Spreading the Fausts Around

[Warts 'n' all]

My understanding has always been that upgrading mid-game can cause problems. But, perhaps someone else can give you more advice. As for me I am going to wait until I finish the campaign.

[landser]

Thanks mate. I imagine it's a no go, but worth an ask. To save folks from having to page back to see the question I'll ask it again

I moved to engine 4 for CMBN, but my CMRT is still on engine 3. I suspect the answer is no, but I was wondering, if I upgraded to engine 4 could I reload a save of a turn already played to see the F/O kill stats? I'm very interested to see the numbers from the artillery in that last battle.

I wouldn't want to endanger this campaign mid-way through, but even afterwards if I upgrade I wonder if these stats will show even though the turns were not played under engine 4. I suppose it comes down to whether engine three does indeed track them, it just doesn't display them.

Engine 4 added display of F/O kill stats, correct?

 

[A Canadian Cat]

So, loading saves from previous games is the goal. BFC does not guarantee they will work but they do their test not to break them. One of the upgrades from 2.xx to 2.02 for CMRT did break saves but that was from a specific version to a specific version.

I think you would be OK doing to from the v3 game (totally forget the version number and I'm just not looking it up now sorry) to 2.02. Here is what you can do - temporarily have both versions installed. For windows you can:

1. Make a copy of your CMRT install (just open windows explorer at the Battlefront level in the folder tree and copy the "Combat Mission Red Thunder" directory)
2. Rename the copy something other than xxx(1) or whatever Windows picks
3. Download the engine 4 upgrade for CMRT
4. Unpack the engine 4 upgrade installer into its own empty temporary folder
5. Run the installer and at the prompt make sure it is pointing to the directory you want to upgrade from step 2 - by default it probably will not be
6. Since you are upgrading the engine you will need to activate CMRT with your engine 4 upgrade key
7. Make sure you remove any version specific mods you might have in the <user dir>\Documents\Battlefront\Combat Mission\Red Thunder\User Data\Mods folder

Now you have two working games one using 1.xx and one using 2.02. You can safely try your save in 2.02 and if it happens to fail you can still play it in 1.xx

[A Canadian Cat]

Oh but I highly doubt (but do not know for sure) that the FO will get credit for kills made before the upgrade. If the kills were not previously tracked the tracked kills will be zero since the old game was not keeping track. I suppose if the kills were being tracked but not reported it will work.

I just don't know how the back end was designed but I have a suspicion. Let us know if it shows you a number.

[landser]

Good idea Ian and thanks, I might just try that. But I may also just wait until after the campaign completes and test it then, if I should decide to go through with engine 4. If I knew it worked and was backward compatible I would probably upgrade tonight since I really want to know how many casualties they caused, but it's not the end of the world if I don't and just through the map review I already know it's 'a lot'

I however, want to finish the campaign more than discover the kill tally. Appreciate your help.

[landser]

Had a look at the map and setup zones for the fourth battle in Blunting the Spear (left flank force with Mark IVs and panzergrenadiers).  How'd you do in this one Warts? It's the one where you are to take control of Ciemne. It has about fifteen terrain objectives, which are all occupy, so should require a fairly complex plan I reckon. The German end of the map is more restricted, but also provides a lot of cover to position the forces, which is good since the deployment/setup zone is one of those central 'just arrived by the road' types, and everything will need to be moved in to position instead of placed there. A third of the way up the map it opens out quite a bit. So covered approaches and open enemy ground essentially. I think I recall this one from a few years ago and if I am not wrong the Russian commits his assault guns here.

Terrain analysis shows the main push has gotta be up the right toward the brickworks, and some armor deployed on the left to make use of the excellent fields of fire from those positions. But that will also expose them to the enemy anti-tank units. I'll be counting on the boys having polished the Zeiss lenses after the last battle. Map is about 3000 meters long so I expect some long range gunnery duels once again. It didn't go un-noticed that an additional 40 minutes are on the clock, so I suspect it's considered a tougher nut to crack.

Edited October 8, 2019 by landser

[Warts 'n' all]

My record for this mission is played - 2  drawn - 2. And both times I went down the right, calling Cease Fire before the casualties started to mount.

In fact I've just finished the campaign. With a Major Victory, the same result as four years ago. Only this time I did much worse in Mission 2, but better in Missions 3 and 6. Ho hum.

[landser]

Thanks, and well done on the campaign. I started the fourth one, but as it's the third battle by the left flank, ammunition is low and some tanks have empty racks or close to it. About 5 minutes in a reinforcement message appeared, and it looks like I should have gotten two tank platoons at that point, but nothing spawned. I need as many tanks as possible since many are so depleted at this stage.  I've lost three Mark IVs in previous battles, so I doubt that's caused the phantom reinforcement.

Is it possible in Combat Mission campaigns to have the spawn locations 'blocked' by existing units?

[Bozowans]

It's always interesting to read how other people handle these scenarios. I'm only just now getting into the third mission. I played through the first 25 minutes, up to the moment the full kampfgruppe finally shows up. The second mission was pretty hard, so I've been playing extra cautious this time and it seems to be paying off very well. For the first 10-20 minutes I kept all tanks hidden behind buildings while scouts and observers ran ahead to spot T-34s, then run back to report the contacts throughout the chain of command. Meanwhile I was calling in artillery onto some of the T-34s to get them to button up, and only then would I let the Panthers peek around the buildings to try to snipe at the enemy tanks. 

It worked really well, but I still lost a Panther. A T-34 got a lucky shot and managed to knock out a moving Panther with its first shot from more than 1300m away. Three of the crewmen got roasted, but I've only taken two other men wounded so far, which is crazy considering the huge number of burning T-34s out there. It seems like most of the Soviet armored force has been wiped out already. Those Panthers are monsters - my longest range kill was at 2508m, almost from one edge of the map to the other. Now I just have to decide what to do with the huge masses of reinforcements that just showed up. You get so many troops that it's hard to know what to do with them all. It seems like you could lose tons of men and still have a ridiculously powerful force.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Bozowans

[landser]

Yes, I like reading these sorts of things too. For that third battle, the first with Panthers I sent one company of infantry up the left, to capture and hold the two farm objectives, but nothing was there aside from a couple of T-34s which were quickly taken out by flanking them with a Panther platoon. The infantry then hooked wide left remounted in Opels to hit the to the left side of the village, with one platoon left behind to occupy the farm and to lay fire in to positions around the town, but probably only succeeded in keeping heads down. Another infantry company was sent up the right,  had dismounted and were approaching the town through the woods when the AI surrendered. My infantry never really got in to the fight in this one, though a lot of effort was expended keeping them moving. If the AI hadn't surrendered they were in good position to hit the town from each flank. I won that one with just Panthers and artillery. I think switching to airburst once the T-34s were dealt with caused a lot of casualties around the town.

The battle really swung in my favor as my forces approached the town. I had called in the indirect 88s to where I had seen some anti-tank gun fire earlier, which hit a Panther without penetrating. Gotta watch those replays closely eh? My approaching forces flushed the forward Soviet troops who fell back smack in to the 88 barrage and were wiped out. Seems I got the guns too even though I got no spots on them the entire battle.

One thing I struggle with on the attack is keeping my crew-served weapons effective. With mortars it's not so bad since they can be called in with observers, and their positions aren't vital as a result. But the HMGs have been essentially out of the fight for the whole campaign. They got a few kills in the second battle in town. But otherwise I find it difficult to get them in to a position to help out before the battle has already rolled past. That's not a new problem in Combat mission, but I've never really found a good way to utilize them on the attack that doesn't also unduly jeopardize them  except in certain missions when a few choice positions are easily gained.

 

2508 meters is a hell of a shot. That's a mile and half! Got me beat, longest so far is 2269 in this one, so far.

Edited October 8, 2019 by landser

[Erwin]

11 hours ago, Bozowans said:

Now I just have to decide what to do with the huge masses of reinforcements that just showed up. You get so many troops that it's hard to know what to do with them all. It seems like you could lose tons of men and still have a ridiculously powerful force.

This is what is great about Campaigns.  It's nice to have superiority but one should have to use the minimum needed to accomplish the mission and keep the rest in reserve for future missions - if one uses too much ammo one can be hamstrung later.  Also, I find that when deploying "too many" units that is when one can get careless and lose units unnecessarily.  Some of my most memorable/enjoyable battles in the early days of CM were when I had lost too many units and was forced to fight much more intelligently with depleted forces in order to win.

[landser]

I like keeping reserves whenever possible. I'm 15 minutes in to battle four and while most of my infantry is forward, each company has a platoon still mounted on the road, tucked in little lanes near intersections to allow me to (hopefully) quickly commit them when and where (or if) they are needed. In battles one and two I kept the pioneer platoon in reserve and never sent them forward as I didn't see a need or the right opportunity to commit these troops. Of course, as recounted, aircraft found them anyway, so it's not always a foolproof way to conserve them. Just some lucky speculative artillery fire can put paid to these sorts of plans.

The 'phantom reinforcement' I mentioned was nothing of the sort, I simply misunderstood. The second panzer platoon was actually a panzergrenadier platoon, who arrived, and a panzer platoon, of which only the platoon leader arrived and I didn't notice his lone tank among the reserves at a glance. The reinforcing tanks have also been arriving in better shape ammunition-wise, with an average of about 30 rounds each of AP and HE in their racks. The starting armor just happened to be the ones that saw the most action in the previous battles.

Fifteen minutes in and the battalion is fully deployed, with my armor massed on the left. I have just one Mark IV platoon committed right of the road, but the bulk of the support/Stummel halftracks are attached to them on the right to add weight to the advance on the brickworks. Infantry is probing forward, but not much contact so far, just a few trucks and some infantry. I have yet to spot any Soviet armor, which is spooky.

I want to make special mention of the AI's opening artillery fires. In Combat Mission I dislike when scenario designers hit the setup zones with first-turn artillery barrages. It seems cheap in some sense. But well-done to the designers of Blunting the Spear. Instead of hitting the setup zones, the artillery is instead fired on obvious approach routes and intersections. In two places these fires stopped my advance and disrupted my timetables, and forced me to alter my plans and re-route my forces and the third I managed to dash some mounted panzergrenadiers through it but that was sheer luck not to take casualties. But I thought this was a wonderful way to use prep or first-turn arty strikes but without sticking it to the player. Nicely done.

[landser]

Now 30 minutes in to battle four. Played for nearly four hours last night. I could play a couple of entire missions in some campaigns in that time. But here I'm managing a rate of about one turn every fifteen minutes. I continued to move (Panzergrenadier) 2 Company toward the Brickworks with a platoon from 1 Company attached to add weight. This advance is supported by a Mark IV platoon and the bulk of the support and Stummel tracks, as well as artillery.

The rest of the armor is on the road or to the left of it to take advantage of the open ground and clear fields of fire, supported by the other two infantry platoons from 1 Company. After 15 minutes without having spotted any enemy armor I was a little spooked. Where are they? I continued to probe up the left, and the leading Mark IV platoon came under fire from well-concealed assault guns positioned at the edge of Cimne at a range of around 2000 meters. Lost one Mark IV knocked out straight away (another platoon leader), another took a hit with spalling, and a third took a turret penetration, killing the commander, but the tank reversed out of the line of fire.

I reacted aggressively, pushing the remainder of the battalion forward to get more barrels in the fight. The SU-85s were tucked behind hedges, hull-down and difficult to spot. In some cases they got off three shots before being spotted. As we got these spots and the battalion came up we began returning fire. A fourth Mark IV was hit, incapacitating the TC, and the crew dismounted (what's the difference between dismounted and abandoned?). Our weight of fire began to tell and all visible assault guns were knocked out.

These duels are so tense! So much depends on the outcome, and with rounds flying downrange each direction it's both fascinating and terrifying to watch. The dismay or elation felt with each hit or miss never gets old. But here, because I had massed my armor, we had the numbers to emerge. Once the battalion was fully committed to the fight, we were exchanging shots three to one, and that rate of fire, and the fine German optics, won the fight.

This shot suggests my man was just a little bit faster, and evokes the sniper duel scenes from Saving Private Ryan and Enemy at the Gates. The poor gunner.

 

 

Forgive the total lack of graphics mods, just haven't gotten around to it.

With an hour and a half left on the clock and a number of objectives taken, not to mention significant enemy armor losses, the battle is going well. Crossing the open ground before Cimne is still ahead, but the initial clashes have gone well.

[landser]

Battle four, the attack on Cimne, is in the books. The AI surrendered with a little more than an hour on the clock. When I saw there were 2 hours allotted I reasoned the scenario might be more difficult that the previous ones, but whilst the enemy had some serious AT assets, and artillery, they were lacking infantry. The scenario is designed to convey an opponent caught in a disordered withdrawal, and perhaps that explains it. Or maybe the enemy also has a core force and the losses he took in earlier missions stripped him of some of the forces that would otherwise be here. We uncovered a number of unoccupied foxholes, and maybe it suggests sometimes there could be more infantry units in this one?

I made my main push up the right,  toward the Brickworks. It was defended by a single sapper platoon. Against four infantry platoons, a tank platoon and an assortment of halftracks and artillery committed to this action, the AI had no chance of holding it. My infantry attacked from two sides, and I was in no hurry, and took the complex without loss.

On the left the armor had a rougher go of it. In the open they were vulnerable to air attack and anti-tank assets and I lost three Mark IVs destroyed. A support halftrack  was also knocked out by a direct hit from large caliber artillery. Two tanks fell to enemy armor and one to a pair of devlishly sited 57mm Zis guns. These guns caused one Mark IV crew to abandon their tank, and later I remounted them only to have the guns come back to life and knock the Mark IV out. The gun position was eventually neutralized with a combination of mortars, artillery and direct howitzer and tank fire. A hell of a lot of ordnance was expended on this, and it was only in the map review that I could finally breathe easy and saw they had been knocked out.

An interesting action took place near the end. There are fifteen terrain objectives in this one, but most are worth 10 or 15 points. The town of Cimne though has four objectives each worth 100 points, plus the road at 125 points. So in order to get better than a draw I knew I'd need to capture some of these. To accomplish this I sent a platoon of Mark IVs (minus their immobilized HQ) up the left, with a platoon of landsers mounted in halftracks following in their wake. Once level with the town, they were to turn on to it, with the infantry to dismount and help clear the way so the tanks could navigate through the town.

As I moved on to the Cimne South objective it triggered a platoon of previously hidden T-34/85s positioned at the far end of town, Cimne North. These tanks immediately rolled out and barrelled down the road toward my dismounting infantry. Sensing disaster I threw some smoke and positioned a coupe of tanks behind some trees at the near end of this road. If the T-34s rolled all the way to the end they would pop out on the end of my guns. First they had to pass my scrambling infantry, who threw a couple of grenades but had no panzerfaust since one squad had all thirty

The T-34s found themselves suddenly surrounded by my troops and pushed on through at high speed, causing a few casualties. As they reached the end of the road and emerged from the smoke my hidden Mark IVs opened fire at a range of 80 meters and three of the four T-34s were knocked out. The fourth veered off the road in to a field I had no LOS on. That broke them and they surrendered at the end of the turn.

With the 2 hours on the clock I expected this battle to be the toughest yet, but it proved to be the easiest one. I either didn't remember, or just learned, that tanks could get bogged/immobilized on dry and clear ground? I guess there's always that chance.

In the last post I used the term battalion for my armor, but really it's just a company or so, but part of the battalion. And I may have, through these posts, confused the campaign's left flank and right flank forces. Right flank is Mark IVs and left flank is the Panthers. Right flank has fought three of the four battles so far, and are very low on ammo. I need a resupply. Next battle is the left flank.

 

[MOS:96B2P]

7 minutes ago, landser said:

I sent a platoon of Mark IVs (minus their immobilized HQ) up the left, with a platoon of landsers mounted in halftracks following in their wake. Once level with the town, they were to turn on to it, with the infantry to dismount and help clear the way 

As I moved on to the Cimne South objective it triggered a platoon of previously hidden T-34/85s positioned at the far end of town, Cimne North. These tanks immediately rolled out and barrelled down the road toward my dismounting infantry. Sensing disaster I threw some smoke and positioned a coupe of tanks behind some trees at the near end of this road. 

The T-34s found themselves suddenly surrounded by my troops and pushed on through at high speed, causing a few casualties. As they reached the end of the road and emerged from the smoke my hidden Mark IVs opened fire at a range of 80 meters and three of the four T-34s were knocked out. The fourth veered off the road in to a field I had no LOS on. That broke them and they surrendered at the end of the turn.

+1  Interesting action.  Thanks for sharing.   

[landser]

Thanks mate, appreciate it. This is a great campaign, and Combat Mission really shines at this level. I like to say that company-sized campaigns are the sweet spot, but Blunting the Spear is shifting my view. I've really enjoyed it so far. The maps are fantastic as we've said, and the battles have been great. Solving tactical puzzles is always fun, and these scenarios allow a lot of leeway, many possibilities on how the player might approach it.

It's true I played this one a few years ago, but enough time passed for me to forget the details, even if I recall the maps. So it feels like I am playing for the first time, and certainly approach it that way.  And that's significant. It makes me grin to think of how much time and effort I have expended moving through terrain and towns, deployed in battle formation, using bounding overwatch, laying smoke, speculative and recon-by-fire and all the standard tactics only to find there wasn't an enemy anywhere nearby. I learned long ago that a good commander develops his plans based on enemy capabilities, not intentions. And since the enemy could be anywhere I approach it like he is.

These maps are huge and there is a lot of good defensive terrain that is devoid of enemy units. But you can't know that until you've combed it out and this theme has played out in each battle. If I were to play it again now I'd do much better, and way faster, and not spend time clearing empty terrain. But I really like this facet, and hats off to the designers.

[Warts 'n' all]

You did far better than I did.  Losing five tanks, and having one lose it's main gun, and having four half tracks knocked out, (two of them to the same round) was enough for me.

On to Victory!

Edited October 11, 2019 by Warts 'n' all

[landser]

Thanks Warts, appreciate it. These battles often hinge on the outcome of the armor duels and maybe I've been a bit fortunate in that respect.  If a few ricochets had been penetrations instead, then maybe it's all turning out differently. Ah, such is war

[landser]

A repeat of some of what I already wrote, but this is an excerpt from a campaign thread I have going on SimHQ. It's written for a more general audience, not the hardened veterans of Combat Mission who frequent this board. Includes a shot revealing enemy positions, which is a major spoiler, but after all the other spoilers I reckon that horse has bolted.

After reaching Cimene South and triggering the T-34 counterattack....

 

The T-34s found themselves suddenly surrounded by my troops and pushed on through at high speed, causing a few casualties. As they reached the end of the road and emerged from the smoke my hidden Mark IVs opened fire from point-blank range of 80 meters and three of the four T-34s were knocked out, while my startled infantry cut down the baling crews from very close range.. The fourth veered off the road in to a field I had no LOS on. That broke the Russian and he surrendered at the end of the turn. With additional time allotted in this one I expected it to be a harder nut to crack, but it proved the easiest so far, but of course in a game like this anything can happen and disaster and victory are often separated by fine margins. Maybe your APBC shot penetrates a turret, or maybe it fails and that tank goes on to gun down your whole platoon.

Here's a good shot of the leading elements on the left side of the map during the battle. This shot is fourteen minutes before the surrender.

 

In this shot you can see the three Mark IVs sent to Cimene in the upper left. Just out of frame are the halftracks carrying the infantry. I wanted to send the tanks ahead to be sure the tracks weren't ambushed. You can see my tank strength, along with the faded icon of the sneaky bastage AT gun center-right. A mortar spotting round has just hit to the left. On the left side you can see the Mark IV hit by the the AT gun. The icon appears as normal (because it's abandoned at this point, not destroyed), but has the crew icon right behind it. The halted armor is just a bit further left. At the bottom of the shot is the Rzyska Folwark objective and an infantry platoon can be seen moving on to it emerging from the smokescreen. They would eject a HQ unit, a Maxim, and a F/O team, all of whom had nowhere to run. It doesn't hurt to be supported by nine Mark IV tanks either.

At the top of the map is Cimene, and the tanks that counterattacked at the end came from Cimene N (the sound contact is visible). The smoke in Cimene shows some of the positions of the assault guns encountered earlier in the battle. The frantic action at the end occurred on the Cimene S objective. This shot shows only a portion of the huge map, but this is where the battle was decided. I said this thread was full of spoilers, and this goes beyond my normal level of spoilerification. But a picture's worth a thousand words. I usually only include map shots of the setup phase to prevent revealing too much, but I thought this might be interesting. If you play this campaign try to forget what you saw here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's not a big deal and probably has been brought up before, but the briefings and debrief identify the town as Cimne, and on the map it's Cimene. Not asking it to be changed, just something I noted.

 

[Bozowans]

Very interesting posts. Here's a spoilerific post from the third mission:

I just now finally finished it. After the difficulty I had with the second mission, this one was surprisingly easy! It was a massacre. I took only 6 dead and 9 wounded, with one tank lost. The Soviets took about 320 casualties, 27 tanks lost, 35 other vehicles lost and even one of their planes got shot down, crashing a couple hundred meters from the AA half-track that got it.

After the big tank battle at the beginning of the scenario had died down a bit, I started advancing a very thin, very widely dispersed infantry skirmish line out on foot across the wide open fields toward the objectives. Since the scenario was an hour and 20 minutes long, there was more than enough time for them to reach the other side of the map just by walking. It was a nice image watching them walk by all the burning T-34s everywhere. The infantry got into a few shootouts with retreating Soviet troops and tank crews, sometimes at very close range, but the resistance was pretty light.

By the time my forward scouts had begun encroaching on the final objective, they noticed large numbers of Soviet troops, trucks and a couple of AT guns starting to pull back from the town, heading to the map edge to exit. That was when I ordered one of the Panther companies to speed forward ASAP and cut off their retreat. I had the Panthers encircle the town with one platoon cutting off the road the Soviets would have to cross in order to exit. Whole platoons of infantry got caught out in the open and wiped out. I had the infantry line start running ahead with more tanks to storm into the town, flushing out panicked Soviet troops to be mowed down by the tanks. There were Soviet troops running right past the Panthers just meters away, but they were too panicked to be a threat.

Some of their troops got away, but It was a slaughter. Just one of the tanks alone caused 44 casualties. I didn't even use that much artillery, but I had one observer shell the town and some Soviet mortar positions with howitzers, causing 35 casualties. It was an interesting battle. 

[landser]

Great work Bozowans, that's 40 more casualties, one tank and one plane! more than I managed. Man, I would have liked to have knocked down a plane, as they've been quite the nuisance. More than a nuisance, a scourge actually that have dealt a significant portion of my losses so far. And they've knocked out most of my AA assets just to rub it in.

Sorry to spoil your next mission so close to you starting it. Hopefully that won't affect your enjoyment too much, and if there are AI plans I suppose the AT gun for example might be in a different spot.

I finished the fifth mission, and scored a minor victory. I won't spoil this one too much. I'd rate this one as the most difficult so far. The enemy has a proper defense, well supported by infantry, and well everything really. The designers made good use of the terrain when placing the defenses. Spotting is tricky I think due to low light? The map is almost 'crowned' so that LOS is limited, and you need to find those good spots with sufficient fields of fire to take advantage of your long range superiority. I did not play it in the spirit it was designed, ignoring most of the objectives in order to maintain my force integrity and once again keep losses low. I lost zero tanks, which is unbelievable really considering the strength of the defense. But time and again my Panthers shrugged off the hits while not missing much themselves. 14 enemy tanks/assault guns were knocked out in one 5 minute period.  However, my armor still took damage, and optics, radios and tracks have seen better times.

Had a look at the final mission and it is a big one. All remaining units from both flank forces are involved. I haven't lost many tanks, so I go in to it in very good shape. And since it's the last mission I feel less compelled to proceed cautiously and can be aggressive when the situation calls for it. We've also received a much-needed ammunition resupply. We'll see how it goes. Good luck in mission four Bozowans.

Edited October 14, 2019 by landser

[landser]

I am forty minutes in to the final mission. I've lost as many tanks in this battle as I had during the campaign to this point. Five Panthers and two Mark IVs have been knocked out. But I have a massive force and have taken out a lot of enemy armor though I am sure more lies hidden. At this point I am just committing my infantry, until now we've been probing forward to find the form. The thing that worries me is the enemy have yet to send over any artillery, which I am sure they have plenty of. Once my units get spotted by a F/O I expect a lot of it all at once. Gotta keep 'em moving.

It's as if the enemy has gotten better ammunition, all those failed penetrations from earlier battles have been replaced with dismay and despair, with the Panthers committed on the left suffering in particular to T-34/85s well concealed in the tree lines. One T-34 was so well cloaked in fact that I had to withdraw, reposition, and then attack from the flank. He got off a lot of shots, and despite having four or five Panthers with LOS to his position, none could spot him. He destroyed two Panthers, and the gun on a third before I wised up, withdrew and then took him out with flanking fire.

This is one more great battle in a campaign full of great battles. Honestly I am sorry it's nearly over. I could go for another six missions of this.

[Warts 'n' all]

Almost every clump of trees contains Russians. Just when you think that you have killed them all, bang, more of them.

[Erwin]

Thanks for the AAR.  I am a glutton for Campaigns that feature large maps and missions, but somehow I overlooked this one.  Will play this one for sure.

[landser]

Based on those criteria Erwin, Blunting the Spear is right in your wheelhouse. Maps are around 3k x 3k and most missions are around battalion in size. The final one is even larger. I mentioned it before, but these battles have an operational feel to them, the way they flow, the coordination required. I don't know if you've played games like Grigsby's War in the East, and especially as the Russians. The way you are playing two games in one. There's the front, where the combat is, but there's also the whole matter of getting the arriving units forward where you need them. The missions in this campaign impart that same sort of feeling for me. All of them feature starting units representing the advance elements, and through the course reinforcements arrive and must be fed in to the battle.

I feel like this campaign emphasizes planning more than most, and really appeals to me for that reason. Give it a go. I'd be interested in how you get on if you do.

Edited October 17, 2019 by landser