Combatintman

Forgot to include the map dimensions it is a 464m x 720m map.

My interest is two-fold. First I spent the best years of my life as a member of 1 (BR) Corps freezing my backside off in a variety of German farms/abandoned factories and woods close to the River Weser training for this eventuality and would therefore like to see how it would have panned out. Second - the possibility of looking at some of the brushfire/proxy wars and the retreat from empire conflicts. All up I reckon that this has the makings of a great game and is far more interesting than a fictional near-future campaign.

This one is called Ma'amir after the place. To find on Google Earth: 30 01 48 59N 48 25 37 36E Real life overhead shot: CMSF Screenshot: CMSF oblique taken from the bottom of the map: Hope you like these.

I'd like to see Norwegians and Danes as well because it gives scope for the deployment of the ACE Mobile Force, the UK/NL Amphibious force and the USMC - however the scope of the project would be huge once you add it to all of the good stuff listed by Tank Hunter. I'd so love to see all of this though - would be an awesome game.

Thanks - to be honest I had a couple in the can before I went public with the announcement that I was doing a campaign but basically I've set myself the target of a map a day and today I start the final map. So far I've shown you 7 maps of which 6 will make the final cut. I have another 5 to post. I have to say that while I do get satisfaction from putting the maps together and making them look right, I do find it very hard work and soul destroying at times and so I am pleased that I've got this far without losing motivation. That said some of the ones that I've done still need some touching up in terms of sorting out the building details and flavour object placement but by the end of today I will be able to move on and do what is the fun stuff for me - putting the units out and creating and testing the AI plans.

More eye candy - map of the next mission simply called Al Faw Berm. Real World location is: 30 03 22 09N 48 10 25 67E Map dimensions are 848 x 800m This is the real location: This is the CMSF overhead: This is an oblique taken from the left side of the map: Enjoy

Oh I enjoy it too but I could not believe how hard it was to find information for this one. On and off I probably spent about 4 days tracking all this down on the Iraqi OOB.

So far everything that has been written has been from the Blue perspective so I guess its time to talk about the enemy. Defence of the south was entrusted to Southern Area Command which was commanded by General Ali Hassan Al-Majid (Saddam’s Cousin aka ‘Chemical Ali who was the King of Spades in the famous US playing card set issued as combat operations ended). Regular units forming Southern Area Command were: III Corps IV Corps (based outside the AO) Iraqi Navy (2000-strong and split between Al Faw and Umm Qasr) In addition to the above, elements of the Air Defence Command were concentrated in Basra, elements of the 9000-strong Border Guards were on the border and probably the Al Faw Peninsula. Finally and most significantly, elements of the 18000-20000-strong Fedayeen Saddam were found throughout III Corps comprised the following: 6 Armoured Division 11 Infantry Division 51 Mechanised Division Of the three above, the only formation we are interested in is 51 Mechanised Division and this comprised: 31 Mechanised Brigade (Centred on Al Shaiba) 1 Mechanised Battalion (MTLB-equipped) 2 Mechanised Battalion (MTLB-equipped) 3 Mechanised Battalion (MTLB-equipped) 76 Tank Battalion/Regiment (T-55-equipped) 32 Mechanised Brigade (Centred on Az Zubayr) 1 Mechanised Battalion (MTLB-equipped) 2 Mechanised Battalion (MTLB-equipped) 3 Mechanised Battalion (MTLB-equipped) 77 Tank Battalion/Regiment (T-55-equipped) 41 Armoured Brigade (Centred on Ar Rumaylah) 78 Tank Battalion/Regiment (T-55-equipped) 79 Tank Battalion/Regiment (T-55-equipped) 80 Tank Battalion/Regiment (T-55-equipped) 30 Mechanised Battalion (MTLB-equipped) From the above we are only interested in 32 Mechanised Brigade, because this was the closest unit to Al Faw. The unit’s mission was to block the route from the border to Basra and it was singularly unsuccessful in this role, being defeated by 1 MEF units, including the UK’s 1st Armoured Division within the first few days of the operation. The reason elements do come into play is because many of the remnants withdrew into Basra and its suburbs and its armour faced 3 Commando Brigade elements towards the end of the period modelled in the campaign. The problem with the above is of course that there is no MTLB model in CMSF!! I plan to substitute MTLB with BMP-1 although it is a significant leap in capability. Given all of the above then, enemy units will comprise a mix of the following vehicles/equipment: T-55 BMP-1 BRDM-2 (recce and ATGM variants) SPG-9 AT-3 SAGGER RPG-7 82mm Mortar 120mm Mortar Possibly some heavier artillery (122mm D-30 and 2S1) – this will be subject to play testing Assorted technicals Unit picks will fairly obviously be a mix of Regular Army, UNCON and Combatant.

Boche - sorry to disappoint but this will be light role infantry heavy - yes there is armour but it is mostly light armour. I will endeavour to make it as interesting as possible though and hopefully you can see already that there are a number of very different maps and therefore terrain types to fight over.

It would definitely be on my must buy list and depending on the nationalities modelled with some modding you could do a lot of the withdrawal from empire conflicts as well as the obvious what-if Cold War gone hot stuff. Not saying that I wouldn't buy the 2014 Ukraine scenario but I just see it as an updated version of what we've got already in CMSF. It would be so much better to pitch M48s, M-60s, Centurions, Chieftains and Leopard 1 tanks against T-55, T-62, T-64 and T-72.

Next map is done. This one I simply titled Al Faw North. It is approximately 3 km NW of the centre of Al Faw which was the last map I posted. Geo co-ords for those interested are: 30 00 04 09N 48 26 21 54E The map measures 1700m x 1100m This is what it looks like in Google Earth: This is the CMSF overhead screenshot: This view is an oblique taken from the bottom left of the map: I reckon this will be quite an interesting map to fight over. Anyway - hope you like it.

The BMP-1 is no great shakes though. Shocking ergonomics, one-man turret, unstabilised gun and early generation ATGM with poor optics and very low profile mean that the gunner is at a severe disadvantage when trying to acquire and engage targets.

Boche, glad you like it. So following on from my last narrative post I suppose it is only fair to give you more detail on what you will be getting. Obviously I don’t want to give too much detail as that would spoil if for many but I think I can get away with an outline. As previously stated, the storyline for the Campaign is the early days of Op TELIC/OIF covering the period 20-29 Mar 03 and featuring 3 Commando Brigade’s clearance of the Al Faw Peninsula. Research for this project has been surprisingly difficult – I expected to find plenty of stuff on the internet but turned up very little of any use at all. Luckily I bought Mike Rossiter’s book Target Basra a few years back which covers these events in some (but not all) detail and so this has been my primary source. Working with the constraints above, the campaign is a mix of actual missions and what I call representative missions. These representative missions take place in the right timeframe and use units that were in the areas mapped and on real terrain but for which no descriptions of actions fought exist. To give an example of this, the BRF and C Sqn QDG acted in a screen role forward of 40 Commando north of Al Faw from 22 – 27/28 Mar 03 but none of their actions are detailed in any detail in the book. Likewise D Company, 40 Commando conducted a clearance of the western bank of the Shatt al Arab Waterway on the eastern flank of the Al Faw Pensinsula during this same time period but there are no details of what happened. So what you will get will be a total of 11 missions, 7 of the missions are real while 4 are representative. The campaign starts in Al Faw and culminates with Operation JAMES which was the capture of Abu Al Khasib a town on the outskirts of Basra. More to follow in due course.

Well I'm cracking through the maps it seems (and yes I do have a life!!!). This one is not quite finished yet as I have to add flavour objects to it but that won't take a huge amount of time. Hopefully you'll like this one because this map actually has some interesting stuff in it for once. Hopefully it demonstrates that I can do stuff other than desert!!! This is Al Faw Town Centre itself and can be found on Google Earth at the following co-ords: 29 58 31 26N 48 28 24 69E The map is 960m x 496m - which is the smallest so far and probably explains why I finished it so quickly. Fairly predictably this has been rotated to make the map making job easier. Actual location viewed in Google Earth here: CMSF map overhead view here: CMSF oblique screenshot here - taken from the left side of the map: Hope you like it.

Cyrano - actually after posting last time around with the co-ords for what looked like a facility at Az Zubayr I found another one not far away from it. Both have got gas stacks so they ought to be oil/gas related.

LLF - wasn't on my to do list when I was there!!!

Boche, Talking of 'On Point' - does anybody know where this can still be downloaded? I'm kicking myself because I downloaded on to an old computer and never transferred it to the new one. My searches these days only turn up the account of post warfighting operations. Looking forward to the campaign and if you need a hand writing the mission orders or a native English speaker to go over them drop me a PM. Regards Combatintman

LLF, Thanks for the confirmation of my interpretation of the Google Earth image - just glad I didn't have to try and model too many tanks with the building set in the editor. The containment berms remain and I'm sure will make fighting over the MMS quite interesting.

Next map is up. Real world location is: 29 56 54 68N 48 27 39 48E This is a defensive position about a kilometre south of the Al Faw MMS complex: Here's the Google Earth shot: Here is the CMSF screenshot: Total map size is 1000m x 1500m Yet again I couldn't get the whole screenshot in - just missing a bit of the top Enjoy

Ok guys I now have a much better idea of how this campaign is going to pan out now. I realise I should have been cleverer to start with and nailed all of the research first because it has led to some wasted effort. First thing you need to know is that I’m working on a pretty tight deadline and need to have this pretty much in the can by 01 May. Clearly with the deadline set I have had to reign in my ambition and discard some earlier ideas. The other constraint is that this is my first stab at a campaign so I have a lot to learn and probably a steep learning curve although I’m not totally new to the game of putting missions together. What is going: USMC participation (less air/helos) The Umm Qasr mission – pity that was the first map I did!! My aspiration to include the As Zubayr oil facility as part of the campaign What stays: My intent to recreate the flavour of 3 Commando Brigade’s operations to clear the Al Faw Peninsula during Operation TELIC (or Operation Iraqi Freedom to non-British readers) between 20 – 29 Mar 2003. Blue units will be (CMSF unit types in brackets): 40 Commando Royal Marines in its entirety (British Module Light Infantry Bn) 3 Commando Brigade Reconnaissance Force (BRF) (British Module Reconnaissance Platoon, Light Infantry Bn) C Squadron the Queen’s Dragoon Guards (Sabre Squadron of a British Module RAC Reconnaissance Regiment) Troop of C Squadron Scots Dragoon Guards (Sabre Troop of a British Module RAC Type 58 Armoured Regiment) 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery (British Module Light Gun Regiment) Air and aviation as required and possibly a light role engineer troop Although not finalised – I reckon that there will be no requirement for the NATO module but you will need the British (fairly obviously) and the USMC modules. I have no mods installed so while it may not look pretty or absolutely realistic in terms of uniforms, it does mean that you will be able to play it without having to download a bucketload of mods. Anybody who wants to playtest missions and the campaigns is welcome to PM me – I have a mission that just needs the briefings and opening graphics added to make it complete so that should be up for testing pretty soon. I can’t promise to make huge changes because of the time constraints I’m under but I’m hoping that a fresh eye will pick out any glaring howlers. Questions on all of the above are welcome and more to follow as they say!

Next map is up – ahead of schedule! This map is 1500m by 2000m and is what I think are the PPLK and PPLM facilities that were B Company, 40 Commando Royal Marines’ objective on the opening day. This facility is 5km SE of the Al FAW MMS facility that I showed you previously. For those that want to find it on Google Earth the coords are: 29 55 59 80N 48 30 42 58E As with other maps I’ve had to rotate Google Earth to make the mapmaking easier and as you can guess it took me much less than 2 weeks to complete!! Google Earth screenshot: CMSF overhead screenshot (couldn’t fit all of it in I’m afraid so just the bottom part of the map): CMSF oblique screenshot (this is of the small building complex on the small peninsula bottom left of the map): Again unfortunately the oblique isn’t particularly awe-inspiring but again it comes back to the real thing being pretty dull. Some of my later maps will be a lot more interesting and will at least look better on oblique screen grabs.

Ok guys as requested here's an oblique of the Al Faw MMS ... if it works of course. Not a particularly inspiring view but then it ain't a particularly inspiring piece of real estate. You may be wondering why there are no storage tanks particularly visible - the simple reason for that is that there aren't actually many in the real complex. The circular things that you would expect to be storage tanks don't rise above ground level in most cases - or if they do then it isn't apparent on the Google Earth imagery (absence of shadows is the key indicator here) Anyway enjoy!!

Cyrano - no it isn't I'm afraid but thanks for the pointer - I've got the same book and hadn't considered looking at it for some bizarre reason. The good news for you is that I will add this to the list of missions with suitably beefed up Iraqis of course. The Az Zubayr facility is here on Google Earth: 30 18 55 31N 47 43 35 37E The Al Faw MMR facility that I modelled in CMSF is here on Google Earth: 29 58 06 96N 48 27 09 49E Regards Combatintman

LLF and PaulMG - I'll try and work out the [img) thing. LLF - to answer your question about VC - yes you're pretty much bang on the money with the 'preserve' thing. At this stage I'm not thinking too much about the detail of how the missions will work because I just want to sort the maps out first (always the biggest and hardest job). Once all the maps are squared away I will then focus on the units and plans thing. My aim with this campaign is to try as much as I can to replicate history but I know that will be pretty much impossible because the sources available are pretty sketchy. To give you an example, the map I started today covers the pipleline complexes (PPLM and PPLK) described in the book 'Target Basra' but having spent a lot of time trying to find exactly where they are (without success) I have had to make an educated guess. The next map to be posted will be the PPLM/PPLK map referred to above - like the last one it is a biggie (1.5k x 2k) and I reckon it will be ready in a couple of weeks.

Not within the game itself - you need another program like FRAPS to do it.