There is getting to be a fairly huge quantity of scenarios in CMANO. It can be overwhelming to sift through the Community Pack / Steam Workshop / Live Scenarios and determine if a scenario is a well polished masterpiece, or a single focus tactical exercise.
Which scenarios do you enjoy the most?
My goto list is :
Under African Skies Team Yankee Brother vs. Brother Hit Hard, Hit Fast
A WW3 scenario done properly, with the player only handling their little Regiment of MiG-27s and their taskings. Brilliantly atmospheric and pretty tough.
Blood Diamonds
A typical "Carrier Strike Group's punishing action against african shìthole" but executed by a Chinese carrier group, which is much less typical.
Also very well put together with several SNAFUs seldom seen in CMANO scenarios like contradictory orders, and ROEs so constraining that you WILL violate them due to sheer frustration (and you will be taken points for it but you will decide that it was worth it [:D]).
The Seventh Battle
What the book that inspired it wishes to be. A pretty big but still manageable carrier battle in the South African coast, pitting your hefty air and surface strike power against some of the most dense (frustratingly, impossibly, WILL YOU EVER RUN OUT OF MISSILES DAMNED RUSSIANS) air defenses ever seen.
Also you have to survive a FIVE pronged Backfire&Badger&Fencer&Sandbox&Everything strike with a light carriers and amphibs only group.
Good luck.
The war that never was series
To me, one of the unsung classics of the Community Pack.
Fairly elaborate scenarios, with good difficulty, unusual arenas (also usual ones, but still well made so you can forgive it) and action from the two sides, with side exclusive scenarios for Reds and Blues and others with selectable side.
The full battleset is composed of:
-Battle of Kodel Channel
-Battle of the First Salvo, Eastern Med
-Bosphorus Blues
-Closing the Kurile Gap
-Crossing the Line of Death
-Facing the Bear
-Indian Ocean Brawl
-Kitty Comes to Kamchatka
-The Shores of Tripoli
Two other scenarios exist based in the same novel (USS Midway vs. Cuba, Southern Brawl) but are made by another author and do not belong to the original battleset.
Those two are still good (albeit the second one is a little too easy for my taste) but the difference in style it's obvious.
I think the scenarios is really great using all aspects of what the cmano can offer.
#2 under African Skies, Havana Daydream and Goodnight Irene by feltan
I'm a sucker for a good story!
Jokes aside
Apart from Paul's great work on Northern Inferno( please bring back cutscenes)
These scenarios really help you feel immersed in the situation
#3 All Gunner98's scenarios
If you were to hold me to only picking three:
The longest day (logistics logistics Logistics)
Jarheads on ice ( who doesn't like sending in the Marines)
Socotra scramble ( I've loved the Indian Ocean Theatre especially scenarios which include that Island)
Agreed! All of Gunner98s' Fury series (Northern, Mediterranean, Indian, Baltic & Caribbean) are excellent. I'm sure Pacific will be too.
Picking favorites out of them is difficult. I particularly like the 'big forces in tight spaces' situations, so Med Fury 2 and 3 are superb in that regard, as is Indian Fury 1 and Caribbean Fury 1. If you like a more dispersed feel, Indian Fury 2 has you trying to fend off all sorts of odd little threats as you try and gather your forces along the east coast of Africa. If you want massive weeks-long whole-Atlantic convoy operations, from the Falklands to Iceland, then look at Northern Fury 12.6, The Longest Day. For heavy carrier smashing action, the Northern Fury scenarios in the Iceland area are just the thing. The smaller carriers won't feel left out with Northern Fury 13.3 Charge of the Light Brigade. I could go on, but eventually I'd just list them all...
From other authors, Yokes' 'The War that Never Was' series was quite good, providing lots of big-force combats.
I'm humbled by all the positive feedback on my scenarios. Thanks guys! As for my favorites...
Armed Diplomacy, 1996 is a great scenario in a great DLC
The Gold Rush and South China Sea series' by Airyx on the Steam Workshop are definitely ones to check out. Large, well balanced battles, and in the case of Gold Rush, in a setting rarely used in C:MANO
Little Green Men in the Baltic Sea was the first scenario I subscribed to on the Steam Workshop, and remains one of the best I've played from there.
Thanks for the kind words about my scenarios. An unfortunate side effect of everything going on is that I don't get a chance to actually play many scenarios these days and this is a really tough question as there are so many good ones out there.
I would have to say that feltan's three scenarios: Under African Skies, Havana Daydreamen and Goodnight Irene are my favorite along with the War that never was series an some of BeirutDuds scenarios . Many of Mark Gillis' are good to and most are small enough to play in one sitting, and there are a lot of them.
I'm not a CWDB guy but the ones I've dabbled with, Randomizers Wargasm and Seven Days in October by Apache are superb.
I'll need to look into the Steam workshop - don't they make it to the community pack?
Goodnight Irene is the scenario that got me hooked on CMANO in the first place. After that is was Gunner98's H-Hour that launched our novel collaboration.
I have looked to these scenarios for a long time. Hopefully I'll see a more or less accurate simulation.
Ordered the book (Palmer: The war that never was) for little money now for background information.
Im playing now the second battle of Midway 1994. I removed all the AC from Midway to make it even more difficult! I modified the loadod from a few AC on the CV. So it is a real challenge (be careful not to run out of fuel...)
