Resistance Collapses - Sarata is Liberated!

Post by **IV/JG7_4Shades** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 10:15 am

After the most intense house-to-house fighting ever seen in SEOW, the beleaguered 9th Division has collapsed and has conceded victory to the encircling Soviet forces. Very few survivors were found.

The defenders fought to the last, with bore-sighted howitzers causing heavy losses as the Soviet infantry came down towards the river. However the arrival of T-34 platoons in strength overwhelmed the defenders and resistance was annihilated. Confusion in the streets caused friendly fire losses.

Now to wrap this campaign up, let me make a few observations.

1. This campaign was primarily designed to test and debug the new indirect fire/barrage feature of HSFX6. It worked brilliantly.
2. The main effect of barraging is to decrease morale, and the feeling was that while this worked, the effect was a little exaggerated. This can be modified by increasing the Rocket_Parameters table Hits_Morale_Effect parameter for barraging weapons, thereby reducing the net morale reduction per barrage.
3. We switched to HSFX6 (release) in the last few missions. There were still too many friendly fire kills for my liking.
4. I'd like to thank all commanders who took part. Having everyone contributing ideas and plans makes for a great experience! Hawk_5 deserves special mention as 9th Division commander for bravely battling overwhelming odds to the inevitably grim conclusion.
5. Finally, this campaign has proved to me that HSFX6 and SEOW can provide spectacular and convincing ground action quite separately from air or sea operations. After all these years, I think we are in very good shape for serious campaigning.

I will make the mission files available for download for offline play.

Cheers,
4Shades

Tanker · Post by **Tanker** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 11:49 am

Cheers Hawk5, good job.

Zoi · Post by **Zoi** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:13 pm

Was an interesting experience, it is my opinion that this campaign represents the best compromise in scale between tactical and strategic engagements in SEOW taking into acount the tactical nature of the interaction between units and the time factor. That said the issue of how to provide an interesting environment for participants still nags at me. If a similar campaign was held with the normal number of pilots then it would certainly have turned into a furball over Sarata and would not have been nearly as much fun. While I didn't drive a Jeep 4Shades says it was a magical experience to see the battle unfold in first person. I really think that seeing the ground action is key to making campaigns more immersive. My question is what have we learned here that will help us reach that "fun" objective.

Zoi · Post by **Zoi** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:58 pm

I forgot to say a great big thanks for letting me participate

II/JG77Hawk_5 · Post by **II/JG77Hawk_5** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 9:59 pm

Thanks to all commanders!
I hope I made the campaign as realistic as possible in that I put up a good defence that made you think twice before storming in.
I had a great time watching the shells fly overhead and explosons landing so close my Kubelwagon was regularly shaken and taking damage.

I did a lot of dying hitting invisible trees and even one of my own bunkers at one stage. Must watch where your driving eh?

It was reasonably quiet early on but the battles late in the campaign were quite intense with some close quarters combat on the crest in town being really fun to watch from a 100mtrs away or so.

Cheers,
Hawk5

WTE_Ikey · Post by **WTE_Ikey** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 6:17 am

Most enjoyable mini campaign, its was a good intro for me to micro managing units at ground level & proved to me that doing your home work & pre battle preparation certainly helps.