TSfE Playtest

[C0ckney]

Marko, I have played a few turns of your scenario as the allies and I thought I would post my progress here (as opposed to e-mail) as well as my observations about the game, hope you don't mind.

NB: I am playing the medium difficulty version

First of all some oberservation I made

Major things:

1. Allied money problems - the allies have all thier cash nikced at the start when the germans first capture a city (usally Arhem), this causes many city imporvments to be sold off which is very annoying especsially when these are things like air defence, this continues in subsequent turns. This happens because the allies have a very serious economic porblem (I'm not sure if this is intentional) they lose 700 gold a month.

2. Allied naval strength - is far too great, it is very easy for the human player to make sure that German units can not occupy the coasts of France or North Africa, I have destroyed large chunks of the German airforce in Europe and tank army in north Africa by bombarding the coast, perhpas you could give naval units all submerine flag or lower the values so it isn't so easy to do this.

Minor things:

1. Events - Seem very few and far between, I haven't looked at the events file (so I don't ruin any suprises ) but the capture of Paris or Dunkique for example yeilds no event, maybe you add a few for atmosphere.

2. Graphical glitches - these seem to occur when moving certain units (some types of infantry and cruisers), no biggie just a bit annoying

3. Home guard units - I think they should be renamed for the sake of accuracy, you have these units with a higher defence than normal infantry and in front line combat in Holland. If you have ever seen "Dads army" then you will have some idea of what the home guard was like (men too old to fight, training with old weapons, created as a last hope if Germany did invade), again not really major, just a little touch.

4. London - is for some reason in block capitals, just thought I mention it

5. Cities - I think that certain areas look a little blank on the map, I'm thinking of Thrace, North West Greece and Hungry in particular.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, it is an excellent scenrio and hopefully after a few tweaks it will be even better

Thats all for now I'll post my report for the first two months shortly.

[C0ckney]

Allies:

May 1940

France and benelux:

Axis overrun Holland and Belgiun, except Amsterdamn, however Amsterdamn is left defenceless. British and French positions in Northern France attacked.

I evacuated all troops from Dunkirk without any losses, Move planes into airbases in northern France when they can harras the Germans more effectivly. Used the navy to bombard Gemran position in Belgium.

North sea:

Destroyed many German ships, took no casualties

Norway:

Took a couple of cities, moved transports closer, few casualties.

North Africa:

Germans killed a lot of infanty around El alamein, counter attack by tanks partially successful, losses running about even. Bombers from Malta and Crete bomb Gemran tanks in North Africa and Palermo.

Greece:

Italians bomb Patri, fighters from Athens destroy bombers

Med:

Move navy through Gibralita, and along coast of north Africa.

Atlantic:

few clashes between U-Boats and British Navy, 4 U-Boats sunk for 2 destroyers.

June 1940:

France:

Germans take Amsterdam, Dunkirk, Lille, Rheims and Paris. French counter attacks from Metz brushed off, British planes operating from bases in France destroy many bombers and a few tanks. Gemran units along coast destroyed by Royal navy with no casualties.

North sea/Norway:

German navy mounts failed naval conter-attack, no Gemran ships to be found Between Hamburg and Bergen. Gemrans destroy transports off coast of Norway many casualties, sent fleet there to deal with the German ships.

North Africa:

Gemrans attacked and broke through lines, but were unable to take El alamein, counter attack by land and sea pushed them back, German units in desert casuing problems.

Atlantic:

More exchanges between U-boats and destroyers, 3 U-boats killed for 1 destroyer.

Med:

Italian navy bombards and take Patri, put most of their fleet in there, counter attack with tanks re-takes city and destroys most of Italian navy! Few other exchanges result in 2 cruiers and 1 destroyer being killed (by me) for 2 destoyers lost.

[Marko]

Thank you, C0ckney, for comments!

Allied money problems

This is intended. You need to stabilize your economy and by middle of the scenario you are supposed to have strongest economy in Europe.

Allied naval strenght

Yes it was too overwhelming in middle difficulty level. Playtesters for Axis reported it too. I made some days ago update of the scenario where I fixed the problem. Also improved Axis positions in Norway. Did you get it?
But don't start from the beginning yet. I'm interested how much use you can do from your navy.

Events

I had a nice event for capture of Paris. Strange that it didn't happened. Maybe because it was connected with sound files also which I didn't send. I shall check it. But are you sure that events file is loaded correctly, did you get introduction text at the beginning of scenario?
I had many events when I started making original version (hard version). But then I ran out of events space and deleted most text events (which player usually notices). Now making easier version I deleted many events which helped Axis. I shall add these text events back and send with next upgrade.

Capital cities with big letters

All major objective cities (London, Berlin, Moscow) are written in big letters. It makes them very visible in map and I think that it is a nice feature.

Cities

I have tried not to overcrowd the map, so most cities have plenty of space around. But yes, Balkan region can have more cities. I shall add them.

So, keep going!

[C0ckney]

hmm,

Yeah the events at start work, I understand about events space I had the same problem when making Napoleon.

I haven't been able to play much today (too busy with college work ), but one thing I did notice was the paradrop range, it seems far too much, I had the germans able to parashoot in to Ullapool from norway which I thought was a bit much.

Anyway its a great scenario, I post another turn or two tomorrow