From Dawn to Setting Sun campaign

[Erwin]

How many battles are there in this? I played just three and was congratulated as the platoon was about to link up with the company, but the campaign then abruptly ended.

[Eagle2]

There are five missions in that particular campaign. I don't know what happened to your playthrough though. Did you take too many casualties?

[Erwin]

Only in the third did I take a few (attacking across a river to get to the road map edge).

But, the end screen congratulates me. It's confusing. I will try that scenario again and see if I can have fewer casualties.

[Erwin]

Well, I did the scenario again and the Syrians surrendered 15 mins before the end - almost all their units were panicked. I think I only took 4 or 5 casualties. But, it was a DRAW! Got the congrats screen and the campaign ended.

[bodkin]

I think that campaign has very tight casualty limits, and sometimes even though the enemy surrender you still lose if you don't have enough objective points which can be pretty frustrating.

[Erwin]

Ok, once more into the breach... <sigh>

[Eagle2]

If I remember correctly I also took a few casualties in that mission. Did you take any in the missions before? I know the casualty limit is high, but i don't remember it being that high.

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Hi Erwin,

There are five missions in the campaign. FtDtSS was compiled before we were able to mandate the level of victory for a campaign after each mission, so the campaign kicks you after a loss but if you've done well enough beforehand you still get a "victory" for the campaign. There's nothing I can do about it.

And yes, the casualty limits are very harsh at 10%. This is meant to reflect the modern US military's aversion to taking casualties, but it's also helpful (kind of) in that if you take substantially more than 10% you'll probably be screwed for the later missions since you don't get reinforcements.

Edited to clarify: it's 10% per mission, not 10% total. So technically you can take nearly 41% casualties for the campaign if you do the math, although 41% is not recommended!

[Erwin]

I got through scenario 5 and am glad you told me it was 5 missions as when it ended again I was wondering if I had taken too many casualties and been kicked out.

I really liked the campaign. It was like a series of advanced tutorials. It forced me to learn new tricks re keeping casualties low by having to invent/learn new techniques for assaulting buildings etc.

As entertainment it was probably too tough. (I normally HATE having to save and replay just to get through a game. But, as a learning experience that's fine.) Also, it was an anticlimax that it didn't end with a final scenario with the whole company.

Hope you consider adding such a final scenario, and/or making a slightly easier version (less stringent casualty parameters) as a training experience for newbies.

[Boche]

There is no better training comrades, than fighting to survive!

[Field Marshal Blücher]

Hmm. Interesting ideas, Erwin. If I get time (which is a big if right now) I may release a new version that makes it clearer that the campaign isn't finished prior to mission 5 and an easier one. I'm not sure I want to add another scen, as the whole point of the campaign was to play with a tiny force. I'll think about it, though! Thanks for the feedback!

[Erwin]

It was really nice to play a series of small scenarios. (Normally I only enjoy large scenarios.) It was a great re-learning experience to brush up my skills. But, it was a bit "dry" when one does not have much of a variety of units/support.

If you do a different verision or another small unit camapign, be nice to have a light mortar, Humvee etc just for something else to play with.

FYI: The two major things I learned;

1) Scen 3 - having to advance vs enemy located over 500m away... I don't recall ever having been faced with that without any support. I found out that (in CMSF at least) the Marines' handheld auto grenade launchers seem quite accurate at 500m+.

2) Scen 4 - assaulting a Warlord's base... Once inside the walls of the compound, I found that working my way through rooms of the manion like I always did in the past gets you killed. Instead I found that QUICK moving on the OUTSIDE of the walls to a point where your troops can just shoot into the next room worked repeatedly like a charm with no friendly casualties. (Of course it assumes a safe flank for those troopers - which in this case was the edge of the map.)