AK: Dash to the Wire

[VPaulus]

Please post here your comments about this scenario.

[Razz1]

Severe defeat in this one

Colonel level

I read the pop up and could not figure out why you wanted armor units at hex A.

It seemed dumb to abandon any hope of defense to go into the middle of the desert.

Having all hexes filled with armor units is expensive.

I never did find the depots, even after the hexes were filled.

Once again, the ability to script the game to center on a hex in the editor would be valuable.

I had no idea where the dumps were until after the game.

I started this scenario on one day and went back the next.

The lack of ability to pull of the objectives in pop ups is a major flaw in the game.

I'm not sure the pop up said, move all armor units to location A to reveal supply dumps.

[monkspider]

Dash to the Wire
Starting prestige 2100
Ending prestige 950
Losses: 1x German Recon
Marginal Victory turn 18/18

This scenario was reasonably balanced in terms of difficulty I thought, I found holding the objective hexes to be moderately challenging but didn't seem to be unfairly so like earlier scenarios. However, I had no idea what the supply depots were. I saw some areas marked "A" but if you mouse over them they are just labelled "desert". I managed to occupy these hexes until the end of the scenario without much difficulty but nothing ever happened. Were these the supply depots or just random mislabeled hexes? In any event, it seems the decisive victory conditions are either broken or else need a great deal more clarity.

[Razz1]

As far as I know the ammo dumps did not appear in the map. If they did I did not notice them in the mini-map.

Since the map did not center on the supply depot hexes, I was blind. There was no clue as to barb wire or any sort of wire.

On the second try, I had a DV on turn 11 of 18 but it did not trigger.

At the end of the game I destroyed 4 supply dumps and had all of the objectives, but yet only a marginal victory.

Kind of hard to play a strategy map when you have no clue where the front is or the big picture.

[billmv44]

General Level. Starting Prestige 1689, ending 788.

This was a more balanced scenario. I was able to hold the objective hexes with relatively minor (compared to previous scenarios) problems. Once I dealt with the British armor attempting to relieve Tobruk, I was able to concentrate 4 units on the hexes marked A as directed by the pop up. The game doesn't specifically tell you where they are just "towards the wire". Knowing this, I included a recon unit in the forces searching for them. I was able to find the 3 supply dumps and destroy them. DV on 18 of 18 - lost one Italian tank and several units were severely weakened. I'm down to 2 Italian units (1 artillery and on infantry). These scenarios eat prestige quickly as I find myself having to re-strength units fairly often. So far, this was the most balanced scenario - not too many Matilda IIs to deal with.

[dthomas561]

I thought it was just me but I see now that this was confusing scenario. I saw the A spots but had no idea what to do with them. I occupied them and nothing happened so then I left them open and still nothing. I don't know if the 4 aircraft hanger looking objects were the supply depots. I liked the scenario fighting at Tobruk and the scale of the map. Too bad the objectives were so confusing.

[Mountaineer]

Early post. I am on turn 7 playing colonel level. I have 5 units in the circle A area and I hold all objectives. WIll it just play out until turn 18?

I also had a strange pop up state something similar to "waiting on men to assemble before starting operations." I have no idea what that is related to.

[Mountaineer]

I thought it was just me but I see now that this was confusing scenario. I saw the A spots but had no idea what to do with them. I occupied them and nothing happened so then I left them open and still nothing. I don't know if the 4 aircraft hanger looking objects were the supply depots. I liked the scenario fighting at Tobruk and the scale of the map. Too bad the objectives were so confusing.

Same result

[Mountaineer]

Okay, played it a 2d time. I captured and help all objectives, and destroyed 4 supply dumps. End result: MV! I liked it once I figuredd it out. As I finished turn 18 I was ready for the next fight, until the MV poped up.

[Razz1]

I'm not sure the DV triggers in this scenario.

It didn't for me.

I suppose I could check the editor.

[Blathergut]

DV on turn 18, general level (very little prestige left at end, @300).

-nice little capture treat ..thank you!
-scenario seemed fairly easy all in all, by about T13 I had captured/held all victory hexes and destroyed 4 dumps
-by T17 I was coming in around behind the Brits on the coast road
-the matilda coming out of Tobruk was a pain, but, the Brits seemed to be attacking to the west of Tobruk for no apparent victory hexes
-the A area was a tad confusing...I thought the supply dumps would be there at first...then realized I had to assemble there to get the next pop up

[Blathergut]

Okay, played it a 2d time. I captured and help all objectives, and destroyed 4 supply dumps. End result: MV! I liked it once I figuredd it out. As I finished turn 18 I was ready for the next fight, until the MV poped up.

Did you hold the victory hexes around the east of Tobruk?

[produit]

FM, cleared the whole map and capture every hex, not counting Tobruk.
I was even able to kill the two forts from the east of Tobruk and the two standing artillery behind. Capturing Tobruk would have required 10+ more turns... I think that was the designer goal

Having to divide your force between Tobruk and the south east assault is stressing and lead to a nice map to play.


A specific point, a unit (crusader) appear in the middle of my troops (turn 11, 39/19). I had already captured the airport near to it...

[uran21]

Excellent feedback!
Explaining victory conditions failed, more than that it was total debacle! But I am not concerned, once when we set this right it will be a very nice dynamic scenario
that can be explored with different approaches. There is a whole gold mine beneath it.

So it goes like this: player should move at least 4 units into assembly area (marked as A). You have 5 turns to do it otherwise Supply Dumps will not appear and you will never be able to achieve decisive without it. This is the flavour of it, one needs to move part of his mobile force away from main fighting weakening his presence around Tobruk. Dumps should be searched for and destroyed and by the way their placement on the map is randomized so it will be on different places every time but in the same, lets call it, "area". Once when you do that you go back to assist rest of the force. Or one could trigger appearance of it and deal with it later.
There are also some other Hangar (this is how this new structure unit is called by default) but they are placed on totally different location and bring rewarding reinforcements into the core. This is for explorers but I see there is confusion because they remind on your main target but they are actually not. There are some other captured equipment lying around.

Informative part on this one will be a real challenge!

[uran21]

A specific point, a unit (crusader) appear in the middle of my troops (turn 11, 39/19). I had already captured the airport near to it...

This tank should appear on hex 40,19 on turn 10 or later if some unit was on top of it. Town in 41,18 Buq Buq should be in Allied hands and no Axis unit blocking supply of the mentioned town. This is a way to trigger reinforcements by simulating AI purchases. Its trigger condition is set for flag in the town to be Allied one and no Axis units adjacent to town.

[produit]

A specific point, a unit (crusader) appear in the middle of my troops (turn 11, 39/19). I had already captured the airport near to it...

This tank should appear on hex 40,19 on turn 10 or later if some unit was on top of it. Town in 41,18 Buq Buq should be in Allied hands and no Axis unit blocking supply of the mentioned town. This is a way to trigger reinforcements by simulating AI purchases. Its trigger condition is set for flag in the town to be Allied one and no Axis units adjacent to town.

I cannot really remember how were my units. I had at that time an Italian Infantry, a Tank and an artillery. I had perhaps a unit on both side of the city, but I did not have captured the city yet. The Crusader must have appeared on hex 40,19 and attack my artillery from hex 39/19. It was surprising, as it must have appear between my infantry and my tank... Perhaps you should extend the trigger...

[LostAgain]

Playing at FM level. This is the first scenario I found both entertaining and challenging. The "prizes" were a very nice surprise as well, and I was pleased to see that half of a suggestion I put forward waaaay back in about 1940 in the eastern DLC about both capturing aircraft and SE aircraft was used! Now that you've got SE aircraft, how about thre other half of my suggestion? Capturing enemy a/c by occupying an enemy air field with a/c present on it? Just a thought...

THIS is more like what I anticipated AK would be like! Welcome back, at least in my humble opinion. I hope the prize option is kept and used again (soon?), as this force augmentation is already Axis equipment without upgrading and complimented my existing core.

My one complaint is that I did find the instructions regarding "the wire" rather confusing. I assumed initially that occupying the spaces labelled "A" was tantamount to capturing the supply dumps, so I was rather confused when after having done so I came across a supply dump!

[Erik2]

Assembled armor at all A points and had the panzers stay there for one full turn. No further popups and therefore no way to find the supply dumps. Otherwise a balanced scenario.

[Longasc]

5. Dash to the Wire
Field Marshal, all options checked
Start Prestige: 3197
Bought/Upgraded: IIIH->IIIJ, Ju87R->D
Prestige at turn 1: 2969
Losses: PzJager IB, some Aux units
Captured: Crusader
End Prestige: 2071
Result: MV 18/18
Comments:
I thought the "A" fields would be the depots... I didn't capture them. I captured all other objectives except Tobruk, where the defenders valiantly sallied and made me a lot of trouble. I really liked this map, but I got confused by the "A" symbols on the map, I totally misunderstood the depot objective for a decisive victory. All in all maybe a little too easy without the extra objective, allied airpower was surprisingly weak this time. Very nice map! Captures the "Africa" feeling and mobile nature of the campaign with several hotspots. Very Rommel-style! But please do a thorough spell check for the briefings and popups before shipping this, lots of typos and other mistakes.

[Zhivago]

I've been screwing around with a couple of the AK scenarios using the all eqp code and upgrading all of my equipment to the best German units possible (ME 262 fighters, DO 335 bombers, Tiger II tanks, Jadgpanther anti-tanks, Stug 42 arty, Pionere 43 units, etc. Interestingly, even though I continue to play on FM level, the battles are not that lopsided. A 10 or 11 strength Tiger II usually cannot completely kill a matilda II. Also, heavy armored units attacking UK ground units are not very effective without some kind of arty suppression. ME 262s can mop up the skies, but the other air units do not seem to be that overwhelming. Maybe I'm just used to playing the DLC East scenarios and rolling over the Russian units, but the UK units are very tough, especially in the desert terrain. New (year appropriate) German units seem quite disadvantaged in a lot of the AK scenarios. Not sure how to toughen them up.

I was kind of hoping that the devs would develop some kind of software tie-in program where a player could start building a core of units in 1939 and 1940, and when 1941 comes along, a decision could be made to continue in Europe, or go over to Africa. This would be one way to start AK with experienced German units.

Interestingly, I got an SE air unit. I went to upgrade it (again in all eqp mode) and the most advanced SE fighter available is the FW 190. The all eqp cheat code is also handy for exploring all of the new equipment available for the Axis powers in the AK expansion.