Quick overview video....looking forward to this one later in the year.
Sounds interesting. From what I can tell it sounds like individual battles (scenarios). I wonder if there is an actual campaign? If you could start in 1965 with the American intervention (or wherever the players interest is) and fight linked scenarios (campaign) this might be really cool.
I think a Vietnam campaign was created for the Operational Art of War but I've not got around to downloading and playing it. Maybe something I should do while keeping an eye on this one.
I found the below information on Matrix.
Campaign Series Vietnam introduces a wide variety of new units with special capabilities, such as helicopters, riverine units, tunnel rats, civilians, and supply units. New tactical realities include flight limitations, no-go zones, IEDs and hidden minefields, tunnels, and unconventional warfare.
The original version of the Campaign Series did include historical and dynamic campaigns, but I'm fuzzy about whether the new series has done so in its first game (set during the modern Israeli-Arab wars).
I think Groghead member Crossroads is a dev working on the series, so he should be around soon to provide details. :notworthy:
Would seem kind of silly if a game called "Campaign Series Vietnam" didn't ship with an actual campaign. If that is the case, perhaps the name should be changed to "Scenario Series Vietnam"?
I'm looking forward to this game as well. I do hope it comes with a campaign. What I really want is a digitized version of this but with an Ai not a Vassal mod.
https://www.gmtgames.com/p-911-vietnam-1965-1975-gmt-edition.aspx
(https://www.gmtgames.com/images/product/medium/911.jpg)
Until we rebuild the Campaign system (it is effectively broken at the moment), which is coming later, we will be offering "A Week In..." series of scenarios in lieu of the traditional campaigns.
"A Week In..." style of scenarios will have you commanding a brigade sized unit during a week, (350 turns - 7 days), where you will be given daily tasks that need to be completed.
For example, "A Week In The Mekong" focuses on the Riverine unit based at My Tho and might look something like this:
Day 1:
Welcome to My Tho
3rd/47th at My Tho
4th/47th at Riverine base
3rd/60th at Riverine base
Day 1 Missions:
3rd/60th Company x 1 advance towards Tan Hiep airfield, secures it for future helicopter operations, remaining at My Tho – will remain here overnight (Relieved Day 2 by elements 7th ARVN)
3rd/47th secures area directly north of riverine base – between canal, QL4, My Tho – ordered to return to base
4th/47th secures Tho Son island (south of base) – ordered to return to base
Day 2
3rd/47th at My Tho
4th/47th at Riverine base
3rd/60th at Riverine base
Day 2 Missions
3rd/60th Company x 1 returns to My Tho
3rd/60th remainder securing My Tho and Riverine Base (can rescue Company x 1)
Company x 1 with Engineers road clearing QL4 to Khiem Ich (Cai Lay – 40,75)
3rd/47th & 4th/47th sweep east "island" and town of Ap Tan Thuong – Returns to base after mission.
and so on.
I really like that idea.
Quote from: hellfish6 on May 21, 2021, 11:50:42 AM
I really like that idea.
Me too ( to coin a much misused phrase😉)
It gives the player great attachment to their command in such a mini campaign and increases immersion hugely.
What's broken?..... some issue with code? I was looking forward to the game
Yes, the Campaign code is broken at the moment, it will be fixed, just not in time for the CSVN 1.00 to be released.
Thanks Jason hope you get it working to your satisfaction
Yes, most definitely, it will be redone - since we have the opportunity to do so, to make it far more interesting.
There will still be ample content to play with CSVN 1.00 and, as always, it comes with the full suite of editors to make your own scenarios.
Little known fact: John Tiller did not code the campaign front-end (and scenario launcher, etc.) to the Campaign Series. John wrote the core game engine and editors. The campaign EXE was written by an unheralded, long forgotten Talonsoft programmer.
Quote from: Jason Petho on May 21, 2021, 10:33:41 AM
"A Week In..." style of scenarios will have you commanding a brigade sized unit during a week, (350 turns - 7 days), where you will be given daily tasks that need to be completed.
ACCEPTABLE!! :D :D :D :D :smitten:
Glad to hear you like the idea!
I'll make sure to make it fun and interesting!
I don't play the Middle East version much but this should be a good game
Quote from: JasonPratt on May 20, 2021, 12:56:50 PM
The original version of the Campaign Series did include historical and dynamic campaigns, but I'm fuzzy about whether the new series has done so in its first game (set during the modern Israeli-Arab wars).
I think Groghead member Crossroads is a dev working on the series, so he should be around soon to provide details. :notworthy:
That's correct, Jason, there are two different types of campaigns as you recall.
First, the
Linked Campaigns, which are manually created by the scenario designer. These consist of a select number of scenarios, and a certain pathway around them depending on your success, or failure, per each scenario completed in the campaign. Casualties carry over as well, so can't go all gung-ho there. Once we have the Lua based CS Event Engine available here as well, these should be a complete hoot.
Then, the
Dynamic Campaigns that are auto generated by the dynamic campaign generator. Here, the designer does not create any scenarios as such, but sets the paratemets as how it flows. Each one scenario is then generated within the campaign per the Dynamic Battle Generator engine you might recall from the John Tiller Campaign Series. I wrote a Developer Diary of how to create Dynamic Campaigns (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3643689) a few years back (A "few years?" In 2014! Yikes!). These are way cool as well.
Once the Dynamic Campaigns are migrated to latest standards, the individual
Dynamic Battle Generator for individual battles should be available as well. I wrote a Dev Diary on those (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3610165) way back then as well.
Alas, both need a fair bit of TLC yet before available. Thank you for your patience!
8)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.matrixgames.com%2Fforums%2Fupfiles%2F12395%2F828C17F8DBE14EA9AFB1399072560F48.jpg&hash=983fa3cce7cf0184e4104335be054e8b340026c6)
Project hand-off to Matrix Games at the end of October... Wish us luck!
Quote from: Crossroads on August 27, 2021, 12:19:28 PM
Project hand-off to Matrix Games at the end of October... Wish us luck!
Great, this is definitely on my list to purchase.
<:-)
Quote from: Crossroads on August 27, 2021, 12:19:28 PM
Project hand-off to Matrix Games at the end of October... Wish us luck!
Tell Paolo to give us press code!
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on August 27, 2021, 12:52:21 PM
Quote from: Crossroads on August 27, 2021, 12:19:28 PM
Project hand-off to Matrix Games at the end of October... Wish us luck!
Tell Paolo to give us press code!
O0
Exciting times, still plenty to do, but can almost smell the napalm in the morning now...
Most anticipated game for me.
Brilliant news.
Fingers crossed for you.
Good look Crossroads!
Thanks for your support guys! Little by little we can start posting more sneak peeks etc I am sure.
I too am looking forward to this. The linked scenario system sounds very interesting.
There is a lot more information and screenshots here. https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4661692
Day 1 buy for me. Most anticipated game in awhile.
Day. 1. Buy. For. Damn. Sure.
Thanks to any and all who've worked on that and given further life to the series.
+1 to the last few comments. Feels like I've been waiting ages on this one.
Want :D
Here's a little sneak peek of the game. As per the era covered, there'll be a good few French Indochina War scenarios in addition to early US involvement (and Vietnamese Civil War in between). I am mostly involved at the moment with programming CS Event Engine stuff to Indochina War scenarios by David Galster.
Here's a playtest turn 5 of 15 of Operation Tulipe, kicking of the Hoa Binh campaign (with two scenarios available, this one, and Operation Lotus). Things of note perhaps since CS: Middle East v2.0
- Recon is key as these battles are not on barren desert anymore. Note the two French recon patrols on left flank, reporting some(?) of the Viet Minh defensive positions out there. (Elevation info visible on hexes to get a better understanding of terrain)
- Airstrikes of old have been revamped with the new Close Air Support functionality. You can now choose the aircraft and their bomb load per mission. Note the new CAS marker. Using them liberally here
- The old Artillery fire mission targeting markers with Crosshairs are still there. Now you can properly soften the enemy positions. Note that especially for US and on villages and towns it will not be always that easy though.
- Toolbars have been revamped with new capabilities as well. As there's quite a few icons now, there's an option for an alternate style grouped toolbar, with only selected icons visible (Engineers, Air, Combat, ...)
This is obviously the 2D side of things, with the Zoom-in view and NATO symbols on chits (can be unit images as well). There's the 3D view still there as well.
Screenshot from my 3440:1440 monitor:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.matrixgames.com%2Fforums%2Fupfiles%2F32195%2F53BB10A68F84467FB4225BB1404586EF.jpg&hash=0f4140aac8473716ded53cfb0b9f15e927bdc5cb)
Looks magnificent and very refreshing to see less popular facets of the Indo China war being depicted.
Really looking forward to some pre release AAR's like you did for the CSME :)
No pressure..... ;)
^+1, looks slick.
Thanks guys. I am planning to write a couple of Dev diaries at some stage, one about how to add Lua files to scenarios, as that's where the CS Event Engine stuff interacting with the game engine resides. Lua files are not mandatory, one can build new scenarios with the full set of Editors just like previously, but events and other Lua code do add some neat capabilities there.
Any other particulars you guys would like to see?
To have a countdown towards Campaign Series: Vietnam 1948-1967 of a sorts, we're launching a series of Developer Diaries at our CSLegion.com site.
Here's the first one: Campaign Series Event Engine in Vietnam 1.0 - Triggering Events (https://cslegion.com/developer-diary/campaign-series-event-engine-in-vietnam-1-0-part-1/)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.matrixgames.com%2Fforums%2Fupfiles%2F32195%2F5583C19D8CE34E67A0CA0EA84B6EDA73.jpg&hash=ae2d1c4b17e04319e8bfe6f937cd5ff070040d6d)
Also, I've updated the FAQ section there, have a look (https://cslegion.com/about/faqs/).
There's a Weekly Digest email campaign put in place as well, do sign up if interested. Sign-up form is available at our site, or with direct access, here (https://cslegion.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=60e469fc24006d0cec709b183&id=bd297b087f).
:)
Quote from: Crossroads on September 25, 2021, 04:16:17 AM
To have a countdown towards Campaign Series: Vietnam 1948-1967 of a sorts, we're launching a series of Developer Diaries at our CSLegion.com site.
Here's the first one: Campaign Series Event Engine in Vietnam 1.0 - Triggering Events (https://cslegion.com/developer-diary/campaign-series-event-engine-in-vietnam-1-0-part-1/)
And here's the other blog series, covering the content available in Vietnam 1948-1967.
Part 1: French Indochina War in Vietnam 1.0 (directs to CSLegion.com). (https://cslegion.com/vietnam/the-french-indochina-war-in-vietnam-1-0/)It all starts rather innocently, with a Company sized jump to Giong Dinh:
(https://cslegion.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/ICW.jpg)
Your questions and comments welcome as always :)
Good stuff.
Can I assume the first scenario you highlighted is not one of the tutorial (boot camp) ones or am I wrong ?
I love the idea of being able to follow a campaign through in both French Indo China and Vietnam from the initial low level problems with small forces up to serious conflict as the **** hits the fan :)
Looking forward to seeing lots more on the run up to release.
Quote from: devoncop on October 02, 2021, 05:35:46 AM
Good stuff.
Can I assume the first scenario you highlighted is not one of the tutorial (boot camp) ones or am I wrong ?
I love the idea of being able to follow a campaign through in both French Indo China and Vietnam from the initial low level problems with small forces up to serious conflict as the **** hits the fan :)
Looking forward to seeing lots more on the run up to release.
Cheers Devoncop, no, the Bootcamp scenarios are clearly named thus. Great fun, too, as Jason's made them not only to show how the engine works but also a quite tough to get a result. Worth a replay, or several, evenm each of them.
Just to be clear about campaigns, these are each individual scenarios here. So a "campaign" would be playing through each of them individually. We need to upgrade the front end code to have the Linked Campaign engine brought up to par, that won't make 1.0 unfortunately. Available in a later UPDATE.
That said, Dien Bien Phu for instance is quite a meat grinder, the French really ended up in the middle of a hornet's nest there... :knuppel2:
Thanks for the clarification.
I was aware the true "campaign" features are still a work in progress for post release but working through the scenarios individually within the context of a major engagement like Dien Bien Phu is great too as it really let's the player grasp the increasingly desperate situation faced by the French on the ground.
I noticed my choice of words in that blog could be interpreted as the scenarios would be linked, "if your command survives" or something like that. I fixed that, just to be sure.
We got our release date assigned: January 20, 2022 it is! So missed the train before the Christmas period, but right after it. How neat!
<:-)
Sweet!
Straight in the diary :smitten:
Best of luck with the launch. O0
Thank you guys! I've meant to continue with the next CSEE blog, then another one covering the game content with Vietnamese Civil War scenarios next. At least a bit more time for those as well.
Otherwise we'll use the additional time available for further testing and polishing the game.
Quote from: Crossroads on September 25, 2021, 04:16:17 AM
To have a countdown towards Campaign Series: Vietnam 1948-1967 of a sorts, we're launching a series of Developer Diaries at our CSLegion.com site.
Here's the first one: Campaign Series Event Engine in Vietnam 1.0 - Triggering Events (https://cslegion.com/developer-diary/campaign-series-event-engine-in-vietnam-1-0-part-1/)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.matrixgames.com%2Fforums%2Fupfiles%2F32195%2F5583C19D8CE34E67A0CA0EA84B6EDA73.jpg&hash=ae2d1c4b17e04319e8bfe6f937cd5ff070040d6d)
Also, I've updated the FAQ section there, have a look (https://cslegion.com/about/faqs/).
There's a Weekly Digest email campaign put in place as well, do sign up if interested. Sign-up form is available at our site, or with direct access, here (https://cslegion.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=60e469fc24006d0cec709b183&id=bd297b087f).
And here's the next blog talking about CS Event Engine and the Lua APIs that come with it:
Accessing Adaptive AI. (https://cslegion.com/developer-diary/campaign-series-event-engine-in-vietnam-1-0-accessing-adaptive-ai/) (redirects to CSLegion.com)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.matrixgames.com%2Fforums%2Fupfiles%2F32195%2FB635D9F0826B45E89FBF215A486636F2.jpg&hash=d1f305790d2bc57cf067c61c66893e909fd28ab9)
In the blog, I try to describe how Adaptive AI, first time available with CS: Middle East 2.0, has been revamped and revised for CS: Vietnam 1.0. I guess in other words, how Adaptive AI 1.0 has evolved to Adaptive AI 2.0.
I don't know many games that provides the scenario designers and modders with pretty much full access to game CRT and other percentage rolls. Not for total control perhaps, as many die rolls contain so many parameters, but certainly with a means to nudge things to a certain direction. We're quite excited about this!
Any questions let us know and we'll try to answer them here :)
My question for you is, why does nothing happen when I throw my money at the screen? The game isn't appearing on my hard drive :(
Don't throw coins at the screen. Toss bills. Wads of them! Yeah, that might work. ;D
True. Coins might work with the Witcher series though <:-)
Campaign Series Vietnam 1948-1967 - First of three teaser videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABjFNvXQ7eY
JP....your link doesn't seem to work.
Weird, it doesn't like to be embedded. Fixed.
Campaign Series Vietnam Teaser 2/3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFutrtiENNM
Both links lead to the first video.
Fixed
Campaign Series Vietnam 1948-1967 Teaser 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mdBCQ-i4rM
Looks great! Cannot wait.
And finally, the full teaser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xnNscEs7RY
Here's the CSLegion.com blog post with links to all four videos as well:
This link redirects to CSLegion.com (https://cslegion.com/vietnam/campaign-series-vietnam-1948-1967-teaser-videos-are-now-out/)
Just finished my next article talking about CS: Vietnam scenario content (redirects to CSLegion.com):
- The Vietnamese Civil War in Vietnam 1.0 (https://cslegion.com/vietnam/the-vietnamese-civil-war-in-vietnam-1-0/)
There will be 25 scenarios covering this era between the French and US involvement, starting with these:
(https://cslegion.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/vietnamese_civil_war_1.jpg)
Just for something different, it is not all about the figting in the jungle. Here's the starting situation for not the Viet Cong but Binh Xuyen's private militia player in the Battle of Saigon, 1955.
(https://cslegion.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/assimiliation_battle_of_saigon.jpg)
Viet Cong? We'll get there :knuppel2:
Any questions, comments, what not, let us hear about them!
Although I find the early years of the Vietnam Conflict intriguing, I am personally much more interested in gaming the later half of the war from 1968 through 1972. I don't want to take any of the spotlight off of this title, which is certainly a must have, but can you shed some light on when we will see content starting with the Tet Offensive? I presume that this will be just a matter of designing the scenarios and building the OOBs, since the game system and UI work will already be completed? In short...how long do you think the wait will be?
Thanks!
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on December 05, 2021, 11:02:47 AM
Although I find the early years of the Vietnam Conflict intriguing, I am personally much more interested in gaming the later half of the war from 1968 through 1972. I don't want to take any of the spotlight off of this title, which is certainly a must have, but can you shed some light on when we will see content starting with the Tet Offensive? I presume that this will be just a matter of designing the scenarios and building the OOBs, since the game system and UI work will already be completed? In short...how long do you think the wait will be?
Thanks!
There's some 30 scenarios completed already for that time period for the CSEE Lua scripting to be done next, implementing the computer player's battle plans. I am not sure I've seen a target for how many scenarios exactly there should be for the release, but I reckon a good few more.
Then there's the plan for having CS Middle East 3.0 UPDATE out next, meaning those scenarios would be brought up to speed in having CSEE scripted to them as well, I'd take a wild guess by saying that we'd need at least a year and a half more?
Perhaps not the answer you were looking for, but we are a small team working on our free time on this...
24 days to final hand off and 39 days until release for CS Vietnam 1948-1967!
:smitten:
Stunning map detail. I love the specific named urban structures on this one. Makes for much more immersion and something a lot of other games could learn from.
^was just looking at those names myself!
If you like labels, here's Saigon!
This is from the master Warzone C and D map that includes most of III Corps area (note the jump map). This master map is included in the installation to create your own scenarios.
Quote from: Crossroads on November 08, 2021, 01:50:17 PM
Quote from: Crossroads on September 25, 2021, 04:16:17 AM
To have a countdown towards Campaign Series: Vietnam 1948-1967 of a sorts, we're launching a series of Developer Diaries at our CSLegion.com site.
Here's the first one: Campaign Series Event Engine in Vietnam 1.0 - Triggering Events (https://cslegion.com/developer-diary/campaign-series-event-engine-in-vietnam-1-0-part-1/)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.matrixgames.com%2Fforums%2Fupfiles%2F32195%2F5583C19D8CE34E67A0CA0EA84B6EDA73.jpg&hash=ae2d1c4b17e04319e8bfe6f937cd5ff070040d6d)
Also, I've updated the FAQ section there, have a look (https://cslegion.com/about/faqs/).
There's a Weekly Digest email campaign put in place as well, do sign up if interested. Sign-up form is available at our site, or with direct access, here (https://cslegion.us17.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=60e469fc24006d0cec709b183&id=bd297b087f).
And here's the next blog talking about CS Event Engine and the Lua APIs that come with it: Accessing Adaptive AI. (https://cslegion.com/developer-diary/campaign-series-event-engine-in-vietnam-1-0-accessing-adaptive-ai/) (redirects to CSLegion.com)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.matrixgames.com%2Fforums%2Fupfiles%2F32195%2FB635D9F0826B45E89FBF215A486636F2.jpg&hash=d1f305790d2bc57cf067c61c66893e909fd28ab9)
In the blog, I try to describe how Adaptive AI, first time available with CS: Middle East 2.0, has been revamped and revised for CS: Vietnam 1.0. I guess in other words, how Adaptive AI 1.0 has evolved to Adaptive AI 2.0.
I don't know many games that provides the scenario designers and modders with pretty much full access to game CRT and other percentage rolls. Not for total control perhaps, as many die rolls contain so many parameters, but certainly with a means to nudge things to a certain direction. We're quite excited about this!
Any questions let us know and we'll try to answer them here :)
Our final blog of a three part series discussing the Lua powered Campaign Series Event Engine is now out:
Campaign Series Event Engine in Vietnam 1.0: Scenario Design (https://cslegion.com/vietnam/campaign-series-event-engine-in-vietnam-1-0-scenario-design/) (redirects to our website CSLegion.com)
While I tried to cover how Event Engine brings a completely new toolkit to all scenario designers (remember, the game ships with full set of editors), I also try to explain how playing our new Vietnam game differs from previous Campaign Series games.
It should feel... different.
(https://cslegion.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/op_chopper_strength-1024x555.jpg)
Any questions we're happy to take them here :smiley6600:
Providing a Lua file with battle plans and how it is executed, events, mishaps, what not, was also one of the reasons it took us so long to have the game out. Programming and testing ca. 100 Lua files took a bit of an effort to complete.
Hopefully it will be worth it.
Also, we are still learning about this as well, sharing and comparing our Lua notes with each other, early days still. But certainly what we have soon out is not your regular linear battles of the old. Planting your flag, finally, on that paddy just might not cut it.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!
Here is a present for you all!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/koubi0k371cixrr/CSVN_Manual.pdf?dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/s/koubi0k371cixrr/CSVN_Manual.pdf?dl=0)
<:-)
Some quality Christmas reading their Jason.
Many thanks indeed.
You're most welcome!
Let me know if you find anything odd, there's still time to revise it before our final hand off.
Merry Christmas!
https://www.twitch.tv/campaignserieslegion/schedule?seriesID=5fb6374d-0955-4832-81bb-ada6770ab0d5 (https://www.twitch.tv/campaignserieslegion/schedule?seriesID=5fb6374d-0955-4832-81bb-ada6770ab0d5)
I'll be doing a live session tomorrow for a few hours. I'll be happy to answer any questions.
Quote from: Jason Petho on December 24, 2021, 02:09:21 PM
https://www.twitch.tv/campaignserieslegion/schedule?seriesID=5fb6374d-0955-4832-81bb-ada6770ab0d5 (https://www.twitch.tv/campaignserieslegion/schedule?seriesID=5fb6374d-0955-4832-81bb-ada6770ab0d5)
I'll be doing a live session tomorrow for a few hours. I'll be happy to answer any questions.
Great stuff.....any chance it will be put onto You Tube.....I cant watch it live so You Tube is always better for me ?
It won't be able to be on YouTube, those will be different videos.
BUT, you can still watch the live streams after the fact on Twitch.
Never having used Twitch I never realised that :idiot2:
Thanks Jason. O0
I did another live session tonight, this time it recorded.
Here is the link for YouTube :
About halfway through the You Tube presentation so far Jason, and you guys have really nailed the atmosphere of the Vietnam conflicts. I think that has struck me most along with the implementation of the new visibility rules.
I particularly love the scenario briefings and the necessity of reading them carefully to work out the objectives as a mission commander would have had to do ....rather than a simple " take the two starred VP hexes to win" that so many games are content with.
Aside from the early "Twitch glitch" :) your presentation was flawless and I look forward to more content including the boot camp tutorials .
Cheers
Thank you so much!
Certainly so much more to think about now with the Campaign Series.
Apologies about the "Twitch" issue... I tried to make fun of it with the cheesy music.. ha!
I did another live session, playing a couple scenarios by request, dealing with the French in Indochina
In other news, I started a new During Action Report on the AAR section, have a look: http://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=26154.msg702387#msg702387
My first PBEM battle against a human controlled US player. Wish me luck! That said, let us see if all the experience I gained from programming the Lua side for the French Indochina War scenarios by David Galster and then the Vietnamese Civil War scenario playtests taught me anythings.
Graduation, or death? :knuppel2:
Scenario played is the Battle of Landing Zone Albany, November 1965 :smitten:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Bruce_Crandall%27s_UH-1D.jpg)
Picture from Wiki Commons.
Looks like Hal Moore kneeling down?
The LZ Albany Battle followed by two days the earlier Battle of LZ XRay, showcased in the movie We Were Soldiers. At LZ Albany (not depicted in the movie, but covered in the book by the same name), Col. Moore and his 1st/7th Cavalry had already left the scene. (Spoiler Alert: At LZ Albany, the 2nd/7th Cavalry did not fare so well.)
Quote from: Crossroads on January 09, 2022, 12:40:14 PM
In other news, I started a new During Action Report on the AAR section, have a look: http://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=26154.msg702387#msg702387
My first PBEM battle against a human controlled US player. Wish me luck! That said, let us see if all the experience I gained from programming the Lua side for the French Indochina War scenarios by David Galster and then the Vietnamese Civil War scenario playtests taught me anythings.
Graduation, or death? :knuppel2:
Scenario played is the Battle of Landing Zone Albany, November 1965 :smitten:
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Bruce_Crandall%27s_UH-1D.jpg)
Picture from Wiki Commons.
"A Human Controlled US Player" That cut me to the quick Crossroads!
O0 Can't wait for this one!
Quote from: al_infierno on January 11, 2022, 01:07:46 AM
O0 Can't wait for this one!
Release of the year for me and the upcoming expansions just add to the appeal.
That picture above looks like Colonel Hal Moore especially the watch on
The left hand and profile.
Quote from: demjansk1942 on January 11, 2022, 05:58:57 AM
That picture above looks like Colonel Hal Moore especially the watch on
The left hand and profile.
The US Army does not credit that photo as picturing Hal Moore. The official caption states that it is Maj Bruce P. Crandall's UH-1D discharging infantry on a search and destroy operation.
Quote from: Big Ivan on January 10, 2022, 10:33:25 PM
"A Human Controlled US Player" That cut me to the quick Crossroads!
Ha. Everyone knows your wife approves all your moves, right?
Are we still on for a January 20th release of the game? Apologize if I missed that confirmation somwhere.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on January 11, 2022, 09:05:56 AM
Are we still on for a January 20th release of the game? Apologize if I missed that confirmation somwhere.
Apparently so :bd: This literally just in: https://twitter.com/Matrix_Wargames/status/1480904979699445763
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FI07OTsXwAICF2O?format=jpg&name=small)
woo hoo at last!
Great news!
Yessing YESSSS!!! :notworthy:
Thanks, Grogs! :hug:
I just finished the set of articles that I set out to write a couple of months ago - in September, actually, yikes! - with a blog post about the actual Vietnam War scenarios covered in the game.
Here's the link: The Vietnam War in CS: Vietnam 1.0 (https://cslegion.com/developer-diary/the-vietnam-war-in-cs-vietnam-1-0/)(redirects to CSLegion.com)
It starts with Operation STARLITE, which Jason is also live-playing at our Twitch Channel.
(https://cslegion.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/cslegion_vw_starlite_maptips-980x616.jpg)
Then there's the battle of Long Tan, depicted in the recent Danger Close movie from 2019, and finally a few words about the Khe Sanh hill fight scenarios, prelude to better known battle of Khe Sanh of 1968, included in the coming DLC for the game.
Any questions, comments, do give a shout.! Apologies for all the typos there, it's been a hectic past few days.
... Only a few days until the game comes out. It has been a long road here, quite incredible to see this happening, finally! Thank you everyone for your patience :notworthy: , little did we anticipate it would take us this long to arrive to here where we are now.
... forgot to mention Jason's continuing the live-playing of Operation STARLITE at our Twitch channel at 11am PST. See you there!
https://www.twitch.tv/campaignserieslegion/schedule
Edit: Oops, sorry, it is Ap Bac 1963 today!
Been playing around with the press code and I must say, it is like seeing an old friend who is aging gracefully. Look forward to some AAR action once I finish the Boot Camp scenarios.
:smitten:
Cool!
Feel free to ask any questions! I'm always happy to help!
Quote from: MikeGER on August 28, 2021, 05:59:37 AM
Want :D
when is the aporox. release time on Thursday ? :bd:
(if the release is technically handled by Slitherine it should show up in their store in the morning, UK time
a generic Steam release would be 6pm UK)
^^ and is there a preload ;)
na, i am just jocking,
(even so the mastermaps i had a glimpse on seem to cover almost whole! Indochina in a 250m hex grid pattern, its a New York minute download :) )
I didn't realize that another game will come out from 1967-1975. This is going to be a completely stand alone game?
Quote from: demjansk1942 on January 18, 2022, 05:29:44 AM
I didn't realize that another game will come out from 1967-1975. This is going to be a completely stand alone game?
They have said their on the You Tube Channel of one of the playthroughs there will be DLC's following on from this game : "
Yes indeed. There will be DLC's to cover post 1968, the fighting in Laos, Cambodia, and the Korean War."
1) 1967-72....the Final US War Years
2) 1972-75... The End Game
3) The Laos Civil War
4) The Cambodian Civil War
5) The Cambodian v Vietnamese War
6) The Korean War
Quote from: devoncop on January 18, 2022, 06:54:04 AM
Quote from: demjansk1942 on January 18, 2022, 05:29:44 AM
I didn't realize that another game will come out from 1967-1975. This is going to be a completely stand alone game?
They have said their on the You Tube Channel of one of the playthroughs there will be DLC's following on from this game : "Yes indeed. There will be DLC's to cover post 1968, the fighting in Laos, Cambodia, and the Korean War."
1) 1967-72....the Final US War Years
2) 1972-75... The End Game
3) The Laos Civil War
4) The Cambodian Civil War
5) The Cambodian v Vietnamese War
6) The Korean War
My interest (already high) has increased even more.
I'm in love with this one. I just completed the third boot camp scenario, which introduces air assault and helicopter operations. I kicked so much ass with the air cavalry in the mountains around Dak To. The aging system has its problems, which I will address at the proper time, but this team has done a fantastic job of making an extremely comprehensive and thoughtful wargame covering this exciting period of conflict. It's as if they were aware of the limitations of the system and took every effort to make the best possible game around them.
I'm very pleased so far and look forward to digging in deeper.
Air Assault!
Thank you for the kind words, thank you!!
I'm glad you're enjoying it!
I'm curious to hear what we can do to improve!
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 18, 2022, 04:37:30 PM
I'm in love with this one. I just completed the third boot camp scenario, which introduces air assault and helicopter operations. I kicked so much ass with the air cavalry in the mountains around Dak To. The aging system has its problems, which I will address at the proper time, but this team has done a fantastic job of making an extremely comprehensive and thoughtful wargame covering this exciting period of conflict. It's as if they were aware of the limitations of the system and took every effort to make the best possible game around them.
I'm very pleased so far and look forward to digging in deeper.
Air Assault!
Sounds good...looking forward to release in couple of days, certainly day one purchase for me.
I bought Middle East, looking at this one, still in the 40 ballpark?
Quote from: demjansk1942 on January 18, 2022, 06:40:43 PM
I bought Middle East, looking at this one, still in the 40 ballpark?
They likely won't say until release day per usual Matrix methods....but if I am a betting person, I suspect $39.99. Guess we will see in two days.
Hey Jason...is there a bug in the 4th Tutorial "Hearts and Minds"? There don't seem to be any labels on the map and toggling the label button does not seem to have any effect. It makes it impossible to locate the Phase 1 village objectives.
Thanks.
Wait, let me check! How bizarre!
Alas, yes, they have been deleted for some bizarre reason. I am attaching the modified map here for you.
Fortunately, the bootcamps use all the same maps, so I just had to resave one of the other maps with the proper name. See the post above for the file.
Awesome! Thanks!
Definitely some other irregularities with this scenario. Is there someplace I can report suspected bugs (other than here), that you would prefer?
You could email me, if you wish, jasonpetho at hotmail dot com
Quote from: Jason Petho on January 19, 2022, 05:16:33 PM
You could email me, if you wish, jasonpetho at hotmail dot com
Thanks, done.
Responded!
Out now...39.99....bought and downloading.
Busy day for releases:)
I also bought been waiting for this forever.....
Bought and downloaded without a hitch.
Damn that intro video is good :)
Quote from: devoncop on January 20, 2022, 11:07:05 AM
Bought and downloaded without a hitch.
Damn that intro video is good :)
Although good, I hope a way to skip after first run through since long:) I am guessing there is....
Thank you so much!!
You might want to grab this: https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=5131062 (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=5131062)
Yes, you can stop the intro video by simply moving the "novideo.txt" file from the Videos folder to the main folder.
You can also stop the intro music by moving the "nomusic.txt" from the Sounds folder to the main folder.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on January 20, 2022, 10:34:39 AM
Out now...39.99....bought and downloading.
Busy day for releases:)
Quote from: Blucher on January 20, 2022, 10:52:04 AM
I also bought been waiting for this forever.....
Quote from: devoncop on January 20, 2022, 11:07:05 AM
Bought and downloaded without a hitch.
Damn that intro video is good :)
Thank you, appreciate your support! Long time coming, also at this end of the desk :buck2:
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on January 20, 2022, 11:09:18 AM
Quote from: devoncop on January 20, 2022, 11:07:05 AM
Bought and downloaded without a hitch.
Damn that intro video is good :)
Although good, I hope a way to skip after first run through since long:) I am guessing there is....
You can also abort the video showing by: In the WMPlayer window, click on the 'X' in the upper right corner. But yeah, copy/pasting Videos/novideo.txt into the main folder is the best long-term solution.
I got it as well
Been a long time since I played a Campaign game - even longer since I did PBEM.
Anyone interested in doing a smallish PBEM scenario in Vietnam? I think (fingers crossed) that I can commit to one turn a night
Thanks
Con
Quote from: berto on January 20, 2022, 12:20:36 PM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on January 20, 2022, 11:09:18 AM
Quote from: devoncop on January 20, 2022, 11:07:05 AM
Bought and downloaded without a hitch.
Damn that intro video is good :)
Although good, I hope a way to skip after first run through since long:) I am guessing there is....
You can also abort the video showing by: In the WMPlayer window, click on the 'X' in the upper right corner. But yeah, copy/pasting Videos/novideo.txt into the main folder is the best long-term solution.
Great, thanks for the tip...will give that a try later
Quote from: Con on January 20, 2022, 12:21:40 PM
I got it as well
Been a long time since I played a Campaign game - even longer since I did PBEM.
Anyone interested in doing a smallish PBEM scenario in Vietnam? I think (fingers crossed) that I can commit to one turn a night
Thanks
Con
Hi Con
I am by no means a veteran Campaign Series player and you may have to guide me a bit through the PBEM procedure with file transfers as I am used to the Slitherine/Matrix PBEM++ system which is idiot proof :)
With that caveat, as I am retired I can play at the speed that suits you.
If interested feel free to email me at devoncop@aol.com.
Happy to play either side.
Cheers
Ian
Day one purchase for me as well!
Quote from: Tripoli on January 20, 2022, 03:24:14 PM
I just pulled the trigger on it as well.
Thank you for your support, @Tripoli :)
I will say the cries of German Sanitater as I wound the Viet Cong brings back a rush of nostalgia for when I sunk countless hours into Talonsoft Eastern Front game.
That being said it does jolt you a bit out of the immersive jungle combat with Fortunate son blaring in the background feel
Perhaps French Aux-San would work better? At least it would reinforce the French colonial aspect.
You can stop the video from playing by moving the "novideo.txt" file from the Videos folder to the main folder.
You can stop the music from playing by moving the "nomusic.txt" file from the Sounds folder to the main folder.
You can also turn off the background music or other sounds if you wish under the Options - Sounds menu.
Here's an ages old dev diary I did about modding music files in Campaign Series games (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/fb.asp?m=3736911). So with your favourite tunes in hand, convert them to ogg format, and load into the game!
While I want the devs to keep up the good work...hopefully somebody is starting work on a new engine.
It would be a bummer if we go into the middle of the 21st century with a 20th century game engine.
Picked it up. Not sure why as I probably won't get much chance to play it for awhile but I have been looking forward to it for a long while.
Thank you so much for your support, it is truly appreciated!
Quote from: ArizonaTank on January 20, 2022, 06:12:01 PM
While I want the devs to keep up the good work...hopefully somebody is starting work on a new engine.
It would be a bummer if we go into the middle of the 21st century with a 20th century game engine.
Cheers @Arizona Tank, do you mean the presentation layer of the game? If I may rephrase this a bit:
What we did with CS Middle East is we took our time bringing the Game ("rules") engine from World War 2 to Modern Wars (up to 1985) level. New weapons systems, new capabilities, etc. This work with Game engine (as I defined it here) continued with CS Vietnam, in particular with how different the Vietnam battleground was with vasts Jungles. Concealment, tactics, it took a while.
Then, the Lua based Event Engine was upgraded to what it is now, with over 800 function apis each scenario can call as it is being played. That took a good time to implement as well.
Now, with Game and Event engines in good shape, yes, we have plans for upgrading our Graphics engine as well, there's no date on that yet though.
Hint for Grogs with old eyes
to (re)familiarise myself with CS I had played some CS Middle East the last days before the release.
now when I start Vietnam the unit window seemed to be smaller, readable, but out of my comfort zone.
(i like to trade in some sharpness for size)
I use a general windows setting of 125%, but Vietnam doesn't scale up.
the solution is find the Vietnam.exe and in its application setting tick-on High DPI scaling override and change it to "System"
Now where I have my usual look and feel I can start diggin into it :)
(https://share-your-photo.com/img/45bccaea31.jpg)
a screenshot playing with 125% ...it look sharper on my screen then processed by the image hoster
Quote from: MikeGER on January 21, 2022, 06:45:02 AM
I use a general windows setting of 125%, but Vietnam doesn't scale up.
the solution is find the Vietnam.exe and in its application setting tick-on High DPI scaling override and change it to "System"
Oh, excellent, thanks for the tip!
Edit: this here, right?
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=25604.0;attach=16843;image)
The size of the text is my biggest issue right now, my old eyes are struggling on 4K monitor. I know I can change scaling and screen resolution, but that is a pain to change before and after playing a game. I tried the dpi settings and really didn't make any difference for me. I also tried a third party auto scale program that I have used with other games that has this issue, but this game doesn't work with it for some reason.
Going to continue try playing it, but if there is ever the ability to scale the font within the game, that would be my number one request:} Also at times the game can feel a little sluggish loading and such, but I can be more patient with that stuff.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on January 21, 2022, 07:14:58 AM
The size of the text is my biggest issue right now, my old eyes are struggling on 4K monitor. I know I can change scaling and screen resolution, but that is a pain to change before and after playing a game. I tried the dpi settings and really didn't make any difference for me. I also tried a third party auto scale program that I have used with other games that has this issue, but this game doesn't work with it for some reason.
Going to continue try playing it, but if there is ever the ability to scale the font within the game, that would be my number one request:} Also at times the game can feel a little sluggish loading and such, but I can be more patient with that stuff.
Duly noted.
For now, Desktop scaling (with the possible DPI overrides) would be how the font size (and everything else, of course) appears larger on hi res monitors.
Quote from: Crossroads on January 21, 2022, 07:27:06 AM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on January 21, 2022, 07:14:58 AM
The size of the text is my biggest issue right now, my old eyes are struggling on 4K monitor. I know I can change scaling and screen resolution, but that is a pain to change before and after playing a game. I tried the dpi settings and really didn't make any difference for me. I also tried a third party auto scale program that I have used with other games that has this issue, but this game doesn't work with it for some reason.
Going to continue try playing it, but if there is ever the ability to scale the font within the game, that would be my number one request:} Also at times the game can feel a little sluggish loading and such, but I can be more patient with that stuff.
Duly noted.
For now, Desktop scaling (with the possible DPI overrides) would be how the font size (and everything else, of course) appears larger on hi res monitors.
Right, but having to change it to play one game, just extra steps that when I am lazy, I just move on:)
Another potential future option instead of auto scale fonts, would be if the game had an in-game setting to set the resolution/scaling. That way the game would handle it versus being manual. That is what my third party program did, basically changed the resolution automatically when starting the game and then auto reverted back to previous settings upon exit. If that other program would work with this, then I would be all set. Not sure what is different about this game where it doesn't work as it has worked with all my other older games. But that is ok, I like the gameplay, just need to figure out how to make it work for me.
Those are valid issues you are pointing out. From dev team's point of view, or at least from my point of view, I find it a bit strange Microsoft keeps punting the ball at us developers for such basic OS level issues like font scaling for one. Font scaling option in Windows settings has remained a bit of a mystery for me as where it works and where not. I see no effect say in Microsoft Office apps? What?
Or scaling in general. I am on Windows 11 now and for instance for the first time I took advantage of multiple desktops, I have one for regular use what ever that is, another for gaming, and a third desktop for work, with all the hours I am working remotely nowadays.
Why would multiple desktops then solve the issues you are observing. With 4K monitors now in mainstream, 8K monitors around the corner who knows, why aren't such simple things such as scaling per app solved better. Why can't I launch Campaign Series at 125% scaling?
Instead, I need to set the Desktop scaling in general to that, as you said as well. And when I do that, it is not only my gaming desktop that scales, but my home and work desktops too.
We are diligently keeping up with latest version of Visual Studio, all good, that's what we are supposed to do. And all said, Desktop scaling works quite nicely in itself. But it has done so for a few years, now. One'd expect it to become much more versatile and dynamic, instead of the blunt tool it currently is.
Quote from: Crossroads on January 21, 2022, 07:01:30 AM
Edit: this here, right?
yes :)
i have another personal comfy improvment question:
Is there a file somewhere that i can edit (with a text editor) to change a few hotkey bindings?
instead of the arrow keys i would like to use WASD and so had to change some bindings
Quote from: MikeGER on January 21, 2022, 11:29:40 AM
i have another personal comfy improvment question:
Is there a file somewhere that i can edit (with a text editor) to change a few hotkey bindings?
instead of the arrow keys i would like to use WASD and so had to change some bindings
Sorry, no. They are what they are.
Quote from: Crossroads on January 21, 2022, 12:09:12 PM
Sorry, no. They are what they are.
no problem :)
thanks for the ultra fast response :bd:
Quote from: MikeGER on January 21, 2022, 12:16:14 PM
thanks for the ultra fast response :bd:
You are welcome! It is Friday evening, I don't have a life, so of course I am here by my computer :nerd:
I really love the fog of war in this. Its outstanding Viet Cong dissapear into the jungle its great.
Quote from: Blucher on January 21, 2022, 12:23:40 PM
I really love the fog of war in this. Its outstanding Viet Cong dissapear into the jungle its great.
It is part of what makes this game special.
Really atmospheric game to play.
Thanks guys, also why it took us the time it took to deliver the game. So many basic features such as Concealment factors and modifiers were totally revamped, in addition to making them part of Adaptive AI data, so can be tuned at per-scenario basis.
Quote from: MikeGER on January 21, 2022, 11:29:40 AM
Quote from: Crossroads on January 21, 2022, 07:01:30 AM
Edit: this here, right?
yes :)
i have another personal comfy improvment question:
Is there a file somewhere that i can edit (with a text editor) to change a few hotkey bindings?
instead of the arrow keys i would like to use WASD and so had to change some bindings
You could use Autohotkey for this (https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/misc/Remap.htm - https://www.autohotkey.com/docs/KeyList.htm).
I need this sometimes as I live in one of the few countries who uses Azerty keyboards, but is also useful in many other cases.
Quote from: Crossroads on January 21, 2022, 01:14:01 AM
Quote from: ArizonaTank on January 20, 2022, 06:12:01 PM
While I want the devs to keep up the good work...hopefully somebody is starting work on a new engine.
It would be a bummer if we go into the middle of the 21st century with a 20th century game engine.
Cheers @Arizona Tank, do you mean the presentation layer of the game? If I may rephrase this a bit:
What we did with CS Middle East is we took our time bringing the Game ("rules") engine from World War 2 to Modern Wars (up to 1985) level. New weapons systems, new capabilities, etc. This work with Game engine (as I defined it here) continued with CS Vietnam, in particular with how different the Vietnam battleground was with vasts Jungles. Concealment, tactics, it took a while.
Then, the Lua based Event Engine was upgraded to what it is now, with over 800 function apis each scenario can call as it is being played. That took a good time to implement as well.
Now, with Game and Event engines in good shape, yes, we have plans for upgrading our Graphics engine as well, there's no date on that yet though.
I don't want to throw the thread off the tracks...so I'll just say this:
Ultimately, an upgrade graphically won't really get there IMHO.
Right now it seems like all of the JTS family of games are locked into a very old fashioned UI flow that was good 25 years ago...but has fallen far behind these days (IMHO); basically using the same UI framework for everything.
I guess my word, "game engine" doesn't really capture what I mean. Maybe what is closer to what I mean is the "look, feel and ease of use" of the game.
For examples of what I mean look at "War in the East 2." It is arguably more complex than most JTS based games...but the interface is a great tool, not a chore. Another example would be "Lock'n Load Tactical Digital" that has a wonderful UI flow. I'd also give honorable mention to the "Decisive Campaigns" series.
And while I am dreaming about UI, it might also be wonderful to someday have a 3d map....I might say that is a leap...but then there is "Grand Tactician: The Civil War" that is getting very close to Nirvanna.
Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to say the games you guys are putting out are not great... They are great, and I have all of them. You guys are clearly working wonders with the tools you have...but I am just trying to make a humble suggestion.
Quoteit might also be wonderful to someday have a 3d map
Alas, yes, that is a lovely dream to have indeed. The problem with that, from a scenario design perspective, is a couple of things. 1. Game Scale. The scale that we're creating the game at is platoon level. The action that you'd be seeing would be too small to be useful. 2. That would put a stop to any of the big scenarios that we like to build due to the limitations of the hardware that most people have. Our maps are HUGE, 3D in these type of games tend to be limited in size due to a variety of hardware limitations. Would be nice to have? Absolutely. Realistic? No, unfortunately.
Quotethe interface is a great tool, not a chore.
How would you suggest improving the interface? What is wrong specifically with the current interface that is complicated to use? I'm genuinely curious.
Thank you for your feedback and support!
Quote from: Jason Petho on January 21, 2022, 05:20:33 PM
Quotethe interface is a great tool, not a chore.
How would you suggest improving the interface? What is wrong specifically with the current interface that is complicated to use? I'm genuinely curious.
Thank you for your feedback and support!
I wasn't asked, but I'll echo the sentiment. One of my few complaints with CSVN is the UI, and I realize this has nothing to do with the team, but the underlying engine of the game.
It is little things like having to change from movement to fire mode...the way units need to be selected or unselected in stacks...some of the colors make it difficult to perceive which units are actively selected...having to hit F2 and go to the unit handbook to see the organization of a particular unit (this is something that should be in the unit sidebar)...the frustrating Windows "ding!" sound that goes off every time you try to do something that the UI doesn't want to let you do...
So, it's a bunch of little things that add up to make the UI feel very archaic and antiquated. I do think it holds the game from having a little bit of a broader appeal. Of course, nothing that is going to hold any of us Grogs back!
Thank you!! That's the kind of feedback that helps us sort out how to "modernize" the UI!
It's in the details... thank you for sharing the details!
This one has me scratching my head...
Its the 1948 Battle for Giong Dinh pitting a French airborne force supported by Foreign Legionnaires against a fairly heavily defended Viet Minh HQ force entrenched in the village. I made steady progress, took all objectives in the village with relatively light casualties and held village points for long enough to earn three event based point awards. It appears the majority of the enemy force was wiped out too...so, how in the heck was this a minor defeat for the French? What is the arbitrary objective that I failed to achieve? Is it that I did not find and destroy the weapon and supply caches? The briefing did not make it sound like this was a primary objective, the failure of which would result in a defeat, even in the face of successful occupation of all map objectives.
(https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/272547439_10209359184612776_4408928351224298611_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=715IWRNo-70AX8JOmFX&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&oh=00_AT9VnnAZuhaK17r5oxvnQeuTHXml-_68ID9kXFQrHY9scQ&oe=61F02EBE)
Ah yes... that is one that is about subtly in the scenario briefing. I've tried to explain that not everything will be spelled out for you in detail. There is an additional mission of probing outside of the village areas to hunt down supplies and the headquarters that is around the area.
That is where you will gain the victory by holding the objectives, killing the VC, but also going out to find the supplies and headquarters and destroying them.
If you just sit in the village area where the objectives are, you won't win.
I'll update the mission briefing to emphasize the importance of that part of the mission.
I'll include it in 1.01
Quote"MISSION:\n" ..
"\n" ..
"Your primary mission is to secure the village of Giong Dinh.\n" ..
"\n" ..
"Clearing the village of all Viet Minh forces and be on the lookout for any supplies as a secondary mission. If they are found, they should be destroyed. Expands your area of operations to search out these caches.\n" ..
"\n" ..
That should help clarify the missions. That was on one of the first scripts and briefings I wrote, so hadn't got the hang of ensuring all the details were there, but not too obvious.
Hope that helps.
Quote from: Jason Petho on January 21, 2022, 11:41:45 PM
Ah yes... that is one that is about subtly in the scenario briefing. I've tried to explain that not everything will be spelled out for you in detail. There is an additional mission of probing outside of the village areas to hunt down supplies and the headquarters that is around the area.
That is where you will gain the victory by holding the objectives, killing the VC, but also going out to find the supplies and headquarters and destroying them.
If you just sit in the village area where the objectives are, you won't win.
I understand that some ambiguity involving the objectives, strength, location, etc. of the enemy and perhaps other matters (ie. civilian presence) makes a lot of sense, particularly with respect to this conflict, but I don't think that ambiguity should carry over to the player's own objectives or their importance for spelling the difference between victory and defeat. This needs to be spelled out clearly. I also think where there are primary and secondary objectives, the point allocation needs to be adjusted to achieve an outcome that makes sense. For instance, since clearing the village and holding it is the primary mission, shouldn't accomplishing this result in at least a draw or minor victory, while also achieving the secondary mission will result in the major victory? If not, there should be an indication that command will not consider the mission a success unless...
In any event, the disappointing end result did not impact the enjoyment I had playing through the scenario. It was a real nail biter. Jumping into a rice paddy and advancing to contact in the vill. Great stuff.
One other point I'd like to make...I wish there was more visual material in the game. Like photos of units and vehicles in the unit handbook or photographic or artistic unit cards on the sidebar. Sort of like what you see in the other Tiller titles.
I agree JH.
It's a great scenario. I am 12 turns in out of the 20 and took the village from the two ends with the French paras and thought all was going well until I read your post ! Now I have 8 turns to get out into the VC infested paddies again and try and track down some supplies and the HQ....my boys wont be happy. :)
Thanks for posting as it saves me feeling the same way as you in 8 turns time :)
Edit : Thanks to the tip I JUST managed a major victory...exactly 600 points which was the minimum for a major on the last turn. Managed to take out the HQ,some supplies and some river craft....It is a fine scenario.
I haven't gotten deep into the game as I continue to try and find the best way to handle the small text and resolution. But if this is true that the player doesn't receive clear mission objectives and it includes guessing or puzzle guessing to figure out, not sure I am going to enjoy it. Agree with jh that having some of it for the enemy is fine, but why wouldn't the player know what they were tasked to do? Possibly a design decision that will backfire as may result in a lot of frustrated players, including myself. I have hard enough time winning at these games, last thing I need is to guess what even my orders are:)
I would say it is absolutely vital to read the SMEAC very carefully and the dynamic missions you are sometimes tasked with during the scenario. At Geong Dinh for example the SMEAC explicitly talks of the need to find and destroy the VC HQ
In the vicinity of the village that has been recruiting in the area as well as supplies. The VP's may be in the village but just taking them would just snip the head off the weed rather than destroying the root :)
There is a big difference where you used to just look for the VP flags and capture them regardless of the other wider considerations. I like to think of the missions as being given by superior commanders who will lay out your priorities and you have to achieve as many as you can.
I appreciate some may have problems with this less black and white approach but most feedback has been very positive so far.
Quote from: devoncop on January 22, 2022, 06:10:22 AM
I would say it is absolutely vital to read the SMEAC very carefully and the dynamic missions you are sometimes tasked with
Well, even that is part of my problem with the text and such not the easiest to read with old eyes and larger monitors, without having to manually adjust the screen resolution/scaling before each game:)
Haven't gotten far enough to determine how big of a deal it will be for me, but if the orders aren't clear enough to know your objectives, I do think I will be frustrated by that as I think my orders/tasks should be clear. I guess we will see.
I can certainly appreciate it would be frustrating not to be able to read the text clearly so I can feel your pain, I am lucky not to have that issue..
Like you say, the only way to see if the occasional ambiguities in missions spoil it for you is to give a few a go. I suspect it will be much less of a problem than you think.
Of course you can always ignore the " official" victory scores and decide yourself what you would consider a win and just aim for that 🙂
This is something we actually focused a lot on our play testing: do the instructions, while maybe not always absolutely clear on all details, at least have enough there that one can pick up the intel from there to successfully finish the scenario.
Some of it sort of becomes second nature after having survived in the jungle for a while: spot an enemy HQ consider it a priority target, look for supply caches, if there's a tunnel send a tunnel rat there, or at least if you have engineers blow it up, and so on.
We understand there is a fine line between challenging and frustrating, this was a challenging theatre of war. There was also not many previous examples in gaming as how to do this, so we are learning as we walk as well.
On my own behalf I can only attest that when we've succeeded in setting the balance properly it can be so immersive. And if not, it can turn towards frustration.
Thank you for you feedback as always. This is a living game, we are listening!
Quote from: Crossroads on January 22, 2022, 07:21:33 AM
This is something we actually focused a lot on our play testing: do the instructions, while maybe not always absolutely clear on all details, at least have enough there that one can pick up the intel from there to successfully finish the scenario.
Some of it sort of becomes second nature after having survived in the jungle for a while: spot an enemy HQ consider it a priority target, look for supply caches, if there's a tunnel send a tunnel rat there, or at least if you have engineers blow it up, and so on.
We understand there is a fine line between challenging and frustrating, this was a challenging theatre of war. There was also not many previous examples in gaming as how to do this, so we are learning as we walk as well.
On my own behalf I can only attest that when we've succeeded in setting the balance properly it can be so immersive. And if not, it can turn towards frustration.
Thank you for you feedback as always. This is a living game, we are listening!
Certainly not trying to change immersion and the "feel".....maybe at the bottom of the briefings (or initially hidden), there is a "spoilers/hint" section where additional notes about the mission objectives could be for those who would want it:) Again, maybe in the long run a non issue...hope to get some play in this weekend.
Here's a question/possible way of looking at the vague victory conditions: Could this be considered "mission analysis"? In Real Life, mission analysis from the perspective is 2 levels higher. Therefore, a company commander should be focused on what he needs to do from the perspective of the brigade commander. So when the mission says to secure an area, the nature of the war in Vietnam (with NVA/VC re-infiltrating an area) means that an implied task is also also destroy supply caches. While doing this is semi-realistic, it would have to be spelled out early in the game that the player would have to do mission analysis and provide some training (in game) on how to do it.
Quote from: Crossroads on January 22, 2022, 07:21:33 AM
This is something we actually focused a lot on our play testing: do the instructions, while maybe not always absolutely clear on all details, at least have enough there that one can pick up the intel from there to successfully finish the scenario.
Some of it sort of becomes second nature after having survived in the jungle for a while: spot an enemy HQ consider it a priority target, look for supply caches, if there's a tunnel send a tunnel rat there, or at least if you have engineers blow it up, and so on.
We understand there is a fine line between challenging and frustrating, this was a challenging theatre of war. There was also not many previous examples in gaming as how to do this, so we are learning as we walk as well.
On my own behalf I can only attest that when we've succeeded in setting the balance properly it can be so immersive. And if not, it can turn towards frustration.
Thank you for you feedback as always. This is a living game, we are listening!
I want to make it clear for the record that I'm not complaining, not in the least. This is a fantastic wargame that fills a large void in the genre in a thoughtful and enjoyable way. You guys have outdone yourselves with everything across the board. In fact, if the game wasn't so good, I wouldn't even be posting my thoughts, which are all intended to be constructive. I hope it is coming across that way.
I agree with Devoncop. You've got to read the briefing and you must do so carefully. I had indeed forgotten over the course of the mission that there was likely an HQ unit and supply cache somewhere in the AO. However, I think this is only partially my fault, as per my prior posts, this aspect of the mission was not emphasized in a meaningful way.
But yes, I appreciate the point that in this war taking ground and holding it is typically not the prime objective. Finding the enemy, pining him and eliminating him together with his leadership and ability to fight may often times be the overriding consideration.
All good, your feedback is appreciated, the good, the bad, the ugly, have it coming! :clap:
Although not as good as my usual auto resolution changing tool (allowed changing res, play the game, change it back automatically), found a "hotkey" program that allows you to change resolution by pressing a hotkey, so a lot easier than going through the various Windows steps. Good enough for now.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on January 22, 2022, 09:13:51 AM
Although not as good as my usual auto resolution changing tool (allowed changing res, play the game, change it back automatically), found a "hotkey" program that allows you to change resolution by pressing a hotkey, so a lot easier than going through the various Windows steps. Good enough for now.
That's interesting, I am not familiar with those at all. What tool are you using?
Quote from: Crossroads on January 22, 2022, 09:27:51 AM
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on January 22, 2022, 09:13:51 AM
Although not as good as my usual auto resolution changing tool (allowed changing res, play the game, change it back automatically), found a "hotkey" program that allows you to change resolution by pressing a hotkey, so a lot easier than going through the various Windows steps. Good enough for now.
That's interesting, I am not familiar with those at all. What tool are you using?
This is my usual tool (Reso)....you can basically have it create a desktop shortcut that will change the resolution before starting the game, then it plays the game, then when game closes will set back to your default. Works with all my older games, even the other Tiller games. But with this one, it doesn't work. Once in the game it makes the screen go crazy for some reason, which I have never seen before. If you could make it work, would be a life saver for me:)
https://www.bcheck.net/apps/#reso
This is the one you can assign hot keys, still a little clunky but works
https://funk.eu/hrc/
There are other hotkey versions out there as well, haven't tried them all.
^ Thanks, I'll have a look.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on January 22, 2022, 08:16:07 AM
Certainly not trying to change immersion and the "feel".....maybe at the bottom of the briefings (or initially hidden), there is a "spoilers/hint" section where additional notes about the mission objectives could be for those who would want it:) Again, maybe in the long run a non issue...hope to get some play in this weekend.
This is a good idea, something I can add maybe to the manual in time in Section 9. That will take a time to develop though, so maybe for 1.02.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 22, 2022, 02:21:54 AM
One other point I'd like to make...I wish there was more visual material in the game. Like photos of units and vehicles in the unit handbook or photographic or artistic unit cards on the sidebar. Sort of like what you see in the other Tiller titles.
This would be awesome, we are mostly concerned about copyright and other legal issues, so things like this wasn't included.
Quote from: devoncop on January 22, 2022, 02:55:27 AM
Edit : Thanks to the tip I JUST managed a major victory...exactly 600 points which was the minimum for a major on the last turn. Managed to take out the HQ,some supplies and some river craft....It is a fine scenario.
YAY! Glad you won that one!
Quote from: Tripoli on January 22, 2022, 08:20:52 AM
Here's a question/possible way of looking at the vague victory conditions: Could this be considered "mission analysis"? In Real Life, mission analysis from the perspective is 2 levels higher. Therefore, a company commander should be focused on what he needs to do from the perspective of the brigade commander. So when the mission says to secure an area, the nature of the war in Vietnam (with NVA/VC re-infiltrating an area) means that an implied task is also also destroy supply caches. While doing this is semi-realistic, it would have to be spelled out early in the game that the player would have to do mission analysis and provide some training (in game) on how to do it.
Yes, that's kind of what I was thinking. Good idea. I do know that the SMEAC's do provide some additional clarity in other scenarios.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 22, 2022, 08:31:13 AM
I want clear for the record that I'm not complaining, not in the least. This is a fantastic wargame that fills a large void in the genre in a thoughtful and enjoyable way. You guys have outdone yourselves with everything across the board. In fact, if the game wasn't so good, I wouldn't even be posting my thoughts, which are all intended to be constructive. I hope it is coming across that way.
I agree with Devoncop. You've got to read the briefing and you must do so carefully. I had indeed forgotten over the course of the mission that there was likely an HQ unit and supply cache somewhere in the AO. However, I think this is only partially my fault, as per my prior posts, this aspect of the mission was not emphasized in a meaningful way.
But yes, I appreciate the point that in this war taking ground and holding it is typically not the prime objective. Finding the enemy, pining him and eliminating him together with his leadership and ability to fight may often times be the overriding consideration.
Yes, it is taken to heart and we're listening closely! We really appreciate all the feedback, good, bad, ugly. It is what helps us improve the game even more!
Thank you so much for the support and thoughts!!
Quote from: Jason Petho on January 22, 2022, 11:29:29 AM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 22, 2022, 02:21:54 AM
One other point I'd like to make...I wish there was more visual material in the game. Like photos of units and vehicles in the unit handbook or photographic or artistic unit cards on the sidebar. Sort of like what you see in the other Tiller titles.
This would be awesome, we are mostly concerned about copyright and other legal issues, so things like this wasn't included.
Possibly consider putting in code to let the modders create an image pack(s)? That would avoid any copyright issue, but allow images in the game. IMHO, for tactical game like this, images add a lot of "vibe" to a scenario.
Quote from: Tripoli on January 22, 2022, 11:54:28 AM
Possibly consider putting in code to let the modders create an image pack(s)? That would avoid any copyright issue, but allow images in the game. IMHO, for tactical game like this, images add a lot of "vibe" to a scenario.
This is already possible, and we have some cool Unit Picture community mods for Middle East game already. See the Unit Picture Mods by Ian / Hoplite1963 in the mods forum (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=1519) for instance.
He hinted starting a similar project for Vietnam as well, fingers crossed! I agree these very much are worth the effort and add immersion.
Quote from: Crossroads on January 22, 2022, 11:59:00 AM
Quote from: Tripoli on January 22, 2022, 11:54:28 AM
Possibly consider putting in code to let the modders create an image pack(s)? That would avoid any copyright issue, but allow images in the game. IMHO, for tactical game like this, images add a lot of "vibe" to a scenario.
This is already possible, and we have some cool Unit Picture community mods for Middle East game already. See the Unit Picture Mods by Ian / Hoplite1963 in the mods forum (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt.asp?forumid=1519) for instance.
He hinted starting a similar project for Vietnam as well, fingers crossed! I agree these very much are worth the effort and add immersion.
Thanks. I was unaware of that functionality. O0
We've tried to keep the game as modder friendly as possible as a principle, up to a point that the game data files come in encrypted and plain-text versions.
For any H2H play mode, the game uses encrypted data, while for any vs-computer play mode, plain text it is. Those can be edited wholly if some one so wishes. And knows what he is doing.
I wrote a bunch of modder Dev Diaries (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3918444) at the time Middle East came out, they are still relevant for most part.
CSVN UPDATE v1.10 available here:
https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesVietnam/CampaignSeriesVietnam-UpdateComp-v1.10.00.zip (https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesVietnam/CampaignSeriesVietnam-UpdateComp-v1.10.00.zip)
1.1.1 Errata
No errata for 1.10
17.1.2 Enhancements
Improved Highlighting of selected unit in Unit List.
Changed and increased font for numbers in the Unit List.
Implemented Display à Hex Jump for map, scn editors and in game (ALT + X).
Updated Scrolling Options and Screen Edge default.
Added new assault sounds to enhance play.
Added new combat and assault graphics with much more variation.
Added aircraft ordnance indicators to quickly identify ordnance loads in CAS dialog.
Airstrikes are centered on the map when they arrive.
Added "Ambush" feature where 0 Assault value units will potentially suffer losses or eliminations if attempting to perform an assault.
Implemented Separate Side A and Side B Objective Points displays in Victory dialog.
Implemented ability for selecting unit in the Organization dialog to find a unit on the map.
Implemented cycle through currently selected/highlighted company using Next.
Implemented Option for centering map on combat area.
Implemented Option à Center on Action to recenter the map to where combat occurs
Implemented TrackID Jump (ALT + K) to find and select a unit by its TrackID
PBEM: With Enhanced Reporting ON, no dialogs are displaying during replay. With Enhanced Reporting OFF, dialogs will display with full details.
Helicopters flying Nap of the Earth at night have an increased movement cost over day time flight
17.1.3 Fixes
Fixed bug allowing unrestricted helicopter transport load if at LZ.
Fix bug triggering indiscriminate op-fire directed at Civilians (when in same hex).
Fixed Line of Sight issue in some situations.
Fixed Fog of War unit reveal issues in some situations.
Updated sounds to streamline play.
Removed odd sound files for assaults.
Fixed reconnaissance by assault issue.
Fixed several airstrike issues: where airstrikes never happen, where "authorized denied" airstrikes might mistakenly remove an aircraft from the availability pool; where bogus airstrikes might be assigned; where MultiStrike aircraft might be confined to a single strike.
Fixed issue where sometimes the Toggle Display of Units (hotkey K) would break.
Fixed commando flagged units being unable to scale cliffs.
Removed ability for the AI to conduct any form of friendly fire.
Removed ability for loaded unit to load onto another unit.
Fixed a movement cost bug.
Fixed other minor bugs and made code improvements.
Fixed issue where underground units were occasionally impacted by above ground fire
Fixed text overrun in Scenario Information dialog for the A Week In scenarios with multi-day visibility.
Fixed a PBEM bug where Side B could not start the scenario if it was a Side B starting scenario.
17.1.4 Graphics
Updated Ontos graphic when moving over full hex bridge.
Added SA-2 PAVN graphics.
Options à Elevation Delta default changed from 3 to 1.
17.1.5 Data
On-map AC Gunships revised stats to be direct fire, not indirect fire
Revised US Army ATG units in mid-60's with Scorpion.
Added SA-2 to PAVN and associated org files.
Added SA-2 to China and associated org files.
Replaced NVA RPG2 with VC RPG2 where appropriate.
Updated weapon values for M60A3.
Updated unittext with new units above.
Added additional organizations to the US OOB's at the Brigade, Division, Corps and Army level.
Updated Cambodian Leader to be able to load.
Updated US and ARVN Jeep w/MG graphics when loaded.
Added ARVN Rice Cache, District Leader, Local Leader
Added VC Rice Cache, District Leader, Local Leader
17.1.6 Scenarios
Fixed Map Labels in Bootcamp 4
Fixed Map Labels in Ap Bac 67
Adjusted Scripting in Bootcamp 4 to correct messaging error
Adjusted Scripting in Tu Vu for more variety
Adjusted Scripting in Giong Dinh for more variety
Adjusted Scripting for Mao Khe to make VM mine aware
Adjusted Scripting in Ben Tre Rebellion to correct ferry error
Added Construction Engineers/Dozers in Into the Hills and other tweaks
Updated Scripting A Week in Mekong
Updated reinforcements for Street Without Joy
Updated Scripting/Scenario A Week in Binh Long
Updated Scripting/Scenario Saigon 55
Updated Scripting/Scenario Long Walk Home
Adjusted many scenario/org files to replace NVA with VC RPG2
17.1.7 Mods
3D – US M35 and Huey Mod for different visuals
2D – Boardgame Vibe Mod
17.1.8 Manual
Added abbreviation list of Map Hints
Added new menu items where appropriate
Revised Scrolling section of manual
Revised other sections, adding additional details
Thanks to everyone for your comments and feedback :bd:
The 1.11 UPDATE is available here:
https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesVietnam/CampaignSeriesVietnam-UpdateComp-v1.11.00.zip (https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesVietnam/CampaignSeriesVietnam-UpdateComp-v1.11.00.zip)
Errata
• No errata for 1.11
Enhancements
• Implemented Help →Unit Handbook (Passenger) (ALT + F2) to reveal stats of passenger.
• Implemented Higher Organization Highlight (select and press CTRL) in the scenario editor.
• Implemented dialog windows minimize, maximize and restore for many of the larger dialogs.
Fixes
• Damage Results dialog will no longer display "Unknown effects vs unknown units" when direct firing at a hex with hidden units
• Fixed PBEM replay issue where in some cases FOW was inactive.
• Fixed additional FOW unit reveal bug.
• Fixed Fog of War unit reveal issues in some situations.
• Fixed a ford crossing bug
• Fixed bug when starting scenario via File (new or open), where the Lua values were not being reset probably. (Non-issue if exiting to the front end and starting from there)
Graphics
• Fixed several unit display artifacts.
• Fixed 3D stone wall disappearing in water
• Cleaned up some game engine and scenario editor dialog display issues
• Updated various unit heavy weapon graphics for ARVN
Data
• Updated flags for Crewed Boats for Nation ID's 10, 12, 49 and 50
• Revised movement values in Scrub and Paths for infantry
• Added additional/new background sounds
• Updated csluachk.pl file with additional functionality for checking Lua files
Scenarios
• Adjusted Scripting for ALL scenarios to remedy issue with PBEM play
• Adjusted Scripting for A Week In scenarios to provide warnings for correct laagering
• Added new scenario for PBEM play: XP_671231_PBEM_Set_A01
• Added new scenario for PBEM play: XP_671231_PBEM_Set_A02
• Added new scenario for PBEM play: XP_671231_PBEM_Set_A03
• Added new scenario for PBEM play: XP_671231_PBEM_Set_B01
• Adjusted Scripting for ALL scenarios to use updated aircraft allotment model
• Continued filling in black areas of DMZ master map
Mods
• No new mods for 1.11
Manual
• Update Log for 1.11
It should be noted that the 1.11 UPDATE is not backwards compatible due to to game engine updates and many lua file updates.
It is highly recommended to finish any ongoing games that you have BEFORE updating.
Campaign Series Vietnam 1948-1967 is currently on sale for 30% off.
https://www.matrixgames.com/game/campaign-series-vietnam (https://www.matrixgames.com/game/campaign-series-vietnam)
You can see some of the latest game play here:
I've done my part! :D <:-)
(I mean shortly after release.)
Thank you for the support, Jason!
The CS Vietnam 1.20 UPDATE is now available:
https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesVietnam/CampaignSeriesVietnam-UpdateComp-v1.20.00.zip (https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesVietnam/CampaignSeriesVietnam-UpdateComp-v1.20.00.zip)
Errata
• No errata for 1.20
Enhancements
• Implemented new and improved Tool Bars.
• Implemented colour-coded border map labels.
• Implemented dynamic, customizable message dialog backgrounds (with all such image BMP's in a new game folder, Backgrounds).
• Implemented two new CSEE message dialogs: Bulletin (between Message & Report in size), and Remark (the smallest, smaller that Note). Also implemented new CSEE functions pertaining to the new dialogs, including an auto sizing, all-purpose dialog() function.
• Incorporated the previous Monochrome ("Coin") bases mod as the new Alternate Bases. The earlier Alternate Bases have been retained as Insignia Bases.
• In user.lua, revised csee_check() with improved CSEE memory management (garbage collection)
• Reinforcement arrival scatter extends to all types of reinforcements, not just paratroops.
Fixes
• Increased size of some game engine memory buffers to mitigate the possibility of CSEE-related memory overruns.
• Fixed a bug blocking helicopter overflights of fully or over-stacked hexes.
• Fixed a bug where the Command Report might show an undercount of unavailable artillery units.
• Lua Constants – whether set in init.lua, user.lua, or in the scenario.lua file – will no longer be saved in the game file. This will bypass the possibility of saving problematically long Lua constant values, which might overrun some internal program buffers leading to crashes and/or corrupted save game files.
• Fixed unit flag issues, in particular how artillery ammo supply was calculated and the ability to build landing zones.
• Fixed vehicular movement issue when moving offroad.
• Fixed another recon by assault issue.
• Fixed a number of CSlint issues.
• Other minor fixes.
Graphics
• Substituted new Toolbar graphics.
• Implemented new "button" monochrome unit bases.
• Tweaks to "coin" monochrome unit bases graphics.
• Minor UI graphics fixes.
• New Dialog background graphics.
• Routine 2D map graphics fixes.
Data
• Updated American M60A2 Tank Battalion.
• Revised Lua scripting to speed up unit movement.
• Revised Assault and Defence bonus for ARVN.
• Revised Digging In chance.
• Revised LUA_FUNCTIONS_REFERENCE.txt
• Revised CSlint tools.
• Map Editor – Plain, Water & Forest labels have been renamed Anthro, Hydro & Natural.
Scenarios
• Added missing Rung Sat .ai file.
• Revised A Week in Mekong scripting to remedy issues found during play.
• Revised A Week in Mekong scripting to implement new background dialogs.
• Revised A Week in Mekong map.
• Revised A Week in Binh Long scripting to remedy issues found during play.
• Revised A Week in Binh Long scripting to implement new background dialogs.
• Revised A Week in Binh Long map.
• Multiple scenario Lua file revisions.
• Revised Bootcamp 4 scripting to correct rare instance where second set of civilians would not be triggered for release.
• Continued filling in black areas of DMZ master map.
Mods
• New Community 3D Mapping Mod.
Manual
• Revised Multiple sections pertaining to new features.
• Update Log for 1.20.
Hi Jason
Nice patch.
Have the ARVN been buffed in 1.20 ? If so to what extent ?
Cheers
Ian
Yes they have.
The ARVN have an increased assault bonus when assaulting.
The ARVN have an increased defensive bonus when being assaulted.
These are both quite significant.
Cheers Jason
Good decision I think. The ARVN may not be world beaters but they now should be able to be a bit less squishy ;)
Don't forget, there are better ways to assault than others!
I'll have to make a video on that to explain it in detail.
Here we go, a tutorial on how to assault! This explains the basics and gives some examples on what to think about when conducting an assault. This does include anything related to armoured vehicles, it is just an overview for infantry tactics. That being said, if there is interest in this type of video, I am happy to make some more.
Jason-I would be interested in the instructional videos
Excellent video Jason, thanks for posting it!! :)
Very instructive.
Quote from: gregb41352 on May 24, 2022, 01:30:10 AM
Very instructive.
The new and improved Assault mechanism (improving on the 'Extreme Assault' of the old) is such a key mechanism now. Great video, Jason O0
Now, everyone, go and conquer the world with your Vietminh and Vietcong units!
We have handed off the 1.21 UPDATE to Matrix/Slitherine.
You can expect the following in the UPDATE.
17.1 Vietnam Update Log for 1.21
17.1.1 Errata
No errata for 1.21
17.1.2 Enhancements
In the game engine Status Bar, spread out display elements to mitigate info crowding.
Implemented new CSEE function: counters_active(), function_name().
Removed the OK button from most reports, clicking anywhere will dismiss the dialog.
Added new command-line parameter (-V), for reporting the EXE version and whether or not the built in DEBUG or RELEASE mode.
17.1.3 Fixes
Fixed the dialog box text possibly showing twice issue.
Fixed a dialog box memory management issue.
Fixed a bug where, on resuming a game, Lua constants might not be reset properly.
Fixed a CTD bug involving ambush messaging.
Fixed a bug where a unit might be able to perform two or more consecutive ambush assaults.
Reinforcement random scatter will not place units on waterways.
Fixed Ford waterway crossing issue.
Fixed a number of CSlint issues.
Other minor fixes and code improvements.
Revised Artillery Scatter methodology.
17.1.4 Graphics
Added ~60 new Backgrounds images.
17.1.5 Data
Revised ATC defence values.
Revised watercraft movement.
Revised Assault and Defence bonus for Cambodians.
Revised Digging In chance.
Revised LUA_FUNCTIONS_REFERENCE.txt
Revised CSlint tools.
Revised Snake Gunship close attack values.
Revised Artillery Scatter values.
17.1.6 Scenarios
Revised A Week in Mekong scripting to remedy issues found during play.
Revised A Week in Mekong map.
Revised A Week in Binh Long scripting to remedy issues found during play.
Revised both A Week in... scripting to include Laager note for successful laager (after 2 turns)
Multiple scenario Lua file revisions.
Revised Bootcamp 4 script to correct in_area count.
Revised Srok Dong script to correct in_area count.
17.1.7 Mods
No new mods for 1.21.
17.1.8 Manual
Update Log for 1.21.
Here we go, a tutorial on how to find organizations in the larger scenarios, specifically the A Week in ... series of scenarios! This explains how to find specific units and how they are organized in the game.
Here is the video AAR of turns 21 to 25 of the 420 turn A Week in Binh Long. There are seven days within this scenario, each day being 40 day turns and 20 night turns. Each day will bring a new mission for each of the battalions under my command. In this video, I give a brief overview of the last five turns and the actions that I have encountered thus far. Attack plans and future plans for various units. 1st/16th has pretty well secured all of Area ALABAMA while 2d/28th has nearly completed securing Area KILO and LOUISIANA, there are some Viet Cong holding out which are slowly being surrounded to be eliminated.
This video is released tomorrow morning, sorry!
This is the Sunday live play session where I continue to play through A Week in the Mekong Delta. Using the 1.22 UPDATE, the battle continues. We are still in the middle of the night of Day 5, doing what we can to secure Area KILO before day break of Day 6. It's been a grind. Even worse, Dong Tam was attacked by Sappers... and well, that was a mess. I did take some time to explain the difference between Mekong and Bing Long, from a campaign point of view and there were some great questions by those following on Twitch.
This is the Wednesday live play session where I continue to play through A Week in the Mekong Delta. Using the 1.22 UPDATE, the battle continues. It's been some simple combat, but some good assaults and how to assault with some basic encirclement tactics. I finished Day 5 night and started Day 6, with new missions. I'm definitely not prepared for Day 6.
I sincerely hope you Grogs are playing this. It is a Brilliant Game !! What say you ?
Well, I own it, but somehow not played yet! WHY!?! :hide:
Quote from: JasonPratt on July 11, 2022, 09:02:16 PM
Well, I own it, but somehow not played yet! WHY!?! :hide:
Lol, same :-[ :buck2:
Quote from: al_infierno on July 11, 2022, 09:04:03 PM
Quote from: JasonPratt on July 11, 2022, 09:02:16 PM
Well, I own it, but somehow not played yet! WHY!?! :hide:
Lol, same :-[ :buck2:
And that is why I don't own it.
Came close a few times but I've been down that path too often.
You guys :smitten:
I'm definitively with -budd- and his signature camp
Quote*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.
I just got my Matrix Anniversary Coupon, 44% off, please please Flashpoint Campaigns Southern Storm can I buy you now. FC series is an exception to budd's rule though, I actually play it...
Just posted at the Wargaming forum, Lock n Load's Blood and Fury sequel to their World at War 85 and Storming the Gap mega-game is soon out in Gamesfound. Storming the Gap, I've tried it with Vassal as a quick solo, haven't had a chance (ermm) to play it live yet at the local club, due to covid first and now that I am bit (more than usual as a geek) vary of meeting a lot of people in small rooms.
Storming the Gap boardgame also has an acclaimed solo module, I have it, just haven't tried it yet because of reasons.
Compaas Game's The Thirld World War 4-in-1 mega box came in April, I just opened it for the first time. That has to count.
And I thought you guys were Grogs !!! No mention from Crossroads about mentioned game ? A developer for crying out loud :)
Well, I'm biased. I'm loving it. even if I am getting my @$$ handed to me.
This is the Wednesday live play session where I continue to play through A Week in the Mekong Delta. Using the 1.22 UPDATE, the battle continues. Here we are nearly finished the morning of Day 6. I finally have some reinforcements. WOO HOO! Alas, they are just some Regional Force units, but that's OK, they will be helpful! The day is progressing quickly and I still have lots of real estate to capture.
Quote from: bruce205 on July 11, 2022, 06:56:40 PM
I sincerely hope you Grogs are playing this. It is a Brilliant Game !! What say you ?
I am still playing this regularly, it is a very fine game and most of the scenarios are incredibly well put together.
Quote from: bruce205 on July 13, 2022, 06:17:32 PM
And I thought you guys were Grogs !!! No mention from Crossroads about mentioned game ? A developer for crying out loud :)
I am both playing it and firmly in the Wargamer middleground of buying maybe not all games but deffo more games than I need :smitten:
Quote from: devoncop on July 14, 2022, 04:19:59 AM
I am still playing this regularly, it is a very fine game and most of the scenarios are incredibly well put together.
Hello Ian I hope all is well with you! How about another Indochina War PBEM one of these days?
Quote from: Crossroads on July 14, 2022, 12:03:56 PM
Quote from: devoncop on July 14, 2022, 04:19:59 AM
I am still playing this regularly, it is a very fine game and most of the scenarios are incredibly well put together.
Hello Ian I hope all is well with you! How about another Indochina War PBEM one of these days?
Hello Sir !
I will definitely be up for it in a short while but for now I have 6 or 7 PBEM's underway of Strategic Command ACW so to save me getting more grief from my wife I had better finish a few of those first 🙂
Quote from: devoncop on July 15, 2022, 01:47:41 AM
Hello Sir !
I will definitely be up for it in a short while but for now I have 6 or 7 PBEM's underway of Strategic Command ACW so to save me getting more grief from my wife I had better finish a few of those first 🙂
Sounds like a plan then, you have my e-mail address, send me a message once done.
I'd suggest Hoa Binh 1 - Operation Tulipe, with French and ARVN forces executing a neat hammer-and-anvil operation against a strong VM presence in the area. I'd be happy to take the VM side again. All optional rules on if that's ok with you.
I am a bit busy myself with RL as well, so no need to hurry. Besides, we want to keep our trouble and strife happy with us, right. Maybe in a few weeks time, then.
Let me know :bd:
Quote from: devoncop on July 14, 2022, 04:19:59 AM
Quote from: bruce205 on July 11, 2022, 06:56:40 PM
I sincerely hope you Grogs are playing this. It is a Brilliant Game !! What say you ?
I am still playing this regularly, it is a very fine game and most of the scenarios are incredibly well put together.
I agree that this is a brilliant game and I haven't stopped playing it. Looking forward to the expansions.
The Campaign Series Vietnam 1.22 UPDATE is now available.
You can download it directly here: https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesVietnam/CampaignSeriesVietnam-UpdateComp-v1.22.00.zip (https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesVietnam/CampaignSeriesVietnam-UpdateComp-v1.22.00.zip)
Here is a list of changes:
17.1 Vietnam Update Log for 1.22
17.1.1 Errata
• No errata for 1.22
17.1.2 Enhancements
• Ambush situations will now come with assault background sounds.
• Implemented several new CSEE functions: attack_nearest_arc(), hexes_habitat().
• Enhanced Developer debugging.
17.1.3 Fixes
• Fixed a hex spotting issue affecting artillery and airstrike scatter.
• Fixed a unit concealment issue involving helicopters.
• Fixed an off-road movement issue.
• Fixed an issue where on-map LZ markers might fail to show intermittently.
• Fixed a CSEE/SAI bug involving Leaders/HQs in some circumstances failing to follow movement orders properly.
• Fixed several other CSEE glitches/bugs and made other improvements.
• Fixed other minor bugs and made other minor code improvements.
17.1.4 Graphics
• Revised A Week in Mekong campaign BMPs.
• Revised new Rice icon 3D graphics.
17.1.5 Data
• Revised the artillery scatter probability.
• Revised the airstrike scatter probability.
17.1.6 Scenarios
• Revised A Week in Mekong scripting to remedy issues found during play.
• Revised A Week in Mekong map.
• Revised A Week in Binh Long scripting to remedy issues found during play.
• Revised several scenarios to explicitly account for onmap_only in functions such as: within(), in_area(), in_box(), and several others.
17.1.7 Mods
• No new mods for 1.22
17.1.8 Manual
• Revised manual to 1.22 standards.
This is the Wednesday live play session where I continue to play through A Week in the Mekong Delta. Using the 1.22 UPDATE, the battle continues. Made it through another 10 turns or so of A Week in Mekong, Day 6. It is nearing the end of the day as I received the notifications about where my units should be laagering for the night. Will I make it? 3d/60th maybe, the other two battalions aren't going to. I see more night fighting in my future!
Good stuff Jason. If one of the developers has issues than I will be f&&&%$$#!! And have been !!
Any thoughts om whether the powers that be at Matrix/Slitherine will put this out on Steam ? Matrix's downloads are a pain to use, and the updates only seem to work less than half the time. I own this thing on Matrix, but want a Steam release so that I can have quick and reliable dowloads and updates. My computer is already too bloated and I can't afford keeping games installed on the off chance that I'll get around to playing them. I'll probably take a pass on any future Matrix/Slitherine releases that don't have Steam keys from the get-go.
Alas, that is out of our court, but we are trying to do everything we can to convince them to put it on steam.
If enough of their customers asked though, that would help them make a decision about it!
Quote from: Philippe on July 22, 2022, 10:09:10 PM
Any thoughts om whether the powers that be at Matrix/Slitherine will put this out on Steam ? Matrix's downloads are a pain to use, and the updates only seem to work less than half the time. I own this thing on Matrix, but want a Steam release so that I can have quick and reliable dowloads and updates. My computer is already too bloated and I can't afford keeping games installed on the off chance that I'll get around to playing them. I'll probably take a pass on any future Matrix/Slitherine releases that don't have Steam keys from the get-go.
Put my name on the list of customers hoping this (and other) Matrix games get onto Steam for all the same reasons Philippe stated.
I also would really like this on steam. I have it from matrix, but I echo the other comments about the ease of distribution/updates from steam.
Adding to the chorus. I bought Strategic Command ACW off the Matrix website when it came out, but only because I knew it was getting a Steam release.
Please, please send your desires to Slitherine/Matrix so they know.
That would be extremely helpful
Thank you for the support!!
This is the Sunday live play session where I continue to play through A Week in the Mekong Delta. Using the 1.22 UPDATE, the battle continues. Day 6 night has fallen and I didn't quite finish securing all the locations that I was tasked with for Day 6, although pretty darn close. I also found out that I have 3d/60th Infantry platoons operating with 3d/47th Infantry in Area SIGMA and RO. Ugh. My helicopters are working overtime to get everyone where they are supposed to be for the night. I miss my gunships.
Quote from: Jason Petho on July 23, 2022, 11:45:47 AM
Please, please send your desires to Slitherine/Matrix so they know.
That would be extremely helpful
Thank you for the support!!
Jason, any idea which way is most efficient? Post on their forums? E-mail to support@matrixgames? Something else?
I would definitely email them as well as post on the forums.
That way they get it and it shows there is interest to other people so they can also chime in.
This is the Wednesday live play session where I continue to play through A Week in the Mekong Delta. Using the 1.22 UPDATE, the battle continues. Day 6 night went quite quickly, but I spent a lot of it doing large movements still trying to organize my forces again for the final day. I'm still surprised my units were so disorganized, I really thought I had them in decent shape. Alas, no. On the bright side, we made it to morning and have found the new missions for Day 7. A Viet Cong regular force battalion is operating in the area, which means a hard fight ahead.
This is the Sunday live play session where I continue to play through A Week in the Mekong Delta. Using the 1.22 UPDATE, the battle continues. Day 7 has started in earnest and I have already run into heavily defended Viet Cong positions. I am sorting out my forces and preparing for assaults. One assault went off without a hitch, but I have run into another complex that is very well defended. Smoke will be my friend.
Here is a basic introduction to the game and game mechanics as well explains some of the interface. This is designed for people that are not hardcore players but want to dabble in the series. The interface, mods, movement, combat, assaulting, recon are all some of the topics I go over in this video.
Excellent Jason ! Keep them coming please. Always amazed at your and the teams dedication to this game !
You're most welcome! Thank you for the support!
Let me know if there is anything else you'd like to see!
This is the Wednesday live play session where I continue to play through A Week in the Mekong Delta. Using the 1.22 UPDATE, the battle continues. Day 7 is all combat, combat and then some more combat. That is the theme of this session. A whole bunch of fighting. Some good, but mostly bad. Ugh, I wish I had my gunships.
Stream day today! I will be streaming at 10AM Pacific for a couple hours, continuing on with A Week in the Mekong Delta. It will be two hours of combat as it is the final day in the campaign!
https://www.twitch.tv/campaignserieslegion (https://www.twitch.tv/campaignserieslegion)
This is the Sunday live play session where I continue to play through A Week in the Mekong Delta. Using the 1.22 UPDATE, the battle continues. With the final day in the campaign, Day 7 is turning out to be as expected. A large battle, with lots of small battles. I'm finally making some progress as I push through the afternoon. Some losses, some wins. It's a hell of a fight!
This is the Wednesday live play session where I continue to play through A Week in the Mekong Delta. Using the 1.22 UPDATE, the battle continues. With the final day in the campaign, Day 7 is turning out to be as expected. Extremely thankful for my ARVN troops, as they are bearing the brunt of the final assaults of the day. This session provides a lot of good lessons for infantry combat with heavy support and airstrikes. Literally, two hours worth of examples!
This is the Sunday live play session where I continue to play through A Week in the Mekong Delta. Using the 1.22 UPDATE, the battle continues. With the final day in the campaign, Day 7 is winding down and darkness has fallen. Unfortunately, the road clearing operation took a bit longer than I thought, so my convoy is moving at night. Will I make it back in time? I'm not sure.
The final A Week in Mekong session, as we ended the scenario. After, there was a great Q&A session where I was able to answer a bunch of questions! Thank you for those that participated, they were fantastic questions!
:notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:
Starting the A Week in Binh Long campaign. This will be significantly more complicated than A Week in the Mekong Delta. Everything is different and will require a new toolkit to complete the missions that will be assigned for this campaign. It starts off slow, with only two battalions in the field on Day 1, but will grow to 9+ battalions as the week progresses. There was also some great viewer questions!
The second session of A Week in Binh Long. And just like that, I'm already taking casualties, to IED's and snipers at the moment. I did run into a nest at Hill 171 in Area LOUISIANA where 2d/28th Infantry is operating. Two Companies of 1st/16th conducted two flawless Combat Assaults into Area ALASKA while the rest of the battalion pushes north on QL13.
The third session of A Week in Binh Long. I finally have a bridge built south of Loc Ninh, and the column will be moving north. We have landed an LRRP team in Cambodia, let's see how long it survives! Otherwise, IED's continue to be the bane of my existence and causing my casualties. I did take some time to jump into Bootcamp 2 for Nic to see if we could figure out his problem, which was resolved, but if you want a good laugh - watch me get DESTROYED!
The fourth session of A Week in Binh Long. Half way through Day 1. Things looked liked they were going smooth, but alas, was I wrong indeed. I went over some methodology of what I do when I play to keep things organized in my head and answered a bunch of questions. There was some combat and some unexpected surprises.
The fifth session of A Week in Binh Long. The Firebase is safe! There's far more movement now happening in the background. The NVA/VC are active, I just haven't found them yet. The daylight of Day one is coming to a close and I have secured most of the operation areas for the day, but we're suddenly being attacked in Area ALASKA by a company sized Viet Cong unit. My LRRP unit operating in Cambodia has spotted some regular NVA and started to set IED's on the trails. Some great questions from audience and some great suggestions for additional play enhancements relating to the LRRP's!
The sixth session of A Week in Binh Long. The southern airfield in Area ALASKA was attacked, but the firepower of the United States saves the day. Day One day light nearly comes to a close. We ran into some Viet Cong not far from the LOUSIANA 5 Firebase, but they disappeared into the jungle again. Will the Firebase be attacked tonight? I'm not sure and am nervous with night about to fall. Unfortunately, I lost my slicks that were transporting my LRRP's, so will have to wait for some additional slicks for that special forces task.
The seventh session of A Week in Binh Long. It was a night session, burning through night turns and building defences around the main cities. Some great questions by viewers, thank you for that. With some fantastic ideas. We ended up hitting the first turn of Day 2 and formulated some plans to figure out how we will tackle the day.
The eighth session of A Week in Binh Long. The start of Day 2 proceeds without too many hitches. I provide some excellent examples of how to use your Pink Teams (Loaches and Gunships). The 2d/2d Infantry has arrived on the map in the south and convoys are proceeding up Route 301 and QL13 towards Chon Thanh. Three new Areas to clear, one for each battalion but by the looks of things they won't be too complicated to secure. There is some serious helicopter management that is required though!
Great game Grognards! Get it and keep these guys in business.
The ninth session of A Week in Binh Long. The first 10 turns are under the belt of Day 2. There is some exceptional progress, as 1st/16th has nearly finished clearing Area MISSOURI. 2d/2d Infantry is on the road heading towards Chon Thanh (Area ARIZONA) while 2d/28th Infantry is nearly completed its move into Area GEORGIA. Before I started today's session, I did over a scripting example for one of the TET DLC scenarios, to show the logic behind what a Viet Cong company will do as it starts the scenario!
The tenth session of A Week in Binh Long. The continuation of Day 2. Things are going quite well, although the Viet Cong have engaged in some action against the 2d/28th and 1st/16th Infantry! My pink teams are successful again, but one of my firebases is threatened. To the south 2d/2d is arriving at Chon Thanh and I'm learning the finer nuances of helicopter management. I wish I had more, but alas... one does with what they have.
The eleventh session of A Week in Binh Long. Caveat - I recorded this while on the road with not the best internet and is using the twitch recording, so, it might not be the same standards as usual. Positive vibes though! The three battalions are making great progress and we have been dealing with the Viet Cong incursion around the Firebase at LZ GEORGIA, showing the power of assaulting and how to use the helicopters effectively.
The twelfth session of A Week in Binh Long. Caveat - I recorded this while on the road, the recording should be better than the last as am using the proper software. 2d/28th has cleared Area GEORGIA and repulsed the attack near the Firebase. 1st/16th has been slacking on their duties and 2d/2d Infantry has finally fully arrived at Chon Thanh. An Engineer task force was sent north to clear QL13 from Chon Thanh to An Loc before night fall. The calm before the storm.
The thirteenth session of A Week in Binh Long. Caveat - I recorded this while on the road, the recording should be better than the last as am using the proper software. We have managed to proceed through all the Day 2 night turns and made it to Day 3 and figured out what the missions will be. The Viet Cong were more active this night, they would appear and disappear. It was a cat and mouse session indeed!
The fourteenth session of A Week in Binh Long. I'm back at home with the recording and we have finally made it to Day 3. 2d/28th Infantry has combat assaulted into its Firebase area, securing it and getting it ready for the Construction Engineers to fly in. 1st/16th Infantry is stuck in a plantation, moving by road as they have no helicopters. One company from that battalion hunted down some Viet Cong though! They are in the middle of a firefight. 2d/2d Infantry is maneuvering northwest of Chon Thanh to secure their area and have combat assaulted into their Firebase area with a single company and 1st/2d Infantry from 1st Brigade is slowly arriving on scene. They have a two Areas to secure on Day 3.
The fifteenth session of A Week in Binh Long. Day 3 continues. We performed a text book combat assault into Area FLORIDA with 2d/28th, even though we seemed to have run into a hornets nest in the jungle nearby. To go hunt it down, or not. That is the question. 1st/16th is making slow progress as it convoys through a terrible jungle road, fortunately without having run into an ambush. 2d/2d Infantry has made a successful combat assault into Minh Thanh as is clearing the plantation. 1st/2nd Infantry has arrived by plane at Lai Khe and is about to start its tasks of clearing Area VIRGINIA and PENNSYLVANIA. Fortunately we have another cavalry troop from 1st/4th Cavalry that will help with that task as those areas are huge!
The sixteenth session of A Week in Binh Long. Day 3 continues. A brand new unit makes its appearance in the game, it will be included with the 1.23 UPDATE to be released around October 20th, 2022. We have had the good fortunate having some more slicks arrive today, although these will be the last helicopters I receive for the rest of the week. You know what that means! My battalions in the field are running into a variety of ambushes and hidden Viet Cong, leading to losses and tactical decisions. Another day, another cluster firetruck.
We have the 1.23 UPDATE ready to hand off on Sunday. Barring any disasters, it should be available around Thursday.
17.1 Vietnam Update Log for 1.23
17.1.1 Errata
• No errata for 1.23
17.1.2 Enhancements
• In the Scenario Editor, implemented a new, standalone Missions Dialog, for specifying one or more Mission Types for each side. (We anticipate making expanded use of this legacy capability, both in the EAI and the CSEE/SAI.)
• Expanded the list of Mission Types from the legacy 11 to 23.
• Extended the sound categories from 35 to 43, to accommodate the eight new aircraft/helicopter sound types.
• Extended Map Hints to display 'W' marker labels at inland Waterway hexes.
• In 2D, when direct firing blindly into apparently empty hexes, the tracer fire and explosion graphics will newly display.
• Trace fire and light arms explosion graphics will no longer display, and map recentering to the target hex will not happen, if the target hex is out of Line of Sight.
• Implemented the new CSEE functions: game(), game_name(), scenario(), missions(), mission_name(), region(), region_name(), biome(), biome_name(), condition(), shuffle().
• Implemented a new CSEE/SAI uber function, attack_sequential().
• Implemented a new CSlint utility, csflgfix.pl, for modifying unit flag values.
• Revised the CSlint utilities csscnchk.pl & csluachk.pl to accommodate the new Mission Types and new CSEE functions.
• With the -V command-line option, every game EXE will display its version # and build time/date.
• Revamped the log system ERRID codes, for better CSEE/SAI debugging.
• Updated several CSlint utilities.
17.1.3 Fixes
• Fixed an assault CTD bug (where all ground units are overrun, and with helicopters flying overhead).
• Fixed a bug where, during day turns only, the Status Bar and HexInfo Box flare (starshell) counts were in disagreement (showing as 0 in the HexInfo Box).
• Fixed a CTD bug in the legacy airstrike system.
• Fixed a bug where in certain airstrike situations some aircraft animations will fail to show.
• Fixed a potential CTD bug if an aircraft Sp*.bit shadow file is missing.
• Fixed some flaws in the attack_way_point() and defend_way_point() CSEE functions.
• Fixed several other flaws in the CSEE/SAI.
• Fixed other minor bugs, and made other minor code improvements.
17.1.4 Graphics
• Revised A Week in Mekong campaign BMPs.
• Added new Special Forces supply icon 3D graphics.
• Fixed a number of *.bit unit outline files.
17.1.5 Data
• Revised the Sounds.dat to incorporate the new sounds for aircraft and helicopters.
• Fixed several other sound issues.
• Revised the Weapon.pdt to incorporate the new special forces supply units.
• Raised village TEM to 0.70.
• Added new Special Forces supply unit to US/France/Australia.
• Revised other platoon files to incorporate new sounds.
17.1.6 Scenarios
• Revised A Week in Mekong scripting to remedy issues found during play.
• Revised A Week in Mekong map.
• Revised A Week in Binh Long scripting to remedy issues found during play.
• Added Mission Types to all scenarios for future use.
• Revised a number of Lua file errors.
17.1.7 Mods
• No new mods for 1.23.
17.1.8 Manual
• Revised manual to 1.23 standards.
The seventeenth session of A Week in Binh Long. Day 3 continues. We start off with a detail overview of the 1.23 UPDATE, coming available later this week. We also test the new Special Forces Supply unit to see if it will land in Cambodia or not. The battalions in the field and at it. Some Viet Cong have been spotted and in some cases have attacked some of my units. I'm organizing task forces to deal with them. The area around Minh Thanh has a group of snipers and RPG teams that I'm sending an infantry company in to dislodge. The week is definitely heating up!
Will there be a graphics overhaul soon? If I remember correctly, developers said it was planned to be done.
Graphics are being worked on.
What specifically are you wanting to be updated?
The eighteenth session of A Week in Binh Long. Day 3 continues. I did something a little different today and showed off the various MODS that are available. Playing a turn with each of them, so you can see how they look. Otherwise, it was an IED casualty day and I lost another LRRP team - to a minefield of all things! Otherwise the battalions are making excellent progress in the field and the additional helicopters are making life easier. Oh, my MIKE force seems to be built of paper tigers.
Quote from: Jason Petho on October 17, 2022, 09:25:59 AM
Graphics are being worked on.
What specifically are you wanting to be updated?
I would like to see 2D grpahics overhaul, in vein, for example, Flashpoint Campaigns Red Storm. They started with not so impressive 2D map but improved it a lot by hiring guy from community who made moded map. Now, new version is at corner and 2D map is just splendid (see attached screenshot). I'm not sure if something like this is possible with CS:V engine but, at least for me, current graphics is big turn off factor. I like setting, options, number of scenarios... but presentation is lacking.
Fundamentally, how maps are made in Southern Storm and how they are made in Campaign Series are two different things, that's the biggest hurdle. The Southern Storm map is a large map graphic, essentially, where the Campaign Series is a set of hexagon tiles so you can make a map at your leisure using the included Map Editor.
Of course, the Campaign Series graphics are fully moddable. In the last YouTube video, I went through a few 3D Mods that are available for the game. That means one can change the tiles to suit their style.
The nineteenth session of A Week in Binh Long. Day 3 continues, we're a little over half way through the day. Seems the Viet Cong are getting braver and have started to come out to play. Area FLORIDA is mostly secured, 2d/28th has done an excellent job. I'm getting used to my helicopter management (although I had forgotten a bunch down in the south nearly the entire session today... d'oh!). 1st/16th has secured Area IDAHO and 2d/2d Infantry is fortifying Minh Thanh. I ran into some Viet Cong, but all seems to get going well on that front as I can captured or destroyed most of what I found. The new battalion on the block, 1st/2d Infantry, is going to be clearing some Viet Cong that is taking back some points along the western edge of the operating areas and along QL13 our MIKE force has some mortars to plop some smoke. We're ready for an assault.
The latest patch for Campaign Series Vietnam from the Campaign Series Legion team has just gone live!
You can download it from the game launchers check for update button, the product page download area, as well as the following Download Link:
https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesVietnam/CampaignSeriesVietnam-UpdateComp-v1.23.00.zip (https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesVietnam/CampaignSeriesVietnam-UpdateComp-v1.23.00.zip)
This patch comes with a large number of enhancements, fixes and revisions of scenarios, graphics, units and much more! To see the full list of changes please see the changelog below.
17.1 Vietnam Update Log for 1.23
17.1.1 Errata
• No errata for 1.23
17.1.2 Enhancements
• In the Scenario Editor, implemented a new, standalone Missions Dialog, for specifying one or more Mission Types for each side. (We anticipate making expanded use of this legacy capability, both in the EAI and the CSEE/SAI.)
• Expanded the list of Mission Types from the legacy 11 to 23.
• Extended the sound categories from 35 to 43, to accommodate the eight new aircraft/helicopter sound types.
• Extended Map Hints to display 'W' marker labels at inland Waterway hexes.
• In 2D, when direct firing blindly into apparently empty hexes, the tracer fire and explosion graphics will newly display.
• Trace fire and light arms explosion graphics will no longer display, and map recentering to the target hex will not happen, if the target hex is out of Line of Sight.
• Implemented the new CSEE functions: game(), game_name(), scenario(), missions(), mission_name(), region(), region_name(), biome(), biome_name(), condition(), shuffle().
• Implemented a new CSEE/SAI uber function, attack_sequential().
• Implemented a new CSlint utility, csflgfix.pl, for modifying unit flag values.
• Revised the CSlint utilities csscnchk.pl & csluachk.pl to accommodate the new Mission Types and new CSEE functions.
• With the -V command-line option, every game EXE will display its version # and build time/date.
• Revamped the log system ERRID codes, for better CSEE/SAI debugging.
• Updated several CSlint utilities.
17.1.3 Fixes
• Fixed an assault CTD bug (where all ground units are overrun, and with helicopters flying overhead).
• Fixed a bug where, during day turns only, the Status Bar and HexInfo Box flare (starshell) counts were in disagreement (showing as 0 in the HexInfo Box).
• Fixed a CTD bug in the legacy airstrike system.
• Fixed a bug where in certain airstrike situations some aircraft animations will fail to show.
• Fixed a potential CTD bug if an aircraft Sp*.bit shadow file is missing.
• Fixed some flaws in the attack_way_point() and defend_way_point() CSEE functions.
• Fixed several other flaws in the CSEE/SAI.
• Fixed other minor bugs, and made other minor code improvements.
17.1.4 Graphics
• Revised A Week in Mekong campaign BMPs.
• Added new Special Forces supply icon 3D graphics.
• Fixed a number of *.bit unit outline files.
17.1.5 Data
• Revised the Sounds.dat to incorporate the new sounds for aircraft and helicopters.
• Fixed several other sound issues.
• Revised the Weapon.pdt to incorporate the new special forces supply units.
• Raised village TEM to 0.70.
• Added new Special Forces supply unit to US/France/Australia.
• Revised other platoon files to incorporate new sounds.
17.1.6 Scenarios
• Revised A Week in Mekong scripting to remedy issues found during play.
• Revised A Week in Mekong map.
• Revised A Week in Binh Long scripting to remedy issues found during play.
• Added Mission Types to all scenarios for future use.
• Revised a number of Lua file errors.
17.1.7 Mods
• No new mods for 1.23.
17.1.8 Manual
• Revised manual to 1.23 standards.
The twentieth session of A Week in Binh Long. Day 3 continues, although the end of the day is getting close. There's still a bit to do, but I've been making some good progress in some areas, not so good in other areas. Most the areas are now secured and I have been hunting down some Viet Cong with an armoured cavalry task force, but the Viet Cong completely disappeared. The MIKE force had a successful assault and cleared the Viet Cong Engineer that cut our important QL13 Main Supply Route. Otherwise, the battalions are converging towards their firebases for the night. Will I make it? Ugh... not everywhere!
The twenty-first session of A Week in Binh Long. Darkness has fallen at the end of the session. With that, the Viet Cong are coming out of their hiding places. I ran into a company as I was withdrawing in the north, taking casualties, causing me to retreat into the jungle. It appears that the Day 1 Firebase at Area LOUISIANA has fallen, which is something else I have to do on Day 4. The Viet Cong company in the deep south was spotted and presumably is heading towards QL13 and no means to intercept as night is falling. I have a sneaky suspicion it is going to be a hard night.
The twenty-second session of A Week in Binh Long. The night turns have gone by quickly. We were very fortunate to have an armoured cavalry troop located at the wrong base and was en route south, allowing it to stave off a Viet Cong night attack against a QL13 position that was occupied by some ARVN troops. Pure luck that, no kidding! (I'm going to add some randomization for this attacking company for a future update). We also managed to destroy an additional Viet Cong unit in the north, stuck between two firebases. Day 4 is only a few turns away.
The twenty-third session of A Week in Binh Long. Day 4 has arrived, and with that we learned we will be receiving an additional two US infantry battalions with another Cavalry Troop and an ARVN battalion will be released. There is a lot going on today, with a lot of Task Forces being created to secure the new areas and recapture areas that were lost. An overview of all the missions assigned today were gone through and the main reference map was updated. A challenging day ahead, but fun indeed!
How to Script the AI with Lua for the Campaign Series Vietnam PC Wargame.
This is a basic tutorial for learning how to script the AI for an attacking Viet Cong company against a position. I take you behind the scenes to share with you my process when scripting each company in such a way to add some variability which allows for replayability. This is intended to be a tutorial set of videos that will cover each of the five attacking Viet Cong Companies.
The twenty-fourth session of A Week in Binh Long. A few more turns of the beginning of Day 4. Quite the adventure so far, running into some Viet Cong and noticing that they are still active in the field. I am quickly realizing I don't have enough helicopters to do everything I need. There are some tough decisions being made, especially due to the distance to some of the firebases that are required to be built. The brand new battalion, 1st/28th Infantry has arrived on the map, but we're still waiting for 1st/26th to arrive. Both of these are1st Brigade battalions. The next few sessions will be full of action and confusion, how fun!
The twenty-fifth session of A Week in Binh Long. Lots of great discussion today by viewers, thank you all for tuning in to chat! Some great ideas and some hints on future improvements. We made to turn 190, 25% of the way through Day 4. I went over a bit how I wasn't performing some Search and Destroy missions and what the implications of that will be later on in the scenario (for your entertainment, of course). We are still waiting for 1st/16th to arrive by air at Minh Thanh, leaving that sector not very well defended at the moment. Otherwise, the other battalions are in the middle of their tasks while a few things slip through the cracks as it is a lot to take care of. Onward and positive vibes!
The twenty-sixth session of A Week in Binh Long. The turns have slowed down as there is a lot to do. I still cranked out a few and we're making some decent progress. The 2d/28th Infantry has run into some resistance and I'm tackling them with some Pink Teams. This is a difficult task as drawing fire isn't always a sure thing. 1st/26th is still missing, it should have landed at Minh Thanh by now, which is leaving that new base quite vulnerable, as the 1st/16th Infantry has pulled out to the other side of QL13. 3rd Brigade HQ is getting its final destination, although a couple days late. I have to learn to follow instructions, apparently. Ha!
The twenty-seventh session of A Week in Binh Long. *CAVEAT* Using a brand new set of BETA EXE's for the 1.30 UPDATE, and one of the new features killed the combat/movement sounds for this session. Otherwise, things are progressing. 1st/26th Infantry finally started arriving at Minh Thanh! I had the misfortune of losing some gunships (Snakes) as they were supporting the ARVN 4th/9th operation. Otherwise, I'm finally getting the rest of the battalions organized and firebases starting to be built. Nearly half way through the day and I feel like I'm making some decent progress. The Viet Cong still keep taking pot shots are my helicopters, which I'm trying to hunt down and eliminate.
The twenty-eighth session of A Week in Binh Long. We have sound! YAY! Back into Day 4, almost at the halfway point of the day. We have 1st/26th arriving at Minh Thanh finally and I am sending them out into the bush to see if they can find some contact. I ran into some Viet Cong in a few sectors, although it is light action so far, things are heating up. Helicopters losses were minimal this session although a few of them were riddled with holes. Some of the firebases have finally been completed and I have my engineers on the right paths for clearing some of the vital Main Supply Routes in the area. I noticed a brand new ARVN squadron that was released that I get to use for road security... Amen to that!
How to Script the AI with Lua for the Campaign Series Vietnam PC Wargame.
This is the second basic tutorial for learning how to script the AI for the second attacking Viet Cong company against a position. I take you behind the scenes to share with you my process when scripting each company in such a way to add some variability which allows for replayability. This is intended to be a tutorial set of videos that will cover each of the five attacking Viet Cong Companies.
The twenty-ninth session of A Week in Binh Long. A little hiccup in the beginning, although you won't notice it on YouTube, until I point it out anyway! Regardless, it was an excellent session today! Everything was going my way, even when my LRRP team was ambushed. Lots of lucky rolls and situations during the session and I took the time to go over some hints and tips about supply and how it works in the game. Even though we are at the halfway point of Day 4, many of the areas are becoming secured and the battalions have mostly been airlifted to their proper Areas of Operations. There are a few stragglers and I see I may need some additional support in some sectors to ensure everything is cleared by the end of the day. We are also sending some troops into the jungle to conduct search and destroy operations, for better or worse.
So epic.... :dreamer:
One day I may actually play it! -- but I'm glad to own it anyway. :coolsmiley:
*chuckles*
Most definitely! Do it, do it... you know you want to!
The thirtieth session of A Week in Binh Long. Well holy crap, this was a rough session. I had a platoon ambushed in Area KENTUCKY while another platoon ran into a large Viet Cong force after which I promptly ran away, and then I lost two Patton's in Area WYOMING. On the bright side, we did develop a plan with maintaining security at the two key bridges on QL13, I will be curious to see how that pans out during the night. The battalions in the field and making good progress in the other Area's of Operations, even checking off a few and gaining some Event Points for clearing Area TEXAS. Keeping the forces organized is a challenge, but I think I've got a handle on things and should be fine as we creep closer to the end of Day 4. Well, in theory.
The thirty-first session of A Week in Binh Long. Things are really heating up! One company from 1st/26th has run into a reinforced company sized Viet Cong position northeast of Minh Thanh. Today's session was developing a plan and engaging that company with artillery, gunships and more infantry. What a mess, but heck of a lot of fun! Much further to the north, in Area KENTUCKY, two Viet Cong companies were spotted, but the 2d/28th is nowhere near there and we're creeping up to the end of the day. That will bite me in the future. Ugh. Otherwise, the other battalions and making excellent progress for Day 4!
The thirty-second session of A Week in Binh Long. Night is creeping closer, meaning Day 4 is going to be ending in a handful of turns. The 1st/26th Infantry had some exceptional combat today around Minh Thanh. American firepower certainly won the day there, with the 155mm battery, 105mm battery and Pink Teams in the area overwhelming the Viet Cong, the infantry barely had to fight. Elsewhere, I almost lost an LRRP team on the border of Cambodia and I did lose a couple supply trucks as they were returning to Loc Ninh. What a mess, what a mess indeed. The rest of the battalions are doing well and nearly in their laager positions for the night. The biggest challenge will be the 2d/28th Infantry in Area KENTUCKY. There is a massive VC force in the area and there are platoons scattered all over the place. Should be a fun night.
The thirty-third session of A Week in Binh Long. Night has come to Day 4. No silent night in these parts, that's for sure. Two firebases are being attacked, one in Area KENTUCKY, the other in Area WASHINGTON. Gunships are called up from An Loc and Loc Ninh to hopefully stem the attacks before they get started. Elsewhere, the Viet Cong are securing road sections through the areas and capturing various objectives around the map. I have my work cut out for me on Day 5 and this night is just getting started!
The thirty-fourth session of A Week in Binh Long. Wow. Just Wow. That was quite the attack on at Firebase KENTUCKY. We played through the remainder of the night and suffered some serious casualties from the attack. It seemed to be about a battalion sized force that hit the Firebase. Unfortunately, that also included my LRRP team in the north getting ambushed and killed as well as losing a couple of Snakes to ground fire. I'm happy the night is finally over and DAY 5 is about to start.
The thirty-fifth session of A Week in Binh Long. Well there we go, starting a new Day. Day 5. I have nine battalions operating in the field now, each with its own mission. This includes three ARVN battalions, one being a Regional Force battalion that was released due to combat. That being said, there's a lot to do and lots of units need to be flown across the map to their new operating areas. I went over some of the new additions for the 1.30 UPDATE that is due in January/February 2023 - lots of exciting goodies for sure! I am hunting down the Viet Cong that attacked the firebase in Area KENTUCKY before I head to the new Area IOWA.
The thirty-sixth session of A Week in Binh Long. With the reminder that I'm testing the 1.30 UPDATE that will be released early in the new year, I tried out the new mine system and how side awareness comes into play. Phew, that's a challenge to get used to indeed. We shall see if that's the way it will play out for the 1.30 UPDATE. Otherwise, Day 5 continues where I am still taking losses around Firebase KENTUCKY. I found a Viet Cong company in the plantation just north of Minh Thanh, so I need to decide how I will deal with that. Ben Cat was attacked and held by the Viet Cong, they are raking in the points while I figure out how to recapture it. Things are getting more challenging as the hours of the day go on.
The thirty-seventh session of A Week in Binh Long. There is a lot more Viet Cong activity during this session. Minh Thanh was attacked, but superior firepower and defensive position saved the day. Only one platoon remains of the two Viet Cong companies that attacked the base. Elsewhere, the Viet Cong force around Firebase KENTUCKY was finally destroyed and the 2d/28th Infantry is starting to fly to the east to Area IOWA. Unfortunately, Area IOWA found me running into two ambushes by the Viet Cong and I lost my supply trucks and their escorts. Down at Ben Cat, the Viet Cong have captured the town and my ARVN counterattack is not going so well, as a platoon has already been overrun. Otherwise, there are scattered Viet Cong forces around while the other battalions continue on with their missions. It's a more hectic day, but fun!
The thirty-eighth session of A Week in Binh Long. Day 5 is turning into an interesting quagmire. One of my small D Company task forces based out of An Loc as stirred a hornets nest west of the city. I had some terrible misfortunate with an M113 and a recon troops north of Minh Thanh and I have almost recaptured Ben Cat from a Viet Cong company. That has taken some doing and I am grateful for the firepower the allies have, that's for sure! Meanwhile, the other battalions are continuing with their missions, some better than others. I'm grateful to have some additional ARVN troops too!
The thirty-ninth session of A Week in Binh Long. Happy New Year! Here's to a fantastic coming year! Thank you so much for watching and your support, it is truly appreciated. Exciting times for the future of the Campaign Series. Stay tuned! Day 5 continues to be a mess. Some nice revelations though as I found some ARVN Construction Platoons that can be given to the ARVN battalions in the field, leaving the American firebase building units to their own battalions. The ARVN Cavalry Troop finally has secured Ben Cat with the help of a lot of Snakes, although the Cavalry Troop suffered some brutal losses. It seems the Viet Cong force northwest of An Loc is actually a battalion sized force, and I have nothing to be able to deal with it except for artillery strikes. Minh Thanh plantation is cleared after a couple of jump scares - literally!
The fortieth session of A Week in Binh Long. Spent the first little bit going over some of the new features of the 1.30 UPDATE that will be available in February(ish), also the features that will be included in the Middle East 2.30 UPDATE. Exciting times for this year, that's for sure! Otherwise, senseless violence in some key areas on the map. I ran into some additional Viet Cong hiding in the jungle. My helicopter operations are running fairly smoothly and I came to realize that I won't be getting more additional units for the rest of the scenario. That will make things significantly more challenging as the last few days proceed.
The forty-first session of A Week in Binh Long. A significant update is done to the Unit List! Check it out! It will be available in the 1.30 UPDATE. We are slowly securing the areas of today's missions. There is more Viet Cong activity in some areas, in some cases fairly large forces. I am utilizing an ARVN Cavalry troop and Snakes to deal with a small Viet Cong force in the south. It should be an interesting scrap as they are dug into the jungle southwest of Chon Thanh. To the northwest of An Loc is a battalion sized Viet Cong force that I am plastering with artillery, but I don't know to what effect. I shall find out as soon as I can spare some troops in that sector.
The forty-second session of A Week in Binh Long. The second half of the day of Day 5. Alas, I lost two gunships this session. One in combat and another by a chance shot. On the bright side, if there is one, they were Snakes, my precious Hogs are still safe. The combat southwest of Chon Thanh was quite flawless, that attack was fantastic and a good example of how firepower saves the day and can eradicate with extreme prejudice against the Viet Cong! To the northwest of An Loc, on the other hand, I keep accidently running into larger and larger Viet Cong forces - without the troops to deal with them!
Campaign Series: Vietnam 1948-1967 listed as one of The 5 Best Strategy Games of 2022 by Strategy and Wargaming.
Neat, thank you S&W !!
https://strategyandwargaming.com/2023/01/02/the-5-best-strategy-games-of-2022/
The forty-third session of A Week in Binh Long. We are creeping closer to the end of Day 5. I have realized that I am going to run out of time for some of the units making it to where they need to be for their night laagering. Of course, that means I will lose points for that, but, I'm well into a Minor Victory at the moment. The Viet Cong should be more active tonight, so I am taking the time to go around and ensure all of the firebases have extra defences, expanding out and establishing listening posts to see if I'm going to be attacked. Safety first!
Looking great! :ThumbsUp:
And we finally have the perfect emoji for this game:
:jarhead0331:
Hahah, that's awesome! Good one!
The forty-fourth session of A Week in Binh Long. Well, we almost burned through all the day turns of Day 5. Generally, things are pretty clean, but I can see a few units will likely make it in time for their nightly bivouac. I realized that even one of my battalion HQ's were in the wrong place. The ARVN 4th/9th has started the evening hours under RPG attack, I will have to send a patrol out to deal with that. I brought an abundance of Hog's and Snake's to remedy that situation. Slight overkill, but that's OK!
The forty-fifth session of A Week in Binh Long. Well, night has fallen. We managed to get about halfway through the Day 5 night. What does that mean? Well, it was a race to get my units to their laager positions for the night. In most cases, I was successful. Alas, in some cases, I missed the cut off by and will be penalized accordingly. Additionally, the Viet Cong are very active and are coming out of the woodwork. I have spotted a good dozen areas where the Viet Cong have captured Victory Locations that will need to be recaptured on Day 6, on top of all the other missions that will be coming in the morning. I've been doing what I can with gunships, although I did lose a couple of Loaches tonight. That doesn't bode well. Lastly, the Area WASHINGTON firebase is under attack by a Viet Cong company supported by heavy weapons. The ARVN there are unlikely to survive.
The forty-sixth session of A Week in Binh Long. We finally made it through the night of Day 5 and started Day 6. The night was troubling, but I saved the Regional Force units that were at the Area WASHINGTON Firebase. I introduced the Viet Cong force operating in the area to my Snakes and caused some fairly decent casualties. They melt like butter when in the open, yay for that! Otherwise, there is a lot more Viet Cong activity throughout the northern and central sectors, leaving a lot that I will need to recapture on Day 6. We went over the missions for the new day, there are a lot of them and assets are few. The story of my life.
Quote from: Jason Petho on January 26, 2023, 01:40:26 AMThe forty-sixth session of A Week in Binh Long. We finally made it through the night of Day 5 and started Day 6. The night was troubling, but I saved the Regional Force units that were at the Area WASHINGTON Firebase. I introduced the Viet Cong force operating in the area to my Snakes and caused some fairly decent casualties. They melt like butter when in the open, yay for that! Otherwise, there is a lot more Viet Cong activity throughout the northern and central sectors, leaving a lot that I will need to recapture on Day 6. We went over the missions for the new day, there are a lot of them and assets are few. The story of my life.
I see lots of compliments of this game over here as well:
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/the-john-tiller-thread-of-hex-hell-and-suffering.130823/page-2
Oh wow, thanks for pointing that out!!
"I see lots of compliments of this game over here as well:
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/the-john-tiller-thread-of-hex-hell-and-suffering.130823/page-2"
Dang! Thanks for the link Jason!
The forty-seventh session of A Week in Binh Long. The new day has started, Day 6. There is a lot going on here in this session, with lots of planning and organizing our transportation to our new firebase locations throughout the Area of Operations. Area WASHINGTON firebase is still under attack, but with our gunships present, we're causing mass casualties against the Viet Cong that have decided to stick around. The Regional Force company that is defending it is taking some casualties though, unfortunately. Elsewhere I lost a Patton in an assault against a Viet Cong recon platoon. Ugh. The air is buzzing with every helicopter in the sky this morning and a variety of jets have come out of the clouds to pummel the Viet Cong. Yay for a good day!
The forty-eighth session of A Week in Binh Long. Well that was a rough session. I was ambushed in a number of areas and suffered some serve losses. In particular, an RPG team wiped out a platoon of ACAV's carrying a platoon of Engineers. Elsewhere, I lost some Loaches and some ARVN Regional Force units as well as landed into a hot LZ. Additionally, I made a mistake with watching the fuel gauge on some Slicks, so they are sitting having a picnic when I need them the most during this phase of Day 6. I have my work cut out for me today, that's for sure! Elsewhere in the other area of Operations, things aren't terrible and I've managed to secure most of the other Firebase locations.
The forty-ninth session of A Week in Binh Long. We checked the Victory status so far and I'm doing quite well. Although you wouldn't think so today, as I had some serious losses today in the terms of important equipment. The Viet Cong has definitely stepped up attacks, I am running into various platoons far more often than I had been during the early part of the week. Some of the Area of Operations are faring better than other areas in their complexity. While I should be able to secure the areas, I'm not sure I'll get the troops back to their bases by the end of the day. On the bright side, I'm having a lot of fun. This is such a fascinating way to play the Campaign Series!
The fiftieth session of A Week in Binh Long. Wow! Can you believe it, I've been in 100 hours on this campaign! Absolutely exhilarating! So, my planned revisions to the ambushes were not fruitful (one of two was). I figured out why after the fact, I put the ambush to the wrong company. Ha! Close, but not close enough. The company attack that did work managed to destroy three Patton's, which mean that ones I get the correct company working, it will be a very bad day for someone who plays this with the 1.30 UPDATE. I'm also going to ensure the ambush locations are varied. Lots of action all around the map. The Viet Cong ambushes have stepped up elsewhere and I'm doing what I can to tame them and still accomplish my missions.
The fifty-first session of A Week in Binh Long. That turned out to be an expensive session. I lost a lot of gunships this turn. The Viet Cong seems to have had enough of my gunships ruling the skies. Viet Cong activity has stepped up significantly and I am running into more of them as I progress with the turns in Day 6. Fortunately, I have lots of other firepower to help deal with the issues, but as usual, I'm running out of time. I'm almost half way through Day 6 and still a long way to go to complete most of the battalion objectives for the day. I'm getting more and more nervous as the hours tick by and Day 7 nears.
So I have been tinkering with a new colour scheme for the terrain for Campaign Series Vietnam - to be added as a MOD.
It is substantially different.
IT IS NOT FINAL - DISREGARD THE GREEN ARTIFACTS, this is only a proof of concept, so I quickly resized one file to get the other files (hence the green artifacts!)
Thoughts? Comments?
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164352)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164351)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164350)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164349)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164355)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164354)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164353)
Keep in mind, with 50 elevations, the terrain file is same graphics file for all the screenshots.
I'm thinking the lower levels (0-5) can be a bit brighter green.
They are pretty dark in these screenshots.
I'll try a revised colour ramp that impacts those lower elevations.
It really is an impossible task with that many elevations. Appreciate the effort I think altering colors every 5 elevation steps is abut the best you can do. For anything more granular we could just use the elevation number toggle.
Alright! Take Two!
I think this turned out nicer. What do you think?
I'm calling this the 2D - Hypsometric Tint Mod
The only thing I have to figure out is the jump map.
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164429)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164428)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164427)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164426)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164425)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164430)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164431)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164432)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164433)
(https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1164434)
Well, I like it, and with others I certainly appreciate the attempt in any case! :notworthy:
Alright, here's a BETA Version of the mod. CAVEAT, the jump map will look like it does above for now.
You can download it here:
2D HYPSOMETRIC TINT MOD (https://www.dropbox.com/s/aug3efivw1p8x9g/2D%20-%20Hypsometric%20Tint%20Mod.zip?dl=0)
And you can watch how to add it using the same steps as in here:
The fifty-second session of A Week in Binh Long. I showed off a new 2D Map Mod that I whipped up this week to help you identify the varying contours easier. Let me know it the comments what you think!? Otherwise, the session today was mostly a good one! I had a few losses and ran into a few ambushes, but I was finally able to clear QL13 north and south of Chon Thanh. I also came to the realization that all of the armoured troops of Quarter Horse will be arriving and laagering in Chon Thanh for the night! That's a huge armoued force consolidated together. Exciting times to be had!
The fifty-third session of A Week in Binh Long. Had a few technical issues today. When I was trying to sort out the audio/video during the editing, I think there might be a few issues. Let me know how it sounds. Otherwise, it was a rough day. A few more ambushes found, some losses were taken and I'm trying to deal with a large Viet Cong force near Minh Thanh. I also sent some helicopters towards the airfield in Area Washington and they've only spotted some RPG's, so it might be a good opportunity to go take it back. I'll rally some troops to do just that and support the ARVN Regional Force (what's left of it) in their recapture. Over the halfway point of Day 6, things will start getting progressively worse.
I can't believe we have only a day and a half to go!
So, probably done by August! :evil: :notworthy:
It really depends on how the combat portion of Day 7 goes. It will be time consuming, that I would imagine.
So yes, I would venture to guess by the summer!
The fifty-fourth session of A Week in Binh Long. A successful combat assault into the Area Washington firebase and airfield, there are still some Viet Cong in the area, but at least I have secured the airfield. Elsewhere the Viet Cong are engaging my troops all over the map. It seems things are heating up. Manageable so far, which is a bonus, but as we are getting closer to the end of Day 6, I'm going to have to pull the troops back to the bases, leaving the night for the Viet Cong. I am trying to attack the Viet Cong I have found throughout the map though, some places I am doing better than others.
The fifty-fifth session of A Week in Binh Long. Well that was an exceptional session! Luck was on our side today. I showed off the primary reason for doing the search and destroy missions today - which is something you should be doing since Day 1, but I have not for Day 7 reasons. It was exciting to see some successes! We only have a handful of turns of Day 6 before night falls and the main action starts happening. I am well into the major victory area now as Day 6 comes to a close, but that will all change as Day 7 starts. Exciting times ahead! Below is a link to the 2D Hypsometric Tint Map Mod.
The fifty-sixth session of A Week in Binh Long. A Viet Cong here, a Viet Cong there, a Viet Cong everywhere! It seems that as the day light portion of Day 6 is coming to a close, the Viet Cong have stepped up their activities. I have seen many Objectives flipping to the Viet Cong and some of those in very key areas. On the bright side, I think I will have most of my battalions and cavalry troops where they are supposed to be come night fall, with the exception of a few. I'm in a hot battle west of Minh Thanh and I see I stirred a hornets nest west of Loc Ninh. Night is coming. Night is going to be bad.
Thus come forth the Vietnamese Verewolves....! :HideEyes:
(And the rock apes come forth to mess with you all!)
Here is a basic introduction to how I make the hypsometric tint mod (mods) for the Campaign Series Vietnam game. This is a very simplified "For Your Information" style video and not a formalized process.
The fifty-seventh session of A Week in Binh Long. Night has fallen and the Viet Cong have started to come out to play. As expected, things are getting worse as the turns go by. Even though the night has just begun, I'm already taking some unexpected losses. I lost some APC's, an ARVN 155mm Battery, even one of my Task Force headquarters. The Viet Cong have been spotted inside An Loc and around Chon Thanh. The main attacks even come yet, so I am doing what I can to prepare for them. Out in the countryside, the Viet Cong are cutting off roads and highways and capturing villages.
The fifty-eighth session of A Week in Binh Long. Well, we are burning through night turns of Day 6, but not in a good way. There is lots of ambient light provided by the burning wrecks from Viet Cong attacks. It seems the Viet Cong are hitting most of the main cities in various strengths. Some are small probes, some seem to be more determined. An Loc, for example, is finally starting to regain some semblance of control. On the bright side, I did have an ARVN battalion become released - due to its being attacked too much. Ha!
The fifty-ninth session of A Week in Binh Long. The proverbial crap has hit the fan with two hours of intense combat the whole way through, although it seemed lighter at the beginning. As we get closer to the end of the night of Day 6, the Viet Cong are attack in full force. Loc Ninh and An Loc are infiltrated by Viet Cong platoons and assaulting left - right and center. I am suffering some severe losses all over the place. At least I didn't least any helicopters this session... ha!
Sounds like the NVA decided to get rid of I MEAN SUPPORT IN A COMRADELY FASHION a bunch of South Vietnamese insurgents this Tet holiday.
*laughs* Pretty much.
It's a good preview of what the Tet DLC will be like.
Note to self, Tet DLC, noted.... :notworthy:
The sixtieth session of A Week in Binh Long. 120 hours later, we finally hit the dawn of Day 7. What a mess, seriously! Loc Ninh and An Loc have suffered terrible losses in both territory and men and material. Fortunately, the south, with the exceptional of Lai Khe has remained unscathed. I have spent the first turn of Day 7 deciding on what my courses of actions will be. There are a lot of things to consider for this day and how I plan on recapturing many areas I have secured once before.
Coincidentally, An Loc also isn't doing so well in the Fire in the Lake multiplayer match I'm losing at the moment. (The NVA player, Airboy as he's known to many of us here, playing FitL for his first time, just made his first big red wave move. W8 and I, as the US and ARVN respectively, naturally focused too much on the VC player, and on beefing ourselves up, not enough on undermining AB's coming threat. I love that game so much!)
I watched some videos on Fire in the Lake! Looks like a blast!
Hey Pratt, is Fire in the Lake good solo on Tabletop Simulator ? Thanks
Quote from: bruce205 on March 17, 2023, 04:23:51 PMHey Pratt, is Fire in the Lake good solo on Tabletop Simulator ? Thanks
Don't know about TTS but I"m having a blast with it on Vassal in a 4 player game.
The sixty-first session of A Week in Binh Long. Silly me for thinking that the night would be worse than the day. The morning has turned into hell in a handbasket. Loc Ninh and An Loc are being succumb to mortar and rocket attacks while the Viet Cong are still conducting assaults and attacks. Some are fairing better than others. I have been able to start allocating resources and developing plans for counter attacks. The coming next sessions will be a race to the wire to see who can get to the main cities the fastest with the mostest. On the bright side...ha, who am I kidding, there's no bright side with today's session.
Quote from: bruce205 on March 17, 2023, 04:23:51 PMHey Pratt, is Fire in the Lake good solo on Tabletop Simulator? Thanks
Yes and no: the module makers are VERY careful to only provide the material from the official VASSAL modules provided by GMT, which means some key solo material will always be missing. Of course the bot rules themselves can still be found as part of the main rulebook (provided directly by GMT on their site), but the bots require some randomization effects which only come as part of the official hardcopy.
You could of course hash up some randomization / flowchart rules yourself. Or better yet if you have a copy of the game, then you have those at hand already, in which case the TTS modules work just as well as a physical tabletop for solo, with all the advantages of being digital (so saving, undoing, copying or deleting pieces, importing tools, etc.)
GMT has also developed a new bot flow chart and cards that greatly simplify the bot player.
You can get it from GMT.
At least the night is over!
...for
now...
The sixty-second session of A Week in Binh Long. Another few turns of the morning of Day 7. I'm having some local successes in some areas, but not the key areas yet although I do see the light at the of the tunnel. Or is that a fire? I think its fire, definitely fire. Ha! On the bright side, one of the battalions has touched down from the field north of An Loc, so hopefully next session I can start taking back that city. Loc Ninh isn't faring that well as a brand new massive attack has started. I'm also down 30,000 Points this past turn.
The sixty-third session of A Week in Binh Long. Loc Ninh is looking worse and worse as the morning progresses. I think I will have to take some drastic measures to secure the city. The rocket attacks are absolutely brutal, wiping out platoons left and right. An Loc is still hanging on and I have a battalion advancing from the north which will offer some relief. Lai Khe has fallen and I am saving what I can while the "cavalry" works its way south to save the day. Day 7 is hard, really hard, but fun!
Here's a poster size planning map for A WEEK IN BINH LONG
PDF OF PLANNING MAP (Game map) (https://www.dropbox.com/s/s2fhb51u2wx175a/binh_long_planning_map_poster.pdf?dl=0)
Good day!
Here is a link to the PDF version of the pending 1.30 UPDATE manual.
CSVN 1.30 UPDATE MANUAL (https://www.dropbox.com/s/rer3rx6r84jql0p/CSVN_Manual.pdf?dl=0)
Thank you for your support!
Jason Petho
The sixty-fourth session of A Week in Binh Long. Let's start with the good news, An Loc has a battalion slowly advancing from the north. The first company has arrived in the northern suburbs and in the coming turns will finally make some headway. To the south, Chon Than had a sniper in the wire that was calling some mortar fire, but that seems to be fixed now. There is a task force well on its way towards Lai Khe, getting ready to recapture that, or at least start to next session. The bad news? Well, Loc Ninh is down to one hex, everything else is under Viet Cong control. I have lost access to the airfield, so I have to land any reinforcements either to the north, west or south - all about a 5 turn walk to Loc Ninh. That is the priority going forward and I am starting to transfer a battalion from the south by helicopter to help as the roads are still closed, of course.
Here's a poster sized planning map for A WEEK IN MEKONG
A WEEK IN MEKONG PLANNING MAP (https://www.dropbox.com/s/bw92i3l5vq65tfp/mekong_planning_map_poster.pdf?dl=0)
:notworthy:
The sixty-fifth session of A Week in Binh Long. Alas, I have lost Loc Ninh. My reinforcements didn't arrive in time and I have completely lost the city. On the bright side, I am a couple turns away from starting the counterattack with infantry that have been flown from Minh Thanh. This session found me assaulting An Loc from the north and making some decent progress as well as starting an attacking on Lei Khe. Helicopters are flying around in support of all operations today, with no losses this session - shockingly enough! There have been a couple ambushes, but I am generally starting to turn the tide. Slowly, very slowly.
The sixty-sixth session of A Week in Binh Long. Around Loc Ninh I have started the attack on the Hill of Doom. This will be an interesting and deadly fight as there are recoilless rifles and machines on the hill and it is supported by mortars are rockets from nearby positions. My ammunition situation improved a little bit, which was fortunate because the day started off poorly with all the supply vehicles losses. An Loc has swung into my favour and I have secured most of the town due to some exceptional assaults and gunship action. Down at Lei Khe, the attack has started and I am curious to see how this will turn out. Exciting times indeed, although I did drop below the Major Victory threshold this turn.
The sixty-seventh session of A Week in Binh Long. It is nice to have a day with some progress! I have started the attack on the Hill of Doom, it is going well so far and I managed to secure a bunker at the top of the hill. Caution against rockets though still need to be considered, meaning I will have to continually move my platoons around the hill in to avoid being hit. An Loc has been secured and cleared of the Viet Cong. I have to clear the surrounds, but that was a huge victory for this session. In the south, Lei Khe is in the middle of the counter-attack which is slowly swinging in my favour. All in all, it was a good session, with advancements in key areas and not too many surprises by the Viet Cong.
The sixty-eighth session of A Week in Binh Long. As expected, around the Hill of Doom the rockets came and what a mess they caused. To the west of Loc Ninh there is a battalion sized attack happening against my troops there. I'm attempting to conduct a fighting withdrawal while the battalion attacks Loc Ninh from the south. Maybe that will be a good thing? I hit a DRAW now in the point total, but I still have 40 turns to recover. Keep in mind that 20 of those will be at night.... without flares. An Loc has been secured, the last of the Viet Cong have been captured in the town and base. I am organizing task forces now and clearing the surrounding area. Lai Khe is going well, slow, but well. I should have that taken care of next session assuming I can continue to proceed at the same advance. It's messy, but there's progress!
The sixty-ninth session of A Week in Binh Long. I'm making some progress around An Loc, the outskirts. Cleaning up and expanding the area of control, although that has come at a price. The Hill of Doom has fallen but the Viet Cong made my attack in the west of Loc Ninh run away. That was a surprise and not a good one as I suffered quite a few complete platoon losses. I started attacking Loc Ninh from the south and have run into another counter-attack. On the bright side, Lai Khe has been recaptured and I will organize those forces into a few tactical groups to start scouring the countryside. There are less than 40 turns remaining, with 20 of those being at night. I haven't increased the victory level back to a Minor Victory yet, but I started gaining points again instead of losing them every turn. Yay progress!
The seventieth session of A Week in Binh Long. The village south of An Loc has been cleared! Finally! Overwhelming firepower and force does the trick, of course. That means that the An Loc area has finally been secured. Loc Ninh is still suffering a terrible fate in the hands of the Viet Cong. I will have to transfer more troops north, the troops I have there are just not enough to mount an effective counter-attack. In the deep south, Lai Khe has been cleared and a couple of task forces have been organized to start a search and destroy mission east of Lai Khe. The tables are turning, albeit slowly!
The seventy-first session of A Week in Binh Long. Well that was a decent session. Cleaning up in quite a few areas and making some good progress all in all. I seem to have a good attack going into the south of Loc Ninh and made a decision to fly in a few more infantry companies to deal with the task. My armoured column has almost arrived at the Area Washington Firebase airfield. I know it is defended so we shall see what kind of chaos will ensue there when I start the attack. All of my transport helicopters are around An Loc to lift the infantry to where they need to go. I do love air operations, they offer such interesting options and opportunities!
The 1.30 UPDATE is finally released.
You can download it here: DOWNLOAD FOR 1.30 UPDATE (https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesVietnam/CampaignSeriesVietnam-UpdateComp-v1.30.00.zip)
Published on April 26, 2023
Version 1.30 brings a wealth of new features, UI additions, quality of life improvements, changes, enhancements, scenario improvements and fixes. Allowing you to command the battlefield with more options and detail than ever before! You can download the update here.
The full details can be found in the complete changelog and the revised manual – but a few highlights include:
A new Game Action speed system – which allows for speeding up, down and pausing of AI turns, PBEM replays as well as human player turns.
New side bar unit list icons, including new icons for Double time and Slow time.
Double time
This allows infantry type units the ability to increase how far they move during a turn. Units that use double time movement, will become fatigued for the remainder of that, and the next turn. Units moving double time, will be more likely to lose concealment too.
Slow time
This allows infantry type units the ability to move at a slower, more cautious pace during a turn. Units that use Slow Time Movement will use more Action Points than they normally do, but will be less likely to suffer casualties if they stumble into a minefield or an IED.
A makeover of the unit list and info boxes adding a revised layout and new graphics.
Roaming mode – (CTRL+SPACE) Allows you to quickly identify units by moving the mouse over the map. Clicking anywhere on the map will then toggle it off.
Overhaul of the mine and IED system with improved movement effect, including the addition to night and enemy proximity effects.
Place all button in the Arrived dialog for placing all listed reinforcements with a single click.
Revised the Scenario Information dialog to display the scenario's map region and biome
Please let us know how you find all of the new changes, systems and gameplay.
Full changelog below
Enhancements
• Implementation of new Game Action Speed system for speeding up, slowing down, pausing the AI turns, PBEM replays and human player turns. See Status → Action Speed → AI Play → Slow Down and Status → Action Speed → Replay → Slow Down for setting the AI play and Replay speeds while in the Human Player turn mode with new ALT+ and CTRL+ associated Hot Keys.
• Implemented a message to display a confirmation of the changed Action Speed.
• Unit List and Info Box were given makeovers to make it easier to read the information with larger and bolder fonts, revised layout and new graphics.
• Implemented Options → Unit List → Unselected Highlights → White, Black, Alternate, None options for the Unit List.
• Implemented new side bar Unit List icons, including new icons for Double Time and Slow Time
• Implemented a white halo for red Unit List values.
• Implemented Display → Roaming Mode (CTRL+SPACE) for quickly identifying units as you move the mouse over the map. Clicking anywhere on the map will toggle OFF Roaming Mode.
• Implemented Slow Time for all units except Aircraft that allows units to expend more Action Points when moving to reduce the likelihood of casualties from Mines and IED's.
• Updated the Toolbar to incorporate buttons for Slow Time, Roaming Mode, and Game Action Speeds and revised placement of the Jump Map button.
• Implemented new, dynamic, random Hex Info Box CSLogoXX images, with the option to fix images on a per scenario basis by appending [LG##] to the scenario description in the scenario editor.
• Implemented Options → Damage Results → Position → Center, Upper Left, Upper Right, Lower Left and Lower Right, allowing the user to display the Damage Results where they prefer.
• Overhaul of Mine/IED system with improved movement effects, including the addition to night and enemy proximity effects, delayed side awareness and several bug fixes.
• IED's now operate much like Mines in most ways. (For instance, step-down reductions, on activation and removal, not all in one go.)
• Revised the Scenario Information dialog to display the scenario's map region and biome.
• Implemented the Scenario Information dialog in the scenario editor.
• The Location Dialog will no longer display the '=' and '+' border labels, just the relevant place names.
• Implemented a new Place All button in the Arrived Dialog for placing all listed reinforcements with a single click.
• Units moving Double Time will be more likely to lose concealment and Units moving in Slow Time will be more likely to remain concealed.
• Implemented single button Opportunity Fire Limit adjustments within the Opportunity Fire
Dialog.
• Implemented new XAlliedAttack/XAxisAttack hex flags that has the game engine recording any combat action originating from any hex and for any such hex, the "authorization denied" will not apply to artillery fire and.
• Implemented additional Lua CSEE Debugging capabilities in the scenario editor.
• Updates/improvements in the Find Organization Dialog in game and the Forces Dialog in the scenario editor providing additional information such as the hex location.
• The Units/SPs/Losses Dialog will now also show unit type surviving Strength Points in addition to Strength Point losses.
• Watercraft out in open water and in waterways will no longer have a chance of being concealed.
• Implemented additional testing features, for on the fly toggling ON/OFF new and work-inprogress features.
• Implemented several new CSEE functions: fire_indirect_nearest_from(), garrison(), accompany(), order_airstrike(), move_slow(), has_attack().
Fixes
• Fixed the unscripted (no Scripted AI) artillery blind fire strikes. The AI will no longer fire blindly (to be implemented in the future).
• In the map editor, fixed an issue where the region and biome changes were not saving to the .map file.
• Fixed a number of LCG issues in the code, including more than one Crash to Desktop.
• Fixed color inconsistency in Command Report and Damage Results Dialogs.
• Fixed a bug in the map editor where the biome would not show properly in Values → Region and where the biome would not show properly in the Values → Biome.
• Updated the frontend code to process the latest version # LCG .scl files properly.
• Fixed a bug possibly preventing an amphibious unit moving from land to water or vice versa.
• Fixed a bug where Landing Zones might be cleared in waterway hexes.
• Fixed a bug where loaded waterway transports may be prevented from moving.
• Fixed several bugs preventing the display of the on-map Unknown Unit marker.
• Fixed a bug where a ferrying watercraft unit may leave a hex and potentially strand a ferried ground unit in the water. Ferrying watercraft will no longer be able to move if any potential ferried units have moved to shore. This action costs 50 Action Points.
• When entering a roadblock hex, the moving side will gain side awareness immediately and the roadblock marker will instantly show.
• Fixed a bug for some Options changes for the Unit List would not update automatically.
• Fixed the broken Static All toolbar option.
• Fixed a bug where the DaisyCutter operations were not working for ground units.
• Fixed a bug where on PBEM (and LAN Play) scenario start, the New Scenario dialog (and Player Dialog), the Rules button was broken.
• Fixed a bug with Units → Move Air Units Off Map in the scenario editor.
• Revised CSEE counters_weakest() function.
• Fixed several UI color and background pattern issues.
• Extended the game opening splash video by 10 seconds, in case the Windows Media Player is unusually slow to start.
• Fixed other minor bugs and made other code improvements.
Graphics
• Fixed several minor UI color issues.
• Fixed several 3D map graphic issues.
• Added photos for the new dynamic, random Hex InfoBox CSLogo## images.
Data
• Updated cswpnchk.pl to check for fire capable units with a zero-fire cost.
• Revised Colored Dirt to have the same terrain effects as Beach.
• Revised a few units to ensure the data and weapon files matched.
Scenarios
• Revised A Week in Binh Long scripting to remedy issues found during play.
• Revised A Week in Binh Long map.
• Revised A Week in Binh Long scenario file to include updated units, missions.
• Revised Bootcamp 4 scripting to remedy an early release issue.
• Revised several additional Lua file errors.
Mods
• New 2D Hypsometric Tint mod.
• Additional new 2D Hypsometric Tint mod.
• 2D Brown Water mod has replaced the 2D Blue Water mod which is now default.
Manual
• The manual has been revised to the 1.30 UPDATE
The seventy-second session of A Week in Binh Long. The first part of the session goes over the new 1.30 UPDATE, providing some insight into what it includes and how to install it. Then we get right into the attack. We are running out of day light, unfortunately. 10 more turns before I'm fighting the remainder of the scenario at night. On a positive note, the attack on Loc Ninh is going well... from the south. The western attack had a nasty surprise by a North Vietnamese infantry company overrunning the 2d/28th Infantry headquarters. That was an unexpected surprise! Alas, I lost some more gunships this session. There is action all over the map, which is keeping me on my toes!
The seventy-third session of A Week in Binh Long. I finally have a foot hold into southern Loc Ninh! Yay for small miracles! My other attacks against the airfields in the west and east are also going well. All in all, it was a good session. The issue coming is night is only a handful of turns away. This will make the combat operations significantly more challenging! I am pooling my helicopters read for leap frogging across the map during the night as that will be the fastest mode of transportation. I'm currently sitting at a Minor Defeat, but there's a chance I can turn it around!
The seventy-fourth session of A Week in Binh Long. The push into Loc Ninh continues and I found some rockets on Rattlesnake Ridge. Unfortunately, a few helicopters were shot down this session, including some lucky hits at a landing zone by an RPG team. The Tong Le Chon airfield has been mostly secured and the ARVN 3rd/9th Infantry has successfully secured the Chi Linh Special Forces camp and airfield! I'm still stuck in a Minor Defeat, although with the number of areas I have been securing, the numbers should start changing in my favour. This will be especially true with recapturing Loc Ninh. Night is a couple turns away, that will be a big hinder on ground operations in the near future.
The seventy-fifth session of A Week in Binh Long. What a great session! Lots of great banter and discourse throughout, thank you to those that attend the live sessions. Loc Ninh is slowly coming under my control, although there's a pretty intense counter attack by the Viet Cong that is causing me some anxiety. Night has fallen, which will make operations much more difficult. Helicopters will be the life blood of operations going forward for the rest of the scenario. The Viet Cong are being clever and moving in behind me where I've already been, capturing areas that I had already been through. Sneaky buggers. Can you believe it's been 150 hours already for this scenario?
The seventy-sixth session of A Week in Binh Long. An intense seesaw battle happening over the Loc Ninh airfield. The rocket attacks, when they hit, are absolutely brutal. I have managed to land reinforcements on the airfield, although it is touch and go as the airfield is surrounded. Elsewhere around the map, apart from some random ambushes, my helicopters are ferrying troops to the various corners of the map to continue securing the objectives that the Viet Cong have captured. It does seem they are moving in behind me though in some areas, so I have to pay very close attention. It will be a hard night, very hard.
The seventy-seventh session of A Week in Binh Long. Getting down to the nitty gritty. Loc Ninh seems secured now although the rocket attacks are generally not making me happy. Happiness is having a couple of platoons working their way along the eastern ridgeline where some of the rocket launchers have met a timely demise. Helicopters are buzzing around trying get more boots on the ground in Loc Ninh as well as the surrounding plantation and jungle. A race against time to collect as many points and clear as many areas as I can before the end of the scenario. Only ten turns left. Ten turns!
The seventy-eighth session of A Week in Binh Long. Rockets. Blasted Rockets! Again, the rockets take out half a platoon in the combat around Loc Ninh. Just brutal. For better news, I am making progress in advancing into the town of Loc Ninh. It's a bloody affair, as it is intense urban combat, at night... without flares. Unfortunately, I've stumbled down into the Major Defeat threshold. Will I managed to creep my way up to a Minor Victory? Draw? Heck even a Minor Defeat? There's only a couple more episodes left of the campaign!
Go go ARVN Gangsters! I'm doing my part to win a co-op Fire in the Lake game right now, so don't let me down! :ThumbsUp:
Bahaha, thank you! I need all the help I can get!
The seventy-ninth session of A Week in Binh Long. Racing around the operating areas, trying to recapture many lost objectives. It is a race against time there are less than a handful of turns left. This session provides some excellent methodology for urban combat and at night. How to assault, what to think about when assaulting and how best to prepare your troops for the combat. There was also some great discussion points! We're getting close to the end here and what a blast it has been!
The eightieth session of A Week in Binh Long. Well, we finally managed to complete the scenario. 160 hours later and the campaign is under our belts. I should get a medal for that! Not for my performance though, what a battle that was indeed! I did finally end up securing most of Loc Ninh, which was a personal victory after the chaos that was Day 7. I haven't had that hard of a fight in a long time and quite enjoyed it! It will be tempting not to start it up again.
:notworthy: :notworthy: :notworthy:
Now for an after-action analysis of the Days (and maybe nights)!
That's coming on Sunday during the live stream.
The eighty-first session of A Week in Binh Long. We spent today session reviewing the scenario/campaign. Discussions varied from tactics to suggestions to ideas. Lots of tidbits on how to play the campaign more effectively and offering alternate solutions to having a better Day 7 than I had. Things to consider, things to contemplate, things to engage in!
Starting a new and shorter scenario since we finished A Week in Binh Long. Tonight we played the first half of The Contradiction - The Battle of Minh Thanh Road. Our core unit is a couple of cavalry troops from 1st/4th Cavalry (Quarter Horse) and we are going to ambush and destroy a Viet Cong Regiment. Exciting times to be had with all this firepower!
An error was found in the script and I decided to give it another go. I started from turn 8, near the start of the ambush site. Silly me for doing so, especially live. What a mess. Things were going so well before the Viet Cong decided to get serious. These 12 turns are an example of ways to experience and defeat an ambush, but then get surprised and have a bad day!
I could say that the ambush rolled into our favour and it was a glorious victory. Well, that's what the press would say. The reality is that the ambush was finally cleared when the Viet Cong finally decided to withdraw from the highway. That was a rough session today, with more losses than I could shake a stick at. Lots of valuable lessons learned though!
An all French scenario session today! After a few questions about how to win the Giong Dinh scenario has come to my attention recently, I decided to give it a whirl with the 1.30 UPDATE and see how it went. I show some tactics on what do to and, of course, what not to do. Ha! The scenario only takes about an hour so then I started up Blood and Coal, Battle of Mao Khe and managed to play through the first 12 turns. It's a mess, but a heck of a lot of fun!
It was a very late session last night, damn work getting in the way of my schedule. We ended up finishing up Blood and Coal successfully! That was a fun little scenario, the French parachutists were the core of the counter attack, with some valuable lessons how to assault. The second game was the start of a Rendevous with Destiny - Battle of Ia Drang. This is the first landing with 1st/7th Cavalry in to LZ XRAY in the Ia Drang Valley. I did do a modification, which I explained in my babbles, although I'm having second doubts. Let me know what think!
My internet crashed during the live stream, but I kept recording and played through these two scenarios. I played the two primary Ia Drang scenarios. Let me know what you think about the first one and if I should remove the extra helicopter platoon. The second one, Broken Arrow, I knew I added some options for the attacks, but the attacks in this case were pretty tame. I might see about revising the script for a future update or try it offline another go and see if it is just a fluke. What do you think?
Since the CS Middle East 2.30 UPDATE still hasn't been released, although should be released tomorrow, I started up another Vietnam scenario. This has me operating a couple Marine Battalions into the DMZ and trying to hunt down some PAVN regulars. Well holy crap! What a mess so far. I'm just getting started and it is already nerve wracking. But it's fun, a lot of fun. I lost some precious helicopters though, which will make my attack in the north quite difficult. Give it a watch, tell me what you think!
Continuing on with Operation Hickory, we are stumbling forward into well position NVA defences. Both the American Marines and the ARVN Parachutists are having a hell of a time making progress. The ARVN are taking brutal losses in the forests just south of the DMZ, while the Marines are holding their own... so far. My helicopter situations went from bad to terrible. This is a good scenario to learn how to attack... or die.
Thanks for the update Jason. :ThumbsUp:
You're most welcome!
Back to Vietnam for today's session! We are continuing on with Into the DMZ and the brutal fighting that is happening in this sector. This session provides a lot of good examples of how to use the Free World firepower to reduce well defended bunkers and trenches, especially when operating in close quarters with the enemy. Jungle bunker busting at its finest. Alas, the ARVN Parachutists, on the other hand, are having a hell of a go. It's a rough fight, very indeed.
We finished off Into the DMZ - Operation Hickory. While I would like to say it went swimmingly well, it generally didn't. There were a lot of valuable lessons learned in this session. This session is a bit longer than usual as I played through until the end so we can start up something new next time. This was a challenging scenario and I know what I would do next time I played. There are a lot of small challenges in the scenario, which makes it most fascinating to play.
Back to Vietnam and we started a new scenario today. Hunting in Ho Bo Woods, Operation Crimp. This takes place in III Corps area northwest of Saigon near the Iron Triangle. The star of this episode is the 1st Australians and we land into LZ March and attempt to clear the plantation. Of course, I have suffered casualties and it took quite a bit to get my troops organized into a coherent attack, but we're on the way! The US Airborne is nearly on scene in their slicks getting ready to land at LZ April! Exciting times to be had.
It is most interesting to play this scenario. Operating in the plantation and things seem to be going relatively smoothly when all of a sudden, well, they aren't. The losses haven't been too bad thus far, although the Australians have definitely taken the brunt of the casualties so far. You can see the differences between the Australian and US Airborne troops, especially in terms of movement in the jungle terrain. Let's just say I'm glad I have the firepower I do in this scenario, it's all about the firepower.
We wrapped up Operation Crimp, which went fairly well. I cleaned up the map, mostly, although seemed to have missed some key Event Point items, including an elusive headquarters that I was struggling to destroy. After that, we started up a Dien Bien Phu scenario, the Loss of Beatrice. In this scenario I'm playing the Viet Minh and assaulting a well defended French position. Night is about to fall but I have managed to get a toehold in the position. Exciting times for the Viet Minh!
If you like the French scenarios, this session was for you! We finished off Loss of Beatrice, which turned out to be pretty easy as I was already in the western part of the defences. Beatrice fell and there didn't appear to be a counter-attack, so it was ending turns until the end. Next we played Ninh Binh Attaque, which was a fantastic little battle and went right to the wire on turn 12. Absolutely fun and nerve racking. Then we started another French scenario called GM1 Counter where I am trying to recapture Ninh Binh. I spent the first few turns preparing for the assault that will be coming. Exciting times with lots of explanations!
Another session with some French scenarios. I finished off GM Counter and then started up Operation Tulipe. Operation Tulipe seems to be an interesting scenario, I am up against a significant Viet Minh force as I am attempting to clear a highway while advancing from the north and south. It's a little larger than the other French scenarios I have been playing, which is a nice change - I do prefer the larger ones. There are lots of options for assaulting and maneuvering. While I am making good progress, some lessons were learned in assaulting a well defended town.
Campaign Series Vietnam: We wrapped up Operation Tulipe with great success. It went to the last turn though, so that was fun! Lots of small battles cumulating into the large affair. There are a lot of small unit tactics lessons in this video, as well as showing the importance of heavy weapon reliance for the French forces, much as we see later on when the US arrives in Vietnam. In that sense, it is good practice!
Campaign Series Vietnam: Well then, here I go trying to do something fancy and it blows up in my face. Completely and horribly. Here are some good examples about how NOT to attack a well defended position, especially against regular NVA troops, with ARVN troops. I was thinking that my flanking move would save the ARVN some casualties instead of a frontal assault against some hills. Silly me.
Day 2 of the Hill 50 series is much easier than Day 1. I'm not trying anything fancy this time and the attacks are going relatively smoothly. There are some great examples of how to assault defended positions, especially as the Marines have the advantage of firepower - as they should. I have received another ARVN parachute battalion as reinforcements, but with a low level defence, they really are paper tigers when facing NVA regulars, as we are here.
Campaign Series Vietnam: I'm back after a month holiday and was streaming live today! We returned to Tightening the Noose and wrapped that up before we started with Operation Chopper, the first large use of American helicopters in the Vietnam theatre circa 1962. It's a fun little scenario with not enough heavy weapons and a lot of hide and seek with ARVN versus Viet Cong forces. I suspect this won't go well. HA!
That was an interesting scenario. I played through Operation Chopper to the end. Alas, I ran into a few situations where I lost significant numbers of helicopters and my Birddog. What does that mean? Well, I lost something fierce because it, even though I was well warned about it. I did find the HQ, but didn't have the forces to take it out. After that we started the Battle of U Minh Forest. An early war scenario where I have command of a handful of ARVN battalions and we are tasked with rooting out the Viet Cong U-Minh Battalion.
Campaign Series Vietnam: All my positive vibes in the world don't seem to be helping my ARVN troops as they attempt to push into the U Minh Forest. I have a lot of troops to assist with the assault, but alas, they are struggling to gain some ground. Surprisingly enough, I haven't lost any helicopters. My Hogs are providing some excellent fire support thus far, I just wish I had more of them. It's a slog, but a fun battle nevertheless! There are some valuable tactical lessons to be learned in the swamps.
We spent the session playing this to the end. Well. Wow. Just wow. There are some great lessons that were learned in this playthrough. The most important lesson is the quality of Rangers compared to ARVN regulars in this scenario. Knowing what I know now, I would definitely make sure they were the primary battalion into the forest instead of the ARVN regulars that were on the airfield at the start of the scenario. Generally it was a very difficult scenario. Impossible? No, but definitely a challenge and a half. I look forward to trying this one again in the future.
A new scenario. The Swarm: The battle of Dong Xoai. This is a small scenario over a wide space. Helicopter management and following instructions are important. The first half of the scenario has gone better than I had hoped, so that's good. Well, it did. I have lost part of the CIDG camp, but the Viet Cong around Dong Xoai have taken a terrible toll. On the other hand, the Viet Cong battalions in the other areas are causing me some terrible grief. Losses are mounting.
Quote from: Jason Petho on October 15, 2023, 06:24:00 PMCampaign Series Vietnam: All my positive vibes in the world don't seem to be helping my ARVN troops.
I'm having the exact same problem right now in Round 2 of my current Fire in the Lake mp game. The VC got an overpowered momentum early in Round 1, that let them stay eligible each turn, so they're like 14 points ahead of their win condition (and barely missed winning at the end of Round 1), and I'm having to whack-a-mole them while teaching the US player what has to be done to focus on whittling that score down before the end of round 2 -- while the NVA player is ready to tidal-wave us into the stone age of the workers' paradise.
Strategic, not tactical, but still. Playing ARVN mostly involves stopping everyone else from winning until I can get Vietnamization off the ground. And then still probably losing.
Yes, you're absolutely right!
Assault after assault against the penetration of the Viet Cong in the Dong Xoai CIDG Camp. This really shows how the quality of troops makes all the difference in effective campaigning. On the bright side, things are going much better for the ARVN, especially as we have Rangers on the ground now south of Dong Xoai. They are AWESOME! Well, keeping things in perspective compared to the rest of the troops.
We wrapped up the scenario today, it was actually really well. We rocked it! I then started another scenario, a 1964 scenario - Battle of Mo Cay, where I am playing the ARVN against a Viet Cong ambush. In between the two scenarios, we had a chat and I was showing some things that are coming and what I am working on. It's worth a look and you might find it quite interesting. The new battle is, well, a mess, but I'm having fun so far. My reinforcements are now just released - thankfully!
Seems like it was a good day to play in the Mekong today. The tide turned in the ARVN favour - for once - and I was successful at holding Mo Cay. Well, realistically, I lost nearly two companies of troops to an ambush, but the news won't mention that part. After we finished that, we went to the Ia Drang and landed at LZ X-RAY as it was a fitting session due to the anniversary of the battle this week. We played through the first half, making essential decisions and finding out if they were all for naught.
We completed the first Ia Drang scenario. Alas, I suffered some serious casualties including a few helicopters and a headquarters. That turned the tides for me suffering a defeat. We were successful in defeating the NVA assaults though, I was pleased with how that went. We started up the 2nd Ia Drang scenario, which we are holding our own thus far. We suffered an intense attack and lost a couple of platoons and leader, but the landing zone is holding. I'm forever grateful for the gunships, those are what is keeping me alive.
Campaign Series Vietnam: It was an efficient day today! We finished off Broken Arrow, played through the ambush of LZ Albany and then started The Vice. Ia Drang was an intense fight, it is always curious to see how the NVA will attack in LZ Albany, I had some losses, but I held on pretty well. We started The Vice and I have a mixed force of US Marines and South Korean Marines. It looks like it will be a challenging and fun scenario! I'm intrigued how the South Koreans are doing, they are quite fun to play with!
Quote from: Jason Petho on November 12, 2023, 08:11:24 PMI was showing some things that are coming and what I am working on.
Hi Jason - Do you plan on backfilling the AI mods you reviewed at the start to the other scenarios?
Quote from: 88mmkwk on December 10, 2023, 02:06:37 PMQuote from: Jason Petho on November 12, 2023, 08:11:24 PMI was showing some things that are coming and what I am working on.
Hi Jason - Do you plan on backfilling the AI mods you reviewed at the start to the other scenarios?
That is the plan, yes!
Campaign Series Vietnam: The Vice turned out to be a pretty fun scenario. It's not a large battle, just a couple battalions that one is operating with, but it turned out to be a lot of micro decisions that impacted the entire scenario. That was a blast! It was fascinating to see how just a hiccup or two can throw plans out the window. Small unit tactics were essential for this scenario - and one more praise for all the extra support the US and South Koreans had to help with the battle!
Bill and I started Campaign Series Vietnam scenario "The Mauling" up. I played as the Americans and he played as the NVA (PAVN). My goal was to advance through a plantation area and root out any opposing forces that I could find. Well, Bill definitely made that a chore and a half. It was touch and go all the way through and a hell of a lot of fun. I was appreciative of all the support I had, but holy, against a capable opponent, one never knows what's going to happen!
Started off with a brief explanation of a project I'm working on and then we got into the thick of it. We did a playtest of one of the Tet scenarios that I have been working on. It was a first go. Well, holy crap, Murphy was out in full force during today's session. If it could go wrong, it definitely did! I tried my best to survive, and was successful in a couple of places. Next session will be the revenge, that's for sure.
Alas, I misread my reinforcement schedule. I received some great reinforcements, just not enough of them. The horror, the horror. I did what I could with what I had. I did get lucky in some places of the city, so yay for small miracles. But alas, I was royally defeated. I have some tweaks to do the Event Points for this scenario, as I was trying a new idea and it definitely added up quickly! HA! Otherwise, it was an eye opening scenario on how effective the scripted AI can be. We had some great conversation today about ongoing projects!
We playtest a new Tet scenario with some Aussies today. The first test went fairly well, although I will tweak it a bit to make things a little more challenging for the ARVN/Australians. Keep in mind that there was a lot of heavy action for most of the scenario, it just dwindled a bit too soon. I will remedy that and will try it again next weekend. This was a lot of fun though, it is always fascinating to see how the attacks pan out - there are so many options for the Viet Cong!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
A second test of the Ba Ria scenario. It was interesting to see how the attack came to fruition and the adjustments made to the ARVN had changed the dynamic of the scenario! I noticed a few more minor errors in the script, but nothing game stopping. I will do a little more tweaking and we should be ready to release. I might try this one more time next week to see how it goes. I hope you're enjoying these testing sessions! Yay for learning!
A final test of the Ba Ria scenario. There were significant changes made to the lua script, which I go over in detail at the beginning of the session. It's quite fascinating to see how HAL will respond to the changes and what it does. This session played fairly well and I only need a couple of tweaks to finalize the scenario. I also showed some of the work I've been doing on the Iranians Order of Battles for the Iran/Iraq War.
Here's the very first raw test of this new scenario. This is a good example of why testing is so important. On the bright side, the scripting turned out fairly well. HAL attacked with the Viet Cong in a couple of different ways which made things quite interesting. I will do a couple of modifications for next weeks stream that will, hopefully, finalize this scenario. That will include a few little things like ensuring the Viet Cong don't kill themselves on stacks they just can't take.
Well then, that was eye opening. I was able to test this scenario twice during this session. I didn't poorly the first run, the second run - I don't even want to talk about it. Looks like I have one more tweak to do and it seems that the scenario is good to go. I'm on the verge of embarrassed to post this video and how HAL absolutely slaughtered me, but hey, that's how we learn!
We started up a brand new Tet scenario. I literally "finished" scripting it last night, so there were some teething issues getting it rolling, but lots of valuable lessons to be learned in Lua Scripting. We played through the first half and it's turned into the usual mess for me, but it has been fun to see how the die rolls start off for the main attacks. Some areas are holding on well and heck, I'm even counter-attacking! Alas, other areas seem to have the short end of the stick for sure.
Sorry for the off topic question, but what is Battles of Cuba I see on your desktop?
Thanks.
Good eye!
Long term future projects.
Quote from: Jason Petho on February 05, 2024, 10:34:02 AMGood eye!
Long term future projects.
This is HUGE news. I can't recall much treatment of this material, other than the occasional scenario in TOAW, or something.
Please tell me you are going to model Bay of Pigs and a hypothetical US invasion during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This would be epic!
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on February 05, 2024, 11:38:29 AMQuote from: Jason Petho on February 05, 2024, 10:34:02 AMGood eye!
Long term future projects.
This is HUGE news. I can't recall much treatment of this material, other than the occasional scenario in TOAW, or something.
Please tell me you are going to model Bay of Pigs and a hypothetical US invasion during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This would be epic!
As well as some of the civil war fighting prior.
But yes, that's the plan.
Long term plans, of course. I'm working on a lot of little projects at the moment including the Iran/Iraq War.
After an overview of what I have been currently working on, including a new unit, we jumped back into the Battle of Pleiku during the Tet offensive and started our counterattack. It seemed to be going well in most places although my ARVN Cavalry Squadron, supported by US tanks, seems have to stalled in the outskirts of Pleiku. The PAVN are dug in and it's a challenge to get into the part of town they are occupying, especially as I see VC companies en route to assist in the attack. On the other hand, the ARVN Rangers are making short work of any VC they find as they advance into town.
I took some time to explain how to MOD the latest MAUSMAN MOD, it's super straight forward and simple, so you can customize it how you want. That's the advantage of the Campaign Series, it's all so relatively easy to modify. After, we finished off the first test and started the second. Some new errors, but nothing crazy until later on. I did spend some time with Stipe after the session hunting it down though. Otherwise, it was fascinating to see how the new attacks were carried out by the Viet Cong during the second session, the way the options are coded always makes for an interesting attack. It was even more interesting to see the new covert civilians operating in the area.
Bill and I started Campaign Series Vietnam scenario "A Terrible Morning" up. I played as the ARVN and he played as the Viet Cong. As the ARVN, I had to defend an attack and then attempt to counter attack against a Viet Cong determined assault. Well, I guess you can imagine how that went. I do love playing against a human though!
We went over the latest things I've been working on and answered some questions from those that watched on Twitch. We were still using the MausMan mod for this session, I think the Vietnam version looks pretty nice although there are some tweaks I will do in the near future. We continued playtesting the Battle of Pleiku although during the session I had noticed some oddities and was confused indeed. By the end of the session it was figured out how sometimes I'm not the swiftest current in the stream.
It was a much better attack this time by the Viet Cong. I took quite a bit of time to conduct an overview of the various companies and scripting to make sure all was good, I explained the process in the beginning. Otherwise a quick run down of what I had been doing this week and then we played through the night turns of the scenario! Exciting times indeed!
After an overview of what I've been working on we returned to our attack into Pleiku. So far the Viet Cong are having a rough go of it, although I did try a few things I shouldn't have. You know, for testing purposes. Yea, that's it. We have nearly secured Pleiku and we're starting to clear the western approaches to the city of the artillery and rocket positions. I have some adjustments to make to the points for the Viet Cong as they collect them, but otherwise, I think it's going well.
There was a follow on question to last weeks question! Thank you for the answer that helps with the guidance of the next tutorial video series. We wrapped up the Plieku scenario, mostly to the end. I did find a couple more minor issues in the Lua file, but this is why we test. I think I will do another test of Pleiku offline and next week I will start a new Tet scenario to test. Exciting times indeed!
We playtested a new Tet related scenario completely raw. We played through once and then tweaking a couple things to try it again. Fascinating how such little changes can impact the scenario so much! There are some things that I will explore with the scenario lua file, but generally it is pretty good. It's a dirty little fight, which has tough potential for Play By Email.
Well holy crap. That went to h3ll in a handbag pretty quickly. I played through the rest of test number 2 and showed how not to use helicopters in a hot landing zone and then in test number 3, we were hanging on by a thread or tooth and nail. Either way, it was an intense fight the whole way through. Each test shows different options and the consequences of those options. Absolutely fascinating!
I spent the first part of the stream showing you the steps I would use to add a new unit based on an existing unit in the game. A requested unit was a medivac helicopter for Vietnam, so we added a 1 Strength Point medivac helicopter to the game. Of course, there are no mechanics involved and have any forum of use will have to be Lua scripted, but at least the unit is there to test things out! After that we dived into the 4th test of the Khe Sanh Village scenario. It's fascinating how every time we play, it's different every time. I've come to the conclusion that the eastern landing zones are way too hot.
We did something a little different today. I have a series of Tet related scenarios that deal with Hue from David Galster. We started up the first in the list, but this time I played Hot Seat against myself. These haven't been scripted yet, so it is an interesting way to test to understand how the unit capabilities and tactical capabilities are in the game. What do you think of this style of play through?
Quote from: Jason Petho on April 21, 2024, 04:59:22 PM...I have a series of Tet related scenarios that deal with Hue from David Galster.
This is timely. :Nerd: https://www.amazon.com/Hue-1968-Mark-Bowden-audiobook/dp/B0721TLZKT/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3SNXAFVQ3XFZ7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.1D1uwzFZLfisqGff5ZK6Ug2PaVGBjAzzbjtbAtA2EGzLkOLT0hP4YPbwm88LoiXwiNcbBRB2jcCJqaqXEl_sYpNI44Gs1tl2PL8fI0t2XvPNa_3BCPxHmumd2vXgME-ZrhjB78tSiu4CBbL9e3JrjvTCNb4yffqS6h6pq_rhBIgNbI4HpTp8YwueKl4kRhbWscJLGE93b6j3UmGKBp_BOO-tWGkAwIrLZuV3N0AhwAQ.0byXPwuI3KL4DWAMiu3iZQQJpyEzO5tV6nE24mlPZRE&dib_tag=se&keywords=battle+of+hue&qid=1713902606&sprefix=battle+of+hue%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-4 (https://www.amazon.com/Hue-1968-Mark-Bowden-audiobook/dp/B0721TLZKT/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3SNXAFVQ3XFZ7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.1D1uwzFZLfisqGff5ZK6Ug2PaVGBjAzzbjtbAtA2EGzLkOLT0hP4YPbwm88LoiXwiNcbBRB2jcCJqaqXEl_sYpNI44Gs1tl2PL8fI0t2XvPNa_3BCPxHmumd2vXgME-ZrhjB78tSiu4CBbL9e3JrjvTCNb4yffqS6h6pq_rhBIgNbI4HpTp8YwueKl4kRhbWscJLGE93b6j3UmGKBp_BOO-tWGkAwIrLZuV3N0AhwAQ.0byXPwuI3KL4DWAMiu3iZQQJpyEzO5tV6nE24mlPZRE&dib_tag=se&keywords=battle+of+hue&qid=1713902606&sprefix=battle+of+hue%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-4)
Reading a fantastic book on the Battle of Hue
Good stuff.
Thank you for heads up! That's a great book on the battles!
Well I was able to share some items of good news and go over what I've been working on lately. Then we dove into the disaster of Hue. Depending on how you look at it, it's either good or bad. Well, who am I kidding, it's mostly bad for the ARVN. Yay for paper tigers! It is an interesting way to play the game though, HOTSEAT. I recommend it when you're looking for a different kind of challenge. I still prefer playing the Scripted AI or a human though!
We went over some new things and some other news and then tackled the Hue assault as best as we could. What an interesting fight. The ARVN are up to their usual antics and I presumed that the US Marines would fare better. We all know how it goes when I assume things! At least I didn't lose any helicopters. Disregard the fact that I don't have any. HA!
It was a good session! We went through the latest and greatest, mostly discussing the progress on the Iraqi's. What a fascinating process indeed! After that we discovered a bug with the 1.31 for Vietnam and rolled back a set before we continued on with Hue. It's been a lot of fun playing Hot Seat, but I can see how the NVA are just absolutely brutal to the poor ARVN, even the US Marines, but not as badly. Lessons learned all throughout indeed.
City fighting. Holy freakin' firetruck. Especially with ARVN troops. At least I have some ARVN parachutists, but wow, what a mess. We finished off the first Hue scenario and started scenario number 2 (Hot Seat). This one is pretty interesting, I'm liking how the scenarios from David are telling a story. There's a lot to script though for these scenarios, as there is a lot of units. This will be interesting to see how that will work out and keep the action where it is supposed to be. Good times, good times to be had!
Are you testing scenarios for an upcoming release? If so what do you think about a time line.
I'm not a young man. :twirl:
I really want 1968 - 1975!!! :bow:
We are releasing the CSVN 1.31 UPDATE soon and it will include some of the Tet scenarios I've been working on and it will open up the OOB's to 1985.
Quote from: Jason Petho on May 21, 2024, 09:08:01 AMWe are releasing the CSVN 1.31 UPDATE soon and it will include some of the Tet scenarios I've been working on and it will open up the OOB's to 1985.
Great news! Thanks. Now, on to trying to discern exactly how to define "soon". :laugh:
I suspect June? We are under a new team at Matrix, so will have to figure out how their timelines work.
Quote from: Jason Petho on May 21, 2024, 09:08:01 AMWe are releasing the CSVN 1.31 UPDATE soon and it will include some of the Tet scenarios I've been working on and it will open up the OOB's to 1985.
Best news of the day. Really looking forward to it.
There was quite a bit to cover on the Campaign Series ongoing work update, lots of goodies in the works. I'm beyond grateful we're still making progress! After that, we continued into the second Hue scenario and the ebb and flow of city combat. The Marines aren't faring very well, but we did managed to get some reinforcements. I did notice a landing zone was MIA, so will need to do some edits. It's easy to see why this battle lasted so many weeks, the urban fighting is brutal!
We started off with showing what I've been doing and asking for some feedback on some of those projects. Your feedback would be appreciated! After that we continued our advance into Hue with our poor ARVN parachutists. We are fighting block by block, winning some and losing some. It's still a hell of a lot of fun though! We have some US Marines arriving by helicopter, which I reminded views on the best practice for unsupported helicopter assaults.
Hey "June", rhymes with "soon"!
Also hey, it's June! Technically! :ThumbsUp:
Quote from: JasonPratt on June 03, 2024, 01:54:24 PMHey "June", rhymes with "soon"!
Also hey, it's June! Technically! :ThumbsUp:
Hahah, indeed!
Yes, likely the end of June for the official release and mid-June for the public Beta of the UPDATE.
We went over the latest and greatest goodies that I've been working on and showing off the latest Cold War Silhouettes. Then I asked if the viewers wanted to see Vietnam or Omaha Beach, which D-Day won the vote and we continued on with the adventure on the beaches of France. We are making slow and steady progress, but the losses. The horror, the horror.
Lindsay and I fired up a Play by Email game. We ended up playing an Indochina scenario, I played as the French, it was a decent little fight in a small area along the Song Day River at Yen Phuc. It was one of Lindsay's first PBEM games, so he had some hard lessons to learn. I was surprised about the opportunity fire that I kept running into though. What a mess. These little scenarios are a lot of fun with some valuable lessons to be learned!
NOTE: Based on the YouTube community poll, majority ruled to have the PBEM games loaded all as one.
NOTE 2: This video is in lieu of the Wednesday stream that should be happening today, but I have to miss it due to the a work engagement.
Quote from: Jason Petho on June 03, 2024, 02:40:30 PMQuote from: JasonPratt on June 03, 2024, 01:54:24 PMHey "June", rhymes with "soon"!
Also hey, it's June! Technically! :ThumbsUp:
Hahah, indeed!
Yes, likely the end of June for the official release and mid-June for the public Beta of the UPDATE.
"... end of June for the official release..." of? Campaigns finally implemented?
Not yet for the Campaigns, although there are two A WEEK IN Campaign scenarios in the game, I highly recommend playing.
The BETA UPDATE should be released next week or the week after, and then after a couple weeks it will be officially released.
Quote from: Jason Petho on June 14, 2024, 09:17:05 AMNot yet for the Campaigns, although there are two A WEEK IN Campaign scenarios in the game, I highly recommend playing.
The BETA UPDATE should be released next week or the week after, and then after a couple weeks it will be officially released.
Please post here like the second the beta update goes live! :notworthy:
Happy Fathers Day! We went the manual changes and another new item that will be included in the CSVN 1.31 and CSME 2.31 UPDATES and then dived back into to Omaha Beach. The rocket bombardments from the Germans are the worst and definitely where I am taking the most casualties. On the bright side, we're making excellent, but bloody, progress in three sections of the beach. We have even crested the ridge line in a couple spots! Exciting times for the Americans!
We went over what's included in the pending CSVN 1.31 and CSME 2.31 UPDATES that should be available in the coming days/week and then we charged back into the mess at Omaha. I'm quite enjoying this classic, I hope you are as well! Let me know if you'd like to see more of these types of videos after I finish this scenario. The American's are off the beach and over the cliffs (in some spots) and have started to consolidate and push a little inland. Lots of senseless violence all over the place!
A brief update for the coming UPDATES for both Middle East and Vietnam, stay tuned for those this coming week! After that we dove back into the Omaha scenario to see what kind of senseless violence we could accomplish today. We also went over a brief comparison to what happened on June 6th and how my advance is. It is surprisingly similar, with the exception of one beach. We have a lot of the heavy support weapons on the beach now and preparing to advance deeper inland.
Campaign Series West Front: After a brief run down on the coming updates for Middle East and Vietnam we dived back into Omaha. I felt like was making some excellent progress until I triggered some victory objectives and noticed the bane of my future. Panthers. Not many so far, but where there is one, there will be more. I've started to push inland and have secured the beaches well enough to unload most of the toys. Now we are ready for the hardcore push into France!
Campaign Series Vietnam UPDATE Public Beta is available!
Changes in 1.31.00 (June 25th, 2024):
Errata
• No errata for 1.31
Enhancements
• Extended CS Vietnam end date from 12/1967 to 12/1985.
• Implemented a message to display a confirmation of the changed Action Speed.
• Objectives no display or obscure their values based on whether Enhanced Fog of War optional rule is selected.
• Changed Double Value objectives to display the controlling side and award the vale to the side controlling it when the scenario ends.
• Changed turn-by-turn Single value objective to be cumulative.
• Added hex side slopes to 2D maps when elevation changes.
Fixes
• Fixed a bug where Side B was not able to see Single Value Objective values.
• Fixed issues with entering and exiting a Pontoon Bridge hex (introduced in 1.30/2.30).
• Assaulting a hex now reveals any possible unrevealed fortifications in place.
• Loaded rafts can now move into shallow water and onto land and unload their passengers at either location (introduced in 1.30/2.30).
• Removed Play Campaign button from the front end as the Linked Campaigns are no longer supported from Middle East 2.30 (potential to be returned).
• Fixed a situation where a carrying unit was able to move into a village but subsequently unable to move out.
Graphics
• Added slope graphics.
• Revised aircraft graphics (thank you, Kevin!).
• Added new scenario header graphics for new scenarios.
Data
• Minor Platoon file updates various nations.
• Minor Weapon file updates.
Scenarios
• Included six new TET related scenarios.
• Revised several additional Lua file errors.
• Revised several additional map file errors.
Mods
• MausMan 3D mod has had major work done to it and is included.
Manual
• The manual has been revised to the 1.31 UPDATE.
CAMPAIGN SERIES VIETNAM 1.31 UPDATE PUBLIC BETA (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10167&t=404575)
Tet...here I come!
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on June 27, 2024, 09:26:57 AMTet...here I come!
Right behind you. I've been waiting for this. :ThumbsUp:
So happy to have this update finally out! Thank you for your support and if you notice anything out of whack do let us know :ThumbsUp:
No Tet/Hue in the update? Or am I blind?
Not really complaining as there's a lot here as it is.
Just curiouso....
Quote from: Old TImer on June 28, 2024, 12:19:59 PMNo Tet/Hue in the update? Or am I blind?
Not really complaining as there's a lot here as it is.
Just curiouso....
Cheers, OT, from Jason's post:
Quote from: Jason Petho on June 27, 2024, 09:20:16 AMScenarios
• Included six new TET related scenarios.
From the final 1.31 installer, I think I counted seven, not six Tet scenarios, or at least 1968 scenarios.
Quote from: Crossroads on June 28, 2024, 12:49:37 PMQuote from: Old TImer on June 28, 2024, 12:19:59 PMNo Tet/Hue in the update? Or am I blind?
Not really complaining as there's a lot here as it is.
Just curiouso....
Cheers, OT, from Jason's post:
Quote from: Jason Petho on June 27, 2024, 09:20:16 AMScenarios
• Included six new TET related scenarios.
From the final 1.31 installer, I think I counted seven, not six Tet scenarios, or at least 1968 scenarios.
So I AM blind then. Fantastic.
Thanks though for the info. I'll have another look.
Quote from: Old TImer on June 29, 2024, 01:00:08 PMSo I AM blind then. Fantastic.
Thanks though for the info. I'll have another look.
Thanks for participating in the public beta, Old Timer! Spot anything do let us know.
The updates have been released! I went over a quick How To and things to consider when updating Middle East and Vietnam. Also where to find the TET related scenarios! Then we dove back into the chaos at Omaha. We are well off the beaches and clearing the map. The counter attacks have mostly calmed down and now it's a lot of clearing small positions and then figuring out the best way to exit off the map. The mopping up is still full of surprises, it's interesting to see where the defenders are holed up and rooting them out is always fun!
We went over the Middle East 2.31 reissue of the update. Not much had changed, but there was some cruft that should have been removed from the original. Petri bought a new piece of software to help find those issues so it shouldn't happen again in the future. Then we went back into Omaha. This session was dealing with pockets and clearing routes for our maneuvers to the exit objective. The pockets are a pain, but we will overcome!
Campaign Series West Front: We wrapped up the scenario. It was a lot of cleaning up pockets and then removing units from the map. That being said it wasn't an action packed session, but the conversation was most interesting. There were various questions and thoughts posed throughout where we had some discussion to various topics such as the recent post at the Blitz, Iran/Iraq War, Soviets in Afghanistan, etc. That being said, it was an interesting session, the conversations are always intriguing!
Before the site took a dirt nap for a couple of days, I had asked the following question:
I'm currently playing the Alabama Tick scenario that takes place in 1966. My ARVN Airborne units are really struggling to secure their objectives along Highway 527. LZ Alpha consists of two hexes and it is the only area where my USMC helos are able to drop off reinforcements. There is a lot of AAA covering the LZ and some of those crew served weapons have taken down a few of my CH-34s. Two units of the CH-34 units have been reduced in strength to 1 and 2, respectively. As a result, they are no longer capable of carrying the reinforcements that are desperately needed in the combat zone. Without these helicopter transports at full strength, the rest of the airborne infantry will trickle in and it won't be enough to hold on, much less advance. I've tried merging the two under strength helo units, but this triggers an error message saying that the untis cannot be merged because it would exceed the maximum strength allowable for the unit. This doesn't make sense though because I have other CH-34 units that are up to a strength of 6. What am I missing? I really need these helicopters at full strength.
Also, is there any way to reinforce the under strength helicopter units? I've tried landing them at a base with a supply truck, but the strength has not gone up any.
What are my options?
Thanks.
There in lies the question indeed and why you're grateful for loaches when you get them to help draw fire so your helicopters have a chance at surviving.
Taking the AAA positions is the highest priority for the ARVN troops because that landing zone is the key to the whole operation. If you don't take out the AAA positions, you're pretty well screwed for the rest of the scenario.
Before anything, you can transport a 3SP infantry with a 3SP helicopter, so if you take a loss on the 4SP helicopters, you can still haul the platoons with them.
As for regaining strength points for the helicopters. As the helicopters are all in the same organization, you can use the MERGE feature. Land a normally 2SP helicopter (it may be 1SP now) into an LZ and then land a 4SP (assuming it is now 3SP) helicopter into the same LZ. Selecting them both and pressing the Merge button should merge them into one platoon of 4SP (increasing by 1SP from the reduced helicopter). There's a section in the manual that gives you the details about how to do this and the limitations for it.
That's the only way to regain strength points in a scenario.
The other thing to note is that the 2SP helicopters are good for hauling the heavy weapons, or the headquarters, things like that. And replace losses.
Back to Hue! What a mess indeed. We covered the latest news about the current updates and what I've been working on and some thoughts and ideas about artillery. Feedback would be super! After that we went back into the city fighting in Hue. It didn't go as well for the ARVN as I had hoped. Not being in the groove for a month while we were in D-Day certainly had reared its ugly head, but it was fun nevertheless and we learned lots of valuable lessons for urban combat!
After going over the latest news on the UPDATES for CSME and CSVN we dived into some senseless violence. I playtested a FSB Ripcord scenario I had hidden away and was taught some valuable lessons in fighting in the mountains and jungle. Even my plethora of Cobra's couldn't save me. Well, that's only partially true. What a nail biter of a battle anyway! Then we started up the third installment of the Hue scenarios. More intense city street fighting and a massive counterattack by the NVA. Good times
Shameless plug.
Campaign Series Vietnam is on sale for 15% off!
Campaign Series Vietnam on sale! (https://www.matrixgames.com/game/campaign-series-vietnam)
We went through the latest news about the UPDATES for CS Middle East and CS Vietnam and then talked about some interesting tidbits that I found while I have been working on the North Koreans for the 1.40 UPDATE to be released at the end of the year (ish). After we dove back into the Hue #3 scenario where we engaged in heavy city street combat. The battle itself has been going well, considering. Some flanking maneuvers were successful and we are in the final phases of assaulting well defended NVA bunkers.
The Campaign Series Vietnam 1.31 UPDATE (https://www.matrixgames.com/news/campaign-series-vietnam-tet-offensive-update) has been officially released!
Squee! Remember to disable all mods with JSGME if you have any enabled, first :ThumbsUp:
I explained how to grab the Campaign Series Vietnam 1.31 UPDATE and explained some of the goodies included, we went over the North Koreans that I have been working on lately and then dove into a couple Hue scenarios. We finished off number 3, assaulting hard and trying to make progress on the last two positions we needed to take. It was bloody, but we were successful! Then we started on Hue number 4 and utilized some cavalry and gunships to advance from the northwest towards Hue. There was a lot of interaction today with brilliant questions and conversations! Such a good session!
After going over the latest news from the Campaign Series, we played a custom scenario by one of the Campaign Series playtesters. John had created a Korean War scenario with the Chinese forces against the US Marines at the Chosin Reservoir. It was an interesting scenario and allowed me to see how the Chinese performs in combat at this point of the OOB's and gave me lots of ideas for potentially scripting the scenario. If you want the scenario, which is actually designed to be played H2H, you can find it over in the Blitzkrieg Wargame club database! (https://www.theblitz.club/)
After going over the progress on North Koreans and plans ahead, we returned to Hue and continued with the Scenario #4 by David Galster. Just a reminder that these need to be scripted before we release them to the public, but they will be included in the future UPDATES for the Vietnam game. It was a rough city fighting scenario, our poor troops were getting eaten. But, we did have a bunch of gunships (which I didn't lose this time... ha!) that provided ample support. After the successful conclusion of the scenario we started up the next scenario, Scenario #6 which is over the same terrain, but I have far more troops to conduct the assault. I am missing all those gunships I had though.
An overview of the goodies I've been working on and a reminder about the future updates. After we dove back into Scenario #6 of the Hue set of scenarios. This is a rough one. It is the same terrain as #4 but a completely different set up. Lots of senseless violence and battling happening as we attempt to clear defences in depth with bunkers, trenches and ample NVA troops causing mass casualties. Lots of valuable lessons for advancing into the jaws of multiple heavy weapons. I wish I had my gunships from the last scenario, absolutely!
Campaign Series East Front : A Play by Email game in lieu of my live stream. This is against Troy and it was our first PBEM match in East Front II. Playing against a human is always an exciting challenge indeed! What a lot of fun and a reminder why I love these games so much. In this case, I was defending as the Germans.
A Play by Email game in lieu of my live stream. This is against Kevin and it was our first PBEM match in East Front II. Playing against a human is always an exciting challenge indeed! In this case I was playing as the Russians and I definitely had too much vodka during this engagement. Lessons learned against a skilled opponent!
A brief overview about what is going on with the Campaign Series before we dove into the nasty fighting for the villages. Even with the off shore bombardments, this was a tough nut to crack. Block by block we attempted to push through the village, clearing the North Vietnamese troops. Alas, they were dug in like Alabama tics, and we suffered some serious casualties as we pushed into the chaos. Good times, but a doozy indeed.
We went over the latest news with the North Koreans and some news about the 1.40 and 2.40 updates. Then we fired up the CSVN 1.40 BETA UPDATE and starting playing another new Hue scenario, number 7! This is a nasty fight for Hue itself. This is extremely messy and bloody city fighting. We are half way through the scenario and have advanced 500 metres or so. It's a challenge indeed, but fun... really, really fun!
I gave a preview of the latest Cold War graphics and then explained the current state of the North Koreans and the process of assigning ID's. Then we jumped back into the Hue #7 scenario where I spent the session getting my rear handed to me in intense city fighting. Literally block by block of horrendous losses. It was nail biting all the way to the end as my Marines and ARVN tried to push the NVA and VC out of the city. This is likely one of the hardest scenarios I've played in the series so far!
We shared some very exciting news about a couple new features, one that will change the whole way that the Campaign Series plays. Let me know what you think in the comments! I'd love to hear some feedback and ideas regarding the new feature! Then we moved into a new scenario by David Galster that deals with Operation Lam Son 719, the ARVN incursion into Laos in 1971. This is the first scenario of a series that I'm giving a test to see how it plays. A lot of helicopter action in this session and combat assaults.
I had a distraction since last session, so shared that goodness and explained the advancements Petri has made with the new MAKELUA tool that will be coming out in January with the UPDATES. Then we dove back into the first Lam Son 719 scenario where I am experiencing helicopter operations like never before. The amount of loaches, gunships and slicks we have on the map is amazing, I even feel bad for the poor North Vietnamese. Well, I did, until they started shooting down my helicopters.
A quick overview of what I've been doing on the platoon files and a discussion about the future plans embedded throughout the session. We continued our ARVN LAM SON 719 operation into Laos and discussed tactics in air mobile operations. Much to my surprise, this scenario had some B-52's that we could call in as airstrikes, which we did. And holy amazing! That was epic to watch, I am looking forward to more use in the future!
Lots of great progress on the assigning of weapon values and graphics for the six nations I'm currently working on, which was the show and tell today before we wrapped up the Lam Son 719 scenario. I have a new appreciation for 37mm Anti-Aircraft guns as I lost a number of helicopters during the many maneuvers in this scenario. We had a good run of B-52 strikes come in and I explained how they work during the scenario. I enjoy these larger battles as they consist of a number of smaller fights that one need to manage and focus on.
We started off by going over some of the new Warsaw Pact infantry graphics with some different uniforms and weapons and then we dove into a new OPERATION LAM SOM 719 scenario. This is scenario number 2, where we have ample helicopters, paratroopers and a mechanized force to try and advance deeper into Laos. Ah, the epitome of senseless violence indeed. There was a lot of good discussions and questions today, with ample tactical advice for playing!
We started off with something a little different. I showed you one way to create outlines for new graphics, as it is explained in the manual - in case you're so inclined. Then we dove back into the LAM SON 719 scenario. It's a fascinating fight with lots of action all over the map. I really enjoy these types of scenarios where you have a lot of things to think about and deciding how to manage your resources. Alas, the anti-aircraft made short work of some helicopters, but we're making excellent progress! There was lots of great discussion, thank you for tuning in and thank you for watching!
As a bonus, I had the opportunity to stream on the Slitherine TV Twitch channel this morning, so jumped on the chance. We dove back into Operation Starlite and I was giving some basic tutorial explanations about the game as well as some intense combat all around. I have a new hatred for snipers and recoilless rifles as we advanced into the Viet Cong stronghold. On the bright side, our assaults were going well today! We even secured Hill 43 with relative light casualties!
We went over the latest status for the various UPDATES for Middle East and Vietnam, showed the progress on the new nations that will be added and then dove back into the senseless violence in Laos. We wrapped up the second scenario, giving lots of ideas for scripting potential and had a lot of great discussions. This episode was filled with random tips and tricks to keep in mind when playing!
We started off by giving an overview of the new North Korean's that will be included in the Campaign Series Vietnam 1.40 UPDATE coming in January. This is for those that are keen on the Korean War and wish to create those scenarios. That means CS Vietnam will have China and North Korea with the United States and South Korea for organizations available for that. Then we generated a lua file with the new csmklua2 cslint tool and played through the number 3 scenario of the Lam Son 719 scenario set. What a bloody mess that was, especially since were without any form of air support.
With the month of December upon us, it was decided to fulfill a recommendation by one of our supporters, so we started up a West Front scenario called Aachen - West Wall as the Americans. I was informed it's a great scenario for learning how to use engineering units, so it will be fun to experiment with that. I will spend December playing through the session, taking a break from the Middle East and Vietnam games, although I will still spend the first part of the sessions going over the latest and greatest. There was a good turn out during the stream and that lead to lots of brilliant discussion!
Campaign Series West Front: We dove straight into the scrapping and continued to push towards the West Wall. The German artillery is showing it's hand and is nailing some of our advance forces, where I am suffering unnecessary casualties. On the bright side, we are advancing well towards our planned crossing points of the Wurm River and we are brushing past most of the German initial resistance so far. There are a number of traffic jams, but we're making excellent progress thus far.
So close! We're 500 metres from the Sharnhorst Line. I don't know how it is defended in that sector yet, but so far, it's been pretty convenient. This makes me wonder if it's a trap, but I'm going to push through anyway and hope to avoid the additional Pantherturm's I keep running across. I also two additional locations where I'm trying to cross, although this is turning ugly indeed due to the German artillery. I've noticed that Hetzer's are nearly impossible to kill, that's a struggle to figure out the best course of action for those. Onward into the valley of death!
Well then, things are getting very interesting indeed. We managed to cross over the Scharnhorst Line. In one place, but that still counts! I have no idea what I am getting myself into, but I'm sure it will be a doozy. I have a number of crossing locations that I'm trying to attempt to cross although the numerous anti-tank guns and machine guns paired with leaders are just plain evil. It's a bloody affair but a hell of a lot of fun!
We started off with some reminders about the new UPDATES for Middle East and Vietnam as well as the future plans for the series. Then we dove into the chaos of the Scharnhorst Line, where we did manage to break through in two places. Keep in mind, these are two very small bridgeheads, but any bridgehead is better than none! The German artillery and anti-tank guns continue to be the bane of my existence, but every turn we are making progress. I can't wait to hunt down that artillery, that will be oddly satisfying.
Merry Christmas! I hope Santa was good to everyone! I didn't stream live today, but recorded this prior to Christmas. I continued the play of the AACHEN WEST WALL scenario and continued the advance through the Scharnhorst Line. We have now successfully established three small bridgeheads into through the line. North, South and West of Aachen. It's still extremely messy and I have a lot of work to do yet. My losses are heavy and I fear they won't get any better anytime soon. It is good for the morale to be on the other side of the wall though!
We are making excellent progress, although it's a bloody mess. I still keep running into small ambushes with anti-tank guns. Some of those Pantherturms and 75mm anti-tank guns are absolutely brutal. On the bright side, I have punched through the Scharnhorst line in 4 different spots now. Some are more successful than others, but it is nice to see some progress, considering we are nearly a third of the way through the scenario. This is a challenging but fun scenario, I'd recommend it if you're looking for some hours to burn!
We spent the entire session going over the Campaign Series Middle East 3.00 and Campaign Series Vietnam 2.00 UPDATES that are going to drop later this month. These are very large updates that change how things work and how things look. We went through all what is new including the graphics and order of battles. I also showed how you'll be able to use some of the older graphics in part or whole if that is your preference, as well as going how you can continue a scenario you were playing previous to the updates. There was also some time showing some of the tools that are new and included in the Tools folder. An informative session about what you can expect with the latest UPDATES!
CS: Vietnam Public Beta for 2.00 is now available for download. It is a new baseline; save files are not compatible with previous version, so finish those first. That said, it is a big one, with new Scenario Browser frontend, revised 3D Map images in 250 m/hex scale, Campaign groupings for scenarios, and some new stuff, such as Laos 1971 scenarios.
North Korean Order of Battle is available too. No Korean War scenarios yet - full set of editors are available though.
Installer uninstalls the previous version, then adds the new one. We'd appreciate any and all feedback on this!
Release Notes (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/download/file.php?id=1225865)
Campaign Series Vietnam 2.00 Public Beta announcement and download link (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10167&t=408766&sid=1b5ec08165a3a29820364a8c838af008)
I have returned from the vacation and I am back in action! We went over the latest UPDATE news and showed off the PUBLIC BETA's. After we dove back into the AACHEN West Wall scenario to see where I left off and what kind of attacks needed to be formulated. Clearly I had forgotten mostly what I was doing, but we were back on track. I started the assault into Aachen proper and we're taking over some blocks. It will be a nasty affair, but a good fight indeed. We didn't cover the whole turn this session, as the BETA's took some time, but we are making good progress! It's good to be back!
Thanks Jason and welcome back to proper winter! Speaking of which, the winter map images were completed today, both for 2D and 3D maps. I will put them in for the Official updates at the end of month - barring any unseen issues - so for all you Korean War fans out there, you can now opt to create for battles in winter conditions as well.
I am referring to discussion around 27 minute mark, where for this Public Beta we only had Snow completely finished and included here.
The first 30 minutes or so cover the new 2.00 and 3.00 version of Vieatam and Middle East, if you have any questions we're happy to answer them here.
We took a minute to get everyone caught up to speed on the Campaign Series Middle East and Vietnam UPDATES and then we dove right into the senseless violence of Aachen. At this rate it is taking a bit longer to do the turns, but I am also taking the time to explain some of the thoughts and tactics I'm using as I continue to play. Of course, if you have questions, feel free to ask them and I am always happy to answer! This scenario is getting more intense as I am seeing tanks coming to the front and the counter-attacks are starting to form up. Alas, I did make a few mistakes near the end of the session... boo for bloody lessons.
We spent the first half hour going over the first couple day results of the survey that was posted over on cslegion.com If you haven't filed it out, I highly recommend doing so, as we do take the answers into account as we design the games! After that we returned to Aachen for some intense city fighting and fighting on the southern portion of the map, for a couple turns. In most cases the German artillery was off, but damn, in the south - it was atrocious. On the bright side, progress is being made in the city.
It was an intense session, with some good progress on both the flanks. The city fighting is grinding down though, as we didn't make a lot of progress into Aachen this turn. Block by block we're scrapping in the city, but I have reinforcements coming on the outskirts, hopefully that will turn the tide. Panthers have been spotted advancing to the front in the south, so that is a whole new ball of wax I will have to deal with. It will be interesting to see how well the Jackson's can do against the tanks, even though some Panzer IV's nailed a few this turn. Ugh. Positive vibes!
We went over some news for the latest Campaign Series games and offered a reminder about the Cold War survey. Please take a moment to fill it out if you're interested, we really want to make the game for you! We dove back into Aachen with some intense city fighting, making progress in some sectors and being held back in other. What a pain in the rear. We engaged some Panthers for the first time with some relative success and continued to clean out the Aachen Municipal Forest. Once we do that, it will release a bunch of troops to send to the south of Aachen and fill in the gap where German reinforcements appear to be coming from. Onward!
"We are excited to announce the release of the Remastered free update for Campaign Series: Vietnam Version 2.00.01 it brings a host of new features, enhancements, and fixes, ensuring an even deeper and more immersive tactical wargaming experience", says Matrix Games, and who am I to argue!
Campaign Series: Vietnam remastered free update is out now (https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10167&t=409147&sid=4ee66ccccda01d5b78f5b5bb75b63881)
Go get yours while supply lasts :ThumbsUp:
The Campaign Series Vietnam 2.00 UPDATE has been officially released! I explained a few things about it to help those that haven't installed it yet. Also a quick reminder about the Cold War Survey before we dove back into the Aachen scenario. This time it was mostly about city fighting and I went through a number of techniques of making a good go of it. We are up to 60% of Aachen captured and have been able to consolidate some forces. We were also quite fortunate in the south and managed the destruction of some Panthers and Panzer IV's that was threatening our advance. Only 29 more turns to go... Onward!
Success! There was excellent progress in the Aachen Municipal Forest and it has finally been cleared of Germans. This will give the southern flank a fairly substantial boost in artillery and infantry to help push along the corridor and break through the Schill Line in the south. The city fighting in Aachen proper left a lot to be desired this turn, but with the fall of a few kew positions in the city last turn, I am able to maneuver some infantry towards where it is needed. There is still progress in the north and center, with a potential breech of the Schill Line coming soon, but the advances have slowed to a snails pace as I clean up some stubborn German pockets. I'm grateful this is only against the AI. HA!
We went over the latest news about the Campaign Series Vietnam and Middle East Updates and then returned to Aachen. Well, I cursed a lot during this turn, so prepare yourself for that. The fighting in Aachen is going well, quite well even, as I'm making good progress to clear the city. I would venture to guess around 65% has been captured. To the north, well, I ran into Tigers and Panthers and all my direct fire had decided to glance off the armour. Otherwise the Germans were getting some amazing shots, making me cringe and wince often. It's a fight, a good one, but a nasty one!
Campaign Series West Front: We went over the latest Campaign Series news and went over a quick run down of what is going on behind the scenes. Then we dove back into Aachen and all the violence associated to that. The German artillery was BRUTAL this turn, I winced a lot and cursed even more. On the bright side, Aachen has nearly fallen which will provide an excellent jumping off point for advances in the south. In the north, well, I have run into Tigers and Panthers and they are going to cost me in some pretty nasty fighting. It's close range at the moment, until I run out of tanks in that sector. There are minor breakthroughs in the middle though, which offers encouragement until I run into the hidden anti-tank guns. Exciting times!
I took a few minutes to create a quick tutorial for those that had ongoing PBEM games or scenarios (Like A WEEK IN BINH LONG) that they wanted to continue with the Vietnam 2.00 UPDATE. This procedure will not work with Middle East. Let me know if you have any questions and don't forget to delete the files when you're done!
With the release of the Campaign Series Vietnam 2.00 UPDATE, we spent a little time going over what is new and showed off a few feature coming in the next UPDATE. After we fired up a classic, Street Without Joy. We are in command of a few French Groupments as we hunt down the Viet Minh 95 Regiment along the QL1. I really love this scenario, it has a lot of things going on and it's nerve wracking as you advance into the Viet Minh held territory. We spent the session maneuvering and planning and as daylight broke, we are now starting to be engaged by the Viet Minh, suffering some losses already. Definitely no joy.
Another session of intense combat all over the map, including running into some nasty ambushes. The battlefield is slowly becoming littered with burning American tanks. On the bright side, we're getting a few swipes of our own! Aachen is 98% secured and we're about the flank the southern positions. I'm hoping I find some of the blasted artillery that's been a thorn in our rears. I did spend the first bit going over the expectations and future plans. Feel free to chime in your thoughts, I would love to hear!
After going over what was new and what I was working on the past few days for Cold War, we dove back into Aachen. It didn't start off that well as I lost 15 or so tanks during the German turn. What a mess. On the other hand, Aachen has been cleared and we're pushing through into the rear. I took the opportunity before I started tonight to do some of the tedious moving, so most of the session is talking about the action or conducting action. Some battles were in my favour, but others were not. One good thing is it seems I have some an armoured task for as reinforcements precisely where I needed it for a break through. I hope anyway, ha!
We did a quick overview of what the team has been working on and then returned our attention to Aachen. In the north, my attack has stalled due to the presence of the big cats. I am making progress up there, but the fighting is rough. The center is seeing a breakthrough and I decided to be overly aggressive in one sector, we shall see if it pans out or I leave a bunch of burning hulks. Aachen has fallen completely and we are pushing east towards the Schill line in that sector. The most interesting part was I think I found a hole in the southeast to dive into the rear of the Germans. Unfortunately, our adventure into the Hurtgen was short lived and now I need to screen that very vulnerable flank.
After a review of the latest news of the Campaign Series and talking about what we have been working on behind the scenes we returned to the Street Without Joy. Our advances are continuing and we're slowly capturing and clearing hamlet after hamlet. We have run into some Viet Minh and are attempting to deal with them. I have realized that I don't have artillery support in a key area yet and there's a lot of random Viet Minh ambushes along the way. I did have a Vietnamese National Army infantry battalion becomes available, which will be transferred to the center of the map as the righting is getting ugly and I've run into more Viet Minh than I remember being there. The seaborne component has mostly landing and spreading along the coast. Resistance has been light in that sector so far, but I know it will change. The joy is coming.
We did a quick overview of what the team has been working on and then returned our attention to Aachen. Well my plans in the south are shot, as I had run into some well armed Germans in the Hurtgen. This looks like I'll have to move some troops to screen that flank and keep the Germans pinned in the forests. I blitzed into a town east of Aachen to find it unoccupied, save the victory point location and the western approaches. As we head north there are more tanks, Panthers and Tigers being found which are extremely effective at killing my Shermans at long ranges. I will have to adapt in these locations or the fields of western Germany are going to lit with Ronson's.
We went over the latest news about the Campaign Series and some good news about the White Screen issue that has been plaguing some players. I showed off some Czech trucks and then we dove back into the scrapping south on Quang Tri in the Street Without Joy area of Vietnam. Resistance is getting stronger as we move into the Dong Que area but we have successfully secured Route 555, providing an opportunity for our artillery to move into position for the pending assault. Alas, the Viet Minh are keeping on their toes and took the opportunity to assault a lone tank platoon in a village taking a few of them out. Lessons learned...again.
We went over the latest news and a reminder about the BETA UPDATES for both Campaign Series Middle East and Vietnam, I shared some potential good news about the summer updates and showed the progress on the graphics assigning for the Warsaw Pact units. Then we dove into Aachen and we're making some excellent progress. On the other hand, I'm running into a lot of more armoured vehicles in the rear, which doesn't bode well for my vanguard troops. Most of these are very small task forces that can be easily swept aside. There are large advances though and nearly some good pocket locations created. Two objectives fell this turn, leaving 9 more. Onward!
A quick chat about what's been going on behind the scenes before we dove back into the Aachen scenario. There is some serious progress on most of the entire front, although I keep running into ambushes. I called in some airstrikes this turn, which were about as effective as tomatoes. My artillery seems to be far more effective, especially since I've moved most of the batteries close to the Schill Line. I'm using a lot of the German bunkers and pillboxes to protect them against counter-battery fire. A lesson learned from the disaster when the Luftwaffe showed up a while back. That said, progress is feeling good, especially as we come into the last 20 turns.
Happy Easter! Thank you for tuning in. We went over the latest goodies I've been working on for Cold War and a brief update on the UPDATES for Middle East and Vietnam. Then we dove back into the Street Without Joy. Things are getting a little more intense as we are probing deeper into the Viet Minh held territory. A small number of pathing issues caused a significant ambush against a mechanized French force. Ugh, lessons learned indeed. On the bright side, we are making excellent progress into the heart of Street Without Joy.
I showed off some new vehicles for Cold War and explained a few things before we dove into the Aachen scenario. We managed to get through two German phases this time although I skipped some behind the scenes movement for Turn 51 to get things rolling. German artillery is honing in on some of the locations as my advance pushes. The most exciting part of the session was the revelation of a wackload of Panzers in the rear that I'll have to deal with. The advance is generally solid, with a few hiccups. The first being the mass of armour in the center, the second being an attack developing from the Hurtgen Forest in the south and third is that the time is clipping by pretty quickly so I need to prioritize the attacks. This is still a lot of fun though!
We took a moment to go over the passing of John. Following that a brief overview about the next UPDATES and what I've been working on in regards to the WARSAW PACT. Then we dove back into Aachen. Time is getting tighter now, we are down to the last 17 turns. There is still a lot of ground to cover and some pockets to clean up. There are massive tank units in the last two towns and Panthers have been spotted in the Hurtgen. The general overrun just became more difficult, especially since my airstrikes are pretty useless! C'est la guerre.
May the 4th be with you! It was a good session with some significant progress as we advanced into the depths of the Viet Minh held territories. We're still locked in a heated battle for Dong Khe, the Viet Minh there are rather stubborn. The other forces continue to explore the various areas and we're running into some serious resistance in the middle of nowhere. The terrain definitely favours the Viet Minh and explains why they used this area for an operating base. I'm having to transfer reinforcements and artillery to key sectors to get the ball rolling in my favour. And here I thought the battle was nearly over.
We went over the latest news about the Campaign Series and showed off some new BMP-1's that will be used in Cold War. After that we dove into Aachen and continues our advances on all of the fronts. It was a pretty successful turn as we were able to capture two outlying Victory Locations and cleared an important highway for one of the last German bastions in this sector of the front. In the north we also managed to destroy the two Tiger platoons that were causing us grief and starting to regain some momentum. We also have a new plan for the southern German counter-attack. It will be fun to see if it works.
(https://cslegion.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CS_Remastered.jpg)
Hi y'all! A quick shout to inform about the availability of the latest update (2.00.03 / 3.00.03) for both games
These updates are especially aimed at resolving the 'white screen' issues reported by a few players. The problem was likely triggered by a Windows update and resolved by downloading the latest NVIDIA drivers from their official site. However, we've also added a code segment to further mitigate any potential issues.
While at it, we added a couple of enhancements and bug fixes to accompany this.
The easiest way to apply the updates is through the game launcher—just click the 'Check for Updates' button.
More information: https://cslegion.com/campaign-series/campaign-series-vietnam-003-and-middle-east-003-updates-are-out-now/
Any questions or issues, please let us know :ThumbsUp:
Campaign Series West Front: I am back in the saddle from my outing! Well, we have some big news in regards to the JTCS or Matrix Campaign Series games as well additional news about the Cold War game. After the news and comments we went back into the Aachen scenario. I had to spend a hot minute to remember where I was at, but then we got right back into the action. There was a massive tank battle this turn with burning hulks all over the place. The progress is slow but we're making some steady progress. The Americans secured one more victory location, with now only five remaining.
So yeah, I was asked to add the "white screen" hot-fix to John Tiller's Campaign Series as well, and a month+ later, with Visual Studio 2008, it (release candidate, that is) is out for the Beta Bde.
I did not expect to see this. For the record, I have not done an iota of coding for JTCS until now.
We took some time to go over the latest and greatest news from Cold War and JTCS. After we returned to a Street Without Joy and went hunting for Viet Minh. This session really showed the value of having proper artillery support for assaults as well as the effectiveness of having a leader in your assaults, or having a leader in your defence, especially against overwhelming numbers. Progress is going generally well in the scenario, there are a number of small battles all over the map, which makes things interesting. I'm longing for helicopters, that's for sure.
We dove back into the Aachen scenario after an overview of all the goodies that are going on with the Campaign Series. Tim had A LOT of great questions today about game play, I'd recommend giving it a listen just for that reason alone! Otherwise, our massive tank battle continued and I'm whittling down the Germans. I was able to successfully capture two additional objectives today, leaving only three. The hardest ones though, with a wackload of Germans defending cities blocks with artillery, rockets and mechanized forces - including some King Tigers! It will be a rough go.
Well that was a good session, lots of action happening all around and we are making excellent headway. There were a lot of good assaults and the artillery was finally starting to make a difference. We are making good progress throughout the map, cleaning out a lot of Viet Minh areas and even managed to find some headquarters and various supply depots. We're creeping up to a Minor Victory, but we're not there yet. Still a few minor pockets that need to be dealt with before we wrap this up. Exciting times!
Well that hasn't happened to me in decades, the lack of RAM issue. I was working on a scenario prior to launch today and during one of the replays the screen broke up. Fortunately, a save and restart remedied it, but alas, we missed one of the Germans turn. That being said, we are making excellent, but bloody, progress into the rear of the Germans. The city fighting is absolutely brutal, with vicious counterattacks by the Germans. The bright side to that is the ability for my follow on forces to counterattack and show the Germans some pain.
After a brief run down on the planning for JTCS 2.03 and a current update on the Campaign Series Cold War game, we returned to finish off the Street Without Joy scenario. We were quite successful and finished the scenario with a major victory, capturing the final locations before the end of the scenario to ensure the Event Points were successfully added. Since we had time, we played Hoa Binh 2 which takes place with the French in 1951. It's a fun little scenario that went to the bitter end. Even though the Vietnam irregulars weren't the strongest, they were still a pain the rear to weed out of the mountain pass. How I longed for gunships indeed!
I've been having some CTD issues which has been frustrating. I'll get pretty far into a scenario and then out of nowhere, boom, I'm back on the desktop. No warning or error message or anything.
Hmm, that's odd indeed.
Any chance you could clear your log files and then post your log files if it happens again?
Is that with the latest 2.00.03 version, JH? I am not aware of any CTD issues affecting a larger amount of players, any extra intel hunting this down would be appreciated. There was a CTD issue earler, for instance when assaulting and capturing an enemy hex with enemy air units aloft present.
Quote from: Crossroads on June 17, 2025, 12:36:58 AMIs that with the latest 2.00.03 version, JH? I am not aware of any CTD issues affecting a larger amount of players, any extra intel hunting this down would be appreciated. There was a CTD issue earler, for instance when assaulting and capturing an enemy hex with enemy air units aloft present.
Yes. Most current version. I can give you scenario info. for latest crash if that would be helpful.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on June 17, 2025, 12:40:29 AMYes. Most current version. I can give you scenario info. for latest crash if that would be helpful.
Cheers, any details available would be helpful.
Sorry for the delay in following up.
The scenario where I last had CTDs is The Mauling: Battle of Ap Nha Mat December 5, 1965.
I was playing as Side A (USA). I don't recall what turn I was on, but I was probably on turn 10-12 of the scenario. The gunships had been released from Lei Khe Airfield and at the time of the last CTD, were nearing Phase Line Colorado in the AO. They had not engaged or been engaged yet. I remember being frustrated because they were about to kick some ass.
I can send the last save file, but I'm not sure how many turns before the CTD the save file is.
System specs:
Win11 Home
i9-12900K
64GB Ram
RTX 3080 Ti
Thanks.
Sending the save file and the LOGS file (in the Logs folder) would be extremely valuable.
Quote from: Jason Petho on June 20, 2025, 10:15:42 AMSending the save file and the LOGS file (in the Logs folder) would be extremely valuable.
What email should I send to? PM it to me if you'd like.
Thanks.
You can use jasonpetho at hotmail dot com.
Just make sure you put something in the header that makes sense as all my mail is sent to my junk mail.
Thank you for the help, it is appreciated!
Just as a heads up, I'll try playing this scenario live on Sunday and see if I have the same issue.
We took some time to go over what's coming with the JTCS 2.03 UPDATE as well as the Campaign Series Middle East and Vietnam UPDATES. I showed off the latest rabbit hole I've been working on with the East Germans and then we dove into a Campaign Series Vietnam scenario The Mauling, which is a clearing operation in 1965. The scenario went extremely well, but I shared a wackload of valuable lessons to be learned when playing as the US Infantry. All that ample support made our job a lot easier, that's for sure.
Back into the groove of the scenario. The city fighting for the last points outside of Aachen is definitely heating up. Losses are increasing for both sides, but we're making some good progress. I have the cavalry heading to the north to ram the Germans from the south while I've encircled the other two remaining objectives. It's still a bloody affair and this turn definitely showed that. I also started off with the latest and greatest news in regards to the pending 2.03 UPDATE for JTCS. Exciting times to be had!
Well holy crap, talk about brutal city fighting. On the bright side we did secure a couple of objectives, leaving only one left. The fighting is bloody and the Germans are counter-attacking with vigor. Block after block is being heavily contested. I showed what to do to assault a city, and what not to do. Ha! We are winding down to the last handful of turns, but it will be brutal until the bitter end by the looks of it.
We took some time to go over what's coming with the pending JTCS 2.03 UPDATE before we returned to the Vietnam scenarios called ERADICATION. Although I'm half thinking that it meant the eradication of my poor ARVN and US Riverine forces. The fighting is brutal with a lot of prepared Viet Cong positions, very heavily defended. I will presume that the morale of these Viet Cong units are very high, because they are taking a lot of firepower to dislodge and capture. Lots of valuable tactical lessons during this session, some for the better but some for the worse!
We caught the tail end of my installation of the JTCS 2.03 BETA UPDATE, and then played it this session. Apart from the teething problem, we dove back into the action. And holy, what action it was. I haven't cursed this much in awhile as I am trying to grab that last point. We managed to get within striking distance of the last victory location and, of course, it's a freaking bunker. Talk about a tense ending! Only 5 turns to go and I have to take that blasted bunker out. And so it begins.
We went over the latest news with the coming 2.03 UPDATE for the John Tiller's Campaign Series games and then we dove back into the chaos. On the bright side, we successfully completed the Eradication successfully with a major victory. It wasn't as major as I thought it was going to be, mostly due to the losses I had incurred. After we started up the Battle of U-Minh forest. I think this is one of the top five hardest scenarios in Campaign Series Vietnam. It's a brutal scenario for the ARVN. We are already 10 turns in and I feel like I've accomplished nothing but taking losses!
I went over the notes for the JTCS 2.03 UPDATE that will be released tomorrow and then we dove back into the Aachen. We did it!! Victory is ours. We secured the last Victory Point location and destroyed a large amount of Germans in various pockets. We went over the point totals and losses after the battle. What a messy fight and I'm grateful I wasn't playing a human in this scenario. Wow, what a fun fight that I highly recommend!
Talk about a hard scenario. Wow, we are making good progress for the most part, but we are bogged down in the fighting in the U-Minh Forest. It is nutters how we are getting bogged down in certain areas and my casualties are ramping up. It's a hell of a fight, but a fun one. Lots of lessons to be learned here although we certainly tried! For once, I haven't lost any helicopters. Yay for small miracles. Otherwise, we started off with a show and tell of all the latest and greatest news for the Campaign Series, especially a review of the latest 2.03 UPDATE for JTCS.
Well since we finished off Aachen, we started up something different! We went into Campaign Series East Front and started up a NEW Linked Campaign game: Thunder on the Dnepr. The first mission as an advance to the Dnepr River by our core force, the 71. Infanterie Regiment of the 29. Motorized Division. It was a success, although we started suffering casualties to the blasted Russian artillery. It wasn't nearly as bad as the second scenario though, which we nearly completed.
Before we dove into the Vietnam scenarios, we took a look at Schlonz's impressive work on the West Germans. We took a review of a lot of the new vehicles that you will see in the future Cold War game. We also used the latest map from Nick! It's coming along exceptionally well. We then returned to the last few turns of the Battle of U-Minh forest. What a disaster, but that was still full of good lessons. We started another Civil War scenario called "The Gauntlet" where we are an ARVN battalion attempting to extract itself from an ambush. Holy, it's a doozy, but hell of a lot of fun!
After a recap of the events of the week relating to the John Tiller's Campaign Series pending UPDATE, we dove back into the Thunder on the Dnepr Linked Campaign Game. Well, that's messy. Beyond messy even. The 71. Infanterie Regiment of the 29. Motorized Division has been suffering some serious casualties. In some cases entire platoons have been wiped out. We did complete the second scenario and have found ourselves buried deep into the third. It's a heck of a go and our forces are slowly being whittled down. I'm still waiting for some replacements, but it appears they are still in Germany. Our attached StuG-III's ran into a nasty surprise and paid the price. We are making progress, but holy - it's hard!
The old adage of "A plan does not survive first contact with the enemy" is a good way to describe this session. We finished off the Gauntlet scenario and while I thought I did well, it turned out otherwise. I just couldn't seem to dig myself out of the ambush. Those Viet Cong were pretty determined indeed. After that we did a play through of the infamous PK 15 battle where the French are also trying to break themselves out of an ambush. We suffered some pretty severe losses and had a lot of valuable lessons. This scenario is always interesting as one never knows how the situation will unfold.
After a recap of the events of the week relating to the John Tiller's Campaign Series pending UPDATE, we dove back into the Thunder on the Dnepr Linked Campaign Game. My poor 71. Infanterie Regiment is getting butchered. We managed to finish the third scenario but then ran into some troubles starting the fourth. We did some live bug fixing and managed to get it working without further issues. That's a good lesson to see what I do when I'm doing some bug hunting. The fourth scenario will be an interesting one as we are chasing down Russians on our way to Smolensk with the very few remnants of our own regiment. Hopefully we have something to fight with when we get to Smolensk!
After we went over the latest and greatest news about the Campaign Series, we decided to start up playing the Dien Bien Phu scenarios in order that were created by David Galster. This should be fun as I haven't played most of them yet. More importantly, many of the scenarios are designed to be played from the Viet Minh perspective. Hopefully I will be able to provide some intel on how to play the Viet Minh and later Viet Cong more effectively. It should be a challenge indeed, but a fun one! We finish off the first landing scenario and then start up scenario number two as the Viet Minh where we are preparing for a frontal assault against the well defended French position - Beatrice.
A quick review of the latest Campaign Series News and then some babbles about Cold War and it's progress with ideas for the 1960's, some feedback would be appreciated! After that we dove back into the Linked Campaign and spent the session chasing down Russians as we are both working our way to the same area with exit objectives. The Russians have beat me there and have left some ambushes along the way. It's been a blast, nearly literally, so far this session. I'm playing very aggressively, trying to advance in bounds to chase them all down as we get closer to the end of scenario 4.
There was lots of awesome discussion today during the feed, thank you for those that participate in that! We went over the latest news about the Cold War game and the pending JTCS BETA UPDATE. Then we dove back into the second scenario in the Dien Bien Phu series of scenarios. We spent the first part preparing for the assault, and suffering casualties in the meantime, but now that darkness has arrived, we're in the thick of the action. The major challenge here, even though the French are isolated, they still pack a punch and we're suffering for it. The artillery wasn't nearly as effective as I had hoped for the previous turns, and we are starting the up close and personal assault phase. For better or worse.
We started off with details about the JTCS pending 2.04 UPDATE and news about Cold War. I went over some initial Wish List thoughts on Cold War for additions/improvements. Now is a good time to add some feedback and or thoughts if you're so inclined! After that we dove back into the new Linked Campaign in East Front where we continued the advance with our poor motorized Infantry Regiment. We finished the 4th scenario in the campaign by the skin of our teeth and are already getting brewed up in the fifth scenario. Talk about pushing the boundaries of madness!
We started off by going through a series of questions that were on Discord. Most of the questions were related to combat and assaulting and hopefully provided enough detail to answer them. Thank you for the questions, I hope the responses helped! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. You can post them on discord, down below here. After that we took some of what we went through and returned to the Beatrice fort of Dien Bien Phu and have started the assault. We have managed to secure some positions, but the losses are heavy. This is also a good learning scenario for how to assault and minimize casualties - which I need to learn. Ha!
Well, we had a plan. And it was a good plan, but I ran out of time. We rushed and pain the cost for it without success. The 71. Motorized Regiment how has a new commander as our linked campaign came to an end due to my incompetence. Or I designed it too hard. Let me know! After that chaos, we decided to continue with the chaotic theme and invade England! We started the Operation Sealion Linked Campaign Game and we are going to command our German Parachute Battalion on it's advance to London. We are nearly completed the first scenario, and suffered a little too many casualties so far, but good progress nevertheless!
We started off with some new features that are going to be included in the fall updates for Campaign Series Vietnam and Campaign Series Middle East. Then a quick brain dump scenario overview for future Cold War scenarios, where I ask for some input. Then we returned to the Dien Bien Phu Beatrice scenario that resulted in a minor Loss for our Viet Minh troops. It was a messy scenario as we attempted to assault the position. We did manage to get into the position and secure two of the objectives, but the last was out of reach and the losses were utterly brutal. After we fired up Dien Bien Phu number three to see what we're facing... which will be equally as ugly!
Campaign Series West Front: We went over the latest news in detail and showed off some new features for the Campaign Series Middle East and Vietnam games. There was a good discussion and download of all that is going on and then we dove back into the West Front Operation Sealion Linked Campaign. Fortunately we are getting some reinforcements in this Linked Campaign, as I was able to get my units up to strength after the first scenario. We then participated in a shore battery operation, which helped elements of a mountain division arrive on shore. We are sitting at about 70% strength for our battalion at the moment and we have started the third scenario in the campaign, as we push north from the beachhead. To London!
We discussed some updated features for the future CS Middle East 3.10 and CS Vietnam 2.10 UPDATES that will come later in the fall and plans going forward. There was also a brief update on the JTCS 2.05 UPDATE. Then we dove into the third installment of the Dien Bien Phu series of scenarios. Today was an excellent overview about assaulting. There was some steady and good progress with this scenario and Gabrielle is slowly coming under our control. I tried to show the most efficient way to assault - in this situation. If you want to learn how and things to think about when assaulting, this is the video!
We started off with the latest news about the Campaign Series, including some new Warsaw Pact vehicles. We also went over the pending JTCS UPDATE release plan and then dove back into the Sealion Linked Campaign. It seems we formulated a good plan and were mostly successful in our advance along Stone Street, the tactics seemed to work although we did suffer a few more casualties than expected due to the nature of the British Defences. After we started the next scenario, attempting to cross a river at Canterbury. This is turning into a serious struggle, especially with the 40mm AAA Guns wreaking havoc amongst my paras!
That was an exciting session! I had planned on showing you some new goodies for 2.10 and 3.10 for Vietnam and Middle East, but "there will be bugs". Instead I gave an overview about what is coming with JTCS and the new updates as well as information on the latest Cold War news. After that we wrapped up the last of Dien Bien Phu 3, showing how to really effectively use assaults. In Dien Bien Phu 4, we advanced toward Isabelle to make sure our Main Supply Route was resecured and then we started up Dien Bien Phu 5 which has our French troops performing a raid into the Viet Minh lines to destroy anti-aircraft guns. Things are heating up all around, it's turning into some great fights!
We had the opportunity to show off all the new User Interface updates that Petri has been working on for the Middle East and Vietnam games. Definitely take a look and provide some feedback, please! These will be available in BETA form in October and officially released in November. After that, we returned to the Operation Sealion Linked Campaign game in West Front while playing the new 2.05 UPDATE. The scenarios are hard and I'm suffering a lot of casualties. We were advancing towards Maidstone in this session and what a mess that turned into being. There was a success, but it was rough go!
We shared the lastest news about the Campaign Series games and went over what to expect so far with the Vietnam 2.10 and Middle East 3.10 UPDATES coming out later this fall. After that we dove back in to the fifth scenario of the Dien Bien Phu series of scenarios. Our attacks into the Viet Minh lines are going well and we found some AAA guns that were the primary mission for the scenario. It is exciting to see the Event Points in action and really changes the whole dynamic of the game.
We started off by showing off some of the new vehicles that will be included in Cold War for the Warsaw Pact forces. After a quick update, we dove back into this Operation Sealion Linked Campaign where we continued the clearing mission near Maidstone. While we achieved a minor victory, it was full of action throughout and misguided tactics. Our casualties are mounting up and we're now started the sixth scenario. It is forcing a river crossing, which already is getting off on the wrong foot. On the bright side, we have more guns and some additional forces to help our advance. I did spot some Matilda's across the river though, which means my 88's will have to be put to good use!
Here is a basic introduction for how I make the outline files for the Campaign Series Vietnam game bmp unit graphics. This is a very simplified "For Your Information" style video with a talk through and basic textual steps. I use CorelDraw (Corel Photopaint) to do this, but you can use other graphics software packages. NOTE - This is the same process for ALL Campaign Series games.
Well that was an interesting session today. After the usual Campaign Series briefing we finished up with the Dien Bien Phu 5th scenario. Upon successful completion of that, we started a brand new challenge with the Dien Bien Phu 6th scenario. This is a bit longer one and we are now playing back as the Viet Minh. With multiple divisions under our command, we're assaulting a series of five hills that are heavily defended by the French forces. I explain my attacks and detail how we are going to overwhelm the position. There's always a method to the madness!
After a brief update on all that is the Campaign Series, we dove into the next scenario for the John Tiller's Campaign Series West Front Operation Sealion Linked Campaign Game. Our task this scenario was to force a crossing across the River Medway to the west of Maidstone. It was a brutal fight as the British fighting for their homeland were counter attacking as if to make a point. Our poor parachute battalion has been bled a lot. We did secure two crossings and capture a couple of the primary objectives, but with the losses we've suffered, I figured it was best to hold back and fight again another day. By the looks of the next scenario, that was a wise idea.
This was a session about preparing for massive assaults. We attempted to probe into the French defences and try to make some progress with our encirclements of the primary French positions. It was a hard fight today and our Viet Minh soldiers were suffering a lot of casualties. It was a very good lesson to see how effective utilizing smoke for the advance units were. We were also a little successful on some of assaults on the bunker positions. We didn't capture any, but we can see the losses mounting for the French defenders. It's slow progress, but progress nevertheless!
We went over a brief overview of the progress on Cold War and the latest news in regards to the pending BETA releases of the CS Vietnam and Middle East UPDATES. Then we dove back into the chaos of the invasion of England. We had a simple task of pushing into to Ironside Line, which is the largest defences between the coast and London. It is a doozy of a line, with ample fortifications. Fortunately, we found a week spot and exploited it as much as possible. It was still a challenge to dislodge the Brit's from their pillboxes, but we were successful after suffering heavy casualties. The advance to London continues!
We're making excellent progress in the Dien Bien Phu number six scenario. The French are dug in well and are causing mass casualties, but we managed to turn around the victory conditions from a major defeat to a major victory. It's still pretty early yet, so I am curious to see if there will be a mass counter attack. It is a slow grind though, the defences are well set up and interlocking, so it does take some planning to crack open the lines. Exciting times though with lots to learn!
We did a brief overview of the latest news for the Campaign Series. After that we dove back into the Operation Sealion Linked Campaign. We ended wrapping up scenario 7, finished scenario 8 and started scenario 9. Unfortunately we had a minor loss for the scenario 8, it was such a hard scenario which I clearly didn't find the easiest path indeed. It was a concerted effort to overcome the UK random defences, but the losses kept mounting. Scenario 9 is a different affair, we're instructed to attack an artillery position, that appears to be well defended, all in the middle of a counter attack! C'est la guerre.
Well that was a good session today. Lots of chatting and talking about how things are progressing and lots of good conversation. We went over the latest news about the pending CS Vietnam 2.10 and CS Middle East 3.10 BETA UPDATES before we returned the bloody mess of the Five Fills. We are playing through the Dien Bien Phu scenarios in order that were designed by David Galster. The fighting was brutal today, senseless violence on so many levels. But we are making some slow progress, even though there were a number of failed assaults. I'm glad it is night, as the French artillery is devastating!
Public Beta for the Vietnam 2.10 release is now available at the Matrix Games forum (https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=413491). :Party:
If you spot anything, please post here or at the Matrix Vietnam forum. Your participation is appreciated :ThumbsUp:
Edit: We have a couple of weeks before handing off the final files to Matrix for the official 2.10 and 3.10 updates scheduled for November 19. All feedback is greatly appreciated!
We took some time to go talk about the Campaign Series Middle East and Vietnam BETA UPDATES and a reminder about the JTCS 2.05 UPDATE that has been released. We then dove back into the Operation Sealion Linked Campaign Game where we took our parachute battalion and had to destroy a British artillery park and attend to a counter-attack. Fortunately we had some armour which made all the difference. The next scenario has us attacking a ridge line covered in golf courses - and defended British positions to the southeast of Croydon. We are getting closer to London!
Public Beta 2.10.1 is now available from the same Matrix Forum link as below. Thank you for your testing and feedback, as always!
Quote from: Crossroads on October 21, 2025, 12:36:48 PMPublic Beta for the Vietnam 2.10 release is now available at the Matrix Games forum (https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?t=413491). :Party:
If you spot anything, please post here or at the Matrix Vietnam forum. Your participation is appreciated :ThumbsUp:
Edit: We have a couple of weeks before handing off the final files to Matrix for the official 2.10 and 3.10 updates scheduled for November 19. All feedback is greatly appreciated!
I'm back in action and we went over the latest news in regards to the Campaign Series games. I showed off the latest goodies for Cold War and then discusses some new additions to the new CS Vietnam and CS Middle East BETA's, with the official versions slated to release on November 19th. After all that we dove back into the Dien Bien Phu series of scenarios and tried to make some progress. It's a bloody affair and we're slowly running out of darkness, but so far we're in an excellent position to deal with any French counterattacks. We have a plan to try to flank the positions, but alas, I'm not sure we'll make it by daylight!
After going through the latest news, we dove back into the Operation Sealion Linked Campaign game found in West Front. That was quite the fight for the golf courses, but our tactics were quite sound and we made excellent progress. Unfortunately, the next scenario is attempting to break into Croydon, which is a doozy in itself. Littered with tanks, bunkers, trenches, minefields and British defenders out for blood. Not only that, it's a limited time to complete the mission into urban warfare. Madness, on so many levels!
Here we are getting closer to the official release of the Vietnam and Middle East 2.10 and 3.10 UPDATES for the latest Campaign Series games. We went over the latest news about the Campaign Series games, including where to add your future wishes about the World War 2 game after Cold War. Then we dove back into the madness at Dien Bien Phu and did our best to consolidate our Viet Minh while we are probing and taking out key positions inside the massive fortifications. It's a challenge and a half and the losses are brutal - although evenly matched. Day has broken and the destruction is becoming significantly worse, but we are getting some good kills in!
Wow, what a tense that scenario was. We played through scenario 10 of the Operation Sealion Linked Campaign that is found in West Front. Our forces have struggled so much during this campaign and are nearly fighting on fumes. This fight was a nailbiter to the very end and it was sheer luck I was successful. With that success were able to push into the outskirts of London for Scenario 11. This is a longer and larger scenario, but it will be a mess and a half to punch through the lines we have found already. On the bright side, we have found a hole and are proceeding up flank to find some glory!
We continued to push into the position of the Five Hills. It was a rough go though, let me tell you. Our progress was slow, but we managed to break into the lines and takes out some artillery. That was a glorious moment! We also had a lot of random conversation about the coming Cold War game, thank you to those that participated in that, it really does help. We talked about potential scenario ideas and decades that people are looking forward to playing. After scenario 6, we started up number 7, where we are assaulting another French position. We don't have as many goodies this time, and a lot of less time - so it will be a heck of a challenge.
Back in the saddle and after going some new Order of Battle listings in Cold War, showing off some of the new Warsaw Pact countries, we dove back into the East Front Linked Campaign that deals with Gross Deutschland at Kursk. The first scenario was filled with far too many losses, but we did manage to be successful in our attack and exit off the board. The second scenario looks like more of that beating ourselves against Russian defenders that seem to know how to shoot. It's a bloody affair, but a lot of fun!
We went over all the new goodies coming for the future Cold War game and then dove into the latest Dien Bien Phu scenario. This is a nail biter indeed and the amount of Viet Minh that are falling is horrendous. It's slow and tedious, but there's a time limit so we have to be extremely aggressive and soak up the hail of French bullets attempting to dissuade us from doing so. A few positions have fallen, but we're still well below a Major Defeat threshold. Exciting times, albeit bloody - very bloody.
We dove back in to the Linked Campaign where my core unit is a kampfgruppe of the Gross Deutschland during the Battle of Kursk. It's a doozy of a fight and we're suffering far too man casualties. We burned through two scenarios during this session, successfully, but the last one was a nail biter as there was a massive counter attack by T-34's and KV tanks. Talk about a nightmare and a half! But good fun, setting up ambushes - well, attempting too anyway!
We are very happy to announce the 2.10.20 official release is out now!
All Campaign Series games are 50 % off as well - unless you buy the bundle offer, which adds a further 10 % discount into your basket.
I believe this is the first time the Vietnam game is available at half price.
Thank you to all the beta testers, we're a small team, your efforts helped a lot! :ThumbsUp:
https://cslegion.com/middle-east-1948-1985/cs-vietnam-2-10-and-middle-east-3-10-officially-out/
We started off the session with a major defeat as the Viet Minh in the Huguette 1 scenario of Dien Bien Phu but finished off with a major victory by the end of it after a lot of bloody fighting. After wrapping up the last few turns of that, we dove into Huguette 2 scenario where it seems we are fighting over the same ground, but against an aggressive French adversary. This is making the fight a little more interesting! It's still bloody though, I'm suffering a wackload of casualties as I advance into the French fire, where every move feels like it brings death and destruction. Courte vie à la France!
Campaign Series East Front: After a brief update we dove back into the Gross Deutschland Linked Campaign that details the fighting around Kursk. We finished off the fourth scenario today with a minor victory. It was a rough go as there was some T-34's and KV tanks in my rear, but I managed to overcome and secure the towns we needed to hold the day. Next we are being sent over to the west to help 3rd Panzer Division, as they appear to be stalled. Next session will be extra exciting as we are expecting a large tank counter attack in our sector and we've been giving a couple handfuls of Panzer IVF2's to help! Exciting times!
What a mess. I have never seen so many casualties during the opportunity fire phases and assault phases. I guess I was thinking I was in a better position than I was in this scenario. The French had some scripting in this scenario, which was easy to tell as they were heavily defending a northern objective. My assaults seem to be for naught, although I did manage to destroy a number of French 105mm guns. Every little bit helps in the chaos of the assault!
We dove into the fifth scenario of the Linked Campaign Game and we were doing exceptionally well. We were expecting tanks in the south to make their appearance from a forested area. We waited and waited in a devious ambush with our Tigers and Panzer IVF2s ready to wipe out the hordes of Russian tanks, based on the description the scenario designer noted. Of course, being a completely evil scenario designer myself, I should have known better. When the tanks game, it turned into a cluster firetruck. What a fight, a nasty fight, but a fun fight!
After a hiatus for family, I have returned back to the streams! Today's session was an overview of the current state of things and then we dove back into the Vietnam Dien Bien Phu set of scenarios. We made it to scenario number 9, of 10, and I had to remember what I was doing since the last session. We made some decent progress, but stalled in the attacks on the fortifications. I was unpleasantly surprised by the counter attack and the return of nightfall, which I need to learn to pay more attention to as it completely affected the outcome of the scenario and destroyed my plans. Murphy and his law must have been around!
I've been shilling this game on reddit whenever I can. It's IMO one of the best wargames money can buy. Keep up the streams!
Thank you so much, RedwoodForest!! I really appreciate that!!
Ah it's good to be back! We dove back into the Gross Deutschland Linked Campaign as we are fighting in the Kursk battle. We finished the 5th scenario after some intense scraps and losses of StuG-III's. It had been awhile since we had played and I had completely forgotten about the entire right flank. HA! After the successful fight we dove into the next where we held a flank waiting for a counterattack while we skirted the Russian defences to continue our advance north. There was a battalion of T34's supported by KV's, but we survived that scrap to move to the 7th battle. It looks like a twin valley advance towards defended objectives, much the same as the previous fighting, but for this battle, we've been given a company of Tigers. TIGERS! Woohoo!
We started the final battle of the Campaign Series Vietnam Dien Bien Phu series of scenarios. It's a big one and a short one, relatively. We have a lot to do in a short time, but this is the end, so we're going all in! Losses are increasing as we continue to push into the defences, although we are making some progress and have captured a couple locations to get the ball rolling. We have Viet Minh rockets this time, which is exciting! Isabelle has been surrounded and hopefully isolated. It will be a nasty fight, but the battle of all battles here in Indochina!
Back in action at Kursk. We were all set in this scenario for a large tank battle and it did deliver that indeed. Our GrossDeutschland Kampfgruppe was supported by a tank battalion and a company of Tigers. We were advancing into position and preparing for a counter attack on the flank when bam, out of no where a horde of T-34's were all over the place. It turned into a desperate battle fighting across valley tops with a mass amount of tanks, including some KV's. This was a fantastic fight, even if completely unnerving.
We went over the latest update for the Campaign Series and then dove into the final Dien Bien Phu scenario of the set of 10 from the Campaign Series Vietnam game. This is the grand finale, it is a rather rough scenario, taking over areas we have been before, although it seems better defended and there are a lot of French fighting tooth and nail for each position. Isabelle is being reduced slowly before I perform an assault. I cut off their escape route and that is working to my advantage. My assaults in the main Dien Bien Phu base are whittling down the French, but progress is slow and tedious. What a fight!
Our Kampfgruppe from GrossDeutschland is slowly getting whittled down, but the attached tank battalion in the scenario definitely helped us secure the victory for this part of the campaign. We had another decision point type scenario after the battle and the consensus was the wait until morning. That allowed us some new replacements and we received some additional reinforcements to help with the fight for Oboyon. The only issue is that it seems I am fighting over the same ground again that I took in the last scenario, except significantly better defended. I have a new hate for the SU-85 as they seem to be effective at killing tanks and infantry.
We went over the latest and greatest Campaign Series news, mostly about the Cold War 2D Silhouettes and then returned to the final battle in the Campaign Series Vietnam Dien Bien Phu series of scenarios. It's a tedious fight but we are gaining progress. We're on the doorsteps of the headquarters while we isolate various French positions, cutting off their supply and reducing their effectiveness. Day light has arrived which has made our artillery a wee bit more effective, especially against the trenches. The French are having a bad day as the Viet Minh are swarming all over their positions. C'est la guerre.
Well we did it! We finished the Gross Deutschland Linked Campaign game in Campaign Series East Front. It was a glorious victory with the final capture of Oboyan. The streets were filled with jubilant Russians. Oh wait, wrong thing. After the campaign ended I asked what to play next and Tide asked for Blunting the Sword. We decided to play it as the Germans as I figured it would be more of a challenge against HAL. Well, holy crap, the British have tanks. And then some more tanks. My reinforcement tanks are coming on the map, but it is piecemeal and I'll have to decide where the primary threats are. Right now it is easy - they are EVERYWHERE!
It was a glorious feeling finally wrapping up these Dien Bien Phu scenarios for Campaign Series Vietnam. I was using the BETA version of the Spring update, so there are few little new things to see! Before the violence, we went over the latest and greatest news for the Campaign Series and gave an overview of how the assignments of the silhouettes will work in the game. After the completion we dove into The Contradiction Vietnam scenario that has us in control of a armoured Task Force to counter-ambush a Viet Cong ambush. I've played this before, but it's been a long while and it will be nice to try it, especially with all the changes in the recent updates. On the bright side, there are tanks, helicopters and a whack load of goodies to play with in this scenario!
Well here we, we dove back into the West Front scenario, Blunting the Sword. We are playing as the Germans and doing everything we can to destroy as many UK tanks that come into view. The buggers have isolated our western flank, but we're making progress into our attack into Cagny. At the end of the session, I decided to adjust what the victory conditions will be for me (not the official, since we're playing the AI) and I think it will make it a far more challenging battle. We're up to 150 Allied tanks destroyed, with a few hundred left to take out. It is an exciting battle we are in!
Well then, we had a plan but Murphy decided to visit. Our initial attack in the Viet Cong ambush area seemed to be going well, but them boom. Losses started mounting and even though I am holding the line, it is turning into the grinding affair where I'm running out of time to destroy the Viet Cong regiment and advance the supply and engineer vehicles towards Minh Thanh, which is the ultimate goal. I'm nowhere near victory at the moment, but I have all the positive vibes. What a fight, what a fight indeed!
What a fun scenario. We are destroying tanks left right and center and our advance towards the outskirts of Caen seems to be going well. The catch is that it seems I ran into the artillery park and I'm suffering severe casualties because of it. On the bright side, my Tigers have just arrived into the area, so that will hopefully bring some peace to the sector. Around the village of Ifs, the German infantry unit that had held out again many Allied assaults has finally been relieved. They suffered horrendous losses, but persevered until the panzer grenadiers and Panthers crested the ridgeline in the south!
The beauty about Campaign Series Vietnam is that you can have the best plan in the world and the AI tell you to go firetruck yourself. This is definitely one of those cases. Our counter-ambush was going well, we were making some progress and making some ground with our troops on the flanks of the Viet Cong Regiment. Alas, there was another major Viet Cong attack that caught me completely off guard, especially when my helicopters were off getting refueled. Talk about timing. We're creeping to the end, for better or worse!
The allied forces are in for a world of hurt. We have started to counter-attack in the jaws of the allied tanks. We have taken a few losses, but our advance is going very well indeed. The plan is to secure all of the map from the allied forces, and see about creating some pockets to corral them into before we decimate them. I think we will play this from the Allied side after we finish to see if we can give the Axis a thrashing too. Exciting times indeed!
We cleaned the XXX Corps from the map, that was a rough go for the UK AI. After that we decided to flip sides and see if I could do any better as the UK and attack into the German lines. We are in a few turns and while I am suffering some losses, it isn't too bad so far. Our plethora of Firefly's against the King Tiger's turned out well in our favour. We lost some tanks across the line, but I'm feeling confident so far. We are still waiting for the infantry but using our tanks like water flowing down a river, trying not to get bogged down. The Germans are in for some challenges indeed.
It is an interesting experience playing this from the XXX Corps side. We're doing quite well breaking into the rear of the German defences, just by acting as a river and proceeding through the weakest areas. We're still losing some tanks here and there, mostly due to infantry close attacks that pop out of nowhere. The interesting part of this so far is that we haven't focused on the objectives so far this scenario, merely focusing on isolating all of the German Hedgehog positions to isolate them and destroy them in detail. We have run into a panzer battalion, and while we haven't come away unscathed, we're holding our own indeed.
Back to the Normandie area and the attempt of our XXX Corps to break out of Caen. On the bright side, it is going quite well, overrunning German positions in the rear and starting to methodically destroy some of the hedgehog positions. I'm attempting to break into some of the trenches after isolating the various towns and doing my best to assault. It seems my infantry strength needs to be increased, so I'll work on that in the coming turns. Some silly mistakes on my end, as you'll see, but that's the beauty of playing like these larger scenarios, there is a little forgiveness.
After a brief reminder about what is going on in the Campaign Series world, I dove back into the Campaign Series West Front scenario, Blunting the Sword. We are in the final stages of the scenario and our XXX Corps has been advancing. In these final stages, I am slowly whittling down the German defences and dealing with the trickle of reinforcements as they reveal themselves. In one sector my memory failed me and were engaged by some Tigers that definitely left their mark on my Shermans. It's some good progress, but bloody as we are rooting out the Germans.
This is the first of two videos from April 15th live stream. I went over the latest news and then we dove back into the XXX Corps dominance in this scenario, the sword was strong in this scenario and we have pretty well overran the entire German line. It was a fun scenario and I can see rebuilding this, but will definitely add scripting to make the AI more of a challenge, especially for the defender. That being said, this is a very challenging scenario to defend against a competent British player.
This is the second of two videos from April 15th live stream. We fired up East Front and started the High Price for Silk scenario. This is a larger scenario with a fairly low turn count. We are playing as the Germans and will be assaulting the city of Mogilev on the Dnepr River in 1941. This is an infantry fight where we have to break into the city, seizing it and capturing the divisions worth of Russians that are surrounded in the city. This will be a hell of a fight indeed.
This is part two of the Sunday stream (20260419). We started up the Campaign Series Vietnam scenario, Quest to Kem Pass. It's a doozy of a scenario as we're forcing our way along an ambush laden road that is in poor condition. We are already starting to make progress, but looking at the distance we need to cover, this will be a doozy indeed. On the bright side, the guerrillas don't seem to be that well armed - yet, as I've only lost a single armoured car in a failed assault. I should know better than that though, lessons learned.
After a brief discussion we fired up the Campaign Series East Front scenario High Price for Silk that is available in the 2.05 UPDATE available at matrixgames.com. We are the opening phase of the battle as the Germans, slowly trying to break into the outer defences of the city of Mogilev. There are a lot of Russians in there and we are suffering some casualties, but I show you in a deliberate fashion how to slowly reduce a city. It's messy, it's bloody, but it's a good challenging bit of fun!
After a brief overview about all the goodies going on with the Campaign Series, we continued on with the Quest to Kem Pass scenario. We were nearly at the end and were suffering a minor defeat but we managed to turn the scenario around and dealt a hard blow against the Viet Minh ambush locations. After that we fired the No Sign of Relief scenario which was the attempt by the ARVN forces to break the siege of Plei Me in 1965. The ambush is in full swing and it's a hell of a fight. Some Hogs have arrived on scene to help out. Hopefully I don't lose them....
We returned to the Campaign Series East Front game and continued our assault into Mogilev in the High Price for Silk scenario. Our German infantry divisions are scrapping for each metre as we advance into the suburbs. It's a nasty fight with lots of casualties, but we're making excellent progress as we advance towards the city proper. Our river crossing is slowly expanding, but the Russians are doing everything they can to keep pushing and assaulting our forces to contain the bridgehead. It's a fun and challenging scenario though!
After a brief update on all the goodies that are going on we returned to the ARVN disaster north of Plei Me to see if we could recover the situation. What a scrap it has turned out to be! A plethora of North Vietnamese regulars ambushing our column. We were broken up into different ambush sites, and the struggle was real indeed. Artillery and airstrikes have helped turn the tide, but it's been a bloody affair so far. The second flights of reinforcement Hogs have appeared on the scene and will hopefully help clear the last ambush to gain some form of victory. But we all know what they say about plans...
Now here's a violence fight indeed. Every hex has blood spilling on it. Every advance is met with a barrage of fire from the Russian defenders. We continue the advance into the outskirts of Mogilev against the determined Russian resistance. I decided to pull the Stug IIIs a bit closer to action to see if they can help turn the tide, especially as I have noticed that the victory locations are defended with bunkers on top of all the Russians swarming around the city. We're pushing in the center of the city, but it's a messy affair and the Russians counterattack in any weak spot. A high price for silk indeed....
We returned to see if we could break through to Plei Me. It was down to the wire, but we managed to get our supply trucks to Plei Me. I don't think that would have been possible had we not had our gunships, that ambush was an amazing affair. The North Vietnamese were relentless and well positioned. After we stuck with the Plei Me theme and played the first scenario in the series called "The Lure". This is an excellent scenario for learning how to defend with less. The North Vietnamese aren't too aggressive, but aggressive enough to keep me on my toes. Positions are falling, but I'm still holding the key defences. It's night and I really need to to be daylight!
Campaign Series East Front : The fighting is getting intense with the causalities mounting. We are advancing 250 metres at a time into the outskirts of the city while there is heavy fighting happening in the deep city center. The Russians are still attempting to counter attack in various locations as I advance, which is holding up the advance in some sectors. On the bright side, this is an excellent display out of how to whittle down defences and overwhelm a defender. Is it easy? No. Is it fun? Hell YES!
This turned out to be a really interesting and fun scenario. We were the ARVN doing our best to defend against the North Vietnamese regulars as they probed our camp and slowly started to dismantle the surrounding defences. The scenario is a really good scenario for learning the game with such valuable lessons as; defending and knowing when to counter attack, conducting airstrikes and helicopters operations and their limitations. If you're new to the game, this would be a good one to play after you finish the Bootcamp scenarios, as while it has 30 turns, it is short to play and there is A LOT to learn here.
Such a bloody attack. There are a lot of valuable lessons in here for how to attack and how not to attack. The Russians are stubborn and even counter attack on occasion, which is keeping me on my toes. We are past the halfway point of the scenario, but the progress is there. Even if it is a struggle, block by block. It's a challenging scenario indeed and would be a hell of a fight against a human. A few objectives have now fallen, but we're still not at the victory level.... yet.
We continued on with the prelude to Ia Drang by playing the Hunt scenario. What a challenge indeed. We lost because we didn't find the caches and lost a lot of helicopters. Lessons learned there, that's for sure. Following that, we started the first of three scenarios that deal with the Ia Drang campaign. We started with the initial landing and are doing well so far. We did lose a couple gunships, and one of our platoons have been butchered. Fortunately, the NVA at this point are just probing and we haven't faced too rough of a counter attack. The highlight was watching napalm and seeing its effect on the poor NVA troops. Tis the season for a barbeque!
The advance is still block by block, but we did a few turns today. The progress is excellent although the causalities are very high. This would be a hell of a fight against a human, so I'm grateful it's just HAL. There are a lot of Russians here, I suspect a division or more, and realized that all the machine guns and hidden antitank guns are definitely taking their tolls on my attacking force. HAL is still counter attacking in certain areas making the fight a little harder. It is fun though, the pain is worth the gain!
Our Ia Drang campaign continued with the first landing into LZ X RAY and doing our best to defend it. It was a fun scenario and really got us learning how to transport troops and use gunships for support. Well, the ones that survived. We then started the Broken Arrow scenario, which is the second LZ X RAY related scenario. Things were going very well before I determined there was an error that seemed to have crept in with one of the updates. It's supposed to be a challenging scenario and realized the NVA didn't have their mortar support, which changes the whole dynamic. This will be remedied in the next UPDATE to be released soon!
We finally broke the Russians back and captured Mogilev! These final turns are an excellent overview on how to mop up an area and things to think about as you do, including artillery targeting, positioning and using the defenders improved positions against them. It was still a bloody affair, but we overwhelmed the final Russian defenders and accumulated a lot of points in the final turns as we completed the mopping up operation. Looking for a devilish fight against a human, this is the one for you!
Well we did some revisions to the Broken Arrow scenario. While it is a bit more challenging, it seems to have lost the feel from the original scenario I designed for 1.00. We did manage a major victory, but that was relatively slim and should have been less considering how many losses we took. That being said, I'll do some more revisions and make it even better with the scripting. Regardless, it's still a fun scenario and good for practice. But stay tuned for an update!
And now, for something completely different. We went to the Pacific and I was asked to play A SMALL PIECE OF HELL in the Rising Sun game. We are the Marines and attempting to take an atoll in the Marshall Islands. Hell is a very good description of this, it's just brutal. I'm doing my best to grab a foothold on the atoll, but the Japanese don't want to have anything to do with that and I'm paying the price. I have a few small beachheads - if they live next session, but there's a long way to go!
Well that was a session and a half. We played the By the Belt scenario that shows the events that happened at LZ Albany after the LZ X Ray battle and it quickly showed us what kind of disaster that was. We suffered a lot of losses and the Landing Zone was lost shortly after the NVA assault. An impressive attack by the NVA, that's for sure. Then we played the Long Tan scenario, acting as the Australians and did what we could to stem the tide of the numerous assaults into the plantation while we waited for reinforcements. The main element in that scenario that saved our bacon was the artillery. Well, saving our bacon might be considered a stretch...
Well, it seems I'm learning some new tricks. It seems I have figured out some tactical lessons to help give my 7th Infantry Division platoons some boost in capturing the island. It's a hard and bloody go, but we are finally gaining some ground and pushing back some Japanese defenders. There's still a long way to go, but at least I can see a plan formulating for the follow on forces. The Japanese are brutal to dig out of their entrenched positions, but I'm feeling more confident this session than last. All hope is not lost!
We had a different mission today, protecting some Engineering assets during a road construction project near War Zone C. The Viet Cong decided to attack our engineering teams during the night, which we did our best to defend. There is an Australian camp nearby that also helped out. With the vast amount of firepower, the end result is expected, although it was a close run thing, as you'll see!
Well this is turning out to be more fun that I anticipated. We are finally making some progress and our second wave is starting to land. By no means it is a walk on the beach, but the early lessons have certainly been learned and the amount of firepower is certainly helping our advance. It would be a lot more of a problem without our mortar batteries and tank platoon support. Our 7th Infantry Division is lacking the high morale of the Marines, but I think we're holding our own. Talk about good fun!
We started a new scenario today and tried a combined operation with the South Koreans as the attackers. It's been an interesting experience so far as I learn how to best use the South Koreans. This isn't a particularly hard scenario, but offers some insights in how to use helicopters, a beach landing and humping through the maze of Viet Cong infested villages. I'm also learning that sometimes, I need to consolidate my forces better to attack key positions. And be more cautious as it relates to ambushes. Ugh, I paid the price in an ambush!
Well, we started a new scenario. The Main Event, which is the hypothetical invasion of Honshu by the US forces. Our initial landing was a bloody affair during these initial turns. Even the 16-inch naval guns have little effect on the Japanese positions. I have figured the trick to taking out the positions, but it will be a terribly bloody affair. It's a large map with a lot of objectives, with not a lot of turns, which means it will be an interesting and challenging scenario.
We continued our operation Dragon Fire today to completion. It is a good scenario, a good introductory scenario for learning how to use the various forces. It is also a nice bonus to use South Korean and learn their strength and weaknesses. One thing I learned was that a single company might not be enough to wear down a heavily defended Viet Cong position and to expect losses. A lot of losses. I'm grateful the gunships came on the map as they gave the illusion of having some success!
Our invasion of Honshu seems to be in good order, if you don't count the terrible casualties we are suffering. Some good news is that some of the defending coastal positions are falling and we are slowly probing into the depths of the mainland island. Of course, there is ample stubborn resistance and near the end of the session I noted to significant counter-attacks on the flanks what will need to be addressed with that already too few units at my disposal. No one said this would be a walk in the park...
Well we fired up a Linked Campaign Game in Rising Sun. We are in command of a Marine Battalion and will be participating in adventures on Guadalcanal. We have suffered some casualties, but so far the scenarios are progressing pretty quickly. It should be interesting to see how the campaign progresses. This is a first for me, a Rising Sun campaign, so it will be interesting to see if what I have learned can be put into practice. Each of the scenarios so far have been interesting, although I wish I would receive some more replacements. Some of my platoons are definitely understrength.
We are making excellent progress in our attacks onto Honshu. There is still some bloody fighting as we push towards the objectives. There is an interesting counter attack from the west and we ran into some heavier tanks. I haven't figured out what to do with the M45 tanks quite yet, as all the shots seem to be mostly bouncing. The M26 Pershing's are amazing though, they can destroy Japanese guns at a distance. We are two thirds of the way through and I found a hidden (by a label) objective. It will be a race to see if we can get there. Thank you, Murphy.
We started scenario number 4. It was another scenario where we should be taking a break during the night, but the Japanese had other plans. On the bright side, we had the rest of the regiment to help in our defence of Henderson airfield. The attack started swiftly in the west and our lines held. I had a good plan to hold off any assaults from the east, but little did I know the Japanese had other plans and decided to conduct a beach landing. The losses are mounting, but we're in the middle of a determined counter attack.
While our lines are a little porous, we are still making some good strides on our attack onto Honshu. Japanese resistance is pretty well coordinated in a few locations and some I just right up bypassed to avoid the impending casualties. The Japanese counterattack in the west has faltered, fortunately, and our attack into the northeast with two platoons of M26's in the vanguard has turned out to be an interesting foray. We're almost completed with totally securing the beach head and hopefully the last bits will give us the total victory we have been aiming for!
We ended off scenario four and started up scenario five. If we thought the last scenario was challenging, this one was even worse. The Japanese assaulted the perimeter of the Henderson field defences and we ended up having a scrap in the jungle. There is little movement, but a lot of fighting. We saw the results of a banzai attack on one of the mountain tops. What a mess. Our battalion was acting as the fire brigade, and our casualties starting to mount to hold the line. Lessons learned the hard way, it seems.
Success was ours! We secured the last mountain and cleaned up a bunch of Japanese stragglers. It was a tough fight and we paid the price for taking over the landing area in Honshu. The Japanese put up a stiff resistance but our firepower won the day. Once our Pershings were on shore, it turned out to be all over for the Japanese but the tears in the saki. A good fight and certainly something to consider for the future version of the Campaign Series!
Campaign Series West Front: We started a brand new battle that was created by Ingomar Scheiber that details the German parachute operation for battle of Crete in May 1941. We start off by a series of landings and our attempt to capture the Maleme airfield. We have run into some strong defences but we making some progress in these first few turns. There are a handful of British positions and we have spotted some Greek irregulars meandering in the rear that we have to be cautious about. The battle begins.
Campaign Series Rising Sun: Our campaign continues! I was fully expecting the campaign to end during that scenario number 5. We were quite successful, but it seems during the night we were kicked back to the perimeter of the airfield and we are attempting to take the same ground again in the sixth scenario. On the bright side, we do have some additional forces! The attack is going well, although quite bloody. We did receive a bunch of reinforcement points, which brought our battalion marines to half strength. Of course, that lasted about as long as ice cream in the hot sun. C'est la vie.
Hats off to you Jason, You've put a huge amount of love into the various Campaign series. :ThumbsUp:
I dug out one of your campaigns the other day. Western Front Campaign series playing the Sealion Campaign as the Fallschirmjaegers.
It's hellishly brutal on the first scenario to get sufficient objectives in the 20 turns available, and I wish there was a little more wiggle room when you're just a hex or two between defeat and victory.
Don't remember, but does campaign Series Vietnam and Middle East have any option to have a random few turns above and beyond the scenario cut off?
Thank you for tuning in! I really appreciate the support!
It is a hard scenario campaign indeed. One way to help is double timing your para's when you can. It helps move faster and reduce the extra turns needed.
As for your question about Vietnam and Middle East, no, not yet, but that is one my wish list!
The campaign continues, much to my surprise! I thought it would end with scenario 6. But we were sent off to defend a line and holy crap, it turned ugly. We learned all about how to defend against Japanese Banzai attacks and how brutally effective they are. You can watch two companies of Marines be evaporated in this playthrough. What a brutal realization of how effective the Japanese can be when they want to! We were successful, but at what cost indeed...
The Greek holiday continues! Crete is an impressive place, there are lots of places for the Greeks and British to hide in the hills. They keep attacking though and some of their hits are quite impressive. The Germans are holding the line and have secured some key positions and doing their best to maintain some form of order during all the counter attacks. Due to the losses, we are starting to more effectively use the terrain to our advantage, although sometimes it seems the British have all the luck. On the bright side, we have some more reinforcements we can use to start the assault on Chanai!
It was a great campaign, we finally finished it. The last battle was a doozy and went right to the wire. We pushed our way through the jungle and coast as hard as we could. Our light tanks suffered terribly due to hidden Japanese engineers and very potent infantry with leaders. Even though the Japanese massed, the assaults failed and our last assault was victorious to scrape a major victory, concluding the linked campaign. After that, we played a defence as the Dutch against a Japanese assault. That was the first time playing the Dutch in a short scenario, learned a lot and would be happy to play them again!
Campaign Series West Front - I'm really enjoying this Crete scenario. I've forgotten how well the British can fight. I'm suffering far too many causalities in these initial stages, but I'm making progress. I have set up a few kill zones which is making life a bit easier. Although, the British have done the same, especially in the new landing area northeast of Chanai! Those blasted Bofors guns are a royal pain in the bottom. We have some timely reinforcements, so I will see what I can do for clearing up behind our landing areas and start slowly pushing out. Things are looking, well, tough.
Campaign Series West Front - We only managed to do a few turns of this scenario this time, but there is lots of action and fantastic discussion! Thank you Tim and Alistair for keeping the conversation flowing. It was a nice trip down memory lane indeed. Much to our surprise, during turn 17 we ended up experiencing night. That will help our horrific artillery casualties, but will make advancing a little more challenging and we have to make sure our lines are very well formed before we start pushing out towards Chania. All the positive vibes for our paras, right?
I made it back to streaming after a small hiatus into RL. What is the world coming to, eh? We returned to our invasion of Crete. It is still night and we are making some slow and steady progress. I took the opportunity to show you some effective assaulting in these old games and how to herd. Does it always go your way? No, but it is extremely rewarding when it does! Our Italian navy is getting closer to Chania, hopefully that will be helpful for the pending assault.
Ah it's good to be back to Campaign Series Vietnam. We started up a new scenario using the latest BETA version of the Fall Update, mostly - I noted a data error so didn't use the weapon files. We started up Digging them Out, a Marine and ARVN infantry fight that takes place near Quang Ngai. We started our advance, which is unnerving on so many levels. The hidden snipers and machine guns are definitely something that makes you skin crawl. We have some Hogs on station, but with a dug in enemy, they are only so effective. We did start the morning with some napalm though! Gotta love the smell of napalm in the morning...
Well firetruck. Talk about a mess and a half. There are Viet Cong everywhere and they are dug in exceptionally well. We are making some progress and succeeded in securing two primary objectives, but it has taken nearly half the scenario to do it and the losses. Well, it is best not to talk about the losses. It is an interesting challenge to figure out how to reduce these various Viet Cong positions with the limited forces I have. I'm grateful for the heavy artillery and gunships though, they make a world of difference!
We are slowly whittling down the British on the island. After a lot of hard fighting, we're pushing onto Chania from two directions. There are significant defences there, but we found one undefended road, which we will hopefully use en force later in the scenario. At the moment, we are doing our best to push through the initial trench lines and try to surround and isolate the city. There is some British batteries to the east of the city that are taking a toll on my poor paras, they are definitely high priority to destroy. Life is shot enough as it is!
What a challenging scenario. It has been a doozy of a fight. We broke past the halfway point in the scenario and we are making some progress, which is good. It's been a messy and bloody affair though, each position has taken a vast amount of troops and artillery support to break down the defences. Our tunnel rats found a very juicy target though, so we are sending them in to see if they eliminate the target. Unfortunately, we had two gunships ambushed and shot down, there goes our clean air operations streak. C'est la guerre.
We continue advancing towards Chania, although it's a very bloody affair. The batteries are having a field day on our poor Paras in the east. Even without Line of Sight, they attack strength was enough to completely eliminate a whole company with leaders. That was a rough go indeed. I thought I would be clever and flank the position, but alas, not as lucky indeed. Otherwise, the attack in the west is going well. We have some reinforcements in the form of mountain troops! Now that is exciting, I just don't know what to do with them. Decisions, decisions!
It's been a while, but we're finally back with public betas for both of our Campaign Series titles.
While these updates continue the work of bringing the remaining UI elements in line with the new visual style, the real star of the show is the
completely revised United Kingdom Order of Battle. It's been updated for Middle East and, for the first time ever, is now included in Vietnam as well. To quote Inglourious Basterds, I think this just might be Jason's masterpiece. At least for now!
Before you get started, please disable any mods you may have enabled via JSGME before installing the update. Also, if you've opted for legacy map graphics by renaming the 3D_OLD folder, be sure to switch back to the new stock graphics before updating. For more details on this, see the Release Notes section titled Enabling Old 3D Map Graphics. This is important!
Downloads- For Vietnam 2.20.00 Public Beta, you can download the update directly HERE (https://forums.matrixgames.com/viewtopic.php?p=5296907#p5296907)
- For Middle East 3.20.00 Public Beta, similarly, you can download the update directly HERE (https://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/CampaignSeriesMiddleEast/CampaignSeriesMiddleEast-UpdateComp-v3.20.00.zip)
Change Log 2.20.00 / 3.20.00 (October 29th, 2026)Enhancements- Updated CS Middle East with the completely revised UK order of battle.
- Added the completely revised UK order of battle to CS Vietnam as a new nation.
- Scenario Information dialog is now non-modal and can remain open while playing the game.
- Updated the Arrived, Scheduled, and Release dialogs to use the two-tone gridview. Added organizational information to the display. Release turn numbers triggered by the event engine are now clearly marked as "CSEE". All three dialogs are sortable by column title.
- Updated the Target dialog to use the two-tone gridview. It is also sortable by column title.
- Added sortable columns to the Location and Objective dialogs as well as for the Forces and Strength tabs of the SITREP dialog.
- Updated the Artillery and Air Support dialogs to use the new two-tone gridviews. These are now sortable by column title.
- Improved Edorg read functionality to support complex comment structures in data files, with enhanced error reporting for greater clarity.
- Added three selectable screen‑edge scroll zones — Narrow, Medium, and Wide — allowing players to choose how large the edge "scroll box" is before mouse‑driven map scrolling activates.
- Added details to on‑map tooltips so that when a carrying unit is highlighted, the organization details of the carried unit are also displayed.Enlarged the Jump Map dialog by 50% and adjusted the elevation‑contour algorithm to better match the actual map colors.
- Upgraded the Jump Map dialog to use the latest game-specific color schemes.
- Reintroduced the white vertical marker in Hex Info Unit Action Thermobars to indicate the minimum amount of action points required to perform a fire mission.
Fixes- Fixed Air and Artillery Support Dialog selection events where, under certain circumstances, Toolbar and cursor icon did not reflect a correct Fire/Move state.
- Added safeguards to on-map tooltips to prevent them from displaying under AI control causing for instance replay to stop.
- Fixed the image resize issue with Bulletin, Message, Note, and Remark Dialogs where dialog sizes now dynamically match that of the loaded image.
- Fixed a bug where, under certain conditions, it was possible to enter a water hex if an enemy boat was present.
Note that the game manual is still being updated and will be included with the next 2.20.10 and 3.20.10 installations.
Your feedback is appreciated :notworthy: