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CM Final Blitzkrieg - AXIS (Attack) BETA Battle Report


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Greetings all,

For my sins ( and mostly, for being foolish enough to volunteer :lol: ), I am the Axis commander who will show Bil Hardenberger the error of his gamey analytical ways in the process of showing off this fine new addition to the Combat Mission stable.

Since this game primarily revolves around the region and timeframe of the Battle of the Bulge ( what do you mean, it's not in the title ? :wacko: ), the Axis forces are on the attack.
This particular showpiece is set in January in order to enable me to show off certain pieces of kit that might not otherwise be available ( hint : it's big, it's turretless and "tigrish" ;) )

As customary for these battles, I give you, the loyal reader, the opportunity to suggest troops and vehicles you might like to see showcased. As is also customary, I will ignore these almost completely - hey, I'm playing Bil freakin' Hardenberger ! :o I need to take stuff to WIN, not to make fancy pictures :P

Speaking of fancy pictures, below are a couple of shots of the absolutely gorgeous map we'll be using ( I tell you, the mapmakers absolutely reached a new level for this - I didn't even present my effort from shame )

Left side

CMFB%20Map%20Leftside.png

Right side

CMFB%20Map%20Rightside.png

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Here are a few more pics to whet your appetite - note these are for illustrative purposes only - nothing to do with what I may eventually choose/use.

Heavy wpns

CMFB%20Heavy%20wpns.png

View towards Cobru from jumping off positions. ( may show some ammo information, but my pics may be resizing too small )

CMFB%20view%20to%20Cobru.png

Another view SE towards Cobru with a different unit

CMFB%20view%20SE%20towards%20Cobru.png

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One last thing - I'm not Bil, I don't have impressive Photoshop skills, so my AAR pics will be cruder.

( I was going to mock up a pic of a Schwimmwagen as a tease, but with Kohlenklau's recent health issues, I thought I'd better not risk it :lol: )

So, that's it, leap in, feel free to suggest what I should take to finally break the verdammt Amerikans who have been holding out for weeks against what should have been a whirlwind .. er .. blitzkrieg. :huh:

Edit : D'oh, only just realised I'd turned off the VL's in the map pics. I will take some more later to show them, but there are 3 "phase lines" although they aren't lines, just VL's at a certain depth on the map.

Edited by Baneman
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Fred%20Sanford_zpsuuzz8pwp.jpg

 

:D  Good hunting Ian!

<Cultural Reference Explained: USA Hollywood TV shows, early 1970's. "Sanford and Son": The comedian Redd Foxx played the junkman Fred G. Sanford, who often when faced with bad news or other issues, would clutch his chest, say it was the "big one" (heart attack), stagger back and forth and lament to heaven... "Elizabeth, I'm coming to join you, honey!"...>

Edited by kohlenklau
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Looking forward to following this closely :)

Excited that the game is about to be released.

On a side note: something I felt about snow in CMFI as well - granted overcast weather, but IMHO it is too much on the grey side. And snow (at least in CMFI) can't be modded to change that.

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The look of snow in the game is heavily affected by time of day. Play a battle at 1pm on a sunny day and the snow's as white as a sheet of paper. 3pm or 10am its a different matter entirely, especially in these high latitudes. In the editor they changed the 'default' time from 9am to 11am for CMFB because 9am late December the sun's still sitting on the horizon. CMFI still defaults to 9am which means unless you change the time of day by hand you're fighting in the early morning gloaming.

Edited by MikeyD
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The look of snow in the game is heavily affected by time of day. Play a battle at 1pm on a sunny day and the snow's as white as a sheet of paper. 3pm or 10am its a different matter entirely, especially in these high latitudes. In the editor they changed the 'default' time from 9am to 11am for CMFB because 9am late December the sun's still sitting on the horizon. CMFI still defaults to 9am which means unless you change the time of day by hand you're fighting in the early morning gloaming.

That's great. Snow in full sunlight can be positively blinding. But I still think that the snow in cloudy/dark weather/time is too grey. Not by much, but still. Take this from a Swede who is quite used to what snow look like. The grey scale snow is what you usually see along roads or in populated areas where dirt is mixed up with the snow. In rural areas not so much. But this is just my humble opinion. Not like it is a game breaker or so.

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That's great. Snow in full sunlight can be positively blinding. But I still think that the snow in cloudy/dark weather/time is too grey. Not by much, but still. Take this from a Swede who is quite used to what snow look like. The grey scale snow is what you usually see along roads or in populated areas where dirt is mixed up with the snow. In rural areas not so much. But this is just my humble opinion. Not like it is a game breaker or so.

Welcome to the nightmare of every professional photographer. Getting snow to look natural and sufficently white without burning your eyeballs out is a pain. The hardest part is intermediate light levels with an overcast sky. Give me a bright day any day of the week in winter. 

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I do photography a lot, and the "paradox" of photgraphing snow that is very bright is that the camera usuallt underexposes the pic, turning it grey and murky. This is due to the optics/sensor exposing as if everything in the frame reflects 18% of the light, which is a certain shade of grey. Anything brighter than that, and hey presto, an underexposed pic. And then we have the whole business of white balance that can make snow look blue in the shade, but I'll stay away from that now.

 

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I do photography a lot, and the "paradox" of photgraphing snow that is very bright is that the camera usuallt underexposes the pic, turning it grey and murky. This is due to the optics/sensor exposing as if everything in the frame reflects 18% of the light, which is a certain shade of grey. Anything brighter than that, and hey presto, an underexposed pic. And then we have the whole business of white balance that can make snow look blue in the shade, but I'll stay away from that now.

 

Heh. Absolutely correct. But even in processing pics, it's a nuisance to keep snow from appearing too dark. We remember the bright whiteness of it all, and it is tough to get really right upon processing. 

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Failing that, you definitely need to bring a JagdTiger! I put 5 bucks on Bil crapping his pants when he sees that bad boy coming!

Ah but that's exactly what he would expect. :ph34r:

As for axis units I would really like to see volksgrenadiers Baneman. Are you playing SS or Heer?

Playing Heer. Volksgrenadiers are a good possibility, although I'm not sure I'm keen to send (mostly) Green troops up against Bil. I might need a bit of resilience.

Edited by Baneman
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Ah but that's exactly what he would expect. :ph34r:

That's a very good point, but even if he's expecting it, what can he reasonably do to stop it? That monster would dominate the field regardless of where it is or what it's doing.

To be honest, I just want to see one in action, so my opinion is entirely subjective. Do what you have to do to win, you're up against Bil, so you'll need to capitalize on every advantage you can get. Good luck Baneman.

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Without knowing the exact QB points: I would buy two JagdTigers: one to be used on the road on the left side and one for the road on the right. JTs would be accompanied by for example Panthers. Hetzer(s) could be used as an over watch. It would be interesting to 1) see JTs in action  2) how Bill tries to take them out. Rest of the points I would spend on mech inf. maybe with extra 'zooks, on-map mortars and arty. 

Thanks for making the DAR. 

 

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And then we have the whole business of white balance that can make snow look blue in the shade, but I'll stay away from that now.

Took this near sundown a week ago. I swear those shadows were every bit as blue to the naked eye as they are in the pic.

kvRncj.jpg

Apparently this is a real thing.

During the daytime, a shadow cast by an opaque object illuminated by sunlight has a bluish tinge. This happens because of Rayleigh scattering, the same property that causes the sky to appear blue. The opaque object is able to block the light of the sun, but not the ambient light of the sky which is blue as the atmosphere molecules scatter blue light more effectively. As a result, the shadow appears bluish.

I agree that snow in sunlight is never grey unless polluted.

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We're getting off topic - so one final post.

True Vanir, but what I meant is shade and no direct sunlight coming in - like in a forest with little direct sunlight. White balance problems is caused by color temperature which our brain/eyes compensate for but the camera doesn't. Like a pic indoors at X-mas with candels will look orange. One taken in artificial lighting might make white surfaces look greenish.

Like this:

wb_zpsvmjjkioj.jpg

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