About This File
The terrain is set up to use the GermanyCE.Cat file but there are not that many ThirdWire objects in use and no ThirdWire tiles so it may work OK with other Terrain.cat files but hasn't been tested.
This is a very narrow focused terrain with the emphasis on fighter bomber operations in the Ardennes region in late 1944 and early 1945. The main intent of this project was to make a semi-historical Battle of the Bulge campaign but as usual with the SF series, things are taking much longer than expected so I'm going to release this unfinished beta 0.9 version for testing and hopefully get the final version with a campaign released in about 6 months.
The towns along the front line are in place but I still have quite a few to add further behind both the US and German lines. Most targets are of the tactical variety such as supply dumps, fuel caches, storage barns, command/communication trucks, fuel trucks, high value tanks and local command buildings.
Most target areas are focused on the Ardennes region with the exception of airfields and hangars. The area to the east of the Rhine river is considered off limits to allied fighter bombers so the five German airfields located there have zero points for runways and hangars. There are two German airfields on the west side of the Rhine that can be assigned as strike targets during single missions. The seven Allied airfields and their hangars can be targets during Luftwaffe strike missions.
NOTES:
The terrain has some artillery positions and the plan is to use the artillery as a force multiplier during the campaign. The artillery is very one sided in areas that saw quick German break outs but the northern and southern shoulders of the battle area saw very little movement so those areas have artillery positions for both sides.
The terrain is meant for fighter bomber operations only so all airfields are classed as SMALL to try and minimize the number of large aircraft that might show up in single missions. There are three types of runways in use, two use a version of my quicker take off mod and one uses the FE style sequential take off.
All the add-on tanks, vehicles, guns, etc. have had adjustments made to things like hit boxes, engine power, on and off road speed, armor protection, gun range, rate of fire, visual range, etc. They aren't perfect but I thought it best to take a consistent approach. Although they weren't always widely available, all the tank guns use AP rounds with no explosive in the warhead. All the guns and ground objects included have a suffix for "Bulge" or "Baffmeister', take your pick.
There is an optional folder that contains some AAA pieces. If you are happy with your present WW2 AAA set up it can be ignored but my WW2 install was a real mess regarding the AAA so I took the opportunity to improve things. For now, the German 88mm, US 90mm and British 3.7inch time fused flak use the same gun and cover the entire WW2 date range. This is a gross simplification but I'm still experimenting with overly large explosive rounds for the time fused flak so it remains as is.
ISSUES:
The seven allied airfield positions are relatively accurate although I had to move them a bit to fit within the GermanyCE terrain tods. The Luftwaffe airfields are just using some of the stock ThirdWire locations. Two of the Luftwaffe airfields have a second airfield/runway attached to give two airfields at one location. None of the airfields are a good representation of the actual WW2 airfields. Also, I haven't had a chance yet to sort through some new objects so they are very plain looking.
I tried to organize the ground objects a bit so they all have Green, Tan and for this terrain White texture folders. Some of the objects had some dedicated winter textures I could use but others I had to make myself by just messing with colors, brightness and saturation. Lots of room for improvement! The same holds true for winter roof textures I did for some building objects. Geezer's objects all have good textures!
While scouting out town locations I found a great spot on the GermanyCE terrain for Elsenborn Ridge and guesstimated the other town locations off that point. The result is inaccurate town locations too far south. It doesn't really affect game play unless you try and fly with a real map but it's a done deal at this point.
The ThirdWire GermanyCE terrain doesn't really do the Ardennes region justice. None off the rivers that were a big part of the Battle of the Bulge are modeled and neither are most of the roads but trying to do a dedicated terrain would have added years to the project.
I tried using a very tight date range for this terrain but it seems to default to 1944 or 1945. For single missions you will want to choose 1944 because, at certain target areas, some US objects get removed from the terrain starting 17th December, 1944.
TERRAIN CREDITS
ThirdWire: GermanyCE terrain and city TODs.
Stary: GermanyCE Hard Winter tiles and countryside TODs and TOD textures. Some TOD textures taken from Rends GermanyCE terrain.
STATIC BUILDING AND EQUIPMENT OBJECTS CREDITS
Geezer: Too many objects to name individually! They are being run from individual folders within the terrain folder. The credits are included within the object folders. Objects include urban blocks, farm houses, town houses, churches, barns, light industrial buildings, warehouses, static vehicles, soldiers, horse drawn carts,tents and a supply dump. Some hangars included as well. Thank you Sir!
Polak and Wrench: Some objects from Object Library 1.
Gepard: Burg_Colditz, Pfalzgrafenstein, airfield ramps, taxiways and a runway with modified textures.
WingWiner: Many town buildings and destroyed models, most with modified textures.
Stary: str_han1, 4, and 8 with modified textures. Also, some Stary textures being used on a couple of ThirdWire hangars.
Sundowner: Road grader.
Closterman: Tactical Control Centre.
Monty CZ: Static version of his Opel_Blitz_Com vehicle and a landing strip model with modified textures.
Mitch: halle3_close
Stephen1918: SmallChurch.
Unknown: FH-Trees, Tree3A, Tree3B and Tree3C.
Unknown: Fort Gatehouse, Fort HQ Building, Fort Turret, Fort Wall and Fort Wall Destroyed, all with modified textures.
GROUND OBJECT CREDITS
Geezer: 105mm German and US artillery, M5 anti tank gun, PanzerWerfer-42, motorized versions of his M3 half track, GMC canvas truck, Dodge WC51 light truck, and a PanzerIVh model that is still a work in progress.
Geo: M3 half track, M36 tank destroyer, Panther tank, Sdkfz251 half track, Sdkfz251 flak, TigerII tank, Sherman M4A3 and E8 tanks, M16 Quad AAA, and Opel Blitz Canvas/Open trucks.
Raven: TigerI tank and the SturmTiger rocket launcher.
Monty CZ: 88Flak36Emplaced, 88mm Flak36Towed[used as AT gun], and I think, the 20mm FlakVierling [quad].
Nicholas Bell: Bofors L60
ThirdWire: US 90mm AAA. [uses KS-19 Lod.]
Unknown: British 3.7inchAAA.
SPECIAL THANKS TO MUE! Without his Target Area Editor I would not have even attempted this project!
INSTALLATION:
Instructions included in the package.
WAIVERS:
Geezer's PanzerIV-h model is still a work in progress and may not be re-distributed in any way. It's included mainly for testing and as a favor to me. It includes some copy/paste textures from RussoUK's PanzerIV-j but that's just a temporary test for now.
Geezer's other building/vehicle/troop etc. objects can be used, with appropriate credits, for freeware projects only, no commercial use permitted. The new objects are contained in individual folders within the BotB Terrain folder and can be easily viewed with Mues lod viewer. You can then do a search through the BotB_Types.ini to see the way I've set them up, which might not be the best way. Keep in mind, this isn't a formal object pack upload and not all summer textures are included.
The terrain is still WIP and may not be re-distributed or modified, except for personal use.
To the best of my knowledge, other objects included in this package are subject to the CombatAce fair use agreement.
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