MARS42

Thanks, that´s the news i was aiming for. After this long period of time, i had some growing doubts, if we will get a complete game at the end.

Ist would be interesting to know, when we can awaite this last feature of the game?

Great News, thank you! Gebirgsjägerbattaillon 231 is back on the Battlefield.

@agusto: Please keep in mind, that the Gebirgsjäger are top rated light infantry troops in Germany, similar to the Fallschirmjäger. These two units normally go in first in foreign countrys, when Germany nowadays sents troops into the world. Before they set a foot in such countrys, they simulate scenarios like ambushes many, many times in the 3 or 4 month rehearsel-phase before the mission starts. Most Gebirgsjäger have combat experience today, because many of them were 3 or 4 times in Afghanistan. The troops 2008 were not as experenced, but would have been good enough, to know what to do in such situations. By the way: You need no "Special Forces" unit nearby, in my opinion, the "Hochgebirgszug" is good enough for your purpose. The Platoon is the absolute elite of the Bataillon and the Hochgebirgs-soldiers are the (body-)fittest men, i ever met as a soldier. For the QRF, i would use a Panzergrenadier-Platoon with a section of Panzerpioniere in a Pionierpanzer Fuchs. The Grenadiers would be a typical QRF-Unit in Afghanistan, for example. You can assist with the Hochgebirgszug in Fuchs-Transportpanzer, if you want. For Info: I was a soldier of the Gebirgsjägerbataillon 231 some decades ago. "Kaliber statt Spoiler"

After the release of CMSF2 some weeks ago, i bought the great bundle with all modules included. As a german, i´m logically impatiently waiting for the reworked Nato campaigns. In the meantime i used the last few weeks for playing the US and Marines campaigns and finished both yesterday. In my opinion, these two were the best campaigns ever made by the Battlefront team. A lot more than 10 missions per campaign, little and big maps, a great variety of missions, some only platoon sized, some with many more units in it.....great stuff. For me, a well done campaign is the most important feature of a wargame. So after the experiences with the releases of the last few years (Russian Front and Ardennes) , which had more campaigns, but shorter ones with mostly huge maps and too much units on it, my wish for the future games of Battlefront is as follows: Please create such great and varied campaigns like the ones in CMSF 2 again. Oh...i know, Steve hates this question : In which timeframe can we expect the Nato and british campaigns? "Kaliber statt Spoiler"

Hello Dragonwynn, i played the 6th scenario against the Josef Stalin tanks today. A lot of fun and a really hard fight. One Josef Stalin took 13 hits in a head to head shootout at 900 m before he exploded. The only chance to survive this map is to make flanking manouvres with the Tigers to get the Stalins from the side and behind. Lost 2 Tigers and took all three winning areas. Really good stuff, congratulation. To my regret, you really frustrated me afterwards. I had to choose, if i lead a breakthrough or attack a supply depot. My ammunition was nearly at 0, so i had no choice and went on with the supply depot mission. In the briefing i read with surprise, that i only have the 1. platoon for this scenario. A platoon, that fought from the beginning of the campaign and lost logically some Tigers throughout the maps. So i ended in the setup-area with 1 Tiger and 4 Halftracks. Heavily frustrated, i saw no chance to go on with the campaign and put the cease-fire button. ...I wanted to see, what i would have been against with my single Tiger. 4 Paks and 5-6 122mm Panzerjäger + really good recon infantry on russian side. Suggestion: Bring up some replacement tanks during the campaingn, for example strugglers (Panthers for example), which become new core-units. 14 Tigers are not enough for such a difficult and long campaign. By the way, what size has the campaign, how many maps must a player win in the campaign?

Only for info, i played the old original scenario.

Hello Dragonwynn, i have played the 5th scenario (defence of the bridge) through and won it relativly easy. I think, there´s is a great mistake in it, because the russians tanks of the attacking force along the small wooden area from south to north did not move during the whole scenario. So the scenario turned out as follows: 1. I had to fight the beginning battle with the 4 russian tanks on my marching road. After destroying them (lost 1 Tiger), i spyed some infantry in the forrest next to the destroyed tanks. I rounded up the forrest with my tanks, gave area fire and went into the woods with infantry, that i had moved to this place. I was absolutely stunned, how much infantry you had put in this little wood, as i killed a hundred or so soldiers there. 2. In the meantime the russian infantry of the main force attacked over the open area towards the bridge, but without the tanks, so this became a slauterhouse for the Ivan. My MGs killed them to the last man. 3. After finishing the little forrest, i took my HQ, 1. and 2. Zug and attacked with uploaded infantry to the north, where my infantry had reconned the russian tank-armada. I attacked them from the side and out of the forrest from behind and felt sometimes like Wittmann at Villers-Bocage. This was to easy! Result: I lost only 2 Tigers My attack made a lot of fun, but i think, the not moving russian tanks, which stayed in their setup area, were not intended by you. So this should be corrected. By the way, the ongoing air-attacks by the russians created a interesting atmosphere (in the 4th run, the russian planes destroyed my Flak). I´m looking forward for the 6th mission against the Josef-Stalin tanks. Am i the only one here, who played the scenarios 2-5?

@Ghost Rider 3/3 "To those that have somehow managed Total Victory... nice.. would like to know where you placed your units." I positioned in the setup zone as follows: Middle: I made a great trench behind the forrest with the Bunker and positioned one platoon and a HMG in it. I used 2 schützenlöcher (dugouts), positoned the 2 Paks in it and gave them the direction to the right side of the battlefield (behind the forrest on the right side). In the first minutes, i drove the two HQ Tigers also to this position, which defended the left side of the forrest (street). When the russians came and artillery-fire ceased, i moved two infantry groups into the forrest to prevent my Tigers and my Paks from surprise-attacks through the woods. Left side: In the forrest left of the mentioned position (the one which is in the setup zone nearest to the enemy), i placed trenches and dugouts into the forrest and positoned a platoon, 3 HMGs and 2 additional Panzerschrecks in it. Behind this forrest i drove 4 Tigers, 2 aiming to the left, 2 to the right, securing the street. Right side: I positoned the remaining trenches and dugouts at the right edge of the map (where the russian forward observer is) and put two platoons in it or around it, because there were not enough trenches for all soldiers left. After 2 minutes, i ran with both platoons forward into the forrest with the second bunker and positioned them there as a screen for the Tigers against the advancing infantry. 4 Tigers drove behind the forrest, two looked right, two looked left. The rest of the soldiers were positioned on the right map side and ran to the rear at the beginning of the scenario. All infantry-soldiers are in hide. With this tactic, you loose some man through artillery, but not too much. The Tigers, the Schrecks and the Paks always fire into the sides of the T34s and so you have more hits with the first round. I hope, this helpes a little bit. By the way, i´m not a genius, i nedded some frustrating experiences with this scenario, before i figured out, that this tactic works fine. @ Dragonwynn: "I may release the missions as stand alone without the storyline." Don´t do this, your storyline and campaign are great. But you should mention in the download area, that this campaign is not intended for CM-beginners, but for hardcore fans with a high frustrating tolerance!

Hello Dragonwynn, after playing the first four minutes of scenario 4 (Defending the bridge), i was really frustrated, because i think, you have done the setup of the troops not as accurate as you did it in the first 3 scenarios. I closed the game and will play it again. 1. As i noticed in the other 3 scenarios before, i sometime don´t get it, why you spread the platoons as much and don´t hold them together. 2. The setup of the Tigers has to be corrected. I was really angry about the position of the Tigers of 1 and 2 platoon together with company HQ. They are standing in line on a street, which is getting incoming T34 fire after 5 seconds of the scenario beginning. So i loosed 2 Core units withing the first 60 seconds without the possibility to react. The enemys here are the 4 T34s in front of the Tigers behind a little wood. That must be corrected. 3. The setup of 3 of the Paks is not helpful. The have nearly no line of fire and are positioned tactically poorly. The same with the Panthers and Panzer IV. The tanks are not the problem, i can move them, but to move the Paks is not so easy, so they must stand in good positions at the beginning. 4. I don´t get the postions of the infantry either. Some troops here, some there. No mainpoint of defence. I recommend here the sentence of General Manstein "Who wants to defend all, defends nothing" I have the feeling, that this scenario was developed too fast. I suggest to make a complete new setup for this scenario or to create some setup zones for the players. Sorry for the harsh critic, not intended to offend you, but to help.

Hello Dragonwynn, i played the 3. scenario (saving the artillery) on Saturday. Spoiler: I drove 4 of my Tigers from the setup zone (the street) to the left into the little woods on the map edge. From there i was able to fire into the sides of the storming russian tanks. A platoon of infantry defended the flanks of the Tigers against the russian infantry attack at this side of the battlefield. The fifth of my Tigers was setuped behind a house to cover the mainstreet of the village, if one or two T34s were able to break through the ambush zone. After killing the most tanks, i used 3 Tigers an the screening infantry platoon to make a flank attack into the rear of the russians, which they could not stand. With this tactic, it was very easy to win the scenario. I lost 1 Tiger and only 17 infantry soldiers. Besides the fact, that this was the easiest scenario so far, the scenario made fun and is absolutely o.k. No changing needed. If you want to make it more challenging, than give the russians two additional tank platoons, which attack together with the infantry on the right (seen from the russian point of view) side of the attack. That would make my choosen tank-ambush position in the game more uncomfortable. Oh... one question: Why did you (or Battlefront, i don´t know that) name the german platoon HQs in this scenario "Sektion", for example "3 Sektion". Do you mean the german word "Sektion" or did you spell the english word "section" with a "k"? I don´t know, but in my opinion, both variations would be wrong. - The german word "Sektion", does not fit for a platoon sized formation and - The english word "section" means "Gruppe", a name, which you rightly already have used for the subunits of the platoon. At last, one word to your background story: My respect, very well written!

Hello Dragonwynn, I played the 2. scenario yesterday. -Spoiler- At the beginning, I moved all my units in the northern area of the river quickly into the woods and so, as i had expected, escaped the artillery barrage into the setup zone. After that, i positioned 3 ambush areas with my infantry along the attacking roads, and reinforced this behind with the Tigers. This led to a huge "Nahkampf" battle with handgranades, Panzerfausts in the woods... great, i liked it. I was able to destroy 70 % of the russian tanks by infantry, the rest by the Tigers. Logically my very aggressive close-combat-style cost me some of my infantry, but no Tiger was hurt. By the way, i was glad, that no "green" troops were on my side, with such kind of troops, it would have been impossible to give the russians a great fight in the woods. In my opinion, nothing must be changed here. If you want to make it a little bit more challenging, than i would add another russian infantry company, which attacks not on the street, riding on tanks, but advances on foot through the woods on the left or right side of the maine street in the middle. This would make the setup of the ambushes more challenging. For people, who will defend mostly behind of the river, this playes no role of course. In the 3. scenario the player must choose between two possibilities of how to proceed in the campaign. I voted for the artillery-securing-mission. In my opinion, it would be helpful for Dragonwynn, when someone here in the forum chooses the casualty-securing-scenario to give him also feedback on this storyline.

Hello dragonwynn, i downloaded your latest file and played the first scenario for a last time . I think it´s o.k now, the feeling of chaos in the first few minutes is represented in a interesting way, on the other hand it is also fun, to setup some of the troops in the way i want it. A good mix. The two antitank guns, that could be setuped, helped a lot and the better experience level of the infantry improved the survivability of my troops. I think only a few players will solve this scenario in one run without repeating it, but that´s no great problem, because the scenario is interesting enough for a second or third try. I will play the second scenario this weekend and will give you a feedback, if i find some remarkable points for you. @ Holien: Cannon fodder Infantry: Because of the huge artillery barrage at the beginning, it is absolute impossible to bring all the men through the first scenario alive, but as dragonwynn wrote, this chaos-feelling is intended. As a great fan of infantry (and former Gebirgsjäger), i tried to handle the infantry as cautious as my core-troops, to have the maximum fun-effect in the game. By playing this way, like Raptorx7 wrote, the infantry was a huge help in destroying the russian infantry and some tanks and was also able to secure the flanks of my tigers (which stood behind woods to fire into the sides of the T34) against the storm troops, which came trough these woods. By the way: In my last try i lost a Tiger trough Artillery. Bad luck!

In my opinion you should change not too much, because the fun factor is very high in your first scenario. The experience-upgrade of the infantry will solve the problems, because with this morale boost, the many Panzerschreck-teams on the map will not retreat before shooting, but help the Tigers in destroying the T34s. Oh... and i forgot to congratulate you for developing this interesting campaign!

Hello dragonwynn, i also finished the first scenario now successful. In the first try i lost 8 Tigers, in the second 5, in the third 2, .... that´s now acceptable to go on for the next mission. I agree mostly with Holien experience. The first mission is too difficult for an opening scenario of a campaign, because you have to save enough core-units for the following scenarios. That´s nearly impossible without repeating the mission. On the other side i must say, that i had a lot of fun even at the third try, because of these huge challenges. As a stand-alone scenario it would be nearly perfect. What really disturbed me, is the experience-level of the german infantry. It might be realistic, that some of the german units in 1944 were "green", but it does not help the campaign to play it in a realistic way. I defended some woods with green units, had all advantages on my side, but my troops retreated always after the first few russian shots out of the woods an were then destroyed by russian tanks or artillery. Under this conditions, every tactical plan of a player is senseless. In the third try i took only the regular and experienced forces towards the enemy and put the green (senseless) troops to the rear. So i would suggest to upgrade all the current experience levels of the german infantry one step. Green to Regular, Regular to Experienced and Experienced to Veteran. Greets, MARS42

@ pnzrldr O.k. i think you were a little bit pissed, when you read the postings here. Understandable, because most of the scecenario-designers make this hobby without payment, to help Battlefront stay alive and produce more fun stuff in the future for us. I spent a lot of my freetime for helping on the CMSF-NATO-Modul without payment and know, how you are feeling. So sorry for my harsh thread-title ("ridiculus), i used it for getting attention. As you mentioned in point 4., the customers have paid for the product and so they and i (i have also payed for it, because i did not help on Red Thunder) have a right to critisize the game. We do this not to make the volunteers and professionels angry, but to develop the campaign-system from game to game to a higher level. So, thank´s for your work! Greets, MARS42

Only for unterstanding my point of view: I have no problem with wrong intel and briefing about enemy forces, i was an army captain myself and know, how difficult a good enemy briefing can be. I have a problem with wrong informations about the own side. A call with the radio or Feldkabel and i know, if my support and flanking units are coming or not, even in 1944. Greets, MARS42

I love to fight with the Panzer IVs against superior tanks, i love to outmanouver or to overwhelm by numbers. I also liked the first szenario of the Campaign. What made me angry, was, that my tactics and my time-plan was totally sabotaged by a misleading briefing, which showed tanks on the map for KG Baker and Artillery, which did not arrive in the game.

Sorry, but i don´t undestand your comment, when you read my posting one more time, you will see, that i have no problem with the new game-features, but with the tactical-design of the scenario and the infos in the briefing. I play combat mission since the very beginning, played all releases since that time, so i think, i know, how the game is working. One thing i forgot to mention (last post here), i play WEGO. GREETS, MARS42

As always, when buying a new combat mission game, i play the campaigns first. I begun with the german campaign: The first mission was o.k., the second made me really angry, because in my opinion it is tactically engineered in no acceptable way by the scenario designer. The first steps of my battle plan were: The Panzer IV has absolutely no chance against a T34/85 at long ranges on this map. I new this before, so i decided to wait until the mass of my Panzers arrive (overwhelming fire-power) and the Kampfgruppe Baker is complete (with its battle-tanks) on the right flank. Until than, i wanted to clear some houses with the infantry, which were not in direct view by the T34s. The two T34s in the main streets of advance, i wanted to destroy by the 150mm Artillery, which arrives after 10 minutes (briefing). Critics: 1. After ending the earnest playing frustrated, I clicked through until minute 48, so 32 minutes are theoretically played, ... no 150 mm artillery on the battlefield. Thank´s for the briefing! 2. Kampfgruppe Baker is the first Kampfgruppe i ever saw, who attacks enemy battle tanks without own battle tanks,... there are only SdKfz 251s on my right flank. 1x T34 can hold off the whole attack. An info in the briefing would have been helpful, by the way, it is not senseful to give them no battle-tanks. 3. As in mission 1, the T34 begin to retreat after some time, without loosing control of the situation, that makes no sense. Suddenly the unbreakable line of the russians lifts and the T34s show their backs to my Panzer IVs. What´s this? Without this behaviour i would have had much greater losses in Mission 1 and 2, and would have had some fun, because of realism in the campaign. Briefing says, the enemy retreats, when the situation becomes critical for him, .. i only saw an enemy, who gave up a powerful position on the battlefield. 4. Scenario-time: 1 hour 20 minutes may be o.k for a player, who knows the map and the enemy movements, it may be also o.k for players, who attack, hoping the battle-luck may be on their side, or even for players, who think, own losses are not important in a campaign. For a player, who wants to move his units tactically, it is ridiculus. In former Combat mission games we had the same time-table for maps not half the size of this and there were not a hundred of houses on the map. 5. First i was shocked by the mass of troops i had to manage on one map in this Campaign. The spirit of a campaign lies in my eyes in the fact, that the player has at maximum one company to play and has the chance to indentify himself with his troops. This would have been better in my oppinion and my suggestion for the future. The click-fest in this campaingn is a new experience for me, but as i´m always open for new things, i would give it a new try after the next patch, ... in hope, that some things in the Campain will be changed. Oooh, before the following (senseful) argument arises by the Battlefront-staff,... yes, i know i was Beta-tester in CMSF and Normandy, so by helping you guys, i could have changed some things before the release. Sorry... you are right! Greets, MARS42

The second mission is the hardest, i have ever played. (I play combat mission since the very beginnings) 1. In the first try i lost a lot of infantry to the german artillery, because i left my troops for too long at one place. I had not expected such a amount of ammunition on the german side. So i tried again. 2. In the second try, i manouvered my troops (one unit after another to give no great target to the enemy-artillery) to the right and at this edge of the map up the hill. Every unit stayed only short at a firing positions an then moved on to escape the artillery-fire. I was even able to fight across the street and up to the main hill. Problem was, the introduction tells you, that your attacking company is also used in a second mission of the campaign and i had not enough troops left for such a task. New try! 3. Now i knew the main positions and also, where the mortars of the enemy were on the map. So i destroyed them with the first artillery-strike, set my pre-arrangend artillery firing points at the right spots and fought up the hill with 22 dead and 2 halftracks lost. 2 platoons are in good shape, so i will go on to mission 3 now. What i really did not like: Normally you need a 3:1 advantage as an attacker, especially in such a uphill fight, but there is nothing like that. It´s o.k so far, makes it more challenging. But... if you get not enough troops by the designer, he has to give the player troops with much more experience, not mostly green or regular with bad leadership marks. I often had the chance to attack a single enemy positions with a superiority number of troops, attacked tactically correct, but failed, because my soldiers did a crap-shooting, were easily supressed and retrieted after a minute. The biggest problem were the canon-halftracks, which were of no use, when they got some enemy traces (from the front!) on there armoured-plates. The only vehicle, that was kind of senseful, was the halftrack with the 50 cal. MG. To summon it: Very interesting and challenging scenario, but not senseful with the wrong kind of toops on the US side. I dare say, that no one of the players, who normally play a campaign without savegames, ends this scenario succesfully in the first try. Successfully means, at the end, he has enough troops left to fight another scenario of the campaign. No chance in my opinion, even if we have tactic-gods around here. Greets, MARS42

Yes, i think the Oberschütze rank symbol is wrong, because the rank-star was carried at the right arm, the collar-sign was the same empty black ranking symbol like the SS-Schütze had. Here is a link to the german website "Lexikon der Wehrmacht" (encyclopaedia of german Wehrmacht), which shows the correct ranks: http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Soldat/SS/Abzeichen-R.htm By the way, it´s great to see, that you are working on your amazing mod! Thank you! Greets, MARS42

Hello boche, only for information. The Marder is used currently in Afghanistan by German Panzergrenadiers and had been used deadly in several firefights. Greets, MARS42

Hello, 1. The Typhoon was in service in 2008, but is only used as "Abfangjäger", means fighter against other planes. So, instead of the Tornado, the Typhoon makes not much sense in the game. 2. The BO 105 is good against tanks, but has no weapons for supporting the Ground-troops like other helicopters, so the joice was to use the systems from other NATO-Partners. As a result, you will find a few Dutch Apache in some german missions. Greets, MARS42

The howitzers are not there, because the airfield is too far away from the own ground-troops. The airfield-mission is one of the best i think, attack some minor targets at the edge at the beginning with the Elite-Hochgebirgsjägerzug, destroy the GMGs and the heavy MGs of the Syrians with mortars and use the later arriving 4x TOW- and Maschine-cannon Wiesels intensly for killing enemies in houses. Doing so, you will not have much problems solving the mission! Greets, MARS42