Scenario: #3 The Road to El-Arish

[Imp]

65 is okay I got a marginal, lost 2 Sherman's & did not risk capturing last 3 victory hexes.
AI has 20 vision so be wary.

[Imp]

I would avoid scenario 73 I gave up after a few turns, facing superior armour & 5 Apaches.
Might try playing from the other side moving just the Apaches reckon you could get all the vehicles easy enough.

[DRG]

The intent of scenarios like that is replay value. You are challenged to try to do better the second time based on what you learned the first time. That said if you are handed your head on a plate there isn't a lot of incentive to have that happen again but so much of that depends on the player, his experience and his "morale". However, there have been a huge number of changes over the years and it doesn't surprise me that some of them may need a tweak to get back to the original intent of the victory conditions. However, that doesn't mean every scenario a players loses needs adjustment but in this case I felt #3 did and it really wasn't much. I've put 73 on the list to investigate


Don

[gila]

[quote=jivemi;822977]

Originally Posted by gila

They're 10 and 11 turns respectively--the variant gives you more infantry and arty too--which IMO is asking the impossible, at least for #63 (haven't played #64 yet). Fourteen turns each might give you a fighting chance for an MV. And yes, I've already bumped them up on my own; just waiting for positional memories to fade before having another go. Wish me luck, I'll need it.

I'll admit that it's a tough,but does every battle have to be balanced?
More times than not there totally not equal or the avantange swings to one side or the other,depending on numerical or just plain skill of the commander,look at Alexander he was always out numbered but still won.
There is alot research done on historical battles to make them accurate as possible i'm sure,and sometimes you are lucky not to get a major disaster
I play it as it is most of time,adding more turns can make the difference,although not the way as the designer intended,but who's watching over you anyways

[jivemi]

Originally Posted by Imp

65 is okay I got a marginal, lost 2 Sherman's & did not risk capturing last 3 victory hexes.
AI has 20 vision so be wary.

Thanks for the warning. It's a delay so it should be easier, but I played #62 Kuneitra--a defend for the Israelis--and "only" got a marginal. The Syrians managed to grab a VH west of the trench but there was still enough point differential for the win.

So far out of about 15 scenarios I've only two DV's to show for it: #1 Obong-ni Ridge and #50 Kalilah. Kalilah is Blackard's first AIW scenario and it's an assault, but it seemed heavily weighted in Israel's favor. It may well be historical, since they didn't seem to need their reinforcements (unless the Jordanians overrun the AO who's hanging out on a proverbial limb).

Anyway MBT is really fun, not to mention demanding of the godlike commander's skill, flexibility, and crisis management .

@gila: No scenarios shouldn't have to be balanced. As you mention many historical battles were mismatches so this may be reflected in the game. Still, it would be nice to know sometimes if you're facing a seriously uphill fight.

[jivemi]

Update--Finally got back to this venerable chestnut after an interval of 3 years. Still rather tough with 13 turns (3 more than the original) as it took two restarts and a reload on turn 4 in the last iteration after coming back cold from a real-life interruption. Very rewarding though to finally get into the chicken coop after a nerve-wracking desert end-run. Final score 2271:616 despite the loss of 3 tanks, 4 APCs and the usual sacrificial lambs.

Enclosed are some saves for illustration. Cheers and happy holidays!

[Pibwl]

I've found this thread while wondering, if anybody ever won with Israel I must admit I play not too often and first I obtained rather easy victory for Egypt. After changing sides, despite my efforts, the AI did the same for Egypt... I gave it another try, and another, with several saves, and finally felt like the "Groundhog Day" - you learn what to do, but would you know it the first time?.. The problem is, that the Archers fire, but you can't see them for several turns, and then you're running out of time. Last time I was fortunate to locate them quite quickly, while sending the halftracks with part of SP artillery to the northern flank. The final result was a draw with some 1020:1500.

As a sidenote, Israeli para sniper has a sound of SMG or something like this - is it correct?

[DRG]

What you found was an error that is bordering on ancient.

The 4 Israeli Para snipers ( U430-U433 ) point the sniper rifle to sound 55 as the unitweapon Sound. Problem is.....there is no sound 55 in MBT and never has been so the game is picking the closest sound based on the weapon data for that rifle. Those units should be pointing to sound 61 like the rest of the Israeli snipers.

Now changed in the master. If you don't play secure PBEM you can change it in your OOB

[Felix Nephthys]

Originally Posted by DRG

What you found was an error that is bordering on ancient.

The 4 Israeli Para snipers ( U430-U433 ) point the sniper rifle to sound 55 as the unitweapon Sound. Problem is.....there is no sound 55 in MBT and never has been so the game is picking the closest sound based on the weapon data for that rifle. Those units should be pointing to sound 61 like the rest of the Israeli snipers.

Now changed in the master. If you don't play secure PBEM you can change it in your OOB

This actually just reminded me of a funny error in MBT scenario 51 AIW: Bir Gifgafa 11/56. Israeli unit A1 is a jeep but when it moves it makes the sound of a horse. Not really a problem at all, more funny than anything else, but I thought you should know.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by Felix Nephthys

This actually just reminded me of a funny error in MBT scenario 51 AIW: Bir Gifgafa 11/56. Israeli unit A1 is a jeep but when it moves it makes the sound of a horse. Not really a problem at all, more funny than anything else, but I thought you should know.

That's another on bordering on ancient. For whatever reason, the scenario designer decided the Jeep needed to be hobbled and for the speed he picked ( 6 ) the game thinks it's horse-drawn for that unit class.

I have corrected this by increasing the speed to 9. It's an easy fix using the in-game editor.

Thanks for pointing it out