Scenario Play Options for F&R

[pintere]

I was wondering if any of the game developers and/or experienced players could give a rundown of how the new scenarios in F&R can be played. Specifically, it would be good to know which scenarios are not possible to play against either Soviet or German AIs. There are of course some scenarios in which defeating an AI opponent is relatively easy to do, but it would be good to know exactly which scenarios either have no AI plans for a certain side or if defeating that AI is essentially a given for any experienced CM player. 

Thanks! 

[LukeFF]

You can find that info on the scenario's information tab on the main scenario selection screen. 

[pintere]

7 hours ago, LukeFF said:

You can find that info on the scenario's information tab on the main scenario selection screen. 

Yes but it would be good to get some additional comments on playability for those scenarios that are listed as "Best Played As". The following scenarios are listed as best played as Soviet:

• Zitzewitz
• Now or Never
• Block Buster
• Block Buster Redux
• Home
• Red Star A-Blazin
• Red Dawn

These are listed as best played as German:

• The Last King of Berlin
• Rescue That Beast
• Out for a Schwimm

Is it still a decent match when playing these scenarios against the opposite AI opponent (e.g. Zitzewitz as German or Rescue That Beast as Soviet), or is there no point for the reason that it would basically be a turkey shoot?

[chuckdyke]

"Best played as" means the scenario has less 'Battle Plans' for the forces recommended for the human player. That's what my understanding is. 

[ASL Veteran]

1 hour ago, pintere said:

Yes but it would be good to get some additional comments on playability for those scenarios that are listed as "Best Played As". The following scenarios are listed as best played as Soviet:

• Zitzewitz
• Now or Never
• Block Buster
• Block Buster Redux
• Home
• Red Star A-Blazin
• Red Dawn

These are listed as best played as German:

• The Last King of Berlin
• Rescue That Beast
• Out for a Schwimm

Is it still a decent match when playing these scenarios against the opposite AI opponent (e.g. Zitzewitz as German or Rescue That Beast as Soviet), or is there no point for the reason that it would basically be a turkey shoot?

There is no realistic way to answer your question.  The playability comments are the designer's opinion on which side would present the best challenge for the player, but that doesn't mean that you can't play it from the other side if you want to or that you wouldn't enjoy playing it that way either.  The designer also doesn't know what skill level the player is at or what kind of situation the player prefers to play so just take it as a recommendation and then play it however you want to play it.  It might turn out that playing it the way the designer recommends is too difficult for a player and that playing it the other way is just right.  It's just a recommendation, that's all it is.  

[Heirloom_Tomato]

Four of the scenarios you have listed are mine. I made the recommendation to play as attacker in each of them as attacking was the inspiration for the scenario. There are an equal number of AI plans for both sides and you might find the battle to be more enjoyable playing as the defender. However you decide to play, I hope you have fun.

[Combatintman]

7 hours ago, chuckdyke said:

"Best played as" means the scenario has less 'Battle Plans' for the forces recommended for the human player. That's what my understanding is. 

Which is wrong.

[Combatintman]

@pintere - Zitzewitz is mine.

The subject of 'best played as' recommendations caused some debate in the Beta Forum.  I will echo what @ASL Veteran said in his post because we were more or less on the same side of the debate.  In sum it boils down to 'some scenarios in which defeating an AI opponent is relatively easy to do' being subjective.  Some players are better than others, some players are a whizz at employing infantry, some at handling larger formations, some are ninjas with armour, some are excellent playing as Germans, some are excellent at playing Russians ... or whatever.

The Zitzewitz scenario, believe it or not, came about for some fairly unconnected reasons.

• I wanted to get a scenario into this title.
• The scenario I started making for it in about 2016/17 was struggling to get properly tested because it was crashing the various Beta builds.
• I thought about doing something different and considered doing something revolving around a push into the weapons testing site at Peenemunde.
• My initial attempts at doing a reasonable representation of Peenemunde were also causing Beta crashes.

So I just scrolled around Google Earth a bit to find a piece of ground that vaguely interested me on which I could set a scenario with an end of war feel in which the Red Army was mobile and facing a bunch of thrown together defenders.  As time was pressing, or so I thought when I started the journey, I wanted a decent-sized map that was fairly low-drag to make and Zitzewitz fitted the bill.  A quick bit of research pulled up the 1935 (I think) 1:100,000 map of the area and a bit of noodling around in street view and finding some old postcards gave me enough to make the map (see images).  That research also pulled up the fact that there was a Schloss there in 1945 and the story of Graf Wilhelm von Zitzewitz which gave me a bit of human interest to weave into the scenario narrative which is entirely fictional because there was in fact no battle for Zitzewitz in March 1945, the time frame in which the scenario is set in order to correspond with the dates that it was actually overrun by the Red Army.

 

All very well I hear you say but this isn't answering the question ... well in fact it is answering the question.  The point of the above is to illustrate that I never set out with any particular intent to make a scenario that was easy for one side or the other and it is why I am wary of making the 'best played as' recommendation as a designer.  It comes recommended as best played as Soviets because the Soviet player has more options than the German player; however, it you are a player that is vaguely competent, likes a challenge and loves defending then it quite clearly is best played as German ... see the dilemma about recommendations?  Beyond that I would be going into the realms of spoilers.

Bottom line is that you can always crack the scenario open for whichever side you feel you want to play it as and read the briefing and decide 'meh ... I don't want to play this.'

[chuckdyke]

2 hours ago, Combatintman said:

The subject of 'best played as' recommendations caused some debate in the Beta Forum. 

Thank you for clarifying this. I came to my conclusion in a battle of FB in which a player complained it was useless to play as defender as the AI stopped attacking after a few turns. I have personally only played with the editor and never designed a scenario for others to play. I concluded at the time the reason the allied AII didn't attack was that the scenario editor didn't give the attacker enough 'battle plans'. I found the game enjoyable myself as allied attacker but had not much substance as a German defender as indeed the AI didn't do much after a few turns. Thanks for your attention. 

Edited May 16, 2021 by chuckdyke