Campaign Series Vietnam

[Jason Petho]

 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!

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

 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.

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

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.

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

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. 

[Jason Petho]

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!

[Jason Petho]

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!