Road to Montebourg

[Paper Tiger]

Any recommended reading that covers the Road to Montebourg campaign?

I got a lot from this particular source.

http://www.history.army.mil/books/wwii/utah/utah.htm

I also read Keegan's 'Six Armies in Normandy'.

[umlaut]

There is a simple answer to your question, of course. When I first designed that mission, and wrote the briefing, the AT guns had full ammo loads. However, the 57mm AP shot was so lethal to the German infantry that it was possible to take out the entire German force just by positioning those two guns in good locations. Historically, the Germans had three vehicles in support so I had to keep the AT guns in but I decided to reduce the ammo loads to the bare minimum to give the Germans a chance. And, obviously, forgot to amend the briefing. Sometimes, when you're doing all this work yourself, things get past you

Ah, a perfectly logical explanation (I suspected something of the sort). Yes, a few errors are bound to sneak in when you´re making it all yourself.

Thanks for an otherwise nearly perfect campaign :-)

[Paper Tiger]

I've been thinking about updating this campaign making a few fixes to some missions and adding air support to one or two that originally had them.

Changes I'm considering based on feedback received so far:

Ecoqueneuville: Add air support

Les Licornets: Place a single hedghog on the main road to prevent the player from scooting up the cetre too quickly.

Add air support to this mission

Labrynth: Quite a few of you found this mission to be too easy because of your earlier success in 'Turnbull's Stand' I think I'll beef up the German OB with some fresh units and add a bit of time to the mission.

Hell in the Hedgerows: I might give the Germans a bit more clout, i.e. give them back their Nebelwerfers.

Eroudeville: Add a couple of JPz IVs to the German OB like I did for the H2H version.

One potentially controversial change I'm considering is making the majority of the 2/8 INF core units Green instead of Regular. That was my original intention and a lot of the early playtesting was done with Green US Army core units and it worked (and felt) just right. Please note that I am not touching the 2/505 or 2/325 units' experience.

Also, I would like to make sure that each mission has at least two AI plans. I think Eroudeville currently has one only.

If you guys have any suggestions, add them here quickly as I'd like to have this done quickly before I move on to something else. I'll try and go through this thread again quickly to see if there are any other issue with some of the missions.

[BLSTK]

To say I'm late to the party would be an understatement. Your 800 hours of creating this masterpiece was time well spent, judging from the feedback in this thread. The replayability of your scenarios means I will have spent just as many hours trying to "solve" your clever missions. They are nothing short of pure genius.

Thank you, Paper Tiger!

PS - can I have my life back now?

[Paper Tiger]

Late to the party? Just a tad. It's good to be reminded that folks really liked this one. This is my favourite campaign of the three I've done for CMBN and it was designed to be FUN to play. And yes, it's highly replayable. I've played it at least 5 times and I will play it again no doubt.

[mjkerner]

PT, is this reworked already, or are you still working on it? I don't recall seeing a Version 2, but then I haven't played any of the original CMBN campaigns.

[Hister]

There is a version 2. He said he will make a version 3 to but dunno if it's still gonna happen.

[mjkerner]

Thanks Hister.

[Hister]

You are welcome mjkerner.

[Hister]

Ups, wrong thread - reposting in proper one with updated (revised) campaign!

[ChappyCanuck]

I am currently playing this campaign and I am at "Holding Action"...I have completely lost track of which battle this is but I think am about 2/3 of the way through the 16 battles?  I have also played the Scottish Corridor campaign and enjoyed it immensely.  

With tons of bocage and 16 battles, this campaign can get a little repetitive (VERY minor point) but I am still having a lot of fun of course!  The German defenders are always in good locations, and withdraw usually at just the right time.  This campaign illustrates the huge importance of small mortars. MANY times my soldiers were held up by a small German MG team behind bocage, only to have them dislodged by my mortars.  Mortars are the key to this campaign....trust me

So far I have scored Major victories in all of the battles with the exception of one Total and one Tactical victory.  No draws or losses so far.  I am progressing well and taking minor casualties for each battle.  Hopefully I can make it to the end in good form.

Thanks very much, Paper Tiger.  Your campaigns are the best things in the CM world, IMO.

 

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Seven years & still going strong.....I recently started this one too.  The first mission is very intimidating, but it's also immensely satisfying, every tile gained without loss seems like a minor victory in itself.   

[ChappyCanuck]

Hey Sgt Squarehead.....there is another mission later on where you have to cross a swamp/stream that not only slows the boys down, but the ground is relatively flat and open...scary.  Mortars, mortars, mortars.  Good luck!  Paper Tiger makes the best campaigns and I am looking forward to the Nijmegen one when I am done this one.

[ChappyCanuck]

What else is fun is following the battles geographically on google maps.  Right from the start I could identify what section of bocage/fields and roads, etc are on the modern day map from a top down view because in most cases not much has changed in that area.  Paper Tiger does an excellent job of recreating what is actually on the ground.

[Hardradi]

Its an epic campaign. I learned the ropes playing it at Veteran level.

I used up a lot of my demo charges early on, learning how to use them. This made it a struggle as I always felt like I was funnelled into cunningly set up specific kill zones. Afterwards, it was a relief to get out of the hedgerow country into the more open fields of Italy. 

 

[ChappyCanuck]

DONE!

 

Wow, that was an experience!  I played this campaign on Iron level, and never suffered a defeat or a draw.  And I never cheated by reloading a previous game save. I have to say I am very satisfied with the result, especially considering who created it.

A huge thanks to Paper Tiger.  Brilliant. I can only imagine how much time was spent by him in this game creation, let alone adding the research time of this historical campaign to that!  Mind blowing.  

There were two battles of the sixteen that were more difficult for me than the others.  The first was the smallest of the battles (I forget the name) that involves the platoon using the aid of a Priest (not the Catholic type) to secure a building at a crossroads. I managed to win it but it came down to the very last turn...really.  And the second was the climax battle - Eroudeville.  That was so bloody that my Easy company was below effective combat capability.  It was mauled. The series of effective German arty and mortar strikes were quite amazing, accurate, and incessant. My Fox company did much, much better. Oh and I also lost two of the five Shermans. This battle ebbed and flowed so much that I wondered if I would be successful in the whole campaign. But the turning point occurred when I witnessed something I had never seen before: several  Stugs were hunkered down before a line of bocage.  My FOO called down a 107mm linear mortar strike on top of the Stugs, and within 30 seconds, two of the Stugs were toast. I have seen singular tanks destroyed by arty before, but never two at once. And that was the game changer.

If I may, I would like to add three key things that were instrumental in my campaign success to those who are interested in playing this fantastic campaign:

1.  Mortars!!!! - the 60mm mortar is huge. When the MG42 teams are hosing down your pixel troopers from behind thick bocage, the light mortar reigns supreme in bringing those enemy down...use them wisely and use them lots

2. Demo charges - sometimes you are given engineer resources who have demo charges, and sometimes you have paras who have inherent section demo charges. These can be game saving. They allow your troops to outflank key German defences that wouldn't normally be assailed because you can't get through the bocage.  There are precious few bocage "holes" to scoot through...precious few....so every demo charge is extremely important!

3. Patience - I have a difficult time with patience in CM battles. Sometimes impatience works for me and I gain an advantage; other times it leads to disaster. Believe me, there are more disasters in this campaign due to impatience than advantages.  Take your time.  Advance slowly...use a combination of section assault moves, or try splitting a section up into teams and move independently. Ensure you clear an area before moving on. Outflank. Use all of your time. If you have 1h30m for a battle - use it.  Slow and steady wins the race.

I have now completed this campaign and the Scottish Corridor campaign - both were fantastic.  I am looking forward to starting the Nijmegen campaign.

For Paper Tiger:  what other campaigns have you created and where do I find them?  Have you done a campaign from the German side?

Thanks, Paper Tiger,  for an amazing ride

 

 

[Combatintman]

Paper Tiger hasn't been around for over two years so I doubt you'll get an answer from him.

[Ts4EVER]

He also made the Road to Nijmegen and Scottish Corridor campaigns for the same game. I'm playing the Nijmegen one on my channel right now, btw.

[A Canadian Cat]

13 hours ago, ChappyCanuck said:

For Paper Tiger:  what other campaigns have you created and where do I find them?  Have you done a campaign from the German side?

You can sort campaigns and scenarios by author on my list here:

http://www.combatmission.lesliesoftware.com/BattleForNormandy/Campaigns/index.html

Once you are looking a the table just click on the title of the "Author" column to sort it. You will find that some entries do not have author information but most do. If anyone know who authored a campaign or scenario where that information is missing you can PM me and I can fix it. Just looking at this I notice that Paper Tiger is not listed as the author of the Scottish Corridor - oops...

[ChappyCanuck]

Thanks Ian....nice information there....well done!  Yes I see he is not listed there as the author of Scottish Corridor...but he is right?

[FlemFire]

Out of curiosity, what happens on Turnbull's stand if you succeed but don't inflict enough casualties? I destroyed all 3 vehicles, killed/wounded about 80 Germans and yet still did not get a checkmark for casualties inflicted. Will that affect future maps? It seemed to be that if you didn't cause enough damage you would lose anyway in the long term. Somewhat aggravating as blowing up 3 tanks and taking out 80 men is what I would considerable very considerable damage.