E Ridge Vassal

[richvalle]

I've started up my first Vassal battle for this mod. The leader selection was awesome!  I still don't know that I like the map in it's own window.

My main question here is... are the Ent's meant to hide the units under them? We're playing the first battle and I can't see what units he has in his Ent's. It is making the battle interesting... but not exactly per the rules. 

[plloyd1010]

Thank you, glad you like the leader draw. You will find that aircraft work similarly. Can't do much about the map, that is in the Vassal side. I could stretch the windows around a little to make it tolerable enough. But in the end, the map is still in its own window.

The entrenchments should be on the immobile layer. All the units/leaders should be above them. Could you put up a shot of what you are seeing? This sounds interesting.

How did you like my symbolic dice trick?

[richvalle]

Yeah, I suspected the map thing was on Vassal's side. I think it's a function of building the map from parts at the start. Since mine is a hack I build each map in gimp as we're going to play it and dump it in. As we're done I remove the old maps to keep the file size down. Your way is much better for a public release.

In the picture below at least hex 0606 has a leader and 2 inf in it per his M2 he had to make. 

By symbolic dice you mean them showing up in the bar instead of just a number in the message window? That is very cool as well. Why is it not done for FOW? When using a virtual dice roller for FOW I've always enjoyed seeing 6-6-1 and thinking "So close!".

[plloyd1010]

This is weird. Your Vassal version is 3.2.15 and module version is 1.1, right? Did your opponent hide his entrenched units? (That would be Shift+H) There should not be a way to put anything "under" an entrenchment counter (other than other immobile counters) because the immobile layer is below the main layer. If your opponent sees his units as translucent, he hid them, probably thinking he was putting them underneath the entrenchment counter. That is all I can think of.

The FOW roll was done as number because 3 more dice made the toolbar bar look too busy. (The FoW roll is actually a random selection from a 216 "card" deck.)

[richvalle]

I think you are right and he had them hidden thinking they since they were not spotted they wouldn't be on the board. A bunch of US troops just showed up on my map.

Kind of a fun way to play actually... we may have to try it some time.

Thanks plloyd!

rv

[plloyd1010]

Try something like my Double-blind system. Until I make an addon with observation points you might need to just have units/leaders serve that function.

[richvalle]

Yeah, I thought about that. Probably an intermediate step would be to just let the Defender be hidden until he fires or is spotted. Sorta like the hidden AT Gun rule but for everyone.

[richvalle]

Continuing our play with E. Ridge I've noticed a few things.

First, the .mod is awesome and thanks for it! I'm enjoying the game even though my poor Germans are getting the snot kicked out of them.

As the German I can't move the US troops. This makes it hard to tell what the terrain is under the US troops. Mostly weather it's woods or light woods and where the contour line runs.

Since the Ent's are non-movable they don't show up when you mouse over a hex. This makes it hard to tell when units are in a Ent hex. The only thing you see is a slight brown border around the units. And once again I can't tell the terrain in that hex.

Having a Notes section would be nice.

When I clicked for a new turn/clean up the units it only cleaned up mine leaving the US still marked as Moved. Probably because since I'm German I can't effect US troops... same with me not being able to move them. While I can kind of see that logic I don't think it's really necessary. It's much easier if we can just move anyone around. Maybe others feel different?


Ummm, that's it for now. Thanks again for the mod.

rv

[plloyd1010]

Some things can be dealt with, others are limitations of the system.

As the German I can't move the US troops.

Vice versa I should point out. It is a property of ownership. It exists to prevent accidents, and cheating I suppose. I think it can be changed. I also think there may be a show map option which could help.

Since the Ent's are non-movable they don't show up when you mouse over a hex.

The solution to the entrenchment problem may be a new graphic. Technically they can be moved. Hold the shift key when clicking on them. It is another feature to help prevent accidents. Another problem, unlikely to come up, is that immobile counters can hide each other. I think perhaps minefields may need a new graphic too.

Having a Notes section would be nice.

Such as? Have you looked in the help files?

When I clicked for a new turn/clean up the units it only cleaned up mine leaving the US still marked as Moved.

Odd, it is supposed to be a global command. It should clean up everybody. I don't have an answer for this.

[J6A]

I've been making up .vsavs for the scenarios. I'm almost halfway through. The one weird thing I noticed is that wreck markers seem sticky once they are on the map. It would be nice if they could be moved.