Duplex's Scenarios and Campaigns

[GabeKnight]

DaLian 1943 has been released! Defend DaLian from a Japanese amphibious assault. Features intense naval, air, and land combat. Wait no more, go download DaLian 1943 right away!

I did. Thanks, Duplex!

[jeffoot77]

great work ! thxs !

[Duplex]

Thanks y'all!
I'm trying to brainstorm ideas for a new custom scenario. Any suggestions?

I'm thinking finishing up the China series with a bombing run on Japan.

[Turtler]

Thanks y'all!
I'm trying to brainstorm ideas for a new custom scenario. Any suggestions?

I'm thinking finishing up the China series with a bombing run on Japan.

Thanks. I look forward to trying the latest of the Chinese scenarios out soon.

That said, I'm fairly sure that the Chinese would want to clean up Taiwan, Hainan, and Korea before trying to do something like a concentrated hammering of Japan.

One thing that came to mind as an alternative (maybe a land/sea finale, or a step towards striking the Home Islands) would be some kind of invasion of Okinawa. Seems only fitting that a campaign of a resurgent China would end with the "reunification" of an ancient vassal....

That said there'd also be the problem of the Chinese not having the phat goods that the Western Allies have when it comes to dealing with the entrenched resistance. So it could be an interesting shindig.

[GabeKnight]

"DaLian 1943"

Sorry, Duplex, but I'm quite pressed for time right now, so I couldn't write one of my "usual", more detailed feedbacks. I've played this scen a few days back, so I try to remember some things I've noticed during play:

I liked the idea, and it could have played well probably, but there's always the problem of enough supply during seaborne invasions. I've used all my planes and ships exclusively to deal as much damage as possible to the enemy's supply ships. With them gone and no other supply sources nearby, almost all of the invasions (except the one on my flank in the north-east, that I did not see coming ) ran dry and were defeated without problems. (Even had plenty time to destroy the carrier )

Screenshot 732.jpg (863.51 KiB) Viewed 3608 times

I'd suggest to

1) either remove most, if not all, of my planes in the beginning or
2) give the enemy way more dogfighters or
3) increase the number of supply ships considerably (or do a check to replace them when killed, like it's done in the Blitzkrieg/Norway scen) or
4) place more (land) supply points near the landing zones to be captured or let the enemy disembark far in the western part of the peninsula (or something like that) or
5) a mindful combination of the above

With less recon, those "surprise" landings on different fronts were a nice idea to keep my units moving as well as my attention. It was never boring, as I had to quickly adapt and shift my frontlines. I like that way more than static defenses. Please revise and repost, if possible, because I'd gladly play it again - I really liked the potential of the scen. Thanks!

[Duplex]

"DaLian 1943"

Sorry, Duplex, but I'm quite pressed for time right now, so I couldn't write one of my "usual", more detailed feedbacks. I've played this scen a few days back, so I try to remember some things I've noticed during play:

I liked the idea, and it could have played well probably, but there's always the problem of enough supply during seaborne invasions. I've used all my planes and ships exclusively to deal as much damage as possible to the enemy's supply ships. With them gone and no other supply sources nearby, almost all of the invasions (except the one on my flank in the north-east, that I did not see coming ) ran dry and were defeated without problems. (Even had plenty time to destroy the carrier )

Thanks so much for the feedback! It really helps me improve my scenarios. There will definitely be revisions and new versions of this scenario with your suggestions taken into account. I think maybe adding land supply would help, as well as perhaps delaying the two P40s that are provided at the beginning and giving the Bofors 40mm instead. Also, I didn't get around to decorating, so this next version will look a little better. How is the balance with units and RP, maybe a little less would be better?

[GabeKnight]

I think maybe adding land supply would help, as well as perhaps delaying the two P40s that are provided at the beginning and giving the Bofors 40mm instead.

I'm also not sure how to handle this properly. If you use too much land supply, the "surprise" effect of the invasions will be gone. But the two rather obvious (main) landing zones could use some easy to capture supply hexes nearby. Also the whole scen could benefit from less recon (from planes) for the player. The radar station at the beginning was a great idea to show what's coming during the first few turns only - as was its early destruction (as intended, I suppose).

Also, I didn't get around to decorating, so this next version will look a little better. How is the balance with units and RP, maybe a little less would be better?

Hard to say, actually. As said, I managed to destroy the supply ships very early. No idea how the scen's balance was supposed to be. Most of my losses resulted thru the enemy tac. bomber (as my fighters attacked the supply ships only) and naval units.

I'll attach some turn-start screenshots (thanks to the cool auto-save function):

[Horst]

Made it through BeiPing this time. I start to like sending these human waves against more powerful and experienced Jap units.
Only the 75mm Bofors AA was totally useless all the time without transport.

I'm already in the middle of Manchurian Offensive past the bridge.
The 40mm Bofors AA at beginning could also need a transport.
I'm missing the "precious I-16" from "Reinforcements 45" trigger.
The cargo-truck interception event was nice.
This huge map plays quite fine compared to other ones where it often crashes for me. Maybe it has something to do by using only few different unit types.

[Horst]

Manchuria: one of the 20mm AA guns you get from the cargo-truck objective has no transport. Otherwise, the all went fine until the end.

Hong Kong: the Brits aggressiveness is too high with sometimes 98. I observed how the allied AI sacrificed two vehicles on a Jap inf with at-gun next to it in the same turn. A Brit inf unit was right next to the at-gun, hence visible. As the Brits have 0 RP income, they should rather avoid combat as much as possible and rather defend/block instead of attack.
I'd give the Brits at least a handful RP as income; they aren't totally without supply in the large city what can mean repair, volunteers, and bandaging wounded back to the front-line.
The Japanese income seems also too low as compensation for their aggressiveness. Their progress stalled around turn 25 if the player's defenses are set. In the end, it even used towed arty to assault my positions. That was sad to watch.
Oh, and better avoid (dense) forests, swamps, rice fields and such slow terrain with roads on all maps.

[Horst]

Harbin: scenario looked fine to me without any issues. The banzai army in the end was funny. I though I could steal the 100-supply point but quickly made a full retreat with my three units.

Dunno, but I think the scenarios so far were more or less fine enough balanced for medium-diff. Maybe one or two less reinforcements could still work, but I'm not really interested to figure out how it plays on the higher difficulties.
I gladly give DaLian a playthrough after it gets updated.

[GabeKnight]

Hong-Kong v131

As for the "Maintain contact with Hong Kong" objective, I don't think it should be a primary objective. When the British surrender and Hong Kong falls into Japanese hands, you can still retake Hong Kong. The objective will go back to "completed". Maybe it's a problem with the wording. I'll change that if it is. But the balancing certainly should be fixed. I'll see what I can do.

You were right about that. Actually it was way more fun this way. Still managed a "Tabula Rasa" (except the air and naval forces, of course) one turn before the limit.

I don't know if you've changed anything in this scen since my last time around, but this time, with the Brit forces gone quite early (turn 5-ish), everything felt more balanced now. Every new reinforcements wave was very welcome.

Screenshot 740.jpg (405.28 KiB) Viewed 3486 times

[Duplex]

Update v1.2.2 for DaLian 1943:

- Decorations added
- tweaks to how planes are provided to player
- A few defensive structures added
- Chinese units buffed
- Increased Japanese income
- other minor tweaks

[Duplex]

Thanks so much Gabeknight and Horst for playing through the scenarios. I know you guys are really busy, so I thank y'all for sparing the time.
@Gabeknight, I removed the second wave of nationalist planes and delayed the two starting P40s instead. The bofors 40mm is given at the beginning for air cover. I also tried to balance out the land forces a bit more. Hopefully you can tell me how the balance is with that sometime. There will certainly be more changes and updates to this DaLian scenario.

@Horst, thanks again for playing through all of my scenarios. My older scenarios are particularly hard to play through because they aren't that good , and I like to think I've become better at scenario creation as time goes on. Going off your comments and Gabeknights, I will probably update Hong Kong 1942 in the future. The other scenarios are good enough for now, time is precious and I'm running a hard schedule.

[Duplex]

Update v1.3.2 for DaLian 1943:
- more decorations
- land based supply added for Japanese in starting locations
- increased Chinese and Japanese income
- increased Japanese units' experience
- AT gun added to Nationalist reinforcements
- Dutch supply truck bug fixed
- other minor tweaks

[EDIT]:
Update v1.3.4 for DaLian 1943:
- minor tweaks and bug fixes

[GabeKnight]

Update v1.3.4 for DaLian 1943:
- minor tweaks and bug fixes

Yep. Plays way better this time. Here's some feedback:

- at some point, the enemy ships began targetting my airstrip. Destroying it, as they've run out of other options. Because I'm not sure it's intended, I'm feeling like reporting this. Also, I'm not sure if the airstrip can be removed from the AI teams target settings without making them stop firing at bunkers and coastal guns, too. Moving it somewhere out of range may be an option.
- the landings of all the the north/northwestern areas went very smoothly this time; the AI had some struggle with the landings at the DaLian peninsula and bay. But it's always been like this with tight spaces, best to leave it as it is.
- the ships' constant harassment was excellent. Made transports/trains on coastal roads a very tempting target for them. Always living with the fear and possibility of the Japs discovering my arty, AA or AT position and blowing them to kingdome come with ship arty.
- RP balance was good, enemy forces were okay, again it kept me occupied up until the end. Good work!
- And personally, I was impressed that you thought of the possibility of an exploit to deliver all trucks to a single location and prevented that. Cool.

Thanks, I had fun!

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[Duplex]

Again, I can't thank you enough! Thanks Gabeknight! Your feedback is always appreciated. As a scenario creator, it always feels really good when a player notices the small things like exploit prevention . I will continue to update the DaLian scenario to provide an even better experience. The scenario truly has a lot of potential. Thanks so much for playing. As of now, I'm playing through the two new campaigns I just bought, Blitzkrieg and Winter War. After that, I'll need to do some brainstorming as to what my next scenario will be.

[Duplex]

Berlin 1945 will be released very soon. Probably a bit earlier than I would normally because I want people to test it out and help me balance. It's hard testing things alone.

This new scenario will differ quite a bit from my others. Especially because it's not in the Chinese theater. It is based on the last death throes of the Third Reich and one of the great accomplishments of the Red Army. New territory for me, but I hope it is really enjoyable.

[GabeKnight]

Well, you can count on me with the testing part.
But have you got enough late war Soviet units for this project?

[Duplex]

Haha thanks Gabeknight, I can always count on you for testing.

There should be enough late war Soviet units. Endsieg added a lot of those for the sake of Vyazma '44 and Moscow.

[Duplex]

Berlin 1945 has just been released!

A scenario unlike any other. Experience the Battle of Berlin as the Soviets, who are trying to wrench the last major German city from their hands. Features nonstop and intense combat. Slightly historical, but with many sacrifices for improved gameplay.