RAMADI (Iraq): Mother of All MOUT Maps

[LongLeftFlank]

Not unexpectedly, I was able to locate your map on the google maps satellite view of Ramadi!

Seems as if everything is right were it belongs. Good job!

Best regards,

Thomm

It helped that they haven't updated the imagery since Sept 2004. Since the fighting wound down, they've bulldozed a lot of the damaged buildings along Michigan. There's a public square across the street from the GC now.

And yes, I tried to stay faithful to the grid, other than the fact that Michigan bends northeast at a ~30deg angle near the Cinema crossroads (I put a kink in the road instead). And the fact that there is no mosque at the south end of the cemetery. And Easy Street runs southeast -- I have it bend south since I didn't want to spend another 3 months building yet another 500x500 chunk of Mulaab (that would also have taken me out Michigan to OP Hotel, aka the famous "Ramadi Inn"). Had to stop sometime. Maybe some other lunatic would like to keep pushing east.

[MeatEtr]

Wow, this looks amazing, I can't wait to watch my PC blow a gasket running this monster.

[LongLeftFlank]

Here is a view of about 2/3 of the map facing northeast toward the Saddam Mosque. You can see the smaller of the two cemeteries and the Hurriyah (Horea) district.

In the foreground is the Health Ministry complex (just south of the GC), which you can also watch getting JDAM'ed at Minute 9:37 of this amazing video compilation by a veteran of 3/8 Kilo (deployed 2006)

BTW, most of the buildings appearing in that video (early 2006, when the GC was basically an island under siege by AQIZ fanatics, when they weren't busy chopping off heads and arms of the long suffering Ramadi citizens) also appear on my map.

People, I know I'm preaching to the choir but you can't see stuff like that video -- and there are piles of them out there -- and NOT want to do this brutal campaign justice using an amazing simulation engine like CMSF. A digital war demands a new kind of digital history, and that's what I'm up to here.

Is ANYBODY out there from Lejeune or one of the War Colleges listening? Anybody? Put some DoD money in BFC's pocket!

[LongLeftFlank]

Last shot for tonight, the "quiet" west end of the map -- the Habbaniyah slums. Unlike the other residential districts, the houses here aren't separated by high walls but by ramshackle fences and overgrown gardens (lots of "grain" here although it doesn't show at this zoom level). A little bit of a different fight in this little patch of hell.

Also, the two landmarks visible in the background appear in the Youtube video I posted above. The Rasheed Hotel, a sniper favorite just 150m up Route Michigan from the GC, eats a JDAM in minute 9:30 or so and there's also a quick night shot of it being demolished. The Al Qadr al Kilami minaret appears as a thin blue spire on an octagonal white building -- it is a Sufi mosque and in spite of the Sufis being persecuted by AQIZ, a few of them started sniping at Marines in 2006 and got their beautiful minaret shot away by tank fire -- the US had given up on the sanctity of mosques by that point.

[LongLeftFlank]

Still showing off my map here to those still interested (this project HAS been under wraps for 3 years after all). Here's a 30 second FRAPS capture (no sound) of Humvees driving down Route Michigan. I used the demo version of FRAPS and my cinematographic skills are limited. This is in RT mode sailing through the middle of the full size map -- not lagging much (except for all the IED craters).

Now compare that relatively "clean" 2004 drive to this drive along the same stretch of road in early 2007 (?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsqyCWSjK4U. I will need to develop a "devastated" version of the map, at least for the stretch along Michigan.

P.S. Hat tip to M1A1TC for the Iraq humvee mod shown. I hope to repay him with at least one good scenario, DEALER BLUE, involving his outfit, 2/69 Armored ("Death Dealer") escorting 3-2-1 Iraqi Army (his mod too!) into a horrific night ambush by the Saddam Mosque on Oct 2, 2005.

[meade95]

Just excellent!.....Bringing me back to CMSF...

[LongLeftFlank]

Here's another 30 second FRAPS clip, picking up where the last one ended, of the bumpy drive down MSR Michigan from the souk (marketplace) to the Cinema crossroads. You also pass CP-295, the Fatemat Mosque, the water tower and the tallest building in downtown (dubbed "the Gay Palace", a sniper favorite for both sides). The central gas station is visible at the end of the clip, and the omnipresent Saddam Mosque looms in the distance. The other dome marks the passport agency, a sturdy structure at the north end of the cemetery that became OP Horea in Nov 2005.

P.S. Don't worry, I'm working on the scenarios too. The first two, MULAAB, a squad-sized tutorial block clearing operation (to get you used to how the new terrain works -- it really IS very different when most buildings have huge blind zones and limited access points), and RELIEF OF JOKER THREE (company-sized action) should be ready for release soon (work and family life permitting). Both are Marines scenarios, suitable for BLUE vs AI or two players.

[LongLeftFlank]

A few more screenies here.

A shot from above a 4 story building that later became known as "Swiss Cheese" for obvious reasons (and finally got JDAMed in 2006 - seen in the 3/8 Kilo video above), looking southwest over the narrow streets and alleys of the Old Town (some of the most close-in lethal terrain for Blue on this map) toward the Government Center complex. Those big dirt heaps are where the Marine HMG bunkers (watchtowers) go, per earlier post.

Sorry about the little white flecks - that's my lame old graphics card. Even when I set quality to highest they still show up.

[LongLeftFlank]

Same location, only looking south down the Souk. Fatemat mosque complex is in the center -- this was basically the insurgent base / arms dump for IED-planting along this most lethal stretch of Michigan, as well as complex (infantry) attacks on the nearby GC. To their credit, the Marines didn't flatten this place even though they raided it repeatedly, and eventually the minaret took some tank rounds (probably as much to silence the muezzin's loudspeakers as to kill snipers).

[LongLeftFlank]

OK, enough with the aerial shots, let's see some detail. Here is a view of the central gas station at the Cinema Crossroads, the only place for civilians to buy gas (legally) in Ramadi. Long lines of waiting cars and trucks generally crowded the station and the adjoining streets and in classic Arab entrepreneurial style a busy market sprung up around it (partly to sell black market gas in Coke bottles -- this made gunfights really interesting).

Business trailed off in 2005 as Route Michigan became a barricaded, shattered wreck used solely by armoured US convoys and the IED bombers who preyed upon them.

[LongLeftFlank]

View northwest, showing the gas station, then L to R, the water tower, the "Gay Palace" office block and the the cinema (movie theatre). This innocuous location will be the venue for a particularly nasty fight called BOXCARS AT CP-295, which recreates the events of Oct 10, 2005 and involves Bradleys of 2/69 Armored, 3/7 Marines, SEAL sniper teams, air strikes, and some Iraqi snipers who really know their business.

[LongLeftFlank]

OK, let's go shopping in the souk. Watch your back. In fact, watch everywhere. This place can be a little rough....

[LongLeftFlank]

View of the barricaded souk entrance from inside....

Oh, did I mention you're going to need a few mods to play this map?

[LongLeftFlank]

A shop that I fondly dubbed "Fountains of Wayne" (I lived in New Jersey for a couple of years). Ayy, what's it to ya?

[LongLeftFlank]

You buy something, my friend? Find special video for you? (knowing leer, which rapidly vanishes as he notices the men with beards across the street glowering at him whilst ostentatiously displaying the soles of their shoes to the Marine visitors)

OK, BFC, I've razzed you about this before, but why 8 different kinds of trash bins? Why an ATM but no street stall? I could also really use a lie-down freezer case (the kind with the solid lid you get bags of ice out of) in rusted green-white enamel. Don't bother, just give us some generic rectangular objects of various sizes and we'll take care of the textures.

btw, the goods shown in the ATM mod are lifted from a photo in the West Bank.

Oh, I should add that the entire map doesn't contain doodads at this level of detail, just a few "well-trafficked" areas. I built this map so you could actually play CMSF on it. I'm a wargamer, not a model railroader. Just a very peculiar one (unlike the rest of you perfectly normal and well adjusted citizens

[Chainsaw]

Holy christ! I dont got word enough for this... your work is... beautiful!

[Lets_All_Fight]

I think it's fair to say we seem to have a new Gold Standard in this map. Outstanding. :eek:

[Frankster65]

Just absolutely superb!

[Alex]

Looks very cool.

[snake_eye]

Longleftflank,

I can't find words looking at your RAMADI town. You have gone in such detail, that it looks like you could almost walk into the streets and get into a shop. It is unbelievable and you did it.

Thanks for this masterpiece that should deserve an equal mastermind scenario.

Cheers

[LongLeftFlank]

Work has been heavy this week, so I haven't been able to do much Red AI programming for my first Ramadi scenario, RELIEF OF JOKER THREE (Apr 6 2004). I hope to get some more done this weekend, and then the scenario will be ready for playtesting and release.

In the meantime, here are some screenies of the four different mosques that appear on the Ramadi map.

First is the Al Qadr Al Kilami mosque, in the far northwest corner of the map, named for the patron saint and founder of the Sufi mystic movement (15th century) -- best known in the infidel West for the Turkish "whirling dervishes". Sufis are hated by fundamentalist Sunni and Salafist movements, including Al Qaeda, who see them as apostates and idolators (worshipping the world).

Note the octagonal mosque with the minaret rising out of the center. As noted previously, in spite of their savage persecution by Al Qaeda, a Sufi resistance cell began sniping at the nearby Government Center in late 2006, and got the minaret shot away by a Hellfire.

[LongLeftFlank]

Next up, the Fatemat Mosque, adjoining Route Michigan in the center of the map. This modern-style mosque was quite wealthy, patronized by merchants in the nearby Souk district. As noted earlier, this mosque was an arms dump and staging point for IED bombers and forces attacking the nearby GC. The adjacent road junction, CP-295, strewn with junk from the souk, was a favourite place to plant IEDs, although these were typically smaller in size owing to the dense population.

It was raided regularly by Iraqi commandos supported by US forces but the insurgents always returned. Its loudspeakers also broadcast a steady stream of Jihadist invective.

The large central prayer hall (musala) is in fact full roofed over, but I decided to leave it as open space rather than have multistory fights inside. Note also the large ablution courtyard (wudu) adjacent; this mosque had a fairly large congregation. There is also a religious school (madrasah) and dormitories behind the mosque.

[LongLeftFlank]

Here is a close up of the ablution courtyard, with some Showani commandos of the Iraqi government Specialized Special Forces brigade.

[LongLeftFlank]

Next up: the Hurriyah mosque at the south center edge of the map, with the Ramadi central cemetery stretching behind it (the crypts are a mod of the "rural brick wall" with transparent alpha channels).

This mosque, named after the neighborhood it lies within, is one of the few buildings on the map that is fictional -- there is a mosque in this area, but it is much smaller and several blocks further south.

The Passport Agency, which became OP Horea, is partly visible at the north end of the cemetery, next to MSR Michigan.

[meade95]

Better with each preview....