Goblin
Posts: 5547
Joined: 3/29/2002
From: Erie,Pa. USA
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Raccoon_TOF
Very nice campaign so far, though I think that scenario 3 (I think that's the right one, I forget the name, but where you defend the town after the "mushroom gathering" recon unit storyline bit...) is a bit out of balance...
The support forces pre-placed on the map basically exactly doubled my current force strength. (I started with the recommended core units of an SS Rifle company and a PzKpFw-35(t) platoon (5), plus two recon patrol teams (3 squads each) and a Stoewer 40, then replaced one recon patrol team with 3 PzKpFw-IVc's after the first scenario since I had only about 40 or so points of repair to do besides the complete loss of one of the recon teams...so I wasn't carrying over personnel anyway, thus unit type made no difference...I had also replaced my 50mm mortars with 81mm's in the next scenario IIRC.) With the combination of the support artillery having extensive ammunition loads, the massive suppressive capability of 75mm FH Batteries (large spread per barrage...), and the sheer outnumbering of the attacking forces by my defensive units (in buildings, forest, or hull-down on the hill) at any given choke point, I ended up with my only complete unit loss (ie: not counting individual infantrymen casualties if the squad survived) being a single PzKpFw-IVc (crew survived) that took a lucky hit from a Polish ATR that had a 7% success chance to hit...and the Poles never made it past the treeline on the way to the hill, nor had a single unit survive my turn closer than 6 tiles from any building in the village (barring the stone wall...there I just kept killing the engineer units so they had to funnel around it into my defensive chokes, rather than breaching it and assaulting from a massed combined front...).
I think that the scenario needs one (or more) of the following:
- Less support units placed on the map to force more decisions when placing starting forces...
- Less support artillery or drastic reduction in support artillery ammunition
- More Polish troops, especially in larger waves at once, but not as easily clustered for artillery fire...
- Longer scenario length to force eventual attrition of forces and ammo depletion causing gaps in defenses forcing reshuffling of units to respond (probably best used with the above recommendation of more Polish troops so that it actually HAS to keep going...by the end I had killed almost all of the existing forces anyway, barring those that actually managed to retreat safely...I think I only had a single cavalry platoon and 2 infantry squads pestering the hill and none left anywhere around the village when the Polish force morale finally broke the turn before the scenario time limit...)
- Greatly increased morale and rally statistics for the Polish forces so that they can not be as easily suppressed and destroyed/routed.
Honestly my biggest slowdown in "kill speed" of the attacking troops was towards the end when the heavy clouds of smoke covering most of the map from my artillery caused me to spend many turns tracking down the few survivors from attacking force "waves"...
That said, the rest of the scenarios so far have been quite nice. I am not very far in yet, currently on the fort assault scenario, and at least in theory it appears to be a fairly simple process (doing well so far, using artillery purely for smoke currently, even my 50mm mortars are designated target locations for smoke coverage with HE rounds rather than kill/suppression chances). I've got both of my forces maneuvered to the rear of the respective forts currently, overwatch and fire lanes set up by my recon and MG units, and have got the bunkers covered and most of the fort areas blanketed in smoke...about ready to begin a rear assault on the forts themselves. The only question I see is whether I will be able to complete it in the time limit, as it took quite a while bringing my core force around to the rear of the smaller fort through the forest and smoke cover...but I managed it without even being spotted once on the way, much less taking any enemy fire. I'll see how the assault itself goes tomorrow...
My current core force consists of the following -
GE HQ
SS Rifle Company with these changes:
- 50mm mortars exchanged with 81mm mortars
- ATR section replaced with Spec Ops Platoon (for 6 Spec Ops squads total)
Panzer Platoon (5) consisting of:
- 1 x PzKpFw-IIIe
- 4 x PzKpFw-35(t)
2 Sections (3) of PzKpFw-IVc Support Panzers (replaced my initial Recon Patrol teams)
1 FO (replaced the original Stoewer 40)
Currently my Spec Ops forces ride the PzKpFw-IVc's until contact with the enemy and in advance of the main forces, then dismount and perform "reconnaisance in force", while the HQ and the 81mm mortars ride the IIIe and 35(t)s to my staging area if needed (they are quite slow otherwise...).
Raccoon,
Sorry for the late reply on this, I've been away.
Butchery at Sunset was my scenario. I actually tried to reflect what two full strength SS Rifle companies with tank and artillery support could do when they were not expected by an attacker. I also do not believe every scenario has to be a hairpulling, Tums-chewing, hard-ass battle. Some are just for the plain fun of it, and that is what I designed this one around. Although most found this one easy, I do hope that most found it fun. There is no reason why the player cannot sometimes have the superior side in a battle, IMO.
I have thought about shortening it somewhat, or fixing it to allow the Poles to end the scenario early if they are taking a huge beating (which is likely). I will look into it. Thanks for the input!
Hope everyone is enjoying this campaign!
Goblin
< Message edited by Goblin -- 1/27/2005 9:47:58 PM >
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