From the Dawn to Setting Sun-Marines Mini-Campaign RELEASED!

[Field Marshal Blücher]

My first released campaign for CM:SF takes you through the story of a Marines rifle platoon cut off in enemy territory that must fight its way back to friendly lines in the first day of the war.

I made this campaign because I enjoy platoon-scale, infantry-on-infantry slugfests. I hope that you all enjoy it!

You can get it from CMMODs or the Repository (although I don't think it's up on the repository yet).

Enjoy!

-FMB

[Mikkey]

thank's for new campaign FMB!

[Clevinger]

Already on it... Third mission is hard to complete without serious casualties... I miss terribly my Harriers and AAVs, but I really like this campaign.

Thank you!

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Heh. Most of my testers agree that the third mission is probably the trickiest in the campaign. Glad you're liking it though!

[dan/california]

The third mission is most definitely tricky, but I eventually beat it with zero KIA and two WIA during testing. Of course I wrote back the the Field Marshall at least twice to the effect it was impossible. There are effective ways to cross both bridges.

[Thomm]

The third mission is most definitely tricky, but I eventually beat it with zero KIA and two WIA during testing. Of course I wrote back the the Field Marshall at least twice to the effect it was impossible. There are effective ways to cross both bridges.

I re-tried the third mission twice yesterday. The first time with a "rush" approach that led to casualties all over the field, the second time with patience, discipline, and proper leap-frogging tactics.

It looked really good ... until the AI pulled one of her new 1.11 tricks and filled some Blue body bags ... ... I went to sleep shortly afterwards.

This notwithstanding, I would really like to discuss how you guys manage to beat this mission.

On "cheat" that I found is to plot a sequence of waypoints on the slope of the main bridge. This allows crossing the bridge almost out-of-sight of the enemy.

On the way there, however, I find it difficult to avoid casualties because of being out-gunned and exposed.

Best regards,

Thomm

[Clevinger]

I finally managed to cross the bridge with minimal casualties, but I lost my platoon leader in the process

Cost me a few victory points

[stikkypixie]

I just finished the first mission and so far I like it. Although I must say the AI did not put up much of a fight.

[Darkmage]

1st thing I'm going to try when 1.11 is out

[Field Marshal Blücher]

SPOILERS

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

It may be that 1.11 makes Mission 3 really difficult. However, in testing I and the testers have found two approaches that work.

The main bridge is workable as long as you advance slowly and put down a ton of suppressing fire. The enemy is Reserves with low motivation; it doesn't take too much to pin them down.

The foot bridge is also quite doable; that was the way I've done it in all of my tests. I advanced, one third-of-a-squad at a time, to the first treeline, and then once my whole platoon was assembled, I repeated the process to arrive at the river banks. When they're there, they can put out enough fire to smother just about everyone in the buildings.

There's also a nasty surprise on the main bridge that can work for you or against you.

[dan/california]

Spoilers

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

The way I did it was to give every single unit a fast order from the starting wall to the wall by the treeline. This puts most of your guys in effective firing range. It seems that you start out unspotted, so in the very fist turn the enemy fire on BIG open field is not as strong. It probably by wouldn't work against higher quality troops.

Then I very carefully worked around and across the main bridge. The low wall is key.

I will happily try it with 1.11 as soon as I get that long awaited file.

[Thomm]

Fifth attempt, another draw, and why? Because I had 5 (five!) casualties!

Well, I give up. To make sure that I never try again I deleted all save games. Gotta move on ...

Best regards,

Thomm

[Apocal]

SPOILER

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

It's possible to win the campaign even if you lose both Platoon Sergeant, the only WIA of the first battle, and the Platoon Commander, wounded while advancing with his leading rifle squad in the third battle, in addition to taking seven casualties in the final battle. Two KIA and 12 WIA, I still win the campaign.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

END OF SPOILER

Fifth attempt, another draw, and why? Because I had 5 (five!) casualties!

Well, I give up. To make sure that I never try again I deleted all save games. Gotta move on ...

Best regards,

Thomm

Five casualties would be considered bad for any one fight the platoon got into. Since this campaign covers a day or two (?) and the objective is to preserve your force while linking up with the rest of your company, it makes sense. Just imagine that you have to fight 20 or 30 more battles after this one and it makes sense.

[Thomm]

Five casualties would be considered bad for any one fight the platoon got into.

Yes, I should not complain. Indeed, I love the scale of, and the idea behind the campaign. I am just not good enough.

Best regards,

Thomm

[Clevinger]

SPOILER

*

*

*

*

*

*

If you force the RED to surrender, you still can advance through the campaign

Things screwed up in the two last missions, so I ended with 10 KIA and 30 WIA... I will start it again, I promise!

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

END OF SPOILER

[Delta228]

I was really enjoying it until I got cocky, thinking I had destroyed all enemy resistance, and marched 2nd squad across some open ground towards the objective. All of them were WIA or KIA in about 10 seconds after a heavy MG opened up on them >.< Ill start it over tomorrow. Still, great work, its a refreshing change from the massive, armor-centered scenarios ive been playing lately.

[futon river crossing]

I really enjoyed this campaign - I thought the scale was just right - having to be carefull with casualties made it much more difficult and fun. I had no problem with the third scenario, but it was certainly the most difficult - i managed to cross by the footbridge - as long as you have enough overwhatch - it's no problem.

[SlapHappy]

I re-tried the third mission twice yesterday. The first time with a "rush" approach that led to casualties all over the field, the second time with patience, discipline, and proper leap-frogging tactics.

It looked really good ... until the AI pulled one of her new 1.11 tricks and filled some Blue body bags ... ... I went to sleep shortly afterwards.

Best regards,

Thomm

Hey, no fair talking about 1.11 gameplay when the patch is overdue!

[Field Marshal Blücher]

The first thing I'll do when 1.11 comes out is playtest the 3rd mission again. If it's impossible, I'll make it a little easier.

Glad you guys are all enjoying it!

@Clevinger,

I kind of had the same thing happen in one of the missions. I forced a surrender in Mission 4 even though I lost too many guys when I was playtesting it, but kept going because I knew most of my casualties were due to carelessness and playing the same mission too many times.

[ShaneO]

Just played through it today, my first proper realtime play. I had a blast, loved it! I really enjoy that scale too, and having to pay so much attention to preserving your troops adds a lot to it. Thanks a million for making this!

Blue campaign victory, 1 KIA, 15 WIA, Iron level, 1.10.

[CogNative]

Did Mission One w/o any KIA. Enjoyable. Now onto M2 fun run. Thanks FMB and all the testers.

[Capt. Toleran]

Excellent campaign (gave you a 5 on CMMODS) -- I would go so far as to say that I wish this had been included with the Marines module as a training campaign, because it really does show the advatages of:

-night vision

-Marine squad firepower

-the 4th squad with the SMAW

-using combined arms, and having your MG teams in the right places

After playing too many scenarios and campaigns (including the stock one with the USMC module) where the amount of forces are so overwhelming that you become almost blase' about your men's lives, it was great to have a series of missions that really made you conserve and treat them reastically.

It also was nice to have missions that were easy on my processor and graphics card. I'm not running an ancient system, but a lot of the recent missions and campaigns I have played have brought my PC to a slow crawl. As I understand it, CMSF was designed for company level and smaller, yet too many missions are at the battalion level and barely run, let alone run smoothly.

Anyways, great job, I hope to play more from you, and please keep up the great work!

[theFightingSeabee]

Mission 2. I lost a few guys, 2 dead, 6 wounded. Then the campaign ended! If that happened in real life, those guys still are gonna have to move on and get the hell out of there! So at the end of the campaign, give me a low score, I don't care, I just don't want to have to play scenarios over again. I like to play it through, no saves for the purposes of redo's, and see how I did as a commander. It might be better to remove this.

[Capt. Toleran]

Just think of it as a learning experience, and try it again. There' s a lesson in this campaign about management and reducing casualties. I also had a hard time my first time through the 2nd mission, then tried it again and saw what the solution is. It's amazing what a bit of range will do to reduce the effectiveness of enemy fire.

[dan/california]

If you started mission 3 8 men down you would NOT have a good time. Trust me on this one.