21Indochina:
(
v0.65, 2nd test)
You’re right, it's much better with the Japanese destroyers active from the start -
they go straight to the attack in effect, which increases the impression of being in defensive mode, so that one is directly "plunged in".
And it's also much better with the Japanese planes spread out like this... they still have the luxury, from time to time, to target a "target of opportunity", without insisting, so it's all good. And we’ve more opportunities to keep some of the Free French dogfighters a little longer in these skies!
Very good also the couple fortress & Japanese detachment...
*******
The
randomness is great in itself,
but then the
luck factor can have a pretty big role to play... maybe
too big, in fact.
I usually don't trust luck too much, they say it's a capricious mistress... 
Look: In the short term,
Dien Bien Phu and
Son La, both in the southwest, are doomed. So are, in the southeast, the cities of
Ha Long,
Haiphong and, a little later,
Hai Duong... => So, 5 down out of 12, so
almost half of the towns to be lost, that can’t really be avoided.
But then it means that, there is then almost 50% chance to see no evac vehicle being spawned per turn… and, if the player gets a little unlucky, this can be like this several turns in a row. (I’ve encountered this situation this time!
)
Then, probably the bombers will destroy one or two of them (that’s excellent!
), and now this may happen at various places over the battlefield (instead of “only” in the East as in the previous version – so that’s even better!
)…
At the very last turn, I’ve seen one evac vehicle being spawn
at Hanoi 
, starting to move… and being directly ambushed by a Japanese infantry unit hidden between trees!
But so much in the South, at that time, it would have no chance at all to exit the map anyway…
At scenario end, there were three or four evac vehicles moving on the map… but only 16 out of 18 evacuated for good!
Well, I’m not really known for being a lucky guy!
(
)
Anyway, here is
bunch of suggestions about French evac:
1.
Delete both “Random trigger T35” and “Random trigger T36”, and perhaps even “Random trigger T34”… no real need to spawn a few of them that won’t have time to leave the battlefield anyway.
2. In case of the “Lose Border Crossings” (nope, I haven’t lost any of them!)… why setting an idle AI status?
One could instead use
a “move to hex” targeting the next closest border checkpoint. Ok, it’s rather unlikely to happen anyway, but there is no reason to then just sit down and wait death… they would try to find another exit, wouldn’t they? So, just in case…
3. To compensate for the “unluck” possibility (
doesn’t matter how good the player actually is, if it happens there is not much he can do), I’ll suggest to increase evac rate at some point… one way to do it would be to eliminate, from a certain point in time, the four towns that we’re sure they can’t be defended for long (namely the border towns Dien Bien Phu and Son La, as well as the coastal towns Ha Long and Haiphong). But, seeing the amount of “Random trigger” it wouldn’t be very nice for you…
Another option, coherent anyway on overall as there is NO indication in the pri obj description about the NUMBER of units possibly spawned per turn, would be to choose several turns around the middle of the scenario (3 or 4, but that don’t necessarily have to be taken in a row!), so to open the corresponding “Random trigger TXYZ” and to increase the amount from 1 to 2!
*******
Well, and one could
stop the enemy from getting
land reinforcement towards scenario end as well (
the 2 or 3 last turns, I mean). At that time, it makes less sense, as they shouldn’t have enough time anyway to reach actual fighting areas… (And may slow, a very little bit, of course, but still, the turns because unless the player does a decent amount of damages to Japanese units, there’ll be more and more that the AI will have to manage.)
*******
Having failed (
but not from much!) the pri obj, the scenario ended in a “Minor Defeat”, which lead then to a campaign defeat…
Well, well… But this has allowed me to make two observations:
1. Awesome choice for
picture, in case of a defeat!
Very immersive (and giving the envy to start immediately to do better!
).
2.
There is
this bug related to the campaign defeat text… I don’t remember where, but it has been mentioned somewhere in the Forum: now, one may encounter this text which comes from, well, I think it was from the
Pacific DLC… =>
It’s not the proper message (the phrase you’ve written, I mean) that appears there, but I don’t know if we can do something about this (I doubt it).
*******
Let’s forget about my previous suggestion related to bridge… the problem is that the player has to think about it, to move one unit able to blow up a bridge and to let it wait here when it’s the AI turn… and there may be some Japanese unit charging from some nearby trees and, in a single attack, doing a blasting attack against this unit of ours, making it retreat one or two hexes backwards… and thus missing the opportunity to actually blow the bridge, as being no longer over it!
And the fact that many hexes could contain enemy
hidden units make this tactical maneuver somewhat
aleatory... thus a risk-taking, in spite of a reflection which can be correct, which has great chances not to carry these fruits.
As consequence, probably simply "just" a gift of 10 extra RPs for the player… becoming less and less meaningful in this scenario…
*******
When I’ve played,
Hanoi was kept under control throughout the entire scenario.
Nghia Lo was lost only around the last turns of the scenario. But there was some concern about
Lào Cai (
threatened but never lost), with reinforcements sent in rather
urgently on that side.
Around
Lang Son, the fortress was destroyed, but the Jap detachment whipped out soon after that… and now the AT-unit near
Lang Son is perfectly relevant!
*******
To help the player a little bit, I’ll suggest two elements:
1. One could
blow up a bridge using triggers… If yes, which one? I would then suggest the one that seems most relevant: east of the city of
Son La (
evac town), there is a Black River flag... southeast of it, a bridge (about 7 hexes from Son La, then).
When? When Japs have taken Son La and have their first unit closing in at perhaps 2 or 3 hexes away (or even less!) from this bridge… Then, yes, a nice and immersive event would be welcome.
That shall definitely delay them a little: They can pass anyway, but slower, or use the bridge upstream or the bridge downstream (
which one is which? ), thus making a small detour...
2. One could
add 2 Free French MG-foxholes, in the western sector, on mountainous hexes… From
Lào Cai (
border town), if we follow the road westwards, we’ll find (at about 6 hexes away) a crossroads from which three roads start... just 1 hex southeast of there, there is a mountain... There, the first one!
Then, if we follow the road roughly southward, on about 10 hexes, we find another similar crossroads, close to another mountain... There, the second one!
They will offer a small visual on this sector as well as a support... that will delay a little the enemies while allowing to make them some damage.
*******
Then, well, I’ll replay this a third time, looking especially at evac numbers…
Speaking of which,
well, one last idea, perhaps. It might help the player, in terms of overview and clarity, to
add a counter of remaining evacuation towns.
For example with a new secondary objective: "
Don't lose all evacuation towns", starting enabled and checked directly, showing "
XYZ/12" and switched to failed only in the (
very unlikely) case if these 12 places have the Japanese flag!
Et voilà!
(