Has anyone completed the campaign yet?

[Sergei]

Just curious... I'm a darned slow player as I always do something simultaneously while playing, so I wonder how quickly it can be done.

[MikeyD]

I recall having a conversation with a dedicated WeGo player. He said he could usually get through a 1 hr battle in a couple nights. i replied that playing Realtime a one hour battle would usually take me... one hour!

An admitted Realtime disadvantage is sometimes your Abrams blows up in the far corner of the map and you never discover why. But the more proficient you become at the camera controls the less of a problem that becomes. I think I ran through the first three campaign battles in an evening playing Realtime and started the fourth - in one of my several attempts at the campaign.

[B00M$LANG]

I am 3 missions from the end, I think, on Veteran level.

[Pandur]

i paused the campin a bit frustrated near the end of the 2nd battle. i will contunue after the pathfinding is worked out so the units just go along the lines i ploted and enter and move in houses got a more confident feel to it.

and it takes me about 5-8 houers for 1 houer scenarios in wego, so i manage to play just one at once ever some day.

its quiet funny, as your troops get worn and used also the "global commander" is pretty used up after 5 houers of battle, and sometimes there are more to follow

most fun that "was"(hopefully not!) in TCPip, you could notice both sides comanders degrade to the end of a battle.

[Michael Dorosh]

Capt Toleran has reportedly finished it, but has left amazingly little feedback for us.

[molotov_billy]

It would be cool if campaign scenarios were unlocked and added to the 'battles' section once they were completed. Maybe this is a matter of just moving some scenario files around on my part.

[tom3d]

and do you prefer to play Turn-based or Real Time? Just curious too hehe i didn't decided yet what Do I Prefer hehe!

[Stalintc]

Originally posted by molotov_billy:

It would be cool if campaign scenarios were unlocked and added to the 'battles' section once they were completed. Maybe this is a matter of just moving some scenario files around on my part.

Billy, you cant move any scenario files around no because the campaign missions are packaged into one file.

However as a work around you could start each campaign mission as you play through them, and then making a save right at the beginning. That way you could replay till your hearts content

[metalbrew]

I've finished the campaign. I played WeGo on Elite level.

Move Strykers with the slow command 99% of the time. I use fast movement for moving over ground I've already cleared. Use the smoke launchers a lot. You see fine through the smoke due to IR optics. Moving slow means better spotting, the Strykers have superb optics and imagers as long as you move slowly.

Keep the 40mm Strykers near the front of your movement. The M2 Bradleys are good up front too. The 40mm and 25mm respectively eat infantry alive as well as being able to handle vehicles, AFV, and some armor (with the M2s TOW).

Only dismount infantry when absolutely necessary, such as AT roles or when you're faced with an ambush in a city. I think I could win the campaign without infantry (just the Stryker vehicles) if it weren't for the few places I needed to take out armor without M1s. Even in ambushes, it's often easier to retreat and retake the ground by moving slowly and grinding down the enemy than letting your own troops take the brunt of the enemy gunfire.

If you need to dismount, reverse your vehicle into the building and then disembark, don't use doors or worry about breaching walls. With the rear of the vehicle in the building the rear gate comes down inside the building already. Yes this is gamey but I don't care, if I have to live with insanely stupid pathfinding this is my temporary fix.

Destroy any building with more than a single unit inside. Artillery or Stryker MGS works well. M1s are the quickest knock down punch in terms of in-game time. Apaches don't take down buildings very well, even with heavy ordinance. A-10s knock buildings flat with medium ordinance.

I think I finished with around ~35 friendly KIAs and ~100 WIAs for the entire campaign. Hard and cold tactics win with less losses. I'm especially surprised at how little I needed to dismount infantry.

[molotov_billy]

Originally posted by metalbrew:

Apaches don't take down buildings very well, even with heavy ordinance.

On linear and area attack, no. With point attack, they seem to take down buildings really quickly.

[Cid250]

You doesn't need to use infantry... you can win the entire campaign almost with vehicles alone. Infantry has now the same paper than in any other RTS out there... nothing important.

CMSF is just another RTS now, one more of the hundreds that each year hits the shelves.

You even doesn't need quality tactics to win the entire campaign in "elite" setup.

Home of superior war and strategic games?... Not anymore, sadly.

Even without campaigns, CMBB & CMAK are superb products, while CMSF lacks of milestone features.

[metalbrew]

Originally posted by molotov_billy:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by metalbrew:

Apaches don't take down buildings very well, even with heavy ordinance.

On linear and area attack, no. With point attack, they seem to take down buildings really quickly. </font>

[Pandur]

If you need to dismount, reverse your vehicle into the building and then disembark, don't use doors or worry about breaching walls.

i got an stryker stuck in rubble with that methode, than i stoped using it

it wasnt knocked out or immobile, wasnt fired upon or anything, it just sat in the rubble and canceled all its waypoint orders when hitting the GO button, no forward no reverse.

i tried 5 or 6 rounds to get it out, than i gave up.

I'm especially surprised at how little I needed to dismount infantry.

its some "littlebit" like with TOW i feel.

if the enemy ambush isnt 99% perfect the vehicles spot more than enough by themself to shoot everything up alone within 2-4 rounds.

as i said in other places thermal and all gadgets are verry nice but if the game comes close to real world, wich it tries, i wonder why the US still have foot partols and guys moving around by feet!?

[molotov_billy]

Originally posted by metalbrew:

On the Special Forces HQ at the airfield, 2 different Apache point attack missions with heavy ordnance failed to take down the center of the building (or any part of the building for that matter).

With four seperate (single) Apache missions, I was able to take out 4 entire building sections of the SF HQ.

[metalbrew]

Originally posted by Pandur:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> If you need to dismount, reverse your vehicle into the building and then disembark, don't use doors or worry about breaching walls.

i got an stryker stuck in rubble with that methode, than i stoped using it

it wasnt knocked out or immobile, wasnt fired upon or anything, it just sat in the rubble and canceled all its waypoint orders when hitting the GO button, no forward no reverse.

i tried 5 or 6 rounds to get it out, than i gave up.</font>

[Pandur]

This also works with the 3m high concrete walls, back the vehicle up to the wall and disembark troops through the wall.

abstract! :eek:

i never tried it with walls so far

[molotov_billy]

The thing that I HAVE had trouble with is taking out tanks with Apaches. Maybe it was the reactive armor that shrugged off hellfires, but I had to do multiple passes per tank, and usually the crew bailed out because of immobilization and exterior damage, but rarely a penetration. The targets were usually T-55's (I think.)

[kevinkins]

Is it true you don't need dismounted infantry to win the campaign? I can see individual scenarios a few times. Tell me its not just a motorcycle gang on an Sunday afternoon going bar to bar. Maybe this is only vs. the AI? Maybe its real modern urban combat? Maybe I should not order fresh and blood out on to some hell whole back street to be surrounded by people who don't want liberation nor education. A people who treat they women with little respect and arm their children with suicide vests. Maybe the right tactic is to use technology and find the bad guys. Then pray that the operation keeps the US safe from any mayhem caused by mideastern hatred of Western values. Why dismount ... perhaps as a last resort? Is this the right tactic for the times?

Kevin

PS just going with the flow of the premise of the game.

[Pandur]

dismount is to "acquire" PPSch´s or TT´s

[Michael Dorosh]

At least one of the scens didn't have any mounted infantry; their vehicles were on one end of the city and they were on another. Didn't have any heavy armour, either...looking forward to hearing more.

[Garm]

Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

At least one of the scens didn't have any mounted infantry; their vehicles were on one end of the city and they were on another. Didn't have any heavy armour, either...looking forward to hearing more.

I have played it. It was great fun. Something different after all the standard Stryker stuff. I wished there would be more of that kind of scens.

[metalbrew]

With a very serious attempt to side step RTS and political flame wars, I think the campaign can be won without infantry with the exception of a few places that you must take out enemy armor and all you have is Javelins.

This is v1.01 of the game and I'm playing against a broken StratAI and TacAI. I think this is a key caveat to my statement. Often the StratAI can't react well to 'lateral' game play. For instance, at the airfield I breached the 3m walls near the barracks and raked the small fleet of pickups, taxis, and VBIEDs sitting in front of the barracks. Those vehicles I believe were timed to drive towards the Airfield HQ at some predetermined time but since I popped up sooner than expected they didn't really react at all, they sat there and were destroyed at the starting locations.

Infantry is very fragile on a battlefield of full of automatic weapons. Proper ambushing can't really be done because units in buildings are spotted way too quickly. I don't need to dismount infantry and clear buildings. I simply move vehicles slowly and kill infantry from 500m away. The RPG14 and RPG29 are still very serious threats at this range but it's war and we take our chances. There's not really anything that a mechanized force can do to prevent a motivated AT team in hiding from carrying out their mission, nothing at all can be done - it's going to happen. However, I don't really fear the RPG7s because their range is comparatively short and infantry can't really hide in buildings for long, they are quickly spotted from very far away.

Maybe this is real war and maybe not. I'm leaning towards "this is not real war" because of the failure of infantry to stay hidden in houses until the lead Strykers is already 50m past the house. It's an AI improvement away from being a better game though. I'll play through the campaign again next week after the new patch is in place and we'll see how my gamey tactics fare.

However, I think a human player would eat my lunch. I'm sure I'd give them a run for their money too, but many of the tactics I'm using are based on bad AI tactics. For instance, I've found I can more effectively hide my infantry in houses if I 'hide' them, place a 10m cover arc, and 'face' them away from the enemy completely. The AI never goes to this much trouble to hide and they get spotted much easier. For that matter, even I get spotted too easily even after going to that much effort but I'm still in better shape than the AI. In this way, I'm able to get easy shots on vehicles that have already passed my hiding spot. A lot of people are mildly griping about the 'air guards' in the Stryker, they are usually the only casualties in the vehicle because they remain above the deck and somewhat exposed. Well, you really really want that air guard in place when my RPG7 team unhides and pops up 10m away and 3 floors up.

So for now, I'm not compelled to dismount because I can do the job more quickly and with less loss by staying inside the steel box.

[Michael Dorosh]

Originally posted by Garm:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

At least one of the scens didn't have any mounted infantry; their vehicles were on one end of the city and they were on another. Didn't have any heavy armour, either...looking forward to hearing more.

I have played it. It was great fun. Something different after all the standard Stryker stuff. I wished there would be more of that kind of scens. </font>

[Pandur]

@metalbrew

thats a nice post, and i feel pretty much the same right now. especially when plaing in the editor.

in my try to set up a RED vs RED scenario iam even hindered by "teh" super spotting of BRDM´s and BTR´s :eek: . they spott hiden guys in trenches 50m above their elevation from 600m...(verry regulary, as i gave it many tries) .

that forced me, to use more enemy groups becouse they have all verry little chance to do anything.

can this be called the new borg spotting for a short time!? i mean it cant stay like it is now now i feel :confuse:

[Garm]

@Michael Dorosh: Personally, I always found infantry battles to be very interesting. In future updates and/or campaigns, I could imagine some small ops with special forces to take out a specific target. Maybe with support from Desert Patrol Vehicles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Attack_Vehicle

I hope there will be plenty of new unit in the future to keep the game alive.