Royal Hungarian Army - Turan Campaign v1.2 (Mar 23, 2016)

[Cataphract88]

Thank you so much.
Appreciate the update!
A very unique mod.

+1

[P210]

Hi McGuba,

Campaign completed on General difficulty level. Few observations,
- Game and scenario balance great
- Multipurpose AA works well. AI seems to handle those correctly. Subjectively I think stats in AT mode are OK and do not skew the game balance. Should be fine for Battlefield Europe also
- In-game messages really increase the immersion to the time period
- Siege of Budabest really tough
- Spring awakening also tough nut to crack. First attempt ended up in total disaster. Forgot the old maxim - Concentrate your forces. Tried to simultaneously advance in too many directions with inevitable result of losing momentum everywhere. Second try - Victory at turn 20

All in all the Turan Campaign feels complete. Fantastic work! Thank you!

Now, when we can have the BE 1.7?

[McGuba]

Ah, thanks for your feedback!

Yes, I also feel it is complete with the addition of the re-occupation of North Transylvania in 1940 and the other changes, however, I was thinking to add 1-2 more scenarios just did not have the time and enthusiasm this time. Maybe a few years/decades later, when I retire and will be a time millionaire. But I think it is long enough already and those who take the effort and time to install and play it through will learn a few things about Hungarian involvement in WW2 which is kinda underrated IMO.

- Multipurpose AA works well. AI seems to handle those correctly. Subjectively I think stats in AT mode are OK and do not skew the game balance. Should be fine for Battlefield Europe also

Yeah, so far it looks all right. (I am at turn 45 in my test play.) In my opinion the AI is surprisingly good and unpredictable at it, which is great and adds a lot of fun!

- In-game messages really increase the immersion to the time period

Yes, I tried to reflect the brain washing propaganda of the era a bit, but not too much. Historically it was even worse in many ways. I tried to reach a good balance between patriotism and war time propaganda, but those who can read between the lines might also notice some criticism at times.

- Siege of Budabest really tough

Because it was indeed tough. After the siege of Leningrad and Stalingrad, the siege of Budapest was probably the third longest and bloodiest siege in WW2, even though this one is much less known for a number of reasons.

- Spring awakening also tough nut to crack. First attempt ended up in total disaster. Forgot the old maxim - Concentrate your forces. Tried to simultaneously advance in too many directions with inevitable result of losing momentum everywhere. Second try - Victory at turn 20

Sure, I did try to make it a real climax to conclude the campaign. Something really dramatic, so to speak. Nice result finishing at turn 20 (I usually finished around 25 during testing). Even though it should be considerably harder if not impossible to win, I wanted to reward those few enthusiastic players who play this mod from beginning to end by making a scenario which can be won if played wisely. Hopefully I managed to do so. Actually, on paper at least, the odds were not that bad: the Germans transfered their best divisions for Spring Awakening, but the weather conditions, the lack of fuel and stiff Soviet resistance and counter attack put an early end to it.

Now, when we can have the BE 1.7?

Hopefully in a couple of days, I am busy testing it being about halfway. So far I am pleased with the latest changes and if all goes well this next release will also feel complete.

[Jojeval]

How did you insert a picture into a message, as shown in your screenshot of the Battle of Voronezh scenario?

[McGuba]

The UI of PzC is HTML based. So you just have to add

<p></p><center><img src="Pz38.png"/></center>

to the end (or wherever you want it) of the message text in the editor, where Pz38.png is the name of the picture and it should be in the "...\Panzer Corps\UI" folder.

[Jojeval]

Many thanks!

[Alexander1]

I finished this campaign a few days ago and want to applaud sincerely to McGuba and others who put tremendous effort in making this campaign.
Initially I was not sure if I would spend time on the campaign. I started it on Colonel to give it a try even though I usually play on Rommel/Konev in vanilla game. The game starts as easy and fun walk. Then out of nowhere it starts to give you some punches. Defending Budapest was awesome!!! Spring awakening was not as harsh but still…
The game feels very unique: the storyline, pictures and music between scenarios and much more.

Again, many thanks!

Two comments. Fw189A did not produce sounds of flying and bombing. Also it would be nice if there was Upgrade chart – I think I could save some prestige when upgrading from German armor to Hungarian and then back to German the following scenario (I would just keep German armor for cheaper upgrade).

[McGuba]

Thanks for your feedback!

As for your comments, yes, probably I will fix/add these in a later release if it ever materializes in the future.

[uzbek2012]

Будет ли этот мод адаптирован под версии игры 1.31 и иметь продолжение или автор занят Битвой в Европе !?

Will this mod adapted to the game version 1.31 and have the sequel or the author is too busy Battlefield: Europe MOD v1.8 !?

http://www.aviarmor.net/

[McGuba]

Yeah, sure I will make a new (final?) version for this one as well, but first is BE. Maybe I will implement some of the new mechanics, too, if they work in BE...

[DarthPooh]

Very nice campaign! But unfortunately I've found a bug - when you achieve a decisive victory in Uryv, you don't go to Korotyak, but straight to Alexeyevka. If you want to play Korotyak, you need to get a marginal victory.

[McGuba]

Hi,

Sorry for late reply, but I have been on holiday.

It is not really a bug. If the player is so good that he can achieve a decisive victory at Uryv by holding all of the objectives then there is no point in taking them back in the next scenario. Retaking something that you did not even lose would create some continuity errors, which I did not want to add. The downside is, as you spotted correctly, that players miss the next counter-attack scenario. I just did not really expect that many players would be able to achieve a DV here.

[DarthPooh]

Thank you, McGuba, I've fought on and now I'm facing the dreadful choice which side should I join. I really appreciated the heads-up event that informed to save before the decision, nice touch

[GodsHunt3r]

Hey McGuba....

This mod/scenario is a real masterpiece. I really enjoyed the hours during this campaign and its worth a payment.

I just joined the forum to tell you this

GREAT JOB!!

[McGuba]

Thanks, it is good to know that some people are still playing it. If you want to pay for it, give some money to a charity of your choice.

[CroCop96]

Hello from Croatia, McGuba I assume you are Hungarian, based on the love you gave to your mod.

I really enjoyed playing your campaign. Scenario design was superb, the historical bulletins with coloured photos were a very nice touch, but the part I liked most are the units.
The modified stats, the improved graphics, the sounds, the new units; I absolutely love them.
I would like to re-play GC East and West now, but using the modified German units used by your mod. However, when I tried launching GC's with your mod on (just for a test), there were bugs - a lot of enemy units didn't have their models on the map, just the name on the HUD on the right.

So I would like to ask you did you create all those units alone, or are they part of an another mod? Is it simply a, so to say, model and stats replacement mod, or does it entail a campaign of its own?

In short, would it be possible to use the modified units, graphically and stats-wise, in a vanilla game playthrough?

With regards and szia,
CroCop

[McGuba]

Hi, yes I am Hungarian, but I live in the UK for some time now.

My two mods are not compatible with the vanilla game as there are too many differencies between the eqipment files, mainly because some units that are present in the base game are not there in my mods. The reason for that is some vanilla units were added to a more recent version of the base game after I started modding, and I did not keep up with all these changes. However, it would be possible to merge the two, but it would require quite a lot of tedious work and testing. Earlier I was planning to do that, but in the end I found the official campaigns way too unhistorical (e.g. Italian units at Stalingrad...), and I just did not see the point in having an unhistorical campaign with a more historical equipment list. The vanilla campaigns were tested with the vanilla equipment files and any major changes would significantly change the balance of those campaigns, with the possibility of making some scenarios much easier and others harder or even impossible. Still, I did not entirely give up this plan, but if I had more time (which I do not really have at the moment), probably I would be more interested in making a new historical campaign or re-making the the original ones to make full use of the new units.

Just one example: in WW2 80% of the German light and medium field artillery was horse drawn but in the vanilla campaigns these are always towed by an Opel Blitz or a SdKfz 7. At a minimum, to make it more historical, in all the vanilla scenarios German auxiliary artillery should be changed to horse drawn. But if you do this you would also want to change other things as well, which would again change the balance of those scenarios. So it might be better to make a whole new campaign from scratch.

So I would like to ask you did you create all those units alone, or are they part of an another mod? Is it simply a, so to say, model and stats replacement mod, or does it entail a campaign of its own?

At the end of the readme file that comes with the mod you can find a detailed list of all the new or modified units with their corresponding author(s). Some of them were made by me and others were hand picked from other mods or were made by some talented unit icon maker like guille or bebro. So there is no other mod with this equipment list as it is.

[Ostrava]

I'm currently doing the campaign of this mod (current scenario : Carpathians1), it's so great.



Commies are applying a strong pressure on my lines, it will be hard to hold.

Can't wait to see the last defensives scenarios, must be epic.

[McGuba]

Hi, I am glad you like it.

Can't wait to see the last defensives scenarios, must be epic.

The siege of Budapes will be surely epic. (Unless you decide to take another path...)

[Uhu]

Hi my fellow Honvéd soldiers,

I have a some "dept" in regarding to finish my own Italian Campaign 1.9 and Zrínyi Campaign and now also to test the BE 1.91 multi... but I went to the easiest part and finally finished playing McGuba's Turan Campaign 1.2!

Here are my playtesting experiences and suggestions!

General impressions:
- Immersion is great, pictures, in-game messages with pictures, audio files, briefings make a great atmosphere
- campaign motivation ("what ifs", player rewards at DV's) are partially well done, partially insufficient: the end result is fine, for both choice - that is, what is most important, that the players feel, that his efforts made a difference - if he fought good enough. What I missed, the more rewarding battle end briefings. For example, if the player made a DV at Alexeyevka, the end briefing could be like: "The Hungarian 2nd Army was defeated and the overall Axis situation is grim. But with your heroic and successful actions, the catastrophe could be avoided and while the armored vehicles were broke down or has to given back the Germans, the your armored division could be maintained as an effective fighting force."
- It was a general feeling, that the campaign design could not much use of the DV - as it was an extra option, which was not used really. No (big) rewards for them
- Aux captured units were also a nice extra as in immersion as in the gameplay
- From game/campaign design, I feel it bad, that if the player makes a DV at Uryv, he goes next straight to Alexeyekva1. This "reward' is a punishment, because the player gets less prestige and less experience for his units. My solution would be more prestige for the DV and still playing the Korotoyak scn
- As a campaign, tending to historical reality, I felt unnecessary the "what if" armor upgrades (also the Allied bombing campaigns and the capture of the country were also not hindered in the campaign battles, so the real issue was not avoided to let the chance of these developments happen). I therefore did not use them and also do not felt the need for it.
- In the briefings, maybe instead of "German armored divisions", it would fit "German panzer divisions" fit better
- while, when I first time saw, I felt problematic, that the player did not get access to several available units (for example Pz IVF, Pz IVF2 ad the Don) and the slow towing tractor for the 149mm gun, it turned out, that it made no problem. I was already used to lower caliber guns from my upgraded Italian Campaign - I saw, that 105mm guns are quite effective and also cost much less! So, the Hungarian version of the 105mm gun with it's excellent tractor made my main gun composition, plus one battery of 149mm.
- I played a little with the core composition: I sold the bicycle inf and bought an another 105mm gun, which made a big difference. Later I equipped a bridge eng, but I upgraded it later in 1944 to a mot inf. And so on... At the end, I had the following core army: 3x Pz IVH, 1x Panther, 2x Zrínyi II, 1x 105mm gun (+ range hero), 1x 149mm gun, 1x StuG, 3x Mot. Inf 44, 2x Bf 109G-14, 2x Me 210 Ca-1, 1x Ju 88A
- I played on Rommel, still with a lot of reloads and smart play, I could save a lot of prestige. Therefore I could upgrade my Turans on Pz IVH's at the Carpathians scn, which made a great difference!

Bugs I found:
- Hun Fw189A, Sov M17 MGMC AT - no sound
- units, which have horse drawn transports, like AT guns, guns, cannot enter trench hexes (without road) - it's a common bug from the BE too. No issue because of custom files, I player Turan with the "factory" files and mod files
- There is a bug in the Library: DV for Uryv is written as next Korotoyak, while it is not true
- Alexeyevka1, Carpathians1: captured Axis settlements (with Axis units in them too) are shown with Soviet flags at the start of the scn. While it seems to be only a cosmetic issue, it's more, because it gives the player some unearned prestige to, when the Axis units "recapture" these settlements
- Alexeyevka1: Pz IVF2 and the Marder II should be with Hungarian crews, only the Pz IIIN was used with German crew.
- Kolomea: Germans as nations not set as ally
- Budapest (Axis) : Weiss Manfréd Work gives core units instead of aux
- Budapest (Axis) : the AI starts around turn 15 to buy tons of new units. Which is OK, but prefers Romanian vehicles, so I faced swarms of Romanian T-4's and several Pzw 222's at the end...

Scenarios:
- I tried them so long, until I made DV's
- Slovakia: a great starting scenario. It is quite a challenge and it is useful to play it many times, until best results can be earned to use the extra prestige for later core unit developments
- Transylvania40: a very nice memory to the return of North Transylvania + good historical information to all!
- Yugoslavia: nice scn, but it too easy - I have finished it already at turn 20, after it was just a duck hunt
- Barbarossa: while the retreat of the Soviet units and the destroying of the bridges are very nicely modeled, the scn is overall too easy and therefore without a real challenge. I have finished it several turns earlier
- Uman: the scn has a lot of gamestyles to offer. On the other hand, the Soviet breakout is too weak - I suspected more, built a defense and waited for it, therefore I loose time, so the last objective could be captured on the last turn. Without this delay, probably I could finish it earlier too
- Dnieper: very good, great challenge, I couldn't capture all minor settlements
- Don River: very easy
- Uryv: real hard, gave a big challenge. At the and I made an MV (I could replay it once more, but because of the "punishment" for DV, it would have no sense anyway...)
- Korotoyak: very hard, I had big casualties too, I could capture Selyavnoje in the last turn
- Alexeyevka1: really good scn, to make a DV is extreme hard. The orders are total different, to what it actually need to be the good strategy - but it's realistic... The design solution, to not move our core army is really smart!
- Kolomea: to make a DV is quite a challenge. While to make a MV is too easy. Soviet airforce is very few
- Carphatians1: it was too easy. Maybe the 3x upgraded Pz IVH made a difference, but still. It was a nice help, that the saved units number was counted.
Solution: if the Soviets would make an attack across the river from the north, it would give a challenge. Also, at least 35 aux units should be saved.
- Transylvania44: nice, hard scn. I could not capture all minor settlements in the south, just most of it
- Torda: too easy, duck hunt. I even made a counter attack, saved many settlements in the south. Suggestion: fewer Hungarian and German units. Also a random timed/placed Soviet assault across the river between Marosludas-Marosvásárhely could do more challenge
- Budapest (Axis):
*First the core scn - a really hard, nice, epic battle! Maybe the best of the campaign! On the first run, my defenders were butchered already at turn 15... Many reloads were needed, until I could find the best solution and defend not just Buda, but also recapture Székesfehérvár and the whole western shore of the Danube, incl. Csepel-island.
*Second the campaign design for it - I see here a big flaw. It is total demotivating to play it without core land units. Also it is total not challenging, that even with a Loss, the player gets through, can play the next scn, while he could save all the prestige, what was earned in the scn...
*So, here I made some editing: I replaced part of the German Konrad-force with my Hungarian core army, while watching on the same power and unit composition. My army was weaker by the units type, but I had more experienced units plus heroes. While it is not total historical realistic, because the 2nd Hungarian Armor Division took not part in Konrad 2, but it took part in Konrad 3, so I think, it is a small compromise for the greater good. The objectives were changed to hold 3 major hexes (Buda Castle, Bicske, Biatorbágy) to maintain a corridor for the supply of the defenders. Also lowered the prestige income per turn by 50%, as I found it too high. For making a DV, the player can advance to the next scn. With a MV too, but than he receives only 100 prestige for it and gets no prestige in the next scn ingame.
- Spring Awakening: I found it to easy. I finished it already at turn 22, while I had big casualties, I had no focus, because I was already tired... I hoped to play such an epic and "almost impossible" scn, as at Budapest. I had good weather, maybe that helped me - but than, the weather conditions should be made less random to avoid too big differences.

Overall a very nice campaign! I advise to work on the given weaknesses (I can send my edited Budapest scn) and then it will be even better!