Erik's campaigns & mods

[ColonelY]

Banzai 1939-41 [...]

There was good feedback in the beta thread, esp. from the Colonel; thanks for that!
[...]

You're welcome!

[Epperaliant]

Erik, I just got this game and I am at loss for words after I realized the amount of content you made.

Gave a very brief look at Desert Rats and it looks great!

[Erik2]

Thank you.
This gaming community has been really helpful in testing all the scenarios and campaigns.
Have fun!

[Epperaliant]

Thank you.
This gaming community has been really helpful in testing all the scenarios and campaigns.
Have fun!

By any chance, have you (or anyone else) made an Italian campaign?

I still remember my granpa stories about how hard it was to fight vs Allies in North Africa...dealing with the incompetent (or often non-existent) leadership,the harsh and uncaring behavior of german allies, the constant food/water/ammo/fuel shortage, being totally outgunned and forced to hold the line, the desperate/disorganized retreats in the desert, the sacrifice-last stands of some units to allow their comrades a safe escape...

That would be some cool material for a campaign.

[Erik2]

I know of no 'pure' Italian campaigns so far. There are Italian core units in the official Sandstorm campaign, but this is of course mainly a German affair.
We do have most/all of the tools required to create an Italian campaign, starting in East Africa. But it would take a good deal of work creating 10-12 scenarios from scratch.
Not on my current list...

[smokeitup]

Hello Erik I finished the standard Order of Battle campaigns and decided to try yours to keep the fun going a little longer. So far I've finished the Germany West 39-40 campaign and have made progress on the Germany West 1940 campaign. I'd like to bring attention to a few things:

Germany West 39-40: Overall I liked what I saw. Scenarios were challenging, but doable for the most part. Here are a couple suggestions:

Scenario 1: 20 turns really isn't enough time to complete all the objectives with the resources granted you. I used the cheat codes and made it 25 turns and finished around 24. You should either change that yourself or grant a few more resources/CP points.

Denmark Scenarios: You're given 2 choices, but only 1 of them is feasible (the island option). The other map is gigantic and you are not given enough CP points to finish it without the use of gimmicks or some kind of cheats. The island scenario for Denmark makes you think you should deploy most of your forces next to the capital by the airfield, but that is a terrible idea in practice. There are like 15 artillery units and at least 10-12 infantry units that immediately swarm you if you try any kind of landing there at all. I deployed to the southern regions and fought my way up (worked good), so my suggestion for an easy fix would be to get rid of the deployment zones by the capital.

Norway Scenarios: You have 4 options, but really only 1-2 are feasible. The other maps are simply too big with too many enemy units to deal with; simply not enough time given for either. I just decided on doing the Narvik one. It grants you two cruisers in the top left, but there's no option to deploy more naval units there and they just get overrun by enemy ships if you try and have them fight it out. After trying a few times, I just had them make a run for the exit because they're basically useless otherwise. After capturing the supply depot, there's a secondary objective to construct an airfield near a village you have to capture. After capturing that town and building that airbase right on top of it, the objective never cleared and I was never given an option to deploy air units there (so it was really rather pointless). Also, I kept failing the scenario and had to use a cheat code to get the win because the scenario kept failing over and over even though I completed all of the objectives (minus the construct an airfield one).

Germany West 1940: Really a mixed bag here. You are really struggling for resource points the whole time and time limits are really strict on some scenarios, but far too generous on others.

- The scenario where you need to capture the canals leaves you starving for resources and has you fight an incredible amount of enemy units. I tried several times and had to grant myself 5 extra turns and give myself a few bonus resources just to keep scrape by. This really needs more balancing.

- The invasion of Holland where you need to save Parachute units really puts you in a bad spot. I must've fought 15-20 tank units in that one and at least 30 or so infantry units. How the hell does Holland have all these units? Also, the parachute troops really don't stand a chance if you have them try and take the air fields right away like the scenario implies. They get rolled by 5-8 enemy infantry units, artillery, and tanks; you don't stand a chance unless you have the parachute guys deploy elsewhere and fight your way to the airstrips. You should really take a look here.

- The last one I'll comment on is the capture General Giraud one. You are literally surrounded by all kinds of enemy units and are only given a relatively small deployment force. Any time you take an objective and move on you are immediately forced to backtrack otherwise the enemy will just cut you off. I made slow progress destroying a ton of enemy units and finally destroyed General Girauds bunker, but he is then put in a German recon car that you have no control of! The recon car doesn't move and just sits there...trying to move units through it also causes the recon unit to attack your own forces. Enemy units (an absolutely insane amount from all over the map - even after destroying a huge # of them) then swarm you from all directions. How the hell is somebody supposed to beat this? One of the main objectives has you take some town in the far NW corner of the map - is it even possible to take that with the 30 turn time limit and small deployment force given you? I had to use a cheat to win this one because there was no way of achieving victory.

I like some of the things you've done here, but can tell that many of these have never really been play tested. You've created an insane amount of custom campaigns, but after looking through 10 or so pages of this thread, it looks like many of these suffer from the same problems that I encountered in the two one's I've tried. Instead of cranking these out like crazy, you should really go back to the very beginning and start play testing these through from beginning to end while make the appropriate changes as needed. It just seems like your spreading yourself to thin, jumping from one scenario to the next while having to backtrack to multiple campaigns as people post problems.

I'll play through like 2-3 maps and think "Wow that was extremely well done; excellent work here", but then I'll get to the next map and just bang my head against the wall going "How the hell is this even supposed to work?". Anyways, just my 2 cents man - really do think these campaigns would outdo the standard one's if you took a more direct approach to them.

[Erik2]

smokeitup

Thanks for report.
The detailed scenario feedback will be added to my lists for the various campaigns.

All the campaigns that are conversions of old PzC campaigns I assumed were fairly balanced. But differences in OOB and PzC (resources, supply etc) of course may lead to scenarios being harder/easier in the two games. Here's where I depend on player feedback.
I do play through all campaigns and release them when I think they're ready. But it is simply impossible for one person to catch all issues which may crop up in one kind of play but not in others.

Some of the scenarios you mention you have issues with have already been played and reported by many users here. And the scenarios have undergone several versions. Other (original ones) where made a long time ago and I would probably do them differently today if creating them from scratch.
Basically they are too big (maps and number of units). Currently I mostly prefer smaller scenarios although some historical battles cannot be done justice with a puny scenario .

[terminator]

Border Raids (Desert Rats 1940-43_6.1)

2 remarks:

- Commanders:
Why do we have two pilots as commander in this first scenario when there are no planes ?

Border Raids(1).jpg (565.54 KiB) Viewed 2507 times

- Difficulty:
I tried to win this scenario with Difficulty IV but I never got there Italian trucks all have an increased strength of 2
In the PanzerCorps campaign, there were two conditions of victory for this scenario:

Border Raids(2).jpg (80.89 KiB) Viewed 2507 times

[ColonelY]

Yes, these two ace should be unlocked I believe at the start of the 4th scenario, where our first planes do appear...

[smokeitup]

Alright Erik so I've made my way to your Germany East 1941 campaign and I gotta say it was really good overall. Battles were challenging, but doable (had to try the last scenario Demanysk Pocket several times to get it right). However, there were a couple issues I want to point out to you:

1. Germany Invasion of Barbarossa: Seeing as how its the start of the German invasion of Russia I was really expecting to get a lot more CP to handle this one. Even though you're given around a 100, it still feels kind of light since I had several units from previous campaigns I could not deploy. Recommend you increase land CP by about 6 and air CP by 6. Also, this scenario says that the Soviet air force will not send out air units until turn 9, but fighters would routinely pop up out of their air bases once my air units got close. You should look into this.

2. There are various scenarios where you have secondary objectives to complete, but are never given the chance to finish once you accomplish the main one's. I often found myself with 5-8 turns left and wanting to finish the secondary objectives, but couldn't even try since the scenario would promptly end once the main goals were finished. You should take a note from the developers and give players a pop-up tab where they have the option of finishing the rest of their turns to try and finish the secondary objectives instead of just automatically ending the map.

4: You don't get a lot of RP for SS units. Even after researching the Waffen SS specialization, I was only given about 100 for units and only received about 3-4 RP per turn. I just created a few infantry units (since I did not have enough RP to repurchase SS tank units from earlier campaigns), but routinely found myself really tight on RP for replacements. You should probably grant the player 250 RP once you get the SS specialization and increase RP to 6-10 per turn, but cut CP from 12 to 9 - that way the player can either get a tank/AT unit or 3 infantry units. Just my humble recommendation here.

5: Siege of Leningrad: Excellent scenario overall, but a few problems. One is another main objective pops up only after you've taken a town in the far right corner of the map. I held off taking this until the last 5 turns of the scenario because I wanted to keep fighting and build experience for my units, but didn't want to end the map prematurely if I took it early. However, once I did take it I had to rush over to the top center part of the map and destroy/occupy the last fortress in order to get the win. Once you do this there is an optional objective to take Leningrad (which I accomplished), but the scenario never recognizes this and treats it like the siege is still ongoing. Also, for some odd reason, it awarded me like 40 specialization points for both the Wehrmacht and SS once I moved on to the next map.

6: Scenario (where your on the) Road to Moscow: Ok the scenario implies you need to take 8 objectives, but doesn't highlight all the one's your supposed to take. I took 5 around the half way point and then the scenario just ended saying the situation had changed and I was needed to rescue the Dmanysk Pocket. I never actually got the map to attack Moscow...it was just totally skipped over. Not sure what happened here (maybe because I had only achieved Minor Victories on some earlier Russian scenarios), but this should be looked into.

Overall gotta say this campaign was very well done and there were far fewer issues then some of the earlier campaigns you produced. Well done man really impressed with your work!

I'm moving onto Germany East 1942 soon and will let you know of any problems once I finish it.

[Erik2]

I will not stray too far from the source in the PzC-conversions. So CPs etc will most probably stay the same.
I usually deal with play-balance issues changing resource income(s) or AI unit experience.
That said, I appreciate any detailed feedback as this can only improve the campaigns.

[gunny]

I'm enjoying the Banzai campaign against the soviets. Lots of background info and interesting maps. On one scenario the earlier ones my ally horse troops moved into a capture hex after I had destroyed the occupants (I should have gone ahead and taken it) well this left this hex open the horse unit moved in (the ally horse unit) this prevented me from taking it and I got a defeat but since I save a lot I just loaded an earlier save and fixed it.

[terminator]

Yes, these two ace should be unlocked I believe at the start of the 4th scenario, where our first planes do appear...

[Desert Rats 1940-43] Operazione E (4Operazione):

objective2_2_1 = Destroy at least 2 enemy air combat units
objective2_2_1_award = Destroy fighter or bomber units.|Get 1 specialisation point. -> award = Pilot ?

objective2_2_3 = Do not lose any British air units
objective2_2_3_award = Get 1 specialisation point. -> award = Pilot ?

[Erik2]

Good idea, terminator.

[terminator]

[Desert Rats 1940-43] Battle of Girba


Primary Objective "Defend your objectives at all times" not working correctly:

[Desert Rats 1940-43] Battle of Girba(1).jpg (520.93 KiB) Viewed 2138 times

If you loose an objective the game continues and in the end we will lose, what is the point of fighting?

[Desert Rats 1940-43] Battle of Girba(2).jpg (478.29 KiB) Viewed 2138 times

These Triggers only work once and not every turn:

[Desert Rats 1940-43] Battle of Girba(3).jpg (254.01 KiB) Viewed 2138 times

PS: tested with Difficulty IV

[Erik2]

Thanks for the feedback, added to my Desert Rats list.

[terminator]

[Desert Rats 1940-43] Battle of Girba


Primary Objective "Destroy at least 10 Italian tankettes":


It is not clear how many tankettes I should destroy and the objective was already validated when it appeared at the beginning of turn 5

[Desert Rats 1940-43] Battle of Girba(4).jpg (319.29 KiB) Viewed 2079 times

[Desert Rats 1940-43] Battle of Girba(5).jpg (322.07 KiB) Viewed 2079 times

[smokeitup]

Ok Erik I finished the Germany East 1942 campaign and here are some of my findings. Overall, the campaign was pretty good and my complaints are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.

1st Scenario: You are tasked with holding on to 5-6 objectives spread out over a very thin and narrow corridor. As things stand, there's really no way to achieve the secondary objectives with the current resources given to you. The trains you are supposed to escort are bottled up in the North and get stuck about halfway through the map. Moving enough troops over from 1 side to the other in order to achieve this just makes that part of the front totally collapse. Recommend you give the player another 500 starting RP as you face huge amounts of Russian tanks, infantry, and air units. Adding this through cheat codes was the only way I could ever manage to complete these.

SS Units (In general): You give the player a lot of CP points for the SS, but hardly any RP's to utilize them. Often times scenarios would ask me in the beginning if I'd like to trade over 4-5 RP's a turn and 15-20 CP points, but I would never have enough RP's to actually use these slots. The SS in general is kind of hoodwinked; if you don't transfer resources over in the beginning you can't replenish any units you already have, but at the same time you could never use the full amount of CP's because you don't have enough RP's to flesh them out. Please look into this - it was a constant problem through the whole campaign. Also, they should really have access to the Wehrmacht technologies you've already researched like the +1 infantry damage one.

Specializations: OK this was really weird. Even though we are in 1942, I had no access to any part of the technology tree. It was completely filled up from the previous campaigns and I could not scroll down or find any way to access the research specializations that you have access to in the regular Slitherine campaigns. Scenarios would constantly reward me with research points that I could never actually use. Again, please look into this.

Missing Rewards: Several times there would be a side objective to add an extra unit if you completed such and such objectives, but they'd never appear. I don't remember all of them, but the last scenario in the 1942 Germany East campaign promises you 2 Waffen SS units if you capture extra towns. The message box appears saying you've been awarded these, but nothing shows up. Recommend you go through these again and figure out what the problem is.

No Ability to Complete Secondary Objectives: Just like the Germany East 1941 campaign, once you complete the main objectives you are not given the option of continuing the scenario to try and finish the secondary one's. Multiple times I would finish the main objective and the scenario would just end once my turn ended, even though I had 5-10 turns left to try and finish the secondary one's. The developers gave the player a popup box in the game when you finished main objectives asking if you would like to keep playing to try and finish the secondary ones - you really should take a note from their page and figure out how to implement this in your campaigns. It's really annoying having to either reload old saves and holding off finishing the main objectives in order to finish the 2nd one's or just continuing on to the next scenario because the game assumes its over.

Overall lack of RP: It's 1942. Germany is still doing pretty good in WW2 and has only suffered relatively minor setbacks. Why is it that you are so short on RP as a whole? Especially in the beginning, I'd find myself really short on resources even though I'm using artillery/rockets to soften up targets and only attacking when there is a +0 chance of damage at best. You have the player fight an incredible amount of units (both land and air) and also give the computer a ton of resources to refit damaged units. I like this overall, but you often have to finish units off with the first turn or 2 of attacking, otherwise you're stuck in a slugging match you can't win. I highly suggest you play test these again and add additional resource points (I had to do this several times to even make progress after a certain point and it really did kind of feel like cheating). Please play test these again - you have done a really good job overall, but similar to other campaigns of yours, I keep walking away going that these were not tested enough and seriously need to be looked at.

Overall, I really liked this campaign, but it needs to be tested more thoroughly. I will be trying your Germany East 1943 campaign soon and will report back my thoughts when I am finished.

[Erik2]

smokeitup

Thanks for the detailed feedback.
I've created a Germany East 1942 to-do-list.

[ColonelY]

[Desert Rats 1940-43] Battle of Girba
[...]

I agree with terminator.

Here are some complements:

1. Pri obj about Italian tankettes:

A) Same observation here with the counter about the Pri obj "Destroy at least 10 Italian tankettes", enabled on t5... it starts with "13/7" ('cause there are 13 tankettes units from start and it's checked whether "Alive" > 6). So, in the triggers, just replace "Alive" & ">6" by "Destroyed" & ">9".

B) There is now no possibility to consider the pri obj about tankettes as "failed"... well, it's rather unlikely to happen, but still... it could be added, "just in case".
***
2. Pri obj "Defend your objectives at all times":
This obj text together with the info "You will lose even if the Italians only capture an objective temporarily." => Fine, but it's indeed not working properly now.

Let's see it like this: imagine we've lost at a certain time one of these golden star flags... then this pri obj is considered as "failed", indeed, with the "red cross"... so far, so good... but then, let's imagine that towards the end this golden star flag is recaptured, so that the scenario ends with ALL pri locations under control... what's seen in this case, it's that this pri obj will switch to being considered as "completed"... is this a problem? Yope, because you've written "You will lose even if the Italians only capture an objective temporarily."...

To fix this, I think it's possible to add, as another condition to be fullfilled, a "Check Objective State" (= is this pri obj still open?) in the corresponding trigger!
***
3. Not any single sec obj right now?:

So, no possibility to achieve a real Major Victory (with the corresponding text you've prepared )...

In order to make a Major Victory achievable within this scenario, what about adding one sec obj like "Destroy at least 2 Italian artillery units" with as reward a (classical) "Get 1 specialisation point."
(Don't forget, by the way, that we're about to "lose" two spec pts now in the fourth scenario... in exchange of unlocking there our two aces... so it may be nice to already gain 1 spec pt here.)

How? Well, it could come this way: not enabled nor visible from start, it shows up together with the pri obj about tankettes, with the event "New Orders", those text has then to be slightly adapted from "You have succesfully held onto your objectives and it is time to go on the offensive. |Your orders are to eliminate all Italian armored units." (which is imprecise anyway because there are more than 10 tankettes here, so it's not exactly about ALL of them here! ) to, perhaps, "You have succesfully held onto your objectives and it is time to go on the offensive. |Your orders are to eliminate (almost) all Italian armored units and to remove as well some Italian artillery pieces from the battlefield."
***
Et voilà !