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Tactical vignettes?


jens198

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Hi,

currently I know of two sources for tactical vignettes. The one from the armor magazine and some from the Marine Corps Gazette. Has anyone any further sources for such scenarios? I did a lot of searching via google, but no joy so far.

Thanks!

Jens

P.S. Do the current issues of the armor magazine still include Tactical vignettes?

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Hot Tom will be a good guy to reply to this one as he has released a few tactical vignette scenarios from armor magazine on this site.

I have played a few of his tactical vignettes and they are very good to play through. Will be interested to see what you come up with. Good luck finding a source!

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You found the two main sources. I've done maybe a half dozen (they're all in downloads under single player: Dogwoord Crossing, Durango Valley, etc.). A couple others have been done by other scenario writers.

They never were intended by Armor Magazine to be made into missions for a computer game but it works if you can find (or make) a map with similar terrain to the problem.

What I do is make several versions. One is the problem. The others are the school solutions.

Just writing a mission presenting the problem is very simple.

Showing the school solutions and having everything time out correctly is a real challenge and the testing is hugely time consuming. I guarantee you'll know the Mission Editor quite well after writing just one :).

Why show the school solutions and not just present the problem? Because those solutions all came from the people who design or work with real tank doctrine. And it shows there can be several solutions, none of them incorrect.

To me, the most interesting thing about those Tactical Vignettes in the magazine version, is: THE PLAYER HAS TWO MINUTES TO DEVISE A PLAN AND ISSUE A FRAGO.

I wish there was a way to build a time limit like that into the SB version. That time crunch is very realistic for a company-size operation and limiting planning time would be highly realistic.

Sitting for an hour looking at the map and sucking your thumb while making a plan for a single company isn't very real world at all :)

It looks like Armor Magazine stopped using them several years ago.

HT

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Hi,

not especially a tac vignette, but you may like the three interactive books by John F. Antal:

"Armor Attacks: The Tank Platoon"

"Infantry Combat: The Rifle Platoon"

"Combat Team: The Captain´s War"

There´s also "The Defense of Hill 781" by James R. McDonough, a modern warfare "Defense of Duffer´s Drift".

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To me, the most interesting thing about those Tactical Vignettes in the magazine version, is: THE PLAYER HAS TWO MINUTES TO DEVISE A PLAN AND ISSUE A FRAGO.

I wish there was a way to build a time limit like that into the SB version. That time crunch is very realistic for a company-size operation and limiting planning time would be highly realistic.

Agreed, but I can barely route a platoon in 2 min, leet alone an entire Coy. :)

Probably would work best in an MP setup so that there's other players to share the workload.

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Hi,

not especially a tac vignette, but you may like the three interactive books by John F. Antal:

"Armor Attacks: The Tank Platoon"

"Infantry Combat: The Rifle Platoon"

"Combat Team: The Captain´s War"

There´s also "The Defense of Hill 781" by James R. McDonough, a modern warfare "Defense of Duffer´s Drift".

Thanks Demoman. I got all three books from John Antal. Really enjoyed them. I think they're well written. Didn't know about "The Defense of Hill 781". Ordered it from Amazon for 11 Euros yesterday. ;-)

Another one, that goes in that direction is "Red Thrust" by Steve Zaloga. Anyone read that?

Jens

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Yeah I did. :) It has some interesting small unit-actions in it, like the crushing of a spetznaz/paratrooper bridgehead by Bundeswehr mechanized forces. Overall I found it well written and entertaining too, and Zaloga really knows how to describe soviet soldiers. And please let me know how "Defense of Hill 781" was as I´m considering to buy it too.

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Red Thrust is good. Still waiting on Amazon for Zaloga's Tank War - Central Front. Here's one chock full of tactical vignette goodness, it's a link to a pdf download of The Bear Went Over the Mountain. Soviet military academy AARs of actions in Afghanistan. BTW, Duffer's Drift is available for download in the SB.com pdf library.

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Red Thrust is good. Still waiting on Amazon for Zaloga's Tank War - Central Front.

That one´s ok, got a small scenario as an opener but he overplayed it a bit. Still worth the money. "Duffer´s Drift" can be found here as well, together with two similar inspired tactical narratives: http://regimentalrogue.tripod.com/duffersdrift/Duffers_Drift.htm

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Hill 781 is on just about every military suggested reading list and has been since it was published almost 15 years ago.

It's written on a battalion level and some of the concepts may be a tad too "inside baseball" for those without an Army background (especially how staffs and commanders interact) but don't let that deter anyone from reading it.

Lots of good points about mission planning (it takes places at the NTC) and leadership and it's fun to read (which doesn't hurt).

Not many ideas for writing Tactical Vignettes scenarios in it but lots of concepts for developing the solutions to Tactical Vignettes.

It's available lots of places, including Amazon.

HT

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Hi,

not especially a tac vignette, but you may like the three interactive books by John F. Antal:

"Armor Attacks: The Tank Platoon"

"Infantry Combat: The Rifle Platoon"

"Combat Team: The Captain´s War"

There´s also "The Defense of Hill 781" by James R. McDonough, a modern warfare "Defense of Duffer´s Drift".

For SB1 I turned the 2nd part of "Armor Attacks: The Tank Platoon" into a scenario.

Maybe I will adapt it to SB Pro.

Rgds

K

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  • 2 months later...
Originally Posted by GaryOwen

Red Thrust is good. Still waiting on Amazon for Zaloga's Tank War - Central Front.

That one´s ok, got a small scenario as an opener but he overplayed it a bit. Still worth the money.

Finally got it after having to re-order several times. I concur that the scenario was a bit overplayed.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 12 years later...
On 11/10/2007 at 11:05 AM, Koen said:

2nd part of "Armor Attacks - The Tank Platoon":

Here's the SB1 version:

not sure if it works OK in SB Pro,

but is not unlikely.

Rgds,

K

56e83c618c72b_ArmorAttacks-Counterreconv

Armor Attacks - Counterrecon v1.1.rar

 

Hi, I'd like to unzip this older SB1-scenario of mine, to upgrade it to SB Pro PE.

 

Question pls: which UNZIP-program is trustworthy ? 

 

Plenty of "free" unzip-programs available in the Microsoft Store, but free does not exist ...

 

Thx !

 

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2 hours ago, Koen said:

 

Hi, I'd like to unzip this older SB1-scenario of mine, to upgrade it to SB Pro PE.

 

Question pls: which UNZIP-program is trustworthy ? 

 

Plenty of "free" unzip-programs available in the Microsoft Store, but free does not exist ...

 

Thx !

 

7z

Free and open source.

https://www.7-zip.org/

Edited by stormrider_sp
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