Matrix Games Forums

For the last week or so I have been working, by pure coincidence, on a scenario taking place during the 101st Airbourne landings on D-Day. It strikes me that today, of all days, is the perfect time to release.

Here's the scenario description:

It's shortly after midnight on 6th June 1944, and the fate of the world will soon be decided. Around 13,100 paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne Divisions will drop on the Cotentin Peninsula tonight, beginning the largest invasion in history and, with it, the fight to liberate Europe from the scourge of Nazism.

Much of the night's fighting will take place North of Carentan, behind a strip of coast that will be forever immortalised as Utah Beach. Men of the 101st Airborne must secure key "exits" to allow the main invasion force to leave the beach and move inland. Elsewhere, German artillery emplacements threaten the approaching landing craft and key crossing points must be secured.

Whilst the 7. Armee waits unawares below, a storm gathers above the landing zones. And so it is that the men of the 101st find themselves scattered, disoriented and with the clock ticking...

More information, including details of the historical sources that I used can be found on my blog. I can't post links here, but a Google search for "Ubiquitous Game Creative" should take you there.

Feedback is, of course, welcome.

The scenario is attached to this post, or can be downloaded at http://ubiquitousgame.wordpress.com/201 ... airbourne/.

And here's a screenshot...

Nice! I'll check it out when I get a chance.[8D]

Nice job indeed. Map looks great!

Can you post a link to your blog?

Thanks
Rick

No, I'm afraid I can't. The forum rules are: no links before 7 days after your tenth post. You should be able to find it with a quick Google search.

Hi,

it says I need a newer version to load this. I am running version 4.4.263

I have read posts about a 4.5.265, but I can not find it. The updater says I have the newest version.

I run version 4.6.278, which you can download by going to the Matrix Games homepage and logging into the Members' area.

Fantastic, Ubiq. Great job. Will certainly try to play it this weekend.

Peter

Looks awesome ubiquitous [&o]

Do I understand these scenarios are not compatible with the last patch?

The british and Carentan maps are wonderful, btw.

Haplo. To make the map compatible (with whichever version you have) then open it in Mapmaker (it will take a long time to load) then overwrite save it ('save as' and pick the file you just opened - asks you to overwrite, hit yes). Done. You can draw the cache in mapmaker too, then save again.

Thanks! [:)]

Though that said I just ran the Carentan one and it seemed to load fine as is, without 'conversion' via the process above (I'm on .279).

[edit]

Everything works fine with .46279!

Ubiq. I finally got round to properly trying out this scenario, playing Allies. I have a couple of questions:

1. Did you alter the unit and leader stats at all, for the Allies, or just leave them generic?
2. Is it intentional that the Allies can get no supply throughout the scenario? Even though you have allocated 100% supply in the supply drop down, there's no SEP there from which it could come, and no base for it to go to.

Hey Phoenix,

1. I at least lowered the cohesion of the paratroops, but looking again at the scenario it seems like I didn't change much else. I wanted to put out a new version of this scenario anyway now that I figured out how to change the map textures, so this might be a good excuse to also fix the stats. Do you have any particular requests?

2. This was deliberate. The scenario last 12 hours and for most of that time the Allies have only paratroopers behind enemy lines so resupply didn't seem realistic. Do you think that causes game play problems? You're right to say that if there is no supply route then the side's supply should probably be set to zero--that was an oversight on my part.

I should say that I play-tested this scenario a couple of times, but I would be interested in hearing general views on the overall balance.

I've played it through once so far, as Allies, and got a draw. But I wasn't paying proper attention, I think, as I somehow hadn't noticed the 7am expiry on the causeway vic locs.....I'll try and again and concentrate better! The sheer volume of points available from alternative sources is interesting. IT means you could get 100 without taking the causeways, maybe, and certainly get 100 by just taking the causeways, which would mean how well you do depends upon what the Axis is tasked to do. I haven't looked at that yet, as don't want to spoil it for myself.

I adapted it by randomising all the commander and unit stats, applying a 10% random factor and setting most things around 70 or 80% for both sides. I also gave the paras 200% starting ammo as I was worried about them running out with no base and SEP. I think you could put a base and sep in to try to represent the fact that they would surely not have only had what they were capable of carrying? (Actually, I don't know if this is true). Would some paras not have been dropped with a small supply stock, and responsibility for distributing it? I agree, it would look odd, however, if there were trucks running around. Maybe it will work on 100% supply without a base. I'll let you know. Map is great. Be interested in your improvements. Thanks!

***SPOILER ALERT: D-DAY LANDINGS BY UBIQUITOUS***

Hey Ubiq. Played through again with your stock scenario, unmodded. Got a draw again. This time we both got 100VPs. This seems odd - that both sides should achieve full points and hence draw. I think this set up needs tinkering with a little. Intuitively, I would like it to be harder for one side to get 100 VPs if the other side does - for there to be a relation between what each can do in terms of VPs. It says in the briefing that the priority is the causeways, so I think if I manage to get, say, 2 out of 4 of them under control, then I ought to win and it ought to be set up so that the Axis tries to contest that, and if they manage to successfully contest it then I lose. Just my thoughts on it, of course. As it is, I can - as I did in the pic below - put nearly all my force into grabbing one causeway and one other lesser village objective (plus the 'given' of Utah beach itself) and get 100 points and still only draw, because the Axis can grab, uncontested, enough other objectives (that I'm not going for at all) to also get 100 VPs. It's an interesting set up, as it is, because I feel I will continually be left puzzled as to how to win. I'm not even sure it would be possible, for either side, because there are so many rich points opportunities, and so few forces available. That might, indeed, even represent a rough historical accuracy, but from the point of view of a 'game' I would prefer if the AI had to stop the beach troops getting across the causeways, say, and the paras had to grab the causeways, and victory, for either side, depended on that. It's easy enough for me to change myself, but I thought I would let you know, anyway. Enjoyed it, however! Thanks again!

Peter

PS: I will try again, using the tactic of trying to dedicate one Bn to spreading out and blocking possession of enough of the other objectives to deny the Axis AI full VPs. Not sure I have a strong enough force to (a) take one causeway - 75 points, (b) take one adjacent village - probs St. Marie du Mont - 25 points (though given I will get 25 points for Utah beach maybe I don't need to), (c), deny possession of 5 more vic locs to the AI. But I'll try!

Pheonix, you are right. At one point I doubled the number of points available but forgot to double the threshold for 'total victory' so, of course, both sides easily achieve a total victory every time. I uploaded a new version that fixes this and also includes my updated map (with new terrain texture and proper boccage/hedgerow)--see above. Thanks for doing a better job of playtesting than I did [:D].