How Plausible are Combat Mission Scenarios/Campaigns?

[civdiv]

On 11/12/2021 at 10:51 AM, semmes said:

 

0+0=0. Giving the AI a hand in no wasting ammo?, maybe even the players?

 

Too forward to wear ties, too far back to get shot. B. Mauldin.

I don’t understand what you are arguing here but then you likely don’t either.

Are you complaining that the mission might get ended? Yeah, that is realistic because another, higher priority call for fire might have been received or they just don’t want to wasted anymore ammo or they need to displace, etc.

Having been an artillery FO myself, I might call for another adjustment, but the battery might say no.

[Ultradave]

4 minutes ago, civdiv said:

I don’t understand what you are arguing here but then you likely don’t either.

Are you complaining that the mission might get ended? Yeah, that is realistic because another, higher priority call for fire might have been received or they just don’t want to wasted anymore ammo or they need to displace, etc.

Having been an artillery FO myself, I might call for another adjustment, but the battery might say no.

I think that may be a misconception some people have. A FO requests. The battery decides. So an FO will describe target location and type. The battery FDC (or Bn FDC if it's a combined mission) decides the fuze or whether to fire ICM or precision munitions maybe, if that's a consideration, and how many volleys. That's all based on the target description, and takes into account the battery ammo situation.

Dave

[MikeyD]

I had posted this photo as a joke awhile back (tanks photographed from a helicopter), complaining that the real world doesn't look very convincing when viewed from camera 3 height.  Most-every CM scenario benefits from the player using a little self restraint. Limit your use of 'eye of god' battlefield overview, limit flying over enemy positions to pinpoint the smallest clues on rewind. Spend more time down in the weeds looking over the soldiers' shoulder. New players who are used to FPS games can be put off by CM gameplay. The solution is to treat it more like a FPS game than a tabletop board game.

 

[mossy]

All I really want to know is surely there is a way to adjust the time limits on a given scenario or campaign mission! I am trying to do just that to enjoy a few missions/campaign taking as close to zero casualties as possible but some (not all) missions simply do not allow that with only 40mins to play.
Please tell me we are able to use mod tools or something to edit existing scenarios as .cam and .btt files seem completely un-editable.

[Glubokii Boy]

On 3/7/2022 at 5:07 PM, mossy said:

Please tell me we are able to use mod tools or something to edit existing scenarios as .cam and .btt files seem completely un-editable.

No mod tools needed.

Single scenarios can be edited in the scenario editor i less than a minute.

Editing campaign scenarios requires somewhat more work as those campaigns first has to be 'unpacked' into a number of single scenarios. Ones unpacked those scenarios can be edited just as easily as stand alone scenarios...they will be playable as single scenarios but to put them together again into a campaign will require some additional work...

I recomend you spend a few minutes glanzing through the manual...especially the editor section and then you will be up and editing scenarios in no time...

 

[womble]

On 3/7/2022 at 4:07 PM, mossy said:

All I really want to know is surely there is a way to adjust the time limits on a given scenario or campaign mission! I am trying to do just that to enjoy a few missions/campaign taking as close to zero casualties as possible but some (not all) missions simply do not allow that with only 40mins to play.
Please tell me we are able to use mod tools or something to edit existing scenarios as .cam and .btt files seem completely un-editable.

You should be aware that adjusting time limits does more than give you more time... It gives you more time after the AI has had its last order, so those extra minutes will be "easier" than the minutes of the original scenario, which have an AI plan to cover them.

I suspect that the 40 minute scenario becomes somewhat trivial to unpick if you give yourself the maximum time allocation the editor permits. The time limit is an inherent aspect of scenario design, just as available arty or other forces are.

[Glubokii Boy]

10 hours ago, womble said:

You should be aware that adjusting time limits does more than give you more time... It gives you more time after the AI has had its last order, so those extra minutes will be "easier" than the minutes of the original scenario, which have an AI plan to cover them.

I suspect that the 40 minute scenario becomes somewhat trivial to unpick if you give yourself the maximum time allocation the editor permits. The time limit is an inherent aspect of scenario design, just as available arty or other forces are.

That is a good point.

In most senarios i belive that you can add atleast a few additional minutes of playtime without screwing up the original intent of the designer. Major changes to the time limit will most likely have the result you mentioned though and should probably be avoided.

 

 

[DougPhresh]

I came in expecting all Campaign plausibility discussion to be about BS.

[Simcoe]

27 minutes ago, DougPhresh said:

I came in expecting all Campaign plausibility discussion to be about BS.

Then let's discuss it. From what I've seen, it doesn't look like there is much combined arms warfare going on in Ukraine. Take the first mission of the Ukraine/Russian campaigns. Is that realistic to have such a large armored column in a small space? Does Combat Mission strategies of sending out infantry to scout ahead/take vantage points work in modern warfare? Usually it looks like just a tank or two blindly firing into buildings for half an hour.

My guess is, the Cold War maps are much more realistic sizes for a company combat team.