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[UP844]

I just finished playing Rico's trilogy about the battles of the 10th Armored Division north of Bastogne:

Team Cherry
US: Minor Victory - I lost the middle objective in the forest and there are too few Americans to mount a serious counterattack.
GE: Major Victory on turn 5 - I killed the Sherman on turn 1; from then on, it is only a matter of mopping up the US infantry

Team Desobry
US: Minor Victory. German AI had lots of armor, but all the German units froze in place after taking the VP hex. I retook the VP hex on the last turn, on purpose (I failed to kill enough AFVs to get a Major, but why wake the sleeping Panthers? [:D]).
GE: Major Victory. Objective taken on turn 5. US TDs and airborne counterattacked, but M-18s were never intended as assault guns and the attack failed.

Perhaps some extra VP hexes could prevent the AI from stopping after it has taken the single VP hex.

Team O'Hara
US: Major victory. On turn 1, I withdrew the Stuarts and infantry to avoid long range engagement with Panzer IVs and StuGs. The trick worked, and a couple PzIV were killed by flank shots from the Stuarts [:D]. The Germans never came close to the VP hexes.
German: Minor victory on last turn. I could have got a Major, but my units remained locked in melee in the last VP. The Stuarts killed 2 Pz IV with front hits [:@] and a third one barely recovered from Unconfirmed kill.

I think Team O'Hara is the most challenging one; the others are best played as the Americans, since a competent German should overrun the Americans in a very short time.

I also attempted playing JP009: A Day in the Park. It's a great scenario (as you can expect from Big Ivan [&o]), but I gave up on turn 7 (after getting a Major Victory [:D]) because the delay between moves has increased to 25 seconds [:(].

I have attached a saved game to this post (daypark.zip): I would like to know what delay do you experience between moves.

[rico21]

I think Team O'Hara is the most challenging one

+1[8D]

The common point of the slowdowns after armored reinforcements :

It seems that the new armored vehicles do not easily find the way to the last VPs because those already taken by their troops disrupt their choice of orientation.[&:]

Perhaps we should change the color of the VPs.[:D]

[UP844]

The issue with German AFVs stopping only occurred in Team Desobry, where only a single VP hex is present. When the AI takes it, all of its units cease moving and remain in their current hex: I suppose this isa consequence of the VP-hex-oriented nature of of the AI.

Perhaps, adding a few other VP hexes in the village could solve this issue and make the AI a bit more aggressive

[rico21]

We'll never know [:D]

[UP844]

As the saying goes, don't wake the sleeping Panther(s) [:)]

[UP844]

This afternoon, I tried playing JP009: A Day in the Park with the Germans, getting an easy Major Victory (see attached screenshot).

The Russians launched an all-out attack on the village, leaving the building cluster on the right alone. They never managed to take a single VP hex, however (see below). I lost many (too many: all the Pz IV F's and all but one StuG) AFVs: these early long-barrelled AFVs are powerful but fragile machines.

I think a human German has too many squads: in the last turns, I was able to make a flank attack with 9 squads that broke the Russian infantry attack, even though the remaining T-34s had almost neutralised my infantry in the village.

This time, the delay was limited to 5 seconds (perhaps because of the heavy casualties on both sides, that kept the number of units low [:D]).

[UP844]

double post [:(]

[UP844]

A side note to JP009: A Day in the Park:
the Germans have a fair number of Panzefausts, but since the scenario takes places in August 1943 they cannot be used. When the human player (or the AI) attempts firing a PF a window stating "PF are only available since October 1943" appears.

[rico21]

[:D]

[UP844]

I had easily took the two objectives in the south-east and slaughtered the counterattacking force.

In the west, I was advancing towards the last (and more valuable) VP hexes when I met:
- two PzA II Wespe and one PzA III/IV Hummel (artillery in a Panzergrenadier Division was usually motorised; Panzergrenadier Regiments might have some SIG 38 Bison in their 15th company).
- two Hetzer (first combat use in July 1944 on the Eastern Front, then usually assigned to the anti-tank battalion of Volksgrenadier Divisions) and two JagdPanzer IV/70 (first built in August 1944).
- a dozen SS squads with two *** leaders and two ** leaders (the 16th, 17th SS and 18th SS Panzergrenadier Divisions were not especially effective in combat: such leader allocation would have been more suited to the Grossdeutschland in 1942).

As far as I have ben able to ascertain, the only AFVs of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division were the StuG IV's (equivalent to the StuG III in game terms) of the Panzer Battalion and Marder III's in the Anti-Tank Battalion. I have not found any pictures, but I suppose some other light AFVs could have been available in the Recon Battalion, and the Infantry Gun companies might have had some Bison.

By the way, I managed to kill a Hetzer in CC and a JPz IV/70 with a FT, but being in open terrain when your opponent fires with a -3/-2 DRM even when you are standing still is a sure way to commit suicide [:@].

P.S. The Americans are also over-equipped, with lots of .50 cal and FT: wouldn't had been better to add some extra squads?

I will try playing the Germans... I'm sorry, Rico, but I didn't like this scenario a bit.

[rico21]

If I understood correctly, you did as well as they did ...[8D]

But not better...[:D]

[Rosseau]

As far as UP844's save, I'd consider the delays tolerable (for me), although I didn't time anything. The thing is for many games this is not a huge scenario per se.

This is with vanilla i7 3.6 with 16 ram. My older quad core 2.4 would have rolled over and died. Also, the game was essentially over anyway and rout phase obviously was long cause of all the busted units.

[UP844]

Played Carentan with the Germans.

I first lost the two eastern objectives to the Americans. The ones coming from the North were unable to take any other VP hex and were slaughtered by the German initial forces (including a Sherman kill by a 37mm Flak: side shot and some luck [:D]).
The eastern counterattacking force slowly infiltrated thealong the river, and then discovered the Americans didn't leave a single squad to garrison the VP hexes they took [&:].
When the SS and the AFVs arrived, I launched a counterattack to stop the Americans advancing from the east: the SS squads with their *** and ** leaders, slaughtered all the airborne and elite, firing with -4, -5 or even -6 DRMs (the latter, against squads with FTs). I could also afford the luxury of sending an A** leader and three SS squads to mop up the remains of the northern American attacking force, as they were not required to surround and kill the mass of broken units.

The final kill ratio was 4:1 for the Germans, who lost no leaders (against 10 American leaders lost). I easily got a Major victory, but this is not my idea of fun and, above all is absolutely ahistorical.

Rico, I greatly regret writing this as I always have appreciated your dedication, your scenarios and the devious ways you use to overcome the game limitations, but in my opinion this scenario has turned out really bad.

[rico21]

Un type rentre dans un bar et commande un whisky au barman, puis une tournée générale et un verre pour le barman.
Dix minutes après il recommande, un verre pour lui, un autre pour chaque client plus un pour le barman.
Dix minutes après, il recommande mais cette fois le barman lui demande de payer les deux premières. Le type lui dit qu'il n'a pas d'argent pour payer. Le barman saute par dessus le bar, lui casse la gueule, prend l'argent qu'il lui doit et le fout dehors.
Un mois après, le type revient, commande un whisky au barman, puis une tournée générale.
Le barman lui dit "et un verre pour moi?",
Le type lui répond "Non parce que quand tu as bu, tu es méchant !"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A guy walks into a bar and orders a whiskey from the barman, then a general tour and a drink for the barman.
Ten minutes later he recommends, a drink for him, another for each client plus one for the bartender.
Ten minutes later he recommends but this time the bartender asks him to pay the first two. The guy tells him he has no money to pay. The barman jumps over the bar, breaks his mouth, takes the money he owes and kick him out.
A month later, the guy returns, orders a whiskey to the bartender, then a general tour.
The barman said "and a drink for me?",
The guy says, "No, because when you've drunk, you're wicked!"[:D]

[UP844]

Just played "Hurricane on the Don 2" with both sides: Rico at his best!! [&o][&o][&o]

I think this one is going to replace "Devil's Hill" as my personal nightmare [:@].

[Hailstone]

C'mon Rico, that was so weak I almost sobered up. [>:]

[rico21]

I was in a nightmare with a breezeless day! [:D]

[Big Ivan]

ORIGINAL: UP844

A side note to JP009: A Day in the Park:
the Germans have a fair number of Panzerfausts, but since the scenario takes places in August 1943 they cannot be used. When the human player (or the AI) attempts firing a PF a window stating "PF are only available since October 1943" appears.

Thanks Carlo for the in-depth review of "A Day in the Park". [:)]

Sorry for the lag in my getting back with you. Had some computer keyboard
issue with keys not working namely the e-r-t, 1-2-3 keys and space bar. Tough to type messages w/o those keys. Had to order a new keyboard from China.
Took a while to get here to Ohio.

I too found the same flaws with the basic design of the scenario when I finally completed it. I was running about
10-20 seconds lag. I played as the Russians and got killed. My T-34's couldn't hit much in the way of German armor and when they
did, "ping" off the armor. I hit the StuG no less than 8 times w/o a penetration. In the meantime the other German
AFV's dispatched my T-34's one by one. The Germans appear too strong as it sits. I'll have to work on this one a bit including the issue with the German Panzerfausts.

To bad for me with this creation, I can do better than that. Shame, on paper it seem to look pretty good but it played the opposite.[:(]

Thanks again Carlo!!

[UP844]

This will never appear on "Signal", or on dozens of post-war books [:D]

P.S. The many SS infantry squads (range = 5) never once fired on the English infantry (2nd Line) or on the english AFVs (all of which were CE since turn 1). German MGs were the only small arms firing (besides the MGs of the German AFVs). Of course, the British human player didn't show such restraint (fair play is a wonderful thing but being shot is another question [:D]).

Is this a case strong enough for considering the possibility of revising the ability of IA-controlled infantry to fire when its FP is halved?

[rico21]

you broke my toys, you' re wicked[:D]
...considering the possibility of revising the ability of IA-controlled infantry to fire when its FP is halved?
Are you lucky?