kohlenklau

This thread is 3 years old! That website is no longer up. The map is in the BFC suppository I am pretty sure. But I can pass it to you if you can't track it down.

I have one play tester for "First Blood" (Battle of Sidi Bou Zid). My ever stalwart ally @Heinrich505.....is firing back reports and observations left & right. I could probably use 1 more person for a variety of play types. Is anyone else interested in doing some playtesting on this new scenario? @Erwin Want to test that new computer out?

We are now using the entire map in a multiplayer battle of actual Canadians (several) vs the axis. Thanks Ben!

Best wishes to you with your project!

For melee I think they could use a speeded up version of the whole buddy aid animation but standing up? ...Tai Chi like moves...! Maybe put a shovel or bayonet in their hands?

...it depends on who is pulling the trigger...

One more thing on using GE for CM map planning. In GE in the lower right corner you see your "eye alt" (eye altitude in km). I had a very large map for Sidi Bou Zid and had to be way up at 16km to see all the box and get my screenshots. But for my normally smaller maps for CM, you can really dive down close to ~ 1 km and that is where I think the high quality terrain will show all the subtle holes and hills in the elevations.

Here is my feedback as a group of questions right now if you want it. Are the battles of such long extreme length (4 then 2 then 4 then 2 and then 4 hours) to aim at the "I needz plenty o' time fer rekon" group of players? How big are the maps? Huge? How big are the units involved? Is the human player on the attack I assume or some combo?

@weta_nz I suggest reading this. http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/006/6-4-1/index.htm l

@Badger73 A couple posts up above is the main guidance. In Google Earth menu bar, select Tools, dropdown to Options, then in the new window on the "3D View" tab about half way down is "Terrain". Check the box for "Use high quality terrain".

Just making sure you know about the famous scenario design thread located over in the CMBN forum... http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-–-a-scenario-design-daraar/ I suggest you make a small 208m x 208m 15 or 20 minute teaser scenario for your overall project FIRST. It can help get all the kinks out and build your confidence with the AI and scenario editor and of course be released as a teaser for your campaign (same weather, same map elements, sample of the forces/units). A tactical vignette so to speak. Anyway, good luck with it and keep us posted!

Did you play in scenario author mode? If so, in the unit info box you should see the AI group number and Reinforcement Group number for each unit.

Wonderful. Please tell us a little about it!

@mjkerner Thanks Mark!

@Heirloom_Tomato Did you try this one Matt?

Also in the purchase screen which shows your units. You should see R1 or R2 etc. next to the units you have added to that particular R group. Oh.. and hurry...Try and get your scenario done by Friday so I can play it this weekend!

@IanL What scenarios or maps are you working on lately? Or just for personal use and not release?

Google Earth is your friend Part 2 This thread first explained it to me. I can add only a bit more based on doing this just 2 or 3 times. But my way might be less than optimal. Any feedback is appreciated. -examine first to see the lowest elevation and highest elevation in your area of interest. -For an Ortona map I just did increments of ten. For Sidi Bou ZId the range was 320 to 360, so I did single digit increments. -create one layer say at 360m and copy it and then just paste it in numerous times and then edit each one to their new value. -Each elevation layer is really a layer that says the "ground below me is at this value or less" -once a few layers are displayed, say 345, 346 and 347, you see the contour lines! -I experimented with various colors. Too many layers displayed at once makes it hard to see the differences. just display a few increments at once. -have thumbtacks on the map as corners markers for alignment. -in google earth if you zoom, you start to see detail so find where is best for your map. -take screenshots and annotate onscreen 325, 324, 323 etc -make a composite and crop to be that scenario editor overlay -I will report back later where that one HD setting is located.

try the freeware "Open Broadcaster Software"

FYI, the date of the scenario is of course limited by the editor and I have it as the earliest I can dial in, Op Husky July '43 and "standard" US uniforms are those brown tropical shirts which don't match Feb '43 in Tunisia. So that is what pappagoat did, and I know it is tedious work because I have done it many times myself, he renamed the later M41 field jackets so they are displayed as "standard" appearance for US troops. Google earth contour line process. I just redid the contour line process and saw a setting in Google Earth to go to a higher resolution of topography and it really gave me a much better overlay. So, that combined with some scenario author magic wand actions will make the final map. What I mean there is slightly tilting the map to better align the dirt and paved roads to avoid the zig-zag issue. Maybe 20 degrees clockwise is all. And finally my 4km x 4km sandbox has been slightly consolidated at one point to get those cool wadis to be on the map.

A big thanks to pappagoat for his work renaming bmp and mds files to bring the M41 field jackets to the Africa Mod as [usfieldjacket] submod.

Thanks for trying it. I used those touch objectives as an experiment with scoring for a recon mission. I have a rework of the Kasserine Station map in progress to include the Kasserine train station with lovely white walls and blue shuttered windows. They show up too dark so far...but anyway, the map is much much enlarged and more accurate topographically. The town itself will be more accurate per a period French map. I will redo the allied AI plan or maybe switch it around and have the axis be the AI and the player commands the troops hoping to delay the Germans. But meanwhile I am focusing on Sidi Bou Zid. It should be a blast for desert battle fans.

Still working on the 4km x 4km Sidi Bou Zid map. pappagoat has been there nearby in person and had some good feedback to improve the map. I have an old 1:100,000 French map I found at a bakery wrapped around some baguettes. ...and yesterday I did a topo contour layer analysis on Google Earth, but that wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped. I will post some screenshots later.

Anzio! (nice shots there Gary, thanks!) "When The Tigers Broke Free" It was just before dawn One miserable morning in black 'forty four. When the forward commander Was told to sit tight When he asked that his men be withdrawn. And the Generals gave thanks As the other ranks held back The enemy tanks for a while. And the Anzio bridgehead Was held for the price Of a few hundred ordinary lives. And kind old King George Sent Mother a note When he heard that father was gone. It was, I recall, In the form of a scroll, With gold leaf adorned, And I found it one day In a drawer of old photographs, hidden away. And my eyes still grow damp to remember His Majesty signed With his own rubber stamp. It was dark all around. There was frost in the ground When the tigers broke free. And no one survived From the Royal Fusiliers Company Z. They were all left behind, Most of them dead, The rest of them dying. And that's how the High Command Took my daddy from me.

The article above had a typo or error. The 591st Tiger Detachment is obviously the 501st Tiger Detachment (Schwere Panzer-Abteilung 501). Another curiosity about the article if anyone else caught it...? The author Robert A. Newton is also the same name as the tank crew gunner of CPT Winkler's tank! Hmmmm. Well, I had to research that and it was also a very moving story. The author is the nephew of the gunner and was named after the gunner in his memory. Here is the story of what happened to the gunner.... The Story of Robert Alvey Newton February 21, 2010 in Robert Newton Tank crew members of the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division. Left to right—Robert A. Newton (Logansport, Indiana), Everett Gregg (California), Lee C. Kaser (Detroit, Michigan), and Philip Caldwell (Tennessee). Corporal Robert Alvey Newton served as a gunner in the tank corps of the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division. He was captured in North Africa during battle with German forces at Sidi Bou Zid on February 15, 1943. Of the men in the photo above, Everett Gregg was also captured. Lee Kaser was killed instantly when his tank was hit. Phil Caldwell, who was following well behind in a tank destroyer, retreated when the American forces turned back. Robert A. Newton’s nephew of Hillsboro, Oregon—also named Robert A. Newton by his father in memory of his beloved brother Robert—told me: “The tank driver that day was Sgt. Gregg, who was ordinarily the tank commander. But he drove when Captain Winkler was in the command tank. The assistant driver was Al Urbanoski. That was why Phil Caldwell was in a tank destroyer and not in the spearhead of the attack. “My uncle was burned on the face and hands by the same shell that killed Lee Kaser and blinded Winkler in one eye. “My uncle and the others were rounded up and taken to Sfax, Tunisia. From there, he and many of the wounded were evacuated to a hospital in Bari, Italy. It was actually a converted convent. A month or two later, he was taken by train up the coast to Camp 59. Everett Gregg was sent to a camp in Germany.” Nephew Robert Newton wrote an article on the Afrika Corps ambush at Sidi Bou Zid. First published in World War II magazine (2002), it is now available onHistoryNet.com. At the time of the POW breakout from Camp 59, Robert escaped with Raymond Cox. Robert continued, “An Italian family protected my uncle and fellow prisoner Martin Majeski for nearly six months, but one morning Germans arrived. Robert and Martin were taken away to the bank of the Fiume (River) Aso and they were shot. “Raymond was staying about 400 yards from the farmhouse, and he heard the shots. “Raymond thought the two were captured without warning because the house was close to the road and it was the first one searched. Robert and Martin were in the adjoining barn and the Germans came in from both directions. “According to one account, the Germans told Robert and Martin they were going to get firewood. They were marshaled into a truck, driven to the river and told to get out. They did so and were shot in the back and kicked into the river.” Neil Torssell, also in the area, recorded the following about Martin Majeski in his notebook: Martin Majeski 605 Lanford Street Anderson, S.C. (Germans shot him on the Osso River near San Vittoria, Italy. March 9 or 10, 1944) In my 2008 interview with Neil Torssell posted to this site, he recalled the discovery and recapture of the two servicemen: “One morning before we got up, they woke us up and told us to get out of there quick. We looked down the road and just about of quarter of a mile from there was a German convoy and a house on fire. We didn’t question anything—we were gone. “When we came back a few months later, we were told that there had been two Americans living in that house. This was a German SS troop. What they did was strip the house of everything they could use, set the house on fire. They took the two Americans down to the river bottom, made them dig their own graves, and shot both of them. “That was probably as close as we had come to being recaptured.” What happened to the Italian family that had sheltered them? “Well, they lost their house and all their possessions. They were just a small SS troop, but they were mean SOBs, if you know what I mean. “We moved back and forth between different places. It was when we came back to this place that I was told about this assassination.” Robert’s nephew Robert also told me: “In 1999, I visited that area in Italy and actually found and stayed with the family that sheltered my uncle. “The Germans stripped the house and burned the furniture. The Italians were beaten. The matriarch of the family was inside and very ill at the time. She died soon after and the Italians intimated that the incident hastened her death. They wanted me to know it was a very sad time for their family, too. “Neil Torssell is talking about my uncle’s recapture and execution. The only wrong detail is that they were not forced to dig their own graves. The Italians retrieved the bodies under cover of darkness and carried them by ox cart to the local cemetery. “[Martin Majeski] was the same guy killed with my uncle at the Aso River. His nickname was Matt and he walked with a limp, presumably from being wounded. He was from an artillery unit attached to the 1st Armored Division. The Italians called him Martino. “I am not sure Neil was necessarily wrong. It’s just that there are several variations of what happened and with time and age some of the stories tend to run together. “The main conflict in the accounts was whether Robert and Martin were killed by Germans or Italian fascisti. Some of the diehard fascisti also ran around in German uniforms. Santa Vittoria was under fascist control, while nearby Monte San Martino was dominated by the partigiani. “While the Italians were emphatic that German SS did the deed, many G.I.’s claim it was Settemio Rosholi, a notorious Italian fascist who murdered many Allied POWs. One clue may be that the local fascisti took to wearing German uniforms. “In the early ’90s, Raymond Cox told me that when he was debriefed by Polish troops, he pleaded with the Poles for the life of the brother of Settemio Rosholi. Settemio Rosholi was a rat who bragged about killing POWs. But Raymond said that Rosholi’s brother was the opposite and helped the escapees. “My uncle Robert and Martin were buried in the local cemetery in Santa Vittoria and when the American’s graves registration people reached the area months later, Martin and Robert were disinterred and moved to an American cemetery in Southern Italy. “My uncle’s remains were not brought home to the U.S. until after the war. His childhood friend from Logansport (Joe Kienly) who went into the Army a private and came out a major, did find out some details about what happened to him, and he gave our family a topographic map of where my uncle was killed. “In researching my uncle’s story, I discovered many valorous stories. All of these guys are worthy of the adage that ‘Uncommon valor was a common virtue.’ “I am very appreciative of the fact that so many of the guys did make it back and could tell us what happened to Robert and Martin. They were all de-briefed and told not to talk about their experiences on the run, because men were still being held captive. Many never did say a word.”