Schrullenhaft

CM is single-threaded in its execution with a few exceptions in the code that do utilize more than one core (loading scenarios and possibly some other things). So more cores in a CPU doesn't benefit CM a majority of the time. For CM's purposes single-core performance will be the feature that has the biggest impact. Within the same brand and generation of CPUs, clock-speed would be the most noticeable difference, though you can have differences in cache sizes, cache-efficiency and sometimes multi-core arrangements all within the same family that can have significant impact on performance. In general, CM does like higher clock speed CPUs, but a difference of only 100MHz might be almost undetectable in a majority of situations. 
Artkin's 5GHz CPUs require overclocking to reach those frequencies (which can potentially shorten the life of them if higher voltages are used). The 3.7GHz of the 3900X should be fine, in fact a single core on that CPU can boost up to 4.6GHz (without manual overclocking). There are some performance improvements with newer AMD Ryzen and Intel CPUs, but you're going to pay A LOT more for them and the performance difference may only be 20% in some cases - so a mildly noticeable improvement, but possibly not worth the price difference.

CM is single-threaded in its execution with a few exceptions in the code that do utilize more than one core (loading scenarios and possibly some other things). So more cores in a CPU doesn't benefit CM a majority of the time. For CM's purposes single-core performance will be the feature that has the biggest impact. Within the same brand and generation of CPUs, clock-speed would be the most noticeable difference, though you can have differences in cache sizes, cache-efficiency and sometimes multi-core arrangements all within the same family that can have significant impact on performance. In general, CM does like higher clock speed CPUs, but a difference of only 100MHz might be almost undetectable in a majority of situations. 
Artkin's 5GHz CPUs require overclocking to reach those frequencies (which can potentially shorten the life of them if higher voltages are used). The 3.7GHz of the 3900X should be fine, in fact a single core on that CPU can boost up to 4.6GHz (without manual overclocking). There are some performance improvements with newer AMD Ryzen and Intel CPUs, but you're going to pay A LOT more for them and the performance difference may only be 20% in some cases - so a mildly noticeable improvement, but possibly not worth the price difference.

CM is single-threaded in its execution with a few exceptions in the code that do utilize more than one core (loading scenarios and possibly some other things). So more cores in a CPU doesn't benefit CM a majority of the time. For CM's purposes single-core performance will be the feature that has the biggest impact. Within the same brand and generation of CPUs, clock-speed would be the most noticeable difference, though you can have differences in cache sizes, cache-efficiency and sometimes multi-core arrangements all within the same family that can have significant impact on performance. In general, CM does like higher clock speed CPUs, but a difference of only 100MHz might be almost undetectable in a majority of situations. 
Artkin's 5GHz CPUs require overclocking to reach those frequencies (which can potentially shorten the life of them if higher voltages are used). The 3.7GHz of the 3900X should be fine, in fact a single core on that CPU can boost up to 4.6GHz (without manual overclocking). There are some performance improvements with newer AMD Ryzen and Intel CPUs, but you're going to pay A LOT more for them and the performance difference may only be 20% in some cases - so a mildly noticeable improvement, but possibly not worth the price difference.

I posted a response in the Tech Support forum asking about your OS. If you're running into issues with 10.15.x (Catalina) and your iMac Pro has a Radeon Pro Vega series video chip, then it looks like you're going to have issues with the entire CM series. The OpenGL drivers in Catalina seem to be broken when it comes to the Radeon Pro Vega series and I'm not aware of any fix beyond upgrading to a newer OS (since Apple only releases driver updates with OS updates/upgrades).

The 'green' patches are the 1.01, 1.02 and 1.03 patches that MUST be consecutively applied. The patches are NOT cumulative, so you could not simply apply the 1.03 patch and be fully up-to-date. These patches are for the Battlefront version of the game, which will require the CMAK CD to be present in your optical drive in order for them to work. You will need CMAK to be fully installed before applying them and make sure you know the path to the CMAK installation, especially if it is not the default one (the patches may require you to specify this path).
These patches do NOT do anything in regards to Windows compatibility. These patches mostly addressed minor data issues with the game (incorrect characteristics for vehicles, etc.). They all came out before Windows Vista (2003 time frame, I believe). There is/was a 1.04 patch that addressed a particular graphics bug seen under Windows Vista (and possibly later) that newer driver releases from Nvidia and AMD addressed (thus negating the need for the patch). The 1.04 patch utilized the eLicense copy-protection system and was NOT free. It is also no longer offered, so 1.03 is the latest patch for CMAK.

I keep forgetting that the modules are part of the main download for the game now. So any Engine 4.0 Upgrade installer should have the module content as part of it now. As long as your installation was downloaded and installed AFTER the 'Fire and Rubble' module was released then you would have the content already. If not, then you may need to download the latest CMRT 4.x Engine download and reinstall the game.
To activate the license key for Fire and Rubble look for an 'Activate New Products - CMRT' shortcut either on your desktop, in the 'Battlefront' listing in the Start Menu or browse for it wherever you installed CMRT (it will be in the 'root' of the game directory). Launching this should bring up the licensing dialog and you can copy-and-paste your license key in there and make sure you get the 'success' dialog and it should show a green box for the 'Fire and Rubble' module on the final screen listing the activated products.

With the current copy-protection system: No. There's no resource available to the end user that shows what license key has been used, after-the-fact. To my knowledge the Helpdesk also does NOT have an utility that can tell what license key has been used. I don't know if they have database/utility that can tell the number of activations used or remaining on a license key (I suspect not, but I'm not sure).

Is this a laptop or a desktop, I assume it is a desktop (with a high-res monitor) ? With laptops that have both integrated Intel video and a dedicated GPU, you may have to force the game to run on the dedicated GPU. Methods to do this can vary, usually it can be done with the dedicated GPU's control panels by adding a profile for the game. Other times it may require a change in a particular video utility that controls which video chip is running an application.
If this is a desktop (where integrated video will not usually be the culprit), have you already disabled FXAA in the Nvidia Control Panel ('Global' or specific to the application) ? There is also an 'Image Scaling' setting that I have set to 'OFF' (I'm only running 1920 x 1200, though).
Another possible problem may be 'scaling'. I'm using Windows 10, so I'm not absolutely sure how similar Windows 11 settings may be. With Steam you may need to find the actual game executable and create a shortcut link to it on your desktop for convenience. Otherwise it MAY be possible that the Nvidia controls may be using the 'Steam' presets. In Windows 10 you can right-click on the game icon and select 'Properties' from the popup menu. In here go to the 'Compatibility' tab and go to the bottom and click on the 'Change high DPI settings'. In here go to the bottom section 'High DPI scaling override'. Click the check-box for 'Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by:' and make sure that 'Application' is selected in the drop-down box.
Another thing to try when it comes to scaling (at least with Windows 10 - it may be located a bit different or have different options in Win 11) is to go to Start Menu > 'Settings' > 'Display' menu option (on left, typically the default selection) > 'Scale and layout' section > here you likely may have the scaling above '100%' with high resolution displays. You can adjust this for your entire desktop (with fonts and icons appearing much smaller, if you do) or you can click on the 'Advanced scaling settings' just below this. In the 'Fix scaling for apps' section you can TURN OFF the slider button for 'Let Windows try to fix apps so they're not blurry'.

Para ser claros, ¿tiene un problema con CMCW (que se lanzó recientemente este año)? Cuando ingresa la clave de licencia, ¿le está diciendo que no es válida o recibe un error diferente durante el proceso de activación? Si está 'sin activaciones', puede abrir un ticket con el servicio de asistencia técnica (haga clic en el botón azul, '+ nuevo ticket' en la parte superior derecha) y proporcione su clave de licencia y ellos pueden agregar una activación por usted. ¿Se trata de una clave de licencia impresa en una pegatina que viene con las compras de 'solo envío por correo'? Si su clave de licencia está en línea (listada en su cuenta de la tienda), y la está copiando y pegando, tenga cuidado con exactamente lo que está copiando (sin espacios en blanco adicionales, etcétera).
El último parche para CMCW es 1.01. Aplicarlo no debería afectar la validez de su clave de licencia. No sé si la descarga completa está en 1.01 todavía.

Para ser claros, ¿tiene un problema con CMCW (que se lanzó recientemente este año)? Cuando ingresa la clave de licencia, ¿le está diciendo que no es válida o recibe un error diferente durante el proceso de activación? Si está 'sin activaciones', puede abrir un ticket con el servicio de asistencia técnica (haga clic en el botón azul, '+ nuevo ticket' en la parte superior derecha) y proporcione su clave de licencia y ellos pueden agregar una activación por usted. ¿Se trata de una clave de licencia impresa en una pegatina que viene con las compras de 'solo envío por correo'? Si su clave de licencia está en línea (listada en su cuenta de la tienda), y la está copiando y pegando, tenga cuidado con exactamente lo que está copiando (sin espacios en blanco adicionales, etcétera).
El último parche para CMCW es 1.01. Aplicarlo no debería afectar la validez de su clave de licencia. No sé si la descarga completa está en 1.01 todavía.

Para ser claros, ¿tiene un problema con CMCW (que se lanzó recientemente este año)? Cuando ingresa la clave de licencia, ¿le está diciendo que no es válida o recibe un error diferente durante el proceso de activación? Si está 'sin activaciones', puede abrir un ticket con el servicio de asistencia técnica (haga clic en el botón azul, '+ nuevo ticket' en la parte superior derecha) y proporcione su clave de licencia y ellos pueden agregar una activación por usted. ¿Se trata de una clave de licencia impresa en una pegatina que viene con las compras de 'solo envío por correo'? Si su clave de licencia está en línea (listada en su cuenta de la tienda), y la está copiando y pegando, tenga cuidado con exactamente lo que está copiando (sin espacios en blanco adicionales, etcétera).
El último parche para CMCW es 1.01. Aplicarlo no debería afectar la validez de su clave de licencia. No sé si la descarga completa está en 1.01 todavía.

GoG's version is 1.03 (the latest/last from Battlefront was 1.04). Other than that they are the exact same, though GoG does include a DirectX utility. I really haven't experimented around enough to discern if the utility makes any sort of difference to the game. I suspect that your 2D UI issues will NOT be resolved by the GoG version/distribution.
To get the games working properly (resolution-wise) I had to delete the Prefs file that gets installed with the games (something that normally isn't present until you go through the resolution selection process).
Do you Alt-Tab out of the game and re-maximize it to refresh the 2D screens ? That may not always work, but it is something to try. Alt-Tab'ing is also a bit necessary to get the CMx1 games running at a decent speed under Windows 10.

It looks like you're attempting to install starting with a version 1.x installer. Those do NOT work with Windows 10 due to the copy-protection not working properly with Windows 10. Instead, download the 4.0 Upgrade installer, which should be an all-in-one installer (all modules and patches). You will need to use the 3.0 Upgrade, 4.0 Upgrade and all of the module license keys you have to activate the game typically using the 'Activate Modules' shortcut that will be either on your desktop or within the game's main executable folder.

It looks like you're attempting to install starting with a version 1.x installer. Those do NOT work with Windows 10 due to the copy-protection not working properly with Windows 10. Instead, download the 4.0 Upgrade installer, which should be an all-in-one installer (all modules and patches). You will need to use the 3.0 Upgrade, 4.0 Upgrade and all of the module license keys you have to activate the game typically using the 'Activate Modules' shortcut that will be either on your desktop or within the game's main executable folder.

So what you did was copy your pre-Fire & Rubble installation of CMRT to another directory (to use in a PBEM game) and the original installation was upgraded with the Fire & Rubble module. Nothing else changed about the computer, including installing the 2.11 patch on the old installation ? Now when you attempt to run either the CMRT-only installation or the CMRT upgraded with Fire & Rubble you get prompted to activate the license key each time you run the game (this being the Fire & Rubble license key that you're putting in) ? Were you previously getting 'successful' activations with the resulting screen showing what has been activated in green boxes ?
I'm not sure what happened here. If the game was copied to a new directory on the same Windows system, it should continue to work and NOT require any sort of activation again. One activation should also be enough and there shouldn't be further requests for activations. With an installation of CMRT with the 4.x engine, you typically have to put in both the original CMRT (engine 3.0) license key and the 4.0 Upgrade license key (assuming your copy of CMRT was purchased BEFORE the 4.0 Upgrade came out). Again, this should only be required once and you should only be prompted to activate again if there are significant hardware changes to your computer (new Windows install, new hardware such as video card, CPU, motherboard).
 With two installations of the game on the same computer both installs will refer to the same 'Users' directory that stores the game files (scenarios, campaigns, etc.). This will result in a number of scenarios and campaigns that will not load with the CMRT-only installation (though PBEMs should be fine).
You'll need to open up a Support ticket (click on the blue '+ new ticket' button in the upper right) and provide your license keys (possibly your CMRT 3.x, 4.0 Upgrade and definitely your Fire & Rubble license keys). Activations can be added to your Fire & Rubble license key. You might need to temporarily disable your security software when you activate the game in case the activation process is being interfered with (something that is very rare to my knowledge).

I'm unable to duplicate the problem with your Turn 40. Every turn I generate is fine (approx. 50MB file). I've tried no movement orders, a few movement orders, a few more movement orders and artillery/mortar fire adjustments and CAS requests. The only problem I had was when the game attempted to overwrite the same filename (I hadn't moved a file out of the 'outgoing' folder). The procedure I used was:
1) Load game, select 'Saved Games' and then the PBEM file.
2) Watched one turn of the playback (usually not moving the camera and not fast-forwarding through anything).
3) Issued orders of various types (I couldn't really call new fire missions since almost no one had any line of sight).
4) Saved file and exited game. Moved file from 'outgoing' to 'incoming' game folder.
5) Reloaded game and selected new PBEM file and 'cancelled' out once I reached your opponents password login. Exiting the game after this.
I had no problems with any saves (over 20). On average it took around 50 seconds for a file save. This was with a clean/un-modded install of CMBS 2.14 with the BattlePack. I'm running Windows 10 64-bit version 20H2. The system has an Intel i7-7700k, 32GB RAM and a GeForce RTX 2070 Super running the 456.71 driver (Sept 2020). The only things loaded were the Windows File Manager, a Firefox browser (with few extensions), Avast free edition (no exceptions for CM, to my recollection), Steam client, Malwarebytes (free edition), a Samsung SSD utility, Dropbox, MS One Drive (don't really use it - and files are NOT going to it), and a Garmin client (GPS).
Since the UAV was 'busy', I was unable to do anything with it. I wonder if that could have anything to do with it (if the problem is within CM). Beyond CM itself I can only think of looking for some software that could somehow be interfering with drive writes (typically this would be security/anti-virus software) or somehow inordinately occupying the CPU while the game is trying to write the file.

I'm unable to duplicate the problem with your Turn 40. Every turn I generate is fine (approx. 50MB file). I've tried no movement orders, a few movement orders, a few more movement orders and artillery/mortar fire adjustments and CAS requests. The only problem I had was when the game attempted to overwrite the same filename (I hadn't moved a file out of the 'outgoing' folder). The procedure I used was:
1) Load game, select 'Saved Games' and then the PBEM file.
2) Watched one turn of the playback (usually not moving the camera and not fast-forwarding through anything).
3) Issued orders of various types (I couldn't really call new fire missions since almost no one had any line of sight).
4) Saved file and exited game. Moved file from 'outgoing' to 'incoming' game folder.
5) Reloaded game and selected new PBEM file and 'cancelled' out once I reached your opponents password login. Exiting the game after this.
I had no problems with any saves (over 20). On average it took around 50 seconds for a file save. This was with a clean/un-modded install of CMBS 2.14 with the BattlePack. I'm running Windows 10 64-bit version 20H2. The system has an Intel i7-7700k, 32GB RAM and a GeForce RTX 2070 Super running the 456.71 driver (Sept 2020). The only things loaded were the Windows File Manager, a Firefox browser (with few extensions), Avast free edition (no exceptions for CM, to my recollection), Steam client, Malwarebytes (free edition), a Samsung SSD utility, Dropbox, MS One Drive (don't really use it - and files are NOT going to it), and a Garmin client (GPS).
Since the UAV was 'busy', I was unable to do anything with it. I wonder if that could have anything to do with it (if the problem is within CM). Beyond CM itself I can only think of looking for some software that could somehow be interfering with drive writes (typically this would be security/anti-virus software) or somehow inordinately occupying the CPU while the game is trying to write the file.

Do you know if your laptop has a 'discrete GPU/video' ? Most laptops using Intel CPUs will typically be using the built-in Intel GPU (on the CPU), but some laptops have a dedicated ('discrete') video chip/GPU (often Nvidia GeForce, but possibly AMD) which provides MUCH better performance than the Intel GPU. Often CM games may actually run on the Intel GPU even if one of these dedicated GPUs exists in the laptop since the drivers may not detect that the game could benefit from the dedicated GPU. In this situation typically adding a 'profile' within the GPU driver's control panel for the game will often get it running on the GPU rather than the Intel video. With Windows 10 there is a control panel option to tell programs what video chip to run with (outside of the GPU's control panel). However a vast majority of laptops out there typically only have the Intel/integrated video/GPU.
I don't have a specific build recommendation, but the following guidelines should work well:
CM benefits the most from a fast CPU. For a majority of its tasks it will mostly only use a single core, so more cores don't really help it (at least with current versions of the games). So get the fastest CPU you can reasonably afford with good 'base' and 'turbo' clock speeds. I'm not specifically aware if Intel or AMD works better with CM. Intel tends to have a somewhat lower memory latency in their CPUs than the AMDs, but either manufacturer should work fine with the game.
Nvidia GPUs tend to do the best with the CM series. AMD drivers usually work well in most situations, but the game still loads a bit slower with AMD GPUs. The amount of video RAM (VRAM) that the video card has shouldn't be too much of a big deal. Some people who may load up a lot of graphics mods might push some video memory setups, but anything with 2GB or more should be absolutely fine.
The CM series are 32-bit games, so they don't directly benefit from memory over 4GB. The game is 'large address aware', so it will technically use up to 3GB of memory/address space. 8 or 16GB of RAM would be fine for most systems (though, again, the game won't use those larger amounts). Anything above that would only benefit other programs or general use of the computer. Windows does utilize unused RAM in a caching mechanism, so sometimes more RAM could help general performance if you run a lot of apps, etc.
SSDs will be common for most computers and the games will typically benefit a little during loading and game saves, but other than that they typically won't affect CM's performance.
You will probably hear/read a number of posters complaining about video performance in the game, low frame-rates, mediocre shadows, etc. The current CM series utilizes the OpenGL 2.x API for programming graphics. This was the current/newest version of OpenGL at the time the game engine was originally designed (2003 - 2007). There have been some improvements over the years, but the game engine still primarily utilizes OpenGL 2.x which involves the CPU a lot when drawing the screen. Newer, 'faster' video cards may only marginally improve the speed of the graphics in game. So the latest and greatest video cards will not miraculously improve the speed of the game's graphics. However most video cards should be a significant improvement over the Intel integrated video/GPUs (they have more memory 'bandwidth' and 'processing cores' than the Intel built-in GPUs).

Modules I'd like to see (staying with the European theater), that I assume could stand a chance of being realistically expected:
1. West Germany / East Germany
2. Britain (BAOR) / Poland / Czechoslovakia 
3. Canada / Netherlands / Belgium / Denmark (Centurions !) / Austria (?)
4. A module that brings in the timeline between '83 to '91. This would update all of the equipment and organizations for the previous modules/base-game. However this would be quite hard to execute with the current licensing scheme (with the desire to limit each module to not requiring other modules beyond the base-game). Winter textures would probably be appreciated too (covering modules and base-game content). Perhaps this module could be done first so that all follow-on modules would have all the equipment/organization of '79 - '91.
 
Modules that would probably be unlikely to be made, but would be cool if they did show up:
5. France
6. Italy / Yugoslavia / Romania / Hungary
7. Norway / Finland / USMC / Sweden (?)
 
I would assume that any content that goes beyond the European theater may warrant enough work to be considered its own base-game. However I could be wrong on that account. This entire game family would remain with the current engine (CM 2, Engine 4 and probably an Engine 5 Upgrade).

It's up to the driver software to discern when to swap over from the Intel GPU to the discrete video. With CM games most of the drivers that have this integrated/discrete setup often don't recognize CM as something that needs the more powerful discrete GPU. The more popular games have profiles within the drivers already, so they don't run into this situation. For Nvidia (and possibly AMD) setting up a profile within the drivers tells the driver that it needs to run the game on the discrete GPU.

The 'display distance' is set within CM's code. It supposedly tries to take into account how much memory may be needed by the display and other details. Unfortunately there is no direct setting that affects this and you can't get it to draw out much further than what you probably see already. Supposedly the '3D Model Quality' and '3D Texture Quality' MIGHT have a small effect with settings toward 'Balanced' (less quality), but you can get a number of opinions as to what setting is better.
Yes, you can force CM to utilize the discrete GPU by creating a 'profile' within the discrete GPU's control panel for 3D settings (I know that is true of Nvidia and I assume it is probably true of AMD too). This isn't the game's fault. The drivers, between Intel and the discrete GPU, determine when the discrete GPU is needed. If the game isn't a major title and it doesn't start out with some significant 3D display calls, then it may get 'skipped' by the drivers and assumed to only need the integrated video for mostly 2D purposes.

Modules I'd like to see (staying with the European theater), that I assume could stand a chance of being realistically expected:
1. West Germany / East Germany
2. Britain (BAOR) / Poland / Czechoslovakia 
3. Canada / Netherlands / Belgium / Denmark (Centurions !) / Austria (?)
4. A module that brings in the timeline between '83 to '91. This would update all of the equipment and organizations for the previous modules/base-game. However this would be quite hard to execute with the current licensing scheme (with the desire to limit each module to not requiring other modules beyond the base-game). Winter textures would probably be appreciated too (covering modules and base-game content). Perhaps this module could be done first so that all follow-on modules would have all the equipment/organization of '79 - '91.
 
Modules that would probably be unlikely to be made, but would be cool if they did show up:
5. France
6. Italy / Yugoslavia / Romania / Hungary
7. Norway / Finland / USMC / Sweden (?)
 
I would assume that any content that goes beyond the European theater may warrant enough work to be considered its own base-game. However I could be wrong on that account. This entire game family would remain with the current engine (CM 2, Engine 4 and probably an Engine 5 Upgrade).

Do these crashes occur regardless of which side you are playing ? It seems strange that during the plotting of a fire mission is when you get the crash. I'm not specifically aware if a sound is associated with any of that process (other than the radio chatter for the fire missions - afterwards). Until this point all of the sounds play fine within the game as far as you're aware ?
Is your extracted folder for the HQS 3.3 mod located within the 'Z' folder that is within the 'Data' folder of the game ? Or is it located within the User Data/Mods folder (within the Documents folder of your user account) ? If it is located in the latter location, you may want to create a 'Z' folder within the game directory's 'Data' folder (if you haven't created one already) and put the mod there. So in the case of CMSF2 from Steam the location would be (that appears to be on your D:):
D:\Steam Library\steamapps\common\Combat Mission Shock Force 2\Data\Z\HQS 3.3   (or you may have it in the 'HQS CMSF CMSF2 CMBS CMA\HQS 3.3' directory).
The main game folder location shouldn't really be an issue as far as I'm aware and it shouldn't be necessary to move the game around. As long as it is located on a drive that is always present (preferably not an external drive that may get disconnected).
I guess the really strange thing here is that the game continues to crash after the mod has been removed. The game has been completely exited before the mod is removed, correct ? By removing these mods you have either deleted them or moved them completely out of any game directories, correct ? I wouldn't imagine that Steam would somehow be caching any of these files so that they somehow remain present even after they've been deleted/removed.
You can play the mod sound files without problem outside of the game, correct ? Do you know what sound chip/card you have in your computer and what driver it may be using ? I don't know of any specific audio chips/cards that would be incapable of playing these sounds within the game. Looking at one of the wav files,  'American adjust fire out 0' it has a 44100Hz sample rate, 32-bit (float), Mono. I don't know if editing/resampling these files to be 16-bit or 24-bit PCM might help or not. I'm not sure of the exact data on the original files, so such editing/resampling may make no difference.

I'm not sure about the delayed mouse input, but do you know if your CMBS Steam-installation is possibly using your integrated Intel video rather than your Nvidia 2070 ? The game may likely default to the Intel video and you may need to create a 'profile' for CMBS within the Nvidia control panel's 3D settings. This should have the game run on the Nvidia GPU rather than the Intel one. I have no idea if this will make a difference or not with the mouse input lag or not.

Sequoia - Regarding the M47 Pattons, I believe that none were in service by 1979, though I don't have any sources on this. It appears that the 90mm guns from the decommissioned M47's were used to arm the 90mm Kanonenjagdpanzer tank destroyers. Those would still be around in 1979, but they were becoming obsolete going up against T-64's and T-72's.