(g) - anyone fancy solo playtesting?

[Mark Stevens]

I think we've finished 1.7 (g) - there's a summary of the changes on an earlier thread, plus a couple of last minute suggestions (e.g. move Casablanca so the Allies don't have to activate Vichy) from later posts.

I have playtested it for many, many hours, and Tero's had a look at it, but I'd really appreciate any offers to do the same from anyone with (i) a good knowledge of the TOAW engine and (ii) a bit of time to spend.

I won't post it on the board, or ask Ulver to send it to any scenario depots, as I'd hate to lumber anyone with a flawed design, and God knows that's happened often enough whenever we've made any changes.

I'm not suggesting that anyone actually plays it through, but choosing different combinations of Theatre Options, and perhaps combining them with a few surrenders - e.g. evacuate Paris and drop a Fallschirmjaeger unit on it - should flush out any obvious problems.

Some News Strings may still appear out of sequence, but I've tried to reword them so that they're not blatantly nonsensical.

I'm interested in Options not activating, surrenders not occuring, Options not being cancelled (e.g. 'Case Yellow' if the Germans chose to build the Siegfried Line) or anything that looks odd, not suggestions for reworking the entire scenario. If anyone does have time to take a look, can they e-mail me on markterence.stevens@virgin.net for a SCE. file, and then post any comments on the Board, so that we avoid too much duplication.

I hope that I'm not tinkering for the sake of it, but I do think that (g) will be a better scenario, and I'd appreciate it if anyone could spare the time to take even a cursory look.

Regrettably I haven't had the time to redraw the entire air OOB to take advantage of SkyVons's research, except as previously mentioned.

Cheers,

Mark

___________________

"A Prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and disciplines; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from private station to that rank."

Machiavelli 'The Prince'

[Dan Neely]

One minor thing I didn't see mentioned in the sumary. The Romanian airfield on the superriver is unsuplied.

[Kraut]

can the russian units be spread over more formations ? That would allow the soviet to divide some of his corps to cover a longer front.

[Mantis]

Now, THAT would be a welcome addition!

[Mark Stevens]

OK, good spot on the Rumanian airfields on super rivers: I've moved them both one hex.

I've also put the Soviet Artillery Corps in a separate formation - 'Soviet Artillery', imaginatively enogh - which means they can now break down, and the formation they came from - 'Russian Reserves' - will have more room to do the same.

I've done the same with 'Reserves 2', by moving twelve units from it into a 'Russian Guards' formation: again, both the old and new formations will now be able to divide more units.

So that's about thirty extra infantry/cavalry units that can now break down (not all starting on the map) plus the ten artillery corps.

I think that's enough, because as a general principle the Soviets should be operating in large Army sized units. We don't want them too small and flexible, because wasn't that one of the weaknesses of the Red Army?

[Mark Stevens]

I've sent this to Siberian Heat and SkyVon, who are looking over the file for (g), but does anyone else have any ideas, or is this just something we've never spotted before?

Quote

OK gentlemen, I'm stuck.

Everything works/cancels OK EXCEPT - critically - I can't seem to cancel the Soviet Option to attack the Axis, even after Germany's declared war first on the Soviet Union.

I've built in (310 and 22) Events to activate the '500' Event that should cancel the Soviet Option (133) and an Event to directly cancel 134, which is the Soviet Option to declare war, but even after exercising the German Option, landing a para within 3 of Ankara brings up the Soviet Option. (And, although I've not tested it, I'll bet that happens if the Axis land in the UK., or if the Soviets don't chose the Option after it appears turns 110-150 and the Germans declare war first.)

It's just a matter of getting a German DoW to cancel, permanently, the Soviet Theatre Option.

I enclose the file, again: anyone got any ideas?

Sorry: everything else is fine, but I just can't seem to solve this one - it may just be some stupid typo, but I can't see it and it's driving me crazy.

[Mantis]

Does it really make a difference? I mean, the supply levels don't go up, or the German get his forts or something crazy if this is simply left in, does it? Isn't this akin to the 'Allies can now declare war' messages you see in the news when the Western Allies are already at war?

If so, should you bother wasting an event for a non-sequitur?

[Mark Stevens]

I'm sorry to say that the Germans do get their forts and bonus reinforcements if the Russians can still exercise the Option to DoW, so I either need to solve it, or - less satisfactory by a long way - put 'USSR declares war on Axis (NOT if already at war)', but it's not as good.

I'm sure there's a simple solution, probably just rewriting one Event that's somehow looping round, but I'm damned if I can spot it.

[Mantis]

Well, that blows. (Make for a very happy German player, tho!)

Sorry, Mark, but the editor exists on my list of favorite things right after root canal, but before castration... I'm no help there.

Good luck, tho.

[Kraut]

Originally posted by Mark Stevens
I've sent this to Siberian Heat and SkyVon, who are looking over the file for (g), but does anyone else have any ideas, or is this just something we've never spotted before?

Quote

OK gentlemen, I'm stuck.

Everything works/cancels OK EXCEPT - critically - I can't seem to cancel the Soviet Option to attack the Axis, even after Germany's declared war first on the Soviet Union.

I've built in (310 and 22) Events to activate the '500' Event that should cancel the Soviet Option (133) and an Event to directly cancel 134, which is the Soviet Option to declare war, but even after exercising the German Option, landing a para within 3 of Ankara brings up the Soviet Option. (And, although I've not tested it, I'll bet that happens if the Axis land in the UK., or if the Soviets don't chose the Option after it appears turns 110-150 and the Germans declare war first.)

It's just a matter of getting a German DoW to cancel, permanently, the Soviet Theatre Option.

I enclose the file, again: anyone got any ideas?

Sorry: everything else is fine, but I just can't seem to solve this one - it may just be some stupid typo, but I can't see it and it's driving me crazy.

The latest Dump I have is 1.7(e) but I've found something that might be worth trying.
At the moment Event 22 is 'Event activated' by event 22 although it'll be activated by many different events. Try setting the event to 'turn activated' and set the turn to 999.

----------< edit >-----------------
I tried the above and it didn't work.
Interesting: I run the game with the debug switch uberdude to display all event effects and event 134 never got canceled !
Sooo, the problem seems to be event 22 although it is executed the cancel-event effect isn't :confused:

[Mark Stevens]

Well gentlemen, unless someone comes up with a brilliant solution to this problem, when

(i) the Axis gets to with three hexes of Ankara
(ii) the Axis land in the UK
(iii) between turns 110 - August 1941 - 150

you'll get an Allied Option saying

"USSR attack the Axis: NOT IF THE AXIS ATTACKED FIRST", which will sit there until the end of the game

Highly unsatisfactory, and it breaks my heart that there's not a simple way of cancelling the Soviet Option to declare war, but I've tried every combination of Events I can think of, others have had a look at it, and still it remains. It was the same in (f), although no one seems to have noticed, or at least mentioned it.

Bugger!

[Dan Neely]

Originally posted by Mark Stevens
Well gentlemen, unless someone comes up with a brilliant solution to this problem, when

(i) the Axis gets to with three hexes of Ankara
(ii) the Axis land in the UK
(iii) between turns 110 - August 1941 - 150

you'll get an Allied Option saying

"USSR attack the Axis: NOT IF THE AXIS ATTACKED FIRST", which will sit there until the end of the game

Highly unsatisfactory, and it breaks my heart that there's not a simple way of cancelling the Soviet Option to declare war, but I've tried every combination of Events I can think of, others have had a look at it, and still it remains. It was the same in (f), although no one seems to have noticed, or at least mentioned it.

Bugger!

Probabally because noone played that far into F 1st. BTW it might be worth posting to the scenario design forum for help.

[Mark Stevens]

since Chuck appears to have solved the problem. For those who are interested it's a matter of cancelling every Event that might trigger the Soviet Option to declare war. Even if one's cancelled, it arises like Lazarus from his tomb when another trigger is activated.

Accordingly, I think that we're nearly ready to post (g), but I want to run some more thorough tests before I release it on to the net, hopefully very soon. I think players will be pleased with the result.

[Mantis]

twitchtwitch

[GunnerC]

Any news please on a likely date for release of (g) ??? I'm looking to start a new match any day soon ...

:confused:

[Kraut]

I've just discovered someting to be tweaked in (g) :)

The Moscow Line fortifications and the Moscow Line garrision units all use 76mm Howitzer, therefor 8000 76mm howitzer (takes more than 100 turns to produce these!) are needed to beef these emergency defences. I think that the soviets would have put everything at hand into these fortifications to stop the germans.
It would be better to assign them many different howitzer at lower quantities and give them high priority to recieve reinforcements. The proficiency can/should stay low.

[Chuck?]

Also in one of my games I noticed a Bulgarian unit is set to appear in Turkey. It is triggered however by a non-turkey event and thus is always at the top of the expected reinforcements list.