carcer

Ha, figured it out! https://goo.gl/photos/QmDzDUdicWXZAS9X8. Minor clipping but we now have a teller mine on a pole!

Update: I can see why true to life historical maps are so difficult to find- it's a time consuming pain. Here's a pic of the last WN's I wanted to get a rough outline of https://goo.gl/photos/eRoh36nTpX6H4vDb8. Les Moulins is a difficulty that I'll have to come back to. The trench line needs adjusted, building locations still an unknown, and I can't find any actual locations of the tank turrets. Hopefully the fortress book I ordered will have the answers I'm looking for. Moving onto a beach and shoreline focus I've added in the hedgehog obstacle belt to its real location and another texture color for flare: https://goo.gl/photos/E86v9fXzE6EUSTJR9 There's 70 hedgehogs so might need to delete some for smoother game-play and could be beneficial to group them together where it makes sense for the mission. Here is a pic of a mine on a pole concept I've been trying to make: https://goo.gl/photos/R6SxQ5SsrTFgaKnm7. Any suggestions on how to make it better would be greatly appreciated, or if someone could make a more convincing flavor object that would be sweet. I was hoping there would be an RGB color like on sprites to just make the bubble part of the pole model transparent but that doesn't seem to be the case so I tried to make the bubble look like some kind of sea like mine. The poles will just be for flavor. Maybe a tied down rock on-top could work? I don't know; I'm out of ideas other than maybe using a Black Sea pole model but then other player's would need to have CMBS. As another added in thing; I've been working on some camo nets for the bunkers (textures are not my own). https://goo.gl/photos/KjCp53eWmCHnqFNu5 https://goo.gl/photos/TgMksh3jPv93so637

My vote would be towards this with maybe ww2 and modern split as games- similar to steel panthers. That and a remake of Shock Force would be lovely.

Wn71 preview https://goo.gl/photos/wTcXRQ3jh2v6jaSY6 Troop strength: - 1 FO in concrete, pak 181(f) 47mm in dugout/sandbags (will have to use a 37mm or 50mm pak?), 50mm mortar in tobruk, 81mm in dug out, mg42 in concrete facing draw, 2 rifle squads, 1 HMG34, 1 HQ -

^ Oops I messed up on the quote tool last post. Thinking about my post from earlier I'm now really curious what the difference was for fortified beach attacks in the PTO during 1944 before the Japanese changed strategies towards inland defense. I'll throw up a brief if I find anything interesting. That's a nifty site for topographic maps and geometry. I'll use it as an overlay to add to and correlate with the polygon method for a nicely accurate terrain expression. As a side note this community is pretty awesome for support and I look forward to participating in it. Hopefully I'll be able return all the help I've received here.

Thanks IanL, no idea that you hosted your own site. Looks really convenient for missions to download. Starting to get bogged down by real life but pushing through. Found a really sweet book I'm waiting on that may answer all my issues as the main goal of this project is historical accuracy. http://www.fortress-books.com/en/catalogue/cf-modern-fortifications-20th-century/atlantikwall-omaha-beach-from-port-en-bessin-to-grandcamp-maisy. That website publisher might be really useful for other peoples projects dealing with fortifications, but unfortunately I cant find copies sold in the US. They do ship though. My plan to get this map to a working condition that I can update over time is now to roughly go over the following: 1. strong points 2. beach and beach front- ocean runnels, terrain, ocean breakers, destroyed buildings 3. Inland- villages, trees, terrain 4. historical looking main buildings + interest points 5. touch ups and smooth out some of the squiggly lines 6. LOA, LACE, and re-consolidate for a new push Here's work on wn70 for basic layout https://goo.gl/photos/6iCJeziqSMw1V6J99 and one of the references used: German troops and equipment (spoilers): -1 leIG18 in concrete, 1 leIG18 in sand bag dug out, 1 81mm mortar, 1 50mm mortar, 1 20mm flak, 1 concrete shelter/bunker, 3 mg34's, 2 mg42's, 2 rifle squads, 1 HQ team-

My mistake on typing; I meant too many of these weapons and that I am going to reduce them according to the TOE's I've found. I guess that Blue and Grey was somewhat close. For the D1 draw (wn71-73) I'm looking at 3 forward observers in bunkers in contact with 2 105mm batteries, 1 47mm At gun in open pit facing forward, 1 88mm pak43 concrete facing east, 1 50mm AT in concrete with tank turret facing east or west, 1 75mm AT french conversion in concrete (equivalent to a 50mm) facing east, 2 mg42's in concrete (facing into draw), 3 50mm mortars, 2 81mm mortars, 7 mg34's teams (2 in tobruks), 1 mg42 team, 6 rifle squads (no heavy weapons), and 3 command teams. Ok dang, I guess that is a lot. I'm sure there's TOE corrections to make and if I half the force pools for game-play reasons I'd cut the mg34's and rifle squads in half. That would be cool if you pm the Bloody Omaha scenario Rocketman; I'll check it out. The polygon elevation method is a way to make elevation contours on a google earth map that I learned from one of the forum posts on here I think. In google earth you draw a large polygon like a rectangle or something to cover your map area (needs to be in enclosed object). In properties for that polygon you can set the height by going to the altitude tab and set the clamping to absolute. I believe in layer options on the left side with borders, labels, etc that the terrain box needs to be checked. After that you can change the polygon altitude in meters to what you want (I was going with 5m distances and then 2.5m rounded up or down where it seemed useful) and then with the add path button at the top you can color trace the contour line made by the polygon. I was using a path with a number 2 width that you can select in the named path properties. The methods fairly accurate in abstract terms and the only issue I had with it for this map was the elevation before the bluffs.

dang that Forgotten Hope 2 map is spot on and really helpful for redesign when I go back for touch ups like direction the tank turret was facing and mg tobruk that would work better as a sand bag position. I was using a forgotten hope 2 map as a reference actually, I wonder if it was your map Ts4Ever. Thanks again for posting. I found that Blue and Grey campaign forum which has useful info in it like JonS's suggestion for boat team make-up using combat mission teams. Tried the campaign which is fun in it's own right and no offense to the author (mission and map making is a pain in the butt and it's stated only based on), but historically way off. Not that many mg's, tank guns, front facing tank guns, bunkers, 81mm mortars and all of that. For mine I'm using a google earth overlay, aerial recon photos, and the polygon elevation method for the map with minor adjustments here and there.

No new work to show but really love the living time clock idea. Number of casualties should be an important part of the points/objectives system. If I go a somewhat different route please feel free to make missions off the map. Pete, really appreciate that you put that Collville map out there. I've gone through it and got some great ideas from it. I especially love the gun bunker design in it which would be perfect for the unfinished bunkers in the sector I'm looking at and maybe even for the 88 if that caliber of pak is in CMBN. One of the issues I already know I'm going to run into for this project is software and design limitations. The collville map lags down my machine pretty good. One of the ways I was going to try to compromise for mine was by going light on the trees for density, trenches/tank traps, and cutting the force pools down. My graphics card is up there (gtx 970 or something- 4GB) and same with ram (16GB), so I think the bottle neck for large maps is a processor issue? I have an AMD(?) 6 core running around 3.6 + GHz but read somewhere that combat mission only uses one processor? Not sure if it would be worth it to get a better processor like a 4 GHz Intel or if that GHz range is what most players have that play this game.

Only have a second but I'll definitely check out those aerials and look up that Blue and Grey campaign to see how that author did things as well as the map above, sounds pretty cool. During brief testing it seemed the US side was the one that's overpowered because of the tank support. The MG's seem to work pretty well on the map as most of the fire is angled and long distance. Bunkers that had MG's I was going to have as just shelters with an unsupported mg inside for further weapon inaccuracy. The majority of machine guns the Germans had appear to be mg34's though and the bunkers apart from the inside draws were made for artillery observers. It's funny ww1 style combat is mentioned since that is what Rommel was going for and why he got so much flak for his defense plan. I suppose it was insane for the German Western command to want to do the same thing in Italy for beach defense (mobile reserves) expecting different results and insane for the Allied command to think that the German military wouldn't change tactics. I'll be trying to avoid the complete meat grinder concept (pre-sighted artillery is/was the biggest killer though) and instead I'll be going for a compressed timeline version with historical forces about halved with the focus on capturing points beyond the beach. That way in theory and under time constraints there should be a good amount of variance and sweat for trying to put together surviving ad hoc groups and deciding which objectives to go for based off those compositions to win. major spoilers: -the only group that should really be decimated are those landing right in front of dog green but at the same time that allows other units to advance almost without taking fire. So far my plan is to have St Laurent be worth the most points (stretch goal for mission), but with a decent defense, and then have the D1 draw and Vierville worth a little more or same combined. For points the strong-points would be in the 3rd tier and maybe a 4th tier for misc bonus stuff. With possible counter attacks from south the player will really have to balance out the ad hoc groups for where to push and where to defend once off the beach. My goal is to have a total victory pretty hard (skill plus good luck) with a good fight in-between achieving a victory or draw (skill) and a loss if things really go bad (skill plus bad luck or just really bad luck).-

Thanks Rocketman I was actually looking for a full text version of that article without luck. I've been trying to get the basic layout of wn73, but again elevation makes it a pain to do. If my map ends up good enough for that section feel free to use or modify it if you want. A fortified house , idea, layout, or example would be really helpful; so far I have this (spoilers): https://goo.gl/photos/kZYLS268oke9bE6P8 and this is what it's looking like from the draw: https://goo.gl/photos/qF9g4A7jx3aixdDs7 seems I may have been wrong on the short barrel 75mm tank turret from earlier and it was probably a 37mm gun instead. I have four actual AT bunkers laid out for the map as encasements. WN70 had one encasement without a finished roof and a 50/50 chance there was a leIG18 in there. Will probably go for the 50mm AT bunker option since I'm guessing the infantry gun didn't have a high armor penetration value? WN72 had an 88mm AT gun and a 50mm. The 88mm is a hard choice between just the 75mm or the Russian conversion. Russian conversion to go in line with the war booty items the static divisions had; or the 75 for that little bit more of an AT value. Lastly on WN73 there was an updated Belgian/French (?) FK 97(f) which luckfully matches the values of the German 50mm AT gun. For gun turrets I'm thinking of just going with caliber/barrel equivalent, but for that route I would like to cut out the special round attachments some of the German guns have. I have no idea how to do that. Ammo quantity? Another historical accuracy issue to deal with later is that it seems a majority of the 50mm AT guns on Omaha had longer barrels (Navy gun version?). Might not really be a difference.

Thanks for the tips and the website with the aerials; extremely helpful. I've been trying to tackle the Vierville draw recently to get the basic layout down as I figured that area would be the most difficult. It definitely is especially for WN72 and 73 but for the most part have 72 nailed down to a nice abstraction. Probably a mission spoiler but here's where it's at now: https://goo.gl/photos/jxwDzqyibrFMFqp48 In the center to represent a tank turret that was on-top of the right side bunker I've added a 75mm infantry gun. This position should prove to be pretty nasty as the gun bunkers have enfilade fire across the entire beach.

Correction; I guess I'm in favor of the zigzag and irregular angles. I'll smooth out parts where it makes sense to on the map. https://goo.gl/photos/yCxYPByrSxBiiRcL8

Finished phase one; at least to the point all the major place holders are in and I can begin detailing the map and sectors. I went with the non-zigzag map design. Not sure how I feel about it. Might need to mix it up a bit? Also working on a terrain texture pack thing to go along with the map which I've replaced the mud texture with one to represent wet sand hopefully making the beach more interesting. I believe the tide line with sandbars is around the 3/4-1/2 point. All buildings placed have confirmed existence (still more to add and fine tune), but a majority of them along the coast and in Les Moulins will be destroyed. https://goo.gl/photos/ryafBQisZvt4PMiD6 https://goo.gl/photos/nBRPrcj43f54cbpK6 Curious what thoughts and opinions might be for this tobruk and open top bunker idea. I went with the literal meaning for tobruk: concrete reinforced foxhole. https://goo.gl/photos/6DyHufsp2xsZV9Lm8 View from the beach: https://goo.gl/photos/9cCkYB2G3Y6NPpij8 comments and suggestions are welcome

Update: well that sucked; I had to start back over. Lesson learned: don't resize map hoping that your math for re-scaling will check out to be only a few meters off. Attempt two looks a lot better though and I'm starting to get decent at map making. I've cut it down a bit after figuring out what a better frame was for the western half. There's about a days work left on the thing to be considered 'alpha'ish', so I'll throw on some screens then. If anyone's reading this and you're bored, I found this cool French website- http://vierville.free.fr/index.htm http://omahabeach.vierville.free.fr/index.htm

Sweet thanks DesertFox that info is freaking awesome. Whoever the author is, especially if they've done the same for other beaches, should put all that together in a book and publish lol seriously.

Just looked into the Balkoski stuff- pretty interesting. Turns out the flagging communication away from dog green and onto dog white I was thinking of was done by the 5th rangers in the boats as their commander- Schnieder had enough sense to deviate from the not so intelligent plan of attacking the draws straight on. Confirmed through that Omaha book and also war departments military history http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/100-11/ch3.htm that 24 shermans landed on dog white and green followed by 18 (possible minus of 3) on dog red for a total of 42 tanks in the western section. That's a lot of tank. Seems the issue in most narratives is that the focus is on the DD tanks (32 per battalion), leaving out the water proofed shermans (24 per battalion) and because the 741st lost a majority of their DD's; most presented material makes it sound like there wasn't much tank support. The tanks couldn't see in the morning light to provide good support but that's besides the point.

That's funny roads are brought up as that's the current issue I'm working around for phase one of the map by getting basic placement of everything. Almost finished with it though. Once map is completely done I'll put it out there as a master map for everyone to use and then start working on mission. Thanks Pete for the dropbox link, that definitely seems like that was a lot of work you put into it. I don't doubt that there's a lot of useful info in it for what I'm working on. Just finished reading Omaha Beach Field Guide by Brigadier General Shuey. It's neat and somewhat useful although waiting on a french translated book that should give the best account and design of the strongpoints. I was wondering what JonS meant by the beach is shingle, which turns out the reason it's not very evident now is that all the rocks/gravel were used for road construction into Paris. From a historical perspective this whole thing is a mess to research as it seems most of what I read is contradictory. For dog green Shuey makes it sound like no one made a landing adjustment away from the draw and in another account I remember reading was that Rangers or a Flag team waved other landing craft away; signaling that resistance at the draw was too strong. It's also kind of funny how every MG position is a pillbox and every Grenadier rifleman a sniper. I'm curious if the German units had any scopes in their TOE. What I really can't find is an accurate account of how many tanks from the 743rd tank battalion left their LCT's. The Field Guide book makes it sound like only 6 were engaging from the waterline, other accounts put way more or way less. Critical hit has 18 tanks from 6 LCT mk5's on Dog Red turn two (not sure how long a turn is), 16 tanks from 4 LCT mk6's Dog White turn 1, and 8 tanks from 2 LCT mk6's on Dog Green turn 1. LCT causalities offshore already taken into account in the game (maybe not). So now I'm really confused. For the mission my approach was going to be setting up a mostly historical force pool of combat units and then start cutting down ratio wise until the mission is conservative and playable for most computers. Shueys' book gives me a good idea of how to make the mission fun though; instead of focusing too much on the beach I'll focus on cost benefit objectives beyond the beach so the player will have some hard choices to make. With primary objectives centered around the St. Laurent western town approach (wasn't historically taken from the D-3 draw), Vierville, and exiting designated Ranger units west; then tough choices can be questions such: do I concentrate on St. Laurent, Vierville, or both? Take the time to clear the draws to have tank assistance or bypass the draws due to time restraints? Exit designated Ranger squads or use them to hold objectives against counter attack? Take the time to take secondary objectives such as the strong points? and where to concentrate naval support? Hopefully those kinds of questions could make the mission interesting and challenging.

I guess I am over stating 'carnage'. What I really mean is to capture a sort of ambiance of a landing which would include having a few boxes and barrels, a few craters from the pre-barrage and the landing craft, but all of these elements to a minimized representation. Will probably stick with critical hits US support with 2 destroyers available towards the end of the scenario; skiping the pre-barrage as part of it. Going for an approach that Close Combat has done with static maps: JonS I'll definitely use the suggestions above and focus on the concept of bogging down and trying to survive the AT guns which should be fun since most of them are 50mm. I found a great way to break up the beach between shallows, streams, sand, and shingle where it's evident where the tide lines are after looking at some photos. I'll post some screens when I can. I had no idea you were the author for the scenario design tutorials. I'm starting to read through them to take the same kind of approach which is extremely helpful. I'm curious if the ships in the horizon I made from the combat mission support icons are too large or not? I also can't figure out how to stick posters directly to walls as another possibility to add to the landing craft is replace posters with doors, life saver buoys and such. Later I'll update the pack with something that can replicate the anti-landing craft sticks and camo nets for bunkers.

ww2 Invasion pack https://goo.gl/photos/DaPNJNTSDkaZmntC9 http://www.mediafire.com/?jltma98ggb11t

I appreciate all the comments. Thank you JonS and Rocketman for the links and I think I have an idea that might work for tide line. Going for full Western side of map because of the fields of fire but will include smaller scenarios from the master map and will try to make a couple small ones for the Eastern side as well. Tomorrow I'll try to put out the landing craft textures as well as a horizon set for an invasion fleet (idea based on someone else's mod for Shock Force). Details: A more accurate portrayal of Omaha Beach in contrast to the main narratives from film and other video games Focus on Western Side of the beach with full map battle and then smaller map scenarios to cover the same battle based off of the critical hit board game scenarios Map in the 70-80% range of historical accuracy Combination of close combat bloody Omaha mod, iron front 44, and the board game Omaha from critical hit Tactically focused such as clearing lanes in mine fields for tanks (ideas welcome) Compressed time line and unit composition Based off of critical hit then adjusted for historical accuracy and game-play Able to run with my computer specs for turn-based (I think my CPU is only around 3.2) The smaller scenarios will be a lot less computer intensive 3 phases for the project 1: rough placement, correct topography, strong-points, and stand in housing positions 2: detail map sector by sector and in entirety based on photos and game-play touch ups 3. Mission plan and unit balancing Other details: Going for look and feel of the beach especially in light to combat mission’s mod Bloody Omaha. The beach will look like carnage even though technically no units have landed yet, there will be landing craft, an invasion fleet in the horizon box, with crates and debris on the beach. Beach obstacles will have to compromise to not lag game down. Mostly turning towards close combat placement of hedgehogs with most concentration around Dog Red and Green. The rest of the beach I’ll try to stagger. For representation and game-play could alternate between obstacles and mines in a staggered fashion so that the player will need to clear a few lanes on the beach. Question if mines on the beach should be AT or mixed. The beach will probably have to have various low dunes and such for cover to add to survivability of the game engine as well as tactical elements. Example can be found in the Utah mission of US campaign in the game.

Sweet, will definitely go for shallow water. Here's some pics of landing craft I've been playing with for ambiance. https://goo.gl/photos/TYYBtG6iw9zm4y5v8 https://goo.gl/photos/coepgTSdw7Crb1WEA Game-play wise only about half or so arriving units would probably start out in these as the rest will start off in the shallows.

Sweet, will definitely go for shallow water. Here's some pics of landing craft I've been playing with for ambiance. https://goo.gl/photos/TYYBtG6iw9zm4y5v8 https://goo.gl/photos/coepgTSdw7Crb1WEA Game-play wise only about half or so arriving units would probably start out in these as the rest will start off in the shallows.

Couldn't help it here is a teaser of a very very rough idea of what I'm work with. https://goo.gl/photos/EDggQqzNSecdju3A9