This campaign has a lot of what I'd call Paper Tiger problems; very tough scoring, occasionally profound frustration, contrasted with sublime brilliance. It's fantastic, but I also hated it.
@@keagan87 This campaign, on balance, is good. It has those frustrating moments, the biggest of which is the very tight time limits PT favours. Overall though where it is good it is very good. A good comparison that left me with a similar vibe is the 'Courage and Fortitude' campaign in CMBN, with its infamous setups and brutal dynamic. It's a challenge, it's memorable, but you probably won't love it.
@@keagan87 Exactly. This is why I play the CM games far less than I used to these days, to the point of almost stopping completely. They are great games, albeit the graphics are somewhat dated now, but I grew tired of the lack of official content. The games come with scenarios and campaigns but once you've done those, other content is thin on the ground and getting less and less. There used to be far more regular content with the first engine, likely because it was more popular back then and because the engine itself made it easier to make scenarios, but now it's hard work and BF leave it entirely to the community. While I'm grateful to all the work the few remaining producers put in I've no interest in playing campaigns which are designed for you to lose. Sure there were battles in WW2 where the defenders were set up perfectly and the attackers suffered really heavy losses but for sure not all battles were like that AND, more importantly, they aren't that much fun to game. Sadly though, some designers set their campaigns up to be just that, tough and frustrating, yes, fun and enjoyable, no and Paper Tiger is one of those.
Some absolutely brutal fighting happened in the area around Caen. The 12 SS was reportedly one of the few formations that actually followed 'Fighting to the last man'. Rarely seen outside the Japanese military, The Canadians found this out first hand.
One of my favourite campaigns in history, looking forward to you using British infantry sections. I feel they are one of the, if not the, most unusual formations in Combat Mission to use.
Yep. I actually don't know a lot about Epsom, so I'm looking up the history as I go along. And the British 'hang in the fight' sections are certainly completely different from the Americans in Road to Montebourg or the (other) Corridor's Panzergrenadiers.
This took me a few attempts. PT is unapologetic about his time limits, and they make it very hard. The village was the hardest, but I got a single Churchill into the orchard (the other got stuck...) and was able to make progress. Having just played this after Courage and Fortitude, I really missed the flexibility and firepower of the US squads. I remember the long field leading up to Neeps You can get across it okay with a decent base of fire (I actually discovered quite by accident the treeline at the bottom gives tanks surprising LOS all the way up to the crossroads) but transitioning to the urban fight is always hard in CM2, and this campaign is no exception. BTW I don't know if it still exists, but the Bren carrier had a weird exploit. Because it was small-arms proof, units would not shoot at it, unless It was extremely close, say, grenade range. This meant you could use it as a mobile base of fire, confident it would not be lost.
Got real excited about reinstalling and playing CMBN. Then I tried to find the correct installer on Battlefront’s website. Who has time to navigate that madness?
@@usuallyhapless9481 I've been desperate for one of the WWII titles to come to steam. Contenting myself with slugging through Shock Force 2's Canadian campaign and learning how to play Combat Mission in general.
@@arjunarabindranath I have a video playthrough that begs to differ :-p (although assuming it's Fair and Square you're referring to it was an absolutely brutal mission that I thought I was going to lose).
Very happy to see you playing this one!! This one and "The Charge Of The Stryker Brigade" are the toughest ones I have played with an honorable mention to the airborne campaign for Market Garden.....cant think of the name of it
Always happy to see more content from you. Was just watching DoubleVision's series on this campaign, and it looks brutal; lots of enemy firepower and never enough friendly supporting assets.
@@usuallyhapless9481 I'm interested to see how the lack of infantry firepower leads to less direct solutions. Also looking forward to see if the Bren Carriers are any use, they often make appearances but I rarely see them actually play a role.
This campaign is a real ball-ache. The SS soldiers you fight are fanatics who are as difficult as anything to supress, especially with the outdated equipment the British use. You get two tanks per mission to last you and they get stuck in mud more often than not.
So 'neeps' are turnips, which go with 'tatties' (potatoes), both of which are mashed and served with haggis? One has to wonder if the officers were getting hungry when they outlined the briefing for this mission!
Getting a bizarre feeling of Deja-Vu from this one, I could have sworn you've made a video on this mission before, or at least on the same map in CMBN... perhaps I'm thinking of another CM channel... either way great video as always, and looking forward to the rest of the campaign!
Get the feeling you're about to put my play through to shame :-p (although happy to report it was an overall success). Looking forward to seeing how your tactical decisions differ.
I'm glad to see you're continuing to do campaign videos. I've watched your Montebourg series multiple times (Grandpa was in the 8th Inf. Rgt.) and I am glad to see you taking on some of the other campaigns for CMBN. Good luck, and I look forward to future videos!
Love to watch campaigns, as it really forces you to be conservative with your troops. When you have finished that one, can you take a dig at the monte cassino campaign in fortress Italy? Another good CM RUclipsr tried it and failed, and I would like to see if u can do it ;)
Exciting to use you playing this campaign Hapless. Your Road to Montebourg videos are what got me into Combat Mission in the first place. Looking forward to the rest of the campaign
Love to see you covering the WW2 campaigns! The question now is, do you think you can tackle the beast of the Market Garden campaign or Pipers campaign? I’ve never been able to beat the market garden one
I hated this mission. So many retries and I gave up finishing it. Still haven't done the german king tiger campaign either, should have another crack I suppose.
Somewhat. I do a turn-by-turn unscripted series ever year like this: ruclips.net/p/PLYvL90uFbwhMZ9hRUCbgbr6ngND-6XQmA It is cut though... because it's about 8 hours long.
How do I keep my tanks from getting bogged down in this mission ? You seem to be able to use them somehow. For me the very moment they drive off road they get stuck
There's a lot of randomness involved- sometimes you can get away with going off-road in the mud, sometimes you can't. I got pretty lucky in this one and even then the Churchill 95 bogged a few times.
Thanks, love your videos! About artillery: one guy named Free Whisky made video about subject recently. Something special about this is fact that Whiskey had served in military as artillery observer. Even if you would`t know anything new, he looks (actually, hears) like nice person.
Good to see you tackling this campaign. As you said the low firepower of the british sections really make this one a challenge. It will be curious to see how you get along!
Oh wow. You lost less than expected. I was thinking of trying out this campaign but I'm no where as good as this gentleman here. Do the subsequent missions in this campaign give an allowance for heavy casualties?
No idea yet. IIRC Paper Tiger usually doesn't work %age casualty objectives in as critical victory conditions, they're more there to provide bonus points.
Bit late to the party! Amazing vid as always, and a new CMBN campaign has me ecstatic! As for this battle, I think your thoughts on the artillery being better used supporting the main push makes a lot of sense, and the idea of calling them in during the battle also crossed my mind, but it should be noted how awful the spotting of falling shells is in CMBN. All the bocage and tall crop fields makes it borderline impossible without a good elevated vantage point, so I think it's a good call to avoid it all together in a situation like this. Can't wait for the next episode, it's so great watching you play the ww2 titles, your videos covering them are always incredibly educational!
Excellent video as always UH. I have always found the Churchill to be one of the most interesting tanks of WW2. It would be an interesting to see a video comparing the Mark VII Churchill with the jumbo Sherman. It should be an interesting campaign!
Hahahaha, loved the sprinkling of Scottish related food puns at the beginning of the vid Hapless! Awesome job on this battle, looking forward to the rest
you have too bad influence at me, i ahve bought black sea two days ago and cant turn it off, now i wonder if i should try normandy or eastern front next since it would be nice to escape you see-it dies meta have you tried the new red thunder?
I played the first mission a couple of weeks ago. what im struggling with (not only in this campaign) are the bunkers. i might be very unlucky but my men dont perform very well against them, even if i have superior firepower by far. i just cant hit the guys inside. Not with small arms, not with PIATs, only tanks work, but i dont always have tanks and mine got stuck in the mud and in this mission and even worse, got immobilzed. my men score a lot of penetrations on the bunkers with small arms beacause, well, theyre wooden, but i never hit someone inside. also, i cant supress them. i dont know if that is intentional, but the AI Soldiers completely ignore supression effects when stationed in bunkers. i usually try to flank them, but even that doesnt work well because of the wonky Close Quarter Combat in CM. my men start throwing grenades at the bunkers but that usually has very little effect. I knocked the one on the right flank out in the end but it took a dozen grenades. tl;dr i really hate bunkers. but im glad you didnt seem to encounter any problems i had with them
Yeah, they can be tricky to deal with. For this campaign I think it's going to be close range PIAT or tanks... but of course, plenty to go wrong there!
@@usuallyhapless9481 Sorry, I was referring to your AAR comments about next time not forgetting your organic mortars and their smoke (to screen you from the oblique MG fire).
Steady progress forward, and some application of blunt force via 95mm howitzer carried the day! Despite the struggles of firepower, the sheer sustained effort infantry can push forward with if you handle them with care is very difficult to stop forever. Eventually the cracks start to show, and then you got fireteams up your flank. Good work, despite the somewhat questionable artillery integration, it was atleast used to some effect aswell.
I have really been looking forward to another one of your campaign series! It will be interesting what you make of the performance of the British Infantry. By the way, do you ever do any community polling to see what kinds of videos your subscribers are most interested in seeing or do you just create whatever content you have the most fun playing?
I pretty much just do what's fun, but there's a bit of a cycle of campaign/mulitplayer games interspersed with Basics, Unit Guides and the War Room. Mostly to keep me from going mad.
Just vanilla. It seems hard enough. I certainly intend to get round to playing a Hard-Cat game and making a video about it at some point though. It's just finding the time.
Hi hapless ! Love your videos ! You have got me into pretty much the entire combat mission series and through following along with your videos I have gotten to grips with them for the most part. My main struggle now is using mechanised formations in the WW2 games. Litterly constantly loosing entire platoons in a few turns. Any tips or videos you have done that might show me how to use them properly ? Thanks mate keep up the good work !
You could lay down a smoke screen with the artillery and if circumstances dictate change it to explosives with much less delay. Blasting near the strong points eventually destroys them. Putting the odd smoke from a tank up a sight line can give your troops cover for a few minutes.
love me hapless, love me combat mission, simple as.
This campaign has a lot of what I'd call Paper Tiger problems; very tough scoring, occasionally profound frustration, contrasted with sublime brilliance. It's fantastic, but I also hated it.
@@keagan87 This campaign, on balance, is good. It has those frustrating moments, the biggest of which is the very tight time limits PT favours. Overall though where it is good it is very good.
A good comparison that left me with a similar vibe is the 'Courage and Fortitude' campaign in CMBN, with its infamous setups and brutal dynamic. It's a challenge, it's memorable, but you probably won't love it.
@sullybiker6520 I think if you destroy lots and survive quite well that's a victory as you have the next day.
@@keagan87 Exactly. This is why I play the CM games far less than I used to these days, to the point of almost stopping completely. They are great games, albeit the graphics are somewhat dated now, but I grew tired of the lack of official content. The games come with scenarios and campaigns but once you've done those, other content is thin on the ground and getting less and less. There used to be far more regular content with the first engine, likely because it was more popular back then and because the engine itself made it easier to make scenarios, but now it's hard work and BF leave it entirely to the community. While I'm grateful to all the work the few remaining producers put in I've no interest in playing campaigns which are designed for you to lose. Sure there were battles in WW2 where the defenders were set up perfectly and the attackers suffered really heavy losses but for sure not all battles were like that AND, more importantly, they aren't that much fun to game. Sadly though, some designers set their campaigns up to be just that, tough and frustrating, yes, fun and enjoyable, no and Paper Tiger is one of those.
Some absolutely brutal fighting happened in the area around Caen. The 12 SS was reportedly one of the few formations that actually followed 'Fighting to the last man'. Rarely seen outside the Japanese military, The Canadians found this out first hand.
I am once again thanking you for being consistent in uploading CB content. Your videos are always a joy to watch. Bumping for that algorithm!
I'll never stop coming back to this series.
One of my favourite campaigns in history, looking forward to you using British infantry sections. I feel they are one of the, if not the, most unusual formations in Combat Mission to use.
Yep. I actually don't know a lot about Epsom, so I'm looking up the history as I go along. And the British 'hang in the fight' sections are certainly completely different from the Americans in Road to Montebourg or the (other) Corridor's Panzergrenadiers.
How so
I barely play war games like this, but I love your storytelling!
This took me a few attempts. PT is unapologetic about his time limits, and they make it very hard. The village was the hardest, but I got a single Churchill into the orchard (the other got stuck...) and was able to make progress. Having just played this after Courage and Fortitude, I really missed the flexibility and firepower of the US squads.
I remember the long field leading up to Neeps You can get across it okay with a decent base of fire (I actually discovered quite by accident the treeline at the bottom gives tanks surprising LOS all the way up to the crossroads) but transitioning to the urban fight is always hard in CM2, and this campaign is no exception.
BTW I don't know if it still exists, but the Bren carrier had a weird exploit. Because it was small-arms proof, units would not shoot at it, unless It was extremely close, say, grenade range. This meant you could use it as a mobile base of fire, confident it would not be lost.
I have conspicuously not used the carriers so far. The next mission might have some scope for a drive-by or two so we can test it out!
Got real excited about reinstalling and playing CMBN. Then I tried to find the correct installer on Battlefront’s website. Who has time to navigate that madness?
Yeah. Was hoping CMBN would be on Steam by now, but no joy yet.
@@usuallyhapless9481 I've been desperate for one of the WWII titles to come to steam. Contenting myself with slugging through Shock Force 2's Canadian campaign and learning how to play Combat Mission in general.
This campaign is frustratingly difficult in my opinion really look forward to seeing how you do through it.
Surely the last (or was it second last?), mission is impossible.
@@arjunarabindranath I have a video playthrough that begs to differ :-p (although assuming it's Fair and Square you're referring to it was an absolutely brutal mission that I thought I was going to lose).
@@Requin87 Hey thanks, I'll check it out!
Ah yes, the old “put up or shut up” campaign. Looking forward to this!
Very happy to see you playing this one!! This one and "The Charge Of The Stryker Brigade" are the toughest ones I have played with an honorable mention to the airborne campaign for Market Garden.....cant think of the name of it
Road to Nijmegen?
I'm still trying to work my way through "the charge of the Stryker brigade"
@@lukeframe5809 been a long time since i played it ... how far are you into it?
@@salmon301 yes that is it
@@mymneisadj road to nijmegen gave me PTSD
Always happy to see more content from you. Was just watching DoubleVision's series on this campaign, and it looks brutal; lots of enemy firepower and never enough friendly supporting assets.
Lots of enemy firepower and never enough friendly supporting assets does sound a lot like the British army in WW2.
@@usuallyhapless9481 I'm interested to see how the lack of infantry firepower leads to less direct solutions. Also looking forward to see if the Bren Carriers are any use, they often make appearances but I rarely see them actually play a role.
Superb as always. I've watched others take on this campaign on youtube and am looking forward to your take on it.
Jon
York Military Books
This campaign is a real ball-ache. The SS soldiers you fight are fanatics who are as difficult as anything to supress, especially with the outdated equipment the British use. You get two tanks per mission to last you and they get stuck in mud more often than not.
So 'neeps' are turnips, which go with 'tatties' (potatoes), both of which are mashed and served with haggis? One has to wonder if the officers were getting hungry when they outlined the briefing for this mission!
Getting a bizarre feeling of Deja-Vu from this one, I could have sworn you've made a video on this mission before, or at least on the same map in CMBN... perhaps I'm thinking of another CM channel... either way great video as always, and looking forward to the rest of the campaign!
I think the most recent series was made by "Requin 87".. Going back a few years both "Double Vision" and "Jamie's Games" made very enjoyable series.
@@wartsnall7332 Man, Double Vision's Scottish Corridor series makes me feel so nostalgic. It's what got me into this game! Is he still active?
@@rctommy3200 Sadly, I don't think that he has posted any new content for about a year.
Get the feeling you're about to put my play through to shame :-p (although happy to report it was an overall success). Looking forward to seeing how your tactical decisions differ.
Err, we'll see! Currently on Mission 3 and wondering if this was a good idea.
I'm glad to see you're continuing to do campaign videos. I've watched your Montebourg series multiple times (Grandpa was in the 8th Inf. Rgt.) and I am glad to see you taking on some of the other campaigns for CMBN. Good luck, and I look forward to future videos!
Love to watch campaigns, as it really forces you to be conservative with your troops. When you have finished that one, can you take a dig at the monte cassino campaign in fortress Italy? Another good CM RUclipsr tried it and failed, and I would like to see if u can do it ;)
Yes! I've been hoping you'd do this campaign
Exciting to use you playing this campaign Hapless. Your Road to Montebourg videos are what got me into Combat Mission in the first place. Looking forward to the rest of the campaign
Love to see you covering the WW2 campaigns! The question now is, do you think you can tackle the beast of the Market Garden campaign or Pipers campaign? I’ve never been able to beat the market garden one
Potentially. Definitely time for some Modern/Cold War after this one though. Think there's a bit of WW2 overload going on.
I hated this mission. So many retries and I gave up finishing it. Still haven't done the german king tiger campaign either, should have another crack I suppose.
Do you have any uncut videos? I want to watch full gameplay video not cinematics.
Somewhat. I do a turn-by-turn unscripted series ever year like this: ruclips.net/p/PLYvL90uFbwhMZ9hRUCbgbr6ngND-6XQmA
It is cut though... because it's about 8 hours long.
How do I keep my tanks from getting bogged down in this mission ? You seem to be able to use them somehow. For me the very moment they drive off road they get stuck
There's a lot of randomness involved- sometimes you can get away with going off-road in the mud, sometimes you can't. I got pretty lucky in this one and even then the Churchill 95 bogged a few times.
Thanks, love your videos! About artillery: one guy named Free Whisky made video about subject recently. Something special about this is fact that Whiskey had served in military as artillery observer. Even if you would`t know anything new, he looks (actually, hears) like nice person.
Haven't seen it yet, but it's on my list!
Good to see you tackling this campaign. As you said the low firepower of the british sections really make this one a challenge. It will be curious to see how you get along!
Oh wow. You lost less than expected. I was thinking of trying out this campaign but I'm no where as good as this gentleman here. Do the subsequent missions in this campaign give an allowance for heavy casualties?
No idea yet. IIRC Paper Tiger usually doesn't work %age casualty objectives in as critical victory conditions, they're more there to provide bonus points.
Nice one UH. Another enjoyable 20 mins of CM.
Hapless I love you content please post more campaigns!!
Bit late to the party! Amazing vid as always, and a new CMBN campaign has me ecstatic! As for this battle, I think your thoughts on the artillery being better used supporting the main push makes a lot of sense, and the idea of calling them in during the battle also crossed my mind, but it should be noted how awful the spotting of falling shells is in CMBN. All the bocage and tall crop fields makes it borderline impossible without a good elevated vantage point, so I think it's a good call to avoid it all together in a situation like this.
Can't wait for the next episode, it's so great watching you play the ww2 titles, your videos covering them are always incredibly educational!
Excellent video as always UH. I have always found the Churchill to be one of the most interesting tanks of WW2. It would be an interesting to see a video comparing the Mark VII Churchill with the jumbo Sherman. It should be an interesting campaign!
This is shaping up to be an exciting campaign already!
Hahahaha, loved the sprinkling of Scottish related food puns at the beginning of the vid Hapless! Awesome job on this battle, looking forward to the rest
you have too bad influence at me, i ahve bought black sea two days ago and cant turn it off, now i wonder if i should try normandy or eastern front next since it would be nice to escape you see-it dies meta
have you tried the new red thunder?
Smoke-EM,,if u got-em
Another great video to watch when I get home.
I normally play combat mission Black Sea, but this makes me want to expand in more historical combat mission titles.
Thank you!
SIUUUU finally a new video
This ought to be good. I watched Requin struggle through this I'm interested to see how you go.
I'm certainly watching Requin and Double Vision's videos after I've done each mission. Always interesting to see how other people tackle them.
I played the first mission a couple of weeks ago. what im struggling with (not only in this campaign) are the bunkers. i might be very unlucky but my men dont perform very well against them, even if i have superior firepower by far. i just cant hit the guys inside. Not with small arms, not with PIATs, only tanks work, but i dont always have tanks and mine got stuck in the mud and in this mission and even worse, got immobilzed. my men score a lot of penetrations on the bunkers with small arms beacause, well, theyre wooden, but i never hit someone inside. also, i cant supress them. i dont know if that is intentional, but the AI Soldiers completely ignore supression effects when stationed in bunkers. i usually try to flank them, but even that doesnt work well because of the wonky Close Quarter Combat in CM. my men start throwing grenades at the bunkers but that usually has very little effect. I knocked the one on the right flank out in the end but it took a dozen grenades.
tl;dr i really hate bunkers. but im glad you didnt seem to encounter any problems i had with them
Yeah, they can be tricky to deal with. For this campaign I think it's going to be close range PIAT or tanks... but of course, plenty to go wrong there!
@@usuallyhapless9481 Well, have fun with the following missions. i consider them way harder than this initial one and thats not beacause of bunkers :D
Does CM model the effect of rain on smoke? You might find your screening fire mission, depleted earlier than planned.
Not sure actually. The fire mission was pure HE though, no smoke. No dust effects because of the mud, which may have been really helpful.
@@usuallyhapless9481 Sorry, I was referring to your AAR comments about next time not forgetting your organic mortars and their smoke (to screen you from the oblique MG fire).
More of this please!
Steady progress forward, and some application of blunt force via 95mm howitzer carried the day! Despite the struggles of firepower, the sheer sustained effort infantry can push forward with if you handle them with care is very difficult to stop forever. Eventually the cracks start to show, and then you got fireteams up your flank. Good work, despite the somewhat questionable artillery integration, it was atleast used to some effect aswell.
Thanks very much! Must remember that the other guy is suffering just as bad, or worse.
@@usuallyhapless9481 except if the other guy isn’t suffering as bad, then you’re in rear trouble
I hope you're the best laid player in the game bro
I have really been looking forward to another one of your campaign series! It will be interesting what you make of the performance of the British Infantry.
By the way, do you ever do any community polling to see what kinds of videos your subscribers are most interested in seeing or do you just create whatever content you have the most fun playing?
I pretty much just do what's fun, but there's a bit of a cycle of campaign/mulitplayer games interspersed with Basics, Unit Guides and the War Room. Mostly to keep me from going mad.
@@usuallyhapless9481 Ah good to know, whatever keeps you sane and means more CM content :D
Babe wake up hapless just posted
Are you playing with the Hard-Cat rules? Makes things interesting in single player.
Just vanilla. It seems hard enough. I certainly intend to get round to playing a Hard-Cat game and making a video about it at some point though. It's just finding the time.
Always a good day when you upload
Hi hapless ! Love your videos ! You have got me into pretty much the entire combat mission series and through following along with your videos I have gotten to grips with them for the most part. My main struggle now is using mechanised formations in the WW2 games. Litterly constantly loosing entire platoons in a few turns. Any tips or videos you have done that might show me how to use them properly ? Thanks mate keep up the good work !
Ah yes, the Steel Division 2 division. Love it!
That's the one!
This game can be overwhelming. I love how your videos simplify it! Thoroughly entertaining
Its FRIDAY! Its FRIDAY!!! GOT TO WATCH HAPLESS!!!! ITS FRIDAAAAAY!!!!
There have been quite a few "Scottish Corridor" series over the years, but a new one is very welcome.
Yes, going to be interesting to compare them all.
@@usuallyhapless9481 Indeed it will be. Keep up the good work.
You could lay down a smoke screen with the artillery and if circumstances dictate change it to explosives with much less delay.
Blasting near the strong points eventually destroys them.
Putting the odd smoke from a tank up a sight line can give your troops cover for a few minutes.
Have you ever tried Graviteam Tactics? That's an amazing game and a good simulator.