The 500th Topic!!! And for Capatin Nemo......

[The ANZAC]

I got the 500th topic. Yeah!!! Anyway...

Captain Nemo,

I have emailed you feedback for SF and some comments, but I haven't got a reply and it's been about a week. What happened?

[Stefan Härtel]

So what? I got it too once. Doesen't matter 'cause it'll become topic nr. 358 sometime...

[The ANZAC]

Fine, be that way Stefan!!!

[Captain Nemo]

ANZAC: I have just been swamped for a while. I am fixing all the problems you mentionned but I still have some issues with the MPG versus FW play. There is no doubt that you need to play it in hotseat mode in MPGE and with the edited "hotseat" mode in FW but I cannot figure out how to make the enemy moves visible in MPGE hotseat.
As far as events/rules etc... I have just completed the 5th phase which ends about June 30, 1944 and should include the capture of Cherbourg... But it is really tough. I can't keep up myself and I am far from having Cherbourg cut off by the 26th, much less captured.
The storm events in part 4 worked great, unfortunately they set me further back, not being able to bring in reinforcements for 4 days...and losing 3-4 LSTs. By the 26th I am hopelessly in need of heavy equipment like tanks and halftracks... Plenty of them in England but the transports are just too slow to keep up with the losses. I am considering making the Cherbourg harbor able to produce Liberty ships that have higher capacity and speed since that seems to be the most challenging part of the game and would make the capture of the harbor a major victory.
What do you think?
I will send you the revised version in the next few days.

[The ANZAC]

quote: As far as events/rules etc... I have just completed the 5th phase which ends about June 30, 1944 and should include the capture of Cherbourg... But it is really tough. I can't keep up myself and I am far from having Cherbourg cut off by the 26th, much less captured.

I was able to take Cateret the 19th with an M10-M40 Combo. and I have taken all of the cities north of Montebourg on the 20th. It's Part IV and I'm massing to take Valognes and the cities in the Northwest part of the Cotentin Peninsula. I can take Cherbourg by the 29th, but losing LSTs has left the British 10 times under armed and I have stopped because I will lose all the British Sector in a matter of time.

quote: The storm events in part 4 worked great, unfortunately they set me further back, not being able to bring in reinforcements for 4 days...and losing 3-4 LSTs.

I hope you got my message about losing 8 LSTs in the British sector. Oh, so you have change terrain command, right or I'll just wait and see.

quote: By the 26th I am hopelessly in need of heavy equipment like tanks and halftracks... Plenty of them in England but the transports are just too slow to keep up with the losses. I am considering making the Cherbourg harbor able to produce Liberty ships that have higher capacity and speed since that seems to be the most challenging part of the game and would make the capture of the harbor a major victory. What do you think?

Sounds good. BTW, it's a pain in the neck that in part 4, Selsey doesn't produce M40s and there's no fuel depot at Port Bessin!!! Other than my complants; good job!

[St Leo]

There is no doubt that you need to play it in hotseat mode in MPGE and with the edited "hotseat" mode in FW but I cannot figure out how to make the enemy moves visible in MPGE hotseat.

Enemy moves are invisible in MGE hotseat? I might actually buy it then.

P.S. Try right-clicking on the mini-map and fiddling with the window that comes up.

------------------
St. Leo
http://ziggurat.sidgames.com/
http://www.sidgames.com/forums/

[Captain Nemo]

ANZAC:

Did you actually manage to cut off Cherbourg? I thought your note about "Taking Carteret" was a typo that you meant taking "Carentan"...

Did you also take "Portbail"? That triggers the cut-off of reinforcements to Cherbourg while Carteret disbands the outer line of bunkers and command posts.

My offensive seriously stalled because I was set back on Utah Beach. It took me until the 30th of June to just get Ste Mere and La Madeleine back. I have been totally unable to take Ouistreham or advance on Caen.
It tells me that to be successful against Cherbourg you need to focus on Utah beach...

I was most successful in the center, South of Bayeux where I took Littry, Tilly, Caumont and Villers-Bocages, mixed blessing because it triggers the counter attack by the 1st SS-Panzer and the appearance of Wittmann.

Did you ever figure out what took out the British LSTs? You mentionned something about the V-1 attacks ceasing? They should not have since the AI gets 2 V1s per turn. Maybe they were the culprits?

I have shortened the range of the V1s so they can only reach Worthing and Brighton, but no ships should venture that far East or they will be goners. (The V1s are actually a great defense against non-historical landing attempts, Xin Yu will not be able to land in the Pas-de-Calais! )

Things that will be changed:

The capture of Cherbourg will allow you to build "Liberty Ships" with a capacity of 16 and a speed of 12, cost 150. This should drastically increase the speed at which the reinforcements get to Normandy. It will also trigger "PLUTO" (Pipe Line Under The Ocean), ie a fuel depot in Cherbourg.

The British will have more units starting North of Arromanches so they play a bigger role in the fight for Bayeux and central Normandy. I also think they need a better city attack unit, maybe an M-7 "Priest"? Do you use the heavy artillery unit?

With their longer supply lifeline, their weaker and slower units, the British end up being totally bogged down in my game and can't even duplicate their mediocre historical achievements

I will also switch Littlehampton to be a British support city building tanks.

Regarding the lack of M-40s in part IV I have the following philosophy to make the game challenging: If you capture a city ahead of schedule,(For example Bayeux on D-Day), you get very good "A" units as a bonus for the balance of Part I, then during the next part you get "B" units, then "C" units,etc.. finally nothing (Meaning that by August capturing Omaha beach isn't much of a factor anymore)... That means that if you fall behind schedule you get less units and less valuable units, but if you get ahead of schedule you get the maximum benefit from the technology. By part IV the "technology" that gave you M-40s in part II and III (Capture of Bayeux) is no longer such a great feat so now you get only US infantry and you need to capture new cities like Carteret/Portbail/Carpiquet in part IV to get the M-40s... It is not completely ironned out yet, but that's the general idea.

St LEO:

What do you mean "messing with the map". Have you been able to get the AI moves to show up in an MPGE Hotseat game?

[This message has been edited by Captain Nemo (edited July 12, 2000).]

[The ANZAC]

quote: Did you actually manage to cut off Cherbourg? I thought your note about "Taking Carteret" was a typo that you meant taking "Carentan"...

Hehehe....no typo, Nemo. I took Cateret.

quote: Did you also take "Portbail"? That triggers...

I found that out with the Recon patrol. I took Portbail too.

quote: My offensive seriously stalled because I was set back on Utah Beach. It took me until the 30th of June to just get Ste Mere and La Madeleine back.

No offense, Nemo, but I took Ste. Mere the second turn and La Madeleine the third, and held them for the rest of the game. My trick for Ste Mere was to get as many airborne as possible from the area and attack Ste Mere. I only suffered one or two casualties attacking and one holding the city. For La Madeleine, I landed ALL my Utah troops in waves on the seacliff by the city and took it suffering 10-15 casualties (incase you haven't noticed, it's a unit equals one casualty). Here's the sneaky, dirty trick: I use M3s to build a two space road over the hedgerows to Ste Mere!!! And then I support the city. On Utah I sit idle and try to take Brevands, and wait until the linkup, then I move rapidly.

quote: I have been totally unable to take Ouistreham or advance on Caen.

I can't advance on Caen, but I took Ouistreham with a combat engineer and Fireflies.

quote: I was most successful in the center, South of Bayeux where I took Littry, Tilly, Caumont and Villers-Bocages, mixed blessing because it triggers the counter attack by the 1st SS-Panzer and the appearance of Wittmann.

I don't focus on those at all, I concentrate on the flanks. Good you adopted the double "n".

quote: Did you ever figure out what took out the British LSTs? You mentionned...

Still haven't.

quote: I have shortened the range of the V1s so they can only reach Worthing and Brighton, but no ships should venture that far East or they will be goners. (The V1s are...

Now I see why you put in the mulberry harbor!!!! You want supplies to go there, not landed at Ouistreham! Right?

quote: The capture of Cherbourg will allow you to build "Liberty Ships" with a capacity of 16 and a speed of 12, cost 150. This should...

Sounds good. If you want to make LSTs less vulnerable, you can lower the cost in the later parts.

quote: The British will have more units starting North of Arromanches so they play a bigger role in the fight for Bayeux and central Normandy.

Good.

quote: I also think they need a better city attack unit, maybe an M-7 "Priest"? Do you use the heavy artillery unit?

Definitely the Priest. I use heavy artillery like on Portbail and Cateret.

quote: I will also switch Littlehampton to be a British support city building tanks.

Speaking of that, should I leave the cities in Britain producing their vehicles or make supply trucks right away?

quote: Regarding the lack of M-40s in part IV I have the following philosophy to make the game challenging: If you capture a city ahead of...

Ok.

I'll email you my file. It's hotseat, but you can probably open it in FW by changing the .hot to .sav.

[This message has been edited by The ANZAC (edited July 13, 2000).]

[Captain Nemo]

I have both MPG and FW so it's no problem.

I took Ste Mere and La Madeleine very fast too...but I lost 2 full LSTs to coastal artillery fire so most of the M3s and Shermans destined for Utah didn't make it and I lost the cities by the 8th or 9th of June.

Regarding what the cities are building, there should be enough Fuel trucks in production to keep all the motorized units supplied so I just leave the production orders as is (You have noticed that you can't switch back?) to get more units for Normandy... By the 30th of June I have 20-30 fuel trucks and approx. 100 infantry + 50-60 motor vehicles stuck in Britain waiting for transportation... Managing the transport is key... Losing as few LSTs as possible is also critical.

I did not have a problem with the V-1s reaching Ouistreham, only the coast of Britain and ships directly to the South of the Worthing-Brighton area. By using that extra AI civ, I was able to "confine" the V-1s to one location. In the latest version I have done the same with the coastal artillery and the AI now leaves all the ammunition with the units rather moving it into cities to the rear... Makes the invasion more dangerous and you don't encounter any more cities defended only by artillery shells

[The ANZAC]

On Utah and every other beach, I leave my LSTs out 6 spaces and have ferrying until all the batteries and cities are captured.

I know you can't switch production back.

How was the .hot file?

[Overdrive]

Hey Nemo,
if you are looking for help playtesting/proofreading, just send the files over to francois.schaack@mercedes-benz.lu .
I'd gladly help.