silverstars

Initially when confronted by the war crimes Russia was committing in Bucha, I was reminded of stories of the Katyn Forest massacre in WWII, murders of Polish cadets to undermine the future leadership of Poland. But with the increase in attacks on civilian populations that have no military value, I'm reminded more of the Japanese behavior in WWII...an officer enforced brutality to keep troops in line and also encourage ruthlessness on both sides so no one can expect mercy. Maybe the point is to enrage Ukrainians to shoot prisoners on sight and keep Russia's low morale conscripts from surrendering. Or maybe they really are just orcs. I don't have any answers, I guess I'm just trying to understand this pointless sadism that doesn't assist in any military goals. Hollywood can't write bad guys this horrible.

Looking at the uniforms of the interviewed soldiers...Anyone know what's up with what looks like an SS Totenkopf patch at 4:10? His friend's "Thor Mit Uns" patch is a bit more amusing.....

Woohoo! Early D-Day! Here's hoping for DD tanks! Assault Team organizations! And an awesome OOB remake of The Road to Montebourg! Or some 22nd Infantry Regiment WN clearing! And Ernest Hemingway as a playable unit.

I am deeply pleased by the amount of Goth/Industrial fans on a hardcore military wargaming forum.

Also a great album. "Eighties" is probably the best anthem of the decade in general and is also a great song for this game.

A new opponent comes forth....

A geeky part of me want to see the technology go all the way to at least 1996-1997.....So I can then play out all those fun scenarios from one of my fave RPGs, Twilight:2000.

What we're all doing right now.....And it's period correct!

Awwww.....And here I thought it was a reference to a certain cyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson.....

Heh. La Cosa Nostra Pizza. Uncle Enzo and The Deliverator would be proud.

The only downside is that since the berm is part of the terrain mesh you cannot have a Culin device push through it, nor can you have your demo team blow it up so vehicles can traverse it normally. Otherwise that would be perfect, and if nothing else it's still a perfect setup for most pre-Culin device scenarios since using demolitions to blow a path through took much longer then the 20 seconds for an engineer team to make a path....Good job!

I would also like to see slow be a little more lenient on it's fatigue penalties. I know that crawling on your belly is pretty damn tiring, but slow can also model crawling on hands and knees or just trying to be as quiet and stealthy as possible, and I would like my scouts on the forward edge to not be exhausted just crossing a hedgerow-lined road.

Just wondered if there is new voice acting for the Russians, or are they recycled from CMBB? Granted, it's been so long since I played CMBB I doubt I would know the difference... If any of you fine Beta people know, and also any descriptions on the quality? I guess I'm curious if I'm going to be mod shopping for a "Screaming Soviets" mod or something after release...

MikeyD: I have been waiting to see one of those in action since I got a taste of the PPsh 41 in CM:Afghanistan........ If they can get a video of a platoon opening up, it will be the best late Christmas present ever!

Also, I will also assume you will/have fixed the bolt handle on the Moisin Nagant...it seems you have the regular everyday Moisins with no scope using the angled bolt handle which was only found on the sniper rifle model to accommodate the scope.....Regular infantry model Moisins had the straight bolt....I know, since I actually own one. So do I get an award for first Grog complaint of the game? But seriously, fantastic news and I'm really excited by all the new features...will preorder the second my fat check for the month rolls in. Great work guys!

...I think you forgot to put the PPSH 41 in the Soviet small arms list. But since you have pics of little Ivans running about with them, I'm not terribly afraid you forgot to put them in the game. I want my SMG squads of spray and pray death, dagnabbit.....

Eh, there will (probably) be no scavenging of enemy weapons per se, but I do recall that in CMBB that germans had PPSHs randomly equipped in their squads. So you will probably see them in German hands as much as you see them using Beretta SMGs in CMFI. And I for one have been waiting for Bagration to come out JUST for the Soviet SMG squads. They will be epically brutal.

well, they did post that they hoped to have Bagration-era Eastern Front AND Modern Era "Shock Force" 2 out before the end of the year, although that is looking pretty suspect....

Especially infantry. Several books that I've read paint the picture to me that enemy infantry is neigh invisible almost all of the time, even in the midst of combat. Most of the time people are just shooting at the area they think the enemy is firing from, and by the time you are advancing, they are already left at that point. And while I have never been in a combat situation, I have played a lot of Operation Flashpoint/ARMA. And even in a 100m close engagement, you will be lucky if you spot even one enemy to shoot at. And you almost never see the guy who shoots you. Frankly, I wouldn't mind a concealment option for Infantry where if they aren't 50m or closer, on a paved surface of some form, or aren't running standing up at full tilt, they should just be a contact icon. Not exactly the most exciting replay to watch granted, but probably closer to the real deal that way.

Out of curiosity, could a glider just be modeled as an immobile vehicle? Then it could have random ammo attached to it, provide cover(but not much) and concealment?

Yeah, Conan said it better.

Don't know why they called them ambushes, instead of rolling or stationary firing squads...

Thank you! I wish I could find some photos of the town today so I could have some firm idea what the building are, besides playing Amateur CIA aerial photograph analyst. I'm only assuming that's the school building from the size of the backyard and it's central location. I'm starting to figure out that this wargame scenario business is 90% supposition and like, maybe a paragraph of fact to back it up.

Have finished adding some final touches like flavor objects, building changes, and switching some low hedgerows to tall hedgerows, added walls, etc. From what I can tell the town is an overgrown green hell, which is probably pretty accurate from what I can tell. So here are so more pictures..... here's the a view from the west looking east down the Exit 1 causeway. The School/German HQ building. The commercial part of the town, looking south. And now to figure out the scenario. Skimming through whatever snippets of info I've gotten off of Google books, I haven't seen any mention of AA guns besides the ASL scenario. And I imagine if there were 37mm autocannon going off, someone would have said something. So I think I will be fine going ahead without them. Wish me luck on AI planning.