Old User Created BA2 SP Scenarios!

[Paul59]

I know that many new BA2 players have tremendous difficulty getting access to old user created scenarios and campaigns, as many of the old Dropbox links have died.

Since getting into BA2 just two years ago, I made a lot of effort to find the old scenarios, and have succeeded in getting quite a good selection. The link below gives access to all the hard to find BA2 SP scenarios that I have:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/p8eb9l94v ... s.rar/file

Here is a screenshot showing the full list:




Some of the scenarios may have been amended slightly by myself to correct bugs etc.

Please don't ask me to provide an LST link for iPad, to create links for each separate scenario would be too much work for me. I guess if you also have a PC version of Battle Academy 2 you might be able to do the work yourself, following the instructions in this thread;

viewtopic.php?f=105&t=41525&p=390546&hilit=.cpf#p390546

cheers

Paul

[PoorOldSpike]

Hi Paul, can we play them as standalone scens, or do we have to play them within campaigns?
For example there are 6 scens in the Alsace campaign, so can we select and play just one of them as a standalone scen?

[Paul59]

Hi Paul, can we play them as standalone scens, or do we have to play them within campaigns?
For example there are 6 scens in the Alsace campaign, so can we select and play just one of them as a standalone scen?

Well I think it depends upon how the original scenario designer made them. I have only played a few of these, I am still leisurely playing my way through them, and I have not designed any of them myself, although I might have tinkered with some of those that I have played to improve the graphics slightly.

With Alsace you have to play it through in order, as it is a carry over campaign. I actually did not like the Alsace campaign/scenarios very much, I abandoned playing it after two scenarios as the white trees, snow fall, white units, huge building complexes which you could not see into and odd terrain tile values all made it a bit of a struggle.

So far, I have enjoyed the Combat Missions scenarios the best. Although DKDOM's Dneipr scenarios are very good too, I am playing them at the moment, they are quite huge and a lot of the action is at night, so they might not be every ones cup of tea. I have been getting a strange graphical bug with some of the Dneipr scenarios, I get the Kharkov Walkway terrain objects scattered across the map. These objects look like warehouses and float above the ground, it looks weird. The 2nd scenario, 09-23 Cauldron, is affected the most badly. I have examined the scenario files and cannot see what is causing it, I wonder if the problem is with my game installation. I would be fascinated to know if other people have the same problem or not.

[Fluffi]

Hi Paul, can we play them as standalone scens, or do we have to play them within campaigns?
For example there are 6 scens in the Alsace campaign, so can we select and play just one of them as a standalone scen?

Well I think it depends upon how the original scenario designer made them. I have only played a few of these, I am still leisurely playing my way through them, and I have not designed any of them myself, although I might have tinkered with some of those that I have played to improve the graphics slightly.

With Alsace I think you can select any scenario that you want to play, at least it works like that for me. When you select the campaign you do get presented with the first scenario, but you can then click through them by using the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen. I actually did not like the Alsace campaign/scenarios very much, I abandoned playing it after two scenarios as the white trees, snow fall, white units, huge building complexes which you could not see into and odd terrain tile values all made it a bit of a struggle.

So far, I have enjoyed the Combat Missions scenarios the best. Although DKDOM's Dneipr scenarios are very good too, I am playing them at the moment, they are quite huge and a lot of the action is at night, so they might not be every ones cup of tea. I have been getting a strange graphical bug with some of the Dneipr scenarios, I get the Kharkov Walkway terrain objects scattered across the map. These objects look like warehouses and float above the ground, it looks weird. The 2nd scenario, 09-23 Cauldron, is affected the most badly. I have examined the scenario files and cannot see what is causing it, I wonder if the problem is with my game installation. I would be fascinated to know if other people have the same problem or not.

I can see how you wouldn't like Alsace that much, but for me I actually like it quite a lot considering it was one of the very few campaigns (at its time) that took place on the Western Front. The only other campaigns I can recall taking place on the Western Front in BA2 (before your skirmish mods came about) were Petcat's "Victory in Sight" and "Tunisia BA2" campaigns, and maybe the "Challenger" standalone scenario. I do know there were at least two multiplayer scenarios based on the Western Front, but that's about as much as I can remember. I'll be honest though, as much as I like dkdom's scenarios when it comes to detail and scale, I found that many of them can get a bit tiring at times due to how massive they are normally. That and if you're playing a dkdom scenario where the enemy has artillery then the most you can expect is to lose about 30 to 40 percent of your forces if you don't spread your troops out and use cover. I learned that the hard way with the first scenario of his "First Days in Normandy" campaign; lost about 20 squads or so, more than half falling victim to the artillery battery on the hill.

That being said, I'm more than grateful of the archive of campaigns you've bundled up for us. I'm quite surprised by the amount of campaigns that are present in the file, as I didn't expect there to be that many in comparison to BA1's catalogue.

[Paul59]

I can see how you wouldn't like Alsace that much, but for me I actually like it quite a lot considering it was one of the very few campaigns (at its time) that took place on the Western Front. The only other campaigns I can recall taking place on the Western Front in BA2 (before your skirmish mods came about) were Petcat's "Victory in Sight" and "Tunisia BA2" campaigns, and maybe the "Challenger" standalone scenario. I do know there were at least two multiplayer scenarios based on the Western Front, but that's about as much as I can remember. I'll be honest though, as much as I like dkdom's scenarios when it comes to detail and scale, I found that many of them can get a bit tiring at times due to how massive they are normally. That and if you're playing a dkdom scenario where the enemy has artillery then the most you can expect is to lose about 30 to 40 percent of your forces if you don't spread your troops out and use cover. I learned that the hard way with the first scenario of his "First Days in Normandy" campaign; lost about 20 squads or so, more than half falling victim to the artillery battery on the hill.

That being said, I'm more than grateful of the archive of campaigns you've bundled up for us. I'm quite surprised by the amount of campaigns that are present in the file, as I didn't expect there to be that many in comparison to BA1's catalogue.

I have edited by reply to PoorOldSpikes post, I have just discovered that you have to play through the scenarios in campaign order, as it is a carry over campaign.

BTW, I added the Free French uniticon markers to the campaign.

[Fluffi]

Hey Paul, any idea what the Sapristi mission is for the Combat Missions V.2 campaign is?

[Paul59]

Hey Paul, any idea what the Sapristi mission is for the Combat Missions V.2 campaign is?

Well Maximilian von Schweinewitz has not added it to the CAMPAIGN.TXT, so I assume he did not finish the Sapristi scenario. You could always add it to the end of the scenarios in the CAMPAIGN.TXT and see if it is playable.

Once added the CAMPAIGN.TXT would look like this:

[001_Recon]
[005_Too_Far]
[004_High_Noon]
[006-Dvina]
[001A_Gatekeepers]
[001B_Totenkopf]
[002_Surprise]
[003_Bridgehead]
[007_Christmas]
[008_Sapristi]

[Paul59]

Yes, I have just tried Sapristi, and it is unfinished. There are no Soviet units on the map, so the battle immediately ends. It also looks like there are at least a couple of new units added that have not been completed, missing icon pictures and text descriptions etc.

[PoorOldSpike]

Personally I've never been a big fan of campaign play in any game because I much prefer small short sharp fast-moving standalone scenarios, so it's a pity some designers lock their scens inside campaigns where we can't get at them.
However Order of Battle (and some other games) don't do that, they have the magnificent approach of making all their campaign scens (over a hundred or so) also available as separate standalones, bravo..

[Paul59]

Personally I've never been a big fan of campaign play in any game because I much prefer small short sharp fast-moving standalone scenarios, so it's a pity some designers lock their scens inside campaigns where we can't get at them.
However Order of Battle (and some other games) don't do that, they have the magnificent approach of making all their campaign scens (over a hundred or so) also available as separate standalones, bravo..

I am sure that the campaign designer made that decision for a good reason; ie many players do like to play campaigns where they carry over their core units from one scenario to the next.

But fortunately there is an easy way to unlock the scenarios. Just open the CAMPAIGN.TXT file in the campaign folder and delete the word CARRYOVER, close and save the file and you are done!

[PoorOldSpike]

But fortunately there is an easy way to unlock the scenarios. Just open the CAMPAIGN.TXT file in the campaign folder and delete the word CARRYOVER, close and save the file and you are done!

Thanks mate that worked, i'll look through all the scens to see if can find any small fast ones..

[Schweinewitz]

Yes, I have just tried Sapristi, and it is unfinished. There are no Soviet units on the map, so the battle immediately ends. It also looks like there are at least a couple of new units added that have not been completed, missing icon pictures and text descriptions etc.

Exactely, it remains unfinished. Sorry about that, at the time I was burned out on scenario design, it turned out to be too much work to be fun anymore, and I was frustrated about the fact that there are so many units and factions missing - and the game itself abandoned by the devs.

But perhaps the real reason is that I listened too much Nick Drake while working on 'Sapristi'.

Tbh: Although it's still much fun and has it's special moments, I never really got used to the low-poly comic book style of the game. So I'm stupidly dreaming of a Battle Academy 3 featuring the 3D units of Panzer Corps 2. (Please, don't tell anyone ... )

PS: Thanks for the scenario and campaign collections, Paul. Very much appreciated!

[Paul59]

Yes, I have just tried Sapristi, and it is unfinished. There are no Soviet units on the map, so the battle immediately ends. It also looks like there are at least a couple of new units added that have not been completed, missing icon pictures and text descriptions etc.

So I'm stupidly dreaming of a Battle Academy 3 featuring the 3D units of Panzer Corps 2. (Please, don't tell anyone ... )

Yes, that is my dream too!

I know Panzer Corps 2 is very popular, but it does nothing at all for me. I would much rather see all the effort that has been put into it applied to a new turn based tactical game.

[PoorOldSpike]

..Although it's still much fun and has it's special moments, I never really got used to the low-poly comic book style of the game..

Yeah that's what put me off BA1 too at first, plus the fact that there was no random mission generator meaning I got fed up having to play the same scens and campaigns over and over (yawn).
Then I heard that BA2 HAD got a generator, so I bought it and was instantly hooked, and Pauls fantastic mods ensure i'll be playing BA2 for a long time to come..

As regards BA's comic-style graphics, I got over that by remembering chess pieces look comic too, yet chess has been incredibly popular for hundreds of years because the underlying game system is so good.
BA2's system is like chess in that respect because it's played on squares instead of hexes which means the precise positioning of units counts for everything to hold the enemy in check, great fun..

Panzer Corps 2 is another game I like, it's not perfect but at least it has a random mission generator which makes every battle fresh and fun.
I also dabbled a lot in Order of Battle, but it got monotonous because it has no generator.