Alexandra
Posts: 546
Joined: 12/7/2000
From: USA
Status: offline
|
Well, I've gotten back into a SP mood, so I restarted Desert Fox. I'm 8 battles in, and I'm gonna give a small synopsis of each, to include a grade for each. There are, of course, IMO, and do contain some spoiler info, so read with caution if you have not played.
Battle 1: The Odessey Begins. Location: Western Libya. Date: March 24, 1941. Result: DV in 12 turns. Designer: Neil Stalker. Grade: A. This is a good solid scenario. Normally I play the night attack option, but I did the baseline this time. The goal is to take a villiage along the Via Balbia. Neil constructs a good British defense without using overwhelming numbers of AI forces. He does it with good placement and good scripting.
Other notes: 1 Luftwaffe aircraft lost, 29 prisoners taken. Awarded the Afrika Corps Cuff and the Infantry Assault Badge.
Battle 2: A Stiff Resistance. Location: Western Libya. Date: March 31, 1941. Result: DV in 12 turns. Designer: Neil Stalker. Grade: A. I used the Look to the Sea option, which gives the Germans a pair of gunboats along the coast. You are attacking British defenses along the Via Balbia, and all the comments from Neil's first battle I played applied here. Other notes: 1 Luftwaffe aircraft lost.
Battle 3: Pushing Hard. Location: Agebadia Region. Date: April 2, 1941. Result: DV in 6 turns. (in a 25 turn scen!). Designer: Unknown. Grade: C. This is a meeting engagment between your Dak Group and a British group. VHs are well placed, force structure is well done. However, the designer did not script the AI at all. As a result, the AI took it's closest VH, turned towards the next closest one, and walked into a double envelopment, and it's main body was crushed. It's second attack started turn 5, but 8 PzIII's smashed it, and the AI cashed it's chips in early. Given the terrain setup, and some basic thought into how it might cause the player to move, even minimal scripting could have turned this into a great battle. Instead it was a rather boring cakewalk. Other notes: Awarded Tank Combat Badge.
Battle 4: A Hard Pressed Battle. Location: Agebadia Region. Date: April 3, 1941. Designer: Bruce Hodgman. Result: Draw in 25 turns. Grade: D. I hated this scenarion, which is a suprise as Bruce is a designer whose work I tend to love. Here's my problems with it. Your core is sent to support a defensive position held by Falschijagers. That's the first problem - there were no FJ in Afrika!! In fact, unless I'm mistaken on my dates, at this time the FJ were in training for Crete! So, right off the bat, the normal historical accuracy of the MC is lost. Next, the map is desert, with a dominating ridge line. However, your elite FJs are set up 300 or so meters in front of the ridge! Not in the good defensive terrain, but in the desert. So the mines they have, instead of being good defenseive choke point tools, are, useless. Next, your initial OOB is a FJ company, 1 MG platoon, and engineer platton, 2 75 IGs, 3 88s, 4 37 ATG, and 4 FJ 28mm ATGs (which are cool.) This little force has to cover a 5 kilometer front. Now, to me, this seems excessive to ask an infantry company to cover. Any infantry people out there wanna tell me if I'm right about that? And all the heavy guns are back on the ridge, which make them hard to move, and cannot see the minefields or most of the VHs! So, for overwatch, the 3 88s are useless. The enemy has to be danger close before they can even fire! Next, the British, even though they are the attackers have dug in AA guns in LOS of the German infantry - so, we have to believe the elite FJs let the British roll up in trucks, get out, set up the AA guns, dig them in, and then drive the trucks away - without doing anything about it! This is because there are no British trucks in the scenario! So, all the transport was done pre battle. And, there's about 30 Matildas. And, your reinforcement route is effectively limited to one road (there are other ways over dunes, but the odds of breakdown, and lack of LOS don't make them practical for the panzer of the core). So, I early on decided to accept the draw, and just pull the core out as it arrived. I might have pulled a MV if I had used the core, but I may have taken high casualties, and chose to preserve them. This could have been a great battle, but, there are just too many flaws that are unnacceptable in a pay product. Other notes: 2 Luftwaffe AC lost.
Battle 5: The Slowdow. Location: Agebadia Region. Date: April 4, 1941. Designer: Unknown. Result: DV in 12 turns. Grade B. No real comments here, just an assault. Nothing special in either a good or bad way. Other Notes: 20 prisoners taken.
Battle 6: The Long Road to Mechili. Location: Western Libya. Date: April 4, 1941. Designer: Ross McPhail. Result: Draw in 12 turns.
Battle 7: An Uneasy Advance. Location: Northwest Libya. Date: April 7, 1941. Desginer: Ross McPhail. Result: Draw in 14 turns.
I'm lumping these both together as the comments,and the C Grade, are the same for each. The first is a desert battle, and second an assault on an oasis village. Both scenarios are well done, with good scripting, good British OOBs, and are challenging. So why the Cs? Because both scen's use hidden point per turn VHs. All but two VHs in An Uneasy Advance are hidden, and two or three key ones are in Long Road. So, even though the combined Indian survivors in the two battles were 5 men, and 3 25 pounders and crews, I had two draws. Now, anyone who has read my earlier AARs know what I feel about point per turn VHs. For those who have not, I have always had the opinion that a PPT VH should only be used rarely, and then only for a significant objective. For instance, a crossroads that whoever controls will dominate the battle. I believe such a crossroads was fought over by the Germans and US airborne on DDay. And Hidden VHs should be used sparingly, and should alwatys be programmed to appear at some point. They should never be used together. These hidden VHs ruined what I otherwise feel would be excellent scenarios.
Battle 8: Closing the Door. Date: April 5, 1941. (Yes, April 5, that's not a typo). Location: Derna/Mechili. Designer: Bob Wallace. Result: DV on Turn 11. Grade: B. In this mission you're tasked with rescuing an Italian Task Force located east of Mechili, though, in reality, you also have to take the town. This was the best designed scen since Neil's first two I played, as Bob, too, did a nice mix of units, deployments, and design to make the scen very interesting. It only doesn't get an A, because there is no VH near the Italians. Since my mission is to save them, there should be a VH by them, even if it was worth just 5 points! Other notes: 9 prisoners taken, awarded Iron Cross for Valor. (Dunno why, my CP was back out of the way the whole battle :)).
There are some problems with this that I don't think are Bob's fault. First of all the date - it seems my Kampfgruppe can time travel, as I went back in time two days!!! The other problem is that after taking Mechili in this battle, the next node is a battle to Take Mechili!!!! That, IMO, is a serious continutity problem!. (Of course, as I am doing an option in that one, it won't really effect me, except for hurting the storyline.)
I've noticed a few trends in the MC so far. First of all, the Germans tend to start 3 to 4 turns from VHs when they attack, the British at most 2 when they attack. That lets the British ATGs get a lot more fire ops as you close the range. I don't mind closing the range, I find it realistic in the desert, but, I think they should have to, too. Second. British guns tend to have very good LOSs, German defensive ones have lousy LOS. Lastly, all planes, German and British, have come in from the west side of the map. Which means British rear area AA gets to engage my AC as they come in, and is the cause of all 4 of my AC losses. Maybe I just need a smarter Gruppe Commander for my air support.
Overall, at this point, I'd give MCNA an overall B.
More to come in a few days, and comments welcome.
Alex
< Message edited by Alexandra -- 4/7/2004 2:35:07 PM >
_____________________________
"Tonight a dynasty is born." Ricky Proehl, then of the Saint Louis Rams. He was right! Go Pats! Winners of Super Bowls 36, 38 and 39.
|
Printable Version
Back to the Desert - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread