Scenario Design Questions

[Dietrich]

In addition to company- and battalion-level battles, I dig platoon- and even squad-level scenarios (like George McEwan's "USMC To Ambush Or Not To Ambush"). I understand the theory of CM:SF's 'formation purchase' in the Scenario Editor -- you select the formation you want then delete any sub-formations or particular units you don't want. However, certain units, such as the battalion Headquarters Team (I believe it's called), can't be deleted. This would seem to obviate creating scenarios with just a single squad. Am I missing something, or is there some detail I'm unaware of that will clear this up?

Second, is the colored-bar ammo supply indicator proportional? When I detach a fire team to fetch more ammo from a nearby Stryker or Humvee, that fire team's ammo supply is shown as full, but when I get more ammo then return the fire team to its squad, the squad's indicated ammo seems not to increase noticeably.

Speaking of "To Ambush Or Not To Ambush", the first time I played that scenario my Marines suffered a few casualties skirmishing with the Uncons in the woods opposite them and in the creek bed, and when I decided to disengage and head back toward town, they ran into half a dozen more Uncons and got shot up even more. In CMx1 you could end this sort of fight-it-out-or-disengage-by-fire-then-head-back-to-base scenario by sending your troops off map, but since that particular option isn't (yet) possible in CM:SF, how are you supposed to 'win' this sort of scenario? By sending your troops to the friendly map edge then clicking "Cease Fire"? I think that would be a plausible simulation for slipping away through the underbrush to safe territory . . . but what really are the options?

[Thomm]

The workaround for the first problem is to designate the HQ teams as reinforcements and set the arrival span to the end of the game time plus five minutes.

Best regards,

Thomm

[Dietrich]

How do you designate the HQ team (etc.) as reinforcements when said HQ team is in the same formation which you want to use just one part of, like a single platoon? I have so far done only minimal experimentation with the editor, so perhaps its possible to move part of a formation from being an on-map unit to being a reinforcement unit.

[Thomm]

Yes, this is certainly possible!

Please look it up in the manual, because I cannot recite the details from the back of my head.

Well, copy/paste from the pdf reveals:

Up to seven groups of units per side can be designated as Reinforcements from the Available Units list, irrespective of their parent formation. This allows the scenario designer to have units enter the battle at some later (more or less) random point in time. The units of each Group enter the map at the same time, but the entry location is set individually for each unit using the Deploy function. Staggering units can help with

early game unit congestion, enhance the plot of the scenario, or simply space things out for variety’s sake.

The first step is to assign units to one or more Groups by highlighting

them in the Available Units column and pressing a key

on your keyboard from 1 to 7 (not on a NumPad!). This assigns

the unit(s) to the respective Reinforcement Group, and a small

[R] followed by the number of the assigned Group appears

next to its name. For example, [R1] means the unit is assigned

to Reinforcement Group #1. To remove a unit from a

Group simply highlight it and press the 8 key and you’ll see the

designation go away.

Once you have at least one unit assigned to one Group you can

specify when it comes into the game. To do this click on the

Group you want in the list on the left side of the screen. For

each group, you can set the time of the earliest arrival, and

determine a random time span within which the arrival time

might deviate.

Earliest Arrival Time

Can be set from 5 minutes after the beginning of the battle up to

60 minutes after the beginning. This specifies the soonest a

Group comes into the battle.

Arrival Span

Can be set to be Exact (no deviation, i.e. the unit will always

arrive exactly on the time set above) or a value between 5 and

30 minutes in 5 minute intervals. Specifying a time determines

a +/- range modification of Earliest Arrival Time.

Best regards,

Thomm

[George MC]

Speaking of "To Ambush Or Not To Ambush", the first time I played that scenario my Marines suffered a few casualties skirmishing with the Uncons in the woods opposite them and in the creek bed, and when I decided to disengage and head back toward town, they ran into half a dozen more Uncons and got shot up even more. In CMx1 you could end this sort of fight-it-out-or-disengage-by-fire-then-head-back-to-base scenario by sending your troops off map, but since that particular option isn't (yet) possible in CM:SF, how are you supposed to 'win' this sort of scenario? By sending your troops to the friendly map edge then clicking "Cease Fire"? I think that would be a plausible simulation for slipping away through the underbrush to safe territory . . . but what really are the options?

Hi Dietrich

Re your first question - if you don't want a command unit appearing on map you simply designate them as a reinforcement and have their time of arrical out with the timespan of your scenario - unfortunately does not work with two hour plus scenarios...

Now "To Ambush or not to Ambush". That did cause some consternation amongst the beta testers! It's based on a Marines Tactical descision scenario.

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You do have to keep your guys on the ball here. Once you ID the approaching Uncons you then have to decide how your going to take em out, but you also have to keep an eye on your flanks and rear. It is to easy for the ambushers to become the ambushed in this. Keep your guys moving so one multiple engages whilst the other pulls back a short bound - see the final scenes in "Tears of the Sun". If you do get caught out then I think pulling back to the rea edge of the map and hitting ceasefire works well.

This is possible to win but it's just as easy given the small size of this to have your bum kicked! Hope you enjoyed it though

Cheers fur noo

George

[Dietrich]

Thomm -- Thanks for the explanation. In a bit of experimenting with the editor, I've gotten a handle on designating certain parts of a formation as reinforcements. As much as I dig accuracy and realism (to the extent that it's simulate-able), I dig that this design allows you to have part of a formation be on map and another part of that formation show up later in the battle as if the larger formation (i.e, a battalion) is operating throughout off-map areas; rather more so than in CMx1, it gives you a sense of being part of a significant force even when you're only commanding a platoon or so.

George -- Thanks for the reply.

If I were actually as tactically wise as I like(d) to think I am, I would have discerned that with two enemy patrols moving along my flanks (even if they didn't actually know I was there), it would be only a matter of time before my men got surrounded.

Indeed, I did enjoy the scenario, and I'll be playing it again to brush up on my squad-level combat recon tactics; I dig squad-level scenarios where you can have the camera at pixeltruppen-eye level and have a sense of what each of your men is doing.

And I'll gladly be poring over your CM:SF scenario design manual! =)