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ScubaSam

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Posts posted by ScubaSam

  1. The guy driving the TUM ST with all the Ammo, LASMs etc onboard doesn't show in game as having any rank, but I agree thats where a CSM should be.

    How come British RSMs (or OR-9s/E-9s to use the NATO terminology) don't count as forward echelon when American E-9s do? I've seen USMC Sergeant Majors in game, so do the two ranks have different doctrinal roles? I'd assumed they'd be quite similar.

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  2. Yeah, I found using Assault Pioneers or even Engineers as my main "building clearing" squads worked well, because by blasting their way in they tend to cause casualties or at the very least make the enemy cower until small arms fire can mop them up.

    That, and Assault Pioneers don't carry Grenade Launchers, which have a nasty tendency to fire indoors...at point blank range...wiping out both the enemy's and my squads :(

  3. I've got the save game, but I'm tempted to replay the whole thing up to that point again, 1) because its so good :D and 2) because now I actually know how to play as the Brits, and probably won't take as many casualties.

    I think I'd also stand a better chance if I restarted - for example, A Company's Javelin team where wiped out, all KIA, in mission 2, and I'm sure there's at least one mission where they didn't show up beause of that (though they did eventually reappear, having been reinforced, later in the campaign).

    So by playing again perhaps I'll have better forces for the more difficult battles towards the end.

  4. Sir, we will let you know where and when to report for your court-marital. ;)

    I just hope the sentence doesn't involve paying for all those vehicles I trashed ;)

    I'll probably have another crack at the campaign, and try the Damascus branch this time. My disastrous figures from first time round were probably the result of absolutely no saving and reloading at all - thus every warrior that got ambushed and destroyed with 10 men KIA stayed that way.

    But I can't complain - We asked for realism, and real life has no reset button!

  5. There was a big discussion about this ages ago...Have a search but if I remember correctly, the spotting squad will report the enemy to the HQ. HQ will get a question mark over the enemy location. Soon after, other squads "beneath" the HQ will also hear about it and get question marks.

    The benefit of question marks is that (I think) A squad with at least question mark knowledge of an enemy position gets a spotting bonus should that enemy then "appear", for example, if they start moving around. They'll acquire them faster than a squad without foreknowledge.

    Deselecting all your squads will give you a collected "best estimate" from all your units on what current enemy positions are.

  6. That mission pretty much requires you to use Artillery on tanks, thanks to the fact your Apache CAS only shows up late in the mission, and with a limited supply of Hellfires. It works well enough, the only problem can be that your spotter loses sight of the target after the first few rounds (thanks to the smoke kicked up) which I'm sure can't be good for accuracy/tightness of the group.

  7. I've also found my accent changes depending on what part of the UK you're in. When visiting Scotland, "yes" gets replaced with "aye", without you even noticing. When visiting England, I tend to slow down an awful lot...mainly because people don't understand you when speaking at Northern Irish pace, aka Lightspeed.

  8. Finished the campaign after "Bashar in our hearts" with a tactical victory. 192 men killed, 104 wounded...I'd hate to imagine the media reaction back in the UK after that campaign...

    Lost 6 challengers over the course of the campaign, but the real eye opener was my 45 armoured vehicles lost, had no idea it was that many.

    Anybody know how many AFVs (not including tanks) the UK lost during the initial invasion of Iraq? I'd like to know how many 45 stacks up against "real life" figures.

  9. I was pleased to see BFC had got their accents spot on for British arty and air support. It just makes my day when your call for fire is responded to by a gruff "Fire Mission, out" from the Royal Artillery and a very refined "Rogah, I am a Fightah, approaching from thee eeest, ovvah" from the Royal Air Force :D

    All the CAS needs now is the occasional "what what" to perfect it. 1.21 perhaps? ;)

  10. I recall a tale along the lines that the inhabitants of Northern Ireland could distinguish which church someone went to by their accent. Not the difference between Protestant and Catholic, but a specific church in a specific street.

    Can't do anything like that myself.

    I wouldn't say we're that good, but I can narrow an accent down to a town pretty well, and it's also easy enough to say, for example, which quarter (north, east, south, west) of Belfast somebody is from. Considering NI is a small place, I'd say after hearing an accent it could be narrowed down to within...15 miles-ish of their birthplace. 5 Miles if they're from the city ;)

    But I'm only young. Ask my mother and she'll probably tell you what side of the church they sit in...

  11. Just a small request - any chance of an "are you sure" dialogue in the editor for when the player clicks "new" or "exit"?

    I just spent over an hour making a scenario only to accidentally click "exit" when I went for "save". Imagine my horror to find myself dumped at the main menu with no chance to regain the work I had done :(

    Technically my fault for "not saving regularly" (as all IT people will tell you) but still, same situation could have happened during my attempt to save regularly, clicking exit and losing perhaps 10-15 minutes of work. Either way, a simple confirmation dialogue could prevent such losses (big or small) from occuring at all.

  12. Traditionally in the British infantry a "Section" is the standard element and is 10-15 men strong.

    It used to be 10-15 Men strong, back when the Bren gun was still used, as they had a Recce Group, a Gun Group and a Rifle Group (the beginnings of todays fireteams).

    Eventually a 2 fireteam structure centred around an LSW each was decided upon, and that is now augmented with the firepower of the Minimi LMG as well. So its 2 x 4 man fireteams for an 8 man section.

  13. They seem to break a little easier, or at least get panicked easier. Maybe this is down to the smaller squad size and the fact they only have two leaders within the squad? US squads have 3 "leader" positions and Marines have 4. I'm assuming having their squad leader or team leaders taken out results in a hefty morale penalty for the squad, and my observations seem to suggest this.

    Having said that though, when the enemy are sufficiently suppressed, the L85 and section is a lethal combination - I used a team of assault pioneers to blast their way through a building complex that held an entire platoon of Syrian SF - HQ, 2 squads and RPG. Using blast meant the syrians were all "cowering" when the lads entered, so it was pretty much a duck shoot. All Syrians Red or Brown for only one yellow out of an 8 man section :D

  14. I got great satisfaction by planning a platoon attack, in real time, with the game paused - used the delay commands to co-ordinate the whole thing, so the squads advanced in bounding overwatch etc, then one assaulted the enemy trenches while the other squads provided support. Basically like using the assault command on a platoon.

    Was great fun to set all this up, then unpause and watch it all unfold, hands free. Even better fun when it actually worked, mission complete :D Almost made me want to play WeGo ;)

  15. Heh...I'm on the decision mission for going south, and I think I'm already over the 100 KIA mark...havn't restarted any missions to try and get fewer casualties/better results, though I did have to retry the RG mission a few times due to "Major Defeats".

    Loving the campaign so far, will probably keep this savegame and play both endings to see how they go. Only criticism I have is that core force replenishment is perhaps *too* generous - I'm sure 14 Platoon have been destroyed at least 3 times!

  16. I read a BBC report from Afghanistan once that was supposed to be a daily update on the situation there, from a guy embedded with UK troops. Turned out to be a one-shot report at the end, apparantly because his laptop refused to work within a certain radius of their ECM equipped vehicle.

  17. I tend to move a lot slower than the designers intended as well... usually run out of time long before all the objectives are complete. Sometimes, though, it works well, you get a real "sense of urgency" and end up advancing at a fast pace but still clearing positions effectively - one platoon gets contacted, gets supported by MGs / Arty, advances through, consolidates, and before they've even finished another platoon has leapfrogged them and continued the advance.

    Theres a lot of multi-tasking in it and it fries my brain, but there is something satisfying to making a very swift leapfrog advance across the map, as long as you don't mind double clicking your platoon HQ and "quick" moving your guys into the unknown...

  18. They're a kind of general use patrol vehicle, basically a version of the TUM thats hardened against small arms fire, and has a hatch for troops to give top cover from. The problem is they're not really organically assigned to any sort of formation - It's more often the case that a light rifle platoon will be given a few from their motor pool to use when patrolling about an urban area, or wherever.

    As MikeyD said, they're a kind of "occupation" vehicle, for doing patrols rather than fighting for and capturing territory. They were originally developed for use in Northern Ireland by both the police and the army, as they could roll up, "snatch" a terrorist suspect or similar, and disappear away again at high speed, while being protected from stones, petrol bombs or (occasionally) small arms fire. The police here still use a version, painted white and with sirens.

    But yeah, I was also disappointed to see they didn't make the final cut :( But realism is realism!

  19. My last campaign ended in shame: "Major Defeat, campaign ended".

    I lasted until maybe 10th scenario. There you need to defend againt armored thrutst. I dont know how to defend. I lost all my vehicles, all squads. Only few crews and FO survived. Can't find any decent cover for my troops and T-72 TURMS will kill all my challengers before I can say "BUM!.

    Took me a few tries to get past that scenario, got two campaign ending "Major Defeats" and then on the 3rd save game load I got a Syrian surrender :D

    Of course it helps that after 3 tries I knew the composition/location of the Syrian forces...but we'll not dwell on that ;)

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