Slitherine

I have created a custom campaign based on the original PzC campaign.
So why another German/Italian desert campaign?
Basically because this one allows you to fight all the way to India.

Link in first post here:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 74&t=80862

Campaign branching looks very odd. Some defeats lead to Defeat; some defeats mean replaying the same scenario again; some defeats lead off to another location. There is even a branch named "delete." Tunisian Bridgehead is a no-win situation altogether:

Aufklärung v. 1.0

Your "Capture all 5 objectives" secondary objective points to six hex-linked locations because you are including the primary objective of Benghazi in with them.

I see what you are doing here; if Tobruk is occupied and completely surrounded by British units after turn 10, then disable the Tobruk objective:


That means, however, none of these units can move anywhere without inadvertently triggering the objective disablement. With this setting of Defend Hex, Distance 2 for AI Team 2, might that actually occur as British units move up to engage the Germans in defense?


This one is also concerning me. I believe it says, if the Germans take Sollum, then activate AI Team 2 to Search & Destroy. Now, you could be planning for the contingency that if the Germans sweep around Tobruk and isolate it, the British will attempt to break out. I should know more about the history, but didn't the British accept a siege at Tobruk?


I notice your "Ax Benghazi" trigger does not award the Germans the objective until the end of the scenario. If that is by design, then perhaps the objective should read as "Capture and hold Benghazi."

I should have called it a pre-alpha test..
At least I got Bru out of his hiding place
Just kidding, nice to hear from you.

The campaign branching is an experiment.
Instead of leading to a defeat, players get the chance to try the scenario a 2nd time. This is probably what they would do anyway using a save or a restart.
Exception: The first scenario, Aufklärung, ends in a defeat. I guess the players would just restart the campaign anyway.

A victory at Alam Halfa will allow the player to move to Suez and further east.
A draw or defeat means El Alamein is next. Thisis the (short) defensive branch leading to the final Tunisian Bridgehead.
And Tunisian leads to nowhere, sorry about that This is fixed in v1.1.

Aufklärung fixed and link updated.

Ras el Mdauuar v. 1.1

This fellow lacks an AI team assignment, I believe:


Any reason why you are short-changing the Italians here? You did promise 2 specialisation points and awarded the same amount to each faction in your first scenario:

Operation Brevity v. 1.1

The Axis Sidi Azeiz trigger is incorrect, I think. The Germans start out owning Sidi Azeiz and your objective is to never lose it. If so, instant defeat. The Axis Sidi Azeiz trigger says, if the British take it, mark the objective as Open but it's already Open to begin with so this trigger will not do anything. I was going to recommend that the "Hold Sidi Azeiz at all times" objective be marked as Completed at the beginning of the scenario only to be failed if Sidi Azeiz is lost but that would not work because it's your only primary objective and the scenario would end immediately with a victory. So instead, I would make the Axis Sidi Azeiz trigger one of those that evaluates at Check Turn / Scenario Turn Limit and if still held by the Axis, mark it Completed then (and fail the corresponding Allied objective).

Aufklärung:
AI Tobruk changes.

Ras el Mdauuar:
Fixed AI unit assignment.
Italian spec point is correct (slow learners...). Fixed award txt.

Operation Brevity:
Fixed Sidi Azeiz objective.

Link updated to v1.2

Operation Battleaxe v. 1.2

Even in the most realistic of battle simulation, I doubt anyone would actually want to "relive Tobruk." Hence, I believe you meant "Putting 'Tiger cubs' into action[, the] British try to relieve Tobruk."

Heh, nice: "No sooner did our recent visitor, General von Paulus, wire Berlin on the weakness of our forces than the British launch another offensive! The timing is uncanny, Generalleutnant; it is almost as though the British read his thoughts. Fortunately our unbreakable Enigma code machine makes that impossible." Nice.

No good on this one:


You can see that the objective is already completed on Turn 2:


That's because the trigger is activating on Turn >1. Did you mean Scenario Turn Limit?

And on this one, you probably want Capture VP Event instead of Turn Start because you don't want any delay in ending the scenario in failure, I presume:


One more thing. On the "Note that you cannot lose Bardia at any time" objective, you stipulate "Note that you cannot lose Bardia at any time." Yes, that is your other primary objective but by mentioning it with this objective, you seem to be saying "scenario over if you lose Bardia, period." If that it the case, say the player is in charge of 8 objectives but loses Bardia. Do you want him to lose immediately, anyway? If so, then the All Bardia trigger should also fail the "Hold 8 objectives at scenario's end" objective (and reward the Allies their mirror objective).

Okay, now, the "Hold Sidi Azeiz at scenario's end" and "Eliminate the British flanking group" secondary objectives are disabled to start the scenario. I see where you activate them based on the progress of the flanking group moving northeast. However, there are a few difficulties here, perhaps.

First, you start the flank attack only and specifically on Turn 8 and then only if there is an Axis unit with 5 hexes of some spot in the middle of the desert. Which I am sure is strategically placed, but isn't this a bit restrictive in that, what if the player decides to move all of his units more than 5 hexes away from that spot?

This trigger, Ax Sidi Azeiz, activates the objectives, adds command points and resources, changes income, and announces the New Orders. All good. What is missing, though, are the triggers to evaluate and award these objectives at some point. Did I miss them someplace?

Ah, wait. Diversion Group trigger takes care of the "Eliminate the British flanking group" objective but what is still missing is a trigger to award the "Hold Sidi Azeiz at scenario's end" objective.

And there's more: I see that you populate Diversion Group on Turn 8 as well, using the T8 North trigger. I'm thinking, though, that the Diversion Group trigger may be activated first on Turn 8, find nothing (zero strength) in AI Team [1] Diversion Grp, and award the objective before finding and activating the T8 North trigger.

Heh, you know, I am not the dumbest guy in these forums, if I do say so myself! Sure enough, I ran a quick test and the "Eliminate the British flanking group" objective is indeed awarded even though the force itself is far from eliminated, probably due to what I mentioned in the previous paragraph:


I don't get too nutty with "Activations" types of triggers. It's hard to picture what is going on in your diabolical mind as to why you are gauging the presence of this troop at Point A to move another troop to Point B. I figure you will double check these settings for yourself. What I can do, however, is spot and report inconsistencies and oversights like I believe these two spawned units will be without AI team assignments:

Dash to the Wire v. 1.2

Here's an orphan:


I go by scenario number as to sequence but I realize that it might not be a correct assumption to do so; #5 Dash to the Wire may not actually succeed #4 Operation Battleaxe. You may have the campaign tree arranged differently somehow. However, having said that, and having checked the campaign tree, I see that Battleaxe does indeed lead into Dash. Therefore, I should point out an anomaly with dates: There has been a progression of March 1941 (Aufklärung) to June 1941 (Battleaxe) up until now but the date of this scenario, Dash to the Wire, is back in January 1941.

For good housekeeping, you may want to point to the three supply dumps with objective hex links. It's not like you are keeping them hidden - you have them labeled on the map - and you do point to the Assembly Area.

No secondary objectives with this one. As you know, this means that there is no distinction between Major and Minor Victory/Defeat.

As for the primary objectives, you also know that for a defeat, the AI must achieve all its primary objectives while the player must fail to achieve all of his primary objectives. If "Capture and hold 3 objectives" was the only primary objective, you have it set up fine with the Ax 3 objs and All 2 objs to do just that.*

However, you enable two more primary objectives, "Raid the 3 supply dumps" and "Gather 4 units in the Assembly Area" which must be completed for victory. Trouble is, if the player fails one or both of those objectives, the result is a Draw, not a Defeat, because "no one has met ALL primary objectives." That is, you need to have AI objectives and triggers that reward the AI in the end if the human player fails these additional objectives.

*Actually, I do have a quibble with All 2 objs. It does not matter what you call the AI objective itself, of course, but you stipulate that the Axis must hold 3 objectives in the end. There are only three on the map so that means, for the Allies to defeat the Axis, they must hold only one of those points in the end. So perhaps the Value should be > 0:


Up until now, I have been remiss in checking for images on file that you cite with Event Popups. Since we learned that a scenario editor can merely invoke certain standard images in the game without needing to include the actual image in the folder, I am unsure whether to mention ones that could be custom and that could actually be missing. I will err on the side of caution and do so anyway; here's a recap so far: In Operation Battleaxe, you are missing "mathilda" and in Dash to the Wire you are missing "supply" and "crusader."

Second offensive v. 1.2

Again, I believe this needs to be set for Scenario Turn Limit:


It's funny, I was thinking . . . not funny that I was thinking, but what I was thinking about . . . there really is a bit of art about this process. This scenario is only 22 turns, so requiring the player to play out all 22 turns in order to win the scenario is fine. The trigger itself is fine. But, let's say this was a "Bru special" of 60 turns or so (the guy doesn't ever do anything simple, does he?), then the player would be condemned to sitting there, advancing the turn again and again once the battle was over. I assume your design will hold interest for 22 turns; otherwise, I would be advising the other arrangement of marking this objective as completed in the beginning only to be failed if the player ever does lose El Agheila. Artwork, I tell you!

Gazala Line v. 1.2

You may want to take a look at this air strip. When you view it with supply activated, it shows that it's out of supply by 5:


Giving it more supply just muddies things up; maybe it's a bug:


The picture of "grant" for the Event Popup message is missing unless, again, it is a standard game image that is accessible thusly.

The Gubi triggers need work, I believe. This one says, "Germans, when you get to Gubi, we will complete the objective for you":


But this one says, "Not so fast, Germans. You have to get to Gubi first, in order to enable the objective and learn that you need to take it!"(?):


Now, the text of the message is "Abwehr reports that a counterattack is aimed at Gubi airfield. Fend off the attack and you will be rewarded with 20 resources" so I think I see what you had in mind. You want a "capture and hold" objective but it needs to be set up differently.

bru888 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:04 am You may want to take a look at this air strip. When you view it with supply activated, it shows that it's out of supply by 5:
Giving it more supply just muddies things up; maybe it's a bug:

To me it looks like it's giving "5" air supply correctly (sum=140) and is reddish in colour because it's quite low (<10; I think the same happens e.g. with damaged ships giving less supply).

And in the second pic you just superimposed air and land CP on the same hex...

Operation Battleaxe :
Fixed briefing.
Fixed Bardia/8 objectives.
Removed Azeis German unit(s) condition.
Added Azeiz end objective and reward.
Added 'check turn > 8' condition to German Diversion group objective
Assigned British T6/T7 unit spawns to Diversion grp.
Added missing event graphic.

Dash to the Wire:
Fixed Brit orphan unit.
Changed scenario date from 21-1 to 21-11...
Added map markers to Brit supply dumps.
Fixed victory/defeat labels.
Added/fixed AI objectives.
Added missing event graphics.

Second offensive:
Changed El Aghelia objective (but the other obj requires the scenario to run until end).

Gazala Line:
Set all Allied units to strength = 10. The airstrip was strength 5 and this probably caused the supply issue.
Changed Gubi objective including reward.

Link updated to 1.3
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 82#p690982

Herkules/Malta v 1.3

This map is huge! Something like 112 x 58? I wonder how it will play.

"For so long a thorn in in Rommel's eye . . ." (Doubled word.) Also, how about a thorn in his side rather than his eye? That's the usual phrase.

A couple of orphans:


British air supply looks tight (+0 overall) but you may have measured this out and covered exactly the amount of British aircraft in the scenario to start. I don't see that you spawn any additional land-based British planes later on (several Illustrious units provide support for spawned carrier planes).

Do you know if Image Filename is case-sensitive? That is, will "victorious" in the trigger call up the image file named "Victorious"? Speaking of which, would you be irritated if I were to suggest using this vintage photo of HMS Victorious instead of the one you chose? Yours shows jet fighters on the flight deck . . .


Wrong alliance here, I believe. What you are requiring is a German battleship be destroyed:


Same thing here, but in addition, I would take out the AI team requirement. The carrier would have to be a member of only Task Force W:


One more thing, back to the Battleship sunk trigger. I notice that you are including the battle cruisers Nelson and Rodney in your definition of "battleship" as target. If so, you may want to add BC Admiral (Nelson) and BC Renown (Rodney) to the Unit Definition in the Battleship sunk trigger.

The message for Wave-2 (Turn 5) and Wave-3 (Turn 9) is the same: "The second seaborne invasion is ready for deployment."

Alam Halfa v. 1.3

A trio of orphans here:


And one here:


The primary objective triggers look good but these secondary objective triggers need work, I believe. What they are saying is, as soon as there is any combat on the map, if a German tank or a plane has not been destroyed, objective completed. What you want is to have those objectives as completed at the start of the scenario and only fail them if Destroyed > 1:


In T11, you have the two American B25 Mitchell bombers in the [1] Fighters AI team.

I was wondering about this: "I remind you, Generalfeldmarschall, that the Abwehr has a special additional mission for our forces. There is a mobile radar unit in the British rear that is reported to carry confidential documents that Abwehr believes have extraordinary intelligence value. As the unit is mobile, its location cannot be pinpointed. I have no further information at this time." Other than an empty Mobile Radar AI team, I don't see anything in the scenario that fulfills this hint. Am I missing something?

Herkules/Malta:
Fixed scenario description.
Fixed orphan units.
AFAIK image file names are not case sensitive. Lend-lease victorious image gracefully accepted.
Fixed ship sinking objectives.
Fixed wave message.

Alam Halfa:
A trio of orphans, is that a contradiction in terms? Created a new AI team for them anyway.
Fixed the single orphan.
Fixed sec objs.
Moved the bombers to the bombers AI team.
The Abwehr/mobile radar blurb is copied directly from the original PzC scenario (as are all/most scen desc and briefings). Since we are all missing any mobile radar unit in OOB I have removed this from the briefing. I could use a cargo truck, but it does not have the right feeling.

Link updated to 1.4

Good work, Bru. Only 15 more scenarios to go.

Suez Canal v. 1.4

You have one of those stray gunboats here and an orphan to the south of it:


There are walled cities throughout Africa and the Middle East such as Acre, Jaffa, Jerusalem, and of course, Cairo. So there's no reason to restrict the use of the Wall decoration to just China. As a matter of fact, I can see possibilities for some other scenarios in mind (recalling, of course, that they have not yet fixed the issue of planes being able to fly over walls; currently, one must correct that manually with an entry in chassis.csv). I am wondering, though, whether you meant to place this wall here. It's out in the open and it's too short to protect or separate anything:


No secondary objectives with this one. As you know, this means that there is no distinction between Major and Minor Victory/Defeat. If this was my project, I would move the "Do not lose more than 1 Panzer/Luftwaffe unit" objectives from primary to secondary, just like you have them in Alam Halfa. (Speaking of which, please see my comments about those Alam Halfa secondary objectives for my recommendations on these in Suez Canal; I believe the same comments apply.)

For the Enable naval trigger, you show an Image Filename of "rn" which is not in the folder. "A couple of Luftwaffe units are released to aid in the warships' destruction." (Proper apostrophe placement.)

Palestine v. 1.4

Orphan here:


I see what you are doing; if the Germans get too close to pumps 3 and 2, release the hounds! However, I don't get what the delayed peril is to pump 1. I see the immediate peril to pump 1 in that AI Team 21 Oil Attack is set to Seek & Destroy from the beginning. Will that not include pump 1 and the Germans will have no chance to save it?


Hmmm. Yes. The Arabs decamp, the hounds descend, and pump 1 is kaput on the first turn:


NOTE: PLEASE DISREGARD THIS SCREENSHOT. IT BELONGS WITH THE NEXT POST (SYRIA). I EDITED THIS POST BY MISTAKE, ADDED THE IMAGE HERE, AND NOW I CANNOT DELETE IT:

Syria v. 1.4

It looks like you need another AI team for these fellows:


There's a problem in this scenario in that you have a pink allied team member with no factions:


Since pink is the human player's team member, I don't think this objective and trigger are going to work to fail the human's mission to "Capture all 7 objectives" in the end:


At this point, let me skip ahead to the "Do not lose the Abwehr officer" objective and triggers. First, spawning the unit with this trigger, you are missing the nation/faction assignment:


Next, the objective trigger is wrong because it's saying, "Anytime there is a combat on the map, if this Fi 156 Storch is still alive, bingo!" Which is wrong, of course. I would either evaluate like this at scenario-end or mark the objective as completed in the beginning and only fail it if Destroyed > 0:


Somewhat the same idea with this trigger but different in a way. Here, you have the objective only being failed if an FJ is destroyed. How do you complete the objective? You either need to mark it as completed at the beginning or make another trigger to go along with this one to evaluate at scenario-end and if no FJ's have been destroyed, then the objective is completed:


This trigger will not work because it is looking at the phantom pink faction:


RAF T3 custom unit name: Should it be Typhoon Mk IB?

Erik2 wrote: ↑Sat Sep 22, 2018 6:17 pm I should have called it a pre-alpha test..
At least I got Bru out of his hiding place
Just kidding, nice to hear from you.

Agree. Hi bru.
Awesome job, Erik. This brings back so many memories from Panzercorps. Afrikakorps was always my favorite DLC back then.
Now I only need some time to play this masterpiece.