Operation Seelowe.

[Fairline]

+1 to McMs comments - Dagenham (strictly speaking in Essex rather than London) had a massive Ford plant, Woolwich had a Royal Arsenal (hence the name of the sh1tty football team from those parts) as did Enfield which you could replace Tottenham with. Greenwich is part of the docklands area. Chelsea is a very up-market area as of course is Westminster and Kingston is a leafy suburb in Surrey.

Liking the screenie, although perhaps change the church roofs to a more muted green

 

[techumseh]

Thanks, that will help. Yes, I will tone down the green church roofs. I wanted to brighten up the city and suburb graphics, and I may have gone a little too hard on the saturation button.

Here's a question: Air-landing German infantry - same uniform as the parachutists?

 

[Fairline]

I think so

 

[techumseh]

Good. I'll use the same graphic, and add a parachute icon to one.

 

[techumseh]

I've just been sorting out the Royal Navy, which is quite a job. Trying to track down all the ships, and when they were where, is a bit confusing. One thing is clear - the Brits just weren't too worried about getting invaded. Even during the Battle of Britain, they were shipping planes, tanks and ships to North Africa, and on other Churchillian adventures. The aircraft carriers were sent on other missions as well, but my assumption is that if invasion was likely, they would have been kept with the Home Fleet. So I'll keep the Ark Royal and Furious for the duration of the scenario. Other large capital ships need to be removed for play balance. Hood and Barham were sent to Gibraltar, and the Nelson was under repair, so I'll keep them out. King George V didn't join the fleet until December, so it's not really a factor either. That leaves only the Rodney, Valiant, Renown and Repulse. On the German side, I'll assume that the Scharnhorst and Gniesenau didn't need major repairs after Norway, that the heavy cruiser Blucher was not sunk, and that the Bismarck and Graf Zeppelin were both available sometime during the time frame of the scenario. With a closer ratio of capital ship strengths, I'm hopeful we can fine-tune the balance of the scenario by adjusting relative air strengths. I think I'll keep the RN capital ships in the unit mix in case some alternate scenarios are wanted.

 

[techumseh]

The British retained a large superiority in cruisers and destroyers, which I'm not going to change. All heavy cruisers in the OOB seem to fit into either the York (2) or County (5) classes. Light cruisers were Arethusa class (3) or Town class (7), and AA cruisers (3). There were 15 destroyer flotillas in the Home Fleet, so I allowed 30 destroyer units. Tribal class (7) were the fleet destroyers (I think), so I gave them the same movement as the capital ships, and the rest are represented by Hunt class (23). There were 4 submarine flotillas, each represented by 4 sub units (total 16). The vast majority of RN units will not be placed on the map at the start, but will be created by events in reaction to German landings. Moveunit events will (hopefully) guide their interception of German invasion forces.

 

[CurtSibling]

In CIV2, I find that naval units have no problem (insanely) attacking anything that has a lesser or comparable defense stats to them.

Give the ships the movement points to get into battle upon creation, and they will do the rest!

 

[Patine]

In CIV2, I find that naval units have no problem (insanely) attacking anything that has a lesser or comparable defense stats to them.

Give the ships the movement points to get into battle upon creation, and they will do the rest!

Yes, AI ships, paratroopers, and nukes, if in the actual hands of the Civ2 AI and available to them, are tools they traditionally use with remarkable efficiency compared to other unit types (such as their woeful use of marines or helicopters, as good examples).

 

[CurtSibling]

I notice the CIV2 AI only ever uses nukes if the player has dropped one already.

 

[techumseh]

That is definitely not my experience, CS. There aren't nukes in this scenario fortunately. But I do worry about the AI attacking ground targets in France and the Low Countries instead of the invasion forces. Because of the way I'm going to try handling carrier-based air units, I can't give ships other than carriers the sub flag. If anyone has suggestions, let me know.

 

[JPetroski]

That is definitely not my experience, CS. There aren't nukes in this scenario fortunately. But I do worry about the AI attacking ground targets in France and the Low Countries instead of the invasion forces. Because of the way I'm going to try handling carrier-based air units, I can't give ships other than carriers the sub flag. If anyone has suggestions, let me know.

If you're worried about the Royal Navy bombarding coastal cities, would it be the end of the world to move the cities back a square? If you need the Germans to load there, you could use navigable rivers as an estuary/harbor or sorts that the transports can go on but the RN can't. I'm not totally sure if ships can carry land units on these rivers but if not, the land forces would load on the sea.

 

[techumseh]

A very interesting idea John. I did experiment with the Patch feature that allows ships to move on rivers while working on Burma Campaign. It does work, and they can carry ground units. However the AI can't use the feature: naval units placed on rivers just don't go anywhere. That might be just fine, since AI is the Brits. However, I think I'll see if I can make things work with MoveUnit events first. If it doesn't work, I will definitely consider your idea. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[techumseh]

A quick update: I finished German deployment. Next is to set scenario parameters, including attitudes, the start and finish turns and the victory conditions, then save as a scenario. Then I'll start working on events, beginning with no talking between the Germans and British.

This is going to be a big game, with about 525 German units initially and mobilize-able, and over 300 British units, plus reinforcements. So much for my quick remake of an old unfinished MGE scenario! Still, I'm striving to keep the scenario simple, especially the events.

 

[Fairline]

I'm currently replaying OMG along with Tootall's Iwo Jima and Battle of France scens and having great fun. Looking forward to playing Op Sealion next hopefully

BTW, you need Town and Arethusa class CL pics, right?

 

[techumseh]

Glad you're enjoying them. Try the left-hook now, FM Birch, and see what happens! Actually, I have the ships, courtesy of Tanelorn, so I only need the units we've discussed. I've also made some factory and port units, a brandenburger (just a British infantry unit w. German badge), and a Guards unit (same, with the badge of the Household Division). I'll post the units file this weekend so you can review it.

 

[Tanelorn]

But Tech, you know Gareth will do a much better job.
Oh, wait- reverse psychology...
Now he has to draw them. I should have tried this with the Tomcat. Dang.

 

[Fairline]

But Tech, you know Gareth will do a much better job.
Oh, wait- reverse psychology...
Now he has to draw them. I should have tried this with the Tomcat. Dang.

er, no I wouldn't, no I don't and no you shouldn't

... Highway toooo... the danger zone

 

[techumseh]

T, your ships are first class. I'm proud to be able to include them in my scenario.

 

[techumseh]

As I'm finalizing the set-up of units, it's clear that there is a need for a lower-mobility light AA unit for the Germans to defend airfields and infantry units in the field. Heavy AA units (88s) are too powerful to be used on a mass scale, and should be reserved for ports and major cities. Likewise, very mobile AA units like the SdkFz 7/2, which I'm using with German motorized formations, also need to be restricted in numbers. So, my question is whether there is an AA unit like the Flak 36 or 38 available? If not I think, with a few Teutonic tweaks, I can use the stock Bofors unit.

 

[Fairline]

I'm making some lighter German AA guns for the WW2 compilations. Should be done in a couple of weeks if you can hang on.