WIP campaign 29th Infantry division (testers appreciated)

[gila]

have not had time to play this yet,but looks looks like heavy naval bombard in store, and no allied air cover

[Ts4EVER]

I don't think the Allies had direct air support on Omaha beach.

[gila]

Originally Posted by Ts4EVER

I don't think the Allies had direct air support on Omaha beach.

Hmm,, all those landing craft and ships would've been sitting ducks

[Cameronius]

I have only played the first scenario. I think it is too hard. My core was decimated and I did not make any foolish mistakes. Not the best way to start a campaign. Try adding some aux units. Rangers and naval EOD teams to use as canon fodder. More dd tanks availble sooner and some rocket launching barges with smoke. This should make a more playable beach assault.
Cheers,
Cam

[Ts4EVER]

Originally Posted by gila

Hmm,, all those landing craft and ships would've been sitting ducks

Well if the Germans still had an air force to speak of, that would have been a problem indeed. AFAIK they bombed the beaches in preparation, but especially in the Omaha sector most of the ordinance was dropped behind the lines by mistake.

@Cameronius: Unless you scored a decisive defeat you should be able to start the next scenario. You see, I designed the Omaha beach chapter as a "rocky start" and anticipated heavy damage to the core force, as is historical. However:
a) Since it's the beginning of the campaign, there are no experience points on the line
b) The next scenario is basically a small mopping up skirmish, after which you can reconstitute your force (mostly, anyway)
It would be nice if you tried the 2nd scenario. It is only 18 turns long, or something of that order, so it should be a fast play compared to the first one. If you still feel the beginning is too hard, I will change it.

[Imp]

I have not had a chance to play it yet but your answer is a good one, perhaps you should state something similar in the campaign text.
My gut feeling is if you adjusted it the best suggestions are a few more rocket launching barges & perhaps the DD tanks a bit early.
This would give you more tactical options where as cannon fidder promotes bad play.
Most campaigns seem to be pitched to easily your core taking few losses, less than in most regular battles so people expect the majority of their core to survive. The ANZAC campaign (I think) was the exeption very hard in places with the odd easier one that let you rebuild.

[Ts4EVER]

Yes maybe I should note it in the scenario description. After all, receiving such a schelacking in the first scenario probably dampens your motivation a bit.
Just for comparison, in my own test game, where I used the "historical" deployment, I scored a draw. I managed to clear the northern most strongpoint and draw as well as the southern one, and I would have cleared the other one int he south too if the scenario had been a turn longer. All this with heavy casualties of course, but that is the point.
I have not tested this, but I think if you used more "gamey" tactics like offloading all units on the northern beach you could actually clear the village and attack the bunkers form behind, thus scoring a victory.

[Double_Deuce]

This is purely my personal design preference but I figured I would throw it out there anyway. In my campaigns, I tend to try and start with a smaller, easier battle for the player to get help get them into the story without them running into too many casualties with smaller "catch their breath" scenarios placed throughout the campaign. Its not an easy thing to do as it will always be harder for some than it is for others due to experience, gamey tactics, etc. Too hard and people get frustrated, too easy they get bored.

In this campaign storyline though I don't really see a way to start the player small and then ramp things up since they have to go straight into the landing. Something you may want to consider is 2 distinct campaign branches, one harder, one easier and let the player choose in a pre-game scenario the path they want to follow. Its more work but not as much as you might think since you are doubling up the use of maps (a big time consumer) and the friendly core force only needs to be included in the 1st scenario.

I use an Excel Spreadsheet and Access Database for managing campaign data when I build them if you have those programs and are interested. In the DB, you can generate all the campaign text files from a single click BUT they are not real intuitive and there are no "instructions" how to use them. You may have to manually go through each file afterwords and clean the editing of each file to make sure its looks good in the game interface though.

[Ts4EVER]

I decided to change the map description to prepare the player psychologically for heavy casualties. I also let the DD tanks arrive earlier (even though I doubt they will survive long on the beach), gave the player additional naval artillery and changed the loadout of the German bunkers to have fewer MGs.

[Imp]

I had a little go only half a dozen turns & be a while till I get back to it due to other commitments but observations being critical.
1) Personal prefrence, I would prefer the FOO as first unit bought so easier to find especially in crowded beach landing.
2) The baz team would be nicer if split into 2 or 3 teams
3) Landing craft loadouts as you supplied are a bit strange
Whole baz team in one while others just contain a single baz.
Perhaps just lay them out by platoon with their landing craft buy them & let the player load, you could get rid of a few landing crafts to.
Negates the need for the filler scenerio as can see what forces you have.

I landed correctly one company each beach & easy red is the one having a hard time due to that damn sniper & they are taking most of the arty. In the South virtually unopossed so far though a fair few bunkers I think.
Perhaps add a few turns as I lost contact a lot with my naval arty & lets you move landing craft into range to drop observed shots.
All landing crafts are still alive just damaged.
For beach landings smoke is key need carefull thought land your mortars & MGs wrong & your in big trouble.
Z fire mgs & z fire your mortars to get smoke down early & let you spread out.
I got this wrong on easy red but the other landings the beach was completly hiden by smoke the turn after I landed the mortars. One 60mm mortar direct firing smoke blanketed 90% of the beach by its self.
A lot can go wrong but if you can land your mortars right it helps a lot, remember to leave them a path through the smoke to direct fire & place smoke further in.

You need to survey the beach carefully quite a few beach hexes are actually shallow water so slow movement, dont know if this was an error or on purpose.