Slitherine

Concerning scenarios 62/63/64, will you send us a new version of GTPG to test soon, or can we play with the version of the 14th of April ?

produit wrote:Concerning scenarios 62/63/64, will you send us a new version of GTPG to test soon, or can we play with the version of the 14th of April ?

There will be a new version soon. The new version will allow to play everything of the 2nd flowchart with the exception of Götterdämmerung.

Finished the "The Breakthrough to Netherlands". It is quite easy. I was able to clear the map on turn 10. Capture every VH on turn 12. And have 25 units in place on A hexes on turn 14. The enemy main army never left Normandy. I was able to block him with the few available units until my heavy armors arrived. They never went further than Avranches, Argentan, Falaise and Honfleur. The rest of the enemy units are quite easily dispatched (Free French units and paratroopers), as soon as you are able to bring artillery.

Also, destroying the enemy air force is really easy. I had 12 ME262 at the beginning, and with the two added units during the map, I am able to deploy 14 fighters for the next map. It is really a lot.

I would perhaps increase the pursuing wave (coming from the south), as it is really small. I would perhaps also add unit arriving at Nantes and Tours. Having a second (and or third) wave of enemy airplanes would be great also.

Thank you for this enjoyable map.

produit wrote:Finished the "The Breakthrough to Netherlands". It is quite easy. I was able to clear the map on turn 10. Capture every VH on turn 12. And have 25 units in place on A hexes on turn 14. The enemy main army never left Normandy. I was able to block him with the few available units until my heavy armors arrived. They never went further than Avranches, Argentan, Falaise and Honfleur. The rest of the enemy units are quite easily dispatched (Free French units and paratroopers), as soon as you are able to bring artillery.

Also, destroying the enemy air force is really easy. I had 12 ME262 at the beginning, and with the two added units during the map, I am able to deploy 14 fighters for the next map. It is really a lot.

I would perhaps increase the pursuing wave (coming from the south), as it is really small. I would perhaps also add unit arriving at Nantes and Tours. Having a second (and or third) wave of enemy airplanes would be great also.

Thank you for this enjoyable map.

Thanks for the feedback. How deeper in the campaign, the more inpredictable the average core becomes which is also so obvious in the DLC's. I started this mission only with a couple of Me262 and 6 Tiger tanks for example and i was happy i reached the north section of the map. Anyway, i will make a few changes, including the removal of the freebie units. I will also add 1-2 more airwaves and think about a few other surprises.

Seelow Heights: new scenario for v1.0

Finished the Netherlands. Nice map. I was surprised to see no (polish) paratroopers. The map from the original PG was interesting, as there was really a lot of paratroopers around the bridges, and the big allies force pushing forward to relieve these paratroopers troops. Here, it is more a blocking situation were you can block the whole enemy troops North of Eindhoven. Dutch infantries are also a bit surprising, as I don't remember that such troops were present.

It could be really interesting to have the allies deployed more to the south, and a lot of paratroopers who are close the Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem.

The enemy air force was quite impressive, especially the 5 stars Tempests coming on the second wave. To help the allies, have more air defense units or more airplanes could help, especially strategic bombers. Concerning ground troops, I would add a lot of infantry, and perhaps artillery. It would help to keep the proportion of tanks a bit lower. Putting some of the Challenger with 3-4 stars could help also with their survivability. Now, they don't attack my 4 stars Panther and Tiger II.

I cleaned the whole map and capture everything VH on turn 12. I could have finished on turn 10.

produit wrote:Finished the Netherlands. Nice map. I was surprised to see no (polish) paratroopers. The map from the original PG was interesting, as there was really a lot of paratroopers around the bridges, and the big allies force pushing forward to relieve these paratroopers troops. Here, it is more a blocking situation were you can block the whole enemy troops North of Eindhoven. Dutch infantries are also a bit surprising, as I don't remember that such troops were present.

It could be really interesting to have the allies deployed more to the south, and a lot of paratroopers who are close the Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Arnhem.

The enemy air force was quite impressive, especially the 5 stars Tempests coming on the second wave. To help the allies, have more air defense units or more airplanes could help, especially strategic bombers. Concerning ground troops, I would add a lot of infantry, and perhaps artillery. It would help to keep the proportion of tanks a bit lower. Putting some of the Challenger with 3-4 stars could help also with their survivability. Now, they don't attack my 4 stars Panther and Tiger II.

I cleaned the whole map and capture everything VH on turn 12. I could have finished on turn 10.

Just impressive how you managed to finish so quickly. I will take out my toolbox and change a few things . Thanks once again.

nikivdd wrote:Just impressive how you managed to finish so quickly. I will take out my toolbox and change a few things . Thanks once again.

I am perhaps not the best reference... But I had time to optimize my army. On this map, I was able to deploy 14 fighters, ~12 Tigers II (all my tanks with a +1 movement hero), ~10 Panther G and 5 AT units (JagdTiger and JagdPanthers). All units were always covered by AA or fighters. Nearly all units are 4stars.

The fact is that the AI will never even try to attack my units. As a result, I can completely block them and kill them. The only danger is the enemy aviation (which will rarely attack if your units are protected by AA). On this flat terrain, with so many enemy units, you finish with a compact group of enemy units, that you can force to surrender. As a result, each attack from a Tiger II will often kill an enemy, as he has no place to flee. As a result, you can completely control the battle and enforce huge losses. I have also a huge amount of prestige waiting (~30'000).

produit wrote: I am perhaps not the best reference... But I had time to optimize my army. On this map, I was able to deploy 14 fighters, ~12 Tigers II (all my tanks with a +1 movement hero), ~10 Panther G and 5 AT units (JagdTiger and JagdPanthers). All units were always covered by AA or fighters. Nearly all units are 4stars.

The fact is that the AI will never even try to attack my units. As a result, I can completely block them and kill them. The only danger is the enemy aviation (which will rarely attack if your units are protected by AA). On this flat terrain, with so many enemy units, you finish with a compact group of enemy units, that you can force to surrender. As a result, each attack from a Tiger II will often kill an enemy, as he has no place to flee. As a result, you can completely control the battle and enforce huge losses. I have also a huge amount of prestige waiting (~30'000).

I see more and more similarities with the DLC's. The first ones were hard at times but the last ones are just plain easy. It is about time that the AI gets a major boost and offers a better challenge from the beginning to the very end.
Difficulty can be increased with less prestige, higher enemy strengthpoints , but in the end, the AI remains - for the lack of a better word - dumb. It is not willing to take risks where human players would.
Since i want to keep the campaign open to any level of player, i recommend the veteran or elite players to play every year of the campaign with the custom e-file for that year made by Deducter. This method of playing is made possible with the v1.05b update.

I don't have this huge amount of prestige but i must assign an average of prestige between missions. I use normal reinforcements during the missions and elite reinforcements during the deployment phase and allow myself maximum 2-3 upgrades at a time. For now i have no better system to keep the campaign accessible for every kind of player.

Some food for thought - how about progressively increasing equipment prices? Leave the "ordinary" infantry and small towed guns as-is, increase "special" infantry, larger guns, light tanks a bit, then increase medium tanks and most planes a bit more, and finally increase all the fancy stuff by a lot.

It should make it prohibitively expensive to field a core filled with 5-star 15 strength Pioneers and Tiger II's, which unbalances the game and makes late scenarios with all your units maxed out on experience too easy. If you can afford only a couple of "large cats" and have to rely instead on late mark PzIV's, if you have to use mostly regular infantry instead of the Gebirgs and Pioniere units this should make any scenario - no matter how dumb or smart the AI is - a bit more challenging.

nikivdd wrote:

produit wrote: I am perhaps not the best reference... But I had time to optimize my army. On this map, I was able to deploy 14 fighters, ~12 Tigers II (all my tanks with a +1 movement hero), ~10 Panther G and 5 AT units (JagdTiger and JagdPanthers). All units were always covered by AA or fighters. Nearly all units are 4stars.

The fact is that the AI will never even try to attack my units. As a result, I can completely block them and kill them. The only danger is the enemy aviation (which will rarely attack if your units are protected by AA). On this flat terrain, with so many enemy units, you finish with a compact group of enemy units, that you can force to surrender. As a result, each attack from a Tiger II will often kill an enemy, as he has no place to flee. As a result, you can completely control the battle and enforce huge losses. I have also a huge amount of prestige waiting (~30'000).

I see more and more similarities with the DLC's. The first ones were hard at times but the last ones are just plain easy. It is about time that the AI gets a major boost and offers a better challenge from the beginning to the very end.
Difficulty can be increased with less prestige, higher enemy strengthpoints , but in the end, the AI remains - for the lack of a better word - dumb. It is not willing to take risks where human players would.
Since i want to keep the campaign open to any level of player, i recommend the veteran or elite players to play every year of the campaign with the custom e-file for that year made by Deducter. This method of playing is made possible with the v1.05b update.

I don't have this huge amount of prestige but i must assign an average of prestige between missions. I use normal reinforcements during the missions and elite reinforcements during the deployment phase and allow myself maximum 2-3 upgrades at a time. For now i have no better system to keep the campaign accessible for every kind of player.

I played the SS version from 44 onward, just DV cheated through, and I had a hard time with prestige. I was always short.

Radoye wrote:Some food for thought - how about progressively increasing equipment prices? Leave the "ordinary" infantry and small towed guns as-is, increase "special" infantry, larger guns, light tanks a bit, then increase medium tanks and most planes a bit more, and finally increase all the fancy stuff by a lot.

It should make it prohibitively expensive to field a core filled with 5-star 15 strength Pioneers and Tiger II's, which unbalances the game and makes late scenarios with all your units maxed out on experience too easy. If you can afford only a couple of "large cats" and have to rely instead on late mark PzIV's, if you have to use mostly regular infantry instead of the Gebirgs and Pioniere units this should make any scenario - no matter how dumb or smart the AI is - a bit more challenging.

Exactly. That's why i recommend higher level players to use Deducter's e-file(s). That's an advantage of GTPG, it should work with any custom (personal) e-file.
Check out his thread: viewtopic.php?f=147&t=30708

MartyWard wrote:
I played the SS version from 44 onward, just DV cheated through, and I had a hard time with prestige. I was always short.

It might be better to use normal replacements only and collect prestige to upgrade units. You still keep the advantage of the heroes, which the AI units do not have.

nikivdd wrote:

MartyWard wrote:
I played the SS version from 44 onward, just DV cheated through, and I had a hard time with prestige. I was always short.

It might be better to use normal replacements only and collect prestige to upgrade units. You still keep the advantage of the heroes, which the AI units do not have.

I think I started with about 40,000 prestige but after buying a full core I was down to about 10-15k. I bought a mix of units but starting then I bought some of the more expensive units (but not all top of the line). Just maintaining the core slowly drained my reserve. There were times when I was under 2000 starting a battle. What I gained from each battle and between scenarios was just barely enough to keep me going. Unless there is a huge differance between the standard and SS version the prestige from 44 on is pretty well balanced. If you want a core full of Tiger II's and jets you will not accumulate a lot of prestige. Maybe the amount of prestige to be gained before 44 could be adjusted if people find they are ending up with to much.

MartyWard wrote: I think I started with about 40,000 prestige but after buying a full core I was down to about 10-15k. I bought a mix of units but starting then I bought some of the more expensive units (but not all top of the line). Just maintaining the core slowly drained my reserve. There were times when I was under 2000 starting a battle. What I gained from each battle and between scenarios was just barely enough to keep me going. Unless there is a huge differance between the standard and SS version the prestige from 44 on is pretty well balanced. If you want a core full of Tiger II's and jets you will not accumulate a lot of prestige. Maybe the amount of prestige to be gained before 44 could be adjusted if people find they are ending up with to much.

I hope the prestige settings will be better for SS-GTPG v1.0.

Last part of the flowchart for v1.0.

India scenario is awesome!
I have long imagined that, should the war have gone better for the Germans, this would have been a natural meeting ground for east meets west, ie, Germany and Japan ~ their spheres would have to collide somewhere... I expect your scenario will involve the Soviets however? But just think of the possibilities of a 3-way battle in south Asia with the stakes being control of 340,000,000 inhabitants (1946 pop.) plus their resources... and then there was the Chinese with 540,000,000 folks...

Iceland 45

Two maps to go...

The Italian Campaign 2.0 demo is out! This mod is a great colloboration between Uhu and myself. If you have some time, check it out!
viewtopic.php?f=147&t=32748

Finished the Wacht am Rhein scenario. It is really easy. I could have DV at turn 11 (if I remember well). I could have captured every city before reinforcement could come. I however waited until the last turn.

Talking about allies reinforcement, I would increase a lot the forces present, multiplying the size by 3-4, perhaps even more. I would also send a second enemy air wave at the same time. I was not able to trigger enemy units from the North Western part, but it was perhaps intended. Talking about the first allies deployment, I would add units in the center, this front is cracking to fast. I would also increase the number of allies AA units.

The only front really interesting was the southern front, with the auxiliary units, even if it is quite easy to keep enemy at bay.

Considering the briefing, it is say that you have to hold every objective. But it would be better if you write that you have to capture all objectives.