Is anybody still playing this game?

[agusto]

I have a new scenario in the making. I am using the gorgeous Latakia Airport map made by Stephen Howell. All credit for the map goes to him and him alone. He uploaded it years ago to the Repository and nobody seems to have ever used it, so i had to take the job.

 

 

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=343

 

I have AI plans and TOE done, there are no briefings yet though. Does anybody want to test it Blue vs. Red AI? 3 USMC platoons (+) have to take the airport from a reinforced Syrian mech infantry company without damaging any of the infrastructure. There may be reinforcements for the Red side, the may be none, i dont want to put any spoilers here, it' s a suprise .

 

EDIT:

 

The background story of the scenario is the one of the stock game. It' s 2007, Assad handed chemical weapons to terrorists, bla bla bla, the Coalition attacks Syria, bla bla bla, you know the story. The Marines landed south of Latakia and are now pushing North-East. In their way lays the the city of Latakia, with its airport, a vital part of the local infrastructure. Will the Marines capture it intact or will the bad guys prevail and either fend americans off or force them to destroy the airport?

Edited May 26, 2015 by agusto

[sburke]

I'll be back on the ground tomorrow and would love to take it for a spin. Thanks for the note on the airport map, I didn't know that existed.

[Combatintman]

Fire it at me - I'll kick the tyres for you.

[grunt_GI]

Ditto. I still love this game.

[burroughs]

Yes, I am and moreover I am a newly born convert- I had had the game on a disc for several years before i fell for it just a couple of months ago. Now I am playing all of them, but have developed a special taste for SF with all the addons available. Don't give it up.

[agusto]

Great, i will send you all a copy of the scenario via PM tonight. In the past few days i made a rudimentary briefing for the blue side, so the important stuff is more or less complete.

 

Yes, I am and moreover I am a newly born convert- I had had the game on a disc for several years before i fell for it just a couple of months ago. Now I am playing all of them, but have developed a special taste for SF with all the addons available. Don't give it up.

 

I understand you very well. I own all CM games as well but it still keep coming back to Shock Force regularily. I started to get interested in politics and warfare in the post-2001 period, so almost all war-related stuff i have seen through the media came from Iraq and Afgahnistan. That' s why i like Shock Force more than the other games, it' is easier for me to immerse in the game.

[WallysWorld]

I have all of the CMx2 games as well and rotate between all of them including CMSF (and CMA). They all have their positive and negative traits, but all are great games deserving a permanent space on my drive.

[Los]

Still playing and designing scenarios, working on battle of Marjah right now:

 

[grunt_GI]

Still playing and designing scenarios, working on battle of Marjah right now:

 

That looks fantastic.

[Combatintman]

Wow .... that map is a beaut

[sburke]

****  SPOILERS      ****

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have about 30 minutes to go

 

My initial hit is this is trying to be too many things within a 2 hour window.

 

Recon period - 30 minutes is not a whole lot of time particularly if your recon is facing possible resistance.

 

I ran into the one enemy Fo and took the team out without loss, but it occupied that force for a period where it couldn't really observe.  My other recon teams got into position and spotted a total of one BMP.   All in all not what I was hoping for.  Part of the issue is simply the US starts in this wide open flat lands and the couple buildings are way too far to be able to spot infantry.  You have to hoof it a ways before you reach buildings you can use to gain some altitude.  Even with that you initially can't spot much of anything.  Even when the enemy AT teams opened up on my M1s, the recon teams didn't ID them, the tanks did.

 

So at the end of the 30 minutes your main force shows up.  You haven't really spotted much, but know there are definitely enemy ATGM teams out there.  Then within 10 minutes or so an enemy mech force rolls in so now your grunts are sitting tight while the JAVs and support assets take on the enemy counter attack force. (which had another side effect.  All the LAVs carry Javs and I ended up running them over to the Jav teams to replenish their supply as they were responsible for most of the kills.  Net result is my Infantry hung out while their tracks were busy resupplying the Jav teams.) Once those are sufficiently attrited, you can now consider sending in your boys, but the enemy AT defenses are still out there and you are down to maybe 45-50 minutes.  I am pushing on Obj Alpha, but considering the amount of ground to cover and the enemy units scattered about I doubt I will grab all the objectives.  It requires too much of a rush that is going to lead to too many casualties.

 

Suggestions - before considering changing the overall scenario there might be some tweaks to help.  The main one being, instead of the recon guys starting at your kickoff line perhaps you can place them assuming they infiltrated through the night.  Set them up closer so the player isn't spending the 30 minutes just to get them in place as the enemy main force shows up.  That might end up with them being more useful though I was surprised at how little of the enemy I could spot before they opened fire.

 

Perhaps some more variation in the terrain.  It is essentially flat with a slope so that the enemy side of the map is lower than the US side.  Some variation might break up the LOS.  Right now it looks for the US like a push across open ground right into the face of a mostly concealed enemy.

 

I made some efforts to draw enemy fire to get them to at least expose themselves...no not that way!  I succeeded, but one of my M1s is pretty hobbled with track damage as spotting the ATGMs was difficult and my recon teams didn't live up to their title.

 

If you keep the recon period I would consider extending the time a bit. Having played mostly through, I might adjust my jump off time for my infantry, but only in retrospect.  I am not a fan of mounted infantry rushes into potential deathtraps.  I could probably get away dumping some smoke and going in sooner, but I hesitated when I saw all those tanks on the move.

 

 

[grunt_GI]

So, my take on this scenario:

<Spoilers>

 

 

 

I more or less agree with sburke, but for a different reason.  This map is great, but it is REALLY big...and it is tough to cover all the objectives within the time (I don't play a lot of long scenarios, and  2:00 scenario seemed like it would take an eternity---it didn't but only because of the ENORMOUS distances your units have to cross.

 

I actually got a bit more done during the recon period.  Established my sniper teams in the buildings just across the runway and went to town..knocked out 3 or 4 BMPs with artillery before the main force showed up.  One unit stayed in their building opposite OBJ Charlie and Xray and just rained down artillery and CAS on the forces in those locations.  Thank goodness you gave so much artillery and CAS or I would't have gotten far.  

 

The distances and mismatch of the forces make things tough for two reasons...1) if you're a knucklehead like me and get your LVTPs schwacked...which I did, cuz they're big fat mostly unarmored targets, your jarheads have to hoof it...and that takes a lot of time...even if they don't get shot up.  Second, I actually RAN OUT of tank ammo in 1 of my M1s...never had that happen to me, but he was so busy killing BMPs and T-72s that tank ran out of HEAT and APDS ammo.  NOT good.

 

That's a LOT of real estate to take with 3 (+) platoons.  Even those objectives I "captured" I only held with some beat up squads or teams and just ran out of steam before I could secure OBJ X-ray...scoring myself a tactical defeat.  I tried to roll up A, B, C in order, then roll over to X-ray, but I was almost out of tank ammo, infantry, and time.  So I ordered a cease-fire...wiped out most of the Syrian Mech Company and all the tanks, but just didn't have enough left to win.

 

A pretty good scenario overall...I agree with sburke that a variation in terrain might be nice...of course, I understand that airfields are generally flat....MAYBE what you could do is "helicopter" in come infantry reinforcements or something to give the Blue Player a little final oomph for OBJ X-ray...that was likely to be a little Stalingrad and other than just flattening it with artillery, I don't think I was going to be able to secure it with my 3 beat up squads of infantry and 1 tank  I had by the last 15 minutes.  (I had a damaged tank that became pretty much immobilized with about 20 minutes left)

 

I might give it another go, maybe roll from A to B to X to C...my theory is if you take those, there isn't much left at C, but that clump of enemy at X-ray is going to be one tough nut to crack.

 

Great job...enjoyed it...and like I said, I almost never play LONG scenarios, but glad I made it through this one, even with a tactical defeat.

[agusto]

Thanks a lot for your critique, grunt_GI and sburk. It' s very valueable to me because this is the first time i am designing a Blue vs. Red scenario with mechanized units and large armored formations. All my previous scenarios were Red vs. Red & infantry only.

 

 

*****SPOILERS BELOW******

 

I will come back tomorrow and maybe we can discuss if the changes i intend to make would improve the scenario. In short, i intend to do the following:

 

1) Change mission time from 2:00 to 2:30 + 15 minutes variable time.

 

2) Move the recon phase to the time before the battle starts. The scout snipers will be in place at the start of the battle and the Blue player will have 10% to 20% pre-battle intel. There will still be enough time (about 20 to 25 turns) to manually recon the area and shell juicy targets with arty.

 

3) I will reduce the time until the main Blue force arrives by 5 to 10 turns and i will delay the Red reinforcements by abput 10 turns. I want the Red reinforcements to arrive while the Blue palyer is doing MOUT operations so the scenario doesnt end up beeing a boring door-by-door clearing operation. The Blue player should ideally busy clearing the objectives and then see the Red battalion arrive and think:" Oh sh*t, these guys are going to stir up my infantry at the airport badly. I need to act quickly!".

 

4) I am going to put a note in the briefing and recommend the blue player to use smoke barrages. I am also going to change the wind direction in favor of a blue smoke screen.

 

5) Add more AT weapons/ammo to the BLUE side.

 

6) I will see if i can do anything to make it easier to keep the Javelin teams supplied with ammo.

 

 

I might give it another go, maybe roll from A to B to X to C...my theory is if you take those, there isn't much left at C, but that clump of enemy at X-ray is going to be one tough nut to crack.

 

 

Hey, if you are seriously considering playing the scenario a second time, it would be great if you could wait for the next version. That way you can play a more balanced and enjoyeable scenario and i can get feedback on the changes i am going to make.

 

...but glad I made it through this one, even with a tactical defeat.

 

Dont take the victory conditions too seriously, they arent finished yet. Currently if you manage to clear the objectives while losing less than 25% of your men, you should gain a victory. Although if you destroy Objective X-Ray, you will lose. Capturing it intact is the ONLY reason why your men are attacking the airport in the first place.

 

The distances and mismatch of the forces make things tough for two reasons...1) if you're a knucklehead like me and get your LVTPs schwacked...which I did, cuz they're big fat mostly unarmored targets, your jarheads have to hoof it...and that takes a lot of time...even if they don't get shot up.  Second, I actually RAN OUT of tank ammo in 1 of my M1s...never had that happen to me, but he was so busy killing BMPs and T-72s that tank ran out of HEAT and APDS ammo.  NOT good.

 

Hmm, i think loosing your transports is your own fault. Sorry. I dont think i could do anything about it. If you must, try to let your M1s catch the enemys ATGMS, they can take a lot of beating and still remain operational. Maybe i will put a note about that in the briefing.

 

But regarding the tank ammo, i could add 2 more tanks, or maybe the dedicated AT platoon (Javs + TOW Humvees) of the MEU. I just dont want the scenario to get too easy. I will have to paly around and see what works best.

 

 

Great job...enjoyed it...

 

Thanks.

 

My initial hit is this is trying to be too many things within a 2 hour window.

 

Recon period - 30 minutes is not a whole lot of time particularly if your recon is facing possible resistance.

 

I ran into the one enemy Fo and took the team out without loss, but it occupied that force for a period where it couldn't really observe.  My other recon teams got into position and spotted a total of one BMP.   All in all not what I was hoping for.  Part of the issue is simply the US starts in this wide open flat lands and the couple buildings are way too far to be able to spot infantry.  You have to hoof it a ways before you reach buildings you can use to gain some altitude.  Even with that you initially can't spot much of anything.  Even when the enemy AT teams opened up on my M1s, the recon teams didn't ID them, the tanks did.

 

Interesting. I am surprised you spotted that few BMPs during the recon phase. During my tests i was able to spot most of them every time. But i guess that' s because it' s just too damn difficult to get that god-like knowledge i have of the Red forces out of my head. I mean, i placed every single Red unit, i cant un-remember that. That's why having other people test your scenarios is so important.

 

So at the end of the 30 minutes your main force shows up.  You haven't really spotted much, but know there are definitely enemy ATGM teams out there.  Then within 10 minutes or so an enemy mech force rolls in so now your grunts are sitting tight while the JAVs and support assets take on the enemy counter attack force. (which had another side effect.  All the LAVs carry Javs and I ended up running them over to the Jav teams to replenish their supply as they were responsible for most of the kills.  Net result is my Infantry hung out while their tracks were busy resupplying the Jav teams.) Once those are sufficiently attrited, you can now consider sending in your boys, but the enemy AT defenses are still out there and you are down to maybe 45-50 minutes.  I am pushing on Obj Alpha, but considering the amount of ground to cover and the enemy units scattered about I doubt I will grab all the objectives.  It requires too much of a rush that is going to lead to too many casualties.

 

The Red reinforcements arrive to early it seems. They are supposed to arrive after the Blue players infantry has entered the buiklt up area. See my above comment on the changes i intend to make..

 

Suggestions - before considering changing the overall scenario there might be some tweaks to help.  The main one being, instead of the recon guys starting at your kickoff line perhaps you can place them assuming they infiltrated through the night.  Set them up closer so the player isn't spending the 30 minutes just to get them in place as the enemy main force shows up.  That might end up with them being more useful though I was surprised at how little of the enemy I could spot before they opened fire.

 

That' s a great idea. I am going to combine it with some pre-battle intel and see how that plays out.

 

Perhaps some more variation in the terrain.  It is essentially flat with a slope so that the enemy side of the map is lower than the US side.  Some variation might break up the LOS.  Right now it looks for the US like a push across open ground right into the face of a mostly concealed enemy.

 

Sorry, i am awareof this problem, but i wont make any changes to the map. It was built with the help of satelite images and i am personally really fond of playing CM games on maps built after real life locations. IRL you cant just grow a tree on an airport runway because it serves your tactical needs, can you . But i am going to put a note in the briefing and recommend the blue player to use smoke barrages. I am also going to change the wind direction in favor of a blue smoke screen.

 

I considered changing the blue spawn area from the S-E corner to the S edge of the map, but i want to keep that idea for a second scenario i have in mind for this map.

 

 

If you keep the recon period I would consider extending the time a bit. Having played mostly through, I might adjust my jump off time for my infantry, but only in retrospect.  I am not a fan of mounted infantry rushes into potential deathtraps.  I could probably get away dumping some smoke and going in sooner, but I hesitated when I saw all those tanks on the move.

 

As i said, the Red reinforcements arrived way too early in your case. Durng my tests they were just in time, but i will delay them a bit.

 

Anyways thanks for taking the time to test this.

Edited May 31, 2015 by agusto

[sburke]

Thanks Agusto, really appreciate your efforts.  Regarding the terrain.  I wasn't trying to suggest doing much, but most civilian airfields have drainage etc so there does tend to be low lying areas.  Nothing significant, but enough for some infantry to hustle along.  That would not likely appear in satellite image.  However if you feel strongly about the map, stick by your guns

 

Not sure why I had such lousy luck with my Recon.  I went for the buildings near the runway.  I might have had some more luck, but got caught up in a fight with your FO at the radar building. 

[grunt_GI]

grunt_GI, on 30 May 2015 - 8:06 PM, said:

The distances and mismatch of the forces make things tough for two reasons...1) if you're a knucklehead like me and get your LVTPs schwacked...which I did, cuz they're big fat mostly unarmored targets, your jarheads have to hoof it...and that takes a lot of time...even if they don't get shot up.  Second, I actually RAN OUT of tank ammo in 1 of my M1s...never had that happen to me, but he was so busy killing BMPs and T-72s that tank ran out of HEAT and APDS ammo.  NOT good.

 

Hmm, i think loosing your transports is your own fault. Sorry. I dont think i could do anything about it. If you must, try to let your M1s catch the enemys ATGMS, they can take a lot of beating and still remain operational. Maybe i will put a note about that in the briefing.

 

But regarding the tank ammo, i could add 2 more tanks, or maybe the dedicated AT platoon (Javs + TOW Humvees) of the MEU. I just dont want the scenario to get too easy. I will have to paly around and see what works best.

 

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Well, yes, I have a bad habit of getting my IFVs and APCs shot up

However, you brought up a good point that didn't really occur to me...LVTPs, unlike Bradleys, only carry Javelin reloads and no launcher, so yes, having more Javelin teams might be helpful.  Not sure you need to add more time...if I had attacked the OBJ in a better order, I might have finished better...but I guess it won't hurt.  I do agree with your other ideas, and would be happy to give it another go.

 

Cheers.

[Combatintman]

Hi Agusto,

 

Just gave this a runout and didn’t even tick off one terrain objective. Here are my comments:

 

 

 

The recon phase I didn't really like at all - it is too much time with too little going on to too little effect. Like other testers, I didn’t see much at all – maybe two BMPs and the observer team. Bearing in mind the size of the map and the need to capture four objectives in a total of two hours - I'd rather have everything from the get go.

The sequencing I think needs a bit of work as well. Blue's combat power does not arrive until 30 minutes into the scenario. Red's reserves arrive over the 40 minute to 45 minute timeframe. In my playthrough I had just got my snipers into positions where they were starting to see useful things at around the 30 minute point and was cueing offensive support onto those targets. At this point I'm thinking that there are quite a lot of BMP's out there and I know that I need to make sure that I've taken a few of those down before I start crossing the runway in any strength. So I keep engaging with offensive support and Javelins and all of these tanks and BMPs start rocking up. Given that the AAV's will be dead meat, I can't move them until I've sorted out the tanks and BMPs and so I standoff and basically plink tanks and BMPs using my artillery, Javelins and attack helicopters. This is a slow business which basically leaves me with about an hour to get on with clearing and securing four objectives.

Your options boil down to what you think the mission should be, or the sort of challenge you want to give the Blue player, however given your comments on the thread, your intent is to have the Syrian armoured force turn up while the Blue player is embroiled in the fight for the terrain objectives.

So the detail of that is, do a variation on the Recon phase by having the snipers further forward having 'gathered' some information which is conveyed in the briefing - something along the lines of 'Scout Sniper Platoon has been in overwatch of the Area of Operations and has identified a probable Mechanized Infantry Company with probable Platoon groupings as marked on the map. Sequence the arrival of the Blue main body a bit earlier - say after 15 minutes or my preference which is from the get go (the advantage of this is that you don’t have to change the Red reinforcement arrival time). Somewhere in the enemy part of the briefing you mention the arrival of the main body at the 40-45 minute point. You can be specific here – in reality Blue force ISR capabilities would track this reserve so it is not unrealistic to say something along the lines of 'Intel is tracking a Coy(+) armoured/mechanized grouping which is heading to reinforce Latakia Airport from the NW - current assessed arrival time is 0610-0615 hrs. The direction of arrival of this reserve is important information to convey to the player because it will frame their planning.

I think if you do this you can keep it to its current 2 hour length, it still makes things a bit tight for the Blue player but does force them to get a move on (of course testing may show that you need to add some time but I don’t think it would need much more time).

Otherwise force balance seems about right, the AI plan that I saw seems to function alright (within the limitations of the engine of course) and the VP allocation looks about right. I have no issues with the map either.

I think you ought to change the start position for the Blue Tank Platoon (-) and the Engineer Platoon (-). While it may not be in direct LOS of an enemy, it is pretty much impossible to move more than about 20m where observers and ATGM teams can bring fire down – from memory there are at least two ATGM teams in a position to fire straight down the throats of the tanks as soon as they move from their start point. Personally I would have everything arrive in the one place. The preferred option being where the majority of AAVs and the Infantry Platoons are set up. The area is out of LOS and it allows for a bit of sorting out and manoeuvre.

While I have no issue with the VPs, I think you could possibly tweak the execution of them a bit. As an example the ‘Preserve’ objective covers a lot of ground, I think you can break this up into smaller chunks – as things stand you have four occupy objectives for Blue leaving four slots free. I would use the remaining four slots for your preserve objectives allocating one to the Hangar, One to the Radar Tower, One for the main building complex etc, and divvy the points out amongst them to add up to your 1000 VP total. By leaving it as it is I think you’ll find it pretty hard to cause enough damage to lose the points because of the size and dispersion of that objective.

You could also consider approaching your casualties objective differently. Currently this sits within parameters which is fine but it is a bit binary. For Blue for instance you make the AAVs and Abrams Red unit ‘destroy’ objectives with a suitable VP allocation, particularly as you make reference to this in your briefing.

 

 

Definite potential here and this will be a decent scenario with a bit of tweaking - it is plenty of fun for sure.

[kevinkin]

Hi

Anyone interested in teaming up to make a 2015 Ramadi battle? If not the city proper perhaps the surrounding villages.

Kevin

kevinkin@comcast.net

[agusto]

@Combatintman:

 

Thanks for your input. You have some really good ideas. I am gonna comment later on them when i have time.

 

 

However, you brought up a good point that didn't really occur to me...LVTPs, unlike Bradleys, only carry Javelin reloads and no launcher, so yes, having more Javelin teams might be helpful.

 

I reviewed the MEUs OOB and i decided against adding more Javelins. Javelins are much rarer in the UMSC than they are in the US Army and the scenario should reflect that. I will give you some other nice toys instead . The MEUs organic AT platoon has about 9 TOW Humvees as AT platforms and a mix of 50.cal and Mk-19 Humvees as escorts. I think they will nicely improve balance by giving Blue more AT capabilities without having to add 2 more of those almost invincible M1A1 death machines of doom.

 

 

Hi

Anyone interested in teaming up to make a 2015 Ramadi battle? If not the city proper perhaps the surrounding villages.

Kevin
kevinkin@comcast.net

 

You mean making a scenario or playing a PBEM battle?

Edited June 1, 2015 by agusto

[grunt_GI]

Thanks for your input. You have some really good ideas. I am gonna comment later on them when i have time.

I reviewed the MEUs OOB and i decided against adding more Javelins. Javelins are much rarer in the UMSC than they are in the US Army and the scenario should reflect that. I will give you some other nice toys instead . The MEUs organic AT platoon has about 9 TOW Humvees as AT platforms and a mix of 50.cal and Mk-19 Humvees as escorts. I think they will nicely improve balance by giving Blue more AT capabilities without having to add 2 more of those almost invincible M1A1 death machines

+++++++++++++++++

Ahhh, the ol' CAAT team...yes that might do the trick. Looking forward to trying this again.

Edited June 1, 2015 by grunt_GI

[kevinkin]

Making/Designing a CMSF battle.

Kevin

[General Jack Ripper]

"Without damaging any of the infrastructure"

 

I don't think I'm psychologically capable of that, but I could give this scenario a try.

[agusto]

The recon phase I didn't really like at all - it is too much time with too little going on to too little effect. Like other testers, I didn’t see much at all – maybe two BMPs and the observer team. Bearing in mind the size of the map and the need to capture four objectives in a total of two hours - I'd rather have everything from the get go.

 

It' s a pity the recon phase didnt work well for most testers. I liked the concept, but i setteled with an intermediate solution. See my last comment on grunt_gis and sburkes reviews.

 

The sequencing I think needs a bit of work as well. Blue's combat power does not arrive until 30 minutes into the scenario. Red's reserves arrive over the 40 minute to 45 minute timeframe. In my playthrough I had just got my snipers into positions where they were starting to see useful things at around the 30 minute point and was cueing offensive support onto those targets. At this point I'm thinking that there are quite a lot of BMP's out there and I know that I need to make sure that I've taken a few of those down before I start crossing the runway in any strength. So I keep engaging with offensive support and Javelins and all of these tanks and BMPs start rocking up. Given that the AAV's will be dead meat, I can't move them until I've sorted out the tanks and BMPs and so I standoff and basically plink tanks and BMPs using my artillery, Javelins and attack helicopters. This is a slow business which basically leaves me with about an hour to get on with clearing and securing four objectives.

Your options boil down to what you think the mission should be, or the sort of challenge you want to give the Blue player, however given your comments on the thread, your intent is to have the Syrian armoured force turn up while the Blue player is embroiled in the fight for the terrain objectives.

So the detail of that is, do a variation on the Recon phase by having the snipers further forward having 'gathered' some information which is conveyed in the briefing - something along the lines of 'Scout Sniper Platoon has been in overwatch of the Area of Operations and has identified a probable Mechanized Infantry Company with probable Platoon groupings as marked on the map. Sequence the arrival of the Blue main body a bit earlier - say after 15 minutes or my preference which is from the get go (the advantage of this is that you don’t have to change the Red reinforcement arrival time). Somewhere in the enemy part of the briefing you mention the arrival of the main body at the 40-45 minute point.

 

I implemented most of the things you mentioned in this paragraph or some varation of them.

You can be specific here – in reality Blue force ISR capabilities would track this reserve so it is not unrealistic to say something along the lines of 'Intel is tracking a Coy(+) armoured/mechanized grouping which is heading to reinforce Latakia Airport from the NW - current assessed arrival time is 0610-0615 hrs. The direction of arrival of this reserve is important information to convey to the player because it will frame their planning.

 

 

Thanks for the tip. I wasnt aware that Blue ISR capabilities are that good. This also solves the problem of keeping the player from accidentially maneuvering his units to the spawn positions of the Red reinforcements.

 

 

I think you ought to change the start position for the Blue Tank Platoon (-) and the Engineer Platoon (-). While it may not be in direct LOS of an enemy, it is pretty much impossible to move more than about 20m where observers and ATGM teams can bring fire down – from memory there are at least two ATGM teams in a position to fire straight down the throats of the tanks as soon as they move from their start point. Personally I would have everything arrive in the one place. The preferred option being where the majority of AAVs and the Infantry Platoons are set up. The area is out of LOS and it allows for a bit of sorting out and manoeuvre.

 

#done

 

 

While I have no issue with the VPs, I think you could possibly tweak the execution of them a bit. As an example the ‘Preserve’ objective covers a lot of ground, I think you can break this up into smaller chunks – as things stand you have four occupy objectives for Blue leaving four slots free. I would use the remaining four slots for your preserve objectives allocating one to the Hangar, One to the Radar Tower, One for the main building complex etc, and divvy the points out amongst them to add up to your 1000 VP total. By leaving it as it is I think you’ll find it pretty hard to cause enough damage to lose the points because of the size and dispersion of that objective.

 

 

Good idea. I havent  tested yet how the preserve objectives translate to victory points. It simply never occured to me during my tests to intentionally order an artillery barrage on a building that i am supposed to capture intact , that' s bit counterintuitive.

 

 

You could also consider approaching your casualties objective differently. Currently this sits within parameters which is fine but it is a bit binary. For Blue for instance you make the AAVs and Abrams Red unit ‘destroy’ objectives with a suitable VP allocation, particularly as you make reference to this in your briefing.

 

I had that planned already. The version you played had in general just a quick and dirty VP allocation.  The current version has specific destroy objective for high value units.

 

 

 

 

Ahhh, the ol' CAAT team...yes that might do the trick. Looking forward to trying this again.

 

Yeah, the CAAT is fun to play with. Those awkward moments when you see the TOW flying towards the T-72 and pray that the tank doesnt spot the Humvee...

 

Anyways, the new version is ready to be tested. I ll send it to you via PM ASAP.

 

 

"Without damaging any of the infrastructure"

 

I don't think I'm psychologically capable of that...

 

 

That' s the challenge of that scenario. Blowing everything up with arty is easy.

 

...but I could give this scenario a try.

 

Great! I will send you a PM soon.

Edited June 4, 2015 by agusto

[General Jack Ripper]

It's not that I blow everything up with arty, I just tend to ignore 'Preserve' objectives and respond with appropriate force against any threats.

[agusto]

I have a question to all testers: how difficult would you rate this scenario on a scale from 1 to 10 where 10 is very difficult? Thanks!

[sburke]

Man that is a tough one, on a scale of 1 - 10 with a die roll modifier of I suck... hmmm.. 

 

The version I played I'd say maybe a 7... considering school of hard knocks was maybe a 9-10.  Basically if I think after the first play through, I can probably win it on my second try, it can't be above an 8.  The hardest thing for me on an initial play through is I usually don't manage the clock well.  I just hate risking my guys trying to rush stuff, then I end up having to risk my guys cause I am running out of time.

Edited June 5, 2015 by sburke