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CMRT Campaign - Kampfgruppe "von Schroif"


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About the Campaign
This campaign covers a short and sustained period of combat operations taking place over a period of less than 72 hours, in Poland, on the Eastern Front in early August 1944. Although fictional it is heavily based on actual events.


In the campaign you take the role of 1 Kompanie Commander Hauptmann Hans von Schroif, of the 3rd Panzer Division’s (Known as the Berlin Bear division – the bear features on the city coat of arms) I(gep)/PzGrn Rgt 3 equipped with half-track carriers (SPW). Hauptmann von Schroif - AKA you - has been tasked with commanding a small kampfgruppe, to which has been attached the 6 Kompanie (Panzer IVs) under the command of Hauptmann Eric Faust. You have a sister kampfgruppe – commanded by Hauptmann Krüger – with roughly the same make-up, SPW and PzIVs. Krüger is a glory hunter with a desire for a Knights Cross. Correspondingly his unit is very aggressive. Other elements from Division will be attached given the situation – mostly recce units from Aufklärungs-Abteilung 3 (AA3). 

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Reinforcements; Resupply and Refit
It is worth noting that the player receives no reinforcements and little in the way of refit in the 72 hour period.
Therefore you, the player, have to use your forces wisely, especially your panzergrenadiers. Keep your casualties as low as you can, for as long as you can. The key to success is close co-operation between your SPW, panzergrenadiers and panzers.
Key characters, including platoon leaders, are all named individually and are tracked throughout the campaign. You’ll notice, as casualties mount that key names slowly start to disappear. Don’t get killed yourself though early on, as it may lead to you ending the campaign, like your life, prematurely. 
Player Campaign Briefings and Tactical Maps

The briefings take the form of an immersive narrative. Therefore they tend to be fairly lengthy, Not everyone’s cup of tea but I like that. To help process the info I compiled all the campaign briefings into a PDF file titled Kampfgruppe von Schroif Campaign Briefing Handbook. Each brief is linked via the Campaign Flowchart so you can quickly access the briefing you want. If you don’t like reading then the Operation and Tactical Maps in each mission provide the key info required at a glance.

There is also a table showing your unit, its commanders and their ‘soft’ values e.g. experience, morale etc. In addition there are Force Tracker graphics which allow you to track casualties and effectiveness of your unit as the campaign rolls on.

In addition there is a pack of Tactical Maps included in the zip file. These are maps of all the main missions and are blank unannotated JPGs. They offer the player the ability to use them to plan their actions either on paper (print them out) or digitally on your PC/Laptop.

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Mods
There are no mods required to play this campaign. It’s playable “out of the box” using the base CMRT game. If you are interested in what mods I use (and you’ll see in the screenshots) then I use the following:
Aris' vehicles (both German and Soviet)
Kieme's buildings and terrain mods
Tanks a Lot buildings (these just add more 'skin' options for buildings but they are great!)
Veins' German and Soviet soldiers
Veins' tracers and special effect s(smoke, flame and dust)
Rambler's CMBS Trees and Hedges (yup CMBS mod but it works in CMRT).

Acknowledgments
Huge shout out to SeinfeldRules for the kind permission to use his “Assault Position” scenario in this campaign.
I owe a huge debt of thanks to the guys who did the playtesting. So a big shout out and thanks to the following for playtesting, feedback, proof reading and critical comment:
SeinfeldRules, Raptorx7, mjkerner, RepsolCBR, TAKODA. BarbaricCo, olliwa, SlowLarry, Reech, borg, bangalor44, Chudacabra. 
Special mention goes to Combatintman who painstakingly proof read and checked all the briefings for every scenario and their associated tactical and operation maps. I think the words Oberleutant and Oberstleutnant will be forever etched in his brain! He also provided the “Force Tracker” graphics.
Any subsequent errors, omissions and weirdness are entirely my fault!

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You can grab a slightly tweaked version 3 (some minor changes made to the first mission and corrected some typos in the brief) from TSDIII HERE.
 

Edited by George MC
Update for campaign release
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GeorgeMC,

  This sounds really great.  I'm looking forward to it, as I do all your projects.  They are always so well done.

  RL is killing me right now, but if you don't get a lot of responses, I can fit in some testing here and there.  I find it interesting that you were able to incorporate one of SeinfeldRules's scenarios.  I find his work extremely enjoyable as well.

Heinrich505

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Is this part of the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive?

Wikipedia quote

"The LvovSandomierz Offensive is generally overshadowed by the overwhelming successes of the concurrently conducted Operation Bagration that led to the destruction of Army Group Centre. However, most of the Red Army and Red Air Force resources were allocated, not to Bagration's Belorussian operations, but the Lvov-Sandomierz operations"

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Is this part of the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive?

Wikipedia quote

"The LvovSandomierz Offensive is generally overshadowed by the overwhelming successes of the concurrently conducted Operation Bagration that led to the destruction of Army Group Centre. However, most of the Red Army and Red Air Force resources were allocated, not to Bagration's Belorussian operations, but the Lvov-Sandomierz operations"

Aye it it - specifcally the German counterattacks by 3rd (specifically) and 19th Pz Divs to clear the Sandomierz bridgehead around the 11th August.

A great ref The Battle for L'Vov translated by David M. Glantz and Harold S. Orenstein Ch7 page 91. I've also used the 3rd Pz Div history "Armoured Bears" vol 2. Interestingly there are significant differences in accounts and dates between the two volumes.

 

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A few screenies from the campaign.

This screenie shows the start of the very first mission:

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Later in the campaign, if you don't manage to keep to the attack timetable you end up attacking at night...

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Whereas if you manage to stick to the attack timetable and wow your battalion commander you can end up with the same mission but in early evening. Although that can be troublesome in it's own right.

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Later in the campaign, if you don't manage to keep to the attack timetable you end up attacking at night...

Whereas if you manage to stick to the attack timetable and wow your battalion commander you can end up with the same mission but in early evening. Although that can be troublesome in it's own right.

 

This campaign sounds very interesting, from the setting, units involved to the day and night possibilities. The screenshots looks very atmospheric.

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I finally got some time to play the first mission last night. Objectives AZ001, AZ002, AZ004 and AZ006 were easily taken, so I figured objective PRIGNITZ was going to be a cakewalk. 3 large plumes of billowing smoke are now spewing out of my precious panzers... I'm restarting the mission!

Great map and the briefing is really, really well done, I'm looking forward to having another crack at the first mission again tonight.

 

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George,

 Tremendous.. fantastic the way you keep them coming. Don’t stop!!!

 As with many of your fans a real CM event when you release stuff :).

 Will save it for when I have time to really appreciate it.. something to look forward to.

 Thanks,

All the best,

Kip.

Thanks very much @kipanderson for the fullsome praise :) I'm getting a ton of help from the guys who are playtesting the campaign currently. It's due to the efforts of playtesters such as these guys - and yourself in the past - that help make scenarios more polished and, hopefully, more enjoyable. We should have wee playtester awards you can have added to your forum profile - like campaign medals!

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I was so pride to take this bridge and than the bug pop up!

Well, beta testing is for discovering bugs. @George MC You probably doesn’t have to do anything with this, but must report if there are ways to fix it.

Other than bridges, pure excellency :) .

Panzer IV was on a fast move and one waypoint before, another after the bridge.

I knew that I just don't like those CM bridges.

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I was so pride to take this bridge and than the bug pop up!

Well, beta testing is for discovering bugs. @George MC You probably doesn’t have to do anything with this, but must report if there are ways to fix it.

Other than bridges, pure excellency :) .

Panzer IV was on a fast move and one waypoint before, another after the bridge.

I knew that I just don't like those CM bridges.

Thats a new one...I have never seen vehicles rubber band on bridges before, this didn't happen to my armor when playing that mission.

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Thats a new one...I have never seen vehicles rubber band on bridges before, this didn't happen to my armor when playing that mission.

Neither have i...That looks weird.

I had no problem either when playing this mission. I did not put waypoints on both sides of the bridge...Worked just fine anyway.

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