CC IX Announcement

British Western Desert and Italy Campaign by Steve Brown for Adlerkorps Efile.

Moderator: Parabellum

Locked
User avatar
CC Team
First Lieutenant
First Lieutenant
Posts: 102
Joined: 2019-09-22 06:02, Sunday
Location: Hex 0,0

CC IX Announcement

Post by CC Team » 2019-03-11 17:06, Monday

JP's Panzers is proud to announce...
JP's Panzer General II Challenge Campaign #9

Steve Brown's new and improved
BRITISH WESTERN DESERT and ITALY CAMPAIGN
version 3.0
using the ADLERKORPS 2000-unit equipment file, Beta version 0.2.

LINKS
Note: Old links removed.

What an exciting Challenge Campaign this one will be, my friends! We will be using a new campaign and a brand new equipment file. All the details can be found below. So sit down, strap yourself in, and get ready for a very fun PG2 Challenge Campaign!

Yes, we have used the Adlerkorps equipment file in the past. So it should be fairly familiar to most of us. But in this case we will also be among those who are beta-testing Adler's new 2000-unit equipment file. That should add another element of excitement to this Challenge Campaign!

As you may or may not be aware, until recently it was not possible to have an equipment file with 2000 units and 2000 different icons. But thanks to Lasse Jensen and his secret programming wizard -- known only as "007" to the rest of us -- we can now play PG2 with equipment files as large and extensive as Adler's latest invention. Adlerkorps is among the first PG2 equipment files to take advantage of this new technology. And for those of you who are familiar with Adler, it shouldn't surprise you to learn that he hasn't just slapped together a bunch of units. A lot of time and effort has been spent to make sure that the units Adler has added are the right units to add, and that their stats will accurately reflect each unit's true role and character in real life.

To facilitate such a large equipment file Lasse and 007 created a new user-made patch for Panzer General II. The latest encarnation of this patch is known as the v.1.02G patch. This patch does much more than simply allow us to use larger e-files. Many long-time PG2 bugs have also been addressed with this patch. Von Adler himself will tell us more about this patch and how it relates to his new equipment file in his comments below. Mikael has also been kind enough to include some extra information about how to obtain, install, and use the patch, and what sort of effects the patch will have on your game.

One nice thing about the patch is that it installs a new executable file (the file you click to start the game), so even when you've installed it, if you ever want to play without using the "G-patch", all you have to do is start the game using the original .EXE file.

Both Steve and Adler have included some very helpful and informative notes below. I strongly suggest you read what they have to say. This will be a difficult and challenging campaign to play. It will probably make things much easier if you know in advance what to expect.

Steve has included a set of instructions for installing the campaign. Adler has included a set of instructions for installing the G-patch and e-file. That should be sufficient for those of you who are familiar with the process. However, for those who are not familiar with downloading, installing, and using custom campaigns and equipment files, I have included a detailed set of instructions in a seperate reply to this topic.

Here are the prestige levels we will be using. Feel free to choose any of them to play this campaign. If you want to play at a level not listed, simply click in the Prestige Modifier box when starting the campaign, use your keyboard's backspace key to erase the number, and type in the number you want. You can type in anything from zero to 300.

*************************************************************
PRESTIGE LEVELS FOR CHALLENGE CAMPAIGN #9
Field Marshal's Challenge -- 50% or lower
General's Challenge -- 75% prestige
Officer's Challenge -- 100% prestige
NCO's Challenge -- 150% prestige
Troopies Challenge -- 151% and above
*************************************************************
Please include your prestige level both in your reply to the STATUS thread, and also at the beginning of the thread in which you will be listing your After Action Reports.

-------------------------------------------------------------

CHALLENGE CAMPAIGN REQUIREMENTS

If you want to be included on our Scroll of Honor for this Challenge Campaign,
~ You must use Steve Brown's British Western Desert and Italy campaign, version 3.0.
~ You must use the Adlerkorps 2000 e-file, beta version 0.2 (or NEWER!)
~ You must play the campaign to completion
~ You must maintain a reply in the Official STATUS thread (at the top of this forum).
~ Your reply to the STATUS thread must include the prestige level at which you are playing.

** You only need one reply to the STATUS thread. Simply edit that reply each time you wish to update your status. If you cannot locate the "Edit" link below your name in the STATUS thread, try logging out and logging back into Ez-Boards. You should then be able to edit your own reply in that thread.

** Your reply to the STATUS thread should NOT include After Action Reports. Rather, it should simply state your name, prestige level, and what level of victory/loss you achieved for each scenario.

** You CAN start your own thread for logging After Action Reports (AARs) if you want. This can list any details you feel like sharing as you play the campaign. This is NOT required! But it IS one of the most fun aspects of our Challenge Campaigns, so we do encourage it.

** You MAY use Adlerkorps version 2.25b or later if there is some reason why you cannot get the 2000 e-file to work for you. If you plan to use Adlerkorps v.2.25 instead of the 2000 e-file, please include this information in both your reply to the STATUS thread and in your AAR thread, if you have one.

** You CAN be listed on the Scroll of Honor more than once per campaign (once for each prestige level you complete), but not more than once at the same prestige level per campaign.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

STEVE BROWN'S INTRODUCTION TO JP's PG2 CHALLENGE CAMPAIGN #9

Campaign Challenge #9 (CC9)
CC#9 is the AdlerKorps version of my British Western Desert and Italy Campaign (BWDIC). The first thing I should note is the campaign title is wrong, since much of the action takes place outside of the Western Desert and Italy, but the campaign was originally called the British Western Desert Campaign - and I liked the name (British North Africa & Italy Campaign just didn't work for me...).

Installation:
All of this is in the readme and Whoopy-Cat may write a longer version :) , but here are the basics of installing the campaign:

1. Download it from: Old link removed.
2. Follow the instructions in the readme, but basically unzip all files in campaign.zip to your SCENARIO folder.
3. Make sure you have the AdlerKorps 2000-unit equipment file. Get it from: Old link removed
- you should use the latest version (2.25) or any later (beta) version. If you are new to installing campaign files, you only need to ask...
Here is the e-file: Old link removed.
4. The maps you need are:
Agedabia, Alamein, Bardia, Barrani, CapeBon, Cassino, Catania, Gothic, Kasserin, Medenine, Messina * , Peenemun, Tunis,
Plus all the original SSI maps.
* IMPORTANT NOTE!!!! The map graphics for the Messina map were changed in early 2001, unless you are ABSOLUTELY SURE you have the latest version I recommend you download it again, you also need to get the latest .map file since the location of the airfield changed.

If you are new to map installation; information about where to get everything is in the readme and 'campaign installation instructions' section of my website - Old link removed - contains more information. Or, just post something here and someone will help you.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A little history:
Many moons ago, some time after the creation of the solar system, before I even heard of someone called 'The Whoopy-Cat', at the end of 1999, I released a 3 scenario demo of this campaign (which was the first ever 'demo' campaign :p ). In early 2000 the first version of the campaign (which only went up to El Alamein) was released - it was probably among the first 20 player made campaigns. About 6 months later verion 2.0 was released to universal acclaim (well, maybe not... :p ) - that version was the complete campaign you see today and was the result of a ridiculous amount of playtesting. The early versions were also significantly playtested by one Omar Mirza, who some of you old-timers may remember - the general flow and quality of the campaign is a testament to the amazing amount of time he spent on the campaign; and it is definitely a better campaign because of his hard work.

Versions 1 and 2 were designed for the Waffenkammer equipment file. Time went by.

Version 3.0 of this campaign (released in September of this year) is a modification of version 2.11 but is designed to work with AdlerKorps equipment file; it is not just a simple conversion of units, I have also changed all the scenarios in small and not-so-small ways. I tested the campaign using a beta version of AdlerKorps 2000 (and I will join CC9 using the same version) - but you can use whatever AdlerKorps version you want that is 2.25 or higher. I also recommend you use the 'unofficial' PG2 patch when playing this campaign, but it is not necessary to do so.

The campaign is due for further changes, there will definitely be a version 4.0 designed for the Builders Paradise equipment file and possibly a version 5.0 (for the Oronzo file).

The campaign philosophy:
This campaign was intended to be intense all the way through and I think I have achieved that aim, at the expense of it gaining a reputation of being very hard. Even I have problems in some scenarios if I am not careful - and I have played the scenarios MANY times - but the main difficulty is you have to play the scenarios different to the ones in most PG2 campaigns. An important thing to understand is that most scenarios in BWDIC have fighting all the way to the end and some can only be won with the correct tactics and by focusing on your objectives; luckily for you, if you are having problems I have included plenty of hints in the readme. It was true for me that I became a better PG2 player by playing this campaign - and maybe you will too :) .

Campaign notes and other stuff:
I strongly suggest you read the readme included in the campaign download. It is long but gives some useful advice, has a FAQ and some hints for the harder scenarios (even if some of it refers to v1.0 and is a bit out of date). The FAQ, in particular, does actually answer some common questions - so please read it.

Having said all that, here are some random notes in no particular order:

1. Due to the way PG2 handles ammo, in 'sand' you will often find artillery units can fire one time even when they are down to 0 ammo - so if the program says the AI's artillery batteries are at 0 ammo they may still be able to fire one more time. On the plus side, the projected combat results will take this into account. Tech stuff: The reason for this is that in PG2 any unit that has, say, 10 ammo really has 20 ammo points but it uses 2 points every time it fires. This is because of the Fire Discipline leader, which uses ammo at half the rate. The problem is; in 'sand' terrain units are resupplied at a smaller rate than in other terrain, so sometimes a unit has an odd amount of ammo and ends up with 1 ammo point, which shows as 0 ammo in the game - therefore the unit can fire 1 more time (thank you Lasse Jensen for clueing us in on this!).

2. Supply is vitally important. I cannot emphasize this too much. If you re-supply on sand hexes you will not get full supply (you may only get 1 ammo point and a very small amount of fuel) so you have to PLAN AHEAD. If your tanks are getting low on ammo, don't let them all run out at the same time in sand, or you will have problems; if you can place your artillery in any terrain other than sand - do it; when you capture a city you should re-supply some units. Trust me when I say that in some of the scenarios (particularly the second, which was designed to demonstrate supply issues) you WILL LOSE if you ignore supply. The worst scenarios for supply problems are the earlier ones up to the end of El Alamein - Tunisia has a lot less sand hexes. The good thing is; the supply rules do force you to take real life supply issues into account (up to a point...).

3. This is not a blitzkrieg campaign. In many scenarios you have to play defensively at first (something you will learn in scenarios 3 and 4 :) . The Axis armies can (and did) sometimes attack from unexpected flanks including in the rear; comments about teleported tanks aside, some of my counterattacks can be annoying :) but are historically accurate. Some defensive scenarios start with you owning all the victory hexes - but your true objectives will become clear very soon.

4. Unit purchasing. You can, of course, purchase whatever units you want but here is my advice. When buying tanks you should have a mix of fast (but, for the British, weak) tanks and slow (but strong) ones - the latter are the Matilda IIs which are very slow but (at least for me) are invaluable, until relatively late in the campaign you will need the 2 types of tank. On the other hand, there are plenty of players who have ignored this advice. :)
Please do not forget to buy towed AD units, you will definitely need a few of them; the British have really poor self-propelled AD in AdlerKorps and the Axis have a powerful airforce, so go for the towed units - trust me on this.
Try to give Bren carrier transport to your infantry and towed units, tracked transport is vital in the desert. You can play this campaign with no aircraft except the Hurricane you start with, but you will able to afford a modest air force; I have found that fighters are a better buy than bombers and even the lowly Hurricane is a formidable ground attack unit once it gains some experience. Do not forget to buy infantry; once they have some experience they are very useful and when you get to Italy you will need them. The British have very poor AT weapons for a long time, so you may want to delay buying AT until late in the campaign (however I always buy a 2-pounder unit or two near the start - but I like towed AT units). Lastly, make sure you buy recon, you will need it.

5. This campaign has been designed with the assumption you will lose some core units (in fact, if you don't the latter scenarios may be easy).

6. Jensen Cap & prestige. This campaign was designed long before I understood anything about prestige, prestige caps or anything like that and I decided not to change much when I prepared version 3.0. For that reason there is not much difference in terms of prestige whatever level you play at, but it is definitely easier at 300% since you will get plenty of extra prestige within scenarios. I have always limited prestige so you will often not have all the units you want - the life of a British general is tough...

If you want to complain that so-and-so unit was not used in the desert or that the Germans and Italians seem to have non-historic force compositions or "the Italian air force is too powerful" then la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-I'm-not-listening...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the campaign (and do not hate me too much afterwards).

Steve Brown

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ADLER'S INTRODUCTION TO JP's PG2 CHALLENGE CAMPAIGN #9

Hello players. It is time to try something new, the famed "007" PG2UK102G.EXE patch. Now, installing this is the easiest thing you can do. Just download and unzip into your Pg2 folder and you are ready to go. Yes, that is all. The .zip file contains a new Pg2 exe file, named PG2UK102G.EXE. This exe file, just like your old Panzer2.exe, starts Pg2. The only difference between these two files is that PG2UK102G.EXE starts the "new" bug-corrected Pg2 while the Panzer2.exe starts the "old" Pg2. There is no problem in having them both in the same folder, you do not need to alter any files anything else, just use the PG2UK102G.EXE when you want to play with a 2000/2000 file and the Panzer2.exe if you feel like playing the un-bug-corrected Pg2. Simple as that, no problem? :)

Remember that you have to use the PG2UK102G.EXE to start Panzer General 2 if you have a 2000 equipment file installed, since Pg2 will crash if you dont. (The 1000 unit bug).

You must have a 1.02 UK or US version PG2 for the patch to work. Users of the German version can download the patch, plus all the extra files and instructions (in German) from Gordon Neigisch's (GordonN) site: Old link removed
I imagine it would work for the French version --- but the instructions are in German.

About the Adlerkorps 2000/2000 equipment file

There is now expire dates in the file, meaning that equipment will eventually dissapear from the requisition screen, due to production stops or just plainly becoming obselete and being withdrawn. So you cant wait forever to get your favourite equipment, especially if it is old.

All artillery stats have been recalculated, if you are afraid that you have low artillery stats, dont worry, the enemy is in the exact same situation. Now, buying artillery should provide some challenge. Do you want light, mobile and heavy on ammo but low HA and SA? Or do you want heavy, cumbersome artillery with litte ammo but devastating effect? Also, modern artillery have an advantage over old, since it usually have longer range and more ammo. Pay attention to the OQF 3.7 inch, it is expensive, but is airdroppable, just like Paratroopers. If you plan on having some paratroopers, this could provide some well-needed support for them. Also take an extra look at the A17 Lt VII Tetrarch, which can be transported from airfield to airfield. It could also be a worthy addition to your Paratropper Brigade.

Good luck in the campaign. I'll be happy to answer any question ans explain any stats.

von Adler

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We hope you enjoy this Challenge Campaign as much as we enjoy bringing them to you! If you have any questions, please feel free to post a new topic.

Also please note the various threads we have provided to aid in categorizing specific questions or comments.

Thank You for joining us in JP's PG2 Challenge Campaign #9.

Good Luck, Sir General!

(You're gonna need it! :evil Heh heh heh...)

Joel T. Illian
The "Whoopy-Cat"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Download package for OpenGen:

EFILE_CC09.zip

Original post updated by lvjtn
:monster Image :monster
Parabellum, Urica, Wonderdoctor, lvjtn

Locked