[GZM] Northern Front map series 1941-1944

[tedi88]

Jan 24, 2015 14:16:23 GMT 1 Stanenberg said:

I won mission 6 today. After having taken the Village, I expected a huge counterattack, but luckily the counterattack was rather small and only from one direction.

I would say it is a rather easy mission, compared to the ones before. Still a very nice and fun map

btw: I also like the huge amount of historical background in the campaign. Where did you get this information from?

Something general about the chapter: You often use the same units in very few variation (always T26/BT7/T34/KV1). GZM has a huge amount of different units. Especially in view for Narva, some variation for the chaotic late war germans wouldn't hurt

Can't wait for Narva. Summer/early autumn 2015 sounds like a damn long time to wait

greetings,

Stanenberg

Critic about unit variation noted.  

Regarding the information sources: i've used several. Some are online (including a rather unreliable one called wikipedia ) sites dedicated to the division, Axis history was one a well it was also the main source of maps for the missions. Next, i've used Osprey book about division, report of Lieutenant Colonel Juan-Carlos Escalonilla of the Spanish Army and several Soviet Military histories that were translated in Serbian (mostly about Krasny Bor). Btw a lot of information that are mentioned in Osprey are actually based on that report. 

Regarding the time to make Narva: well it does take a lot of time to make. Plus I had a setback when Longfellow disappeared cause he was translating some texts for me. Also there is a lot of conflicting (or confusing) information about the battle itself and since that takes time as well....

[ariete]

Tedi

unfortunally your works are very hard for me and often i can't pass, but great extreme play ... 'extreme' or 'carnage' like a sub-genre of bk-maps





Moderator Note:   Post edited for the purpose of consistency, and not because of an issue.

[Stanenberg]

Hi tedi88,

Any news on the Narva chapter? The screens look so great...

btw. I am sorry but I didn't play the last Mission from the wonderful Azul chapter. I just felt overwhelmed by the size and the amount of units in the mission lol

greetings,

Stanenberg

[tedi88]

Jun 1, 2015 19:45:14 GMT 1 Stanenberg said:

Hi tedi88,

Any news on the Narva chapter? The screens look so great...

btw. I am sorry but I didn't play the last Mission from the wonderful Azul chapter. I just felt overwhelmed by the size and the amount of units in the mission lol

greetings,

Stanenberg

Some. Nothing major though.  

I had to redo 3rd mission from scratch. There were some major errors with the first mission. So i'm currently working on it. After that it should go faster since 4th and 5th missions are more straightforward.

[Stanenberg]

I finally invested some time into the final Mission (Krasny Bor) and won it and finished the campaign

I can just say, wonderful work tedi88! I am really looking forward to Narva.

Just something about the last mission: I got a win message just when the first attacks started but I played on and the everything was fine.

greetings,

Stanenberg

[tedi88]

Congrats on completion.

I'll take a look regarding the last mission.

[Stanenberg]

While waiting for Narva, I gonna give the "Storm in the North" chapter a try.

First of all I must say, I prefer playing on the axis side and I don't really like breakthrough missions. But I gonna give this chapter a try!

Attention Spoiler:

First half of Mission 1:

After the nice bombardment, my Russian elite infantry storms the 3 hills one after another with no problems. The Russian infantry is ridiculously over-powered. It is possible to take these hills with frontal assaults and just infantry. Combined with machineguns, mortars and airforce, taking a hill is a thing of 1 minute in game.

Mapping is nice. Good use of GZM objects and VOs roads.

The retreating germans should run btw. I killed all of them before they even left their hills.

greetings,

Stanenberg

[tedi88]

Jul 15, 2015 20:57:06 GMT 1 Stanenberg said:

While waiting for Narva, I gonna give the "Storm in the North" chapter a try.

First of all I must say, I prefer playing on the axis side and I don't really like breakthrough missions. But I gonna give this chapter a try!

Attention Spoiler:

First half of Mission 1:

After the nice bombardment, my Russian elite infantry storms the 3 hills one after another with no problems. The Russian infantry is ridiculously over-powered. It is possible to take these hills with frontal assaults and just infantry. Combined with machineguns, mortars and airforce, taking a hill is a thing of 1 minute in game.

Mapping is nice. Good use of GZM objects and VOs roads.

The retreating germans should run btw. I killed all of them before they even left their hills.

greetings,

Stanenberg

Lol, thanks for reminding me of this chapter. I haven't played this chapter for quite awhile. 

Russian elite infantry: you mean those guys in white uniforms? or the guards? In either case I agree they are deadly when properly supported. 

Retreating Germans: remind me did the defenders retreat or was it a counterattacking force? In case of counterattacking force it's a "design choice". 

[Stanenberg]

Hi tedi88,

I was referring to the retreating Germans. I noticed that they crawled during their counterattack too, however.

Finished the rest of the mission Today by just frontal attacking with tanks and infantry. Was a bloody massacre

btw: I love all the historical background in the briefings. Is one of the best things about your maps.

The map itself is not bad, but such types of missions are just not my thing. I prefer more open ground and some tank action .

Infantry fight in GZM doesn't seem too tactical to me lol. MK is a different thing there

Greetings,

Stanenberg

[bb]

Jul 16, 2015 20:45:09 GMT 1 Stanenberg said:

Infantry fight in GZM doesn't seem too tactical to me lol. MK is a different thing there

Well, I must disagree, infantry is probably one of the best features in GZM. You can take advantage of all the 3 movements and you can attack and retreat your soldiers without losing everyone in a bad movement. The problem, seeing as a mapper, is vey hard to balance and give the right squads for the right scenarios, also somme soldiers use different grenades and light AT guns and is hard to find the most appropriate to your scenario. I prefer to use the little squads (autumn_h, summer_h, etc.), they move better and they cant kill the tanks so easily.

IMO in some of the maps made by Tedi88 there are too much units and the player is tempted to use it in a bolder and massive way, I prefer more tactical maps, but my maps arent historical acurate as Tedi's maps. A good solution could be blend more massive objectives, like to break the enemy lines, with more tactical objectives, like to take a village. Is possible to remove part of the player troops, for example, to make the tactical objectives more challenging.

[tedi88]

Stanenberg in that case that's an oversight. Counterattacking forces should crawl. Oh and btw it's probably one of the few campaigns where you won't encounter enemy tanks. Price of historical accuracy.

bb and Stanenberg I think you are both right when it comes to infantry in GZM. However one thing that should be improved is deadliness of fixed MG's (like MG34/42, Maxim etc) or hitpoints of their crews. Right now they aren't a big threat to infantry meaning it's fairly simple to take them out.

bb regarding number of units: nice idea about removing part of player forces by script.

[Stanenberg]

I agree with bb in regard of the unit size. I think I wrote this several times already.

What I dislike about GZM infantry fight is, that infantry dies so fast from rifle and smg fire. In MK for example, infantry fight lasts much longer and the player is in able to do tactical manoeuvres, like capturing a house or a flanking the enemy, while in GZM I always had the feeling that frontal fire was the only possibility to fight with infantry. On the other hand, you are right about the possibility to retreat in combat because one shell wont kill your entire squad.

greetings,

Stanenberg

[bb]

A tip to deal with infantry in GZM: when you are attacking as player, do not use the "swarm" command, the squads will move oddly because the different sight ranges. Use the "move" command with the "run" state until you are close enough of your target, when you are running the infantry is not so easily killed, just crawl or lay when you are close enough of the target to a good shot, or to avoid detonations.

Meaby your problem with GZM, @stanenberg, is because you are more used with MK where the infantry is very different, for example, when you are crawling your infatry is almost indestructible.

But I allways thought a map to MK, or MB, just with infantry and light guns should be interesting. Stanenberg... LOL

But I'm getting off topic here...

[tedi88]

Jul 17, 2015 20:01:14 GMT 1 Stanenberg said:

I agree with bb in regard of the unit size. I think I wrote this several times already.

What I dislike about GZM infantry fight is, that infantry dies so fast from rifle and smg fire. In MK for example, infantry fight lasts much longer and the player is in able to do tactical manoeuvres, like capturing a house or a flanking the enemy, while in GZM I always had the feeling that frontal fire was the only possibility to fight with infantry. On the other hand, you are right about the possibility to retreat in combat because one shell wont kill your entire squad.

greetings,

Stanenberg

Lol I always had a different feeling. To each his own I guess.  

[bb]

Balancement is the fine art of BK mapping.