Scenarios

[springel]

I decided to go and play a scenario in COTA, but I had no idea what all those scenarios were representing.

So I started writing down their dates, and because I liked this overview, I post it here (Iraklion is mentioned as taking place in 1940, I assume this is a typing error):

40-10-28 Kalpaki
40-10-28 Pindos
41-04-10 Veve
41-04-14 Olympus
41-04-14 Platamon
41-04-17 Tempe
41-04-18 Elasson
41-04-23 Thermopylae
41-04-26 Korinthos
41-05-20 Iraklion
41-05-20 Maleme
41-05-20 Rethymon
41-11-19 Bir el Gubi
41-11-21 Sidi Rezegh
41-??-?? Malta
41-??-?? Sarantaporen

[Prince of Eckmühl]

Hi springel,

That's a somewhat tangled fabric to unweave because not all the citations are associated with the Axis conquest of Greece and Crete. Rather, the later dates focus on "North African" and "Invasion of Malta" efforts. As for the earlier dates, it's important to note that Italy started wars that it couldn't finish, with Greece and Britain, in 1940. And it was those debacles that led to German troops being introduced into the Balkans and North Africa in 1941 (so as not to lose their most dependable European ally to humiliating defeats).

[springel]

ORIGINAL: Prince of Eckmühl

Hi springel,

That's a somewhat tangled fabric to unweave because not all the citations are associated with the Axis conquest of Greece and Crete. Rather, the later dates focus on "North African" and "Invasion of Malta" efforts. As for the earlier dates, it's important to note that Italy started wars that it couldn't finish, with Greece and Britain, in 1940. And it was those debacles that led to German troops being introduced into the Balkans and North Africa in 1941 (so as not to lose their most dependable European ally to humiliating defeats).

Yes, I know, but this chronological ordering gave me a useful grouping, after which I discovered the structure of the four main story-lines: Italy-Greece, Mainland-Greece, Crete and North Africa.

I decided to start the Kalpali campaign from the Italian side, because I never saw this conflict covered in a war-game, except as a single counter in 3rd Reich . I guess I will discover why the Italian attack was a failure. I am happy to be surprised.

[springel]

Yesterday I played the Kalpali scenario from the Italian side. Very immersing experience. I didn't succeed in sending troops from the exit point, but conquered all objectives in the end, for a marginal victory.






Now I will have to go and read about the details of supply.

On my left, I infiltrated with an infantry battalion behind the Greek front line.
While I lost a couple of supply transports for them, I think it drew back a reasonable amount of Greeks from the front to help me conquer the border objective on my left, which offered stiff resistance. But of course I don't know what really happened, as the real Greek forces were hidden by the fog of war.

Although I put some garrisons along the supply lines, I was glad that there were no serious efforts by the Greeks to cut my supply, and apart from the mentioned infiltrated battalion I only lost one other supply train for an armoured spearhead.
But I have no idea how much of a loss that represents.

I have some questions about the movement rates as displayed in the right-click pop-up: even in the bottom of the valleys the slope is always show is something around 60%, which sounds excessive, while infantry movement-rates in open ground on slopes seems to vary inexplicably from 20% to 70%. I don't understand the logic there.

Another question: as I am slightly colour blind in the red-green, I have a very hard time to see the trails in the mountainous areas. Is there some mod around the makes these trails another colour than brown?


Here I found the area in Google Maps. I noticed that the North was rotated. So there is no game effect of Up and Down, which is good news for my intention to make a scenario in the Netherlands, where I need a rotated map to keep within the maximum map size.

[springel]

After playing this scenario, reading the manual, and checking the status of some units in a save-game of the scenario, there are some things I don't understand about command capacity and load:

I see a company that has no orders of its own having a command load of 4 (capacity is 1). Its fellow companies is in the battalion have command load 0, as I expect.

What is this command load of 4 representing?

The commanding Battalion that has a player order, has a capacity of 3 and a load of 3: it has 3 subordinate line companies and 1 subordinate MG Co, which totals to a load of 3.5, if I follow the manual.
Is that number rounded down to the value 3 that is shown in the display?

[Arjuna]

You need to be aware that there is a difference between the force structure types. In COTA we display the organic and Player structures but not the "current" structure. If you select a group of unit and give them an order then that group determines the player structure and this may be different than the organic one. Eg if you select an inf Bn HQ and two of its companies plus say an arety unit and an armoured unit, then its player structure and hence its load will be greater than just with the orgainic three companies. Similarly the AI when it is managing subordinates may allocate forces by cross attaching and detaching. This can end up with a structure that differes from the either the organic or player structures. In our example when the AI develops its plan it may assign two of the inf companies under the armoured unit and this may overload the armoured unit.