Afrika Korps beta test

[Horst]

1Aufklarung: cutting off El Agheila was mean! I just got too used to dumb AI tactics that I fell for it.
2Mdauuar: the lower-right primary objective without flag seems invalid as I already (suddenly) finished by capturing only 5 red arrows.
I wasn't so careless again and could cut-off one daring tank that tried to drain me again!

It seems strange that the Brits have the first turn again so far. Same phenomenon like in Desert Rats where you thought you are on the offensive. It's better if the defender gets a last chance to recapture a victory location.

[Horst]

4Battleaxe: I held at least 8 primary flags incl. Bardia, but still failed possibly due to the bad AI trigger that fails me if its primary >0. Either I have to hold all primaries or not. More consensus here, please!
PS: I see Gabe had already reported this on the previous page here. Not good!

I think AK is more fun here than in PzC, especially due cutting off supply lines.

[GabeKnight]

PS: I see Gabe had already reported this on the previous page here. Not good!

Whaaat? My fix didn't work? Usually I test my trigger solutions, especially with Erik's work. Sorry then.

[bru888]

PS: I see Gabe had already reported this on the previous page here. Not good!

Whaaat? My fix didn't work? Usually I test my trigger solutions, especially with Erik's work. Sorry then.

Two things going on here. First, the version is up to 2.3 which can be downloaded from the Erik's Campaigns thread but he has not updated the version number in the link label; it's still marked as "2.2."

But even so, in 2.3 what you pointed out has not been fixed. I think he missed your post, Gabe:

Screenshot 727.jpg (640.84 KiB) Viewed 4295 times

[Erik2]

2Mdauuar:
Added gold flag to last primary objective. The trigger already looks fine.
Axis now move first.


4Battleaxe:
Fixed '8 objectives'.
Changed Bardia objective; held by Axis at start and fails whenever the Allies capture the town.

Link updated to 2.4

[Horst]

5Dash: hold-objectives primary can’t work if you own the three mentioned flags but smashed the supply dumps partly by planes without conquering them. AI completes its objective by owning >0 primaries on scenario end, as the supply dumps also have golden flags.

[Horst]

6SecOff:
- idle AI fighter above Benghazi
- deployment hexes in enemy territory near Mersa Brega
- deployment hexes needed in front of the El Agheila airfield

[Erik2]

5Dash:
Changed the 3 objectives conditions from VP to ownership.
Replaced the supply golden flags with silver.
This should also fix the AI 'cheating'.

6SecOff:
Assigned AI Hurricane.

Link updated to 2.5

[Horst]

Oops, Erik was faster than my slow typing!

Gosh, I knew it I'm going to waste my time deploying my battered German units with no real RP for upgrades in 7Gazala. The deployment zones are typically too close to the front line with not enough hexes out of sight from the Brits.
I knew the moment I ended the deployment turn, the AI will naturally have the first turn to bomb all my front lines to pie.
I also wonder how the two embarked German engineers should succeed without supply ship. Better save it as it's hopeless against the Brit DD later anyway.
Historically, I wonder what the heck was the Italian Navy doing all the time during the many operations along the coast. Too afraid of the Royal Navy that was seemingly omnipresent around the globe?

AI starts first but shouldn't:
7Gazala
8Herkules
9Halfa
10Suez
12Syria
13Iraq

Where the AI should start first:
21Alamein
23Mareth

[Horst]

Isn't there an RP-imbalance between Germany and Italy? Italy has plenty cheap units while the only useful but expensive tanks have the Germans. In the end, I'm gathering hundreds of Italian RP while being constantly dry on German RPs. The Germans have many more upgrades to pay for than the Italians.
Yeah, I know I should berserk more with my Italian infantry against Brit tanks. I'm not used to this dual-RP thing yet. The WSS is usually my artillery only due meager RP income.

[Erik2]

Isn't there an RP-imbalance between Germany and Italy? Italy has plenty cheap units while the only useful but expensive tanks have the Germans. In the end, I'm gathering hundreds of Italian RP while being constantly dry on German RPs. The Germans have many more upgrades to pay for than the Italians.
Yeah, I know I should berserk more with my Italian infantry against Brit tanks. I'm not used to this dual-RP thing yet. The WSS is usually my artillery only due meager RP income.

I always design my scenarios using 1 resource point pr unit pr turn.
Then the numbers are adjusted based on feedback.
But I wonder if I should insert a popup at the start of the scenarios allowing the player to transfer x RPs between Italy and Germany? Something like this is or will be doable
If yes, how many RPs do you think should be transferable?

[Horst]

7Gazala
- I wish you always have this RP-transfer feature available, shovelling like 600 RP from Italy to Germany here...
- as mentioned, it can’t hurt to add more deployment hexes out of enemy sight
- missed the SAS para attack from PzC

8Herkules
- map too large
- not enough German RPs to cover so many aux paras
- the scarce supply points make it quite difficult to cope with so many paras. I still tend to forget about the changed rule to sit on flags until fully captured without supply-connection. It’s still doable after some acceptable losses though
- not enough aircraft exit zones. The upper-middle had only 1 for aircraft; the right exits should better be moved away from the narrow passage with the coastal gun. I was worried that my naval units vanished there. The game and editor really needs a better exit-hex identification on the map
- AI crashed during turn 8 what convinced me to skip the scenario and return to the desert. The larger the map, the more likely it crashes for me, as it seems, but not rather at beginning but after a couple of turns when some AI units have already been defeated. This logic is beyond me.

Erik, yes, this transfer feature could be very useful here as I thought about this during Gazala!
In particular the long-barrel upgrades are a must-have to cope with the tough tanks, like Matilda II, Grant, and Sherman later, costing around 80 rp/tank. It’s fine if you can’t upgrade all at same time though.
Maybe 100 RP from Italy to Germany from scenario 2 on should work throughout the campaign.
This 1 pt/unit income rule can't always work, considering the cheap early-war inf (20-25) compared to the end-war ones (60). Or Pz.4C 80 RP compared to Pz.4J 175 RP.

In my session, I should really purchase more Italian artillery to reduce my German losses. The gifted artillery guns aren’t enough. During a regular German campaign, I tend to have more long-range siege artillery and short-range rocket units during that time.
In Gazala, I had no chance against the four 25-pounders at Tobruk anymore due lack of own arty to suppress them. The strong AA-defense everywhere doesn’t make it easy for own aircraft either, considering how many fighter reinforcements the AI gets.
The German fighter losses are particular costly although I tend to attack with Italian fighters first.

[Asarhadon]

Hi,
I have issue with 11Palestine. After major win of Suez scn this one is loaded, but I can´t deploy any unit, I can´t purchase, I can´t do anything. Cheats work, after removal of fog of war I can see clean map, only with Arab volunteers and oil pumps. No more units are visible
Any idea what to do, please?

[bru888]

Hi,
I have issue with 11Palestine. After major win of Suez scn this one is loaded, but I can´t deploy any unit, I can´t purchase, I can´t do anything. Cheats work, after removal of fog of war I can see clean map, only with Arab volunteers and oil pumps. No more units are visible
Any idea what to do, please?

Found it. This was a tough one! You are right; one cannot play this scenario even by itself, outside of the campaign:

Screenshot 2.jpg (304 KiB) Viewed 4076 times

The reason is because of what Erik did back on October 25, the part that is bolded:

Mission 11 Palestine:
Added 5 more turns.
Added Kriegsmarine income.
Put Arab units under player control.
The British only have 2 air units vs Axis (18?) air command points.

Erik, by process of elimination, turning off objectives and trigger folders, and finally deleting folders (which was necessary, as you will see), I located the trouble in your "Britain various" folder. Then by further process of elimination, I found the trouble to be in these two triggers:

Screenshot 7.jpg (213.81 KiB) Viewed 4076 times

Screenshot 6.jpg (206.47 KiB) Viewed 4076 times

When you had the Arabs under AI control, you had them in a separate alliance, correct? These two triggers were created to look for that alliance and when you eliminated it to place the Arabs under human control, you confused the scenario accordingly. Since they are set for Any Event (which includes Scenario Start), these triggers are being activated as soon as the scenario begins and, not finding the alliance that they were designed for, are crashing the scenario.

I'm not sure how you can fix this but I am sure about one thing: Just disabling these triggers does not work. I had to delete them altogether in order to get the scenario to start properly. Try it and see for yourself. Perhaps you can just delete them and make new ones that activate the Pump-2 and Pump-3 AI teams in another fashion.

So, Asarhadon, Erik will need to fix this and post another version when he has the time. Until then, keep your last campaign save file. Hopefully, you will be able to copy the new version of 11Palestine (the scenario file itself, not your scenario save file) over the old one and resume the campaign at that point.

[Asarhadon]

Thanks Bru. I tried to mark yellow obtangle in triggers Pump-3 and Pump-2, then I replaced original folder in campaign folder by this new one --- and it works

[bru888]

Thanks Bru. I tried to mark yellow obtangle in triggers Pump-3 and Pump-2, then I replaced original folder in campaign folder by this new one --- and it works

Yes, that would work but is not the proper fix. Got a minute? I'll tell you why.

When Erik closed out the AI alliance to which he had assigned the Arab units in his previous version, preferring instead to have those units under human control, these triggers were looking for that alliance which is now missing. Somewhere in the scenario code, it's still looking for that alliance, hence the crashing.

By you reassigning those triggers to an existing alliance, yellow, it's no longer confused by the missing alliance. However, the yellow alliance is "Neutral" which means these triggers will not actually be working. The scenario will work, but the triggers will not be doing anything because there are no Neutral units in the scenario.

That means the British units in AI teams Pump-2 and Pump-3 will be sitting idle throughout the scenario and not doing what Erik intended them to do, which is to attack the oil pumps. No doubt Erik will come up with an alternative way of activating these British units in an updated version of 11Palestine.

[Erik2]

11Palestine:
Fixed the oil pump triggers.

Link updated to 2.8

Thanks, Bru.

[tula1959]

Yesterday I updated OOB from v6.1.8 to newest v7.1.4 so could get Endsieg in - after doing so I am surprised to find that Afrika Korps and Desert Rats WILL NOT load - just sits there forever with a black loading bar - other Erik customs do work, and customs from others also, seems to just be AK and DR that will not.. Anyone else encounter this???? Hmmmmm????? I was through DR but was just on the 4th scenario of AK and would like to keep going... Any ideas why this might be ???? I even tried doing a fresh download of both of them and install to see if that might solve but still no joy there...

[tula1959]

Should have also said that I first tried to load the in-progress AK campaign that was started in v6.1.8.....then I tried to start AK over fresh from the start....then I tried to start DR fresh (was already done with it so no in-prog to try)… NONE of them loaded...… ??????

[GabeKnight]

Should have also said that I first tried to load the in-progress AK campaign that was started in v6.1.8.....then I tried to start AK over fresh from the start....then I tried to start DR fresh (was already done with it so no in-prog to try)… NONE of them loaded...… ??????

Try a complete reinstall (not update) of the game. It solved these kind of issues for some other players.