Op Dragoon 8 August 1944

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Op Dragoon 8 August 1944

Post by zakblood »

basic guide and ARR number 1...

enjoy[&o]
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

Post by zakblood »

Op Dragoon 8 August 1944 - 18 September 1944

Historical Overview

The invasion of Southern France (originally codenamed ANVIL) was a point of contention between the Allies: not least because it took so many troops from the Armies in Italy. Originally much bigger in scope it was reduced in scale to provide more troops, aircraft and landing craft for D-Day. Even though weakened by sending reinforcements to Normandy the Axis troops pose a challenge.

This very short scenario explores the invasion of Southern France in 1944.

An Axis player should seek to prevent the Allies rapidly advancing north to link up with the Normandy breakout whilst not losing too many troops.

The Allied player should make best use of limited forces.

The Allied player may re target invasion forces on turn 1 and retain 90 preparation points.

Scenario Length: 6 turns
Allied Admin Points per turn: 8~Axis Admin Points per turn: 8 (x2)~

There is no Axis player-turn on turn 1~

Basic beginners view with FOW (Fog Of War) off and on easy, to show the ease and playability and re playability of the game / battle.
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

Post by zakblood »

The operational battle map, and the axis forces we are against, this picture shows the beaches we need to invade, in this battle i wont be changing the location of the default landings as this is the basic level on easy so will just show you enough to play at the very basic of levels needed to do 6 turns in the smallest of the operations in the new Torch addon, this is for none players of the game with little or no gaming Knowledge known of either WITE or WITW, so total new players.


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this is the main screen after you load the battle and can be zoomed in and out and left at the level of zoom you like, i will go up and down just to show what i need to look at at any given time, as it takes seconds to do, and shows then what i wish to focus on, across the top is many menu's, all have popup boxes that appear once you hover your mouse over them so imo (in my opinion) speak for themselves, this isn't to replace the manual either, it's to show you can play without the need to read it to play, as i haven't as yet, and have picked up enough knowledge to play at the easy level without so far...

so we begin.
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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i select a few menu items to show which side on the map is owned by who and also place extra info on the map like cites and factories etc

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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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which now give me this display

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the game can be setup with what ever you wish to be displayed, with as much detail or as little as you like as all buttons are toggle able and are either on or off.

so set up the display to your liking and then move onto the air phase, which is always first
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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but before we do the air phase and planning we can look at out objectives first and see what we need to do in the given mission in the time scale we have


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so move the mouse to the top menu's and press info screens first then take the mouse over the star and a popup box appears and tells you what it's for, then click on it for the screen
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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now in the victory screen, we see what we need to do in the current battle

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and also what our enemy the AI needs to do to stop us
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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so with the knowledge that the VP (victory point) screen has shown us, we cancel out and go back to the air phase and it's planning

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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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which now makes this display pop up

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while it looks very complex at first glance, it's very simple in design and easy as anything to alter and understand
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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atm (at the moment) we have 2 air commands shown on the planning screen, called TAM (tactical air Mediterranean) and SAD (strategic air day)

with a number of target selection boxes displayed underneath saying what they can do or can't do.

first there is also a amphib support south box displayed, this means amphibious support south, so air support will support the landing forces in the south, only needed when we plan for a landing so we first select the box, the rest is on a default plan, but as soon as we alter the amphib box, this will all change as well



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i have selected some others and deselected a few others as i want support for my invasion, but also for the landings and again i'd like some rear area's bombed as well to slow down reinforcements, while i'm at it, i have asked for ports and rail yards to be bombed.

this is a double edged sword, as i haven't got infinite air units so what ever i pick, will mean less for other duties but on day one i need maximum effort to give my landing more chance of success so while loses maybe higher, i have to balance the risk, but as we are on easy, this sort of planing can be left to the AI with only basic or none if you wish not to command / or give any input.
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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once your happy with what boxes you wish and what targets to be in your missions, it's as simple as 1, 2, 3 and it's done


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what you're in fact doing is,

1, letting you're AI decide to manage the air for you.
2, letting the AI set up a battle plan for air, called the air directive.

and finally once done shows you a summary of the missions it has planned, so we press 3 if we wish and take a look
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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summary of our AI planned air directive

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split down to it's very basics,

3 navel plans have been suggested and put into place, in 3 different area's on the sea, to help with the invasion, as we asked in to plan for a seaborne invasion and it knows our plan and destination so has planned some patrols to cover the sea lanes and sweep those area's of any axis forces it finds.

so that's the CAF sorted (coastal air force) which only leaves the TAF (tactical air force) which has 4 plans made for us by the AI, selected from our targets.

all speaks for themselves, with GND meaning ground attacks, GND again ground support, superiority meaning a anti air, or put another way the "objective in the Air Superiority mode is to eliminate the enemy aircraft and secure the air above the given objective area placed on the map"

and finally recon, which does what it says and implies, it recon's a section of the map and uncovers what's there, not really needed on easy with FOF off, but i leave it all the same and run the missions.
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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the air directive summary also gives extra info of the missions the AI has planned for us, but as we are on easy only i don't need atm to explain that you can or could if you wished go in an manually change anything you wished, i'll give a example, any mission can be made or altered regarding planes, mission type, height flown, area covered on the map etc etc, the depth is just never ending, but not needed on easy as we let the AI worry about that and play AKA Panzer Corps style with hexes and counters moves only, and leave the other thinking to the AI until we are ready to move and play off easy


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so now all is left is to come of the summary screen and execute the planned missions
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

Post by zakblood »

and onto battle, the air phase only mind you, land combat hasn't started as yet


now is your next choice, you can watch as every fight, every bullet nearly is shot or you can alter to see it and watch or not at your own style and pace, with the choice of as little info or everything being shown, the choices are the menu keys 0 to 7, from nothing to everything, it's your choice, so i'll leave it to you, as you can go from one to another during this phase and it changes in real time, so play with it and pick which one suits you[;)]

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the information shown depends on which level you have watched or placed it on, so if nothing is shown you have selected 0, if every action of all the air phase is shown, then any number from 1 to 7 has been used, on 7 it can takes for ever and a day to display ever action in battle so it all depends on how deep you wish your game to be, and how much time you have to play it.
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

Post by zakblood »

so for now i'll move on and just show the overall results, as basic information on easy is all we need to know, what missions are being carried out and what they mean, is for another time and a different level of a demo tbh


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but at the end of the air phase you are shown a summary with the results of out 7 air directives and loses for both sides and any damage that any plane has suffered, so from here we see if out plan went well or was a disaster, on easy it can go either way depending on the mission, time, weather or targets so not to worry to much atm about it, once off easy then it goes deeper and into a totally different game if you wish to go that deep regarding air combat and planning.
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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now the air phase has finished we can move on if we wish to the land phase or save our game or see what we did in the air phase etc and inspect the plan some more, to see if what we did was correct and learn for another day or time, it's a choice







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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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showing the last battle sites means we can improve our targets if needed next time by seeing what the last missions achieved or didn't for that matter

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sea hex mark means sea interdiction

plane with camera is recon

bombs well speaks for it self really

a plane on it's own in a different colour is air combat or interdiction etc...
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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and now onto the land phase, what many of us want, as while some like air, me myself is ground only atm, but are getting used to doing air and kind of changing my mind slightly about it with more tests and demo plays, as normal play as yet i've not played one battle either, not had the time, but that's another story and time[;)]


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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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so onto the land phase at last, as you can see, if we move around and click on some units, some are already in port, ready to depart, we can either stay with the default landing or change them and make out own points of landing, but for now on easy i just click invade and let the landing go by default, even on easy if i wish to alter anything i can, but while we are learning it's better to stay on the plan we have, and once we are happy doing it, then make up our own plan and invasion sites


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not all units are set to auto go with the task force so some units will need to be manual taken over, i'll show you that next
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RE: main forum post 1.01.06

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so 3 TF's or (task forces) have been set on the path to invade, with prep points already amassed to invade, the more preparation you do, the less chances of it going pear shape with larger loses, you will always lose some as it's combat, but more prep hopefully means better planning

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leaving your mouse pointer over any hex will give information about that hex, on harder levels on depending on what settings you have on with the info be of any depth, like FOW being on, hardly anything will be mentioned unless you have recon'ed that hex before, and then depending on the level of recon done as well etc, but again that's for a later demo...
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