New Stryker Scenario for WSPMBT

[junk2drive]

At Shrapnel's WSPMBT forums.

Retrieve a downed Kiowa and crew. Lots of Stryker variants and other support units.

[mazex]

Thanks for the pointer!

I downloaded it and played it. I was my first "real" WSPMBT scenario (I've just tried a fast Sweden attacks Norway before to try them nice swedish Leo 2:s in action (STRV122)). I have however played SP since 1995, so I am well accustomed with the engine...

Impressions after my first Stryker mission, which in some way concerns game mechanics of WSPMBT, but in many ways apply to all middle east Stryker games

First of all, the scenario was good fun and I recommend it! The problem was that what made it fun was that it was not historically correct, as it must be virually impossible to win the scenario with just five wounded and no KIA. I got 28 GI:s killed and lost 3 Strykers. A number of other Strykers where immobilized - I learned the hard way that they are no good at crossing ditches (at least in WSPMBT!), one got stuck in the sand and three got immobilized after RPG-7 hits. Another Stryker lesson learnt the hard way - the ammo for those GL armed babies is expended quick! As I said 3 of them where also completely destroyed, among them the med evac Stryker witch made rescuing the pilots impossible (especially as they where inside it at the moment and where toasted too!), that was a no no but restarting a scenario takes the surprise away the next time. I did however salvage that old Kiowa and naturally killed off all them damn insurgents...

A few comments regading the WSPMBT engine: The snipers feels way too powerful compared to the other units. Units taking cover should be hard to hit with a MG but when three Strykers stand in a cricle 100 meters from a beat up squad that is on a plain sandfield it feels very wrong when you have fired six 7.62/50cal bursts from each without a kill... Another one that has been there since SP 1.0 - after having 5 Strykers (two with GL:s) expending all their ammo for one turn on a poor guerilla squad right infront of them it does not feel right when you finally unload a squad from one of your Strykers and that damn squad gets the first shot!

Back to the main problem... To set up the victory conditions for this scenario it should really be that if you loose any US troops (or say more than two) you should fail the mission. How fun would that have been as a game? Having masses of guerilla and insurgents storming those two Strykers at the chopper while waiting for the others to finish their gauntlet run through the narrow streets wouldn't have been challenging without losses... And having all RPG-7:s just bounce off your Strykers side armour from close range wouldn't feel right either. Someone might say that CM:SF will not have vitory conditions like that (almost no losses) but still, a small rescue operation where three Strykers get destroyed and several others get damaged while loosing 28 GI:s whould sure as hell give the President problem with the media, especially if it happens more than one time! OK, I wasn't too careful so the losses should for sure be a lot lower for an experienced WSPMBT player but still!

Final comment - somehow it felt very much like beeing given a bunch of Sdkfz 251/X and plowing through the streets of Stalingrad... Fun for one scenario like this but for a whole game?

/Mazex

[junk2drive]

You did much better than I. So far I haven't done more than three turns without quiting.

I lose so much straight away that I have to start over.

[Battlefront.com]

Another one that has been there since SP 1.0 - after having 5 Strykers (two with GL:s) expending all their ammo for one turn on a poor guerilla squad right infront of them it does not feel right when you finally unload a squad from one of your Strykers and that damn squad gets the first shot!

Ah... that brings back memories from my 1993? experience with SP 1.0. So 13 years later the same problem is still there, eh? Go figure

a small rescue operation where three Strykers get destroyed and several others get damaged while loosing 28 GI:s whould sure as hell give the President problem with the media, especially if it happens more than one time!

Correct. Look at Mogadishu. From an operational standpoint the objective was acheived because the individuals targeted for detention were indeed picked up and moved out of the area (relatively safely). But the cost in lives, hardware, and political capital was completely out of line with the "supposed" positive results. I say "supposed" because most hindsight examinations said the strategy and goals for combating Adid and the security situation as a whole were ill conceived and counter productive to the strategic mission. Therefore, not only was the short term operation a significant failure, but the Big Picture said that the operation itself was, at best, pointless. So... why should CM:SF reward a player for taking excessive losses and perhaps jepordizing The Big Picture?

Final comment - somehow it felt very much like beeing given a bunch of Sdkfz 251/X and plowing through the streets of Stalingrad... Fun for one scenario like this but for a whole game?

Well, I didn't even find SP 1.0 fun enough to play for more than a few scenarios, so I'm not the guy to ask

Seriously though, I've said for months now (before CM:SF was announced) that the same subject matter has totally different results depending on the game system. CMBB has nothing in common with the 1980s Kampfgruppe, for example, even though the same subject matter is shared by both. So one must look at the game system more than the subject matter since the game system is what really determines if it is fun. The subject matter simply gives it form.

Steve