Slitherine

Please post here your comments about this scenario.

beta1

Colonel, Imported Core, DV 6/10

Prestige before/after deployment: 16245/15250
Prestige on last turn/incl. victory bonus: 15900/17700

A scenario without a real frontline, and Allies coming from all directions. I had little trouble because of the many fast units in my core, and I tried not to get distracted from the mission, which demands some discipline as you pursue all those paratroopers and end up trying to conquer nearby flag hexes. The final obstacle was an Allied armored counterattack, but this was without artillery or air support and they were dealt with very swiftly as a result. Allied airpower was limited to a few small fighter waves, I was expecting at least some tactical bombers, but maybe I missed a big air wave coming after turn 6, hard to tell.

This map has the same 'flag issue' as Arnhem where a city flag is shown normally on the main map, always as allied on the mini-map, and not at all on the strategic map, but on this map there are a whole bunch, namely:

Culemborg (1,14)
‘s-Hertogenbosch cluster around (4,33) (three flags)
Bemmel (25,19)
Gennep (27,34)
Goch (33,35)

'Cujik' (23,32) has two issues, it has the flag issue but is also spelled wrong, correct spelling is Cuijk (not Cujik).

I already mentioned it on Arnhem, but Voudenberg (6,4) should be spelled Woudenberg.

Than I came across a small inconsistency in naming, the map shows the Rhine as 'Rhine river', but all the other rivers are labelled with their correct Dutch names, not Englified versions of them. Like for example the 'Nederrijn' river, whose English translation is 'Lower Rhine'. Nederrijn is the correct Dutch name for this river, but the normal 'Rhine' is called the 'Rijn' in Dutch.
So, every river apart from the Rhine uses the proper Dutch name, apart from the Rhine which uses the English spelling. I don't mind, but I thought I'd point it out.

13) Nijmegen – beta 1

Level: Field Marshal
Prestige: Begin: 18,050. End: 18,550. Net: +500.
Result: DV at 7/10
Replacements: None used.


Problems:

• • ThvN already mentioned flag issues/names.

General impressions/comments:

• • Nice scenario, some thinking to do. I enjoyed it.
  • Sadly, over too quickly.

13) Nijmegen – beta 2

Level: Rommel, stock core
Prestige: Begin: 50. End: 450. Net: +400
Result: DV 8/10 (held off until end to get pp)

Core changes:

• • Purchased 21cm Nebelwerfer and truck.
  • Purchased ’43 Grenadier unit and truck.

Problems:

• • None noted.

General impressions/comments:

• • First deployment with all slots filled since Caen, should be more fun.
  • I enjoy the way the maps on these last three scenarios overlap and work well together. The scale and features link together better than some of the similar ones in various GC campaigns.

Nijmegen branches - beta2

I played through the Nijmegen branches, and having the Arnhem bridge destroyed (alt) is noticable but not a great disadvantage, which seems good to me.

Although if you lose your bridge engineer or start without one, any troops to the north of the Nederrijn except plain infantry (there are Ju-52's available) cannot cross to the south. Since there are no victory hexes on the north side and there is a warning in the briefing, this didn't bother me. DV is still achievable, but some people may suffer when unlucky. So some ideas if it is decided to adress this, maybe have an aux bridge engineer present on the map in the east, so it will have to travel a couple of turns first, or make one available after a few turns or when a certain hex is conquered? The scenario doesn't need it, but it would be nice to have a 'parachute' for those unlucky players.

About the campaign tree, I tried losing different bridges, and noticed something. Since there are limited options for follow-up scenarios, the results don't always match the players expectations.

From Arnhem to Nijmegen, no trouble. Two options, Arnhem bridge destroyed or not, so two Nijmegen scenarios. Excellent idea BTW, I remember playing DLC '39 and hoping for some branching like this.

But in Nijmegen, the options multiply exponentially, and the loss of the Arnhem bridge is still possible in Nijmegen (already gone in NijmegenAlt), so we get these scenarios:

Eindhoven: kept 1st bridge during Arnhem, managed to keep two other bridges during Nijmegenalt (good).
Eindhovenalta2: kept Arnhem bridge, but the two others are destroyed during Nijmegen. (can feel weird depending on player's performance)

Eindhovenalta: lost 1st bridge during Arnhem , but managed to keep two other bridges during Nijmegenalt (good)
Eindhovenalta3: no bridges (all three destroyed, can feel weird depending on player's performance)

When playing Nijmegen or NijmegenAlt I sometimes lost only one of the two southern bridges (Nijmegen/Grave). But it doesn't matter which bridge you lose, because the Eindhoven scenarios only allow both middle/south (Nijmegen/Grave) bridges either intact or destroyed. Adding extra scenarios to have these bridges separately treated seems tricky because of the limited types of victories and follow-up possibilities, but I'm no designer/developer, so no further comment on that.

Nevertheless, it feels strange to successfully defend one bridge and see it destroyed next scenario without explanation. At least mention during an Eindhoven_Alt briefing (all Eindhoven scenarios now use the same briefing) that the other bridges had to be blown because headquarters felt it necessary because of the rapid approach of XXX Corps.

Leutnant level Beta 3 - DV

Very good scenario.

Use of arty is mandatory.
I bought two paratroopers to move to evac zones.
I have used no escort and when I thought I had destroyed all allied aircrafts two Mustangs destroyed my Ju52.

Good idea to have allied aircrafts appearing at differnet moments in the scenario.
I also liked the British tank attacks in the south preventing human player to send units in the evac zone.

Nijmegen – beta 2

DV turn 10/10
Ending prestige 1900
Default Core
General Level
No losses

(I started this one during beta 2 so any changes made during beta 3 aren't reflected) The second piece of the Market-Garden scenarios! This one was still fairly easy but enjoyable nonetheless. My overall losses were light, I could have got a DV on turn 7/10 but dragged things out a bit to capture a few non-objective cities.

13) Nijmegen – beta 3/rc

Level: Rommel, stock core
Prestige: Begin: 0. End: 350. Net: +350
Result: DV 8/10

Problems:

• • None noted.

General impressions/comments:

• • Good scenario; good to go.