New scenario - In Harms Way

[Paper Tiger]

I've finally taken the plunge and submitted my first scenario at CMMODS. I don't have any screenshots as I haven't sussed out how to do that yet but here is a brief description...

Playable as BLUE FORCE ONLY - a single Stryker platoon with ATGM support attempts to defend a small village against a determined Syrian assault. The map is about 700mx700m, green, (REALLY GREEN) with lots of trees and a small village in the centre. It looks more like Europe than Syria. The AI must attack across a deep gully (ie river) across two bridges.

Because you are playing as Blue and the AI is attacking, the game sets up very quickly and also plays very quickly. It's only 30 minutes long but it's intense. :eek:

Be warned... this one is tough to beat. It's total fantasy because I can't believe the US Army would screw up so badly in real life that a single platoon without artillery or air support would be left in such a precarious position. But that's the challenge.

You're going to see a LOT of javelin activity in this one. If you win, I'd like to know how you did it.

Feedback and constructive criticism is always welcome

[Beastttt]

cool

where is it located so I can down load it?

[Dennis50]

http://www.cmmods.com

Regards,

Gunz

[Dennis50]

Paper Tiger .....Ouch, you wasn't kidding about it being INTENSE. I like it though. Nice map and I like the way you set up the battle. I'm gonna be a while on this one. Yes I'm getting my butt kicked this way, that way always. Good one.

Regards,

Gunz

[General_solomon]

Nice work, I love the map. Finally a scenario where I used some defensive tactics.

Please continue to make more of the same.

The only request I have is extending the time limit.

I usually edit the time to max allowed. This i can concentrate on tactics instead of being forced to hurry.

[Dennis50]

I agree on extending time limits.

Regards,

Gunz

[Paper Tiger]

Hi Guys

glad you're enjoying it. What's the best result you've had with it? Anybody got a win yet?

Extending the time limit? Interesting idea. I agree that if you're attacking, you want as much time as possible. But, because you're defending, you're following the AI's timetable and you're going to have a (very) hard time surviving the first 25 minutes. If you've still got a working force after 25 minutes, you've probably already won.

The AI is on a tight scedule because weapons are 'active' and they'll blow through their ammo really quickly. In the scenario editor, I gave them full ammo but I'm not sure they have enough for another 15-20 minutes of combat as intense as this.

The game was originally 40 minutes long but because of the intensity of the combat, one side or the other (usually Blue) had usually been annihalated after 25 minutes. The last 15 minutes of the longer scenario were usually me watching one or two HQ's hiding in some building waiting for the air support to arrive while the Red force sat around occupying the VP locations. Not much fun as I knew I'd already lost. Since I don't like using Cease Fire to terminate a combat as the victory point allocation is a bit screwy, I prefer the game to end with a time limit and the VP results are better.

[SoColdInWinter]

Wow! Awesome scenario! I enjoy the feeling of my ass puckering up tighter than a snare drum because my defense is about to be overrun!!

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

I Set up my ATGM Strykers next to the garage facing Bridge Rag and set up the rest of my force dispersed around the village, breaking up my infantry units into AT teams and fire squads. I placed a few anti tank teams on the highest elevation I could find, and a few on top of the buildings. I placed most of the remaining infantry inside the buildings. I used the HQ units as forward observers so I would know from which direction my asskicking would be coming.

The ATGM strykers were wiped out within the first 60 seconds, they had each gotten off 2 or 3 javelins before they were hit by tank fire from the mechanized units coming across bridge Rag. They managed to take out a few tanks but most of the attacking red force coming from that direction was still intact until they began to come under fire from my anti-tank teams stationed on top of the village buildings, most of that armor was then extinct. Then the enemy began to advance across bridge tag, and by that point most of my javelins had been used, but the ones I had remaining were all hits. At this time my Strykers armed with 40mm launchers came in very handy. They were very expediant in killing infantry that were approaching through the woods, but were soon taken out by enemy anti tank teams.

I thought that I may have killed enough for my remaining force of infantry to be able to handle, but alas, a new force of baddies flanked from the direction of the garage, and my remaining team of brave ground pounders were soon annihalated.

Very good scenario, the AI must have taken some time to program. There were almost too many units for my old timer comp to handle, it spat and sputtered towards the end

E

[Law&Order]

I also enjoyed this scenario, got beaten with 2 man remaining. You should consider renaming it to Kobayashi Maru

SPOILERS

But with so many units, especially tanks there are simply not enough anti tank atgms/javs to take em out. The infantry can be dealt with, but the tanks and bmps after taking a beating with the initial wave of javs simply are too powerfull. I also had 2 T72 mark2000 or something that were not destroyable, probably a bug, but the did soak up about 4 javs each without a scratch. Perhaps some AH64 support to throw in the mayhem would be nice.

Mind you it was a enjoyable experience in the end

[Paper Tiger]

SoColdInWinter: Yup, you lost those Stryker ATGMs too quickly. You're stuffed if you lose them too quickly as they are excellent infantry killers. (hint hint)

Law&Order: Last week I started a thread titled "Not so scary javelins" because I was seeing this happen in this scenario. Were those T-72s in the trees? Because I noticed that vehicles in tree cover occassionally survived multiple javelin strikes, even the BMPs. Vehicles caught out in the open didn't survive. This was especially lethal because the tank would often return fire and take out the AT asset that was attacking it before it could get off a second shot.

You really need to micromanage your ATGM assets in this one. When I got my wins, I was letting the infantry do their thing while I managed those AT Teams and Strykers like crazy. Fire, pop smoke, get the hell out of there, find a new position, repeat. I was actually surprised when I got the win because I was SO focussed on those AT assets and didn't notice the time pass. (I play RT and try not to pause too often)

As it happens, I did originally give Blue force a couple of Apache Helicopters but they were doing more damage to my forces than the Red forces. And yes, they were being guided in by a JTAC crew.

"Kobayashi Maru" LOL. Do what Kirk did. Open up the scenario editor and cheat.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

[majorfatal]

Sorry to be a newbie but....what is a .docx and where to put it?

Thanks

[Muldoon]

Hey MajorFatal,

It is a Word document that you can view in MS Word. It is a write up from the designer regarding how he created the scenario etc.

Muldoon

[Thomm]

First try = Major US Victory (difficulty = Veteran)

I guess that key to my victory was splitting of the AT teams at the beginning of the game and placing them with good LOS (building roofs, garage fence) so that they did not take the whole squad down with them once spotted. The rest of the squads took up defensive positions on the perimeter of the town.

In the end the Syrians had only one BMP and 4 soldiers left while I had a 40 mm Stryker, an ATGM Stryker (which entered the battle only in the last minutes to mop up) and several soldiers.

Actually, I was surprised how well the US infantry did. When the second wave approached, I thought that the infantry that was holding the town would be overrun, but not so.

Very interesting scenario! Thanks for posting!

Best regards,

Thomm

PS: There was a funny incident when a single US soldier out of ammo and a Syrian RPG guy shared the same roof without attacking each other! The RPG guy caused me some major pain! And when I sent in another 3 men HQ team to kill him, he dispatched them with a single round, all the while being watched by the US soldier.

[Paper Tiger]

Wow. Well done sir. Splitting the AT teams from the main squad is a good idea. Before I started doing that, my squads usually got pasted by overwatch fire. The rooves of Orange and Yellow are very good spots for AT teams.

I too was surprised by the in-game modelling of US Infantry firepower. In this situation, a single US platoon with two ATGM vehicles takes out an entire reinforced Syrian company.

[H.W. Guderian]

First try = Total US Victory (difficulty = Veteran)

Funny . . . to me this felt a bit like . . "Fulda Gap" - overwhelmed yanks facing masses of Red T-72's and BMP's. I almost forgot I was in Syria.

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Javs, javs, and more javs . . . without them, forget it.

As mentioned the a key is to split up the teams and give the javs clear / long fields of fire. (I even had 1 jav team 1/2 survive the whole scenario!)

I put almost all the boots right in town - on the objectives - and hid in wait. (Wish I knew how to setup proper ambushes in CMX2?????)

Had only one jav team and and an "observer" (Bat HQ) way over past the Garage - far stage right.

They both eventually got totally smoked - as did the 40mm bus and the ATGM bus that I had backing them up on the right, as I tried to play "ridge-line games".

Sneaking them to what I hoped was "just visible" hull-down spots on the ridge for 15 - 30 secs and then backing them off simply didn't work . . . OPFOR tanks and ATGM'S smoked em quick. Maybe it works better with Tanks?

Back in town a combo of javs, AT-4's, and rifle grenades took out the tanks and all but 3 BMP's. My house-bound fire teams cut up almost all the OPFOR infantry. But if the 3 remaining BMP's were "smarter" they could have caused much more carnage.

In the end OPFOR had one t-72 come across from the "Garage" (with my remaining ATGM bus chasing it's tail CAREFULLY), those 3 BMP's at the gates of town, and VERY LITTLE infantry (I assume most died in the brewed-up BMP's thanks to the javs or were cut-up piecemeal trying to get into town).

I felt one key was to be very careful about only revealing positions when they had limited OPFOR's in sight - unless of course the target was "high-value".

So, in case you missed it without the Javs (aka "hidden, long-range killing power") Team USA wouldn't stand a chance in this one IMHO.

Oh yeah, given these guys are on the defence and not going to move much / at all I pulled every round I could out of the buses . . . that helped too - having oodles of ammo!

Frankly, I doubt I would have had a "Total Victory" against anything but the AI.

GREAT WORK ON THIS SCENARIO!!! ENJOYED IT, THANKS!

[Pandur]

my first try;

syrian surrender with 10 turns left, WEGO elite.

nice battle, but the bridges are a bit too much of a choke point.

however, if i would have lost a ATGM stryker, both did the main "AT" work for me, it wouldnt have ended that good for the blue side.

the vehicle i lost was a .50 stryker.

in the end it was good fun, thanks for the scenario.

[Webwing]

Paper Tiger,

Very nice (well, not exactly nice!) scenario! In the doc that comes with the mission you say that some will find it impossible and other too easy. I'm in the first group!

Great challenge.

Also you say that it is a labor of love and that you don't mind the time it takes to put flavor objects etc. Well, it shows!!

Great stuff.

--

[Paper Tiger]

just experimenting

[Paper Tiger]

Woo hoo, it worked . Sorry, I'm not trying to plug this old chestnut again. Just trying to see if I can upload images successfully from photobucket. Coming soon, screenshots from my forthcoming campaign