Battle of Tallinn - 1.0.0 - Released

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Shards
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Battle of Tallinn - 1.0.0 - Released

Post by Shards »

Hi!

As part of Army Group North's push towards Leningrad during 1941's Operation Barbarossa, a large pocket of Russian forces was formed in Northern Estonia, around the capital city of Tallinn.

During the last days of August 1941 a combined force of German Troops and Estonian nationalist forces converged upon the Russian forces to eliminate the pocket. The Russian forces defended stoically and carried out the "Russian Dunkirk" by evacuating many of their forces from Tallinn's harbour back to Kronstadt to aid in the defence of Leningrad.

Your objective as the commander of the German forces is to crack the defensive layers and take Tallinn, eliminating as much of the Russian forces as you can.

For context: http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/ ... offensive/

Updated to 1.0.0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r64y27b7cli7o ... 0.zip?dl=0

Changes 1.0.0
- Reduced Territory flip when taking Loksa
- Fixed issue with Tallinn Centre not evacuating
- Fixed issue with Marjamaa and Loksa not flipping back to completed after subsequently changing hands

Changes v0.3.2
- Increased RP per turn by 5
- Changed Russian Artillery defence in the North to stop it plinking away at the Juminda Guns
- Added a second recon plane in the South
- Corrected accents on Estonian placenames
- Fixed spelling errors (@Bru)
- Added a start of game dialog box to offer the player the choice of playing in "Standard Mode" or "Challenge Mode". Standard mode adds more RP and CP, extra experience to units and adds a couple of commanders but disables the Major Victory but putting a Cross against the "Escaped Units" secondary objective.

For clarity, the challenge in Challenge Mode is to get to Turn 30 and have as few enemy units either still Alive or Escaped. If you take on the challenge, grab a screenshot of your end screen and upload to here :) (please say if you use a custom or default force)

Thanks,
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by GabeKnight »

Hi,

played it using the v5.2.2/64bit and without changing the core units in the middle difficulty.

I must admit that I woudn't advance this rapidly usually, but given the 15-turn limit I wanted to see how far I got. I don't like hurting my units so much and would have let them rest more often. I think I lost one aux inf./eng. unit on the way and I had to replace my recon plane. Usually I'd start with at least one more long range heavy artillary to "soften" up the AA units so my Stuka's wouldn't take much or any damage bombarding those 4-5 enemy artillery positions. And at least one tank with high infantry attack & defensive value.
(I have to admit though, that when playing I don't like inf. units that much. Mostly to "remove" the AT guns before my tanks roll in. :) )

But the map had a good layout and some positions seemed so easy to get (e.g. Kirbla) with the engineer near the blown bridge and a heavy inf. and artillary. But with enemy infantry hidden all over the place...
And except the missing pictures in it, all noticication boxes and triggers (sec. obj.) seemed to work fine with me. I got the StugIIID and the enemy was fleeing when I captured the 3 def. positions. I have no idea though, what you had planned with the "escaping units" or the ships altogether.

And thanks, I liked it so far. Now I'm gonna try and end the scenario (if that's possible at all ?)
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GabeKnight
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by GabeKnight »

update:
-The "Take Tallinn" victory condition doesn't check, concluding the scenario with a "draw" (I capured it right at turn 30)
-Both "special event" boxes popped up, the transport ship got destroyed.
-It got really hard at the end with so many ships and forts bombarding and with heavy inf. dug in at every town (but this could have been due to my reckless approach at the beginning)
-I really missed my artillery (the Nebelwerfer didn't really help with with all the entrenchments) and at least one AT-gun for the tank
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by terminator »

Screenshot at the beginning of turn 15:
Screenshot 424.jpg
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I did not well play and I begin to be lacking resources.
I had the impression not to have enough units and resources.
I am maybe going to redo a try (interesting scenario).
bru888
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by bru888 »

I'm going to take a hack at this today, too. I mean, I'm going to play it, not hack it! You know what I mean. :roll:
- Bru
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by Erik2 »

Wot? No forensic work, Bru?
bru888
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by bru888 »

Erik2 wrote:Wot? No forensic work, Bru?
Well, I was going to offer, later. I don't want to wear out my welcome, though. :?
- Bru
Shards
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by Shards »

Thanks for initial thoughts all! My trigger and AI design is only up to the point where you break through the secondary defence line. My estimate was that would take bout 15 turns and it looks like that was about right!

If you want to replay it, try with the custom starting force option and select your own forces!
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by Shards »

@GabrielKnight, did you capture Linda within the 10 turnsfor the secondary objective?
bru888
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by bru888 »

Well, here's my late commentary and a couple of suggestions:

Played on middle difficulty. Tough scenario; maybe a bit too tough. Turn 15:
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Suggestions: Make Loksa and Marjamaa primary VP's instead of secondary? Cosmetic difference, but customary, I think.

If you are not going to allow any units to be purchased (0 command points) and there are no units in reserve to start with, why not dispense with the deployment phase and let the scenario get to the action immediately?

You actually have 8 Outlying Towns showing in your objectives. This eighth one points to an unnamed town:
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I did not go any farther than turn 15 because I had the feeling that I was going to lose the scenario. I will play it again if you'd like, maybe the next version that you release.
- Bru
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by Shards »

Thanks Bru.

If you select to take a Custom Starting Force from the scenario menu then the deployment phase is useful :)

You've progressed through the scenario about as far as I'd expect for the first 15 turns, but yeah, it looks like you've had a bit of a hard fight! Breaking through Marjamaa is a key objective though, and it's pretty hard to "lose" the scenario as the Russians are evacuating. I'm mostly working on the theory that the only way I'll let you "lose" is if you start gaming the scenario too much by abandoning entire flanks rather than keeping the pressure up, but that's only sketchily working right now.
bru888
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by bru888 »

Shards wrote:Thanks Bru.

If you select to take a Custom Starting Force from the scenario menu then the deployment phase is useful :)

You've progressed through the scenario about as far as I'd expect for the first 15 turns, but yeah, it looks like you've had a bit of a hard fight! Breaking through Marjamaa is a key objective though, and it's pretty hard to "lose" the scenario as the Russians are evacuating. I'm mostly working on the theory that the only way I'll let you "lose" is if you start gaming the scenario too much by abandoning entire flanks rather than keeping the pressure up, but that's only sketchily working right now.
Well, you definitely have a "keeper" in the making (one of the custom scenarios that I download and store) so I will be following your progress with appreciation and gratitude.
- Bru
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Re: Beta - 0.2.6 - Battle of Tallinn

Post by GabeKnight »

Shards wrote:@GabrielKnight, did you capture Linda within the 10 turnsfor the secondary objective?
Yes I did, had all the sec. obj. marked green. Took it around turn 7/8 I think with StuKa support (I guess there was no AA gun). The ship's AA support are mostly uneffective. That was not the hard part, because I didn't avance further that way, but concentrated my attacks in the "Rapla" area. That way the AI diverted troops to that battle and I could take Marjamaa quite easily with only a AT gun stationed there. Really hard was the "Kehra" area with arty and ship support and three inf. in the towns and bunker and me with only one "sturmpanzer" artillery up there and the infantry already beat down and with low efficency. The RP were really scarce at the end.
With my Artillery and Nebelwerfer the "Kirbla" area was taken quite nicely and I advanced from there to Tallin to support the quite beaten down group advancing from the east.
I'd really like to take another approach at that scenario when it's updated, using a different core force. And thanks again.

GKnight
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Re: Beta - 0.2.8 - Battle of Tallinn - Updated

Post by Shards »

Added v0.2.8 to the first post.

You should now be able to both "win" and "lose" the scenario. There's even a bonus "let me keep killing the enemy" option at the end!

Also added more randomisation of the enemy deployment and the enemy "should" evacuate entirely now! Also snuck in a couple of other events for people to discover :)

Thanks
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Re: Beta - 0.2.8 - Battle of Tallinn - Updated

Post by terminator »

I do not understand the meaning of this secondary objective "Count of Escaped Units". This objective is always completed and the number increases in every turn.

Ex turn 9 :
Turn9.jpg
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Ex turn 18:
Turn18.jpg
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Shards
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Re: Beta - 0.2.8 - Battle of Tallinn - Updated

Post by Shards »

That's for this (coming in next version):

https://imgur.com/a/jten7

(it's counting the number of transports that successfully reach an exit hex)
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Re: Beta - 0.2.8 - Battle of Tallinn - Updated

Post by GabeKnight »

Tallinn 0.2.8

*may contain spoilers*

Being the second time around makes this scenario a lot easier, chosing my own core and with the withdrawal of the enemy forces working better this time:

Took Loksa a turn 8, the defensive line at turn 11, the coastal gun around 12/13 (after the unit guarding it retreated). The finnish battery took out the Guard ship just one turn after it started attacking my coastal gun (during the enemy turn I just began thinking, why capture it at all when losing it to a ship just a few turns later, and then it blows - nicely done!). After that I took a break for a few turns to replenish my troops prior to advancing into the Kehra/Juri area. After that they mostly waited till the units from the southwest caught up to crush the remaining resistance around Tallinn. The scenario was mostly done at turn 24/25, mopping up duty after that. Lost one aux. inf. and eng. unit on the way and had to replace my recon plane (again). A few remarks:

- the Scecial Event at the beginning of the scenario (You Tanker) has no text, whatever it's supposed to mean
- the few units you blow up at the beginning of the scenario show up in the "destroyed units" tab. it's confusing
- the inf./eng. unit guarding the coastal gun shouldn't be affected by the retreat to Tallinn directive, otherwise it's too easy
- maybe you could put up another airfield near the Tamsalu/Loksa area
- still too many heavy inf. entrenched towns IMO, what happened to all the lovely conscripts...
- after I got the coastal gun, I used it to shoot the destroyers and cruisers bombarding my infantry. I know that the damage done is minimal, but I saw no reason to attack the exiting transport ships. Only in the end, after I had nothing else to do, I sent my Stukas after those ships. Then I got the special event and the Mig showed up (at turn 29/30!). This could have been a really nice harassment - sooner. Maybe you should add some kind of incentive to the objectives so that i'd start shooting the transport ships earlier
- the "eliminate all remaining forces" counter doesn't work properly. So that this time again, I coudn't win the scenario (with the option to continue playing after taking Tallinn), only with a "draw".

So thanks again. Good work. And I'll play this again after it's finished.

PS: When is the supposed next patch coming? I'm really aching to finally start the Panzerkrieg DLC
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Shards
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Re: Beta - 0.2.8 - Battle of Tallinn - Updated

Post by Shards »

Impressive encirclement of Marjamaa there!

The Tanker message was a debug message for me. The forces that attacked Tallinn had very little Panzer support (due to them being directed to attack towards Moscow) so I'm toying with the idea of a gentle punishment of the ahistoric Panzer-fiends out there ;-)

I forgot about the destroyed units, I'll have to change them to Neutral and re-gift the terrain
I'm happy for the coastal gun unit to evacuate, they get cut off from supply if you take the hex below them anyway, and that naval gun is a small bonus at best :)
I've tinkered with most of the other elements you mention as well, esp the very placeholder force of Heavy Inf all around Tallinn :)

5.2.3 should be out tomorrow

Ta
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Re: Beta - 0.2.8 - Battle of Tallinn - Updated

Post by terminator »

just a detail : in the Editor all the nations are activated :
Tallinn.jpg
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Shards
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Re: Beta - 0.2.8 - Battle of Tallinn - Updated

Post by Shards »

Yeah, I initially created this scenario about a year ago, when that was the default behaviour, and I'm too scared to remove them now :D
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