SCENARIOS!

[Suhiir]

2nd Fallaujh UPDATE

Fixed a couple errors (notably one USMC squad being armed with a 90mm cannon primary weapon).

[Mr_Bill_5000]

Hello,

I have designed a Ukraine / Russia scenario entitled "Assault on Armiansk". The .zip file containing it is only about 2.2 megabytes but when I try to upload it, the .com.unity forums file uploader consistently tells me "upload failed". There seems to be no good reason for this.

What if anything am I doing wrong here? I have uploaded other scenarios successfully in the past from the same PC with no problems. Is something broken at your end?

[Suhiir]

Footfall
Date: June 1946
Battle Location: West Germany
Battle Type: USA defend/advance vs. Aliens?!?
Design by: Suhiir.

Scenario description: Science Fiction based on the book "Footfall" by by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

A couple days ago there was a large meteor shower in the Soviet controlled sector of Germany. The following day the Soviet Sector devolved into chaos. Radio intercepts and limited aerial observation by the Allies showed massive movements of Soviet forces and battles raging in a few areas. Intercepts about Martians, unstoppable tanks, infantry that can see in the dark, artillery that can pinpoint and destroy entire grid squares, aircraft flying faster then the speed of sound using magical weapons to destroy anything in their path,airborne or on the ground.

An initial trickle of fleeing, not retreating, fleeing, Soviet troops has turned into a tidal wave. Allied High command is barely beginning to make sense, if any is to be made, of the reports they're receiving

Your infantry regiment, just yesterday keeping an eye on the Soviets is about to gain first-hand knowledge of what has the Soviets in a panic. Hold your ground and if possible counterattack to drive the ?aliens? back into the Soviet Sector!

Note: If played against the AI, the human player should play the US Army side.

Note: This is one of the oddest battles you'll probably ever play in WinSPMBT. 1946 US Army with a handful of Brits and Russians vs 2025 US Marines representing the aliens. You have a significant numerical advantage, will that be enough?

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I need a volunteer playtester (or ten) for this HUGE LONG DIFFICULT scenario.

As it's designer I know what appears where, when, and in what numbers thus I cannot accurately judge the difficulty, or if, the scenario goals of defend then counterattack are even possible for someone without my knowledge of the scenario.

Given the time needed to play the scenario, hours if not days, I need someone without a life that understands WinSPMBT mechanics to give it a try and give me feedback.

[Mr_Bill_5000]

2023 CANGAMES SP-MBT CONVENTION TOURNAMENT SCENARIO

The appended scenario was the basis of the Steel Panthers MBT tournament held over the May Long Week-end, at the annual CanGames games convention, in Ottawa, Ontario.

An extensive set of game notes was prepared for the players of the tournament, however the rules regarding uploads for this Forum do not permit the upload of a large (~2.2 Mb) .pdf of this type, so if you want to see these notes, please message me and I'll try to find some way to get it to you.

The scenario was very well-received and all the players commented on how realistic it seemed.

Details of the scenario, which occupies slot #560 in the SP-MBT Scenario List, can be seen below.

----------------------------------------------------

Assault on Armiansk depicts a Ukrainian attempt, in mid-Spring 2023, to dislodge entrenched Russian forces just outside and in the north-west parts of the north Crimean town of Armiansk, which sits astride the main highway running from inside Crimea to Kherson on the western side of the Dneipro River.

Taking Armiansk will be vital to Ukraine’s military objectives in Crimea, as this region is connected to the Ukrainian mainland only by a few narrow isthmus (this is one of them) and without a break-through, Ukraine would have to try a very dangerous and likely futile amphibious invasion elsewhere on the Crimean coastline to advance on the #1 objective, the port city of Sevastopol.

Unfortunately, the Russian High Command staff are very well aware of the area’s importance, and they have taken steps to fortify it so as to make Ukrainian advances, very difficult and costly.

So...

“Pokolvnyk (Colonel) Fedeorsuk of Ukraine’s Glorious Armed Forces, here is your intelligence briefing for this important battle.

Your orders are to send Mr. Putin’s ‘Orcs’ (Russian soldiers) in the Armiansk area, fleeing in terror from the righteous wrath of Ukraine’s avenging army.

To do this, you will have to accomplish at least three goals : one, ‘kill as many Russian units as you can’; two, ‘capture as much of the Kherson Highway as possible, down to the far southeastern part of it leading to the ‘Khimik’ Sports Stadium; and three, ‘capture as many as possible of the special victory objective flags which we have identified on the battle map’.

We should warn you… we do not expect this battle to be easy. Although we are sure that our soldiers have much better morale than the ‘Orcs’, and we have amassed as many of our boys (and girls) as we can for this operation, we do not have a large numerical superiority in the area; so preserve your infantry as much as you can, since every lost Ukrainian hero soldier will hurt our chances of victory.

As far as armored combat is concerned, you have been given command of a small number of new Western main battle tanks, and while we believe that on a 1-for-1 basis they are superior to anything that the Russians might have in the area, these are not “super-weapons” : they can be killed, notably by some of the more recent anti-tank missiles that the ‘Orcs’ are known to have in their possession. And they can be rendered almost instantly useless simply by driving them over a land mine. So use and move them carefully!

This is even more true of the few mine-clearing T-64 tanks that you have been allocated, as these will be vital in helping you to remove the minefields that the dirty Russians are suspected to have laid, in and around Armiansk.

Your tanks (especially the Western ones) are much better-protected than your armored personnel carriers (even the Bradleys). So if you believe that you are going to take a missile shot no matter what you do… let the ‘Orcs’ fire it at our Western tanks first, as they are more likely to survive a hit or two. (Note that we said ‘more likely to survive’… not, ‘invulnerable’.) Also, we have some advanced APCs (BTR-4 and Bradleys) that have potent anti-tank missiles. If they survive the first few minutes, use them for defensive purposes later on to defeat Russian armored counter-attacks.

Unfortunately, we have almost completely exhausted our pre-war supplies of artillery shells and air defense missiles, over the winter of 2022-23; so we are weak in both these areas. Do not be surprised if you encounter large-scale Russian artillery barrages and*/ or airstrikes. Disperse your units as much as you can so they are less vulnerable to massed indirect fire.

You will be given one airstrike (very little of our pre-war air force remains operational); we recommend that you hold it in reserve until you see a worthwhile target (for example a Russian tank column) for your Su-25 to bomb into oblivion. The Russians have somewhat better local air defenses than we do, so do not expect your ‘Grach’ strike plane, to survive forever.

As far as specific tactics on the battlefield are concerned, you will notice that the main highway runs from the top-left (north-west) of the map to the bottom-right (south-east). We expect this route to be heavily defended so it may not be worthwhile to try to force it.

The Russians are known to have partly fortified the approaches to the town; they are dug in and have set up trench lines, barbed-wire, minefields, and anti-tank obstacles in some places. Yet we believe that they do not have enough soldiers to have done this, everywhere. You will have to probe to see where the weak spots are, then ruthlessly exploit these.

We suspect that Russian defenses will be weaker around the southern approaches to the town (near the bottom of the map) and perhaps around the large spillway that runs parallel to the highway, in the northern side of the map.

You could try your luck marching through the forested area that runs alongside and just to the north of the highway; of course, your units will move more slowly here, but they may not be exposed to a great deal of long-range opportunity fire. You will have to move your units as quickly as possible to take the victory objectives within the expected deadline; but do so in as safe a manner as you can.

There are a few victory objectives in the north-east part of the map (north of the spillway). You will have to decide if it is worthwhile trying to capture these. We think Russian defenses in the area are relatively thin, but they are not entirely absent, so proceed cautiously here.

Another warning is warranted, about the offensive : our NATO-supplied intelligence sources have detected what appear to be Russian reinforcements, heading to the Armiansk region. These may include some older tanks (as the diabolical Putin is thought to have deployed most of his newer tanks further south to guard Sevastopol, also to the north around Bakhmut) and possibly some other units as well. So just because you don’t encounter enemy tanks in the first phases of your attack, that does not mean that they will never show up. Be on guard!

So those are your orders, Pokolvnyk Fedeorsuk. Ukraine’s long-suffering citizens in Crimea await their liberation from the evil Russian ‘Orcs’. It’s up to you, to break their defenses and open the path to Crimea. Do not fail your motherland!

Slava Ukraina!”

[Suhiir]

Footfall

Date: June 1946
Battle Location: West Germany
Battle Type: USA defend/advance vs. Aliens?!?
Design by: Suhiir.

Scenario description: Science Fiction based on the book "Footfall" by by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

A couple days ago there was a large meteor shower in the Soviet controlled sector of Germany. The following day the Soviet Sector devolved into chaos. Radio intercepts and limited aerial observation by the Allies showed massive movements of Soviet forces and battles raging in a few areas. Intercepts about Martians, unstopable tanks, infantry that can see in the dark, artillery that can pinpoint and destroy entire grid squares, aircraft flying faster then the speed of sound using magical weapons to destory anything in their path,airborne or on the ground.

An initial trickle of fleeing, not retreating, fleeing, Soviet troops has turned into a tidal wave. Allied High command is barely beginning to makes sense, if any is to be made, of the reports they're receiving

Your infantry regiment, just yesterday keeping an eye on the Soviets is about to gain first-hand knowlege of what has the Soviets in a panic. Hold your ground and if possible counterattack to drive the ?aliens? back into the Soviet Sector!

Note: If played against the AI, the human player should play the US Army side.

Note: This is one of the oddest battles you'll probably ever play in WinSPMBT. 1946 US Army with a handful of Brits and Russians vs 2025 US Marines representing the aliens. You have a significant numerical advantage, will that be enough?

This scenario has not been independently tested. It should be winnable by the US Army side but it won't be easy and no guarantees.

Any feedback would be more then welcome.

[DRG]

Footfall is one of my favorites by Niven / Pournelle. I re-read it roughly every decade and I'm overdue. The other is Lucifer's Hammer.

[Karagin]

The Alien Small Drones make the wonky Alien Zappy noise when they retreat. Had it happen twice. Not sure what caused it.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by Karagin

The Alien Small Drones make the wonky Alien Zappy noise when they retreat. Had it happen twice. Not sure what caused it.

It will be an incorrect sound assignment of sound not entered into the sound ini

I will look into it..........OTOH it may be deliberate since it's an "alien" sound

[DRG]

"Mystery solved". ( maybe.......) What version is your game?

The unit in the OOB is assigned sound 19 ( USMC unit 288 ) ... ALL small drones use that sound

Sound 19 is set up in the Sound.INI as "Drone19.WAV"

sound019="Drone19.WAV"

"Drone19.WAV" IS in the game and went in March 26 2022. I just checked my "virgin" game I use to check installers and it's there and sounds like a very large buzzing insect.

If you are using an older version of the game that 19 will set off " Null. wav" because sound 19 was not assigned before winSPMBT ver 16 any call for that sound will generate the " wonky Alien Zappy noise" ( "Null.WAV")

The only weird thing about this is you say they make that sound when they retreat....... 19 is the only sound they should be using forwards or backward

If you are up to date and you have checked your sound folder for 19 and 19 shows in Sound.ini then try to get a save game of this happening

EDIT FWIW I opened that scenario and pushed a small UAV over the lines and had it shot down..... no weird sound FX

[Suhiir]

I've noticed during my testing that the small drones don't seem to make any sound when they advance. But they use the "proper" sound when they retreat.
???