The Ardennes Offensive: the battle of Stavelot BETA 3

[nevux]

howdy peeps,

Working on a new map... AGAIN. Not too long ago i dropped my laptop on the floor which pretty much shattered my HD so I lost all my files, including RWM WIP stuff...all gone.

So.. I had to start all over again. One thing i kinda decided for myself is that I will do mostly winter stuff from now on. The winter scheme just appeals to me most for some reason. The enhanced winter scheme made snowy maps a lot more interesting to look at , although its still pretty basic compared to rwm-eastern front. The trees and textures are wonderful...a HUGE leap forward really.. but it's still rather limited in terms of vertical objects.

Anyway.. the map:

I wanted to do something snowy on the western front. Well....a combination like that pretty much excludes anything but the Bulge.. so Bulge it was.

Thinking of the Ardennes offensive, the first thing that came to my mind was kampfgruppe Peiper and the trouble he ran in to in La Gleize. Digging down deeper into history to learn more of the events leading up to the famous retreat of Peiper out of La Gleize, in which he left behind most of his heavy tanks, I soon learned that the failure of the germans to defend the bridge accross the Ableve at Stavelot has played a crucial -if not decisive- role in this.

Stavelot was never in german hands. It was attacked on december 18 and only partly held by the germans when Peiper moved on to Trois Ponts and later advanced north, towards La Gleize and Stoumont. By the time he pulled back from Stoutmont into La Gleize, Stavelot had already fallen back into American hands, save for a small garrison in the west and the area south of the bridge. It was now up to Kampfgruppe Knittel and Sandig to recapture the town to lift the blockade that had isolated Peiper.

It is a 256x256, infantry oriented, tactical map.. armour is sparse and so are supplies.



Ive already made a mad number of strings for the script..a lot of work. Testing it over and over again is even worse.

gr,

nevux

[GeorgiSchukow]

Again wonderful,very,very nice!

[nevux]

a small update:

The map is finished. See the bitmap below for a 1:3 scale image of the map.

The script is about 50% ready.. with 36 timers used already. I've added a couple of fun and surprising events leading to a number of secondary objectives that present potential turningpoints in the battle. This, i think, makes the game more dynamic and exciting. Im still thinking of new things to add without making it too generic and distant from the actual battle.



Too bad this map doesnt have any railroads. I'd love to use my nice lil script for the delivery of armour by train again....ah well, maybe once I've finished this mission.

[nevux]

Hi all,

The script is still ca 60-70% done.. please try the mission and let me know what you think of it so far.

gr

[Madmax223]

I was confused when I got the message to secure the monastery and the stables, it was clear to me what you meant with the monastery but it took about 5 or 6 american attacks till I recognized which stables you mean and where they are...
Too much american artillery and ammo boxes Why don't you make a ammo supply script for the artillery, looks more professional
The idea with the fuel dump was great, but 1-2 supply cars would be great, otherwise you wont get it

[nevux]

Thanks for reviewing my map!

I've slightly reduced the number of field guns for the enemy and replaced the crates with a simple ammo script. I intentionally added a lot of artillery for the Americans to simulate the devastating artillery fire of the 118th artillery regiment that thwarted the attempt of Goltz to seize Stavelot from the west. My aim was to keep the mission as historically accurate as possible without compromising the gameplay.. of course, sust is still a game, so missions are never 100% true to the real thing. At least the city layout and the approach routes of the player reinforcements are roughly correct.

[Madmax223]

city layout is superb! Best winter city ever seen

[nevux]

Beta 2

Please tell me what you think

gr

[Ente]

Hallo,

ich schreibe auf Deutsch. Ich hoffe, dass meine Antworten für nevux mit einem Übersetzungsprogramm gut zu verstehen sind, sonst werde ich gerne einige Sachen auf Englisch spezifizieren.

Erst mal vielen Dank für die Karte.


Folgendes ist mir aufgefallen:

Gleich zu Beginn erschießen sich mehrere GIs gegenseitig, wie man beoachten kann. Scheint ein Fehler zu sein, oder?

Die Mitteilung bez. der Stellung im Westen „return to ground immediatly“ ist sehr nervig. Das Fenster kommt alle paar Sekunden wieder. Leider weiß ich nicht genau, welche Stelle ich nicht betreten darf, da ich nichts anderes gemacht habe als meine Soldaten in den direkt umliegenden Häusern zu verteilen.

Auch bei der Stellung an der Brücke kann ich nicht wirklich viele Häuser besetzen ohne direkt dem Feind gegenüber zu stehen. Ich würde mir da etwas mehr Entfaltung wünschen, um ein besseres Flair für den anschließenden Stadtkampf zu bekommen.

Im Westen schießen die Soldaten der Amerikaner bei ihrem Ansturm auf eine freie Stelle direkt links neben dem Eingang zur kleinen Kirche anstatt auf meine Soldaten. Somit ist der Angriff mit Leichtigkeit abzuwehren. Scheint ein Fehler zu sein.

Die Karte selbst sieht sehr stimmungsvoll aus, da schließe ich mich Madmax223 an.

Gruß Ente

[nevux]

Hi Ente.. thanks for the feedback.



"Gleich zu Beginn erschießen sich mehrere GIs gegenseitig, wie man beoachten kann. Scheint ein Fehler zu sein, oder?"

) This is an error indeed. Has been Corrected

-----------
"Die Mitteilung bez. der Stellung im Westen „return to ground immediatly“ ist sehr nervig. Das Fenster kommt alle paar Sekunden wieder. Leider weiß ich nicht genau, welche Stelle ich nicht betreten darf, da ich nichts anderes gemacht habe als meine Soldaten in den direkt umliegenden Häusern zu verteilen."

) Troops now return automatically when moving outside of zone. This works much better when the zone-borders arent clearly defined.

-----------
"Auch bei der Stellung an der Brücke kann ich nicht wirklich viele Häuser besetzen ohne direkt dem Feind gegenüber zu stehen. Ich würde mir da etwas mehr Entfaltung wünschen, um ein besseres Flair für den anschließenden Stadtkampf zu bekommen."

)This was done on purpose to convey a sense of panic and dismay. The tiny bridgehead is a last-stand.

-----------
"Im Westen schießen die Soldaten der Amerikaner bei ihrem Ansturm auf eine freie Stelle direkt links neben dem Eingang zur kleinen Kirche anstatt auf meine Soldaten. Somit ist der Angriff mit Leichtigkeit abzuwehren. Scheint ein Fehler zu sein."

) I have to look into this one as I havent noticed this myself before. The AI will continue to assault the Western Garrison until it is relieved... depending on how fast you move through the game. The strength of the assault waves was set to gradually erode your defences.


Beta3 will be available soon.

thanks again for trying en replying

gr

[Matttheoz]

nevux, if it is one of those little white churches they are definitely bugged. when troops fire from a certain direction they fire at nothing about 2-3 cells away from the church. best to replace it if its one of those churches;)

[nevux]

Heya Matt,

Does the building itself draws misdirected fire or does this only occur when my troops are inside the church? I have witnessed several accounts of empty buildings drawing enemy fire. The area in the vicinity of the building was revealed to me -as when occupied- and the tactical map would show a green (or whatever color the player-color is set to) dot where the building was.

Anyway.. i have sealed of all churches to eliminate this error. Removing churches from the map is no option as every decent Ardennes village needs to have at least one pretty church to set the right rural atmosphere.

gr

[Matttheoz]

nah mate, it only draws fire when occupied. i know what you mean though when buildings sometimes seem to "turn into units". i have had empty buildings both join my side and also join the enemy haha.

in this case though its a case of the building being badly made so that the point where hits land is not on the building but actually a short way away so the hits just land in the middle of nowhere. pity cos its a nice little church but it can't be used in battle

[nevux]

Beta 3 available for download.

It's a pretty hard nut to crack.. but I hope you will enjoy it nonetheless.

Oops.. i see i already had a beta 2 out... lol.. so consider this beta 3!!

[Ente]

Hallo,

da bisher niemand etwas zur neuen Version geschrieben hat, hier mein kurzer Kommentar:

Ich konnte noch nicht viel von der Karte spielen. Soeben habe ich Verstärkung bekommen (1 Tiger, 2 Panzer III N sowie Infanterie) und soll den rechten Teil des Ufers erobern.
Mir ist kein Bug aufgefallen, vom Ablauf her alles sehr gut, schöne Missionsbeschreibungen zwischendurch, Einheitenauswahl prächtig, hoher Schwierigkeitsgrad.

Gruß Ente