Slitherine

I'm about half way through Keren-to-Massawa.
The scenario generally works fine, but I think excessive minefields like this (south of Mensheb) is really not neccessary and will only frustrate a player.
Especially since the very difficult terrain makes it impossible to rush the engineers to the front. So players will probably order their troops into the minefield to clear it...
Mining the road itself should suffice.
Edit:
Another thing, after capturing Asmara I got a message about a new primary objexctive; Capture the port of Massawa.
This is more than 30 hexes along the road from Asmara. Probably as well defended as the other roads.
I'm at turn 40/60 and I really not believe there's any hope of fulfilling that objective in time.
Why not make it a secondary objective instead?

Erik2 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 3:26 pm I'm about half way through Keren-to-Massawa.
[...] after capturing Asmara I got a message about a new primary objexctive; Capture the port of Massawa.
This is more than 30 hexes along the road from Asmara. Probably as well defended as the other roads.
I'm at turn 40/60 and I really not believe there's any hope of fulfilling that objective in time.
Why not make it a secondary objective instead?

Don't worry, you should have enough time to achieve this goal.

And no, it can't be made a secondary objective for historical reasons (taking this port was of primary importance at that time).

About the future 10MarethLine scenario:

To add a little more challenge while keeping perfectly on the historical tracks, what about adding a little condition to the completion of the two secondary objectives related to the Mareth Line? For example, they could/should be completed BEFORE that the Tebaga Gap has been captured…

The Axis forces must be kept well busy to maximize the left-hook effect, so the goal here isn’t that the Allies (on the main line) inflict or suffer these damages (or most of them) once the Axis troops are already trying to retreat, right?

ColonelY wrote: ↑Sun Feb 28, 2021 9:31 am About the future 10MarethLine scenario:

To add a little more challenge while keeping perfectly on the historical tracks, what about adding a little condition to the completion of the two secondary objectives related to the Mareth Line? For example, they could/should be completed BEFORE that the Tebaga Gap has been captured…

The Axis forces must be kept well busy to maximize the left-hook effect, so the goal here isn’t that the Allies (on the main line) inflict or suffer these damages (or most of them) once the Axis troops are already trying to retreat, right?

These matters have all been planned out and resolved, as you will see very soon. Right now, I'm just wrapping up some details.

Free France 1940-1945 v0.22 has been uploaded. It includes the new scenario Battle of the Mareth Line and the following changes to older scenarios:

- In Gabon, made Omboué a bit more accessible, per Erik's suggestion.
- In Kufra, removed Col. Ralph Alger Bagnold from his dilapidated Chevrolet WB (which I think I chose because it looked like a LRDG vehicle, without realizing that it has little punch and is unrepairable) and placed him in a much more respectable Humber Mk.II, per Erik's suggestion.

Free France 1940-1945 (ten scenarios)

The usual questions about Battle of the Mareth Line:

1) Too many/too few turns to accomplish the objectives?
2) Are the objectives themselves reasonable? (100 damage by Free French; 40 Axis land units destroyed?)
3) Is the sea battle too tough? (I know it's not too easy.)
4) Does the land battle seem balanced?

The action on land takes a while to get going; several French and Greek units need to fulfill their special assignment before the land battle unfolds. Meanwhile, though, the sea battle is raging. The player had better defeat those Italian convoy escort ships or the whole thing will get more difficult.

Awesome!

'will be tested (relatively) soon.

Great, I´ll proceed right now!

My thanks to both of you.

Campaign event “Alphonse Juin” text: “Alphonse Pierre Juin was gravely wounded on the Western Front in France”…

Campaign map before scen 10: missing arrows and all the different flags of involved factions…

10MarethLine:

I'll try to it short... without guarantee!

Indeed really interesting… excellent use of the Greeks, an excellent map, with good reminders (on map as well) about the previous scenario, etc.

Several points worth mentioning though:

*****
A) On overall difficulty, thresholds, etc.:

=> Major Victory achieved (normal level) at the (end of) 33rd turn… That’s very much too soon!

At that time, the British 1st and 7th Armoured Divisions have just appeared on the battlefield and the main German forces at the Mareth Line were just about to start their retreat or have just begun it…
I’ve reloaded the savefile just at turn 33 start: the Free French have made already 225 damages (they need 100) and 42 Axis land units have already been destroyed (one needs 40)… the troops from the western groups do count in there of course…
And with the obj “Take El Hamma and Gabès” completed, all remaining Axis troops from the Mareth Line are directly outsupplied… several turns more and their fighting efficiency would be history… as most of these units…

It’s not too difficult in terms of actual battle, which is well-balanced already… but one shouldn’t be allowed to take a win so early, therefore I suggest :

1. “Decimate the Axis 1st Army” => from 40 to 60 enemy units!
Force the player to really do some significant damages to the enemy defending the Mareth Line… otherwise there is no chance at all to see any of them even closing near their map exits…

2. “Earn Free French battlefield excellence” => from 100 to 200 pts!
Otherwise it’s really likely to happen much too soon… and we want the Frenchies to take some active part until the end, don’t we?

*Or both of them still higher, according to our last results (see next posts)... *

3. Add some garrison in both El Hamma and Gabès… (I would have lost few turns dealing with them!)

4. Add some enemy supply output, like some “reserve” or something, between the line El Hamma-Gabès and the Mareth Line(, or perhaps even spawn one or two supply ships near their coast at some point)… Why? Don’t allow for a direct and complete full outsupplying as soon as El Hamma and Gabès have been captured. Otherwise, dealing with the remaining German forces may really soon become very, very easy…
(By the way, this may come together with one enemy AA unit exactly between the 2 coastal guns, near the sea… so that if the player make the choice to deal some damage to them instead of going directly against the enemy ships… )

*****
B) About unit names:

-> This should be checked on overall, but some unit names are too long to be properly displayed, like for example the “8th Armoured / 2ND NZ Division”… here perhaps a “8th Armoured / 2nd NZ Div” will do it?
With the second, yeah… “2nd NZ” everywhere!

-> “28th XX Maori / 2nd NZ Div” => a double space at the location of the XX symbol…

-> “33rd Panzerjäger / 15th Panzer Div” => too long again, and I would suggest here to even delete the “Div” (which would be coherent, for example, with units such as the “39th Panzerjäger / 21st Panzer”)

*****
C) Some little ideas here and there:

-> Adding one “Construction Group” unit together with the NZ Division may offer a cool option for the player… choosing where to build a new airstrip in the middle-western part of the map!

-> Perhaps granting one or two recon plane(s) to the player (near the Mareth Line) once he takes control of the British troops?

-> The units of the 4th Indian Division… under the British flag or rather under the British India flag?

-> Really excellent to see some artillery shots being taken in full AI mod… another set of rounds a little later before we take control? Together with a small British artillery riposte, even?

-> After the naval battle, the remaining enemy air units don’t last very long… perhaps considering the option to spawn few enemy air units (in the North) once, let’s say, for example the obj “Breakthrough at Tebaga Gap” has been achieved… like perhaps 2 bombers and 2 fighters? ( )

*****
D) About the naval battle:
“Sink Italian escorts to stop the convoy”… Very good action there, on sea and in the skies, that’s for sure!

First, perfectly achievable! (‘Thankfully, we don't have to preserve our naval forces nor American aircraft too much. )

Second… the transport ships will surrender… well, then, what about really doing it? This part could be divided, or split, in two… This will represent a little extra-work, but would be better, I think, for immersion.

Listen:
When all enemy ships are sunk => the event that the transport ships are about to surrender! (Without talking about our ships nor the US planes there…)
Either immediately, or at the start of the next turn, change the flag of all these ships to neutral or “unclaimed”…
But keep our ships and US air units one or two turns more…
Then, and only then (after these 1 or 2 more turns, I mean), another event may pop-up, saying that our US air units have to go somewhere else (basically what you’ve explained in the actual event), and then make these surrendered, neutral ships “exit” the map using triggers as well as all our remaining ships. And, at that time, unreveal this whole area (using triggers again)… nothing more to see, so why keeping this entire sector revealed?
Last thing: “When all enemy ships are sunk” => then all remaining enemy bombers should be ordered to go “back to base”, or something, for a while… so that they’ll leave this sector for being ready to fight another fight later (against the NZ Div, for example)…
Why? Well, once it was finished (the naval battle, I mean), there was this huge area left revealed… without any Allied unit there… and 3 enemy bombers, some damaged, sitting there up in the sky, staying put… until some of my fighters (from the southern groups!) show up to say hello to them! Well, of course, they shouldn’t stay there doing nothing , so…

Summary:
With this overall suggestion on the sea/naval side, one would: see the enemy transport ships really surrender, see the remaining enemy bombers (having become rather useless on this side) leaving the sector, see our remaining ships moving either near the surrendered enemy transport ships or rushing to take some shots at coastal guns (taking some revenge there), see the US planes trying to bomb these coastal guns (thus discovering there some AA unit, if not already done) and pursuing the enemy planes… so with the player keeping control of his remaining ships and American planes for one or two turns, before that we “turn off” this part for good, including the “revealing” of this entire area!
*****

Et voilà !


'Definitely looking forward to play again this awesome scenario.

Well, I made it on the 47th turn, (difficulty level III), and I have to say that I did appreciate the challenge.

On naval operations: it costed me all my naval units to destroy the Italian escort fleet, plus a couple of US planes - in fact I had to rely heavily on air support in order to achieve this. I agree with Colonel about the fate of the remainder of the German air; it should be available elsewhere in the scenario. It seems illogical to me that they simply disappear after sea combat.

On desert operations: Fair enough until facing German defences at the gap. Them, dealing with surprise attacks from desert patrols gave me some trouble, I think it really made me go ahead a bit slow.

On Monty´s army attack: not a promenade, but ok.

Resources just enough for player factions, I had to quit most attack aviation in order to resupply ground units, keeping only the Brit fighters just in case some German or Italian planes show up, which proved unwise, in the end.

In sum, fair and funny.
Congrats.

Mascarenhas wrote: ↑Mon Mar 01, 2021 10:59 pm [...]
In sum, fair and funny.
Congrats.

@Masca: If you have the option a savefile each turn selected, could you please reload the start of the 46th turn... just to indicate us, in terms of thresholds, how many enemy units have been destroyed under the "Decimate the Axis 1st Army" and how many damages have done the Frenchies under the "Earn Free French battlefield excellence"?

This may be useful (to finely tune these thresholds - I'm wondering, for example, if the 2nd one should be increased up to 250 instead of 200...).

And I assume that, when you played it, taking both El Hamma and Gabès was your last objective to be achieved, wasn't it?


'Lost all your naval units? Don't forget to move your ships before making them shoot (then the enemy will do less damages to them, as it's more difficult to target precisely if the target itself is moving)... and knowing this, once they have to move... make them turn around the enemy fleet (like this they'll get farther away from the coastal guns, thus reducing more their firing efficiency and, above all, bring them enough close to the enemy cruisers - the biggest threat out there on sea - to use your torpedos)... yeah, torpedos!

In the desert, we've been warned about the possibility of these attacks and we had in principle to keep the initial Greek and French troops to secure the road... well, the northern part of them was sent North directly together with the main NZ and FF divisions, but I've kept the southern part of them near the road, actually a little western of it, digging-up on some rough desert hexes (better defense)... as soon as I've heard about the very first of these "surprise" attack groups, I've sent few tank units and armored recon to help deal with them. Be prepared, but keep the initiative!

Lets, see:

Units - 76
Exp.: 425

Surely, the standards could be raised.

About air-naval battle, I guess I got a bit anxious, that´s why it costed more than should. On a second trial it´ll be better, I hope.
Gabès was the last obj. I almost took it before the arrival of retreating German and Italian units.

Guys, excellent commentary, thanks. I will be circling back to Battle of the Mareth Line with your feedback in mind.

Meanwhile, I will whet your appetites, perhaps, for the upcoming Normandie-Niemen scenario (the title is subject to change because, at the time of the Battle of Kursk, over which this scenario will take place, they had not yet acquired the "Niemen" portion of their name).

This is a mechanism that I figured out for an objective to "Accumulate X (3?) fighter aces in this scenario." Instant five-star experience and a personalized pop-up message for each pilot who achieves ace status, and a scenario variable to track for the objective. It's based on each enemy aircraft unit being 10-strength on middle difficulty x 5 "kills" to qualify for ace status.

One of these personalized messages will appear each time a pilot qualifies as an ace:

Mascarenhas wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 1:02 pm Lets, see:

Units - 76
Exp.: 425

Surely, the standards could be raised.

About air-naval battle, I guess I got a bit anxious, that´s why it costed more than should. On a second trial it´ll be better, I hope.
Gabès was the last obj. I almost took it before the arrival of retreating German and Italian units.

Thanks!

So, indeed, to prevent any (too) early Major Victory and to entertain longer the suspens, the threshold about units could be increased at least to something like 60 or 70... and the Free French damages done to at least 300 or 400... or even a little more, as you've written that "I almost took it before the arrival of retreating German and Italian units.", which implies that more damages could have been inflicted and more units could have been destroyed (with higher thresholds allowing for it, that is!)...

bru888 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 4:03 pm [...] Meanwhile, I will whet your appetites, perhaps, for the upcoming Normandie-Niemen scenario (the title is subject to change because, at the time of the Battle of Kursk, over which this scenario will take place, they had not yet acquired the "Niemen" portion of their name).
Perhaps?! No, not a single doubt about it: It will and it has already for me!
And, of course, you're perfectly right about the Normandie not yet Niemen as well part.

This is a mechanism that I figured out for an objective to "Accumulate X (3?) fighter aces in this scenario." Instant five-star experience and a personalized pop-up message for each pilot who achieves ace status, and a scenario variable to track for the objective. It's based on each enemy aircraft unit being 10-strength on middle difficulty x 5 "kills" to qualify for ace status.
[...]

Well, this mechanism does look very promising, I must say.


When I see this very first screenshot about the Normandie scenario... Well, tell us... Do you intend to let us command some (land) Soviets as well?

By the way, 'using the superb Unit Navigator tool, one can easily see that these "Yak-9 T" have really high vehicle attack stats compared to the corresponding stats of all other Russian dogfighters... (why?)

This may perhaps be exploited with some complementary, secondary objective about dealing some support missions as ground-attackers as well?!

Variants:

Yak-9 D: more fuel (thanks to more wing tanks for a total of 4 instead of 2)

Yak-9 T: the T stands for Tiajélowooroujényï (=Heavily Armed)... a Yak-9 armed with a 37 mm (1.5 in) Nudelman-Suranov NS-37 cannon with 30 rounds instead of the 20 mm (0.79 in) ShVAK (also firing between the blades), cockpit moved 0.4 m (16 in) back to compensate for the heavier nose, to make room for the breech of this imposing gun... Yak-9T was widely used against enemy shipping on the Black Sea and against tanks (the cannon could penetrate up to 30 mm (1.2 in) armor from 500 m (1,600 ft)), but was also successful against aircraft with a single cannon hit usually sufficient to tear apart the target.

I had just written "why" about these stats against land vehicles...

(Sources: both French and English pages - again, not exactly the same available info on both of them... useful to seek some complementary info... https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-9 & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakovlev_Yak-9 )

ColonelY wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:10 pmDo you intend to let us command some (land) Soviets as well?

No, sorry. I did think about it, and again now that you asked, but the human player will not play Soviet land forces for three reasons:
1) This scenario is about the Normandie squadron, not the Battle of Kursk. The focus needs to be on the air action.
2) There are too many units on the map. Human player stamina and attention will be exhausted, having to move 120+ units each turn.
3) Needing to resolve this Battle of Kursk would take many turns, more than I want to require in my scenarios and particularly after Battle of the Mareth Line, which was a long and intense battle.

The land battle is just a backdrop. It serves to provide targets and objectives for the air battle.

Great minds think alike.

In this case, yes, I had already selected the Yak-9 T for that very reason: High rating in vehicle attack, as well as being a good fighter otherwise. It's a bit early for the Yak-9 T; the game offers Yak-9 D, and the squadron may have been flying in older Yaks in reality.

Ahem, I was not intending to call attention to this . . .

But, unless you think it's a terrible breach of historical accuracy, I will beg the player's indulgence in exchange for more fun. There will be goals for destroying tanks, trains, etc. to make for interesting challenges to meet the enhanced Yak-9 T.