Acknowledgements: 

First and foremost to Santa's Head #CP#Z, aka, Craig Goodman, for the use of his beautiful soldier tags, which have revolutionized the game of Myth II.  Thank you also, Santa, for testing this, helping fix the RPG bug, and your encouraging comments.  Thanks to all the members of Clan Plaid for their exhaustive beta testing, which brought this map up several levels in quality from its original Hax0red state.  I was considering releasing this without sanction, because I had read a lot of things about how CP were mean and they were keeping people from developing good maps.  I was blown off my feet because #CP# were so helpful and friendly, and took a lot of time to help. Many thanks to many hours of testing by the Myth player Inspect Her Gadget.  Lastly, I'd like to thank Zinfandel for advocating my map and helping get #CP# testers, and for bringing it to Santa's attention.  He's spent lots of time answering all my questions on Hotline, and has found help from experienced map makers when he couldn't answer my questiosn himself.  

The story:

It had been four long years since Pierre Delacroix and his childhood friend, Jean Bousard had fled their village in Normandy, just ahead of the Nazi tank columns which had swept through the rolling hills of his native countryside with destructive fury never before imagined by the peaceful French vintners and shepherds. It had been four years of exile, their families refugees under Vichy French rule, enduring privation and hunger in the hastily assembled camps outside Marseilles.  Four years of training, day after day, with the new American M-1 Carbines, and making plans, during the blackouts, in darkness, in whispers, with his fellow resistance fighters, for the day they would sweep North with the American and British armies, and push the Nazi scourge back from whence they came, and make them pay for ravishing the virgin hills of France. Now, in June of 1944, marching north as part of an allied troop column, breathing in the dust kicked up by the tanks and trucks, the excitement of what they were about to undertake pushed any thoughts of discomfort or danger from their minds.  They were filled with euphoria...

It had all gone to hell in a heartbeat.  Messerschmitt fighter-bombers had swept in unexpectedly, turning the dirt road into a series of bloodstained craters and burning trucks.  Pierre had watched as a flying piece of shrapnel ripped through one of his friends from the training camp, leaving him with a gaping hole in his chest through which Pierre could see the flames on the other side of the dying man.

Stunned, he would have stood dumbfounded to die under dropping bombs or machine gun fire when the warplanes turned and made another sweep of the decimated column, had not Jean pulled him off the road, into a soggy ditch.  "Allez!" He was hurried away from the road, watching over his shoulder as the Allied troops streamed off the road into the scant cover the countryside provided.  His heart caught in his throat as he heard the rumble of what could only be German Mechanized Cavalry rushing in to finish the job.  He and Jean were moving as fast as they could in hip deep water, away from certain death when the sound of a barking dog stopped them in their tracks.  From ahead of them came voices, shouting in German!  Both young men froze, holding their carbines in front of them at the ready.

Suddenly a vicious German Shepherd came leaping over a damp hillock, snarling in canine ferocity.  Jean was quicker than his friend, and 	managed to stop the attack dog with a rifle shot between the eyes, his marksmanship as excellent in this muddy stream as it had been in the Vichy camps... Silently, he gestured in the opposite direction of that from which the dog had come, fear evident in his eyes.  He and Pierre turned and started to run up a muddy bank towards the cover of some trees.  "Halten Sie!" a voice rang out behind them.  Neither turned to look...

When the shots rang out, Pierre ran even faster, but froze when he realized his friend was not keeping up.  He turned to see Jean on the ground, bleeding from his side and leg.  His friend locked eyes with him once, and waved him on, then looked away and removed two grenades from his harness.  His panicked mind barely functioning, Pierre began slowly to move towards what he hoped was relative safety, even as he heard the clink of the pins being pulled.  By the time he heard the explosion that accompanied the screams of German soldiers, he was out of sight, under the cover of some low hanging branches that spread across the running river.  As the sun set, he looked down at the water around his feet and saw it running red with blood....

The map:

Red River is the fifth offical Santa Sanctioned WW2 Map.  It is the first sanctioned map to incorporate new WW2 units, which I hope you enjoy.  It is my first map attempt.

This map uses 3d Fog, which on most machines looks great, but with some 3d accelerators turns a little yellow.  If you dont' like it, just turn it off in the prefs.  It's a blast to play with it on, though.

There are two new units.  

K-9 Scout.  Based on the wolf unit, the K-9 scout has a weak attack and little health compared to a soldier, but can move quickly, and often invisibly to locate enemy units, capture flags, and even attack unprotected soldiers.  For more information on the use of dogs in WWII, read the end of the readme.txt.

Rifle Grenadiers.  A modification of the WW2 Units, these soldiers fire rifle propelled grenades as their special attack, and are limited to 50 regular rounds.  You can pick up more rifle grenades from around the map and use them.  You start out with 15, and fire them using the Special Attack key (T).  For more information on the use of rifle grenades in WWII, read the end of the readme.txt.  


Meshes:

Commando: Similar to the Elimination mesh on Recon, there are 14 starting points.  You start out with one unit.  Unlike Recon, there is no RPG in your initial stack of weapons, to prevent people from blowing folks up while grabbing ordnance at the start of the game.  However, some people enjoy this strategy, so on Heroic and Legendary meshes, there are RPG's at the start.  Game types on this map are King of the Hill, Last Man on the Hill, Body Count, Territories, Steal the Bacon, and Hunting.  On hunting, you get 45 deer, which are smarter than the regular deer and actually run away if you shoot at them.  Playing alone, I managed to kill all 45 in 16 minutes.  I'd love to see if anyone can beat that--it was a lot of fun.

Deux Lˇgions: Similar to S-2, there are two starting locations.  You can trade for up to 24 soldiers, or get fewer soldiers and get up to 2 cannons.  You also get 3 free K-9 Scouts.  Available game types are King of the Hill, Last Man on the Hill, Body Count, Territories, Steal the Bacon, Capture the Flag, and Balls on Parade.

Quatre Lˇgions: Based on S-4, there are 4 starting locations.  Each team can trade for up to 20 soldiers, or can get fewer soldiers and get up to 2 cannons. You also get 2 free K-9 Scouts.  Available game types are King of the Hill, Last Man on the Hill, Body Count, Territories, Steal the Bacon, Capture the Flag, and Balls on Parade.

Huit Lˇgions: Eight starting locations. There is no unit trading, you get 6 soldiers and 2 K-9 Scouts. Available game types are King of the Hill, Last Man on the Hill, Body Count, Territories, Steal the Bacon, Capture the Flag, and Balls on Parade.

Special Forces: Eight starting locations.  You get 3 Rifle Grenadiers, and 1 K-9 Scout.  Available game types are King of the Hill, Last Man on the Hill, Body Count, Territories, Steal the Bacon, Capture the Flag, Balls on Parade, and Assassin.  On Assassin, you get one extra soldier, who is the Assassin target.


Background Info on the new units:

K-9 Troops:  Both Allies and Germans used K-9 troops.  The Allied K-9 units were American, usually German Shepherds, but also using Belgian Sheep Dogs, Doberman Pinschers, Farm Collies and Giant Schnauzers.  They were called "War Dogs"  Some of their uses: Sentries, to warn against the approach of strangers to a camp or body of forces; Patrol Scouts, to help find snipers and ambushes; Messenger Dogs, to travel swiftly and silently from one place to another; and Mine Dogs (unsuccessfully in WW2).  The Axis forces K-9 units were mostly German, but the Japanese used dogs as well. More than 200,000 Axis K-9 troops were trained and used, not only for the purposes listed above, but as attack dogs as well.

Probably the most famous War Dog was Chips. Chips was trained at Front Royal, Virginia in 1942, and was among the first dogs to be shipped overseas. He was assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division and served with that unit in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France and Germany.  His assignments included sentry duty at the Roosevelt-Churchill conference in Casablanca in January 1943.  Although trained as a sentry dog, Chips was reported on one occasion by members of Company I, 30th Infantry Regiment, to have broken away from his handler and attacked a pillbox containing an enemy machine gun crew in Sicily.  He seized one man and forced the entire crew to surrender.  He was also credited by the units to which he was assigned as having been directly responsible for capture of numerous enemies by alerting to their presence.  In recognition of his service Chips was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and the Purple Heart( all were later revoked.) In 1993 Disney produced a TV move about Chips called "Chips the War Dog".

Rifle Grenadiers:  Hand thrown grenades proved difficult to use against tanks in WW2 because of their short range and questionable accuracy.  Rifle Grenades were developed to fly faster, farther, straighter, and more accurately.  They were simply grenades attached to a short stick, which was shoved down the barrel of a rifle.  A blank round was fired from the rifle, and the expanding gasses propelled the grenade.  

These weapons weren't assigned to any specific units, but were spread among the American infantry, and also the German army.  Typically only a few soldiers were designated rifle grenadiers, because regular soldiers had a tendency to forget to use a blank round, which would typically blow the grenade up instead of propelling it.

The American rifle bullets were discontinued and replaced by a grenade launcher that was slung under the rifle barrel.  The German K-98 grenades are now hard-to-find collectors' items.


Thanks for reading.  I hope you have fun playing.

Oz-1 (aka OzOne, Eddie Crabbe) mailto:eddieozone@earthlink.net

Copyright 1998 in whole or in part Bungie Software Products Corporation. Created with Bungie's Fear and Loathing by: Oz-1.

Soldier units copyright Craig Goodman aka. Santa's Head #CP#Z
