The Hasrabit Campaign

[Paper Tiger]

The old version is gone from my hard drive now and the new v1.1 is all ready but of course, I can't playtest the changes yet. Unfortunately, I feel your guess of about 3 more weeks is probably about right. When they announced September, I figured, 'okay, make that last week of September'. And after I get the new module installed, I expect to have about a week of work just playtesting the missions with AI artillery.

It just takes so l-o-n-g to upload stuff onto CMMODS. The last time I uploaded this campaign, it took almost an hour. But we'll see. I'm hard at work drawing up a batch new maps for my next campaign, i.e. not playing the game, and I will really want to get to work on playtesting these new missions when the Marines is installed on my hard drive and not spend much time retesting the Hasrabit missions.

[theFightingSeabee]

Can't wait bud. Hasrabit was fun and I'm looking forward to seeing your improvements, as well as playing it with the new patch.

[Paper Tiger]

Although I'm relly desperate to get stuck into playtesting the new missions for my new campaign, I'm also quite excited about testing the altered missions with the new features. Here's what's new.

The opening mission 'Ambush' has a completely redone map more in line with the maps I'm currently drawing up. Both sides will have artillery available to them. This means that you will be able to set up a pretty devastating ambush and win quickly, but fluff it up and the AI will be more punishing. There are now three AI attack plans in this mission although the forces on both sides are identical to the original battle.

There's almost no chance in hell :eek: of me giving the AI artillery to play with during the mission as those Green troops are vulnerable as hell and a reasonably well placed AI artillery strike would mean 'GAME OVER' for Blue. However, I'm going to try it out and see if it's fun.

The Guards Counterattack should play pretty much the same way even with the dynamic artillery although I've done a tiny bit of work on the Red OB to make it a bit more challenging. Nothing drastic, nothing new so don't panic.

Hill 142 should stay the same although I've added another AI plan. There will be dynamic artillery in this one too.

The Barrier is the mission I expect to have the most work to do as I'll try very hard to co-ordinate the AI's attack with an artillery barrage. That will be tricky but hopefully, doable. I want the new artillery system to play a BIG role in this mission.

Buying the Farm will probably be a little bit more difficult with a little AI artillery. However, the version that you'll get if you lose the Hill mission will be much deadlier. I've 'undone' some of the penalties Blue incurred, delayed reinforcements and less tanks, and instead given the AI plenty of artillery to use throughout the game. That was what I really wanted when I first conceived of this branch but it wasn't possible.

Breakout shouldn't require much work and I expect neither will Saudara Part 1 as they'll both get a little artillery to keep you on your toes so no real surprises here. However, take care of your armour in Breakout and you might have some tanks in the finale.

Saudara Part 2 will probably be much tougher this time around though as I want to make this one a bitch to beat :cool:. The AI will probably have some BIG guns available to it here. And that old AI plan that positioned the AT-4s at the back of the board with no LoS to anywhere is gone.

In the finale, the AI will have some artillery available throughout the mission but to compensate you for this, you might have some crappy reserve tanks for the last mission. I fully expect to take heavier casualties in the earlier mssions due to hopefully, better AI attacking behaviour and the dynamic artillery. However, I suspect that once people have overcome their initial shock at having the AI use artillery in-game, we'll develop tactics to overcome ths new obstacle.

There are a few other changes that I've already mentioned earlier in this thread. they're all still valid and apart from retexturing the Shuruk valley maps to make them greener and more visually appealing, there's nothing else new.

I suppose I could put it up untested right now if I wanted but that would probably mean revising it AGAIN after I've got the Marines installed.

[The_Red_Rage]

AI counter-attack that attempts to throw off recce platoon in Sundara pt.2 usually has diastorous consequences for the AI as well, so some tweaking might be needed there. If recce is positioned on the side hill to the right of initial starting position AI gets slaughtered without a single friendly casualty.

[Paper Tiger]

It'll definitely get looked at when I playtest that mission again. As it happens, there is a real story to this particular action; as your forces approach Saudara the rebels hear some strange noises on the south road. They send out a small patrol to investigate and when it runs into trouble, they send out a larger counterattack force. This should embroil your forces in a struggle close to their entry point rather than fulfilling the plan in the briefing.

I did it this way because the AI doesn't have dynamic triggers and so I had to approximate the timing of everything to simulate this situation. It also happens to distract your attention from something else that's happening.

BTW, if you get the AI plan with the AT-4s deployed on the hilltop, you'll find that struggle at the start much more challenging than if they're at the back of the board. This one change alone will ensure a greater challenge.

But don't worry, I want this mission to be as good as I can make it. I expect that I'll spend a lot of time doing this one and The Barrier properly.

[The_Red_Rage]

Yeah The Barrier was enother one i forgot to mention. As is it is my least favorite scenario - too saturated with forces and requires alot of "terrain crawling" at ground level to find that perfect hull down position (for 20+ BMPs and their infantry). Once found, there are two perfect spots that block both enemy advances with minimal casualties, making the scenario a tiresome micromanagement exercise. I'm more of a fan of scenarios like Strong Stand (absolutely love it), Buying the Farm, both Sundaras, possibly Hasrabit (something is missing atm though that is keeping it from being a great scenario) - so maybe it's just not my type of scenario...

Can't wait to see what you have in store next (I don't know what I'm more excited for, your camapign or Marines ).

[theFightingSeabee]

[quote=

Can't wait to see what you have in store next (I don't know what I'm more excited for, your camapign or Marines ).

[Paper Tiger]

Yeah The Barrier was enother one i forgot to mention. As is it is my least favorite scenario - too saturated with forces and requires alot of "terrain crawling" at ground level to find that perfect hull down position (for 20+ BMPs and their infantry).

Ach well, at least it's short .

I'll probably be posting a new batch of screenshots of some of the maps for the new campaign after the weekend. The one I'm currently working on is unbelievable and it's very long, (3.2km x 1.2km) and highly detailed. It's based on a real place, actually two real places but the map is large enough to accomodate them both. It's already taken more than a week and it's still only about 75% done. The REAL finishing touches get put in after I start playtesting a map and I get a feel for what's needed. I loaded it up yesterday and gave it a try out and it was fantastic and I was getting good fps too. I just need to wait for 1.1 to come and then I can finalise it.:cool:

[Roter Stern]

I hope you're happy PT - I started playing the stock TF Thunder Campaign again ... if Blue-vs-Red makes me delete CMSF in anger, it'll be entirely your fault for taking down the Hasrabit download

[Paper Tiger]

Well, I'm pretty much 'mapped out' with my new campaign at the moment and I can't do any more playtesting until I get the Marines. So this morning I loaded up the Saudara Part 2 map to have a look at it. It's weird how your perspective changes after some time so when I had a look at the map I thought that the Saudara village was just rubbish so I've almost quadrupled the number of buildings within the same area. I've also made some other changes to other parts of the map, most notably the Islamic cemetary on the hill to the east of the village.

If there's STILL no Marines tomorrow morning (not unlikely), I'll spend some time working on the flavour objects. I used far too many lamposts in the first iteration of that map. I have to confess that it's already looking much better now and it should make the assault phase on the village itself MUCH more challenging. With far more places to hide and the reduction of the blast effect of big explosions in v1.10, I expect that we'll have to work to get that victory now.

I have no plans to do any more substantial reworks of any other maps at this moment. However, if there are still no Marines over the weekend, I really won't have anything else to do but redraw Hasrabit maps.

[Paper Tiger]

Since I got the Marines module installed properly, I have been working exclusively on the Hasrabit missions to work in some of the new artillery rules. I'm not hugely convinced that it's going to play an important role in this campaign but, since the reason I removed it from CMMODS was to get AI artillery into it, I am going to have to seriously rework some missions to enable the AI to use it's artillery. It's going to go into all the Special Forces missions except the finale, Hasrabit. I don't expect the Republican Guard missions to require much work though. The only two I need to do some real work on are The Barrier and Saudara Part 2.

Fortunately, now that I have established that ONLY the FO can call in artillery during the game, I have a pretty good idea how to go about introducing artillery used in missions potentially. However, at this point in time, I can't guarantee you that you'll see the AI use it effectively in the new version.

BTW, I started playtesting Breakout again yesterday evening. Wow! I'd forgotten what a GOOD battle that was.

[Paper Tiger]

Okay, we're nearly there. Breakout really didn't need much work and today, I finished with Guards Counterattack and The Barrier today and they're both fine. I'm not going to change Hill 142 in any way so that just leaves me the two Saudara missions to update. That should happen tomorrow and then I can recompile the whole thing and hopefully have it back up on CMMODS by Friday. I'll also post a list of the changes that I can remember...

[theFightingSeabee]

I can't wait.

[Paper Tiger]

It's almost finished. I've redone every mission in the game to some extent and I've playtested everything. Now, I'm just redoing some of the tac maps and the briefings to bring things up to date. However, I am experiencing some MAJOR slow down on two previously fine missions, The Farm and Hasrabit. The problem is at the start and I think it's the AI artillery that's eating up the cpu cycles. I want to retry both of them again tomorrow and see if I can reduce the number of artillery fires in these missions.

BTW, I saw the AI use it's artillery VERY effectively during one playtest today. I was stunned.

[handihoc]

Looking forward to playing the new version - when I've done with the Marines Campaign.

Interesting regarding updated AI artillery. So far I've played six new scenarios and haven't encountered AI artillery once. OK, in one mission I spotted the Syrian spotter early and took him out, but I would still have expected something by now.

PS The Marines module is so damned cool!

[Paper Tiger]

I have fixed the problem with the campaign finale 'Hasrabit' but the problem with 'Buying the farm' is proving a much tougher one to fix. I have no idea what changed in v1.10 to make this mission so SLOW at the start. However, I've 'fixed' the at-start crawl and replaced it with a crawl between 5-10 minutes into the mission. After that, everything is just fine and it's business as usual. However, the fix has 'broken' the timing of the AI attack plan so I've spent the whole afternoon reworking it to make it as good as the original. I've also taken the opportunity to alter the map slightly to allow the AI to approach the pump house through the fields. I was just sick of watching the AI channel it's entire force down that narrow road. It was so easy to take advantage of that to kill lots of them. Now, they will approach the objective on a broader front through the wheatfields although I haven't actually watched this happen yet. That's for tomorrow. Once I get this mission sorted, I just have to make up the seven special versions and make sure that the extra AI artillery doesn't stuff everything up again. That should hopefully take less than an hour tomorrow morning and then it's finished. I am SO desperate to get back to work on 'Dimas'.

BTW, handihoc, I can't promise you that you'll see the artillery use it's artillery during the missions in Hasrabit although I did see it used to VERY good effect in another mission yesterday and so there's a good chance that you'll see it used here too. I am going to exploit that knowlege when I'm crafting my next set of missions.

[Paper Tiger]

The final version of the Hasrabit campaign has been uploaded to CMMODS. Here follows a list of the changes that have been made to the earlier version.

Obviously, the most important change is that most of the missions have been altered to allow the AI the possibility of using it's artillery during a mission.

Core Forces changes

all core forces have been synched with the original file.

Republican Guards Recon Platoon and the whole of C Company have been upgraded to Crack experience.

Both Special Forces and Republican Guards mortar batteries start with full ammo which should allow the player to use artillery more frequently during the campaign. However, apart from mission 1 there will be no artillery resupply so don't go overboard with it.

During phase 2 battles, most of your core forces will start the mission with 'tired' status and 'exhuasted' in the final mission.

I have also made some of the reserve units in the later missions part of your core units so you should take more care of them.

The missions

Ambush has a whole new map but the forces remain the same. Blue gets artillery too.

Strong Stand - the map has been retextured to make it greener. The farmhouse complex is now denser and Red has been given an extra mission objective; namely to touch the reserve assembly area at the back of the map. Needless to say, you should not allow this to happen as it's almost a guaranteed mission loser. However, I doubt many of you will ever let the AI get close to doing this.

One of the changes I noticed when playtesting this new version is that the Green troops handle themselves much better and his has made this mission substantially more enjoyable (for me at least).

The Guards Counterattack - Red's AT capability has been enhanced slightly to make the mission a bit more dangerous but nothing too drastic.

Hill 142 - some small changes to the AI set-up and settings to make it a bit more challenging.

The Barrier - Added some extra artillery to the Red side to enable AI use of artillery during the mission. reduced Blue's set up zone slightly to prevent you from accidentally setting up within a Red artillery zone. I suspect that this mission will be a bit tougher now.

Buying the farm - OMG, where to begin?

The map has been retextured to make it greener.

The farmhouse complex has been changed to add a small orchard on the red side of it.

The road leading from the centre of the board to the pump house has been removed to allow the AI to attack the pump house on a broader front rather than just running it's troops down the road into the teeth of your defensive fire.

The timing of the AI attack has been changed somewhat to allow for some changes made to the reinforcements schedule. Red had too many troops onboard at the start of the mission and it was causing the mission to start running at 0-2 fps. As a result of this incredible temporary slow down, the AI artillery was firing erratically at the start of the mission. You should see some slowdown at approximately 1.54. 35 when the reinforcements arrive. Be patient if it slows down as it only lasts about 20-30 secs most of the time.

If you won the Hill 142 mission, you shouldn't see much change in the opening artillery barrage. However, lose Hill 142 and you'll probably lose all of your reserve forces in the opening barrage.

Blue set up zones have been removed. You can't change the reserve start up positions but you can give them orders to run like hell.

Breakout - the map has been retextured and the terrain has been enhanced somewhat, some new roads added and some new buildings introduced.

The opening AI artillery bombardment has been reduced in strength. However, this is only to allow it the possibility of using it during the mission. Your Special Forces start the mission as tired. It's not going to get any better for them from now on.

Heavy Metal - Replaced some of the red units to make it hopefully more challenging. Some of the Red tanks have been upgraded to provide your tanks with a slightly better challenge although during playtesting , I didn't notice much difference. the T-72 TURMS still rules the battlefield.

The Blue reinforcements that arrive on the east board edge arrive in a depressed location that is definitely out of sight of a Red ATGM team.

Saudara Part 2 - The building density in Saudara town has been substantially increased, almost four-fold in fact. Some buildings, like the mosque for example, have been completely redone. This means that the AI forces are better spread out in good cover and so making them less vulnerable to your air strikes. BTW, I noticed that the huge blasts do much less damage in V1.10 so most of you are going to have to fight for control of the village this time around. The Islamic cemetary has been redesigned too.

The old AI plan that set up Red's ATGM teams behind the hill is gone. This one change alone will probably increase the difficulty of this mission for those of you who have only experienced the old one.

Your Republican Guards units should start out the mission as tired. It's been a long day for them after all.

Hasrabit - While A Company starts out the mission rested, both Company B and C will arrive exhausted and will require very careful handling.

There is the possibility of receiving some Reserve forces from an earlier mission in one version of this mission. If you recieve notification that some Reserve forces have arrived but you don't get anything, it means that they're already dead.

If there's anything I forgot, well who can blame me. That's a pretty big list of changes. I hope you guys appreciate the new campaign and enjoy it even more the second time around. And for those of you who have yet to try it, good luck

[Mikkey]

nice, thank's for campaign, after Marines campaign I launch Hasrabit!

[Wiggum]

Great Work Paper Tiger ?

That means that i can play this Campaign without the Marine Modul ?

[handihoc]

I just love that guy's face in the second pic.

[Paper Tiger]

Wiggum: That means that i can play this Campaign without the Marine Modul ?

Yes, as long as you have the v1.10 patch installed it will work. There are no Marines module units in the campaign.

handihoc: I just love that guy's face in the second pic.

I have M1A1TC's Faces of Syria mods 1 & 2 installed. One of the best mods for this game ever. 'Toothy' is in Mod 2.

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[Paper Tiger]

In the first mission, it's an ambush, why not give the player the option to defend the river too? It'd be cool to see the setup area expanded quite a bit.

It's been a LONG time since I first set up this mission but I can still remember the creative impulse behind it. It was originally intended to be a meeting engagement with Blue arriving on the north east edge while Red comes in as he does now from the south west. The two forces would then move to meet each other and contest the river crossing. Now, Blue get's to start with his forces on the forward slope of the valley so he's much better placed than Red. As it happens, you have PLENTY time to deploy your force to defend the river crossings. I have actually counterattacked across both the bridges and into the woods successfully a few times when I've placed the ATGM teams in good supporting positions. It's a slightly more costly strategy but it's one other way to win the mission.

There is a problem with Hill 142...

Part of the problem with this situation stems from the fact that Red equipment (which is quite good actually) can't see squat in the pre-dawn light which is practically the first half of the mission. There are plenty of MG teams, BMP-1's and tanks set up with LoS to the crest line of that ridge but they can't see anything until it's too late.

One thing that I don't mention often is that my scenarios are restricted by the performance of my computer. I play Real Time, not WEGO and there is a definite limit to the number of bodies that can be on the map at any time. It's a shame it has to be that way but there it is. Yeah, those are excellent suggestions and I'd have loved to have scattered a few more platoons around to do what you described and with the improvement in game performance since it was made it might just work too. But Blue has the best part of two full Republican Guards mech Infantry companies with some tanks and a Recon platoon in support on the board half way through the mission. That really was pushing my computer to the limit.

[theFightingSeabee]

Paper Tiger,

I was a bit disappointed to see that the first mission had changed because I LOVED the original version. But after playing it, I had great fun. Two of the tanks made it past my atgm barrage, but a few well placed rocket squads took them out. Now I'm starting the second mission (love the picture with the Syrian face by the way! That's the best face out of all of them! lol)...

PT, I have to thank you. I've seen you posting about this campaign for quite some time and know how much hard work you have put into it. Your work is top notch and I really appreciate all of it. I played through your first version and had a blast. Looking forward to digging deeper into Hasrabit!