ZPB II

Nice! It is my first scenario so be gentle.

Well, the main force has no set up zone because I felt it would be frustrating for players if they ignored the briefing, deployed at the sides and had 50% of their AFVs get stuck in the snowy woods. The AB not having a deployment I don't really have a specific reason for, I'll give it a look as I release an updated version with some minor bug fixes...It might have something to do with having watched 9th Company recently... Kind of wrestling for spare time, I have another scenario in the making and I'm brainstorming ideas for a mini-campaign, I got absolutely hooked on How I Met Your Mother and Gossip Girl (lame, I know ), I made a promise to run a half marathon this summer + I happened to run across a very nice girl on NYE that will also take some time away from my CMA duties. Thanks for the feedback!

SPOILERS: It is intended. This went through numerous revisions and is currently in a state where the airborne troops are obliterated in 15-30 minutes. It is the way it is meant to be, reflecting the brutality of the fighting. The blame is on the commander who authorized the drop on the village without proper support in terrible weather, not the commander trying to relieve them. You do not get penalized for their deaths.

Yes, haven't played it to the end H2H but can't see why it wouldn't work.

So, any comments?

+1 for WeGo TCP/IP even without replay from me, it was the way me and all my friends that playd CMx1 spent 90% of their time, the rest was in quick battles that are making their comeback....hoping to see TCP/IP restored to it's former glory. Also, atleast in Finnish gaming magazines it was one of the praised key features of CMx1 and something that was raised up as a serious negative concern in every CMSF review. I gave this some thought and came to the conclusion that this is one of those unwritten things. I've read Steve's posts regarding WeGo TCP/IP and I don't really see it discussed much on the forums, yet every person in real life that I've been converting from CMx1 to CMSF has brought up how great TCP/IP quick battles were in CMx1, the thing that made it reach classic status, and it's a huge bummer they aren't there anymore. Also, like I mentioned, all the Finnish reviews I have read point out the omission and substract it from the overall score. Don't know if it's a cultural thing but atleast the Finnish CM scene lived and breathed TCP/IP quickbattles. PBEM is seen as archaic and clumsy (it is if you want to do normal paced gaming!) since we all playd PBEM VGA Planets since it was a huge deal in the largest gaming magazine back in, uhh, 1991. My opinion is that if there were 2 important features that caused CMSF not to reach the similar classic status were the quick battles and the TCP/IP WEGO. The horrors of 1.0 or the modern, more niche setting are nothing in comparison. This is coming from someone who played each and every CMx1 title to death (CMBB the most 'cus it had Finns and it was the decisive, epic front of the war) and bought CMSF the day it came out, found it a wee bit unplayable, helped troubleshoot QB and ATI bugs, stopped and then came back a year or two later, bought all the modules and CMA and is loving them.

You know damn well what I meant and you saw that damn tongue coming out from my mouth.

I'm not going to comment on the rest, but I found it funny that someone actually considers it a plausible way for things to unfold that a CEO sells his soul and opens the portal for the Space Lobster invasion for *dramatic pause* 1.4 million!!! I had a good snicker about it. You gotta be pretty disconnected from reality to consider that kind of a sum as something a CEO of a major oil company would bother with. If you were actually interested in the conspiracy theory instead of vying for attention and puffing your own view of the world you'd like, hey, dig around and find out for example that he earns 1,4 million in 8 hours. Hey, I'll totally gamble my life and the company's on this crazy scheme for a day's worth, I'm in! It's the only way I can think of the get an adrenaline rush instead of buying my own train to ride down the Alps with, man. Nothing personal, no hard feelings, happy holidays.

Lovely. I take it the Soviet grunts called their opponents dushman, the West and the opfor themselves Mujahideen and the Soviet political echelon dubbed them"reactionary elements." I'll make sure to include that in an updated briefing. I'll release a 1.01 at some point to fix an unfortunate last minute mishap that I'll explain at the bottom below a spoiler line. Might make some balance changes according to feedback, whether the time limit is OK (I found the current time limit to give way to a nice and steady pace of advance without too many luls in the action with some time to spare.) Some voiced an opinion for more Soviet artillery. SPOILER: A couple of Muj squads that are supposed to appear as reinforcements hadn't been tagged as such and appear in the woods next to the road in the flank of the airborne at the start of the battle. It's only a handful of infantry but it does somewhat affect the already slim life expectancy of the surrounded men.

I just uploaded Christmas near Khost 1.0 to the Repository. It is a medium sized Red combined arms assault against pretty well dug-in Mujs with plenty of support. I would provide screenshots but I only end up with pretty pictures of my desktop, strange. I recommend you play as Red first, even though it is playable as defender. It is playtested rather extensively, I hope no last minute bugs or errors slipped in. I spent a lot of time fine tuning the difficulty, so I am hoping to hear from you guys how it is. Enjoy. "24.12.1987, Gardez-Khost road, Afghanistan. Commander, last night an airborne spetznatz unit was airlifted to occupy the village of Shamal, a strategic location on our advance towards Khost. The raid was halted by a sizeable Mujahideen force and with their Hinds driven off by AA missiles, the troopers dug in. Throughout the day we have been attempting to reach them, but the bad weather forbids future air support and all advances have been futile. Your unit, fresh from the rear and fully supplied, is moved forward in the last attempt to make a breakthrough before the darkness settles again. Capture the village and the surrounding heights. Beware, the Mujahideen fighters in this area have had years of time to gather artillery and prepare fortifications. They are highly motivated and well armed."

"Now you can watch a Sherman with Rhino attachment plow through bocage, leaving a gap for infantry to follow." It gets better the deeper you dig.

Also this is excellent: "New Driver Team Command allows large passenger units to leave behind one or two Soldiers to drive and/or man the weapon of a transport vehicle (such as a halftrack)" I hated being able to leave only the driver in a Nyala/Fennek/G-Wagen and have the MG unmanned as the squad ploughed onwards.

I just noticed this gem: "Combat Victories for individual units showing how many and what types of units the soldier or vehicle has eliminated in the mission (totals tracked for campaigns)" I have missed this so much, thanks for bringing it back!

I had this day off so I spent some hours doing some scenario building, Christmas Near Khost is ready for release as soon as the playtesting and briefing writing is done. I had to revert from deep snow to light snow because half the vehicles get stuck in it.

Inspired by this thread I made some progress on the latter scenario, now going to titled "Christmas somewhere near Khost." An airborne unit has been lifted in during the previous night to capture a small village near the Gardez-Khost road. All attempts to relief these troops during the day have bogged down in the harsh terrain. A fresh Soviet armored unit is moved in for a final attempt before the night settles again. I'm afraid that despite it's name it will be neither merry nor cheery. There's a deep blanket of snow, extreme cold and trench and gully after other full of dug-in and well armed Mujahideen near the border of Pakistan. Your armored column is ordered to push forward. Be prepared that many of your mahor will pay the highest price on this frozen ground.

Indeed, I have no idea whether the armor on the M1A2SEP is accurate, but I am personally fine with the fact that AT-14s go through the front plate of the other tanks. There is very little data on this so I would treat the missile as a solid threat, I would never be confident enough to trust my life with estimates on how much chemical energy protection the chobham gives. But the AT-14 is one of the most modern pieces of AT kit and it's punching through the things it was designed to. I assume we will never find out the truth.

I got a few in the pipeline but I dunno if I can ever wrap them up. One's a fictional small scen with Muj attacking a Soviet outpost of a platoon and 2x T55s guarding a bridge. Based on a outpost I saw in a video that a convoy passed. The other is based around Operation Magistral and the relief of Khost, which I think Steel Panthers 2 had a couple of scenarios on. Lots of heavy fighting against seriously entrenched Muj and their nasty counterattacks.

Seconded, 3:10 to Yuma was an awesome scenario and one that I gravitate to regularly. Lots of intense, nail-biting action there.

It happens really often if you pay attention. In a recent battle one of my few precious M1 Abrams lost most of it's optics suite next to the secondary explosions of a BMP-3. Lost the tank in a catastrophic kill to a hail of AT-14s to the turret side, no survivors.

I think the 81mm thing had something to do with being able to use the opponent's 80mm ammunition but he couldn't use the 81mm one...Dunno if anyone used 80mm mortars though.

Yes please. I play real time exclusively in both single player and online. I listen for sounds to cue in ongoing events but a log would help so much. Maybe have a simple toggle for harder difficulties than Veteran? :-D

That was pretty intense, most people would be ****ting their pants.

I read in the news recently that first the Dutch and now the Germans are downsizing their militaries. Bundeswehr would go from 250 000 enrolled to 180 000. Don't remember the Dutch numbers. Sorry, only got news links in Finnish. Maybe we can see this in a patch, seeing as in quick battles I always get a massive NATO force against 3 BMPs even with a -60% modifier.

Hoo boy, I love the new vehicle movement sounds! My favourite so far has been the Challenger 2, played a scenario with loads of them and I zoomed in the middle of the formation rumbling across the desert, I got the most out of these expensive headphones, the noise was deafening! Good job, thanks.

Ah-ha, I just noticed the dam! That's pretty nifty, don't think I've ever seen one in CMSF.