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While waiting for Matrix to start it's 2007 flood of games to empty my wallet[;)] I decided to finally get around to doing something I've considered for a couple of years, installing the Divided Ground Vietnam Mod. It's been a while since I last looked at the web pages so a number of things have been updated, and after an hour or so I have completed my update [:)].

As it turned out, there have been so many updates from the fans to Divided Ground itself that I ended up doing both installs.

Here's the link to the DGVM page. Go to the mods page and scroll down to the heading

Latest mod versions:

USE THIS AFTER 9-5-2005

Here you will find instructions to install not only the Vietnam mod, but also to create a version 2.0 of Divided Ground itself. Very cool. If you look near the bottom of the page you will find that item 17 is a link to a detailed set of instructions on how to do all this.

BTW, if you are trying to find "The Blitz" FTP site as mentioned in the instructions, it's here. That will take you to the "2.01" versions of some of the files that are only listed at the "2.00" version on the HTML page.

There's over ninety scenarios available for download for the Vietnam mod as well.

A BIG THANKS to Jorge Grillo and all the others who put in some much time on this tremendous mod! [&o][&o]

Rather frustrated that having done all that I find I can't get DG to run. It just bombs out each time on trying to run the main program (dg.exe); the menu bit is OK as are the editors. Have tried the usual compatibility settings to no avail.

I'm sure I've had it running under XP before.. [&:]


EDIT: Sussed it, after several hours of trying. It was bloody Starforce ('Frontline Pro'), in the flavour that got installed with GT Legends. I noticed the CD drive revving up as dg.exe runs, wondered if there might be a conflict, removed the usual suspect in such cases, and bingo.

ORIGINAL: Hertston

EDIT: Sussed it, after several hours of trying. It was bloody Starforce ('Frontline Pro'), in the flavour that got installed with GT Legends. I noticed the CD drive revving up as dg.exe runs, wondered if there might be a conflict, removed the usual suspect in such cases, and bingo.

Sheesh, even more of a reason to stay away from Starforce, can't have it messing with my wargames!

Glad you got it to work. I started playing one of the simplier DGVM scenarios last night. The graphics aren't bad at all, although I am resizing my desktop from 1680x1050 to 1280x768 so I can seem more of the detail. Also the 2D view at 1680x1050 seems too small for me. The good news of course is that the Campaign Series works just fine on widescreen (1.6:1) displays.

I just completed playing my first Divided Ground Vietnam Mod scenario, "Pile-On" (Binh An.scn) . In this scenario you are the USA player. You have two Troops (battalions) of dismounted Air Cavalry, riding in M113s with M125 (M113 mortar carriers) and M48 tanks for support. As you approached the village of Binh An you were fired on. You ojective is to sieze the village without sustaining too many casualites. On their way to you as reinforcements are two more Troops of dismounted AirCav, plus two airborne companies in Hueys with Cobras for firesupport.  Additionally on you have Phantoms, 155mm artillery and the guns of a cruiser and two destroyers off shore. Sounds like that should be plenty, right? Maybe not [;)]

It's a pretty good scenario and at a complexity of only three, a good introduction to the new hardware of the era.

In the interest of not making something seem more useful than it might be, be aware that in Divided Ground and probably more importantly the DG Vietnam mod, the game engine doesn't deal very well with Helicopters. They cannot fly over enemy units, for instance, so it's possible to block a flight path by putting useless units in a line. Obviously this won't happen that often, but it can be annoying.

Also, the game engine had difficulties with the use of weapons against choppers. In some DGVM scenarios the VC B-10 82mm recoiless rifle is used and I just had one killed a couple of choppers from two miles away, while they were in the air [X(].  It's very frustrating of course, but it's the limitation of the original DG which as I understand treats all on map units the same in this regards, and makes no allowance for flight speed.

Also helos can unload in any hex, so usually house rules are in effect that the human player can't unload in jungle or forest.

This doesn't mean the game is unplayable, just that scenarios have to take this into account. The AI pretty much has no clue on how to use choppers, so most scenarios would be H-to-H only or perhaps with the human playing the side with the helo if the other side doesn't have them.

Temple, are you up for a battle PBEM? RS, DG, DGVN

ORIGINAL: junk2drive

Temple, are you up for a battle PBEM? RS, DG, DGVN

Have to take a pass on this. I don't do much PBEM, my work schedule and other obligations make it tough to stay focused on a single game for long enough. Thanks though for the offer.

I finally finished Pile-on. By turn 21 I had wiped the VC off the map. Minor loss for me as I lost too many units in the process.
 
Tough battle, lots of different units. Thanks for the recommendation.