Raider Campaign update

[hschuster44]

I'm currently trying to draft an overseas raider campaign by using the relevant editor. I use an existing campaign as basis and already edited single ships. When I try to view the data of ships, sometimes I get the odd message "List index out of bonds (8)". How can I cope with this? 

Thxs in advance for every hint - some further minor questions might follow.

[randomizer]

I do not recall having seen this error message before. That said, removing existing ships, divisions and forces can sometimes produce odd results for reasons unknown (by me at any rate). The campaign editor is finicky and the creation process is frequently awkward and non-linear. Any chance you could upload your work in progress so I could take a closer look? Send me a PM if you're reluctant to upload your files on the public forum and we can figure something out.

As one who has traveled down this road some time ago, I see one of the biggest problems with a raider campaign is the inability of SAI to model auxiliary coaling ships supporting the raiders. Here's hoping you're better at solving this issue than I.

[oldpop2000]

Oct 4, 2016 15:47:07 GMT -6 hschuster44 said:

I'm currently trying to draft an overseas raider campaign by using the relevant editor. I use an existing campaign as basis and already edited single ships. When I try to view the data of ships, sometimes I get the odd message "List index out of bonds (8)". How can I cope with this? 

Thxs in advance for every hint - some further minor questions might follow.

I am assuming that you mean "list index out of bounds(8)". That is a database query error that generally, but not always means that you are attempting to access a value in the database and that the query cannot find the matching records. The program must have an internal list of items and say, there are 7 items in the list, and you are attempting to access number 8. If the item isn't there, you get this error.  I would attempt to reduce the number of ships one by one, and see if the error is eliminated.

[hschuster44]

Raider Campaign 1914-15.zip (37.69 KB) as per 10th July  2017. All files go to your SAI Campaign folder.

 "... Theirs is a tale of courage, skill, and determination in the face of staggering odds. The material and psychological impact, that these ships made in the opening stages of the war was out of all proportion to their numbers and strength." (Keith Yates, Graf Spee's Raiders. Challenge to the Royal Navy, 1914-1915)

A decade after Mike Fox kindly supported a TAS WW2 raider campaign here is an attempt to bring the impressive WW1 raider tale into the SAI campaign environment. The short campaign lasts from August 1914 till July 1915 and is recommended to be played in 2 or 4 week turns. Don't be too disappointed about the fact, that the relevant Southern hemisphere theatre is reduced to the Baltic Sea - it made the campaign developement much faster and helps the player to avoid periods of uneventful cruises. Moreover raider action in WW1 took usually place in coastal regions. May be a more realistic environment will follow some time in the future.

It's not trivial to simulate the maintance and fuel problems of a German WW1 raider within the SAI campaign engine in an acceptable way (as to this I used limited OPs and limited repair capacity, you can of course modify the relevant values in the relevant crf-file as you like it) - refit recommendations should be ignored for the German side. May be better, more realistic solutions are possible but haven't yet been discovered when drafting this campaign, so please feel free to post your ideas for improvements in the Raider Campaign SAI thread. Try to avoid severe damage to your raiders since the repair capacity for the German side is very limited, which is in accordance with the historic fact, that bases and port facilities for all German raiders were lost very soon after war broke out in August 1914.

For the German side and its eight raiders use typical hit and run tactics in order to avoid engagements with superior Entente forces. You can also move TRs/ Supply Ships by using the search line option in accordance with Köhlers historic strategy (SMS Karlsruhe). Your three bases represent secret bays with the mentioned low repair capacity and working supply ships waiting for you. Historic examples for such secret spots are e.g. the coast of Pernambuco (SMS Karlsruhe), the Rufiji River (SMS Königsberg) or the Easter Islands (East Asia Squadron). The Entente side is represented by no means exhaustive but with their major historic overseas squadrons in late 1914/ early 1915.

The Baltic stock campain was used as a basis. I attempted to use historic divisions and TR names for the contemporaray Southern Hemisphere theatre as far as possible. For future developements it might also an idea to make a single raider campaign for the captains mode (e.g. for SMS Karlsruhe or Emden ony) and to contentrate on their historic counterparts. Some French, Japanese and outdated British ship classes will appear in the campain too. Since I can't remember if their sdf files came with the stock SAI please use the campaign editor to cope with possible error messages concerning missing ships. Last not least have fun! HS, 21.X.16

[spieler6]

While I also have RTW I still play this more. Thank you for your efforts and I look forward to giving your campaign a spin.

[hschuster44]

Txs spieler6! Last campaign update for the time being posted above!

[hschuster44]

... Further update with some more historic ships and minor finetuning posted. Attached find two sceenshots, giving an impression of my current campaign status as per January 1915.

[hschuster44]

New campaign update as per 18th June 2017 posted above:

• Added all historic AMCs (converted liners), however currently based on the same sdf-file. In order to keep it simple those AMCs appear as additional divisions in the relevant force of their historic theatre (e.g. SMS Cormoran and SMS Prinz Eitel Friedrich: German East Asia Squadron; SMS Kronzprinz Wilhelm: SMS Karlsruhe). Nevertheless those AMCs should of course mainly be activated and used independently from cruisers of their relevant force, e.g. due to strategic and OP reasons.
• Reinforcements and withdrawals are in accordance with relevant historic dates. I decided to withdraw those raiders which left their historic theatres mainly due to technical problems or supply reasons (Königsberg, Karlsruhe, Cormoran, Prinz Eitel Friedrich). If you dislike this solution just delete those four events in the relevant crf.-file.
• Allied merch names are based on historic prizes during the first phase of WW1 overseas commerce raiding.  

[hschuster44]

Updated version posted above with

• additional historic events
• additional historic names for contemporary Southern hemisphere Etappenschiffe
  
• additional OPs for the Entente.

[rosseau]

One other question, and I apologize because I'm sure it's come up before.

What is with the "zero original endurance" error message when I try to add ships to a scenario? Seems to happen with edited and vanilla ships. I happen to be editing the RJW Ulsan scenario.

Thanks!

[randomizer]

The editor will sometimes zero the fuel quantity or save a ship with zero fuel when the ship is added to a scenario. It's an irritating bug but the work-around is simple enough. Add ships as desired placing them in their respective divisions then save and exit the editor. Open the scenario again and use the ship edit window to add fuel, save and exit and the "zero original endurance" error should no longer appear.

[rosseau]

Your tip is greatly appreciated, as I never would have figured that one out! Thought I was doing something wrong, as usual

[vonfriedman]

Oct 15, 2016 6:27:43 GMT -6 hschuster44 said:

 as per 10th July  2017. All files go to your SAI Campaign folder.

 "... Theirs is a tale of courage, skill, and determination in the face of staggering odds. The material and psychological impact, that these ships made in the opening stages of the war was out of all proportion to their numbers and strength." (Keith Yates, Graf Spee's Raiders. Challenge to the Royal Navy, 1914-1915)

A decade after Mike Fox kindly supported a TAS WW2 raider campaign here is an attempt to bring the impressive WW1 raider tale into the SAI campaign environment. The short campaign lasts from August 1914 till July 1915 and is recommended to be played in 2 or 4 week turns. Don't be too disappointed about the fact, that the relevant Southern hemisphere theatre is reduced to the Baltic Sea - it made the campaign developement much faster and helps the player to avoid periods of uneventful cruises. Moreover raider action in WW1 took usually place in coastal regions. May be a more realistic environment will follow some time in the future.

You apparently did really an outstanding work, with this Raider campaign, that I hope to enjoy very much.

What about a Mediterranean campaign, supposing that Italy enters into the war alongside the Triple Alliance? 

[vonfriedman]

I have somewhat changed my previous - overoptimistic - post, since I found that my Scharnhorst and Gneseinau were always sailing not from their East Station base but from.... Danzig.
There is something wrong in the files that I downloaded.
Are there some Patches?

[hschuster44]

As it is stated above: "Don't be too disappointed about the fact, that the relevant Southern hemisphere theatre is reduced to the Baltic Sea - it made the campaign developement much faster and helps the player to avoid periods of uneventful cruises. Moreover raider action in WW1 took usually place in coastal regions.... " The simple aim was to use the dynamic campaign engine for a scenario that reflects historic units. A multihemispheric campaign with historic stations would afford a lot of additional work and time with questionable results such as uneventful periods from my point of view. For various reasons the old TAS engine would probably be a better alternative for a multihemispheric raider campaign. This was provided a decade ago for the WW2 theatre.