Martinov Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 Blitzkrieg 1941 version 0.90 ---------------------------------------- This scenario features many improvements over the default campaign and should have a much greater historical feel. Advice and suggestions are welcome via the Blitzkrieg 1941 thread in the Battlefront forum. Regards Martinov. Summary --------------- - Much improved Order of Battle, especially on the Eastern Front. - Experience levels more in line with 1941 levels. - Technology levels & Research Scientists more in line with 1941 levels. - Increased emphasis on U-Boat and Strategic Bombing Campaigns emphasised. - Increased emphasis on North African Campaign The Eastern Front --------------------------- Both German and Soviet deployments are considerably more historical. In particular the Soviet Union commences with 60+ units in the field rather than 25. Even taking into account the fact that most of the Soviet forces start at half-strength to reflect their unpreparedness, this gives the Red Army much greater staying power. The Wehrmacht units start strong and highly experienced, especially the Luftwaffe. Unless handled carefully however, the strain of constant fighting will rapidly dilute this initial advantage. The Mediterreanean Front -------------------------------------- This is quite problematic in SC, as the Axis will find it almost impossible to achieve historical results due to the absence of a port in Tripoli. One solution is to start the Axis in possession of Tobruk and its port, but they did not in fact fall for another 6+ months, with many battles revolving around the city through the period. My solution is to try to recreate the complex situation around Tobruk. This places the initiative with the Axis - they can either launch an immediate attempt to storm the city, with dire consequences for their weakened army if they fail, or opt to build up their forces in an attempt to attrition the Allied forces into submission. I have set Vichy France as an Axis minor with a single garrison unit in Tunisia. I believe this is the configuration most likely to yield historical results, eg the fall of Vichy Syria in 1941, Allied landings & Axis buildup in Vichy Algeria 1942 and Axis occupation of mainland in 1944. Experience Summary -------------------------------- German Air units 3 German Land units 2 German Naval units 1 Commonwealth Air units 2 Commonwealth Ground units 1 Commonwealth Naval units 1 Blitzkrieg 1941 Scenario Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl G. E. von Mannerheim Posted November 29, 2002 Share Posted November 29, 2002 Looks good CvM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Wagner Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 I notice that you were able to insert the Garibaldi HQ unit in the 1/2 hex south of Tobruk, even though normal movement is prohibited in that hex... interesting anamoly...too bad the map restricts movement there...as mentioned a million times here, this needs to be fixed.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzgndr Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 In particular the Soviet Union commences with 60+ units in the field rather than 25. Even taking into account the fact that most of the Soviet forces start at half-strength to reflect their unpreparedness, this gives the Red Army much greater staying power. Without even looking at this new scenario in detail, the proliferation of new units strikes me as a play balance concern. Since reinforcement costs are about half normal build costs, adding 30-some corps at strength 2 is equivalent to just giving USSR an additional 1500(+/-) MPPs at start. Either that's unfair, or is compensated by giving the Axis some beefed up OOB. Dgaad's Historicity mod made subtle changes which tweaked the game enough to provide some more accuracy. These Blitzkrieg mods are tending to add more and more units to each side. I'm showing my bias toward the original playtested game, so don't take my personal opinion as criticism to stifle creativity. Two thoughts for the peanut gallery. First, there's a tendency to mod the scenarios to compensate for some game issues likely to be resolved in the next patch - research adjustments, British transports to the Med, Russian supply issues, etc. SC has been relatively stable since v1.04 was released a couple months ago and these mods were developed. Scenario "solutions" to current game "problems" may not work as well with the next patch. Second, there's a tendency to add cadre units for historical accuracy (French DCR tanks, Bismarck battleship, etc.) since the game does not allow you to buy reduced-strength units and build them up over time (idea for SC2 maybe?) In moderation, this is OK but there's a play-balance issue to giving one side or the other too many free units. At this scale, the real issue is having players make that strategic decision to buy unit X or unit Y. If you provide all these additional units at start, it becomes a reinforcement race and virtually locks players into set OOBs. That detracts from an important aspect of this game. Keep working on scenario mods. It's good to have new ideas to think about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinov Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 Actually, its more like +30 5 factor armies not corps and +5 tank groups and +10 HQ's and so forth, so its more like +3000 points! With a couple of minor exceptions, all my changes are justifiable in terms of historical order of battle. If the game units are supposed to represent armies and a country had 10 armies in the field, it should have 10 units, if they are not there for some fudging reason, the game will be of no interest to me. My personal view is play balance be damned, with the correct order of battle the game will play like ww2 if its worth its salt. You can always alter the victory conditions to suit. My scenarios are for people of like mind to enjoy. By the way, I am happy to say that Hubert's game is living up to the challenge presented by an expanded ob excellently. And as the readme notes, the germans start with a significant quality advantage, they tear through the more numerous soviet units, weakening, weakening, as they near Moscow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinov Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 Darn the above should be the opening deployment Look into my eyes and tell me that doing this is wrong.... [ November 30, 2002, 12:53 PM: Message edited by: Martinov ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pzgndr Posted November 30, 2002 Share Posted November 30, 2002 Fair enough. The Blitzkrieg mods provide a useful benchmark for discussion and perhaps the expanded setups are the way to go. If they're working fine, that's great. I'm still undecided, and my comments are more questioning rather than criticizing. SC is an abstraction afterall, where units in the game do not exactly match their historical counterparts. Something I mentioned a while back was some way to ensure the game system and scenario setups are all consistent with each other and with history. SC does not do this very well, particularly with regard to research. Game patches and scenario mods will help for the time being, but the game is still an abstraction and some imperfections should be tolerated for overall play balance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martinov Posted November 30, 2002 Author Share Posted November 30, 2002 I appreciate your criticism & I understand what you say about v1.6 making some of the fixes superfluous & also about the possible negatives of 'cadre' units. On the whole the scens seem to be working fine though, and I believe they increase player options rather than straitjacket them. I guess one thing I'm trying to say to Hubert through these scens is "Have more confidence in your game, it works fine with a more accurate OB, so why not?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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