Erik's campaigns

[Dwightd]

US Corps 44-45 V1.0 Omaha Beach Scenario level 3

I took a few notes while I was sitting on the beach Shellshocked. Seems like I remember the PC version of this one being a tough one. The OOB version seems to be one sided in favor of the Allied armies. I started my core from scratch and bought expensive equipment to the point of having 20 land CP undeployed and very little RP left. I kept my land units at full (normal) repair and my air force ended up being about 1/2 full strength by scenario end. I never had enough RP to buy more units, so the 20 land CP was still undeployed at scenario end. I got a Major Victory in 15 turns, even with my self-imposed handicaps. The beach portion was tough, but once I broke through inland, there was very little resistance.

Just wanted to share my notes. As always, as the designer you have the choice to weaken the US, strengthen the Germans, or leave it like it is.

Love the content so far, thanks again.

[Erik2]

US Corps 44-45 V1.0 Omaha Beach Scenario level 3

I took a few notes while I was sitting on the beach Shellshocked. Seems like I remember the PC version of this one being a tough one. The OOB version seems to be one sided in favor of the Allied armies. I started my core from scratch and bought expensive equipment to the point of having 20 land CP undeployed and very little RP left. I kept my land units at full (normal) repair and my air force ended up being about 1/2 full strength by scenario end. I never had enough RP to buy more units, so the 20 land CP was still undeployed at scenario end. I got a Major Victory in 15 turns, even with my self-imposed handicaps. The beach portion was tough, but once I broke through inland, there was very little resistance.

Just wanted to share my notes. As always, as the designer you have the choice to weaken the US, strengthen the Germans, or leave it like it is.

Love the content so far, thanks again.

Interesting. I think this is the first player feedback stating a US Corps scenario is too easy
Added to my list.

[ClimateHawk]

I only recently found your treasure trove of OOB campaigns. Thank you so very much for sharing them with us. They are superb and hugely entertaining.

Very much obliged,
Alec

[Erik2]

Thanks, Alec.

So I'll keep on working on the next campaign, then

[Bobster66]

Here are my notes from playing through Germany East 41-42 with an imported core on standard difficulty. Most scenarios were tough but balanced.

Novgorod - In this scenario I learned during deployment, NOT to place a unit on an exit hex.

Leningrad - In my first couple attempts at this scenario I couldn't get some of the secondary objs to complete even though I placed the artillery in the correct locations. I think it happened when Soviet units temporarily reoccupied the hexes after my first arrival in those locations. Afterwards, looking at the scenario in the editor I saw a bunch of other objectives that never showed up in any of my plays, I would never have been able to compete them anyway as it always took all the turns just to place the artillery.

Streets of Moscow - With Female Factory Labour the Germans were short of supply to deploy all their Land CP's. The airfield north of Odintsovo doesn't appear to provide any supply so the Germans start with negative air supply.

Vitebsk - All trains were in the correct locations in the south of the map but no achievement given for the secondary obj.

Kharkov, Simferopol and Sevestopol Assault- Insufficient supply to deploy all CP's.

Novoanninsky - Insufficient supply to deploy all CP's. Ended early with one Primary obj still to capture.

Ilovlya - Problem already mentioned.

Storming Stalingrad - Russian Air doesn't move, not even to land once they are out of fuel. I'll count that as a blessing as I was too busy trying to deal with all the Russian ground units. In the end, I could only capture three of the six objectives but got the Major anyway because we already start with three.

Stalingrad Docks - Ended 8 turns early after capturing the fifth objective, since we start with four.

Kotelnikovo - Ends as soon as you have the primary objectives, so no chance to evacuate 12 units.

All in all, another great campaign. Thanks!

[bru888]

Here are my notes from playing through Germany East 41-42 . . .

The campaign is being "CSI swept" as we speak. I will refer back to your list of items as I go along. Thanks.

[Uhu]

Hi Erik!
As a great knower of the OOB series, what do you know: is it possible to convert the Battlefield PzC mod to OOB? First of all: is it possible to generate a 177x113 map? Are there any limitations, regarding on the screen units, or scripts?
Regards,
Daniel

[Erik2]

Hi Erik!
As a great knower of the OOB series, what do you know: is it possible to convert the Battlefield PzC mod to OOB? First of all: is it possible to generate a 177x113 map? Are there any limitations, regarding on the screen units, or scripts?
Regards,
Daniel

I'm not familiar with the Battlefield PzC mod.
Max map size in OOB is 120x120.
I have not seen any limits of number of units.
There is a lot of scripting possibilites in the scenario editor.
In addition there's a separate campaign editor.
Several designers have created various user mods, you should find threads in this forum.

You can find some official manuals and at least one user generated manual in this thread in this forum:
https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewto ... 74&t=70345

[bru888]

Kharkov, Simferopol and Sevestopol Assault- Insufficient supply to deploy all CP's.

I've been thinking about this type of thing. Is it not true that for all land and air units, command points = supply points? So, if one compares CP's to the surplus of ground and air supply on the friendly side of the map, that should be a good check, yes?

Up to now, I've only been looking for red (minus) supply numbers. I think from now on, I'm going to compare the supply surpluses to CP's in the scenarios that I am looking at. We'll see if the theory holds water.

EDIT: So for example, this is from Belgrade. As long as the amounts of CP's do not exceed the surplus of supply available, I think we are in good shape. Too bad I didn't think of this sooner, if I am on the right track.

Screenshot 1.jpg (156.78 KiB) Viewed 733 times

[prattaa]

Bru, not nessecarily.
1) Specializations can add additional CP not reflected in the editor.
2) There are defensive scenarios where you will lose frontier objectives and supply points before the player even has a turn to react.

[bru888]

Bru, not nessecarily.
1) Specializations can add additional CP not reflected in the editor.
2) There are defensive scenarios where you will lose frontier objectives and supply points before the player even has a turn to react.

Both true but I'm looking for a general "Rule of Thumb."

[Uhu]

Thanks for the infos!

Hi Erik!
As a great knower of the OOB series, what do you know: is it possible to convert the Battlefield PzC mod to OOB? First of all: is it possible to generate a 177x113 map? Are there any limitations, regarding on the screen units, or scripts?
Regards,
Daniel

I'm not familiar with the Battlefield PzC mod.
Max map size in OOB is 120x120.
I have not seen any limits of number of units.
There is a lot of scripting possibilites in the scenario editor.
In addition there's a separate campaign editor.
Several designers have created various user mods, you should find threads in this forum.

You can find some official manuals and at least one user generated manual in this thread in this forum:
https://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewto ... 74&t=70345

[Bobster66]

Bru, not nessecarily.
1) Specializations can add additional CP not reflected in the editor.
2) There are defensive scenarios where you will lose frontier objectives and supply points before the player even has a turn to react.

Both true but I'm looking for a general "Rule of Thumb."

Yeah Bru, I think you are on the right track for a general rule of thumb for quick checks.

I do, however, think the issue only occurred after acquiring additional CP's through specializations.

[bru888]

Yeah Bru, I think you are on the right track for a general rule of thumb for quick checks.

I do, however, think the issue only occurred after acquiring additional CP's through specializations.

I'll check it out. By the way, I already started using and referring to your notes in the CSI Sweep thread, starting in Leningrad. If you're curious, I found out why those additional primary objectives did not materialize. That's one heck of a scenario, unusually constructed but quite interesting.

[ctskelly]

US Corps 44-45

Comment on:

US Corps 44-45 V1.0 Omaha Beach Scenario level 3

I took a few notes while I was sitting on the beach Shellshocked. Seems like I remember the PC version of this one being a tough one. The OOB version seems to be one sided in favor of the Allied armies. I started my core from scratch and bought expensive equipment to the point of having 20 land CP undeployed and very little RP left. I kept my land units at full (normal) repair and my air force ended up being about 1/2 full strength by scenario end. I never had enough RP to buy more units, so the 20 land CP was still undeployed at scenario end. I got a Major Victory in 15 turns, even with my self-imposed handicaps. The beach portion was tough, but once I broke through inland, there was very little resistance.

Just wanted to share my notes. As always, as the designer you have the choice to weaken the US, strengthen the Germans, or leave it like it is.

Love the content so far, thanks again.

Dwightd, It is not hard to win Omaha Beach, but it is hard to do the scenario in a way that forms the right conditions for the following scenarios: a good core force and extra RPs. As you said, you run out of resource points. The challenge is how to not run out, and even increase the RP level from game start to end, which means not winning early so that you can conserve losses. You need hundreds of RPs to do the next few scenarios, which is is what makes Omaha perfect! In fact, there is a trick to really hammer this battle (that for everyone's sake, I'll keep secret). After discovering this, I used almost all my starting RPs to buy a core force, but ended up with over 1400 points for the next scenario, and believe me, I needed them. (default difficulty, no cheats)

In addition to Omaha Beach, Carentan has a not-so-hard to find strategy that decimates the Germans.

Those are the only two I've played (only played to Brittany) so far and discovered decisive "tricks" but all the other scenarios offer fantastic tactical options so that they are not just won by attrition. As for Pointe scenario, in case you are wondering: It might seem impossible to keep Pointe du Hoc, but it is not. It's just hard.

Anyway, I consider Erik's campaigns BETTER than the regular Slitherine DLC. There I said it. I hope no one is offended, but his brilliant design skills lead to play through again and again, whereas many of the official DLC have victory conditions that "force" you into one strategy. Erik rules!

[ctskelly]

US Corps 44-45 Player feedback:

I've only played six scenarios (some many times) but have some comments:

1) Many of the victory conditions don't work, meaning you accomplish all the goals and just get a draw or minor victory. I should have kept notes on all such scenarios, but didn't. Cherbourg and Avranches were two. In fact, I think maybe all the scenarios before were wonky that way too. Maybe they all need the tweak Bru suggested.

2) Avranches: To win, you have to exit ten units but with only 24 turns and two exit points, it's impossible. That means you have to get through those heavy German defenses and capture one of the exit points by turn 14, or both by 19. I could get 10 units below the river by scenario end, but just being able to exit two at a time, could not get ten off the map. I suggest you add more exit points or reduce the number needed.

3) In one or two scenarios, (not the one where you destroy the V1s) you are supposed to get 100 resource points if you accomplish some goal, but it didn't work. I can't find that victory condition in the starting conditions so I'm not sure which scenario. I thought it was Contenin.

Sorry for being so vague. I'll keep better notes in the future.

[Erik2]

ctskelly

Thanks for the feedback.
But...as you noted as well, I need some details about any issues to be able to fix them.
That said, if you played the updated US 44-45 campaign after Bru's sweep, the victory objectives should work.

[prattaa]

US Corps 1942-43 v1.1 feedback - another excellent campaign with a couple scenarios needing a little extra love, I really enjoyed this one and its onwards to Sicily, thanks as always Erik!

Difficulty level 3

Formation - No issues.
Archnacarry - No issues.
Casablanca - No issues.
Oran - Make 509AB units non-core. Possible issue with "Do not lose any US aux units." objective, never changed from a blue ? if I lost a unit or not.
Djebel Abiod - Doesn't quite work as intended. Big German counter-attack triggers with capture of Tebourba however player will certainly capture Mateur first. As soon as two objectives are captured the scenario ends and the player never has to deal with the counter-attack; is there supposed to be an event message when Teboura is captured about enemy counter-attack?; Destroy all Luftwaffe aircraft secondary objective not working, 3 a/c initially (Bf 109, Bf 110, He 111) + 2 additional a/c spawn when Teboura is captured (Fw 190, Ju 87), when all a/c destroyed counter is still looking for 1 additional kill; I would recommend removing Teboura as an objective and instead making Madjez el Bab the objective and also the trigger for the counter-attack, player than must hold Mateur and Madjez el Bab till end of scenario; increase turn limit to 18.
Campaign event decision after Dejebel Abiod - remove space in Morn_ing
Morning Air - AI could be set to be a bit more aggressive, I had a line of entrenched infantry with supporting AT guns and they would not attack
Kasserine - Allied a/c reinforcements arrive on turn 6 w/o notice, an event message would be helpful that reinforcements are arriving; scenario could be a few turns longer so player can give chase to retreating opponent; AI could be set to be a bit more aggressive
Spring Wind - On turn 3 axis forces have insufficient supply (realistic but not sure if intended); On turn 4 when you are able to deploy core forces there is not enough supply to deploy due to forward objectives being lost, on several attempts I had between 2 and 10 surplus supply to deploy core forces, recommend to me make Sebeitla worth 100 supply which I had to do in editor to proceed with testing; axis could use a rearguard at Echarda as it is far too easy to cut them off from Nasr Allah or maybe this is intended; I was not entirely sure which objectives to defend, the blue question mark in the objective list does not point to anything and Sbeitla did not seem to count when I lost all 4 objectives on the east side of the river I got instant defeat; Major Victory event has a capital I in it (Major VIctory)
Sbiba - Grammar in briefing "relieve of several commanders" > "relief of several commanders"; loss of British Area 1 & 2 results in Major Defeat before player's turn 1, this prevented testing in detail; supply -50 after losing those areas also, increase supply value of Sbiba to 100
El Guettar - No issues.
Hills - No issues; Primary objective completed turn 20/30.
Enfidaville - Neutral areas between allied deployment zones should instead be allied controlled, because supply sources are split by neutral territory player is forced to use 3 weak attacks along each approach instead of massing forces for one strong attack
Mateur - No issues, Gebirgsjager '42 unit in the Northern part of scenario on the road to Teskraia, assuming that is a mistake?
Bizerte - Why do axis go first if player is attacking?; there are several Gebirgsjager '42 units in the scenario, it would make more sense for these to be regular infantry '43; air opposition seems unusually strong given the state of the axis situation and considering no air opposition in alternate scenario Tunis, I would suggest to remove the commanders from enemy air and/or reduce their experience; Secondary Objective to "Sink all troop transports before they exit" - I never saw any troop transports and what would I sink them with?, there are no naval assets given to the player; 16 turns is asking a lot given the strong air and ground opposition and limited forces given to the player, I was able to win with increasing turn limit to 20; I found this to be much more challenging than Tunis but the briefings lead the player to believe Bizerte is the easier path; I would recommend reducing axis supply throughout the map to make a little easier and provide feeling of fighting a doomed opponent
Tunis - No issues though curious why player is given 40mm AA aux unit when there is no enemy air opposition

General - give player 1 additional air CP, with war economy & female factory labor specializations I played most scenarios with 2 unusable air CP; in general I would have liked to have more land CP throughout the campaign as well considering the mechanization level of US army; I had about 4500 RP remaining at campaign end; several scenarios had Luftwaffe commanders assigned to ground units;
Commanders - Kevin Wilson provided in Spring Wind but not Morning Air, he is useless anyway (benefit only for naval attack) but just FYI

[bru888]

Bru, not nessecarily.
1) Specializations can add additional CP not reflected in the editor.
2) There are defensive scenarios where you will lose frontier objectives and supply points before the player even has a turn to react.

Well, upon some application of my "Rule of Thumb," I find that your number 1) can easily be accounted for by adding "+4" for land and "+2" for air to the calculations. According to specialisations.txt, the only specialisations that mention command points are these:

• Female Factory Labor

• Jerry Can

• War Economy

• Wehrmacht Canister

Of those, "Jerry Can" and "Wehrmacht Canister" appear to be vestigial entries, left over from some ideas that never got off the ground - they are not listed in specialisations.csv - whereas "Female Factory Labor" and "War Economy" both provide for "• +2 Land and Naval Command Points| • +1 Air Command Point." Moreover, their effective dates are "1941" and "/" (always) respectively, and they are available to all factions, so I would bet they are both going to be used in most scenarios and campaigns.

Regarding your number 2), that's harder to spot but if I do, I will point it out in my CSI sweeps. Thanks for this input.

[ctskelly]

Thanks for the feedback.
But...as you noted as well, I need some details about any issues to be able to fix them.
That said, if you played the updated US 44-45 campaign after Bru's sweep, the victory objectives should work.

Right. I later noticed there was an update. One of the comments still stands: Avranches is not winnable.

2) Avranches: To win, you have to exit ten units but with only 24 turns and two exit points, it's impossible. That means you have to get through those heavy German defenses and capture one of the exit points by turn 14, or both by 19. I could get 10 units below the river by scenario end, but just being able to exit two max per turn, could not get ten off the map. I suggest you add more exit points or reduce the number needed to exit.