The Black Rats Campaign

[Tazak]

I present “The Back Rats” campaign, a 5 battle campaign that examines the various phases of a hot ‘Cold War’ that the British army trained for.

The 4th Mechanised Bde was formed in the desert of North Africa just before the Second World War and fought in most of the major campaigns of the 2nd world war, and theatres of operations against Italian, German and Japanese forces.

Now named 4th Armoured Bde as part of 3rd (UK) Armoured Division BAOR, they were held back with 3rd Armd Division as the BAOR reserve until the WP 1st echelon had been defeated. 1st & 4th Armoured Division having defeated the 1st echelon 3rd Combined Arms Army, 3rd Armd Division carried out a relief in place, now the Black Rats prepare add a new series of battle honours to their colours fighting the Warsaw Pact in Europe.

Take command of 2 battle groups formed from the 1st Bn, The Grenadier Guards, 14th/20th King’s Hussars and 17th/21st Lancers with attached artillery and air defence units supported by units from 3rd Armd Div and 2nd Infantry Division with air support provided by 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force against the soviet 2nd echelon 20th Guards Army as they push forward towards the French border.

Download here

Shameless plug [:)]: My ‘basic’ maps were kindly redone by W1ll14m, you can find his other maps here

[cbelva]

Thanks Tazak, I'm looking forward to playing it.

[CapnDarwin]

Awesome! More campaign goodness. [&o]

[budd]

do we download all the files in both folders... maps/campaigns?

[cbelva]

The map (png and fp9) files needs to go in the map folder (not the custom folder inside the maps) and the scenario and campaign files goes into the campaign folder.

[cbelva]

Tazak, I took a look and played around a little tonight with the first scenario of the campaign. Didn't get a chance to finished it. It looks like a lot of fun. I liked the map.

[budd]

ORIGINAL: cbelva

The map (png and fp9) files needs to go in the map folder (not the custom folder inside the maps) and the scenario and campaign files goes into the campaign folder.

Got it sorted, thanks.

[Tazak]

Ah I forgot to add the install.txt, I'll sort that when I get home today as well as moving the maps into the maps folder.

cbelva, I enjoyed putting the first scenario together, although 2.04 patch caused me issues re-adjusting the balance with the improved AI tweaks and how it handles non-road terrain (not a complaint BTW), I found that the AI tweaks have improved the replayability a lot.

[IronMikeGolf]

Tazak, I installed it (no issues) and looked at the first scenario. Probably start playing it tonight and AAR it. I love how you did the setup for BA. Makes you really think about things, doesn't it? More challenging for the inexperienced, though.

[Tazak]

IMG, sorry what's BA? - likely a difference in terminology

[IronMikeGolf]

British Army units. First two of BAOR.

[Tazak]

Ah right, nothing special about the setup I think, 2 standard 2:1 battlegroups with attached AD/Arty assets with a few Bde support assets (additional AD/Arty). Yes there is an increase in AD assets but you'll see why [8|]

I did go through the TOE & ORBAT and removed as much 'useless' stuff as I could after CapnDarwin pointed out people were having issues with larger scenarios, these then gave me wiggle room to increase what the soviets got without increasing the number of 'runners', but nothing that is critical below are a few of the changes in ORABT:

The Ferret AOP from Sqn HQ's - these are 'personal' transport for the Sqn Commander that he would normally use to travel to/from HQ briefings or for advance recon without taking his tank.

A few HQ's were removed from the Inf Battlegroup - 95% of the time the support company HQ would merge with the Bn HQ to provide additional ops officers/signalers/local defense and I distributed the Atk assets to either Inf company or recce platoons.

The Arty I combined into Bty rather than the 2 troops which does limit the amount of FASCAM/ICM but hey what's life without a few challenges [;)], again something that was brought up on the forums about merging British arty into single Batteries to bring them into line with other NATO ORBATs. I've not encountered single troops deploying when I was serving.

The only ORBAT/TOE change I was going to make was creation of a FV512 - the FOO Warrior, basic Warrior IFV minus the 30mm cannon but adding TI, then adding 1 per Sqn & Coy HQ, never got around to it TBH and I doubt it would make a huge difference giving each infantry coy HQ 1 vehicle with TI, and the challangers provide TI in tank squadrons.

Would be interested to know peoples view on the scenario briefings, I know from other forum posts there is a group who are used to the full blown formal orders but given the scale of the game and most of the service and support are abstract I felt going with a more high level picture and 'loose' mission statements provided a more 'east read' briefing.

[IronMikeGolf]

Tazak,

So far, most scenarios I have seen are either meeting engagements, with forces stacked up on roads, or smallish clusters of set up hexes for a defense. One of the most critical decisions a commander makes is his choice of terrain to fight upon. So, marking huge swaths of the map as setup hexes is a bigger challenge to the player.

I enjoyed the briefings, especially the depth of background. As to order vs briefing, I consider the upper level of command for the scenario to be the driving force, there. If you have a Brigade HQs, then orders for Brigade and below would be the player's responsibility. The Division order given to the Brigade would tend to be heavier on logistics and force organization and have less detail about maneuver. General Officers (in the US Army, anyways) are more responsible for concentrating and sustaining forces and less about fighting them.

One possibility for a Campaign is to have either an OPPLAN or initial OPORD that spans operations expected for the time span of the campaign and have Scenarios after the first get FRAGOs.

[Tazak]

Updated the download with a readme file that explains where to copy the folders to (also moved maps into maps folder and deleted the custom folder)

ORIGINAL: Iron Mike Golf

Tazak,

So far, most scenarios I have seen are either meeting engagements, with forces stacked up on roads, or smallish clusters of set up hexes for a defense. One of the most critical decisions a commander makes is his choice of terrain to fight upon. So, marking huge swaths of the map as setup hexes is a bigger challenge to the player.

I enjoyed the briefings, especially the depth of background. As to order vs briefing, I consider the upper level of command for the scenario to be the driving force, there. If you have a Brigade HQs, then orders for Brigade and below would be the player's responsibility. The Division order given to the Brigade would tend to be heavier on logistics and force organization and have less detail about maneuver. General Officers (in the US Army, anyways) are more responsible for concentrating and sustaining forces and less about fighting them.

One possibility for a Campaign is to have either an OPPLAN or initial OPORD that spans operations expected for the time span of the campaign and have Scenarios after the first get FRAGOs.

Yea I never liked being forced into limited setup zones (you'll like the 2nd battle, you get 3/4 map to select where to deploy apart from the improved positions and obstacles), allows people to find innovative ways to use the forces at your disposal in achieving the mission

I've tried to portray the orders a Bde commander would receive from Division so more around the overall picture of actions of nearby units providing a insight in how your actions fit into the overall plan.

[wodin]

Huge thanks mate!

[Tazak]

ORIGINAL: wodin

Huge thanks mate!

your welcome, I have a couple more that I need to flesh out and start working on, hopefully it'll take me less than 6 months this time [&:]

[battlerbritain]

I think the weekend's now looking very good [:D]

Kids are away and a new Brit Campaign for me to try out in FPRS - what could be better?

Like the new maps by the way.

Cheers Dood...

[WABAC]

I am only seeing four maps. Is that correct?

[budd]

yea, 4 is what i downloaded.

[WABAC]

ORIGINAL: **budd**

yea, 4 is what i downloaded.

Hmm. That is a poser then.

I have TM1 through TM4.png in maps folder

I have TM1 through TM4.fp9 in maps folder

In the Campaign folder I have The Black Rats.cam, 4AB Stopsign.scn, 4AB Speedbump.scn, 4AB sideroad.scn, 4AB Roadblock.scn, and 4AB Quicklane.scn

But when I start the campaign I get a funny little error in application box I have never seen before. Pushing deeper in, there seems to be a problem with the png format?