Slitherine

So this is my entry to Shards his Summer Shakedown. It is a battle between Soviet and Japanese forces over a border dispute.
Download:https://www.dropbox.com/s/dtmdzi0dmdkk7 ... t.zip?dl=0

Fabio, good balance in this once concerning objectives/turn limit.

- You forgot to link the airfield hex to the prim. obj., it only requires the town hex to be captured as it is now.
- The hardest part was to achieve the sec. obj. prior to taking Hachingfu and winning the scen (That's why I didn't take the airfield primarily, but didn't help, had to reload the turn)


Nice and small and very fast. Thanks.

Really nice, small scenario. It's really well designed. I like the balance and the use of the Manchukuo faction. The most challenging part was the Asfaku secondary objective. You had to hold off from occupying Hachingfu or else the scenario would end. Maybe that was intentional. Everything seemed to work well though. I liked how you had to race against the turn limit to finish everything. Adds a good sense of urgency. Well done!

GabeKnight wrote: ↑Sun Jul 22, 2018 1:12 pm Fabio, good balance in this once concerning objectives/turn limit.

- You forgot to link the airfield hex to the prim. obj., it only requires the town hex to be captured as it is now.
- The hardest part was to achieve the sec. obj. prior to taking Hachingfu and winning the scen (That's why I didn't take the airfield primarily, but didn't help, had to reload the turn)

Good to know balance is right and i will fix the objective (also will change it to last until last turn until completed).
This to remedy the scenario ending when taking Hachingfu so you can freely take it and move on. (It was not intentional for this but a simple oversight)

First Comment:

Call the Scenario the Same name as the folder I had to do a file search to check that "Border Clash" was this scenario

Some thoughts as I play through (spoilers!)

- After taking one of Northern villages and using the Strat bomber on the other, I quickly had the AI on low Supply, maybe increase the supply coming in from the off-map sources?
- Also, put a flag on those off-map supply sources so that the player can see that there's an enemy approach there. Also, move them one Hex south to make them harder to capture.
- Maybe move the AA gun at Hachingfu closer to the airbase, I was able to sit my fighters to the west and snipe the AI planes as they launched
- I've got too much anti-air I think. Two fighters AND the AA gun is excessive.
- Taking Hachingfu is a little anti-climatic? Maybe use the system Uran21 put into Sandstorm for taking the 2ndry objective in my remaining time?
- I liked the pocket strength of the reserve in the SE, I'd have liked to have seen them be a little more aggressive though? I'd rushed to Hachingfu with my tanks and suffered with AT gun, it would have been a fantastic time for them to really hit me hard!
- I also like the hidden Heavy Inf in the forest in front of Asfaku. I wonder if there's some fun to be had with a Manchu counter-attack on the Manchukoan base from the Forests to stop the player just rushing south without securing their flank?

Overall, it's a good fun setting and scenario and I think that you can make it even better with just a few tweaks!

Scenario Updated
I have updated the scenario link in the first post for the new version.
Changes:
-Supply fixed
-Objectives fixed
-AI changed
-Units added/removed

Your changes have improved things, which is always a good sign

1 turn away from total victory on diff level 3, mainly as I chased a cavalry away with one of the inf which mean that it was late attacking the SW.

Attached a replay here for you.

Only things I'd change would be to take away one of the player's fighters so they had to choose whether to shoot the fighter or the bomber. And then take a look to see if there was an AT gun for Manchuko that can conceal in Towns?

It might also be worth releasing the SW reserve when Hachingfu falls (at the same time as the SE reserve is released) to keep the player honest!

Ta

Shards wrote: ↑Mon Jul 30, 2018 3:40 pm Your changes have improved things, which is always a good sign

1 turn away from total victory on diff level 3, mainly as I chased a cavalry away with one of the inf which mean that it was late attacking the SW.
[...]
Only things I'd change would be to take away one of the player's fighters so they had to choose whether to shoot the fighter or the bomber. And then take a look to see if there was an AT gun for Manchuko that can conceal in Towns?

Played the updated version, and same here, would've needed exactly one more turn for the sec. obj., but should be doable in a rerun (or without the minefield in the middle of the road )
Good suggestions, Shards. Although with one less dogfighter, an additional AA unit wouldn't be bad. The turn limit IS quite tight.

Shards wrote: ↑Mon Jul 30, 2018 3:40 pm It might also be worth releasing the SW reserve when Hachingfu falls (at the same time as the SE reserve is released) to keep the player honest!

Ooookay, but this would complicate things a lot. Try it, but I think the scen would have to be rebalaced then with maybe one more unit for the player and a higher turn limit...