Taking of Sidi Rezegh

[DavidFields]

Spoiler.

From looking at history, the South Africans took the airfield.

And the scenario OOB is clearly well researched, as noted by the footnotes in the briefing.

Why, then, do I find that the Allies have no real chance to take the airfield in this scenario, because of no real counter to all the guns/infantry around it? (this is even without the Axis reinforcements) [A draw can be had by killing all the reinforcements, and then just avoiding the airfield]

A. My tactics are bad: I will consider that--learn me. I can't seem to get the smoke to work, but I don't think that is the issue. I can't find anything much useful to do with the Allied armor cars.

B. The scenario does not take into account some intangibles: Such as the Italians being surprised. Perhaps that could be modeled as some units "effectively" not being there, or started as in Panic, or undermaned. Also, perhaps Flak guns, and gunners, can't in minutes transition to the "ground game".

C. There is something in CM game mechanics which is off.

Thoughts?

[dieseltaylor]

Basic rule of thumb is that if it says its historical then it will be a bad scenario. Honest.

Semi-historical can be good or bad depending on the designer.

The reason is that the game engine is nowhere subtle enough to account for a number of things - surprise being just one of them. CM is really coarse in some ways with the Firefly firing just as fast as any other Sherman rather than half as fast. When you translate that fact to Wittmans Last Battle by Enigma where tanks are on a one to one basis the German heavy armour is jumped on and spat out easily.

Another series - I think Panzer Div 1 in 1940 in France used Honeys[stuarts][M5's] and Crusader's to be the French tanks. Believe me they are both very much faster in moving and firing than any German or French tank of the time bar perhaps the III. Not a happy solution.

A good designer making an entertaining game would have a nod at history but make adjustments to account for playability and the game engines weaknesses.

The HSG series - HISTORIC Scenario Group - has a number of designers but the ethos tends, in my eyes, to lead to scripted games where if the result comes out as it did historically then the designer feels vindicated. However there are some exceptions I am sure of this as I have played one good one : ).

There are a large number of HSG about. In the HSG brands defence the argument goes that we are better informed than the grunts on the ground and therefore the action often starts with troops under fire almost from the first turn to provide the surprise element and to commit you to the battle. A major plus for historicity but very unsatisfying if you like the game to allow you to be general. Perhaps I am embittered because in one game a German unit was pretty much in my set-up area and killed my only artillery observer first turn.!

There are many good scenarios out there and some of them feature in the Scenario Depot II's top download list. Some like Botrytis II exist at The Proving Ground. I think some reason why good scenarios are still at The Proving Ground is because some designers find the Scenario Depots rating system deeply flawed where a joke 1 score can drastically downgrade the overall score because of the value given to outlier scores in the rating formula.

Lastly evn great designers like Ritchie, designer of Tiger Valley, has a genuine lemon on the CMAK CD as an historic encounter goes tits-up as the Stuart is given an ahistoric superpowerful 37mm which can knock out the early German tanks at range. BF screwed up and with the Grant etc also carrying the super 37mm any historic desert battle could have a problem.

[DavidFields]

A really thoughtful reply, dieseltaylor.

By the way, which word actually describes you in realty: Diesel or Taylor (this question works best in English, or old English)

Playing Totensonntag, I find it utterly fascinating (if exhausting) to play as Axis. Attacking at night, must have been..extremely confusing. (Was the historical attack really done by these massive forces at night?)

I am impressed by the scenario design, nevertheless, by how it works with the game engine.

The AI tends to clump its troops, and move toward a flag. Which is not smart.....except...at night (or in dense tree terrain, with infantry, in other scenariors)...and they keep moving at you....almost like a horror movie. I am going to lose......oh.....ok...the mass is finally defeated.

Exciting.