Bru's Scenarios

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Erik2
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by Erik2 »

Re Bismarck.

I guess this will be a single player scenario with the player in control of the German ships?
Then keeping them alive vs 68 enemy units should be a perfect challenge. Go for it boy! :D
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by bru888 »

Erik wrote:Re Bismarck.

I guess this will be a single player scenario with the player in control of the German ships?
Then keeping them alive vs 68 enemy units should be a perfect challenge. Go for it boy! :D
Actually, you are making me think, Erik. I was going for the British side to be human, hunting for the monster Bismarck and its "little brother" Prinz Eugen before they escape/decimate allied convoys but now I'm considering the opposite; a desperate race to escape against the odds. (What the heck were the Germans thinking, sending out just a battleship and a heavy cruiser without any destroyer or submarine escorts?)

Anyway, these are some of the notes that I took while planning to be British human. Any suggestions for this side, or as the human German side, are welcome.
Bismarck and Prinz Eugen to appear randomly in one of three areas. Then to disappear at times and need to be found again?

Make British warships comparatively weaker than German ships. Introduce them in stages by spawning them at certain times. Point is to try to replicate the hunt/battle without it ending too soon as it is likely to do if faced even with only a couple of British warships. Boost Bismarck/Eugen health a bit once or twice?

Goal is to either protect allied convoys on the map (German ships take too much time to destroy? What about escorts?) or prevent the Bismarck from escaping to exit hexes on the south edge of the map. If the latter, mention destruction of allied convoys, etc., and the scenario is lost.
- Bru
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by uran21 »

bru888 wrote:What the heck were the Germans thinking, sending out just a battleship and a heavy cruiser without any destroyer or submarine escorts?
Destroyers were not suitable for open Atlantic waters. Subs were called for assistance and made ambush position south of Greenland.

Point of sending Bismarck without Tirpitz being ready was due to approaching Barbarossa. It was only time when "something" could be done with navy before all eyes point on Eastern Front. Such 2 ship expeditions were successfuly sent before and if this one followed along lines there would be more to come. It all looked perfect on paper... an than "obselete" Swordfish hits a rudder.

Point of successful travel until French coast was reached was in hiding in wastes of Atlantic Ocean.

From the point of historicity in games it is rather full of movement while avoiding combat (boring) or facing undurable challenge (overwhelming) so some distorsion of reality is in order. And when you come to that there are so many possible "corect" ways to go.

Anyway outline the skeleton idea, try it and you will get even better idea.
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by bru888 »

uran21 wrote:
bru888 wrote:What the heck were the Germans thinking, sending out just a battleship and a heavy cruiser without any destroyer or submarine escorts?
Destroyers were not suitable for open Atlantic waters. Subs were called for assistance and made ambush position south of Greenland.

Point of sending Bismarck without Tirpitz being ready was due to approaching Barbarossa. It was only time when "something" could be done with navy before all eyes point on Eastern Front. Such 2 ship expeditions were successfuly sent before and if this one followed along lines there would be more to come. It all looked perfect on paper... an than "obselete" Swordfish hits a rudder.

Point of successful travel until French coast was reached was in hiding in wastes of Atlantic Ocean.

From the point of historicity in games it is rather full of movement while avoiding combat (boring) or facing undurable challenge (overwhelming) so some distorsion of reality is in order. And when you come to that there are so many possible "corect" ways to go.

Anyway outline the skeleton idea, try it and you will get even better idea.
Thanks for the advice, uran21. This project is down the road a bit; I hope to finish "The Aleutian Crisis" after the new editor comes out with the next patch. Then I will begin outlining "Sink the Bismarck" per your suggestion and I will post the outline here, inviting more suggestions and commentary.

This will be a new approach in scenario designing for me in that "Oahu Invasion" and "The Aleutian Crisis" are semi-fictional; "semi" in the sense that there is at least some historical background but I was able to inject a bit of fun into them by creating what I hope are interesting "what if?" challenges. "Sink the Bismarck" will be my first attempt to fully re-create history but still make it challenging and fun to play.

Hence a more open-forum approach for this one. Even so, "Sink the Bismarck" could yet fall flat on its face - we'll see.
- Bru
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by uran21 »

To give you more concrete advice if you want to go with the line of history. First make research and highlight most interesting events (relating to combat or important positioning). Than compare how size of the map and boring wastes of Atlantic are doing you disfavour. Cut those parts. So you will get sequence of interesting events. Of course leave some room for manouver. When it comes to British units include only those that acctually made contact with the enemy and than you can "average" them even more if neccessary. Also important thing you want to ask yourself is do you want to create recreation of historical story following historical events (in detail) where player can perform better than historically or you want to make historical setting with open hands for the player where his interactions are going to write another story.
This answer will significantly influence your further decisions. Take into account combining historicity and gameplay always takes more time and effort than just going for gameplay. Also going with the path of history will undoubtetly create conflict with the gameplay. In such situations gameplay always wins and there are several posible approaches then. This is why I do not belive in "historical accuracy", I like to call it inspired by history. This posibility of several approaches to the same problem is the reason why content inspired by history gets low appreciation when it comes to evaluating "historical accuracy". Everyone has its own view and everyone thinks how his approach is , not different, but just better. Motivation for such work needs to be intrinsic and do not loose gameplay from the sight.
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by bru888 »

Thanks again for more very valuable advice. I will be posting here again in the near future once the new scenario editor has been released.
- Bru
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by bru888 »

With the scenario editor that comes with 4.1.1, "The Aleutian Crisis" is back in production. The issue with the file has been cleared up I am ready to go back to work.

My sincere thanks go to the two gentlemen who helped me out of my own crisis over this.
- Bru
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by calmhatchery »

wow!! very interesting theatre! I like this idea!!!
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by bru888 »

calmhatchery wrote:wow!! very interesting theatre! I like this idea!!!
Thanks. First things first, though. I am currently updating my Scenario Editor guide and I will be restoring it soon to the Design & Modding Guides sticky thread.
- Bru
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by koopanique »

Nice, good luck with your endeavors, the Bismarck seems like a very interesting scenario!
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by bru888 »

bru888 wrote:Thanks. First things first, though. I am currently updating my Scenario Editor guide and I will be restoring it soon to the Design & Modding Guides sticky thread.
This is done. Actually last things first according to my list of things to do above, but much better this way.

The manual is updated for version 4.1.7 and is much more comprehensive and accurate in dealing with triggers now that I know more about them. Go to the Design & Modding Guides thread or directly here.

Next a look at Oahu Invasion to see what I can update about it with my newfound knowledge. To be reissued as version 2.0 perhaps. :wink:
- Bru
Erik2
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by Erik2 »

Thanks, Bru.
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by best75 »

bru888 wrote:
bru888 wrote:Thanks. First things first, though. I am currently updating my Scenario Editor guide and I will be restoring it soon to the Design & Modding Guides sticky thread.
This is done. Actually last things first according to my list of things to do above, but much better this way.

The manual is updated for version 4.1.7 and is much more comprehensive and accurate in dealing with triggers now that I know more about them. Go to the Design & Modding Guides thread or directly here.

Next a look at Oahu Invasion to see what I can update about it with my newfound knowledge. To be reissued as version 2.0 perhaps. :wink:
Thanks for the updated manual, there some thing in the editor that were unclear so this will help a lot.
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by bru888 »

best75 wrote:Thanks for the updated manual, there some thing in the editor that were unclear so this will help a lot.
I just updated it again for two things: How to place airborne troops in flight on the map (using a Spawn Trigger at Scenario Start) and what I just learned about the second Variable Name box that is now available for a Check Scenario/Campaign Variable condition.

I am making good progress on Oahu Invasion and should be reissuing it soon. It definitely will be version 2 because I have made one big change in eliminating an AI alliance (USARMY). This made for some extra work in that when you eliminate an alliance, it can reset other alliances that were set for missions and triggers because the array of alliances is now different.

Still, I think it will be a good thing and Oahu Invasion will be better than ever.
- Bru
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by bru888 »

bru888 wrote:I think . . . Oahu Invasion will be better than ever.
I know it is. I posted Oahu Invasion Version 2 just now. Here is a list of improvements:

#1) I removed the [USARMY] AI faction and placed its units under human player control, which speeds up the AI turn (less thinking). There are more units for the U.S. player to manage, of course, but the Japanese take care of many of them in the first few turns anyway. Also, 10 U.S. units were removed from play; 7 temporarily and 3 permanently. The good news is, the player now can decide for himself how to use these former [USARMY] AI units.

#2) I improved the Japanese supply situation in the beginning of the scenario and, lo and behold, look how sprightly the Japanese army units are now! In the first version, I was relying on them to conquer supply points, which they do, but they did not recover efficiency quickly enough, if at all. Now that is not a problem. Beware! :evil:

#3) As a result, I was able to shave off 10 turns from the scenario. 50 turns are quite sufficient now.

#4) The second U.S. primary objective, "Take back the Island of Oahu," is delayed until it becomes meaningful. A popup message has been added to call the player's attention to a new objective.

#5) Speaking of popup messages, there are quite a few more now, announcing what I hope are interesting occurrences. Gone, however, are the final repeated orders. If you weren't paying attention the first couple of times you were issued orders (briefing and turn 1), that's too bad! :wink:

#6) I streamlined the C47 Skytrain airborne troops module. It actually works! I think. :|

#7) Also perfected, I hope, is the 27th Engineers episode. God knows how I rehearsed it over and over. :roll:

#8) There is now another naval battle in the scenario to add a bit of interest and fun.

#9) Scenario-ending conditions have been improved to allow for earlier victory. Instant defeat is still in there, of course.

Enjoy. Be sure to read my '"Oahu Invasion Scenario Playing Tips" but only up to the point where it mentions spoilers, if applicable. Now I will work on "The Aleutian Crisis" which is about half-done.
- Bru
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by bru888 »

So, I wanted to create an enemy messenger boat but the problem is, the Japanese Navy (as currently replicated in OOB) does not have a suitable small boat. A messenger (actually, a defector offering information on how to locate and eliminate his fanatic leader) would not be arriving in a gunboat or amphibious tank. Only the Shinyo Suicide Boat is the proper size but we all know what that craft is for, don't we?

Also part of the plan was to unlock and assign a "commander" (in this case, just a face and a name) for the defector but you cannot do so for a unit that you are also spawning. The unit that receives the commander must already be on the map.

This enemy messenger boat thing is part of a bigger plan to give the player an early choice to either seek a quick ending to this part of the scenario (there's more coming) or to slug it out to the bitter end. If the player chooses to "Talk" to the defector, things will happen differently then if the player chooses to "Battle" instead.

Hmmm. Why not put a Shinyo Suicide Boat on the map and if the player chooses to "Talk," assign the commander to it and change it into a Jap-owned PT boat with benign tendencies (Ignore Enemy)? Otherwise, if the player chooses to "Battle," then leave it as a suicide boat and let it do its thing.

That's what I did. You may be interested in this test scenario to see how:
Enemy Messenger Boat.zip
(429.32 KiB) Downloaded 221 times
- Bru
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by best75 »

I started playing the first 10 turns Oahu invasion scenario and being quite a large map it was quite daunting at first. I really liked the detail put into the scenario. Like the interesting choice with the engineer on retreating or blowing up the bridge and risking destruction.

A question, where are the Oahu Invasion Scenario Playing Tips you mention?
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by bru888 »

best75 wrote:I started playing the first 10 turns Oahu invasion scenario and being quite a large map it was quite daunting at first. I really liked the detail put into the scenario. Like the interesting choice with the engineer on retreating or blowing up the bridge and risking destruction.

A question, where are the Oahu Invasion Scenario Playing Tips you mention?
Thanks for your interest. Yes, that's why one of the things I mentioned in the Scenario Editor manual that I put together was this:
Capture151.jpg
Capture151.jpg (188.06 KiB) Viewed 20075 times
Now, you would think that I'd follow my own advice, yes? But, no! The Aleutian Crisis will be just as big a map and complex a scenario. :roll:

But, if you are willing to spend the playing time for this and Oahu Invasion, I believe (hope) you will be rewarded. :)

Anyway, to answer your question, the Oahu Invasion Scenario Playing Tips file is in the scenario folder (this is how it appears in Google Drive but you would look in the folder on your computer, of course):
Capture150.jpg
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And, for your convenience, I attached a copy of the file to this message. You should read these tips because, among other things, it has some suggestions for speeding up game play.
Oahu Invasion Scenario Playing Tips.zip
(2.94 KiB) Downloaded 224 times
- Bru
best75
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Re: Bru's Scenarios

Post by best75 »

20 turns in and the defense of fort shafter on the east is going well. In the north my units around schofield barracks and Wahiawa are nearly gone but they did their job delaying the Japanese. I must say the Japanese units are really aggressive. Good news is I just destroyed all Japanese supply ships. Now hopefully the tide will start to turn in my favor now they can't reinforce.
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