Objective Types Thread - Axis & Allies: Uncommon Valor mod for Axis & Allies

I've lifted this material from a private discussion. but it's based on some notes I made last year while preparing the new expanded Single Player campaigns.

1. recon/patrol an area

this one doesn't really get much credit in a lot of maps. but it's one of the most basic and important actions that a player can take. you have to know what is out there before you can defeat anything. since the 'fog of war' map is generally explored. there's not a lot of emphasis on recon work. creating a map where the fog of war is complete makes this arguably the most important thing that you can do.

related to that is

2. find a specific object or actor.

this could be a city, a building, a regiment, or even a single unit.

I created a mission for Nationalist China where Dai Li is trying to find and assassinate Wang Jingwei in Hanoi on March 20th, 1939.

another example would be locating bridges and river crossings. you could do this by creating capturable non-blocking campaign bridge buildings. you could also do this with regular bridges by creating areas and using triggers. that way if one of your units passes into the area, the bridge gets flagged as found in your objectives list. you can then use triggers to make the objective accomplished. one of the most important objectives for the Shoji detachment when they invaded central Java was to find bridges that Japanese tanks could use to cross the local rivers.

another possibility is to combine area-based triggers and the units themselves. let's suppose that you want to restrict the movement of medium and heavy tanks across certain bridges. you could have a trigger that weighs the health of the item crossing into it. you could impose movement, speed, and health penalties based on the health level. so, in the case of Uncommon Valor, most German heavy tanks have health levels of over 1000 points. so, this use of triggers would be a way of discouraging them from being able to cross certain bridges. this way tons of infantry could cross at one bridge location, while tanks would be forced to look further up or down river to find other crossing points.

3. scavenger hunt/find specific resources

pretty straight-forward. you're looking for mineral deposits, cities, oil refineries, whatever. it's connected to point 2, but it's intended to have long-term economic and military consequences instead of merely finding something.

4. move regiments to a specific location (for various reasons)

after this happens you can use triggers to create the desired consequences. create an ambush, find a wounded ally or resource, give them access to a new technology.

the ambush idea can be handled a few different ways. you can use triggers to summon an actor on the spot. or, you could have pre-existing regiments move to a new location to prevent the player from going back the way they came. you could also have an existing regiment specifically attack another particular regiment.

trigger idea: I've experimented with triggers that reset every 5 seconds that destroy units entering a designated river crossing area. the results are a bit random. sometimes two or three infantry units will get destroyed. in other cases, an entire regiment can get lost simply crossing a river. this forces the player to reconsider how to play the game moving forward. I created this for my now corrupted Burma maps. the idea was to encourage people to use the supply animal regiment instead of trucks. this was because it was more likely for supply trucks to get destroyed or lost crossing fordable river points.

5. capture a target (with or without a time limit)

trigger idea: I used a mission where designated regiments move in, capture a city, and convert it to a Disabled faction. this was done to simulate Soviet scorched earth tactics. the idea was to prevent the enemy from using those cities to resupply troops on the march.

trigger idea: for the Indian National Army I wanted to create a mission where they supported Japan by capturing cities and then bringing in new recruits. this idea was faction specific to certain areas. so, for example, the Grand Caliphate might have a scenario where they capture certain cities and then get rewarded by receiving a new infantry division truck in one city, but not another. this works best if there is a mission/story-based reason for it.

6. hold a target (with or without a time limit)

7. race (obviously the player wants to get there before an AI adversary or ally)

8. retreat. this would combine aspects of the previously mentioned objective types. the Raate Road mission in Uncommon Valor that I created for the Soviet Union is probably my favorite variation on this idea. the player needs to move their surviving regiments across a map where the fog of war is complete. they'll get ambushed and chased. they'll have to fight their way across the map under deadly upkeep shortage conditions. the player won't be able to save all of their regiments, so they have to think about which regiments they're willing to sacrifice to finish the mission.

9. escort. the most obvious example would be the Suez Canal timed mission in the original SP campaign.

10. destroy a specific target.

this gets used in the original SP Operation Sealion map. you need to destroy the RAF airfields. but, I always wanted there to be radar towers that could be destroyed and neutralized... since, that's something that would have been required for a successful amphibious landing operation anyway.

11. destroy enemy army/armies

12. protect friendly army/armies