JOINT VENTURE (designed by Afreu)

[Erwin]

Just completed this large scenario. Along with Afreu's other excellent design, Royal Mud Marines, I thoroughly enjoyed this complex and challenging scenario - quite grueling at times.

Joint Venture starts with a desperate last stand of Afghan, US and Brit forces (hence the "Joint" part) in a small town as they are assaulted by waves or Taliban types.

Their fight for survival is heavily dependent on initial set-up and use of a single A-10 to hold back the enemy long enuff for a US Marine platoon to arrive and secure a landing site across the river so that a Brit Para company along with a LOT of airpower can arrive to attempt a rescue.

Lots of tactical challenges and surprises. Afreu specializes in mounting challenging enemy counterattacks where and when one doesn't expect em.

The first time I played I followed the scenario orders regarding defensive positions (big mistake) and my joint forces in the town got massacred in about 35 minutes - (when the US Marines arrive at the other side of the map).

I saved at that point and then restarted using my own "common sense" placement of defensive positions in the town. This time, most of the besieged allies were alive and seemingly doing ok by the 35 minute mark. I then stopped and reloaded the first ('orrible massacre) game, and played on from there for the extra challenge - just to see if I could still win.

I did win. But... the big disappointment - which I find common with CMSF, is that the game abruptly ended early with about 30 mins to spare, with a Major "US" victory (despite most of the troops being Brits - so like real life, heh).

I really did not think I deserved this victory as I was pretty sure I would run out of time, plus I had 89 KIA and 89 WIA (5:1 KIA compared to the Taliban and 2:1 re WIA). Also, it seemed that the enemy still had plenty of units and strength in the town to make the end fight very hard to win for Blue. It felt like a real bias towards the Blue forces. I personally thought I was heading into a loss.

I hope it's something designers need to keep in mind if there is a way to stop these early AI surrenders.

Other than that, I loved Joint Venture. What else do you have Afreu?

[afreu]

Thanks again, for another detailed review!

The premature surrender of RED troops is a real issue. It's something I'm quite annoyed about in other scenarios as well, but I haven't found a way to fix it so far. Seems that it is an engine limitation/bug.

There are two more of my scenarios on the Repository: The Green Zone and The Maroon Machine. But both don't quite reach the quality of Royal Mud Marines and Joint Venture.

The Green Zone is about a USMC convoy getting ambushed in densely vegetated farm land and having to fight for survival until a relief force arrives. It is quite challanging and can be a bit laggy at times.

The Maroon Machine simulates an attack of a Britisch Para Battalion on a bridge area. This was more a feasibility study to test the limits of scenarios in terms of number of troops, size of the map and complexity of the scenario. It requires quite a bit of coordination. One big drawback in this scenario, as some reviewers have already and rightly pointed out, is that a company of RED reinforcements arrives at the setup zone of BLUE forces. So you should leave the setup zone as fast as possible. Also, since the scenario involves an entire Battalion on the BLUE side and several companies on the RED side it demands A LOT of CPU power.

If you're searching for similiar scenarios with challanging AI setup and counter attacks I highly recommend to try ThePhantom's scenarios. Played a few of them myself the last couple of nights. The maps are excellent (offering a lot of tactical opportunities and threats) and the enemy counter attacks are absolutely vicious.

The scenarios I played and would judge as some of the best CMSF scenarios available are: The Badinni Dilemma, UK Blinkered, USMC Cherry Point and USMC Clean Sweep. The first two are on the respository, the latter are only available on GreenAsJade's CM:SF site: http://cmsfmods.greenasjade.net/scenarios/search?search=phantom&commit=Search

[ChrisND]

Thanks again, for another detailed review!

The premature surrender of RED troops is a real issue. It's something I'm quite annoyed about in other scenarios as well, but I haven't found a way to fix it so far. Seems that it is an engine limitation/bug.

There is a very simple work around for this problem actually. Add more Red troops that are set as reinforcements, with the arrival time set past the length of the scenario. They never arrive on the map, but they still have weight in the surrender calculations. Just make sure you don't add too many and the player destroys every Red unit and still doesn't get a surrender!

[ChrisND]

I did win. But... the big disappointment - which I find common with CMSF, is that the game abruptly ended early with about 30 mins to spare, with a Major "US" victory (despite most of the troops being Brits - so like real life, heh).

The reason it lists the US as the victor is because it reads off of the nationality of the first unit in the unit editor list. So I bet if you opened up that scenario in the editor, you'd find a US unit at the top of the list. Easy fix.

[afreu]

There is a very simple work around for this problem actually. Add more Red troops that are set as reinforcements, with the arrival time set past the length of the scenario. They never arrive on the map, but they still have weight in the surrender calculations. Just make sure you don't add too many and the player destroys every Red unit and still doesn't get a surrender!

Thanks for the advice, didn't know that. Will try it on occasion.

[SlapHappy]

*Some Spoilers*

I don't post much as far as feedback on user scenarios - But I have to agree that Joint Venture is scary fun. I say scary because you really get a sense of terror from the besieging irregulars. I found keeping the starting troops alive is a matter of finding the absolute best cover situations for not only the troops but the HMG trucks as well. If you can those fifties up as long as possible, they can be invaluable in fighting off the human wave. Don't leave them out in the open where they can be targeted by grenade launchers and other long range weapons. Bunker them behind buildings.

Eventually you may need to loot those enemy troops as ammo will become scarce. Make sure to do that between attack waves. An enemy RPG can be very useful if you're trying to chase off a determined assault against your trench or building position.

I've replayed this scenario over a half dozen times - the only CMSF mission I've played that often. Just a blast. Thanks for making it.

P.S - If there are any out there who are interested in checking out a scenario that is demanding to run ( computer intensive) as well as quite unique, check out CITY RUINS. Massive city brawl.

[Jonny(FGM)]

Eventually you may need to loot those enemy troops as ammo will become scarce. Make sure to do that between attack waves. An enemy RPG can be very useful if you're trying to chase off a determined assault against your trench or building position.

You can take ammo off dead enemy troops? This is news to me

[SlapHappy]

You're probably right...I was probably taking weapons from dead and injured allied Afghan soldiers. I know that one point I had a US command group that was primarily armed with AK's and some RPG's as they had exhausted all ammo for their own weapons.

[Erwin]

Afreu: I didn't have a problem with the early surrender on Mud Marines, as the Red had very little left at that point. (Although it is nice to cruise through the last turns.)

But, I hope you add the reinforcements suggested for Joint Venture. It would make the game much better, as the early surrender was inappropriate given how much red had left. (One can kill a lot of red via lucky airstrikes.)

PS: Re ammo. I thought there was sufficient ammo. One has to make sure one's inf trapped in the town have loaded up on everything that was in the vehicles.

[Erwin]

Afru: BTW, looked at The Badinni Dilemma, UK Blinkered, USMC Cherry Point and USMC Clean Sweep, and they all do look good. However, I could only find v1 of Badinni. Is there an updated version?