George MC

Hi @BletchleyGeek That's a neat trick with the text Interesting and good top tips. I've played it a few times recreating Carius' tactics. It gives you a feel for how lucky he was in that manoeuvre. Given he'd no idea what he was up against in the village it does stand out as an incredibly bold move.

Hi @swannyy43 Nice one FYI your unit also takes a starring role in the scenario "Rolling Thunder". All the best for your deployment. Cheery!

Hi @IanL It is - the dust and smoke is just after the moment of impact. Just after firing he ducked down as you can see in the second shot. Unfortunately for the panzerfaust team the accompanying Russian dismounts soon spotted him and his mate and there ended up being a fire fight. Panzerfaust guy survived and returned fire (his mate not so lucky). After several minutes of an exchange of fire he was shot and badly wounded.

Hi @Redmarkus Thanks for the wee ARR - glad you enjoyed it. I checked the points allocation and it does appear as if there is a minor error in the friendly parameter section. I've corrected it and I'll upload a revised version to the repository. Good catch! Thanks again. Cheery!

From long range killing to up close and personal.

Bail out!

Just love the detail on the 3D models and "skins".

Hi @Alfy Nae worries

Here ya go @Alfy: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n1n6cpewau9blvm/AAAA_o1D-fAYaWAmW7S7JZdla?dl=0 Two docs - one on Strykers and one on BIFVs plus a heap of other stuff.

Hi Hister No worries - if you PM your address I'll pop into the post office tomorrow and see how much it costs to post. We'll take it from there

For anyone interested some freebie PC parts:

Aye it is - I was thinking about hanging onto it (just in case!) but it's all taking up space and I'm keen to declutter!

Hi All I'm having a clearout of stuff from my man cave - mainly to make room for errr, more books... I've a stock of old computer parts - pretty much all you would need is a hard drive, power supply, case and monitor. I'd prefer to off load the whole lot as one (free - all I'd be looking for is postage). I'm in the UK so postage would be cheaper if you were UK based. The bits are as follows: ABit IP35 Pro Motherboard complete with Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8400 (also with various SATA Leads, handbook and user manual) 4 x 2Gb memory modules (Crucial DDR2 240-PIN DIMM) Geforce GTX 660Ti Graphics Card Geforce 7800 Graphics Card (this is an oldie but pretty sure it works as it was the one before the 660Ti) If interested just PM me and we can take it from there. Mind it's FREE - all I'd be asking for is postage. Cheery!

Ermm not totally correct I'm afraid - I think the bottom bit is not totally correct... So within an AI Plan slot you have the following: Top line: the "movement speed" - this is the type of movement you want to the AI to use for the CURRENT order .e.g AI Order 2 "Dash" is how fast it will travel (and the behaviour associated with that movement i.e. the unit will disregard any and all threats in an effort to reach it's next painted AI point associated with the next order. Second line down: if the unit is going into buildings this will tell it which parts of the building you want the unit to head to. Third line down: this is the "behaviour" you what the unit to have whilst undertaking that order e.g. active = looking out for any enemy and engaging any and all spotted (although this then is in context with the movement order speed some of which will override the units desire for a fight!. Fourth line: this is for units carrying guys. If you action this the passengers will debus at the END of the movement command (NOTE: you then need to allow enough time for them all to hop off their rides - this gets a bit complicated as units hopping off their rides does appear to be linked to the type of movement. The AI tends to adopt a caterpillar crawl type of movement e.g. one unit moves so far, stops, whilst the rest of it's buddies in that AI group then move. Once everyone is as the same point the movement is repeated until they all reach their destination. You also need to ensure there is enough time for everyone to get off their ride between one order and the next. You'll find this may take a wee bit of fiddling with timings and commands. Fifth line: this is the key one and is vital you get this right for the stuff above to work in your plan as intended. The key thing to mind about this is that the order time (as others have said) is linked to the game clock (I'll keep it simple for now - I'll leave triggers out...). This timeline you create is for the NEXT AI order NOT the current one. So in SET-UP you would need to click the "ADD" button which creates the slot for AI Order 1. Anytime you create in SET-UP now refers to when the unit will start the following order. So if we go to set-up in the AI Plan the time you add in EXIT BETWEEN means that the time range there - the time at which the unit will move out; whilst "...AND" means when it has to get to the next painted waypoint associated with the following order (so you would need to paint a point under AI Order 1). So if you put 00:01:00 (1 minute) the AI unit will wait till the in-game clocks has counted one minute from the start of the scenario. So if the scenario started at 0800Hrs and you want the unit to start at 0801Hrs you would put 00:01:00. So when the clock strikes 1 minute off they trundle (how they move depends on what "movement speed" you allocated for AI Order 1. Now the next time you add - "...and" means that you want the unit to reach the next painted waypoint (associated with AI Order 1). So if I use an EXIT BETWEEN of 00:01:00 " + "...AND" of 00:05:00 means that the AI unit at set-up will wait until the clock reaches 1 minute after the start of the scenario. The unit will then begin to enact whatever I have tasked it to do in AI Order 1 within 5 minutes. Now enemy activity, me giving the unit a huge distance to cover, difficult route finding, are all things that can throw of the timing. But mind the AI unit will endeavour to reach it's next destination in that allotted time frame of four minutes. If it falls behind it's designer imposed timeline it tends to push on regardless until a/ it's KOd b/ it's morale state is such it halts and goes to ground. So once they reach AI Order 1 then the timings I add under that order is the timeline for them to undertake the AI Order 2 whilst the associated movements commands and behaviours are then changed (as per above) under 2. This sounds complicated but my top tip is create a small simple test map with a few platoons and play with this till the above is second nature. Then start small with scenarios. It really is simple but you do need to spend some time with a small test scenario playing with this methodology. Once you realise the times do not apply to the current AI order your golden! Mind start very. very small on a test scenario and play about. Keep it simple oh and don't try to micromanage the AI - you'll go mad. Mad I say!!

Sorry my bad - I meant dirt lot - it flattens the ground every so slightly bit like roads do.

Aye seems to work MIchael - effective if radio is the main means of connecting everyone. I don't know if you have CMBS but the company teams/combat groups were how this was done in CMBS. I think though due to how the C&C is modelled that was the easiest way to create company teams under one commander. I don't think (as yet) there is a way to come up with "on the fly" tasking and C&C with platoons from different units. hecne why it's good to ask for this to go on the list. Anyways good to see you back and about Cheery! George

I agree having the ability to create kampfgruppes etc with one boss would be great. However you can sort of do this in CM at the moment, especially with German armoured troops ensuring info is shared. I sue this wee tip a lot in some of the larger actions I play where you have perhaps a company of Pzg in SPW, company of armour and some recce units. This where your 2ICs come in really, really handy. To ensure any spotting info 9shared via radio) is communicated down the line all you need to do is split off the 2ICs of your attached companies and keep em close to the boss's of their sister company e.g. 2IC of the armour unit goes with the Boss of th SPW unit and vice versa. This also gives you two command groups so if one lot get whacked you don't lose all your C&C. If you have a recce unit then split of their 2IC (or compnay boss) and place em with one of the command groups. You'll soon find that any info filters down. It's a bit slower than it would be if they were all under the same command but it's a neat wee workaround till we have the ability to create bespoke task groups/kampfgruppes/combat commands. This works well in user created scenarios but might be a wee bit toguher to do in QBs, still yu can adpt this and use the same principles even in QBs.

You'll find you have to fudge placing buildings etc especially if you are using an overlay based on a map. So it can take some time to sort so your CM map is a reasonable representation of it's real world counterpart. In an ideal world we'd have curvy roads! I've also used the hard dirt tiles to paint a curvy road (the hard dirt tiles flatten the surface) - this is good is you are making maps in CMRT where often roads were little more than hard packed earth. You can see this in my scenario Carius at Malinova where I used this so i could accurately create the key terrain, roads and buildings.

The designer has to use straighter roads - what i do is draw in the road "as is" then using "sand" tiles I draw a straighter road line approximating to the drawn in one that straightens out the zig zags. thereafter it becomes an artistic representation if the original road line but one in which in game it a/ looks more pleasing b/ is easier for the player to plot vehicle's movements. I dislike zig zags with a vengeance and go so far as to say I tend to exit out of a scenario if I see them. they make plotting vehicle movement a mare and I just can't be arsed with that!

Hi @Bill Hardenberger Nice one - i just got an email from Scott - he did mention you guys were playing this. I've had some feedback re H2H but TNH as it's a historical scenario it's not "balanced" in that the Soviets did get cuffed in this! I have suggested if people want it balanced they try it much like how Carius undertook it Still I'd be interested in hearing how it plays out. If nothing else I can state not suitable for H2H competitive play as not balanced. I guess Scott is looking to live up to his nick and get in touch with his inner Carius! Interesting you kept the set-up - that goes some way to giving you an indication of what the Soviet commander faced. Interestingly the commander of the Soviet company was very experienced and highly decorated. Unfortunately his crews were recruits given a few hours basic and chucked into their tanks. In the PDF i have the full casualty list of the Soviet tankers who were KIA/WIA during this action. Most were just young laddies.

Hi @Holien Nearly there! There's not much been given away - in fact some of the early missions were tweaked a bit, plus depending on how well things go there are several different branches. You could easily find yourself on the road less travelled!

Thanks very much @Buzz

Hi He! Aye patience is born of necessity! Re the sources - the main one was @SeinfeldRules scenario then I was reading a book about 3rd Panzer Division in Poland, I located a detailed AAR of one of the operations involving a SPW unit and all happened from there. I think units like GD were bled white. When you look at the attrition rate in the division it's frightening. The again you have regiments the strength of battalions and companies little more than a platoon. In Der Ring - the phase of the fighting the scenario covers most of the panzergrenadier companies were little more than reinforced platoons. Whilst the panzer regiment was little more than an understrength battalion at best or a reinforced company at worse! By the end of the attack Der Ring covers they were down to a handful of panzers and were pretty much pulled out of the fight after that. Glad you like the maps - I think you'll like the ones in this campaign.

I'm getting closer! It's the details that are now taking the time... Still about to start on the home straight for releasing the campaign. Glad you enjoyed Carius. I enjoyed making that one. Der Ring will be good practice for this campaign. As an aside when you read about a lot of the late war German armoured operations one thing you do notice is the high attrition rate not just in panzers but also the accompanying panzergrenadiers. In the Der Ring scenario this was the case - the armoured group was pretty close to burn out.

Thanks - this aspect has taken a heap of time to get 'right' It is mentioned but not as explicitly. I've made it clearer both in the briefing and in the designer notes. There will also be a READ ME included with the packaged campaign file which will have info about playing the campaign and make it very clear and explicit. You do get some help from your sister Kampfgruppe later on so you'll have a few more dismounts to play with (although Hauptmann Krüger seems to have "throatache" which can lead him into a wee spot of bother...). Look forward to hearing how the third mission goes. Thanks again for the comments and on-going feedback