Re: WIP campaign 29th Infantry division (testers appreciated)
Did a playthrough of your campaign in 2022, based on in-game available version.
Its generally good, I like touch to detail, but it has... flaws. Let me focus on these. I also intend to play the remainder of your campaings, not sure how much these will apply to the other:
1) Scenario length in total: scenarios have too little available turns. Player has a constant feeling of deadline ahead. This forces very aggressive tactics, often resulting in rushes onto enemy positions, and this means mounting casualties. If you wish careful battalion maneuver management you should add at least 10 turns for each scenario to effectively allow this. This follow on with...
2) DRAMATIC limitations on replacements between battles that make this campaign more like a struggle for survival rather than properly suppored American advance to the Rhine:
a) First of all, there are no indications of how long you are about to fare without replacements what heavily complicated planning as mentioned in 1).
b) Also, you give no ability to skip scenarios so you fare with extremely damaged battlegroup for most of the time. Remember this epic French campaign you made for me? We could steer on when my force is pulled into reserve, but you cannot do this here.
c) About 3/4 of the campaign time I fight with reinforced company. I was NEVER able to fix my AT gun platoon, mostly eliminated by Axis artillery - you barely can outmaneuver that. Same applies to 81mm mortars mostly destroyed during St. Lo outskirts counterttack AFTER my few remaining infantry was wrecked by rear advancing Axis (so not like they were left unprotected);
d) So player should either know that he will not be reinforced for eg. 2 more battles AND should be warned on planned reinforcements allocations. 25pts is waaaaay insufficient if you take about ~80 casualties per battle, some being formations KOs;
e) Not sure how the others, but know that I am playing WITHOUT any form of z-fire against the AI. I was doing some recon years ago and players prefer limiting z-fire as much as they can. Not sure how you playtest, but obviously z-firing would make this a whole lotta easier. If you planned this for zfire, you should clearly inform players about it;
f) Fun fact: deadline was so bad I NEVER EVER dismantled any hedgerow, just attacked right ahead on the roads :P
g) If there is intel on what sort of enemy force we are facing, there should be at least a limited indication on spotted enemy deployment. Its good we know that a battalion of Volksgrenadiere is deployed on our sector. Cool, but where? We gotta know from somewhere this this force is here, right?
h) One more thing with reinforcements. I see that you like - which is a nice touch - to counter my losses with diminshing Axis numbers within squads. Indeed many German units often have only like 6-7 men (as in reality) and depleted equipment. However mind that Axis squad having 6 men out of 10 is considered full if edited in manpower section. That means they get no penalty for losses in action points. That means German 6 men out of 10 men team fights better than my 8 men out of 12 men squad. Because my squad is listed as damage, not manpower. This effectively badly supports the opponent, and SPWW2 does not allow me to transfer troops between squads. For example, I cannot recreate Bazooka Teams by moving from my rifle squads and effectively I cannot reinforce my AT capability. I hope you see the problem as I paint it;
i) One more flaw, but I am unsure of this one. Axis gets weird bonus points other than artillery stack throughout most of campaign. I believe Axis benefits from any of my destroyed units even if these were destroyed in prior scenarios. This means that I get penalty for losses over and over and on many occasions I am pushed into draw even though I have clearly scored a minor win. I do not make campaigns though, so I am not sure if works like that;
3) Final scenario - attack on remaining Ruhr pockets from Korslar - is incompletable. It is December already and game counts the map as winter one. Even though there is nos now, just grass, I get movement points halved and only make 2 hexes on roads. It is quite impossible mathematically to even reach the flags, let alone break the resistance. This scenario requires AT LEAST 30 turns of time;
4) Deadline stress often forces tactics to force AI into counterattack. I do not believe it is a planned matter on your behalf. You are playing for Axis to dislodge from their positions to wreck them (expect of one Normandy scenario where it is directly suggested). Mind that Ai counterattacks are generally retarded. I myself consider them unwanted unless specifically scripted and rely on turn 98 mechanics a lot. Good example is assault on Korslar and Bourheim (night attack). I rushed the assault with aux units on Bourheim and completed it somehow in like 14 turns. I reached the flags and triggered counterattack. I waited for about 4 turns and only then at turn 18 (out of 27 I think) I moved my core force onto Korslar. I destroyed like 2 platoons of outpositioned VlkGren while remaining ~2 companies were happily en route to Bourmeim avandoning the primary defense position. This ingenious rule allowed me to save my precious 25pts replacements points and thus I had 5 instead of 4 platoons of combat capable force. I even managed to recover one M1017 section destroyed in July 1944 and opened a cold beer from pure happiness imagining on how it is to have an MG in my battalion as I nearly forgot this <3
I hope this comes in helpful :V
I will try with other campaigns, too.
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This being my first campaign, I don't doubt I could do better now. In fact, I was itching to get back into the SpWW2 scene. Maybe remaking this campaign could be a good summer project... I could use venhola now as well for more accurate maps.
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