Paper Tiger

You'll find an answer in the following quotes from the Video AAR competition thread: "The contest launches today (June 9th) and will remain open for entries for a period of at least two months. This period may be extended or shortened at Battlefront.com, Inc.’s sole discretion." "Runner-ups for the main Prize are going to receive a free copy of Combat Mission Shock Force – Marines upon release." That means that it's almost certain that it won't be released before the 9th August. Now, it's POSSIBLE to interpret that as 'if the Marines module is released before the competition ends, entrants must decided whether to buy now or wait until the competition ends and maybe win a free copy'. I don't think so. I wouldn't expect it to be released next month either given that the only information/update we've had about this module in the last 6-8 weeks is this thread. My guess would be some time in September. If it were closer than that, I think we'd be hearing more about it from BFC. But I REALLY hope I'm wrong about this. By the way, there appears to be a second video entry posted at Youtube, a CMSF video by someone called Berto.

Mission 3 - Perditions Flames Having successfully completed the Tumah Crossings mission, you now move on to your part in the final assault on the small town of Dimas with whatever forces have survived the earlier two missions. This mission can vary from very easy to impossible depending on your success in the first two missions. The mission starts with Task Group A probing the enemy positions and making an attack to capture the north crossing. Once this is secured, Task Group A must then gain control of that farmhouse and hold it. Once Task Group B arrive, you must then attack and control the southern crossing. This will probably be the most hazardous part of this mission as the terrain you must cross is very open. With the farmhouse and the southern crossing in your control, the campaign culminates in the assault on the town of Dimas. Expect the opposition to be determined.

Mission 2 - The Tumah Crossing This mission is potentially the toughest mission in the campaign. The two mech forces clash in the Tumah valley and there is the potential for a VERY intense tank battle. In the first phase of the operation, your lead elements must scout ahead of the main force to determine the strength of the forces defending the mouth of the pass. As your forces build up you must attack and clear the estate to the north of the pass With your back secured and your reinforcements streaming in, you must then prepare to meet the enemy force as it moves to engage you in the valley Once you have successfully broken the enemy attack you can proceed with the third part of the mission, the assault on the crossing itself.

Mission 1 -The Road to Amarah In the first mission, Task Group A must clear the Amarah pass of enemy forces. The pass is believed to be held by some Reserve Infantry units equipped with some AT-3 ATGMs. You have a company of mech infantry and a full company of T-62MVs in support as well as lots of artillery. At the start of the mission, while waiting for the bulk of your force to arrive, you must gain control of the crossing to the north of the Red Rock. After gaining control of the crossing, your force must clear out the pass of enemy forces while moving to take up positions on the high ground in preparation for the final phase of this operation. The mission culminates in the assault on Amarah.

First off, let me apologise to the moderator if I'm posting this in the wrong place. PLEASE move it to the Scenario and Mod design Forum if I have posted here in error. PERDITION - a mini campaign (in-game action from mission 3 'Perditions Flames") The Perdition mini campaign is finished and can be downloaded from CMMODS. It is another Red v Red campaign that is a part of my ongoing Syrian Civil War project of which 'Hasrabit' is a part. However, in 'Hasrabit', you controlled the forces loyal to the government. In 'Perdition' you will control the rebel forces. The Perdition mini campaign is a small part of the much larger battle fought between the loyalist 3rd Armour Division and the rebel forces. It is my intention to expand this mini campaign at a later date to include the battle for Dimas, a fictional town to the south west of the capital. While these three missions will be included in the full 'Perdition' campaign, they were designed to be played in this mini format. Unlike Hasrabit, this mini campaign is linear. Failure to complete a mission will result in the termination of the campaign. I expect that the full length campaign to be fully dynamic when it is completed, just like 'Hasrabit'. The maps are large and VERY detailed so expect these missions to take about 5-8 minutes to load up. (photo from mission 3 'Perditions Flames') Brief Outline The three stages to the operation are: The drive through the Amarah pass to be carried out by Task Group A, The descent from the Amarah pass to seize the Tumah crossing to be carried out by Task Group B, The assault on the village of Dimas to be carried out by both Task Groups.

Apparently, at some point in the future, you'll be able to download scenarios from BFC's very own web site. The moderator posted something to that effect sometime before the forum move was made. However, WHEN this service will become available is another story... probably a few months.

It's very nearly finished. I'm playtesting the hell out of the final mission and trying to find the sweet spot where both side's forces and CPU performance match up. After that, I just have to finish the briefings and make up the tactical maps so it should definitely be finished sometime before next weekend. I don't normally play as the US but I really want to give the new equipment a spin so after I get this finished, I'm going to do a mini-campaign for the Marines and it will definitely include the map from the third mission. But to make it interesting for ME, the US Player will have to have access to ALL the bells and whistles, artillery, air support as well as those M1A1s. It should be interesting to see how dangerous I can make it for the US player.

Hi there yeah, it sounds like you're moving a bit TOO quickly there. It's best to wait and ambush the first wave of attackers with your Special Forces before doing any attacking of your own. When playing this mission, I always wait for the reserves to assemble with their tanks before beginning my counterattack. You don't have to sit and watch the screen for a few minutes either while you're waiting. Get your FOS into a good position to call in an artillery strike on your first objective and use the Snipers to gain intel on enemy positions. The moment that artillery bombardment stops, I begin my counterattack. You don't need much time to do it either so don't worry too much about the time. Regarding casualties, your result for Ambush sounds very good and losing a whole platoon in Strong Stand is not a bad result. Red stuff isn't as durable as US stuff so you have to be prepared to accept some quite stiff losses sometimes to complete the mission. The later Special Forces missions have been balanced with the expectation of about 30-50% casualties so if you have less, you're doing really well. Anyway, good luck with this mission. The Republican Guards missions follow and they're a very nice change of pace.

Hi LLF great looking map. I'm just curious, what sort of frames per second are you getting with such a large detailed urban map. I made a very detailed map for the finale of my campaign which was just about 500mx500m and it JUST ran at about 8-12fps at best, sometimes lower.

Oops, I must confess that I didn't look this up in the manual. Ironic as I usually always look there first. However, I have to say that I did actually use those settings for the Republican Guard ATGM team this morning. Because the Unit purchase screen doesn't tell you what kind of kit has been assigned, you have to deploy or otherwise open the scenario up, to see what equipment they've been give. As thewood states above, you're still not certain to get what you want using this method. as I said earlier, this morning, I bought six Republican Guard ATGM teams in one go with different settings in the hope that ONE of them would have the AT-7 but they were ALL AT-13s. It would seem that the chances of finding an AT-7 team or a T-72M1V2001 are very small. But this is the way you guys want it and I don't suppose it'll be changed so I won't beat this drum any longer. By the way, I decided earlier just to leave the AT-13s in the scenario. It's a tad overpowered for my needs but I'm sure the player will be glad to have them.

Have any of you seen either of these units in the game? The AT-7 ATGM saxhorn (NOT the AT-13 saxhorn that the Republican Guards have) The T-72M1V(2001) model If you have seen them, which units have them and what settings do you need to enter in the editor to get them? I spent about 40 minutes this morning sifting through lots of permutations in the editor to find an ATGM team equipped with the AT-7 but could only find either the AT-4C (not strong enough for my purposes) or the AT-13 (WAY TOO powerful fow what I have in mind). I tried the Special Forces, Republican Guards, Mech Infantry and Infantry but can't find an AT-7. Same goes for the T-72 model stated above. They're both in the manual but I can't find them. As a footnote, BFC, please let scenario designers pick the equipment they want in the scenario editor and not subject us to this hit and miss process. I don't want to pick unrealistic FORMATIONS but I would like to be able to choose which tanks/ATGM teams they are equipped with from the realistic alternatives.

Scipio I downloaded your mod this morning and installed the yellow flames version and it's really beautiful. The flames look alive and dangerous now. Thanks a lot for posting this.

Thanks guys. Trust me, these maps look WAY better when you're playing on them than I can show you with the screenshots. But they're not just eye candy. I'm working to make these missions tactically challenging and exciting to play as well. The 'Tumah Crossing' mission was finished yesterday after I got a solid victory with acceptable material losses without relying on luck. So I'm hard at work trying to make the finale winnable. After having played the first two missions to death now, I have a very good idea what you'll have left when you go to the final mission so I'm playtesting a special stand-alone version with a depleted Blue OB. My first real playthrough this morning resulted in a total defeat for Blue. However, that's not bad news because if it's still unwinnable after I've tried varying my tactics, all that'll be necessary to do is cut back the Red OB a bit, say by removing one tank or reducing the crew's experience level. I'm really hoping to get this finished sometime early next week, almost certainly before next weekend. I've mostly finished the briefings and adding the pictures but I haven't done the tactical maps yet. The latter will be about one evening's work. I had a look at CMMODS earlier today to pick up a Flames mod and saw that nobody's posted any new missions for quite a long time. I guess most of the scenario designing community also happen to be playtesters and they're too busy working on Marines compatible missions. This should keep the Red on Red crowd happy for a couple of weeks or so before the Marines module arrives sometime later next month or September.

Good question and good luck with it. What I have gleaned from reading BFC's posts before the forum move, it would appear that the patch will have ALL the changes made to the game system that are introduced in the Marines module. This will keep the two games compatible with each other. But what does that include? The only thing we know for certain is that the infantry behaviour model is going to be enhanced because the marines 13 man squads revealed some inadequacies in the current system. Apart from that, I know nothing. Maybe others can chip in with their observations and enlighten us all a bit further.

It'e very likely that you'll see both of the first two missions in this campaign released as stand-alone missions but not for a little while. Since this really is a MINI campaign, it's possible to complete it within a single day and easily within a single weekend. Therefore, I'm hoping that most folks will give the 'full' thing a spin before I give them the singles. I think you'll be very happy with the second mission, 'The Tumah Crossing' as it's a meeting engagement between two combined arms forces. And it'll probably be fine to play PBEM too. Anyway, here's another picture from the campaign. I've been so busy actually playing these missions that I've mostly neglected to take photo's of the action. However, here's one from the third mission which I'm quite fond of.

Sivodsi You'll be playing Mishga's 'Breakout'. The 'Breakout' Handihoc's referring to is the seventh mission in the Hasrabit campaign.

Ah, I think I know what the problem is then. You haven't DEPLOYED the weapons team yet. Check that out. You'll probably find they can't fire their missiles as the weapon isn't deployed and they wait for an order to do so. Hope that works...

After spending all my free time this weekend working on the second mission, I have to report that it's going to take a couple more days to get it just right. Prior to the weekend, both I and my playtester were finding this mission well nigh impossible to complete. So I made a number of changes to it which resulted in it becoming too easy for Blue. My playtester will be surprised to learn that with the new changes, Blue can SLAUGHTER those T-72M1Vs with little to no loss. Since I don't want to let this thing grow into a monster, I don't want to add more forces to either side. Therefore, I'm in the process of reworking both sides reinforcement schedules to get the whole thing JUST right. Hopefully, this should all be sorted by mid-week and then I can finish the final mission which shouldn't take more than a few days as it's already nearly finished.

handihoc I must confess, I've never seen that happen before and have no idea what could be causing it. I take it they HAVE missiles to fire? They should have had their supplies replenished at the Depot and so should have up to 5 each.

Oh, I think I can answer that one. No, I'm afraid it's not. It can only be played against the AI. And neither of the Hasrabit stand alone missions can be played against a human player either as the 'Red' side would be able to SLAUGHTER the Blue player in the first quarter of the mission. I think one of the best challenges that you haven't already played would be the Louch's Chechnya - Polyanskoe mission. That is a very well balanced scenario and a lot of fun too.

It's good to know that but that's not what's causing the problem. The BFD/RFD settings were set before the units were purchased and while the Red OB changes from time to time, those settings have never changed. Anyway, before someone picks me up on the factual inaccuracy in my last post, this is the picture I wanted to post. I posted a link to the wrong one because I was somewhat riled by the tone of "BFC's" response. There it is now. Taken after 1 minute. Now, while this isn't a huge problem for infantry units as they can correct their facing quite quickly, it is for vehicles as they often set up with their backsides facing the FBE and get killed quickly without getting a shot off. Because of this limitation, I have deleted almost all of the Red vehicles deployed in forward positions at the start of the mission because they were just cannon fodder. Hopefully, some REAL spokesman for BFC can comment on this issue. If this is a design decision, then fine, it's THEIR game and I'm willing to work within the limitations that result from it. Since Mark is a Beta Tester, he is obviously privy to some insider info about how the game is designed. It would be a BIG help to the responsible scenario designing community if this kind of info was shared with us as well since the manual is not entirely clear on this point... quote... BLUE FRIENDLY DIRECTION - sets the direction into which Blue units would withdraw to join their lines RED FRIENDLY DIRECTION - sets the direction into which Red units would withdraw to join their lines That certainly doesn't say that the AI will deploy it's forces within it's set up zones with their faces towards the enemy or their backs towards the the friendly direction. And since that's clearly not what's happening, it really says nothing.

Wait, wait wait, wait. I REALLY have NO IDEA what you're talking about here Mark. You're saying that, if I designate the Enemy board edge (Red) as west and the Friendly (Blue) as east and I create a Red set up zone somewhere in the centre or the east side of the board, then those units will face the wrong way? How is that not broken? Surely it would be better, and more logical if they faced the enemy board edge or at least had their backs to their own friendly board edge. However, if you're telling me in your capacity as BFC's spokesman that it's working as designed, then that's fine by me. BTW, as a scenario designer I DO pay a lot of attention to the details, thank you. That's why I'm reporting THIS! Anyway, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. This one was taken after about a minute after the scenario set up, just enough time to give the AI time to orientate it's units (attention to the details, Mark.) Yes, the board is very large but this set up zone is still more than 600m from the Blue set up area. So why should they be facing their OWN board edge? You can see Blue's unit icons behind the team.

handihoc you don't really have a choice but to revert to an earlier save as a loss in Breakout results in the campaign ending for you. The good thing is, with that victory, you have 'atoned' for your previous failure. You should be back on the optimal track again now.

Hi Pandur 100% agree with you there. I am actually quite happy to wait until Christmas for this module if that's necessary. You'll hear no shouts or protests from me if that happens. However, I am a bit frustrated at still having absolutely NO Idea when it's coming after their original announcement said 'soon' and that was three months ago. I think it's a VERY safe bet to say that it won't arrive before the BFC summer sale finishes at the end of July so we're probably looking at August at LEAST before we'll see it. I'll be very happy with a NEGATIVE announcement, along the lines of 'It won't be available until September'. I'm not interested in hurrying them up or harrassing BFC for any information other than that. BTW, although I was never able to open that file you sent me, I was so inspired by those screenshots you posted a few months back that I started work on a little project with very large maps. That project is very nearly completed now. I hope you'll give it a try.

Adam1 and John thanks for those links. I'll have a look at them later when I have a break at work. Minimum and maximum ranges and lethality are what I'm interested in. I have most of the info I need available in the manual which is often open when I'm designing missions. This info isn't there. I'm still wondering why the T-55s don't fire them in the missions I'm working on. They definitely do in other missions and I saw my T-62s fire their AT-12s this morning with great effect. I'm just wondering if there's something about the map that interferes with the AI, perhaps something similar to Normal Dude's map problems interfering with performance.