Baltic brawls, carrier clashes and nuclear air wings: Thirteen new Command scenarios available

August 13, 2016 · Posted in Command · Comment

Miguel Molina has released the updated version of the Command community scenario pack. The new release includes thirteen brand-new scenarios:

Big Fish In The Baltic, 1971: In recent days tensions have soared between Sweden and the Soviet Union and its allies due to an incident where a naval skirmish took place in international waters resulting in the sinking of several ships on both sides. Swedish intelligence now suggests that the East German navy is trying to launch a surprise naval attack on Gotland. The Swedish navy has been effectively blockaded by swarms of missile boats in the Southern Baltic, so the air force alone has to blunt the incoming onslaught.
The Bear And The Dragon, 2023: Relations have broken down between China and Russia, and now a Chinese amphibious task force moves to capture Vladivostok. But they will have to run a gauntlet of Russian submarines and bombers to do so.
Northern Fury #11.1 – Vagar Vengeance, 1994: Strike Fleet Atlantic is now conducting its first major counter-attack. The 1^st phase was the softening up of Soviet defences on Iceland which has taken place over the past several days. Now as a preliminary move to the retaking of Iceland, the Faroe Island chain must be secured with a primary focus of the Vagar island airport. You are the Commander of TG Invincible and supported by the French carrier Clemenceau, surface, subsurface and amphibious forces as well as land based air elements. Your task is to unhinge the Soviet defences, protect reinforcing airborne operations and clear the defenders out of the Faroe Islands, all while protecting civilian infrastructure and preserving your force. The Soviets however, have other ideas.
Breaking Bad, 2015: In a shocking turn of events, the CIA has confirmed that Iran has turned its allegiance towards AQAP and supplying the terrorist group with money, arms and training. The Yemeni Civil War could turn for the worst as Iran attempts to fight a proxy war against the US and gain control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea. The US president, going against the wishes of his civilian advisers, puts his trust into his military advisers and begins to put boots on the ground in Yemen.
The Akusekijima Conflict, 2019: A variety of factors (crop failures caused by global warming, collapse of fish populations due to overfishing, etc.) have resulted in Chinese fishing boats violating Japanese fisheries on an increasing basis. Japan has protested this behavior but Chinese officials have ignored it. In addition, Japan’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric about the issue has created tensions between the two countries. China has become less and less willing to tolerate even lawful actions by the Japanese when it involves their citizens.
The Seventh Battle, 1992: In this unofficial sequel to Barret Tillman’s famous “Sixth Battle”, a shaky cease fire has been established off the coast of South Africa due to the presence of other countries joining the fight against the Soviet alliance, such as British subs and the French Indian Ocean Squadron, as well as the arrival of the USS Eisenhower CVBG. But the cease fire is now collapsing, and the seventh battle between carrier groups is about to commence.
Ruby Slipper, 2016: North Korea is plunged into civil war, with the Kim regime (covertly supported by China) fighting for its survival against the so-called “Democratic Workers Party” (dissident elements supported by Russia). Russian intelligence suggest that the Kim regime, desperate to hold on to power, is preparing to use its cache of nuclear weapons against both rebel and Russian forces – and the PRC intends to help. Russia mobilizes to prevent this outcome.
Peeling The Onion, 1957: You are Commander, 308th Bombardment Wing, Strategic Air Command equipped with B-47E medium bombers and normally based at Hunter Air Force Base (AFB), outside Savannah, GA. You are also the current OP REFLEX Commander on temporary duty at Sidi Slimane AFB in French Morocco and in the event of war will be responsible to conduct nuclear strikes against the Soviet Union out of the SAC forward bases. Hostilities with the Soviet Union have not commenced but if they do, your mission will be to attack Soviet industrial targets starting in southern Russia on the Black Sea coast. War could be just hours away…
Standoff-21, 2019: With Argentina once again attempting to take the Falklands, the UK resorts to a standoff bombardment in a repeat of the legendary “Black Buck” raids of 1982. The never-was Nimrod MRA4 makes its combat debut in this scenario.
Red Iceland, 1980: After the financial crash of 1979 the people of Iceland protested the presence of NATO forces on their home island as a base, effectively turning it into a nuclear target for the USSR. After violent demonstrations and the Icelandic government resigning, NATO agreed to leave the island on the condition that the island remain a de-militarized zone. The Soviets saw an opportunity in this, and with the help of infiltrators and what was presumed to be Spetsnaz units power was taken via a coup d’état by the Communist Party of Iceland. The Soviets maintain that they have only deployed a token force to the island in May, 1980 to “maintain the integrity of the Icelandic government” but this was clearly in violation to the agreement priory reached. More Soviet convoys are headed to Iceland, some of them even loaded with medium range nuclear ballistic missiles; these must be stopped at any cost.
Northern Fury #10.5 – Sweep Up, 1994: The US 2^nd Fleet is now entering the final phase of its first major counter-attack. A ceaseless combination of bomber and carrier borne attacks over the past 60 hours has reduced the defences on Iceland significantly! Now all that is left is the task of sweeping up the last few targets and preparing the ground for the amphibious assault by the Marines tomorrow. If you have learned anything this past week however; nothing is simple.
Caribbean Fury #1 – Hot Tamales, 1994: You are commanding the USS John F. Kennedy CVBG on routine patrol in the Caribbean. Although homeport is Norfolk Virginia, the Battle Group has been operating out of New Orleans Louisiana for most of the past year due to the increased tensions in Central America. The air wing (CVW-7) has just completed 4 days of intense training with the Army up at Fort Hood, and you now heading to Roosevelt Roads Puerto Ricco for some ASW and ASuW work.
Merry Christmas, 1998: This scenario is a fictional engagement between the Australian Commonwealth, US, Malaysian Forces and a fast moving Indonesian coup. The coup has arrayed two prongs you will to blunt, one, an outgoing invasion fleet and two, a bustling Naval Base supporting the invasion of a neighbor island. They are not mutually exclusive problems, both need to be destroyed. In addition, various other disconnected issues will need to be dealt with, from minesweeping to area defense.

As always, the community scenario pack is available for download from the Command downloads page: http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=1876 . The scenarios are also available individually for download on the Command workshop on Steam.

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Command LIVE #2 is announced – v1.11 SR3 released

July 27, 2016 · Posted in Command · Comment

It’s been a busy week! Following the successful release of Command LIVE #1: Old Grudges Never Die , the WS dev team and Bart Gauvin have worked around the clock to consolidate feedback from the first release and rectify reported issues as well as preparing the next chapter in the LIVE series.

1) v1.11 Service Release 3 is now available. This update to v1.11 fixes a number of UI and game-engine issues reported since the release of v1.11 SR2 and includes a revised and updated version of the “Old Grudges Never Die” scenario.

(Unfortunately, it appears that one of the issues considered to be fixed in SR3 is actually only partially resolved. We are currently investigating a more thorough solution. Sorry!)

2) Command LIVE #2 has been announced: You Brexit, You Fix It!

What if the Brexit heralds the beginning of an escalation of events, creating a powder keg situation in Europe?

How would NATO and the EU act in such a situation, where timing and close cooperation are everything?

This is a two-scenario pack that will soon be available for download included on the next update, much like “Old Grudges” was. If you enjoy modern joint combat with top-tier forces and hardware you are in for a treat.

Stay tuned!

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Command LIVE #1 launched: Old Grudges Never Die!

July 19, 2016 · Posted in Command · Comment

Available now on MatrixGames and Steam!

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Command LIVE is announced – v1.11 SR2 released

July 15, 2016 · Posted in Command · Comment

Aaaaand we’re back! Following our thunderous tour of the US, the Warfare Sims directors were invited by Matrix-Slitherine to their Epsom base for a week-long ~~pub crawl~~ series of business meetings mapping out the further development of CMANO (both commercial and PE) for the near- and mid-term. Now that these sessions are complete, the WS team is back in action, with a truckload of things to do.

After the release of v1.11 SR1, Service Release 2 (Build 839.4) has been made available by Matrix. This new release has one minor and one big addition.

1) SR2 further improves our ongoing support for high-DPI environments, so players with very high-resolution monitors (4K/UHD etc.) should have an even better experience.
NOTE: If you encounter any distortions on the positioning or dimensions of secondary windows please delete the Command.ini file and restart. This should resolve the issue in almost all cases.

2) The big item: Command-LIVE #1: Old Grudges Never Die

Command LIVE is a very ambitious project. Its aim is to recreate highly accurate scenarios from real-world situations and events, as they happen.
WarfareSims has teamed up with the best editors and modders from the community, to create short, engaging scenarios that re-create real life events.
Where geopolitical instability calls for military power to come into play, the Command LIVE project calls for players.
The first DLC to be released under this name is Old Grudges Never Die.
Players take control of either Russian or Turkish forces in the attempt to maintain national honor and pride, while keeping a lid on hostilities to prevent the outbreak of larger conflict.
This scenario follows on from the real events of November 2015, when a Russian Su-24 was shot down by a Turkish F-16. The consequent geopolitical situation and the interests at stake, including the involvement of NATO, Syrian and rebel forces and ISIS, create a set of circumstances where every false move can end up in a bloodshed.

Old hands of the Command community are of course familiar with Command being used to model current/recent conflicts; Baloogan’s Crimean war episodes for instance have already become the stuff of legends. This time around WS and MG are officially teaming up with the community’s top-talent creators to provide such “geopolitical nightmare” scenarios to explore.

“Old Grudges Never Die” is a single-scenario “traditional” DLC expansion (ie. it requires the base CMANO game to be already installed, contrary to Northern Inferno which was standalone-capable). After installing SR2, the scenario appears on the list of available scenarios…

….but is not currently playable (if you try to load it you will receive the “no license” message). The license for playing the scenario will actually become available next Tuesday (July 19th) when the series officially launches. (Until then you can read the newspaper that accompanies the DLC!)

(Some users have very reasonably asked: “If you are not yet enabling the Live#1 scenario, what’s the point of releasing SR2 now?” The answer is simple: Apart from the Live#1 scenario, SR2 also contains a number of high-DPI tweaks for which we would like to receive user feedback as soon as possible. High-DPI issues are notoriously difficult to detect and troubleshoot “in the lab”, so promptly releasing the improvements in the wild is a necessary step. As always, helping customers with any issues they have is our top support priority.)

“Old Grudges Never Die” is made by a community stalwart, Bart Gauvin (aka Gunner98) and we’re confident you will enjoy it as much as we did during preparation. LIVE#2 is currently being put together, and we are soliciting bets as to the scenario subject. Take your guess 🙂

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Improving the best: Command v1.11 Service Release 1 now available

July 5, 2016 · Posted in Command · Comment

Hot on the heels of the v1.11 release, our first “service” build for the most recent version is now available. For a detailed list of the changes and additions, see the complete release notes on the Matrix Games forum thread. The announcement also contains a manual download link, although the update is also available both through the Matrix updater utility and Steam.

v1.11 SR1 (a.k.a. Build 839) does not feature any new earth-shattering features (the megaton release of v1.11 takes care of that for a while) but it does include a number of additions and improvements that have been popular with players and should enhance your playing experience even more.

As a quick overview:

Stick-bombing mechanics have been thoroughly overhauled and adjusted to more closely match known historical examples (the Black Buck raid on Port Stanley, Vietnam bombing patterns, Desert Storm attacks etc.). As an extra visual aid, all unguided weapon impacts (both hits and misses) are displayed for a few seconds on the tactical map. (Watching the crater pattern of a B-52 “Arc Light” pass never gets old…)
Much improved support for high-DPI (>150% font) desktop settings. This should help players who run Command on very high-resolution monitors (4K / UHD etc.). This is an ongoing endeavor and more tweaks will be forthcoming in near-future releases.
When using the "zoom to the cursor position" option, after zooming the mouse cursor re-centers on the map. This mirrors the Google Maps cursor behavior and makes mouse-zooming more efficient.
A surprisingly frequent user request: The spacebar (instead of F12) now pauses/resumes the simulation.
Command can now load and run much larger scenarios (>10.000 active units) and is generally more robust against memory-exhaustion issues.
Non-navigation zones and exclusion zones can now be enabled/disabled dynamically mid-scenario instead of always existing. This can be accomplished both through the ScenEdit interface and through Lua – the latter option naturally offering much greater flexibility and power.

In addition, v1.11 SR1 offers a new database refresh (v445) with the usual mile-long list of tweaks and additions, as well as a handy compendium of bug fixes and minor functionality tweaks.

Get it, and enjoy your summer holiday!

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