The Last Bastion - Alpha

[Thad]

Salutations tankers, 
  
I have been working on my next single player tank mission for several weeks. It features the M4a2 Sherman. 

 

I decided to challenge myself with this mission attempt. By that I mean to attempt to produce multiple experiences for the player. 
  
The player (You) needs to make decisions concerning which Task Force (TF) of your battalion to lend direct support. This choice will obviously add your tanking expertise to the TF blessed with your presence, Plus there will be an additional advantage given to the lucky TF. The fortunate Task Force will receive additional artillery to soften up enemy positions and possibly reduce friendly casualties. Your other TF will not receive such a limited allocation.

 

There are actually three assault battles that will be taking place. Two simultaniously trying to liberate the towns of Spas and Gryada as secondary objectives and then on to the Main Objective, Zarubovka.

 

This is somewhat like a mini tank campaign due to the distances between each battleground.  
  
  Basic Mission Situation: For the Russians, The past two days have been horrible. The German blitz had overrun and captured Zarubovka, Spas, Gryada, Stepnoya, Pravoe, Dubki and Dubki Airfield. Fortunately, a storm front moved in last night and it seems to have delayed further axis advances. 
   
   It has been determined to make a bold counter attack early this morning under the cover of darkness and take advantage of the poor weather conditions.  
  
   An outspoken and eager commander (You) has insisted upon deploying his, yet unproven, M4a2 battalion and be allowed to plan and direct the attacks. Desperate superiors decided to give you your requests.

 

 Please refer to the map below.

 

   You, the Battalion Commander, start where the black arrow is indicated on the map, North of Volkova. You are rushing to join your Task Forces. You had been delayed by superiors wanting more details of your plans. You finally got away but you are behind your troops.

 

   Fortunately, you have good subordinates and they know the plan. You will take advantage of the poor weather and darkness to. quicky as possible, liberate Spas and Gryada. You don't want to deal with any attacks from the rear when Zarubovka is under our attack. You suspect that the defenses at Spas and Gryada are not that heavy.

 

It is a audacious plan. Your mens morale is high and they want retribution. It might just work. One of the biggest challenges will be the distances required to traverse and the darkness.

Good luck Commander. You will need it.

 

This in not the finished version. Correction, improvements will be made and Voice audio files will be added to aid in immersion. 

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2019 by Thad

[Blitzen]

Love to give it a try! Thanks!?

[Thad]

Salutations Tankers,

 

I'm sure this mission needs tweaking. 

 

Please play it and share any constructive comments (of praise or derision) or suggestions to improve the player experience.

 

 

[Yogiflight]

Will download it tomorrow evening, when I'm back home and give it a try. I am very curious about it. 

[Thad]

11 minutes ago, Yogiflight said:

Will download it tomorrow evening, when I'm back home and give it a try. I am very curious about it. 

 

It is not a quick play mission. There are distances to traverse into initial battles and then to assembly areas for the final joint attack on Zarubovka. 

[Yogiflight]

2 hours ago, Thad said:

 

It is not a quick play mission. There are distances to traverse into initial battles and then to assembly areas for the final joint attack on Zarubovka. 

So I'll make me a good cup of coffee, first☕??? ☕?????????????

[Thad]

Might need two cups. ?

[Yogiflight]

OK, after trying both alternatives for a few times, well, there were some setbacks?, here are my thoughts.

First, the idea to give the player the possibility to choose which way he wants to attack, is very cool. The mission is a lot of fun and has a lot of immersion for the player. The number of tanks attacking, the artillery fire, the idea with the scout car, makes it a very entertaining mission. (and no, you don't have to drive very long)

Also, that you make a combined attack on the attack target from two sides, with first taking position for the attack and waiting for the artillery fire, and not simply riding to the target, when the other TF is not here yet, we'll do it without them. 

What I also liked, that you didn't have to fight through the villages, because fighting through villages and towns is the purpose of the infantry, with the tanks only supporting them.

Where I personally have some issues with, making the player the leader, but he has no possibility to lead. In fact I follow the AI and do what they do. As former platoon leader I can say, this is not what a leader is doing. Unfortunately for your great idea to give the player the possibility to choose where to attack, it is necessary, that he is the leader, but apart from that, I would make him simply tank commander, part of a platoon.

The other thing, that I would not make, is positioning the german artillery guns in the first row, in front of the villages. Yes they were sometimes used as anti tank guns, but usually they were used as artillery and then they should be a few kilometers behind the villages. Ok. I don't say this without ulterior motives, as they were three or four times killing me?.

And then there was a bug, too. The T-34s were always moving backwards with the guns at twelve o'clock, so they never took part in the battle, as their guns were pointing to the wrong direction.

Anyway, thanks for this great mission.

EDIT: I am very curious, to read what other players think about the mission, if they agree or disagree with my thoughts.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Yogiflight

[Thad]

Thanks for the comments. I will go over your comments and address some things. Were all of the T-34s moving backwards?  I'll check it out and fix it.

 

I make the player the Commander to create a mission hero of the player. Until there is the inclusion of unit control for the player, this has to be simulated.

 

I've been working on a updated version since this release. It's better. Thanks again for the comments. 

[Thad]

7.5 cm Pak 40

The 7.5 cm Pak 40 was a German 75 millimetre anti-tank gun developed in 1939–1941 by Rheinmetall and used during the Second World War. With 23,303 examples produced, the Pak 40 formed the backbone of German anti-tank guns for the later part of World War II, mostly in towed form, but also on a number of tank destroyers such as the Marder series.

Although, I'm actually deploying too many of them for the size of units being fielded. I may have to reduce their numbers. But, I'm using more PAK 38s. They are less effective.

Edited August 4, 2019 by Thad

[Yogiflight]

2 hours ago, Thad said:

Were all of the T-34s moving backwards

Yes, I didn't see any T-34 moving with the front to the enemy. The first I noticed of this issue was lights far ahead of me shining to my direction. But they did not come near, so i was quite concerned about a german wonder weapon.? Later when I saw the T-34s I understood what I was seeing there.

One question, that I forgot to ask. The last time I indeed made it to the target and we were about fifteen tanks at the german headquarter, with the soviet flag raised, but then a message popped up, that we would withdraw because of too many losses, the mission was lost. What was going on there?

[Thad]

The flag situation was/is annoying and I think I have corrected the T-34 direction of travel problem.

 

The capture the flag system normally keeps track of the time of possession of the designated area. 5 min, 10 min etc. while the clock is counting down.

 

In the case you described.... the allies had indeed overrun the desired area and the flag was raised but they had not held it long enough before time ran out. Thus the message you received.

 

That does not occur in the next version. 

 

I am currently working on adding new voice files to the mission. The new version should be available soon. A day or two. I hope. 

Edited August 4, 2019 by Thad

[Tonk99]

Thank you, been waiting for this for a while.

[Thad]

This is the alpha version.

 

A updated and improved version will be offered in a day or two. 

[Yogiflight]

I was playing the mission last night once more and saw a T-34 just starting its mission, it was standing in the correct direction, front to the enemy, but when it started, turned on its driving light, and turned round to then move into enemy direction backwards. So you definitely placed it correctly. BTW they are moving quite fast backwards, as if they had the gearbox the other way round, with one forward gear and five or six backward gears.

[Thad]

Their conduct was as planned except for when they were to advance forward once again. I have corrected that.  

[photog95661]

Thanks for this mission.  It is a real departure from your previous offerings.  The distances between opposition encounters negatively affected my alertness.  It resulted in my blundering into bad situations.  One question.  Does the repair function function work within the mission?  The last advance witnesses the battalion halting on a ridge for several minutes.  I took the opportunity to turn off my engine and hit the "enter" button.  I did not notice any repairs accomplished.  I am wondering if this was the result of the repair function being off, or not enough time for the repairs to be accomplished.

[Thad]

Thanks for your comments. Yes, this mission is different from my previous missions. I needed a change and a new challenge. ?

 

I simply don't know if the repair function is operational. I did nothing to attempt its' implementation or to prevent it. 

 

I have put together a mission update called 'HTL The Last Bastion Strikes Back'. It is basically the same mission but several things have been added (voice files) and the timing of events has been streamlined.

 

 

 

HTL The Last Bastion Strikes Back.zip

Edited August 7, 2019 by Thad