Allied: Medenine

[uran21]

Please post here your comments about this scenario.

[omegabet]

Missing units:
New equipment types are available for purchase and/or upgrade, 9 US units are missing, like M8 Greyhound.

A unit not from the core army, named 8th 105mm M2A1 can't be upgraded in city, the screen after upgrade button is showing nothing. Hoped to upgrade its truck.

[LostAgain]

I just started this scenario and it won't let me buy any US units, in fact, the US isn't even listed in the purchase area although when the scenario started it noted a huge amount of American equipment that had become available! It's all just disappeared! On another note, why can't I but specialty tanks, such as flails?

[Kamerer]

14) Medenine – beta 1

Level: Field Marshal
Prestige: Begin: 5,950 (after repair). End: ?? (forgot to record it). Probably about Net: +400.
Result: DV 20/22 (game awarded V though – believe it was a bug)
Replacement policy: Deployed air and tanks at 13, arty, infantry at 12.

Core Changes:

• Received: US Airborne (SE)
  Disbanded: None
  Purchased: None
  Upgraded: Some infantry to ’43 type.

Problems:

• • Briefing says I am to attack (and presumably move first/have the initiative). Instead I am attacked. Need a better indicator of turn initiative.
  • Game does not treat American flag hexes as allied? Did not get “triumph” and only reason I can figure is one hex was taken by a US unit (airborne SE). I noticed it did not spot during the game, either.

General impressions/comments:

• • Nice scenario with a twist. I didn’t send quite enough units on the hook, but enough.
  • No problems here; it seemed clear and the briefing, messages, etc. seemed clear. I took the El Hamma (6,12) with my freshly arrived SE US Airborne unit, and I think that was why the victory conditions didn’t work properly.

[nikivdd]

Colonel level
Upgrades: all inf to 43 version, 2x Grant to Sherman
Purchases: 1xChurchill IV
Second SE unit received: a Spitfire IX

I received a huge prestige dump, i guess that is way too much...
A very nice mission and easier than i expected. In the west i deployed 2x Sherman, M7 priest, Daimler and HW inf. In the east 4x churchill, 2x art, 2x engineer and all my planes. With airsupport i took El Hamma and the airfields east of that point, the italians were not much of a treat. Several times the msg popped up that the axis are retreating, and that trigger worked fine. I did notice that some of the axis infantry lacked transport but that is maybe intended.
The minefield is not complicated this time and i took Zarat first and then worked my way eastwards. When the remaining soft targets retreated in their transports, they were very easy pickings. The mosquitos and hur IID do a really good job against the german tanks, and the churchills just did the rest.
Now i hope that since Tunesia i can also purchase american equipment as it should be. No US units should be purchaseable before Tunesia, up till now this is and should be Montys army . I just miss capturable equipment up to this point

Losses: 1 aux unit, DV 14/20, 6274PP

[Razz1]

General
start 9977
End 6395
Triumph
20/20

Just made it on the last turn

A big surprise to have the AI attack first.
Too bad I had 4 artillery pieces and they were behind my units.
Stopped the attack and moved on to the mine and forts.
I went to the left and right and knocked out the forts.

This map sucks up your prestige too!

[Tarrak]

Scenario: Madenine
Difficulty: general
Outcome: Triumph on turn 20/20
Starting Prestige: 11197
End Prestige: 7701, 9801 after victory reward
Core: 2 x Engineer 43, 1 x HW infantry 43, 1 x SE Rangers, 5 x Churchil Mk.IV, 1 x Crusader Mk.III, 1 x Chevy-WB recon, 2 x 7.2 inch guns, 2 x M7 priest, 1 x Hurricane Mk.IIC, 1 x Spitfire Mk. IX, 1 x SE Spitfire Mk. IX, 1 x Beaufighter Mk.IF, 1 x Wellington Mk.X

I bought at the start 1 x HW infantery 43, 1 x Spitfire Mk.IX, 1 x Chevy-WB to replace losses from last scenario and a Churchill Mk. IV tank to fill up the core. Upgraded my both engineer to engineer 43, four of my Churchill Mk.II tanks to Chruchill MK.IV and one Wellington Mk.III to Mk.X.

Deployed west of the mountains one Churchill, one Crusader, one M7 Priest and one engineer. They moved together with the auxiliary Chevy-WB up. In the west there was no opposition at all until i reached the end of the mountains when some enemy armor engaged me. I manged to lose the crusader tank there which i instantly replaced by a new Churchill MK.IV. I should have upgraded it at the start but i wanted to save prestige .. well i had to spend them anyway and i lost the experience. Lesson learned: do not be a cheapskate; buy your troops new toys when you can afford them.

The rest of my core was deployed in the east. I was surprised as well that the German attacked first but luckily i deployed my troops in a defensive way so the initial attack wasn't much of a problem. While breaking through minefields and reaching the second line of defense i got under enemy artillery fire and lost my chevy recon due to no place for it to retreat. It could have easily happen to another core unit. In the mace between the mines it's hard to keep space for units to retreat. The second wave of enemy tanks wasn't to hard to handle but cost me a few turns.

After this it was simply wiping out the rest of the opposition around the last two victory hexes. By the time i got the message that the axis forces are retreating there was none left except the already encircled defenders in the last two cities and the lonely PaK in the airfield far to the north which didn't intend to flee at all.

Again a well balanced scenario imho. Challenging enough both opposition and time wise without being to hard. With knowledge that there will be close to no opposition in the west i could have advanced faster and use the troops to fall into the back of enemy defensive lines and kill his artillery and air defense faster making the breakthrough a lot easier.

[Longasc]

Medenine

Level: General
Start Prestige: 9148
End Prestige: 4544
Result: 16/20 Triumph.
Bought/Upgraded/Losses: Got SE Spitfire Mark II. Upgraded two Hurricanes to Spitfires and the Beaufighter to a Mosquito, bought two Daimler Recons and a Bishop Artillery.
6328 before deployment. Lost a Recon unit, replaced it with a Lancaster.

First impression: Such a massive prestige injection smells like trouble.

Edit: This amazing German Bf109F - should it not be given a name/hero, whatever? Because it just survived the attack of FOUR Spitfire Mk IX groups!:)
Forgot to upgrade Infantry - but I am down to 1 Engineer and 1 SE Commando anyways.

Not nearly as dangerous as previous missions, though the airwar is costing a lot of prestige. Maybe a smart player can avoid these losses and make some extra Prestige this way.
The BUNKERS are too weak - tanks easily destroy them and the enemy artillery is NOT backing them up.
On the other hand I needed till turn 16 and was not delayed overly much.

Hmm... I have 4544 at the end and will get some extra at the start of the next scenario. Even if there are huge prestige losses in the scenario, I could upgrade an repair and all that, maybe you get a little too much prestige in this scenario.

[billmv44]

Beta 2. General. Starting prestige 10227, ending 7456. Received another SE Spitfire (that makes 3). Triumph on 16/20.

I too had my artillery behind my units in Medenine. The axis attack was stopped without too much difficulty. I sent half my tanks a recon and my M7 in the flanking attack. Lost the Aux WB unit. My main concern was to get to the road and interdict the axis movement until the remainder of my forces could fight through the Mareth line. That worked out just fine. The Axis was caught in a vise and none escaped. The Bf-109 is tough to kill. I don't have any AA units so I have to rely on my fighters. That and the SE Infanterie in Gabes were the toughest axis units.

Anxiously awaiting my first encounter with a Tiger. Here kitty, kitty, kitty...

[Kamerer]

6) Medenine – beta 2

Level: Rommel
Begin pp: 3,050. End pp: 3,225. Net +175.
Result: Triumph 17/20

Core Changes:

• Received: None.
  Disbanded: None.
  Purchased: 1x Sherman.
  Upgraded: Infantry to ‘43
  Downgraded: SE Spit. IX to V*, then upgraded it.

Problems:

• • * I thought it was blocked, but you can downgrade units to a lower unit free, then upgrade for much less prestige than straight elite reinforcement. Not making a habit of it, I just tested to see and was surprised it worked.
  • Again had a non-spotted mine. Is this intentional?

General Impressions/Comments:

• • Scenario works well. Fun little time; sent more forces on the hook, went a bit better.

[Rudankort]

I thought it was blocked, but you can downgrade units to a lower unit free, then upgrade for much less prestige than straight elite reinforcement. Not making a habit of it, I just tested to see and was surprised it worked.

So what you are saying is, you can downgrade for free and still get full elite replacements in the process, is that correct?

Again had a non-spotted mine. Is this intentional?

I've answered in another thread. don't remember which one though.

[produit]

Triumph 12/20, FM, Beta2, Chess mode, ending prestige 4504.

Nice map. The main problem here is enemy experience with 3 stars. I attacked the Mareth Line with Churchill IV with artillery and infantry support, letting 4 Crusaders go through the Tebaga gap. With the SE Fighters I got, it is quite difficult to not deploy too many fighters, as I have also to deploy my best fighter. Result, my ground force is quite small to cover all the front. I would have thought that we will have to deploy more units for this scenario, having perhaps more units in front of us (a whole line of defense, not 80% made of just mines).

When AI decided to flee, it was really late, only 2 units were able to flee the line, the rest was already killed.

[monkspider]

Medenine
Beta 2
General level
DV on turn 20/20
Ending prestige 8308

This was a very interesting scenario. My strategy involved sending my entire force through the secret pass where as others sent at least some of their force toward the Mareth Line. My strategy worked, though it was probably suboptimal considering I only got the DV on the very last turn. It is a great credit toward the scenario though that such different strategies have the possibility of succeeding.

[Tarrak]

Replayed the scenario in Beta 2 and noticed a few things i possibly missed on my first play through due to different strategy applied. The axis units tried to flee this time a lot earlier and i didn't manage to stop them. Probably could have done it by diverting two tanks up to lock the passage leading to the evacuation fields but i kind of assumed only the troops at Mareth Line are to be prevented from evacuation and not every single other stuff in there.

The air presence seems to be a lot stronger in beta 2 then it was in beta 1. It's actually almost to strong imho. The top end German and Italian fighters seems to have a lot better initiative and shot always first so casualties in air combat are high. At some point the players fighters are worn down quite a bit and one unlucky rolls means a dead fighter and from there the situation starts to spiral down the drain. I say reduce the experience on the enemy air power to make it a bit easier to handle. They really don't need all to have 3 stars to they?

[uran21]

Thanks to all for the feedback so far. This scenario has lot of elements. Defense, frontal assault, flanking assault and rush to prevent Axis from escaping. Trigger is dynamic and approaches can vary so experience can be very different. Making coordinated attack in front of the line and outflanking it looks as best option to me. Prestige was allotted by results from playtesting but without soft cap and trough entry point at El Alamein. It looks like I had much greater casualties than most of you. For Beta 3 only change made was reduction of experience of enemy fighters to one star.

[okiemcguire]

13) Medenine - Beta 2

Level: Colonel
Prestige Begin: 9746 End/Vict: 1800/7087
Results: Victory 20/20

I am not sure what happened here. Several units did manage to escape, but I had all objectives/flags captured by turn 16 or 17. However, it made go through 3 more turns to 20. I had all the flags, no units other than pillboxes remained. Should I had destrouyed the pillboxes. They were not on a flag.

I have attached replay... maybe someone can tell me what I did wrong...

[Flaygor]

Played with full frontal assault and then larger force on the hook while token attack on line, won both times but took heavy prestige loss in the air. The heavy prestige cost for OS is killing my air force when up against OS enemy fighters.
Found I could suck enemy armour towards the front line if I held back my flanking force a couple of turns, which was nice!

Overall a lot of fun to play and has nice options for victory.

[Flaygor]

13) Medenine - Beta 2

Several units did manage to escape

I have attached replay... maybe someone can tell me what I did wrong...

I think that is the problem right there, I had Triumphs both times with forts still intact, but nothing got through.

[okiemcguire]

13) Medenine - Beta 2

Several units did manage to escape

I have attached replay... maybe someone can tell me what I did wrong...

I think that is the problem right there, I had Triumphs both times with forts still intact, but nothing got through.

But the game continued to go through 3 turn plays with nothing for me to do. I guess I expected it to tell me that units escaped, game over.

[uran21]

But the game continued to go through 3 turn plays with nothing for me to do. I guess I expected it to tell me that units escaped, game over.

Good point. If player gets Triumph before turns run out victory trigger will cover this situation but it doesn't cover situation when player gets victory and there are no more Axis core ground units on the map (strongpoints, mines and aircrafts can stay). Will fix it.