Snippet's From the Meuse to the Rhine

[Rob]

Extremely well played Sir!!!

Rob.

 

[Daz]

Hang on. The Axis got no Vic points at all. That's incredible. 40,000 casualties, no VPs. I'm staggered. You sure there wasn't a plague that affected only Axis troops - all those little grey crosses.....

I know you're good, Daz, but what was your opinion of the AI? Can it handle huge scenarios with multiple objectives? Or can it handle that situation well?

There is not much wrong with the AI mate.
There are a few thing that could be improved on, that Ill talk about in the debrief, but at the end of the day it is just an AI, and has nowhere near the tactical abilities, or flexibility of playing another player.
The reason for the big win is simply because I have a huge advantage.

I've never played the stock scenario all the way through before, but I have done lots of messing around with your versions of It, and when we had those problems with supply, to do bug reports, so I have had plenty of practice, especially during the early stage of the scenario.

I have also been playing this game fairly regularly for a good two years now, and have got to know my own, and my Enemy's (AI's and UI's) strengths and weaknesses.
I find it very easy to pick out good defensive positions, because I understand the map, a lot better now.
I know how to stay in cover, the best time to attack, and the areas to avoid, and more importantly how to avoid some of the UI's quirks, like going into road column formation in the face of the enemy.

I really should be playing at a higher level of difficulty by now, but I like to win, and I also wanted to do the AAR's as a bit of a guide to other players.
I had a pretty good idea I was going to win this from the start, as I had already worked out my plan, and I stuck to it, but to say at the start I am doing this as a guide to help players that might be struggling with the scenarios, would be a bit big headed.
Especially if my plan turned out to be a disaster

If you break down the entire scenario, it consisted at the beginning of a few seize and hold missions, a river assault, then three medium sized encirclements, and one very large encirclement.
Also a large blocking action on the right flank, that I knew the perfect place for, as in one of my previous play through of your scenarios, I had the entire enemy force spawn on my HQ!

From experience I knew roughly the time, and location of the major reinforcements the Axis would get, and the opening, and closing time of their objectives.
Winning is not just about achieving your own objectives, but also assessing what objectives the enemy has, and denying those points to him/it as best you can.
The points are like a set of scales, the max points you can get is 100 but if you surpass this number it starts to knock them off the points of your opponent.
They did after all have the big points coming in for Arnhem for quite a long time if you remember.

Anyway, my opinion on how the AI is doing is biased, and subjective.

Fire it up and have another go yourself.
Play it on favour Axis, and I'm sure you will get a good run for your money.

Iconoclass has just played it.
How did you enjoy the scenario mate?

 

[john connor]

I just can't come to terms with my own incompetence, Daz - that for so long I played and played this and didn't get anywhere near your result!! I have won it - marginally - within the last year or so, but to be honest I think that included an extra SEP I put in at Oosterbeek. Played it too much and can't recall exactly. It takes so long and so much effort to play properly (as you just have - and you're right, that's another difference - I'm tempted to use the fast forward button a lot more than you!) that I'm not sure I can face it again!

It's a superb win though. Convincing. As they say.

 

[Daz]

Thanks guys, and thanks for staying with the AAR, and your feedback.
It makes doing them far more interesting.
Like when Peter asked about the Tigers, it gave me something to look out for, and report on.

I'm not sure if the balanced scales thing I said about the points is correct on afterthought.

I think I assumed that because quite a few of the big wins I have had, have been surrenders.
I think what may be the correct effect is that if the AI surrenders, it gets all its points taken away.
Just like we do when we hit the surrender button.

 

[john connor]

That would explain it - the surrender.

It's true that the things I recall most are the smaller fights within the whole thing - in particular the countdown to holding the drop zone at the beginning, and the hunt for the Tigers through Arnhem. There were others too. You could spend a lot of time focussing on such smaller details, of course, in something as huge. Each bridge taken would have been a drama in itself etc.

Really enjoyed the AAR. Thanks for doing it. Many things in there that were instructive as well as entertaining.

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

Kudos Daz.

BTW we need to have an emoticon where the character bows in homage like we had on Matrix forums?

 

[Soviet Pachyderm]

Wow, that's probably the most in depth AAR I've seen for pretty much any wargame. Nice job, bro.

 

[Daz]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the support

You can get up off your knees now Dave