Erik's Multiplayer scenarios

[Erik2]

Don't know if you saw the messages (I notice they aren't always displayed) but since there was a later version of the game we decided to quit and move on to that. Anyway after wrapping up Escaut I was a little surprised to get a major defeat despite fulfilling the objective of holding the southernmost town the entire game. In fact no german troops even got close.

The primary objectives are asymmetrical in Escaut so a bit more complex than usual.
I'll check if there are any issues.

[Brenmusik]

Korea 1.0

Rather an abrupt ending to my glorious march south, what happened?

The game simply ended? Do you remember which turn?
I play the NKs in a different game and we're on turn-18.

One turn before or after your game. Will see if I've any screenshots, to be precise.

[Brenmusik]

Korea 1.0

Rather an abrupt ending to my glorious march south, what happened?

The game simply ended? Do you remember which turn?
I play the NKs in a different game and we're on turn-18.

One turn before or after your game. Will see if I've any screenshots, to be precise.

One behind.

[Brenmusik]

Re. Escault

... I was a little surprised to get a major defeat despite fulfilling the objective of holding the southernmost town the entire game. In fact no german troops even got close.

I'm not surprised either. How could they spare the time

Krupped again.jpg (312.31 KiB) Viewed 2191 times

beating the crap out of me

[KarisFraMauro]

Believe me, we could hear the thunder all the way on the opposite side of the map... As for North Korea, I was playing in two games. The one that ended had that grey star glitch, which added to the argument for ending it. The other game I'm playing seems to be working out well though. Still need one more player for the version 1.1 though, hint hint

[Erik2]

I'm in as the South Koreans.
I usually join my own multiplayer games, great for testing.
But due to a bug I can only join the first available free slot. So if I've already tested that...

[SagsGames77]

I recently played Market Garden 1 vs 1 for the first time, and have to say the Germans felt a bit overpowered. Does anyone else get this impression? To be fair I put most of my air force in the south, but even if I deployed them all in the north I don't think it would have helped much. I'm used to the 2 vs 2 version, so maybe that's colouring my perspective. Ended up with everything in the north wiped out completely long before the southern force got close, and even they ran into a wall of tanks, anti-air and infantry all heavily dug in on the other side of a river. So that was the end of that...

I'm minded to agree. I got to Son Bridge by turn 11 but ground to a halt. I was using same tactics as in the 2vs2, driving up the flanks and the centre. The British 1st Airborne last until around turn 20+ but to do that all aircraft supported them, meaning my US airborne took a kicking. I got to the outskirts of Njimegen but never made it to the bridge. I suspect I should have not gone so wide but they'd only pile up behind anyway.

It should be hard but I think if your para drops do not land in target on turn 1 and 2 then you don't stand a chance. Free deployment of XXX Corps might help as you could then set up a better opening barrage and have the right troops in place to advance.

Actually, I played the Germans against Karis and have to agree that they are very much overpowered in the multiplayer game. They have masses of artillery and other forces joining from the north and northeast which are simply too much for the 1st Airborne which can be quickly overrun and same for the 82nd before the ground forces get far enough north.

In the AI version it is possible to win simply because the AI is very poor and all that artillery just shuffles around and never gets into action, but a human German player just has too much firepower at their disposal and the Allies have no chance. It's a great pity because it can be a very interesting battle to wargame. In fact I was wargaming it way back in the day with the SPI Arnhem game with paper maps and cardboard units, a game I still have and played last year...

If anyone ever revamps the game (I don't have the skills) I would suggest removing most of that artillery (the AI doesn't use it anyway) and maybe one or two other German reinforcements in the north to give the 1st Airborne a chance to hold out for longer. Don't get me wrong, they are supposed to get a battering and it should be very difficult to keep a foothold on the north bank of the Rhine but a good Allied player should be able to have a chance of holding out at least until the ground forces reach Nijmegen. On the plus side I think the German units that come in from the west and east are about right.

On the subject, last time I played 1vAI I achieved all my objectives and had XXX Corps units driving north from Arnhem bridge but the result was still a draw, so there seems to be a problem with the victory conditions in that version.

[Erik2]

I have saved your detailed Market Garden feedback for a possible future update.
Thanks, guys.

Erik

[KarisFraMauro]

After 22 turns (out of 50 I need to endure) as Poland in the multiplayer scenario we're playing I'm pretty much finished. Don't think I played poorly, just that there's no conceivable way of withstanding the German navy for any length of time, and abandoning the coastline means losing all my supply. To say nothing of meeting the victory conditions.

The rps per turn for Poland are fine, much improved over the first version where I was constantly broke. However when the other change, namely eliminating the reinforcements Poland got, makes less sense. If the purpose of a new version is to remedy unbalanced gameplay in an earlier version, it's probably not ideal to nerf the weaker side I still think Poland would be doomed even with the reinforcements, but it would at least be less so. Is there nothing to be done regarding the navy? More / stronger coastal fortresses? Maybe a tactical bomber? Or for that matter, any kind of Polish air force aside from the single strategic bomber? Personally I would consider the scenario good to go if I could play as Germany and lose despite my best efforts.

[Brenmusik]

An excellent analysis. If I could just add, if the Poles don't have "heroes" why should the Germans?

[KarisFraMauro]

In fairness, an argument could be made that I didn't help matters by moving a number of units to the west rather than having them dig in along the coast. I have considered it. There are two shortcomings to that strategy which I see. Firstly when you have a large number of units in a small area their utility diminishes because of crowding, particularly if they're all infantry. You end up with a lot of units just sitting there unable to attack because they're too far behind the front lines, even with the mortar attack by Polish heavy infantry. Secondly had I not moved west it would have allowed the German units there to effectively flank me, if anything hastening the collapse of my forces. I actually think I'm doing fairly well in that particular front, or at least I was until my supply went kaput I never did get a reply to my question about Poland having a sub. It was present in the single player campaign after all. And although a lot of the polish air force ultimately relocated to the UK, presumeably this didn't occur until at least a bit of fighting, so I do think a fighter or two wouldn't be that implausible.

The best way to get a feel for a map is to play as both sides of course, that's why I'm so confident the Korea scenarios are already very well made with minimal tweaking required. So far I've played two games of the Polish invasion, both as Poland, so hopefully at some point I can try things from the other side and see how it goes.

[Erik2]

My Danzig friends

I'm doing a complete overhaul of the Corridor.
The original map felt cramped, so I doubled the size of the map and redid much of the terrain.
This left enough space to move to the original company units instead of the current mix of battalions and coys.
There will be changes to objectives, resource income and supply.

We should resign the current games, they have outrun their usefullness.
Danzig Corridor 2.0 will hopefully be published soon.

Thanks for testing
Erik

[KarisFraMauro]

Interesting! Increasing the size is a means of limiting naval utility which I had not considered. Obviously ports will still be threatened but Polish units can remain somewhat close to the coast without necessarily falling prey to guns.

[stevefprice]

My Danzig friends

I'm doing a complete overhaul of the Corridor.
The original map felt cramped, so I doubled the size of the map and redid much of the terrain.
This left enough space to move to the original company units instead of the current mix of battalions and coys.
There will be changes to objectives, resource income and supply.

We should resign the current games, they have outrun their usefullness.
Danzig Corridor 2.0 will hopefully be published soon.

Thanks for testing
Erik

So long as Axis do not now spend most of the game trying to get to the front line.

[KarisFraMauro]

Though I still don't think the allies should have their supply increased in the Korea multiplayer map (they have so many ships that if they run out of supply, it's their own fault frankly), I'm reconsidering giving the North Koreans / Chinese more. However with the Chinese reinforcements I'd say, increase their supply but increase the number of units as well. Right now the strength of those reinforcements is a lot but I don't get the impression it's as fearsome as it ought to be. If their numbers are large enough, destroying units should only make them more dangerous because it would allow for full supply for the remainder while not really making a dent in their overall strength. Basically they still experience supply shortages, BUT only temporarily until they either lose enough units to catch up or retake enough cities. Feasible?

[Erik2]

So long as Axis do not now spend most of the game trying to get to the front line.

Although the distance from the western Germans to the border is longer, movement should be faster since all roads/tracks are now on copen terrain.
The eastern Germans may assault the Poles around Danzig on the first turn, of course (or prudently just probe the frontline...)

[Erik2]

Ideally the UN supply in Korea would start low and slowly build, maybe I can tie the supply output to the number of units/reinforcements.
The NK/Chinese should have enough supply to avoid going into orange/red. Personally I think plying with constant low supply is simply not that fun.
The Chinese have a lot of units/divisions, but no resource income to reflect their poor state. Placing a few supply dumps south of the parallell should serve as proper motivation to roll south. But the mud climate is not very good for offensives...
I'd like to see how the clear climate tests (how appropriate) go before making any further changes.

[KarisFraMauro]

I guess there's a subjective aspect to supply. As I said, there are instances where it's historically accurate like the Chinese reinforcements. In the grand scheme of things I admit it's not exactly super important though, more like a recognition for doing especially well or poorly. Overall feels good to go as is, even if there might be room for adjusting the power of China in the late game upwards a tad.

I would like the Chinese air units to get 'normal' resource income, but this means using 2 Chinese factions.

[Erik2]

2v2 Kyushu 1945 1.0
Link added in first post.

This scenario deals with a follow-up to the planned Operation Olympic landings.
The main US invasion groups join forces and try to push north in the face of a Japanese counter-attack.

2 US and 2 Jap factions, 84x78 map, large number of units.


There are a couple free slots in 2 challenges, no password, if you'd like to test it.

[KarisFraMauro]

While one turn is not a whole lot to go on, Kyushu seems cool so far. I need to play it as the Japanese side next. Works well, which is always a plus. I'm a sucker for those large scale maps as well.