Outmanoeuvred: Combat Mission Shock Force 2

British Armour hooks south of Damascus to cut off Syrian forces fleeing the capital.
Mods used in this video:
HQS Sound Mod: cmmodsiii.green...
Veins Visual Effects: cmmodsiii.gree...
Vin Geometric Icons: www.thefewgood...
Sir Lancelot's Syrian Army Realism Mod: community.battl...
IIRC the British Uniforms are from here: community.batt...
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[@zombine375]

I remember first playing this scenario years ago and rushing my challengers forward thinking they'd easily outspot any enemy armor. Needless to say i didnt get far.

[@JcDent]

Was it ATGMs or tanks?

[@zombine375]

@@JcDent both. The t-72s will happily get lucky hits through your drivers port or gun breech so hulk down is heavily advisable. The atgms are the same except they’re considerably harder to spot if you dont have other vehicles actively spotting. AT-14s are no joke

[@notcraig2239]

I did this mission nearly identical to you, I even lost a Chally in the exact same spot as your first loss to a round that also went through the gunner's vision block. My only real difference was that I spread my Javelins out (1 on the right, another in the same position as yours) and only lost 1 challenger. I bombarded anything left with air and artillery, and ceasefired without ever crossing the highway with a major victory. I also happened to bomb the worker's housing as an obvious position and killed quite of few of the lurking infantryman as a bonus. Well done as always

[@usuallyhapless9481]

Thanks very much! Always interesting when people tackle missions the same way.

[@The2ndFirst]

It's payday AND a Hapless video! WOOHOO!

[@burningphoneix]

>Get 125mm Sabot impacting 50cm from your head >Driver fine Sending a support ticket to Elvis to nerf Chally 2

[@thephlyingphish5104]

Horrible luck with that challenger. My playthrough went about the same, but luckily my tac ai was more favorable and i only suffered a mobility kill on a challenger and a jav team.

[@jsilva4595]

So glad you are doing more of these scenario playthroughs, behind your unit guides I think this is my favorite type of content.

[@dozysocozy]

Good video, it's been a while since we've seen a SF2 vid.

[@SMJ495]

I’d be surprised if any T72 in history has hit a shot like the one that moving TURMS pulled off to knockout the challenger lol

[@usuallyhapless9481]

I'd be surprised if any T72 has gotten that close, tbh

[@jordanlindeman8130]

Hapless using my uniform mod. I am honored!

[@usuallyhapless9481]

And it looks awesome!

[@Tekisasubakani]

I always appreciate that you welcome us back, Hapless. :)

[@___seb3341]

5:25 Some of the more modern vehicles in SF2 have thermal blocking smoke, shown in game by the brown color (rather than white or black) thats why the challenger could not make the spot

[@horseman2777]

Specifically in this case, it would be the Scimitar. To my knowledge, only the Stryker and Scimitar have thermal blocking smoke, but there may be more

[@usuallyhapless9481]

IIRC, the Chally could still draw line of sight through the smoke.

[@CassidyRose-nq4iq]

Wanted to say i love the channel and you brought the combat mission games to my attention and i think they are my new favorite series of games. Love the content you make and cant wait to see more

[@usuallyhapless9481]

Thanks very much man! There's plenty in the pipe

[@dimazaharov8565]

They have: a lot of crowded infantry inside buildings, plus some ATGM on the roofs. You have: significant arty reserves and spotting ability. In short, i can see some ways to destroy enemy presence there without pushing in too far.

[@usuallyhapless9481]

True, but I didn't know that at the time.

[@eaglestrike211lel2]

This is definitely one of the most deceptively easy missions in Stock Force 2, I had struggles with this one as well.

[@rightfeelI]

The one I have struggled with the most is the first mission of khabour trail, I really suck at infantry only plus the mission has a very low amount of time for the huge map and the urban warfare that it got

[@usuallyhapless9481]

Oh, the Khabour Trail is tough.

[@eaglestrike211lel2]

@@usuallyhapless9481 100%

[@SgtKelly100]

'Violently disassembled' 🤣

[@whya2ndaccount]

Always good to get Orders without a mission statement or main effort. Where are the line Tk Tps? I don't understand why SHQ (a C2 node) is at the super pointy end of the fight? I also suspect the SSM will be conducting some refresher training on jockeying (berm drills for our American cousins) and not sitting still. :)

[@GrumblingGrognard]

I would unbutton your vehicles in scenarios with engagement ranges as long as this scenario. They seem to spot (a bit) better that way, and small arms fire is a very small threat at those ranges in comparison to simply not seeing that enemy tank ATGM team/vehicle. Just my two cents.

[@burningphoneix]

They would lose all the fancy thermals and other optics that way. Unbuttoning is only really useful in the WW2 and cold war titles

[@usuallyhapless9481]

I actually can't remember if the Challenger 2 has a suite of thermal optics for the commander. Sounds expensive! But the broad guideline I've always followed is: Open Up for WW2, Button Up for Modern.

[@burningphoneix]

@@usuallyhapless9481 The only source I have on hand is "Challenger Main Battle Tank 1982-97" by Osprey and they state that both Commander and Gunner had thermal display units as early as Challenger 1. Online sources seem to corroborate this.

[@GrumblingGrognard]

@@burningphoneixNo I do not think that is how it is programed at all; and I think you (both)are taking the term too literally. I would hope that just because the hatch is open; and the commander has the ability to look outside that does not mean he has decided to ignore his hardware entirely for no reason whatsoever. Unless I am very mistaken the "unbuttoned" state is exactly that - best of both worlds regarding vision/sighting...yet somewhat exposed.

[@schweinehund3497]

ruuuuuule brittania

[@BrorealeK]

Hey Hapless, have you ever played the coup campaign on Shock Force 2? I really enjoyed it, but it was brutally hard.

[@usuallyhapless9481]

Probably not. There's a couple and I haven't played any of them.

[@BrorealeK]

@@usuallyhapless9481 I highly recommend trying it. The red-on-red matchup is very fun, and it tries to simulate what a military coup in a Ba'athist state like Iraq or Syria would have looked like before the Arab Spring. The campaign maker did an outstanding job with the background and atmosphere.

[@romain5967]

Great video. Any plans to make a video going over all soviet tanks, same style as the Sherman one?

[@usuallyhapless9481]

Ooof, there's a lot more variation between Soviet tanks than there are between different types of Sherman.

[@CptJdrek]

May I ask how do you record your footage sir? Love your channel

[@usuallyhapless9481]

I use Bandicam these days, but I have used Shadowplay and OBS in the past. A lot of people seem to have problems getting OBS to work properly with CM though.

[@RoundenBrown]

11:15 Looks like the slat armor was useless in this case.

[@usuallyhapless9481]

Its not great, ERA is much more effective as a rule.

[@wojszach4443]

brits finnaly get a chance to feel how it is to have a tiger

[@WolfTheTrueKing]

I had a similar approach when tackling this mission. But I decided to punch through and the infantry grind is brutal. Plus getting a good spot on atgms is extremely hard and annoying, also dangerous

[@timothysmith7364]

I wonder if you should have deployed the javelins earlier, prior to using the HQ challenger 2. You may have sighted the other tanks and in so doing saved your HQ tank :)

[@usuallyhapless9481]

That would probably have been a good idea. Though I was expect the Crack Chally 2 crew to be less useless...

[@urfr5026]

One of my favorite missions. You have more or less the entire NATO arsenal at your disposal. Playing it as REDFOR, however, is what I call 'mission impossible'. Try moving your T62s into position without getting smoked by Javelins... GL with that

[@ku9305]

I really liked this video, apart from the ending which seemed a bit cheesy and gamey after you checked the game files to see if the enemies were going to get any more reinforcements. Would have been nice if you had at least tried to reach the touch objectives.

[@Euan_Miller43]

Why would you though? Only worth 400 points compared to the over 1000 for destroying enemy forces, they’re a sideshow not the main effort

[@usuallyhapless9481]

It is a little cheesy, but the alternative was just calling it and seeing the result anyway... which is also cheesy.

[@JcDent]

Feels like Syrian armor should be used to fight anything but tanks while tanks are for infantry (in close range) or ATGMs (long range) to take out. I'd also say artillery, but Syrian artillery takes forever to call in.

[@robertkalinic335]

The syrian t72 decides its gonna pull off impossible drive by shot just as the Brits go monkey brain with their austerity measures again.

[@notagged]

Playing vs dumb AI and having a tech superiority makes it look like low effort turkey shooting. Would be more impressive, if you had tech disadvantage and still win.

[@The2ndFirst]

one fights the foe in front of them. Only idiots act like gentlemen in war.

[@notagged]

@@The2ndFirst this is not a war, this is game with stupid AI

[@The2ndFirst]

@@notagged And what? I hope you feel better now.

[@notagged]

@@The2ndFirst You dont have to be so aggressive, buddy, i mean no offence, its just my opinion. Do you have problems with it?

[@usuallyhapless9481]

The AI looks a lot dumber when it's NATO than it does when it's the Syrians- at least the AI's shortcomings are broadly reflective of the level of incompetence you might expect.

[@TheKrakovv]

Omg, this game looks like 2001 game...

[@robertkalinic335]

Yes ...its fine. It aged quite decently except for controls which take some learning but you have training campaign, long manual and a ton of yt videos going even deeper. Its like a difference between war thunder where computer sort of flies plane for you and high detail simulation in dcs,a lot more challenging but also rewarding. Prob best way to grasp warfare concepts and get some understanding of hardware for nonprofessional enthusiasts.

[@Mechanized85]

if you got a problem with it, just go play your damn war thunder shit.