Yokes
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Joined: 3/14/2007
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ORIGINAL: AndrewJ
Here's a few thoughts based on the Edit 1 version. (I realise this may not apply in Edit 2.) I hope you won't mind if I mumble on for a bit.
The Turks are so badly outclassed in the air that they really don't have a hope. There's a lot of them, but they just keep coming up two by two and getting eaten alive. They desperately need either a range advantage, or momentary local superiority.
Range: Switching the Phantoms over to an air to air role could help with the range problem, by bringing more Sparrows into the fight. The early Sparrows are still woefully outclassed by even the AA-10-As, but at least they're a step up from Sidewinders. Making the F-4s into fighters would mean switching the F-16s or F-104s over to the bombing role. The F-16s tote the same payload of iron bombs, so there would be no loss in iron bomb-load if they took on that role. However, they are much better dogfighters than the F-104s, which have terrible missiles, so it might be worth the loss of bomb-load to go with F-104s as bombers.
Yeah, those Starfighters are just meat for the grinder. They would be better served as bombers. I'll look into this.
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Local Superiority: The constant stream of fighters is alarming at first, but it's not enough to cause real problems for the Russians who can (and should) arrive with greater numbers in their area of interest. It might help to increase the minimum and maximum numbers allowed to fly each mission, so instead of coming up in twos to a maximum of four planes, they came up in something like fours or sixes, to a max of 8 or 12. I realise this will use up the ready fighters quickly, but as it was I had shot down the entire active air force before the paratroopers arrived, for minimal loss, so this couldn't make things much worse, and it might take a few Russians down along with them. Besides, the sooner they attack the more they can take advantage of their 30 minute Quick Turnaround, which is a powerful force multiplier. It might also help to reduce the patrol or intercept areas to specific defensible locations, and possibly to create a reserve of some fighters for very close-in defense of the airfields. A pack of four fighters erupting into my encroaching Su-24s could have been very messy indeed. However, the main thing would simply be to reduce the number of Russian fighters. They have such a technological advantage that I think you could easily take away a quarter and possibly a third of their fighter strength without making it too difficult. (Although bear in mind I'm a micro-manager, flying my planes individually, and if you trust to missions only then your AA exchange ratio may not be as good.)
My goal was to have enough Turkish fighters that the player still had to deal with them when the airborne arrived, hence the small numbers in each engagement. In my own testing I came to the same conclusion as you: the Soviets have enough firepower to win air superiority prior to the airborne arriving.
I will reduce the number of Soviet fighters, especially the Flankers. Maybe use the MiG-29s as the expedition fighters instead of the MiG-21s? They don't really have the legs for sustained CAP from the Crimea.
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Miscellaneous other thoughts:
The Turkish ground forces could really use some air defence. The Rapiers that are there in Edit 2 should definitely be helpful, but some AAA or Manpads around the artillery wouldn't be out of line, assuming the Turks actually have some.
Fixed in V2. I now HATE Rapiers... 
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When the paratroopers arrive it seemed like there was only feedback on one drop (Kandira), while the other two felt ornamental. A sitrep from each drop zone might add a lot of immersion. Similarly, a message when you arrive at Izmit, saying something like "You've arrived, now hold!" would let you know you're in the right spot. The message for capturing Izmit also says you've captured Kandira.
Good input. I will try to expand the info better. I'm not the best creative writer...
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There are points for sinking the NATO warships, but not the subs.
By design. More on this below.
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For some reason the Incirlik attack never launched, despite the airfield being in perfect working order, and the aircraft were still on status "parked" at the end of the scenario. (Eskisehir and Merzifon never launched either, but that was because the runways were cratered. You could see they were trying to taxi out to take off, so those events worked.)
I had the same problem in my playthrough. I think I know the problem, but I don't have a really good solution. By the way, the Merzifon strike was screwed up anyways, so you didn't miss anything there.
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The final scoring gave a number, but no indication of whether the number was good or bad. You also only seem to get points for ships and artillery, rather than for taking and holding objectives, or destroying airfields or the enemy airforce, which was a bit puzzling.
I am trying to move away from "kill things get points" scoring, and more towards objective-based scoring. In this scenario, the overall objective is to control the strait, so you get points for killing the ships and artillery, since they contest your control. The subs are trying to sink your invasion force, so killing them is optional so long as you protect the transports.
The thing that didn't work was my scoring for not destroying the Turkish infantry. Once the Marines are spawned, I have a script that moves the "front line" along with the Marines. I have it scripted that if any Turkish infantry are inside the "front line" then you are supposed to lose a point. However, that didn't work. I need to do some more testing to see if this is a problem with the trigger ('unit enters area') or if something else is broken. My guess is I can make it work by using a 'unit remains in area' trigger instead. (Now I just need to re-create about 30 triggers...  )
Anyways, that's my reasoning behind only giving points for certain things.
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Phew, what a lot of chatter! Thanks very much for writing the scenario for us, and I hope you don't mind discussing the bits and pieces that go into it.
Thank you for providing such great feedback! The quality of the end product is very much improved with many inputs.
Yokes
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