Paper Tiger

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battle-for-normandy-campaigns/the-road-to-montebourg-revised-for-v4-0/
Don't worry, this won't overwrite or otherwise delete the original campaign that came on the disk. IIt's a completely different file. This is substantially different from the vanilla campaign and the number of changes made is huge but the most important one to note is that you will need both the Market Garden module and the Vehicle Pack to play this.
 
Other important highlights are that the 2/8 INF core units are now mostly Green with High morale which means you'll need to manage them more carefully in a firefight.
All-new AI plans using triggers and most of the tricks that came with later versions of the game.
Flamethrowers are included in some missions.
Some maps have been revised, most notably the map for Turnbull's Stand which veterans of the original campaign will probably notice quite quickly.
A 'new' mission has been added although those of you who found and played the earlier revised version that was uploaded to BFC's old Scenario Depot will recognise it. The campaign has a prelude phase consisting of the new mission and then the old campaign opener Beau Guillot. You should notice quite a few changes made to that mission as well - some extra help to make up for the drop in experience.
There is air support in quite a few missions now and less artillery, at least the bigger guns anyway.
 
Anyway, let's post this and then I'll see what needs to be 'fixed' or not in good time. This is an old campaign so i'm not expecting a ton of feedback for it for quite a while but let me know and I'll fix things. Now I'm taking a break from CMBN. I haven't quite decided what comes next - finishing Hasrabit or a new version of Gung Ho! for the German forces. Later, I'll get to work on the two Scottish campaigns I'd mentioned elswhere.
 
Have a Happy New year.

The thought did cross my mind briefly a while ago though. If they did want it as an extra, I'd be very happy for that to happen but I'm not pushing for it. It needs both the Market Garden and Vehicle Pack content to play so I can understand why that might not be appealing for them. 
The same will go for the revision of the Scottish Corridor that will come along some time in the future - it's going to need Market Garden and the Vehicle pack to work. I REALLY want a flamethrower tank or two in one or two of these missions as they were present in the real operation and there's no way that I'm redoing it without one. (Or at least trying it to see if it's as cool as I think it will be. I suspect it will completely destroy any existing balance in these missions but I want to try.)
 
Watching Hapless's Montebourg and Scottish Corridor series is what got me back into this. He did a really good job with his AARs - very professional. My wife was astonished when I pointed out to her that I made the series he was playing.

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battle-for-normandy-campaigns/the-road-to-montebourg-revised-for-v4-0/
Don't worry, this won't overwrite or otherwise delete the original campaign that came on the disk. IIt's a completely different file. This is substantially different from the vanilla campaign and the number of changes made is huge but the most important one to note is that you will need both the Market Garden module and the Vehicle Pack to play this.
 
Other important highlights are that the 2/8 INF core units are now mostly Green with High morale which means you'll need to manage them more carefully in a firefight.
All-new AI plans using triggers and most of the tricks that came with later versions of the game.
Flamethrowers are included in some missions.
Some maps have been revised, most notably the map for Turnbull's Stand which veterans of the original campaign will probably notice quite quickly.
A 'new' mission has been added although those of you who found and played the earlier revised version that was uploaded to BFC's old Scenario Depot will recognise it. The campaign has a prelude phase consisting of the new mission and then the old campaign opener Beau Guillot. You should notice quite a few changes made to that mission as well - some extra help to make up for the drop in experience.
There is air support in quite a few missions now and less artillery, at least the bigger guns anyway.
 
Anyway, let's post this and then I'll see what needs to be 'fixed' or not in good time. This is an old campaign so i'm not expecting a ton of feedback for it for quite a while but let me know and I'll fix things. Now I'm taking a break from CMBN. I haven't quite decided what comes next - finishing Hasrabit or a new version of Gung Ho! for the German forces. Later, I'll get to work on the two Scottish campaigns I'd mentioned elswhere.
 
Have a Happy New year.

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battle-for-normandy-campaigns/the-road-to-montebourg-revised-for-v4-0/
Don't worry, this won't overwrite or otherwise delete the original campaign that came on the disk. IIt's a completely different file. This is substantially different from the vanilla campaign and the number of changes made is huge but the most important one to note is that you will need both the Market Garden module and the Vehicle Pack to play this.
 
Other important highlights are that the 2/8 INF core units are now mostly Green with High morale which means you'll need to manage them more carefully in a firefight.
All-new AI plans using triggers and most of the tricks that came with later versions of the game.
Flamethrowers are included in some missions.
Some maps have been revised, most notably the map for Turnbull's Stand which veterans of the original campaign will probably notice quite quickly.
A 'new' mission has been added although those of you who found and played the earlier revised version that was uploaded to BFC's old Scenario Depot will recognise it. The campaign has a prelude phase consisting of the new mission and then the old campaign opener Beau Guillot. You should notice quite a few changes made to that mission as well - some extra help to make up for the drop in experience.
There is air support in quite a few missions now and less artillery, at least the bigger guns anyway.
 
Anyway, let's post this and then I'll see what needs to be 'fixed' or not in good time. This is an old campaign so i'm not expecting a ton of feedback for it for quite a while but let me know and I'll fix things. Now I'm taking a break from CMBN. I haven't quite decided what comes next - finishing Hasrabit or a new version of Gung Ho! for the German forces. Later, I'll get to work on the two Scottish campaigns I'd mentioned elswhere.
 
Have a Happy New year.

Yes. Absolutely. The 'feedback' I got from watching that was incredibly helpful. I was actually embarrassed when he flunked the Scottish Corridor mission and went onto the Green path. That will definitely influence the remake. I want people to be able to win if they devise a good plan.
I have a hope that one day he'll do The Khabour Trail, the Canadian campaign I made for the CMSF NATO module (the first one). That's the campaign I'm most proud of.
I had a look at the revision that was made for CMSF2 and it looks almost identical with very little changed (probably because of the way I do the AI in my campaigns. It must have freaked them out when they realised they'd either have to do it all from scratch or try to fathom out how to update that so it still is pretty much my baby.

The thought did cross my mind briefly a while ago though. If they did want it as an extra, I'd be very happy for that to happen but I'm not pushing for it. It needs both the Market Garden and Vehicle Pack content to play so I can understand why that might not be appealing for them. 
The same will go for the revision of the Scottish Corridor that will come along some time in the future - it's going to need Market Garden and the Vehicle pack to work. I REALLY want a flamethrower tank or two in one or two of these missions as they were present in the real operation and there's no way that I'm redoing it without one. (Or at least trying it to see if it's as cool as I think it will be. I suspect it will completely destroy any existing balance in these missions but I want to try.)
 
Watching Hapless's Montebourg and Scottish Corridor series is what got me back into this. He did a really good job with his AARs - very professional. My wife was astonished when I pointed out to her that I made the series he was playing.

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battle-for-normandy-campaigns/the-road-to-montebourg-revised-for-v4-0/
Don't worry, this won't overwrite or otherwise delete the original campaign that came on the disk. IIt's a completely different file. This is substantially different from the vanilla campaign and the number of changes made is huge but the most important one to note is that you will need both the Market Garden module and the Vehicle Pack to play this.
 
Other important highlights are that the 2/8 INF core units are now mostly Green with High morale which means you'll need to manage them more carefully in a firefight.
All-new AI plans using triggers and most of the tricks that came with later versions of the game.
Flamethrowers are included in some missions.
Some maps have been revised, most notably the map for Turnbull's Stand which veterans of the original campaign will probably notice quite quickly.
A 'new' mission has been added although those of you who found and played the earlier revised version that was uploaded to BFC's old Scenario Depot will recognise it. The campaign has a prelude phase consisting of the new mission and then the old campaign opener Beau Guillot. You should notice quite a few changes made to that mission as well - some extra help to make up for the drop in experience.
There is air support in quite a few missions now and less artillery, at least the bigger guns anyway.
 
Anyway, let's post this and then I'll see what needs to be 'fixed' or not in good time. This is an old campaign so i'm not expecting a ton of feedback for it for quite a while but let me know and I'll fix things. Now I'm taking a break from CMBN. I haven't quite decided what comes next - finishing Hasrabit or a new version of Gung Ho! for the German forces. Later, I'll get to work on the two Scottish campaigns I'd mentioned elswhere.
 
Have a Happy New year.

There were originally ten missions in Hasrabit. But I added a new opener which is staying so right now there are eleven.
However, I've got a possible two extra missions as well at Adan Airfield, one of which is already finished and tested but the second of which would require me to make up a whole new AI attack which can be a lot of work. I'm humming and hawing over including this short series because scripting AI attacks can be fun if you're in the right frame of mind so we'll see.
I'm also considering removing the Heavy Metal mission as it's a strange one and too similar to what I have already done in the earlier Hill 142 mission. It may require too much work to update. But again, we'll see.
There are so many AI meeting engagements in this campaign and they're the hardest to make challenging. It was not much work when the AI was simply move group 1 to A, then B, then C and just co-ordinating these groups but now there are up to sixteen of them with triggers as well. It gives much better results but is commensurable to the effort put in by the designer. (I haven't used that word in a long time)

All the campaigns I made for the disk were tested by some beta testers before the release so these kinds of mistakes were caught. In fact it was great having them because they used to catch things like flavour objects out of place, in the middle of the road etc. However, Hasrabit and Dinas, both large campaigns were not and were tested all by myself. I seem to recall a similar mistake in Dinas when it was released where there was some tank sitting in the middle of the map. I used to have what I called a 'Finished' folder where I moved missions that had all the checks performed and the artwork done before transferring. I missed that this time around probably because I was in a hurry to get finished. There's a kind of fatigue that sets in when you have a very large project under development and the desire to get it finished leads to some cut corners at the end. My bad.
So the lesson is to take my time and make sure nothing like that slips through the last checks next time. Hasrabit is not as big a project as Montebourg (in fact, Road to Montebourg is one of the biggest I made after Road to Dinas) but I will start this process again with that.

All the campaigns I made for the disk were tested by some beta testers before the release so these kinds of mistakes were caught. In fact it was great having them because they used to catch things like flavour objects out of place, in the middle of the road etc. However, Hasrabit and Dinas, both large campaigns were not and were tested all by myself. I seem to recall a similar mistake in Dinas when it was released where there was some tank sitting in the middle of the map. I used to have what I called a 'Finished' folder where I moved missions that had all the checks performed and the artwork done before transferring. I missed that this time around probably because I was in a hurry to get finished. There's a kind of fatigue that sets in when you have a very large project under development and the desire to get it finished leads to some cut corners at the end. My bad.
So the lesson is to take my time and make sure nothing like that slips through the last checks next time. Hasrabit is not as big a project as Montebourg (in fact, Road to Montebourg is one of the biggest I made after Road to Dinas) but I will start this process again with that.

There were originally ten missions in Hasrabit. But I added a new opener which is staying so right now there are eleven.
However, I've got a possible two extra missions as well at Adan Airfield, one of which is already finished and tested but the second of which would require me to make up a whole new AI attack which can be a lot of work. I'm humming and hawing over including this short series because scripting AI attacks can be fun if you're in the right frame of mind so we'll see.
I'm also considering removing the Heavy Metal mission as it's a strange one and too similar to what I have already done in the earlier Hill 142 mission. It may require too much work to update. But again, we'll see.
There are so many AI meeting engagements in this campaign and they're the hardest to make challenging. It was not much work when the AI was simply move group 1 to A, then B, then C and just co-ordinating these groups but now there are up to sixteen of them with triggers as well. It gives much better results but is commensurable to the effort put in by the designer. (I haven't used that word in a long time)

Aaaw crap! There's always something that slips through the last check. I have no idea how that got past - I must have re-imported these units after all the testing as I played the vanilla version several times without any issues. It's funny because they're not in the variant which is almost exactly the same. That's game breaker for sure but I guess you'll have a fairly easy run at this particular mission.
I have deleted these units and will get a fresh compilation up later today after I've run through everything else again. Thanks for letting me know.
 
And thanks for the feedback on the first three missions.
 
A new version with the tanks removed is now up. I've had a look through most of the other missions and there are no irregularities that I can see.

As I said elsewhere, I have been a bit stumped as to how to proceed with this. My initial plan was not to change too much so that it was still Hasrabit but the problem is that it is such an old campaign that that is no longer possible. This campaign was made way back with the earliest versions of the first CMSF engine and I was still learning the craft of scenario design. Some of the AI work was abysmal and many of the maps were basically ASL-inspired, especially the compounds. And so many trees!
As you can see from the screenshots I've already posted, I've spent quite a bit of time updating the maps so that they are much more 'modern' with realistic compounds and villages, much more like you'll find in USMC Gung Ho! But I have been struggling to find a  way to make The Guards Counterattack mission workable. I tried toning down the AI attack and that worked - a bit. The problem is that the map is too small and in the time the AI has, it can wipe out everything and occupy all the best positions so that any counterattack is going to be a tough and bloody affair for the player, regardless of the superiority of his equipment and training.
The AI also attacks with two mech companies (previously three) with tanks in support and they absolutely murder the defensive forces even without the somewhat generous artillery support. The notion of removing one mech company didn't appeal to me at all as I want to keep as much of the old as possible. So, what to do?
Well, the solution is quite simple - I need to extend the RED map edge considerably further so that the AI has much further to go. This also allows me to add a second, frontal defensive line to the  map and have the first mech company dismount to attack that line while the second waits and then goes after the back line. This appears to work very well indeed and means that the AI will still be fighting in front of the ridge when your Guards arrive. Perfect. Not only that but it's fun to play again as it's not OTT difficult.
Obviously, that means this is going to take a bit longer to get finished but it's back on track. It is also re-inspiring me and giving me some fresh ideas about how to develop future missions in the campaign.

I'm going to take a bit more time with this one. It's currently an evening project as I'm back to work properly next week and so can't devote so much time to it again. But this is what I'm focusing on for now.
After this particular revision is done, I think it will have to be something all-new, at least from the mission design side - I have a folder of maps from the Canadian campaign ready to adapt for such a project. I think Retribution would be a good idea - basically Red v UNCONs and eventually BLUE if/when there's a NATO intervention. This is a dream at the moment though but I like the idea of doing something 'new' rather than just updating what I've already done.

I'm going to take a bit more time with this one. It's currently an evening project as I'm back to work properly next week and so can't devote so much time to it again. But this is what I'm focusing on for now.
After this particular revision is done, I think it will have to be something all-new, at least from the mission design side - I have a folder of maps from the Canadian campaign ready to adapt for such a project. I think Retribution would be a good idea - basically Red v UNCONs and eventually BLUE if/when there's a NATO intervention. This is a dream at the moment though but I like the idea of doing something 'new' rather than just updating what I've already done.

As I said elsewhere, I have been a bit stumped as to how to proceed with this. My initial plan was not to change too much so that it was still Hasrabit but the problem is that it is such an old campaign that that is no longer possible. This campaign was made way back with the earliest versions of the first CMSF engine and I was still learning the craft of scenario design. Some of the AI work was abysmal and many of the maps were basically ASL-inspired, especially the compounds. And so many trees!
As you can see from the screenshots I've already posted, I've spent quite a bit of time updating the maps so that they are much more 'modern' with realistic compounds and villages, much more like you'll find in USMC Gung Ho! But I have been struggling to find a  way to make The Guards Counterattack mission workable. I tried toning down the AI attack and that worked - a bit. The problem is that the map is too small and in the time the AI has, it can wipe out everything and occupy all the best positions so that any counterattack is going to be a tough and bloody affair for the player, regardless of the superiority of his equipment and training.
The AI also attacks with two mech companies (previously three) with tanks in support and they absolutely murder the defensive forces even without the somewhat generous artillery support. The notion of removing one mech company didn't appeal to me at all as I want to keep as much of the old as possible. So, what to do?
Well, the solution is quite simple - I need to extend the RED map edge considerably further so that the AI has much further to go. This also allows me to add a second, frontal defensive line to the  map and have the first mech company dismount to attack that line while the second waits and then goes after the back line. This appears to work very well indeed and means that the AI will still be fighting in front of the ridge when your Guards arrive. Perfect. Not only that but it's fun to play again as it's not OTT difficult.
Obviously, that means this is going to take a bit longer to get finished but it's back on track. It is also re-inspiring me and giving me some fresh ideas about how to develop future missions in the campaign.

Aaaw crap! There's always something that slips through the last check. I have no idea how that got past - I must have re-imported these units after all the testing as I played the vanilla version several times without any issues. It's funny because they're not in the variant which is almost exactly the same. That's game breaker for sure but I guess you'll have a fairly easy run at this particular mission.
I have deleted these units and will get a fresh compilation up later today after I've run through everything else again. Thanks for letting me know.
 
And thanks for the feedback on the first three missions.
 
A new version with the tanks removed is now up. I've had a look through most of the other missions and there are no irregularities that I can see.

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battle-for-normandy-campaigns/the-road-to-montebourg-revised-for-v4-0/
Don't worry, this won't overwrite or otherwise delete the original campaign that came on the disk. IIt's a completely different file. This is substantially different from the vanilla campaign and the number of changes made is huge but the most important one to note is that you will need both the Market Garden module and the Vehicle Pack to play this.
 
Other important highlights are that the 2/8 INF core units are now mostly Green with High morale which means you'll need to manage them more carefully in a firefight.
All-new AI plans using triggers and most of the tricks that came with later versions of the game.
Flamethrowers are included in some missions.
Some maps have been revised, most notably the map for Turnbull's Stand which veterans of the original campaign will probably notice quite quickly.
A 'new' mission has been added although those of you who found and played the earlier revised version that was uploaded to BFC's old Scenario Depot will recognise it. The campaign has a prelude phase consisting of the new mission and then the old campaign opener Beau Guillot. You should notice quite a few changes made to that mission as well - some extra help to make up for the drop in experience.
There is air support in quite a few missions now and less artillery, at least the bigger guns anyway.
 
Anyway, let's post this and then I'll see what needs to be 'fixed' or not in good time. This is an old campaign so i'm not expecting a ton of feedback for it for quite a while but let me know and I'll fix things. Now I'm taking a break from CMBN. I haven't quite decided what comes next - finishing Hasrabit or a new version of Gung Ho! for the German forces. Later, I'll get to work on the two Scottish campaigns I'd mentioned elswhere.
 
Have a Happy New year.

Aaaw crap! There's always something that slips through the last check. I have no idea how that got past - I must have re-imported these units after all the testing as I played the vanilla version several times without any issues. It's funny because they're not in the variant which is almost exactly the same. That's game breaker for sure but I guess you'll have a fairly easy run at this particular mission.
I have deleted these units and will get a fresh compilation up later today after I've run through everything else again. Thanks for letting me know.
 
And thanks for the feedback on the first three missions.
 
A new version with the tanks removed is now up. I've had a look through most of the other missions and there are no irregularities that I can see.

Aaaw crap! There's always something that slips through the last check. I have no idea how that got past - I must have re-imported these units after all the testing as I played the vanilla version several times without any issues. It's funny because they're not in the variant which is almost exactly the same. That's game breaker for sure but I guess you'll have a fairly easy run at this particular mission.
I have deleted these units and will get a fresh compilation up later today after I've run through everything else again. Thanks for letting me know.
 
And thanks for the feedback on the first three missions.
 
A new version with the tanks removed is now up. I've had a look through most of the other missions and there are no irregularities that I can see.

Aaaw crap! There's always something that slips through the last check. I have no idea how that got past - I must have re-imported these units after all the testing as I played the vanilla version several times without any issues. It's funny because they're not in the variant which is almost exactly the same. That's game breaker for sure but I guess you'll have a fairly easy run at this particular mission.
I have deleted these units and will get a fresh compilation up later today after I've run through everything else again. Thanks for letting me know.
 
And thanks for the feedback on the first three missions.
 
A new version with the tanks removed is now up. I've had a look through most of the other missions and there are no irregularities that I can see.

As I said elsewhere, I have been a bit stumped as to how to proceed with this. My initial plan was not to change too much so that it was still Hasrabit but the problem is that it is such an old campaign that that is no longer possible. This campaign was made way back with the earliest versions of the first CMSF engine and I was still learning the craft of scenario design. Some of the AI work was abysmal and many of the maps were basically ASL-inspired, especially the compounds. And so many trees!
As you can see from the screenshots I've already posted, I've spent quite a bit of time updating the maps so that they are much more 'modern' with realistic compounds and villages, much more like you'll find in USMC Gung Ho! But I have been struggling to find a  way to make The Guards Counterattack mission workable. I tried toning down the AI attack and that worked - a bit. The problem is that the map is too small and in the time the AI has, it can wipe out everything and occupy all the best positions so that any counterattack is going to be a tough and bloody affair for the player, regardless of the superiority of his equipment and training.
The AI also attacks with two mech companies (previously three) with tanks in support and they absolutely murder the defensive forces even without the somewhat generous artillery support. The notion of removing one mech company didn't appeal to me at all as I want to keep as much of the old as possible. So, what to do?
Well, the solution is quite simple - I need to extend the RED map edge considerably further so that the AI has much further to go. This also allows me to add a second, frontal defensive line to the  map and have the first mech company dismount to attack that line while the second waits and then goes after the back line. This appears to work very well indeed and means that the AI will still be fighting in front of the ridge when your Guards arrive. Perfect. Not only that but it's fun to play again as it's not OTT difficult.
Obviously, that means this is going to take a bit longer to get finished but it's back on track. It is also re-inspiring me and giving me some fresh ideas about how to develop future missions in the campaign.

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battle-for-normandy-campaigns/the-road-to-montebourg-revised-for-v4-0/
Don't worry, this won't overwrite or otherwise delete the original campaign that came on the disk. IIt's a completely different file. This is substantially different from the vanilla campaign and the number of changes made is huge but the most important one to note is that you will need both the Market Garden module and the Vehicle Pack to play this.
 
Other important highlights are that the 2/8 INF core units are now mostly Green with High morale which means you'll need to manage them more carefully in a firefight.
All-new AI plans using triggers and most of the tricks that came with later versions of the game.
Flamethrowers are included in some missions.
Some maps have been revised, most notably the map for Turnbull's Stand which veterans of the original campaign will probably notice quite quickly.
A 'new' mission has been added although those of you who found and played the earlier revised version that was uploaded to BFC's old Scenario Depot will recognise it. The campaign has a prelude phase consisting of the new mission and then the old campaign opener Beau Guillot. You should notice quite a few changes made to that mission as well - some extra help to make up for the drop in experience.
There is air support in quite a few missions now and less artillery, at least the bigger guns anyway.
 
Anyway, let's post this and then I'll see what needs to be 'fixed' or not in good time. This is an old campaign so i'm not expecting a ton of feedback for it for quite a while but let me know and I'll fix things. Now I'm taking a break from CMBN. I haven't quite decided what comes next - finishing Hasrabit or a new version of Gung Ho! for the German forces. Later, I'll get to work on the two Scottish campaigns I'd mentioned elswhere.
 
Have a Happy New year.

Well, that was a full day's work. Fortunately, the wife has been busy and hasn't minded me spending 6+ hours doing the artwork and the briefings for all the missions while listening to some early-70s Prog Rock albums and Thin Lizzy (Johnny the Fox is a seriously underappreciated album). All of the new work has just been imported into all the missions and their variants and all that's left to do is rewrite the campaign script and compile it.
Now I COULD upload this later this evening and be able to say that I revised it in 2023 (just) but I'd like to spend a bit more time making sure that everything is as it says on the tin (I did a lot of that today but a second pass is always a good idea.) I like to make sure that all the AI plans are active (I switch them off while testing a new plan) and make sure that the variants have the proper changes implemented.
I expect to have this done tomorrow morning which means it will still be up before the New Year if you live in Hawaii. Or failing that, early on Tuesday (for me)
Edit to add:
I just tested compiling the new version and it all works fine. Yay! There were a few errors but I found them all and corrected them. Now I just have to set those parameters in the script correctly and it's a day!

Yes. Absolutely. The 'feedback' I got from watching that was incredibly helpful. I was actually embarrassed when he flunked the Scottish Corridor mission and went onto the Green path. That will definitely influence the remake. I want people to be able to win if they devise a good plan.
I have a hope that one day he'll do The Khabour Trail, the Canadian campaign I made for the CMSF NATO module (the first one). That's the campaign I'm most proud of.
I had a look at the revision that was made for CMSF2 and it looks almost identical with very little changed (probably because of the way I do the AI in my campaigns. It must have freaked them out when they realised they'd either have to do it all from scratch or try to fathom out how to update that so it still is pretty much my baby.