Slitherine

Edit:
v1.1: Air transports now have double movement.
Adjusted the location of a number of German flak and garrison units.
Changed AI behaviour from passive to active for a bunch of flak units.
You can get the scenario here:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.as ... =&#2978671
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I am looking for playtesters for this large, single v1.05 scenario.
The sticky thread is locked, so I was unable to post in the proper thread.
Also I can't figure out how to add an embedded picture here, there's one in the duplicate Matrix thread.

The scenario is meant to be played as Allies on General level.
I have not had any experience playing MP yet, so please advice me if I need to do anything special to make it work as a multi-player scenario.
This version cannot be played as German due to the AI being unable to handle paratroop landings.
later I will create a German-version if the AI problem is not fixed in the mean time.
The scenario uses custom efx.pzdat and equipment.pzeqp files, but all custom data is added to the default data.
So you should be able to just replace the default files, but please make a backup first!
Due to the 1km map i have doubled artillery ranges and air unit movements.

There are 329 Axis and 174 Allied battalion sized units on a ca 60x120 1km/hex map with 30 half-day turns.
Both sides get 50 prestige points pr turn and there are 5 free units slots for each side.
The Allies start with zero prestige and the Germans have 100 prestige points.
You will probably only afford a couple of units since repair will claim most of your prestige.

The Allies need to grab all 8 primary and 31 seconday objectives with 6 turns left of the scenario for a decisive victory.
Capturing all objectives by the scenario's end will give you a minor Allied victory.

The Allies' occupation of the German airfield Deelen on the top part of the map will trigger the release of the British 52nd Lowland air-transportable division on the bottom of the map.
The infantry of this division may then be air-transported to the two constructed airfields further north (or Deelen). The infantry battalions will leave their transports behind.
Allied occupation of the town Deurne on hte right center of the map trigger the release of the 8th armored brigade on the bottom of the map.
This is turn triggers release of more German reinforcements.

This playtest is mainly to establish if the play-balance is about right.
Experienced players will probably gain a decisive win on the default Colonel level.
I am currently having a hard time winning at General level (and I am quite familiar with the scenario after testing it about 30 times...).

If you are interested, please send an email to erik.nygaard@nrk.no

Have fun
Erik

God dag Erik,

If i am reading correctly, the scenario is as it is now, a single player scenario, right?

If you want i can give it a try. Either reply here or send pm if i'm accepted .

nikivdd wrote:God dag Erik,

If i am reading correctly, the scenario is as it is now, a single player scenario, right?

If you want i can give it a try. Either reply here or send pm if i'm accepted .

Yes, currently only single scenario. I have only tested the latest revisions against the AI.
I will do versions for German human player and MP after playtesters have tried their hands at it.
Send me an email at erik.nygaard@nrk.no and I'll zip you the files back.

Your Norwegian is spot on

Bump

Great job with the scenario.

It looks like it was a massive effort.

I'm only turn 9. Making good progress in Nijmegen. Slowly losing my LZ's around Arnheim (ouch!). I've been successful in pushing up both flanks. My main effort going up the middle is MASSIVE to the point that I'm having trouble finding work for everyone.

My Polish Paratroopers didnt make it out of the planes, but my initial drops for the 101st and 82nd were very successful.


Bugs: Reinforcements are placed on the island with the airfields, but have no way of joining in the battle. I was only able to load up 2 units on C-47's.


Thanks for your effort.

MikeAP wrote:Great job with the scenario.

It looks like it was a massive effort.

I'm only turn 9. Making good progress in Nijmegen. Slowly losing my LZ's around Arnheim (ouch!). I've been successful in pushing up both flanks. My main effort going up the middle is MASSIVE to the point that I'm having trouble finding work for everyone.

My Polish Paratroopers didnt make it out of the planes, but my initial drops for the 101st and 82nd were very successful.


Bugs: Reinforcements are placed on the island with the airfields, but have no way of joining in the battle. I was only able to load up 2 units on C-47's.


Thanks for your effort.

Thanks.

1) There is a limit of 15 units airborne (except for the first 2 turns).
2) You can use the road to the left of the airfields (hex 21,121) to move reinforcement units out of the 'island'.

Hope this helps

Does the counter attack ever end? I feel like most of my effort is dedicated to cleaning up stragglers around the Nijmegen area

MikeAP wrote:Does the counter attack ever end? I feel like most of my effort is dedicated to cleaning up stragglers around the Nijmegen area

Nope
There were several German counter-attacks to try and cut 'The Highway to Hell'. The most serious attempt involved the 107th Panzer Brigade.
No wonder General Browning remarked " We may go a bridge too far".

Does it seriously not end? If not, then I'm just going to delete my save file right now. I've already killed an Army's worth of equipment, and still going.

MikeAP wrote:Does it seriously not end? If not, then I'm just going to delete my save file right now. I've already killed an Army's worth of equipment, and still going.

There are German reinforcements arriving on the east and west map edges right up til the end of the scenario. These are based on their historical arrivals.
So you need to balance the need to move forward with the paras and the need to garrison objectives once they're captured.

I was overwhelmed by the size of the map. And frankly also by the number of units. In the beginning i had to get used to it and a unit is easily forgotten. The intention is to be historical and i think it is spot on.
At the beginning i had the impression it was going to be a walk in the park but it is not. Once the german counterattacks came, my theory vaporised. I didn't manage to hold the objectives in the north althou i made it a costly one for the enemy. I must say it is really well done. If historical accuracy is your thing, i recommend it. On the other hand, take into account that you need to reserve a lot of your time to play it. Player and AI turns take longer than probably any scenario in the vanilla campaigns. Tusen takk Erik!

nikivdd wrote:I was overwhelmed by the size of the map. And frankly also by the number of units. In the beginning i had to get used to it and a unit is easily forgotten. The intention is to be historical and i think it is spot on.
At the beginning i had the impression it was going to be a walk in the park but it is not. Once the german counterattacks came, my theory vaporised. I didn't manage to hold the objectives in the north althou i made it a costly one for the enemy. I must say it is really well done. If historical accuracy is your thing, i recommend it. On the other hand, take into account that you need to reserve a lot of your time to play it. Player and AI turns take longer than probably any scenario in the vanilla campaigns. Tusen takk Erik!

# of units: same here. A little too many.

historical: you had ground commanders at each echelon managing these units.

I would recommend turning this into a campaign, where separate battles are fought, similar to Close Combat.

nikivdd wrote:I was overwhelmed by the size of the map. And frankly also by the number of units. In the beginning i had to get used to it and a unit is easily forgotten. The intention is to be historical and i think it is spot on.
At the beginning i had the impression it was going to be a walk in the park but it is not. Once the german counterattacks came, my theory vaporised. I didn't manage to hold the objectives in the north althou i made it a costly one for the enemy. I must say it is really well done. If historical accuracy is your thing, i recommend it. On the other hand, take into account that you need to reserve a lot of your time to play it. Player and AI turns take longer than probably any scenario in the vanilla campaigns. Tusen takk Erik!

Thanks for the comments.

Yes, this scenario (and probably other forthcoming scenarios) will not suit anyone. I primarily create them for my own enjoyment and then publish them for whoever shares the same interest in 'grognard' scenarios.
I first create a historically "correct" scenario on a big(ger) map with "all" units available within the PzC (or TOAW) framework.
Then I playtest/adjust/simplify/reduce until I am satisfied.

Great job. I really like this one; it is quite challenging. Thank you.

Thanks.
I've added to the "Custom Scenarios" sticky.
Erik, you've also a Crete scenario, have you posted here?

VPaulus wrote:Thanks.
I've added to the "Custom Scenarios" sticky.
Erik, you've also a Crete scenario, have you posted here?

Thanks for the sticky, VPaulus.

Crete got buried down here (in the wrong forum...):
viewtopic.php?t=31586

drjeff21 wrote:Great job. I really like this one; it is quite challenging. Thank you.

Thank you for testing it.

Erik

Erik wrote:Crete got buried down here (in the wrong forum...):
viewtopic.php?t=31586

Fixed.

Hi,

This is an excellent scenario!
Finally Germans surrendered but keeping units alive in Arnhem was already a challenge and two turns before the end the Germans counter-attacked and took also in the lower part of the map 2 VHs (on the Wilhelmine Canal).

I had to understand the usage of gliders.

I played at Leutnant level and granted me 20.000 PP (I love having always units at full strength with experience!).
I finished with the message: "Germans surrendered" (but many VHs were still in German hands especially due to heavy counterattacks on turns nr 28 and 30)

I lost many infantry units by bad use of recon units, infantry was lost while moving on trucks, my fault!

Maybe it's a too long scenario (30 turns is sometimes boring with so many units to move) but I loved it anyway.
I lost also a few Typhoons because I forgot to refuel them (with such a small fuel tank compared with US medium bombers), my fault too!

Capturing the two airfields asap is the key otherwise you cannot make use of your air force!
It seems using airborne units for airborne assault after turn nr 20 is a bad idea because AI has more and more reinforcements and especially AD units.

I played more than 3 hours to finish this standalone scenario. I thought it is fantastic you named each unit as they were historically.

Very good job, just perhaps too many units to move but if this matches with reality there is no issue, fine for me!

Great idea to have planes with movement x 2 as if they had extra fuel tanks, this idea should be incorporated in the standard e-file of Slitherine for a few planes (with extra cost of course).

BTW I have not tested with the real sound mod but is it compatible ?
I used the insignia pack (with historical flags) and it works perfectly.

I also found funny to play with some units from the Netherlands!

Congrats!

Glad you enjoyed the scenario, Robert.
i am a stickler for historicallly correct scenarios (while bending the rules for playability), so it is nice to see other players value that.

One of the early testers suggested I made a Market-Garden campaign, I have finished about half of the planned scenarios. The challenge is to put together a linear campaign where the original fighting took place on several dispersed locations simultaniously.
I am holding the M-G campaign back until Afrika Korps is officially released. There are several goodies in AK for the scenario designers that I want to utilize in M-G (I am one of the beta-testers).
I have noticed that you give valuable feedback when you test custom campaigns, so I hope to get you on board when M-G is ready for play-testing
Again, thanks for the comments.

Erik