Cybertrand

Hello everybody I've recently finished playing this scenario and thus concludes the AAR i was making on this challenging battle (i thought i announced it here, but it seems not ). This time, instead of taking various screenshots of the (intense) fighting, i recorded a video for each turn, until the situation was no more interesting. So you'll have the first 12 on the 15-16 the fight took to play. Basically I played the syrian and opted for an immediate furious assault, to not let time to the marines to organize (and took positions etc...). Something like a daredevil attack (it's the idea) where i took a lot of risk exposing my troops with the goal of destroying the armored units at all costs. It worked well, though i had a lot of causalties, as i managed to quickly neutralize the two M1 and their 3 AAV backup (one M1 is immediatly neutralized, while the other will took a lot of hits before finally be destroyed). As for the reinforcing wave of AAV, i was lucky enough to destroy 3 of the 4 vehicules. It was far more difficult to neutralize marines infantry. Some units were ambushed, and thus their firepower was seriously reduced, but other of course managed to took position in the surrounding building. And then the syrian infantry (often basic recruit), already having troubles with the armored units, was unable to do anything to finish the defenders. All in all destroying the vehicules gaves me a major victory and the last turns you won't see here are mostly marines securing their perimeter and syrian beginning to flee. When we decided a cease fire, most surviving syrian units were at best tired and with very few ammo left (and a lot usually panicked earlier or were severly shaken). There is two way to watch those video. Either you use this playlist, which will allows you to see them one by one, either you try this solution, which is some basic "editing" i made to make the viewing more comfortable. Note that the second solution won't allow you to have a good quality of image, though it is still correct to look at. For better quality, use the the playlist and switch to HQ. This second solution is just a good way to watch the complete battle in full screen and without having to interact with the playlist. Said otherwise, it's like a mini-movie, you just sit and watch. I advise you to launch it in full screen, and to simply took a bit of distance from your computer screen (1 meter shall do the trick). The pixelating will disapear and you'll have a nice view of the battle. Also it's not long, it took only 13 minutes and even in full screen, you may still pause or jump to next / last turn if needed. Lastly, note that i made those videos with the goal of capturing the battlefield (or the flow of the battle), if i may say it this way, and i encoded them to be light, so even in HQ, it's more precise to allow to see more little details, but it's still light. I'll make higher quality next time Anyway, to sum it up, try this solution for a nice view, and if you want more detail use this playlist. Enjoy !

Hi I've made a new one (direct link), based on the mission "Circle the Wagons" (the shot is a bit distorted, but nothing dramatic ; those images are tricky to build ...). Here's a little summary of what happened so that you may better understand the situation : It's from the syrian point of view, but right in the middle of the US side. It's just after the beginning of the syrian assault, one M1 is already knocked out (the right one though you cannot see it, as it's not burning) while the 2nd M1 resist syrian rockets and is firing everywhere around him. Two marines squads have been seriously hit by a rain of bullets and rockets. The first one is behind the dead M1, half of them are dead ; the second one, well, you see the survivors on the roofs of two smalls buildings, next to their AAV; they arrived in fact from the street behind those buildings, and were immediatly engaged (+/- 50 % casulaties) by the now dead syrians that you may distinguish in the 2 roofs building behind the marines ; the third squad is still in the AAV and will disembark soon, taking shelter where there is a syrian spy (near the AAV). At this point, there's already a lot of dead soldiers on syrian side too (damned Abrams !). As you may guess, the attack was fast and brutal. The surviving M1 will be destroyed a few turns later, as well as the AAV, and the marines will stay entrenched in their building ... but that's another story I will probably write more in details later when the game is finished (and i suppose it will be a draw because of the heavy loss suffered by the syrian). Enjoy !

Hi I've made another panoshot, this time for ToW 2 (before it was for CMSF), based on the last demo. So if you want to see a nice picture, check this web page (you need Java). It's taken at the beginning of the battle, when the US take control of his artillery units, and suddenly german infantry launch a small and very annoying counter attack. You'll see the situation from the german side, just before i stopped them (a bit too late in this case). I'll try to do several other shots later, as the game is really beautiful, as you may all know. But it's a bit more tricky with this demo. Anyway, enjoy the scenery

A quick update to let you know that you could find those panoramic screenshots (there's a second now) directly on this page. And to give you an idea of what it looks like i've made this :

Ahah, i just replied the same time than you it seems

Is it me or it's not possible to edit a message ? I must be tired ... Anyway, as i've added a second panoshot (based on streets of Hama, with a duplicate of higher resolution - it may not work if you're low on system memory), i've updated the whole thing, making a nice page on our website where everyone will be able to see the current and future shots. I'll try to update it regularly (though not every day )

Hi I've been toying with my Print Screen key and managed to get some panoramic result So i repost here what was said in the other thread, for those curious. For those liking nice pictures, here's a panoramic screenshot i've made for an ongoing battle. It's taken obviously from the midlle of the battleground, though i've not choosen the most explosive part, it's a first try. Enjoy ! (use your mouse to navigate and zoom, it's fairly intuitive for a gamer ; you may also use arrow keyboards, and + - keys, if needed) (and for the battle, it's Thin Black Line, you'll find a link after the picture for the AAR if interested ; it's not in english, it's a work in progress, but there are pics and several videos) (ah yes, it's rather light too, just 500 kb, in case that matters for some of you ...)

Thank you for your comments I'll do other shots, as there are very good moments in CMSF battles which shall be captured and cannot be really shown with classical screenshots. You need to have Java installed, check this web page : http://java.com/en/download/index.jsp. It's nothing special, just take the last version, and it shall work.

Hi For those liking nice pictures, here's a panoramic screenshot i've made for an ongoing battle. It's taken obviously from the midlle of the battleground, though i've not choosen the most explosive part, it's a first try Enjoy ! (use your mouse to navigate and zoom, it's fairly intuitive for a gamer ; you may also use arrow keyboards, and + - keys, if needed) (and for the battle, it's Thin Black Line, you'll find a link after the picture for the AAR if interested ; it's not in english, it's a work in progress, but there are pics and several videos) (ah yes, it's rather light too, just 500 kb, in case that matters for some of you ...)

Hello A quick message to let you know that this interesting battle is over. Syrian managed to achieve an unexpected but total victory (though with a lot of losses). It was a damn tough fight, as you may imagine. Check this thread for a turn by turn syrian report with lots of screenshots and some videos. The last post is here. I'll try to resume the battle in english soon, when possible. Essentially i've done everything possible to prevent the marines putting a step in the town, so i took a lot of risks attacking the troops of my adversary while he was trying to hold the first buildings... and it worked

Hi, thank you for the comments I'll update this AAR when the battle is over (we're near the end i think) @Clevinger : could you give me the link for the thread on Appui-feu (or post in on Cyberstratège for instance) , i'm interested to see what's been said on this interesting map

Hello If you're curious to see rather in details how goes a battle on the map Streets of Hama, you'll find a work in progress AAR (including several videos) in the forum of Cyberstratege, here for the syrian and alternatively, here for the US side. It's in french but we'll make a translation when the battle will be over. That said, the screens shall give you a good idea of the intense fighting. To resume a bit, syrian defender (me) has managed to prevent the US from entering the town. The marines did enter at the beginning, and began spreading in the first small buildings, but were pushed back outside. There was several counter-attack, but they failed. Now after 20 turns, the action is slowing a lot, as obviously there has been many casualties on both sides. So all in all, it's a very tough game for my friend and a good surprise for me as i was not expecting to defend that well. Enjoy