Totensonntag: A fun romp

[DavidFields]

For anyone thinking of dusting off the original disc.

I found the German side of Totensontag a blast. The issue is not win or lose (likely you will win), but night makes a huge map feel even 5 times larger. Instead of a "puzzle" scenario, I think this rewards a more general understanding of tactics and maneuver--and the value of leading with infantry. And even terrain (notice the "vein" of rocky terrrain--how to best exploit this) is intriguing to work with, without requiring incredible micro-investigation of every bump.

And the night makes every fight a knife fight. Every 50 meters--the unknown. I usually find night battles too weird--but not here.

It keeps, amazingly, a 90 turn scenario interesting (in my case, the Allies surrendered on turn 89--but, close enough.) More amazingly, it does so without scheduling German reinforcements late in the scenario--the usual way to stretch long battles.

I can hardly imagine what the battle must have looked like in real life--I imaged it as an almost full moon--can't imagine how C and C could hold together otherwise.

[Blazing 88's]

Great scenario. Not finished yet, but the Brits are hehehe... Got lucky early with some well planned scouting.

[DavidFields]

If you ran into some Stuarts early, and clobbered them, then we had the same good luck....and similar recon approaches.

This scenario is in essence Extreme Extreme FOW--which, typically, masks the blundering AI--which makes it more fun.

[rune]

Glad you like the scenario. It took me a while to do all the research on the battle. The time is obviously compressed, as there was indeed much fighting over several days and nights.

An extremely rare but excellent read is "The Sidi Rezeg Battles 1941" by Agar-Hamilton and Turner. I also had help from people like Jon S, the South African Military museum, and others. See the end of the briefing for all the acknowledgements.

Nice to see people enjoying my creatons years after they were made. Thank you very much for the kind words.

Rune

[DavidFields]

I was even surprised to find playing the Allied side (after knowing the OOB and unit locations) also a lot of fun. Turn 63, and my units form a snake across 1/2 the terrain, absorbing the Axis attack.

The map is superb. On close examination, there are some subtle cuts in the north escarpment wall which are interesting--and which, surprisingly, the AI utilized (the northern german force attacked ESE, through the subtle valley). And I can't remember when a large patch of "brush", such as in the center of this map, made such a tactical difference (slowing AFVs, relative safety for infantry).

Best map I have played on since Descent on Maleme--and since that was also BB:AK, it makes me think that the crispness and potential size of BB:AK maps was a real advance.

Yes...of course...time compressed. But where there significant night engagements? Was it moonlight?

[dieseltaylor]

It looks a beautiful map. I do have great trouble taking night battles seriously in the sense of being realistic. As an exercise in playing the CM game engine they are fine.

Most night battles are written up and abound with lost units, inadvertant fire, and the complete loss of control. However in CM are troops never get lost and have an uncanny appreciation of the terrian they cannot see. Its a shame but it cannot be ignored.

Also - and this is very irritating is that CM soldiers come equipped with laser range finders so that they can keep one metre out of enemy sight as it is a well-known fact that darkness is uniformly dark regardless of moonshine and shadows.

If only BF had never issued troops with this degree of accuracy and built in a fudge factor with an approximation of range it would have made possible more realistic games where there was reduced visibility. : (

[DavidFields]

Let's look at the glass 90% full....this is still more realistic than Chess or Risk.

[dieseltaylor]

: ) True.

At night perhaps 60% full.