Lost Legions, scenario under development

[McMonkey]

As far as I can see I did pretty well. I expect I could do a bit better next time with the advantage of hindsight.

I got a little frustrated when my units got damaged and had no prospect of survival due to their reduced movement, which is more of a problem than their combat strength being down.

I think the addition of just a couple more watering hole type aids and a few less Germans would make it an extremely challenging yet winnable (just about) prospect for average players like myself.

I will re-load from turn 21 or 31 and see how I get on this time

[AGRICOLA]

@Cyrion

Please check your PM.

It appears that your scen does not like something if the first rafts are built during Week 10 and River Burg is razed in Week 23.

[Cyrion]

Re: Some questions and comments...

Any asnwers to the questions below?

Originally posted by Cyrion
1. Tech discovery messages

@Boco and Techumseh

I have tried modifying the suggested files (game.txt abd label.txt), and nothing (at all!) happened!

Might it be that those files must be modified in the main directory instead of being added in the dedicated "scenario" directory as I did?

Boco, where did you put the labels file containing your "deploy" modification?

And the easy way suggested (i.e. removing embassy) doesn't work: there is no embassy, but as I am allied to the civ, I get an information when a tech is discovered...

If there is no other way around it, I can modify which civ gets the Trigger techs so that it's no longer an allied civ, but I would prefer a solution which would give me less work...


2. Graphical questions

I have a problem with some units graphics: when I use civsprite to remove the health bar from some units, the darker "transparent" colour (in the corners of the unit, used to show where the unit stands in the square, and where the signature is usually displayed) isn't transparent any longer on those unit!

This means that to avoid that problem I use only 1 transparent colour on those units, which has the sad side effect that the signature don't appear on the unit file!

Any way around this?

And would the creators allow me to use their units (not all of them, only the ones where I don't want the health bar to be visible) without the signatures?

[AGRICOLA]

WOW! This scen is one mean sucker.

I managed to finish it in week 96 with a much less than sterling score of 42%.

The best part? Having crossed the German plains in reasonably good shape, the last 15 squares of hills and forests to the safety of the mountains became partly like Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, with mad Cossacks attacking from all sides, and partly like a Wild West wagon train running for its life from hordes of bloodthirsty Indians. It was 12 turns of pure terror, nail biting and increasingly damaged units.

@Cyrion
1. Disregard my comment about the ballista. My error due to impatience.
2. I used workarounds for the raft and city problems.
3. I added an Icons file [didn't like some of the game screen] to the Lost Legions folder on Desktop and slightly changed the LL rules file. These changes worked normally. I also test edited the LL labels file and the changes appeared as soon as the game was reloaded.
AFAIK, any files related to a scen and located in the scen folder are used in preference to the vanilla files in the TOT folders.
4. I'll go through the various LL scen files and correct things like duplicate events and typos.

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by AGRICOLA
WOW! This scen is one mean sucker.

Thanks!

I managed to finish it in week 96 with a much less than sterling score of 42%.

Excellent! I knew it was doable! Please tell me by e-mail or pm how you did it!

And if YOU manage only 42%, then it might be a bit too hard...

The best part? Having crossed the German plains in reasonably good shape, the last 15 squares of hills and forests to the safety of the mountains became partly like Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, with mad Cossacks attacking from all sides, and partly like a Wild West wagon train running for its life from hordes of bloodthirsty Indians. It was 12 turns of pure terror, nail biting and increasingly damaged units.

This is exactly what I hoped to managed! Great!

Was the ballista useful?

@Cyrion
1. Disregard my comment about the ballista. My error due to impatience.

Good!

2. I used workarounds for the raft and city problems.

As I wrote you in my email, the raft is intended rather than a problem! But if you have a better suggestion, I'm a buyer!

3. I added an Icons file [didn't like some of the game screen] to the Lost Legions folder on Desktop and slightly changed the LL rules file. These changes worked normally. I also test edited the LL labels file and the changes appeared as soon as the game was reloaded.
AFAIK, any files related to a scen and located in the scen folder are used in preference to the vanilla files in the TOT folders.

Yes, labels file works fine, but that isn't the case for all of them, I think!

Anyway, I am REALLY interested in any changes you made: your suggestions added a lot to Pomarj!

So I wouldn't mind an e-mail about them...

4. I'll go through the various LL scen files and correct things like duplicate events and typos.

Thanks a lot!

Duplicate events?

Seems we're getting close to the finish!

[AGRICOLA]

Originally posted by Cyrion
Was the ballista useful?

It certainly was as it bought time for all damaged units to regain full strength before proceeding west.

Originally posted by Cyrion
As I wrote you in my email, the raft is intended rather than a problem! But if you have a better suggestion, I'm a buyer!

I don't like it because the rafts [triremes] have to spend one turn at sea in order to get downstream to the Burg. One would have to be unlucky to have them all sink but, if all start from one square and all end up in a stack on another square, the whole stack will be destroyed if the last trireme sinks. If no raft makes it down to the Burg, the scen is kaputt.

I really think that it is necessary to make it safe for rafts to move downstream to where the fortress was. The easiest way would be to have the rocks at [216,16] homed to the River Burg so that they are destroyed when the city is destroyed, thereby creating a safe passage.

In my game, I removed the trireme flag from the rafts when the Burg was destroyed.

[SIZE=1] Excellent! I knew it was doable! Please tell me by e-mail or pm how you did it!

Didn't you receive my e-mail with the saves and the brief writeup? I thought that they offered a pretty clear outline of my strategy. Oh well, I'll do another writeup and send it off. I'll include a copy of the events file which has been edited for typos and tighter syntax.

This is a very educational scen on how to fight in the open, without the aid of city walls and barracks. For that reason, the experience gained during the first attempt makes subsequent games so much easier that IMHO a score of 100% is not out of the question, especially after one knows where one has to go, how best to fight and figures out that it is better to go around some encounters than to get into an unnecessary battle.

[Cyrion]

Update

I'll try to update the scen this week-end so that it might be ready next week for what could hopefully be the last playtest!

What will be changed:
- more waterholes on the 2nd part
- modified german events, to make it easier for common players and harder for Agricola (yes, he did manage a 100% score on his 2nd try... )
- take into account a few points raised by Agricola!

And Werd (or someone else!), could please correct the attached text file? I could probably improve on it myself, but the result wouldn't be perfect anyway, and I have some other work to do on the scen itself...

Thanks!

[AGRICOLA]

[Sigh] Once more, in order to keep players on the straight and narrow, cool [ IMHO at least ] tactical moves have been made off limits by a completely unsympathetic member of the Designers Guild. [/Sigh]

Nevertheless, Cyrion's scen is completely unique in its concept as well as great fun to play.

I wonder if someone could do something similar with Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, Alexander's long and difficult bugout from India or Mao's Long March to the caves in Yunnan.

[Cyrion]

Originally posted by AGRICOLA
[Sigh] Once more, in order to keep players on the straight and narrow, cool [ IMHO at least ] tactical moves have been made off limits by a completely unsympathetic member of the Designers Guild. [/Sigh]

I guess then that you got my e-mail...

But if you want, I can keep a special version for you, where not all "exotic" moves have been banned...

Nevertheless, Cyrion's scen is completely unique in its concept as well as great fun to play.

I wonder if someone could do something similar with Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, Alexander's long and difficult bugout from India or Mao's Long March to the caves in Yunnan.

I don't know about Moscow, Alex or Mao, but I'll re-use exactly the same concept (now that I more or less master it...) for a side quest taking place on a second map in my ToT version of Pomarj, which I'll start working on as soon as LL is finished!

[McMonkey]

I have run this document through a spell checker and corrected a few grammatical errors. Reads pretty well though, really sets the scene well!

Someone more wordy than wot I is should probably take a second look to find anything I may have missed

[AGRICOLA]

@Cyrion
Actually, I had not read your e-mail before my previous post. I based my tongue in cheek reply on reading between the lines of the lostlegions.txt file you posted. Now, after having read your e-mail, I can see that my guesstimates had at least some resemblance to the truth.

I'll e-mail a reply after I finish an eagerly awaited session with "Casus Belli: Magna Bellum Borealis 1700-1721" Scenario v2.5 by Vegard Bjørketun. Werd 100 was right on when he described it as an excellent scen.

[McMonkey]

@Agricola
Here is a link for the Casus Belli scenario file where you can get the excellent units by Fairline, see post #11:
Casus Belli + Gareths Units

@Cyrion
Looks like Lost Legions is ready to march. I look forward to playing the final version with the extra watering holes added for average players like me

[Cyrion]

Important Question + Quick update

Important Question

Did any of the tester encounter the Disg. Legionary unit? It triggers a message explaining why the romans are agressive...

If not, then I'll have to investigate why...


Update

Done:
- spelling and grammatical modifications according to Agricola's mail
- correction of the Argentorum problem
- modification of defensive value of some terrains
- introduction text
- readme


Underway / to be done:
- implementation of the new "riverbed" terrain
- blockade of Agri's short cut
- suppression of the "Nature develops Trigger X technology" messages
- addition of a few waterholes
- modification of the spawning rate of Dacians
- modification of the spawning rate of Germans
- title screen

[Cyrion]

Quick update

Originally posted by Cyrion
- implementation of the new "riverbed" terrain

Done!

- blockade of Agri's short cut

Done! Sorry Agri

- suppression of the "Nature develops Trigger X technology" messages

Done!

- addition of a few waterholes

Done! 5-6 of them after the river!

- modification of the spawning rate of Dacians

Done!

- modification of the spawning rate of Germans

Done!

- title screen

Will be done during the 4th playtest!

Now before I release the files for the (hopefully last) playtest, I need to test the new spawning rates as well as the timing of messages!

And I want to investigate the Disg. Legionary puzzle: I think I have an idea where it comes from! Werd, did you encounter him or not? If not, then I might well have an explanation (and solution)...

[McMonkey]

The only Legionaries I remember are the normal Cavalry and Javelin types!