Campaign Series Vietnam

[Jason Petho]

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.

[Jason Petho]

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.

[Jason Petho]

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.

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

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. 

[Jason Petho]

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.

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

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.

[Jason Petho]

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.

[Jason Petho]

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. 

[Crossroads]

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   

[Jason Petho]

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.   

[Crossroads]

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.

[Jason Petho]

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.

[Jason Petho]

 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.