Company of Heroes: Italian Front Mod(News Update 12/18/08)

[Major Ingram]

Italian Front: News Update 12/18/08

Well it’s been awhile since our last news update we took a little break due to some real life issue/exams and what not but we are now back and working on the mod. Today we would like to show of some new media that we have diligently been working on the last few weeks. First I would like to introduce to you a new small Skirmish map that our level designer Brunogg has been working on called The Gustav Line.







Also our Skinner Georider as been busy at work createing some very nice skins and models we think you will enjoy
























Lastly before I close we are in need of some help with this project we want to get a beta version ready but we need some more development members in order to make this happen. We are looking for the following people below, if your interested in helping us with this project please post in our forum at
http://www.italionfrontmod.smfnew.com/

Level Designer(2): Able to design realistic and historical accurate SP and MP maps and can do SCAR codeing.
Coder(1): Able to create new ability's and new units
Web designer(1): Able to do HTML or CSS

Until Next Time,


The Italian Front Mod Dev Team


About the Mod

Company of Heroes: Italian Front is a full Single-Player and Multi-Player Modification for Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts which will feature a new German Campaign in the Italian Theater of Operations from 1941-45. In this Campaign the player will take part in Operation Crete, The Battle of Monte Casino and later repelling the Allied Invasion at Anzio.


Forums


List of Single-Player Missions Planned

The Mod will feature 8 historical based missions

-Crete
-Dieppe
-Sicily
-Salerno
-Monte Cassino
-Monte Cassino (defense)
-Anzio

-Another mission will also be added to conclude the Campaign


Factions

-Wehrmacht

-Herman Göring Division

-British Army

-US Army


Germany

Units

Wehrmacht Quarters
Status: Completed

-Hauptmann
-Lieutenant
-Grenadier Squad
-Sniper Squad
-Half-Track

Support Barracks
Status: Completed

-Italian Infantry Squad
-Pack 38 Anti-Tank Gun
-Mortar Squad
-Mg Squad

Sturm Armory
Staus: Completed

-Stormtroopers
-Skfdz Armored Car
-Nebelwherfer
-Stug Light Tank


U.S Army

Barracks

-Rifleman Squad
-Sergeant Completed
-Sniper Squad


Support Barracks
Status: Completed

-Rangers
-MG Squad
-Mortar Squad
-AT Gun Squad

Motor Pool
Status:Completed

-M8 Greyhound
-Stuart Light Tank
-M3 Half-Track
-M10 Tank Destroyer
-M4 Sherman

Herman Göring Division

Headquarters

-Luftwafffe




Please note the about is a wip list of units and will probably be changed before it is released, will include the rest of the factions soon.

New Ability's

-Falshimjagers are now able to paradrop
-Wehrmacht Pioneers and US Army Engineers can now build trenches

Other Changes/Additions

-Removed Team Colored rings around units and buildings.



Mod Media Wip








The Mod Development Staff

-Major Ingram Project Leader/Coder

-RGB Coder/Game Art

-Brunogg Level Designer

-tyler4171 Level Designer

-georider Skinner

-Edruken Story Writer/Historian

Community Members Help & Support
-Xeoniz

[RGB]

Good luck! This looks to be a huge project and i hope your ready

[Monkey Soldier]

Sounds interesting

[Kyle243]

This would go well with the solano map, nice idea, good luck!

[georider]

Nice idea but in the British you must include others faction troops or units like Greeks, ,Greek Mound brigate fight at Rimini also Greek army and State Police Fight in Crete . Also you must make France colonial force with the Us which they fought in Montecasino,Salerno. The polish fight also alongside the British in these battles .
You must also include Italian's for the battle of Sicily.
Dieppe doesn't belong in the Mediterranean theater of operations and you want Canadians for this battle and commando's.
Any way good like maybe I can help you if you include the Greek army ,I'll skin them and provide Historical informations about the battle of Crete and Rimini .
PS.Rimini was the key for the succes of the allies at the Monte Casino Battle.
Thanks that you tolerate me

[sturmmacht]

Excellent idea for a mod, I like the setting and factions you have picked. Looking forward to playing it!

[Major Ingram]

thanks for all the wonderful feedback

For now all that can be done right now is codeing untill we get a skinner or level designer, georider thank you for the information I will keep that in mind although all you have mentioned is possible to include, The Greek Army will need a seperate model and right now it is hard to put new models into the game at the moment unless someone found a way to do it.

[tyler4171]

i would be glad to do level designing (I have a copy of 1.71 so i can use action markers) although you need someone to code the maps, i dont do that.

[Major Ingram]

I have sent you a pm

[GShock74]

Wow...somebody finally thought about the campaign closing in on Germany from the south. It would be SO cool if you could start from the SP ...even just 4 missions would make me happy.

[The Athel]

good finally a mod regarding italian front!
will there be italian units recruitable (maybe as off map reinforcements) or will the mod
only feature the wermacht.....i mean what is an italian front mod without italians....?

[Lethal Dosage]

You know Australia had a small role early on in Sicily and Crete (i think), as well as New Zealand, who fought on under British command right up through italy. But we all just love piling work up for you in the form of suggestons!

This looks really good, but i agree with Geo, Dieppe is kinda outta place with the whole Mediterranean theme, but i'd look forward to Churchills spamming the beach with most unable to get off, and leaving the commandoes to most of the work!

[happygharry]

i have a map which i could give you if i have ur e-mail or cant you send files that big over e-mail

Edit: well it very open and not like much of those battles

[Major Ingram]

We wont be adding a new faction for every country that fought in the war however do worry, we will be adding a few countries as units.

-Italian Troops will be available as units inside the Wehrmacht
-Australian and Canadian Units will be available inside the British Commonwealth,this way if the Army was the British Commonwealth in General we could add more nations inside it later on.

-Greek Troops would need new player models unless you want a Greek soldiers in a skinned British player model, so for now we are going to hold of on that unless we come across a modeler(which are hard to come by these days)

[The Athel]

nice really nice!
NOW i can truly say im looking forward for this mod!

[tyler4171]

Ingram,if im right for the U.S the rangers did most of the levels you want designed correc? If so change the animation models for rifleman to rangers.

[Major Ingram]

yes some of them, In Anzio the rangers took a big part in so yes..probably go ahead and do that. however rifleman will still be available in the barracks to support the rangers.


need to work on getting a website and forum for this so we can have private dev team forums.

[Monkey Soldier]

What about the gameplay? Stick to vanilla, or go for something else?

[Major Ingram]

its going to be sort of a mix of both

for example all teams will be able to build trenches, have officers who are able to supervise/command squads. We will also bring some vanilla features to the mods as well.

[Major Ingram]

Forums are now up, enjoy !

[georider]

For now all that can be done right now is codeing untill we get a skinner or level designer, georider thank you for the information I will keep that in mind although all you have mentioned is possible to include, The Greek Army will need a seperate model and right now it is hard to put new models into the game at the moment unless someone found a way to do it.

I'll make a try with model mix give me some time and I'll give you some results. I'll do it for fun so stick to your original idea and we will see from the result.
I can also make you some vehicle models for German's if you like!

[Major Ingram]

that would be awesome

thanks

[The Athel]

im talian and if you need some italian translation i can shurely give a hand.

[Major Ingram]

thank you we will let you know if we need anything translated

also we have a news update and some screenshots of Monte Cassino post at the begining of this post, so feel free to check it out.

[BazzBrother]

cool, I have high hopes for this mod cant wait to see some Mountain troops and mountain warfare!

[Edruken]

Mm, there is a problem about mountain warfare, or at least advanced one, troops should be able to climb cliffs, stealth and camouflage should be way more advanced in order to allow movement undetected, the biggest problem is cliff climbing.

Two things, I strongly state, that the first mission in Monte Cassino is not in the monastery itself, but instead on its surroundings, and the last mission in my opinion should be a local counterattack in 1945 during spring offensive, as it was the last mayor operation, probably starring some of the remaining panzer strenght.

[The Athel]

nice update it looks good in my opinion,but i have seen grenadiers defending montecassino monastery,while there was a fallschirmjager division defending it.
Its not a big problem, i just wanted to tell you.

[Edruken]

The main defending force of the monastery itself was the 1st Fallschirmjager Divison, although other regular grenadier units were stationed nearby, and during the confusion of the 3 months of battle probably some units retreated onto the monastery itself to provide support or to escape the allied juggernaut, so I find it normal to find pictures of Grenadiers or PanzerGrenadiers fighting along the paras.

Can you send me the pic you saw them so I can try to identify their specific role?

[Brunogg]

The maop is not finnished yet, right now is just a skirmish map, so i was playing with the wehr at the time, the map will have code later on. It will be great fighting the way up to the monastery

[tyler4171]

i had a great time on it!!

[Jedi1]

Sounds nice. Glad to here your including ANZACs has the Australian 6th division was at Crete. And New Zealanders fought in Italy. You don't often see the Smaller allies or Axis nations and its nice to see a mod that includes them. Just make shore you get the Slouch Hats and Lemon Squeezers right.

[georider]

The Greeks will only be in SP as Enemy AI and Polish, French and Canadian forces will be available under the British Commonwealth faction.

Major hi what do you mean with the above in your first post.
Greek sacred band Unit had major port as SAS unit in north africa and as an independent brigade at Rimini. So if you include the " Loosers" of WWII French army I don't see a reason why the Greeks must be only SP unit. Besides the French will add only color like in those times used US equipment. Anyway I 'm free on discation about it.

[Major Ingram]

I would like to thank everyone for their wonderful feedback
and advice it helps us alot while makeing this mod. Also we will have a news update soon explaining a little more about are doctrines.

[nigo]

what about Brazilians in Italy?


will have brazilian army?

[Jedi1]

Which Brazilian units were in Italy?

[The Athel]

i have never heard of brazilian units in italy,
could you explain a bit more?

[torenico]

There was, FGB or something like that. I think they fought on the Gothic line and Monte Cassino.



geogrider, STFU, dont call the French "Loosers", adding the greeks only having 1 Brigade, its just waste of time and work. France had more troops than Greece in Italy. I know, it hurts.

Hmm, as far i as know the Greeks used british and American Equipment

[Edruken]

There was a Brazilian expeditionary Corps sent to Italy, were they fought bravely, and suffered relatively few casualties to their number of success. Their air units contributed greatly to the air war over Italy.

To the discussion between French and Greek units, STFU you both, Grecee fougth bravely specially against the invading Italians and inflicted heavy casualties on German paratroopers on Crete, and afterwards was occupied completely, so they couldn´t really put on that much to the war effort, despite this, Greek units usually had a good combat record wherever they fought and against whoever they fought, the same with the french, but they had more population and colonies, so even with France itself occupied they could provide up to Divisional units, which Greece could not due to its smaller population and lack of colonies.

Both of them contributed to the allied war effort in the ways the could, and both French and Greek used American and british equippment.

[georider]

Hmm, as far i as know the Greeks used british and American Equipment

@Edruken Greek National Armed Forces used British Equipment until the end of Greek civil war 1949. After they equip with US material.
The 'DSE" Democratic Greek Army (Partizan's/Communist) used British, Greek post WW2 , Italian and German Equipments ,material and weapons.

[Edruken]

I was refering to greek units that were evacuated from Crete and afterwards served with the allies in regular units.

There is an interesting note about the Greek resistance in the Balkans, if they hadn´t fought so hard against the Italians, Hitler wouldn´t had to delay Barbarossa for so many time and the attack could have went on earlier, and the germans might have reached Moscow in the summer, thereby defeating Russia and allowing them to concentrate all their efforts in the west, for surely crushing Britain in Africa and even to invade the island, in my point of view, the campaign at Greece was very important for the course of the war. Well, still we don´t know if the soviet Union would have surrendered after the fall of moscow, but it would for surely have crippled its ability to fight, and opened the Germans the doors of asia, with the control of the most populated and industrialized part, the rest would fall soon.

[TankGun]

Can't wait for this, so happy to know SOMTHING with Italians is being made for COH, as my family is Italian and many of my uncles and Grandfather fought in Afrika and Ethipoia.

[Jedi1]

Oh well, guess they'll have to just go all tin hats.

[TankGun]

Sorry, georider don't have them on my comp right now. But this will be a fun mod when its done.

[Dosenmais]

How want they to create the italian soldiers?

And only for Operation Husky? After OP Husky, italy surrender.

[georider]

was refering to greek units that were evacuated from Crete and afterwards served with the allies in regular units.

There is an interesting note about the Greek resistance in the Balkans, if they hadn´t fought so hard against the Italians, Hitler wouldn´t had to delay Barbarossa for so many time and the attack could have went on earlier, and the germans might have reached Moscow in the summer, thereby defeating Russia and allowing them to concentrate all their efforts in the west, for surely crushing Britain in Africa and even to invade the island, in my point of view, the campaign at Greece was very important for the course of the war. Well, still we don´t know if the soviet Union would have surrendered after the fall of moscow, but it would for surely have crippled its ability to fight, and opened the Germans the doors of asia, with the control of the most populated and industrialized part, the rest would fall soon.

I'm total agree with your opinion ,Thank you very much.

I'm working on creating some Italian Skins , But the difficulty part is the helmet.

Here some preview of The units in the mod.

[Monkey Soldier]

Nice!

[Yodafey]

Hi, great idea.. I've always wanted to play as the Canadian Forces.. You should put in the Gothic Line and the battle of Ortona

[georider]

The Panther V for HG Div.

[Jedi1]

Nice.

[Lethal Dosage]

Wow, great Tiger!