Glubokii Boy

I will order this MG42 equiped halfsquad from my reservplatoon that i had originaly intended to replace my withdrawn HMG-team in the corner building forward to this building. From here they will also be able to fire at the enemy possitions across the courtyard. I will move this team from my original reserv platoon up to replace them as potential 'corner building' defenders. I will change possition of this halfsquad and move them up to the toop floor and have them face into the courtyard to help defend that area. I think that my northern infantrygun and the HMG-team in Kruzhka Inn will be able to handle any more russians trying to cross the street. I think this will be it for now...Time to hit the play button, uurf, uurf...

My orders for next turn: This halfsquad from my reserv platoon have equiped themself with a panzerfaust 30 and will be moved forward to the same ambush possition behind the pyle of rubble in the street that another halfsquad (now dead) previously held. For now they will be given a hide order at their destination. The other halfsquad sent back to stock up with At-weapons will get aboard the second truck to be able to get themself some at weapons next turn. This turn i will order my two company HQs (1st and 2nd) to move forward to the second row of buildings to be able to quickly reinforce the 'courtyard defenders' when needed. I have an MG42 equiped halfsquad from my first platoon that i will move across the street. The next turn i will move my second panzerfaust-equiping halfsquad into this building that they have just left. I will order my 1st platoon HQ forward to be able to etablish C2 with my 'courtyard defenders'

Option THREE: Try to reinforce my defenders of the courtyard. This is my best defensive possition i think and until now i have been able to hold up a large amount of russians from here and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. I have a few fresh halfsquads around the map that i can order over here. I also have my company HQ-teams that could be brought forward. With some luck i might be able to get a panzerschreck team into the same building they used a few turns ago to fire HE-rockets into the enemy occupied buildings. The enemy on the other side of the courtyard have a strong possition but i don't think that they are 'all that terribly many'...I have killed alot of them trying to get there. If i manage to get some new units into possition i might be able to stop the russians from here. On the downside...I currently don't have any supporting possition in the 'corner building' like i had before. The enemy will be able to bring more troops into this area at will. As long as that assultgun is likely to be there i can not move any new troops into that building. Another thing to considder is that before i had my men possitioned and established in 'my' buildings but now i would need to move them into there under enemy fire. They might take casualties and become suppresed before they get into possition. Decision, decision....Uuuhmmmm.... I might regret this but i have decided to try and reinforce my defenders of the courtyard. My hope is that if things shows signs of falling apart within the next few turns i will be able to pull my men back then. It is somewhat of a gamble. If this fails i will be in BIG trouble for sure...I will need to commit most of my fresh troops to this idea and if it fails... Polozk might very well be lost !! The outcome of the battle will most likely be decided in this area. I have devided the map up into a number of sectors... ...and i think that apart from sector B things are under control right now. Sector A I belive that my hetzer and HMG team will be able to prevent the depleted russians that remain in this area from advancing across the park. If they do i have some limited forces left amongst the buildings to the west. Sector C Provided that my troops in sector be will be able to hold the line my 2nd platoon defending sector C feels strong enough to defend their possition. Sector D I currently don't se any signs of a strong enemy force that could be able to threaten this sector. This might obviously change but for now sector D is under control.

Due to the serious situation developing in this area i have spent some time trying to decide what to do to prevent the russians from pentrating my line. I have come up with 3 basic options of wich i have to chose one... Option ONE: I will withdraw all of these units... to here. I will surrender my two rows of buildings and withdraw my troops to the other side of Lieninradski square. This will hopefully give me somewhat longer engagment ranges to be able to avoid the worst of the enemy SMG firepower. The biggest downside to this plan i think will be that if i surrender this area... My second platoon will be very exposed to enemy fire from multiple directions and might also be forced to withdraw. Option TWO: I will only withdraw my troops defending the courtyard... and move them to the second line of buildings. This plan could work if the enemy will enter the row of buildings infront of my new line with only one or a few squads at a time. If the russians move alot of SMG guys into these buildings at the same time i think that my men will soon be overwhelmed by the the enemy firepower.

In the Center however...My line is starting to fall apart ! With no friendly troops in the 'corner building' the enemy where able to advance more troops into the buildings infront of my hard pressed defenders. Soon my Crack tankhunter-team takes a casualty. A few seconds later my machinegunner from this halfsquad get killed ! This entire possition is now in big trouble. Besides the A-team from 1st squad/ 2nd plt that has been quiet safe behind the wall so far i only have 1 man with a rifle, one man with a p38 pistol and one man with a MP40 defending this corner against the increasing number of russians showing up here.

TURN 29 Another fairly quiet turn...but what did happen was for the most part NOT GOOD ! Let's start with the only 'not bad' thing... The second supplytruck arrived at its destination. In the north and as well as in the south all was quiet except for some artillery falling on the other side of the river. Fortunatelly the rounds impacted on the riverbank and did not hurt any of my troops.

I did not get any possitive sightings of the assultguns in the center this turn but by the looks of it from the floating incons atleast one of them seems to have moved north. I will wait atleast one more turn before moving the reserv halfsquad into the corner building. No more artilley fire infront of my battalion HQ this turn but one more spotting round landed in the factory compound on the other side of the river. My only order for next turn will be to have one of my halfsquads climb aboard the truck in the north to be able to resupply...

TURN 28 My first resupplytruck have arrived and my men are about to equip themself with some more panzerfausts. With my possition in the corner building neutralized the enemy where able to move their troops forward unopposed. I did not observe any major movements but some any troops did adavance. Troops from my second platoon killed some russians trying to move into a building infront of them. Other troops trying to reach that location where killed by my HMG team in Kruzhka Inn.

One of the assultguns in the center where seen turning towards the north but after that it did not move any further. The other assultgun over there remained unspotted. Their plans are still uncertain. Fortunatelly the enemy did not advance any infantry in the center this turn now that my HMG-team have been forced to withdraw. Speaking of the assultgun. Not only my HMG team in the cornerbuilding took casualties from that blast but also this halfsquad from my 2nd platoon/ 1st co. They have decided to withdraw from their possition in the building infront of the corner building. My HMG-team and the reserv squad cross paths as they are repositioning infront of Kruzhka Inn. In the south everything was quiet to. A lone survivor from a russian squad that had tried to cross the street where seen withdrawing. The enemy artillery... This turn they fired for effect just east of my battalion HQ. I must have forgotten to give my guys a hide order. I'd better do it this turn. No casualties where taken though. GOOD ! I'm fearing that the enemy will also soon fire for effect at my supporting units by the factory across the river. Two spotting round where seen landing here this turn. My AA-guns here will be given a HIDE order also... The only additional order i will give this turn will be to order the halfsquad from my 2nd platoon that withdrew towards Kruzhka Inn to return to their previous possition.

TURN 27 This turn was pretty quiet. My troops where doing some repositioning and the enemy artillery/mortar fired for effect just east of my battalion HQ. My Hetzer fired a few round with its machinegun into the courtyard of the 'far left' building after seeing some movement there. After that no more movement where observed there. My two trucks are on the way and my 'panzerfaust grabbing' guys are moving to meet them at the resupply locations.

The survivors from my HMG team from the 'corner building' have decided to with draw towards Kruzhka Inn. I will use the last halfsquad from my reservplatoon and move them forward to the building behind the corner building. They will wait here for now but as soon as i think that assultgun in the center has moved away i will move them into the 'corner building' to replace hy HMG-team. I think that will be my orders for next turn...

TURN 26 ORDERS Most of my halfsquads defending the northern part of the map (around the 'far left' building) have depleted their supply of panzerfausts. To increase my anti tank capability in this area a have decided to move my two trucks loaded with more hand held AT weapons up to my front units to let them resupply. I have one truck at the cemetery and one at my battalion HQ. I don't think it makes that much of a difference wich of my units in the north i resupply with some new fausts (mayby i'm wrong about this). They have pretty much all taken casualties and become rattled. I have decided to resupply the two halfsquads from 2nd platoon / 2nd company that previously withdrew into Lieninradki square. I will move them to the where the trucks will arrive. The A-team from 2nd squad / 1st platoon that i moved up to the second floor to engage the crewmember will be withdrawn to the bottom floor to be less exposed. I will move the B-team from the same squad to the second floor of this building to be able to engage enemies moving down the street and out of the 'far left' building.

Hello... Finally a new update...Sorry for the delay !

Lanzfeld... I hope you did not take this the wrong way... It was in no way an attempt to make us funny over a 'misstake' from you but rather one from me...

Hello, Lanzfeld Thanks for the tip with the mortars. I will have to keep that in mind...They will be my final reserv. I have played a few more turns (not yet posted) and i recognize your description of 'the center'... It's starting to look 'complicated' and i have been thinking about this for a while. I had a few options on how i should proceed but i have finaly decided for a course of action (i will probably regret it !). We shall soon se how it plays out...I'm sitting myself down right now to get a few more turn completed. I don't think that i need to use my mortarteams just yet but my company HQs- and support teams time in the rear are over. They are needed to hold the line ! I can only agree with you...those blody russians just keeps coming and coming. This gives the scenario has a nice eastern front feel to it i think but as a german defender i don't want to se any more fresh ruskies advancing on my depleted guys... I have a few turns finished with pictures but i will try to get a few more ready before i upload them to the AAR. I have been very busy during the last couple of days. My brother and i have done the last work on our parents old house to get it ready for sale. This is now finished and i can get the AAR back on track. This weekend i WILL post a new update. Good luck with your battle... And by the way...With regards to your armour...listen to Vergeltungswaffe...He knows about these things !!

I appologize for the lack of updates recently but some RL issiues have taken most of my time. The battle is NOT OVER and new updates will come shortely...

Your approach to designing scenarios sounds like a good one and i think you have proof of it in the repository with all 5 star scenarios. Like you mentioned. TO MUCH testing have the risk of makeing the scenario designing boring and resulting in the designer hestitating from getting started on a new project. A good thing with this comunity is that we seems to help each other in a good way with testing scenarios. I think this is 'crusial' if we want a steady flow of new scenarios in the repository. Having to playtest a scenario all by you self soon becomes, as mentioned, booring... This is true and if you recieve a number of comments mentioning simular things that could be better you could always edit the scenario and upload a new version like you did with "gates of Warsaw" i belive.. Yes, i agree that using a QB map works very well when designing a scenario. Doing a fully historical scenario might put higher demands on the map being 'correct' but for those thinking about designing a fictional scenario...the QB-maps is a great resorce. I think it was last year that i did a number of scenarios for CMFI. All based on QB maps. I think it is a good way to start designing scenarios to use one of the QB-maps in your first attempts. Thanks ! Yes, just like scenario designing and testing IT TAKES TIME to do this. I enjoy trying to tell the story of the fighting at Polozk but now that my summer holliday is over there will be no more 'late night computer sessions'... This will make the updates come a bit further appart. I will try to upload 2 updates aweek but atleast one update each sunday should be possible.

I don't really think we have to do that. I consider myself defeated ! Not only you but many other of the most experienced scenario desigers have comented in this thread and they all agree with you. Things are obviously not as simple as i thought. It was a nice idea but i take your word for it that something like this is not that 'easy' to do as i hoped it would be. Glad you like it ...and thanks for your help with making the scenario...

This might not be something that is particulary relevant to my original suggestion in this thread but i thought i might mention it if some of you maybe would find it a good idea... What i think the designer can do to help with playtesting long scenarios (maybe 2 hours long) is the following... Devide the testing up in segments. I belive that many of the longer scenarios will usually be devided up in a number of distinct 'chapters'. Like this for example: turn 1-30 probing the enemy defences turn 31-60 first attack turn 61-90 defeating enemy counterattack turn 90-120 After recieving reinforcements. Final attack. mopping up. Playtest the first or maybe the two first chapters until you are satisfied with how they play out. After that load the scenario into the editor and edit the original OOB to reflect casualties taken on both sides and then edit the unit possitions on the map. Both friendly and enemy to resemble the ending situation in your playtest of the first or two first chapters. Save this scenario under a slightly different name (scenarioname part2 or something) Start this scenario and fastclick the playbutton until you reach the time of the next chapter and start playtesting from there. If you find something that does not seem to work very well in this the next chapter go into the editor and make some changes and save it. Doing this you can start playtesting your changes to the new chapter without having to play the first part of the scenario over and over again. Once you are happy with the way this new chapter plays out. Edit the original scenario in a simular way. Next. Do this again. Load up the the scenario with the chapter you have just playtested and edit the OOB and mappossitions to resemble the result of the last playtest and save it under 'scenarioname part 3' Now you might be able to playtest the final part of the scenario by simply fastclicking until you reach the last chapter and playtest from there. If there is something not playing out well in the final part go into the editor and tweak it. Save it and start testplaying this new final part of the scenario without having to play through the entire scenario to get here. when happy. Edit the original scenario in a simular way and save it. Editing the scenario in this way will obviously take some time but i think it is way faster then having to replay the entire scenario over and over again. It might not be the most accurate kind of playtesting but i think it will be close enough and speed up testing of long scenarios quite abit. You could always make one final playthough of the whole thing to make a final test.

OK, thanks Umlaut...sounds good. Good luck with this project ! looking forward to it very much... I think that many good scenarios will come from using this mod...

I'm affraid that i might not have been all that clear with expaining what i meen. My intension with this suggestion never was to ask the designers to make any major changes to their scenarios... Like for example changing the defensive forces in a scenario from originaly being 2 panzergrenadier companies with a veteran Stug in support to 2 sapper platoons supported by flamethowers and AT-guns. That would not be 'tweaking' of the original scenario in my oppinion. That would be a NEW scenario and might very well require an entirely new briefing and a complete remake of the OOB and unit objectives, etc,tec.. This never was my intension... What i had in mind was something more like this: Variant 1 - keep the 2 panzergrenadier companies but change the Stug to 2 AT-guns and perhaps make some minor changes to the setup of the 2 grenadier companies. Variant 2 - keep the 2 panzergrenadier companies but change the veteran Stug to 2 green Pz IVs and perhaps make some minor changes to the setup of the 2 grenadier companies. Variant 3 - keep the 2 panzergrenadier companies but change the veteran Stug to 2 green, regular Stugs and perhaps make some minor changes to the setup of the 2 grenadier companies. Changes like these would not require any MAJOR changes to the briefing or the OOB i think. Almost everything about the briefingtext could remain the same with the exception to mention the likelyhood of enemy armour or AT-guns being in the area. To make a slightly more difficult version of the scenario the designer could... - keep the two panzergrenadier companies and the Stug and give the AI defender a small reinforcement in the form of a sapper platoon that arrives to help defend one of the major objectives maybe. - keep the two panzergrenadier companies and give the defending AI maybe 2 (or 3) veteran Stugs instead of 1. - Instead of giving the attacking PLAYER a full tank platoon in support (original scenario) to his infantry the designer could perhaps remove 1 or 2 of those tanks to make it a little harder. To make the scenario a little more easy to play the designer could... - Keep most things as they are but give the player a mortar platoon in support - give the player slightly more armour (maybe 6 tanks instead of 4) - change the type or experience of some of the players tanks or change the experience, motivation of the infantry. - give the player a small reinforcement but keep most other things as is. Makeing 'small' changes like these should not require any major remake of the briefing text or OOB either i think. But i agree that if the desiger would have to make some changes to the briefing graphics to show the likely arrival of enemy reinforcements or the likely possition of enemy armour for example that could take some considerable time. Playtesting these variants will offcourse take time but as i mentioned before i don't think that it would take very much more time to playtest these then it would take to playtest additional AI-plans. Maybe a little more but not all that much... I'm sorry if i'm sounding ungreatful for the scenarios being made. That is not my intension...and i'm not. Most of the scenarios posted at the repository and included in the modules are very good and i do understand that alot of work has gone into them. My oppinions may well be 'way off'...I'm not close to have the same experience with scenario design as you guys do but i thought that this might be a suggestion worth mentioning. I think it would increase the FOW when replaying a scenario if you don't know that the enemy WILL HAVE 2 tigers or 3 AT-guns for example (they had it in your first attempt at the scenario). If you know that you know that you have knocked out the enemies major assets once those targets are detroyed. Being supprised by a few AT guns and a Stug instead of a Tiger in your second try would be...NICE ! i think... Once again...Thanks for your work on the scenarios, guys !

Hello I can only agree with EVERYBODY else... This looks amazing ! Just what CM needs. My only concern would be how this would affect the LOS/LOF. Are you happy with the way this works or have you seen any increase in LOS/LOF issiues with this mod ? Thanks for your work / RepsolCBR

This would be the best for sure. Maybe in some future update of the basegame the scenario editor could be changed in the following way: Instead of only being able to select DIFFERENT AI-PLANS in the AI-menu... ...We would be able to select SCENARIO VARIANT... ...The designer would enter a NAME for this variant in the editor... ...And for this VARIANT be abel to change the basic set-up on the DEPLOY- GERMAN/ALLIED map (the setup from the ORIGINAL (first) scenario could remain to allow the designer to only make some minor tweaking or to be cleared all togheter if the designer wants to). ...The designer should also be able to change the OOBs in the PURCHASE- GERMAN/ ALLIED screens (as with the set-up the ORIGINAL OOB could remain as an option to allow some small tweaking. Or be cleared)... ...Finally the designer should be allowed to change the reinforcements in a simular way... ...after that SAVE the VARIANT... When a player starts the scenario he should be able to pick one of the variants from one of the pre-battle screens. Something like this will most likely not be avaliable any time soon (if the community even wants it ..?) That's why i suggested my idea with multiple scenarios (variants) on the same basic idea... I don't think that it will need to be all that cluttered either. We upload the files to the repository in ZIP, RAR files if i remember correctly. That meens that we could put all the variants in a FOLDER and upload that as a ZIP file. Could we not ? No need to upload every VARIANT seperatly. This would keep the repository 'clean' and i honestly don't think that the SCENARIO SCREEN in the game would be all that cluttered either even if we get 3 or 4 files with simular names for many of the battles. I totally agree. What i basically ment with this suggestion was that those scenario designers that are kind enough to give us scenarios with multiple AI-plans or scenarios that are playable from both sides could consider this. Playtesting is for sure one of the most timeconsuming parts of scenario design but if they already have decided to make a scenario with multiple AI-plans they will need to test each of those AI-plans. Will they not ? This is where my suggestion comes in. If they already have to put aside time to test multiple AI-plans i don't think that it would require very much additional time to make some small tweakings to the basic set-up, add or remove some reinforcements, make some small changes to the starting forces etc,etc.. Comming up with a basic idea for the scenario, making the map, chosing the overall forces and deploying those, making the briefingscreens...These are the things that takes time. Making some small adjustments to these things to use in the 'scenario variants' should be comparably easy i think. Afterall...Playtesting will still be needed with only multiple AI-plans also... Yes, you guys are right about this ! My misstake... Badger 73 Yes, this could be one way to do it or another could be to upload all the files togheter in a folder as i mentioned above. The player can then remove any file that he does not want. But like you mentioned. A good description of what will be included will be needed in the repository. Atleast i think that to replay a scenario would be more fun if it could be some more variation to it with regards to starting troops, reinforcements and stuff like that...I don't think that it will need to be all that complicated to do... Says one that have only made a few scenarios with only one AI-plan and only playable form one side...

Hello. I've been thinking about something with regards to scenarios with multiple AI-plans and playability from both sides... Instead of making multiple AI-plans in a single scenario perhaps an option for replayability could be to make several variants of the same scenario. This would give the scenario-designer some more variety in how to design the scenario i belive. If i understand this correctly the way it works with multiple AI-plans is that it gives the designer the option to have the AI move its forces in a slightly different way once the battle start but not much more. If the scenario-designer instead made several variants of the same scenario he could alter the following things to name a few: 1. the starting strenth for both the player and the AI forces 2. the set-up for both the player and the AI forces 3. Avaliable reinforcements for both the player and AI 4. the weather 5. game time 6. Alter the scenario in a required way to make it playable for both sides 1. The designer could give both the player and AI some slightly different units to play with. Perhaps add a tank platoon, use different armour, add artillery support, give the defenders some AT-guns etc,etc.. In a scenario that uses multiple AI-plans the basic forces will be more or less the same. Pretty much the only thing that changes is the way the AI moves. 2. Having multiple variants of the same scenario will allow the designer to possition the troops in an entirely different way. Change the possition of the enemy AT-guns, change possition of minefields, chenge the infantry set-up etc.etc... In a scenario that uses multiple AI-plans the set-up remains the same if i'm not misstaking. 3. With multiple variants of the mission the designer could alter the difficulty of the mission. To give the player an option to play a slightly easier version of the scenario the designer could make a variant with player reinforcements showing up and at the same time have some other alterations to the scenario...ie different setup, slightly different defensive forces etc. etc... In the same manner he could also make the scenario more difficult by giving the AI some reinforcements. In a scenario with multiple AI-plans the reinforcements does not change if i understand this right. 4. If the designer wanted to he could alter the weather for different versions of the scenario. 5. He could also alter the game-time to make it easier or more difficult. 6. Many scenarios are playable from both sides but i belive that it is somewhat difficult to balance the scenario so that it will play out well both with a human player and the AI controlling one side. With several variants of the same mission the designer could make the nessesary tweaking to the forces to make it play out better regardless of wich side the human player decides to play. Making multiple versions of the same scenario might require a little bit more time then simply adding multiple AI-plans but i don't think that it will require that terribly much more time when considering how long time a new scenario takes to do. What are you guys oppinion on this ?

Thanks ! more updates will follow... Yes tankhunting is fun for sure. This really demonstrates that urban areas where not a very pleasant place for the tanks to operate. Even a single, very small, very cheap panzerfaust could end the war for a tank crew in even the heaviest of tanks. I think it also shows off maybe the most significant difference between the two opposing forces when it comes to infantry firepower. German infantry are very capable to defend themself against enemy armour but i think that if the situation was turned around and german armour where supporting an attack... The russian forces would have a far more difficult time. Their lack of hand held AT-weapons is a pretty severe shortcomming (i know they have some AT-grenades). But they could use some weapon with a little more range...