Thoughts, Advice and/or Criticisms

[Reddog]

I've never created a scenario before but have always been interested in doing so after playing quite a few of the home made scenarios here at the Blitz. Although mine will be no where near as good as the ones I've played I had hoped to create something different than what I’ve seen or played before.

The basic concept of my scenario was to set up a “Capture the Flag” type battle for human players and at the same time a Meeting Engagement battle for those that like to play against the AI.

A Brief Scenario Description:

I’ve deployed 3 fixed units consisting of a Fuel Depot, Supply Depot and a Camp for each side (Russian & German) using the newly created icons that came with the Matrix Version of CS (MVCS). There is also 1 mobile Maintenance vehicle deployed for each side as well. All of these units will play a key roll when playing with human players.

The map size is 100x120 played on dry ground (not on snow so sunglasses are not needed :)) and the game length is 120 turns.

There are also Victory Point locations placed on the map for those that only want to play against the AI. I created this scenario as a Meeting Engagement which is also good to know if you’re planning on playing against the AI.

Each side (Russian & German) will command at least 2 full Corps of mixed troops along with enough support units to make any General drool. I’ve tried to use as many of the newly added units that came with the MVCS as possible using the time line of October 21, 1944. There are also mixes of aircraft for both sides that include some recon, bombers & fighters that are deployed on and off the battlefield. The troop deployments are well suited for 2x2 Team games, 1 on 1 and against the AI.

The Capture the Flag Concept:

As mentioned each side has 3 fixed units and 1 mobile Maintenance vehicle. On the first turn each side must choose 1 fixed unit that will be their “flag” (for lack of a better term) and must begin moving the Maintenance vehicle towards that location as quickly as possible. Once a fixed unit is chosen it can not be changed and the Maintenance vehicle must move to within 10 hexes of that chosen unit. Now this is the important point, the Maintenance vehicle can be moved at anytime during the game but must always be within 10 hexes of the chosen unit at all times. The first side to destroy both the Maintenance vehicle and capture the right chosen unit wins the battle.

Another option could be to assign a large point value once the above tasks have been achieved. I would think that would change the tactics of the game and should be discussed amongst the player(s) before the game starts.

I still have a few small changes to make before any considered release date and would really appreciate any thoughts, advice and/or criticisms you may have... thx.

[Von Earlmann]

Just one word of caution..........I have found that the AI does not really handle a meeting engagement very well........maybe that has been improved with Matrix but not sure.........units tend to move either very slowly or back and forth aimlessly and will never find a way to cross unfordable rivers etc.............other than that it sounds interesting

[Osiris]

Hi

Sounds intersting! However as per the last comment on this post getting the AI to do what you want it to do in a meeting engagement can be very frustrating..smaller the map the better for meeting engagements cause than the AI cant wander over them hills far and yonder or not wander and yonder at all..I would say nothing over 48 by 48..I would say for every meeting engagement I create in the new lcg im working on I can create 10 scenarios of assaults and other types of actions in the same amount of time

keep it simple for meeting engagements

rene

[Reddog]

Thank you Earl & Osiris for your comments and advice. You are both right in the fact of me putting too much confidence in the AI... my old nemesis from years past. :)

My thoughts were to put more effort on creating a H2H battle where each player's target or main objective in the battle was not stationary. My hopes were that would then create a scenario that could very well play out differently each time and yet still create a somewhat challenging battle (see notes below) against the AI.

I was also thinking (and maybe that's my biggest mistake) if the AI is weak then one way to compensate for that weakness is a large numbers of troops. Something like the Russian Leaders did in the early years of WWII. ;) Again My main objective was a scenario played with human opponents.

Again thanks for your comments...