Eddie

I found it in the repository: CMSF - CMSF Base Game - Mods - then I pressed "Submit date" - then it can be downloaded from page 2. Just make sure not to delete the file with the five star ratings, that would be a waste.

I hope I am doing this right. http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=802

I made full use of the Syrian tank mod pack You made, thanks a lot for making this and putting it to the repository! It improved gameplay experience, in terms of eyecandy that is, greatly for me. Which reminds to give it a five star rating. Yeah, You are right, and I can't stand it when there is talk behind a game's back so it can't defend itself. So I wont contribute to this topic anymore.

I thought that a short list of changes without to much detail would be enough to clearify what had changed in V 1.1. to those who are interested. But I could have mentioned certain things more specifically. In the first version it was relatively easy to neutralise the tanks that would approach via the road on Hill 232 in the first five minutes of the mission with the tanks the player had from the start. This was somewhat unfair for the computer opponent. I think the strategic, tactical and operational maps made with google maps look better than the old ones which were just a few pictures and maps picked from various sources. And no need to thank me for the revision. I took a good look at various aspects of the first version, the briefing in particular, and was somewhat disappointed with myself. No cohesion in the strategic, tactical and operational maps what so ever and a list full of grammatical errors. This needed to be corrected, and I tried to do so. I would appreciate it if You would post the AAR's in the way You mentioned. But if You don't have the time, or just don't feel like it You don't have to. You are, as You know, not obligated to anything. But when the new file was linked to this forum it was just so silent without Your reactions which were very entertaining at times. I hope You will find this revised version the epic battle You expect it to be, but it is still Battlegoup Ivanov. There are also things that were not changed since the first version. Thanks a lot, now that made making this revised version really worth the time and effort.

Hi Dima, I did play Operation Storm 333 and while reading the PDF document I thought I recognised something about the story of Amin´s palace that was being stormed. I do remember that Operation storm 333 took place in the dark, and on snowy ground in CMA. It had two Shilka´s, two or three BTR´s and some BMP´s in it. I will take another look at the document to see if it has the specific name for the operation that lead to the capture of Amin´s palace, but I would not be surprised at all if it will be Operation storm 333. The document covers 13 (special) operations to a certain level of detail that were executed during the capture of Kabul. It was very interesting to read how a variety of (special) forces in relative small numbers captured keybuildings of various administrations in the city with all sorts of weapons, including non conventional ones like poison. The latter is unfortunatly not programmed in CMA. But seriously, according to the document the capture of Kabul was planned and executed very well. Normal Dude designed Operation storm 333 very well, and I had a good time playing it. I know that I was victorious but I´m not sure if it was a major or minor victory.

I have been reading some interesting material about the use of the Shilka against groundtargets during the capture of Kabul in 1979 yesterday. I always thought this machine was not used as an offensive weapon by the Soviets in Afghanistan since it is designed for defending deployed groundforces against nearby low flying aerial targets. But according to a PDF file called "The takedown of kabul: An effective coup de main" the Zenitnaia Samokhodnaia Ustanovka did play an important role for surpressing hostile forces during this operation. This is probably not the right forum to mention this, but this information could come in handy when I will make a new CMA mission.

Hey Vin, are You still around?

I also agree with the last three posts!

Hi umlaut, good to read everything is solved now. I will check the repository and see what mission You made as soon as it shows up there.

Never mind, I took a look and saw one can not.

When I made my remark one has to take a good look where to submit a file before doing so I did not mean to say that You did not. I meant it in general. And 72 hours is indeed longer than is stated in the information regarding submitting files to the repository. But I have no idea why Your file is not showing up in the repository. Can one submit CMA files as well?

Mjkerner is right. One has to take a good look where to submit a file before doing so. Once a file is submitted it is being held in quarantine for 24 to 48 hours so it can be checked for content.

I would also like to thank everyone involved for this patch. I have stopped playing NATO campaigns/scenarios months ago waiting for this patch to be released. Thanks a lot!

Yeah, I agree with c3k.

Congratulations! And You're not happy with the result because the mujahedeen managed to inflict some casualties at Anna? I would not worry about that, you did great! I have never achieved a better result in any Combat Mission mission then a major victory as far as I can remember. Is it possible one can do any better, like overwhelming victory? Hm, come to think of it; I think there will be such a thing, but I never managed to get it. The parameters for casualties on the player side are indeed pretty tight, but I think this was necesarry so the AI had something of a chance to score some points there. Anyway, It seems to me like these parameters did not hurt You at all. Thanks for posting Your AAR and Your feedback, it is the best score I have seen!

Hi Phantom Captain, that's allright. Life has been busy for me too so I understand. Hmm, I wonder how You will do the last part of the mission. If I am right You came a long way without to much casualties. So I think it should be possible for You to achieve most if not all of the objectives. I'm looking forward to see the results and ofcourse Your end game screen.

I will take a look at the AI plans and see if I can discover anything that could be adjusted as soon as I have time. I will let You know if I did change anything in Your mission, and ask if You're OK with it on this forum. A human opponent will, in most cases, be more challenging to play against then the AI. So I can imagine You consider yourself to be lucky having human opponents for all CM X2 games. I will check my Z folder and try different combinations of files and see if I can get Your mod to work that way. Thanks a lot for Your reply.

Stagler, I wanted to start Your mission just now, but then I read Your post of 09:02 this morning. I'm going to wait with playing untill You have tweaked the AI, or You have increased the blue force size. I also downloaded Your Immersive Background Sound modification You submitted in may. But I can't get it to work. I have placed the file in my Z folder but I get no sounds, just silence. Do You have any advice on how to apply this mod? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi Vin, so I got it wrong with the mortarstrike then. The reason why You called in the mortarstrike on the head office makes perfect sence to me. My revision of Battlegroup Ivanov got out of hand somewhat and I made much more changes then I intended originally. I spend more than three hours on improving the map alone. At the time I submitted the file I thought the map was finished. But when I saw it in 3D preview a few days back I realised there were a number of things that could, and should be improved. Meanwhile most aspects of the mission have been changed, more or less . Unit experience, the AI plan, the briefing etc. It will take some more time to finish the job but I'm almost there. I just need to test and check certain things and adjust forces somewhat. And then it should be ready. I watched all the videos You made of this mission. You were lucky to get away with the RPG that hit Your APC in the video You named BMP close call. If it was destroyed I think You would have lost the mission. Thanks again for providing the links to Your videos.

So the mortarstrike which was actually a left over of the earlier plans still had its purpose by increasing Your opponents casualties. For me it's amazing to see how things turn out in CMA when a mission is being played. Very often there seems to be something going on which seems to be unimportant, but later on it turns out to be the opposite. Your feedback is definitly helping me for making missions in the future. I have applied the same kind of parameters when I was working on Battlegroup Ivanov last, and this evening. Since You like the parameters used in my last mission I will leave things as they are right now. I think they are allright too and it will give any player a better change of being victorious when playing this mission. I understand You normally don't provide this much attention on one scenario, but I really appreciate You did it. Imagine what would happen on these forums if every player would give feedback the way You did on every mission they liked. Anyway, I'm glad You enjoyed playing the mission untill the end, and You are welcome.

Stagler, thanks for uploading this mission. I will give it a try this weekend and when I am finished I will let You know how I did.

. I don't know if it was the gods of war that smiled upon You last night or the way I handled the parameters for terrain- and unit objectives. Either way, I think the result was not as bad as You thought it would be. If the tank was not destroyed You might even have achieved a minor victory. The mujahedeen had almost three times the number of KIA You did (47 against 17), and twice as much WIA (50 against 23). They had lost 7 vehicles against the 3 APC's of You. This means You got most of their trucks. The mujahedeen managed to get 92 points for terrain- and unit objectives, You got 73 points. So if the objectives were they only factor that would calculate victory or defeat You would not have made it. But fortunatly this is not the case because the BMP saved the day for You, as did the BTR in Hamid's attack on Hill 412. Well done! Now You've ended the mission with the result You got did You think I applied the parameters for terrain- and unit objectives in a good way or not. I would like to know this because if You think it is any good I will continue using such parameters in future missions. If You think it is no good I will take this in consideration and might try to make use of the parameters in a different way. I would really apreciate it if You would let me know what You think. And thank You very much for the links to the AAR's, Your reports of the way things were going as You advanced through the mission and ofcourse the entertainment You gave.

If I had to play this mission without knowing what was coming at me, and where the mujahedeen where lying in ambush I would not have done much better as You did. I'm sure I would be redoing some turns because without this it would become very difficult to achieve any objective with no or very few casualties in this one. And I'm pretty sure there will be no player that manages to destroy the trucks and technicals, capture and occupy The safe house without any casualties and getting all BTR's across the bridge in his or her first try without loading saved games. Or the player must have played the mission before so he or she knows when certain things are going to happen. And I understand exactly what You mean regarding the campaigns, and that is why I stopped with the first campaign in the seventh battle.

Vin, so even crawling toward the mujahedeen resulted in some units lost because of one large explosion from unknown origin. How can it be that even when You are doing everything to avoid the enemy spotting Your units they still manage to do so, and hit them. It is very wise to let the BMP squad advance on the other side of the hill so the mujahedeen near The safe house wont spot them. The distance from The safe house to the hill next to the road is long but I think they could hit Your men just as well. I understand the mortarstrike now, it was in fact a left over of earlier plans. The walking mujahedeen could be the result of the many orders I gave them. I think they could be tired but I'm not 100% sure of this. And You saw some mujahedeen running past Your men without firing on them? I did not order them to do so when creating the AI-plan. I understand You want to play the mission the way You want to, as this keeps things more interesting. And if You ever want to give the mission a second try You will probably remember what to do, and what not to do. I think You will not give the AI will a second chance to do the damage they did in the past few days. And I agree, this game can be very difficult. The field of battle is deadly but this makes it a real challenge too. Phantom Captain, thank You very much for Your rating and the comment You left! I understand You have taken some casualties around turn 25 at The safe house and the hill where the mujahedeen planned an ambush. I have played parts of this mission very often to see how certain AI orders turned out. I never managed to get to turn 25 without any casualties. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's very hard. You have made good use of the mortars to make sure there are no mujahedeen left at The safe house, the building collapsed so I'm sure there will be no one left there. This also gave You the chance to retreat the squad hiding near the wall back to the ridge. Good work, because I know that if any squad is near these walls or at The safe house itself retreating toward Katarina without casualties is not a easy thing to do. The SU-22 M dropped something causing a huge explosion but You could not see what? I'm pretty sure this would be a technical with some kind of weapon mounted on it. The spot where Your BTR destroyed one of the technicals is about the same spot where one of my BMP's exchanged fire with a tecnical with a recoiless gun mounted on it, my BMP lost. Since You managed to get all the BTR's safely across the bridge recapturing The safe house should be possible. And with the arrival of the BMP's and the tank You could even manage to achieve all objectives. As long as You keep Your casualties low in the coming turns I know You will surely be victorious. I sure would like to know how things turned out for You. I think the theater and the units in CMA can be used really well for missions that simulate unconventional warfare, and this creates some special kind of atmosphere. To me it makes this game a very enjoyable one. In time I will surely create another mission like this one for CMA but first I'm going to change a few things in Battlegroup Ivanov. After that is done I'm going to take a look and see if I can create a nice tankbattle for CMBN or CMSF. But I will make more missions for CMA, and Stagler also mentioned last week that he was working on one. So there defenitly will come more missions for CMA.

It's good to read one of Your BMP's got one of the trucks. I expected that the BTR squads You send to the mujahedeen in the hills would get it, but not this hard. Did You try to outflank the mujahedeen or did You move straight at them? There is way how to deal with the mujahedeen at the roadblock which will cause less casualties. If You would like to know how don't hesitate to ask. I understand You have become cautious to move the BMP's toward the roadblock because if they are lost too that will make it very difficult to achieve any objective except for Katarina. As if things are not bad enough already the mortar attack on the head office missed too. If You don't mind me asking, why did You order the mortars to fire on the head office? The reason why the fighting is less intense now is because the mujahedeen have no more targets to fire upon since all Your men are hiding, and they seem to have what they want. But as I understand the mujahedeen still manage to snipe one of Your men here and there. I hope You will be safe in the places You are hiding untill the tank arives so You can try to organise something like an offensive and regain some ground. If You can do this You could still manage to achieve some of the objectives. Try to keep an eye on enemy movement though, because it may look like nothing is happening but You can't know for sure. If You manage to destroy the fourth truck that should be good for the endresult. But only if some of the other objectives are achieved as well. Things are looking bad but it is still possible to get something out of the situation you are in.