Erwin

One tends to have to avoid putting any units on levels with balconies. They are usually fatal positions.

Retried a saved turn several times to practice assaulting across the road to get a foothold in the village with minor or zero casualties. (Trying to play as if I have no foreknowledge of the enemy positions.) It's tough. Unseen uncon across the gully tend to pick off guys as they run over, despite using arty smoke. Usually 3-4 guys go down as they run over. Then after blasting into the first building, any unit that runs in after the blast gets cut up by uncons in the square walled/sandbagged area just on the other side of the building (despite them being conscripts). If they stay outside the building they still slowly get cut up by enemy fire. I may have reduced friendly casualties by 30%-50% but that's still 6-7 guys (instead of the 12+ suffered previously). It's also hard to see how one can avoid losing at least one vehicle to an IED as there are quite a few scattered around. And that will very easily reduce one's victory level downwards. Other than that, a very enjoyable scenario. Now onto "Into The Green". Finally...

Wow... such a different experience. The AI plans must be significantly different. I recommend saving every few turns. I sent my saves to LLF so he can figure out which AI plan it was and also what I did and why it seemed like nothing much was happening most of the time.

************ POSSIBLE SPOILERS ************** At the start I simply occupied adjacent buildings. The Elite SEAL team were good at killing snipers but one got hit. Interesting that they have AK's and no ammo resupply so their ammo runs out quickly. One of the other teams suffered a casualty and I sent the SEAL team to do medic but they didn't pick up the WIA M4. The beleaguered formation didn't have a lot to do (kinda boring) until the uncons started to do suicide attacks and then the uncons were wiped out easily as they all attacked along the same direction. Once the Army starts arriving from the east, the grenade throwers were useful. But I saw little reason to move the army force much since they all have long range AGM or HMG weapons and hardly any inf. I moved them so they could over the roads. Somehow a AGM Humvee got KIA with its crew but I didn't see how. Got bored at the halfway point and sent the two surviving SEAL team guys to the immobilized HUMVEE to pick up 5.45 ammo just to see if they could use that in their AK's. But they got KIA. Can't see how to take the "secret objective" with on-map forces. The choppers can't kill the bunker - which was disappointing. Didn't find anything useful for the choppers to do actually. I guess one has to wait to Ollie North. But, was bored with the static nature of the scenario so CF'd with 17 mins to go and never got to meet Ollie (got a draw probably due to loss of HUMVEE and men). I just wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with the forces available other than wait for rescue. Doing nothing seemed like the best strategy. But, that's not fun. Lots of saved game files if you want em.

My first take is that I liked the briefing - clear and concise. Map is wonderful (of course). Liked the original ideas like giving negative points for occupying a location and later arrival of a burning truck to give info on another VL. Don't recall seeing anything like that in any other CM2 scenarios. Good start! On to the mission...

Any idea how may activations one gets with CMA? I know CMSF only has two, but would like to put CMA on more than 2 computers. Off to test LLF's new CMSF Ramadi scenario now...

Thanks...

Great to see the Nyalas in the game. Hardly any current missions feature them.

"...the player acts as a platoon commander, commanding a single platoon, the rest of the company is handled by the friendly AI." That would be an interesting feature - maybe in CM3.

I appreciate your enthusiasm for the game! I enjoyed Harpoon for a while, but the abstract graphics eventually made every mission seem more or less the same. I prefer WITPAE cos it features pretty little pics of the ships and aircraft. (I respond to visuals, pretty graphics, crayon coloring books etc.) However, CMANO may be a good mission generator for a flight sim.

Ok... will try and carry on as is... Enjoyed mission #1. Thanks again for all your work.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/columbiagames/combat-infantry-world-war-2-tactical-block-game?diceynews

Does the blast effect of nearby HE hurt the crew?

The main challenge with IED's, mines or any immediate ambush or arty strike (and/or any other "SHOCK EVENT") on turn one or any subsequent turn, and esp in a set-up zone, is whether that event can make you lose the game on turn one. If so, people will immediately restart. Or, give up and go away PO'd. If you have enuff units that you can still pull off a satisfying win after a "SHOCK EVENT", then that would be ok as a "realistic" event. PS: "SHOCK EVENT" (c) All rights reserved. Sgt S is granted an international license in perpetuity to use the copyrighted phrase "SHOCK EVENT" for non-commercial purposes.

Just completed mission one, so I don't mind restarting. But thanks for making the improvements - always appreciated. BTW: I got a good mission one win even without the mortars. Is the lack of mortars an issue in mission 2 as well? *********** Actually, I just looked at v4, and I still don't see any on-map mortars in mission one.

"...didn't feel right." Need to use imagination in the story-telling - the Syrian Engineers would be deserters or uncon plants who enlisted purely to learn about and steal explosives. Plenty of precedents.

Where is the "." in v3b? Don't see it. never mind - did a new d/l. The problem with releasing your campaign in single missions is that there won't be anyone to play the campaign when you finish it as we'll all be burned out testing the individual missions. (And also by then CMSF2 may be out and we'll all be into that.)

Maybe you already thought of this as a possible scenario "feature" that may have a function: Setting up a friendly force of some kind in a building with no windows or exits, so they can't fire out or move out. So, part of one's mission would be to use demo charges to breach a wall (doesn't damage friendlies) to liberate the imprisoned force. That force can then be used. Possibly a way to get reinforcements to a very precise location? Or, rescue hostages etc?

Does one have to restart the campaign from the beginning to get v4, or will a current savegame work?

Nice surprise... You still planning a campaign with this as mission #1? (Or are you burned out...?)

Sounds like in the old days he would have been referred to as a "chinless wonder". Amazing what family connections (esp royal) can get you lol...

Yup, he's another upper class toff: Stewart, whose family seat is Broich House near Crieff in Perthshire, Scotland, was born in Hong Kong, the child of the diplomat Brian Stewart, was brought up in Malaysia and Scotland and educated at the Dragon School and Eton College. During his gap year in 1991 he was commissioned in the Black Watch for nine months as second lieutenant (on probation).[5][6] (A 'Short Service Limited Commission' where school leavers with a guaranteed University place having passed by the Regular Commissions Board (Officer selection) did three weeks training at Sandhurst then served as nominal platoon or troop commanders for between six and eighteen months with a view to acquiring some leadership skills, and with a better understanding of the Services.) He then attended Balliol College, Oxford, where he read modern history and politics, philosophy and economics (PPE). While a student at Oxford, Stewart was a private tutor to Prince William and Prince Harry during the summer. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Stirling[7] and the American University of Paris.[8] What is a "nominal platoon or troop commander"? Hope it's not another wanker position where Eton & Oxford toffs can put something cool on their resume without actually doing anything.

You mean the ones that come with the game? Ugh. Too scared I screw em up and have to do a reinstall... Trust me, tech and me, not a good mix. We used to have so many wonderful modders here, was assuming that naming conventions would be a very easy question for them.

Anyone remember how mod options are numbered? I looked at my other CM2 titles to see how the mod options are numbered and was confused to find sometimes they start with <mod.bmp> then go straight to <mod 2.bmp> with no <mod 1.bmp>. But sometimes I see <mod.bmp> and then <mod 1.bmp> etc. IIRC, wav option files have a different numbering convention. What is that?

The final 15+ minutes of the scenario was anticlimactic after the village was captured. The enemy has no fight left and there was no further attempt to stop the convoy. It was easy to capture the final VL with no friendly casualties. The convoy arrived at base with no interference. Was surprised that there were still 7 IED's active. I think I activated only one which killed a Humvee. Some of the other IED's were right underneath units, but the numerous trigger men scattered around (all Elites btw) for some reason didn't blow em. CF'd with 17 minutes left as convoy reached safety of its destination and final objective was captured. Only got a Tactical Victory. Main reason would have been too many friendly casualties in the initial village assault (lost about 10 guys). But, also the insurgents got IIRC 200 points as I hadn't killed enough of them. That was tough as one gets the impression that getting the convoy to its destination plus getting the VL's are the primary objectives, not going on "unnecessary" expeditions to kill the enemy. In this scenario, there is no incentive to hunt the enemy down. I got 50 points for my ammo situation. I wonder what the max points are for ammo conservation? My sense is that I probably used too much ammo. Am assuming that it doesn't matter if one reloads from the trucks, it's the total amount of ammo carried by all units at the end of the mission which is important. This is a satisfying scenario in which minimal friendly casualties and ammo conservation is important. I really liked that. It would be good to have a couple more VL's in areas where there were still intact and untouched enemy units to "encourage" the US player to assault there. Am going to reload the turn where I started to assault the village to see if I can use better tactics and avoid casualties. My main problem was that I allowed my engineers to enter the buildings after blowing holes. They ran into a nasty ambush, and half a platoon was lost - probably costing me a Total Victory.