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"Ad Hoc at Chef-du-Pont"


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"Ad Hoc at Chef du Pont" is a semi-fictitious scenario based on the ASL scenario of the same name and the ASL scenario "Gavin Take", in which General James Gavin and two scratch columns of paratroopers try to fight or sneak their way to a critical bridge of the the Merderet River early on 6th July 1944. The situation is historical but the map is inspired by the ASL map, but with lots of adjustments to make it suitable for CMBN.

It's a first try at a full scenario and was actually created a couple of months ago.  I was wondering why I hadn't had any feedback at all when I remembered I hadn't mentioned it in the game's own forum...  :rolleyes:

It's available at The Proving Grounds:

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tpg2/cm-battle-for-normandy/ad-hoc-at-chef-du-pont/

...or from DropBox:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ebl7z9rp9rtwrcn/ASL - Ad Hoc at Chef du Pont.btt?dl=0

Feedback welcomed, good, bad and constructive.

 

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I was really enjoying this.....Right up to the moment my men decided on a bocage related suicide pact.  :rolleyes:

Bravo on a really tidy little map and interesting scenario concept.....I'll definitely come back to this again, once I've stopped grumbling to myself about patches. 

EDIT - Thought I'd 'rage-quit'.....Turned out I took a screenie and left it running, so the battle continues (but with more use of the Pause command).  ;)

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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I don't have the opportunity to test this now, but I just want to give a thumbs up for you starting your scenario making career. Enjoy!

Is it a real place/battle? Maybe next time consider using an overlay in the editor. Map making with one is a joy.

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12 minutes ago, PIATpunk said:

Just firing it up and wondering about 'best played as..'. Assuming Allies vs Ai, but what about h2h?  Cheers

Oops I forgot to mention that. It's probably best played as Allies vs AI in single player but I think it's a good candidate for H2H too.

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13 hours ago, rocketman said:

I don't have the opportunity to test this now, but I just want to give a thumbs up for you starting your scenario making career. Enjoy!

Is it a real place/battle? Maybe next time consider using an overlay in the editor. Map making with one is a joy.

Thanks for your encouragement. :)

It's based on a real engagement, but the OOB is a bit of a fudge and the map is fictitious. I did use an overlay - a screenshot of the ASL board used in that scenario:

image.png.ee680f65e6b43ff13672c5fb623f1ed8.png

With ASL's 40-metre-wide hexes, though, its maps don't look good when translated directly into CMx2, so I added a lot of my own interpretation and some Norman flavour (bocage). I placed the houses and woods as per the ASL map, and the roads inasmuch as that's possible. I added crops and bocage and additional trees wherever I thought it would work, so the CMx2 version of the map gives the attacker more cover on the approach than the ASL American player has. 

My aim was to translate the ASL scenario into CMx2 rather than recreate the historical one, but I don't think anyone has covered that engagement yet, so maybe...

This is the OOB I used...

687474703a2f2f686578616e64636f756e7465722e72752f77702d636f6e74656e742f75706c6f6164732f323031352f31322f466f726365732e6a7067

The scenario is actually from the ASL Starter Kit, a stripped-down version of ASL for people to use to dip their toe in the water - I think the CMx2 version might make a good training scenario for CMx2 too - a nice simple infantry-only fight.

Edited by Holdit
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40 minutes ago, Holdit said:

I did use an overlay - a screenshot of the ASL board used in that scenario:

My aim was to translate the ASL scenario into CMx2

The scenario is actually from the ASL Starter Kit, a stripped-down version of ASL 

+1  Very cool idea for a scenario.  Thanks for taking the time to make this. 

Unfortunately the Proving Grounds doesn't seem to get much traffic.  If you think this scenario is ready to go you might want to consider publishing it at the Scenario Depot III.  

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1 hour ago, PIATpunk said:

40 Metre wide hexes I believe, but that should not stop a good brawl on your map 🙂

Yep...I did actually base it on 40 metres, the 20 was just a memory blip. :)

That said, the guy who did the "Block Busting in Bobruisk" ASL-to-CMx2 port used 20 metres I think, and it might actually work out better, so if I'm doing another one I might experiment with that, or 30. Making the map the same size does leave you with a LOT of detail to fill. 

 

Edited by Holdit
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40 minutes ago, MOS:96B2P said:

+1  Very cool idea for a scenario.  Thanks for taking the time to make this. 

Unfortunately the Proving Grounds doesn't seem to get much traffic.  If you think this scenario is ready to go you might want to consider publishing it at the Scenario Depot III.  

Glad you like the concept. I get my WW2 tactical jollies from ASL as well as CMx2 so I might do more.

I think you're right about the proving grounds; I've had more feedback here in 24 hours than I had in the previous 2 months (i.e. none). I'll wait until a few people have played it and see what they think because I wouldn't consider myself a good enough player to know if it's really ready for prime time.

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Tell me about it. I can remember banging my head off the desk during that phase of the design but that might have been the VCs or just programming the German AI opponent around them. I did a lot of tests (to save time I cheated by putting some Americans in that barn near the exit point and had them doing a a quick dash from there), but I can't remember for sure if that was one of them. I have a vague memory of trying it and the result being a draw, since scoring is based on destroying units that need to exit, but I couldn't swear to it.

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I'm messing with something (huge) at the minute, where I'm trying to put one of the players in a tactical dilemma which he must resolve using his own best judgement.

Most of his forces are Destroy Unit Objectives for his opponent, thus they should leave the map to avoid his opponent gaining VPs.....However there are some juicy Occupy Objectives out there that can score him big bonus VPs, if he can hold them with a small enough force in the face of increasing enemy strength.

Getting that lot balanced is likely to give me some trouble.  :blink:

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I decided to give it a go as the Germans first up. I wanted to see if the recent hedgerow gap problem would rear it's ugly head. And sadly, it did. I heard a "Boom" and to my horror instead of a US Breach Team running through the gap, and getting mowed down by my men, my pixeltuppen beat them to it, racing through the breach to their deaths.

It was a shame because up to that point it was playing out as a very interesting battle. And if we ever get a fix to our most recent problem I will certainly give it another go. I might also give it another play through but keep my Jerries away from the gaps when I get more time.

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44 minutes ago, Warts 'n' all said:

I decided to give it a go as the Germans first up. I wanted to see if the recent hedgerow gap problem would rear it's ugly head. And sadly, it did. I heard a "Boom" and to my horror instead of a US Breach Team running through the gap, and getting mowed down by my men, my pixeltuppen beat them to it, racing through the breach to their deaths.

It was a shame because up to that point it was playing out as a very interesting battle. And if we ever get a fix to our most recent problem I will certainly give it another go. I might also give it another play through but keep my Jerries away from the gaps when I get more time.

What's the hedgerow gap problem? 

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Oh, that is a problem that has cropped up with the new patch. Troops are running through gaps towards the enemy for no good reason. And it is happening to both defenders and attackers.

I'm currently giving the Montebourg campaign another go. I've just scored a Tactical Victory in the mission called Turnbull's Stand. I lost 11 KIA and 7 WIA, and eight of those came from gap charging.

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48 minutes ago, Holdit said:

What's the hedgerow gap problem? 

It appears to be a new TacAI issue with CM:BN.....It's receiving some scrutiny at the moment, here's the page:

This is what almost ended my first attempt at your scenario.....There's a screen-shot of my men doing silly things on your map.  ;)

Edited by Sgt.Squarehead
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2 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

It appears to be a new TacAI issue with CM:BN.....It's receiving some scrutiny at the moment, here's the page:

This is what almost ended my first attempt at your scenario.....There's a screen-shot of my men doing silly things on your map.  ;)

In my scenario the German friendly direction is SE. I'm not sure what I could change it to that might help, though, since they might have enemy troops in any and multiple directions.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Playing this at the moment with my mate. It's a good little scenario and quite exciting. So far holding the paras off but I'm waiting for this bocage bug to rear it's ugly head and spoil things but so far so good. Cheers.

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7 minutes ago, Hilts said:

Playing this at the moment with my mate. It's a good little scenario and quite exciting. So far holding the paras off but I'm waiting for this bocage bug to rear it's ugly head and spoil things but so far so good. Cheers.

Actually, that's what happened to my oppo,  @Doug Williams, in our own H2H playtest.  As my airborne units maneuvered to place heavy suppression fires upon located German defenders, all of his suppressed or panicked units evaded out of cover towards the Americans where they were cut down even further in multiple cross-fires.  The German player surrendered after 30 minutes into the match because "evading towards the enemy" made the game unplayable for him.  I intend to provide the designer an AAR before the end of June.  It's a shame that a very well conceived situation suffers unduly from this new patch's questionable behavior.

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  • 6 months later...

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