USMC Campaign Video AAR

[DaveDash]

Hi guys,

Inspired by tyrspawn, I have decided to do a video AAR with commentary of the USMC Campaign.

After an ENORMOUS amount of mucking about trying (literally all night) to upload to youtube, I discovered my ISP and youtube do not like enough other. I discovered by VPNing into a server at work, I can bypass whatever restriction my ISP has placed on me, and I can upload to youtube. FINALLY. Unfortunately I have a 15 minute limit to what I can upload to youtube, so all the videos are broken down into parts.

This is the first time I've done such a thing, so hopefully my commentary and technical skills will get better as time goes on.

After I have finished this campaign, I plan on doing an AAR for NormalDude's Task Force Panther campaign.

USMC Campaign - Mission 01 - "Beach Recon of LZ White"

Mission 01 Playlist

Part 1

USMC Campaign - Mission 02 - "Amphibious Assault into Hamidiyah"

Mission 02 Playlist

Mods Used:

AKD Sound Mod V1.2

Iconed Bases

Scipios Silhouettes

Scipios Muzzle Fire

Scipios Tracers and Explosions

Mords Death Knells

Mords Vocal Mayhem

Mords US Radio Chatter

More to follow.

[Crender]

Thanks for doing this. Looking forward to seeing the rest.

[DaveDash]

USMC Campaign - Mission 03 "Guard the Flank"

Mission 03 Playlist

[DaveDash]

USMC Campaign - Mission 04 - "Saving the Beachhead"

Link to playlist

This one ended up quite intense.

[Gpig]

I love how your audio starts, Mission 03: part 1.

Thanks for doing these, DaveDash!

Gpig

[MeatEtr]

Nice job on the videos!

By the way, if memory serves me correctly, I think the Dude is gonna update his TF Panther campaign soon. So may want to wait on that. Although it's already solid though, I played through it awhile ago.

[DaveDash]

I love how your audio starts, Mission 03: part 1.

Thanks for doing these, DaveDash!

Gpig

Hehe yeah that was great!

"Shut your god damn mouth and listen up!"

[Frankster65]

Nicely done sir.

[DaveDash]

Mission 05 - The Battle for Objective Pooh.

Link to playlist

Got a bit impatient at the end and took needless casualties.

Note: I skipped 'Decisions Decisions' for obvious reasons.

[DaveDash]

Just completed Milk Run. Jesus that is one hell of a fight, and it's left me somewhat exhausted. I still won with a Syrian surrender and I sustained 10 KIA and 33 WIA (Roughly 10% of my forces) and 1 LAV, so that's not to shabby. Especially considering the -vast- majority of my casualties were from the seemingly unlimited artillery the AI has. Constant enemy fire missions at multiple parts of the AO in Real Time, what a headache. It also greatly peeves me off that the AI has eyes on your assembly area (chosen by the scenario designer) to call down arty there.

I just deleted 10 minutes or so of inaction at the start, and the running time is still 2 hours and 26 minutes of video. It's going to take a good few hours (6-7 or so) to do audio commentary, encode it, and upload it. So it will break it down into a couple of parts (Part 1 and 2).

[Perforator]

DaveDash, I accidently stumbled upon one of your video AAR's on Youtube last weekend and immediately purchased a copy of Combat Mission Shock Force (with the Marines module). If it weren't for your excellent video I wouldn't have even known about this marvelous game.

Unfortunately my internet speed is running frustratingly slow at the moment so I'm unable to view all your other videos but soon as my speed is reset I will be checking them out.

Thanks for posting your videos and please continue to make more. Cheers.

[DaveDash]

That's great! Welcome aboard! Make sure you patch the game up to the latest version (You will be 1.10. So get the 1.21 patch, then the 1.30 patch, then the 1.31 patch, I believe)

Also, when your internet speed is better, check out tyrspawns excellent video walkthroughs. See the sticky on the main forum here (Complete Walkthrough of the German NATO campaign). I try to use proper tactics and terminology, but tyrspawn has an excellent grasp of military science and doctrine, and explains it in his walkthroughs much better than I.

[c3k]

Patch?!? You're telling the man to PATCH?!? Pshaw. Ignore what he has said! Now that you've purchased CMSF, IMMEDIATELY purchase the next 3 add-on modules; Marines, British, and NATO. THEN buy the separate, stand-alone game based on the CMSF engine, CM:Afghanistan.

Once all those games are out of your shaky, sweaty hands, then patch, then play. DON'T WASTE TIME! BUY THEM NOW!!

Ken

[DaveDash]

Patch?!? You're telling the man to PATCH?!? Pshaw. Ignore what he has said! Now that you've purchased CMSF, IMMEDIATELY purchase the next 3 add-on modules; Marines, British, and NATO. THEN buy the separate, stand-alone game based on the CMSF engine, CM:Afghanistan.

Once all those games are out of your shaky, sweaty hands, then patch, then play. DON'T WASTE TIME! BUY THEM NOW!!

Ken

You're not secretly working for Battlefront are you? Or has Steve hacked into your account?

But no, I agree (He already has the USMC module). I'm waiting on fricken paypal to clear funds in order to get NATO. Its taking god damn forever!

[Crender]

I need your Milk Run AAR. I'm absolutely stuck fast. Made it to the gully on the right hand side of the map with good overwatch of red positions from the forward buildings. Brought down arty and CAS on all red positions I could see and thought I must have taken most of them out. But now trying to move armour or infantry in AAV's forward I get slaughtered by ATGM's and RPG's. Trying to send marines forward on foot & they get slaughtered by enemy mortars. Help!!!

[DaveDash]

It'll be uploaded tomorrow. It's a slow process doing all the audio, rendering, uploading ,etc

But in short, this is what I did:

1. AAVs stay back and don't take part in the battle. With all the RPGs and ATGM's they're a big easy target.

2. I spotted a lot of ATGMs with my sniper teams in the beginning, and took a few out. The rest I spotted with my tanks, by moving them into the open in pairs (frontal armour forward) and luring the ATGMs to shoot at me.

3. When Echo company arrives, I kept them there, until..

4. Fox (Golf?) Company arrives, send up both platoons to create supporting bases of fire, one up the middle the end of the trees near the bridge, that looks across into the valley.

5. Second Platoon from Fox Company goes all the way left, then up to the OP (Those buildings) way up the left flank on the hill. They suppress the hell out of everything on the back slope.

6. With smoke, advance the three platoons of Echo company across the open ground using the berms as cover. I -also- moved two M1A1s over there to advance on line with them. Each M1A1 moves in bounding over watch to support the other (I had by this point taken out most of the ATGMs). Keep watch on the valley to the left flank.

7. My SBF platoon from Fox company that went up the middle got absolutely shredded by artillery, so they were not much help. However, the ones that gained the hill on the left flank pretty much took care of most of the enemy on the back ridge. I also moved my other pair of M1A1's up through the trees on the right hand side of the road, to my shredded platoons position. They could see directly into the valley there (well one got immobilized) and drew a HELL of a lot of ATGM fire.

8. Using platoon bounding overwatch, with tanks in support, moved Echo company into the valley slowly and surely. Even though the terrain is EXTREMELY disadvantageous, you have enough firepower, with tanks, to suppress the hell out of everything,

9. Syrians surrendered after I cleared most of the ground area (and destroyed all their armour).

The Syrian artillery in this mission is a nightmare. First platoon from Fox company bore the majority of the attack, it really ripped them up. That meant however my main effort (Echo Company, attacking on the right flank) didn't gain much attention from the Syrian spotters.

This mission is designed so that EVERYTHING is against you. It's designed for you to take casualties. But anyway, I will have the AAR uploaded for you tomorrow (1:39am here, bed time soon).

Here is a crappy map to help illustrate the above. Red is movement of armour, Blue is infantry.

[Crender]

Many thanks for the advice. Going to give it a go now. If I still get bogged down will await your video. Get to bed .....you've a hard day ahead!!

[DaveDash]

Many thanks for the advice. Going to give it a go now. If I still get bogged down will await your video. Get to bed .....you've a hard day ahead!!

Hehe, right you are Sir!

Check out my edited post, I posted a crappy map to illustrate a little better what I did.

[Crender]

Great map! That helps....thanks. Re-starting the mission having run out of time to implement your suggested manouvres. I love this game, but sometimes I hate it. I spent hours on that mission and got no-where!

[tyrspawn]

I endorse this message.

[DaveDash]

USMC Campaign - Mission 06 - "Milk Run"

Link to playlist

First seven parts are up. I recorded these videos at a higher bitrate, and they take way longer to encode.

[DaveDash]

Ok, Milk Run is uploaded.

[Perforator]

That's great! Welcome aboard! Make sure you patch the game up to the latest version (You will be 1.10. So get the 1.21 patch, then the 1.30 patch, then the 1.31 patch, I believe).

Thanks for the tip, I'll download the patches soon as my internet connection is reset to high speed.

Also, when your internet speed is better, check out tyrspawns excellent video walkthroughs.

Looking forward to watching them. I'm loving all the information about military tactics that can be found on this forum.

[Perforator]

Now that you've purchased CMSF, IMMEDIATELY purchase the next 3 add-on modules; Marines, British, and NATO.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Santa will be bringing me the British and Nato modules as a Christmas gift.

[DaveDash]

Debauch to Disaster:

I recorded the first 10 or so minutes of this mission, then quit. I'm going to just reload and cease-fire straight away.

Reasons:

1. Out of the two tanks that I was given, one had no main gun ammunition left and was left with machine guns.

2. My one javelin team had no CLU

3. The vast majority of my mortars were empty, or close to empty. Lima battery was empty.

4. I couldn't do any recon, due to the enemy fire missions coming down in front of and on top of my lines.

5. And this is the reason this mission is completely BULL****, and the reason I quit. You start the game with enemy ATGMs and T-72s that have eyes on your assembly area. I lost two AAV's to T-72 fire right away, filled with Marines. I did not move them or even touch them. My other AAV's then panicked, by themselves, and drove into enemy fire.

I'm not exactly sure what the designer of this mission was thinking, especially after you have to fight your way through the Battle for Objective Pooh, Milk Run, and then this mission with zero resupply. I probably could have handled it, if it wasn't for the fact that the enemy AGAIN has eyes on your assembly area. Totally ruins the suspension of disbelief and any fun the mission may bring. In my opinion, from a realistic point of view, it's just better to preserve your already beat up forces and let the main body of the MEU deal with this objective.

I have actually done this mission in the past, but it involved cheesy bum rushing my CAAT team to draw fire, and then rushing all my AAVs up the very right edge of the map. A mission like this requires gamey tactics, but I'm not going to waste my time with it for my AAR. I'll upload the short clip anyway so you can see for yourself what this mission is all about. "Debouch to Disaster" indeed.