Eddie

Vin, I'm glad You did not misunderstood anything I wrote in my post at 04:01 AM. After I submitted my reply and took a good look at what I wrote I realised You could take it the wrong way and think that I was making fun of You. This was, and is absolutely not the case but I'm sure this clear to You. It is the words that You have chosen, and indeed the kind of humor in the three posts You gave in a row yesterday that were very entertaining. For me anyway. The way Phantom Captain and You are playing this mission is very different. This has become an interesting situation for me because Phantom Captain seems to be doing really well, and You made some decisions early on in the mission which have resulted in problems which should determine the outcome of Your battle. So this makes me wonder how big the difference will be once both battles have ended and results could be compared. Maybe this will give us/me some better insight or extra information regarding the parameters which also determine the outcome of a mission.

That is a perfect screenshot of how Your units are situated around The safe house. I can see You have moved them in positions that gives You the most chance of keeping losses acceptable and to at least let Your units fight back. After reading Your plans for the roadblock and the area between Anna and The safe house I can tell You are indeed a cautious player that does not make a move before thinking things over. If You would want to inform me/us about the results of Your plans please do, I am very curious how this will end up.

Hi Phantom Captain, It looks like You are doing a good job once again. Turn 10, no casualties and all the trucks have been destroyed. After reading Your post I concluded You have positioned Your units exactly on the right spots so they can provide cover for advancing units, and hold back the mujahedeen from advancing toward The safe house at the same time. Calling the mortar fire so soon guaranteed the capture of The safe house with zero casualties I think. And You managed to let the SU-22 M fire their rockets exactly on target, four trucks destroyed! I managed to destroy two of them with the Su-22 M, and one with machinegun fire from one of my squads. Well the crew bailed out because of the fire they were taking. I think You have chosen the right moment to save the game, and Vin is right in his post of 05:46 PM. You got Your tactics right and are doing great. Thank You very much for Your feedback! Hi Vin, I could not help myself but I had a good and long laugh after reading Your last three posts; "Turns 21-24: I stopped counting KIA and WIA, yes its that bad. I ordered one air strike on the head office - and it missed.":D And this one; "All 3 BTRs have been destroyed, 2 near the truck blockade. One of them made it to the bridge, I was watching it cross with baited breath hoping it might be the one to survive, when it was hit by an RPG.":D This is absolutely a great way to describe Your experiences and I hugely enjoyed the reports You made of the mission. I had the same experience as You did when I tried to let the BTR's pass the roadblock the first time. I have repeated this moment a lot of times to see if it would be possible to get the BTR's, or just one, across the bridge at all. After fiding out the right tactic I managed to get two BTR's across the bridge without to much problems most of the times I tried. But with this point in the mission it's the same thing as it is with the beginning of the mission. There is only one way to do it right and this way avoids the loss of all vehicles. Any other way I tried resulted in the loss of two BTR's in most cases, and sometimes three. I'm sure You will find out what the right way is, but if You don't and You want to know just ask and I will answer. For me it is really funny to read that You have done, and are doing a lot of the things I imagined the player would do in certain situations. For me this has made the creation of this mission worth the effort and time. I think You're a real sport continueing the game despite the losses you sustained. I hope You will let us know what will happen once You continued the mission.

I once again had a lot of fun reading the report You posted yesterday at 04:43 PM. If I am correct You already had 5 W.I.A. or K.I.A. at turn 15 and I counted at least three more, including Sgt. Tyumentsev, by the time You had played turn 18 which would make a total of 8 W.I.A. or K.I.A. In turn 20 You hade two more W.I.A. so this makes ten W.I.A. or K.I.A. and two lightly wounded. I think this will cost You some points in the end result. If Your forces are positioned in a bad way around The safe house it is very tricky to get them in position as You mentioned. At least You still have Sgt. Fillipov to help defend the units at The safe house in some way or the other. And You destroyed one truck and one technical, was this done with the bomber or with gunfire from Your units? I understand the way You are making these reports cost to much of Your time so I think You are right to just make little summaries. As I wrote before, I really apreciate Your feedback and the videos You are making for the missions. I am curious if You ended the mission already and if so, what result You had.

Hi Vin, thank You very much for the vife star rating You gave me! I once again really enjoyed Your battlefieldreport. This gives me the opportunity to see what's going wrong minute after minute, knowing the worst is yet to come. You were right to conclude the mujahedeen are conducting a counterattack with everything they got. But the stakes are high for the mujahedeen, it's a do or die situation. After reading Your very detailed AAR for the first 15turns I can imagine You wont make such a detailed one for Battlegroup Ivanov. And if You just want to show the endresult of this one I would not hold this against You at all. Remeber that if You don't manage to stop the convoy you can still try to achieve the other objectives. I tried to make a mission that does not allow much room for mistakes, just as in real life. If one makes some decisions in the first turns of the battle that turn out bad, stopping the convoy or even achieving the other objectives could become very tricky. If You or any other player wants some advise or tips when to do what and how, I will gladly give it. Despite the fact that some things in this mission are not going the way You would want them to, I get the impression You are having a good time playing this one. I wish You all the best when You continue this battle and I think You would be an excellent warcorrespondent.

You have described the events of every turn in such a way I understand what is happening very well. And I also understand making an AAR in such a detailed way takes a lot of time. You are really doing great job! Unfortunatly The safe house is not as safe as Col. Arutyunov thought it would be, as You experienced. If I counted correctly You took 5 W.I.A. and/ or K.I.A. and two men with light injuries. That is indeed a high price to pay for Cpl. Mir Salam's office. This makes me wonder how the coming events will turn out for You when You can continue the mission. Thank You for the attachment with the modded file from Veins tracer mod V3. This will indeed save me some precious time to make it the way You explained in Your post of yesterday at 08:58 AM.

I'm not looking for compliments for my mission(s) but it is inspiring and nice to get them. I'm just using the scenario editor BF provided with CMA and i'm trying to make the best of it. The outcome of this mission, like most missions I think, depends on how well one manages his units and reacts to developments on the field of battle. I am looking forward to Your AAR and I hope You will enjoy the time You spend on this one. Thanks a lot for the information regarding the tracer mod You used. I am now aware I downloaded the wrong file this morning but the file You mentioned is already in my directory containing all CM modifications. But I played so little missions lately I don't even remember if I use this one in CMBN. I will take a look at this tommorow and see if I can change it the way You explained it. Considering the number of units firing on The safe house and the type of ammo they were using I doubt there will be any mujahedeen left. And if there are they will most probably be K.I.A., W.I.A. or routed. I sure would like to know if the mujahedeen still were capable to carry on the fight at this location.

Vin, I watched Your video on Youtube. I would not like to be in that house with all these soldiers firing on it. This video has convinced me to use the same mod for tracers You are using. Thanks for the link to this video!

Vin, thank You for Your comments on the map! I think it's important the player(s) like(s) the map where the battle takes place. You are right on Your comment of the position of the camera. I made some last minute changes to the units that are used and was in kind of a rush. I simply forgot that the camera remains at the position where it is when one has deployed red or blue forces. After deploying I saved the file and if the mission is started the camera is positioned where it is now. This can be changed easily if needed. But I will wait with submitting a new file to see if there will be other things noticed that need to be changed by You or other players once they have finished the mission. Dima, Thank You for Your comment on the briefing! You can concider the briefing as reality based upon imagination. I was not sure if this approach of making a briefing was a good one but I am now more confident it is. I hope You will enjoy this mission when, or if You give it a try. Spoiler alert Vin, So You were surprised by the mujahedeen in the Safe house and took three casualties. I had that to when playing the mission the first two times but have developped a method so The safe house can be captured with less casualties. I am very curious how the mission will turn for You. I really appreciate Your feedback and detailed information of the way You play the mission. Thanks!

Vin, thanks a lot for the information. I will take a look at it right now. Phantom Captain, as You can see I now have two books I can look into. But I don't know if both are available for download. I think it should be easier to create a mission if some of the details are described already. Untill now I used my imagination for the most part when creating a mission, and sometimes this leads me into the wrong direction. I hope You will enjoy the new mission. I just submitted the file and I'm curious if You will like it or not. I am looking forward to Your comments once You have played it.

Thanks for Your tip Phantom Captain. I will download the book and get into it. The mission I'm working on is practically done. Just some few adjustments in the briefing, and then I will run the thing once more. If all goes well, and I'm pretty sure it will, I will upload the mission tommorow.

Thanks! Good to read that You are working on a mission as well, looking forward to it. The more missions that are made for CMA, the better. After I completed the mission I am currently working on I will try to get some info on a real event/battle that took place during the Soviet presence in Afghanistan. If I can find anything interesting I am going to try to create a (semi) historical mission.

I also read that features from CMBN will not be implemented in CMSF or CMA. It could be done, but the main reason for BF not to do this is a financial one. They would have to ask people to pay upfront for a patch, and even then it probably would be to expensive. To bad, but we can't have everything and fortunatly we have a lot already in CMSF, CMA and CMBN. I have no idea which CMA version the Russian community has, but I can imagine there should be a lot of user made missions over there. It would indeed be nice if these scenarios would become available for us but I don't think this will happen.

For me the main reason for not playing missions or campaigns, or creating a mission for CBMN was because of the accuracy of tanks, especially on the move. I have read on the forum that this has been adressed in the patch, tanks don't hit a target at their first shot at 1000+ meters anymore. The Panzer V misses at its first shot, but it will hit its target at the second. A Sherman misses the first two or three shots before hitting their target. Ofcourse this also depends on how skilled crews are. Somebody did these tests with regular crews I believe. I also read that US infantry could hit their targets through buildings (both walls) altough they should not even be able to see their targets. I have not read the latest comments yet on both issues so it could be this information regarding tank accuracy and firing through two walls by US infantry meanwhile has changed by experience from other players. I will be looking in to this on the forum once the new mission is done, and after Battlegroup Ivanov is updated. The water in CMA does look a bit odd, as if the water is moving in the opposite direction of gravity. Well, at least on side of the river or canal, but to me is a perfect way to create a map that makes playing a mission somewhat more difficult for the player. One can make certain areas on the map non accessible for vehicles, or create a ford to slow things down etc. As I understood there will be a patch for CMA in the future. So it could be the water tiles will be improved to the level of CMBN , but I do'n't think the patch will adress this.

Whenever I play a mission in CMA and have vehicles at my disposal I always target RPG's and heavy machineguns first. If they are spotted that is. From all the results I have seen for this mission I think Your score was one of the best. You made good use of Your BTR's. The UAZ can be used for transport if You let it drive fast and preferably behind cover but it remains vulnerable. If I am correct CMA was developped by Snowball from Russia, so You could be right that a Russian team will make the Eastern Front module. If that will be the case one never has to buy another WW II wargame anymore, because together with the other modules You mentioned all major fronts will be covered then.

I tried opening the pdf file after reading Your reply and now it opened the first time I tried. When I tried earlier today I was logged in as well but no succes in opening the pdf file. You managed to secure the ground objectives indeed, destroyed the mujahedeen pick up, and they lossed a total of 130 men (wounded and killed in action). The mujahedeen failed to achieve any objective. You have won by a margine of twelve points, 95 points for blue against 107 for red. And only 4 men K.I.A. and 11 W.I.A. Good work! I thought I recognised the style of music in Your video. It reminded me of television images I saw in the days of the cold war when the red army was marching a cross red square, and I also heard songs like that in documentaries of the eastern front during WW II. Recently I have seen 9th company too. I really laughed because of the scene with the instructor with the spectacles and the explosives in his hand explaining the dangers of using this material, while it was formed in a particular way by the artistic soldier. I'm doing the best I can to get my new mission done before next week and as things are now this should be no problem. Adjusting certain parameters in Battlegroup Ivanov should not be to much work either, so it could be updated in two weeks or so. Before I will update it I will playtest it and compare results with the current version. I am going to wait and see what reactions will posted on the forum regarding the patch for CMBN before switching. If certain things are not adressed or there are still to many complaints I might wait for the next patch. And You mentioned the Eastern Front module? Does this mean there will be one, if that is so this would be very good news.

Thanks for Your final and very detailed AAR. So the BTR's were Your best assets despite them having weaker armor and less firepower then the T-55 because of the capability to transport troops and in terms of speed. This shows it is not all about brute force and good protection but speed as well. I believe that in real life A BTR-80 has a top speed of 80 km per hour and a T-55 48 per hour but I can't remember if this was ofroad or not. The tank therefore should be much slower, this is programmed really well I think. So it is possible to stop all mujahedeen attacks if proper tactics are used, but one can not prevent the loss of troops. Well, the mujahedeen concentrated a lot men and even mortars to achieve their objectives on this mission so it should be a hard fight. It is To bad You could not find Hamid, but one must not forget he is Mullah Hamid so he should be elusive. I saw both videos on Youtube. The music You used in the clip of the death of Sgt. Tomashov was this some hymne from the USSR? It fitted really well to the scene. Every time I wanted to open the pdf-document You put in a zip-file to watch the AAR I was being redirected, but I will keep trying untill I succeed. It's good to read You were satisfied with the outcome of the mission even if it was a draw. I learned to make better use of the parameters which determine the outcome of a battle but I still find this a tricky thing to do, because I do not know how well a player uses his forces. Thanks again for Your feedback on this mission, I really enyoyed reading Your battlereports.:cool:

Vin, I am looking forward to Your new combatvideo(s) and it could be You still can capture Hamid. I don't play any missions at all at the moment, I think I finally have enough understanding of the scenario editor to spend time to make some missions worth the effort. I just saw the first patch is released for CMBN so this will make return me to this title and start the campaign over again. I have not yet seen the list of bugs/problems that were fixed but this patch seems very promissing. I'm planning to take a look at the parameters I used in Battlegroup Ivanov once the mission I'm currently working on is finished. I think I understand this better now, and I want to take a look how much work it will be to place sacks along the trenches. And I agree, one of the beautyfull things in CM is WEGO so one can manage the units very well and look back on the action that happened in the last minute from all angles. Speaking of RTS games with better graphics, the best game I can imagine to be developed would be a hybrid of ToW and CM though I must say for me CMBN comes very close to this. I think You will experience again what You described about the player writing the last chapter in my new mission. OFPMAN, Thanks! I'm glad You liked the scenario. So You managed to secure the hills and phase lines despite the losses You sustained. Good work! To bad Hamid escaped but I think it is very difficult (maybe impossible) to get him, and still manage to achieve the other objectives (which had priority). It could be victory conditions were a bit harsh because I have some diffculty using the parameters that calculate the outcome of a battle. I don't want to make it to easy, and I don't want to make it to hard for the player. So the result seems to be that a minor victory, a draw and a minor defeat are very close to each other. If You are planning on playing Battlegroup Ivanov then you might want to wait because of the parameters I used in the version You now have. At the time I uploaded this mission my understanding of this aspect of making a mission was less then it is now. As I wrote, I will take a look at his once the mission I am working now is finished.

Your description of the first 22 minutes was a comprehensive AAR already for the time You played so far, I'm curious how You will end up. So You were cheating a bit when playing the first campaign in WEGO? When I was playing the first campaign I did this for the very same reasons You did. Sometimes if I loaded a saved game for a second, or even third time I lost just one man less then I did on my previous try. This one man would sometimes result in a minor victory instead of a draw or even minor defeat. When I was at the seventh mission of the campaign and I had reloaded saved games time after time for hardly a better result I gave up. The idea was to continue the campaign some other time but I still have to finish it. In my new mission the CO's names and information about their tasks will be described in about the same manner as in the one you are playing now. I have started working on the briefing and I think it is safe to say I can upload it next week.

Haha, You have got a real talent for making combatvideos, very nice. Did Lt. ponomarev succeed in stopping the mujahedeen attack? And if You don't mind me asking, what was the outcome of the mission for You?

I took a good look at the shape of the helmets in the game and after comparing them with the photo's on the website You linked in the topic You started on 09-20-2010 I would say Ssh40. But as You mentioned, it does look like the US army M1 helmet as well.

I got Late Mech Infantry Camo_Helmtes from the Late Infantry file installed and I will take a look if these helmets look anything like the Ssh68 model. After reading the topic it seems there were others that had some questions about the presentation of Sovietuniforms as well, though I must admit that most of them where motivated by historical accuracy and not eyecandy as in my case. It could very well be that the Soviets actually did not wear their helmets much because of the climate, but I'm sure glad these mods were made available because I really think one can make the game more pleasant to the eye with them.

I noticed the body armor, but it was the stock helmets that made me wonder if You used any mod that changes uniforms. I don't remember if there was any bodyarmor used in the game when it was released, but I do remember I did not like the helmets to much. That was one of the first things I noticed in Your video. But the khaki uniform without helmets file explains it then. And the video looks great, I could not see any problem at all with the textures. Thanks for making this video and posting it.

Ha, that was a nice clip with some good firingsounds. If I'm correct You do not use any modification for uniforms. I use a mod for paratroopers and for me it is an improvement to the scenery on the field of battle. This mod just ads that little extra to the mission, well at least it does for me.

Hi Vin, Thank You very much for Your ratings and I am glad You enjoy both missions as that is what they're intended for. For me it is as much fun to create a mission as it is to play one, and I concider releasing them as my small contribution to the community. And You are right, there are so many missions for CMSF and CMBN that I thought it would be nice if someone would create some for CMA as well. My new mission is making progress, there is only one group left that needs to react to its orders in such a way that it plays out well in the scenario. Somehow this group seems a bit obstinate (:mad:) but once I get them to do what I want them to do, I can create a briefing etc. and finish work on this mission.