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New file at the Repository: africa_el_guettar_23mar43.rar (2009-09-20)


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This new map covers the critical spot where a 10th Panzer Division armored spearhead threatened to shatter the U.S. 1st Infantry Division on 23 March, 1943. The map features the G.P. 15 highway east of El Guettar, the Wadi El Keddab, and the valley and hills near the base of Point 336. A few notes: The wadi was impassable to vehicles on this day, due to recent heavy rains, except along G.P. 15. I have designated it impassable on the map, but vehicles seem to be able to cross it anyway. The barbed wire line represents the start of a U.S. minefield, which ran somewhere between the wire and the wadi. Infantry should survive better on this map, which has pleanty of covering terrain. I've also included many personal foxholes and slit trenches topped with sandbags. I'll be working on one or more scenarios for this map as time permits. Enjoy! -- Broadsword

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Thanks Broadsword, I had spotted the topic you posted a while ago asking for technical advice and was hoping that someone was able to help. Always looking forward to playing new maps/missions.

Plus I need something to keep me occupied until Centauro/Kursk are finished.

Unfortunately that link doesn't appear to be working, I get this error:

550 CDW faild. "/africa_el_guettar_23mar43.492.rar": directory not found.

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Sorry I didn't put a readme in the downloadable file. Some more notes and thoughts:

This map is all custom-textured and hand-sculpted, based on Google Earth imagery. The Google earth image gives the landscape a pleasing and very realistic color variation -- when I look out on the horizon, I swear I can almost see heat shimmering and mirages...

Please let me know how infantry fares on this map -- IMHO, the terrain in the original maps tended to lack enough realistic infantry cover (variations in ground, well-located foxholes, camouflage, slit trenches, grasses and vegetation), and that made them tend to die way too fast.

Also, you'll find that the G.P. 15 highway on this map is just an asphalt-colored texture, not a real 3D road. Several reasons for that: First, the hilly Point 336 part of the terrain along the N and NE mapedges was tactically significant in the battle, so I needed to get as much of it into the play area as possible. Second, I couldn't a find a simple way to make an asphalt-colored 3D highway (and all the out-of the-box road options looked horrible on the map). Third, the German objective here was to advance from the SE corner, overrun the remaining US forces, and exit off the NW corner of the map. So, on this map, we'll assume the US engineers have mined/barricaded the highway (you'll see the wrecks and oil drums) and that 10th Panzer Div decides to advance along (but not actually on) the highway.

The US artillery battery position near the center of the map is in an exposed location and in the actual battle, the panzers overran it (however, the gunners have slit trenches, and they can try to defend themselves with rifles and hand grenades).

A good overview of this battle, including OOB information, is in the GHQ miniatures scenario here:

http://www.ghqmodels.com/newsletters/julaug2002.pdf

I'm now going to try and learn the coding and triggers stuff to make some scenarios -- if anyone else with better experience wants to work with me on this, please let me know. This map could be the basis for 3 historical scenarios:

March 17 late afternoon -- 1st Recon Troop/1st ID scouts ahead of the U.S. main body and runs into some sharp patrol actions against the Centauro Division in the hills N of the highway. (Historically, these actions made the U.S. abandon the idea of a frontal assault along the highway, and led to the the famous night action where Darby's Rangers scaled a mountain to the N and took the Italians by surprise on their flank/rear).

March 23 a.m. -- The initial 10th Pz Div attack at first light.

March 23 late afternoon --The second 10th Pz attack, after their initial one stalled and they pulled back to regroup.

The two March 23 actions could even be linked in a mini-campaign: The US player has the advantage of playing defense, but would have to win both morning and afternoon to win the day. The German player needs to win only once.

One caveat: It will be impossible to make a historically accurate OOB unless/until we have a way to get the American M3 GMC 75mm tank destroyer into the game. These obsolete, halftrack-mounted tank destroyers fought heroically at El Guettar, until a unit of fully tracked M-10s reinforced them at the decisive moment. I'll just have to use all M-10s for now, and use some balancing tricks to make sure it doesn't give the US too great an advantage.

This is a more fun period of the Tunisia campaign, for those who like to play as American, because by March 1943 the US troops were on the offensive, Patton was in command, and they were no longer as green as they were in the Kasserine battles.

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Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I think all you do is extract the *.rar file to the Battlefront\Tow2\maps directory on your hard drive. The map is just a folder, containing a bunch of files specific to that map.

Ok...I did that ...but how can I start the map?

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Open the Battle Generator, and create a single-player scenario using this new map.

When you launch TOW2, select "Battles" from the main menu, and you should see your new scenario. Launch it and have a blast. There are no downloadable scenarios yet for this new map, but some community-made ones may be posted in the near future.

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Yes Broadsword your instructions are correct. Just put it in the map folder and make a battle with the generator.

I checked this out lastnight, threw together a quick battle with fairly equal forces. (playing as Germany though, it's just so much more fun :P)

One thing i did notice is the ground is very flat, not sure if this was done to be as accurate as possible but the result was an instant battle. As soon as the map loaded i could see 3 enemy vehicles, after moving a couple of tanks to slightly higher ground i had the entire enemy force covered, then just flanked them with my 2 remaining tanks.

Still great fun though, and i do think that my infantry had a better chance of surviving with all the little patches of grass scattered around.

The map is larger than the game will allow you to play with, so i wasn't entirely sure which area to designate as the "play area" which might of been the reason for the easy visability.

I guess we'll have to wait for a user made scenario that makes the most out of the map, it certainly has potential.

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Yes, Nokturnal, this map is designed for a specific historical battle, and isn't really meant to be an all-purpose map for random battles. If you want to get the most out of it, some suggestions:

Set the play area as large as possible.

Set the German deployment area in a very small box at the SW corner, where the highway enters the play area.

Set the US deployment in the prepared positions, in the hills and shallows near the NW and N edges of the map, and , if you like, inside the Wadi El Keddab.

OOB suggestions: Give the US tons of off-map artillery, no air. Put an arty battery in the prepared position N of the barbed wire. Make most of the US force M-10 tank destroyers, in hull-down positions, with a little bit of infantry tucked away in the foxholes.

Give the Germans tons of air support, some off-map artillery, and then a massive force of Mark IV and III tanks supporeted by armored infantry. Use a preliminary air strike and artillery barrage to prepare your attack. Then put lots of smoke between you and the enemy -- you need it to screen the German spearhead, so your forces can advance more safely down the valley.

Send the German attack W along the highway, then turn NW before you reach the barbed wire and See how many surviving German units can reach the NW corner of the map.

Historically, the Germans

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Ahh i did suspect it was only meant for historic battles, just didn't have the time to read up before setting up the OOB or starting positions. Though considering the limited # of maps for random battles, i think this could still be used just to throw together a quick battle.

I will set it up again over the weekend using your suggestions and let ya know how it goes.

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  • 4 weeks later...

News: My historical scenario for this El Guettar map is nearly finished.

I just have to tweak a few triggers and test it a bit more to get the Allied-Enemy balance just right, then figure out how to code the win/fail conditions and write the various messages/briefings.

This was my first map effort, and now my first try at coding, but I'm pretty happy with the results. I encourage others to take advantage of the editor tools that come with the game, watch Webwing's outstanding modding tutorial videos, and try making your own battles. It's fun to have near-total control over a situation and make just what you want, instead of playing the same old stuff over again or waiting for someone else to release something new!

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