Battle of Groningen

[GeoNL]

GeoNL submitted a new resource:

Battle of Groningen - April 1945, the Canadian attack on the city of Groningen.

View attachment 7453

Battle of Groningen scenario by Geo
First release: Version 1.0

The Netherlands, near Groningen
April 7 1945 - 22:30
Semi-historical Scenario

The River Rhine was the last major physical barrier standing between the Allied armies and the heart of the German Reich. By March 1945, the Allied armies had crossed the Rhine River. Field Marshal Montgomery commanded the 21st Army Group, which included the 1st Canadian Army under General Harry Crerar. This command now...

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[Bie]

Nice. I'll take a look at it after the weekend.

 

[miya]

Hallo Geo,

thank you for your efforts to bring us this very beautiful map and this interesting, fascinating setting. That phase of the war is very often overlooked when it comes to strategy games.

I want to share some thoughts, maybe some improvements can be done.

The signatures for Blaskowitz and Crerar are missing. The game still uses the default ones. I used the install from the steam-Workshop Manager, so that is probably a problem for the developers.

Next thing, you could work with order delay modification at the start. Making things faster for the Allies and slower for the Germans at the beginning.

One question comes to my mind. On the Allied side, why have you made every single company a reinforcement ? You are doing a lot of more work than you need to. Place a battalion HQ in the reinforcement list and the subordinates follow automatically.

You are writing about what-if reinforcements on the german side. I still miss them in the scenario. But I see the 6th Fj division in the scenario-maker.

And one last thing, can you please edit the icon of the French SAS in the estab editor. On my monitor there is a tiny red stripe next to the bright blue icon and those two colours don't match.

I have to say it again, great work, great scenario - thank you.

 

[GeoNL]

Hallo Geo,

thank you for your efforts to bring us this very beautiful map and this interesting, fascinating setting. That phase of the war is very often overlooked when it comes to strategy games.

I want to share some thoughts, maybe some improvements can be done.

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate. Any feedback is welcome.

The signatures for Blaskowitz and Crerar are missing. The game still uses the default ones. I used the install from the steam-Workshop Manager, so that is probably a problem for the developers.

In the .zip file download from this resource depository it should work fine. I took a look, and it seems there is no ideal integration for sig related graphics in the Steam workshop. In the manager the only option I had was uploading map related graphics. I tried to bypass this in a way, but that didn't work. If you want the correct sig's: download the .zip file I uploaded on this resource repository and manually drag the graphic related content for the sig's in the folder. Then it should work. [Graphics -> Scenario map]

Next thing, you could work with order delay modification at the start. Making things faster for the Allies and slower for the Germans at the beginning.

I had seen that option, but I hadn't dared to experiment with it yet. Will take a look.

One question comes to my mind. On the Allied side, why have you made every single company a reinforcement ? You are doing a lot of more work than you need to. Place a battalion HQ in the reinforcement list and the subordinates follow automatically.

I didn't realise it worked that way. Thanks for the heads-up, will tweak this.

You are writing about what-if reinforcements on the german side. I still miss them in the scenario. But I see the 6th Fj division in the scenario-maker.

Yes. I had an idea to add them in a more fictional leaning scenario. But at this point I decided against it, until I knew what other people thought of the current balance between sides. I had already added the Fallschirmjäger in the editor, because I wanted to use one of those regiments for reinforcements had I added them. I probably forgot to remove that specific mention in the briefing.

And one last thing, can you please edit the icon of the French SAS in the estab editor. On my monitor there is a tiny red stripe next to the bright blue icon and those two colours don't match.

I'll see what I can do about this.

EDIT: The French SAS icon color combination is the default one as in all the default and DLC created estabs aswell.

 

[GeoNL]

GeoNL updated Battle of Groningen with a new update entry:

A few changes after feedback

v1.1:
Changes:
-Fixed German briefing
-Added slighly longer orders delay for the Axis side compared to the Allies.
-Tweaked Allies reinforcements
-Removed the Sig related workshop item. The integration doesn't seem to be working on Steam. If you are using the Steam Workshop and want the Sig's to appear correctly, download my .zip file here: https://forums.lnlpublishing.com/resources/battle-of-groningen.287/
And copy+overwrite the Graphics map into the Command Ops 2 folder (it only...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[GeoNL]

GeoNL updated Battle of Groningen with a new update entry:

1.1a

Changes
-Fixed slight oversight

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[ioncore]

That's right, we are not supporting signatures in Steam yet. Definitely will be added later.

 

[GeoNL]

GeoNL updated Battle of Groningen with a new update entry:

1.1b

-Fixed a company being placed under another company by accident.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[miya]

EDIT: The French SAS icon color combination is the default one as in all the default and DLC created estabs aswell.

Yes, I see. My thought is, since you are using your own estab-file, you have the freedom to change the colour combination.

Nevertheless I found something that should be corrected. This time on the map. Three bridges are not working as intended, please see my screenshot.
Once i read an advice to draw the bridges in the MapMaker a little bit larger. It is because of the 100m grid.

 

[GeoNL]

Yes, I see. My thought is, since you are using your own estab-file, you have the freedom to change the colour combination.

Nevertheless I found something that should be corrected. This time on the map. Three bridges are not working as intended, please see my screenshot.
Once i read an advice to draw the bridges in the MapMaker a little bit larger. It is because of the 100m grid.

I'll change it, since I guess it doesn't matter if it is completely blue or blue-red. Blue is French enough I suppose ;-)

I thought I had been giving enough room for most places, but apparently not those. Gonna fix these in a moment. The streams shouldn't be a problem though if they are near a road (or so I read/saw). Just the big river/minor river near roads.

 

[GeoNL]

GeoNL updated Battle of Groningen with a new update entry:

v1.2

Changes:
-Changed French SAS estab colour.
-Fixed some map issues with roads too close rivers.
-Tweaked some height areas.

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

GeoNL,

Re map and river crossings. Don't forget to use the movement table displays in the MapMaker to confirm if a motorised unit can cross at a point. Pay particular attention to the diagonals. If the black edges touch a unit can cross.

 

[miya]

Hallo Geo,

I played a little further and want to give some more feedback.
I think german units are to well supplied and the reaction of german troops is still to fast. I even would opt for decreasing the Staff-Quality and Commander-Efficiency of all the german units and thus increasing the german orders delay over the whole scenario. But thats my personal taste.

There is still a problem with the highway west of Groningen. A bridge over the minor river is missing. I posted a screenshot.



When you try to change the icon colour in the estab-file or in general work with the estab-file, you need to save the file and then compile the file. It is a two step process to apply the changes to your scenario.

 

[GeoNL]

Hallo Geo,

I played a little further and want to give some more feedback.
I think german units are to well supplied and the reaction of german troops is still to fast. I even would opt for decreasing the Staff-Quality and Commander-Efficiency of all the german units and thus increasing the german orders delay over the whole scenario. But thats my personal taste.

There is still a problem with the highway west of Groningen. A bridge over the minor river is missing. I posted a screenshot.

View attachment 7462

When you try to change the icon colour in the estab-file or in general work with the estab-file, you need to save the file and then compile the file. It is a two step process to apply the changes to your scenario.

I agree, I am tweaking the supplies, staff quality and commander efficiency on the Axis side a bit more.

Wondered how I never noticed that one minor river error, after creating a big map you'll seemingly have blind spots in your mind sometimes.

Forgot about that, colour is definitely changed now after the compile.

 

[GeoNL]

GeoNL updated Battle of Groningen with a new update entry:

1.2a Fixes and tweaks

-Fixed minor river bridge west of Groningen.
-Tweaked axis side, they have fewer supplies now across the board.
-Tweaked axis side, lowered commander effiency and staff-quality in general.
-Tweaked axis side, lowered staff quality a little bit in general.
-Changed French SAS estab colour (should definitely be corrected now).

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Erik Springelkamp]

 

[Erik Springelkamp]

How do I play this scenario through Steam?

I subscribed to the workshop item Battle of Groningen, and it downloaded two items.

But I don't find it when I start a new game. I see only the installed commercial packs.

In former editions of this game I had to make directories and distribute files into them, and then the custom scenarios would show up in their own pack, and I assumed that the Steam workshop would do that for me, but no.

So how do I proceed?

 

[ioncore]

How do I play this scenario through Steam?

Please refer to the Steam Workshop guide
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1544919277
in particular chapter "Installing, Updating and Uninstalling".

 

[Erik Springelkamp]

Please refer to the Steam Workshop guide
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1544919277
in particular chapter "Installing, Updating and Uninstalling".

Thanks, it is working now.

I am exited about this scenario, as I live in Groningen and was born there. The battle left a lot of marks on the city that tell about the flow of the battle.

 

[Erik Springelkamp]

https://web.archive.org/web/2018070...com/history/highlanders/1939-45/groningen.htm

Bless archive.org.

This page about the Battle of Groningen was compiled by a once very active forum member on the Battlefront forums, and it is very informative. Unfortunately the Calgary Highlanders' webmaster decided to delete the content from their site.