Petrus58

This is ‘PART 4: Techniques – methods of undertaking movement tasks by tanks in combat’ of the short longer than originally planned series giving an overview of the tactical fundamentals and principles behind WWII German tactical drills and combat formations commonly used in 1944 using examples from Combat Mission Red Thunder to illustrate key points. 
In Part 4 we look at the specific ‘battle drills’ and associated movement techniques used by the German tank platoon to gain superiority in a firefight with enemy forces.
Part 5 will be looking at training programmes etc and jeezo, was that a rabbit hole...
Hopefully this will be of use to both players and thsoe interested in this time period. It was originally intended to complement the tank tactical problem series I created.
As an aside when you start digging into this is becomes even more painfully clear how a dogged emphasis doctrinally and values wise on "unexpected, concentrated and determined attack; aggressive leadership and daring operations." coupled with increasingly minimally trained crews (and training hampered by lack of resources both human and material), and just as importantly, tank and small unit commanders, would only lead to needless losses. 

Can we please lay off beating on our brother Erwin at this point? I think people made their points on the merits, let's turn down the ad homs.
...For those who forgot life before Feb 2022, he's put a *gigantic* amount of effort into this community.

Mit Karacho!

And now for something completely different...
Italy.
Firefight!


The rarely seen Italian fascists!

 

My favorite light tank of the war.

German airborne amongst the rubble.

I just finished playing spearhead as allies, major victory achieved. The campaign was amazing. I lost 2 tanks during the final Cologne battle one was a pershing hit by a panzerfaust 60 killing 3 crew near end of map the other was an m4a3 taken out by a panther earlier on. The other pershing I had was also put out of action with a panther shell hit taking out it's barrel at a distance, no crew injuries and withdrawn to rear. The Panther was taken care of by an EasyEight watching down a street as it was trying to escape a jumbo. In this campaign you will find many building that form a square with a courtyard in the center, and with that the enemy can be in any window, waiting for you to dare and cross the courtyard. I'm glad to have played this before Remagen campaign.
I wanted to mention that It felt like the city environments ran noticeably smoother compared to other battles maybe the maps were smaller or did you guys improve things?
I also want to mention how beautiful the building are. A lot of time and effort there, Sometimes I just pause for a while and view the woodwork/stonework. It looks like a trolley ran through the city? Was/Is the Appelhof platz an underground subway?

This is where cultural differences come into play. You thinking like a westerner that has to be consistent in what hes saying. You don't get that this isn't the case in russia. The bigger the confusion the bigger the control. This is why i say that they will make twist on this that in the end will make no sense. Cause if its make no sense you will only remember the calling words. Ukraine was involved, and the feeling you should have that is hate. Every aspect of russian propaganda is based on building down rationality and enforcing emotional response. They aware that its hard influence rational peoples so they don't need them. They need instinct driven animals.
It does not matter that it was a fault of their home defense service. Cause they will not be held responsible.
The other thing is the narrative. It does not matter.  really don't want to come with cliches but in 1984 there is a scene where they have the two minutes of hate. You know the story in the first part of the two minutes they saying one thing and in the end they say the exact opposite. Its true today as well. There are some peoples in the russian society that can have individual opinion and some influence but usually they are far away in Ukraine. Those back home are don't have influence or first hand experience to know what its true. Its an alternative reality. So it does not matter if the narrative does not fit the picture, only that it push the right button on the primitive parts of the human brain.

I'll probably post some pics of the updated maps some time later but this is just a quick update on progress. I have completed three of the four phase 3 missions now and am currently working on The Tumah Crossing. Road to Amarah, Where Farmers Dare and Jameelah all have functioning AI plans and reworked maps and I've done some proper testing on them. I beat Jameela yesterday afternoon and I feel I'm done with that for now.
After phase 3 is complete, I only have the final three to rework and much of that is already done as I tend to improve maps when I'm not feeling that committed to AI scripting and actual playing so it's not going to take as long to rework these as it did the earlier missions in the campaign.
So while an end is in sight, I will need to revisit all the earlier missions and test them to make sure that the campaign is actually winnable. And of course, there will be the revised briefings and artwork to do but that's not a particularly big or unpleasant task.

I see the rabble are getting roused.  We all appreciate the enthusiasm, we really do. As to updates, well I can echo what Steve has already said - we are aiming to have this DLC out this year.  As to progress, well data and research are largely complete (few things left but not biggies).  Maps for the major campaigns are built (I showed off a few and one was used in that CM tourney).  Campaigns are essentially designed and waiting for the kit.  Equipment lists are done, we will likely be haggling these to the finish line.
So over all scope, scale and background are all defined.  What we are waiting for now is the second longest pole in any content creation tent - artwork/modelling.  This is where stuff gets drawn and actually put into the game.  Once we get enough of that we start rolling on really putting it all together, which in the case of BAOR should be pretty quick, but we still need to do testing and polishing.  We still have a features debate - what is in or out features-wise but that will be sorted quickly.
So the short answer is “sometime this year” and we are fairly far along.  Now it is a matter of getting very few critical people’s time to deliver their end and we can then pull it al together.  No Star Citizen, conspiracy or subterfuge, only limited resources available and waiting in line.

Don't think this has been posted earlier but the Army trying some new tech here.
Airborne soldiers do some smart shooting with new sight that helps smash drones. 
https://www.forces.net/services/army/airborne-soldiers-do-some-smart-shooting-new-sight-helps-smash-drones?fbclid=IwAR0TWthFemVVlX_5RRp79SZg4GiWN8JOPy84i4znNrwF7E1cRtwvIsFwyi4
 
 

Hi,
As a Swede I thought today would be a good day to stop lurking for a bit and drop a comment. Been playing cm for 20 years and following this forum for a long time.
Thank you all for contributing to this thread, checking it daily. Always a good source for news and discussion, so much knowledge and experience gathered is hard to get elsewhere. 
I always was all for our countrys neutral stance combined with a strong Defense but last decade has of course swayed us all in Sweden a bit. I have my background in the army, cv90. Seeing us finally start to retake our capabilities regarding defense is good.
Anyways thanks for having us in the club I guess (why am I thinking about brothers Marx)?
Carl 

You are hoping that the younger ones of your opponent don't have any desire for war either. No more wars. Problem solved. If suddenly no one would enlist, then all wars could stop. Could be a reality after this war ends. But how will it end? 
The next option is war from distance, AI, robots, drones, guided by 16yr olds boys and girls but no human is allowed on the battlefield. 
Russia is in better shape because :
- has survived the humiliating defeats of the first year. 
-It now has the momentum in the front lines and is gaining ground steadily. 
- defeated the long awaited Ukrainian counter offensive. 
-defeated (or maybe crushed) the hype around western wunderwaffen. 
-At last found a successful cheap way to employ the air force in support of ground operations. 
- Vastly improved drone fleet  capabilities and operational efficiency.
-has no conflicting internal voices anymore. No Prigozyn, no Navalny, no opposition, no crazy ultra nationalists. Just a dull grey homogenous military state. 
-caused serious cracks and doubt among Ukrainians and westerners if victory is possible. 
-western funding is now more insecure than ever. 
- has overcome sanctions and tech and production shortcomings.
- has the upper hand in manpower and widening the gap while Ukraine is facing serious issues with mobilization. 
That doesn't mean it's in great shape of course. But in most ways it has adapted and wages war better than Feb 2022.
 
 

Luft Stalag XIII the bitter end for Task Force Baum
 
See Here

Petr Pavel is one of the coolest world leaders serving in office right now.
He reminds me of those Presidents you would see in 90s movies like Independence Day and Air Force One. But as much as I like Harrison Ford he is just an actor, Petr Pavel is a real hero. 😎

New stuff for the Stalingrad Mod V-2

As there are no Barns used in the Stalingrad i've made them into a factory building.

Also i've adapted the Indie buildings to fir Stalingrad better.

The grain Silo is ok but the main office part needs to be about 12 -14 stories high?

A Soviet patrol near the western Railway.

Love this new indie factory office building.
 

Bingo! Thank you very much @Frenchy56  and @Anonymous_Jonze🙂
The textures of the Sherman III are those of the Sherman III Early (There are 2 Sherman III, FB uses the III early with the tag "sherman III"). Sherman 3 mods in FB only work with Sherman M4A2-75 textures (no american Sherman M4A2-75 in the game 🤔). So here is my 1st version of FI with the new tags, + 2 other versions, + the original Aris mod correctly tagged:
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/8jc3npom6i8je12/Sherman_3_DF_white.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/tj8ynbu5pkvccwj/Sherman_III-M4A2_75_DF.zip/file
 
🚨 A bug about the Crusader MK 2 AA: its winter tracks are not named correctly [snoe] in the original BF.c file. I corrected that then I deleted my first link to my file, here is the new one:
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/stndh3n3wmu6p6e/Crusader_AA_snow_V2.zip/file

Winter textures of British vehicles complementing those made for FI, + a version 2 of the Archer and Morris bofor (my FI textures also work on FB). They are mostly based on the excellent work of Umlaut and Aris, the others are made from the BF.C originals. I'll put it all in a single file on Bootie's site when I've finished some American armored vehicles and made some improvements. (I'm having some difficulty with the Sherman 3, its winter textures are not loading into the game for the moment).
Pershing (Aris,Umlaut)
view:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/mdr5cahjd52fdx4/Pershing_Snow.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/eaws4ywa0r7lbwt/Pershing_snowy.zip/file
zip white:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/nenzy25ysxrltuj/Pershing_White.zip/file
 
Daimler Sod (BF.c)
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/ad644j0xicecwn8/Daimler_SOD_snow.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/arjdx0o5s07dlw8/Daimler_Sod_snowy.zip/file
Zip white:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/d6cfb374ghvs4p8/Daimler_SOD_White.zip/file
 
Ram Kangaroo (BF.c)
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/dwvz79km31x7fnb/Ram_Kangaroo_Snow.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/tegro70h4ua9fl3/Ram_Kangaroo_snowy.zip/file
White Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/8fvry7dvufwe59p/Ram_Kangaroo_white.zip/file
 
Challenger (Aris)
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/5zz1qh48i7gl6dq/Challenger_snow.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/5zz1qh48i7gl6dq/Challenger_snow.jpg/file
 
Cromwell 4-6-7-8 (Aris)
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/o4wanbi0e4818nr/Cromwell_white.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/e1e6hyc6yeozhef/Cromwell_snow.zip/file
 
Churchill 6-8 (Aris)
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/b9lujgramnrh0ap/Churchill_6_-_8_White.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/73thst87brzy6va/Churchill_6-8_white.zip/file
 
Comet (Aris, Umlaut)
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/b0moavieoa2dv3v/Comet.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/0i355vswugctd9z/Comet_white.zip/file
 
Crusader MK III AA (Aris)
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/xkkmva98j830haf/Crusader_MK_3_AA.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/2xwzu9uaf5btwxf/Crusader_AA.zip/file
 
Daimler MK2 AC Little John (Aris)
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/ssv7cre2r09vzso/Daimler_MK_2_AC_Litlle_John.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/bpgz9or6p5obxv6/Daimler_Litlle_John_snowy.zip/file

Stuart VI (Aris)
view:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/wyhc5hm9ayvfo6e/Stuart_6_snow.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/px5r61f2u994419/Stuart_6_snow.zip/file
 
Archer V2 (update_ Aris)
view:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/77hzs694mjozt24/Archer_White_V2.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/pgoojk16r90ejth/Archer_V2_snowy.zip/file
 
Morris Bofor V2 (Aris, Umlaut)
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/vjga5hxunsw9083/Morris_Bofor_40_white.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/493e5e4zjldxd1y/Morris_Bofor_V2_white.zip/file
 

So, how did you get to the conclusion that UKR are incurring big losses? 
 
And you came to that conclusion how? You just admitted you do not have any data to support your conclusions.
 
Let's be frank, you have no idea what damage these things inflicted on UKR. 
We already saw that the biggest RU effort in using gliding bombs, drones etc at Avdiivka resulted in at most 2:1 losses in favor of UKR. RU forums where you get your information wildly exaggerate the effectives of RU weapons. 
 
Neither Bakhmut nor Avdiivka resulted in cauldron. And in the UKR forces did not got hammered until very last minute withdrawal. 
Agent Mur.z about Bakhmut
Previously posted Murz quote about Avdiivka
You basically have no idea what's going on in reality. 
 
Or you simply do not know what is going on. Military wise, RU was intended to call a second wave in the summer/early fall. Putin is personally delaying it (the RU MOD expected Putin to issue an order by the end of the summer or early fall). Which is understandable considering the potential consequences.
 
Oh, FFS - because unlike RU UKR army tries to take care of UKR military personnel by organizing regular rotations. UKR army need manpower to rotate previously mobilized troops. RU army told to mobilized - F*ck you. 
 
Try not to use RU propaganda talking points on me. It is stupid.
During North Africa campaign British Army lost vast amount of territory twice (pink is map of Ukraine). 

In war you fight your enemy and not just trying to capture as much land as you can. 
So, in reality, every day UKR are inflicting disproportional casualties on RU in exchange for a little bit of land which is war winning strategy. RU strategy of suffering disproportional casualties for a little bit of land is not a war winning strategy. 
 
In war you fight your enemy and not just trying to capture as much land as you can. 
Have a look at UKR reports on RU non manpower losses (yes, my paint skills are not high but you can clearly see the relevant dates) 
RU trucks

RU special vehicles

RU tanks

All graphs show that before the UKR offensive, RU successfully reduced vehicle losses. This would certainly allow RU to win the war of attrition. However, as you can clearly see - as soon as UKR offensive started the trend was reversed.
The main gain for Ukraine during its summer offensive was not land, but rather an effective reaction on Russia's defensive strategy with a complete reversal of the attrition trend.
 
You have no idea what you are talking about. If you look at the graphs above, you will notice that the attritional trend did not reverse back after UKR stopped their offensive. RU rejected the previous effective defensive strategy in favor of the offensive strategy keeping attritional trend exactly as UKR like.
So, two things. First, UKR does not need to go on the offensive since the RU attrition trend is precisely where UKR wants it to be. Second, the UKR offensive was substantially more effective than most people realize - it terrified RU so much that they abandoned their originally successful defensive strategy in favor of an offensive approach that would be fatal for them for them in the long run (but would allow them to keep UKR on the defensive in the short term).
 

Wasp II carrier
- partly based on Aris' work on carriers for CMFI/CMBN

Churchill X LT

Regarding Trump, hi from Latin America (Argentina) land of great football and sometimes populist egomaniacs...
I´ll just paste something I wrote in January of 2017 on another forum:
"Coming from a country with it´s fair share of populists in it´s history, let me tell you a couple of things about what will happen:

First: it´s not about policies, it´s not about facts, now it´s only about power and how to keep it

Second: the only thing that will be rewarded is loyalty, it may or may not align with skills, it doesn't matter any more

Third: it´s not about liberal and conservative, It´s not about democrat or republican, now it´s about trump or anti trump, there will be no middle ground to hide, both coalitions will have members of previous coalitions, those won´t matter much anymore, more republicans will be on Trump´s coalition because he was elected as one of course

Fourth: his only objective is reelection, and after that a third mandate, and a fourth and so on, to this end he will push any policy he deems useful, left wing or right wing, won´t matter, he sometimes will be align with former liberal/democrat ideas, he will take ownership of anything that promotes him, claiming it was his idea all along

Fifth: any source of check and balances will be targeted as traitorous, anti american, etc., this includes the press, other parties, the supreme court, whatever, anyone he sees as a member of the anti trump coalition is now a target, for now of rhetoric only, time will tell how far he will be allowed to go, and don´t think for a second there is something he won't do, or that he has any moral limit, he doesn't

Good luck trying to rationalize his government into anything other than an ego trip

His only weak point is succession, like every populists he hates the idea of giving power up, to anyone, even his children, he won´t groom a successor and get mad every time this point comes up

I sincerely hope current checks and balances work, but I´m not optimistic, lots of people will come under the spell, it´s tough times for anyone that can´t escape facts, reason, science, for those are now the enemies of the US government."
 
Not spot on in every point, but It came close to happen the first time around, now he has evolved and learned, it will be worst.
The paradox is that it was in the hands of Republican Senators to impeach and keep him out of office for good, they failed.
 
 

I've been busy adding to my Stalingrad Mod V2, and I've finally been able to make a house chimney from the column FO, also I made oil tanks from the windmill building. Here's a quick look at how it's coming along.

Comet I

Exactly one year after the first announcement, the project is now finished. In order to avoid
misunderstandings on the part of the company Battlefront.com, I chose the name CampaignPack 😎.
The pack (as described in former threads) consists of 5 campaigns in which the player is thrown
into the events of the summer of 1944 in the sector of the German Army Group Center.
In total you will play minium 52 single missions, maximum 55 single missions (depending on one
branch). To avoid technical problems, I didn't add any mods to the campaigns. But I can, for example,
highly recommend the excellent work of @JM Stuff, especially his extraordinary mod collection of vehicles
and wrecks 👍
I recently visited the forum regularly to stay in touch with people who wanted to register. However, I have
asked the people at Battlefront.com several times to delete my profile.  This request has not yet been
granted to me, so as a quasi "undead" I will always stop by - but I will no longer take part in any discussions
or answer any questions in the forum. To get in touch with me, please write to me at:
E-Mail: f-s-zbg@web.de.😎
Of course, I can still send the campaign pack to anyone interested.
 
So all I can say is:
It was a great pleasure for me to finish this project and share it with many people.
I hope you have as much fun playing as I did creating it 🙏
 
Best regards
Mr.X