Hister Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 Just finished 3rd level of the Sottish Corridor campaign. Oh men what a level this is - bravo once more Paper Tiger! Spoiler alert! I kept on my toes up to the moment when remaining SS German units surrendered (30 minutes before the time run out actually!), it was sooo intense! Managed to knock out all their armour, both Tigers got hit on numerous occasions but just kept going. Last one was knocked out by my remaining AT gun that I repositioned with Bren carrier to my main HQ position where it managed to deploy just in time when Tiger started doing some serious damage to my troops. It fired the deadly shot just a moment before my Shermans arrived on the scene and moped up with the Tiger's accompanying SS infantry (boom, kaboom!) that already managed to push my units out of the objective area. It was like in the freaking movies (again)! :eek: I managed to fend off German attack on the left flank with concentrated light and heavy mortar fire, my two piat teams and few lucky flank shots from centrally positioned AT gun against the Tiger beast. Enemy units literally managed to reach my first front line but were hastily repulsed - battlefield was full of fallen comrades: When left flank was secured I actually had to reposition all survivors from the left side to defend the right objective. There Germans had a very strong barely touched force with only a couple of men dead/injured, halftrack destroyed and Tiger's main gun defeated at that point. My heavy mortar fire proved to miss main enemy force completely on all occasions so Krauts were not soften up much. Luckily Tiger's gun was out but his machine gun proved a major problem since I had no more assets to counter the beast besides the one AT gun that already managed to deliver the final blow to the first Tiger but it got under the flanking enemy fire - I was sure I'll loose it. Boys managed to pack up the gun and drive it away with bullets bouncing off the carrier - what a feat! Germans took a heavy beating: ... and here is my score (one really needs to be a seasoned player in order to secure casualty parameters in this level huh!?): 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undercovergeek Posted April 14, 2012 Share Posted April 14, 2012 with the fine detail work on all those little farm compounds done (and some of them are very beautiful). could you elaborate here PT? im trying to make any map as immersive as possible and find that sometimes its the small intricate details that make the map come alive and obtain the elusive 'immersive' status 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paper Tiger Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 ... and here is my score (one really needs to be a seasoned player in order to secure casualty parameters in this level huh!?): And at Veteran Level too. That's quite an achievement, Hister. Congratulations. The Friendly Forces Preservation Bonus should be very hard to earn in this mission. Getting a green tick in that box when you win gives you bragging rites. Look forward to seeing how you get on with the next series of missions. It'll be a real change of pace from the first series. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paper Tiger Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 could you elaborate here PT? im trying to make any map as immersive as possible and find that sometimes its the small intricate details that make the map come alive and obtain the elusive 'immersive' status Not sure what you're asking for here. You appear to be doing just fine without any help from me. Keep up the good work. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
undercovergeek Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 appreciate that - i just thought there might be a favourite object secret to add that finishing touch - i find using them just right can give a house/farm area/small hamlet that lived in look as opposed to a collection of houses - ill keep doing what im doing! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Mike Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 And at Veteran Level too. That's quite an achievement, Hister. Congratulations. The Friendly Forces Preservation Bonus should be very hard to earn in this mission. Getting a green tick in that box when you win gives you bragging rites. Look forward to seeing how you get on with the next series of missions. It'll be a real change of pace from the first series. Yeah, but the friendly forces score is under "Parameters", not "Targets". And he didn't get this one in green, as I would expect, since he lost around 40% of his force. Mind you, this is still very good, I only managed to win this with 60% of my forces lost, including all tanks. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hister Posted April 15, 2012 Share Posted April 15, 2012 And at Veteran Level too. That's quite an achievement, Hister. Congratulations. The Friendly Forces Preservation Bonus should be very hard to earn in this mission. Getting a green tick in that box when you win gives you bragging rites. Look forward to seeing how you get on with the next series of missions. It'll be a real change of pace from the first series.Well thank you for brewing such damn good campaigns! I'm not a bragger so I won't reply this mission in order to secure friendly casualty count. If the pace is more calm from now on I'll appreciate the change a lot he he I am wondering how many casualties did the UK forces had in that battle historically? I suppose you ought to have some info on that PT right? Yeah, but the friendly forces score is under "Parameters", not "Targets". And he didn't get this one in green, as I would expect, since he lost around 40% of his force. Mind you, this is still very good, I only managed to win this with 60% of my forces lost, including all tanks. Yeah getting it under 20% would have to be really hard - anyone pulled such a score? What tactics were used? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheVulture Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Yeah getting it under 20% would have to be really hard - anyone pulled such a score? What tactics were used? I did on my second attempt. The first attempt was painful - I probably lost enough troops in the first five minutes to fail the 20% target. But as always I was curious about what strategies might work - it is said that you learn more from your defeats than from your victories, but CM has the added bonus of letting you have another crack at the same scenario to test your new ideas. So, what worked for me: I abandoned the right objective entirely. Firstly, as the briefing warns, that area is registered with German artillery. Secondly, if both objectives are being attacked simultaneously (which is likely given the limitations of AI scripting), then massing forces to defend objective one with a much better force ratio and then counterattacking objective two when reinforcements arrive means you can fight with good odds all the way through and dislocate the enemy forces. Actually, this is what I planned in my first attempt. I just executed it badly. Firstly I didn't get far enough away from the right objective, and lost forces to the rocket barrage. Secondly, I rather misread the map and thought that I'd be able to move in the open field between the objectives as a relatively covered area. So aside from losing men in the barrage, I proceeded to lose more (and one of my 6 pounders) trying to man my intended positions in that field. And got sucked in to having too many men in 'up' positions exposed to German overwatch. The second attempt, I kept all my forces left of the orchard between the objectives. Basically, my right side platoon was in the middle of the map. The reserve platoon (and ATG) stayed well out of the way for a long time - I planned to use them in the counterattack or to shore up the left if it looked in danger. So I made no attempt to even fire on any attackers on the right. The second plank of my strategy was to advance the defence on the left. The forward squad I moved back as soon as possible, and moved the rest of their platoon forward to defend the rear edge of the forest that was the obvious approach route (with some machinegun overwatch on the open areas to stop them being outflanked). This meant that I had a whole platoon lined up behind the bocage firing at the scattered advancing Germans in relatively poor cover. My intention was to do enough to disrupt the attack and then fall back to the objective to hit them again as they crossed the open field. This worked better than expected, despite some minor hiccoughs. My men caused some good casualties there for only a few losses (good work done by the 51mm mortar which happened to get a position with good LoS amongst the trees). When some HTs showed up, a PIAT bagged one and I decided to get out of there, and my FO called in a circular atrea target fire mission on the near half of the woods. The main spanner in the works was the tiger than advanced down the road just past the bocage line. This all but wiped out one squad that due to some unforseen pathing issues tried running down the road in front of it. My PIAT team had been pinned by enemy fire and not managed to withdraw, but when the mortars started landing they recovered and proceeded to disable the tiger with a short range side shot. The crew panicked and bailed out. The PIAT crew may have been killed, but for me it was a good trade off. The mortars also worked well - no Germans tried to advance out of the trees. My defence had apparently bunched them up perfectly in the kill zone, and the mortars had been devestating. When I later sent a re-inforcement platoon to sweep the area during the mop up, I found only 5 or so German soldiers alive in the area, and a lot of bodies. (I dropped a second mortar strike on the right side where I thought Germans might be moving on the second objective, but there were only a few bodies in the area on the AAR screen, so I don't think it did much damage). The second tiger was also dealt with without too much trouble. My 6 pdr that started in the forward setup area, and was basically just behind the aforementioned left side platoon with an angled line of fire across the German advance. It spotted the second tiger, and got a few early shots off quickly. One penetration, a few richochets and a gun hit made the tiger pop smoke and reverse, and I never saw it fire its main gun again after that, so I'm pretty sure the gun was destroyed. The commander was also killed. As always, I then got sucked in to doing something stupid by the fact of feeling I had to do something. I had intended to wait for the tanks to turn up before counterattacking the right side objective, but since nothing much was happening, I started early. I really need to learn that I can sit around and do nothing for 5-10 turns sometimes, particularly on defence. So after I finally killed the second tiger (my other ATG deployed on the rear road just behind the orchard / open field area and engaged in a duel with the tiger (helped by the zero time setup bug) with the tiger using its MGs only. The ATG won quite convincingly.) I send a platoon into the first few buildings by the right hand objective, and they started running in through on set of doors just as the first Germans were opening the other set. Some hasty redeployment of mortars and flanking by my initial reserve platoon gave me control of the barns, although with moderate losses (including a German artillery strike causing mayhem in my mortar teams in the orchard), and the tanks arriving on the scene shortly after turned the cratered field in the right objective into a killing zone with Germans caught in the open with tanks of infantry on three sides around them. Surrender followed shortly after. While I think my second plan was pretty solid, I still benefitted from a lot of good luck and precious little bad luck. Taking out both tigers for such low cost quite early on (well, one was alive for a fair while but without his main gun) was a huge swing in my favour. Wiping out half the German attack with a well placed mortar strike was another big bonus - I think I''d be far from certain of manageing such an effective mortar strike again if I replayed the fight. And that was basically both tigers and half the German infantry dead for almost no cost to me - a few men here and there from firefights (and that PIAT team), and a squad 90% killed by pathing issues rather than my orders. After that I had such a huge advantage I couldn't possible lose. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hister Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 That's an awesome report - a bow to the master! You were lucky Germans advanced trough the orchard - in my game only a few soldiers went into it with a scout car, the rest were advancing on the leftmost open land (just left from the orchard from the USA point of view). I left two men at the fore-guard to slow the advancing German army down and sent the rest through the orchard where they waited for the Germans and actually managed to pick off all of them. PIAT team got rid of the scout car. I was lucky that I had them nearby otherwise the rest of the men would be goners. I'm waiting for PT to share some historical info on that battle with us - it must have been hell for both sides involved. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paper Tiger Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 This mission is not historical, hister. The Germans did counterattack Haut du Bosq later in the day with their Engineers with some vehicles in support but there are not many details in the books I've got. The Tigers actually counterattacked on the eastern side of the salient and not the west. But I hate being too straight-jacketed by history all the time. I wanted a Tiger in this campaign. I'm learning to love the WW2 armour game and I wanted Tigers, Panthers, JPzIVs, as well as the JagdPanther and the King Tiger (much later). So I bent the history a bit to create a more 'fun' mission. But, yes, Day 1 of Epsom was hell for all concerned. BTW, I originally crafted this map to cover Siegel's Day 2 action where his platoon of PzIVs held up the Brits trying to advance south directly towards Grainville. But it didn't work out because the human player will never, ever do what the Allies did and would end up massacring poor Seigel and his heroic tank platoon. A bit of player-deployed SMOKE and it's game-over for the Germans. So I used the map for a German counterattack on Day 1 instead. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hister Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Ah I see, silly me! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 A question for PT. I am confused as to how I have missed some missions and ended up with the bonus mission which is not listed on the list? "La Mancelliere" Just started it and I think the campaign is effectively over but I got no summary screen or some such confirmation the campaign was over. It could be that this is just the way BF have coded campaigns but for me it would be nice to see a summary at the end? Maybe I get that after this bonus mission? So far excellent work and really gave me a tough challenge, although I have so far won all scenarios but the last game. (SPOILER the last scenario was me defending the Church against 5 Panthers with just one 17pdr and a couple of 6pdrs and 7 Churchill's. This I managed to get a draw which I was happy with considering the power of those damned Panthers. I lost 5 Churchills and took out 2 Panthers and immobilised the other three Panthers with one having no main gun or MG's.) The German infantry were decimated but I lost control of a 50pt area and could not mount an attack on the further most VP zone which I conceded to the AI rather than lose men in a futile attack.) If I get time I might try and review myself the end games of each scenario but I need to replay a bit and grab some screen shots.... Excellent work and I am just into my second turn of La Mancelliere so no spoilers on that please!!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 Just checked the name of the previous scenario and it was "No Hiding Place" and I did not secure Foot worth 200 as it seemed a tad too exposed to be able to defend properly even if I could rush there at the start... So it would appear I have missed out on 12, 13 and 14? What should I have done to get theses scenarios? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paper Tiger Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 You were playing the Veteran version of the 'Crescendo of Doom' mission, right? If you lose any of the missions after 'Going to Church' at Veteran level, you qualify for the bonus mission. Regular players have to get to 'Fair and Square' to qualify - they don't have to win that mission, just getting there at Regular level suffices. Green players don't get to play the bonus mission though. Congrats, and I hope you enjoy the bonus. I tried to make it 'special'. Edit because I just read your second post - If you want to play those missions, you'll have to get a win. Easier said than done at veteran level. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted April 28, 2012 Share Posted April 28, 2012 OK, getting a win is NP as I know what I did wrong. I was going to replay it to see if my approach would work. I guess I need to get a win... I considered the draw a win as I had more points than the Germans but I can now see that it does not really count as a win... Which just shows how good the scenarios are. Yes all games played at Vet level. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paper Tiger Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 You've played most, if not all, the campaign missions at Veteran level? From 'Road to Cheux' onwards? That's impressive indeed! I suspect that you'll find the 'Crescendo of Doom' and 'Fair and Square' missions quite challenging at veteran level. I look forward to hearing how you fare with them. And I'm glad to hear that 'No Hiding Place' bloodied your nose on the first playthrough. I don't think anybody playtested that mission apart from myself, and I was worried that it might be too easy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 Yes played at Veteran and the first technical loss was "No Hiding Place" some of the scenarios just preceding that gave me a few scares, but I managed to recover and the AI surrendered before the end of the game. "No Hiding Place" I just decided not to risk an attack and I can see that you do clearly state any loss dumps you from the campaign but in my mind a draw (with me having more points than the AI) could have not counted as a loss. Not a big point but maybe in future explain that a draw is also counted as a loss. In "No Hiding Place" you are really hampered by having only one 17pdr that can easily (ish) take out the Panthers front on. I lost four Churchills to me poorly sitting them. I very nearly did open up the flanks of the Germans but that damned Waspe did not die from the Arty I threw at it and it and the held off my flanking Churchill by taking the tracks away from me!! I must say your placement of vehicles in defence is excellent and has taken some work to crack. "Crescendo of Doom" rings alarm bells from my Squad Leader Days and I can see I have plenty more to do before I can claim I have finished the Campaign. I will try and report back on progress but it maybe quite a while yet as they are taking quite some time to play and do properly without me being wiped out. Excellent training material for playing vs Humans and as I have mentioned in other threads normally I have had no time to allocate to playing the AI. I have been so impressed with this campaign that I have allocated more time to playing AI than humans (in part due to work life balance but also down to the sheer fun this campaign has given me). If I ever meet you this is worth quite a few beers or drinks of your choice. Thank you. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted May 7, 2012 Share Posted May 7, 2012 OK now back on track after re playing "No Hiding Place". I managed by better deployment of the Churchills to only lose two (one was silly mistake by me) and gain a total victory with the Germans surrendering with around 17 minutes left. The 17pdr was key and with a slightly different position it nailed three of the five Panthers and the remaining two were nailed side on by a well placed Churchill. The AI used the same attack plan which helped and that Wespe made a nice big boom when hit by a mortar round so better luck that time too. - If you wanted to make it harder reduce the amount of arty as this was the game winner in it's ability to strip away the German Infantry from the Panthers. Before I replayed it I finished off the bonus scenario and gained a Major Victory on that and lost a couple of Churchill's my Stuarts and the two Archy's. The Germans surrendered before the time ran out as global morale collapsed. I did manage to take out one of the KT's and all four MKIV's. The Last KT was in sight but would have been a tough beast to crack. The other KT had survived around 8 Piat hits and was finally despatched by my SP gun. Again a lovely map and a tough challenge. 1st time to see Airpower in use and while it did no real good it was fun to watch the straffing runs. Now on mission 12 and this is proving to be a tough nut. I not sure if I will crack it with the limited time and lack of arty which has been so important in many of the other scenarios. All great fun.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paper Tiger Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 If you wanted to make it harder reduce the amount of arty as this was the game winner in it's ability to strip away the German Infantry from the Panthers I think I'd be run off these boards for good if I tried making some of these missions harder. Stripping the armour of their infantry support was exactly what the Allies did in Epsom (and especially the bonus Bluecoat mission that made it into the campaign.) I didn't have enough time to add a second AI plan to this particular mission. Mission 12 is the 'Grainville Chateau' mission, right? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted May 8, 2012 Share Posted May 8, 2012 I think I'd be run off these boards for good if I tried making some of these missions harder. Stripping the armour of their infantry support was exactly what the Allies did in Epsom (and especially the bonus Bluecoat mission that made it into the campaign.) I didn't have enough time to add a second AI plan to this particular mission. Mission 12 is the 'Grainville Chateau' mission, right? Heh Heh... Well you said you were worried about it being too easy!! It was once I worked out my mistakes with the Churchills. Mission 12 is indeed a low tech low arty take the Chateau scenario... I am just hoping it stays that way as I have sod all arty and no AT weapons or ammo to deal with any nasty things.... Need to find some time tonight to do a few more turns... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil stanbridge Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 Arrrghhhh! I keep getting crashes with mission 12 as I hit the red button. Any idea what's causing it? It's repeatable for me. This is the setup phase. First turn and BOOOOOM. Lockup. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted May 9, 2012 Share Posted May 9, 2012 Do not save when doing set up. Do all set up and then hit run for first turn... Known bug with all Campaigns. Check the Tech forum for more details. If you have taken a save it will always happen so reload from point where it gives you drop down choice... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paper Tiger Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 1st time to see Airpower in use and while it did no real good it was fun to watch the straffing runs. You should have air support in 'Grainville Chateau' and 'Crescendo of Doom'. Because of the appalling weather, there was no air support on Day 1 and 2 of Epsom. Otherwise, I'd have used it more frequently. Effective or ineffective, I don't care, I LIKE air support (There was air support in the original version of 'The Odon Bridges' mission as well but testing revealed that it really wasn't necessary.) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil stanbridge Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 Gawd Grainville was a massacre for me! I just couldn't outflank that little defensive belt no matter what I tried with the paltry battered platoons I had at my disposal. My first major defeat! Ouch! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil stanbridge Posted May 10, 2012 Share Posted May 10, 2012 Out of interest if I wanted to go back and replay mission 12, which I have the save game of - but it keeps crashing during the red button after the setup phase. Is there a way round this? I have no file prior to this. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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