pooints" to "points."

"Temporary air supremacy" message, correct "arial" to "aerial."

Not a big deal, but you either must explain this underwater foxhole or remove it for, while it normally cannot be seen, it can be detected and attacked. And who knows, maybe it can attack in return!

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In the "2nd wave" folder, the "coastal" trigger deploys four ground units. Three of them are in AI Team 12 coastfinpush but the fourth, Spanish Nationalist Inf '36, is in AI Team 1 which is Idle. I don't see anywhere that this unit is subsequently activated.

Instead of just holding one hex, I would rather see the "Do not lose the road to Almeria" be based on an open supply connection arrangement as follows:

In addition to holding the Road to Almerica hex,
Turns 1-15: Open supply between Malaga and Road to Almeria
Turns 16-20: Open supply between Velez-Malaga and Road to Almeria
Turns 21-25: Open supply between Nerja and Road to Almeria
Turns 26-30: Open supply between Motril and Road to Almeria

This better reflects the importance of holding the road, rather than just the exit hex. It would be a bit of work, though, because it would have to be one of those Open/Fail sets of associated and repeating triggers, replicated three times (copying folders would help). Depending on what turn it is, the player would have smaller segments of the road to keep open. The last segment would have to remain open at the end of the scenario (covering the retreat).

Also, this is one scenario, perhaps the first so far, that could use an early scenario end trigger. You have been evaluating your primary objectives at scenario-end, which is good for accomplishing secondary objectives. Here, however, if the player has held Malaga for 15 turns (or not), has the road to Almeria open, has evacuated all four trucks and transports, repelled the Baleares and Canarias, and destroyed the tankettes, he may not want to play out all 30 turns.

Maybe put the focus for "The evacuation" (Eva1) message on Malaga because it comes right after the "David and Goliath" message (The navy) which leaves us out at sea.

In two evacuation messages, replace "discret" and "discrete" with "discreet."

Could this bunker be moved one hex to the northwest? As it is, and depending on how many moves a truck or transport has left, it forces the truck or transport off the road.

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Instead of using the word "clever" to describe this evacuation system, I will use "ingenious."

One lingering thought, however: What happens to the evacuation deployments if Malaga is lost early?

[bru888]

Guadalajara:

I would start the first briefing focused on Guadalajara, then move to the northeast as you do for the second briefing. The third briefing is spot on and can stay where it is for the fourth and fifth briefings.

Label the Henares and Badiel Rivers?

In the second briefing, concerning "our front lines on the road to Saragossa, near Guadalajara, ot the northeast of Madrid."
- Correct "ot" to "to."
- How about using the Spanish version of "Zaragoza" instead of the English interpretation of "Saragossa"?

If you agree on the second point, the name would need to be switched in the briefing, in the objective and its description, and in the "On the road again" popup message.

Whether it's Saragossa or Zaragoza, I recommend putting up a road sign here:

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The "team3off" trigger checks the same enemy proximity hex as the "team1off" trigger instead of where team3 is located:

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These may or may not be important:

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The objective is "Do not lose more than one Secondary Victory Point in the first 8 turns" (you should think about shortening that) but all of these "SecondaryOBJ" are set to fail that objective through Turn 10:

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But I guess that is moot as long as this trigger shuts off the folder:

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If the orange circle is where the "To Zaragoza" sign should go (I looked at a map), then I propose the three green circled VPs be added to the "Retake and secure the Saragossa/Zaragoza Road" objective (additional map hex pointers and Check Hex Owner conditions for the "RetakeOBJwin" trigger). After all, the road is not open and secure if these three VPs are still in enemy hands:

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[bru888]

Raid:

Ah, the walled city of Cadiz. Excellent representation. I would love to march my Abraham Lincoln Brigade up its main boulevard in triumph, but I see so virtual human is ever going to set "foot" in that city.

I am working on deciphering the coded message in this display of highlight hexes; it has to mean something:

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Eh, why have a coastal gun sitting in a river? Why not divert the river one hex north?

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How about extending the reveal to these targets structures? You are locating them anyway with the arrows and they should be well-known on raid plan maps (but only the structures, not the ships; don't point to or reveal them):

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"Alea iacta est"? This is a campaign for intellectuals!

The cruisers Baleares and Canarias spawned by "trigger timer2" are not named.

Technically, the "Flawless Operation" objective calls for "Achieve every Secondary Objective without losing any ship to obtain a Major Victory" but the trigger conditions include an unmentioned primary objective: "Use at least one of the undercover teams effectively."

Only because I saw this missing objective, and that you have a secondary objective slot open, and that you follow up upon destroying this submarine with interesting popup messages and a reward, do I call your attention to it:

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If you do include a submarine kill objective (newly enabled and mentioned in the popup message), don't forget to update the "OBJ sub W" and "OBJ sub L" triggers as well.

This trigger seems residual and may in fact be harmful to the challenge of the scenario. It says, when the submarine dips below 7 strength, change the entire AI Team 1 (25 units) from Static Defense to Idle:

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Wow, this Undercover module is wild! Perhaps an addendum to the objective description like "Effective use means maneuvering a guerrillos unit next to the target to direct fire prior to bombarding it. The Airstrip and Munition Depot are approved targets for this clandestine operation."

"Time to fly" message, correct "Cearly" to "Clearly."

[GabeKnight]

Thank you again, Bruce, for doing your CSI thing on this campaign/mod. I think it's really special and deserves it.

Two thoughts of mine, though:

- don't forget that you're also using the "Horst-Hack" OoB version, thus changing e.g. the mine-damage-model compared to vanilla (-> Northern Blockade scen, supply ship damage)
- personally, I'm against too much "labeling" in the scens (e.g. rivers, mountains and such). Yeah, it looks better, sure, but ultimately it just prevents supply-areas to close up. I really don't want my units to waste valuable movement points (and 2-3 turns) to capture some river hex flag...

[bru888]

Thank you again, Bruce, for doing your CSI thing on this campaign/mod. I think it's really special and deserves it.

Two thoughts of mine, though:

- don't forget that you're also using the "Horst-Hack" OoB version, thus changing e.g. the mine-damage-model compared to vanilla (-> Northern Blockade scen, supply ship damage)
- personally, I'm against too much "labeling" in the scens (e.g. rivers, mountains and such). Yeah, it looks better, sure, but ultimately it just prevents supply-areas to close up. I really don't want my units to waste valuable movement points (and 2-3 turns) to capture some river hex flag...

Heh, Horst-Hack. Gotcha.

It's a consideration about the labels. On the one hand, they orient the player and add to flavor. On the other hand, they could slow the game down. I have noticed that LN Davoust's scenarios load and run quickly and smoothly, and I think that does have something to do with less decorations and names. A balance is called for.

[bru888]

Iron Ring:

Scenario description, objectives, briefing, and messages: capitalize Francoists, Republican, Basque, Nationalist, British, Italian, Spanish, Anarchist, Soviet, and Communist. (Suggest search and replace, case sensitive, in text file.)

"Inexpugnable"? Thank goodness for my dictionary app.

In the third briefing, instead of "understaffed" (call a temp agency!), use "undermanned."

In the fourth briefing, "aircraft" is understood as singular or plural according to the context. Don't use "aircrafts."

"Lemona" message: suggest "Even now the work of fortifying the weakest sectors in the Iron Ring continues. If your men could buy us some time in the Lemona Hill area..."

First "Circus Krone" message: suggest "Until the arrival of our planes the northern skies were sorely unprotected. The so-called "Circus Krone" (named after one of the most famed circuses in the word), an extremely varied squadron of more than fifteen different models of mainly outdated aircraft, was the only available defense."

Second "Circus Krone" message: suggest "Even now the crushing enemy air superiority doesn't allow us to dispense with the long-suffering Krone..."

"Back home" message: suggest "A fast destroyer fleet on a dangerous voyage..."

Third "Spy games" message, correct "bussiness" to "business" and capitalize "God."

"Bad news" message: suggest "I'm afraid I have to inform you that the commissar has perished... due to... erm... an enemy stray bullet."

I notice inconsistent paved/dirt roads in this scenario. That is, paved part of the way, but dirt in sections. Intentional?

Are these two "orphans" (no AI team assigned)? I don't see that they receive orders in any triggers:

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An odd sequence:
* In Turn 1, we see the Republican Command fleet which the popup message tells the player to "Make them count." The fleet or the reinforcements? In any event, the RC fleet departs immediately.
* In Turn 2, we see the Basque fleet appear. These ships, we can "Make them count" because we control them.

There does not seem to be a set of triggers to govern the "Hold Bilbao until new order" objective. Apparently, this is due to the unlikelihood of those points falling before the objective changes to "Evacuate to the Bilbao west side."

For the last "Additional orders" message, perhaps clarify a bit: (+ 60 RPs HAVE BEEN PROVIDED FOR THIS PURPOSE // EACH DEMOLITION WILL COST YOU 10 RPs)

Well, I get it all until I come to these triggers that spawn the factories; what I don't understand is why the hexes that they are to be spawned on need to be Hex Supply 0 Percentage and how they get that way. This is the second time that you have stumped me; I will need to take this on faith:

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Oh, I get it. And I will criticize it. You do all of that just to have a ruined factory appear where none was before? The demolition team is supposed to go to an unoccupied hex, destroy the unseen supply therein (which is not spelled out in the instructions, by the way), so that a factory is spawned and immediately destroyed. LND, you have to take the bad with the good and you have had plenty of praise from me. This, however, is like a train that went off the tracks. I can think of much better ways to have done this module:

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Such as:
1. Place various installations on the map to start.
2. Mix in a couple of Construction Sites for variety.
3. Have the secret orders activate the destruction folder.
4. Placement of the demolition team next to an installation calls up a dialog.
5. "Destroy this installation? Yes or No"; if "No," repeat next turn unless unit moves away.
6. Upon "Yes," destroy the installation and deduct -10 resource points.
7. For the objective, track the destruction of factories and construction sites.

There are a few strange destinations for units being reassigned in the "Relief Force" folder, particularly the ones moving to AI Team 9.

In "New Folder 18," "Trigger 97" is looking for Tactical Bombers but does not do anything with them.

This is another scenario in which follow-up tasks for AI Teams who finish their initial assignments (or which become moot, such as if the Italian pocket is defeated) should be choreographed, even if only Seek & Destroy.

[bru888]

Brunete-I:

Please repeat the various capitalizations mentioned in my previous post (plus North African).

Label said Guadarrama River?

Second "Night March" message: "High Command is still divided about which course of action is better, night march or regular deployment, so as the commander in the field this decision rests on your shoulders, commander."

"NMEffects" is a strange trigger. It removes bunkers and foxholes, and replaces them just as they were except at 30 efficiency. This advantage lasts all of one turn, as they return to 100 efficiency upon the next turn.

Well, I was wondering what "Fire" was doing in here as a unit. Now I know.

This trigger effect is a non-starter; no nation and no target hex:

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"Rechained" message: suggest "The lack of aggression (some would talk about treason, but why resort to conspiracy when mere incompetence also explains the facts, I wonder) ..."

You promise +5 income for clearing mines, but this trigger makes Republican Spain income increase only from 23 to 25:

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In a potential back-and-forth situation like this, this trigger should also turn itself off:

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and this trigger should both turn itself off and turn its mate back on:

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Same thing goes for "SECONDARY SEC WIN (Clone)" and "SECONDARY SEC (Clone)."

Heh, "Do you know what is the use for half a pincer, commander?" Uh, knitting needle? Can opener? This reminds me of "the sound of one hand clapping."

What you are doing with the "OBJECTIVE TRICK" triggers and the hidden AI objective of "Not the three true primary republican objectives checked" will remain shrouded in mystery. YOU explain to the player if a dirty trick is played upon him! ( )

[bru888]

Brunete-II:

Very, very extraordinary briefing, if that is what it should be called! With the bomb craters (scorched area), wrecks, and drifting smoke, it is quite a dramatic beginning to this scenario.

Just correct these parts: "THE ONLY SOUND YOU HEAR COMES FROM A LONELY MILITARY RADIO STILL FUNCTIONAL..." and "INCOMPREHENSIBLE" for "INCOMPRESSIBLE".

"Smoked" message: Substitute "Consequently" for "Coherently."

"Relief" message: Substitute "managed" for "achieved."

First "The moment of truth" message: "Madrid favors the thesis that Brunete has once again evolved ..."

Let's see if this is your intention (and if I understand the programming):
* If the player "Take(s) at least 5 Secondary VPs before turn 18," then he gets the opportunity to resume the pincer attack or wage a battle of attrition.
* However, if the player does not complete that objective, there is no choice.
* Which makes sense, because if he did not take 5 secondary VPs in a timely matter, then he should not have the choice and should be saddled with a battle of attrition (and it being a primary objective, he is headed for defeat anyway).
* The choice between pincer attack and battle of attrition is also a choice for a chance at Major Victory or settling for a Minor Victory.
* The reason for that is, if the player selects battle of attrition, he fails the secondary objective of "Close the pocket."
* And only if the player chooses pincer attack will the primary objective of "Resume the pincer maneuver" be enabled.
* At the same time, that player does NOT have to deal with dealing 700 and 1,000 (is that even possible; i.e., measurable?) damage points.

I notice, though, that you wait until Turn 19 to enable the "Resume the pincer maneuver" and "Close the pocket" objectives. And, at the same time, you disable the "Do not lose more than 18 units" objective. This is puzzling; why wait and why give the player that break?

"Bullheaded" message: "new offensive preparations are underway. Now all that remains is waiting ..."

"Fresh take" message: "Renouncing our initial objectives ..." Also, "though" for "thou."

"At last!" message: "... please consider supporting this force ..."

"Coup de main" message: "adjoined" or "affixed" for "adjunted."

On some objective triggers, and contrary to what you have been doing for all previous scenarios, you are (inconsistently) working in the AI winning a "Francoist Primary VPs" when the player loses his primary objective. I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish at this late date; a Draw situation for the first time? If so, you would need a specific, matching AI primary objective for each player primary objective.