Monkeys with Typewriters Scenario 11

Bigkayeh

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MwT11 "A Choice Morsel" by Ian Percy is no available in the download section.

Kerry
 

MrP

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Yep, this one's mine. It seems to play pretty well, although no-one liked the choice of the Singling map, but hey Singling was a village and so was Carpiquet :) I specifically chose the map because it was new and shiny and only has two scenarios on it - woefully underused - no other reason than that. I also tried to keep the SSRs to a minimum and included the Singling terrain SSR so that VASL players would be able the scenario without having the physical map.

Any comments, positive or especially negative would be good.

Ian
 

sswann

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Ian

Where did the Singling map come from anyway? I do not know if that map wo0uld be popular or widespread. Of course it does solve the problem I had... too many overlays.
 

MrP

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Where did the Singling map come from anyway? I do not know if that map wo0uld be popular or widespread. Of course it does solve the problem I had... too many overlays.
It's from the Ops special edition that caused all the havoc a month or two back. In retrospect, not a great map choice for widespread play, but at least it's from an MMP product :)
 

Glennbo

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I think the Singling map was an excellent choice. Quite apt. :)

Also the scenario title was one of the three best! :yummy:
 
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MrP

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As I have 10 minutes peace from my 3yo, I may as well tell you of the whys and wherefores of my submission, not that there are many :)

The idea for the submission was that I really didn't want to do an assault on the hangars against dug in troops kind of scenario. Reading through the literature there were a few sentences which suggested actions and the one I chose was just picked up from the description of the Canadians having to spread out and secure around the church, mentioned elsewhere from the German side as being defended by Lt Duvel and his men. The OB came from a reasonable guess as to the Canadians being mostly 1st line, OK leaders, Shermans from The Fort Garry Horse and the AVRE and Croc from mentions of funnies from the attached units - poetic licence? For the Germans, I didn't want too many squads as the reports were that the Germans held up the attack with only 50 men, so a bunch of ? counters were added to simulate the fact that the Canadians wouldn't actually know where the real Germans were defending. The JgPz, PzIV and HT came about to give the Germans some mobile tank killing ability.

The Singling map seems a bone of contention. It seemed to fit the terrain, close village terrain and every village has an edge, a transition from farmland to houses and this seemed to fit nicely. Yep, it's a limited map, but there are only 2 published scenarios for it and that's a crying shame.

The SSR's I tried to keep simple, with the proviso that I needed to put a precis of the special Singling terrain on there so that VASL people could play it without the physical map. The Bombardment to simulate the arty softening up came about because I'd just played Maggot Hill against Steve L and it uses one......

How did it play in playtest? Originally it used the whole Singling map and the Canadians were chopped to bits coming too far over OG. I next allowed the Canadians to set up East of V but the temptation to just smoke the cr*p out of the Germans was too great so I just cut down the playing area to make them setup offboard. Last playing was very tight so I just left it as is.

To me it plays pretty well. The Canadians have a bunch of tools to get the job done, smoke from the Shermans, a croc and AVRE which TBH are difficult to get into the game being slow but once in are devastating. The terrain is deceptively covering, with orchards in play and the depression to help cover the advance. Also the Germans have some useful stuff, the mobilty of the tanks being key, plus the SS supermen's rallying ability.

Play it. Tell me what you think :)

Oh and the title is lifted straight from a quote from the general.....it's somewhere in the literature.
 
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sswann

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Without a Singling map, I cannot do any evaluation justice.
But I do have a couple of comments...

No Overlays = GOOD!
Simple SSRs = GOOD!

I like the OoB as it appears to represent the actual OoB very closely.
There are a fair number of counters, but this scenario appears to be close to the right size to be considered a Tournament scenario.

Being retired, I could not afford to purchase the mag just for 1 map and 2 scenarios to get the Singling map, but it does look interesting.

Just noticed... You went for a design on the Canadian left flank that did not involve the airfield and hangers. I believe that you are the only designer that selected the North Shore Regiment. Good to be different! :)
 
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Glennbo

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I like the look of this scenario a lot. And out of the "bottom 8" it would be my first choice to play...if I had the map. This one resembles my scenario in several ways. I like it's simplicity while still providing a lot of tactical options, and it looks like it would be a quick play.
 

MrP

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High praise indeed from Glennbo :) What are you waiting for? Download the map from VASL or buy the Operations special.

Obstacles, shmobstacles.....
 

Ronnblom

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This looks like a simple and clean design, IMHO. Good job. I think you can delete SSR 4 (Orchards are in season - of course they are, it's July). I would suggest you include the word "Control" in the VC. I'm not even sure you need to bother with VP. Maybe:
The Canadians win at game end if they Control 15 buildings in the German set up area. Building S7 counts double.
would do?

The Canadian entry instructions are somewhat ambiguous. You should either say "and/or" (for inclusive or, ie they can enter in both places) or "either /../ or /../" (for exclusive or, ie they cannot enter in both places). In addition, you should prefer "on/between" over "between", because in the former form it is more clear that you're allowed to enter on the boundry hexes (N18 and Z18, in this case). In the latter, you just don't know what the intention is.
 

MrP

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Thanks for the above - the reason that the Orchards SSR is in is that in the Singling SSRs they are not in season. I guess by stating that Singling SSRs are not in use and then saying that Orchards are in season I've done the same thing twice :) Good catch.

For the VC's the Canadians have to control 15 multi-hex building hexes, not just 15 buildings, with building S7 hexes counting as double - does that make sense?

I'll check the Canadian entry once I get a chance to fire up VASL - watch this space.
 

jwb3

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Can't say I'm wild about using the Singling map; the need to "undo" or explain the Singling features kind of makes up for the otherwise small number of SSRs.

But otherwise, looks like it would be fun.

I'd suggest that perhaps changing the orchards to shellholes would be historical (a number of others did so), and also avoid all confusion about orchards in season, out of season, shown-on-the-map-as-out-of-season-but-actually-in-season, etc.


John
 

MrP

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I'd suggest that perhaps changing the orchards to shellholes would be historical (a number of others did so), and also avoid all confusion about orchards in season, out of season, shown-on-the-map-as-out-of-season-but-actually-in-season, etc.
It's a personal bugbear - I hate terrain changing SSRs as I'm a visual kind of guy and if I don't see shellholes on the map, then as sure as a very sure thing I'll forget that they're not orchards.

As to the map usage - as I said, it was new and shiny and a village. I'm shallow, I was drawn to it :)
 

jwb3

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Won't be playing it, as I don't have the Singling stuff.

But I must admit, after seeing the HASL map that was done of Carpiquet, your choice to use the Singling map became much more plausible to me. Sorry I doubted you... :)


John
 

MrP

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Well. I've had flak for using the Singling map for this scenario so I've redone it using geoboards. Before I ask Bigkayak to Monkey it up, I'll just ask - is it worth it? Seems to play well enough on boards 53 and 44.........
 
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