Sgt.Squarehead

Well that was both fortunate and enlightening.....Firstly I discovered I'd forgotten to do a bit, a fairly major bit TBH (victory points) & secondly I discovered that using Uber-FO's would actually make a difference as the AI likes to lead with them in 'Maximum Assaults'! I'm not too sure how happy the typical CM:A player would be if the first Tribal/Mujahideen unit he came into contact with was Elite! I've decided to live without the artillery, I've left one unit in for my next test.....But I'm not hopeful that it will do anything. At least I can guarantee that FO won't try to Rambo his way into a heavily defended building!

I've just finished testing the various plots & schemes necessary to win this scenario in both real-time and WEGO.....Pleased to say that everything worked to my satisfaction (except the AI artillery which I've decided I can probably live without for this mission). Just going to pick it over one more time and then I'll put up a no-briefing version for those willing to experiment.

Cheers fella, yup it's the same engine as CM:SF and it's for AI controlled FO directed fire mid-scenario. I'll give the high quality FOs a try.....Their uber-stats won't affect much else as they are largely there just to spot. I've already attached them and the artillery to groups in case the problem was related to the inactivity issue which can occur when units join a group. I'd always thought Hammertime was a Blue only scenario, but I've very recently discovered you wrote it to allow Red to play too.....I haven't done so yet, but I suspect I probably will in a later iteration of the standalone (might be a bit of a massacre though). Here's a preliminary Blue only version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4lic3x9kze95y98/[Test] Hammer Of The Faithful v-100(nobrief).btt?dl=0 As the name implies I haven't written a briefing yet, but in summary, you control a mixed Syrian rebel force nominally under FSA leadership. This force consists largely of former soldiers along with a smattering of local armed groups and a significant number of rather well armed foreign jihadists. Your orders are to attempt to establish a foothold in a major Syrian city (pretty sure you know the drill).....At your disposal for this mission are: Elements of Mechanised Battalion: Mech Recon Co. HQ 1x Platoon Mech Recon (BMP) 1x Platoon Mech Recon (BRDM) 3x T-62 Tank Elements from Motorised Infantry Battalion as follows: Batt. HQ 1x Company Motorised Infantry Weapons Co. HQ 1x AT Platoon 1x HMG Section 1x Medium Mortar Section 1x Heavy Mortar Section 1x Howitzer Section Local Syrian Irregulars: Approximately 40 individuals, lightly armed primarily with small arms & RPGs Jihadist Fighters: Approximately 75 individuals & around half a dozen pick-up trucks, very heavily armed including sophisticated ATGM & other heavy weapons. Have access to VBIEDs, Heavy Mortars & Grad Rockets. As you will see the changes are minor, but with a rather different starting force (& background premise) the battle has a very different 'feel' IMHO.....You don't need to avoid casualties to the same extent a NATO or US force would, but the bad guys are better trained and much better armed than your forces, so they are quite capable of inflicting those extra casualties. By and large your forces do have a morale advantage, but it's not wise to press it against such quality opposition. One final word of warning.....The Syrian Regime maintains air-dominance, so if you hear jets or rotors it is NOT good news. Please let me know your thoughts.

Shame.....I'm having a nightmare with some artillery that I cannot seem to get to fire (unless Mujahideen have targeting delays measured in hours). I'm using all the same scripts I would in CM:SF, just don't get it.

While pretties are always appreciated (Ooooh! Shiny Things!) they ain't why I buy CM titles TBH.

That was surprisingly good.....Cheers JK.

I'd be interested to know how it's supposed to be done too.....I can't find the trick of it, if there really is one.

Combatintman was kind enough to send me some very useful links to facilitate this experiment, still exploring it at present.....This would be much easier to do if CM:SF were updated to CM:BS standards, "times they are a changing" as they say.

Top work fella. Would you be interested in taking a look at my Free Syrian Army variant, "Hammer Of The Faithful" once I've got it all wrapped up to my satisfaction (I've made a few changes, but most of it will be very familiar to you).....There are two versions, a standalone which can be an utter swine and another variant which draws from a campaign core-file and is just a little bit more generous. PS - Just downloaded your CM:SF Scenario Design Manual.....I thought I'd picked the repository dry, but I missed that one completely! Just out of interest do you play CM:A at all?

I've done some more experimenting and sadly it's not possible to crew-swap anything that requires the crew to 'Bail-Out' rather than 'Dismount' in the editor.....This seems to rule out using the Taxi Drivers (unless perhaps their own vehicles are set to immobilized). Either way it looks like ISIS crewed tanks are out.

Wales to Texas.....The contrast must have been quite noticeable.

Amen!

A lot of that is down to the mode the units are moving in, the AI seems reasonably sane when applying a 'Cautuious, Advance' order, but give it an 'Active, Maximum Assault' and it goes a bit benny-mental.

What they said.....If you leave all the AI units in Group A1 and don't write any scripts, they really ain't too bright at all (not too bad on the defence, but that's about it).

So where were the flaming pigs of war? BTW - Wouldn't a Rome 2 TW site be a better place for this? All a bit early for Battlefront really.

Hadn't read this prior to posting, but it's very illuminating IMHO: https://warisboring.com/america-has-misused-its-military-power-in-the-middle-east-29a2541022b4#.vrkem7ssd It's refreshing to see these connections been brought to light.....Without consideration of all of these factors the wider 'crescent of chaos' is almost incomprehensible. PS - Not much I can do about the title of the article, it's actually somewhat inappropriate IMHO.....Please read it though, as I said it provides a useful insight into the geopolitical thinking of the Afghan Invasion era.

Would this site be of interest for Soviet & Russian stuff: https://thesovietarmourblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/home.html

Looks like Al Bab is pretty much in Turkish hands: http://www.voanews.com/a/islamic-state-flees-northern-syrian-stronghold-al-bab/3737910.html Which according to the Washington Post may lead to trouble: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/22/donald-trumps-plan-for-safe-zones-for-syrian-refug/ All good news again then!

God help you.....What did you do to deserve Acton?

Tell you what Erwin, find me a breakdown of the forces you'd like to use and some inspirational images (keep in mind the limitations of what CM:SF can do), help me out with the briefings and I'll see if I can work up something on LLF's masterpiece of an urban map.....How's that?

Good idea.....I had my wrist slapped TBH. At least we can probably all agree retrospectively, that there were no 'good-guys' in CM:A.....The Soviets were simply beastly in their behaviour, but arming all those Afghan tribesmen to the teeth (and simultaneously importing Saudi style Islamic radicalism) was probably not a brilliant move in the long run either. I've actually got two campaigns on the go for CM:A.....The second is much more complex than the one I've described above, nominally titled 'The Triangle' it's centred around Afghanistan's massive opium industry.....I've placed the player in the morally highly questionable position of the tribal group doing the growing and smuggling, meaning they will variously find themselves at odds with, or allied to, several different factions, often at the same time. It will mostly be a campaign of sneaking and hiding, with occasional outbreaks of bloody revenge, typical low-intensity tribal warfare.....Would this be of any interest to people do you think?

I find map making to be one of the hardest tasks, kudos to all the map makers out there, your patience and creativity is remarkable. Scripting for the AI is just a matter of experimentation, trial & error and lots of repetition in my experience.....So far I've mostly restricted myself to the CMx2 engine (CM:A & CM:SF) as I figure if I can suss those two out, I'm a fair way towards learning the rest. PS - I enjoy scripting for CM:A the most as it seems to be the closest in terms of balance.....The pre-scripted fire-fights don't always end how you expect they will, even before the player gets involved!

If you sent a platoon through, it always seemed to be the officer that vanished too! But it was useful in the 'Stalingrad Tractor Works' campaign IIRC. It's easy enough to model uncons emerging from tunnels, but escaping through them we can't do without exit zones.....I hope some form of underground movement is included as a feature of CM:SF too, it's very appropriate given the evidence we have seen in Aleppo & Mosul.

Fair play Steve.....It is your manor after all and my comment was rather out of order. Not sure there's a pattern to my general behaviour, just to the posts that have drawn your attention recently, the majority of my posts are to be found in other, more productive threads TBH.....Sadly those kinds of threads often don't seem to receive as much attention as they possibly should.

Yeah that's a Buratino.....God help the people on the receiving end of that thing, selective it isn't!