COHTTR: Arnhem Crunch Time

This after action report ties in to my release of an original Highway to the Reich scenario, Arnhem: Crunch Time. That mission was a fictional battle between two armored divisions to wrest control of four strategic locations along the main road leading north out of Arnhem.

  

The original scenario in HTTR featured the 1st Panzer Division vs. 7th Armored Division. In Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge expansion pack Highway to the Reich, there is no existing 7th AD estab. Instead of trying to create one (which is being my range of experience at the moment), I chose the 6th Armored Division from Patton’s 3rd Army instead.

SITREP

The tempo of my blog posts have ground to a virtual halt this month as I have been well immersed in several projects: The Red Devils Over Arnhem write-up, the From the Muese to the Rhine write-up, the Battle of the Maltese Cross write-up, and most recently I started getting back into scenario making for the Command Ops game.

Currently I am working on a fictional scenario called “Crombach Gambit” which I think plays very well and presents a challenge. The download links can be found in the Matrix forum post, where I will make updates to the mission up to and including final release. Once that is done, I will create a new missions page for these scenarios.

My friend Javelin in Ohio has sent me some Steam games, Dead Island and Left 4 Dead (the first game). I like both games very much and am really impressed with L4D1. I had played the L4D2 demo with Jav, but found it to suck major excrement through a straw. L4D1 is a much better game by comparison, and is another example of how a developer takes a winning formula and kills it (as in L4D2).

Dead Island is a hoot to play, although it is pushing the outer limits of my current rig which I built back in April 2007. I want to upgrade to Windows 7, and I would like to play some Battlefield 3 at some point if I can ever find the time, so I am really thinking on building another rig capable of handling BF3.

COHTTR: Red Devils Over Arnhem

The following post is intended not to be a step-by-step after action report as I have written in the past, but a side by side comparison between the Highway to the Reich “Arnhem Coup de Main Campaign” and the Command Ops: Highway to the Reich scenario “Red Devils Over Arnhem”.

I will be borrowing heavily from this post I made after having won a Decisive Victory in the original version. While my intent was to follow my original battle plan as closely as possible, you will be able to see very early on that the Axis forces (and the new game) blew that plan to pieces.

Super Bowl XLVI: Giants 21, Patriots 0

Indianapolis, Indiana: The visiting New York Giants faced the designated home team New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium in a Madden 2008 simulation of the upcoming contest. The result was a surprisingly stout Giants defense against a struggling Patriots offense.

  

New York would control the ball 13:56 to 6:04, accumulate 257 yards total offense to 210, 90 rushing yards to 25, 167 passing yards to 185 and have nine first downs to eight for New England. The Giants would have one turnover (INT) while the Patriots had three (2 INT, 1 fumble).

Battles from the Bulge: Skorzeny's Bid for Glory

Malmedy, Belgium: This scenario pits the Axis I SS Panzer Korps represented by Panzer Brigade 150 against the Allies 30th Infantry Division represented by the 120th Infantry Regiment. This is a fairly straight forward attack/defend type mission to capture bridges over a river.

  

The objectives are as follows: Destroy the Enemy for 50 VP’s (for killing 50% of the enemy), West Bridge (D1 03:00-D2 14:59 for 100 VP’s [50/50]), Malmedy Bridge (D1 03:00-D2 14:59 for 100 VP’s [50/50]) and Malmedy (D1 03:00-D2 14:59 for 25 VP’s [all on completion]).

Command Ops: Highway to the Reich

Eindhoven, Netherlands: Panther Games and Matrix Games released a new screenshot pack for their upcoming expansion pack to Command Ops: Battles from the Bulge called Command Ops: Highway to the Reich. This marks the first official foray into an expansion pack for the Airborne Assault series.

  

The five image set features 1280X1024 renditions of the greater Eindhoven area in a scenario called “Screaming Eagles over Hell’s Highway”. This appears to be a rather robust campaign as it runs from D1 13:00 to D10 22:00 and features multiple objectives.

Conquest of the Aegean: Battle for the Maltese Cross

Qrendi Airfield, Republic of Malta: This scenario pits the Axis Army Group against the Allies Middle East Command in a historical what-if interpretation of Operation Hercules, the planned but never-executed joint Italian-German invasion of Malta.

  

The Axis force consists of two reinforced divisions, one parachute (7th Flieger Division, Fallschirmjäger & Luftlande-Sturmregiment, Fallschirmjäger) and one mountain (Gebirgsjäger) which drops on Qrendi Airfield initially and other areas during the reinforcement schedule.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season: Martinsville Speedway

Ridgeway, Virginia: The Goody’s Pain Relief 500 was run at Martinsville Speedway in Henry County, Virginia. The 0.526 mile oval is paved with a mix of asphalt and concrete, and is banked 12° in the turns and is relatively flat on the straights.

  

My version of this event based on a 25% race length and a 4X pit stop frequency is a 125 lap race with a full fuel load providing an estimated 47 laps under green flag conditions. This would result in approximately 2.65 pit stops during the event, more with the inevitable yellow flags.

Highway to the Reich: Nijmegen, Meeting Engagement

Nijmegen, Netherlands: This scenario pits the Allies 8th Armoured Brigade against the Axis 107th Panzer Brigade (Reinforced). On paper this is a fairly even scenario and the units are prepositioned by the mission designer to effectively reach the primary objective area at approximately the same time.

  

The Allied force consists of 2,702 men, 341 armored fighting vehicles and 36 gun units providing an Anti-Personal firepower rating of 1,450, an Anti-Armor rating of 1,695, an Armor rating of 1,496 and a Bombardment rating of 135. During the battle I would have several airstrikes at my disposal as well.

EA Sports: The Peter Moore Rationale

The head of EA Sports claims that sports games on the PC are dead for two reasons: 1) Piracy, and 2) "PC as a platform for authentic, fully-licensed, simulation sports games has declined radically in the past three years as the next generation consoles [...] have attracted millions of consumers."

  

The first statement is an unequivocal false statement as EA is still churning out shovel-ware versions of the FIFA and FIFA Manager series of games for the PC. It is strange how piracy is an issue for the likes of Madden NFL, NCAA Football, NASCAR, NHL, NBA Live, and Tiger Woods PGA Tour, whereas the FIFA franchise is apparently totally immune to this criminal activity.