Race Across France help

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Carlec
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Race Across France help

Unread postby Carlec » Wed Mar 31, 2021 11:28 pm

Well, I have tried this scenario 4 times now. This last time, I purposefully saved it at turn three so that if something bad happened, I could start from there...but no (as most of you know). The "Save As" function apparently doesn't work within a scenario. And, once again, the Germans just popped out 1000 new units to overrun my position. I get it, I get it...the fog of war...it happens. But my goodness it is so frustrating to have been ultra careful, trying to both attack and defend (previous attempts saw me get overrun in the north). When I tried to watch some YouTube players go at it, they had a different map, so perhaps there has been some kind of upgrade on the map to provide better balance or something. But that level of German armor, to me, should not be showing up till we get to Bastogne. I mean, didn't Patton basically do blitzkrieg in reverse...yet, they have at least 3 times the armor I do in this scenario. Even if I could have reloaded the save state so that I could begin on turn three where I had carefully gotten to a decent position, I'm not sure I could have taken the objectives with that much armor and mechanized infantry appearing suddenly on turn 7. Is there any advice someone wants to offer? I really am out of tactical thoughts right now, and for the second time, have quit the game in disgust.

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Tomislav Uzelac
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Re: Race Across France help

Unread postby Tomislav Uzelac » Thu Apr 01, 2021 8:08 am

If you enabled "save as" in the campaign (in Options/Gameplay) then "save as" does work.

This is what trips people up: if your current savegame is "west.usg" and you save as "west_race.usg", then the game continues to autosave the "west_race.usg" file.

If you want to go back, you need to re-load "west.usg", save as "west_race.usg" again, and then try again.

Regarding the scenario itself, perhaps your own forces are in worse shape than average... this is pretty deep into the campaign. We didn't get any indication that this scenario in particular is problematic for the players.

Cheers!

Carlec
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Joined: Mon Sep 25, 2017 2:40 am

Re: Race Across France help

Unread postby Carlec » Thu Apr 01, 2021 9:57 pm

"perhaps your own forces are in worse shape than average" -- This is certainly possible. Is there a listing somewhere of the typical force distribution? I'm still learning about that change compared to UoC1. I am more careful to not just expend my units to exhaustion because "it doesn't matter for the next scenario." But, I can't fully tell that X unit is a carry-over from the past. With Panzer General, they both used a different color on the unit's info but you could see X unit was now a strength of "higher than 10"...so it stood out as "my unit."

As to the save file, I did get the save, which I did at turn 3...but when I went to reload, it reloaded at turn 6...meaning, it didn't specifically save the campaign at that save state, but dynamically kept saving on that file as we went along. When I had thing blow up in turn 6, and then quit in annoyance (I know, I know...childish), the game had to have been automatically saving in the background. But, what I was assuming with the new "save as" option would be that there would be a unique save-state where I did "save as." And thus could go back to that exact moment if I did reload.

Its no worry...I mean, it is what it is...and UoC has always challenged me, which I like. Its why I'm still here. Just don't like getting caught. I had checked the enemy reinforcement list, but hadn't noticed new units could come streaming in on turn 7. Still not sure that's historically accurate, but I know you guys do check everything on that front. But maybe I'm down a few units because I lost one previously, and thus maybe if I had them, I would at least be equal to what the Germans show up with.

Gonefishing
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Re: Race Across France help

Unread postby Gonefishing » Sat Apr 03, 2021 3:20 am

You really need to spend prestige to refresh your armored units and make sure they have Recon Specialists.

The real secret to this map is just mad dashing to Verdun, which you can reach by turn 2 easily, and then reaching to Moselle on turn three. Denying a bunch of German Reinforcements that show up in that area (Check the enemy reinforcements section). If I had to guess you are playing way to passively on this scenario, there are almost no German units on the map and enough stragglers to determine where every enemy unit is.

Make sure to reorganize your supply, it's super important as well.

Also, achieving side Objectives marked with Letters will unlock new scenario variants. Taking Lyon on Dragoon will deploy the 7th army further up the map and give you Lyon for free.

Carlec
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Re: Race Across France help

Unread postby Carlec » Sat Apr 03, 2021 7:35 pm

Thanks GoneFishing. I thought of that, but when I looked at their reinforce locations, at least for the turn 4/5 group, there were like 5-6 locations to enter, and I only had (that time) three units there. So, I feared getting overrun as soon as the Germans landed in force. If you block one site, does that deny the reinforcements for all slots for that unit?

Gonefishing
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Re: Race Across France help

Unread postby Gonefishing » Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:18 pm

Those turn 5 Armor units should never be a threat, they don't really have an easy way to get west of Nancy. The problem is often breaching Nancy. The engineer you get from reaching the Moselle should help with that. Honestly the mechanized units on turn 3 should be no match for your air support. As long as your units are fully reinforced and have specialists you should be ok.

If you haven't, you should test play the mission and see what the 'historic' scenario has in terms of units.

Carlec
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Re: Race Across France help

Unread postby Carlec » Sat Apr 03, 2021 11:02 pm

Well, I finally finished it. Sheesh...this game. As much as I love it, there is so much that I hate! I hate it when units just randomly appear. I hate when they roll past your ZoC indiscriminately to fly into your rear, which would never happen when the army was in disarray and in retreat. I remember this from UoC and hated that part too...you literally have to have a line of units side by side.

Sorry...just venting. I don't like it when it hides things and I feel like its a big guessing game. I foolishly tried Market Garden, and once again things were fully hidden like telling me I could land paratroops somewhere that the enemy already was. Sigh...I suppose that's just like it would have been, but it just is annoying that the game is telling me "sure, land there" and then "whoops, we forgot there were enemy troops there." And then some enemy unit of 1 strength just marches past two stronger units to go into the rear. And then that opens up some mystery doorway where the enemy just floods through. Sure...if I left a 3-4 hex opening and the enemy is reinforced to attack through my mistake, but when there is a zone of control. And don't get me started on how I can be one hex off the supply line and somehow suddenly be out of supply. That's also a big guessing game.

Looks like I need a break and perhaps to grow up. Sorry for venting.

Carlec
First Lieutenant
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Joined: Mon Sep 25, 2017 2:40 am

Re: Race Across France help

Unread postby Carlec » Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:10 am

Wanted to apologize for being a big baby. I was out of line with my moaning. Not sure what was going on in my head, but sorry for bringing down the generally upbeat and helpful forum here. I am embarrassed by my tone of the posts from the other day. The game remains a stellar experience, and while it has quirks, so does every other game. I was happy when it finally made it to the Mac, and I appreciate the hard work by this development team.

funky_trader
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Re: Race Across France help

Unread postby funky_trader » Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:42 pm

Carlec wrote:Wanted to apologize for being a big baby. I was out of line with my moaning. Not sure what was going on in my head, but sorry for bringing down the generally upbeat and helpful forum here. I am embarrassed by my tone of the posts from the other day. The game remains a stellar experience, and while it has quirks, so does every other game. I was happy when it finally made it to the Mac, and I appreciate the hard work by this development team.


Hey no worries. This is an extremely frustrating game when you haven't mastered the mechanics. I gave up a few times myself on UoC1 due to the sheer difficulty and the sometimes less than clear mechanics.

A few general tips. In most maps, moving aggressively forward is the answer. Also, don't forget to use your prestige to reinforce units at the start of every scenario, adding specialists steps to key units. Finally, once you've played (and lost) a few times, you'll realize where the AI answers aggresively to your offensives, and when it just sits there passively despite having overwhelming forces. The AI is quite dumb at the end of the day. Without clear nudges/objective script, it won't really attack.

Another note: your units won't stop ennemy units moving around them if they have less than 2 active steps at the end of the turn (i.e. suppressed/greyed out steps don't count as active). So it's quite dangerous to leave units with 2 active steps or less on the frontline as they won't project zones of control around them. The ennemy is likely to cut them off from supplies, as it's quite aggregive in cutting supply lines despite being shy at directly attacking.

Articwulf
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Re: Race Across France help

Unread postby Articwulf » Fri Apr 09, 2021 6:27 pm

Gonefishing wrote:Those turn 5 Armor units should never be a threat, they don't really have an easy way to get west of Nancy. The problem is often breaching Nancy. The engineer you get from reaching the Moselle should help with that. Honestly the mechanized units on turn 3 should be no match for your air support. As long as your units are fully reinforced and have specialists you should be ok.

If you haven't, you should test play the mission and see what the 'historic' scenario has in terms of units.


I do the mad dash and just use a tank with Recon to eliminate the spawn points. I have more issues to the south than I do in the north.