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Fortress Courland
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Author |
File Description |
Talon Karrde |
Posted on 05/09/04 @ 08:04 AM (updated 06/10/04)
File Details |
Style: |
Other |
# of Scenarios: |
1 |
Version: |
Empires: Retail Release |
Operation Aster was a success, and the six hundred and twenty five thousand soldiers who had been besieging Leningrad earlier in the war pulled back from Estonia into Courland. However, Operation Laura was denied. There would be no retreating from Courland. By the middle of October, the entire Army Group, renamed Courland from North, was cut off by land by the Second Baltic Front.
Follow Leutnant Berzinš and his squad during the course of the first major Soviet offensive against Courland. Assigned to the area around Džukste, they will end up being the fire brigade squad of the area and may end up saving the entire area as they rush headlong into increasingly difficult situations where they must be ready to give all to save this entire area of the front.
But they will do it. For they are Latvians, defending Latvia from bolshevism. They are ready to defend Fortress Courland to the last shell and the last grenade, to the last bullet and the last drop of blood, to scream defiance into the teeth of the Russian bear.
Fortress Courland is an intense scenario featuring a squad level command, four opportunities for small reinforcements and a lot of spilt blood—mostly Russian. Your commander sends you out on randomly chosen missions for a diverse experience in playing. Good luck, leutnant. You’ll need it.
Difficulty Levels
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Easy - German forces as in the original scenario, Russian forces for their last push are down two squads.
Medium - 3 German snipers and 3 mortars in the trenches area are removed, the Russians periodically send 5 Yak-1s over on strafing missions. The Russian forces for their last push are down one squad.
Hard - 3 snipers and 3 mortars are removed, as well as 4 MG42s, from the trenches area, 8 Yak-1s strafe German positions now. The final Russian assault is full strength.
**Updates**
- Gave player another sergeant
- The approximate location of every objective flares when mission assigned
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- The Russians who attack the hills have a stronger force now
- There are now consequences if the Russians gain either the hills or the town, which you do not know until they happen. While curiosity may let you lose either position, you will regret it soon afterward.
- The Russian commandos finally work(!)
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- Dialogues are now longer
- Difficulty levels are implemented
- It should now be impossible to shoot through the treeline at the main Soviet assault force (when they spawn and you are in the area)
- Russian snipers now have 10 range
- Russian armored vehicles now have gun armor (hopefully enough so that panzerfausts are required to destroy them)
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- The center of the Hills area is now labelled ("The Hills")
- The TC in the town is now labelled ("Dzukste")
- MG42 (in the main battle area) attack has been fixed (before it went down from 320 to 45, now it reduces correctly-to 160)
- Locations were made a bit clearer (I think, at least)
- I believe I fixed the second defeat condition
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- Map design improved
- Altered the ending of the scenario so it isn't as sudden
Send any bug reports to dragon_rome@hotmail.com |
Author | Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
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Intrepid (id: iNtRePiD) |
Posted on 06/01/04 @ 12:10 PM
Fortress Courland
This scenario attempts to recreate the Soviet offensives against German held Courland. Your are put in charge of Lieutenant Berzinš fire brigade and are tasked with various objectives to help slow the Soviet advance. These objectives include destroying armored vehicles, saving towns under fire and destroying enemy artillery.
[Playability 4]
The scenario starts off with a very interesting opening cinematic, highlighted by the point where the camera hovers directly over a siege weapon just as it is about to fire. The opening cinematic shows the state of the territory the German forces are defending and the sheer magnitude of the forces they are facing. Overall the cinematics in this scenario make a very good impression, the opening cinematic helps set the stage and closing cinematic helps to wrap everything up.
The player in control of Lieutenant Berzinš fire brigade is given a variety of objectives; these objectives seem to come in a different order every time you play the game which makes the scenario somewhat replay able. Unfortunately, this scenario has a few bugs in it that makes the experience not as enjoyable as it possibly could be. I was able to waltz right through Soviet positions without them firing at me.
Playability Improvements
- The Soviet forces not attacking bug
- It seems to be possible for the computer to complete the armored vehicle objective without my assistance
[ Balance 5 ]
The balance in the missions I was able to play seemed fine, if maybe a bit too easy. The Soviet assaults can be defeated fairly easily, for the first few results your presence on the battlefield really isn’t needed, but if you fail to help your fellow defenders things will be a little more challenging on the next attack.
Balance Improvements
- The missions are almost too easy, in some cases your allies can complete the objective before you even arrive, the German tank missions (Eastern and Western Version) come to mind
[ Creativity 5 ]
Though this scenario has its flaws it is still a fairly creative idea that has been employed here. Being given command of a small incision strike force during a major battle is an interesting concept that works well in this scenario.
Creativity Improvements
- None
[Map Design 4]
The map design, for the most part in this scenario, is fairly good. The town, which you are defending, looks like it has been in a rather large attack. The terrain in the map has been nicely mixed, however the terrain mixing the actual battlefield struck me as looking a little odd. In some instances it almost seems if the map is too small for what the author is trying to achieve in this scenario. While moving from mission to mission I constantly found myself wishing that the map itself were larger so that I would have more room to maneuver.
Map Design Improvements
- Terrain Mixing on the battlefield
[ Story/Instructions 5]
The story in this scenario was nicely setup through the variety of cinematics within the scenario. This scenario falls a little short on the instructions side of things. This however, isn’t really a problem as most of places in which you are required to go are revealed on the map.
Story/Instruction Improvements
- The location of the objectives needs to be conveyed
Overall this scenario is quite good, though slightly on the short side.
Edited for recent update
[Edited on 06/10/04 @ 11:09 AM]
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ViP3R |
Posted on 09/03/04 @ 05:23 AM
Playability: 4
I gave the playability a 4 and not a five because on certain objectives (not all the time) the computer germans could handle the russians on their own. Which meant that you walked half-way across the map, then have to walk back almost instantly because they did your job for you. But as I said this did'nt happen all the time. I thoroughly enjoyed playing as the 'fire squad' and it was fun assisting your allies to fight off the hordes of brave (or foolish) soviets.
I think you could improve the playability by making the scn longer with more objectives. Good job well done.
Balance: 5
The balance was perfect. If you didn't move a muscle the soviets would break through and you would lose (obviously).
It was great fun getting to the place where you were needed just in time to beat back the russians (that was close!) Also if you did not complete an objective quick enough you would be drowned with more than you can handle, which was good. Also the difficulty switched the balance to either side, germans advantage/russian advantage. Great balance.
Creativity: 4
Let me see...creativity. It was very good. Clearly another scn of this battle doesn't exist so it's kind of original. I don't anything about Fortress Courland or the events that happened therin, so that's why I gave creativity a 4. Well done! :)
Map Design: 5
Map design was very good, plenty of terrain mixing (not too much), and excellent detail in the base place. With ruined buildings and eye candy everywhere. I liked the map a lot, but you did fail in one place, oh yes. When the scn is completed full visibility is shown as always, and this lets you browse the whole map. I noticed that not too much detail was taken in the rest of the map. But the detail in your base definetly made up for this. Great map design!
Story/Instructions: 4
I gave this a 4 because firstly, the main instructions/briefing screen had black text on a black & white picture. Although I could read it I had to strain my eyes on certain words. You could of resolved this by maybe formatting the text (e.g. making it bigger, different colour etc.) Other than this it was very nice. The objectives shown to you throughout the scn were clear and descriptive and you knew exactly what you had to do. Very nice work in this department.
Additional Comments:
Overall this was a very fun, enjoyable, and amazing one-scenario-campaign. I played it over about 5 times, because I enjoyed it so much.
But there are few things that could be improved and here they are;
- Improve the loading/briefing screen
- Make the scn longer with more missions for your fire squad
- Detail the whole map, with maybe just varied terrains.
Thats all! Amazing scn! Keep up the good work! :)[Edited on 09/06/04 @ 10:54 AM]
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HGDL v0.8.2 |
Rating |
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4.5 | Breakdown |
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Playability | 4.0 | Balance | 5.0 | Creativity | 4.5 | Map Design | 4.5 | Story/Instructions | 4.5 |
Statistics |
Downloads: | 1,343 |
Favorites: [] | 0 |
Size: | 1.18 MB |
Added: | 05/09/04 |
Updated: | 06/10/04 |
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