RangerX3X

Battles from the Bulge: Skorzeny's Bid for Glory

2012-01-27T01:27:00.005-05:00

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]).

D1 03:00: I start the mission with a total force of 1,306 men, 27 armored fighting vehicles, 135 non-armored fighting vehicles, 24 gun units and zero bridging units. This provides an Anti-Personnel firepower rating of 1,429, an Anti-Armor rating of 624, a Bombardment rating of 66, an Armor rating of 136, an Infantry rating of 881, and an Engineer rating of 10.

Orders

Kampgruppe X are ordered to attack the West Bridge objective worth 100 VP’s
Kampgruppe Y are ordered to move to a staging area at Sauveniere (Bypass option selected)
Panzer Brigade 150 HQ are ordered to defend just south of Floriheid

D1 12:00: My initial order to Kampgruppe X was incorrect (I should have used a move order with the Attacks option selected) and the entire effort is in jeopardy as a result. No units have broken through the entrenched Allied forces defending the West Bridge objective.

D1 15:30: Kampgruppe X & Y are struggling with the Allied forces on both sides of the bridge and are undergoing a withering artillery barrage which is causing a significant loss of cohesion among the Axis forces attacking and moving through this sector.

Reinforcements

Kampgruppe Z

This force consists of 534 men, 6 armored fighting vehicles, 31 non-armored fighting vehicles, 12 gun units and zero bridging units. This provides an Anti-Personnel firepower rating of 577, an Anti-Armor rating of 177, a Bombardment rating of 33, an Armor rating of 9, an Infantry rating of 452, an Engineer rating of 5 and a movement rating of 70.

Orders

Kampgruppe Z are ordered to move to a staging area at Sauveniere (Bypass option selected)

D1 17:21: The West Bridge objective has been achieved but the combined forces of Kampgruppe X, Y and Z have yet to make a significant breakthrough across the bridge. The initial error in the orders given to Kampgruppe X has put the entire operation behind schedule by some three hours.

Reinforcements

Kampgruppe Kuhlmann

This force consists of 1,050 men, 115 armored fighting vehicles, 182 non-armored fighting vehicles, 34 gun units and zero bridging units. This provides an Anti-Personnel firepower rating of 1,341, an Anti-Armor rating of 758, a Bombardment rating of 126, an Armor rating of 684, an Infantry rating of 212, an Engineer rating of zero and a movement rating of 58.

Orders

Kampgruppe Kuhlmann are ordered to a staging area at Sauveniere (Bypass option selected)

D2 00:00: A significant breakthrough has occurred through the West Bridge objective and Kampgruppe Y, Z and Kuhlmann have any opening to move along the outlined waypoints through Burnenville to the staging area in the town of Sauveniere.

D2 06:00: Under the concealment of darkness (pitch black does not stop a bullet so it is not cover of darkness); my forces are almost in place to setup the attack on the Malmedy and Malmedy Bridge objectives. Due to the delay in getting here, I cannot afford to allow for any rest.

D2 07:15: Although there is a mortar platoon lagging way behind back on the ridge outside of Falize, I cannot wait to mount the attack against the Malmedy sector objectives. With the sunrise upon the battlefield my staging area is coming under artillery barrage.

Orders

Kampgruppe Y are ordered to attack the Malmedy Bridge objective (maximum Aggro/ROF/Losses)
Kampgruppe Z are ordered to attack the Malmedy objective (maximum Aggro/ROF/Losses)
Kampgruppe Kuhlmann are ordered to attack the Malmedy objective (maximum Aggro/ROF/Losses)

D2 12:00: The attacking forces have formed up and transitioned into the assault phase where they are immediately smashed in the face of relentless Allied artillery barrages. A good amount of cohesion is lost with several units routing, however they are slipping through the wooded section to the west which will give them some cover as they approach the Malmedy Bridge objective.

Review Final Situation Screen

D2 15:00: What a difference three hours makes; The lead elements of Kampgruppe Z have pushed through the Malmedy Bridge objective and have achieved the Malmedy objective, with Kampgruppe Y and Kuhlmann stacking up behind them.

After Action Report

A Decisive Victory was achieved with a final score of 100-40.
Axis Losses: 571 men, 13 armored fighting vehicles and 12 gun units
Allies Losses: 340 men, 15 armored fighting vehicles and 21 gun units

The primary cause of personnel casualties were the Allied artillery barrages, of which I could do nothing to prevent.

Mission Briefing

December 21st 1944, 03:00 hours, Malmedy, Belgium.

Semi-Historical scenario.

Operation "Greif" was Hitler's plan to spread confusion and panic behind the American lines and capture at least 2 bridges over the Meuse for the panzer spearheads of 6 Panzer Army.

Led by Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny, the organization assembled for the operation was composed of 2 groups: The 'Einheit Stielau' commando group comprised of demolition, reconnaissance, and commando teams using American uniforms and equipment, and Panzer Brigade 150 comprised of 2 tank groups and 1 infantry combat group. With a makeshift assortment of American vehicles, equipment and crude mock-ups of American tanks, the brigade was to be the armed fist of the grand deception ploy.

As early as December 18th Skorzeny knew that the element of surprise had been lost and that the armored spearheads were still several kilometers short of capturing any of the Meuse River bridges. In light of these developments Skorzeny requested that his Brigade be committed as a regular combat unit.

His request was approved and he was given his first objective: capture and secure the key town of Malmedy and the roadway bridges over the Warche River.

Historically the attack on Malmedy was a disaster for Panzer Brigade 150. This scenario assumes that elements of Kampfgruppe Kuhlmann of 12SS Panzer Division have bypassed Dom. Bütgenbach to the south and are brought forward to assist Skorzeny.

Allies Briefing

General,

Although the northern flank of Jerry's offensive seems to have stabilized somewhat since yesterday, our forward outposts south of Malmedy are detecting a lot of activity coming from the roads out of town to the south.

If the Germans come they will surely be looking to capture the bridges over the Warche River and the town of Malmedy itself. We have no reserves left to send your way, but you have plenty of direct artillery support to call from V Corps if you need it.

Control of Malmedy is extremely important in order to maintain our line of communication between Eupen and our entire northern flank, so hold it at all costs.

Axis Briefing

Skorzeny, you are hereby authorized to deploy your Panzer Brigade 150 as a combat unit and seize the town of Malmedy.

Capturing this vital communications center will split the northern flank in two, allowing us to shake loose the rest of I SS Panzerkorps and continue the drive for the Meuse.

Our intelligence reports for this sector are out of date, so I suggest you probe the defenses a bit to see what you are up against. If you run into trouble we will order elements of the 12 SS Panzer Division to disengage from their positions to the southeast and come up along the back roads to assist you. Malmedy must fall before sunset tomorrow!

Matrix Forum Post

Command Ops: Highway to the Reich

2012-01-25T18:47:00.001-05:00

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.

These new screenshots are also featured on the COHTTR products page. In preparation for the release of the expansion pack, Matrix put out the newest patch updating all versions of COBFTB to version 4.3.249. Comments regarding this patch may be found in the following post at the Matrix forums.

Conquest of the Aegean: Battle for the Maltese Cross

2012-01-19T22:39:00.008-05:00

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.

They square off against the Allied force consisting of the Middle East Command, a garrison of approximately 15 infantry battalions divided into Southern, Northern and Central Infantry Brigades. This defend-to-the-last group is only reinforced on Day 5 by three additional battalions.

There are 13 location objectives to the mission and the obligatory Destroy the Enemy objective (which provides 17 Victory Points for accumulating 50% kills of the Allied force). The primary objective is the Valetta/Tigne/Mahoel area on the peninsula which is capped by Fort St. Elmo and worth 25 VP’s.

These are flanked by the Sliema objective to the west and the Vittoriosa/Ricasoli objective to the east, both worth 17 VP’s (actually 16.7 in the counter panel). Next up is the Floriana objective (13 VP’s) at the entrance of the peninsula leading to the Valetta/Tigne/Mahoel objective.

All Grand Harbour area objectives (six in all) award the VP’s upon completion of the mission – there is no benefit to getting their earlier and accumulating occupation VP’s, other than to reach the objective and deploy in a defensive fighting position.

The remaining objectives degrade in VP value from 8 down to 2 and are a mixed bag of either complete occupation or upon completion objectives (I could not locate one objective that was a mix of both parameters). They can certainly add to the total VP score and put the player over the top if needed.

D1 09:30: My initial orders are as follows –

Luftlande-Sturmregiment, Fallschirmjäger

I Glider Battalion, II & III FJ Battalion LLSt are to attack the Ta Kali Airfield objective (active D3 07:01-D8 11:00 for 4 VP’s)
Luftlande-Sturmregiment HQ are to defend at SEP2 (supply entry point, airdrop)

7th Flieger Division, Fallschirmjäger

7th Flieger Division HQ are to defend at an area behind and in-between SEP1 (air landing) and SEP2 (airdrop)

FJ Regiment 2

I, II & III Battalions are to attack the Luqa Airfield objective (active D2 03:01-D8 11:00 for 17 VP’s)
FJ Regiment 2 HQ are to defend at Qrendi Airfield (active D1 07:01-D8 11:00 for 4 VP’s)

D1 20:15: First full reinforcement schedule orders are as follows –

Luftlande-Sturmregiment, Fallschirmjäger

No additional follow-on forces at this reinforcement point

7th Flieger Division, Fallschirmjäger

FJ Regiment 1

I Battalion are to attack the crossroads in the town of Luqa, NE of the airfield objective
II Battalion are to attack the Safi Airfield objective (active D1 13:01-D8 11:00 for 4 VP’s)
III Battalion are to attack the Hal Far Airfield objective (active D3 17:01-D8 11:00 for 8 VP’s)
FJ Regiment 1 HQ are to defend at the town of Zurriek (the main road leading from the Qrendi Airfield objective to the Hal Far airfield objective)

FJ Regiment 3

I Battalion are to attack the crossroads in the town of Ashiak, NE of the Safi Airfield objective
II Battalion are to attack the crossroads in the town of Tarshin, NW of Ashiak
III Battalion are to attack the crossroads at the race course, south of Marsa
FJ Regiment 3 HQ are to defend at the RAF Seaplane Base objective (active D6 13:01-D8 11:00 for 2 VP’s)

D2 00:00: The Qrendi Airfield objective has been secured and the forces are advancing towards their assigned objectives. Given that it is midnight and the visibility of the force is substantially reduced, there is not telling what is rolling down the roads at us.

D2 06:00: Significant resistance is being felt on the left flank as the Fallschirmjäger battalions advancing on the Ta Kali Airfield objective are running into opposition. The center is secured by the taking of the Luqa Airfield objective and the right flank is experiencing some delay in the advance toward the Safi Airfield objective.

D2 12:00: II Battalion FJ Regiment 1 is advancing towards the Safi Airfield objective in decent cohesion, whereas III Battalion FJ Regiment 1’s advance on the Hal Far Airfield objective is beginning to seem disjointed and not fully prepared to assist in clearing the way for FJ Regiment 3 HQ’s move to the RAF Seaplane Base objective.

D2 18:02: With the arrival of Gebirgsjäger Regiment 100, I issue the following new set of orders:

7th Flieger Division, Fallschirmjäger

FJ Regiment 1

I Battalion are to attack the Floriana objective (active D4 08:32-D8 11:00 for 13 VP’s)

FJ Regiment 3

I Battalion are to attack the Vittoriosa/Ricasoli objective (active D7 04:01-D8 11:00 for 17 VP’s)
II Battalion are to attack the Corrandino Heights objective (active D4 08:01-D8 11:00 for 8 VP’s)
III Battalion are to attack the Sliema objective (active D6 04:01-D8 11:00 for 17 VP’s)

Gebirgsjäger Regiment 100

The arriving forces consisting of only the HQ and II Battalion (amounting to 1,839 men) are to attack the Valetta/Tigne/Mahoel objective (active D6 11:00-D8 11:00 for 25 VP’s)

D3 00:00: I Battalion FJ Regiment 1 (7th Flieger Division, Fallschirmjäger) are just in front of the advancing II Battalion (Gebirgsjäger Regiment 100) and taking quite a pounding from the Allied Northern Infantry Brigade arrayed across the mouth of Grand Harbour.

I Battalion and III Battalion (FJ Regiment 3) are advancing their role in the clamp quite well under cover of darkness. That situation will change quite abruptly at first light…

D3 06:00: II Battalion (FJ Regiment 3) are advancing towards the Corrandino Heights objective but are within line-of-sight of several Allied units, I Battalion (FJ Regiment 3) are facing a gauntlet of Allied units on their march towards the Vittoriosa/Ricasoli objective and the advancing blob of I Battalion FJ Regiment 1 (7th Flieger Division, Fallschirmjäger) and II Battalion (Gebirgsjäger Regiment 100) have a very misleading clear road in front of them in their combined assault on the Floriana and Valetta/Tigne/Mahoel objectives.

D3 07:06: XI Fliegerkorps HQ (General Kurt Student) arrives at Qrendi Airfield and is ordered to defend at Luqa Airfield to free up I, II & III Battalions (FJ Regiment 2) for reserve allocation. FJ Regiment 1 HQ is ordered to move from Zurriek and defend at the Hal Far Airfield objective to free up III Battalion (FJ Regiment 1) for reserve allocation.

D3 09:50: Gebirgsjäger Division 5 HQ element arrives at Qrendi Airfield and is ordered to defend at the Hal Far Airfield objective.

D3 12:00: 2nd Krad Coy (55th Battalion) arrives (this is a motorcycle group) and is ordered to an observation post position on the outskirts of Dingli. From this position the group can have an unobstructed view of the valley stretching all the way to the entire southern length of the Victoria Lines running up to the Falka Gap with coverage of the major roadways and other approaches that sweep below Rabat.

D3 18:00: I Battalion (Gebirgsjäger Regiment 100) arrives and is ordered to attack the Valetta/Tigne/Mahoel objective with a forming-up point just behind the screen created by the assault phase of the attack by I Battalion FJ Regiment 1 (7th Flieger Division, Fallschirmjäger) and II Battalion (Gebirgsjäger Regiment 100).

Also up north, things on the right flank of the clasp are disintegrating as the II Battalion (FJ Regiment 3) attack on the Corrandino Heights objective is faltering with the loss of the Battalion HQ (disbanded at 17:00). The I Battalion (FJ Regiment 3) attack on the Vittoriosa/Ricasoli objective is badly disjointed with the loss of 3rd Coy (surrendered at 17:19) and the Battalion HQ (disbanded at 17:27).

The Hal Far Airfield objective in the SE has finally been secured.

D4 00:00: III Battalion (FJ Regiment 2) are ordered to leave their defensive position at Luqa Airfield and swing wide left underneath Birkirkara to setup an observation post on the hill outside Fort Madalena, facing the direction of the Pembroke Fort/Barracks objective (active D6 11:00-D8 11:00 for 4 VP’s).

The remnants of II Battalion (FJ Regiment 2) on the right flank of the clasp are ordered as individual units to fall back to the town of Zeitun, where I plan to allow them to rest up before reattaching them to form up a possible probing party later on.

D4 06:00: III Battalion (FJ Regiment 2) have made it to the outskirts of Birkirkara and begin to encounter some enemy units while the splintered II Battalion (FJ Regiment 2) have reached their resting area around Zeitun. With approximately 350 men left, once cohesion is regained and fatigue reduced, this could very well be reconstituted as an effective fighting line unit.

D4 12:00: I Glider Battalion, II & III FJ Battalion LLSt attack on the Ta Kali Airfield objective has been an abject failure resulting in the loss of approximately 1,000 men (seven units disbanded, one surrendered). The remaining 288 personnel are ordered to fall back to a defensive blocking position on the main road leading into Attard.

III Battalion (FJ Regiment 2) although they are highly fatigued from their march across the valley, they are ordered to probe the Pembroke Fort/Barracks objective.

III Battalion (FJ Regiment 3) has begun to disintegrate as an effective fighting force with the loss of HQ unit (disbanded at 06:26) and 11th Coy (disbanded at 09:05). These guys were supposed to be the left flank of that clasp which looked so promising on paper only to falter badly when the first shot came downrange. I show them no mercy and order them to probe the Sliema objective they were originally assigned to.

To be continued...

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season: Martinsville Speedway

2012-01-15T07:06:00.002-05:00

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.

This event marks the second race in a row that I am running with my Logitech Dual Action Gamepad (pressed into service since the demise of my Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro Racing Wheel). Although not ideal, I had the fastest time in practice with a mark of 21.477, and managed to secure the pole with a time of 21.517 (0.862 better than second place Brad Kesolowski).

My how nicely aligned on the grid (I chose to run the championship without full pace laps as on some of the larger tracks it tends to get boring and the immersion factor is not that great).

Martinsville is the second short track in a row, and the second with a 47 lap fuel load, so in theory at least only having three pits stops and a smaller track to begin with, there would not be much opportunity to thin out the heard. Therefore it was absolutely imperative that I maintain the lead and keep as much distance between myself and the cars behind me.

At lap six I began to encounter the back of the field, which pretty much throws out any chance of just biding my time and making laps. The # 21 car driven by Trevor Bayne would seem to be my arch nemesis on the day (that is me just coming out of the turn by the pit wall break).

Forced to actually race through the back markers or lose the lead, I ended up locking fenders with the aforementioned Bayne on lap 12, which surprisingly would not bring out a caution flag.

The caution flag would come out however when I spun out Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the turn on lap 25. Back when I actually watched NASCAR he was my favorite driver, second only to The Intimidator.

Under the caution flag, my nightmare would begin when I entered the pits ahead of the pace car and was given a black flag penalty, one which cannot be cleared on a restart.

After the restart on lap 30, the caution flag would fly when a wreck occurred in turn three which had completely blocked the pit lane entrance (note the flagman to the left of the M&M car with the red flag). I was going to pit then to clear the black flag, but when the caution came out I was screwed.

I would pit on lap 34 under the caution, however this was fruitless as I still could not clear the black flag on a restart. To make matters worse, I would be caught speeding on pit road (my Achilles heel with the start/stop effect of the gas on the Logitech controller; I had no way to feather the throttle).

The race would restart on lap 36 with my still having the black flag looming large over my head. I finally was able to enter the pits on lap 38 under green flag conditions only to miss my pit stall completely (note the crew on the wall with tires ready to go), and…wait for it…be caught for speeding on pit road again.

Not content to just allow me to suffer alone in my misery, the Bayne strikes again. This time I am spun out on the backstretch while attempting to pit under green to clear the black flag. No caution would come out.

On lap 46 I would finally enter the pits and exit without penalty to clear however many gazillion black flags I had accumulated since the drop of the green flag back on lap one, which seems like three months ago at this point.

Whoever “they” are, apparently say that perseverance pays off. While trying to make up being a few laps down (I still have a fast car at this point, even though the hood is slightly dented), I encounter the Long John Silver’s car and start thinking of a 2-piece Whitefish Fillet Combo and not the race itself.

While finishing up my third 2-piece Whitefish Fillet Combo in my head and downing it with an ice cold Coke Zero, I am jolted back to the next lower-level of virtual being when I am plowed by the # 6 UPS car purportedly driven by David Ragan.

I would spin around and bounce off of the exterior of the pit road wall while the race remained under green. Apparently NASCAR Race Control feels I am not worth throwing a caution flag for.

On lap 80 I would wreck into Kevin Harvick on the backstretch (I had nothing to do with this one folks, other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time). The caution flag would come out, however I had my 2-piece Whitefish Fillet Combo all over the cockpit and would effectively be done for the day (or so I thought).

The restart would come on lap 85 with my being in 37th place, heading up the inside line, which was just fine for me. Although Martinsville has a much lower sensation of speed than Bristol the week before, I still prefer not to be caught on the outside of a three-wide situation.

With my hood crumpled up blocking my vision over the nose (I race in cockpit view), I had to adjust my breaking points and once I had that sorted out I surprisingly began to pass some cars around lap 100. With 25 laps to go it was starting to look like I might make some progress.

The caution flag would fly again on lap 107 when the # 37 car rammed the # 83 of Brian Vickers. Trying to maximize every spot, I would stay out on the track for the remainder of the race in an effort to pass as many cars as I could who would pit, but when you are five laps down I guess it really does not matter that much (it did though, surprisingly).

The restart on lap 110 was one ugly affair as the # 9 car of Michael Ambrose clipped the # 14 of Tony Stewart causing both to wreck right in front of me at the drop of the green flag on the front stretch. Not wanting Coke Zero all over my new racing suit, I just plowed through these clowns (my car was craptastic at that stage anyway).

The restart would come on lap 115 with my running in 34th position and I would take the checkered flag on lap 121, five laps down to the leader but picking up some more spots to finish the race in 31st place. A lot of drama for an uninspiring end result, but to be honest with the black flag sequence early on, I almost just quit this race.

Other thoughts: This post pretty much violates my self-imposed limit of 5MB of graphics files, weighing in at 24 images for 9.83MB, so I may pare it down to size depending on the amount of traffic this article generates.

Although I did not win the event, there was enough going on during the race that it seemed worthwhile.

Highway to the Reich: Nijmegen, Meeting Engagement

2012-01-14T10:22:00.003-05:00

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.

There are four objectives to the mission: The Road Bridge for 60 Victory Points upon completion, the Rail Bridge for 30 Victory Points upon completion, St. Anna for 30 Victory Points upon completion and destroy the enemy for 50 Victory Points.

D1 12:01: My initial orders are as follows:

4/7 Royal Dragoon Guards are to form-up at the N326 just above the Sports Park and attack the left flank of the Road Bridge objective.
13/18 Hussars are to use the same forming-up point and attack the right flank of the same objective.
Nottingham Hampshire Yeomanry, using the same FUP will pivot east and attack the St. Anna objective.
HQ section of the 8th Armored Brigade to defend just outside of Hees.
147th Field Artillery Regiment (24 25-pounder guns) to establish a firebase NE of Alverna.

D1 15:00: All elements ordered to cross the bridges at Honinghutje have made it across uncontested and have reached the FUP where they make contact with the enemy. The HQ section of the 8th Armored Brigade has reached their defend objective and have already entrenched.

D1 18:00: Nottingham Hampshire Yeomanry have reached and achieved the St. Anna objective, and are in the process of securing it. Their position to the NE of this objective was intentional so as to form a phalanx parallel to the rail lines and the most likely approach of the enemy.

D1 21:00: The Hussars are moving towards their assigned assault corridor whereas the Royal Dragoon Guards are lagging behind. This would be the beginning of a tortuous process for the force as they would encounter heavy resistance on the left flank for the remainder of the scenario. Later on at 22:00 I would lose B Company of the 12th KRRC (subordinate to the 13/18 Hussars).

D2 00:00: No rest for the weary: The Hussars are fully engaged in their press towards the objective while the Royal Dragoon Guards begin routing in the face of heavy Axis forces. Although there appear to be probes at St. Anna, the Nott’s are holding firm.

D2 06:00: The Royal Dragoon Guards appear to be reformed and proceeding with their attack but this will be short lived at best. The HQ section of the 8th is beginning to look bored so I ponder having them probe the Rail Bridge objective just to see what shakes out up there.

D2 12:00: With the Royal Dragoon Guards completely splintered and under a withering assault by the Axis armada that has formed outside of the Road Bridge objective, I proceed to task the HQ section of the 8th Armored Brigade to probe the Rail Bridge objective and possibly bring some relief to the fractured Guards force.

During this time frame I would take the remainder of my losses in terms of disbanded forces: B Squadron 4/7 RGD, A Company 12th KRRC and the Recce Troop as part of the RDG.

D2 18:00: As the Royal Dragoon Guards are essentially lost as a combat effective force, it is surprising to see the soft HQ section of the 8th having achieved the Rail Bridge objective. The 13/18 Hussars on the right flank of the Road Bridge objective are providing sufficient pressure on that objective to swing the Win-O-Meter totally into my favor.

After-action report

Review final situation screen

Mission Briefing

A classic meeting engagement between two armoured brigades, as the 8th Armoured Brigade battles the reinforced Panzer Brigade 107 for control of the Nijmegen Bridges.

Secure the objectives and inflict maximum damage on the enemy while minimizing friendly casualties.

Allied Briefing

There is no separate briefing for the Allies in the scenario.

Axis Briefing

There is no separate briefing for the Axis in the scenario.

Matrix Forum Post

After-action report July 14, 2011

The first time I played this scenario I only managed a draw due to some tactical errors made on my part, and what I had perceived to be some strange behavior on the part of the AI. That text of that post from my original blog is maintained here for your entertainment value:

All the faith in the AI programming that I have in the Airborne Assault series was sorely tested at the very end of this supposedly straightforward 1 ½ day campaign mission between two relatively equal armor brigades. What specifically happened at the end, in fact in the very final hour is both perplexing and delusory.

The Allied 8th Armored Brigade (2,702 men, 341 armored fighting vehicles and 36 guns) squared off against the Axis 107th Panzer Brigade (2,974 men, 76 armored fighting vehicles and 4 guns). The mission settings were realistic orders delay, weather, supplies and no reinforcements.

There were four objectives to the mission: The Road Bridge for 60 victory points upon completion, the Rail Bridge for 30 victory points upon completion, St. Anna for 30 victory points upon completion and destroy the enemy for 50 victory points. Watching the win-o-meter throughout the mission, I could tell a decisive victory could be had by controlling the Rail Bridge and St. Anna, and denying the Road Bridge to the enemy.

My forces were broken out into a HQ section and three frontline HQ units as follows: The lead element on the road north to Nijmegen was the 4/7 Royal Dragoon Guards, followed up by the 13/18 Hussars, then came the HQ section of the 8th Armored Brigade followed up by the Nottingham Hampshire Yeomanry in the rear.

I detached the 147th Field Artillery Regiment (24 25-pounder guns) and brought them directly under my control, having moved them on the road north to Alverna to provide on-call fire support as I saw fit. I ordered the Dragoons and the Hussars as a combined force to the Road Bridge objective, the Hampshire force to the Rail Bridge objective and the Brigade HQ section to St. Anna.

The lead element cross the bridges at Honinghutje at D1 12:58 uncontested and continued their movement forward. First contact with the enemy came at D1 13:30 on the SW spoke of the Karel Plein when my lead element encountered a company of PzKw IV H’s (16 armored units) and their supporting elements.

My lead element became bogged down with this frontal assault into an enemy center mass just south of the Road Bridge objective area. I ordered the Hampshire force from the Rail Bridge objective which they had taken and then moved the Dragoon/Hussar combined force to the left of the enemy center mass and up the highway to the Rail Bridge objective just vacated by Hampshire force, to avoid further pointless direct frontal contact.

This endeavor while somewhat sound on paper was an abject failure on the battlefield as the Hampshire forces moving to the Road Bridge objective were quickly engaged and overwhelmed, resulting in 3 out of the 4 units of the total force having been broken and routed.

At this point I detached B Coy 12th KRRC (212 men and 48 armored fighting vehicles) and ordered them to hold the Rail Bridge objective. I took the remaining force of Hampshire, Dragoon and Hussars to form a battle group in which I would engage the Road Bridge objective to secure it, or at least deny it to the enemy.

All was well and good and several times this combined force battle group actually had control of the Road Bridge objective for a superior decisive victory as I also held the Rail Bridge objective and St. Anna. When I was not in control of the Road Bridge objective, I still had denied it to the enemy giving me even then quite possibly the slimmest of decisive victories.

Then all my faith in the Airborne Assault series AI, from Red Devils Over Arnhem through Battles From The Bulge took a severe shaking when I noticed my combined force retreating from the Road Bridge objective they had been denying to the enemy. At D2 23:25 - :35 minutes to mission end, the force was moving off the objective and there was nothing I could do to stop them in time.

Right at mission end, a sufficient number of my force left the objective area to cease denying that objective area to the enemy, and instead hand control of it over to them, which is all that is required at the end of the game to receive the full 60 victory points. This stupid, unexplainable action from the AI subordinate commanders cost me not only a decisive victory, but even a marginal one at that.

NHL 07: Nuremberg Ice Tigers 4, Duisburg Foxes 3

2012-01-12T21:00:00.040-05:00

Nuremberg, Germany: Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers Nürnberg hosted the Füchse Duisburg team at the Arena Nürnberger Versicherung before a sellout crowd of 6,500 in the second game of the DEL (Deutsche Eishockey Liga) season.

The goalie matchup would feature # 35 Jean-Francois Labbe for Nuremberg and # 46 Patrick Ehelechner for Duisburg. The Ice Tigers would enter the matchup with a mark of 0-1-0-0 after a loss to Eisbären Berlin 3-2, while Duisburg came in with a record of 0-0-0-1.

Ice Tigers 1, Foxes 0

Tomas Martinec scores the goal on a wrist shot crossing left to right from outside of the end zone faceoff circle (assist by Brian Swanson) at the 2:00 mark of the first period.

Ice Tigers 2, Foxes 0

Róbert Döme scores the shorthanded goal on a slap shot crossing right to left from behind the goal line (assist by Jame Pollock) at the 12:34 mark of the first period.

Ice Tigers 3, Foxes 0

Christian Laflamme scores the unassisted goal on a wrist shot while racing right to left between the faceoff circles at the 6:49 mark of the second period.

Ice Tigers 3, Foxes 1

Shawn McNeil scores the goal on a slap shot while racing right to left between the faceoff circles (assists by Trond Magnussen and Robert Francz) at the 10:20 mark of the second period.

Ice Tigers 3, Foxes 2

Mathieu Darche scores the goal on a rebound in front of the net (assists by Steve Brule and Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre) at the 17:40 mark of the second period.

Ice Tigers 3, Foxes 3

Shawn McNeil scores the game tying goal (and his second of the game) on a slap shot while breaking right to left past the right faceoff circle (assists by Trond Magnussen and Michael Henrich) at the 19:03 mark of the second period.

Ice Tigers 4, Foxes 3

Colin Beardsmore scores the game winning goal on a slap shot crossing left to right from outside of the end zone faceoff circle (assist by Jame Pollock) at the 19:13 mark of the third period.

EA Sports: The Peter Moore Rationale

2012-01-11T18:04:00.001-05:00

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.

The second statement is completely self-serving. Consoles primarily are two devices – The X-Box 360 and the PS3. The 360 was released in November 2005, and that initial offering had no core storage device provided. The most recent iteration is the S version released in September 2011 which sports a 320GB hard drive.

The problem here is that everyone who owns an original X-Box 360 will not fork out full price money to upgrade their device to the newer versions which only add to storage capacity or offer peripherals and a selection of gaming themes/color packages. There has been no significant increase in either the CPU or GPU processing power of these units.

What this means is that the X-Box 360 is almost a seven year old platform now. As any PC gamer, especially one who builds and upgrades their own systems can tell you, seven years is literally two generations in PC gaming capability in terms of CPU and GPU processing, memory, power supply and storage solutions.

The games that the X-Box 360 and PS3 can handle have to stay at the level of the architecture available to the unit purchased. So at the outset games could easily be ported from the console to the PC because at the time most PC gamers had systems within scope of the games requirements for the console.

Today this is clearly not the case as most mainstream gaming PC solutions (pre-built or DIY kits) are at least two generations past what the consoles can handle. Anyone who owns Battlefield 3 for the X-Box 360 and also owns it for the PC can tell you the difference:

Therefore, the only reason EA Sports is not making most of their sports games for Windows is not because of the false argument of piracy, but the completely true argument of declining sales: PC gamers will not accept the seven year old graphic capabilities of games ported to their platform. They simply refuse to buy games that look like shit by today’s standards.

And the cheap bastards at EA will not foot the bill to have two different versions of the game designed, so they front the argument of declining sales as justification, albeit for completely the wrong reason.

Liars.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season: Bristol Motor Speedway

2012-01-09T22:00:00.003-05:00

Bristol, Tennessee: The Food City 500 was run at Bristol Motor Speedway in Sullivan County, Tennessee. The 0.533 oval is paved with concrete and is banked at 26°-30° in the turns and 6°-10° in the straights. Although I would largely solve my controller issues from the race before, the result was the same.

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 (yeah, right). This would result in approximately 2.65 pit stops during the event.

I ran a private test session at 62°F with a SE wind at 12mph and put down 47 laps when the car ran out of fuel. This was good intelligence as it indicated I could run three full laps after the crew chief warning and two full laps after the fuel gauge illuminated red before the engine started to cut out.

These laps gave me confidence with the Logitech controller I am using since my Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Racing Wheel flaked out on me. Sadly that confidence gained and the information gathered about laps and tire wear (thread bare at lap 47) would be of no use in the actual race.

In the race practice session I posted 31 laps before being caught up in an accident that in real life would have brought out a backup car (situations sadly not modeled in this game). Those 31 laps would give me the top time of 16.699, 0.181 better than second place Denny Hamlin.

Qualifying went stellar with a top time of 16.433, 0.122 better than second place David Reutimann, and going into the race itself I was feeling pretty good about my prospects, especially considering the poor outings that I have had the last two races.

There would be several accidents during the race, and at one point I was a lap down in 18th place. I managed to work my way back up through the traffic (which was quite fun while it lasted) until lap 68 when there was an accident in front of me and I had nowhere to go given the entire track was blocked.

This destroyed my engine and I did not even have the option to call a tow truck, only retire from the event. I accelerated the race to get to the end then forgot to save the replay which sucks because I like posting actual racing shots from the various cameras provided in the replay application.

There are two positive things that came out of this event even though I DNF’d: 1) I am gaining confidence with my stand-in controller, enough so that I won the pole at a difficult short track and managed to race with traffic much of the time, and 2) It is Bristol, meaning I was not the only one who had issues.

The accident at lap 68 was good enough to give me 29th place overall in the event, and I did lead several laps at the very beginning which gave me those five bonus points. The race was won by Terry Labonte with a speed of 76.914 due to the multiple caution flags, and only three cars would finish on the lead lap.

I slid down to 18th overall in points (still with the most wins at two) with a total of 536, which is a daunting 220 points off of point’s leader Denny Hamlin. Having opened the season with two straight wins, the past three weeks have me wondering what I have gotten myself into.

Battles from the Bulge: Höfen Ho-Down

2012-01-08T15:21:00.008-05:00

Mützenich, Germany: This scenario pits the Allies 395th Infantry Regiment against the Axis 326th Volksgrenadier Division. On paper a division against a regiment (especially a green one) should be no match. However the Axis force is hampered at the outset by not having all of the 326th’s battalions available to them. Moreover the Allies are already well positioned and entrenched.

The attacking forces of Germans are attempting to secure the high ground overlooking Mützenich, and occupy the towns of Monschau and Höfen. The Allies objectives are to hold the line at the following strong points: Monschau (20 Victory Points, all occupation), Höfen North (20 VP), Mützenich (20 VP, 10 for occupation and 10 for completion of mission) and Höfen South (20 VP).

The Allied force is more than sufficient to delay the advance of the Germans through the duration of the scenario with the following composition: 2,683 men, 139 armored fighting vehicles, 284 non-armored fighting vehicles, 51 gun units and zero bridging units. This provides an Anti-Personnel firepower rating of 2,108, an Anti-Armor rating of 2,613, a Bombardment rating of 320, an Armor rating of 540, an Infantry rating of 749, a zero Engineer rating and a 100% movement rating.

I issued the following orders before starting the battle: The 62nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion (18 M7 105mm HMC) and 196th Field Artillery Battalion (12 105mm howitzers) were brought under my direct control and tasked to defend in-situ. The 99th Reconnaissance Troop (Mechanized) was ordered to defend at the Höfen South objective. All other forces were ordered to defend in-situ as they were well entrenched already.

At Day One 16:40 A Company, 146th Engineering Combat Battalion arrived and I ordered them to deny the crossing at Monschau. From this point forward I did not issue any further orders to the forces on the map, choosing instead to let them fight it out from the excellent defensive positions already setup by the scenario designer.

Although there were no airstrikes afforded during the mission, I did not feel the need to directly assign artillery targets as in most missions. I let the AI use those on-call assets as they deemed necessary.

Even though I did not hold the Höfen North or Mützenich objectives at the end of the game, I did control them long enough to harvest sufficient enough Victory Points to win a Decisive Victory with a final score of 69-11. My force destroyed 541 personnel, four armored fighting vehicles and 15 gun units while suffering losses of 327 personnel, two armored fighting vehicles and 14 gun units.

After-action report

Review final situation screen

Mission Briefing

December 16th 1944, 0600 hours,

Historical Scenario. Höfen-Monschau sector, Belgium.

The plan for General Hitzfeld's LXVII (67th) Corps, or "Corps Monschau", was to break through the American lines at Höfen on either side of Monschau, push on past Mützenich and take up defensive positions near Eupen, providing flank protection for the 6th Panzer Armee.

On paper, Corps Monschau was to have 2 full strength Volksgrenadier divisions (326th and 246th) at it's disposal. However the 246th was unable to disengage from the fighting east of Aachen, and 2 battalions of the 326th were unavailable as well for the initial assault on December 16th.

The Historical reinforcement schedules for both sides reflect the historical arrival times and locations of units in the battle. Standard reinforcement schedules provide alternative entry locations for some units without favouring one side or the other. The Favour Allies provides additional artillery support for the American side and Favour Axis will bring on a company of Jagdtigers (which historically were to be provided to LXVII Corps to break through to von der Heydte's paratroopers).

Allied Briefing

Commander, your green troops have been lucky to have a few weeks here in the Ardennes to train without much interference. Nothing much has ever happened here in the Ardennes so we don't know what to make of the artillery that's been falling all along the front this morning.

There have been some reports of enemy activity away in the valleys to the east around Rohren, but Intelligence reports that the German Army is incapable of any offensive action.

Our line is rather thin all along the lines so if the Germans were to launch a large scale attack, your only option would be to fight a delaying action until communication with Division can be restored.

Axis Briefing

Herr General, our impressive artillery barrage on the enemy lines is lifting - the great offensive has begun!

Unfortunately you are missing almost half of your command due to the intense fighting still raging East of Aachen. We are hoping that some more of your units will be able to join in the great offensive soon but for now you must make do with what you have.
Your area of operations lie on the extreme right flank of the offensive so your task is to secure the high ground overlooking Mützenich, and occupy the towns of Monschau and Höfen. This should provide a firm shoulder to defend against the expected American counterattack. It is imperative that you secure your objectives with minimal losses.

The enemy is dug in on the ridge ahead of you, but intelligence reports that they are mostly green troops and very few in numbers. Good luck!

Matrix Forum Post

Test Drive Unlimited 2: Casino Graveyard

2012-01-07T19:34:00.036-05:00

Oahu, Hawaii: Needing some time away from competition and wanting to kick back and burn some laps, I headed out to the island of Oahu in my Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 S (base price $750K) to take in some nicely rendered time compression effects and maybe play some cards at the casino.

Perhaps it was a bad night online given the scarcity of anyone in the game. I had a solid connection and drove past several other human players, but no one at all was in the casino. The poker rooms were empty but there was one dude in the roulette room. As soon as I sat down he left, go figure.

After leaving behind the sorry state of affairs there, I took back to the road where I tooled around a bit before making some nice jumps here and there, hitting a cop and getting arrested and generally just enjoying a game that has at times been filler material, other times a go to title on many nights.

Ahhhh…the starlit nights.

130mph headlong into a blocked intersection. Go Smirnoff!

A Legend in my own mind.

A normal person would not own (orange) that many houses in Hawaii.

Not Casino Royale.

My usual opening bet.

Glad to get the hell out of Dodge!!

Glad you’re leaving you no-tipping asshole!!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What the hell?!!? You couldn’t even try buffing out the dents?

Usually when I hit a cop I get away with it, but my skills are rusty in this game.

If this was Grand Theft Auto…

Which way do I go?

This is what $750K buys you…a wire mesh in a virtual environment.

I thought I was going to hit that bird but I only hit the car in front of me (gray dot) when I landed on its roof and killed everyone inside.

Highway to the Reich: Arnhem Crunch Time

2012-01-06T23:40:00.005-05:00

Arnhem, Netherlands: This scenario is a fictitious engagement between the Axis 1st FJ Army represented by the 1st SS Panzer Division consisting of 13,259 men, 543 armored fighting vehicles and 269 field guns, and the Allies 2nd Army represented by the 7th Armored Division consisting of 11,096 men, 747 armored fighting vehicles and 240 field guns.

The battlefield is just north of Arnhem, surrounding the Deelen Airfield. Both sides have the same objectives: Four strategic locations worth 20 victory points each, all awarded upon completion of the scenario. Each side also has a “Destroy the enemy” objective that builds up as the battle commences and caps at 40 victory points.

My initial set of orders is as follows: The 131st Queens Infantry Brigade (3,794 men, 118 armored fighting vehicles and 110 field guns) is assigned to attack the Imbosch objective with maximum agro, rate of fire and losses. This objective is surrounded by varying elevation and terrain, from mostly heide to light and heavy woods, with little clearing in the southeast corner which is where I had the assault forming-up point located.

The 22nd Armored Brigade (2,984 men, 436 armored fighting vehicles and 48 field guns) is assigned to attack the Deelensche Start objective. This is the most accessible objective of the four for armor units, so I have the brigade move across the clearing into the airfield, with the assault forming-up point at the end of one of the runways. The attack was also with maximum settings.

I ordered the remaining elements of the 7th Armored Division (3,564 men, 187 armored fighting vehicles and 66 field guns) to attack the Velperberg objective with maximum settings. I did take command of one artillery unit, the 84th Medium Artillery Regiment (16 5.5 inch guns) but left all other indirect fire elements attached to their organic superiors.

Generally it is not wise to send a HQ unit to attack an objective, but this is an all-hands on deck kind of scenario, and in the end they had the highest survivability of the three battle groups. The other two battle groups would face far different outcomes when fighting the Germans onslaught.

My strategy going into these orders was fairly straightforward – Obtain a Marginal Victory by securing two objectives while denying a third to the Axis, yielding a fourth as no contest and hoping the points for destroying the enemy would put me over the top. There was no illusion of trying to attack all four objectives and/or obtaining a Decisive Victory outcome.

The only adjustment that I had made was to take the 131st Queens Infantry Brigade who was up to that point making no progress is breaking through the entrenched German line, and swing them around in a flanking maneuver supported by artillery and airstrikes. This modification to the plan on D3 at 06:00 worked, however the amount of enemy units in the objective area were too great to take the objective.

I would finish with a disappointing Draw outcome, having secured two objectives (Velperberg and Deelensche Start); yielding Deelen Village to the enemy and what I had thought was denying another, the Imbosch objective. The final outcome was the Allies with 55 Victory Points to the Axis 54 Victory Points. I received 20 points each for the objectives I had secured at the completion of the scenario, plus the accumulated 15 out of 40 points for the “Destroy the enemy” objective.

The only way the Axis could have had 54 points is if the game awarded them credit for securing the Imbosch objective. The kill numbers were similar (I killed 5,344 men to their 4,174) so it made sense I would have 15 points for that objective and they would have 14 points for the same objective. With my ignoring Deelen Village which gave them 20 points, the other 20 had to come from Imbosch.

The problem that I have with this is that a ratio of 10:1 is required to secure an objective according to the tutorial for this game. I had 590 troops at that objective facing down 2,627 enemy combatants. That is not a 10:1 ratio for the Axis, and all of my units were inside the radius. It was barely over a 4:1 ratio.

Of the 4,174 men I lost in this effort, the bulk came from the infantry brigade attack on Imbosch, which as painfully described above was not successful in denying the objective to the enemy, so in that regard my strategy failed. Had they denied that objective, the score would have been 55 to 34, which would have been sufficient for a Marginal Victory outcome.

The 131st which started out with 3,794 men ended with 966, a horrific loss of over 75% of the brigade. The 22nd which started out with 2,984 men ended with 1,725, a much more palatable loss of 43%, but still disastrous. The 7th Armored Division remaining units of 3,564 finished the scenario with 3,477, a loss of less than one percent of the force, mostly due to the artillery units deployed out of harm’s way.

After-action report

Review final situation screen

Matrix Forum Post

Silent Hunter IV: Bernard Von Unfal, Patrol 01

2012-01-05T18:28:00.003-05:00

Penang, Malaysia: Having Helmut Grimm (one of the best ever Captain names) transferred to training duties in Kiel thus ending his promising career in Silent Hunter III, I decided to move into the Mediterranean in Silent Hunter IV with the Wolves of the Pacific expansion pack.

Not having a JoneSoft SH4 Commander utility available, I was forced to take what the game gave me, which is one of the lamest Captain names ever - Bernard Von Unfal (might as well have been Baron Von Barkey Von Snowzer), and the Type IX-D2 boat. I was able to select the Campaign (1 of 2 choices) and the base (Penang).

The starting renown was 2,500 and the difficulty level was set to normal. The mission presented me with an objective of taking my boat, the U-195 from Penang and transporting 10 tons of "vital supplies" to friendly troops stationed in Taipei. Not having gone through the training academy, I had no idea how this was going to functionally work. Thankfully the game told me what to do when the time came.

I chose to start the patrol outside of the harbor instead of inside the harbor docked at the tender (not sure if this would cost me renown, I will have to research any remaining wiki's for the game) and set a course that would take me down around Singapore and up past Saigon through the South China Sea on my way to through the Luzon Straight and into Taipei.

The objective is well marked and once you are within range (right on top of it); the game gives you a pop-up with the following options: Launch boat or Postpone. Why on earth you would want to postpone completing the objective after all you went through to get right on top of it is beyond me. Perhaps the developers had something else in mind or there may be something later on in the game that utilizes this that I may not be aware of just yet.

Funny thing happened, I still had some course laid out into the objective icon when the popup occurred, so when I clicked it to the launch the boat my vessel promptly ran over the boat and I heard a hideous screeching noise outside. I ran out topside to catch a glimpse of the boat disappearing under the front of my ship. Not sure if this is how the boat launch actually works, or if I was supposed to visually see it make its way across to the tender.

At any rate, in real life I would have killed everyone onboard that boat, but the game gave me credit for completing the objective. I sent out a contact report while still on scene and received a response that I could patrol another area of my choice or return to base. Given the hideous nature of the time compression having been constantly interrupted for sonar contacts (see post mortem below); I had no desire to patrol anywhere.

Later on I send another status update and then received a response instructing me to go patrol grid quadrant SZ 72 and sink 5,000 tons of merchant shipping (interestingly enough to note that the patrol grid for 24 hours from SH3 is gone and now you just have tonnage to complete).

I was already sitting outside of Penang and ready to dock when I sent the message and received the response, so I do not know if their revised orders were sent at some point when I was button mashing to get through the time compression/sonar update nightmare, or if it was only just generated then when I sent the status report.

It didn't matter to me at that point as I was pretty frustrated with the situation and docked to end the mission. My renown increased to 3,250, however I received no medals or anything to hand out to the crew or myself. In SH3 you at least almost always had medals for the crew to pass out. All told, the patrol lasted almost 26 days and was ripe with frustration given how your time compression decreases for sonar updates.

I know that I could very well bypass enemy shipping, however the nearest enemy base seemed to be Dutch Harbor Alaska, and I wasn't about to go sink the Northwestern and Sig!! There should at least be an option to ignore sonar contact updates since you cannot remove the kid that is manning the station (if you take it over yourself, the max time compression available is only X32).

Having been my first completed mission for the German side in Silent Hunter IV, here are my overall impressions of the game:

The Great

Time compression settings that SH3 could not even hope to obtain.
Dynamic layer that allows either "patrol as you wish" or specifically assigned grids.
The graphics are significantly improved over SH3, more so than I would have expected from an UbiSoft game advancing only one iteration.

The Good

Objectives that when achieved can provided you renown.
Ability to dock at other bases during the mission to refit and proceed on the same patrol.
Slick interface with many options and improvements that does make some effort to retain as many default controls as existed in SH3.

The Bad

Apparently there is no way to adjust the difficulty setting once a career is started (you could in SH3, such as making it progressively more realistic as you learned the game and improved).
Apparently there is no way to change out torpedoes before the mission starts (you could in SH3).
Apparently there is no way to send a crewman to rest and leave a compartment vacated (why would I want to do that? Read on...)

The Ugly

Sonar updates constantly impeding your time compression and no apparent way to remove the sonar operator from the station. In the rapid key mashing to try to regain a sane amount of time compression, it is probably possible to miss an incoming radio message changing you from "patrol as you wish" to a specific grid assignment.

Note: Because I later picked up a specific grid assignment when sending a status report, and ignored it by returning to base thus having it marked as "incomplete" in the objectives summary post mission, I am not sure if this deducted any renown from me.

Men of War Vietnam: Until the troubles trouble you

2012-01-04T10:54:00.001-05:00

Khao Lan, South Vietnam: A Vietcong base of operations has been attacked by the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and completely overrun. During this attack, the convoy you were traveling in was also slaughtered along the road outside of the base leaving you with a team of only four survivors (two Vietcong, two Soviet advisors).

Such is the opening of the first mission of the North Vietnamese Campaign from Men of War: Vietnam. This four man group must harvest ammunition from the dead and captured supply caches, fight their way through hordes of American infantry, take down three helicopters and make their way out in a freaking sampan.

There are several walkthroughs available on the internet that cover this game even though it is still relatively new (released Sep11), and oddly enough a video tutorial for this mission on the 1C website that was made during the game development stage is flat out misleading. In that video the instructor only destroyed two helicopters and had to avoid the one that got away for the rest of his mission; in the released version of the game, in this mission if even one helicopter takes off you fail the secondary objective.

The key to winning this mission is to have at least one person alive once the sampan is full of fuel and actually on the craft, which will trigger the cut scene to end the scenario. With careful gameplay and tactics, you can have all four men alive up until the very end, when you are swarmed at the boat dock from two different directions. It is a cheap and sad ending to an otherwise well-developed map and objective set (albeit highly implausible).

The way I played it was to move around and verify various line-of-site areas of enemy contacts and engage them with the most silent force possible. To this end the silenced AK-47 was invaluable, as were the knives. Those were actually really cool to employ by sneaking up behind an enemy and throwing a knife 10 feet into their head.

The map is gorgeous and is easily one of the best I have ever seen in a real time strategy game, the game play mechanics are sound (once you remove the camera controls from the number pad and reassign them to W-A-S-D like most other Men of War games) and the challenge is visceral, again even though it is basically Mission Impossible: Crack Pipe Protocol.

Other thoughts: The programmer who moved the W-A-S-D to the number pad 8-4-5-6 should be shot with non-lethal munitions in the stomach until he or she vomits, then forced to sign an agreement that they would never mess up a game like that again.

The flow of enemy was a challenge but manageable up until the very end. As soon as your men secure the fuel can, it triggers the response from two directions, converging not on the church where the fuel can and you are at, but at the boat dock you have to make your way to.

You have just enough time to race there ahead of these troops (have the dude with the fuel can store it in inventory by selecting his primary weapon), start filling the boat up and die while fighting off the overwhelming and scripted response.

As soon as you have the fuel in the boat take whoever is left and have them board, which will end the mission and trigger a cut scene where everyone is alive and on the boat as it makes its way towards the next mission.

There are tons more screen shots than I had intended to post, but this game is freaking gorgeous. The jungle actually hides the players and you can easily walk right up on a guard unknowingly because you couldn’t see them in the shadows or foliage without using some of the game aids. I will most likely prune this down to my self-imposed limit of 5MB later on (currently 31.5 MB for 50 screen shots).

NHL 07: Thomas Sabo Ice Tigers Nürnberg 2, Eisbären Berlin 3

2012-01-02T20:15:00.001-05:00

Berlin, Germany: The Nürnberg Ice Tigers traveled to the O2 World Arena to take on the Eisbären Berlin team in the opening match of the DEL (Deutsche Eishockey Liga) season. The goalie matchup would feature # 35 Jean-Francois Labbe for Nürnberg and # 1 Tomas Popperle for Berlin.

The home team would score first on a goal by Mark Beaufait (assist by Fairchild and Pderson) at the 4:03 mark in the first period. Shortly after that at the 4:38 mark Nürnberg’s # 9 Rich Brennan was called for a two-minute minor for obstruction-hooking.

At the 15:09 mark in the same period Berlin would score again, this time on a goal by Steve Walker (assist by Mueller and Busch) to increase the home team lead to two goals. The first period would end with Nürnberg leading in shots on goal 7-6 and face-offs 5-2.

Berlin would be charged with high-sticking which would give Nürnberg a power play opportunity that they would capitalize on in short order. Matt Davidson would score the goal at the 1:56 mark in the second period (assist by Methot) to pull the Ice Tigers to within one goal.

Even though the power play would expire, Nürnberg would score just moments at the 2:20 mark when Brian Swanson (assist by Pollock) hit on a wrist shot that crossed right-to-left with a Berlin defender screening the view of the goalie to tie the game at two goals apiece.

At the 15:57 mark in the second period Nürnberg would be called for a two-minute minor for hooking by # 20 Gert Acker. This would lead to the final score of the game on a power play goal by Berlin’s Kelly Fairchild at the 16:51 mark to put the Bears up 3-2 for the final.

Nürnberg would finish with 23 shots on goal to 20 and having won 18 out of 22 face-offs. Berlin would lead overall time on attack; 7:04 to 6:02 have one goal on two power play attempts, while Nürnberg would finish one for one.

Battles from the Bulge: Advance to the Sure

2012-01-01T09:48:00.008-05:00

This scenario pits the Allies III Corps against the Axis LXXXV Korps in a neutered version of what was intended in the real life operation. Whereas the briefing outlines the drive to the Sure and the advance onward to the Wiltz River with the 4th Armored, 26th and 80th Infantry Divisions, what you actually get is just the 26th and 80th Infantry Divisions and objectives along the Sure.

These forces represent the center and right wing of the advance and comprise of the 104th Infantry Regiment (subordinate to the 26th Infantry Division), the 319th Infantry Regiment (subordinate to the 80th Infantry Division), the 328th Infantry Regiment (subordinate to the 26th Infantry Division) and the 317th Infantry Regiment (subordinate to the 80th Infantry Division).

Also at your disposal are the 818th Reconnaissance Platoon and the 80th Reconnaissance Troop which can prove invaluable if properly used during combat operations. Reinforcements come in the form of filling out the 317th and 328th Infantry Regiments as well as providing additional artillery assets, the 180th Field Artillery Regiment (12 155mm howitzers) and the 263rd Field Artillery Battalion (12 105mm howitzers).

This post is in no way intended to be a walkthrough as some of my others for the series of games has been. I would suggest however that this scenario is almost a guaranteed failure if you try to play an “Overlord” type commander by issuing orders at the divisional level, and even at the Regimental level. This scenario begs to be played at the Battalion level with emphasis on mass assault across multiple objectives and a sickening adherence to proper artillery employment.

My plan of action was to take the six infantry battalions at my disposal and have them attack the Sure River objectives from Esch-sur-Sure (West) to Bourscheid Crossing (West). These Sure River objectives are flanked by the Bonnal objective in the West and the Bourscheid Crossing (East). The Recon assets were moved about to locate targets of opportunity and to scout approaches, and the remaining elements of the 26th were ordered to defend at Eschdorf and the 80th at Heiderscheid.

When the 328th Infantry Regiment arrived at D1, 22:50 they were tasked as follows: First Battalion was ordered to attack the Eschdorf objective (in support of the 26th element ordered to defend there), Third Battalion was ordered to attack the Heiderscheid objective (in support of the 80th element ordered to defend there) and the headquarters component were ordered to secure the Bonnal Crossing objective.

When Second Battalion arrived at D2, 12:36 they were ordered to attack the Kaundorf objective through the Bonnal Crossing objective. Later that evening at 19:25 when all elements of the 317th Infantry Regiment had arrived, I ordered First Battalion to attack the Eschdorf objective, Second Battalion to attack the Heiderscheid objective and Third Battalion (remaining attached to the headquarters element) to defend at the Bourscheid objective.

Only the 104 Infantry Regiment had any success with the battalion level efforts to secure the bridges along the Sure, with First Battalion having taken the Esch-sur-Sure (East) objective and Third Battalion holding the Heiderscheidergrund objective. All other crossings running from the Esch-sur-Sure (West) objective to the Bourscheid Crossing (East) were blown by the Axis AI.

As each crossing was blown, I would re-deploy the forces committed to securing it to the next nearest objective along the Sure, and if there were none left they would be tasked to attack south to disrupt the Germans who were flowing in through the Bourscheid Crossing (East) objective.

When that objective was blown sometime on day seven, it actually hurt the Axis forces as they were left to stream all the way across above the Sure to either Heiderscheidergrund or further out, Esch-sur-Sure (East) and finally Bonnal Crossing. None of their reinforcements could make those crossings in time to advance across the river, let alone challenge those objectives.

The end result was a disappointing Marginal Victory with a score of 85-44 in terms of Victory Points. In regard to pure personnel numbers, it was a disaster for the Axis as they lost 5,627 men whereas the Allies came out bloodied with 2,820 killed but still a formidable fighting force. This 41 point difference was 10 points shy of a Decisive Victory outcome that could have been had if the Bourscheid Crossing (East) objective had been taken (it was worth 13 Victory Points).

After-action report

Review final situation screen

Other thoughts: One of the things that have always been a disappointment with the Airborne Assault series of games is that there is no check-off that you have completed a scenario. In Rainbow Six you were awarded a Bronze, Silver or Gold medal for completing a mission in a specific mode on any of the three difficulty settings. You could clearly see what you have accomplished in the game. Not so in BFTB (or RDOA, HTTR or COTA); In these games once you win a scenario (or lose it), there is nothing retained in the game to even remotely suggest you even looked at the scenario, much less opened it up, played it like Patton himself and whopped some Axis Ass.

Also, the way the scenarios are ordered in the game menu (alphabetically) induces the casual war gamer such as me to play the scenarios out of historical context. While I might have played the first scenario in the list after the tutorial, in reality the scenario (Advance to the Sure) is actually part of the Group 3: Battling the Bulge section and is overall mission number 25 out of 27. Surely there has to be a better way to arrange this information so that in game the player can find the historical play order.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season: Atlanta Motor Speedway

2011-12-31T17:42:00.014-05:00

Hampton, Georgia: The Kobalt Tools 500 was run at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Henry County, Georgia. The 1.54 mile quad-oval is paved with asphalt and is banked at 24° in the turns and 5° in the straights. This would be a horrible track for me to begin to experience controller issues on.

My version of this event based on a 25% race length and a 4X pit stop frequency is an 82 lap race with a full fuel load providing an estimated 17 laps under green flag conditions. This would result in approximately 4.82 pit stops during the event.

I ran 23 total laps in practice having wrecked once and executing two pits stops. Somehow I managed to pull in the fastest lap at 29.950, 0.212 better than second place Michael Walt rip. Sadly though this did not convey into qualifying where I posted a lap of 30.034, 0.519 off of pole sitter Kevin Harvick and landing me in the middle of the field in 21st position.

On lap seven I would be lose control of the vehicle and take out Kasey Kahne for the second week in a row, as well as the Miller Lite car. After pitting for repairs I would take the green flag one lap down and the first car lined up on the inside racing line (I would have been better off going to the end of the longest line).

In short order I would cause the second accident and yellow flag of the race when I came down on the apron, shot back up across the track and took out Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon in a horrific upside down grinder of a wreck. Although I would manage to navigate the smoking hulk back to pit road, my crew chief Billy Bob Jo Beth Bill Bobby refused to work on it and my day was done.

The handful of laps and done effectively ended my season, dropping me down to 15th overall in the points standings at 455, 163 back from first place Denny Hamlin. Although I do have two wins on the year (the most of any driver), my recent finishes have virtually driven the death nail into the remainder of the season, assuming my sponsor does not drop me for a developmental driver.

Other thoughts: I first tried to run this event with my Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Racing Wheel, a controller device that has served me well for over eight years now but is finally showing its age. I grant that with realistic weather the cooler track temperatures caused fresh tires some time to build up pressure and achieve proper grip levels (something that is accurately modeled in this game); however there were greater issues to be had.

Atlanta is a track that I have raced on many times in NASCAR 2003, both against the AI and against human drivers in both public servers and in several online racing leagues. I have won several longer distance events at this track and feel quite comfortable making laps and working traffic. This time out however something was seriously amiss.

Coming out of turn three into the front stretch dogleg, I could never hold the car on the racing line without experiencing some severe over steer. I wrecked in practice and my first attempt at the race before exiting the game and recalibrating the controller both externally through Windows XP and also once back in the game. Something was simply wrong with my steering wheel and it was not the setup in the game, one I have raced with at this track for years.

There could be two things at play here: The controller itself is finally breaking down internally after years of (ab)use, or quite possibly I could also be breaking down in terms of being a gamer. Once you reach a certain age your reflexes and hand-eye coordination begin to deteriorate. This is simple medical fact which manifests itself in any physical and/or mental activity which requires user input and reaction.

This is why many first-person shooter players end up playing war games after they hit their 40’s – it's easier to order a chit to go kill something that dodge bullets and wall hacks on your way to killing a 13 year old noob in Twitch Shooter 6: Operation Bitch Slap.

I ended up pulling out my Logitech dual action gamepad which I use for sports games and Race 07 and actually faired pretty well with it, albeit with the same result as the first race. Perhaps TDU2 is more my speed at this point in life.

Red Devils Over Arnhem: Heartbreak Ridge, Decisive Victory

2011-12-30T09:56:00.007-05:00

Ede, Netherlands: This scenario pits the Allies Guards Armoured Division against the Axis KG Knoche Group in a one day battle to control three strategic (albeit close together) locations northwest of Arnhem. The Axis forces are in place and entrenched, whereas the Allied forces must move and make contact with the enemy over varied terrain, elevation and line-of-sight challenges.

The Guards Armoured Division is more than sufficient for the task at hand, totaling 7,752 men, 530 armored fighting vehicles and 224 gun units for an Anti-Personnel rating of 3,103, an Anti-Armor rating of 5,532, a bombardment rating of 732 and an Armor rating of 2,835. These forces are organized into three distinct fighting elements and a headquarters component.

There are four objectives to this mission: Destroy the Enemy (100 Victory Points), Secure Centre Ridge (50 VP), Secure West Ridge (25 VP) and Secure East Ridge (25 VP). The intelligence provided by the scenario designer indicates that the objectives are already overrun by the German forces, approximately 3,893/5/42, 1,340/1,530/413/37.

In reality the force is approximately twice that size but a mix of Tiger’s, Puma’s, second-rate marine and security regiments pretending to be infantry and a mixed bag of artillery (Flak 36 & 38 and some 105mm howitzers). They also are deployed on the primary objective, the Centre Ridge worth 50 VP.

The Irish Guards Group (1,434/110/42, 673/1,180/86/742) is comprised mostly of Cromwell’s and Challenger’s. They are ordered to attack the West Ridge Objective by taking the main road leading northeast and attacking through the woods.

The Welsh Guards Group (1,434/110/42, 628/1,195/86/616) is comprised of Sherman 75’s and Firefly’s. They are ordered to attack the Center Ridge Objective through the clearing between the two forests. This would prove to be a tactical blunder as they were initially delayed by being visible and out in the open which is where I would take most of my losses.

The Grenadier Guards Group (1,434/110/42, 628/1,195/86/616) is comprised of Sherman 75’s and Firefly’s. They are ordered to attack the East Ridge Objective by taking the main highway leading to Arnhem approximately six km then making a left hook along the outer edge of the eastern most forested area in AO.

The headquarters component (2,016/90/56, 546/767/388/245) would remain in place some 4km away from the objectives using the in-situ defense order. They have two complements of artillery to assist in the attack:

The 55th Guards Field Artillery Regiment which consists of 24 Ordnance QF 25 pounder artillery guns and the 153rd Guards Artillery Regiment which consists of 24 Sexton 25 pounder self-propelled artillery vehicles. Along with two airstrike sorties during the day, this array of bombardment capability is more than sufficient to drive the Axis off of the objectives.

The attack and assault on the objectives were very straight forward affairs as each of the three battle groups reached their objectives in time to consolidate forces on the positions and have them secured by the end of the scenario (all Secure objectives have the VP’s awarded on completion). The only group that had any trouble was the Welsh Guards Group attacking over open terrain in sight of enemy forces who called in artillery on their position.

This was clearly my fault for making such a Pickett’s Charge kind of blunder when I could have just as easily ordered those forces to follow along with either the Irish Guards Group or the Grenadier Guards Group, attacking through their positions to the Centre Ridge Objective.

I would finish the scenario with a Decisive Victory outcome, 100 victory points to 13 victory points. My forces would kill 1,687 men, and destroy 30 armored fighting vehicles and 56 gun units. The Axis forces would inflict some damage, killing 795 men, and destroying 105 armored fighting vehicles and 30 gun units.

After-action report

Review final situation screen

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season: Las Vegas, 40th Place

2011-12-24T16:16:00.007-05:00

Las Vegas, Nevada: The Shelby 427 was run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Clark County, Nevada. The 1.5 mile tri-oval superspeedway is paved with asphalt, has four turns banked at 20 degrees (however this change occurred in 2007, and I believe the game is modeled at the then 12 degrees).

My version of this event based on a 25% race length and a 4X pit stop frequency is a 67 lap race with a full fuel load providing an estimated 17 laps under green flag racing conditions. This would result in approximately 3.94 pit stops during the event.

I ran 21 laps in practice and had the fastest time with 32.838, 0.063 seconds faster than second place Joey Lagano. I executed only one pit stop during this session on lap 16 when my crew chief said it was time to come in. In the two lap qualifying session, I posted a time of 32.431 on the first lap which was good enough to secure fourth on the grid, 0.033 back from pole sitter A.J. Allmendinger.

Before the first lap was even completed, I fell backwards on a horrible start which resulted in an accident on the backstretch that knocked several cars off the track, but mysteriously did not result in a caution flag.

I would gather my composure and race up to 34th position by lap nine with heavy traffic in front of me.

On lap 14 I would cause an accident while several cars were pitting under green. While running in 26th position, I slammed into the back of the # 4 Red Bull car driven by Kasey Kahne which would send us both spinning and bring the yellow flag out.

Other than sudden deceleration, there is no modeling in the game to indicate an AI driver is getting ready to pit. There is no hand waving or the spotter saying the car in front of you leaving the track. I would come around and pit on lap 15 in first place much to my astonishment.

The race would go back green on lap 19 with my holding onto 26th position.

Racing hard in an effort to salvage something out of a disastrous start, I managed my way up to 13th position on lap 27 where I ran into this blockade.

I would pit under green on lap 30 having just taken over first place. Somehow this season I have managed to stay on the track one extra lap after the AI has pitted under green flag conditions, which is allowing me access to those five precious bonus points for leading a lap. After cycling out I would be in 26th position by lap 32.

By lap 41 I managed to make it up to 18th spot where traffic was beginning to thin a bit until cars started coming out of the pits. I managed to continue my inconsistent day when bungling a pass on Joey Lagano which sent me straight into the wall.

The hard hit prompted the crew chief to radio that it looked like I had some engine damage. For the second time in the race there was an accident with parts flying all over the track and no caution flag would come out.

From bad to what-the-hell worse: When attempting to pit under green on lap 43 while running in 30th position, I would lose control of the vehicle, spin around one driver only to fishtail the opposite way and take out Matt Kenseth on pit road.

I would be held in the pits for 30 seconds for not entering safely, and when exiting I would receive a black flag for not entering safely at a high rate of speed. After the drive thru penalty, I would settle in at a miserable 40th position where I would finish the race.

My newfound career as a back marker.

I would finish the event in 40th position, three laps down to the race winner Robby Gordon. This disappointing finish would boot me from the lead in the standings and drop me down to third place with 418 total points, 18 points away from second place Trevor Bayne and 58 points away from first place Denny Hamlin.

Ghost Recon: M01 Iron Dragon, Completed

2011-12-22T22:19:00.006-05:00

Tbilisi, Georgia – Rebels operating in the South Ossetian Autonomous region are threatening the stability of the Georgian government. Company D, 1st Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group (5th SFG) stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the “Ghosts” are called in to bring stability to the volatile situation through the implementation of direct action assault.

The mission at hand is to infiltrate an area held by the rebel forces to achieve four specific objectives: 1) Neutralize Tent Camp Troops, 2) Secure the Caves, 3) Return to Insertion Zone and 4) Capture Papashvili (a rebel commander in the area currently holed up in the caves in a makeshift command post. The mission begins on Wednesday April 16, 2008 at 05:45 in sunny conditions.

As with any original Ghost Recon mission you can assemble a six man team broken up into a maximum of three fire teams. For this mission I am dispatching a light assault team, a heavy assault team and a designated marksman (sniper here on out you grunts). The light assault team consists of a rifleman and an automatic rifleman forming Alpha Team. The heavy assault team has the same and adds a demolitions specialist (not required for the mission but brought along for the experience gained) formed as Bravo Team. The sniper is alone as Charlie Team.

The key map image above indicates statics targets (red balls - RB), waypoints (orange balls - OB) and mobile or spawned targets (blue balls - BB).

It is important to note here that it is not necessary to go anywhere near the enemy camp to kill all of the soldiers there and achieve that objective. If you sweep down and to the left, then up the edge of the map to the caves, once you have Papashvili the troops in the camp will flood the cave area and you can eliminate all of them from a prime defensible position (OB8).

Your force starts at OB1, the insertion and the extraction zone. Start by controlling Team Charlie, the sniper, then order Alpha Team and Bravo Team to OB2. Manually move the sniper to a position about 30 feet behind these two fire teams and look for a clear shot to RB1, a sentry posted in a dugout overlooking the approach from the east.

After this sentry is eliminated, it will trigger a reaction from BB1 and BB2 units who will swarm the area from both sides of the dugout. This is a perfect opportunity to either use Team Alpha and Team Bravo as screens while you move back and forth picking off the enemy with the sniper rifle.
Alternatively, you can use the default PGUP key to cycle between units and suppress with the MG or devastate with the M203.

Once this automatic response is put down, move the sniper to OB3, a rock cut that has a line of sight to the slope across the shallow valley. At this point order Bravo Team (heavy) to OB4 and have them cover the approach corridor running NE. This position is just outside the AI detection range for RB3, a static weapon overlooking this approach to the enemy camp.

Order Alpha Team (light) to sweep past OB10, OB3 and move up to OB5 where they will wait for you to advance. While they are moving past OB3, use the sniper and eliminate all enemies at BB3, which is a guard house at the top of the slope. There should be several rebels milling about here, and usually on Elite Mode there are at least five.

While you are clearing these targets on the slope to cover the approach of Team Alpha, they will encounter RB2, a static automatic rifleman in a sandbag pit that is facing away from them if you assigned your waypoints for the AI to hug the exterior of the map (you did do that, didn’t you?)

This is an easy kill for Alpha and as long as you took care of business on the slope, they should be able to advance and hold station at OB5.

Move your sniper to OB4 where Bravo Team is waiting (usually best to loop around and behind them by going past OB10 and around the dugout RB1 so you can move up from their right position. Place yourself directly behind Bravo; acquire the RB3 target, a static automatic rifleman in a sandbag position on the outcropping of a cliff.

Once this threat is out of commission, move your sniper back up the way he came, following OB10, OB3, OB5 and arriving at OB6. Before moving out, order Team Alpha to move from OB5 to OB6 and cover due east towards OB7.

Depending on several circumstances, Team Alpha if under AI control may or may not engage the guards outside of the cave at BB4.

By the time you reach OB6, if they have not already put them down, switch to lead Team Alpha and move forward to BB4, eliminating any target you see. Leave the sniper at OB6 and order him to cover due east. Order Bravo Team (heavy) to advance to OB7 (they can wrap around RB3 and move west that way, but don’t have them go towards the enemy camp).

While Bravo is moving up, use Alpha Team to sweep around the rocks outside of the cave and kill anything that isn’t stamped "Made In America". Once you have verified Bravo is onsite at OB7, move Alpha to OB8, a key piece of highly defensible terrain which will make or break this mission on Elite Mode. Once the team is in the cut, switch over to lead Bravo Team, then order Alpha to move up to the middle of the rock cut and cover southeast. If they are far enough back into the cut, they will slaughter any rebels coming up over the ridge from the camp.

Move Bravo Team into the cave and eliminate all guards before you enter the deepest chamber which houses the rebel commander, Papashvili. If you enter that room before all guards are eliminated, Papashvili will engage you with a pistol and you will not be able to capture him. You will know when it is safe to move into the back room when you receive the secure the caves objective completed message.

Once you are in the caves eliminating targets, the enemy tent camp troops will rush the position from BB5 coming north and east along the top of the map, straight into the ambush setup by Alpha Team covering at OB8. After capturing Papashvili in the back room (simply move up to him and bump him and he will follow Team Bravo from that point) and before the AI is overwhelmed, switch back to Alpha Team in the cut and mow down the enemy soldiers coming up over the ridge.

At this point you will most likely need to leave the prone position and advance up over the ridge (make sure to reload both soldiers first switching to each and manually doing this). Grenades could work well here if you bothered to take them, otherwise you can use the crest of the ridge to pop up and down from the crouched position to take out the enemy that are laying suppressed on the other side.

Order Bravo Team back to the sniper waiting at OB6 and then order Bravo and Charlie to advance to OB5 then to OB3, where Bravo Team will hold position with Papashvili. Order Charlie (the sniper) to move up through the trees at BB2 towards OB4 while taking Alpha Team from the ambush spot at OB8 and bringing them east then south, moving to the east of RB3 towards BB1 and OB4.

Trust me this works – while the sniper is moving forward taking precision shots on the enemy that re-spawn at BB2 and BB1, you will move in for the kill eliminating everything that has a waistline over 42 inches. This is perhaps the second trickiest part of the mission, compared to what comes next. Once this plain is clear of rebel forces, move everyone up towards OB2. This is where the extra man on Bravo making them the heavy part can have the most benefit – someone to take a bullet and not the objective Papashvili.

The trickiest part of the mission comes next, with the re-spawn of at least five rebels in the extraction zone OB1. From OB2, take Alpha directly north to the rock wall then move east hugging the wall all the way until you arrive at a small ravine, OB13. This depression will present you with an excellent ridge that you can use to probe forward and eliminate any enemies you encounter.

Once the last rebel in the extraction zone is killed, you will have completed the mission even though technically none of your troops are all the way back to OB1. It is at this point that you will receive the objective completion for capturing Papashvili who has been trailing Bravo Team.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season: California, 1st Place

2011-12-17T16:55:00.019-05:00

Fontana, California: The Auto Club 500 was run at the 2 mile D-shaped oval which is paved with asphalt, has four turns banked at 14 degrees, a front stretch banked at 11 degrees and a back stretch that is relatively flat at 3 degrees. The circuit is smooth and wide and a pleasure to race on if you have a setup that will allow you to move between multiple racing lines.

My version of this event based on a 25% race length and a 4X pit stop frequency is a 63 lap race with a full fuel load providing an estimated 13 laps under green flag racing conditions. This would result in an approximately 4.85 pit stops during the event.

I ran 16 laps in practice and had the fastest time with 39.376, 1.064 seconds faster than second place Kyle Busch. I executed two pit stops during this practice session, the first on lap 12 when my crew chief said I was running low on fuel, and the second on lap 15. In the two lap qualifying session, I captured the pole position with a time of 39.202, 0.678 faster than second place Mark Martin.

The race started with a track temperature of 66 degrees, clear skies and a 5mph wind coming from the west. The first pit stop sequence for me would occur after a caution flag for a wreck entering the front stretch when Jimmy Johnson cut down on J.J. Yeley and collected A.J. Allmendenger, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Regan Smith.

I would come around under that caution flag and pit on lap 12 in first place. The restart would come on lap 15 with my still having the top spot. Once clear of lapped cars lined up on the inside for the restart, I would power away from the field and build up a 10 second lead over any car trailing me in second place.

The race continued under green for some time, and I made the next pit stop on lap 26, coming in while in first place and regaining the lead by lap 28. The third pit sequence came on lap 40 when I pitted while leading, having retaken the lead by lap 43. My final pit stop occurred on lap 54 when I came in while leading, and maintaining the lead throughout the sequence.

The second and final caution flag of the day would fly on lap 57 when David Gilliland (three laps down) wrecked Bobby Labonte (two laps down). I did not need to pit for fuel or tires, so I stayed on the track to maintain first place. Freaking back markers.

The pace car made an extra circuit, which set up a green-white-checkered finish with my taking the green flag on lap 61 with Dave Blaney in second place (we had lapped the rest of the field). I was able to take the checkered flag with a 6.312 second lead over Blaney who finished in second place.

The win, my second in two races gives me a 44 point lead Denny Hamlin.

The Sum of All Fears: M01 Hostage Rescue Operation, Completed

2011-12-11T21:09:00.006-05:00

Charleston, West Virginia: The Sum of All Fears is a tactical first-person shooter developed by Red Storm Entertainment and released in May 2002. Contrary to misinformation on the internet that purports the game to be similar in style to the Rainbow Six series of games, it most certainly is not.

Anyone that has ever played SOAF knows the game is built using the original Ghost Recon framework, and plays much the same as OGR, except the engagements are small unit tactical efforts on smaller, often indoor maps. The entire game engine is OGR based and all menus, controls and various other aspects of the game are definitely drawn from Ghost Recon.

The campaign that I am starting is set to hard difficulty, with the Special Forces Options of 1) no in-game saves, 2) fail on team casualties and 3) no support teams selected. These extra filtering options at the campaign outset take the hard setting to an entirely new level. The use of specific kit items such as heartbeat sensors and flash bangs is a necessity given the tight corners in this game.

Mission one for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) is to storm a television station in Charleston, West Virginia that has been taken over by a radical domestic terrorist group known as the “Mountain Men”. The mission is completely pre-planned out for you, including the route you have to take to get to the objectives: 1) Disarm the security system, 2) Cut the satellite feed, 3) Rescue the hostages and 4) No team casualties (which is now a requirement to pass as it was selected in the Special Forces Options described earlier).

In terms of all of the tactical first-person shooters I have played over the years, the objectives set forth in this mission as realistic, in a logical sequence and match the story provided, albeit they could have come up with a better name than “Mountain Men”. The crew I am rolling with is Scott Lewis, Ann Simpson and John Hurley. There are three kits to choose from: 1) HRT Stealth, 2) HRT Assault and 3) HRT Breach.

I take the default kit on the mission, which includes a 9mm SMG SD, a 9mm Pistol SD, four flash bangs and a heartbeat sensor (HBS here on out). The 12 total flash bangs among the three-person element is what will make or break the game, as there is some variety in what goes down once inside the building although it is otherwise a very heavily scripted affair.

Your team starts out in a garage outside of WWAK Channel 8. From there proceed to the door following the map route drawn out for you on the tactical mini-map (TMM). If you go to the door on the left you won’t be allowed to enter and will receive a message to find another route. If you break to the right and loop all the way around to the front of the building, the tangos will see you through glass doors and you will be shot trying to enter a door that will not open anyway.

Once inside the alcove of the building, bring up your HBS and examine the TMM (default control press the Tab key to make it full screen and use the =/- keys to zoom in and out, and the mouse movement to turn it around in any direction). There is a tango directly across from the door facing it, one to the right that is crouched and will not move and one patrolling that room and the adjacent hallway that may or may not engage you immediately.

Open the door and eliminate the first tango facing the door. If he yells out, the patrolling tango will eventually move to the alcove you are in and you can kill him there (a quick tap of the Tab key will show this). If he is coming, just wait and pop him. However if you kill the first tango before he has a chance to yell, the patrolling tango will most likely not come to the alcove (which is what happened in my play through).

In either case, the tango crouching to the right is a problem, and here is where you toss a flash bang into the room on a short throw, turn to the right to look away and move in for the kill after it goes off. It will stun the enemy for at least two to three seconds which is more than enough time to move in and fire. Proceed to the door and if the patrolling tango is still up, take him out.

There is tango in the adjacent hallway that may enter the room to investigate, so wait for a moment to pop him if he enters the room, otherwise move out and take him down. Once in the hallway, there is a conference room to the right that has a tango in it facing the window, so rush it and fire before he has a chance to acquire you. It is best to do this on your own as the AI seems to have an issue targeting through glass, broken or not.

Once that threat is eliminated, move halfway down the hall and bring up your HBS and examine the TMM. There should be a tango on a right-left break, with a clear line of sight. I have found it best to rush this tango and put him down with a three round burst. Move up to the door and use the HBS and TMM again to examine the situation.

This room is the front entrance to the building, where I mentioned earlier that if you went around that way you would just be shot up. Plus to add insult to injury, there are two NPC policemen out there not doing dick, just chewing the fat. That’s West Virginia for you (hey, I am from there, so STFU).

There should be two tangos in this room, one slightly off-center left facing the door, and the other far left behind the computer workstation. This is an area where you should be able to depend on your AI team members to lend a hand. Press the CTRL key to bring up the Command Map, and then order them to flash bang. They will do a rudimentary job of stacking up, opening and tossing the grenade, waiting for the explosion and then moving in to clear the area.

Move in with them just behind and provide supporting fire to the left, which is usually the trickier tango to take down. Once the threats are gone, move to the workstation and press the space bar to perform the required action once you are standing inside the white square on the TMM. At this point you should have disabled the security system and received the objective complete message.

Depending on how much ruckus you caused with this event, the tango in the room behind the room you cleared may come out to investigate, so focus on the door and eliminate him if he comes through. If he comes out, there may be another threat that moves into the room from the door to the left once inside that room. If he does not come out, use the HBS and TMM to evaluate the situation, then toss a flash bang yourself and move in for the kill (this is not a good room for the AI to stack up on and clear).

Once inside the room move left to the wall just behind the door, and use the HBS and TMM. There are two tangos in this room, one right center facing the door and another just to the left, crouching in between the cubicles. Standoff of the door and open it, using the frame to block the tango from the left from seeing you and take down the tango to the right.

Here you do not need a flash bang, as the tango on the left usually stays crouched. Slowly pie-cut in and shoot the top of his head sticking out over the cubicle walls or move to the side and hit him in the shoulder. Either way, this should be an easy kill as long as he does not stand up and rush you. Once that is done, it is clear sailing along the indicated path all the way up to the next floor where you will halt at the corner and do the HBS/TMM dance to evaluate the next engagement.

There should be two tangos in the next room after a right-left wall break. You can rush the first enemy and kill him fairly easily, however the second one is a bit tougher in that he is at the end of the cube wall up against the door in most cases, and you need a tight shot to put him down.

HBS/TMM the next hallway, move in and take out the tango that is patrolling up and down. Time it to where he has just turned around, open the door and move in to bust an HRT cap in his hillbilly ass. Once he is down, there is a tango in a control room to the right, and another to the left in your hallway. Take both of them out and hustle up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs leading to the roof, the door opens into a small alcove area with a medium length hallway breaking to your sharp left. There is a tango there in most cases to dispatch. Once he is down, you can move out onto the roof and use the perform action control on the power box to cut the satellite feed and complete the second objective of the mission.

Equip the HBS and monitor the TMM as you follow the route to the final primary objective of the mission, the rescue of the hostages. Stop at the first corner where you get a hit on the HBS, which should be a break left with a tango patrolling up and down the hallway, and two others both of which are in enclosed rooms.

Take the lead and drop the patrolling enemy with a three round burst. Move to the door to the right, open it and drop the sucker standing in there (it is a bit dark to see so you might want to equip the night vision goggles by pressing the V key). Once that threat is gone, follow the route to the door leading to the final objective white box on the TMM.

There will be a tango in this control room that you will have to kill once you open the door. Be careful not to rush in past the glass window to the right. This is where you will essentially use the control room as a platform to view the hostages and tangos below on the TV set. You will need to engage and eliminate the enemy from this location.

Make sure you weapons are reloaded and that your team is set to follow you and assault (use the CTRL key to bring up the Command Map to verify these settings). Once you are all set to rock and roll banjo style on these rednecks, rush to the middle of the glass window, turn to your right and aim down into the pit.

Take out any tangos near the hostages (all on their knees) by shooting anyone else that is standing. Then eliminate the guards that are behind the two TV cameras, left and right. This needs to be done in quick order, so if you are playing on hard setting with the Special Forces Objectives all selected, you cannot save the mission and retry from this point.

Make sure you are fully loaded and your team is ready to move with you. The last thing that you want to do here is to rush the window by yourself with three rounds left in your magazine.

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season: Daytona, 1st Place

2011-12-10T17:15:00.020-05:00

Daytona, Florida: On 12/6 I had started a new NASCAR Racing 2003 Season Championship using The BullRing 2011 Sprint Cup modification at 95% AI strength and Adaptive Speed Control (ASC) set. I finished second in that race having been passed by Bill Elliot in the trial oval when I thought I had the race won.

During the event I had some concerns about how ASC was working. There were some times where I would pass whole lines of cars without the draft (a bad sign at a restrictor plate track) just to be passed by them later, in what seemed as if the game was adjusting to my driving ability.

I ran the next event on the BullRing schedule, the California race in which I had the fastest time in practice and the pole position. The seesaw effect of ASC was in full bloom there, and actually worse than at Daytona. It seemed as if the cars would slow down to allow me to pass everyone for the lead after a pit stop, to just fly by me shortly thereafter as if they were on afterburners.

Having clearly seen that ASC is a training wheel device for new racers (I actually had hoped it would be more of a challenge to match the AI to me than an aid to allow me to match to the AI), I decided to scrap the whole effort and start fresh with the BullRing modification. I ran a test race at New Hampshire with the AI set at 95% with no ASC.

I finished the race in around 22nd position, and the game tagged me with a suggested AI setting of 93%. New Hampshire is no cake walk – it is a relatively flat track that requires braking and the racing line is definitely to the outside much like that at Darlington. Using these results (the 22nd place finish and the suggested 93% AI), I decided to start the new championship at 95% AI and no ASC:

Simulation mode, 15 minute practice and Happy Hour, 25% race length, 4X pit stop frequency, 42 opponents from the BullRing 2011 Daytona car set, manually set opponent strength at 95%, yellow flags, double file restarts and realistic weather.

Practice went off well with my having run 10 laps for a time of 48.900 which put me in sixth place overall. The track temperature was 57 degrees. Qualifying went great with laps of 48.771 and 48.545 which gave me the pole position by 0.805 over David Ragan. The track temperature was 44 degrees.

With 4X pit stop selected, the projected laps for the full fuel load at the start were only 10 laps. While running in the front, the vast majority behind me ducked into the pits on lap seven. I followed suit on lap eight when my crew chief warned I was running low on fuel. After a pit stop of 15.8 seconds, I would cycle around to be in 10th position by lap 10.

On lap nine, Joey Lagano jammed me up in the tri-oval and I hit the wall hard which caused damage that would have to be repaired on the next pit sequence, when I came in at lap 17 after having just taken over first place the lap before. This pit stop would take 28 seconds for repairs due to the mishap with the # 20 car. By lap 19 I would cycle around to be in 24th position.

With the other racers pitting, I moved into the lead on lap 23, only moments later to cut down on the # 83 car driven by Brian Vickers. I would spin out but recover without hitting the wall or any other vehicle, and come around to take the yellow flag in first place.

I would pit the US Army car under caution on lap 25 and have a fairly decent pit stop of 14.9 seconds. I came out of the pits in second place. The green flag waved on lap 29 and I was back into first place two laps later at the 20 to go point of the race.

The next pit sequence came on lap 34 when I rolled in with the lead and had a slightly slower stop at 16.6 seconds. I would cycle around at lap 36 to be in 11th position, and have the lead again by lap 40. The final pit stop of the day came on lap 43 when I came in first and had a stop of 15.3 seconds.

I would cycle around at lap 45 in 6th place and take the lead the next lap when the leader had to pit. The white flag came on lap 50 with my leading the field, and although I had to dodge some lapped cars, I finished race in first place for the win, an astounding 37.97 seconds ahead of # 11 Denny Hamlin, having lapped the field all the way up to 19th place.

The huge disparity in the finish – almost 38 seconds – can be fully attributed to the 4X pit stop frequency setting which resulted in the necessity for five actual pit stops among all the competitors. Although there was one caution flag to bunch everyone up, the three pit stops after the race went back green certainly broke the field apart and separated the men from the toys.

The win and the laps led gave me 185 Championship Points (screw “The Chase” crap), and put me 10 points ahead of second place Denny Hamlin.

Oh crap!

Oh crap! (X2)

Oh crap! (X3)

United States Army Aviation Museum: Fort Rucker, Alabama

2011-12-04T18:06:00.060-05:00

This weekend my wife and I took a trip to Alabama to visit the United States Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker, which boasts the largest collection of helicopters held by a museum in the world. While there were many helicopters for public view, what is notable is the number of WWI and WWII airplanes on display. While some were first-rate replicas, others were original airframes.

There are several aircraft on the exterior of the museum facility, mostly the larger aircraft that would be difficult to house indoors, such as the de Havilland Canada YAC-1 Caribou tactical transport airplane and the Sikorsky CH-54A Tarhe "Sky Crane" heavy-lift cargo helicopter. These are in various states of repair, and only the Caribou had any type of an identification marker to identify what the exhibit was.

As with any military facility, in order to drive onto the base you must present valid identification, insurance and vehicle registration. In terms of Fort Rucker, this is the largest hassle you will encounter on the base from my experience. The museum is free, the gift shop is off to side and you are not forced to enter or exit through it, it is entirely self-paced and extremely clean on the inside, and the base proper has a very cordial and civilian-friendly atmosphere about it.

Bell H-13 Sioux

This piece was part of an elaborate display that depicted an Army M.A.S.H. unit landing pad scenario where a patient was offloaded by orderlies to be taken to a Jeep while a surgeon stands next to the canopy talking to the aviator.

Hiller H-23 Raven

This airframe was located next to the Sioux Korean War exhibit described above. The Raven also served as a light observation and Medevac helicopter during the Korean War, although it was not as recognizable to the general public as the Sioux or “MASH chopper”.

Piasecki CH-21B Shawnee

The Shawnee was a tandem rotor transportation and resupply helicopter which saw extensive use by the Army during the Vietnam War.

Piasecki H-25A Army Mule

The Army Mule was a tandem overlapping rotor version of a Navy utility/rescue helicopter intended to perform a utility transport role. It proved unsuitable for front-line use and many were transferred to the Navy.

Sikorsky CH-37B Mojave

This heavy-lift helicopter sported a Jeep coming out the front opening. With the incorporation of an auto-stabilization package, it could load and unload while in a hover.

Sikorsky CH-54A Tarhe

The “Sky Crane” sits outside and compared to the other exterior pieces of the museum, it is clearly in the best shape (perhaps because it is the closest to a road and therefor the most visible outside exhibit beyond the museum grounds).

BV-347 Experimental Chinook

The other end of the spectrum, this derelict airframe is rotting out in the back field behind the museum with several other exhibits (all unmarked). Although this one does not have the windows blacked out like almost all other exterior pieces, it nonetheless has seen its better days.

We do not fault the museum itself or Fort Rucker in general for this as any military museum visitor who is fair and objective can tell you that nothing is ever 100% as it should be. Given evaporating budgets and high upkeep costs, I believe they are doing the best they can.

The impression we had was that this was a holding pen for airframes to be refurbished; however it was unrestricted access, and again no markings to indicate they were not ready for public viewing. As mentioned before, the absence of information placards left the visitor wondering what they were looking at and if they should be seeing it at all.

Nieuport 28C-1

This aircraft proved unfit for duty against German fighters during World War I and was given to American volunteers who came across the ocean to assist the French in the war effort. The Americans were so in the hand-me-down spectrum that some early patrols were even flown with only one machine gun.

Royal Aircraft Factory SE-5A

This biplane fighter of World War I vintage along with the legendary Sopwith Camel was instrumental in regaining air superiority in mid-1917. There were over five thousand of these aircraft built. They were flown by the British, Americans and the Canadians.

Fokker D.VIII

Nicknamed the “Flying Razor” by Allied pilots, this aircraft is generally credited with the last air combat kill in World War I. This monoplane experienced numerous wing failures due to suspected rushed construction schedules, and many a German pilot lost their life in the early models. There were only 381 of the D.VIII variant built.

Bell UH-1 Iroquois “Huey” Gunship Variant

This thing was almost as sexy as the German Fokker monoplane. Anyone growing up during the 1970’s knows how iconic the Iroquois helicopter is. This thing is not only a freaking legend; it is a work of art. With over 16,000 UH-1’s built, it is still in use today by many countries.

Bell AH-1Q Huey Cobra

This airframe is affixed to the exterior of the building. There is no information placard to indicate what type it is, however I believe it is the Q Huey Cobra version that would have been equipped with the M-65 TOW/Cobra missile subsystem, although all of the missile racks were empty.

Pilot Statue Exhibit

When you walk in the front doors of the facility, you are greeted by a display of pilot statues representing several eras of flight. I have seen other visitor pictures where these figures were placed in separate areas, so they are all individual pieces, although this weekend they had them grouped together in an outward facing circle. The level of detail was stunning, and the aviator highlighted above was clearly the coolest looking one there.

Sikorsky R-5D Dragonfly

This was a production rescue model that had a provision for two external stretchers. The display piece also had a winch crane assembly. There were 34 built and later re-designated as the H-5A (R stood for “Rotorcraft” and H obviously stands for Helicopter).

SWAT 4: A-Bomb Nightclub, Completed

2011-11-29T02:53:00.051-05:00

1536 Adelaide Avenue: The 4th mission in the officer career mode is a Rapid Deployment scenario at the A-Bomb Nightclub. There are two level-one entrances offered, side two at the service entrance and side one at the front entrance. The map provided is of no tactical use for the second floor of the building.

I chose the service entrance off of the side alley and as usual, equipped the team with the Pepperball gun that fires OC-Ball less-lethal munitions. The other kit components include a Taser stun gun, three flash bangs, a door wedge and an Optiwand. C2 is brought along for breaching if needed.

The map is one of the best developed for a tactical shooter, offering several opportunities for the AI enemy to flank the team if not cut off with the judicious use of the door wedge. The atmosphere is highly polished and the level designers seemed to have wrung every last drop out of the Unreal 2 Vengeance Engine. The result is a challenging map that rewards patience and bitch-slaps the unprepared.

I am going to proceed with this write-up slightly different than other SWAT 4 posts, and take a page out of my Highway to the Reich posts and make commentary under each slide presented. As each spawned level changes things up, this is in no way intended to be a step-by-step walkthrough of the level.

That said however, you should try to assault the top room first because if you lose more than one officer, you will automatically fail the mission on Elite Mode. Finishing a mission with all officers up equals 10 points, one officer down is 8 points (still passable) but two officers down is 6 points and a fail.

From the start proceed slowly towards the door as there can be a suspect on the right side just behind the band truck that is to your right. Use the Optiwand yourself and make entry to the room, be careful of the long hallway to the left and the hiding spots behind the amplifiers to the right. Once you have cleared the entrance, have the team form on you and shut the door.

Have the team place a wedge in the door across the first room while you move down the hallway to the left and place a wedge in the door right at the end past the wall bar without stepping into the landing of the stairwell. If there are any tangos there, you do not want them to see you and yell which could alert any suspects in the room you are trying to wedge the door to. After the wedge is set, use the Optiwand to examine the corner in front of you.

The next sequence is perhaps the most crucial of the entire mission as it is the toughest room to clear in the base SWAT 4 game so far. With the element behind you, move up the stairs towards the door. If it is open and there is a suspect, start firing away with OC. If it is open and no suspect, start shouting or toss a flash bang. If it is closed, wand it and if clear, open it and cause a ruckus. You want to draw their attention to the door, where you will spray everyone you see left-center-right with the less-lethal ammo.

Order your team to fall in behind you as you pie-cut your way into the room sweeping back -and-forth to make sure you are not about to be drilled by some Occupy Wall Street hippie with an UZI. Keep the stream of OC up to not give anyone a chance to recover and bust a cap in your ass.

After your team members supply an ample amount of zip cuffs to secure the suspects, move to the back corner carefully. There is usually a tango there facing the room, so it is best to not peak or wand the corner, but just toss a party favor their way and move in for the arrest, if there is any to be had.

Carefully clear the stairwell, secure any hostage and order your Red or Blue Team down the stairs to wedge the door while you provide over watch and the other team maintains perimeter security in the room above. This technically should not be an issue unless you failed to wedge the two doors on the ground floor entrance. Have your full team fall in and then move them back downstairs the way you all came in.

Have your teams wand both the doors on the bottom floor to determine where the least threat is. You don't want to enter one room and have suspects from the other room flood in to investigate. The lower tango count will cause the least amount of noise. In that respect, it is probably best to enter the room that you would have wedged at the corner as there probably should be no more than one or two threats in there with or without a hostage, whereas the stage area is going to be packed.

Have your team fall in; remove the wedge and then re-wand the room just to make sure. Once that is done, bang and clear the room. If the door to the stage area is open, your team will move towards it automatically to engage armed suspects. It is best at that point to take care of the threats in the room you just entered with the team by yourself so as not to be shot in the back. Toss a flash into the stage area if none of your team have entered yet, then move in with them and spray-and-pray OC.

Once the stage area is clear, stack the element up as separate Red and Blue teams on the double doors across from the stage and use the Optiwand to get a picture from two different angles, and even check both doors yourself just to be sure. Common areas of danger are the area just behind the bar to the left by two sets of doors, and a very long hallway running down and to the right. If no immediate threats are seen, order an open and clear, otherwise, bang and clear.

Proceed to the down the hallway and make an immediate right to clear the bathrooms and the coat room, which has a divider in it that can hide a tango from view to those in the hallway, which is what happened in my game. Have your teams cover the bar and the hallway separately while you do some mop up work here.

This is where I lost a perfect score. I had Blue Team fall in while Red Team was providing security up at the bar. We entered the room to the left of the hallway, and as soon as we were in I turned my head to the right just at the moment a tango came out of the far door on the opposite side of the room and whacked one of my officers before he could even get off a shot of OC.

After the last suspect is secured, make sure you have all evidence secured and status reports to TOC completed. Also, if you have not received the mission complete message yet, there are two offices on the opposite side of each other at the end of the long hallway, plus another room that leads to two elevators, all of which can have suspects. The offices are particularly tricky to clear, so open the door from the side, bang the room and wait for a suspect to come to you if possible.

Race 07: Norisring Racing Series, Event Eight

2011-11-19T21:46:00.013-05:00

Nuremberg, Germany: Having wrapped up the Championship mathematically in the previous event, I had nothing on the line going into the final races of the series. Although I had 44lbs more penalty ballast than any other racer, I had an insurmountable lead of 30 points.

For the first time in this eight event series consisting of a total of sixteen races, there was wet weather to be had which had a discernible effect on the handling of the vehicles. My qualifying time (always dead last) would suffer as a result, posting a time of 0:49.512, 00:02.036 off of the pole sitter.

Charging the racing line at the Grundig Kehre (turn two) on the opening lap of both races did advance my position somewhat, but ultimately the weather and my indifferent approach to the final event resulted in poor non-points finishes of 12th and 13th place. In the second event I had my first real damage of the series but stayed on the track until lap ten before pitting for tires and repairs.

In race one, I would finish 0:26.289 back from race winner Luca Persiani, and in race two I would finish 0:49.664 back from race winner Michele Merendino. The first race would end with two DNF's where the second race would end with three. The series ended with my having 80 Championship Points to runner-up Luca Persiani, 23 points behind.

These eight week racing series at a single track have been fun in both the Radical SR3 205BHP and the Lola BT2/50. However I am not sure where I want to go from here. There are a couple of expansion packs out there I am interested in, namely STCC The Game 2 which features among other vehicles the Chevrolet Camaro, however this is also featured in a new release called RACE: Injection, which seems to be a compilation of all of the available expansion packs and the core game for $29.99.

Other thoughts: After pitting for tires and repairs in race two, I was lapped by the leader and when exiting the pits I was blasted with multiple Blue Flag warnings to move over. They only abated once I literally moved off of the track and let everyone pass me before getting back on and finishing the dismal affair as it were.

American Civil War Gettysburg: Little Round Top

2011-11-17T12:13:00.009-05:00

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: This campaign mission has the player in the role of the Northern Commander facing a fairly equal Southern force in a race to see who can secure the orange hex area designating the objective. There is no indication in the briefing or anywhere else of how many turns are available, and there is no counter present.

In fact, the briefing itself makes the mission sound somewhat complicated, which could not be further from the truth. This mission takes the term "cake walk" to a new level entirely. I have not played this game for almost three months, and in the first attempt back I won the scenario in nine turns.

The starting position is several hexes southwest of the orange hex area and the force is comprised of the General unit and 4X400 Soldier units. The briefing indicates that you need to move the General to the highlighted zone to "summon" reinforcements and then bring them back "quickly" to defend the hill. There is no indication as to how this "summoning" is to occur once you get in position.

It turns out this happens automatically as when the General unit arrives in the orange hex area designating the objective, the reinforcements magically appear just to the north. My plan was depressingly simple - I brought all units in and around Little Round Top, fortified them and slaughtered the obliging Southern Commander who had all of the cunning and wit of a wet tennis ball.

The Leader Ability of the General was essentially useless or so it seemed as I could not detect any discernible advantage to the selections made (Damage Up and Fortify). This could have been masked by a superior tactical position with an entrenched force firing down against a moving force in open terrain. At any rate, the capability introduced in the game should have a more profound effect to at least be noticed.

Other thoughts: As expressed in my last write up concerning the Devil's Den, tactically there is no challenge to be had here. The mission designer should have employed some Cavalry or Artillery units for either side to spice it up a bit. Again, not having played the game in almost three months and then slaughtering the enemy in less than ten turns is not something I would have believed at the outset of the campaign.

Race 07: Norisring Racing Series, Event Seven

2011-11-12T21:33:00.012-05:00

Nuremberg, Germany: This event started with my having a 176lb weight penalty and a 21 point lead in the Championship. With an unlikely win in the first race after starting last and a podium finish of third place in the second, I secured the Championship with an insurmountable lead of 30 points with only one event remaining.

Qualifying was another abysmal failure with a time of 0:49.103, 00:01.689 off of the pole sitter Tor Graves (and one of my worst qualifying attempts of the series). Yet again the qualifying session turned out to be nothing more than a brisk warm up for the first race of the event.

Albeit I started race one in last place, I charged the racing line at the Grundig Kehre (turn two) and managed to slip into 6th place by lap two. By the fifth lap I was in true racing form taking over fifth place and then moving into the top spot on lap eight. I would hold the lead for two more laps then pit on lap ten, falling back to eighth place. After the pit cycle was complete I again was in first place by lap fifteen.

Race two started with my sitting in eighth place on the grid of sixteen vehicles. Although I would never get close enough to challenge for the lead, I did finish the race in third place with a time of 00:15:07.297, 0:00.456 off race winner Gianni Giudici. The podium finish in the second race and the win in the first provided me with 16 Championship Points.

Other thoughts: With a 30 point lead in the series with one event to go of two races that could provide only a maximum of 20 points, I have effectively won the Championship as I could technically not even race in the final event and still win it all even if the driver in second place won both races.

Race 07: Norisring Racing Series, Event Six

2011-11-05T04:03:00.012-04:00

Nuremberg, Germany: This event started with my having a 176lb weight penalty to contend with and a 17 point lead in the Championship. With a strong finish in the first race and surprising win in the second, I would extend my lead over second place by 21 points.

Qualifying was another washout with a time of 0:48.579, 00:01.139 off of the pole sitter Jean De Pourtales. Although these times were an improvement of some half second or more over the previous week albeit I was carrying 35lbs more penalty ballast, it was still disappointing.

Race one finished with my coming in at fifth place with 4 Championship Points, 0:09.693 off the race winner Jean De Pourtales who posted a race time of 0:15.06.111. I pitted early on lap nine as I had a couple of poor corners on that lap and had been falling back towards the car immediately behind me. Instead of losing another position on the track racing, I entered the pits one lap early for fresh slicks.

Race two finished with my taking the checkered flag for the win. I started in third position and immediately fell back to fifth on the start, but managed to snag second place in the Grundig Kehre (turn two). Although I could not press the leader, I patiently made laps until I pitted on lap ten. With four laps to go, the top three led by Jean De Pourtales pitted, which handed the lead to me.

I posted a race time of 0:15:09.348 for 10 Championship Points, 0:00.529 ahead of Massimo Torre who was gaining in the final four laps and probably could have taken the lead had there been one or two laps additional to run. The win in the second race gave me my first ever second place finish in an event, and furthered my points lead in the Championship.

Other thoughts: My weight penalty for the next event remains at 176lbs. There were two DNF's in the first race and three in the second race, along with one vehicle not finishing due to fuel. There were no Blue Flag warnings and the weather was once again picture perfect.

Conquest of the Aegean: Elasson Rearguard, Decisive Victory

2011-10-30T11:49:00.006-04:00

Tsaritsani, Greece: This scenario pits the Axis XXXX Armee Korps against the Allies 6th NZ Infantry Brigade. The Allies objective is to essentially delay the German advance in the sector to prevent a clean breakthrough while using delaying tactics and bridge demolition in their withdrawal to Larissa.

The Allies have 4,532 personnel, 75 armored fighting vehicles, 502 non-armored fighting vehicles and 75 guns units at their disposal for a combined Anti-Personnel rating of 1,114, Anti-Armor of 1,012, Bombardment of 370 and Armor of 151. There are no scheduled reinforcements.

My first order of business was to give orders to all of the various units arranged on the map. While they are somewhat nicely laid out in advance by the mission designer with several primed bridges to be destroyed, I found it useful to approach the mission using a mix of battalion and individual unit orders in an attempt to spread the forces out to maximize the Victory Points that could be accumulated.

I ordered the 2nd NZ Division Cavalry Regiment to delay all the way back to the exit below Tirnavos. The anchor point is the first bridge at Kallithea with the second waypoint at the Elevtherokhorion objective, and then additional fall back waypoints at all of the objectives running to the south (the Elasson bridges, the Meneskos Pass, etc.).

The 24th (Auckland) NZ Infantry Battalion was ordered to defend directly above the exit south of Tirnavos. The 25th (Wellington) NZ Infantry Battalion was ordered to delay starting at Stefanovounon with the first fall back point at the Dhomenkian Bridge, and the 26th (South Island) NZ Infantry Battalion was ordered to delay starting at the Dhomenkian Bridge with the first fall back point at Mologousta.

Artillery units were brought under my direct control and were used to secure several objectives along with the MG Coy and an AT Battery. I also dispatched several companies of the 25th (Wellington) Battalion to defend at what I thought would be key points on the map where the enemy could exploit holes in my plan.

While blowing bridges did delay the German advance and cause them to reroute their forces, in some circumstances the delay benefit was minimal such as in the bridge at Kallithea, while in others it was much more profound - such as blowing the Elasson bridge which would normally cause the Axis to adjust their plan of attack to utilize the Magoula bridge crossing which is what happened in my play through here.

The key to winning this mission is to know when to abandon the delaying actions and issue basic move orders to the various forces to drop them back to the exit objective. In this scenario, I chose to drop the bulk of my forces back using the move order D3 06:00 while leaving several individual units in place to cause delay to the Axis thrust.

The second key is to keep as many forces on the map for as long as possible to prevent the Germans from exiting the map as well, which is their prime objective. I kept the 24th, 25th and 26th Battalions on the map just above the exit in a defensive posture as I exited the artillery units, the 2nd NZ Division Cavalry Regiment and several individual units.

This was enough for me to achieve a sizeable chunk of the exit objective. Right at the very end at D4 18:00, I issued exit orders for the Battalions but there really was not enough time for them to process the orders and move out before the scenario ended and I picked up the Decisive Victory.

Other thoughts: This mission froze several times while using the Run Until option. Although I was saving the game in six hour increments, it was still very frustrating to have to kill the game and start over.

Towards the end it got really bad when trying to exit the Brigade HQ unit and supply base. I have no idea if this is a technical issue with the exit objective or not, but it was definitely a drag on the enjoyment of the game.

After-action report

Review final situation screen

Matrix Forum Post

Race 07: Norisring Racing Series, Event Five

2011-10-29T04:31:00.009-04:00

Nuremberg, Germany: I entered event five of the series with a 141lb weight penalty and first place in the Championship. I would leave the track having expanded my lead in the series with solid performances in both races, bringing home the event win with a second place finish in race two.

My qualifying time was dead last again at 0:48.918, 00:01.768 off the pole sitter Timo Lienemann. This result was in line with all other qualifying sessions of this series given the Logitech dual-action gamepad and driving aids used to compensate for my racing wheel not working with this game.

Although I started in sixteenth place, I charged the racing line going into the Grundig Kehre (turn two) to slice inside and take over fifth place. This is a valid first-turn racing tactic that paid off as I did not hit anyone and the game did not flag me with any violations. From that point forward I largely maintained that position.

Race one finished with my coming in at sixth place with 3 Championship Points, 0:13.989 off the race winner Michele Merendino who posted a race time of 0:15:46.755. I had pitted on lap ten as I prefer to do and had to wait for the others to cycle their pit stops before making it back into the top ten.

Race two started with me in the third position which I transferred into leading the race for several laps until I pitted at lap ten. While the others were making their mandatory pit stops, I was able to move back into the top three. However I was pushing way too hard at this point and finished in second place not having challenged for the lead again.

This finish yielded 8 Championship Points, 0:04.780 off the race winner Timo Lienemann who posted a race time of 0:15:06.349. The 11 Championship Points that I accumulated with the sixth and second place finishes provided me with the event win and increased my lead in the Championship to seventeen points over second place Jan Charouz and Gianni Giudici.

Other thoughts: I have been assigned a weight penalty of 176lbs for the next event in the series. There were no Blue Flag warnings in either race. Race one had one DNF and one gearbox failure while race two had the same casualties.

War Over Vietnam: Thanh Hoa Bridge, American Major Victory

2011-10-27T11:52:00.005-04:00

Thanh Hoa, Vietnam: While this tutorial mission featured the infamous "Dragon's Jaw" bridge that chewed up and spit out so many American pilots and aircraft during the course of the war, the Thanh Hoa Bridge scenario is the first instance of the famous target in the regular game.

Your flight starts (as in apparently most if not all of these scenarios) near the objective already in an attack profile with several waypoints already plotted out for you. Also as with any mission, you are free to override any of these suggestions and plot your own attack.

The game presents you with the following strike package: 2 RF-101C Reconnaissance planes in 2 separate flights, 21 F-100D "Super Sabres" in 6 separate flights serving in either a fighter role (AIM-9B's) or a bomber role (LAU-3 FFAR V's), and 50 F-105D "Thunderchiefs" in 13 separate flights serving either in a fighter role (AIM-9B's), or a bomber role (AGM-12 A's or MK-117's).

The AIM-9B's are obviously air-to-air weapons (and their inherent weakness is shown as you almost always lose at least one escort flight) while the other weapons are air-to-ground of varying quality. The AGM-12A "Bullpup's" are a freaking joke and barely ding the bridge. The LAU-3 FFAR V's are marginally better and can cause some damage to the heavy AAA sites, while the mainstay, the MK-117 General Purpose Bomb is what wields devastation.

While this is a very formidable force that can take down the bridge with one or two passes before having to RTB to refuel and rearm, the game will not give you anything more than an American Major Defeat unless you also pound the dink out of the two heavy AAA batteries that are positioned on either side of the primary objective (which usually takes another pass as the AGM's and LAU's are marginally effective at the task with only one sortie).

This happens primarily due to the fact that on the first pass over the target, you are bound to lose several aircraft. The first couple tries of this mission I would lose 12 to 16 aircraft and suffer a Major Defeat even though the bridge was reduced to 0%. Only when I increased the altitude of each aircraft in the strike package did my losses drop significantly, however neutralizing the heavy AAA sites was still needed to seal the deal.

The first pass of the strike package took the bridge down to 8%; however it was still a win for the enemy. While the planes were RTB, the F-100D's that I had loitering over the area began to take shots on the heavy AAA sites to turn the tide, so before even the first ten minutes of the two hour mission were over I had at least a Draw building into a Minor Victory.

With approximately an hour left, I launched everything I had from Udorn and Nakhon Phanom regardless of their weapon load out and brought them out to the border of Laos. Once the majority formed there, I gave a second waypoint southeast of the bridge to stage the forces for a final strike.

The final pass occurred in a two prong fashion with four flights of F-105D's coming west to east to target one of the heavy AAA sites, and a massive group of F-100D's and F-105D's coming from the southeast to attack both the bridge and that same AAA platform. I did lose one aircraft in this sortie, but it put me over the top for the Major Victory outcome.

Other thoughts: The 3 KC-135 20,000 gallon tankers were eye candy for the mission and not needed at all. You can land the strike package at Udorn and Nakhon Phanom, get a partial load of weapons and set back out for the target to make a final pass before the mission ends.

Yet again the scenario starts you out on target with little or no planning required on your part. I am not sure if all of the remaining missions are like this, but that is kind of a letdown. It would be nice to have one stock mission where you actually have to launch the strike package from the friendly airbases, plot the route in and out and essentially manage all the tasks that a mission coordinator would be required to account for within the limits of the game engine itself.