Terrible News Indeed!

[Eivind IV]

Please, more screenshots for those of us who don't have TOT

Baldrick from Black Adder I recon

Baldrick: My lord, I have a cunning plan!
Edmund: Baldrick, you couldn't see a cunning plan if it painted itself red and danced on your nose

[Palaiologos]

Black Adder?

Don't tell me you mean that old medieval comedy show with Attkison?

That was back in 80s!

[Eivind IV]

Still hilerious

[Boco]

Palaiologos it seems I did something bone-headed. I think I overwrote a file containing good mappings but obsolete text with a one having bad mappings but good text. I'll get on it.

I found the scenario EXTREMELY INTRIGUING AND CHALLENGING. It took me some time to realize you had to iriggate in order to advance deep in the desert and then i had to ship in egyptians to protect the engineers from Arab raids.

I need help determining how many clues to provide. The trick of tying an army's advance to the pace of railway construction was lifted straight out of Allard's River War. As you have found, RE/Labourer's (RELs) first 'irrigate' impassable desert tracks (Darb) into passable road terrain (Raah).

[Hints]

• It takes 2 RELs to convert Darb to Raah in 1 turn
• 1 REL to build a fort in a Raah square
• 1 REL to build a Light Railway in a Raah square
• 1 REL to build a Broad Gge RR in a Raah square

Egyptians and other light desert-capable troops can protect RELs in Sinai Darb squares, but they're too weak to withstand the counterattacking forces the AI typically musters after Romani. By then you'll need to have 3-5 RELs working on the RR to advance it one square in a turn. That way you can protect the RELs with British Inf in a square with fieldworks. Typically the AI will throw >100 Asiret Gönüllü at the Allies in Sinai before their source dries up. They're weak, but they can overwhelm a single British Infantry, especially when they're not in a fieldworks. The AI will also attack with the Pascha Abt missile units with regularity. The odds are, one will eliminate a British Inf. So, take a look at the stats for LAMB (AA).

The first REL is present at start. The second appears with Army Service Corps. After that, you'll need to complete Labour Corps Camps to create more RELs via BestowImprovement events. These can only be built in Port Said, Kantara, and Wadi Halfa. They will strain Cairo's food supply, so think about building a Camel Depot there.
[/Hints]

[Palaiologos]

Originally posted by Boco [/list]
Egyptians and other light desert-capable troops can protect RELs in Sinai Darb squares, but they're too weak to withstand the counterattacking forces the AI typically musters after Romani. By then you'll need to have 3-5 RELs working on the RR to advance it one square in a turn. That way you can protect the RELs with British Inf in a square with fieldworks. Typically the AI will throw >100 Asiret Gönüllü at the Allies in Sinai before their source dries up. They're weak, but they can overwhelm a single British Infantry, especially when they're not in a fieldworks. The AI will also attack with the Pascha Abt missile units with regularity. The odds are, one will eliminate a British Inf. So, take a look at the stats for LAMB (AA).

That is exactly what happened in my games. After taking Romani my advance bogged down. I used two engineers to irrigate protected by 10 infantry units(british and Egyptian) just to be sure and repel the Asiret Gönüllü. Sadly no matter how many times i reloaded a single Pascha Abt(airborn batalion?) took out the whole unit stack. Never even noticed that the LAMB was suited for AA role.I just used it to counter attack in the west towards El Alamein.

[Boco]

Ouch! Fieldworks will prevent stack death. It's more important than building rail. Pascha Abteilungen were fighter (pursuit?) sections (sub-Staffeln?) with German pilots. Remember from the GL library, that the AEGIS flag is x5 against missiles (i.e. Pascha Abt'n).

Egyptians are good for holding Oases against the Sanusi. They can get out there on turn 2. In fact you can pretty much hold all but Siwa and Dakhla. Even Dakhla is possible, but risky.

Although you can charge ahead with the Sinai route on turn 2, it really doesn't benefit you to do so before you get a critical mass of RELs. Like it says in the Guide, you'll likely lose a unit against Katya unless you attack it with vet R Field/Horse Arty. So, use your arty against any targets you can to get vet status. In RL, the Turk vets from Gallipoli ambushed and pretty much destroyed a regiment of Yeomanry near Katya.

Also in RL the Egyptian army wasn't the most reliable. Still, they did the job against Darfur and a little against the Sanusis. For fun, let Matruh go into revolt one turn (assuming you're using the EA DLL's).

Are these tips revealing too much?

[Boco]

For Kobra and the Bullbuggerer

EA's Palace Improvement.

[SCDARS]

And the Gendarme/caravan idea truly rocks.It adds a lot of colour in the scenario.

"I concur, excellency"
I like the use of bedouins as spys, too.

Found some wrong civilopaedia entries: Tayyare Bolugu
and Depo Alay. Actually i am not sure they are wrong but the Bolugu has a monoplane as its gfx while the texts mentions its an armored car. And the alay texts mentions its a camel corps stiffened by Egyptian conscripts but as its name says it is a Turk engineer.

In addition the following civilopedia texts seem to refer to the false units:
8nce Ordu -> Garnizon
Adwar -> Pascha Abt
Arab Camelry -> 8nce Ordu
Artillerie -> Süvari
Atli Mustahfiz -> double for Bedouins (remarkable the entry for Bedouins is correct)
Coastal Patrol -> Landing Party
Depo Alay -> see quote
Landing Party -> Minefield
Minefield -> Depol Aly
PzKw MG Zug -> Sand Strom (?)
Sand Storm -> ?
Süvari -> ?
Training Cadre -> Atli Mustahfiz

[Boco]

Thanks for the details. I'll try to post the fix in about 14 hours.

[Boco]

Okay, here's an Interim Patch (040305), containing these fixes:

• Pedia Unit links now work (Describe.txt). Minor text changes, too.
• Commented out @DEBUG in Events.txt.
• Renamed unused techs in Rules.txt.
• Removed casualties from El Aurens.SCN (thanks Catfish).
• Game now actually ends Jan 1919.
• Indicated that MF entry for units in pedia isn't reliable (Labels.txt).

Future plans:

• Correct upgrade text errors in Advice.txt. Proofread the file again.
• New installation procedure that gives the option of using Catfish's excellent terrain graphics. While I'm tasteless and colorblind enough to prefer Kestrel's, I can't justify inflicting my preferences on you.
• A webpage guide to units like the one for techs. Would anyone actually use this?
• Replace the DLL pic that pops up at the end of the scenario.
• Providing a sounds zip. Need to bug Catfish for the camel.wav and send a list to Curt 'did I actually volunteer for that?' Sibling
• Editing the 'Tips' section in the guide based on feedback.
• Possibly rewriting the guide using a frames version generated by Powerpoint.

Gratuitous screenshot (he really did twist my arm! )


Thanks for the feedback!

[curtsibling]

Still needing those sound FX, Boco?

Just send a camel rider with an email to me!

[Catfish]

Originally posted by Boco
New installation procedure that gives the option of using Catfish's excellent terrain graphics. While I'm tasteless and colorblind enough to prefer Kestrel's, I can't justify inflicting my preferences on you.

They're not all mine, BTW. For example, the mountains are just recoloured Microprose ones. Being experiments, they're not necessarily final versions either. I take no responsibility for that jhebel terrain – it's just a recolour of that one you love so much.

Originally posted by Boco
Need to bug Catfish for the camel.wav

Here are the camel sounds: 3 from Age of Kings (numbered files), 5 from Age of Mythology. You'll have to mix them with other sounds, such as gunfire, Arabic yells, galloping, etc. I threw in an example (charge.wav) created using my own primitive mixing methods – and found myself laughing at the result. The original sounds were 16-bit, mono, 22 kHz, PCM and quite clean. Some hiss crept in following conversion to 8-bit. If anyone has any freeware/shareware capable of filtering it out, let me know.

When you've finished bugging me, I'll get back to that other scenario.

[Palaiologos]

That buggertalk reminded me.....

Wasn't Laurens buggered by a Turk?
I remember seeing it in the movie...

[Boco]

Bugger my thread, but keep playing!

Most likely he was. On the other hand he fabricated some of his more personal exploits. He was probably homosexual to some extent. The lover's poem that forms the dedication of 7 Pillars has a double entendre. He addresses both his Arab (presumed) lover and the Arab nation as a whole. By all accounts his sex drive was either nonexistent or well-hidden.

@Catfish, good point. The choice will be something like 'matched terrains (quick and dirty job)' vs 'garish terrains (slow and dirty job)', but with somewhat more diplomatic descriptions.

A webpage guide to units like the one for techs. Would anyone actually use this?

Does anyone use the techtree page that's already made?

[SCDARS]

Re: Bugger my thread, but keep playing!

Originally posted by Boco
Does anyone use the techtree page that's already made?

Actually I first missed the javascript-interaction since it doesn't work with Mozilla Firefox 0.8. I was suprised when I opened it in IE. So please give a hint that it might not work in other browsers.

Furthermore, a chart or summary with the terrains (especially impassable/passable) would have accelerated the start. Now I wouldn't need it any more, but I think anyone beginning the scenario would use it. For a units view I think the override impassable/passable property (which is NOT mentioned in F2 screen) would be most important, too.