George MC

Did a scenario based on this for CMBB. Part of the Strachwitz series Charlie and I made. Wee article about the action we created (pre Wiki). It also has links to on-line information and also the map of the area. https://www.dropbox.com/s/f60s0fcz10uojbp/Strachwitz%20At%20Dubno%20Historical%20Background.pdf?dl=0

If I recall the battlefields after this were a visitor attraction for German troops. So many KO'd tanks in a comparatively small area.

Be careful what you wish for... Modern armour, especially M1s are deadly. You don't really want these things taking a bead on you from 3km. Bang! Yer dead. And you never even saw it. Btw most of the films etc coming out from Ukraine don't show 'flat' terrain. It's gentle rolling hills with lots of wooded lots. Although the terrain does depend on which part of the Ukraine you are looking at. Check out Google Earth if not already done so.

The challenge is with no save game file there is nothing to investigate. Save game gives something tangible to look at and check. No save game, well...

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=115522&highlight=half+tracks http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=114955&highlight=half+tracks http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=114128&highlight=half+tracks These should keep you going.

Were the trees in game turned 'off' - number of false LOS/LOF issues that have come up because a player forgot they turned the trees off... Not that I would ever make that mistake. Oh no...

The wheels on the bus go round and round

Decker was heavily criticised by Graf von Strachwitz for his handling of the Panther brigade in the opening stages of Kursk. In fact Decker was relieved of his command (if I recall) and replace by Strachwitz. It caused a real controversy at the time. "Kursk: The German View" Stephen H. Newton gives a brief description on pages 387-8 of the dispute between Strachwitz and Decker concerning the command and control of the armoured units operating within the Grossdeutschland Division at the start of Citadel http://axistanksworldwarii.devhub.com/blog/656324-panther-debut-at-kursk-july-1943/ This from the CMBB scenario Charlie Meconis and I did: "At the last minute prior to the start of the July 5 assault, an entire regiment of the new Panther tanks, nearly 200 in all, had been attached to Großdeutschland. The tanks were powerful but beset by teething problems, and their crews had had little time to train together or even test their radios. To make matters worse, at the insistence of General Guderian, at the very last minute Oberst Karl Decker was appointed overall commander of both Grossdeutschland's panzer regiments in a new Panzer Brigade 10, shunting the brilliant and proud Strachwitz into a subordinate role. Decker, a good commander under normal circumstances, badly bungled the first day of the assault as the nearly 350 tanks under his command became hopelessly tangled in swampy terrain and Soviet minefields, and then were then badly shot up by Soviet defences, with the Panthers taking severe losses. Furious at this travesty, Strachwitz had gone over the head of his division commander General Hornlein straight to the Korps Commander, General von Knoblesdorff, and demanded that Decker be sidelined and command returned to him. Knoblesdorff acquiesced and as of July 6 Strachwitz regained command of Großdeutschland's panzer forces including the few remaining Panthers, and got the division moving toward Kursk."

I do the same Hind. Coy CO just behind lead platoons to ensureC2 as and when platoon Commanders go down. 2ic sweeps the rear attending to wounded and if need be take over from Coy CO if he gets taken out.

If the defence has been set-up well (with interlocking fields of fire, mutual support etc) then you do need to consider not just fire from the unit on the objective but enemy neighbouring units who have LOF to the approach to the objective. My mistake (often made, followed by a 'Doh!' moment) is to forget this. When I do get it right it's down to using smoke to mask the flanks of my attack (or if not enough smoke then have supporting friendlies area fire at possible enemy locations to suppress them) then have the objective suppressed - friendly suppressing fire, arty etc - and attack in short bounds, one unit up and 'quick' whilst the others stay put and provide covering fire. i think often there is a desire to get this done quickly but taking your time pays dividends.

Ta muchly

Excellent work mate. Very impressive. For the record - Studienka and Tankovyi Desant were done by myself.

I've not found anymore than what you've already found Aragorn. I've run through the Living History GD 250/1 book but again nothing specific. Alos checked Spaeter's history of GD vol 2 and Scheibert's PzgDiv Grossdeutschland. To no avail. Sounds like you could make this scenario be what you want it to be.

I've trawled through my books on GD and no mention of this action - only mention refers to Krottingen I can find is in "Battleground Prussia" pages 60-70 and refers to Battlegroup "von Breese" fighting a rearguard action just north of there in early October. Are you sure the date of his award is the date of the actual action or the date he received it?

All good comments I'd support JonS - 1km x 1km map as your first attempt is a rather large undertaking. I'd suggest scaling it down and creating a small one then gradually as you learn the 'art' increase the size of your maps. I'd even suggest starting with a 500m x 500m map.

I think scenario design is very susceptible to the the 'butterfly effect'! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect Oh snake_eye - I do have a wee project in mind for the two hands idea you suggested. Just bit busy with Black Sea stuff but I have a map all made with your name on it

It all comes down to playtesting. That's the crunch. Every iteration or tweak of a scenario would require testing. Then tweaking on the basis of the playtesting - so there's more time - this time the designers. Doesn't matter which way you cut it that's what it comes down to I'm afraid - time. TBH from my own POV I design scenarios I like to play pure and simple. Now this might be because of a situation that intrigues me, or a historical situation I'm interested in. If others enjoy playing them - that's great. I truly appreciate the help I receive from people who gladly give up their spare game time to help test my designs, or those who take the time to send me their feedback or post it at the repository. But when it comes down to it my interest is in the situation not necessarily to make a scenario replayable however many times. TBH I reckon most players will only play something once anyways, then move on. Anyway what you are describing could be done in QBs anyways - just keep a note of what you bought, settings etc then just keep redoing and tweaking...

Luckily for these soldiers they don't have someone on a keyboard or mouse giving em human wave orders in a desperate bid to win points...

I've not played Ukraine vs Russian so can't say. TBH even the small amount of stuff I've playtested (mostly scenarios I'm designing) are using early versions of the game (as shown in Chris's live streams) so my opinions about how stuff performs should be taken with a pinch of salt. More than a few of the testers are current military guys (several current serving armoured officers amongst them) so they have the best take on how effective M1s and possibly T90s should or shouldn't be. In CMSF the M1 was a state of the art weapons system. In the timeframe since CMSF was set (early 2000s)the M1 has seen a lot of upgrades so you'd expect it to be a formidable opponent. It's worth being aware that Russian T90s are a different class of tank and aren't really designed to be going toe to toe with M1s, least not without back up i.e. T90s operating as part of a combined arms set-up such as rotary, fixed wing, artillery, ATGMs etc. What i found in CMSF was M1s were easiyl beat if you picked your fights, so ambush, attacks from multiple directions, good use of ATGMs, arty etc. I think that matrix will be even more important in the Black Sea scenario. What I have found though is mechanised operations in this modern setting are seriously dynamic affairs. Stuff kills and dies very quickly and very easily. Man or machine.

Ah my bad I was doing some playtesting last night which gave me a wee shock as my invincible phalanx of M1s very quickly became an immobilised cluster of targets... Ambushes from T90s on the flank, Russian rotary and fixed wing air strikes, followed up by Russian artillery was impressive but deeply unpleasant for some of these M1s. I'd agree re M1 vs T90 - open ground at range toe to toe will not end well for the T90s.

Hhmm not my experience. M1s are vulnerable to a lot of stuff in the Russian military set-up - you don't have to KO a tank to destroy it's offensive/combat capability... Just like Tigers were to the correct combination of arms.

Yup I've got a heap of mods, including lots of my own cannabilised mods. If the mod works in the same family it's generally not a problem. The trick is to ensure you remove the mods before you update your game.

Jings Erwin! Your concerns are boundless. Mods - easy. Cut out z folder and paste on location on hard drive. Install new patch, copy z folder back in. Start game. Any problems you remove the obvious mods that cause problems. Usually sound or terrain mods. I do this all the time when beta testing. Although I also have 'clean' versions for testing stuff.. No big deal I think.

This thread has some useful info: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=115675

Thanks Tdogg Glad you enjoyed it. I'm working on another one from the same period a week later. It's another armour heavy action. Hope it lives up to this one. Cheers mate