Malaspina

Hi guys, sorry for the late reply. The campaign (battle series) is still in a pre-testing status. I haven't played it through myself "to my enduring shame" , but am planning to do so as soon as I get some energy back. A few weeks ago, Vacillator and Kohlenklau provided feedback and AlexUK tried and tested the second battle and found it quite difficult, so the entire force makeup needs realignment, I guess. I don't want the player to necessarily experience the same ordeal as the Buffalo soldiers, if I can. @Anonymous_Jonze If you're looking for a well-rounded tried and tested campaign, this is not it. OTH, if you would like to give it a spin to provide some insights, let me know. malaspina99@gmail.com

Welcome! You mean CM Campaigns? A new operational layer to the current tactical battles? I've been waiting some twenty years for that and I'm afraid it's going to be another twenty!

Wow, Just wow! Thanks! Looks great and very interesting to play, too.

Here's my guess: CM Pacific Theater! I know, I know, Steve has repeatedly stated they have no interest in it but, hey, 979 guesses to go...

Is it? I made a quick forum search and haven't been able to find any confirmation from the developers in this respect

This is right on the money. BF is in a very mature phase of its creative arc. Their greatest effort was made thirty years ago with the CMx1 engine, and then again fifteen years ago with the CMx2 engine. Is the CMx3 engine still in the works? I'm not holding my breath... Rather than "look ahead" threads, WW2 CM fans (including me) should start reminiscing in "a-fond-look-back" threads. The last WW2 title came out in 2016. There are no indications that any new title will be coming out in the next few years (i.e. next decade). We might get a couple of modules and some battle packs but nothing more. After that it's retirement age for all of us thank God, but we will still have four great WW2 titles whose replayability is infinite.

Wow! Fantastic stuff. Unmissable Please add me to the pre-order list if I'm still on time!!

Hi! Shameless plug here. Try CMFB and then use my quick campaign generator with it. You'll find it in my sig. You can easily make a 10-battle campaign in 1 hour's time after you get the hang of it. (Yeah, you need to RTFM ). I've made about 10 campaigns so far myself. That means 100 battles. The battles will be kind of crazy, but certainly fun and certainly better than anything the QB can generate. Plus, you will play a more meaningful campaign where you have to look after your core units. And I also added a cool spreadsheet to keep track of it all. You're even awarded medals! What else do you need?!

Thanks!!!!

Downloaded (bronze)!

That said, I predict a French campaign in the new BP!

Hey @kohlenklau@Vacillator. You're the best. You already have a million things to do... I'll send you a PM. Thanks!

No big deal. This can wait. If there are no playtesters it means there are even fewer people playing this game. So who cares.

Hello fellow CMFIers, I’ve just finished compiling my second campaign (battle series) called “The Buffalo Soldiers’ Ordeal” (all modules needed). It is a battle series that includes a prologue and 8 scenarios aiming to reproduce some of the events that took place on the western edge of the Gothic Line from 8 to 10 February 1945, during Operation Fourth Term. The nine battles (to be used in conjunction with @kohlenklau's Buffalo mod) are: 0. Prologue (Sommocolonia) 1. Raiders on Highway One 2. Strettoia 3. Ordeal on the Plains 4. Kesselring’s Ghosts 5. Assault on Monte Folgorito 6. Pushing to the Top 7. Georgia on My Mind 8. Castel Aghinolfi Here are some pics to whet your appetite. It is currently in a “pre-alpha” state and I’ll be soon testing it myself for the first time. It would be great if a couple of other players could test it as well. I’d just need to know some very general things, such as: - Is the battle too short / too long? Map too big / too small? - Too many / too few troops? - Too easy / too difficult? - Any obvious mistakes? - General impressions / improvements suggested? - Etc. It is a historical campaign but I'd still like it to be as enjoyable as possible. Drop me a line if interested. Thanks in advance!

This cracked my gallbladder open. I'm in the hospital now. And "clitboard" Fantastique modification!!!

I wouldn't discount the fact that Steam automatically updates your games whenever there's an official patch or you purchase a new module. Over the years patching and upgrading a game like CMBN, for example, has been quite an effort. Five modules, countless patches and upgrades... oh dear. That sure tested my aging brain As a matter of fact I'm waiting for it to be available on Steam before I install it on my new laptop.

Oops, I made a few edits and uploaded the new files thinking the old link wouls still work. Here's the new link. Let me know if it doesn't work. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fmQ4P49-sFkS8aAbD0nods4I1gkpLZtd/view?usp=share_link

@kohlenklau, @kevinkin Yes, that's exactly what happens: the positions are swapped automatically in "Quick Battle" mode, but not in the scenario editor. A standalone scenario taken from the current CMRT QB maps to be included in a campaign needs a complete redraw in that regard. The direction troops move in on a map is completely irrelevant for the QCG. Kevinkin, if you would like to help, it would be great. Ideally, the QCG works well with large numbers. If you open your QB maps folder you will see that most battles come in fours (probe, assault, attack, ME). Again, ideally, it would be great if I had one Axis attack for each of those foursomes: i.e. redraw setup zones in the map and create one AI plan for the Axis with, say, 4 or 5 groups each. But, you know, just do it if you feel like doing it and it makes you happy. I, for one, would love to learn more about AI planning and triggers. They must be fun to test. No rush, obviously. benpark, yes, that would be great. New maps are always a treat! Thanks! The Volkssturm are definitely in the QCG. They currently have a 10% chance of appearing, but I plan to have a VKS campaign spreadsheet featuring them 100% of the time in the type of battles they would fight. I was thinking city/town/village battles, mainly on a defensive role. What kind of battles were they historically engaged in?

@kevinkin Yes, correct. This QCG system needs a number of QB maps with an AI attacking plan for the Axis player, ideally the same number as Allied attacks. One (very) long solution is the one I described above: redraw setup zones and create new AI plans for the Axis for each QB map defined as "attack, assault, probe". Another possibility is to obtain a number of maps from full-fledged CMRT scenarios containing a German attacking plan. There must be a few. In this case you just have to delete all units in the scenario editor. Same goes with battles contained in campaigns (I think there is way to extract scenarios from a campaign, isn't there?) Yet another possibility is to convert QB maps from other titles. I know it can be done fairly quickly using a website somewhere on the Internets. There's a thread about this somewhere on this forum. I might be doing some of this myself in the near future. Let me know if you would like to help out. Thanks!

Thanks @Blazing 88's , I think the number of QB maps in my folder is correct, then. @benpark, nope, all FR_Simontornya and Arnswalde QB maps show up in my system as Allied attack/assault/probe. Unusable for an Axis attack in the scenario editor. Let me try to explain: The problem is that if you open any QB maps in the CMRT (not CMFB) scenario editor listed as "attack/assault/probe", you will see that they have been designed with an Allied offense in mind: Their setup zones and AI plans are all Allied attack/assault/probe. So, for example, I opened "FR-Baracska 1520x2320 Village Attack_01" in the scenario editor. The setup zone for the Axis shown on the map occupies all terrain targets and the Allied player is in a small rectangle at the edge. If you go to AI / AI plans, the Axis are given a static defense plan, and the Allied AI plan moves a few groups of pixeltruppen forward I then started a battle in "Quick Battle" mode, selected "Axis Attack" and chose the same map as above. In this case, the sides were automatically switched. The Axis troops were only allowed to deploy at the edge in the small rectangle and the Allied troops were allowed to occupy the large defensive area. I started the battle and the Axis troops moved forward following the Allied attacking plans that I had seen in the scenario editor. Evidently, all "attack, probe, assault" QB battle maps can be used either for an Axis or an Allied attack/probe/assault indifferently in "Quick Battle" mode. The software automatically switches sides as appropriate. Unfortunately, this cannot be done quickly in the scenario editor: You have to manually invert the setup zones in the map and make new AI attacking plans for the Axis. Not in the spirit of the QCG. I also tried changing the battle definition in "Description" to Axis Attack, but this has no effect whatsoever. Long story short, I'm afraid that the only workaround is the one I described above, for my QCG purposes. I hope the other titles don't have the same "problem".

Hi @benpark, I currently have 327 maps in my CMRT QB map folder. I might have added a couple of them from who knows where. Does that number sound correct? I do have FR and that module's QB maps showing a prefix "FR_" are 138 in total in my folder: i.e. from "Arnswalde town assault" to "Vengeance probe", in alphabetical order. All of which Allied offensive battles. Have I messed up or perhaps my AV didn't like something in the German offensive battles? How many battles do you guys have in your QB maps folder? Thanks!

@Aragorn2002, No worries! Wasn't really expecting a reply. Stay strong. Hope everything goes well. Best of wishes!

Hi guys, @Blazing 88's, @kohlenklau, @kevinkin, @Vergeltungswaffe, and anyone else interested, here are the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS campaigns for CMRT. The Soviet Army and Soviet Guards campaigns follow in a separate message. They need testing. I haven't made any campaigns out of them yet, but rather than creating, testing, playing several campaigns by myself and then releasing them later on (couple of months later), I thought some of you might be interested in giving these QCG files a spin now, or perhaps during your Christmas Holidays providing you with a good, 'work-related' excuse to shun boring family reunions . Of course, you can choose whatever core force you like, but in a "Wehrmacht campaign" (GER) for example, the troops accompanying you in battle will be mostly, but not exclusively, from that branch. Same goes for the SS, SA and SG. CMRT has required two major adaptations: First, Soviet tank platoons only contain two or three tanks each. This entailed doubling the number of platoons available to the Soviet player (whether human or computer player) in "Parameters", e.g., 1 German heavy tank platoon = 2 Soviet heavy tank platoons. I need to verify whether this causes unbalanced battles, but as a player you are not required to do anything in particular. Secondly, and majorly, to my dismay I found out that there are no QB maps for Axis offensive battles. They're all Allied attacks/assaults/probes or MEs. Did you know that? In the interest of variety and randomness, in order to avoid having Axis campaigns with only defensive battles and Allied campaigns with only offensive battles, I devised a workaround using the ME QB battles, which contain an Axis attacking plan evidently. So, if "Axis ATT" is displayed in QCG, tab "Battle generator", cell C8, the map shown will always be a ME. To convert it to an Axis offensive battle, this is what I was thinking of doing: When playing as the Allied: open the chosen ME map, go to the scenario editor "Map / setup zones" and paint two-thirds of the map with 'Allied setup zone 1'. This will allow you to deploy anywhere on the map on top of the Terrain targets during the setup phase before the battle. In "Units" Assign AI groups to Axis units as usual. The Axis Computer player will execute its attacking plan according to the plans devised by the scenario designer. When playing as the Axis: same as before, go to the scenario editor "Map / setup zones" and paint two-thirds of the map with 'Allied setup zone 1'. We now need to get the Allied Computer player to stand still on its terrain targets. To do this, go to 'AI / AI plans' and disable all Allied AI plans ("Not in Use") except for Plan 1. Under Plan 1, paint the setup area for group 1 so as to cover the entire Allied map setup zone 1 in yellow. Then, delete all orders for AI group 1 in Plan 1. Do not assign AI groups to any units in "Units". The PC player will assume that all units are in group 1 (A1) in Plan 1, which now contains no orders, so it will deploy freely in the map setup zone and stay put. It's a bit of a chore and it creates "static" defenses, but it's the only way I could think of to quickly get the AI to deploy in a large setup zone and avoid any unnecessary movements. Have fun! CMRT - QCG_GER campaign.xlsx CMRT - QCG_SS campaign.xlsx

Thanks guys! Yes, my plan is to extend QCG to all WW2 titles. I've nearly finished converting it to CMRT, which is easier as it only has two nationalities and will release soon enough. Later, I will be moving on to CMBN and leave CMFI for the last, a nightmare for sure... Modern titles: not sure QCG can be used so well for CMBS and CW due to the lethality of tanks. But I'm going to test it for sure. The asymetrical nature of warfare in CMSF rules it out entirely. Yes, 8 core force units. More than enough for me to do all the accounting after each battle. Automating the number of core units goes way beyond my Excel user skills.

Hi fellow CMFB-ers, have you ever thought of making your own campaign but were intimidated by all the hard work that goes into it? I’ve been recently tinkering with the scenario editor to create a historical campaign in CMFI and, in my recurrent drunken stupors, I came up with an idea to quickly create fully randomized campaigns: The Quick Campaign Generator! The QCG creates a 10-battle campaign in just a few clicks (well, a few hundred…) putting you at the head of your core force, which you must lead throughout the campaign to achieve glory and win some medals, recording their progress in the meantime. It is in part reminiscent of Robo's quick campaign generator for CMx1 titles (as some of you may remember). Essentially, it is an Excel spreadsheet that lets you create a ‘bare-bones’ linear campaign comprising ten battles without having to do any historical research, map-making, briefings or artwork, i.e. the exact opposite of @Ithikial_AU’s excellent tutorial (https://community.battlefront.com/topic/137921-fire-and-rubble-preview-the-anatomy-of-what-goes-into-a-stock-campaign-release/) that I’ve used for my historical campaign. The purpose is to have fun with all the goodies (tanks and vehicles especially) that CMFB has to offer, without the headaches. Pure CM sex with no emotional involvement . All the Scenario Editor choices, for example Weather, Ground Conditions, Experience, Headcount, choice of troops etc. are completely randomized to let you try out all possible combinations. Although, these battle are heavily biased in favor of armor, I must admit. When you open the spreadsheet, you will see: a tab called ‘Battle generator’, which provides random battle conditions, two tabs called ‘Human ATT’ and ‘Human DEF’, which generate a random force composition to be used in the various battles if you’re attacking or defending; the ‘Allied AAR or Axis AAR’ tabs, where you will be recording your progress during the campaign. Beware, your performance will be accurately monitored and judged . Ignore the other tabs. They contain data used for the formulas. I’ve protected the sheets to avoid mistyping into a cell containing a formula. This was the situation for my Elite Panther platoon in a German Wehrmacht campaign called “Panthers on the Prowl” that I created using QCG: Notice the nice array of medals my core force troops earned! (Well, it was on Easy mode...) As you progress in your campaign, your results will be recorded and medals awarded. Statistics include tank kills, tank losses, infantry casualties, etc. Your overall performance will be duly monitored as shown here: I did pretty well, apparently. Basic knowledge of how the CM Scenario Editor works is of course recommended, but not a requirement. Full instructions are provided. Inside the package you will find: - - three versions of the QCG spreadsheet (one for a US campaign, one for a German Wehrmacht campaign, and one for a Waffen SS campaign); - - a pdf file containing Instructions (and a Quick Start Guide); - - six campaign script files “(QCG) Campaign Script.txt” (easy, medium or hard for Allied and Axis forces); - - five text files for the type of battle you will be fighting; I’ve also added a couple of campaigns that I have created using this system, with the related Excel files that only contain the AAR tabs. Enjoy! If you have any questions, just let me know. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bA3jnnT6tjh0xdKZHnAl5pyr5e2LBA6_/view?usp=sharing