A Playtest Too Far

[fairline]

If you want To fill up the remaining unit slots lol, I could draw a 107 Pz Bde symbol for an extra Panther, StuG and Sdkfz250.

[techumseh]

Thanks for the OOB info on the 107th bde. I'd like to hang on to the slots for other things though - thanks for the offer. I'm considering whether to add an Allied SP AA unit. Do you know what they used?

Here's another idea, let me know what you think. There was an exagerated fear of mines along the highway. How about a minefield unit with the sub flag, and a Sherman flail unit with the 'can see subs' flag? The flail could also have the 'spy' flag and bribe the otherwise deadly mine unit. A little ahistorical, I know, but....

[curtsibling]

A good idea but - I would keep the spies out of it and keep the combat direct.

I like the mine idea though - Might make things a bit hairy...

[fairline]

Originally posted by techumseh
- I'm considering whether to add an Allied SP AA unit. Do you know what they used?

The 40mm Bofors SP (mounted on a truck) and a towed version of the same gun were used by all divisional Light AA Reginments. I reckon this is a good idea to use them, as I've lost count of the number of times I used my Spitfires to cover my vanguard. Graphic?

Here's another idea, let me know what you think. There was an exagerated fear of mines along the highway. How about a minefield unit with the sub flag, and a Sherman flail unit with the 'can see subs' flag? The flail could also have the 'spy' flag and bribe the otherwise deadly mine unit. A little ahistorical, I know, but....

Sounds like a great idea Here's another one - I was overly-reliant on aircraft to reduce cities and it would be nice to have a tank that could take on this role. You mentioned this to me a couple of weeks ago: how about a Churchill Crocodille with ignore city wall flag?

A single Sherman Crab and Churchill Croc or AVRE should do it.

BTW you mentioned the number of German aircraft a couple of posts ago - I encountered only a handful, so that was historically correct. Strangely, there were 3 or 4 Ju 88 garrisoning Nijmegen when I took it, which hadn't been used to defend it. I guess covering my attacking units with a Spit stopped the AI using 'em, but normally the civ AI isn't that bright....

[techumseh]

Originally posted by fairline


The 40mm Bofors SP (mounted on a truck) and a towed version of the same gun were used by all divisional Light AA Reginments. I reckon this is a good idea to use them, as I've lost count of the number of times I used my Spitfires to cover my vanguard. Graphic?

Graphic? What a swell idea! On the truck, please.

Sounds like a great idea Here's another one - I was overly-reliant on aircraft to reduce cities and it would be nice to have a tank that could take on this role. You mentioned this to me a couple of weeks ago: how about a Churchill Crocodille with ignore city wall flag?

Ahh. The perennial conflict between designer and playtester. The playtester always seeking to make his task of winning the game a little easier. And the designer, always striving TO MAKE THE BLOODY THING HARDER THAN HELL!!!

Let's look at that in the final play balance adjustments. In the meantime, I'm going to try and help the AI make those stacks with Spit aircover just a little more dangerous.

BTW you mentioned the number of German aircraft a couple of posts ago - I encountered only a handful, so that was historically correct. Strangely, there were 3 or 4 Ju 88 garrisoning Nijmegen when I took it, which hadn't been used to defend it. I guess covering my attacking units with a Spit stopped the AI using 'em, but normally the civ AI isn't that bright....

I've never been fully confident in the "randomness" of the random events. We need to get to the bottom of the grounded Ju-88's too.

Originally posted by curt

A good idea but - I would keep the spies out of it and keep the combat direct.

I like the mine idea though - Might make things a bit hairy...

Too late, Curt. There are already spies in the form of commandos/pathfinders, one with each airborne division. Their job is to capture the German ferries. All units except ferries (and now mines) are unbribable. And the spy options menu has been disabled, so they can't bribe cities, plant nukes or anything else except investigate a city or bribe a ferry. I think it'll work OK, with the cdos being up north and the flail tank down at the start line.

Cheers.

[techumseh]

Corrections to the (somewhat hurried) patch I sent last night:

1. Change the prereq of Minefield to Ast, and that of Sherman Flail to Bro. Right now the Germans can build the Flail, as I left the prereq as nil.

2. Replace the events for the Zon bridge with this: (It's near the end of the file) Right now, it's Zon that blows, not the bridge.


@IF
CITYTAKEN
city=Zon
attacker=Allies
Defender=Germans
@AND
RANDOMTURN
denominator=2
@THEN
TEXT
The Germans blow the Zon canal bridge!
ENDTEXT
PLAYWAVEFILE
Largexpl.wav
CHANGETERRAIN
terraintype=0
maprect
13,73,13,73,13,73,13,73
JUSTONCE
@ENDIF

3. bumping up the British infantry movement to 3 has revealed the wrong move cost for unbridged terrain. It should be 4 - not 2.

BTW, did you know that the city of Arnhem has renamed the bridge across the Rhine the "John Frost Bridge", after the commander of the battalion that held the north end for several days against a German SS Panzer division? And, after a great debate in the community, is repainting the bridge's trim in the colors of the 1st Airborne - maroon and light blue? A proposal to paint the entire bridge maroon was defeated as "culturally inapproprate". I wonder why?

[techumseh]

After much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth, I have come up with an event which allows the gliders to arrive 1 turn ahead of their transported units and if the glider is killed before they arrive, the units won't appear. Unfortunately, this requires a fixed turn of arrival for both in order to get the event to work.

That means the random delay in the arrival of the 2nd and 3rd lifts will have to go. It's less realistic, but the game will be easier to balance. Each Allied 'plan' will require 10 flags, 1 per glider. There are 31 Allied flags, and 26 unused German ones, for a total of 57. That allows up to 5 Allied plans, with 7 flags left over.

I have a couple of questions. First, would you prefer the glider/reinforcement feature or the random airborne reinforcement arrival time? Second, does anyone have any suggestions as to what plans B to E should look like? Landing zones (paras and gliders) should be in plains or polder terrain, not adjacent to a town. More daring plans can be handicapped by randomly dropping some arriving units into the river!

[curtsibling]

It's a toughie, indeed -
Implementing a method of the AI thwarting the gliders will add to the challenge and fun.
But presents problems in making events do something it difficult.

But if you think the random airborne reinforcement arrival will make things more realistic, why not?
The emphasis should be on the direct unit action.

PS
If you need any icons made for the battle plans, I would be happy to help.

[techumseh]

Thanks Curt, that's actually now done. I COULD use a decent icon -and improvement graphic- for anti-tank ditch, in the same style as the one of yours I used for the anti-aircraft emplacement.

[curtsibling]

I am making ToT icons right now, so I will get right on it!

[techumseh]

Wonderful! And while you're at it , how about a set of HQ graphics? I'm thinking a nice hotel or chateau, with a British flag hanging on it.

[techumseh]

When I "stereoized" the rocket wav for the nebelwerfer, I accidentally save it in the wrong frequency. Here is one that will really play.

[Boco]

I have a couple of questions. First, would you prefer the glider/reinforcement feature or the random airborne reinforcement arrival time?

If I understand this Tech, could you keep the glider/reinforcement feature and fix the reinforcement schedule for a given event.txt? Make several event files differing only in turns (and locations?) of reinfs. Then randomly select an event.txt prior to the start of the scenario. A batch file could do that, and I suspect Merc's utility could be tweaked to do it more eloquently given enough supplications.

[techumseh]

So, you're suggesting the weather delay factor could be implemented based on which events file is chosen?

Do you know if the random selection of scn files (up to 6) that was first used in Jules Verne includes event files? That would eliminate the need for bat files.

[techumseh]

A minor discovery - perhaps a re-discovery?

You can make alt events files for your alt scn files (up to 6 total) and the game will randomly select one when the scenario is loaded. This way, we can have up to 6 variations on location and numbers of starting units, plus 6 different events files, one of which will be randomly chosen when the scenario is loaded.

So the delay in the arrival of the airborne forces can be randomly varied, and I can have the glider event as well. Thanks Dave!