Lee Brimmicombe-Wood - Dec 14, 2008 8:27 pm (#25716 Total: 25837) Chief Game Designer, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Codemasters Fields of Fire (Solitaire) I'm only halfway through the first WW2 Normandy mission of Fields of Fire. Turns are taking me about 30 minutes each. Now, bear in mind that I am both a newbie to the game and Captain Slow when it comes to thinking out tactical problems, so this would probably be a five hour session max, and somewhat shorter with experience. My objective was to break through the enemy Main Line of Resistance at the first phase line, securing a village on the left of the company position and then the woods beyond up to the Limit of Advance. I set 1st Platoon on the left to infiltrate through the woods to establish a base of fire in front of the village. 2nd Platoon was on the right, filtering through the orchards, aiming to reach an attack position flanking the village. Weapons teams were spread between first and second platoons. I had two mortars to the right with the Company sergeant. The company .50 cal and remaining mortar were with the company HQ and I kept 3rd Platoon in reserve. Almost immediately after crossing the Line of Departure I ran into problems. On the left I thought I'd secured the wooded approach to the village, but the Germans had detected my advance and counterattacked. An LMG nest opened up, raking the point squad of 1st Platoon. Worse still, it was cleverly positioned so that none of the survivors were quite sure where the fire was coming from. To the right 2nd Platoon's point squad immediately came under fire from a sniper. The first platoon Lieutenant lead a squad into the orchard to try and flush out the sniper when disaster struck. A previously unseen spotter began bringing down 81mm mortar fire. As shells burst all around the Lieutenant was down and increasingly the whole advance was coming apart. At this point the Battalion XO, visiting the Company HQ, took charge. He ordered the Company 1st Sergeant on the right to take charge of 2nd platoon, and bring up 3rd squad and a bazooka team. Meanwhile one of the remaining fireteams spotted the sniper, who high-tailed it out of his hide. This left the mortar spotter to deal with. The 1st Sergeant arrived in time to exhort the remainder of the platoon to hunt the spotter's location. The weapons team caught a glimpse of the spotter over in the next orchard and the chase was on. The sergeant ordered a ceasefire then sent a fireteam to directly charge the orchard and engage the spotter at close quarters. Back on the left the commander of 1st Platoon led a squad and machinegun team into the woods to try and flush out the LMG. He failed to infiltrate and was exposed to fire from the machinegun nest. However, the MG was swiftly spotted and a fireteam dispatched to lob grenades on it. There was a flurry of fire and a few explosions then the machinegunners came out of their foxholes with their hands up. The platoon Lieutenant, who was fortunate to survive the MG burst, began to reconstitute the platoon's survivors. This was the moment the Germans were launched a counterattack. An HMG across the fields opened up from behind a bocage hedge to the left, and a squad in the village began firing from the front, drawing 1st Platoon's attention away from the more distant machinegun. Another LMG nest in the bocage to the front of 2nd Platoon also opened up, while a new machinegun positioned on the hill just beyond the LOA began to pelt the orchard where the close quarters melee with the remnants of the spotter team was taking place. Things were going badly wrong on the left. The Lieutenant in charge of 1st Platoon was badly wounded while much of the rest of the platoon in the woods was pinned. The .50 Cal team, which had been ordered up to form a base of fire, was shot to pieces before it could set up. In the orchard, a melee resulted in casualties on both sides. Back on the right most of 2nd Platoon was pinned down, though some disciplined shooting saw them take out the LMG nest in the bocage. At this point I had to break for the evening. The village was held firmly by a squad, while an HMG protected its flank. 1st platoon was falling to pieces. 2nd Platoon would need to reconstitute itself and time was beginning to run out... Initial impressions: Very positive. Although I only played a handful of turns, it seemed to slip past fairly quickly. Once you climb the learning curve you have a game that does not seem overly weighed down by process. The chassis is fairly straightforward. It encourages you to make sensible decisions that appear to map to the real world. There are a lot of options but not all of them get used. I am starting to see a lot of different ways to crack this nut. Both combat and the enemy AI resolved themselves surprisingly swiftly and the activity level mechanism is balanced to prevent the player having to deal with too many bad guys at once. There may be ways to manipulate the enemy generation system, but it's too early for me to have figured them out yet and they may involve unwanted sacrifices. Things I have learned so far: # Always, always reconnoitre with a point squad. One squad up and two back seems to be the rule. # Aim to establish a base of fire, then advance on the enemy once fire dominance has been achieved. # Combat does not necessarily generate a lot of casualties as such, but is highly disruptive. Squads that come under fire fall apart fairly fast. # Movement exposes you to fire so avoid walking into fire unless there is plenty of cover and concealment to help mitigate it. # Try not to pack too many men into an area: enemy fire is indiscriminate and there's no sense creating a target rich environment. # Troop quality has a significant effect on play. Particularly on leadership. # Leaders are vulnerable (at least, mine seemed to get shot a lot). There may be a temptation to send them forward to get things moving in person, but this is risky. They may be better off being kept back, directing the efforts of the base of fire. # Never forget to pre-position the Company Sergeant and XO as backups in case the Platoon Leaders fall. # Hidden units are feckers to flush out. Particularly snipers. This will certainly get some more playings. I have yet to crack the tactical puzzle and want to see how much depth there is truly in it. Lee Brimmicombe-Wood - Dec 17, 2008 7:28 pm (#25808 Total: 25837) BookmarkEmail to Friend Chief Game Designer, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Codemasters Fields of Fire (Solitaire) Another run through Fields of Fire this evening. I only had two and a half hours, but managed to knock out six turns. For this first scenario, 4 hours appears to be an achievable time. Larger scenarios look closer to 5 hours. I was still in Normandy, trying to pick my way through the bocage. This time a line of nearby farmhouses in front of the village screened me as I crossed the Line of Departure, aiming for my primary objective atop a very tall hill. 1st Platoon went in on the left and I shook out a sweep line to make best use of the abundant cover on the lines of approach. I had planned for 2nd Platoon on the right to perform a similar sweep, but the rookie LT made a hash of getting the platoon going. Eventually the squad on point reached the farmhouse when suddenly they were hammered by a barrage of 105mm artillery fire. I suspected a spotter on the objective hill but none of my men could see him. Meanwhile, I moved up my weapons teams and artillery spotter on the left, laying telephone cable into the farmhouse and setting up the .50 calibre in the yard. It seems the enemy spotted this movement because they shifted the 105 fire, hitting all around the farm with harassing fire. In the barrage the 1st platoon LT lost control of his unit. One squad was hit hard and small clumps of men began to straggle back. To stem the tide the Company XO was ordered in to chew out the shaken LT and get the rest of the platoon back moving. It was at this moment that the 2nd Platoon sweep line tried to link up the gap between the platoons. 3rd squad advanced into the orchard athwart the farmhouses only to find themselves in a minefield and directly under the guns of an HMG outpost. They were fortunate enough not to trip any mines but the HMG tore into the squad and more stragglers began to trickle back. The squad sergeant held things together and the remaining cadre charged the MG nest to try and winkle out the Germans with grenades. However, the machinegunners managed to fend off the attackers, who were soon streaming back to the staging area. The German machinegunners now swung their weapon to fire into the farmyard. But they were surrounded. A 2nd platoon team had snuck around to the rear of the orchard and the HMG nest was caught in a crossfire from three sides. It was the .50 cals that finished the fight, wounding all the Germans in the foxholes, in spite of becoming pinned down. Despite this, there was another casualty. The Company XO, trying to make it to cover in the farmhouse, was cut down crossing the yard. I had to reconstitute. I sent the remnants of 1st Platoon--two squads--left to establish a base of fire and then advance on the village. The 1st Sergeant went into the farmhouse to try and salvage what was there. meanwhile 2nd Platoon was advancing on the Attack Position to the right of the village, from where an assault on the hill would take place. Fearing they might encounter heavy fire, they made smoke to cover their advance into the orchard and sent the point team onto the attack position. Suddenly we ran into more resistance. There was squad dug in just behind the village and another HMG nest opened fire from a distant hill. The 2nd Platoon point men fell in a deadly crossfire. However, the enemy squad hadn't expected fire to come from the village and soon there was only a cadre left fighting. It was about this time I had to pack up. I'd taken about a squad's worth of casualties but was still on track to complete the mission. 3rd Platoon remained in reserve, ready to advance and leapfrog 1st and 2nd Platoon to take the primary objective. But first I had to suppress that damn MG nest...