Operation Mercury up for test & review

[louism]

Hello

The link below points to a campaign I finished a few days ago:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/59181599/LMCrete.zip

It is based on the invasion of Crete in 1941. It is a single player campaign of five scenarios.
It has little bits of everything except new 3D models.

It is the first version, released for review and testing. Comments are welcome.

- Louis

[pipfromslitherine]

I've taken a look and it is very cool .

Cheers

Pip

[Sleet]

Look forward to trying it out on the iPad. Thanks for the work sir!

[enric]

I'm in the second scenario. all look wonderful, it's a great job.

I found a issue but I think it's in BA, no in the scenario.
Panzerbusche adjacent to enemy infantry cannot fire at them because no line of sight!!.
In the second image the paratrooper has line of fire.

[pipfromslitherine]

There is some fiddly hill stuff going on there. My guess is that the Busche tile center counts as 'ground' while the allied tile counts as being high enough to be hill. That would explain the two situations.

Cheers

Pip

[louism]

The allied infantry is on a hill side. The panzerbusche is on a different side of the same hill. I think it is a normal feature that the LOS is blocked between the two units.

[enric]

I played the second and third scenarios (Malete and Counter Attack) I found them unbalanced, you need supermen here.
The Maleme is an interesting but near impossible attack.
The Counter Attack scenario is too unbalanced, the two 75mm playing indirect fire are demolishing units, when a unit is spotted next turn is killed or routed, I tried different aproaches but it's in my opinion impossible.

[louism]

Maybe I should have given a bit of warning first...
I wanted to do something difficult. Germany won that campaign by a hairline.
This is also the reason why the campaign is not "locked"; victory is not mandatory to move to the next scenario.

I win the 1st scenario less than 50% of the time. Scenarios 2 and 3 and difficult but not impossible; Now, I win them 100% of the time but I had to fine tune my strategy (and I guess that having designed the scenarios kind of place me in an advantageous position - not quite like cheating but close ) . 4 and 5 are easier.

A hint for "counter-attack": focus on the important victory points.

The point is noted and I will consider tuning down the difficulty.
You are right, the allied artillery is probably too strong. I will adjust that.

[enric]

A hint for "counter-attack": focus on the important victory points.

I tried this approach also, deployed just to defend the Hill and the Airfield, first 10-15 turn nothing to do (bored). But when they arrive my units all are demolished by the 75mm and the small tanks, bren, etc. The axis lacks AT units, just a Pazerbusche and 37mm, they both, after the first shoot, are demolished. Maybe removing the two 75mm the scenario will improve.
I do not like to play saving each time I got some kill or good position, this is not real. And also, in my opinion, a scenario should be playable the first time, i.e. the first time you play Counter Attack is near impossible to deploy well.

I'll take a look at the two last scenarios.

[junk2drive]

Don't forget that there is an Easy Mode. If you have the time, test this way as well, to make sure it is not too easy or still too difficult.

[morge4]

Have played through all the scenarios. Very enjoyable play but I do think the Allies are a bit strong in the Counterattack scenario. As others have posted...once the 37mm or AT rifle fire...they get plastered in the next turn. Took me twice before I won..and I lost the hill in the game I won but was able to retake after the reinforcements came in.

I can understand why Hitler ordered no more airborne invasions...Allies around every corner and winning was a hard thing for the Fallshimjagers on Crete.

Thanks for putting this together, I really enjoyed it!

[drjeff21]

Very cool. Thank you for your efforts.

[enric]

Another terrain issue,

The target tile is in rough ground, the German is attacking from open ground.
The adjacent tiles between them are open ground, and rough ground (hill).
The German infantry may assault but not fire...

[pipfromslitherine]

They are on opposite sides of the hill, so it makes sense there is no LOF between them. Generally you can think about LOS as being from the center of each tile, and so in this case the hill blocks.

Cheers

Pip

[enric]

Yes, but there are two adjacent tiles, one is open ground which is not blocking, and another is a hill tile which is blocking.
From center to center (attacking and target) there is only one point which is from both adjacent tiles, so that point blocks the LOS but not the assault between tiles. This is a little bizarre, I know this is a repeated affair but maybe it could be a better way to deal with hills.

[pipfromslitherine]

I agree. It's just that changing it now would affect every existing mission and layout. It's not entirely unheard of to not have LOF to a point, yet be able to move there.

Cheers

Pip

[enric]

In the last scenario, Road to Sfakia, the marker of exiting units, initially says 0/7 but the german units are 14, even if the trucks are not counted as units these are 8 combat units, probably indicates how many must exit.

At the end of the scenario, the markers was showing 11/7 and even so, the Failed message appeared. The missing units were 2 trucks and 1 scout. So more of the 50% requiered.

[louism]

In the last scenario, Road to Sfakia, the marker of exiting units, initially says 0/7 but the german units are 14, even if the trucks are not counted as units these are 8 combat units, probably indicates how many must exit.

Yes, 7 is the required number. It is possible to obtain 14 / 7. For now, the truck are counted as unit (maybe they can be used to drive over infantry... )

At the end of the scenario, the markers was showing 11/7 and even so, the Failed message appeared. The missing units were 2 trucks and 1 scout. So more of the 50% requiered.

I have been unable to reproduce that on my machine. I retried a few times just to be sure. In the script, there is a victory condition test at the end of every turn. For victory, 7 units must exit and the VP must be captured (the VP is on the exit point so that should not be an issue).
Do you remember at what turn the conditions were met? Have you managed to reproduce the problem?

[enric]

I tried to reproduce but no luck until now.
I'll try again tomorrow, I remember that I exited all units in the same turn, maybe this is the point.

Another thing I found is that British Scout (0) appear from the left, leaving his trench and makes an attack to the german forces, that is like a suicide. This happens every turn.

[louism]

I tried to reproduce but no luck until now.
I'll try again tomorrow, I remember that I exited all units in the same turn, maybe this is the point.

Another thing I found is that British Scout (0) appear from the left, leaving his trench and makes an attack to the german forces, that is like a suicide. This happens every turn.

A bug. The scout unit was not in the correct team.
Noted and fixed. The correction will appear in the version that will replace the current one probably tomorrow (along with a tuning down of the artillery in the 3rd scenario) .
Thanks. Keep them coming!