Free France Campaign

[bru888]

Found while researching the 15th U.S. Air Force, and instantly adopted for the scenario:

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[ColonelY]

Without parity, I suggest that you don't deploy the enemy planes directly from start. Perhaps waiting few turns, to avoid that the player - having directly the air superiority - massively outnumbered the enemy planes and almost immediately eliminate them... with few turn at disposal, perhaps he will somehow disperse his fighters along the map, thus reducing this effect. (We've seen that, even starting with relative parity, we may have to spawn additional enemy units to keep the action going on in the skies for a relatively "long" scenario, long turnwise, that is... so now, without even starting parity...)

And, in case the Me 262 Schwalbe option is chosen, I would suggest to involve them much later, perhaps around a third of the scenario, or even the half... or perhaps one of the German divisions of the final defensive line has been activated... let the player feel and enjoy the air superiority and then... boom, some "nasty" surprise!

[bru888]

Without parity, I suggest that you don't deploy the enemy planes directly from start. Perhaps waiting few turns, to avoid that the player - having directly the air superiority - massively outnumbered the enemy planes and almost immediately eliminate them... with few turn at disposal, perhaps he will somehow disperse his fighters along the map, thus reducing this effect. (We've seen that, even starting with relative parity, we may have to spawn additional enemy units to keep the action going on in the skies for a relatively "long" scenario, long turnwise, that is... so now, without even starting parity...)

And, in case the Me 262 Schwalbe option is chosen, I would suggest to involve them much later, perhaps around a third of the scenario, or even the half... or perhaps one of the German divisions of the final defensive line has been activated... let the player feel and enjoy the air superiority and then... boom, some "nasty" surprise!

Good suggestion about the delayed appearance of German planes. Will phase them in slowly and repeatedly. Also, the player will have to scramble (i.e, take off) his planes as they all start in hangars.

Regarding the Me 262:

[bru888]

You may fancy the air war in this one, Colonel. It's going to be an interesting challenge: Inferior but successive waves. The enemy will accumulate (in planes and resources) unless you deal with them properly. You will be wanting to keep your fighters in good shape.

[bru888]

A few of us had a discussion earlier in this thread about the Goumier atrocity after Monte Cassino. Here is the way that I handled it.

Early in the scenario:

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After the Allies have punched a hole in the Hitler Line (4 of 8 primary VPs):

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[bru888]

Free France 1940-1945 v0.33 has been uploaded. It includes the new Operation Diadem scenario.

Free France 1940-1945 (thirteen scenarios)

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[ColonelY]

[...] You can be one of the judges as to whether it's too much. One thing to the good is that only 4 of the 10 German divisions will be doing anything at first: those on the Gustav Line. Another division in the south is on static defense until it is decimated and flees westward. The five divisions on the Hitler Line will be active only when the Allies get near.

First overview after the first 20 turns: Perfectly manageable, even if some traffics jams are to be expected.

As far as the AI's turn length is concerned, there is nothing annoying nor too long.

'Just excellent so far. Main feedback later!

[bru888]

Wikipedia can steer us wrong at times, as we all know. Here is an example.

This is part of the Wikipedia article on La Combattante:

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Wouldn't that make you think that the rescue took place in the English Channel in 1943? No on several counts.

First of all, the name of the ship was Steel Traveler, as confirmed here and here. She was built by the Isthmian Steamship Company, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel.

Secondly, Steel Traveler ran into a mine in the Schelde River, near Amsterdam, in December 1944, not March 1943. The crew was indeed rescued by La Combattante, but more than a year-and-a-half later and 300 kilometers away from where I had planned it for the La Combattante scenario.

I had just finished the quadrant for this rescue scene, a section of the English Channel, and was doing research on the "Stell Traveller" , when I made this unfortunate discovery. It upsets the scenario chronology and throws out the quadrant map.

Well, two things:
1) This project would not have been possible without Wikipedia. I like doing research, but trying to find CONCISE histories of events without reading books from cover to cover or doing a lot of digging among occasionally risky web sites would not have been feasible. Even with Wikipedia as a resource, although with occasional investigative forays elsewhere, look how long this has taken already.
2) There is plausible fiction throughout all of this. For example, the next quadrant is about La Combattante's involvement in Exercise Tiger. It's plausible that the ship would have been involved, but her participation will be invented.

So the decision is to go ahead with the steamship rescue vignette, in 1943 and in the English Channel. It's plausible, and it's based on a real event. Out of respect, I will change the name from Steel Traveler to something else.

[ColonelY]

Darn it! Well, good decision and thanks for the info.

[terminator]

Secondly, Steel Traveler ran into a mine in the Schelde River, near Amsterdam, in December 1944, not March 1943. The crew was indeed rescued by La Combattante, but more than a year-and-a-half later and 300 kilometers away from where I had planned it for the La Combattante scenario.

It is not marked in the text, there is a point between the two sentences that have no link between them.
La Combattante made her first sortie in 23 March 1943, escorting a convoy in the English Channel. that's true
She rescued 68 sailors from the liberty ship Stell Traveller, after it had struck a mine. that's true (there’s just a typographical error)

[bru888]

Yes that is true; both sentences are correct by themselves (despite the misspelling of the ship name; I checked, as you see: it was an American ship so there is no call for a translation of "Steel Traveler" to "Stell Traveller" in some other language). But running them together like that in the same paragraph threw me off. No matter; I am already in the process of reconstructing the incident so that it flows better in its quadrant of the scenario: March 1943. I want to finish this scenario with La Combattante's participation in Operation Neptune which will be a fine lead-in to the next scenario, Operation Jedburgh.

[Mascarenhas]

Diadem 1

It´s being hard, but feasible; except for frequent freezings in my old bathtub. I have to restart it almost every other turn.

[ColonelY]

13OperationDiadem:

Another excellent scenario!

Major Victory achieved during the 29th turn...

(And I haven't had any freezing.)

So, trying to stay short:

-> East of "Lago San Puoto", you've a German AT unit stuck on its trucks on a mountain... Obviously it has to be moved. A useful way to do it may be to concentrate the defense in the eastern woods... the recon 1 hex southwards, the western infantry unit at the actual location of the artillery, this AT unit from its mountain to the position to cover 3 units (the recon + 2 inf), the art just a little "behind" all these, to cover them!

-> Along the road North of Vallecorsa, adding one or two MG-foxholes... (Possibility, once taken the enemy airfields and dealt with incoming Italians, to move South to stab the German from behind and potentialy close a "motti"! So, let's make this a little more difficult...)

-> "Earn Free French battlefield excellence": threshold up to 350? (Now: 250. A little more than 400 done at scenario end... the enemy should have around 148 land units now, which means - with the possibility of replenishing not to forget - around 1'500 points in total... that's a lot. It must remain reasonable but challenging...)

-> I see you've added more XP for our Indian Gurkhas, I suppose it's on purpose because they're elite units too... speaking of which:

-> The German Tigers should have at least some XP (2 stars at least, I would say, if you wish to give them less than other German units): even if these tanks may be new, their crews have certainly seen other battles...
-> The Gebirgsjäger Div was elite too (even if perhaps less than the paratroopers)... so, still +1 XP for them, up to even +2 for the "purely" Gebirgsjäger units?

-> Some German MG-foxholes near their airfields...

-> Perhaps the 44th and 71st German Infantry divsions start a little too much depleted (this will mainly result in a loss of RPs for the German faction, as these units be replenished by the AI, which will thus drain most of the initial resources)... perhaps starting at 7 or 8 instead of 5? At least for one division: the one closest to our troops, the one that's about to see some action sooner...

-> At the 22nd turn, a wave of enemy planes spawn, right above MY two airfields with hangars full of Allied planes... I'd several AA units nearby but it had hurt (even if all of them went to the ground a little later)... suggestions related to the air component:
1. Select the "off-map air supply" for the Germans, to help them on the "long" run if they have no airfield left...
2. Check (when turn > 20 or something) if the two AFs are still in German hands before spawning the planes. If not, I suggest spawning them instead more in the West, so closer to the NW corner of the map... (otherwise they may not look either as an "attacking" formation, being a little around like this)
3. Possibility to add some devastating counter raid (delayed by one turn?) from air once both German AFs have been captured (for the very first time, at least, if the battles last around these AFs): once both are taken, perhaps 2 or 3 Stukas spawning nearby escorted by a single enemy dogfighter, more or less in an attacking V-formation... (perhaps together with a little event)...

-> About enemy land units that could be added:
- One Flammpanzer III unit together with the 26th Pz Div? (Some flametank for once within this campaign. )
- Some (Italian looking) Semovente mobile art units here and there? (We'll still have the superiority in terms of artillery and according to this boardgame https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/10435/op ... es-cassino they had some with their "Assault gun Bn (Semoventes)".)


There are (much) too many turns available, but it would be nice to have feedback from other players too, and to take into account that the suggested modifications will slightly increase the difficulty of the scenario, for a better adaptation of this quantity of turns... But I think it can already be safely lowered to 40 turns instead of 60!


Et voilà !

[bru888]

Diadem 1

It´s being hard, but feasible; except for frequent freezings in my old bathtub. I have to restart it almost every other turn.

Masca, cheer up. In the next scenario, La Combattante, two of four quadrants are done and the maximum number of units on the map at any time is 16! (And 8 of those are inert.) A welcome change, no doubt.

Colonel, good feedback as usual. Working on it, plus there was something else that I realized during my walk.

[bru888]

Free France 1940-1945 v0.34 has been uploaded. It includes the following changes to the Operation Diadem scenario.

Free France 1940-1945 (thirteen scenarios)

- Reduced the number of turns from 60 to 48. Removed the last three rain episodes which occurred after Turn 48. Also adjusted the Turns Per Day so that the scenario goes no later than 4 June.
- Inserted effects in the Gustav Line divisions' retreat triggers to cancel their recapture VP orders. If these divisions are decimated, the intention is that they fall back to the Hitler Line instead.
- Rearranged German defences east of "Lago San Puoto" as suggested, more or less. Definitely, the AT gun/tractor is off the mountaintop. (Moved a bunker over to that position.)
- Moved "Earn Free French battlefield excellence" threshold up to 350.
- Corrected the oversight of zero experience for the Independent Tiger Tanks; gave them all the standard 6 XPs.
- Moved Gebirgsjäger units up to 8 XPs to match the Fallschirmjäger and Hermann Göring Divisions.
- The 44th and 71st German infantry divisions really were depleted; they actually were not part of the battle but I kept them around for gameplay balance. I left them at 5 strength but increased the German resource income to compensate them a little.
- Turned on "off-map air supply" for the Germans to allow for the unanticipated captured of the German airfield. Added the necessary air exit and deployment hexes.
- Tweaked the timing of the six Luftwaffe waves to fit into 48 turns and provided for the final four waves to arrive on the edge of the map.
- Added a Flammpanzer III to the 90th PzG Division and a Semovente 105/25 to the 26th Panzer Divsion with a popup message for each:

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Notes:
- No more foxholes (except near the German airfield — added two there). I want to emphasize the fanaticism of holding the Hitler Line. No retreat! So if the Allied player can punch through a section of the line, swing around, and attack from the rear, that's fine. (German supply shouldn't be an issue.)
- Yes, I gave Gurkhas and Colonial Infantry that are under the British India flag an extra star because of their 1943 status (most other units are 1944) but those under the Free France flag start at the standard 6 XP and have to earn their extra star (either in combat or by the land experience campaign variable).
- I definitely intend for the Luftwaffe to be a challenge; think of it as the Germans throwing in their last air resources to save the Gustav Line and Rome. (As it turned out, the Caesar Line between Gustav and Rome was not very formidable). So there is now more chance of seeing multiple Luftwaffe waves with the schedule compressed into 48 turns.
- Speaking of which, all of these changes are in favor of the AI/Germans, so I am comfortable with reducing the number of turns but only from 60 to 48, not 40.

[ColonelY]

Nice!

Looking for some cool facts to add few nice, historical and immersive events?

Here's few ideas, taken from a list of personalities who participated in the battle of Mt Cassino:

1. Corporal Wojtek of the 22nd Polish Supply Company... sort of a mascot! ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear) )

2. Alain Mimoun, French athlete winner of the marathon of the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956, seriously wounded in the foot by a shrapnel during the battle of Mount Cassino on January 28, 1944 (so the first battle, that is), he narrowly avoided the amputation of his left leg by American doctors and benefited from a successful operation by a French surgeon; he will also take part relatively soon after the landing in Provence (Operation Dragoon) ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Mimoun )

3. Ahmed Ben Bella and Mohammed Boudiaf, respectively first and fourth president of independent Algeria

Well, and what about (at least) this famous bear? It was with the Polish present at this battle...

[uzbek2012]

This mod is getting better and better ) )


Aviation Vichy " Armée de l'Air de Vichy"
https://reibert.info/threads/aviacija-v ... hy.102332/


http://france1940.free.fr/e41index.html

[bru888]

Well, and what about (at least) this famous bear? It was with the Polish present at this battle...

I will bare my soul to tell you that I could not bear to program this bear. This scenario bare-ly runs on Masca's machine as it is and it will not bear much more input. We do not want to bore the player with a bear. Therefore I must bar the bear. Otherwise, the player may need a Bayer (aspirin).

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This mod is getting better and better ) )

Thanks. Stick around. There is much more to come.

Any information on this photo? The file name contains "la-2e-compagnie-de-chars-501-rcc."

[uzbek2012]

This mod is getting better and better ) )

Thanks. Stick around. There is much more to come.

Any information on this photo? The file name contains "la-2e-compagnie-de-chars-501-rcc."

For this region, the parties had quite large forces. So, "Fighting France", despite the general lack of forces and means, kept in Nigeria, the 2nd separate company of the 501 tank regiment (~ 20 M3 tanks)

https://reibert.info/threads/aviacija-v ... hy.102332/

[ColonelY]

Played the last version of 13OperationDiadem:

The German flametank and Semovente mobile armored arty are a nice little touch but don't unbalance anything due to the amount of troops on this battlefield.

I've got a Major Victory even a little sooner (knowing already a little the scenario - MV during the 28th turn instead of the 29th, but 'could even have been during the 27th as then the last primary VP was no longer defended)... So we may have still too many turns at disposal... anyway, about this aspect, the feedback of other players would be welcome, I think.

Nice job, by the way, about the variation of enemy air units that we're about to face in this scenario!

Except maybe for the number of turns, I think this scenario is ready for good... Well, possibly another small addition: why not adding a Carro Armato P26/40 with Italian troops? (Deployed westwards or something.)

(This tank appears directly for both Italian and German factions... But I see as well an Italian model of "Carro Armato P43 bis", in principle only available unfortunately after this scenario. This one is much stronger than the standard Carro Armato P26/40.

But... how should this beast have been involved in the war?

According to wiki: ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P43_tank )
"The P43 was a proposed Italian heavy tank designed in April of 1943, it never left the planning stage and was developed parallel to the P26/40 tank."

Which DLC, campaign or scenario let this unit appear? However, it is in the list of available Italian units for OoB... )