Crisis at Tempe

[Arjuna]

Hi all,

I thought I'd share with you some of my experiences while testing the Tempe Gorge Crisis scenario. Markshot has covered this too in his great AAR. It was during that that we realised we needed to tweak some of the fire, cas, suppression and reaction code. This i have done and it's made a difference.

First off the Allies make a successful stand at Tempe and blow the road bridge on me. I've still got the rail bridge though.

Note I've ordered the 143 Geb Regt to launch what was supposed to be a supporting attack from the west. Looks like that's going to take on more importance than originally intended.

[Arjuna]

I order the 141st Regt to press on over the rail bridge. Led by the 2nd Bn it storms across during the night. Just when I was about to congratulate them the wretched rail bridge goes up in smoke, isolating the lead elements of the 2nd Bn.

Note how fatigued my troops are - the darker the red colour in the Unit Info box the more fatigued they are.

[Arjuna]

Due to overall fatigue levels and the destruction of the bridges I order the 141st Regt to Rest with the elements of the 2nd Bn to Defend on the other side. I am also forced to rest the 143rd as it too ran out of puff.

The 3rd Pz Regt however, pressed on through the night down the south bank road which they crossed upstream some 12km east of Tempe. By early morning 3rd Pz Regt sweeps away the Aussie defenders at Tempe and I order three separate Bn level attacks to secure a bridgehead on the south bank.

I aslo re-issue attack orders to the 143rd Regt to strangle the Allied withdrawal route.

[Arjuna]

The Aussies put up a spirited defence, repelling the 112 Krad Bn ( motor cycle inf ) south of Tempe. Their arty has also temporarily stopped the 1st Bn/143rd Regt to halt its assault.

[Arjuna]

Just before 2pm the 112 Krad Bn are still held up south of Tempe. The 1st Pz Bn though has driven across the slopes forcing the Aussie Inf to retreat. The 2nd Mot Inf Bn has finally got the better of the Aussie engineers and is forcing its way across the minor river in the east.

I order the panzers to defend in a commanding poition on the slopes and issue new orders to the 2nd Bn to assault downhill behind the enemy blocking position. The panzers can now support both the 112th and 2nd Bn attacks.

Meanwhile the 143rd Regt, while held up on its left flank, has mad great progress with its right flank - by its 3rd Bn. With a bit of luck we might bag the Aussie defenders.

[Arjuna]

I had earlier ordered an group of engineer companies and a bridge column to rebuild the road bridge at Tempe. I went to check on their progress only to find there was none. I checked the bridge column only to see that it had no pontoon bridges. I double checked all the German forces to find that they had none at all. Blast...that's what happens when you let a gunner ( ie Steve "Golf33" Long ) design a scenario.[;)] ( just kidding Steve [:)] ).

Oh well, it's back to the drawing board ( aka ScenMaker ) to add in some bridges and try again.

[MarkShot]

Okay, Dave, let's really give your tweaks a work out.

Since we have save game capatibility between 3110 and 3111, I am reloading the initial orders for this scenario as they had been for the AAR above.

This will leave two main variable factors:

(1) Dave's tweaks in 3111.

(2) The fact that I am manually calling in arty and some mortar fire missions around Tempe (and the exact fire missions aren't really reproducible).

Recall the plan around Tempe was:

(1) Hasty attack.

(2) Support weapons on a hill overlooking Tempe.

(3) Arty (and possibly mortars) called in with ferocity to break Tempe defenders and reinforcements.

(4) Pz 3 Regt pushing down from the North.

The point? See if I can capture those bridges or if they get blown out from underneath me.

For those of you following the O'Connor Challenge at home, this post is unlike my AAR threads. In those, the battle is long since over when I begin to build the thread. Here I am posting this now, but do not know how it will turn out. However, I will get my results first before producing anymore posts.

I'll be back ...

PS: Dave, I will annotate my previous game log with time entries from this one, but done in red for easy comparison.

[MarkShot]

Okay, the test results are in.

First, let me point out that I didn't cheat. Meaning:

(1) I played this as a player with no beta cheat tools on.

(2) Although I knew that that there had to be an Allied engineer unit in Tempe, I did not call in arty on any unit that I did not have an intel contact for.

Below is the raw data. This is the game log I keep. In this case, the entries proceeded with a * are from this test (3111). The others are from the AAR game (3110).

Dave, I'll email you a more complete and easier to read MS Word Doc.

1 12:00 Issue orders consistent with the plan.

*1 12:00 Restart with same plan.

*1 12:45 Contact made around Tempe. Beginning to barrage.

1 12:57 Good progress being made. Place enemy units moving towards the road bridge under bombardment.

*1 13:01 First reinforcements turned back.

*1 13:20 Reinforcements appear to be slowed. Armor is about 6km away.

*1 13:26 Direct fire from lead 143rd Regt units is causing Rail Bridge defenders to retreat.

*1 13:27 Some Road Bridge reinforcements routing.

1 13:27 The arty is halting the enemy units heading into Tempe.

*1 13:34 Reinforcements turned back arty standing down to conserve ammo. Armor should arrive soon.

1 13:40 The armor has broken through already!

*1 13:50 The northern force seems to be making faster progress than last playing. Order Pz 3 Regt to from a defensive line to protect the bridges.

*1 13:55 Reinforcements on the move again towards the Road Bridge; barrage them with ROF=NORMAL to conserve ammo.

*1 13:58 Good example (screen) of reinforcements being turned back.

*1 14:02 ROF=LOW slow barrage on the one unit seemingly standing their ground and slowing the 143rd Regt.

*1 14:27 Halt the barrage and hit that unit with an airstrike.

1 14:22 Arty is due to run out very soon.

*1 14:25 143rd Regt is going to make it to the area before the armor.

*1 14:26 Hit them with a slow barrage as the air strike did not break them.

*1 14:30 Unseen unit probably in Tempe blows the Road Bridge.

1 14:31 Pz Regt 3 force is about 6km from Tempe. Change their orders to defend the near bank until the 143rd can cross and demo charges can be disarmed. The 141st. looks they will be clear to cross soon.

1 14:53 Reduce ROF on arty to extend ammo. (increased again we have an enemy unit in Tempe)

*1 15:02 The enemy unit in the woods overlooking Tempe has been broken. Arty to stand down. Mortars and other support weapons are beginning to set up.

*1 15:06 The bridge blowers have been spotted. Hit them hard with the remaining arty.

*1 15:24 Armor and the 143rd Regt converging on Tempe; 143rd Regt beginning to cross.

1 15:27 Use remaining arty to blast out an engineering unit in Tempe.

*1 15:33 Arty out. Order them down to Gonnos. Have mortars pick up barrage of unit in Tempe.

1 15:54 Arty ammo out; move bty up to Gonnos. Support weapons and mortars are now setting up.

The 141st. is crossing.

1 16:00 Have mortars bombard enemy engineers in Tempe.

*1 16:21 The defending engineers have broken; put mortars back on call.

1 16:24 The enemy engineers in Tempe are retreating.

1 16:49 Tempe is being subdued. The 141st. is almost half across. The 143rd. is pushing on towards the crossing.

1 17:17 Good progress by the 141st. When they have completely crossed, give them assignments to cover the various choke points.

1 17:23 The 141st Regt is crossing. Ignore them, since this is all about the bridges at Tempe. Order each of our engineering units in to Tempe to secure the Rail Bridge.

1 18:28 Allies attempting to counter-attack at Tempe.

1 18:31 The 141st. is across. Have them push forward to the various choke points by Bn.

141st 3rd Bn tasked to hold the Nekhale cutoff.

141st 2nd Bn tasked to hold the Drakhmani cutoff.

141st Regt remaining (1st Bn + 2 mortar plt) to hold Makrykhorion.

1 19:56 We hold the Tempe area. The engineers are on their way.

1 20:09 Armor running into resistance at Evangelismos. The enemy is still attempting to retake Tempe. We now have our motorized infantry there.

1 21:05 Arty supplies just arrived. Order the engineers in to unprimed the bridges.

*1 22:01 The Rail Bridge is unprimed.

[MarkShot]

Let me summarize the results.

(1) The game played out different (more on this later).

(2) In general, progress at Tempe by the 143rd Regt was much faster and progress by armor from the North slower in a relative sense. The 143rd Regt approached and crossed much sooner.

(3) The Allies did blow the Road Bridge.

(4) The Rail Bridge was unprimed quite a bit earlier by my engineers.

What can be learned from this test? Personally, in terms of comparing 3110 and 3111, I would say not all that much. Nothing very striking really cries out.

(1) It's possible that my arty barrages on Allied reinforcements moving towards Tempe was more effective.

(2) #1 may have resulted in permiting the 143rd Regt to approach Tempe much faster. Less hostile fire from enemy units approaching Tempe.

(3) #2 perhaps made me a victim of own success. In the AAR game there was a much slower advance by 143rd Regt. They really didn't get to within 2km of Tempe until very late in the day. This prolonged advance probably resulted in a sighting report of Allied engineers in Tempe. This resulted in the enemy engineers being heavily barraged and hit in the flank by armor coming down from the North. This time there was no such report, no barrage, and no flanking armor. Boom! Down went the Road Bridge.

[MarkShot]

The following screenshots will be from this test run and not the AAR.

[MarkShot]

The 143rd Regt closes on Tempe. Arty has turned back reinforcements.

(no sign of any units in Tempe)

[MarkShot]

As you can see the 143rd Regt is doing much better than they did in my AAR. Last time, the armor and motorized infantry made it to Tempe first.

Take a good look at the Road Bridge. This is the last time you are going to see it!

[MarkShot]

Boom! (Those sneaky engineers probably got an A+ in their camouflage classes!)

[MarkShot]

We are across and I got those engineers now! I have no intention of offering them terms to surrender.

[MarkShot]

This is where I called it quits for this test.

The 143rd Regt is across and the Rail Bridge is now unprimed.

[MarkShot]

A few closing remarks:

(1) None of this is to say that Dave's tweaks have not had an impact. Actually from playing Build 3111, I feel that they have. However, I felt it was incumbent on me to put them to a test as close to the AAR which originally raised these concerns.

(2) A good strategy is a good strategy and I do believe I had the right one for this scenario. Hasty attack.

(3) Bridges go up very easily. If you suspect the enemy is there, then you have to put some fire on them. (However, I didn't want to skew this test. In my AAR, I had spotted them and I was counting it happening again.)

(4) Tweaked or untweaked; manually calling in your fire missions can turn the tide of battle for certain situations. This scenario is a very clear example of that.

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Finally, for those of you reading all these threads ... this game is simply great fun to play. I only play SP and I love it. There is no simple single formula to playing the game that beats the AI every time. Trust me, I have put in enough hours with this engine to know. The AI does a credible job and you really need to think it through and take each battle as it comes.

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Dave, MS Word game log mailed to you. I have save games for all the time entries for both the AAR and this test run.

[MarkShot]

Dave,

A question ... why did you send the 143rd Regt to the South and task the 141st Regt with Tempe?

I picked the 143rd Regt for Tempe, because they were closer and as you know I would have done anything short of offering a cash prize to the first units across to speed things up!

Thanks.

[JeF]

Just a remark.

Looking at the screenshots, it seems like the shorcuts for the Unit Info Box Filters have changed since HttR : F1 used to be Combat Power, not Task; F6 used to be Facing, not Fatigue. F8 was Fatigue.

Shortcut for Friendly Units Filters are the same though.

Why the change for the Fctn keys ?

JeF.

[MarkShot]

Yes, some keystrokes have changed.

Two things drove the changes:

(1) Add more functionality by cycling the way some keys work. (possibly reserving keys for later use)

(2) Avoid some likely (with orders) erroneous key presses for native English speakers. E is now exit instead of delay.

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Also, I think Dave just likes throwing people off balance when he is not busy tweaking.

[Golf33]

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

I checked the bridge column only to see that it had no pontoon bridges. I double checked all the German forces to find that they had none at all. Blast...that's what happens when you let a gunner ( ie Steve "Golf33" Long ) design a scenario.[;)] ( just kidding Steve [:)] ).

Oh well, it's back to the drawing board ( aka ScenMaker ) to add in some bridges and try again.

When the scenario was originally designed, there were problems with the bridge and map code that meant you'd never get a bridge built before the scenario ended (so no point including them). I think those have been fixed so you might be able to get one up in time now.

Regards
Steve