Petrus58

Well, it's been a lot more work than I'd anticipated. This is a rework of my old USMC campaign, a six mission campaign I put together shortly after the British Forces module for CMSF 1 was released. I spent SO much time making 'The Road to Dinas' that I missed playing with the USMC, which has turned out to be my favourite US formation to work with. 
 
I thought I was just going to have to make up a new core unit file, sub in the new units and tweak a few bits and pieces to take advantage of the new systems but I ended up pretty much redoing it all from scratch. Anyway, let me show you the old maps and the new versions. Each picture is taken a 6 am in the morning from the same position so that you can see main differences.
 
The first mission is Meet the Flintstones. This is a NIGHT Missions and this is the old map...

And this is the new map...

As you can see, it's pretty much doubled in size. If you've played the original, it will probably feel reasonably familiar with the old version.
The next mission is The High Chaparall and the map for this one has changed very little. it's a DAWN mission.

And here's the new...

It hasn't changed much although there was a LOT of deforestation which took place to the new. Apart from the map, it's been reworked very substantially and the AI improved.
 
The third mission was a real problem for me. It was originally called CAAT Fight and it took place on this map...

The problem wasn't with the map but the battle itself. It was rubbish! It was an interesting idea and was inspired by the first episode of Generation Kill but it wasn't anywhere near as much fun as that episode. So this one got a new map and new forces with the same concept:

I really enjoy playing this one. It's a NIGHT mission and, like the original, you only have the CAAT units to work with. But it feels completely different and I find it a lot of fun to play.
Now we come to the HUGE reworks. These took over a week each to fit up and the missions needed to be redone entirely, new AI forces, new objectives etc...
the first of these is Watching the Detectives. here's the old map...

And here's the new...

It's more than doubled in size and there has been very substantial enhancement of buildings complexes etc. This is a DAWN mission and has gone through several iterations before the right battle was found for it. it's a tough mission with the player attacking down a slope in full view of the defender with little cover to work with. it took many attempts to make this feasible and I'm happy with the end result. You need to take this one slowly.
 
Then Mission 5, Bridges. Once again, the old map has been massively expanded.

And the new one is almost entirely different...

There are some similarities but as you can see, it's almost entirely new with new, more realistic villages added. Again, finding the right battle for this map has taken a lot of time and this is the mission I'm currently playtesting.  it'll probably change a little before I finish with it but I've finally whittled down the forces on both sides so that i can carry out the mission without having too much at my disposal.
Al Qusayr
The map for the last mission is almost the same. there are some significant improvements for it but you won't see these from such a wide angle. the mission has also been redone with new forces added and all-new AI.

And there it is. I'll go into each mission in a little more detail later. This is very close to finishing now. I expect to have finalised it by the end of this month.
 

This is basically me just musing although there is some news in this post.
I'm in the final stages of putting together the first of three short campaigns, USMC Gung Ho. I thought there would be a very quick turn-around on this project because it was already largely finished and fully tested. I thought it would just require a new core unit file and a few tweaks here and there to take advantage of all the changes that have come over the last 10+ years. Well, was I wrong. One of the missions (CAAT Fight) was just absolute rubbish. I have no idea how I thought it was fun on any level. That required a whole new mission which I'm very happy with and much more in line with what I wanted. I ended up massively expanding two of the maps as well, (Watching the Detectives and Bridges if you're interested). The opener also got overhauled and expanded as well but not to the same degree that those two did. The AI forces in each mission have been reworked as well and the AI plans totally redone. So, it's been a lot more work to fix than I'd first thought.
Anyway, it's close to the end and if you're familiar with the campaign design process, this is when I, at least, start to look forward to my next project. I've been focused solely on Gung Ho for the last few weeks and the AI is done for all six missions and final testing is under way. But, at this stage, I feel like I've seen it all with this campaign so I've started looking at Hasrabit and boy, did I get a shock.
Hasrabit is basically my first real project and the AI design sucks! I opened up a few missions and had a look at placement for both and was very disappointed. Then the AI plans and was even more disappointed. I'd rate the current standard as unplayable but it's definitely fixable. The maps are actually quite good although a few of them would benefit from improving and expanding, particularly the armour clashes. I used to think anything over 1km in one direction was H-U-G-E.  And back then, it was. Computers are just so much more powerful nowadays that I can manage the massive firefight that results in the first five minutes of the Gung Ho finale without so much asd a hiccup. That would have dropped to about 2-3FPS on my old rig.
So, once Gung Ho is finished, I plan to get to work on Retribution and Hasrabit together. Red v Red is where the real fun is at for me so I'm excited to revisit the latter and to start work on the former. I expect the Brit version of Gung Ho won't take too long to finish though but no promises. I don't want to fight 'Meet the Flintstones' again for a L-O-N-G time.

If anyone is interested the Royal Air Force Museum is hosting a virtual lecture entitled:
Why did the West overestimate Russian military capabilities and why does this matter?
 
later today, 1730 GMT.
 
https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/virtual-events/virtual-lectures/virtual-lecture-why-did-the-west-overestimate-russian-military-capabilities-and-why-does-this-matter/
 
 

As it happens, the latest version of the campaign extractor did the job on Hasrabit so I now have two large campaigns to rework over time.
 
The Hasrabit maps are actually pretty good but far too small for what I need now so I'll have to extend them quite a bit before I can rework them.
 
So, the plan is, get the 6 mission USMC campaign finished first and then do the British Forces and NATO versions of this campaign. I'll post more about that once I've finished the maps and have most of the battles working properly. I have no idea how long this is going to take but I'm hoping later next month (April) for the first version and the Brits and Germans to follow not long after that.
After that, I'm going to focus on Hasrabit as it's OLD, most folks won't have played it and you also get to play with Republican Guards and Special Forces with all the goodies that come with them. Of course, map reworks come first and as I'm learning from my current project, that's 2-3 days per map, with 10 maps so that's about a month of work on maps alone. I generally do map work in the evening though so I'll start work on these next week. Since this is Red v Red and easier to do than NATO v Red, I expect reasonably quick progress on this because you're not hampered by any of those 'silly' considerations like civilian casualties or cultural sensitivity. It's just 'get the job done'.
Then finally, Road to Dinas. It won't need quite so much work to redo as the maps are generally big enough. It's the AI that will need a lot of love as there are a few AI attacks and there's also some new kit that could be utilised. I had to use US air forces for Hasrabit as there wasn't Syrian air power in the early versions of the game. Nor were there Shilkas which are a bit of a game changer. But I've learned a few tricks since I released this campaign so it should benefit from my experience.

It may just be me, but I think that NATO would want someone competent.

That's brilliant. Thanks. I've downloaded the dynamic version and have unpacked it. It really is a monster. Redoing that will be a lot of work, but FUN work.
I'm going to have to be careful and not get too carried away and take on too much at the start. I want to get 'Montebourg' redone and also work on my smallest campaign, Gung Ho! before I start work on this project. But now that I have the whole thing, minus the core units file, it's a definite project for this year. It will be a CMSF2 rework so I'll be able to add water and bridges as well as wire fences to replace the rural walls I used on my early maps.

1 year of the war is passed. From the start of the invasion and to the huge count of air and missile strikes. One of my friends has been killed by wagner artillery in Bohorodichne village near Bakhumt. My father-in-law has been killed by storming the defensive enemy positions in the Kherson region 1st of October. I gave 3 of my salaries (all what I have)on the first day of the war on the military budget. Thanks to all of you, thanks for your help. Taking carry of our refugees, helping our soldiers to destroy enemy forces with AT weapons, artillery, APS, AFV, and Tanks, peoples who served in foreign legions. Thank you for giving billions of money to support our economy. Special thanks to battlefront for small support for me, when I asked about a discount, they gave me 2 games with all DLCs for free - I didn't expect this. Some of my relatives were in Kherson in occupation, and all high-value electronic and expensive things were looted from them by Russian forces. And now we don't fear rocket strikes (10 times they exploded 700-1000m from my house) we don't fear nuclear threat, we don't fear the second army in the world and you shouldnt. Sorry for we English would that what I want to say for all of you, I can tell you many things about the war but first i will try to improve my language knowlages.

BMP Thunder Run - RPGS to the left of us, ATGMS to the right!
The two BMPs made it - just - and their guys debussed. It went to poop a few seconds later...

This is a re-do of my original TV98-3 “Attack in Brandenburg” but as REDFOR (Syrian regulars) versus OPFOR (Syrian fighters and combatants). It uses CMSF2 game version 2.05 9BFC) gane engine 4. Unfortunately, if you are on Steam the linked version of the scenario will not work as at the moment your version has not been patched.
 
This scenario concept is based on the one of the excellent Tactical Vignette series titled 
http://ciar.org/ttk/mbt/armor/armor-magazine/armor-mag.1998.mj/3TV98-3.pdf
TACTICAL VIGNETTE 98-3 “Attack in Brandenburg”
You can download the actual brief at the link above.
This revised revised scenario has had the built-up area and surroundings heavily reworked to make the terrain more complex and confined.
I've posted it here for some testing as not sure with the change of force from US heavy mech to Syrian tin cans re difficulty etc. Its probably one more suited to play H2H than aginst the AI.
Play as Blue (Syrian regular army) versus Red (Syrian fighters and combatants).

 
 
 
 
TV 98-3 Attack in Brandenburg REDFOR_v5.btt

Luke Harding at The Guardian had an interesting piece touching how cultural legacy is perceived in times of existential war
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/dec/31/mikhail-bulgakov-museum-kyiv-calls-to-close
 
 

Homicide is the act of killing a man
Regicide is the act of killing a king
Fratricide is the act of killing a brother (or, more generally, any blue-on-blue)
Matricide is the act of killing your mother
Countryside is the act of killing Piers Morgan

Oh bloody hell, do we have to scroll pages and pages of blather about these kinds of empty headed attention seekers now?
What the hell does this have to do with the war?
This entire thread can drown very quickly in American and EU political yabbida yabbida yabbida.  There's no freeking end to it.
Go watch Tucker and Rachel or whoever.

I don't think it's sad at all. I think we have been trying to push square pegs into round holes for a long time.
The EU works much better if we recognise we are different people and use this for cross-pollination to advance universally as the EU while still keeping mind that we all have different roots, social constructs, habits, etc. as nationalities. Brussels outstretched paws to influence national politics have been reduced in a last years and I feel the strain has been reduced and the sentiment towards the EU has improved, at least here in Holland.
A cooperation rather than a unification works better. At least I think so.

How can you tell wen politicians are lying? Their lips are moving.
The term “politics” is from two words, Poly, which is derived from a Greek word that means “many,” and ticks, which are “blood-sucking insects.”

"Capital" (with an "A") comes from the Latin caput, for "head," and it refers to the city that is the center of government. "Capitol" (with an "O") also has a Latin origin, confusingly—it refers to the Capitoline Hill in Rome and to the Capitolium, a particular building on top of that hill.
Capital = a city / Capitol = a building
The U.S. Capitol Police work for Congress, not for the Executive Branch, and they normally exercise jurisdiction over the Capitol Building, the surrounding office complexes, and some of the adjoining streets and sidewalks.
The U.S. Secret Service protects the persons of the president, vice president, and their families; as well as some other senior officials, visiting dignitaries, and a dizzying array of former White House residents. The agency also operates a large, roughly 1,300-officer Uniformed Division, which guards the White House, Vice Presidential Residence, and foreign embassies and consulates all over D.C. I live in the District, and I note that USSS uniformed officers are some of the only police who make traffic stops, and that they respond enthusiastically to calls for service near their posts. A couple weeks ago, a dozen Secret Service cars descended on the supermarket near me after a customer got in a fight with the manager.
The White House's communications, transportation, mess, and medical services are run by military personnel under the White House Military Office.
The U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry ("The Old Guard") has two battalions in the D.C. area, mostly tasked for ceremonial roles, but trained as light infantry and for DSCA. Similarly, there's about a battalion at the Marine Barracks. Employing any of these federal forces within the U.S. is legally complicated under posse comitatus, so commanders usually call out National Guard units for civil disturbances or public event support. If I remember correctly, most of the initial force of Guardsmen on January 6th came from the D.C. National Guard—they know the area, are based nearby, and are weighted toward MPs.
Most of the deployable units in the area report to Joint Headquarters National Capital Region, a part of U.S. Northern Command, at least for non-routine operations. 

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/873/260/a5b.png

Having seen some regular posters step away from this thread for mental health reasons (including myself), it makes me wonder about the supports allowed and/or provided for the leaders of Ukraines armed forces. How their outlook and perspective on their situation might shift or be skewed by stress and sleeplessness / weight of responsibility etc. 
I recall reading more than a few examples in history books (eg., Eisenhower’s biography on WWII, or No Holding Back, operation Totalize, etc) of leaders being consumed by the never ending pressures of command, etc. ending in a tailspin that typically led to a horrible miscalculation of some kind.
how do modern western armies mitigate those conditions within a command, and do we know if Ukraine might benefit from something similar? Or is it naive to think there would even be time or luxury to consider that kind protection afforded decision makers in a fight for survival?

Cold Warriors.
  Well it looks like Steve has already dropped the mic over on the annual update thread, so let myself, Bil H and Cpt Miller (along with a small team of unwashed heathens - two of whom are actually from the UK), be the second to announce the first CMCW Module - CMCW - British Army On the Rhine (BAOR).

We are still in development so I will only outline the broad strokes of what we are working on, and insert the caveat that we reserve the right to add/subtract - 
 - Time frame of the game is going deeper backwards into the Cold War.  We are setting the clock back to 1976, so CMCW will now encompass 1976-1982 (including some minor tweaks to the existing US orbats).  As has been noted we are less interested in the later Cold War years largely because they really do start to resemble the later CM titles and we are shooting to keep CMCW distinct in its own right.
- UK BOAR - right now we have a pretty comprehensive build planned for the UK units as they transitioned from their 1974 structures - to where they landed in 1980.  As per the picture above players should be able to become deeply engaged within the historical BAOR sector of the ETO.
- And because I just have to represent the home team, we are also doing the Canadians.  That little black box is the planned 4 CMBG AO - you will note this was right at the tail end when the brigade was still part of the BAOR, although for those that really want to play First Clash and park them down in Lahr you are fee to do so because the basic unit structures remained the same.
- We do have plans for the Soviet side, but are going to hold off on details until we zero them fully in...more to follow. 
- I will let you all speculate and discuss what new vehicles and weapon systems we are talking about but there is a not insignificant list of new ones we are planning - more as we start to get some cool screen shots.  
As noted by Steve, we are well on our way and are planning for a release this year - content and full scope remains TBA.
Thank you all very much for your support, the response to CMCW has been well beyond what we were expecting and that is entirely thanks to you guys.

Wallace has been a rock from the very beginning. HIS place in the history books is going to be one to envy.

Some would say a courtesy from a Russian leader who ran an expensive covert influence campaign that swung the vote just over the line.
Europe (the world) really needs to understand what Russia does to democracies via the back doors...

Haiduk, my friend. Your country is in a dark hour. But this is the beginning of the end, my friend, a desperate ploy by those playing out the last of their cards. It was Vasily Grossman, a Ukrianian who said 
“In the cruel and terrible time in which our generation has been condemned to live on this earth, we must never make peace with evil. We must never become indifferent to others or undemanding of ourselves.”
Vasily Grossman

couldn't that be said for probably every war ever fought?  There were indigenous people who fought alongside the US calvary.  Every colonial army ever formed usually had a portion made up of the indigenous population.  It is more a statement of humans than it is about any regional behavior in that part of the world.

A selection of snow-covered flavor objects for CM:FB.
Includes: Petrol Pump, Post Box, Barrels, Water Pumps, Wood Piles, Tires, Some Sacks (from Santa!), Fuel Drums.
I was able to duplicate models for barrels and drums, but use a different texture if they are sideways or upright.  This way they look nice with snow added, but it means I had to include the non-snow versions of these too otherwise it all gets messed up.
They may work OK in other titles too but I haven't tested them there.
Download link: Mediafire
Might also have a dig around in my folders and scrape together a few other bits and bobs I've made for the other CM titles.