Playtesting "The River War v4 beta (for ToT)"

[Cyrion]

BUMP

Any chance to see this finished?? From a lurker point of view, it seems nearly everything is done...

[Boco]

I'm afraid that over-exuberance on my part may have dismayed Allard. It really is 99% there. Most of the suggestions can be fixed in a single productive session. The ones (by me) that can't, can safely be ignored.

Has anyone heard from him?

[Palaiologos]

How come i didn't notice this before?
Oh right, i was in the army.


B U M P

[McMonkey]

I realize what I am about to ask is probably incredibly dumb but I can't be bothered to read through four pages of playtest notes on the off chance the answer might be in amongst them!

The game does not come with a read me as it says it should in the intro. I understand the Engineers can build RR tracks but I'm not sure what they are supposed to be doing at the water wells on the road to Abu Hamed. What I mean is I can only get Engineers and the scout unit down the corridor flanked by impassable terrain. I assumed that when I irrigated the wells I would be able to send the rest of my army down the newly laid RR tracks. This does not seem to be the case. What am I meant to be doing?

[McMonkey]

Ah, got it now. Just did a little bit of experimenting with the cheat mode and worked out that the Engineers need to build water wells on each square to make it passable, not just the two existing wells in the middle.

This is a neat trick. It seems more complex that the minefield/terrain alteration method in Operation Market Garden. Can anyone explain how it works?

EDIT: OK I have worked that out too. I should really do a bit more research before I run for help! I had never realized before that Irrigating could change the type of terrain. I just though the option was yes or no to whether it could be irrigated. This is really useful to know!

[McMonkey]

I'm trying to edit the rules so that all of the units show in the Civiliopedia. To begin with I used Trade as the obsoleting tech but it appears that has been given to the British. I checked and it would seem that all of the techs listed as 'no, no,' have been given to the British. I don't really want to use the cheat menu to remove one of the techs as it would effect the game score and I don't want to make alterations and save as scenario again as I'm bound to mess something up! Any ideas on how I can work around this?

[McMonkey]

Finished my game yesterday. This scenario is definitely one of my favorites and I think it will be well worth re-playing in the future.

As the current version is still a beta I have a few comments. I know the designer is not around but he may come back one day or someone else might want to complete the game.

I really enjoyed the RR building element, it was a real challenge. However I was a bit disappointed that no significant troop movement took place along the line. I would much prefer the reinforcements to appear in Assuan and have to be transported down my hard built RR than for them to just pop up at the front. I guess their spawning at Ataba and other cities near the front could represent the effect of the RR but if I were to conduct the whole campaign via the river the units would still pop up!

The flag units at Omdurman were a challenge but it was not as tough a battle as I had expected. One solution would be to increase the unit count for the Mahdists, but without stackable terrain they wouldn't be too difficult to dispatch. Adding stackable terrain would be a good fix but would mean a lot of work in alterations.

There is no Read Me file in the beta folder. I set myself the goal of capturing the cities with names in capital letters (the French beat me to Fashoda ) within the time limit whilst losing the smallest number of troops. I read earlier on in this thread that there is a scoring system. Does anyone know where to find this?

This scenario does an excellent job in representing the logistical difficulties of the campaign. Fairline's new units just make it that much more enjoyable too. Well done guys!

[GhostOfDisco]

I downloaded a beta of the game the other day, only to find that the units didn't match up with farline's unit set (The Maxim had the pic of Indian cavalry, for example.) Where can I get a beta version compatible with fairline's graphics?

[McMonkey]

There is an updated Beta on page 3 post #76, I had the same problem. I think I will build a page for this scenario (with a not saying it is a beta) on the SL Site as it is fully playable, even if the designer never officially signed it off!

[fairline]

I downloaded a beta of the game the other day, only to find that the units didn't match up with farline's unit set (The Maxim had the pic of Indian cavalry, for example.) Where can I get a beta version compatible with fairline's graphics?

I've added a link to the final version of the Beta test file on the alt graphics thread:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?t=188283

[fairline]

I really enjoyed the RR building element, it was a real challenge. However I was a bit disappointed that no significant troop movement took place along the line. I would much prefer the reinforcements to appear in Assuan and have to be transported down my hard built RR than for them to just pop up at the front. I guess their spawning at Ataba and other cities near the front could represent the effect of the RR but if I were to conduct the whole campaign via the river the units would still pop up!

Allard's earlier versions of River War spawned reinforcements at the start line, but it was virtually impossible to get them in play in time for Omdurman; hence the spawning closer to the front-line on the ToT version.

[McMonkey]

I thought that might be the case but it does beg the question why bother building the RR at all if only a few garrison units ever make use of it. This has no bearing on the overall quality of the scenario, but if Allard ever returns to finish it off I hope he will take a look at making the RR a necessity. Perhaps the units could spawn a bit sooner and be a little less staggered, that way they would be able to reach the front in time but only if the RR was there. I'm sure it would not be too difficult to work out the timing as techs seem to arrive every 3 turns (unless I am missing some sneaky micro management trick ).