handihoc

I completed Counterattack, but it took me three attempts to get a total victory. Initially, as with Strong Stand, I advanced a little too eagerly and paid a heavy price. ******SPOILER!!****** Even with the win, I lost half a dozen vehicles, though my tanks survived. I also lost a lot of inf - which I'm now discovering impacts severely on the next mission, Hill 142. In this mission my FO is reduced to one man, and all artillery is denied. And when A Company arrive, their inf squads are badly depleted - one of them is down to a single soldier! This is gonna be a tough one, I think. I've got my scouts nicely placed but, reading the briefing, I see they should be on Hill D. I've moved them to A. Dunno if that's gonna have a negative effect on the outcome, but they've got good visuals on the village, anyway. It's proving tough advancing down that road. I'm wondering if another FO will arrive who can call in the artillery, as I could sorely do with that support. Very challenging, very enjoyable, involving a lot of extremely careful movement, but I'm not confident I'm gonna be able to win this one. btw I see you've released at least one of the battles as a single scenario. That's a great idea. I'd like to be able to replay some of these, and battles from other campaigns - particularly the ones where I've been really challenged.

Very nice. But isn't that temperate terrain camo?

And Checkpoint Charlie!

The first one isn't so much 'English' as simply old and weathered. It looks great, but out of place alongside the more modern apartment buildings. Might work better in a European village or rural setting. The second one is great. Reminds me of when I was in Berlin in the '80s.

Excellent work!

Perhaps by creating and adding your name to a list of persons who wish to get put on the list to view the list?

To me, the green and red on the uniform still look slightly bright. A little more 'dulling' would make them merge more fully with grass and foliage, IMO. If you look at the photo you posted, the colours don't stand out as much as in your mod.

They look great, but I have a question. Are these police units substitutes/replacements for current army units, or can they exist as unique squads alongside army? If the latter, in what kind of scenarios will they appear?

Now, if only we could have directionable smoke . . .

Very nice, but you should tone down the reds and greens. They're too bright. Look like Milanese fashionistas. I'm not being sarcastic - I like the mods you do, but this one needs to be more camo, less catwalk.

Me too! We want more! We want it now! Or the very least, a release date!

Thanks guys. Finally clocked it. I had no idea that, to set facing from a waypoint you have first to click on that waypoint to highlight it, THEN set facing. All this time I've been setting waypoints, then Facing WITHOUT highlighting the new waypoint, so the Facing was always relative to the jump-off point. Finally the light has dawned! I have to say, unless I've missed something (again!), this is not well described in the manual. Anyway, my gaming experience has been enhanced. Cheers! [ May 16, 2008, 12:15 PM: Message edited by: handihoc ]

Excellent!

Does anyone else find the Face command annoying? :confused: You chart a series of waypoints, give a Face command at the destination, but have to track back to the unit's present position then visually calculate the desired facing relative to the start position, which, usually, will be quite different in terms of direction to the end facing position. Does that make sense? The fact that it's even confusing to describe illustrates how difficult it can be in-game. :confused: Seems cack-handed to me. It'd be far preferable for the Face command to be calculated directly from the destination point. Maybe that can't be done for coding reasons. I don't know. But if it can, I'd like to make a strong request for it to be implemented. Pleease.

How far from the target are you when assaulting? It generally works well for me from fairly close quarters - max 50 metres, say. Teams move forward, with their squadmates providing covering fire. Of course, you ideally need at least one other squad or a vehicle laying down suppressive fire. If the enemy is fully capable, it will obviously shoot your men down as they approach. Smoke helps too, and try to come from a direction different to that which you know the enemy is facing. Even then, it's quite possible that even a single enemy soldier, hiding indoors, will do your guys a lot of damage. I've had it happen. Assault is never a certainty. Hunt command can be an alternative option. That way at least your men will stop moving and hit the dirt as soon as they spot an enemy shooter. The problem there can be that they'll spot an enemy, say, three hundred metres away from the target building, and still stop moving. Fast is no good, as your guys won't defend themselves. Fast is best used for quickly crossing streets or running short distances to cover.

Interesting discussion. I haven't fully tested this like you guys (and I appreciate the time you've put in to do this) but I HAVE noticed that generally it's the team leader and/or AT guy who gets it first. I'd found this quite acceptable, if annoying, putting it down to the pure logic of the enemy sniping for the most logical/important target in a team. However, IF, as Dzrt Fox says, this also applies to tank and artillery blasts, then we DEFINITELY have a problem that needs to be remedied, as it's obviously thoroughly unrealistic. It would be great to have a comment by BFC on this, and possibly more testing for verifiable results. Anyone else tested this?

Just played the first two scenarios, so here's my feedback. ******SPOILERS!!!!******** Opening battle: very nice 'taster' for what's to come. Not difficult to win, but atmospheric - I like the night setting - and it serves to 'educate' players like me who may not be very familiar with using Syrian troops and weaponry. Strong Stand. A total blast! Loved it. Had a very hard time of it, though. I started off doing really well, my Specials pretty much hunkered down and waited for the attack, then severely blunted it. Then I made the mistake, as soon as reinforcements arrived, of pushing forward somewhat overconfidently. Died painfully and had to restart. Quite a lesson learned there! Next time around I was impressed that the AI didn't follow precisely the same attack plan as previously. In fact, it slightly wrongfooted me, as I'd deployed pretty much in anticipation of fighting the exact same battle again. Nice one! I was more cautious with my main advance this time, but still got punished severely. Biggest problem is those Syrian reserves shooting the crud out of each other. This is an acceptable and enjoyable part of the game, but (I know this has been discussed elsewhere) it does need to be moderated somewhat. My crazy troopers were quite literally their own worst enemy, and persistently shot each other up even at close quarters. I lost a lot of men to FF, and a little too much micro-management was needed. I also had a nasty surprise when one of my tank shells hit a tree and wiped out a squad and half of friendlies hiding nearby! I'll be a lot more careful in future. Extremely hard final battle to take the Peach Orchard. Again, I was very impressed at the AI's abilities and at the positioning and response of enemy forces. A couple of little niggles: I finished with seven minutes to spare but had to wait for final countdown plus a couple more minutes before the game ended. There were very few enemy troops left alive, and none were in the green zones, so it should have finished earlier. And although I got a Total Victory, I wasn't credited for taking The Farm, presumably because, although I'd occupied it earlier, I didn't leave anyone in it when I advanced (?). Fantastic fun, and my first real experience of Red v Red. It has a very different feel without US troops. Not better, not worse, but more balanced and in certain ways more unpredictable. Looking forward to continuing before the Marines arrive.

Steve, or someone at BFC, stickied - or at least, flagged - Webwing's Ghost campaign in this forum, which seems to indicate they're happy for designers to promote their scenarios here.

I was visiting Loch Awe and Oban a couple of weeks ago. So tranquil after the lunacy of London, where I am. So not that close. Dunno why, I assumed you were US - or maybe Russian-US, because of your name.

In March? Mishga, does that mean you're a Brit? Might we be neighbours?

Brilliant!

Another cool mod. But a question: will this replace your uparmoured Humvee mod, or could both vehicles appear?

Mord, he's also at it in another thread, called Lee, what is . . . ? Example: 'what is that thing with two apparent sets of "wings" behind the scope of the bottom shooter.' He really is a naughty boy!

er. . . what's a bottom shooter?

Yes, c3k, you phrased it much more accurately than me, but I was drunk.