Paper Tiger

It's always heartening to geed feedback on your work, even better if it is positive.
Don't worry, I'm taking care not to up the difficulty too much. In the revised version, the 2/8 INF's experience will largely be Green because in testing, I found these units performed more realistically with Green. However, you get air support in some missions which compensates for the loss.
The PIR and GIR units won't be changed in any way except of course, there will be flamethrowers in some missions. I haven't seen them yet but they're in the new core unit file.
As it happens, today, I worked on the second, 'new' mission, based on Brecourt, and this is a fine opportunity to make use of the AI triggers. There is a small counterattack that was 'timed' in the original mission but now it will happen when you touch an objective. Not saying which one though. I'm learning how to handle units more effectively in RT now so testing the missions has become much more fun.
'Turnbulls' Stand' has a much better set of AI attack plans now. (I was appalled when I reviewed the AI plans as they were pretty basic and lacked any real co-ordination. While that is more realistic given the historical action meant that the Germans were surprised, it was an 8-hour action condensed into 40 minutes so it can't be too unco-ordinated. Otherwise, it's a wipe out for the AI)
I'm not sure if you'll be pushing them back but based on what I've watched on Youtube, I wouldn't put it past a good player to slay them regardless and drive them off the map. Not to spoil anything but they have a more realistic attack behaviour now. I pulled off a couple of victories in testing yesterday though and I'm still far from being a 'good' player yet so it's not going to be an impossible task for a reasonable player. Oh, and there are old, captured French tanks which have replaced the MkIVs. Boy, do they suck! But they're fast.

Some of you may have noticed that I've poked my head up again after a very long absence. I've just been very busy with real life and wanted to spend some time playing games rather than designing content. But this game is a bit like crack for me, it's just so addictive and watching Usually Hapless play this campaign on Youtube got me back into it. (Yes, it's ALL your fault Hapless  )
I've done a bit of work fixing things and now want to turn my attention to my first campaign for CMBN, the Montebourg campaign. It's the oldest and was made using v1.0 of the engine meaning that there are only 8 AI groups and no air support. There have also been a number of changes to the game which mean that I can experiment with some of the new stuff while reworking this one.
It's not going to be a total overhaul but it will no longer work for players with only the CMBN base game so it's a Repository jobbie. I'll let you guys know what you'll need but it will probably require the full Monty as I want flamethrowers in it. It's also worth saying that anything new in it will be historically accurate and not just added in for the laughs. So no SS with JgPZIVs. Pity.
So, I'll keep you up to date with my progress on this. I'm not looking to do a LOT of work. It's mainly to reacquaint myself with the scenario designer and writing AI plans.
 
Mission 1
I have no plans to change anything at all about the opening mission at all. It's fine as is.
Mission 2
There is a 'new' short 'Brecourt' mission. It's not really new though as it was in the revised version on the Repository. I'll need to tweak this one as the game seems to have become more lethal since I last played it but otherwise, it's good to go.
Mission 3
The first mission to get a full rework is Turnbull's Stand. I'm reworking the AI attack as there were only two AI plans and they were terrible. I've made a number of revisions to the map itself to reflect the reality of the day so it's a bit more open with less bocage and more hedges.
I've spent pretty much all morning and most of the afternoon learning how to script an AI attack using the new tools and the first AI plan is almost done. I want a second one with an entirely different focus but it should be much faster to do as I'm not 'learning' anymore. Then, I'll mix it up so that there's four attack plans.
 
And that's where I'm up to. There's no timetable on this. I'm not in any hurry but by posting about it here, I've kind of declared my intentions and am far more likely to stick with it.

I don't have my old research as it was all lost but I have had it confirmed very recently that the formation was the Panzerjager-Abteilung 709. The StuGs in the following mission, Licornets, came from the same formation.

Avalon Hill's 'The Longest day?' That was an absolute MONSTER. It was really expensive and just setting it up took longer than most other AH wargames took to play to completion. Believe me, I wanted to buy it and the guy in the wargaming shop tried to persuade me to buy it but I just couldn't see any way that I'd be able to play that so no. 
I got that info from another forumite, Mr X. I have lost all my original Montebourg research materials but today I rediscovered the free history of the fight from Utah to Cherbourg by the Center of Military History and found nothing on this. Most of my OOB  knowledge of this came from John Keegan's 'Six Armies in Normandy' and a little from the ASL scenario, The Roadblock.
Be warned, this mission is almost entirely different from the original version. My playtests today showed that this was going to need more work to make it playable. The victory conditions, the OOBs for both sides and the map itself have all changed a lot.
Now, I'm going to get back to work on this mission as I've decided to give it a rework which hopefully will keep almost all of the work and testing I've done these last three days and I'm eager to see how the new mission works.

Edit to add:
I was responding to Warts and All's post above...
What an ungrateful bastidge - it would take me less than 30 seconds to count 50+ coins and I'd be grateful for the sale.  Not to mention the free space the box would give me in the shop.
My crush was on Anne Wilson but that's an earlier time, back in the Heart - Little Queen - Dog and Butterfly - Magazine era.
 
Now a few comments on my OB for Turnbull's force. Most of the sources I've read agree that he had a team of 42 men including himself. This included two BAR teams and a Bazooka team. There is some disagree ment on the number of AT guns though, some say two but having read Keegan's account of the morning, I've made some assumptions - the paras jogged to Neuville from Ste Mere Eglise. They found a .30mm machine gun along the way. Vandervoort arrived in a jeep with a 57mm AT gun which was given to the Bazooka team in a building near the road. He sent a runner to communicate with Turnbull from which I infer that he was near the orchard and not on the east side of the road.
I'm going with Turnbull's HQ (5 men), 2 squads (24 men - 2nd squad w Bazooka)), two BARs (4 men), 1 Para LMG (2 men),  57mm AT gun team (7 men) reduced strength for a total of 42 men. (The AT gun team is not core so should be okay when the mcampaign is complied. However, sometimes the reduction rounds up rather than down and you can occasionally get 43 men. But they're AT gunners so it's not going to break anything. And that's the best I can do with the way the game engine is.
I'm glad the French tanks and one of the AT teams are gone because this is how playtesting went:
First tank shows up - one shot - one kill.
Second tank shows up - one shot - one kill
Marder shows its face (MGs can take it out but again, one shot - one kill.
Leaving my two AT guns with about 12 rounds of ammo left to rip the German squads apart. They are very effective when used against infantry. Easy win for Turnbull.
 
So that's my OB for this mission. I have approximately two companies of German infantry with two StuGs on the attack so I've made the infantry Green and Low morale so that they're not too much for the defender. You'll need to keep them suppressed so that they don't overwhelm you with machine gun fire. Now it's the mortars which will kill you which is how it went down that day.

Here's an update on how this is going. I have changed the structure of the original campaign to give it a new opening mission which, together with the original starting mission, Beau Guillot, will form a new campaign prelude, the outcome of which will determine certain parameters for the three Chapter 1 - Georgian Ridge missions. 
Having revised and tested the new AI plans for both the prelude and all the chapter one missions including the variants, I'll be picking up where I left off with Turnbull's Stand tomorrow. This is one of the very few AI attack missions so it will require a bit more time to get right but I learned a LOT from making USMC Gung Ho! so I'm guessing this will be better than the previous revision I made earlier this year. I'll just have to make sure that it's winnable. It's almost certainly going to play very differently from the old version, that's for sure.
I seem to be taking about a day to revise a defensive mission at the moment so if I am able to stick with a decent schedule, I should have most of this done before Xmas. However, the two blocks to swift progress will be Le Ham and the finale, Eroudeville. Le Ham didn't have any AI plan associated with it - it was a pure set-up with no variants and I can't let that stand. Eroudeville has a pretty sizeable AI attack so that will take a few days to revise as well.
 
A few observations about the new core forces - having the US 2/8 INF mostly Green makes for a rather different experience and I nearly undid the change as it was definitely harder to manage these forces in combat. But instead I've added some extra firepower to some of their missions to compensate them for the loss. In Guillot, you get a Destroyer on call to help soften up the defenders and there is air power in a couple of the Georgian Ridge missions. In Hameau, I've added an AA Quad Half Track to provide the attacker with some extra punch as well. The defenders get a little boost too to keep things interesting - nothing massively OP of course, but after all, most of you will have already played the original campaign so these changes should make it feel fresh.
The new AI plans are a considerable improvement over the old as well and the AI is much better on the defence now than it previously was so you'll need to be a little more cautious. Except for the new opener, there are always two or more AI plans in each mission, usually five. The opener is a recreation of a certain famous, historical action which I released as a stand-alone scenario to the old repository so it's intended to be fixed.
I have also found an old mission, Maxwell's House, which I kept a back up of on the Beta boards. It was offered as a possible scenario for the Arnhem module but it didn't cut the mustard. Fortunately, it was still in my folder there so I have been able to revisit it as well. it's a German attack on a tiny but highly detailed rubbled map defended by a very small but elite force of Red Devils in Arnhem. NOT Historical at all, just 100% for fun. It's definitely NOT going to be added to the Nijmegen campaign - that one is finished and I have no plans to touch it again (play perhaps  but definitely not redesign) The Breakout from the Neerpelt Bridgehead and the Aalst missions pretty much broke me, the work that went into them was tremendous. The other two Irish Guards missions that formed that series were no picnic to make and test either.

A few thoughts on what I've been doing these last couple of day. I've been working on Turnbull's Stand and learning how to use Order triggers. After quite a bit of experimentation, I understand how it all works and there are some cool things I can do with them but building an entire attack plan with them is an exercise in frustration. I can achieve much the same result by using objective triggers and Exit After timers  so I revised my attack plan today.
I reread the account of Turnbull's action on D-Day this evening and was surprised to read that he had no heavy weapons, no mortars, just a couple of MGs he'd picked up along the way and a bazooka team. Vandervoort dropped off a 57mm AT gun before the main German assault and that was all he had.
Also, the German 'tanks' were not French tanks but were probably Stugs so I've taken them out. To be honest, they were 100% pure crap and utterly useless in the hands of the AI so subbing them gave me great joy. The only way to keep them alive was to keep them hidden which is not much fun.
In keeping with the historical account, I have made several major revisions to the map and the mission. Now you can only set up in the orchard on the west side of the road. The two East Touch objectives are also gone - you're only keeping the Germans out of the orchard.
Finally, you have two squads now with the attached teams giving you 42 men, the exact number Turnbull had on that day. The German don't outnumber you 5:1 but the mission is only 50 minutes long so who cares?
I am pretty sure my original OB was inspired by an ASL scenario, probably called Turnbull's Stand. That's where the French tanks and the Marder came from. So it's ASL no more and now as historical as I can make it. When reading about the action this evening, I was surprised to find that I've scripted something the Germans tried to do and Turnbull had to react to so I'm happy with the AI work I've done today.
I'll continue to test this tomorrow which makes three days of work on this. After this, I'll get back to much easier AI defensive plans.

Some of you may have noticed that I've poked my head up again after a very long absence. I've just been very busy with real life and wanted to spend some time playing games rather than designing content. But this game is a bit like crack for me, it's just so addictive and watching Usually Hapless play this campaign on Youtube got me back into it. (Yes, it's ALL your fault Hapless  )
I've done a bit of work fixing things and now want to turn my attention to my first campaign for CMBN, the Montebourg campaign. It's the oldest and was made using v1.0 of the engine meaning that there are only 8 AI groups and no air support. There have also been a number of changes to the game which mean that I can experiment with some of the new stuff while reworking this one.
It's not going to be a total overhaul but it will no longer work for players with only the CMBN base game so it's a Repository jobbie. I'll let you guys know what you'll need but it will probably require the full Monty as I want flamethrowers in it. It's also worth saying that anything new in it will be historically accurate and not just added in for the laughs. So no SS with JgPZIVs. Pity.
So, I'll keep you up to date with my progress on this. I'm not looking to do a LOT of work. It's mainly to reacquaint myself with the scenario designer and writing AI plans.
 
Mission 1
I have no plans to change anything at all about the opening mission at all. It's fine as is.
Mission 2
There is a 'new' short 'Brecourt' mission. It's not really new though as it was in the revised version on the Repository. I'll need to tweak this one as the game seems to have become more lethal since I last played it but otherwise, it's good to go.
Mission 3
The first mission to get a full rework is Turnbull's Stand. I'm reworking the AI attack as there were only two AI plans and they were terrible. I've made a number of revisions to the map itself to reflect the reality of the day so it's a bit more open with less bocage and more hedges.
I've spent pretty much all morning and most of the afternoon learning how to script an AI attack using the new tools and the first AI plan is almost done. I want a second one with an entirely different focus but it should be much faster to do as I'm not 'learning' anymore. Then, I'll mix it up so that there's four attack plans.
 
And that's where I'm up to. There's no timetable on this. I'm not in any hurry but by posting about it here, I've kind of declared my intentions and am far more likely to stick with it.

Here's an update on how this is going. I have changed the structure of the original campaign to give it a new opening mission which, together with the original starting mission, Beau Guillot, will form a new campaign prelude, the outcome of which will determine certain parameters for the three Chapter 1 - Georgian Ridge missions. 
Having revised and tested the new AI plans for both the prelude and all the chapter one missions including the variants, I'll be picking up where I left off with Turnbull's Stand tomorrow. This is one of the very few AI attack missions so it will require a bit more time to get right but I learned a LOT from making USMC Gung Ho! so I'm guessing this will be better than the previous revision I made earlier this year. I'll just have to make sure that it's winnable. It's almost certainly going to play very differently from the old version, that's for sure.
I seem to be taking about a day to revise a defensive mission at the moment so if I am able to stick with a decent schedule, I should have most of this done before Xmas. However, the two blocks to swift progress will be Le Ham and the finale, Eroudeville. Le Ham didn't have any AI plan associated with it - it was a pure set-up with no variants and I can't let that stand. Eroudeville has a pretty sizeable AI attack so that will take a few days to revise as well.
 
A few observations about the new core forces - having the US 2/8 INF mostly Green makes for a rather different experience and I nearly undid the change as it was definitely harder to manage these forces in combat. But instead I've added some extra firepower to some of their missions to compensate them for the loss. In Guillot, you get a Destroyer on call to help soften up the defenders and there is air power in a couple of the Georgian Ridge missions. In Hameau, I've added an AA Quad Half Track to provide the attacker with some extra punch as well. The defenders get a little boost too to keep things interesting - nothing massively OP of course, but after all, most of you will have already played the original campaign so these changes should make it feel fresh.
The new AI plans are a considerable improvement over the old as well and the AI is much better on the defence now than it previously was so you'll need to be a little more cautious. Except for the new opener, there are always two or more AI plans in each mission, usually five. The opener is a recreation of a certain famous, historical action which I released as a stand-alone scenario to the old repository so it's intended to be fixed.
I have also found an old mission, Maxwell's House, which I kept a back up of on the Beta boards. It was offered as a possible scenario for the Arnhem module but it didn't cut the mustard. Fortunately, it was still in my folder there so I have been able to revisit it as well. it's a German attack on a tiny but highly detailed rubbled map defended by a very small but elite force of Red Devils in Arnhem. NOT Historical at all, just 100% for fun. It's definitely NOT going to be added to the Nijmegen campaign - that one is finished and I have no plans to touch it again (play perhaps  but definitely not redesign) The Breakout from the Neerpelt Bridgehead and the Aalst missions pretty much broke me, the work that went into them was tremendous. The other two Irish Guards missions that formed that series were no picnic to make and test either.

I left a comment on FGM about this, it seems to me on Mission 4/5 the javelins have some accuracy issues. It's almost like they have collected the Milan bug in SF2. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not. I used every javelin including the reloads on the AAV and trucks and only killed one bunker and a BMP. As a side note, they seem much better on BMPs so maybe its a bunker targeting bug or something? The seem to fly just behind the unit its aimed at. I tried them on the 4 and 5 story buildings, roofs and ground level to the same result. I also reloaded the mission several times and got basically the similiar results. 
That all being said, once again a fantastic campaign PT. Its fun, engaging and really highlights the firepower the USMC can deliver and its weaknesses. To those debating on trying it. Its not the Scottish Corridor campaign in difficulty but like that campaign its immensely enjoyable. Thank you for your hard work on this and all the other campaigns youve done. maybe give us a Final Blitzkrieg one next?

Here's an update on how this is going. I have changed the structure of the original campaign to give it a new opening mission which, together with the original starting mission, Beau Guillot, will form a new campaign prelude, the outcome of which will determine certain parameters for the three Chapter 1 - Georgian Ridge missions. 
Having revised and tested the new AI plans for both the prelude and all the chapter one missions including the variants, I'll be picking up where I left off with Turnbull's Stand tomorrow. This is one of the very few AI attack missions so it will require a bit more time to get right but I learned a LOT from making USMC Gung Ho! so I'm guessing this will be better than the previous revision I made earlier this year. I'll just have to make sure that it's winnable. It's almost certainly going to play very differently from the old version, that's for sure.
I seem to be taking about a day to revise a defensive mission at the moment so if I am able to stick with a decent schedule, I should have most of this done before Xmas. However, the two blocks to swift progress will be Le Ham and the finale, Eroudeville. Le Ham didn't have any AI plan associated with it - it was a pure set-up with no variants and I can't let that stand. Eroudeville has a pretty sizeable AI attack so that will take a few days to revise as well.
 
A few observations about the new core forces - having the US 2/8 INF mostly Green makes for a rather different experience and I nearly undid the change as it was definitely harder to manage these forces in combat. But instead I've added some extra firepower to some of their missions to compensate them for the loss. In Guillot, you get a Destroyer on call to help soften up the defenders and there is air power in a couple of the Georgian Ridge missions. In Hameau, I've added an AA Quad Half Track to provide the attacker with some extra punch as well. The defenders get a little boost too to keep things interesting - nothing massively OP of course, but after all, most of you will have already played the original campaign so these changes should make it feel fresh.
The new AI plans are a considerable improvement over the old as well and the AI is much better on the defence now than it previously was so you'll need to be a little more cautious. Except for the new opener, there are always two or more AI plans in each mission, usually five. The opener is a recreation of a certain famous, historical action which I released as a stand-alone scenario to the old repository so it's intended to be fixed.
I have also found an old mission, Maxwell's House, which I kept a back up of on the Beta boards. It was offered as a possible scenario for the Arnhem module but it didn't cut the mustard. Fortunately, it was still in my folder there so I have been able to revisit it as well. it's a German attack on a tiny but highly detailed rubbled map defended by a very small but elite force of Red Devils in Arnhem. NOT Historical at all, just 100% for fun. It's definitely NOT going to be added to the Nijmegen campaign - that one is finished and I have no plans to touch it again (play perhaps  but definitely not redesign) The Breakout from the Neerpelt Bridgehead and the Aalst missions pretty much broke me, the work that went into them was tremendous. The other two Irish Guards missions that formed that series were no picnic to make and test either.

Here's an update on how this is going. I have changed the structure of the original campaign to give it a new opening mission which, together with the original starting mission, Beau Guillot, will form a new campaign prelude, the outcome of which will determine certain parameters for the three Chapter 1 - Georgian Ridge missions. 
Having revised and tested the new AI plans for both the prelude and all the chapter one missions including the variants, I'll be picking up where I left off with Turnbull's Stand tomorrow. This is one of the very few AI attack missions so it will require a bit more time to get right but I learned a LOT from making USMC Gung Ho! so I'm guessing this will be better than the previous revision I made earlier this year. I'll just have to make sure that it's winnable. It's almost certainly going to play very differently from the old version, that's for sure.
I seem to be taking about a day to revise a defensive mission at the moment so if I am able to stick with a decent schedule, I should have most of this done before Xmas. However, the two blocks to swift progress will be Le Ham and the finale, Eroudeville. Le Ham didn't have any AI plan associated with it - it was a pure set-up with no variants and I can't let that stand. Eroudeville has a pretty sizeable AI attack so that will take a few days to revise as well.
 
A few observations about the new core forces - having the US 2/8 INF mostly Green makes for a rather different experience and I nearly undid the change as it was definitely harder to manage these forces in combat. But instead I've added some extra firepower to some of their missions to compensate them for the loss. In Guillot, you get a Destroyer on call to help soften up the defenders and there is air power in a couple of the Georgian Ridge missions. In Hameau, I've added an AA Quad Half Track to provide the attacker with some extra punch as well. The defenders get a little boost too to keep things interesting - nothing massively OP of course, but after all, most of you will have already played the original campaign so these changes should make it feel fresh.
The new AI plans are a considerable improvement over the old as well and the AI is much better on the defence now than it previously was so you'll need to be a little more cautious. Except for the new opener, there are always two or more AI plans in each mission, usually five. The opener is a recreation of a certain famous, historical action which I released as a stand-alone scenario to the old repository so it's intended to be fixed.
I have also found an old mission, Maxwell's House, which I kept a back up of on the Beta boards. It was offered as a possible scenario for the Arnhem module but it didn't cut the mustard. Fortunately, it was still in my folder there so I have been able to revisit it as well. it's a German attack on a tiny but highly detailed rubbled map defended by a very small but elite force of Red Devils in Arnhem. NOT Historical at all, just 100% for fun. It's definitely NOT going to be added to the Nijmegen campaign - that one is finished and I have no plans to touch it again (play perhaps  but definitely not redesign) The Breakout from the Neerpelt Bridgehead and the Aalst missions pretty much broke me, the work that went into them was tremendous. The other two Irish Guards missions that formed that series were no picnic to make and test either.

Here's an update on how this is going. I have changed the structure of the original campaign to give it a new opening mission which, together with the original starting mission, Beau Guillot, will form a new campaign prelude, the outcome of which will determine certain parameters for the three Chapter 1 - Georgian Ridge missions. 
Having revised and tested the new AI plans for both the prelude and all the chapter one missions including the variants, I'll be picking up where I left off with Turnbull's Stand tomorrow. This is one of the very few AI attack missions so it will require a bit more time to get right but I learned a LOT from making USMC Gung Ho! so I'm guessing this will be better than the previous revision I made earlier this year. I'll just have to make sure that it's winnable. It's almost certainly going to play very differently from the old version, that's for sure.
I seem to be taking about a day to revise a defensive mission at the moment so if I am able to stick with a decent schedule, I should have most of this done before Xmas. However, the two blocks to swift progress will be Le Ham and the finale, Eroudeville. Le Ham didn't have any AI plan associated with it - it was a pure set-up with no variants and I can't let that stand. Eroudeville has a pretty sizeable AI attack so that will take a few days to revise as well.
 
A few observations about the new core forces - having the US 2/8 INF mostly Green makes for a rather different experience and I nearly undid the change as it was definitely harder to manage these forces in combat. But instead I've added some extra firepower to some of their missions to compensate them for the loss. In Guillot, you get a Destroyer on call to help soften up the defenders and there is air power in a couple of the Georgian Ridge missions. In Hameau, I've added an AA Quad Half Track to provide the attacker with some extra punch as well. The defenders get a little boost too to keep things interesting - nothing massively OP of course, but after all, most of you will have already played the original campaign so these changes should make it feel fresh.
The new AI plans are a considerable improvement over the old as well and the AI is much better on the defence now than it previously was so you'll need to be a little more cautious. Except for the new opener, there are always two or more AI plans in each mission, usually five. The opener is a recreation of a certain famous, historical action which I released as a stand-alone scenario to the old repository so it's intended to be fixed.
I have also found an old mission, Maxwell's House, which I kept a back up of on the Beta boards. It was offered as a possible scenario for the Arnhem module but it didn't cut the mustard. Fortunately, it was still in my folder there so I have been able to revisit it as well. it's a German attack on a tiny but highly detailed rubbled map defended by a very small but elite force of Red Devils in Arnhem. NOT Historical at all, just 100% for fun. It's definitely NOT going to be added to the Nijmegen campaign - that one is finished and I have no plans to touch it again (play perhaps  but definitely not redesign) The Breakout from the Neerpelt Bridgehead and the Aalst missions pretty much broke me, the work that went into them was tremendous. The other two Irish Guards missions that formed that series were no picnic to make and test either.

Not yet but it's on the to-do list. The real hold-up is reworking the Le Ham mission which is a monster. It turns out that there were no AI plans for this mission and I have to remedy that.
Otherwise, most of the details are complete. I've learned how to use some of those special moves like Withdraw for example so I'd like to revisit most of the AI plans and see if they can be improved further but I'm not going to let it turn into another monster revision that will never get finished. 

This seems to be an appropriate thread to post the following musings. Obviously things didn't pan out the way I expected them to and work on both Hasrabit and Retribution has stalled.
Hasrabit is getting there but I have to admit I haven't enjoyed these missions nearly as much as I thought I would. They're just too damned hard and that's not fun for me any more. One hard mission in a chapter is fine but not all of them and that's been my problem, there are too many hard missions.
The new opener is a cakewalk if you do it right but if you don't, it's a nightmare. I'm not going to change that as it should be obvious what the commander in charge is supposed to do. However, the new 'Ambush' mission is proving really tough to win. I've added air support to the mission but it takes absolutely ages for it to come in and that's not fun. I'm losing this mission quite badly and often during play-testing so the difficulty has to come down. By how much though?
Strong Stand is finished and it's reasonably difficult but you get a LOT of fun toys to play with so I'm going to ease up the mid-game difficulty a bit and that's a day. The initial entry to the map will be challenging but that's fine by me.
The new Guards Counterattack is a beast. I've redone the AI attack plan and it's much more challenging now, so much so that I've removed a whole mech company from the AI OB but it's still very hard to get a win so I'm going to have to ease up the difficulty here.
Hill 142 is in a very strange place. The original was in a very bad condition so I've reworked it and now it's really tough to win. The trouble is that I'm struggling to find the hook for this mission, the feature that sets it apart from the others. It just feels meh to play.
The Barrier is another weird one but I have found the hook. I just need to get the AI working properly.
Now, Buying the Farm is my current favourite of the new missions but boy is it TOUGH. I really need to scale back the difficulty here but I want this one to be a bit of a stinker. But not frustratingly so. This is my chapter stinker and it's at the end of phase 1.
Silence the Guns is probably fine as is and so done but I will need to add more time as it's a bit too tight.
Heavy Metal is kind of stuck - I made an all-new map for this but that means that the original AI plans are lost so I've reverted to the old map and improved it so that I have at least the rudiments of an AI to work with.
Sadara is in a similar condition to Heavy Metal - I've improved the map considerably, especially the town outskirts which look really good now but haven't done any real testing yet. I expect it will take a while to rebalance but the original AI still works and just needs to be improved. This is the Guards finale so it can be a stinker.
Finally, we come to the finale, Hasrabit. I've greatly expanded the original map and reworked the town so that it resembles its real world counterpart. Like the previous two mission, no real testing has been done.
So there's till quite a bit of work to do on this but I'll get through it after I finish the Montebourg rework or at least while I'm doing it but Montebourg is the priority for now.
As for Retribution, we'll see. I'm finding Red v Red a bit too slow when using artillery and air strikes and I've grown to love them both in Gung Ho! and Montebourg. It's a nice idea and I've got some really good maps for this short-ish campaign and I haven't done anything with the Syrian Airborne formations so I'd really like to do this eventually.
Now, let's touch on Dinas. I'd really like to revise both my earliest campaigns to take advantage of the changes to the game engine and if I real the community correctly, Dinas is a very popular one so I really should revisit it.  That will be a massive amount of work to do so it's later next year at best. But having just finished making up an new core unit file for the Scottish Corridor and importing and placing all the units, I know how much work will be involved. Dinas has a nearly a regiment of core units and some of the actions are huge so placing is going to take a lot of time.
And that brings me to artwork - both Hasrabit and Dinas are completely fictional, as in the maps are all made out of my head (except Strong Stand and Hasrabit which are real places in Syria). I will have to redo the artwork for these campaigns completely as the original is definitely a bit naff now. Working with GIMP is okay now but it's certainly not fun for me so this is one of the things that deters me from working on this.
So that's where I am with this. It's not forgotten. I just don't enjoy playing and testing really hard campaigns any more and just want to have fun while facing a reasonable challenge. After all, the REAL difficulty comes from the accrued losses in each mission over the span of the campaign.

I've got a fairly easy three weeks ahead of me so I've decided to revise this one but it's not going to be a straight up remake. Rather, I'm going to split the campaign into two separate campaigns, one for the 9th Cameronians (9 missions) and a second, shorter one for the 2nd ASH (6 missions). I see no good reason to keep this as one long campaign as it's not for official release and splitting it up will make it much easier to manage script-wise. There will be some tweaks to how the player goes to the Veteran or Green branches but I want to get core units done before tackling the new scripts.
Although it was made prior to the 16 AI groups patch, I'm quite happy with the AI as it stands so don't expect any significant changes here. However, the most important change will be that the core units will not start at 80% strength but rather at full strength. While these units were at 80% strength historically, it's not a particularly good way to represent this in the game so I've decided that the fighting strength of these formations should be at 100% and the 'reserve' companies are seriously under-strength. That seems to be a better way to represent this. One side effect of this though is that I'm going to remove the PIAT team attached to every platoon and give 1 section its PIAT instead. This also serves to reduce the number of units the player has to manage and that's fine by me.
I made the new Cameronians core units file last night and have started importing units into the Cameronian missions. I don't expect this will take very long and so it's possible this will be finished later this week. After that, I'll do the same for the ASH missions. I don't want to make any changes that require significant play-testing either. The plan is to have this campaign 'working' again for possible future revisions. But I'm happy to 'fix' any issues you guys might have with it as long as they're quick.
If, and that's a big IF, there is the interest, I may decide to enhance one or both of these campaigns adding flamethrower units as well as further improving the AI, especially the big attacks at the end of each. Regardless of interest, the next step after this is to finish the Montebourg revision so if you have any comments or suggestions for  this one, let me know and I'll see what I can do.
 
Move it! Move it! Let's go!

It must be the compiling process that undoes the creators work in this respect. In Hapless' video of Turnbull's Stand, he has the full OB at the start of the mission but in the scenario as a standalone, they are all at about 50% strength. Well, there's not much I can do about that so I'll have to up the difficulty of the German attack to compensate for the near-doubling of the defender's strength.

It must be the compiling process that undoes the creators work in this respect. In Hapless' video of Turnbull's Stand, he has the full OB at the start of the mission but in the scenario as a standalone, they are all at about 50% strength. Well, there's not much I can do about that so I'll have to up the difficulty of the German attack to compensate for the near-doubling of the defender's strength.

I've got a fairly easy three weeks ahead of me so I've decided to revise this one but it's not going to be a straight up remake. Rather, I'm going to split the campaign into two separate campaigns, one for the 9th Cameronians (9 missions) and a second, shorter one for the 2nd ASH (6 missions). I see no good reason to keep this as one long campaign as it's not for official release and splitting it up will make it much easier to manage script-wise. There will be some tweaks to how the player goes to the Veteran or Green branches but I want to get core units done before tackling the new scripts.
Although it was made prior to the 16 AI groups patch, I'm quite happy with the AI as it stands so don't expect any significant changes here. However, the most important change will be that the core units will not start at 80% strength but rather at full strength. While these units were at 80% strength historically, it's not a particularly good way to represent this in the game so I've decided that the fighting strength of these formations should be at 100% and the 'reserve' companies are seriously under-strength. That seems to be a better way to represent this. One side effect of this though is that I'm going to remove the PIAT team attached to every platoon and give 1 section its PIAT instead. This also serves to reduce the number of units the player has to manage and that's fine by me.
I made the new Cameronians core units file last night and have started importing units into the Cameronian missions. I don't expect this will take very long and so it's possible this will be finished later this week. After that, I'll do the same for the ASH missions. I don't want to make any changes that require significant play-testing either. The plan is to have this campaign 'working' again for possible future revisions. But I'm happy to 'fix' any issues you guys might have with it as long as they're quick.
If, and that's a big IF, there is the interest, I may decide to enhance one or both of these campaigns adding flamethrower units as well as further improving the AI, especially the big attacks at the end of each. Regardless of interest, the next step after this is to finish the Montebourg revision so if you have any comments or suggestions for  this one, let me know and I'll see what I can do.
 
Move it! Move it! Let's go!

This seems to be an appropriate thread to post the following musings. Obviously things didn't pan out the way I expected them to and work on both Hasrabit and Retribution has stalled.
Hasrabit is getting there but I have to admit I haven't enjoyed these missions nearly as much as I thought I would. They're just too damned hard and that's not fun for me any more. One hard mission in a chapter is fine but not all of them and that's been my problem, there are too many hard missions.
The new opener is a cakewalk if you do it right but if you don't, it's a nightmare. I'm not going to change that as it should be obvious what the commander in charge is supposed to do. However, the new 'Ambush' mission is proving really tough to win. I've added air support to the mission but it takes absolutely ages for it to come in and that's not fun. I'm losing this mission quite badly and often during play-testing so the difficulty has to come down. By how much though?
Strong Stand is finished and it's reasonably difficult but you get a LOT of fun toys to play with so I'm going to ease up the mid-game difficulty a bit and that's a day. The initial entry to the map will be challenging but that's fine by me.
The new Guards Counterattack is a beast. I've redone the AI attack plan and it's much more challenging now, so much so that I've removed a whole mech company from the AI OB but it's still very hard to get a win so I'm going to have to ease up the difficulty here.
Hill 142 is in a very strange place. The original was in a very bad condition so I've reworked it and now it's really tough to win. The trouble is that I'm struggling to find the hook for this mission, the feature that sets it apart from the others. It just feels meh to play.
The Barrier is another weird one but I have found the hook. I just need to get the AI working properly.
Now, Buying the Farm is my current favourite of the new missions but boy is it TOUGH. I really need to scale back the difficulty here but I want this one to be a bit of a stinker. But not frustratingly so. This is my chapter stinker and it's at the end of phase 1.
Silence the Guns is probably fine as is and so done but I will need to add more time as it's a bit too tight.
Heavy Metal is kind of stuck - I made an all-new map for this but that means that the original AI plans are lost so I've reverted to the old map and improved it so that I have at least the rudiments of an AI to work with.
Sadara is in a similar condition to Heavy Metal - I've improved the map considerably, especially the town outskirts which look really good now but haven't done any real testing yet. I expect it will take a while to rebalance but the original AI still works and just needs to be improved. This is the Guards finale so it can be a stinker.
Finally, we come to the finale, Hasrabit. I've greatly expanded the original map and reworked the town so that it resembles its real world counterpart. Like the previous two mission, no real testing has been done.
So there's till quite a bit of work to do on this but I'll get through it after I finish the Montebourg rework or at least while I'm doing it but Montebourg is the priority for now.
As for Retribution, we'll see. I'm finding Red v Red a bit too slow when using artillery and air strikes and I've grown to love them both in Gung Ho! and Montebourg. It's a nice idea and I've got some really good maps for this short-ish campaign and I haven't done anything with the Syrian Airborne formations so I'd really like to do this eventually.
Now, let's touch on Dinas. I'd really like to revise both my earliest campaigns to take advantage of the changes to the game engine and if I real the community correctly, Dinas is a very popular one so I really should revisit it.  That will be a massive amount of work to do so it's later next year at best. But having just finished making up an new core unit file for the Scottish Corridor and importing and placing all the units, I know how much work will be involved. Dinas has a nearly a regiment of core units and some of the actions are huge so placing is going to take a lot of time.
And that brings me to artwork - both Hasrabit and Dinas are completely fictional, as in the maps are all made out of my head (except Strong Stand and Hasrabit which are real places in Syria). I will have to redo the artwork for these campaigns completely as the original is definitely a bit naff now. Working with GIMP is okay now but it's certainly not fun for me so this is one of the things that deters me from working on this.
So that's where I am with this. It's not forgotten. I just don't enjoy playing and testing really hard campaigns any more and just want to have fun while facing a reasonable challenge. After all, the REAL difficulty comes from the accrued losses in each mission over the span of the campaign.

I mean if I reduce the forces imported in the unit's starting mission to 80% strength rather than having the core units in the core unit file at 80% strength and importing them that way which is how I did the Scottish Corridor. I'm pretty sure that's how I managed the PIR 'losses' on D-Day in Montebourg but since I lost the original core unit file, I can't remember exactly how it was done. I don't think this is a behaviour that was changed by a patch - it's probably just carelessness on my part.
I've been reading your other post in another thread - thanks again for the good feedback. I will add a bit more time to the Chateau mission. I had a feeling you got an AI plan that makes it more difficult as I play-tested that mission many time - I really enjoy the smaller missions with air support and never really had any problems there. But it's on the to-do list.

This seems to be an appropriate thread to post the following musings. Obviously things didn't pan out the way I expected them to and work on both Hasrabit and Retribution has stalled.
Hasrabit is getting there but I have to admit I haven't enjoyed these missions nearly as much as I thought I would. They're just too damned hard and that's not fun for me any more. One hard mission in a chapter is fine but not all of them and that's been my problem, there are too many hard missions.
The new opener is a cakewalk if you do it right but if you don't, it's a nightmare. I'm not going to change that as it should be obvious what the commander in charge is supposed to do. However, the new 'Ambush' mission is proving really tough to win. I've added air support to the mission but it takes absolutely ages for it to come in and that's not fun. I'm losing this mission quite badly and often during play-testing so the difficulty has to come down. By how much though?
Strong Stand is finished and it's reasonably difficult but you get a LOT of fun toys to play with so I'm going to ease up the mid-game difficulty a bit and that's a day. The initial entry to the map will be challenging but that's fine by me.
The new Guards Counterattack is a beast. I've redone the AI attack plan and it's much more challenging now, so much so that I've removed a whole mech company from the AI OB but it's still very hard to get a win so I'm going to have to ease up the difficulty here.
Hill 142 is in a very strange place. The original was in a very bad condition so I've reworked it and now it's really tough to win. The trouble is that I'm struggling to find the hook for this mission, the feature that sets it apart from the others. It just feels meh to play.
The Barrier is another weird one but I have found the hook. I just need to get the AI working properly.
Now, Buying the Farm is my current favourite of the new missions but boy is it TOUGH. I really need to scale back the difficulty here but I want this one to be a bit of a stinker. But not frustratingly so. This is my chapter stinker and it's at the end of phase 1.
Silence the Guns is probably fine as is and so done but I will need to add more time as it's a bit too tight.
Heavy Metal is kind of stuck - I made an all-new map for this but that means that the original AI plans are lost so I've reverted to the old map and improved it so that I have at least the rudiments of an AI to work with.
Sadara is in a similar condition to Heavy Metal - I've improved the map considerably, especially the town outskirts which look really good now but haven't done any real testing yet. I expect it will take a while to rebalance but the original AI still works and just needs to be improved. This is the Guards finale so it can be a stinker.
Finally, we come to the finale, Hasrabit. I've greatly expanded the original map and reworked the town so that it resembles its real world counterpart. Like the previous two mission, no real testing has been done.
So there's till quite a bit of work to do on this but I'll get through it after I finish the Montebourg rework or at least while I'm doing it but Montebourg is the priority for now.
As for Retribution, we'll see. I'm finding Red v Red a bit too slow when using artillery and air strikes and I've grown to love them both in Gung Ho! and Montebourg. It's a nice idea and I've got some really good maps for this short-ish campaign and I haven't done anything with the Syrian Airborne formations so I'd really like to do this eventually.
Now, let's touch on Dinas. I'd really like to revise both my earliest campaigns to take advantage of the changes to the game engine and if I real the community correctly, Dinas is a very popular one so I really should revisit it.  That will be a massive amount of work to do so it's later next year at best. But having just finished making up an new core unit file for the Scottish Corridor and importing and placing all the units, I know how much work will be involved. Dinas has a nearly a regiment of core units and some of the actions are huge so placing is going to take a lot of time.
And that brings me to artwork - both Hasrabit and Dinas are completely fictional, as in the maps are all made out of my head (except Strong Stand and Hasrabit which are real places in Syria). I will have to redo the artwork for these campaigns completely as the original is definitely a bit naff now. Working with GIMP is okay now but it's certainly not fun for me so this is one of the things that deters me from working on this.
So that's where I am with this. It's not forgotten. I just don't enjoy playing and testing really hard campaigns any more and just want to have fun while facing a reasonable challenge. After all, the REAL difficulty comes from the accrued losses in each mission over the span of the campaign.

This seems to be an appropriate thread to post the following musings. Obviously things didn't pan out the way I expected them to and work on both Hasrabit and Retribution has stalled.
Hasrabit is getting there but I have to admit I haven't enjoyed these missions nearly as much as I thought I would. They're just too damned hard and that's not fun for me any more. One hard mission in a chapter is fine but not all of them and that's been my problem, there are too many hard missions.
The new opener is a cakewalk if you do it right but if you don't, it's a nightmare. I'm not going to change that as it should be obvious what the commander in charge is supposed to do. However, the new 'Ambush' mission is proving really tough to win. I've added air support to the mission but it takes absolutely ages for it to come in and that's not fun. I'm losing this mission quite badly and often during play-testing so the difficulty has to come down. By how much though?
Strong Stand is finished and it's reasonably difficult but you get a LOT of fun toys to play with so I'm going to ease up the mid-game difficulty a bit and that's a day. The initial entry to the map will be challenging but that's fine by me.
The new Guards Counterattack is a beast. I've redone the AI attack plan and it's much more challenging now, so much so that I've removed a whole mech company from the AI OB but it's still very hard to get a win so I'm going to have to ease up the difficulty here.
Hill 142 is in a very strange place. The original was in a very bad condition so I've reworked it and now it's really tough to win. The trouble is that I'm struggling to find the hook for this mission, the feature that sets it apart from the others. It just feels meh to play.
The Barrier is another weird one but I have found the hook. I just need to get the AI working properly.
Now, Buying the Farm is my current favourite of the new missions but boy is it TOUGH. I really need to scale back the difficulty here but I want this one to be a bit of a stinker. But not frustratingly so. This is my chapter stinker and it's at the end of phase 1.
Silence the Guns is probably fine as is and so done but I will need to add more time as it's a bit too tight.
Heavy Metal is kind of stuck - I made an all-new map for this but that means that the original AI plans are lost so I've reverted to the old map and improved it so that I have at least the rudiments of an AI to work with.
Sadara is in a similar condition to Heavy Metal - I've improved the map considerably, especially the town outskirts which look really good now but haven't done any real testing yet. I expect it will take a while to rebalance but the original AI still works and just needs to be improved. This is the Guards finale so it can be a stinker.
Finally, we come to the finale, Hasrabit. I've greatly expanded the original map and reworked the town so that it resembles its real world counterpart. Like the previous two mission, no real testing has been done.
So there's till quite a bit of work to do on this but I'll get through it after I finish the Montebourg rework or at least while I'm doing it but Montebourg is the priority for now.
As for Retribution, we'll see. I'm finding Red v Red a bit too slow when using artillery and air strikes and I've grown to love them both in Gung Ho! and Montebourg. It's a nice idea and I've got some really good maps for this short-ish campaign and I haven't done anything with the Syrian Airborne formations so I'd really like to do this eventually.
Now, let's touch on Dinas. I'd really like to revise both my earliest campaigns to take advantage of the changes to the game engine and if I real the community correctly, Dinas is a very popular one so I really should revisit it.  That will be a massive amount of work to do so it's later next year at best. But having just finished making up an new core unit file for the Scottish Corridor and importing and placing all the units, I know how much work will be involved. Dinas has a nearly a regiment of core units and some of the actions are huge so placing is going to take a lot of time.
And that brings me to artwork - both Hasrabit and Dinas are completely fictional, as in the maps are all made out of my head (except Strong Stand and Hasrabit which are real places in Syria). I will have to redo the artwork for these campaigns completely as the original is definitely a bit naff now. Working with GIMP is okay now but it's certainly not fun for me so this is one of the things that deters me from working on this.
So that's where I am with this. It's not forgotten. I just don't enjoy playing and testing really hard campaigns any more and just want to have fun while facing a reasonable challenge. After all, the REAL difficulty comes from the accrued losses in each mission over the span of the campaign.

I've done a pretty substantial rework to mission 4, "Detectives' so I think I'll wrap this one up and upload the revision to the FewGoodMen site.
You'll be pleased to note that I've added a Grenade launcher Team to the OB for mission 1 only as you recommended.
A full but short list of changes will accompany the post I make when it is available. I could have made much more substantial changes but until I hear ANYTHING AT ALL from folks about missions 4 and 5, I don't feel encouraged to put in a lot of further work to improve these. As a result of these changes, personally, I enjoy playing mission 4 much more now and mission 5 is still my favourite of them all.

Not yet but it's on the to-do list. The real hold-up is reworking the Le Ham mission which is a monster. It turns out that there were no AI plans for this mission and I have to remedy that.
Otherwise, most of the details are complete. I've learned how to use some of those special moves like Withdraw for example so I'd like to revisit most of the AI plans and see if they can be improved further but I'm not going to let it turn into another monster revision that will never get finished.