New Scenario - Konna January 2013

[mkr8683]

A scenario covering the French and Malian government assault on the town of Konna in central Mali, January 13, 2013. It's a fairly bloody one, but not all that difficult.

I started this scenario yesterday, and playtested it and put the finishing touches on today. Amusingly enough, CNN reported today that Konna had not, in fact, been taken from the jihadists. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20907386) Oh well, still a fun scenario, if I say so myself :D

Shameless plug - I highly recommend this scenario be played with my modded Mujahideen flags, which can be downloaded here. (http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=49436)

Thanks,
Matt

[centurion77]

darn, and i'm off to work, it's going to have to wait. I've been following the operation on the French media and there is alot of scenario potetial :)

[mkr8683]

Don't you love it? You have to get up out of your nice, warm bed, and there are new SP scenarios to be played. I work nights, and it's a lot more convenient to wake up, have a few hours to loaf around, catch up on that book with some good coffee or take care of some errands, and go straight to bed when you come home.

I agree. Much potential indeed - perhaps a campaign when it's over. If it ever ends.

[Kenny]

Thanks for the scenario.:up:

I found it to be a fairly costly and bloody affair in my attempt at being the Mali/French forces trying to unseat the bad guys.:o

Here's a CMT file for this scenario so it will show up in the scenario listing. Renumber it to whatever scenario slot you are using for this scenario and then just extract it into your scenario folder. I'm using slot 283 with this one as to not overwrite the excellent Andy Gailey scenario "Battle of Khafji-Evening of day 2.

[Mustang]

That IED hurt! I was also too aggressive with my helos and lost one. Shouldn't have flown them around at high altitude.

The mujahideen counterattack pretty fast. By turn 12 they were already coming at my objectives. The scenario is hard enough, though, so I'm okay with them charging into my guns.

Well, it's amazing what you've been able to construct off of a CNN article and a wikipedia page. Good scenario. The priority fire hexes are well placed. If I hadn't lost the chopper I'd have a DV.

One minor problem. The scenario was basically over by T25, but it dragged on for some reason even though all objectives were taken and the bad guys were dead. I guess the computer thought the IEDs were trying to advance on me. Not really a problem since there isn't a solution.

It would help if you put a carry capacity on the choppers so my snipers could cling to the skids and take objectives, then again maybe that would be kind of dangerous for him.

All in all, good scenario. Incidentally I got 95 casualties, which is one less than what Wikipedia said there was.

[mkr8683]

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, those damn IEDs do hurt - when I was still beta testing, an entire SF platoon was rendered useless by the one on the west side of the map. There are a few more on the map, though, so be careful!

Designing the scenario wasn't really very hard, as it's pretty much a fudge. I drew the map from looking at the real town in Google Earth, settled on two French SF platoons and some native troops, guestimated four helos, and threw in some good artillery. I have no idea about how French SF are organized, so I simply took two paratrooper platoons and bumped up their experience and morale. I found the best way to really get in is to plaster the southern entrance to town with artillery and use the government troops for harassing fire, move the SF platoons into town from the east to stir things up there, then move the government troops up.

Well, your objective is to kill jihadists! :D I don't think you can take V-hexes with snipers anyway. Once the counter attack is stopped, it pretty much becomes a mopping-up operation.

As to the turns, I'm still learning about scenario design and balancing the victory points. The important things in this scenario are to hold ground and kill as many enemies as possible.

Again, thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad you enjoyed it! :up: Very odd about your casualties, too!

[Mustang]

Designing the scenario wasn't really very hard, as it's pretty much a fudge. I drew the map from looking at the real town in Google Earth, settled on two French SF platoons and some native troops, guestimated four helos, and threw in some good artillery. I have no idea about how French SF are organized, so I simply took two paratrooper platoons and bumped up their experience and morale. I found the best way to really get in is to plaster the southern entrance to town with artillery and use the government troops for harassing fire, move the SF platoons into town from the east to stir things up there, then move the government troops up.

Usually the highly accurate historical scenarios in some of these games are based on unclassified records and AARs published well after the war is over. Since those aren't available on short notice you did the best you could, unless you had some friend in the French Army willing to sneak classified information to you. ;)

Again, fun scenario, and a timely one.