Adding new scenarios

[toolsey62]

Hello I have returned to this game after playing the original Talonsoft versions many years ago and I find the campaigns fantastic in this Matrix version which I purchased some time ago and believe it or not I only found the latest patch for it yesterday within the game files which has made it so much better , I found the jsgme mod patcher installed in game so I am looking for mods to change the look of the game and in particular new maps if they exist for the early days of Barbarossa, I have downloaded various scenarios from the Blitz site which I don’t know how to add to game , each scenario seems to consist of 3 parts and I don’t know where to put them also new campaigns if anybody could help an old fool with above points I would be very grateful.
Also I am amazed at what was done in the game from the start and I am so looking forward to EF3 when it appears with the improvements which have appeared in the other 2 games from CSLegion which I also have purchased recently but my favourite of all time is the Eastern front of which I have several books from Glantz and others , much gratitude to Jason and other modders who have continued to make this game fantastic .
Regards

[Big Ivan]

Hi toolsay62,


Welcome to the Matrix Forum!


Basically any new scenarios, the files that is (Map, Org and Scn) files are added directly into the individual main game folder for either East Front II, West Front and Rising Sun. When you go to play the scenario the game engine will pick up the files you need for that scenario (map & org).


Same thing is true for any campaign games you have. Those are designated a (cpn) type files and the game engine will pick up what you need to play them.


There is no special sub-folder within the main game folder for storing them unlike in the newer games Campaign Series Middle East and Campaign Series Vietnam.


A word of caution though with scenarios created with older versions of John Tiller's Campaign Series (JTCS). The most current version is 2.02. Scenarios created with the 1.03 or 1.04 versions of the game will probably work. Anything before version 1.03 might be problematical. They may or may not work because a lot has changed over the years since the games inception in 1998.


Hope this helps!


Kind regards,


John (Big Ivan)

[Big Ivan]

Hi Toolsey62,

Also, if you look down in this forum you will see something called EFII Scenario Sets for Grossdeutchland, Barbarossa and Liberation. These are scenario packs that have playable scenarios in JTCS for those periods on the Eastern Front.

I don't believe the maps are accurate though because they were made using map boards from the original board games of Panzerblitz and Panzer Leader primarily.

The problem with accurate maps is being able to find topographic maps of the period 1941 through 1945. As you know there was no Google Maps or Earth to use as a reference so period maps are the only way to go. Also you can't use Google Earth because the world has changed since then.

There are a few sites that have access to these kind of topographic maps but you have to do some searching on Google to find them.

The other issue is accurate organization of combat units that actually took part in any of the battles. As we know a lot of the ground units rarely had accurate TO&E (Tables of Organization and Equipment) in the field, but instead were maybe parts of the TO&E or miscellaneous units throw together. In some of the readings on the East Front you may pick up on that.

Hope this helps!
John

[toolsey62]

Big Ivan
Thanks very much for your help , like I said I only found the 2.02 patch within the game yesterday after playing for nearly 6 months when I read something within the forums and checked the files and realised why I didn’t see much difference from the originals years ago , I have been playing combat mission 1 for nearly 20 years but was fed up with lack of campaign and not keen on latest combat missions due to same issues , but since yesterday I started a campaign set during Barbarossa 1941 army group centre with new 3d graphics thru the built in mod selector as a Battalion commander and won my first action also this morning found a scenario selector on my desktop which I opened this morning and picked the battle is joined ,battle of Raseiniai 1941 , perfect command level I am excited for the EF3 release anyway thanks again