Bimmer

H2H only at this point. I may build up some AI plans and release eventually.

A few screenshots:

Yes, it is H2H only. Should have made that clear - sorry.

"Frequent gaps and thin spots that a person could crawl through" seems a bit overstated to me, but even if that were the case, consider the prospect of crawling through a particularly dense bit of vegetation atop a berm 3-6ft high under the watchful eye of a bunch of armed men intent on harming you. Not exactly a morale builder, IMHO. The gaps in the game are much, much easier to pass through quickly; using mud or marsh in conjunction with gaps is a reasonable way to slow down the passage, though it's probably still a bit too easy to get through. For reference, a few shots I took last summer:

That's what, about 8/day between now and the deadline? That's a pretty tall order.

As has been noted, Norman agriculture in the 1940s was not heavily mechanized, so trucks and tractors would have not been much of an issue. Horse-drawn carts and wagons, on the other hand, might have been, and certainly individual animals. More importantly, Norman fields, especially the small bocage-bounded ones, appear to have been most often used as pastures, not for cultivation; cultivated fields would have had less reason to be surrounded by an impenetrable hedgerow. This helps to explain the existence in some instances of seemingly meandering narrow bocage lanes (too narrow for vehicles) connecting fields with individual entrances/exits; likely they were essentially cattle chutes used to move the herd from field to field without possibility of escape. Remember that once in a field, the usual idea was to exit the other side, not to go back out the way you came. That requires two gaps, not one. Also, demolitions would have helped not only clear vegetation but to lower the steep berm at the base of much of the bocage. Also, many of the roads are sunken after centuries of use, and narrow enough to make turning difficult, plus (as noted above) many of the field entrances are not located on the roads themselves, but along narrow paths. I do agree that there's a difference between good game balance and historical reality (which is hard to pin down authoritatively in any case). I tend to use bocage as a way to channel forces, or at least suggest particular avenues of advance or lines of defense; more or fewer gaps can have a huge effect on the speed of advance and the effectiveness of defense.

Define "right"; do you mean not right as in "in reality, there aren't likely to be fields without at least one proper entrance" or not right as in "the scenario designer can't possibly have intended to make fields without proper entrances"? The designer may well have intended to do this, but in reality a field isn't much good if its owner can't get his livestock, equipment, and/or produce in and out of it. The majority of bocage-bounded fields I've seen in Normandy have one gated entrance; no more, no fewer. As to the man-sized gaps, these are few and far between in real bocage.

FYI, one game of this round has already been completed. This could go rather quickly.

The first round scenario from "The Farm" tournament has been uploaded to the Repository (though there seemed as though there might have been some issues with it going through) and GaJ's mods site.

Make sure you take plenty of pictures for the AAR.

I suspect this may be a common, but unfulfilled, request....

The official emails will be on their way shortly. Round 2 of the tournament will conclude on 21 March, 45 days from today. The match-ups are as follows: Bracket 1: German : American Felix_45 : Cogust eniced : berto Javaslinger : Wreck poesel71 : Zebulon Pleasure Beast II Bracket 2: German : American funkeesax : Odin sluggo337 : Wartooth ~Viajero : dan/california Mike Churchmoor : sfhand

A morning bump to encourage you to post those AARs. I count only five (six if you include Berto's, which doesn't seem to have appeared as intended) out of 32 so far.

Now THAT'S an AAR! Great read.

Good stuff, guys. It's already becoming apparent that people have taken significantly different approaches to what is ultimately a very simple scenario, which I find very interesting. Keep 'em coming! Ian, as far as I'm concerned, post the whole thing in here. It's completely appropriate IMHO, and I'm sure others would like to read it.

Here's a view of the map looking north. The Americans started in the northeast corner, and the Germans in the southwest. I will be uploading the scenario to the repository in the coming days for anyone who wants to play it.

Nine American wins, seven German. Scores varied widely, with some games very lopsided and others very close. One was decided by a single casualty (scores were identical).

This thread is for AARs and discussion of the Round 1 scenario. Players, please post your AARs here (the more detail the better!) and discuss freely.

OK, that's the end of Round 1. Congratulations to the winners: Bracket 1: Felix45 Cogust eniced73 poesel71 berto Wreck Javaslinger Zebulon Pleasure Beast II Bracket 2: funkeesax sluggo337 sfhand dan/california Odin Mike Churchmoor ~Viajero Wartooth And many thanks to all who participated. I will open the AAR thread now, and I should have the matchups for Round 2 and the new games set by the weekend.

OK, just waiting on futon river crossing v. poesel71 now. I'll have the AAR thread and Round 2 matchups up very shortly after I know the result of the last game.

With only a few days left until the deadline (Thursday 2 February), I'm still waiting on results from the following games: Bracket 1: futon river crossing v. poesel71 Zebulon Pleasure Beast II v. anton meise Please get things wrapped up and get the results to me by Thursday; I cannot move ahead with the second round until all games are complete. Failure to report results by the deadline will mean that I have to do something to keep the brackets full. If that is the case, I'll probably ask those who lost their games in Bracket 1 to report the scores and the highest will advance. I know there had been some communications difficulties in one of the games; please update me on the status of that game before Thursday.

One week left - get those last games wrapped up! I'm looking forward to reading the AARs and other commentary (separate AAR thread will be opened here once all the games are complete).

The hi-res textures really transform the look of the game, and with very little apparent effect on performance. Highly recommended. Thanks, Aris!

Bracket 2 is now complete, with the final battle being a draw. The result came down to the difference of a single casualty. Two games and ten days to go.

I've had them disappear when overlapping as well. It is incredibly annoying, not to mention making it difficult to create certain appearances.