General Jack Ripper

I too would like to either see the Jumbo, or a field modified uparmored Sherman.

I'll give it a shot.

Sweet! Sounds great!

The Heritage Foundation has recently commissioned a report compiling the United States' military strength. http://index.heritage.org/militarystrength/ This is the first of what will become a yearly report on U.S. military capability, and is the first report of this type ever written.

I conducted my own test. Map was 512x512 flat sand terrain. 12 aircraft (one of each type) called in succession against a heavily fortified position with (16) 40mm Bofors (10) Quad .50cal (8) M16 AA HT (8) M15 AA HT and (2) Crusader AA Tanks. All experience was regular, with no modifiers. Three strafing aircraft were shot down very quickly, making only one successful run each before being shot down on the second run. The first run with a bomb aircraft, while being shot down, delivered his bombs on target. This ended up shattering the anti aircraft defense, and successive attacks by aircraft finished cleaning it up. No further aircraft were shot down. I took away a few lessons from this test. The first being the importance of dispersion of AA weapons. You want your guns spread far enough apart that bombs hitting one won't knock out any more. Secondly, make sure your AA weapons have very good visibility, in all directions. Third, aircraft equipped with heavy weapons will get their rounds on target regardless of AA defense. Especially rocket-equipped aircraft, will release their weapons before most guns have finished turning to track the target. Basically, don't rely on AA guns to put up an invisible shield over your troops. They offer a minimum level of protection at best, and will only be successful at shooting down multiple aircraft when massed in large numbers. Remember, aircraft are not modeled the same as they used to be in CMx1. In CMx1 aircraft were simply a structure in the sky, that would attack continuously until it reached a certain magic amount of damage and be destroyed, or flee. In CMx2, AA weapons do not seem to do direct damage to aircraft rather, they have some kind of "die roll" chance to damage, or drive off the aircraft. That's all I have.

Be advised, If you move your troops while they have a cover arc, the cover arc will move WITH the troops. Happy hunting.

Hey, thanks! I think I found something to listen to while I play.

This sounds like a fun test. I'll give it a try.

That's been a problem going back as far as CMBO. I remember I made a scenario in CMAK where a small German force tries to cut a road and ambush an Allied convoy with the help of some aircraft. In spite of the enemy trucks and troops being in wide open desert, my own aircraft relentlessly bombed and strafed my own forces until I quit the scenario in frustration. From that time forward, I have never used aircraft when friendly troops are present. I only call them in in CMBN on the opening turn, and I have all my forces hide until they are finished shooting up the map. In Shock Force, actual air-to-ground communication is possible, so aircraft are much more controllable, but even then I do not call in friendly air within 300 meters of my own positions.

http://youtu.be/tNokWF09vGc Here is part 16. I figured out how to embed videos, but watch it on YouTube for full screen HD. This one is a bit short, but I wanted to knock out the opening moves, and try to do something more cinematic when the real action starts. We'll see how it goes. I'm also trying to find some copyright free music to add to videos. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks for watching!

I do recall some scenario designers who would sprinkle their maps with burning vehicles to provide extra illumination at night. The only problem is you can see and avoid that illumination, while hand launched flares or illumination rounds from arty could be dropped right on top of you with no warning.

I was one who wanted illumination rounds added to CMSF, on the Red side. Why put dynamic lighting in the game, then skimp on the light sources? I've even thought of a way for the AI to use flares, only at night they use [Target Flare] against any contact icons, or use [Target Flare] on top of their own position if they are under fire with no contact icons. Super stealthy ninja troops with night vision sneak up on enemy forces and open fire, only to have their NVG's and Thermals washed out by intense light and heat from flares! Imagine that!

I voted for French Resistance, because I would love to see some type of "combatant" forces represented in CMBN, using the same rules as the combatants in Shock Force i.e. can become invisible on densely populated areas. However I will also repeat my previous comment:

New CMBN scenario: "Sundial Clock"

Boats or amphibious vehicles (like the DUKW and DD Sherman), various flavors of supply trucks (with ALL types of ammo available)[unless I've missed something in the editor?], and more options for on-map artillery pieces (Towed, or Self Propelled Artillery). That would pretty much do it for me.

I know I posted in here before but I must stress this point. The whole reason I bought Shock Force in the first place was it's setting. At the time Shock Force came out, many of my friends had joined the military, and some had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Having some of my friends deployed to a war zone on the other side of the planet made me naturally curious. Unfortunately there were not many good sources of information aside from the television, and some internet bloggers. While writers and television can describe events, they cannot really convey the gravity of events. I think video games are a medium that allows an audience, to some small degree, to experience an event. However, with the fate of Atomic Games Seven Days in Fallujah, it seemed that video game developers were effectively told to back off. For some reason examining the events of the recent conflict was considered to be "too sensitive a topic for the public". Here at Battlefront, it seemed no one got that memo, and we were given Combat Mission: Shock Force, in my opinion the most realistic depiction of war in a middle eastern country ever made. It offers those who have not experienced it a very small, but well built window into what may have been the most important event of the 21st century. It also stands as a unique product from Battlefront. While we will get other modern warfare titles in the future, something tells me they won't be jumping back into the sandbox anytime soon. So for anyone who says Shock Force should be rebuilt into a different setting, think carefully about what you are saying. The first game of a new generation, and a completely unique setting as far as Battlefront Games goes, deserves to be preserved in it's original form going into the future. Well, that's all I have to say about that.

I think that would make a good campaign, running successive operations out of a FOB with one core force, and see how many survive until the end of the campaign. We could call it: "The Tour of Duty". Holy crap! I need to learn how to make a campaign! [Mind Blown!]

That's exactly my point, you don't need "force balance" to make a HtH scenario. Don't thank me, I thank YOU for the time and work to make the scenario, and for making it available. I'm just glad to see some people still plugging away at Shock Force, it's still one of my favorites.

I hope everything works out, but at the very least you could release the map. It looks fun.

SPOILER WARNING I know this scenario wasn't designed for HtH play, but I couldn't help myself. I fired up the scenario in hotseat and played against myself. While there is no such thing as "balance" in this scenario, I would say that "fun" is to be had in abundance. There were several points where I had set up some good ambushes on the unconventional side, only to have things unravel in the face of the fire superiority of the Blue force. The scenario rapidly devolved into a desperate race to withdraw my combatants into more defensible positions, and to avoid enemy mortars and artillery. My initial ambush had caused a couple of casualties, but some vagaries in the terrain prevented me from focusing my firepower. Establishing LOS from one ditch to another was frustrating as small undulations in the underlying terrain tended to place the targets I was engaging on reverse slopes. A mortar barrage called in by the British shattered my combatants who promptly routed from the map. Additional combatant teams who had fired on the dismounted Blue forces from rooftop positions were rapidly suppressed and assaulted by over watching vehicles and engineer teams. All in all, my first ambush only succeeded in causing a couple of casualties. During that ambush, I had moved another combatant group into what I had hoped would be a supporting position. However, the British Mentor team had established a spotter position on the roof of a building, and had observed the movement into the new position. That combatant group barely managed to open fire before being hit with airbursting mortars. They eventually managed to rally, but assault teams were already clearing the ditches before they could recover. By this point I had realized a problem with the combatants, even when told to target enemy forces, they often refused to open fire. I decided to switch gears, and use the compounds to an advantage. I had managed to withdraw a bunch of combatants from contact, and have now occupied a bunch of buildings in the path of the Blue forces. The idea being to force the British to waste time clearing buildings in order to protect their route of march. I am about an hour into the scenario, and I'm having a blast trying to plan around my own plans. I had deliberately tried to introduce a "roleplaying" element into my command of the unconventional forces. First, every group acts independently from each other. Second, I simulate the use of non conventional communications (i.e. cell phones) by only issuing orders to one group at a time, and only one group every turn. Third, each individual group only reacts to the contact icons they have, and ignores the overall big picture. I think this scenario would make an excellent HtH scenario, given that it can fully embrace the asymmetric aspect of the game. The Red force doesn't need to defeat the Blue force, they only need to delay them, and cause a few casualties. It is perfectly acceptable for the Red team to lose every single fighter they have in order to achieve this objective. The best part of it all, all you need to do is paint a big setup area for the Red team, and voila! Into the Green is now a HtH scenario. Anyway, that's enough of my rambling, I need to get on with playing The Labyrinth. One more thing though, this map easily lends itself to the use of any Blue force in the game, just replace the British troops with someone else. In fact, it might be a good training scenario to compare the differences, and advantages/disadvantages of different Blue forces. One last thing, this map is absolutely gorgeous! In fact, it would make a damn good quick battle map as well, or maybe I just like operating out of a FOB. There aren't enough FOB's in Combat Mission.

Yeah, that was a weird artifact from updating to v. 3.0.

Also, if someone could tell me how to embed videos that would be great!

Gentlemen, BEHOLD! After much delay, and taking some time out to play other games, The Road To Montebourg is back! http://youtu.be/WvCh4jGIRtk Here is the planning phase for our next battle: The Labyrinth Do not let the simple hedgerow fields fool you! I assure you all this map is a fiendish den of obtuse angles and reverse slopes! Watch as my superior intellect tries, and utterly fails, to think up a clever plan to tackle this jigsaw puzzle of a map! All I can foresee is my victorious pixeltruppen dissolving into violent explosions! Come with me on this journey! It is your destiny!

Wow!