Slitherine

Gentlemen,

MEETING ENGAGEMENT - FAST N SNEAKY

I've been working on an update to Slitherine's awesome Meeting Engagement multiplayer/force selection map for a couple of weeks now. Thanks to Enric and RF900 for their mods, and to Enric, Gortwillsaveus, K9Mike, Random27 and JCB989 for play-testing and feedback. Details on how to install and play below.

SUMMARY OF CHANGES:

1. Both sides can buy up to eight transports (two come free) - this gets you into action much faster (claiming flags, placing ambushes, or running from enemy tanks)
2. Allies can buy the Brit 17-pdr AT gun (a fairer match for the German 75mm Pak40 than the feeble US 6-pdr they replace)
3. Allies can buy the Brit Sherman Firefly medium tank (an up-gunned version of the 76 and a better match for the Panther)
4. Allies can buy up to six Brit paras (more fearsome than the Rangers they replace; look out for their red berets! )
5. Allies can buy an extra Calliope (now max 2, rather than max 1)
6. Up to two of the German transports can be the SdKfz251/2 design (which includes a mortar fire action; stay hidden, the armour is wafer thin)
7. Allies can buy up to two M8 Greyhound infantry support vehicles (wickedly fast, esp on roads, with reasonable AP and HE attack)
8. All of your units will start much closer (so you can quickly decide your strategy and re-organise, load into transports, etc)
9. US M5 and German Puma light tanks gain +2 line of sight (from 5 squares to 7; they are supposed to be recon vehicles after all; don't get cocky tho, their firepower and range remain puny. Scout infantry still get 8 LOS)
10. King Tiger, Tiger and M36 gain +1 firing range (from 8 squares to 9; to simulate the 500-1,000m of extra effective range that their 88-90mm guns had over the 75-76mm of other heavy and medium tanks)
11. Merge - you can now merge two wounded infantry of the same type, to combine forces (max 5 men; thanks RF900 for this excellent mod)
12. Swap - adjacent units can swap positions with each other (uses 8 AP for infantry, so you still get 2 more moves, before or after; thanks again RF)
13. Move artillery/AT guns - a neat use of the new swap action is to place an infantry unit next to an AT gun in forest/buildings, and then swap position (your infantry squad has just "rolled" the AT gun one space)
14. Walking Mortars - mortar units can now "walk" up to one space per turn (so they're not totally reliant on transports any more; thanks Enric, for upgrading the squads.csv data)
15. Artillery & Airstrikes - they're locked out for the first two turns; you can't set them before 3rd turn, to prevent experienced players from exploiting "knowing" where you'll probably be at the beginning (thanks for the .bsf update and code, Enric/Pip)
16. Map - I've inserted "blocking trees" in all of the forest squares that I could find that didn't already have them. I've also made a few other changes, added a few more houses, a little more forest, and a couple of other goodies for you to find and fight over
17. Budget - And finally, you get 2,500 to spend on force selection (so expect multi-unit skirmishes and grand strategy play)

TO INSTALL AND PLAY:

*** AUG 25th 2012: DO NOT USE THE LINK BELOW TO DOWNLOAD. SLITH HAS NOW EDITED FAST & SNEAKY TO MAKE IT AVAILABLE AS USER CONTENT. THE BEST WAY TO ACCESS THIS SCENARIO IS FROM THE CAMPAIGN MENU WITHIN BA ***

Click this link -> http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31228617/FAST_N_SNEAKY.zip <- and unzip the downloaded folder straight into your \Documents\My Games\BBCBA\MULTIPLAYER folder. Start up Battle Academy, choose Multiplayer, Click Accept Challenge and look for anything called "Fast N Sneaky". I've proposed a game for you to join. Or you can propose your own "Fast N Sneaky" challenge in the usual way. This new map will show at the bottom of your list.

FEEDBACK:

Please drop me any feedback here. Slitherine's original Meeting Engagement Redux map is excellent, with lots of space to play different strategies and tactics, but the limit to max 3 transports makes starts very sloooooow. Play testers had two complaints about my Fast N Sneaky v1
- that the first version encouraged too much bombardment (so I've cut Priests and Wespes back from 3 to 2 each side)
- that their transports start locations were too far away from their infantry (so everything starts much closer now)

SCREENSHOTS:

Allied force selection options
German force selection options
How to merge two understrength infantry units (move one onto the other and click the load icon)

Wonderful,..now I'll be spending even less time with my family. Hahaha
Kidding of course, they always come first. (this is in case they read this thread)

Can't wait to install and give it a try.

You might want to make sure you remind your opponents when they accept a game about the no arty rule for 3 turns.
I hope I don't forget myself. Please remind me too.

Lol... yep, totally agree, family A L W A Y S comes first... Are you still reading, dear?

Come and join the fun Gort... Looking forward to trying this with you... Funny how changing a few things makes all of my old strategies no good again... Time to figure out what works on this one

GORT... NO ARTY/AIRSTRIKES FOR THREE TURNS... GORT... NO ARTY/AIRSTRIKES FOR THREE TURNS... GORT hehehe...

GORT... NO ARTY/AIRSTRIKES FOR THREE TURNS... GORT... NO ARTY/AIRSTRIKES FOR THREE TURNS... GORT hehehe...

Try this, put in the SCENARIOS folder.

Thanks Enric, More excellent code! I've dropped your .bsf into the \Scenarios folder, re-zipped and re-posted.

Well, I played a few of my current games last night, and saw that you started a game with this update.
I was dying to join, but didn't have time to unzip the files,........tonight is dinner with the family,..so,....hopefully soon.
Can't wait to try it out. Nice work everyone to mod this scenario.

I realized that my family is not the one's keeping me from playing,..it's my job. Hahahaha

Thanks Gort, hehe, sadly work does that. Recommend you re-download the latest zip to play. Have updated a couple of things since last night. I doubt it would affect the game, but it might generate a "data mismatch" warning, if we're not using exactly the same version. Happy family dinner tonight. We'll be waiting!

Once you have all your custom missions play tested to your satisfaction, I would suggest making a single campaign with them all in (if that is possible?) and we can add it to the user content system!

Cheers

Pip

Thanks Pip, I'd probably just go with the latest one. It seems to iron out the issues of v1 and, man, it's proving fast and furious... I'm being pummelled by three Panthers and a Puma after only five turns... this is going to be interesting... Will finalise based on feedback over the weekend and PM you directly Sunday/Monday... If you add it to user content, can I play on iPad? Will capitalise everything, etc. Please

PS. Welcome back from hols... Hope you had a good one?

Anything added to the user content system is playable on the iPad. The iPad should upper-case all the files when it unpacks the missions, so no issues there.

We can sort it out once all your custom versions are tested to your satisfaction

Cheers

Pip

This includes everything above, plus a new "SWAP" command (two adjacent units swap positions) and a minor fix to the "MERGE" (wounded units) code. If you're already playing the old version, stick with it for your current game, and upgrade for the next one.

Thanks...