







by









Matrix/Slitherine









This time around we have another Matrix Slitherine game to review, and once again it is based on a John Tiller game. It seems you could throw the proverbial cat and hit one. Just a caveat - I do not endorse cat throwing. Some of the proverbs that have been handed down to us really make me wonder about our ancestors.





Campaign ME is a tactical game on the squad or platoon level. It is based upon the Talonsoft game Battleground 10, and it was released in 1997. Campaign ME gives us scenarios from 1948 to 1982. The majority of the scenarios involve Israeli forces versus the various Arabic speaking countries around Israel.





General Features:

Numerous different platoon types; infantry, machine guns, mortars, artillery, trucks, halftracks, APC's, tanks, helicopters, landing craft, etc. 3D art, 2D art and 2D NATO icons for all platoons. Sound files for movement and weapons. Armour facing of armoured vehicles. Classification of hard and soft targets. Classification of infantry combat capabilities. Night vision for certain tank types. Hidden Fire for certain unit types. Clear and lay minefields. Build Improved positions and trenches. Lay light and medium bridges. Day and Night transitions during the course of a scenario. Ability to set Opportunity Fire against Hard, Soft, Other and Anti-aircraft platoons. On-map thermometers for Action Points, Morale and Strength for all platoons in all map views. Three Fog of War levels. Desert and Mediterranean terrain classifications within the map editors. Civilians. Comprehensive manual. Numerous display options allowing the customer to set up the game to their requirements/preferences







The middle east during the cold war was a testing ground for various weapons systems of Nato and Warsaw Pact countries. The game allows you to go from WWII weaponry to almost state of the art. To be honest, I have always liked the campaign series of games and have bought every iteration of them. The work that Matrix Slitherine , and The Campaign Series Legion has done on the various games has only sweetened the deal.





The conflicts the game covers are as follows:





First Arab-Israeli War in 1948

Suez Crisis of 1956

Six Day War of 1967

War of Attrition

October War of 1973

Invasion of Lebanon in 1982

Algerian War of Independence

Egypt in Yemen

United Kingdom in Aden

Libyan - Egyptian Border War 1977





There are over 130 historical and hypothetical scenarios. There are also four simplified 'boot camp' scenarios to help get the player up to speed.The game also comes with three linked campaigns.





The countries' armed forces that you are allowed to play are:





France, United Kingdom, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Algeria, Libya, Generic Pro-West and Generic Pro-East. Each of these countries have a fully functional Order of Battles, based on historical TO&E's, from Company to Corps level. Combined, there are well over a thousand unique platoons available.





Let us first take a look at the game's graphics. For us older Grogs who still or did at one time own the Talonsoft games, they are a sight for sore eyes. I always liked the game play on the older Talonsoft games, but the graphics were never to my taste, and I always had difficulty just looking at the map and distinguishing what each unit depicted really was. You could click on any unit you wanted to check, but this was time consuming, and not something the player should have to do. The game now comes with seven view modes. There are three 3D, and four 2D levels of zoom.





























As a solo wargamer I always liked the AI in the Campaign Series games. The Campaign Series Legion has worked hard to enhance the AI even more. They have tried to match the AI behavior to the year, nation, and scenario itself. As is the case with most wargame AIs, they do better at defense than in attack. That is not to say that I haven't been caught with my pants down by the AI. The AI's use of artillery in the game was also a strong point for me. Attacking or defending many times left me with a "what do I do now" look after my silicon troops were scattered after a bombardment.

















Because of the nature of modern warfare the game has four levels of height for helicopters:





Ground

Nap of the Earth

Low

High









For those of you who like to tinker there are map, battle, and scenario editors. The map editor has forty-nine levels of elevation and no size limit, as long as your computer hardware is up to it.

















This game shows itself to be a keeper by its vast scale in time and conflicts. Instead of being a game with ten to twenty scenarios of the same battle, you get warfare from WWII to almost modern tanks and weaponry. you have even more to conjure up by using all of the editors. With their use you can match up pretty much any combination of East versus West.





There is a 207 page manual (PDF) that comes with the game. It is very inclusive of whatever the player would need to know.













The user interface for the Campaign series has been described as clunky or non-user friendly. The series was, after all, coded twenty years ago. The newer game's user interface has been streamlined from the older versions.To sum it up Campaign Series Middle East is a good tactical game of the years of warfare it portrays. If you are interested in the progression of warfare from WWII to modern, or are just in a WWII rut then take a look at Campaign Series Middle East 1945-1985 . I have been in touch with Jason Petho of the Campaign Series Legion, the developers of the game. In 2017 you can expect a Campaign Middle East 2.0 version.



This was a review of the 1.02 version, the following is a rundown of the update:





FIXES

• Revised Linked Campaign Game Strength Point carry-over issue

• Revisions to the Unit Viewer (F3)

• Fixed several issues involving airstrikes

• Fixed another off board artillery bug

• Fixed occasional edmap launch crash bug

• Adjusted vertical positioning of 2D bridges and ford for engine, edit and edmap



ENHANCEMENTS

• Implemented Options  Mouse Wheel Zoom

• Implemented Options  Hex Contour Widths  1/2/3

• Implemented Options  Cursor  Small/Standard/Large for varying cursor sizes

• Implemented Options  Cursor  Enhanced for a frosted cursor

• Implemented Options  Details  Persistent, a toggle that indicates whether the Damage Report persists until click (or the Esc key is pressed), or vanishes after a delay automatically

• Added terrain feature: Ditches (hexside anti-tank ditches)

• Added terrain feature: Crests (hexside)

• Added terrain feature: Water Block (hexside)

• Added terrain feature: Industrial (hex, for desert terrain)

• Substituted a new engine toolbar, with new OP FIRE button, revised Climb/Descend buttons

• Revised Top of Stack/Bottom of Stack buttons

• Substituted BoxArt style command and results dialogs

• Substituted square nation flags for roundels in the Organization Editor

• Improved diagnostic logging

• For terrain and counter draws, set compiler option to optimize for speed

• Implemented ON_CYCLE as hot key (TAB) for faying hex’s terrain about available alternatives

• Elevation Delta now saved between sessions for engine, edit and edmap)

• All airborne helicopters flying in the Low or High flight zones now have a spotting capability, even if unarmed reconnaissance or transport



GRAPHICS

• Revised a few 3D terrain and vegetation tiles

• Revised 2D terrain and vegetation tiles

• Revised Iraqi 3D graphics

• Revised United Kingdom 3D graphics

• Special graphics and units that are amphibious have been given appropriate graphics

• Revised all 3D graphics with a muted look, allowing 3D units to stand out clearly against the terrain



DATA

• Updated Weapon.pdt file, revising existing information and adding new information for new units

• Updated 09,14,22,23,24,30 platoon.oob files with additions and corrections



SCENARIOS

o New Scenarios by Jason Petho:

o No Match for the 100 (Bir Gifgafa 1967)

o Tourney - Set A01 - High Noon

o Tourney - Set C01 - Hack and Slash

o Tourney - Set C02 - The Villages

o Tourney - Set D01 - Dancing in the Desert

o New Scenario by Jim Mays:

o Tourney - Set B02 - A Furious Charge

o New Scenarios by Alan R. Arvold (available in the mods folder):

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #1

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #2

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #3

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #4

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #5

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #6

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #7

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #8

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #9

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #10

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #11

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #12

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #13

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #14

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #15

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #16

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #17

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #18

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #19

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #20

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #21

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #22

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #23

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #24

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #25

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #26

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #27

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #28

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #29

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #30

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #31

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #32

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #33

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #34

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #35

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #36

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #37

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #38

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #39

o Arab-Israeli Wars Scenario #40

o Revised Suez Linked Campaign

o Revised all affected scenario/campaign maps with new Industrial terrain hex

o Scenario Modifications to:

o The Crossroads

o Off to Giddi

o Bootcamp 3

o Battlefields of Old

o Raid Into Libya

o Into the Ring

o A Taste of Sa’iqa

o Into Africa!

o The End in the Sahara

o Hot Knife Through Butter



MODS

We have included a number of user made modifications that may enhance your gaming experience. It is recommended to use the JSGME Modification Enabler Software that is included as part of the installation. See Section 16.3 for instructions.



• Alan R. Arvold Ode To Arab-Israeli Wars – This is a scenario set based on the Arab-Israeli Wars created by Alan R. Arvold.

• Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars – This is a 2D graphics modification by Petri Nieminen (aka Crossroads) to provide the players of the Ode to Arab-Israeli Wars scenarios an authentic look and feel when playing the scenarios.

• Alternate 3D Bases – This is a 3D graphics modification that simplifies the roundels in the 3D view, making them easier to distinguish against the terrain.

• Black 2D Unit Profiles – This is a 2D graphics modification that converts the coloured unit graphics to black silhouettes.

• Black Unit Info Box – This is a UI graphics modification that removes the background information when using the Unit List, making the unit information easier to read.

• MausMan 3D Graphics – This is a massive 3D graphics modification that converts all 3D terrain graphics to a smaller scale.

• NATO Icons w. Transp. Background – This is a 2D graphics modification for NATO symbols that removes all colour coding and just displays the black outlines.

• NATO Icons w. White Background – This is a 2D graphics modification for NATO symbols that replaces all colour coding with a white background.



MANUAL

The manual has been revised to 1.02 UPDATE standards. It has also been combed through; revising graphics and grammatical errors, in addition to incorporating comments from users (inclusion of 2D and 3D screenshots, for example).









Robert





Developer: The Campaign Series Legion

Slitherine Publisher: Matrix