Ultradave

It was tested. I asked to have the Challengers arrive sooner, because originally they showed up with only 7 minutes remaining, no time to have an effect, and got blown up as soon as they moved. No way to take the offense and gain/regain anything. However, with the earlier arrival, I got a victory and moved on. I was aggressive on the left and sent some dismounted troops up to that small ridge/fold and managed to ambush a couple of attacking vehicles. I sent one Challenger to the right by that woodlot/orchard, and when I saw there were multiple attackers, sent another, and wiped out everything over there. I had quite a battle for that small group of buildings on the middle left. I think I lost a couple squads and possibly 2 APCs over there, but the other 2 Challengers eventually mopped up. At the end when I reviewed the map, there were still some enemy tanks, but they were far across the map and hadn't advanced. Or not far anyway. Possibly they were in overwatch and I had eliminated most of the attackers, or were ready to defend that last far objective (which I think if I remember I ran out of time to go for). Yeah, this was a hard one. But (hee, hee), wait until you get to the last scenario of the Damascus route ("Bowling Alley"). Yikes (but you will have plenty of artillery for that one - use it to prep the objectives (and by prep I mean attempt to level them . Stick with medium/medium missions and you will have plenty of ammo). And at that, it's hard now but it started out impossible, so some changes were made to make it more manageable. Dave

I believe it's the exit zone thing - proper scenario version now included.

Ok, guess I was just remembering using all the AT4s on various targets. And yes, I made good use of artillery. The initial Challenger I did have peeking from behind a building with a pretty good view downrange. He didn't get killed. I did lose several APCs when they got flanked and hit. I did get some sort of victory and move on, with the final version. Sorry @Erwin, sometimes it gets confusing remembering what happened after playing several versions of the same scenario. Dave

@Heirloom_Tomato Will have to answer. I tried downloading that individual scenario and checking it but it won't open all by itself like the Course of Action would. I could have sworn I had Javelin launchers on top of, in one case for sure, the most forward building, and took out several vehicles in that blank rectangular open field area. I think there was another team farther back. It was a while ago, so I don't remember all details and I don't have the saves anymore. I wonder if it's possible an older version got compiled. In early versions, the Challengers arrived much too late, and like you, were almost immediately destroyed as they could not move from that covered spot without taking fire. He changed the timing so that they arrive much earlier and have a good chance to move and find cover and take the offensive (two of mine destroyed everything coming at me from the right beyond that patch of woods). Sorry I can't be of more help. I'd have to replay the campaign from scratch to get where you are now Dave

I'm not sure mission numbers are getting us the correct things. The defensive one you are talking about is called Counterattack and the 'choice' one comes next. It's named Course of Action at the top of the briefing screen. Never mind my comment about the hospital. That's also a defensive one but on the other branch (to Damascus). I had originally thought that's what you were talking about and forgot about the "Counterattack" scenario.

"Highland Games" is the reworked UK campaign. Counterattack is the defensive one you were talking about. Yeah, that one was tough, and was impossible before he made some changes to it. Those tanks that come as reinforcements were way too late originally to prevent being overrun. Now they arrive earlier and can help, but yeah, you have to be careful not to expose yourself, and to move them from cover to cover. There are a pretty fair number of enemy tanks. Also, if I remember correctly, the Javelins are in the trucks parked near the buildings. You have to run and acquire them and then set up. By the time you do you'll have targets, however, the Syrians have an annoying amount of artillery support so you'll need them to survive that. I was able to take out a number of Syrian vehicles with the Javelins and a couple more with the light AT weapons of the squads. I *think* I'm remembering this right but I don't have a save I can use to go check that now. If you have a save from the beginning of Counterattack, check the trucks for resources. The choice scenario is "Course of Action" in the title at the top of the screen. Should be #9. There are 2 objectives, OBJ Damascus, and OBJ South. You pick one and that determines the remaining scenarios. The briefing describes it, I think pretty clearly. The VPs are set up so that if you "lose" by taking OBJ South and not OBJ Damascus, then you go south alone. If you "win" by taking OBJ Damascus, then you head to Damascus with the US. The OBJ Damascus was the harder one to take. The reinforcing tanks were my fire support and I just blasted everything to rubble in that corner I found the remaining scenarios of the on to Damascus choice the harder of the two paths. The city fighting was brutal, especially the final one "Bowling Alley" Tough, brutal, BUT for once you have all the artillery support you could ask for and you'll need it all. Hope that all helps. Oh, and I think there are 17 or 18 scenarios all together so each path runs through 13 or 14 to the finish. Dave

I *think* it's #9 (I could be wrong about this number after the campaign was redone). The title is something like "US or alone?" or some variation of that, I think. There are two corner objectives. Head to your left to the far left corner and exit and you are going alone, headed south from Damascus, ending with a ridgeline assault. Head to the far right corner and exit and you are going to downtown Damascus with the US forces. The remaining scenarios on that branch then have combinations of US and UK forces. It sounds like you may have passed that point if you have done 11. Sorry I can't do better than that. I don't currently have SF2 installed at the moment - I needed to make room for several Fire and Rubble beta versions and was running out of HD space. @Heirloom_Tomato should be able to answer for sure. Hopefully he'll see this tag. Dave

Ah, ok. Thinking of a different one. I don't remember that one specifically. Yes, there are two branches. In one, you head toward Damascus with the American forces, and in the other, you head south while American forces head to Damascus. You get to choose. I can't remember which scenario it is but you'll know when you get there. It depends on which objective map corner you choose to go to. VPs in that scenario only determine which path you are taking - you'll "win" both but the VPs will list one of them as a loss, and that determines the path. Best thing is to save at the beginning of that scenario somewhere so you can go back and take the other path later and play both parts of the campaign. Dave

"so if you lose your FO's, it takes a long time for an inf unit to call in anything. " Real life. Probably several extra minutes. Was Mission 11 the defensive setup with the big hospital on the right? I did fine on that one. Lost a handful of AFVs, but I don't recall losing any tanks and the tanks cleaned up the opposition. Most of my losses came from the enemy that appeared on the left in and between the buildings (almost on top of my own positions). Dave

They do get tougher as you get closer to Damascus. I found the alternate path where you don't go to Damascus to be somewhat easier. Dave

"Old post" Which scenario is important. The options available to someone building AI plans in the game now are much better, and a canny designer (looking at you @George MC, just to take an example), can provide an AI plan or 2 or 3, that will give you fits. Older scenarios did not have the ability to do so. With SF2 for example, ALL of the scenarios were gone over, and in quite a few cases, completely new AI scripting done. Newer titles will have much more capable AI. R2V and upcoming RT provide more capable AI opponents than older scenarios. Lastly, it could be the designer didn't really intend to have it played in that direction and just added a basic AI capability to it. Dave

Yeah, I'll raise my hand. I've had an on and off issue in beta testing that someone else couldn't duplicate, so I'd be interested in whatever test you come up with. Anything that narrows down the issue is helpful. Documenting what is included in the test is key so that we can do some tracking as to what causes or doesn't cause problems. Dave

Is he out of a vehicle? (Sorry, I can't remember now what the 2d mission is) If so, check his icon for any kind of radio. There are times when I had a dismounted commander of some level and to call fire I had to get him back into his vehicle. Dave

What we always had drilled into us (my Army time covered this time period) is "If you can be seen, you can be hit. If you are hit, your are dead" The modern battlefield is an order of magnitude more lethal than WW2. Of course in SF2 you can be seen pretty easily, HOWEVER, there are many small folds and rises in the terrain and it's essential to make good use of those for covered approaches. They may know where you are but not be able to get a shot at you. Buildings can help the same way. Try to use them as cover. Hull down in ditches. Anything at all to take advantage of what the terrain provides you for cover. Concealment not so much due to the terrain, but covered approaches are a must. Hope that helps. Dave

I have terrain mods in CMBN but not in any other titles. I think the later titles look good enough for me to not bother with them. For me, CMBN benefits quite a bit from some terrain mods. No other reason. I am constantly amazed at the work put in by people creating mods, so hats off to all of you. Dave

And to play ALL, just make sure you have a save at the point where you have to make a choice. Then after you finish one option, you can go back and do the other option from the point of the choice. Dave

New and better enemy AI. Also with the patch improvements to soldiers staying in cover and not running away or toward you, your opponent is tough and fights very hard. Patience, recon by fire, objective prep with whatever fire support you have is key ( of course those are always key, right?) you have plenty of time for each mission. I recommend making use of that and not rushing in thinking you can sweep the enemy away. (Ask me how I know this) Be careful and watch your losses. It affects follow on missions in the campaign and you need plenty of resources for the last couple missions. don’t want to give any spoilers except slow and steady wins the race. I know that’s not much Dave

You're going to like Fire and Rubble.

Note that it's only a PIECE of Ben's absolutely amazing Berlin map!

Can you post the save here? Glad to take a look at it. Dave

That chart is for normal HE mission, it appears. You'd have better results using DPICM, or Copperhead, which was available at the time. Copperhead required a laser designator. DPICM can be fired as a regular fire mission, and doesn't need any guidance. Excalibur too. Copperhead is a tank killer, with a shaped charge warhead. That's what it was designed to do. Excalibur is not as far as I know - HE charge but highly accurate, so better for precision strikes or maybe bunkers, improved positions that an HE PD or Time mission might not do much too. For an HE mission to destroy tanks in the open, you really need a direct hit, which is very likely to immobilize/kill the crew inside, but still has a decent chance of leaving the tank usable in the future. Also, the older model the tank, the "easier" it would be to kill with artillery IF you hit it. Better results in direct fire, but if you are the artillery battery and are in direct fire mode against enemy tanks, well, it's been a really bad day out front of you. Dave

They are there. You can purchase them as individual vehicles after purchasing any kind of formation. This is true for both Heer and selections. Dave

20 meters. Yikes! Can you imagine? It says armed at 20m. Is that actually an effective minimum range? I can't imagine actually trying to shoot it at something 20 m away.

I don't know about Steam specifically but I've run the W10 version of Black Sea on my MacBook Pro with Parallels Desktop with no problem at all. Indistinguishable from running it natively on the Mac. In that case I had a specific reason for doing so, but I normally wouldn't bother just to use Steam Dave

That thing is a beast!