Paper Tiger

Chainsaw another great result with 'Breakthrough'. That's one of my favourite maps in the campaign. Seeing as how you've done so well in the earlier missions, I see no reason for you to fear 'Orchard Hill' too much. I'm sure you'll do just fine. Zatoichi The Marder is positioned differently in different AI set ups. In the one you got, the default, he has LoS to that southern line of bocage and if he gets lucky with his LoS checks, he'll see your guys quickly enough, especially if you try to move past it too quickly. Just put it down to the fortunes of war. vbfg It's funny but I didn't think 'Ecoqueneauville' would prove to be such a challenging mission. (Personally, I thought le Hamelet was the toughest in the opening series but most of you guys seem to have tackled it without any real problems.) Ecoqueneuville has a nice map so it is not a chore to play that mission again (and again.. and again). As long as it's fun to play, that's all I care about.

Gerry Not just the guns. I think you'll find everything moves in each AI plan, minefields, trenches, foxholes. Only the wire doesn't move as it can seriously screw with the AI player if you chose to play as the Germans (not recommended for this reason alone) Keeps the player guessing where that minefield will be. There are five plans in total and they're all different.

I volunteered to finish this mission off when the original author, Berlichtingen, had to drop out. His original mission was a 30 minute mission and I stuck with that. Thirty minutes is just about perfect for my current taste and I'd love tor see a lot more missions of this size. I'm too worn out now to be bothered playing 4 hour Battalion+ sized actions played on 2kmx2km maps. It just gets you into the thick of the action straight away and you cam play it through a couple of times in a single session. There are multiple AI plans which mix things up considerably so you might find that playing it again will require you to do something completely different and that right wing smash may not be very effective at all

The AI gets no cheats in CMx2 at all. It abides by the same rules and gets no advantages at all. I remember asking in the past for the AI to get reduced call-in times when it calls in an off-board fire mission to compensate for the human player's ability to anticipate the player's movement but it was rejected outright. The AI gets no cheats.

FragerZ You have made my day! I have been waiting to hear from somebody who had completed the campaign successfully so that I could relax and now I can. I've created quite a few campaigns now and I always try and make the finale something special. And, funnily enough, they are usually fights in built-up terrain ('Hasrabit' in Hasrabit itself, 'Road to Dinas' in the heavily damaged outskirts of Dinas, 'The Khabour Trail' in Al Hasakah.) The one exception was USMC Gung Ho! which finished with an assault on an airfield. I spent nearly two weeks developing the battle for Eroudeville and it was obviously time well spent. Unfortunately, the AI has no way to adapt to the player's actions and so will continue to push its troops forward in the face of enemy fire even after their overwatch has been eliminated. There should be at least two StuGs overwatching the infantry as they advance across the field. Perhaps you nailed them or disabled them earlier? I am not particularly concerened about the ease you had winning these missions. I've crafted enough stinkers in my time and the sad result is that few people ever complete them. What's the point? (I'm still waiting to hear from somebody who beat the finale in the Canadian campaign - I thought THAT map was fantastic) So, I'm honestly glad that this one was doable. The really important thing to me is that it was fun to play and I hope you enjoyed it. I'll definitely consider converting the finale into a stand-alone. I enjoyed creating that battle and I'd like to craft a couple more AI plans for it too. But for now, I'm going to take a step back and enjoy playing 'something else' for a while.

BigDork I read your AAR. Thanks again for posting that. Unfortunately, I can't see the screenshots as imageshack doesn't let Indonesia use it. There are a lot of piracy issues here so that's understandable. Good luck at Hameau. It should be a reasonably easy fight depending on how you appraoch the village and the AI plan. Clavicula Again, that's one of the best results I've seen playing les Licornets. It can be pretty brutal if you don't do it right. I can tell from the screenshot you posted which AI plan you got. The other would have been tougher on your left flank move . It's VERY satisfying pulling that flanking move off and getting a bazooka team on the StuG's flank. I've had some great fights on that map. And the other screenshot comes from the Grand Hameau mission (#3). pagskier I think you'll find all the help you need to get you through the Tutorial campaigns in the briefings themselves so it wouldn't hurt to go through them first before getting too deep into Montebourg. With regards to your question about resupplying the mortars between missions, your forces will receive full resupply after each series. There is no resupply between the three missions that comprise the 2/8's assault on the Georgian ridge as it's just one battle divided into three manageable actions. If I'd wanted to, I could have made that one large map as the three locations are all quite close to each other. But I play in RT and so find the smaller size more manageable. Your mortars will be resupplied in full after the Hamelet mission (#4) bodkin Again, a lot depends on your approach to the objective and the AI plan you get. I try to make each AI set up strong v one approach. It sounds like you're approaching against the AI plan's anticipated direction. And to you other guys, thanks for your comments as well. I love the CMx2 Infantry game. Even in CMSF, I felt the light infantry formations were the most fun to play with. And each map in this campaign got a lot of lovin' over the course of its development. Each time I played the mission I made small tweaks and improvements to the map so they were all 'works in progress' right up until the weekend before the game was released. I kind of miss working on them now although I expect, one day, I'll expand this to include some of the fighting on the road to Cherbourg. Then, I'll tweak them further.

The AI plan will only determine where the units set up at the start of the mission and what they will do as the mission clock advances. Some placements are better able to counter the move you made through la Vallee. Two of them will make the left flank a very difficult proposition. It looks like you got one of the other two. And one of those two makes la Vallee into a small fortress. So, whichever plan you got, you did the right thing to beat it. You might not be so lucky next time. BTW, in the early stages of developing this mission, the Germans had some very serious artillery assets on call including some Nebelwerfers. (handihoc and Seabee never saw that version) At that time, this mission was near impossible to win without losing about 50% of your force. Since cutting the nebelwerfers and the 120mm mortars from the German OB, it looked doable without stressing out the player too much playing it. It should be fun. I will wait and see how other folks fair when they reach this mission. Now, you're onto 'Breakthrough'. Good luck with that one.

Chainsaw Thanks for posting that. I've downloaded the PDF file and read quickly through it. I'll have to read it more carefully to figure which AI plan you got but at the moment, it looks a bit like Plan 3. Getting feedback like that makes all the work put into creating campaigns worthwhile.

Well, I got it and have been playing it solidly for about a week and I have to confess that it's the best operational wargame I've EVER played. The depth is incredible and after a couple of hours of fiddling about, I was able to start playing some of the smaller 'Road to...' missions.

Sounds a lot like what I usually do when playing that mission too. Bummer about the game crashing though. There's no guarantee that when you return to the campaign that you'll get the same AI plan either. Good luck with the German campaign.

It may also be a result of units routing to the map edge and not being able to rout any further. Waaarg, if you post the name of a scenario where you see that happening, we'll take a look and see.

Chainsaw That's probably the best result I've ever seen for that mission. Time limit reached too! I was worried that it might prove too difficult and that it would 'break' the campaign. Congratulations. I'll look forward to reading the AAR. Then I'll know which of the 4 AI plans you got.

Clavicula I got to use all three of the main infantry formations in this campaign, and I confess that the 2/505 missions were probably my favourite missions. Turnbull's Stand, les Licornets, Breakthrough/Stalemate and Holding Action all have beautiful maps. I doubt I'd know which one to pick as my favourite although I supect most folks will pick the Breakthrough map when they finally get to see it. Turnbull's Stand got a lot of attention from the start, right up to the end. I was deeply impressed after reading the accounts of his platoon's incredible stand and wanted to do it justice. About six weeks before the game was released, I reread Keegan's account of his stand and returned to the map to put in the high hedgerow and the large compost heap. Once I redid it, I was very happy with it. It does make for a cracking stand-alone too and I play it over and over again. That's an 81mm mortar zeroing in on these guys firing positions.

pagskier Yes, you'll follow E Company though the rest of the series of battles for the Georgian Ridge (2 more missions only). They will have to perform the assault on le Hamelet from the south immediately after they capture le Grand Hameau. There are actually some advantages to that. I look forward to hearing how you get on with the E Company branch. vetacon I really enjoy playing Infantry-centric battles with company sized forces and so I made a whole campaign of missions that suited me. I'm glad you are enjoying them. This campaign probably won't appeal so much to the mech-heads and armour fans though. There are some tanks and support vehicles in some of the missions but most of the time, the foot-sloggers are on their own. There are some pretty awesome artillery assets coming in the later battles though Each map in the campaign is a very accurate representation of the real world location .... today. Fortunately, unlike Syria, there are ample street-view photos on Google Earth that allow us to see these small hamlets and by observing the buildings types, it was possible to discern which were likely to be there in WW2 and which were of later construction. You'll also find that the elevations are extremely accurate too. In fact, getting the elevations done properly was the most time-consuming aspect of creating these maps. It helps to have some good music to listen to while doing that. It's probably not much of an exaggeration to say that I spent about 800 hours constructing this campaign. Considerably more if you include the time I spent doing the necessary research required to construct the campaign. Chainsaw I am really looking forward to hearing you you fare with that mission. The le Ham series of battles were the most time-consuming missions to create as I wanted them to be special. They are the core of the campaign. Bear in mind while you play it that the Allies got their asses kicked by the defenders in this mission so the historical result would probably be a Total German Victory. Regarding releasing them as stand-alones, I'm working on converting some of these maps to QB maps. They will be very highly specialised though and will only be playable as Infantry-centric battles only. I have already converted le Grand Hameau into a small QB map and it plays very much like the scenario, only with more uncertainty. Playing them PBEM? I'd have to rework the German set-up zones to make these missions playable in that way. I use a rather convoluted method to create my AI set up plans and I doubt the German player would appreciate the restrictions they impose. But we'll see...

There doesn't appear to be any problems with houses on half tiles. I ran an extensive number of tests on independent houses placed on half tiles earlier today. I tried entering them from both the north and south faces and the troops all did so without any hitches at all. The problem seems to be with those two houses on that map alone! The independent house immediately to the Red house's west is also a 'halfway' house and units run round it to enter it from the front rather than from the back. And if I sub in an all new house in exactly the same place with the same facade, it works just fine too. It's too late to change this for the campaign mission but Ive already changed the houses for the QB map I'm working on so at least this won't crop up there. I'll post this up as a bug in the meantime and see if it's anything Charles can fix.

Okay. I ran a quick couple of tests and I found that I couldn't get the infantry to enter the house from the south side. One unit had a long order from one house to the next and the second had a waypoint planted just outside the door and the second in the house. Neither unit entered the south entrance. They ran round to the front and entered there. Bad move... So, I swapped the house with a fresh one that doesn't sit on a half tile and restarted. This time, everybody ran in as expected. I'll do a few more tests to see if it happens with other buildings on half tiles and report back. If this is a bug and not a map issue, it crept in right at the end of the development cycle as I played this mission to death before and I never had any issues.

Thanks for posting that. I had a look in the editor and I can't see any problem with the building. However, it's one of those buildings that straddles two action spots instead of one. I will try out a few tests later today with that building combo and see if there's a problem there. I'm creating a small number of highly specialised QB maps and this one is first in the pipeline so it won't be a bother to test.

That was 'Le Grand Hameau'? Can you see it there?

Voldonikov & Bimmer thanks very much for the detailed AAR's. I really appreciate it. I like to see what people are doing when they play my missions. I try to anticipate what a player will do when I'm scripting my AI plans and it seems like I'm doing a reasonably good job so far It also reads like you guys got AI plans 2 and 4 respectively. That helps me as well. Perrmanent666 nice screenshot! I hope you'll post more. The maps look their best when viewed right down at ground level. Good luck with mission 2.

Chainsaw do you have a screenshot of that house? I'll have a look at it and see if it's a map design issue.

Rokko I think you'll find this is a Friendly Board Edge issue. What is the FBE/EBE setting in the scenario editor? If it's not in synch with your map the units will not align with the bocage properly when you paint the bocage line with the order and will attempt to move past it. To remedy this, you'll have to buy new units as the units 'remember' this information.

A word to you guys who are struggling with scripting the AI. First, rename your QB map folder 'Official QB Maps' and create a new QB map folder. Put your virgin map into this folder. That way, you will have no problems tracking down your map when you fire up a QB. You'll also learn some other important things by doing this that you won't if you have 300+ maps to chose from... Make sure that both sides have set up zones. Create a very basic Attack plan. One Group - one movement order. Keep the distance between them quite short, say 100m -200m for starters. Fire up the mission and play as Defender. Chose Infantry only for now as groups with vehicles require more careful planning. Use Scenario Author mode to watch what the AI does with your AI plans. You will learn more in 30 minutes of watching the AI do its thing in this mode than you will exchanging posts here on these boards for twice that time. Create a really simple AI movement plan. Set up - move to Order 1 and watch the fun. Make notes. Make changes, try again. Add a second group to your AI plan. Repeat. Then try adding a second movement order to one of the groups, etc, and you'll catch on. With scenario author mode, the AI controlled side is completely exposed to you. You can see what each soldier is doing, is able to spot, C2 issues, etc. You will also see any flaws in your script really quickly, such as getting through bocage/pathfinding issues etc. Then you can effect changes to your map to facilitate the AI's movement.

Volodnikov congrats. I assume you got a win. I'd like to hear how you approached this mission. Which route did you take? Where was that AT gun? (Depending on your AI plan it will be positioned differently to prevent a player from restarting and hitting its start location with a sneaky pre-planned artillery strike) Indulge an old campaign designer. You wouldn't believe the amount of work I put into creating this and I'm genuinely curious to know how folks are approaching the missions. It helps me improve my future work. Same for you other guys too.

Gerry I would strongly recommend that you play through the Task Force Raff campaign first to get a feel for the game before going into 'Montebourg'. I have a (bad) reputation for making difficult/challenging campaigns and Montebourg probably won't harm that rep either. So playing Raff first will help you get a bit more out of the experience. In spite of its 'Combat Training' tag, TF Raff is a hell of a lot of fun to play as well. You might as well enjoy youself while learning.

Antig3n You'll find that they are Green troops with Low morale as well. One of the things I really loved about moving back to WW2 was that very well placed German units can hold up a numerically superior US force quite effectively. There are very few defenders in this mission but I worked hard to maximise their effectiveness by placing them carefully, especially with regard to maintaining C2 links wherever possible. What a huge difference THAT makes. Sounds like you're playing Ecoqueneuville. I have a pretty good idea which crossroads you're talking about. It's WAY too early to start giving spoilers so I won't... except for this. ******************MINOR SPOILER ALERT************** There are many different ways to play this mission but a good way to lose this mission is to play it too quickly. You have a lot of time and there are very few defenders. You also have a lot of support as well. You don't HAVE to go straight up the road at the start of the mission. The tanks can wait a bit before getting into the action BTW, there are four AI plans for this mission. Restarting won't necessarily give you an edge. The same goes for almost every mission in the campaign.