BETA: PLEI ME version1.0

[Marek_Tucan]

Hello!
(after a long time()
DL'ed it, currently turn 9 of the battle, so far no problems. Already reached the village with lower team, upper team moving along the road.

Tested both variants of support, works.

[wulfir]

Pyros said:
What were your casualties in that mission?

99 vs NVA/VC 522
ended up with 6868 vs NVA/VC 931 points.

Have a few hours tonight, will try and play the second mission then. This time I'll be a little bit more careful with my own troops.

[Pyros]

Yes,

the point of these battles is to first use your support elements and then advance.

In the primary mission you will have to defend from a N, NE attack on the base and you will have to repel 2 secondary attacks (VC) from the s and E (pursuit of your force).
Concerning enemy artillery, you will face 12 mortars, but their range won't cover all the camp... so you may consider of a strategic redeployment (retreat) - then weakening them with heavy artillery - and then advance to retake the objectives.

Anyway, good luck on this! (its on Alpha stage so your comments are very important).

I am currently working on the next 2 chapters and I am in the stage of map designing (LZX-ray region) with a very accurate topo modeling of the map with a new map designing technique (I will post all stages of this task after I finish it).

cheers,
Pyros

[wulfir]

Expected a surge of infiltrating infantry, so I pulled the spread out platoons toghether and let the support and core forces bolster the defences of the base...

...but no major push developed, instead there's a slow trickle of rather sturdy VC teams and the occasional sapper unit clearing wire and slowly advancing...

...Two skyraiders again decided to bomb the hell out of my core force, instead of the enemy mortars, damn the Air Force!

Had to restart the scenario as I was going to lose big time. Very embarassing.

Halfway through my second try, this time I advanced along the road and cut north. Forces defending the base have some trouble spotting the enemy but so far has had little difficulties holding its own. Aux Montangard platoons used in the offensive are largely spent, core untis getting more and more entangled... heavy arty and airstrikes have been successful in surpressing the enemy mortars...

[Pyros]

There are a lot of enemy units in this scenario, but these units will engage at a very slow rate up to the turn 30-35.
Almost all enemy units start their movement behind the "wires" and they will have to open a clear path through the base defenses (this was the case in the historical battle).
But for sure there are a lot of enemy units and don't forget that the player will have to contest the VP outside the camp, if he aims for a marginal victory.

What about the secondary VC attacks (south & west)?

cheers,
Pyros

p.s I just finish the topo of the LZ-Xray (huge map)...and it is a 100% REAL topo map!
It took me 4 days to complete the topo, now I will have to add the water and green.

[wulfir]

Pyros said:
Almost all enemy units start their movement behind the "wires"

They are apearing as reinforcements, right?
I'm moving from south to north outside the wire trying to clear the VHs but not capture them...
...hopefully the enemy will ignore this and attack towards the base, I have the mortars zeroed in on the wire in the east, infantry moving through this area will suffer badly...

I'm aiming to secure the VHs in the east at the last few turns, but I'm not going to defend them against a resolute NVA attack as my forces are rather shot up...

Pyros said:What about the secondary VC attacks (south & west)?

I set up ambush sites using "wounded" core squads in the west and the Aux platoon(-) in the south. Nailed everything moving on the roads so far... anything moving through the jungle will get through..., also NVA forces reinforcing the north will meet minimal resistance...

[Pyros]

Yes Ulf,

the NVA sappers and active NVA attackers appear as reinforcements all the way behind the wires from turn 10-15 with a 10% probability (only the few VC sappers appear in front of the wires - early attack).

The NVA support elements (MGs and RRs) are positioned in covered locations with a "98" reaction (guarding their VP locations).

The mortars will get ammo containers (as reinforcement after turn 30-40).

There are small NVA mortars (60mm) that will support (due to range limitation) the area behind the wires (their VP flags).

Btw,

Are the friendly support elements enough?

What about the friendly ammo containers (management)
What about the friendly AUX mortars?

Do you think that I should put the NVA spawn location more to the rear (10-15) hexes with a turn entrance 5-10 turns earlier (in order to avoid spawn too close to their VP locations)?

Thanks ,
Pyros

[wulfir]

Pyros said:
Are the friendly support elements enough?

hmm...I don't know, this depends on player experience and ambition I think. I've been trying to sweep the area outside the wire but I'm getting cut to ribbons. Turn 28 now, base defence won't last much longer - northern group falling apart and the core force along with two Aux platoons fighting outside the wire are taking heavy losses. My HQ just got wiped out by VC sappers popping up in our midst... so that's pretty much that.

Is it possible to leave the VHs outside the wire and just stick with defending the base? Even if it automatically results in a minor defeat...?

Pyros said:What about the friendly ammo containers (management)
What about the friendly AUX mortars?

Works fine. Maybe the Ammo dumps near the outer line of trenches could be changed to ammo bunkers or moved back. They tend to blow up and cause losses to the troops. I let the ammo dump crews bail out to prevent them from blowing up...

Pyros said:Do you think that I should put the NVA spawn location more to the rear (10-15) hexes with a turn entrance 5-10 turns earlier (in order to avoid spawn too close to their VP locations)?

Maybe yes... but wait for some other input before you change anything, I have some trouble finding a good defence tactic in this situation, others might have better solutions.

Having NVA/VC spawn in various locations probably isn't unhistorical - AFAIK they initiated most firefights, which is exactly what they will do when reinforcing close to a player unit...

[Pyros]

Ulf,

the main concept of the mission is to first defend the base and then contest the VP locations outside the camp, so perhaps your aggressive tactics (early fighting outside the camp may have weakening the base's defense.

I may also reconsider the values of VP hexes outside the camp by decreasing them.

One variable that I may alter is to add more turns (in order to allow the player to have more available turns to contest the VP locations outside the camp.

I could also add 2-3 Aux MGs to the defenders availability.

Concerning the ammo depots that are too close to the frontlines this is made on purpose in order to force the player (that wishes to win a decisive) to stay there and fight (they cost 100 points each).
These frontal depots are also there to resupply the defenders at a normal rate. Although you are right...maybe a couple of them could be transformed as bunker depots and I will leave 2 of them as normal depots with high modified cost (200) in order to force the player to defend them.

Anyway, the NVA attack should continue until turn 40-50 and the chosen tactical approach to that scenario could make the difference.

The first part of the battle is a defensive battle of attrition and the second part is a battle of methodical: "sweep the NVA positions with arty and then move to their positions"

As long as the wire remains intact the defenses of the camp should hold... maybe a good tactic would be to divide the arty assets between a counter-artillery role and a wire area suppressing role (all around the camp).

Perhaps it would be best if you first focus on the base defense and then counter-attack.

BTW, Are the 2 MG nest of any use?
This is a night battle, what do you think of the visibility?

Note: if you had won the previous (secondary) mission with a desicive, then you would have faced half the NVA mortars, but you would also have started your deployment from X-vertical line 4.

cheers,
Pyros

[wulfir]

Pyros said:
One variable that I may alter is to add more turns (in order to allow the player to have more available turns to contest the VP locations outside the camp.

More turns might not be such a bad idea...

Pyros said:Concerning the ammo depots that are too close to the frontlines this is made on purpose in order to force the player (that wishes to win a decisive) to stay there and fight (they cost 100 points each).

I figured so, but I'd bail out the crews in any case as the enemy mortar fire is almost sure to get them anyway...

Pyros said:BTW, Are the 2 MG nest of any use?
This is a night battle, what do you think of the visibility?

MG nests haven't seen much combat, but they make it possible to deploy forces in other sectors..., vis ok I think. VC teams are hard to detect...