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Scenario - Sicherungs - testers needed


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Hello all,

So I've finally decided to start work on my first scenario again and at this point I'm in need of some user testing.

The Battle: Sicherungs

Semi-historical, days after the start of Bagration

1310hrs, June 24th

Length: unknown

size: Medium

You are in command of a second line Security Company tasked with defending a river crossing against Soviet attack.

My goals for this scenario were to provide a fun defending experience for the player. As I don't see many scenarios in which the player is in a defensive stance. And to allow the player to use units that are not often seen in scenarios. This includes the Panzer Mark 2 Lynx, the sicherungs rifle company, and various other units. I also wanted the player to make tactical decisions which have strategic effects within the span of single scenario. Unfortunately I cannot fully do that justice with triggers, but I feel that I have reached a good balance.

Situation:

You are the Commander of 3 Company of the 61st Security Regiment, 286th Security Division. Your unit is part of the 4th Army and is located west of the initial breakthrough points that occurred on the 22nd of June. By the end of the 23rd Soviet forces had reached the Eastern bank of the Luchessa river and were threating to cut the main road between Orsha and Vitebsk. A scratch Kampfgruppe under General of the Infantry Paul Völckers was formed in the early hours of the 24th and has managed to retake the river crossing and has since pushed farther east. Attempting to relieve beleaguered troops surrounded by the initial assaults, and spoil further attacks long enough for a new defensive line to be formed. Your unit was swept up as part of the Kampfgruppe and was deposited at the crossing to hold it indefinitely. Your one and only goal is to hold the river crossing.

Your Company, reinforced by the Weapons Company, has taken up the river crossing positon and spent the better part of the morning clearing up Soviet stragglers and digging in. 2 Company is defending another crossing farther South. However, from 1130 hrs to 1230 hrs the sounds of intense battle came from their position. You’ve not heard from them since. Kampfgruppe Völckers situation is also unknown, however if 2 Company has been engaged the worst must be suspected.

What I am particularly interested in testing:

-Whether the scenario is fun, and any feedback related to that.

-How long the scenario should be. Right now it is set at 3 hours. It doesn't take that long to play, but I want more battle times from other players before a set a ending time. Since the AI is attacking I feel that I can't really press it for time the same way you might a player. My testing took me 2 hours to get through.

-Feedback on briefing information and any other info I give the player.

- I also have a few unusual things happening in this scenario which I would consider pretty heavy spoilers. So I don't want to mention them here, but if someone does play through the scenario I would like their opinion on it.

Other items of note. Currently I have no images attached to the scenario in any manner. I don't really have the skillset/software to put anything up right now. The scenario is also geared towards turn-based play. Although it is possible to do it in wego. It isn't that there is too much to command, but that there can be significant downtime which a real-time player may find frustrating.

download link: https://iu.box.com/s/05lt3uvw04fftn4asn3i

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Well, the first thing we did here was bring in a bunch of people - loggers, road builders, landscapers, as well as hire a few local farmers to scout for routes through the dense woods.

Then we set to work on the balance of forces.; too lopsided for the Russians and too many for low powered graphics boxes.

We had achieved a good balance at 455 troops per side, but the foot soldiers couldn't keep up with mechanized units, do we had to hire some truck drivers; this put the Russians at a slight numerical advantage, but the drivers are non-combatants anyway.

Running the stock AI resulted in a complete rout of the poor Russians, so we had to work on that as well. Our military advisors said the overall plan was sound, but lacked the dedicated resources and refinements needed.

Head on attacks are very bloody and do not always work. 2 company was given some mechanized units to complete a rear encirclement, while a part of the main was split to begin an attack in the north.

Going over the terrain objectives for both sides, some were added, while others were downsized.

The German units and weapons were more properly deployed to suitable positions. The German and Russian artillery and air support were thought superfluous to the engagement and eliminated; those resources are need on other fronts - suck it up.

The PAKs and the panzerfausts were degraded as stated in the mission statement.

After many iterations, the battle remains bloody with heavy loses on both sides, but the Russians seem to be gaining a slight advantage.

At some point, later in testing, we will perhaps be able to snag a few Tigers or Panthers when they become available to replace the inferior Panzers and other mechanized units. We'll see.

Would love to send a copy, have no idea how.

Chris

This resulted in an overall reduction in file size by some 75K.

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Today, we added parameters for both sides. After much heated discussions, it was settled that we would use the same parameters for both sides. We used the value of 25 for all of the first column on the left. These remain arbitrary, in any case.

Last night's battle took about an hour to conclude. One poor Russian group misread their map and came out right on top of a German machine gun nest. Had to avert our eyes, so senseless was the slaughter.

We still had a problem with troops keeping up and arriving at the front on time to make a difference. One expert suggested we divert the group in question from the northeasterly Crossroads assignment to a direct southern route to the front to solve this perplexing problem.

It remains to be seen if the main force tasked with hitting the Crossroads first can take it successfully with minimal losses before proceeding to the front.

2 Company acquitted itself well in their assigned tack of harassing the enemy's rear.

We'll run the changes today and see what happens.

Note 1: the Russian forces ran against stationary and undirected German forces, since this is basically testing the Russian AI.

Note 2: We corrected the German, as suggested.

Chris

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