Is it possible? Is Task Force Panther actually released?

[ChrisND]

I've always achieved all of the objectives in every mission, I"m just getting draws due to a handful of casualties.

Fair enough. I'm going to adjust down the penalty for casualties.. but only by a little bit.

The squad that got wiped out by the Kornet couldn't be split up it was one of those specialist squads with all the marksman and so forth that were covering the advance of the other troops.

[bodkin]

BTW BlackMoria's easy cruise through this campaign made me hate him. I can't believe some of the AAR's.

[Delta228]

Snitch is definitely my favorite to date. I think you might have ignored something in the briefing, because if you have humvees getting taken out by RPGs then you probably took the town roads, which you were told not to do. Still, if it made for an exciting game, then I guess it was worth it.

Perhaps I read the briefing a bit too fast. However, only the 2 SOF Humvees were on the main roads when they were hit. The other 2 were in the back alleys trying to provide cover for my retreating men, when they brewed up, leading to me having to go back to "recover" the bodies from inside.

That is going to really hurt you soon, because the missions will only get harder. Sorry to say it, but you may find that you will have to start over.

Please let me know how quickly (or slowly) your casualties get replaced as you progress.

I just tried the next mission, and it was nigh on impossible. Havoc platoon's casualties were actually more or less restored, but the largest unit in Bushwhacker Platoon was the command unit (Bushwhacker 1 had 1 man!) I essentially relied very heavily on the Delta force guys after they cleared the R&D compound, but once they ran out of ammo, along with my CAS I was screwed. Still had a lot of fun though.

[BlackMoria]

BTW BlackMoria's easy cruise through this campaign made me hate him. I can't believe some of the AAR's.

I attribute it to 17 years of military service in the combat arms and some 30+ years of playing wargames. A mis-spent youth pushing cardboard counters or minatures around rather than chasing woman and guzzling beer.

I could regale everyone with the time I totally screwed up our brigade exercise because I was in charge of the enemy force and I so totally screwed the brigadier's exercise by neutralizing friendly forces, hitting echelon units and raiding the brigade forward HQ and taking out the brigade commander in his command post. I got a supreme dressing down, a letter of reprimand and my career took a hit. I am still bitter about that to this day, despite being out of the service some 14 years now. A hard lesson about the military mindset but I still have pride that my one shot at command resulted in a company worth of troops completely screwing up a brigade worth of troops in some 36 hours of operations (I ran the company like a company of Soviet Spetnaz).

[Apocal]

Weren't you the same guy who the beat the enemy so hard in the Marine campaign they had no units left for the next mission?

[ChrisND]

I think I'm going to raise the threshold for casualties to 15%, and lower the penalty for crossing that threshold to 500.

[Delta228]

I just re-tried Snitch again, but I tried a new tactic. I disobeyed the brass's orders and pulled a Black Hawk Down style Humvee dash through those back alleys, using Dog Platoon and the SOF Humvees to extract the informant and using Bear Platoon to hold the extraction.

Despite the awful vehicle pathfinding inside the cramped spaces of the toww, which I guess is sort of realistic, if not only frustrating , the operation actually went much better than my first playthorugh. The Humvees dashed to the informant, set up a perimeter then dashed out, only stopping to recover a crew who had bailed out of their Humvee.

Compared to my first try with close to 30 casualties, I had less than 10, but with 2 destroyed Humvees.

And yes, I had to restart my campaign. In the 4th mission Bushwhacker platoon had something around 15 guys left...

It was still great fun trying to win with those low forces though.

[igor7111]

I don't know why, perhaps I'm too old, but I can't for the life of me find this scenario to download. I reluctantly request some assistance feeling like an old man asking some whippersnapper to help me across the street grrrrrrrr.

[Delta228]

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=304

[igor7111]

thanks delta (whippersnapper ) ..... found it. Getting old really sucks. You'll see some day

[Delta228]

thanks delta (whippersnapper ) ..... found it. Getting old really sucks. You'll see some day

No Problem, but I am a teenager, therefore I am immortal.

Anyway, I retried the first mission, and did far better. However, why is the US names as the unconventionals?

[igor7111]

>>>No Problem, but I am a teenager, therefore I am immortal. <<<

Yeah, that's what I thought when I was a teenager. But easy delta,

that's what my son thought too.......and he died riding his motorcycle

so chill as the kids used to say.

[ChrisND]

No Problem, but I am a teenager, therefore I am immortal.

Anyway, I retried the first mission, and did far better. However, why is the US names as the unconventionals?

A mistake on my part. The airport service vehicles are taken from the Unconventional transport units, but they are first on the list of Blue units in the editor. The game uses whatever force is first on that list for the AAR.

It is fixed for the next version.

[Clevinger]

Will give a serious look at this new version during the week-end.

Thanks for taking our input into account.

The beta was very good, I'm certain the new version is pure gold

[ChrisND]

Will give a serious look at this new version during the week-end.

Thanks for taking our input into account.

The beta was very good, I'm certain the new version is pure gold

New version is not out yet. It will be a few weeks at least.

[ChrisND]

Now that the cat is out of the bag in regards to IBCTs, I can say how they will affect the final version of my campaign.

First off, the core units are not going to be touched. They will stay as Stryker MOUT. The reason is that the maps and scenarios are made with this unit type in mind, and a normal infantry squad is different enough that an unnecessary amount of work would be needed to convert. There would be less men in Alpha company and there would be no breaching capability on the squad level.

I can, however, add LMTVs and US Army humvees to replace Marine stuff where appropriate. The ability to add dismounted javies is a nice plus as well.

Because of this, the new version is going to require the British module to play. I'll leave the old Marines-required version up on the Repository for those who do not want to buy the next module.

The final version is going to be slightly less difficult. The main changes are going to be jazzed up map terrain and more AI plans to the last mission. With the new infantry stuff in the British module, it will also get a whole cooler without me having to do much :cool:

[SlapHappy]

In most of the really tough scenarios I have played, it's not the number of red enemy or the lack of blue troops that has made the difference, but the quality of red troops on average.

I don't find the limited casualty allowance for Blue to be unrealistic, but perhaps the Red troop quality is too high to expect reasonable results given the limited resources of the paratroopers?

[ChrisND]

In most of the really tough scenarios I have played, it's not the number of red enemy or the lack of blue troops that has made the difference, but the quality of red troops on average.

I don't find the limited casualty allowance for Blue to be unrealistic, but perhaps the Red troop quality is too high to expect reasonable results given the limited resources of the paratroopers?

Well, I was planning on two changes to make it slightly easier.

1. Raise the casualty threshold to 15% and lower the point bonus from 600 to 500. The 5% amounts to a handful of soldiers, so very slight.

2. Lower quality of the Syrian troops slightly. Especially the special forces. Probably one notch for 25-33% of the forces.

So it is really just a slight change, and AFAIK the casualty are standards would still be the most draconian of any campaign I know.

[ForceMultiplier]

Great news! That was a fun but brutal campaign. Can't wait to play the new version.

[zmoney]

Spoilers

I really like the concept behind this campaign and think you did a great job. Being a former Airborne trooper I have been looking forward to this campaign since you announced it twenty years ago .

I am currently playing the fourth mission, where you have to clear that complex. My main gripe with this mission is that this objective needs at least a battalion if not more to properly execute the plan.

I prefer company size battles myself but this mission is basically a depleted company plus (US) versus a non depleted company plus of highly motivated/trained SF troops (Syrian). The SOP attack ratio calls for at least three to one attacker against defender.

Plus the map is extremely beautiful (all the maps are great but this one is awesome) but the distances needed to be covered with nothing bigger than a 240B providing covering fire is just too much.

My two cents is to maybe shrink the Syrian SF down to maybe a platoon plus their attachments.

[ChrisND]

I really like the concept behind this campaign and think you did a great job. Being a former Airborne trooper I have been looking forward to this campaign since you announced it twenty years ago .

Yeah, school has this funny way of sucking up time spent doing more important things.

I am currently playing the fourth mission, where you have to clear that complex. My main gripe with this mission is that this objective needs at least a battalion if not more to properly execute the plan.

A very valid gripe! It is not realistic at all but I believed it would present an interesting challenge, as the player would have to be careful to concentrate his forces, then isolate and eliminate chunks of the defense at a time. In the final version I am planning on reducing their size slightly and most importantly reducing their experience levels.

[zmoney]

Thanks for the reply and like I said you did a great job with this campaign. It’s very fun to play and I see your point about concentrating your forces. I know it’s hard trying to balance challenge, realism and fun. Because like I said in my earlier post battalion sized battles are no fun in real time, just too much going on.