Problem in designing a ground battle

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

I experience some problems while trying to design my first campaign for The Dev A-Team's Wings Over Russia, free add-on for SF1:WoE. My campaign deals with the liberation of Crimea in 1944, and starts on April 8. Here is an illustrated summary of the problems, the pic is taken on Day 3 of the offensive:

 

Northern Front (Perekop Isthmus):

- Map on Day 1: two Soviet armies in Kherson (1) and Nikolayev (2) attack a German corps in Perekop (3). The debriefing claims that Perekop has been captured.

- Map on Day 2: the Kherson army is now at Perekop (3) and attacks a Romanian corps at Simferopol Airfield (4), while the Nikolayev army stays where it stands. The debriefing claims that Simferopol Airfield has been captured.

- Map on Day 3 !?!!?: Simferopol Airfield (4) is still Romanian-held !! The attacking Soviet army has vanished !!! The Nikolayev army is now at Perekop (3)...

 

Eastern Front (Kerch Strait):

- Map on Day 2: a Soviet Navy army appears at Taman (6), a German corps appears at Kerch Airfield (8). Kerch (7) is unoccupied, but Axis-held behind the Axis lines. Taman is connected to Kerch, Kerch to Kerch Airfield, very close. The soviet Army attacks Kerch; the debriefing claims that Kerch Airfield has been captured !?!!?

-Map on Day 3: the Soviet Navy army stands at Kerch Airfield, after having captured two strategic nodes in one single attack, including one it was not connected to !

[ I have made tests with an Axis unit at Kerch (7) and an other at Kerch Airfield (8). Once again, both places fall in one single blow. ]

 

The problems are the same in the following days. Any Soviet army at Perekop (3) attacking Simferopol Airfield (4) is prone to vanish even when claimed as victorious. Same disappearance for the Soviet Navy army at Kerch Airfield (8) when attacking Simferopol (5), to which it is connected. The only time the Soviet armies prevail is when there are simultaneous offensives on both Simferopol Airfield and Simferopol.

 

I had such problems when designing ground battles for my former campaigns for SF1: Wings Over Africa (Crusader 1941 & Gazala 1942). Some places were announced to have been captured, but when looking at the map the day after, the place was still enemy-held, and the attacking unit(s) had simply vanished. On the other hand, there was no occurence of a strategic node close to a targetted one falling in the same time, even when unoccupied and even when very close (Bir Hacheim and Bir Hacheim Fort for example). In these campaigns, I just had to rework on the strategic nodes network to have things work better. But here in Crimea there are very few nodes, there is no such alternative.

 

In the Terrain/Russia/Russia_targets file, I have tried to reduce the Radius of the strategic nodes too close to each other, without any result. What does this Radius line mean, actually?

 

Both my WoA and WoR have been installed over an updated installation of SF1: Wings Over Europe. If someone has ever faced the same problem when testing his own campaigns, I'd be glad to have a discussion. Especially if he found out the source of the problem and the way to overcome it. Thank you for your attention.

[usafphantom2 19]

Hi,First off thank you for all the other Campaigns you made for WOA.WOR begg's for campaigns and I'm glad your attempting it.In the SF2 forums section campaign modding ,mission bldg there is a post entitled Strategic Nodes by PCPilot,There may be some helpful info there if you haven't had a look already.Bon Chance! Oh also in SF1 knowledge base,advanced modding,Creating campaigns/missions-Strategic Nodes by Dave. Hope it helps.

Edited July 7, 2013 by usafphantom2

[Capitaine Vengeur 263]

Actually, I have solved the problem already. It seems that airfields close to other strategic nodes are automatically captured when the neighbouring node is captured, even while they had been designed as independent strategic nodes. All of the mess with victorious attacking units vanishing without obvious reason is also related to this problem. Airfields should never be used as strategic nodes.

 

So I have modified all of my strategic nodes network, adding on the map several new target places to compensate for the low number of strategic nodes still available in the Crimean area: Yalta, Feodosiya, Yevpatoriya, Cape Chersonese (also an airfield there)... I have tested the campaign several times: now it works, with victorious attacking units surviving. I can even get a satisfying duration in spite of the campaign being very unbalanced, by adjusting the resupply rates. I am working now on the hardest part of the project, gathering scarce informations about the actual aces in each unit; it takes longer than for my former MTO campaigns.

 

In order to recoup my works on the map, I plan to add later a campaign about Crimea 1942, the first fall of Sevastopol: Gordon Gollob's JG 77 vs the Black Sea Fleet's MiG & Polikarpov aircraft, another very unbalanced campaign. Much of the work on the data and units is done already, yet still not tested...

[usafphantom2 19]

Looking forward to it when its complete!