RetLT Scenario issues

[DRG]

This is now the altered write up for that scenario

Gliders at Crete*
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Date: May 20, 1941*
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Battle Type: German assault vs. British defend*
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Design: CB Blackard*
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Difficulty: Very hard*
Size: Small*
Time: Short*
Playable from either side: no*
Enjoyability: 2 ( see note below )*
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Battle Description: German gliderborne troops land west of Canea, the capital of Crete, in order to subdue British defenses in preparation for the German's main airborne assault.*
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NOTE: This scenario should be played with the human player as the German side. Please note the scenario will not work correctly with player 1 under computer control*
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PLEASE FURTHER NOTE: At game start the German player must click on the "Bombard, Airborne or spotter mission" button then use the "switch to " button and select AIRBORNE then begin plotting the Landing Zones for your gliders. Those Landing zones are represented by the five "Gold Spots" that are already placed on the map.*
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ADDITIONAL NOTES: The preplotted LZ's are under fire from small arms and 40mm AA and recreate in many way the historical event. If you like a challenge use them. If you would prefer less of a challange land elsewhere but remember, the sceanrio is only 11 turns long and what is represented in this scenario is the intial landings made to neutralize the ground defenses to protect the descent of the parachute troops and in reality, it did not go well......*
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QUOTE: https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/.../20_260_4.htm*
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'At 0800 the first gliders, each carrying twelve men, landed near the airfield and on the beaches near Canea. At the same time approximately 2,000 parachutists jumped in waves of 200 each at fifteen minute intervals. Two of every three parachutes in each wave carried containers with weapons and supplies. At Maleme, the parachute troops jumped into strong enemy fire from infantry weapons, em-placed in positions built into the hills south of the airfield. Many of the paratroopers were killed during the descent or shortly after landing. Because of the concentrated enemy fire most of the men were unable to recover the weapons containers and had to rely on the pistol, four hand grenades, and large knife they carried. One battalion of the assault regiment landed too far to the east among olive groves and vineyards near Maleme and was greeted by murderous machine gun and heavy weapons fire. Casualties were very heavy, and the medical platoon that had set up a first aid station in a farm house was overwhelmed by the constant influx of seriously wounded men. The gliders would have been completely destroyed by enemy fire, had they not been covered by clouds of dust which formed as soon as they touched ground.' *
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Source: This scenario is loosely based on Avalon Hill's Squad Leader Scenario 209, "The Akroiri Peninsula Defense".

[RetLT]

Scenario #311 Dnjeper Bridgehead

Russian Riflemen are Mech SMG squads.

[RetLT]

Scenario #312 Red army day

Several units on both sides (including the Russia HQ) are greyed out and never appear on the map.

[DRG]

This was a (MUCH) bigger mess than I thought it was when I first started looking at it

I suspect this map was originally larger and it was trimmed down after the scenario was built and that is why some units ended up on the edges and whole blocks of units ended up not even on the map. Although I am not seeing the narrow east edge now, the east edge did show unusually narrow when I started but I have loaded and saved the scenario a dozen times so there may have been some self-correcting going on

The hint to that is the lower edge shows damage in the grey hexes which is not normal and the eastern/right edge grey hexes were not full hexes like the west/left edge.

When I finally waded through this all the units should get onto the map but it is **a bit**< understatement/ sarcasm..... more nightmare> of a mess that took a large number of restarts to correct and near the end of the first go through I started thinking that perhaps in the Russian cases that had large blocks of units that those " off map" were supposed to be re-enforcements and if the map was indeed trimmed after deployment those large blocks of missing units may have lost their reinforcement entry hexes which would explain why so many are just not there.

I made the corrections from a save so I can go back to the original and that is how I am treating them now but I can only guess WHEN and WHERE on the map they were intended to be reinforcements!

This SHOULD play out much different after all the Russian units actually get into the battle which would change the "easy" rating from the German POV. There are a total of 4274 troops total on both sides.......


We have added a troop, unit and formation stat tab to scenhack so now anyone with access to scenhack can see that info... the actual number of troops in a scenario was never available before

For the Russians guessing maybe 20% never made it onto the map but will now.

EDIT

It took nearly three hours but I have all units either on the map or scheduled to be reenforcements with the exception of one Russian unit that has been changed, then deleted and rebought and IS on the map and IS active when the scenario is played but it persistently shows being greyed out and after a half dozen attempts I have decided being greyed is not important as it IS on the map and can be used so there is one residual quirk but otherwise the units intended to be available are now available.

I'm not sure why you mentioned it was a river crossing when the river is frozen and I have tentatively adjusted the rating

FURTHER EDIT

I was really curious just how many Russian troops never made it on to the map... had guessed maybe 20% but the total is right about 825. As it stood before editing both sides were about equal in manpower ( and why it was easy for the German defenders!).

The extra 825 troops mean there are 31% more than before which should increase the challenge "somewhat" ( that's one and a half Soviet Rifle Battalions)

[RetLT]

Thanks. I will retest and reevaluate.

The river crossing was supposed to go to the previous scenario. I have corrected.

[DRG]

Just for fun I let the modified game run AI vs AI then went off to do other things and occasionally come back and see how the battle was progressing and at first I saw the Soviets swarming through the eastern part of the city and thought perhaps too many had been "reactivated".

At one point before halfway through the Soviet AI had pushed tanks across the bridges over the frozen river and I thought the change had been too much but then I came back a half-hour later and I could see the German AI had started retaking V hexes and when I came back at the end the score was not far away from being a German AI Decisive victory so I am interested in seeing how this plays out for you and anyone else who wants to give it a try

[RetLT]

In the process of retesting now from the Russian side first.

I discovered that the dragon's teeth are not really there.

They don't block movement and can't be cleared.

[DRG]

Do you recall if it was like that before?

[DRG]

I took them out and put them back in again and that seems to have worked as they report being Dragons teeth.

Attached is the updated version.

[RetLT]

Originally Posted by DRG

Do you recall if it was like that before?

I am not sure. The Russian tanks never made it that far.