New Afghanistan inspired campaign: Valleys of Death

[puje]

19 hours ago, domfluff said:

Also, I do think this campaign is a great advert for the Stryker - having just one of those knocking around would be tremendously helpful here, and you really feel it's absence.

I think the British Jackal might also make a lot more sense that usual in this kind of scenario - certainly an upgrade from the humvees, anyway.

The first version of the campaign had Strykers in stead of humvees, actually. But I did end up thinking they were a bit too powerful. However, they were easier to manage, especially with extra ammo for the infantry. 

[puje]

8 hours ago, HunterGathers said:

I'm enjoying this campaign immensely. This needs to become a standard. I love the concept your running with here with a small unit on a single AO, and I'd love to see more these sorts of campaigns, perhaps with one of the other modules next?

9/10 (because nothing deserves a 10) Well done!

Edit: About 1/4 through mission 3.... Just took my first casualty. I'm really feeling some frustrations with the tactical situation, and I'm finding I have to radically rethink where the mission "begins" for my units. This is truly outstanding.

I'm glad you're liking it so far! What do you mean by "begin" ? 

[domfluff]

2 hours ago, puje said:

The first version of the campaign had Strykers in stead of humvees, actually. But I did end up thinking they were a bit too powerful. However, they were easier to manage, especially with extra ammo for the infantry. 

Oh, and it's definitely much better for not having them, but you do feel the lack of them.

[HunterGathers]

I found the mission begins before your men leave the COP. Getting your men outside the COP and on mission can be an ordeal in of itself. You have to watch for snipers and MG's firing into the COP. Establishing security around the COP and coming up with a concise plan for your platoon that includes how to get your units out of and into the COP quickly and efficiently with minimal exposure to fire is paramount to success.

My only issue so far is mostly to do with the mechanics of the game - getting the vehicles out can be something of a chore sometimes. But you're obviously limited in what you can do in terms of mapmaking

Edited April 26, 2019 by HunterGathers

[slysniper]

I just wanted to confirm that you did  good in this design. I made it to the mission where you have to clear the town across the river, I somewhat have lost interest at this point but really enjoyed it til now and saw no real issues with any of your design.

I am not one that enjoys campaigns much, but this is at least a 8 out of 10 if not more.

so many things I want to play and so little time to do it is maybe the reason I have stopped. Was in progress of clearing the town and no real issues so far, just bored and moved on, maybe I will finish it at some point. hard to tell, there is many a campaign not finished in my files.

 

[domfluff]

I enjoyed the town clearing a lot. Compound to compound fighting. There didn't seem to be any reason not to just level the place with indirect fire though, which might have been the sensible option.

The relief mission that followed was probably too straightforward - I stayed mounted and just rolled into it, relying on firepower to win.

Currently on the mountain clearing.

[puje]

On 4/26/2019 at 3:59 PM, HunterGathers said:

I found the mission begins before your men leave the COP. Getting your men outside the COP and on mission can be an ordeal in of itself. You have to watch for snipers and MG's firing into the COP. Establishing security around the COP and coming up with a concise plan for your platoon that includes how to get your units out of and into the COP quickly and efficiently with minimal exposure to fire is paramount to success.

My only issue so far is mostly to do with the mechanics of the game - getting the vehicles out can be something of a chore sometimes. But you're obviously limited in what you can do in terms of mapmaking

True, I admit the vehicles are not the greatest. They are a bit clunky to handle with room for so few passengers. And unfortunately the only hold 500x 5.56. Wierd since a box usually is 800-900 rounds.

Edited April 27, 2019 by puje

[puje]

On 4/26/2019 at 9:19 PM, slysniper said:

I just wanted to confirm that you did  good in this design. I made it to the mission where you have to clear the town across the river, I somewhat have lost interest at this point but really enjoyed it til now and saw no real issues with any of your design.

I am not one that enjoys campaigns much, but this is at least a 8 out of 10 if not more.

so many things I want to play and so little time to do it is maybe the reason I have stopped. Was in progress of clearing the town and no real issues so far, just bored and moved on, maybe I will finish it at some point. hard to tell, there is many a campaign not finished in my files.

 

I'm glad you made it that far. I can understand this campaign might become a bit too un-varried

Edited April 27, 2019 by puje

[puje]

On 4/26/2019 at 10:42 PM, domfluff said:

I enjoyed the town clearing a lot. Compound to compound fighting. There didn't seem to be any reason not to just level the place with indirect fire though, which might have been the sensible option.

The relief mission that followed was probably too straightforward - I stayed mounted and just rolled into it, relying on firepower to win.

Currently on the mountain clearing.

I'll admit the relief mission wasn't my greatest work. I just wanted to throw a completely different mission in there. Towards the end of development I started to become a bit... Impatient. So making a new map from scratch was kind of a slog. 

Speaking of a slog, that mountain mission is one. Uphill 

Not sure if I made the right decision with the distances you need to cover in that mission. 

Edited April 27, 2019 by puje

[domfluff]

Oh, I think you needed something there to avoid being repetitive, so it's understandable.

I'm progressing with that mountain mission now - there's a lot of ground to cover on foot, but the main issue is going to be getting through the woods at a decent speed. I *think* I have plenty of time to finish it, and I'm about to start the actual attack.

As a house-rule in general, I don't call in Fire missions onto known targets unless I have a spotting icon at the FO (I'm happy to do that blind if I'm genuinely speculating), that led to an interesting tactical situation where a squad from the blocking platoon was out-gunned from an enemy MG, and didn't have an easy way to deal with it (they had the spotting contact, but were too busy to share it with anyone). Solution was to break contact with smoke, at which point the hill could be lit up with artillery.

[HunterGathers]

May I suggest lengthening the base by one action square to give a bit wider of a laneway for the humvees to exit the base between the Wall and the main gate? It may alleviate some of the pathway issues. I've had to restart a mission a few times from the vehicles getting bogged into the trench lmao

[Sgt.Squarehead]

May I suggest judicious use of the 'Pause' command? 

PS - Permanent pauses should keep vehicles under control even if they are being plinked by snipers, at least until someone dies! 

Edited April 29, 2019 by Sgt.Squarehead

[HunterGathers]

That's essentially how I've been doing it. I set up the vehicles I'm going to use for the mission at the gate, then dismount everyone behind the wall and start the mission, assess safety of the perimeter and then mount the vehicles and through "judicious use" of pause and slow I eventually get out of the gate and on mission.

[Heinrich505]

Puje,

  I'm just starting out with your campaign and this is a keeper!  Managed to survive the first mission.  The chaos of that action felt very realistic.  New officer relieving a previous unit, no real clue of terrain, and attacked in the dark.  If it weren't for the steep escarpments and deep valleys, you could get the feeling you were defending a firebase near Khe Sanh against NVA regulars.  Well, not with Hummvees, of course, but it's not that much of a stretch.

  This is going to be quite a challenge.  Thanks for your hard work on this.

Heinrich505

[domfluff]

Righty, picked this up again and powered through to the end.

Enjoyed this a lot, well worth playing, thank you.

I do think the missions where you are attacking urban areas gave you too much artillery/air support - there didn't seem to be any reason not to just flatten the area. In the first of these, I refrained, and had a great little compound to compound fight. In the second, I ended up just flattening everything until they surrendered. I do think Preserve objectives would work well here. That's a bit of a shame, since the second was building up to something really interesting.

The mountain clearing mission was a grind, and perhaps not a terribly interesting one. The basic tactical situation was good, but the ratio of size to thought was a little off I think. That's where I had to take a break.

[puje]

20 hours ago, domfluff said:

Righty, picked this up again and powered through to the end.

Enjoyed this a lot, well worth playing, thank you.

I do think the missions where you are attacking urban areas gave you too much artillery/air support - there didn't seem to be any reason not to just flatten the area. In the first of these, I refrained, and had a great little compound to compound fight. In the second, I ended up just flattening everything until they surrendered. I do think Preserve objectives would work well here. That's a bit of a shame, since the second was building up to something really interesting.

The mountain clearing mission was a grind, and perhaps not a terribly interesting one. The basic tactical situation was good, but the ratio of size to thought was a little off I think. That's where I had to take a break.

Thank you for playing! I plan on making a few minor changes and then upload it where appropriate. Where do people actually go to find CM content? 

Do you have any ideas for changing in mountain mission? As I see it, it becomes a grind because movement is incredibly slow. I think it's the ground texture that slows them down so much. Not sure if the terrain elevations have effects also. I do quite like that this is a walking mission, but it is very very slow. 

About the arty. I think you are right. However the issue is that I don't know what kind of force you are walking into the last mission with. There could be anything from a full company to somewhere between 1- 2 platoons left in your force. What size force did you have on your playthrough?

But yeah, when I have played that mission myself, there always was a pocket I never got to clear on foot because red always surrendered before I fought my way to it. 

Edited May 12, 2019 by puje

[puje]

On 5/11/2019 at 4:43 PM, Heinrich505 said:

Puje,

  I'm just starting out with your campaign and this is a keeper!  Managed to survive the first mission.  The chaos of that action felt very realistic.  New officer relieving a previous unit, no real clue of terrain, and attacked in the dark.  If it weren't for the steep escarpments and deep valleys, you could get the feeling you were defending a firebase near Khe Sanh against NVA regulars.  Well, not with Hummvees, of course, but it's not that much of a stretch.

  This is going to be quite a challenge.  Thanks for your hard work on this.

Heinrich505

Thank you very much. I hope you'll like it as you play on. 

[domfluff]

I'd look into uploading it to the Scenario Depot 3 - that's become the offical place now anyway.

 

I think I'd only lost one US soldier by that point. Total campaign deaths were something like 10, but most of those were allies. In the final mission I didn't have to enter the town at all, indirect fire did it all for me. Under an hour had passed as well - I didnt see the Abrams turn up.

Edited May 12, 2019 by domfluff

[domfluff]

In terms of what you could do about the mountain campaign: making the forest patchier might help. 

A "sweep and clear" might be better done on a more urban map, but in terms of making changes to the existing campaign, I think just making the forest less monolithic would help. It would also make the sweeping more tactically interesting.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Just starting the third scenario, thoroughly enjoying myself.....Total casualties suffered to date amount to one man lightly wounded by a mortar fragment.   I have a feeling that won't last. 

Having lots of fun experimenting with different team-splits & HMMWV load outs....Two man scout teams make excellent crews when the threat level is low, but I'll switch to using four man sections once the serious shooting starts. 

Edited May 16, 2019 by Sgt.Squarehead

[Sgt.Squarehead]

On ‎5‎/‎12‎/‎2019 at 6:15 PM, puje said:

But yeah, when I have played that mission myself, there always was a pocket I never got to clear on foot because red always surrendered before I fought my way to it.

You can avoid the early surrender by adding reinforcements set to arrive at a time after the battle has ended.....If you do this you will need to account for it in parameters and so on. 

PM me if you are unsure what I'm on about.

[Heinrich505]

Puje, 

There are certainly plenty of “Holy Crap!!!” moments to be had.  I’m having a great time trying to keep my guys alive.  When I start taking heavy machine gun fire in the compound from some freaking unknown location on the giant ridge way across the map, all Hell breaks loose, and I can hear my guys screaming “Where is it coming from?”  I’m yelling back at them, calling “Anybody got eyes on them?”

There are some really tension-filled moments to this campaign. You’ve done a really great job. I’m working through the third mission and already uncovered some unpleasant surprises. You’ve crafted the missions so they have a very realistic feeling to them. I can almost imagine myself in a Hummvee trying to coordinate the movements of the guys and trying to anticipate where the next ugly surprise is going to come from. 

This is great stuff!!  Thanks so much. 

Heinrich505 

[puje]

2 hours ago, Heinrich505 said:

Puje, 

There are certainly plenty of “Holy Crap!!!” moments to be had.  I’m having a great time trying to keep my guys alive.  When I start taking heavy machine gun fire in the compound from some freaking unknown location on the giant ridge way across the map, all Hell breaks loose, and I can hear my guys screaming “Where is it coming from?”  I’m yelling back at them, calling “Anybody got eyes on them?”

There are some really tension-filled moments to this campaign. You’ve done a really great job. I’m working through the third mission and already uncovered some unpleasant surprises. You’ve crafted the missions so they have a very realistic feeling to them. I can almost imagine myself in a Hummvee trying to coordinate the movements of the guys and trying to anticipate where the next ugly surprise is going to come from. 

This is great stuff!!  Thanks so much. 

Heinrich505 

Thank you very much my man!

[Heinrich505]

Puje,

  Well, I finished this amazing campaign of yours.  Ended up with a total victory playing elite, but the price of 15 dead and 39 wounded tempered my excitement for the victory.  Many of my casualties happened during the battle for the city in the hill, battle 10.  RPGs seemed to come flying out like crazy.  I tried to ease up to the outskirts, using the cover available, and blasting the town with precision arty.  Still, when my guys made it on the far overlook, they took so much fire that I had to push my guys on the other side forward to bail them out.  I never did see the tanks.  I beat the enemy up pretty good, and they finally had too much and surrendered at the 3 hour mark.  Fine by me!

  The campaign was so much fun to play.  The missions were varied and you had to approach each of them in a slightly different way to be successful.  Sure, the rush out of the compound was always tricky, especially when under fire.  I used a lot of pauses and didn't push too many Hummvees out at the same time.  It took a little longer but seemed less crazy - only got one vehicle bogged in the trench area but managed to rock him free.  

  One of the most intense missions was the night mission where several enemy had been spotted climbing around on the top of the huge escarpment, to the east, if I recall my directions properly.  They were possibly lugging missile launchers and the whole compound was in jeopardy.  I rushed four Hummvees out with only one squad, hoping it would be enough.  I just dashed them like crazy to the escarpment, two on one side and two on the other.  Then I stalked my way up.  It was an incredibly tense mission, and I half expected to see rockets start flying off the top towards my compound. 

  Night vision equipment really saved the day for me, allowing me to spot and eliminate the enemy before he could see me.  What a really cool mission.  I was holding my breath as I eased my guys through the dark terrain.  Excellent job!

  I have to say that the very last mission was another extremely tense one.  I won't spoil it for anyone still playing, but I really was holding my breath during that one.  PM me if you'd like to talk about it further.  It is clear that you really thought out how to best put together this campaign.  It was so easy to get drawn into this little valley of Hell.  I was worrying about my guys and leaving the wounded squads and teams back at the base, not wanting to get them shot up more.  Many nights I would go to bed after saving the mission, thinking about what strategy I was going to employ the next turn to get my guys out of a jam.  You really succeeded - one of the best campaigns I've played!

  Thanks so much for your hard work with this campaign.  It is really appreciated.

Heinrich505   

[puje]

@Heinrich505 Wow man, such kind words. Really makes it worth all those hours I spent when the reviews are this positive! Thank you.

Right now I'm working on a campaign for 37mm's Vietnam mod. I can't spend as much times on it as I did on this campaign, but I hope I can somewhat live up to the reviews of Valleys.