Afrika Korps beta test

Order of Battle is a series of operational WW2 games starting with the Pacific War and then on to Europe!

Moderators: Order of Battle Moderators, The Artistocrats

GabeKnight
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Posts: 3700
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by GabeKnight »

Andy2012 wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:53 am @Gabe, Erik: There is a new version? Guess I totally missed out on this.
:?: No idea what version you're playing, I've downloaded mine about a week ago: "Afrika Korps 1941-43 v3.6 19-2-2019", from the OP of "Erik's campaigns" thread
GabeKnight
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Posts: 3700
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by GabeKnight »

AK 3.6 / 8Herkules
You all were right, it's quite the difficult mission. All enemy units will swarm to the landing zones at once.... :lol:
But I guess Erik has tweaked the campaign a bit since then, because in no way this mission is "unwinnable".

I've tried a "split force" tactic first, going after both islands head on, but failed miserably after some enemy DDs wiped out my supply ships of the southern invasion force. And a Spitfire spawned every other turn down there, directly going after my Stukas. :roll: I gave up after 5-6 turns.
But the "combined arms" tactic worked very well here. First the big island, then the small one. Just keep the navy and airforce together. The turn limit's plenty, I took my time. Destroyed enemy arty and AA with naval bombardment first, then the invasion. No problems that way.
Great mission, naval/air/land battles mixed together are the best! Thanks, Erik! :mrgreen:

Screenshot 934.jpg
Screenshot 934.jpg (967.57 KiB) Viewed 3069 times

Although keep in mind, that I'm playing AK out of my mod. All enemy arty can attack ships (even heavy inf. mortars), DD movement is increased, and the subs deliver a mean punch. My submerged sub does about 3HP damage to the battleships/cruisers and I've received about 5-6HP damage to my carrier from an enemy torpedo. I like it this way. :twisted: Still, I've also got access to camouflaged commando units, cavalry and many units are switchable.

Screenshot 935.jpg
Screenshot 935.jpg (917.4 KiB) Viewed 3069 times

Some suggestions:

- I would give every town a small supply stash (3-5) to keep the AI units protecting them and change some AI units to static defending those, too.
- Don't know how this is set up, but maybe more "local defense" AI team orders would be better. With a smaller action radius.
- To allow for more diverse tactics, keep some of the deploy hexes (for land forces) on the water active till the end.
- The "capture airfields" sec. obj. won't check (=Minor Victory!), but the triggers worked and I've got my reward unit.

Screenshot 937.jpg
Screenshot 937.jpg (790.61 KiB) Viewed 3069 times
Mojko
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Posts: 572
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2014 8:04 am

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by Mojko »

Finished Alam El Halfa.

This was a very straightforward scenario with no surprises. Difficulty was quite easy, but I was a little bit caught off guard by the artillery rebalance. I had to remove some transports from my infantry to make room for my 2x 17 K 18 :wink: . Fortunately, this change didn't hit me too hard as my other 5 artillery units are the Italian ones, so I'm still good with my core. Some notes:

- all objectives completed, map wipe at turn 17, no losses
- there is a special enemy unit (radar) which doesn't do anything, I'm guessing related objective is missing here
- enemy is spawning airplanes on regular basis so it's quite important to actually hunt them down if you can
- I deployed 3 x Flak 88 & 4 x Lancia as AA support
- 3 Stukas and 1 Strategic bomber (Italian) didn't do much apart from the initial bombardment because of regular enemy airforce spawns
-> I'm really questioning if this is such a good idea to do
- since the rest of my air force were fighters the AA support wasn't really needed that much
-> 3x Flak 88 were mostly sitting near secondary objectives waiting for enemy counterattack which never came
-> 4x Lancia were used mostly in AT role supporting tanks, enemy will never attack tanks covered by Lancia units
- mines should be neutral

Overall pretty good scenario, but felt a little bit lacking compared to other missions. Onwards to Suez canal!
Author and maintainer of Unit Navigator Tool for Order Of Battle (http://mfendek.byethost16.com/)
GabeKnight
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Posts: 3700
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by GabeKnight »

WarHomer wrote: Mon Feb 04, 2019 1:16 pm IThe Arab volunteers are still undoable for me. They get slaughtered as they are so much weaker than regular units and I won´t reinforce them by air (if I even could).
Agree for 11Palestine. And as the attacking forces are paras, even cutting the supply to the north doesn't help.

And Erik, please, please, stop appointing those "vestigial" specialisations, mostly broken, to the enemy factions in your scens. This just can add unwanted frustration into your missions. In the best case they do nothing for the AI, in the worst case they can leave scens broken.
For example the Brit "Bomber Stream" spec's making adjacent strat. bombers basically invulnerable to all fighter attacks.

Screenshot 943.jpg
Screenshot 943.jpg (874.63 KiB) Viewed 2975 times

Also I'm not sure if the "Damage Control" and "Wolfpack" specs actually work okay for the Brits (but they might).
GabeKnight
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Posts: 3700
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by GabeKnight »

AK 3.6, 12Syria
I'll keep it short this time:

- the fail trigger for the prim. obj. "para" does not work
- the "Abwehr officer" recon plane spawned, but won't move to any destination; the obj. won't check complete neither, of course -> Minor Victory.
- all of the enemy airforce is completely idle

Sounded good in the briefing, but for now, the whole secondary "save officer" objective won't work like this.
GabeKnight
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Posts: 3700
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by GabeKnight »

AK 3.6, 13Iraq

- The sec. objective is "completed" from the start. I've checked, and you have to change the alliance/team setting. Now it points to the human controlled faction.

The enemy air reinforcements were incredible. Seriously....worse than in the Endsieg campaign...although I had more air CP available...I think those were the single really costly repairs I had to do in this mission. Good challenge. The land battle was rather "usual". :wink:

As always, the balance is pretty perfect for my playstyle. Well done, Erik, thanks.
Completed the objectives of the last 2-3 missions always during the last turns. Nice.
Erik2
Order of Battle Moderator
Order of Battle Moderator
Posts: 9478
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:59 pm
Location: Norway

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by Erik2 »

I'm collecting the reports as usual.
Mojko
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Posts: 572
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2014 8:04 am

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by Mojko »

Finished Suez canal scenario. Here are my notes.

- completed all objectives at turn 25, could map wipe as enemy was undersupplied at that point but I'm too lazy 8)
- no losses
- objective hold Sidi barrani seems pointless as there was no attempt from the enemy to take it
- there is also a group of enemy ships near Sidi barrani (2x BB, 1x Aircraft carrier & 1x DD)
- this group doesn't seem to do anything other then send 3 aircraft towards their certain doom
- it looks like there was supposed to be some sort of attack in the rear (either paras or landing) but this never happened
- knowing Erik's scenarios, I've send a quarter of my forces to guard the rear and also kept 6 air supply in reserve if I needed to deploy bombers
- this wasn't needed in the end
- enemy mines should be neutral, not under enemy control
- overall, pretty straightforward scenario, but enjoyable nonetheless

Should I also post replays now that the functionality is no longer busted?

I looked at the next scenario - the Palestine and it looks ridiculous :shock:

- the Arab volunteers are super weak (aren't they supposed to be trained to near Wehrmacht standards as mentioned in the briefing?)
- Arab volunteers should be replaced by Colonial infantry
- also please weaken the enemy around the pumps too, there are paras & heavy infantry, maybe some of these need to be replaced by regular infantry
- it's impossible to deploy your own paras because there are no ground deployment tiles on airfields
- remember that to deploy a para you need an airfield under your control with a ground deployment tile (you can't do it just in the forces menu)
- there are no forward air deployment tiles to actually deploy any paras forward
- alternatively add some limited ground deployment tiles near the pumps to represent forces that trained the arabs (infantry only)
- another option is to let player to decide if he wants to be able to send reinforcement via air or land to alter between these two options as both of them at the same time may be too strong

I'm going to hold off my playthrough until this scenario is improved.

Thanks for you hard work :D . Now I'm off to add a new feature to the Unit Navigator :wink:
Author and maintainer of Unit Navigator Tool for Order Of Battle (http://mfendek.byethost16.com/)
Andy2012
Order of Battle Moderator
Order of Battle Moderator
Posts: 1842
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 6:55 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by Andy2012 »

Aufklaerung 3.6 - I enjoyed this one and your changes make sense. I had a lot of CP undeployed since I went for an 'expensive units' core (Bersaglieri, three Wehrmacht tanks, Nebelwerfer, heavy arty etc). Also, the triggers work now and Tobruk cannot be taken. (At least by me.)
I couldnt get the last two cities on the eastern side (Bardia, Sollum?). I think movement restrictions there are too harsh, you should at least be able to assault them from Halfaya Pass and from more than one direction. Basically, 22 turns and these restrictions make it very hard to take them.
Otherwise, major improvement and very enjoyable.
Andy2012
Order of Battle Moderator
Order of Battle Moderator
Posts: 1842
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 6:55 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by Andy2012 »

Raas al Mdauar 3.6 - Was a favorite in Panzercorps and is one here. Minor issue: End trigger puts you on minor victory when you seize 6 objectives before taking out all tanks. Also, the trigger says "Seize all 6 objectives", but you can obviously finish without taking the last one in the northeast. (And taking out the last tank unit there). Otherwise, this version works well.
Andy2012
Order of Battle Moderator
Order of Battle Moderator
Posts: 1842
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 6:55 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by Andy2012 »

Operation Brevity 3.6 - havent finished yet, but saving all aux units seems quite impossible to me. The italian AT starts already surrounded and has no transport. On a side note, the SAS LRDG trucks are pretty powerful and should be nerfed a bit. Will post more later.
Andy2012
Order of Battle Moderator
Order of Battle Moderator
Posts: 1842
Joined: Sun Jun 14, 2015 6:55 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by Andy2012 »

Andy2012 wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2019 2:14 pm Operation Brevity 3.6 - havent finished yet, but saving all aux units seems quite impossible to me. The italian AT starts already surrounded and has no transport. On a side note, the SAS LRDG trucks are pretty powerful and should be nerfed a bit. Will post more later.
I just saw your update to 3.7. Thanks.
But since this is not included there: Operation Brevity secondary objective should be changed to 'keep at least two aux units per Wehrmacht and Italian army alive'. Right now, it is impossible to keep them all alive and it makes my core less valueable than the aux units, which is a bit absurd. Another thing: you calculated the supply so tight that when the British cut me off from the southernmost secondary city, I always fall in undersupply until I seize the 40 supply dump from the desert flanking group. Intentional?
Mojko
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Posts: 572
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2014 8:04 am

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by Mojko »

Finished Palestine (pre 3.7)

Very difficult scenario, but it can be completed if your execution is flawless. I still think that my suggestions before playing this scenario are correct. Here are my notes:

- completed all objectives
- no unit losses
- could easily map wipe, but I decided to go for objectives
- it's possible to defend the pumps if you put entire north sector off the supply
- this can be done by carefully positioning the arab volunteers
- it's also necessary to position them in a way that they can retreat as they will not stand up to a fight with a regular enemy
- keep 6 air points in reserve and deploy two bombers to support the northern group once you capture the airfield in the north
- once you cut the enemy off supply you are basically victorious
- I used the volunteer force to push to the south and capture two objectives
- take time with your main force and let enemy come to you
- I had a lot of fun with this one :D

See attached replay

Switching to 3.7 now.
Attachments
Palestine.zip
(20.25 KiB) Downloaded 71 times
Author and maintainer of Unit Navigator Tool for Order Of Battle (http://mfendek.byethost16.com/)
Erik2
Order of Battle Moderator
Order of Battle Moderator
Posts: 9478
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 12:59 pm
Location: Norway

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by Erik2 »

I've started on the next Afrika Korps list.
The never-ending-story :D
GabeKnight
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Posts: 3700
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by GabeKnight »

AK 3.7, 14Basra, lvl4

In the briefing you say: "Expect the unexpected!". You weren't kiddin'... :lol:
Great mission, had a lot of fun. Again perfectly balanced for my taste, (could've) finished somewhere during the last turns. Good RP balance on both sides this time, at least, I think so... or maybe I'm just getting used to finishing enemy units quickly to prevent repairs. Dunno. :wink:

- the prim. obj. markers do not point to the correct hexes; and there are seven VPs actually, not "all 6". You should include "Basra-6" into the count, it has a golden marker and you have to take it anyways. But that's super minor, plays just fine.
- but I'm not sure if the AI handles the the para action very well; some drops did not occur and the AI "parked" some of the transports at the map's corners or above some hexes without doing anything. It may even be connected to the enemy being under-supplied - and thus won't allow additional land units (?).
- it was the first real-life test of my FlaK-train. Thanks. :D

Screenshot 977.jpg
Screenshot 977.jpg (983.18 KiB) Viewed 2740 times
GabeKnight
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Posts: 3700
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by GabeKnight »

AK 3.7, 15Persia, lvl4

- the Soviets have the PAKFront spec? really?
- It's strange that the mines are not neutral. You do realize that they count as "full" units then, and besides the enemy units being free to drive through them, they will also recieve AT-support from anit-tank-class units, for example. It's kind of funny and deadly at the same time.
- you should add some RP between missions; the RP/turn amount is okay, though
- the trucks are quite speedy and reached the exit hex in bulks around turn 12-ish. Quite hard to get 'em. Also, you should change the fail-trigger to count for actually exited units only and not simply arriving at the exit-hex. That way I'll have extra time to destroy them because they can enter the hex one-by-one only. And maybe even reduce the overall number of trucks or start them in multiple waves after each other.
- I would add about 5 more turns to the scen
- Same issue as in the Germany Grand scenarios with the "do not lose X units" triggers. As of now, this trigger counts all units that have been destoyed in previous missions and are still in my "destoyed" tab. I would suggest to change it to another one.

Screenshot 986.jpg
Screenshot 986.jpg (959.81 KiB) Viewed 2654 times
GabeKnight
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Posts: 3700
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by GabeKnight »

AK 3.7, 17Arabia, lvl4

Played very good. A bit on the easy side maybe, but it's good contrast with the previous mission and a chance to save some RPs and/or upgrade units.

Except that there are eight sec. VP, not seven (it seems you forgot "Najran" in the count as well as in the obj. markers), everything else worked okay.
Thanks, I've enjoyed it very much! :D

Screenshot 987.jpg
Screenshot 987.jpg (810.9 KiB) Viewed 2645 times
GabeKnight
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Posts: 3700
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by GabeKnight »

Now I see the "Caucasus" mission was skipped because of the faulty victory conditions (no Major Victory) in 15Persia. I'll have to #nukes my way in :wink:

And I missed the whole "Alamein" branch after Halfa as well (draw/Minor defeat). Not to worry, though, I still have the old savegame files. Still, it would be nice to have some kind of campaign-branching-overview-chart.

AK 3.7, 18EastAfrica, lvl4

The sec. objectives in this mission need some work, Erik. My observations/suggestions:

- I have only one airfield at scen start giving 20 air supply and about 30 air CP to spend. That wouldn't be that bad, if I was able to capture myself a second airfield at some time early on, but I can't. How about some airstrip spawn after taking e.g. Berbera or a constr. group?
- there are no naval deploy hexes for my supply ships.
- the "Hold Berbera" objective won't check complete at mission end ( :arrow: the "Ax Berbera" is set to scen turn limit only; you'll have to create some kind of "early victory" condition to fix this)
- the "Ital. prisoners" objective only counts one exited vehicle and won't check complete. But the triggers look okay: Just change the trigger "frequency" to 3 or -1.
- the whole prisoners objective in conjuction with the turn limit doesn't work. I have no idea how this mission was initially designed to work, but it doesn't as it is:

The 22 turn limit's okay for taking the four main objectives. The Berbera sec. obj. is fun as well. But then:

1) the quite unexpected emergence of the "Nairobi" objective made me add about 5 turns with #overtime. Hadn't planned for that and needed time to move my troops down there. But I guess fulfilling this objective in time would still be possible with a restart of the mission (or lower difficulties)
2) it's impossible to escort the "prisoner transports" (another ADDED objective :!: ) to safety in due time - to the exit-hex on the whole other side of the map! The movement alone takes about additional 10-12 turns (including the three turns it takes them to enter the exit-hex) and there were no more enemy units on the map anymore at that time.

So, as said, I have no idea how the secondary objectives of this mission were supposed to work on the drawing board, but they do not in reality.
It was still fun. :wink: :D

Screenshot 988.jpg
Screenshot 988.jpg (681.58 KiB) Viewed 2602 times
GabeKnight
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Lieutenant-General - Karl-Gerat 040
Posts: 3700
Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2017 10:24 pm

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by GabeKnight »

AK 3.7, 16Caucasus, lvl4

- somebody mentioned this before, but you should remove the text "you must seize the mountain passes with infantry while using gliders to transport your heavy equipment beyond" from the briefing. It's not possible with OoB - don't know if it was in PanzerCorps. Due to this restriction and the narrow mountain passes, I believe you should increase the turn limit a few turns (3-5). It takes forever to get through with mechanised units with bunkers left and right...
- There are six prim. VP on the map, but the prim. objective says "capture all 5 objectives", which is a bit misleading
- you forgot "Yerevan" in the obj. markers

The 25 turns should be okay for middle difficulty (or a retry) for the scen as it is, but it's gonna be a tough fight. And if you really want all VPs captured, you should add at least 8-10 turns IMO. My suggestion would be to simply change the prim. obj. text to say "capture at least 5 objectives". That way the player can decide if he wants to go after Baku or Maykop.

Thanks, the mission plays great! :!: :D

Screenshot 989_2.jpg
Screenshot 989_2.jpg (950.94 KiB) Viewed 2578 times
Mojko
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Posts: 572
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2014 8:04 am

Re: Afrika Korps beta test

Post by Mojko »

Completed Syria on turn 14. Here are my notes:

- all objectives completed
- no unit losses
- could map wipe, but too lazy (4 turns remaining and very few enemy units)
- I kept some of my forces in reserve which I deployed in Aleppo once it was under my control
- I moved my fighters to the right to distract enemy fighters is the recon plane would have safe passage
- the enemy felt really weak in this mission for some reason and actually, my reserve forces were not needed
- also, I was able to link up with my paras really fast, I expected them to need to hold out much longer without my main force
- I think there should be an enemy reserve army somewhere that would attack Aleppo in few turns after capture
- also, the map could be larger so it would take longer for your main force the get to Aleppo
- of course turn limit needs to be adjusted in that case
- once again a mission where my 3 bombers didn't do much
- I kept them in reserve until enemy fighters were taken care of and then all they could do is to destroy the scumbag recon which tried to block my airfield (prevent the special recon unit from landing)

Overall pretty good mission. On to Bagdad!
Attachments
Syria.zip
(17.75 KiB) Downloaded 56 times
Author and maintainer of Unit Navigator Tool for Order Of Battle (http://mfendek.byethost16.com/)
Post Reply

Return to “Order of Battle Series”