Bardosy's Task Force Narwick Campaign.

[Blackcat]

I have just finished this campaign and it is a corker. I thoroughly recommend it to all.

The first few battles were good , but not excessively difficult, then came the attack on the Chemical Factory. The whole campaign kicked up a gear and didn't stop accelerating till the end. The final battle is huge, hard and a cliff hanger - I got a surrender with 13 mins to go. The AI was daft it could have got a draw if it had hung on (another example of premature capitulation from the AI, the curse of CMSF).

I don't want to give any spoilers, as Bardosy's efforts deserve better. However, I came to this campaign having just played his British one and it wasn't until the chemical works mission that I realised I had to change from playing the Brits to playing the Yanks and really use the fire-power I had available to me (Warriors only having approximately forty rounds of HE compared to the Bradley's 600 + Tows). The fact that in one of the later missions I ran out of ammo for some of my IFVs and Abrams might give a clue as to just how well designed the missions are.

Bardosy definitely has a talent for producing great maps, devious AI positioning, cunning AI plans (e.g. in the final mission as I finally managed to put in my flank attack across the highway, the AI produced tanks to block it) and all in all producing excellent missions.

[handihoc]

I've played Narwick and the Brit Warrior campaign, and I totally agree. He makes great campaigns.

He's also got a single scenario up on the repository, UK Dammit. Highly recommended.

[MeatEtr]

I haven't had time to fire up his Narwick campaign yet, only downloaded it so far. But certainly plan on giving it a whirl soon.

Also, for anybody that plays Armed Assault II, he made a great campaign for that game too.

[bardosy]

Thank you guys!

I'm glad if you enjoy my campaigns.

TF Narwick is not a new one. It was my first try for CMSF and I just stuied the new feuters like AI plans. (I designed lot of missions for CMx1, but the shortage of add waypoints to AI enemy, it was very challenging. So I was very happy with CMx2).

Of course I studied from feedbacks abouth TF Narwick (e.g.: it's not too good, if setup zone is a killzone... BlackCat, did you survived the setup zone in the Ambush mission?)

So I tried to use my knowledge in Warriors in the sands campaign.

And thank you for all of your feedbacks about Warriors, becasue I could use it in the future...

[Blackcat]

Bardosy,

Did I survive the setup zone in the ambush mission? Yes, becuase I didn't, and seldom do, accept the default set up. Having troops start exposed on a raised highway in easy shot of dozens of viable firing positions did not strike me as sensible.

That was a tough mission, though. The design of the map and the placement of enemy units was very good and caused me some serious problems. As ever with your creations patience and a refusal to accept obvious lines of approach are the key to success, plus the maximum use of all available firepower!

I am going to find and play your standalone scenario that Handihoc mentioned above. Please keep up the good work and give us another campaign soon.

[Blackcat]

Well, I found the UK Dammit scenario and played it and got a total victory with forty-odd minutes left on the clock. I cannot say I really enjoyed it though and only kept playing out of respect for Bardosy.

I took the Dam inside forty minutes during which time I also bombed the snot out of the secondary objectives and used choppers to hunt down any unseen enemies. Then after several minutes of nothing happening the counter attacks started. They were pretty feeble and didn't get beyond the map edges. The biggest problem was the AI artillery.

All said and done I was probably prejudiced against this scenario from the moment I read the briefing. I strongly dislike Jackals and Landrovers in the game they don't suit me.

[handihoc]

That's interesting. I had a helluva tough time taking that damn dam!

Suffered numerous friendly fire casualties from my air support (there's too much air support, I agree) and a lot of problems from snipers, MGs and RPGs. Once I'd taken the dam itself the rest was easy, but I certainly didn't find it any kind of walkover.

Maybe it's just different strokes for different folks.

What level did you play at? I was on Iron.

[Blackcat]

Handihoc,

I don't play on such a high rank, veteran is good enough for me.

Spoilers follow:

At the start I put a leader and a sniper up on roof of a two story building on the set-up side of the highway. I then fast-moved all my jackals forward on the same side of the highway and put supressing fire down on the nearest two tower buildings on the damn and the buildings to right of the far side of the damn, taking care to stay atleast 500m back.

Then I called in the mud-movers. I targetted the middle building of the three in the middle of the dam and the buildings of the electricity complex.

Once the middle building on the damn had gone (which caused an RPG unit to rout out of the first of the three buildings and leap into the water) I gave it another minute or two and used the Land Rovers containing the pioneers as if they were IFVs and assaulted the first two towers. This was accomplished without casualties as the supressive fire had taken care of any occupant (one sniper was found on the upper floor of the left-hand tower but he died at the hands of the assaulting troops).

Meanwhile I kept four 12.7mm armed Jackals pouring fire into the three buildings on the right of the far siade of the dam and carried on using fast air to flatten the electricity complex.

The next step was to get snipers and the JTAC up into the upper floors of the captured towers and to start putting spressive fire down on the tower in the middle of the damn and the two at the far end. By now I had recveived two lots of reinforcements so I had plenty of MGs available. There was only one spot I couldn't hit from a postition of safety - the ground floor of the far left hand tower.

By now it was getting too light and I started to take MG fire from the roof of a building halfway between the start point and the dam. This was taken care of by using a javelin team on the same roof as my sniper in the set-up zone.

Once I got the JTAC in position I called down mud-movers on the secondary objective to the left of the far side of the dam and systematically flattened it over the next half hour or so.

The pioneers assaulted the middle tower for the loss of one red and one yellow casualty. Then withdrew back to their Land Rovers to be replaced by a sniper a javelin team and a leader.

Now came the tricky bit. I had to get some serious fire into the ground floor of the far left tower. The layout of the map showed that this could only be accomplished from locations near enough to receive fire. So I used the javelin team I put into the near left hand tower. After two missiles I saw two surviving infantry men run put of the back and go face down.

The pioneers charged forward, again using their Land Rovers as if they were IFVs and took both the far towers without loss, killing the survivors in the process.

At this point I started to worry about what I had left behind me. I had not received any fire from the now largely falttened electricity complex for a while and the MG nest to the highway had been on the roof of a builing which the javelins had destroyed, However, there was an enemy marker over a point in a ditch near the MG position (God knows what that was from) and there were two further ones from the buildings accross the higway from my set up position. So what I did was move about half of my Jackals up to near the nearest left hand tower, pointed them back the way they had come and started thumping down area fire on the markers. The remainder of the jackals took up position across the highway facing along the line of the dam. Javlin teams went forward to the far towers so that each was garrisoned by pioneers (on the ground floor) and a double javelin team (on the top floor) ready for the counter attacks. Helicopters were sent to work over the area beyond the dam and were soon firing on units that I had not spotted.

After a few minutes of this. I sent a four man pioneer team to assult the ditch which had contained the marker. The found the bodies of a two-man RPG team and a sniper.

Thereafter there was nothing to do but wait for the counter-attacks. Unfortuantely the AI had a different view and artillery spotting rounds started landing near my jackals on the highway. I rushed them forward but the AI artillery followed, though only after some delay. Nonetheless, I lost a Jackal and took a some casualties in the crews of other vehicles.

Then the counter-attacks started to arrive. They just got shot to pieces before they could move from the map edge. However in all the firing, one of my Javlein teams saw the enemy artillery observer in some woods. One missle later and the AI surrendered.

As one has come to expect from Barsoy, it was a well designed scenario. It didn't grab me though, probably because I don't like working with the units I had to play with. Using Land Rovers to force assaults and armed go-carts to provide long range supressive fire, just isn't my thing.

[bardosy]

BlackCat:

Sorry to hear you disappointed with Dam It.

I really understand you don't like Jackals. But I do! I know, I'm creazy, but I like it and I wanted to figured out, how can I use Jackals well in CMSF engine.

Originally I love Jackals, but additionally I was interesting about non-armored wheeld vehicles, because I read the Generation Kill book, and there is no unarmored Humvee at CMSF...

So I want to create a Jackal-mission.

I figured out, Jackals are used in long-range desert missions, specop missions, well I wanted to create a special operation mission. And that moment, I read an article about an american Spec Op in Iraq 2003, when a small group captured a dam behind enemy lines and hold it, until friendly forces arrived. I liked this story and put the things together.

[Blackcat]

Bardosy,

Don't get me wrong, "Dam it" was well up to your usual high standards in terms of design. I did play it to the finish and it some respects it was quite fun (blasting the snot out of the opposition with massive air-power has a certain attraction). That sort of light infantry fighting is just not my cup of tea.

I am looking forward to your next campaign. Hopefully you'll give us some more full-on heavy infantry action. Do you fancy the US marines, with their insane amounts of firepower?

[bardosy]

Because I did US Army and Brit campaign, I guess, it's time to create a USMC one too.

But my "cup of tea" is IFVs... and LAV is a piece of ****. Bradley and Warrior are much better. IMHO.

So it's difficult. Because I want to... but I have to think about it much harder then in Narwick or Warriors...

And don't worry, light infantry (like Jackals) just interesing me, but only for one or two missions. Dam It was an experiment.

LAV and Stryker are not my favorite. As MeatEtr mentioned, I usually create campaigns for ArmA game, and it uses (without addons) LAVs and Strykers... That mean, I can use them, but I don't like them.

Sorry. This comment is not too undertandable, because I'm just thinking about this. And try to write what I think...

The fact is, I'm currently working on an ArmA2 campaign, but it's very close to release. And if I done, I will plan a USMC campaign for CMSF...