Honk honk!

[Field Marshal Blücher]

YOO-NITED STATES MARINES, COMIN' THROUGH!

A new Marines campaign, based around Company F, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines, should be up on the Repository soon! Designed by Bulgaroktonos (and on the Repository under his name) and me, Rolling Lords of War tells the story of a motorized Marine rifle company as they fight their way from Hims to Damascus.

Features:

-10 missions with varied objectives and settings

-Interesting core forces: Truck-mounted infantry supported sometimes by HMMWVs

-A variety of mission sizes ranging from a Marine platoon all the way up to nearly two companies

-Low casualty thresholds for Blue making for interesting tactical challenges

-Requires only the base game and the Marines module

So, once it goes up, please enjoy, and feel free to leave feedback either in this thread, or via PM to either of us!

-FMB

[Bulgaroktonos]

Alternate names for this campaign include "Beep beep I'm not a jeep", WIDE LOAD and Kings of the Road.

The mission maps are all based on real-world locations, and were made with the rather extensive help of Google Earth.

edit: Forgot to mention that we also had a little help from JonS and Steve, who helped us choose the rough geographic area of the campaign.

Enjoy!

[Dietrich]

Ooh-rah!

Thanks much, Herr Feldmarschall! Thanks much, Bulgaroktonos!

[theFightingSeabee]

Hell yeah! Can't wait to play it!

[Ryujin]

Just took it for a spin, very nice! Been playing through the first couple missions.

The house to house combat is pretty nice in the first mission.

Had to take a screenshot of this, crashing an insurgent party with a frag:

[Alex]

edit: Forgot to mention that we also had a little help from JonS and Steve, who helped us choose the rough geographic area of the campaign.

Enjoy!

Hm... You lucky, when I asked some body to help chose geographic and correct the main plot for red-vs-blue campaign, no nobody has responded...

P.S. Is it already in to repository?

[Field Marshal Blücher]

P.S. Is it already in to repository?

Yup! Went up last night, I think.

[ScubaSam]

Really enjoying this so far, but not sure if I've discovered a problem with the 2nd mission or not - the briefing states that "Rotary Wing air assets will be circulating near the battlespace and can be called on if necessary", and the basic plan given suggests using CAS to take out enemy vehicles and heavy weapon positions.

So I played away, noting that the air support wasn't available immediately - fair enough, I thought, perhaps It'll show in 10-15 minutes. It however, didn't arrive at all, and I played my way to a defeat at the time limit after some fairly rubbish SMAW markmanship from my marines failed to take out any enemy vehicles =P

Should the air support be there?

[Field Marshal Blücher]

The air support should most definitely be there! This was an error from a very early version of the mission that I thought we fixed. I've fixed it, and we will hopefully get a new version up on the repository soon.

[Erwin]

Thanks for your efforts FMB. Plz let us know when your revised version is up.

[Gpig]

I believe the new version is up already.

This is a tough campaign. I lost the first battle with three KIA and 8 wounded. I was therefore summarily kicked out of the campaign.

Back to the drawing board.

[Erwin]

that is low casualties! interesting.

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Yup! New version (1.2) has been up for a bit now.

[ScubaSam]

Tough is right...I won the first battle with an Uncon surrender first time round, 1 KIA (for the army, not my beloved marines) and 3 WIA.

Now having to replay that in order to reach the fixed version of mission 2 (with CAS). Battle is proving much more tough this time! Lost badly, 2 MVTRs down plus about 10 KIA, more wounded =(

I think I got cocky and figured it would all work out just like the first run...are there multiple AI plans for each map, FMB, or was I just unlucky?

[Field Marshal Blücher]

are there multiple AI plans for each map, FMB, or was I just unlucky?

Some maps have multiple AI plans; on others, the enemy only really has one sensible course of action.

Also, just so you all know, not all of the missions are as hard. We tried to go for varying degrees of difficulty, so they won't all be this tough.

[Jonny(FGM)]

Now having to replay that in order to reach the fixed version of mission 2 (with CAS).

I'm not sure if this works for user made campaigns, but the fixed marines campaign on the repository can be run from a save game from the non fixed campaign.

Continuing the Campaign from a save game

Starting with v1.20 (current version is v1.21) there is no need to restart the Campaign if you have already started. Simply following these steps to continue playing with the updated Campaign file:

1. Using v1.20 or later, save your current campaign between battles from the point just after you dismiss the end-of-battle screen. Importing will not work for saves made at any other point.

2. From the main intro screen, start a New Campaign, and select the updated version of the campaign you want to use. HOLD DOWN THE SHIFT KEY as you click the OK button.

3. Immediately an "import" screen will appear. You'll see your saved game here. Select it, click OK, and then things proceed as normal.

[stoex]

I just tried what Jonny(FGM) proposed, but unfortunately I think it doesn't work in this case. Unless, that is, the CAS in mission 2 is not available from the start. If that is the case, I'll have to play until the time it should show up to be sure. Anyhow, the importing thing worked in principle, meaning it loaded my game, but CAS was not present.

[ScubaSam]

I tried it as well, the CAS didn't show and I played until the time again. However the SMAW marksmanship had improved, my marine took only one shot to destroy each BMP =)

Still wasn't enough to help me win though, too much open ground and too many Syrians! Trying the campaign from the start again, but its quite tough. The maximum blufor score is 500, and the enemy starts with a 200 point bonus, so you can only allow 300 points of your forces to be killed...not sure what that equates to, but it must be less than 3 dead and 8 wounded, as Gpig said he lost on that earlier.

Fairly realistic numbers mind! Just damned difficult =)

[Bulgaroktonos]

CAS does not show up immediately. Rather there is a short (5 min) delay to simulate the relaying of information to the FAC, allowing time for the air support to be assigned to the platoon.

[Field Marshal Blücher]

I tried it as well, the CAS didn't show and I played until the time again. However the SMAW marksmanship had improved, my marine took only one shot to destroy each BMP =)

Still wasn't enough to help me win though, too much open ground and too many Syrians! Trying the campaign from the start again, but its quite tough. The maximum blufor score is 500, and the enemy starts with a 200 point bonus, so you can only allow 300 points of your forces to be killed...not sure what that equates to, but it must be less than 3 dead and 8 wounded, as Gpig said he lost on that earlier.

Fairly realistic numbers mind! Just damned difficult =)

Yeah, that mission is pretty much impossible without the CAS. I just double-checked the mission and it SHOULD arrive within 5 minutes. Hope it goes well for you next time!

[stoex]

Thanks to both scenario authors for the info. I'm going to start the campaign over as well, but I don't think I'll manage my success from the first mission again (no KIA/WIA for either the Army or Marines, just a couple of walking wounded among the Army men. I got really lucky).

[MeatEtr]

I gotta draw on my first attempt, so got the boot. Not gonna bother with another tedious saving/reloading campaign. :confused:

[Gpig]

Heh heh. Yeah, my second attempt went even worse. Last time, I left my isolateded Army dudes pretty close to their original set-up. I un-hid them from the start hoping they'd be able to spot and out-muscle the enemy with firepower. They got smoked.

This time I tried shrinking my perimeter, setting up ambushes and remaining hidden for as long as possible. Didn't work either. They started to break and run for it, dying horribly in the process.

Don't feel much like trying it again. What is the blue force casualty allowance? 1%?

Cool map, though. Wish I could see the rest. ;-)

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Heh, just add a zero. (It's 10%.)

Hmm. Sounds like Mission 1 is still too hard. Sorry about that! It was even harder initially!

Let me make some changes. I might also make an alternate version for MeatEtr and those of his ilk () who prefer to advance after a loss.

[Gpig]

It could be just that I'm taking too long to get the Marines on station.

***spoiler alert****

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I drive my Marines to the Hospital ASAP and de-bus there. Setting up MG teams and one whole squad for overwatch. Then I race a squad south across the boulevard and start heading east to the objective. The last squad I move east through the buildings north of the boulevard engaging the enemy as they go.

Usually by this time, the Army grunts have packed it in.

Any pointers?