37mm

Hi,
 
After the latest patch the FoW trenches are fixed ( i just saw they are NOT fixed, you can see the FOW trenches from the start so just do not look too hard for trenches where is the fun in that   ) and i finished playtesting my updated CMSF1 scenario which took a long time. I had to test it alone so i hope i get it as good as it can be. It will be a brutal affair, that is for sure   
Without further talk here is the scenario, if you played it in CMSF you know what you are in for but this time with some added surprises, also i slightly changed the attacker forces and reinforcements timing and added more orders to the defender plan since now in CMSF2 there are more orders available. Also i do post a description further below!
http://www.mediafire.com/file/s5w4167dhm3s8jb/Red+Stream+120+for+CMSF2.rar/file
DL from mediafire or post attachement!
 



 
Some information about the Scenario;
 
Red vs Red, play as Attacker only. Syrian army + US advisors(FO+JTAC) attack versus heavy Unconventional forces.
Size; Large or Huge
Compared to the CMSF1 original i added some bells and whistles to the map, back in late 2007 or 2008 when i made the map the FPS was problematic so i did not add more things than needed to keep good FPS. Now about 12 years later the same map runs a lot better so i could touch it up a little. However i did not add water or bridges for several reason.
I do own all CMSF2 modules, but i try very hard to no include anything that is not in the base game, so everyone should be able to play it.
Directly taken from the briefing;
 
For the crazy persons out there that think about PBEM´ing it; some people played the original version by PBEM and it seemed to work, i never intended or balanced the scenario for PvP but there are some youtube vid where people did it.
 
So, for the few of you who are into such large scenarios, i wish you good luck and have fun! If you run into problems or want to give feedback just leave me some comments in here.
Urkut, urkut,  urkut!!!  
Red Stream 120 for CMSF2.rar

Hello...😎
RL issiues have prevented me from buying a new gaming computer for almost two years now...But finally...things are sorted and i'm currently typing on my new machine.
I initially did not plan for this to be a full scenario but rather a practice session to get back into AI programing. But one thing led to another and this ended up as a full
scenario. The AI will be leading an American force of two reinforced infantry platoons against player controlled unconventional forces.
I wanted to try out how i could program a small force with pretty much each individual squad, vehicle and special team as its own dedicated AI group. So i did just that. This scenario will use all 16 AI groups. The map is one of the stock QB-maps...
From the briefing...
"Situation
Mars 15 2015, Syria
Late last night a small ISIS faction know to the americans as 'The Bad Boys' abducted the local clan leader Abu Bel Air from his residence outside of Beir al-Zour. Through a combination of local informants and information provided by the CIA the american troops got wind of the
terrorist groups plans to publically execute Abu Bel Air at 20.00 mars 15. This man is one of the more liberal leaders in the area and his wiew on Islam is a far strech from that of 'the bad boys'. Because of this he is considdered an infidel by the 'boys' and deservs nothing else then
a cruel ending. The allies on the other hand have great hopes for this man and intend to se him as one of the future leaders of this area. His death would be a severe blow to allied plans. 
Being heavely engaged elsewhere though means that only very limited allied forces can be allocated to this rescue mission. Time is of the essence. A small american force consisting of a reduced company is all that is avaliable for the operation. 
Simularely 'the bad boys' will also be light on firepower as the majority of their fighting men are away on other duties. 
The question is will the americans be able to free Abu Bel Air from the prison before 'the bad boys' manages to reinforce their limited troops that are avaliable to oppose the armericans advance. Time is working against the americans they need to work fast.
Mission:
Akif Bishara ! You, as a section leader of The Bad Boys, will have a difficult task before you. Our plans to publically execute the treacherous dog Abu Bel Air later tonight has been betrayed by one of our own men. The americans are aware of our plans and have gathered a force to try and
rescue this faitless man. Unfortunatelly our forward observation post have failed to spot the american force approaching. We just got word of their intentions a few minutes ago. This is bad news indeed ! The bulk of our fighters are currently away on other tasks and will not be avaliable to defend
against this american aggretion. As for troops...The only thing that is currently avaliable are some of our newest recruits that until recently where resting at their homes. The alarm call went out five minutes ago. 
These men are barely trained at all and carry only light weapons. However ! this is what you have got and you will need to make best use of them until further reinforcements can reach you.
Word has gone out to your brother, Fahrid, among others. Fahrid and his heavy vehicles (BMP1 + 2 APCs) are currently in the area of Baghiliyan and will be making his way here as fast as possible. 
Other reinforcements from all over town are also trying to reach you at full speed. These reinforcements will mostly be in the form of small fighter groups supported by a few armed pick-up trucks. Any heavier equipment will have to wait until Fahrid gets here.
You are free to commit the avaliable reinforcements as soon as they arrive. 
Friendly forces:
As mentioned above you initialy only have a small number of new recruits avaliable to stall the americans. Better trained and equiped troops are on the way to you at full speed. These will include the groups lead by Hadem, Karem and Nazimuddin. These fighter groups have some limited support in the form of
armed pick-up trucks. Trucks or no truck we will still be at a severe firepower dissadvantage against the well equiped amaricans. You need to use your troops accordingly.
Plan:
As we have been caught by supprise by the enemy advance our situation is truely bad. Non of our troops are deployed in any beneficial tactical possition and given the devestating firepower of the americans any repossitioning will be difficult. Appart from the bombed out buldings the terrain is primarely
flat and with limited vegitation. Movement will be difficult. Trying to engage the enemy at long range will be futile. you will need to try and get your men into possition to be able to ambush the americans at short range if you are to have any chans. Your RPGs will probably be your best weapon.
make a note of wich teams are armed with this weapon. The reinforcing troops will be somewhat more well equiped with these RPGs and also be slightely better trained. As for Fahrid he is not expected to arrive for quite some time yet. He actually might not even make it here in time. 
Apart from guarding the prision we can also assume that whoever betrayed our plans to kill Abu Bel Air will most likely also have shared with the americans the locations of the bomb workshop and our weapon storage warehouse. We can expect that the enemy, if given the oppertunity, will try to destroy these
buildings using democharges. These buildings will also need to be guarded.
Notes:
On a more possitive note. The americans seems to be fairly lightly equiped. No AFVs have been reported and the skies, atleast for now, is clear from enemy airsupport. This looks like a light infantry unit that is approaching us and the only spotted support are a number of humvees. Expect these troops to attack immidiatelly.
Our best guesses have put the american strenth at a reduced company, maybe only two platoons. The humvees armed with the grenade launchers will pose the greatest threat to your troops. Destroying these Humvees will be seen with possetive eyes from the higher leadership.
As an additional note. Remember that Abu Bel Air is an old man and after our recent interigation he will not be i great shape. Even if the americans manages to free him he will not be able to move fast. Even if freed we might be able to kill him on the run."
 
Download link (i hope this works)..
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m4tqrl9bt0leifj/The Bad Boys.btt?dl=0
Enjoy !
 
 
 
 

I’m only on the second mission but I love the concept and the environment. Having some trouble on the second cache. The enemies in a great L shaped ambush from my position. I’m probably gonna get my QRF to help out.

The sounds are very sharp and "immediate".  Like them.  You releasing a mod?

Still tweaking the ME soundscape for WW2 battles (there's at least two different versions for the BAR in the following vid for instance), but I think I'm getting there...
 

Still tweaking the ME soundscape for WW2 battles (there's at least two different versions for the BAR in the following vid for instance), but I think I'm getting there...
 

This is great stuff guys! I don't know if I'll ever be as good as @mjkerner suggests, but I'd like to try  . I guess I love learning new stuff so this is really feeding that little obsession. I think @37mm has a point and it's well taken. The way I see it, anyone who throws out something for everyone to use has my respect and appreciation. I find the bar here pretty high and as I have (mostly) the time to do this (well, to a degree  ), I do want to take it that extra little bit. Folks here have been so great when I ask questions (and some of them are so basic, they must be rolling their eyes into the backs of their heads <LOL>) that maybe this is something I can do to give back a bit. As I said, I did download Ithikial's Victory Conditions Calculator (https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/cm-mod-warehouse/uncategorized/ithikials-combat-mission-victory-calculator-version-2/) (I said earlier I "found" it, but it was @Combatintman that linked to it above - it was his find, not mine - sorry about that) which I used to adjust the scenario I'm working on now, and that has clarified and sped things up greatly. Anyway, this is a boat-load of fun (I'd call it a "blast" but that's just too obvious, even for me ) . One thing I'm remaining real good at is getting my guys dead <LOL>. Need to work on that a tad.

I'll counter-signal @kohlenklau & @Combatintman a tiny little bit.
 
If people were really that concerned about a scenario with poor VP's they could load up the scenario in the editor & adjust the points themselves. Then tell others about the improvements they made to the VP's... perhaps even put up their improved version.
I've been playing CM for nearly two decades & I've never seen or heard of anyone doing this.
Not one.
 
Compare that with the time limit thing where people do seem to have genuine disagreements over these things, tastes change over time & different play modes or play styles exacerbate time limit differences... as a result many people regularly post that they adjust scenario time limits themselves.
 
 
In my opinion, most people play a scenario for fun & barely take notice of the final result screen... if the points seemed a little off they would shrug their shoulders & just say "well it was a free scenario".
I say that it's perfectly reasonable to create scenarios for this silent majority... rather than a vocal minority.
In the early days of CMx1 & CMSF this was the norm & there was a vast quantity of user made scenarios, maps & even campaigns as a result.

I made a scenario for F&R in about a half hour late, late Friday night. (Yes, Rum and Coke’s were involved.) A Soviet regular battalion plus 7 T34s (mix of 76 and 85) and an SU 122 attack a village defended by 2 platoons of SS, 2 platoons of Volkssturm, a LW unit of two 20mm AA and two 37mm AT guns, and two 75mm AT guns with SS crew. I set the Germans up fairly quickly, and didn’t study the positioning of the guns, but rather put them in areas where there was some concealment and cover with what looked to be decent fields of fire. Split all the squads and put them in buildings on random floors. This is April 1945, and the Germans were all diehards—no retreat (I used a Batzlow QB map with all AI plans removed. Beautiful map!) Russkies were “Typical”. The idea was that the Soviet commander had been given enough troops to make good previous losses, and had only one order...”Your losses will mean nothing if you can Kill all the Fascists and take the village in order to allow the rest of Our Glorious Division to move through and On to Berlin!”
I let it sit a day and a half and played it last night. Forgot those little 37mm have that spigot round, which took out the SU on the second turn! All in all, so far I have almost cleared the village (Reichenberg) and wiped out most of the SS and Volksturm, and one AA, both 37mm’s, and I think one AT gun. I have lost about 40% of infantry, 5 tanks and the SU (who the hell placed those damn AT guns?!!?). I tried to play the Russians as Russians (I’m more used to playing Western Allies or German). Constant forward movement, as tactical as possible, but still almost continuous forward movement. Get those Submachine gun units as close as possible and blast away!
I had a blast without any objectives even painted on the map. The Germans knew they had no options but stick it out and if necessary die for the Fatherland. The Soviets knew they had to take the village despite the cost. (Although if I hit around 50% infantry losses, I will consider it much less a victory.)
So, I think others might enjoy this type of thing, but with no briefing (although easy enough to put a few sentences together), no objectives whatsoever, etc., I would be loathe to make it public.  Then again, I know I’d like others to upload their thrown together scenarios without all the bells and whistles.  Maybe Bootie can add a section in The Scenario Depot for neglected, forlorn, misused and incomplete scenarios so people would know what to expect, lol.
 
 

This will be great

I must say “The Year of the Rat” is probably one of the coolest campaigns I’ve ever played.

They wouldn't (or at least wouldn't have to be) beta testers... that's (as you highlight) a different skill set.
The vast majority of forums on the web have volunteer forum moderators.
Forum mods manage the forum (including the report threads), Beta testers test the games, the Super Six make the games.
This is not an outlandish concept.

To be fair, although I agree the schizophrenia is a little annoying, we have a situation where a bug first reported four years ago appears to have been not important enough to have been fixed... but was important enough to (slightly) delay a major module release.
 
No matter how you cut it, there are problems with how bug reporting (and acknowledgement of said reporting) is taking place... a problem which then exacerbates other communication issues between BFC & some of its customers.

We'll agree to disagree over whether "slight delay" was an appropriate term... however I think this highlights the most likely avenue for improvement.
Create some more forum moderators, I suspect there's not enough for a forum of this size anyway, and as part of their remit they can manage a stickied reporting thread (keeping it clear of useless discussion or fake bug reports) for each game family.
That means you guys & the Beta testers will only ever have to visit that one thread to find issues that have been raised & we will at least know that an issue has been seen.

To be fair, although I agree the schizophrenia is a little annoying, we have a situation where a bug first reported four years ago appears to have been not important enough to have been fixed... but was important enough to (slightly) delay a major module release.
 
No matter how you cut it, there are problems with how bug reporting (and acknowledgement of said reporting) is taking place... a problem which then exacerbates other communication issues between BFC & some of its customers.

We'll agree to disagree over whether "slight delay" was an appropriate term... however I think this highlights the most likely avenue for improvement.
Create some more forum moderators, I suspect there's not enough for a forum of this size anyway, and as part of their remit they can manage a stickied reporting thread (keeping it clear of useless discussion or fake bug reports) for each game family.
That means you guys & the Beta testers will only ever have to visit that one thread to find issues that have been raised & we will at least know that an issue has been seen.

To be fair, although I agree the schizophrenia is a little annoying, we have a situation where a bug first reported four years ago appears to have been not important enough to have been fixed... but was important enough to (slightly) delay a major module release.
 
No matter how you cut it, there are problems with how bug reporting (and acknowledgement of said reporting) is taking place... a problem which then exacerbates other communication issues between BFC & some of its customers.

To be fair, although I agree the schizophrenia is a little annoying, we have a situation where a bug first reported four years ago appears to have been not important enough to have been fixed... but was important enough to (slightly) delay a major module release.
 
No matter how you cut it, there are problems with how bug reporting (and acknowledgement of said reporting) is taking place... a problem which then exacerbates other communication issues between BFC & some of its customers.

To be fair, although I agree the schizophrenia is a little annoying, we have a situation where a bug first reported four years ago appears to have been not important enough to have been fixed... but was important enough to (slightly) delay a major module release.
 
No matter how you cut it, there are problems with how bug reporting (and acknowledgement of said reporting) is taking place... a problem which then exacerbates other communication issues between BFC & some of its customers.

To be fair, although I agree the schizophrenia is a little annoying, we have a situation where a bug first reported four years ago appears to have been not important enough to have been fixed... but was important enough to (slightly) delay a major module release.
 
No matter how you cut it, there are problems with how bug reporting (and acknowledgement of said reporting) is taking place... a problem which then exacerbates other communication issues between BFC & some of its customers.

To be fair, although I agree the schizophrenia is a little annoying, we have a situation where a bug first reported four years ago appears to have been not important enough to have been fixed... but was important enough to (slightly) delay a major module release.
 
No matter how you cut it, there are problems with how bug reporting (and acknowledgement of said reporting) is taking place... a problem which then exacerbates other communication issues between BFC & some of its customers.

If you want to read some research rather than hyped up stuff page 21 of this paper might be useful. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amos-Wright-Iii/publication/230590819_Methamphetamine_for_Hitler's_Germany_1937_to_1945/links/5a86ebbaaca272017e5a77b7/Methamphetamine-for-Hitlers-Germany-1937-to-1945.pdf?origin=publication_detail
summary from above paper:
Methamphetamine was synthesized in Germany in 1937 and commercially re- leased in 1938. It became a popular stimu- lant for tired night workers and a recre- ational drug for young people until mid- 1941 when it became a controlled substance. It was abused by the armed forces during World War II when it was distributed by some commanding officers (occasionally over the objections of the units’ physicians) to prevent or treat the fatigue of exhausted troops and thus allow them to survive, de- spite the strict restrictions issued by the Army Inspectorate. There is no evidence
for the claim that the use of Pervitin was encouraged by the Nazi government to cre- ate a “superman.” In fact the Health Leader L. Conti strongly discouraged its use.

Here are the files for the campaign & the two unpacked scenarios found inside it.
Here's what it looks like in (modded) CMBN...

 
... I imagine the CMBN Italy Mod (recently put up by @Bootie in its entirety) would be a good fit.
 
I tried a quick hex edit to get the map into CMFI but it didn't work (presumably units will have to be deleted).
 
Saving one out of four isn't a bad result... but it does make one hope the other three maps are still out there somewhere.

Here are the files for the campaign & the two unpacked scenarios found inside it.
Here's what it looks like in (modded) CMBN...

 
... I imagine the CMBN Italy Mod (recently put up by @Bootie in its entirety) would be a good fit.
 
I tried a quick hex edit to get the map into CMFI but it didn't work (presumably units will have to be deleted).
 
Saving one out of four isn't a bad result... but it does make one hope the other three maps are still out there somewhere.

I've been working on & off on this for awhile but I'm finally ready to release an "Initial Beta" for the CMSF2-Afghanistan modpack...
 
Mods used, include...
 
CMA terrain (tweaked & resized for CMSF2),
CMA trees by @Bil Hardenberger (reordered & tweaked for CMSF2),
A mix of (tweaked) foliage from @SeinfeldRules & @Kieme(ITA),
ANA, Taliban, poppies & walls by @Zveroboy1,
US Uniforms by @IICptMillerII,
Other uniforms by @JMDECC,
A mix of buildings by @Zveroboy1 & @Kieme(ITA) (although reworked to standard resolutions),
A bunch of vehicle mods... mostly by @MikeyD or from CMA,
ME soundscape 1.5 alongside (subdued) voices from HQS & extra Afghan FO voices & ambient sounds,
ME Effects (beta 4),
"Heaven & Earth" skybox plus background by @Kieme(ITA),
@BarbaricCo movie mode shaders,
Flavour objects from CMA & (for the [mountains] tag) its background,
Modified CMSF2 @Vinnart icons (as per "Heaven & Earth"),
Modified @xacto Chaos theme UI,
Afghanistan music extras.
 
So far, there's only one tag in the modpack, [mountains] which can be activated by the usual CMSF2 method... however I've also added a number of zipped mods which can be unpacked when required...
@Zveroboy1's ANP Technicals,
A rudimentary 'Dutch to ANA' mod (for use with the 'Heart of Darkness' campaign),
Updated CMSF2 'Marsh to Water' mod (again, for use with the 'Heart of Darkness' campaign).
 
 
Here's the download link, as per usual with my stuff, it's advised to put all of this into an EMPTY mod folder only.
 
Some screenshots...