The Hasrabit Campaign

[handihoc]

It's good to be back after the forum hiatus!

I finished Breakout, and got a draw, which I was happy with under the circumstances. Loved the battle - once again, very challenging and a lot of fun. Got a v strange bug towards the end, which I've posted in the general forum.

I'm now twenty minutes into the next mission, Sadaura. Wonderful, so far. This campaign is excellent.

[Paper Tiger]

handihoc:

wow! Congatulations on your draw. That must have been a very hard earned result without the reserves. Anyway, you'll probably find the two final Republican Guards missions a nice change of pace. Since you got a win in The Barrier, you should be able to kick butt in the Rearguard action and then get to rampage in the Assault on Saudara. However, I'd imagine you'll find the finale, "Hasrabit' pretty tough. Look fgorward to hearing how you got in each mission. BTW, I think 'Saudara - The Boys are back in town' is the best mission in the campaign. It'll be even better in the final v4. Enjoy

[handihoc]

Yes, it was a hard earned result, but it shames me a little to admit that I did have to go back to previous saves two or three times. Still, it didn't spoil the enjoyment, which is the main thing.

I always tell myself I'm gonna play straight through - but invariably, a couple of minutes later my mind is changed by the pesky enemy getting the better of me.

[Paper Tiger]

handihoc

you don't really have a choice but to revert to an earlier save as a loss in Breakout results in the campaign ending for you. The good thing is, with that victory, you have 'atoned' for your previous failure. You should be back on the optimal track again now.

[handihoc]

I'm close to completing Saudara Pt 1, and it looks like I'm heading for a decent victory. One problem, though: I can't get those AT13 teams to let off a single missile.

I've got them positioned on the ill, on the edge of the treeline with no obscuring trees or terrain. All three of them have perfect views of the approaching armour, but they do nothing, whether I give them target orders or just leave them to make up their own minds.

[Field Marshal Blücher]

I'm close to completing Saudara Pt 1, and it looks like I'm heading for a decent victory. One problem, though: I can't get those AT13 teams to let off a single missile.

I've got them positioned on the ill, on the edge of the treeline with no obscuring trees or terrain. All three of them have perfect views of the approaching armour, but they do nothing, whether I give them target orders or just leave them to make up their own minds.

Do they have max or min range issues?

[Paper Tiger]

handihoc

I must confess, I've never seen that happen before and have no idea what could be causing it. I take it they HAVE missiles to fire? They should have had their supplies replenished at the Depot and so should have up to 5 each.

[handihoc]

Yeah, each of them has five missiles. None of them fire. Strange thing is, one team is carrying rpgs as well as Saxhorns, and it fired all those, even though it had no chance of hitting the enemy as the distance was far too great. The rpg's landed a hundred metres or so away, nowhere near anything. But the Saxhorns, which should have been highly effective at that range, have done absolutely nothing.

Something of a similar nature happened in the previous battle. The Saxhorns there were initially very effective and took out several enemy vehicles. However, in the latter stages one team still had three missiles left. I put them in the tower, where they had a perfect view, but couldn't get them to loose off those last three missiles.

[Paper Tiger]

Ah, I think I know what the problem is then. You haven't DEPLOYED the weapons team yet. Check that out. You'll probably find they can't fire their missiles as the weapon isn't deployed and they wait for an order to do so. Hope that works...

[Sivodsi]

Excuse me for an OT post, but I couldn't help but noticing:

It's good to be back after the forum hiatus!

I finished Breakout, and got a draw, which I was happy with under the circumstances. Loved the battle - once again, very challenging and a lot of fun. Got a v strange bug towards the end, which I've posted in the general forum.

Interesting! Is this the version of Breakout that is currently available on CMODS?

I've just finished playing it as PBEM, and ended up with very skewed results.

**SPOILER WARNING for Breakout

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I was playing the red side, and after the first couple of moves was down to 3 tanks, fortunately my opponent then moved all of his remaining tanks out to my left flank and went right down to my end of the map, allowing my 3 tanks to go to his end of the map next to the exit zone. All of my tanks and most of his remaining tanks were at opposite ends of the map:eek: He then swung his tanks round and was about to move in on me when... my reinforcement T72s teleported onto the map and took all of his T62s out. Then his reinforcement AT ACs turned up next to my T62s at his end of the map and were immediately obliterated by my tanks there. I don't know if any other reinforcements are coming, but we decided to call it quits there since he had no more vehicles to control, and my forces were dominating the area his reinforcements would probably arrive in.

Maybe I'm going to have to play again as reds, but in SP mode just to see what else might happen in the game.

[Paper Tiger]

Sivodsi

You'll be playing Mishga's 'Breakout'. The 'Breakout' Handihoc's referring to is the seventh mission in the Hasrabit campaign.

[handihoc]

Damn! Double damn! That's plainly it. Doh!! How stupid can one man be?

I just checked, gave deploy orders, and lo! They start firing missiles. Could've saved myself three lost vehicles if I only had a brain.

[philios82]

Hi, First off great campaign so far, ambush was alot of fun managed to force a surrender with inly two friendly casualties (on veteran in real time). But now I'm on Strong Stand and I keep getting my men slaughtered.

Minor spoilers below

I wait until after the artillery barrage and move a platoon plus a sniper and the FO (I use the FO to order mortars on the peach orchard) to take the farm, they seem to do alright and trade fire with troops in the Peach Orchard and the East Yard. from there I've been trying to advance the rest of my troops up the left and the middle of the map but they tend to get killed pretty quick, from reading previous posts I understand that casualties are to be expected but a whole platoon in the first fifteen minutes of the mission seems a bit excessive. So if anyone has any tips i'd be glad of the help. Should I just wait for the reserves and then let the enemy get tired killing them to death before I send my good troops in?

[Paper Tiger]

Hi there

yeah, it sounds like you're moving a bit TOO quickly there. It's best to wait and ambush the first wave of attackers with your Special Forces before doing any attacking of your own. When playing this mission, I always wait for the reserves to assemble with their tanks before beginning my counterattack. You don't have to sit and watch the screen for a few minutes either while you're waiting. Get your FOS into a good position to call in an artillery strike on your first objective and use the Snipers to gain intel on enemy positions. The moment that artillery bombardment stops, I begin my counterattack. You don't need much time to do it either so don't worry too much about the time.

Regarding casualties, your result for Ambush sounds very good and losing a whole platoon in Strong Stand is not a bad result. Red stuff isn't as durable as US stuff so you have to be prepared to accept some quite stiff losses sometimes to complete the mission. The later Special Forces missions have been balanced with the expectation of about 30-50% casualties so if you have less, you're doing really well.

Anyway, good luck with this mission. The Republican Guards missions follow and they're a very nice change of pace.

[philios82]

Thanks for the tips, I waited for the tanks and used them and the mortars smash up each position berfore I sent my infantry in. Got a win but it was hard, lost a whole squad of special forces to one of my own RPG's when he shot at a tank, missed and hit the wall they were hiding behind. Thanks for the campaign, top work.

[Paper Tiger]

Interesting. I just read this review of 'Hasrabit' on CMMODS posted yesterday by some guy called Jkob.

'good maps, but that's about it.,the designer will block every possible way to the objective, just to lead you ( by swamps, walls, etc) to the ambush where a crack platoon and elite tank will blow you away.some people call it fun.,dear desingers- infantry do cross swamp, and walls!!! '

I really can't beleive this guy has actually played this campaign because that doesn't describe a single mission in it. :confused: Unfortunately, as the designer, I can't post a riposte to him in CMMODS.

Once BFC get the scenario upload section of theis site up and running I will stop posting stuff at CMMODS as I'd prefer to have the opportunity to say it ain't so when somebody posts such an egregiously flawed review.

[The_Red_Rage]

I wonder what his definition of *fun* scenario is. Buying the Farm and Boys are Back in Town was the most fun i personally had with CMSF.

Don't think Rebel side had elite tanks or crack infantry for the whole campaign (with the exception of Boys are Back in town, where enemy infantry is of crack quality; didn't matter much though, since most of them got blown away by airstrikes anyways).

Philios,

Take is slower with this mission. You shouln't make any offensive moves for the first hour of battle. About 4 mins into arty barrage start moving a platoon into pump house comlex (occupy first floors only). Best set-up i found for this scenario - platoon on the left flank in the village, 2 platoons occupying the complex in the middle with one of them rushing the pump house towards the end of barrage. Keep your guys on hide and open up and point blank range.

When you go into the offensive phase - Reserves and tanks are capable of dealing with whatever is left on their own. Some people like to use Spec Forces for offensive phase, but i used rserves to preserve SF for future missions - they did just fine too. Total casualties were under 30 men (SF casualties were 8 men as i recall).

[Paper Tiger]

I posted something a few weeks ago ago saying that I was going to post a v3 after the Marines module came out. Well, we're still waiting and I've got some time on my hands after finishing Perdition so today I started 'upgrading' the first mission in Hasrabit, 'Ambush'. It was one of the first QB maps I ever made and I didn't change it very much for Hasrabit. And frankly, that battle was quite basic. Not anymore! Now, it has three AI attack plans and it looks stunning. After the Marines comes out I'll probably release it as a stand alone battle. It might even work as a Marines v AI Red too.

If time permits, I will also do a bit of a rework on 'Saudara Part 2' to make the map look better. I might as well reward those people who are willing to play this twice.

[handihoc]

Have to say I'm surprised by that negative review. I can't tell which scenario/s the writer is complaining about, but upon analysis his complaint actually seems to boil down 'I don't like this campaign because the enemy seems to be doing everything it possibly can to stop me beating it!'

Hmm.

Yes, the battles are very tough in places. For me that's one of the big attractions. I feel really challenged in just about every battle, and have to use my wits and resources to their best to get a favourable end result. I'm still on Saudara 2, replaying it because a) I got my ass whooped, and its a fantastic battle that demands a lot of thoughtful tactics. I believe it's winnable with the forces at my command, but there's a lot of scouting/recon and careful positioning of troops and vehicles required. Anything less, and the player will die miserably, it seems to me. Because, surprise, surprise, the enemy plays like it doesn't want me to beat it!

I'll do a review when I complete the campaign, and based on experience to date, I'll be rating it very highly indeed.

[Paper Tiger]

Thanks for that. The AI side is MY side. Saudara Part 2 is a really good place to get stuck. It's one of the best missions in the campaign and I love playing it. I really should try to get a stand-alone version of that mission done sometime.

[handihoc]

Finally completed it, with an overall Tactical Victory.

Excellent stuff. That last battle was really hard won. Looking forward to the updated version when Marines is out. It's one I will definitely go back to.

Now, I think I've just got time for Perdition before the jarheads arrive!

PS. PT, are you planning a Russia/Georgia campaign?

[cabal23]

So my only questions is what is next for you now that you are finished with your masterpiece!

[Paper Tiger]

So my only questions is what is next for you now that you are finished with your masterpiece!

Thanks for asking that. I've had Hasrabit v3 done for a couple of months now but I've been holding it back in the hope that BFC would introduce dynamic artillery and air support for the AI side. While working on Hasrabit, there were a few occassions when I was cursing that the AI couldn't do anything with it's artillery except dump it at the start. So my first project will be to get AI artillery into a few of the missions in Hasrabit. Hopefully, there will be some more info released on how this works before the Marines module arrives next month so that I can at least PLAN these changes. Right now, it will 100% go into 'The Barrier' and 'Saudara Part 2'. I have read that the AI will dump a load on any troops concentrations that stay in place for any length of time. Once I see how that works, then it may go into every scenario. However, this will definitely mean rebalancing things, possibly by giving the human player more artillery of his own. Then I'll have to playtest the changed missions a few times so that's probably a MINIMUM of 2-3 weeks work straight off. And then that will be me finished with Hasrabit.

After that, I'm giving serious thought to doing a short 5-6 mission Marines campaign using variations of some of the new maps I've made since Hasrabit. If I do, I will want to do it properly and give the Marines overwhelming firepower in each mission, lots of artillery and air support as well as a platoon of tanks, probably the best ones in the game. Hey, what the hell, I like to make things go bang too. But it must definitely be challenging to play too. Maps already earmarked for this project include 'Road to Amarah' and 'Flames' from Perdition and the two new ones I've finished for Perdition Part 2. (People will freak when they see the new 'Bridges' map. When I'm playtesting it I often gasp when I crest the ridge that overlooks the valley with the bridges in it.) I've already made a variation of 'Road to Amarah' with a Bradley Infantry company and it works quite well. And I'm making a larger version of the 'Flames' map too. With dynamic AI artillery, I'm certain I can make a really good campaign for the Blue side.

Then, I want to expand the Perdirtion mini campaign into a fully dynamic campaign with about 10 or so missions. I had an idea about the campaign story/structure a couple of weeks ago that will make this particular project unique. At the moment, I am playtesting two new missions and later this weekend, I'll be starting work on a third one. It's possible that I'll release the next four missions as a mini campaign again but we'll see. I don't want people to become too familiar with these missions before I do the final campaign or no-one will want to play it. Obvioulsy the three Perdition missions will be changed somewhat, especially the third mission. For those of you who have already played it, the Red side has some helicopters in that mission but you've probably never seen them do anything. You definitely will when I do the full length campaign.

After that, it'll be the Airborne v Rebels. But I reckon my schedule is pretty full until Christmas this year.

Speaking of Christmas, Handihoc, Flanker15 and Mattias are all on my virtual christmas card list for the very favourable reviews they posted at CMMODS. Thanks guys. This particular scenario designer really likes it when somebody else appreciates his work.

[Paper Tiger]

A quick word about some of the work that's been done on v3. I have pretty much retextured all the Special Forces missions maps to make them greener and they all look much better now. I guess when I first made the maps that I was really striving to make them look 'Syrian' although I really have very lttle idea of what the Syrian countryside looks like. Anyway, from googling Syria I can see that there are some large swathes of green so the Shuruk valley will be green and that includes the Hasrabit map. I'm going to leave the Republican Guards missions maps as they're appropriate.

[Roter Stern]

Would it be possible for you to re-post this fantastic campaign back on CMMods? I realize you would like to re-release it for v1.10, however for all we know that could be another 3 weeks away and I'd love to play though the campaign in the mean time .... call me impatient