You make it look so easy with these modern titles. It almost becomes an classroom example of scouting and hosing down any enemy positions with indirect fier
Let’s go! I found combat mission about 2 years ago and the life of me, I could not understand why the computer was tanning my ass so bad. Thanks to you and your videos I was able to get a grasp on the mechanics. I appreciate you! Can’t wair to watch this series.
I think the only downside to this mission has been the capabilities of the LAV-AT; the lack of functioning NV or thermal optics, plus the missing 4th crew member, really prevents its use in adverse lighting or weather. Despite its presence, you can really tell its lack of impact relative to the TOW Humvees. In any case, another great video!
As soon as I saw that bluforce tracker i liked. Always love this mission, starts off wide with everyone advancing at once before slowly manoeuvring into route tiger with heavy concentration.
I recently played through this mission. I’ll leave an AAR here: My pre-battle intel exposed the reverse slope platoon in the trenches and the elements in Karru. Not missing a beat, I called down mortars on the reverse slope and 155s on Karru to soften these positions up to be assaulted Instead of sending a single Humvee forward, I split the CAAT platoon into 2 3-vehicle sections and bound them forward, with LAR platoon right behind them. My logic here is to use the Humvees as scouts to sus out ATGM positions, and then use the combined firepower of both platoons to respond. The CAAT sections made contact with the reverse slope Syrians and engaged them. Because they were in mutually supporting sections, they quickly won any firepower contest. I moved up LAR platoon, both to increase the deluge of firepower and to dismount and assault the position. This worked well, and the Syrian platoon was wiped out for no Marine losses. I immediately recognized the gaps in the walls as obvious locations for mines, and I used the bushmasters to blow open alternative routes. CAAT platoon surged through the gap, but I left my TOW humvees behind to act as anti-tank overwatch units in case of armored counterattack. This was good in theory, but hurt me later. At this time, Golf Co arrived on the field and I began to advance a platoon forward. CAAT/LAR made contact with the palm grove and unleashed another deluge of fire, routing the entire position and gunning down survivors as they fled. Golf Co caught up, and I quickly dismounted them and assaulted the Grove, this time taking some prisoners but otherwise wiping out the defenders for no losses. I remounted and pushed CAAT/LAR up to Karru, and tasked LAR with securing the buildings on the approaches to Karru. By this time, I had called off the 155s and had also called in a mortar stonk on the hill. LAR platoon entered the buildings with no resistance and began to fan out to secure the area. And then shit hit the fan. Remember how I didn’t move my TOW humvees up? They were now too far away to easily see vehicles IVO Karru, and I was suddenly caught off balance when a T72 platoon and a technical group counterattacked my forces. I lost a .50 humvee to an SPG technical and the T72s cresting the hill had me dead to rights, with no proper AT assets to counter them. Luckily, my Abrams arrived at this exact moment. They killed 2/3 of the T72s from across the map while moving, but failed to see the third. Thinking on my feet, I ordered 2 LAVs to engage the T72 and blind it in the pre-dawn darkness. This bought time, and my Abrams advanced and destroyed the lone survivor as CAAT/LAR mopped up the technicals. As this occurred, numerous Syrians materialized out of the buildings in and around Karru, some at extremely close distances. The Marines gracefully acquired and destroyed each position, with 3 or 4 different mutually supporting elements spotting and firing at the same time before repeating the process on another position. No Marines were lost in this firefight. My Abrams reached the outskirts of Karru at this time, and I set them up to destroy another platoon of T72s trying to flank us. With this complete, I moved the platoon from Golf Co up to assault Karru and the hill. Karru resembled a pile of rubble at this point, and the Marines were able to clear it with no casualties. Apaches successfully destroyed the last T72s hiding behind the reverse slope. During this time, an LAV-AT loader was hit by fire next to the hill. I sent one squad from Golf to assault the hill. I split them too thinly however, and a casualty was taken while cresting the hill. I believe this could have been avoided had I put more manpower up there. I quickly dispatched LAR platoon to help clear the hill, and soon all resistance was crushed. I put an LAV on top of the hill to engage targets of opportunity, the only one being a BRDM on the far side of the map. The hill was cleared and Karru was in Marine hands. My losses were 4 KIA, 2 WIA. 1 Humvee lost. Lessons learned were to always have adequate AT capabilities on hand, and to never assault a position without adequate manpower. Great video as always.
Addendum: I always had my LAV-ATs neat the front of my advance, but they are currently broken in CM, with no thermals and missing their TC. As such, they can’t see anything, and I was using them in an anti-structure role. Had they been functional, the counterattack would not have been a problem
Ha! Almost exactly same tactics as I used when playing this mission. The biggest difference was that I blasted the little hamlet with pre-planned 155s for the whole mission. When I saw there was no restrictions in the ROE I think my eyes started glowing.
@@calumlittle9828 Are there any TH-camrs playing in real-time making videos to the same standard as Hapless? The ones I've seen don't have the editing/production quality, and also seem to lack the analysis of the tactics and capabilities of different units/forces
Nice job breaking through to Route Eagle. I'm learning new tactics and need to get over the idea that every enemy position needs to be destroy and then occupied. Especially in these missions where the follow up forces will do the cleaning up that I don't need to do. I also agree that Route Eagle is the more practical out of the two options here but I had a lot of fun playing through Route Tiger. Given that Route Tiger is a completely different set of missions from Eagle and failing Flank Guard gives an extra bonus mission, would you consider giving it a go after you finish this campaign?
The use of the Humvee to scout ahead like that and its brief fight with the entrenched unit remined me of some of the humvee attacks you see in Ukraine these days.
@@mitamajr well yeah its a defensive war lol though they have been gaining ground lately in some areas that russia just won't defend properly or more often won't give them enough supplies.
This next mission is the one that I had so much trouble with and that required far too many restarts/save scums from me. That will be the one that I've been waiting for.
I feel like those old CM graphics, combined with the Arma engine, work perfectly for this setting. Really gives it an early 2000's nostalgic feeling. As for the mission itself: I probably would have send two guys from a humvee to the first strongpoint as foot scouts, since I don't like sending vehicles to buildings first. But, then again, it may not have made any difference, and it saved you some time. I don't normally play strategy games with a time limit, so I might be a bit too cautious. As for the rest, I might have to look at this map in more detail myself, as it looks like the positions on the left flank enfilade the right, and vise versa. This made me feel quite uncomfortable as you pushed those humvees and AAV's right past them. Is there something blocking them off?
The humvees are crewed by 4 man teams that can't be split, which is a bit of PITA, otherwise yeah: splitting a couple of scouts off to take a look would be a solid option. As for the terrain, there road going up the centre was slightly elevated, so the map was essentially split in half as long as you kept to the low ground on the right. Further down the map it evened out a bit, but there was the village and some orchards there to break LOS to the left.
If the gap of Talkalakh takes you too close to the syrian 5th airborn regiment and you cannot pass over the moutain, you can still go under it. But you won't. You fear to go into those mines. The syrians delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum. Shadow and flame.
I played the Task Force Thunder Campaign of the base game some time back. Its Route Lightning and Route Eagle seem vaguely identical - just cut straight to the case with overwhelming force. Looking forward to see how this campaign is different and how you tackle the various challenges!
Great mission! I was actually wondering if you or one of your fans might be able to tell me how to get the sound contacts enabled in my game? Is it a mod or a base feature?
What difficulty are you playing on? They’re on by default and can’t be disabled in the higher difficulties, but on the lowest you don’t get them because any spot at all resolves into a contact instantly.
Yeah, sound contacts are just generic contact icons. Whether they're sound or visual is only clear when you get down in the dirt and try to figure if the pixeltruppen can actually see them
@@zacharybutcher6737 I’d recommend playing on elite. There isn’t an AI in the sense most people think, you’re playing against a human scenario designer, so the enemy doesn’t get any craftier on higher difficulties. What will happen is artillery call in times (for both you and the enemy) will increase, and the game is going to feed you less information at a slower rate, which adds depth to the puzzle solving. On iron, the game will hide friendly units your selected unit isn’t aware of, which I think makes an already pretty clunky game a little too clunky, but it can come in handy. Just recently I was playing a community made Syrian campaign and sent some infantry to clear a wooded hill. A BMP I had covering the same hill promptly shredded them firing at the same targets they were engaging at close range. With no radios in the hands of my infantry and the tree cover obscuring them, my BMP had no idea they were there, and on iron, I would have seen that and known to set a target arc to prevent the friendly fire.
Question: I loaded up this campaign and caught up with your video. On this mission I have my LAV-AT and TOW-Humvee near the starting area ridge on the right side of the map. The odd thing is that my Humvee has almost clear LOS across the entire map whereas the LAV is showing its LOS is blocked at the low wall and cant see any further. Is this a bug or too limited sighting ability for the LAV? Something else?
You make it look so easy with these modern titles. It almost becomes an classroom example of scouting and hosing down any enemy positions with indirect fier
It's easy when you've got all the tools and an obliging opponent!
Let’s go! I found combat mission about 2 years ago and the life of me, I could not understand why the computer was tanning my ass so bad. Thanks to you and your videos I was able to get a grasp on the mechanics. I appreciate you! Can’t wair to watch this series.
That's great to hear man! This is not an easy game to get in to
Might be the sticky f o r and t keys on your keyboard.
That mission result cracked me up ngl
I think the only downside to this mission has been the capabilities of the LAV-AT; the lack of functioning NV or thermal optics, plus the missing 4th crew member, really prevents its use in adverse lighting or weather. Despite its presence, you can really tell its lack of impact relative to the TOW Humvees.
In any case, another great video!
Yeah, the LAV-ATs did absolutely nothing, no matter what I tried. Going to be a bit of a liability going forward I think...
As soon as I saw that bluforce tracker i liked.
Always love this mission, starts off wide with everyone advancing at once before slowly manoeuvring into route tiger with heavy concentration.
It's ok, as soon as I saw your mistake I disliked on three accounts to make up for it. You can relax now.
I recently played through this mission. I’ll leave an AAR here:
My pre-battle intel exposed the reverse slope platoon in the trenches and the elements in Karru. Not missing a beat, I called down mortars on the reverse slope and 155s on Karru to soften these positions up to be assaulted
Instead of sending a single Humvee forward, I split the CAAT platoon into 2 3-vehicle sections and bound them forward, with LAR platoon right behind them. My logic here is to use the Humvees as scouts to sus out ATGM positions, and then use the combined firepower of both platoons to respond.
The CAAT sections made contact with the reverse slope Syrians and engaged them. Because they were in mutually supporting sections, they quickly won any firepower contest. I moved up LAR platoon, both to increase the deluge of firepower and to dismount and assault the position. This worked well, and the Syrian platoon was wiped out for no Marine losses.
I immediately recognized the gaps in the walls as obvious locations for mines, and I used the bushmasters to blow open alternative routes. CAAT platoon surged through the gap, but I left my TOW humvees behind to act as anti-tank overwatch units in case of armored counterattack. This was good in theory, but hurt me later.
At this time, Golf Co arrived on the field and I began to advance a platoon forward. CAAT/LAR made contact with the palm grove and unleashed another deluge of fire, routing the entire position and gunning down survivors as they fled. Golf Co caught up, and I quickly dismounted them and assaulted the Grove, this time taking some prisoners but otherwise wiping out the defenders for no losses.
I remounted and pushed CAAT/LAR up to Karru, and tasked LAR with securing the buildings on the approaches to Karru. By this time, I had called off the 155s and had also called in a mortar stonk on the hill. LAR platoon entered the buildings with no resistance and began to fan out to secure the area.
And then shit hit the fan.
Remember how I didn’t move my TOW humvees up? They were now too far away to easily see vehicles IVO Karru, and I was suddenly caught off balance when a T72 platoon and a technical group counterattacked my forces. I lost a .50 humvee to an SPG technical and the T72s cresting the hill had me dead to rights, with no proper AT assets to counter them.
Luckily, my Abrams arrived at this exact moment. They killed 2/3 of the T72s from across the map while moving, but failed to see the third. Thinking on my feet, I ordered 2 LAVs to engage the T72 and blind it in the pre-dawn darkness. This bought time, and my Abrams advanced and destroyed the lone survivor as CAAT/LAR mopped up the technicals.
As this occurred, numerous Syrians materialized out of the buildings in and around Karru, some at extremely close distances. The Marines gracefully acquired and destroyed each position, with 3 or 4 different mutually supporting elements spotting and firing at the same time before repeating the process on another position. No Marines were lost in this firefight.
My Abrams reached the outskirts of Karru at this time, and I set them up to destroy another platoon of T72s trying to flank us. With this complete, I moved the platoon from Golf Co up to assault Karru and the hill. Karru resembled a pile of rubble at this point, and the Marines were able to clear it with no casualties. Apaches successfully destroyed the last T72s hiding behind the reverse slope.
During this time, an LAV-AT loader was hit by fire next to the hill. I sent one squad from Golf to assault the hill. I split them too thinly however, and a casualty was taken while cresting the hill. I believe this could have been avoided had I put more manpower up there. I quickly dispatched LAR platoon to help clear the hill, and soon all resistance was crushed. I put an LAV on top of the hill to engage targets of opportunity, the only one being a BRDM on the far side of the map.
The hill was cleared and Karru was in Marine hands. My losses were 4 KIA, 2 WIA. 1 Humvee lost.
Lessons learned were to always have adequate AT capabilities on hand, and to never assault a position without adequate manpower.
Great video as always.
Addendum: I always had my LAV-ATs neat the front of my advance, but they are currently broken in CM, with no thermals and missing their TC. As such, they can’t see anything, and I was using them in an anti-structure role. Had they been functional, the counterattack would not have been a problem
Awesome stuff man! I didn't want to risk the LAVs like that: that Bushmaster-Thermals combo is too sexy.
Ha! Almost exactly same tactics as I used when playing this mission. The biggest difference was that I blasted the little hamlet with pre-planned 155s for the whole mission. When I saw there was no restrictions in the ROE I think my eyes started glowing.
I did think about that, but wanted to keep my options open.
The cross tandem strike on the T-72s made you look like you were styling on the computer.
Truly your tactical decisions in this scenario were brilliant! You are really good at this!
Well, it looks that way now... I'm not called Hapless for no reason ;)
Really good players use real time. I'm sure he appreciates the hyperbole nonetheless.
@@calumlittle9828 Are there any TH-camrs playing in real-time making videos to the same standard as Hapless? The ones I've seen don't have the editing/production quality, and also seem to lack the analysis of the tactics and capabilities of different units/forces
@@3badgersinatrenchcoat absolutely not. This level of quality can only be achieved in easy mode, also Germans don't count right?
Mission failed successfully
I am very glad someone is covering the singleplayer campaigns for Combat Mission. Keep up the good work!
Nice job breaking through to Route Eagle. I'm learning new tactics and need to get over the idea that every enemy position needs to be destroy and then occupied. Especially in these missions where the follow up forces will do the cleaning up that I don't need to do.
I also agree that Route Eagle is the more practical out of the two options here but I had a lot of fun playing through Route Tiger. Given that Route Tiger is a completely different set of missions from Eagle and failing Flank Guard gives an extra bonus mission, would you consider giving it a go after you finish this campaign?
Mission failed successfully!
Fission Mailed!
The use of the Humvee to scout ahead like that and its brief fight with the entrenched unit remined me of some of the humvee attacks you see in Ukraine these days.
Similar. Haven't seen any of those for a while though
@@usuallyhapless9481 I guess it's due to Ukraine having been mostly on the defensive for a while.
@@mitamajr well yeah its a defensive war lol though they have been gaining ground lately in some areas that russia just won't defend properly or more often won't give them enough supplies.
Loving the intros with the arma backgrounds, super cool. Keep up the effort!
Thanks very much man!
Keep making videos! I can’t understate how much I love anything that you make. Always so much effort.
Thanks very much man! There's plenty of stuff in the pipe
This next mission is the one that I had so much trouble with and that required far too many restarts/save scums from me. That will be the one that I've been waiting for.
Yeah, my first impressions of it are not great. Looks like a slog.
I feel like those old CM graphics, combined with the Arma engine, work perfectly for this setting. Really gives it an early 2000's nostalgic feeling.
As for the mission itself: I probably would have send two guys from a humvee to the first strongpoint as foot scouts, since I don't like sending vehicles to buildings first. But, then again, it may not have made any difference, and it saved you some time. I don't normally play strategy games with a time limit, so I might be a bit too cautious.
As for the rest, I might have to look at this map in more detail myself, as it looks like the positions on the left flank enfilade the right, and vise versa. This made me feel quite uncomfortable as you pushed those humvees and AAV's right past them. Is there something blocking them off?
The humvees are crewed by 4 man teams that can't be split, which is a bit of PITA, otherwise yeah: splitting a couple of scouts off to take a look would be a solid option.
As for the terrain, there road going up the centre was slightly elevated, so the map was essentially split in half as long as you kept to the low ground on the right. Further down the map it evened out a bit, but there was the village and some orchards there to break LOS to the left.
@@usuallyhapless9481 Ah, that explains things. Thanks.
Love these campaigns it is an informative and interesting way to learn tactics, faction/vehicle capabilities, and grand strategy all in one.
Nice! Any thoughts of doing an alternate timeline where you do take the mountain route?
It's on the cards!
Absolutely loving this series!
Looks like someone figured out how to make the SMAW teams use their demo charges
Yep.
Good to have another mission to watch :)
If the gap of Talkalakh takes you too close to the syrian 5th airborn regiment and you cannot pass over the moutain, you can still go under it.
But you won't. You fear to go into those mines. The syrians delved too greedily and too deep. You know what they awoke in the darkness of Khazad-dum. Shadow and flame.
I played the Task Force Thunder Campaign of the base game some time back. Its Route Lightning and Route Eagle seem vaguely identical - just cut straight to the case with overwhelming force.
Looking forward to see how this campaign is different and how you tackle the various challenges!
Swear to god....Sandhurst should subscribe to this.
Great mission! I was actually wondering if you or one of your fans might be able to tell me how to get the sound contacts enabled in my game? Is it a mod or a base feature?
What difficulty are you playing on? They’re on by default and can’t be disabled in the higher difficulties, but on the lowest you don’t get them because any spot at all resolves into a contact instantly.
Yeah, sound contacts are just generic contact icons. Whether they're sound or visual is only clear when you get down in the dirt and try to figure if the pixeltruppen can actually see them
@@adendurrett3061 Thats my problem, still a newbie and playing on basic training, ill bump it up and try it on my next campaign, thanks dude!
@@zacharybutcher6737 I’d recommend playing on elite. There isn’t an AI in the sense most people think, you’re playing against a human scenario designer, so the enemy doesn’t get any craftier on higher difficulties. What will happen is artillery call in times (for both you and the enemy) will increase, and the game is going to feed you less information at a slower rate, which adds depth to the puzzle solving.
On iron, the game will hide friendly units your selected unit isn’t aware of, which I think makes an already pretty clunky game a little too clunky, but it can come in handy. Just recently I was playing a community made Syrian campaign and sent some infantry to clear a wooded hill. A BMP I had covering the same hill promptly shredded them firing at the same targets they were engaging at close range. With no radios in the hands of my infantry and the tree cover obscuring them, my BMP had no idea they were there, and on iron, I would have seen that and known to set a target arc to prevent the friendly fire.
Question: I loaded up this campaign and caught up with your video. On this mission I have my LAV-AT and TOW-Humvee near the starting area ridge on the right side of the map. The odd thing is that my Humvee has almost clear LOS across the entire map whereas the LAV is showing its LOS is blocked at the low wall and cant see any further. Is this a bug or too limited sighting ability for the LAV? Something else?
The LAV-ATs are bugged. IIRC, the thermal optics don't work and they're missing a crewman.
Hello! Love this game
Let's GOOOOO
🥸
Scrub Hill lol🎉
It's a hill covered in scrub! What else would you call it? :P
No, please, never call it anything else.