ng cavscout

I grew up just 8 km from the inner-german border and never felt any fear or such - today I think that is strange.
Just the opposite, there are many nice memories concerning the military of that time. We often had the 16/5th Queens Royal Lancers on exercise at the farm of my father. They were stationed at the town of Wolfenbüttel nearby and everybody loved to see them, my mother because we talked english all day, the soldiers because they had warm places to sleep and a shower, and my father because he had an agreement to get a bottle of Famous Grouse for each day of their stay. We did things you never get elswhere, driving a Ferret Mk1 (I called it armored Dune Buggy), a Scorpion tank and even firing a Sten SMG on the meadow behind the barn. Once my father and me visited their barracks for some claybird shooting and the officers invited us to the officers mess. Wow, never saw so many silver cups and a living tradition like that.
When I served at PzAufklBtl 1 (Armored Recon) from '79 to '83 (just the proper time for this game) we were not even allowed to keep our battalion coat of arms, it was from the Black Hussars from Brunswick who fought with the British against Napoleon, but was too similar to the SS sign. That happens to military traditions when you loose your wars.
At that time I met kind guys from the 2nd Armored Division on Reforger exercise near Brunswick and found some nice friends there (Cpt. Hutto somewhere around here?).
And I served as contactperson for the team of 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards during the Boeselager Cup, an international competition among reconaissance forces. Still remember the 'Biwak' on the last evening.
One day I heard the sound of a Huey helicopter nearby and it did not disappear. So I looked for the source and found some thee or four Huey Cobra hovering directly at the outskirts of the village. I immediatly fetched my brothers and we tried to follow them with my Renault R4. Tough job, soon they were gone. But suddenly they reappeared one after the other over a ridgeline and took my car as a training target. Oh, man, that was exciting. I tried to make their job as difficult as I could but these helis were really fast and agile. I would love to ride one of those, must be like a flying Kawasaki.
I think Germany really lost something important with all these kind soldiers who are gone now and with them the BFBS radio and the British Wargamers Association with which I had so nice times at Rheindahlen and elsewhere.
And, by the way, a german Recon Btl was a complete all arms force in '79, ideal for a Bundeswehr expansion one day. There was a ground surveillance radar plt, two companies with Luchs and Leopard1, and a heavy company with grenadier plt (on Schützenpanzer kurz, later Fuchs), engineer plt, and 120 mm mortar plt.
And now I am here, working as an engineer on military simulation and looking forward to my retirement next year being excited to have all the time necessary to play my favorite game then, CM:CW.
 
 

Glad to see everyone's keeping their expectations of follow on modules reasonable.

CM has been a hidden gem and its good to see that finally, there is a way for more people to find it. 
But even looking at the new blood that are getting into the game, it sure is easy to see that it takes a certain type of person to even want to play these games. 
It sure is not something that appeals to the masses.

One of? Seriously he’s quite right. The whole concept of CM blew me away when I saw a screenshot and slim description ... somewhere more than 20 years ago. It’s still very unique with the WEGO and Tac AI and dedication to accuracy. And, of course, it’s the reason for the BFC forum coming into existence which was my community for years. Mind you in those days it was BTS (Big Time Software). So many friends.

Literally never heard of this game until i saw it on Steam last year and i scoffed at the price at first.
5 months later I have purchased every single game and module except for CMFI, im going to buy it but my wallet lol
Massive respect to the developers for creating something amazing, that seems tailored for me personally.  I've been trying to get my friends to play but they arent tactical
Sorry if this is a boring post but I heard a podcast with a gentleman from BF and he mentioned they were testing Steam out and just wanted to provide this feedback
Stoked for F&T and CW
 

HEAT warhead damage on an M-113... the game has it pretty much spot on:

 

ahhh, yes, and this song is now the theme song for the excellent "Deutschland 83" TV show from Germany.  Young East German Lt. forced to spy in west germany.  Three seasons, all excellent, available in US on Hulu. 

So, what will you listen to while you'll be racking your brain over your pixeltruppen's life?
A bit anachronistic given the time frame, but to me it will be Nena's 99 Luftballons.


 

I have something fitting to the timeframe, topic and location:
Berlin Express - Die Russen Kommen (1982)
 

1983 Pat Benatar, "Love is a battlefield." I have not heard this song for more than half a lifetime.
 

Let's do (some of the better UK #1 songs from) 1982:
 

This is a good informative PDF from the 11th ACR Association.
https://www.blackhorse.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/fuldagap.pdf
 

Nationale Volksarmee-   The East German Army.

What was I looking forwad to most? 
I've completely forgotten. 
An Afghanistan Module maybe? 

I think there's a cresting or at least growing wave of interest in this subject. I pre ordered 2 redesigned board games coming out soon from Compass Games, "Nato" and "The Third World War". Both are, if you didn't know, table top games from the 80s.
I owned and played them both back in the day.
The hypothetical Warsaw Pact vs Nato conflict has a great intellectual attraction, for me at least, in that it would have been a "straight up" fight with general parity and it was the great struggle I grew up with (born in 1971).

First Three Minutes!
 “Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things.”
A Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi
 
The initial phase of this action will be me positioning my units to get eyes on the most likely enemy avenues of approach, especially EAA1 (NAI 1). 
After two minutes of action:
M113A2s and Scouts: Reached their drop off points and the two Scout teams have dismounted and are continuing on foot in order to get into positions where they can look into EAA1.  The Platoon Leader will stay mounted in his M113 for now.

M-60A1 (Rise+) Section 1:  Arrived in hull down positions with views of NAI 2 and 3. M-60A1 (Rise+) Section 2:  Arrived in hull down positions with views of NAI 2 and 3. Tank Section 1 moves into position:


M150 TOW Tank Hunters:  Both now in hull down positions overlooking NAIs 2 and 3.
Artillery Smoke Screen:  After two minutes I have cancelled the fire from both batteries.  Mainly because I want them available once my Scouts start to see into NAI 1.  The screen should build for a few more turns as laid then should last for several more.  It’ll be interesting to see how effective it is at messing with the Soviet spotting-targeting cycle.
FIRST ENEMY INDICATOR:  In the third minute M150 1/5 (1st Platoon, 5th Vehicle)) noticed some movement in the woods between NAIs 1 and 2.  Nothing is known about this contact other than that it is a light armored vehicle, suspected BMP from the Recon Company.

Now to place this image in context... in case you ever wondered what a Hull Down M-150 Tank Hunter looks like from the Soviet perspective:

Bil

Still have one on every TV in the house and my 22 and 17 year old daughters not only know how to work them, they actually utilize them once in a while.

So welcome to our Beta AAR.  Introductions, I am The_Capt...hello.  Some old timers may remember me from back in the day but for the newbies (and hopefully there are a lot of you) I am the Simon to Bil's Garfunkel.  While Bil is detailed, deliberate and cool all resting on a foundation of real talent; I am erratic, insecure and hot-headed resting on very occasional unpredictable sparks.  Between the two of us we try to make wonderful music.
So first the obvious, what is CM Cold War and where did it come from?  Well the game is our brainchild, not that it took a serious leap of imagination as people had been talking about a Cold War game for years.  Bil and I had been looking for a title to cut our designer-teeth on for years as well, and after a few false starts we approached BFC with the idea about 7-8 years ago, to which Steve sagely looked at two complete amateurs and said "uh, sure...why don't you guys go pull some stuff together and we will do lunch".  So we did up all the boring and work-like stuff most of you never see; project documents, historical research, backstories, TO&Es (pouring over things like Senate Arms Committee records and back issues of the US Army magazines), and campaign designs.  Once we did all this we came back to Steve like proud children that had just performed surgery on the family cat.  Steve's eyes went a little wider and very Bruce Willis-like said, "ok let's give these kids a shot".  I am pretty sure we were to remain a weird side project in the basement - that is where the older Beta Testers go in the end - but last year things accelerated and we found ourselves suddenly thrust into the rock and roll lifestyle of computer wargame designers...without the groupies, cocaine or leather pants.
So with a very small team, a tight timeline and another look from Steve that was somewhere between "ya, there is no way these guys are going to make it" and "but if they do...?" (seriously, support from the BFC guys has been outstanding) we started the journey.  So when you play the game on release (it is no secret we are on track for Apr, after Easter) you know who to curse when something either does not look quite right or you are getting beat up on a campaign (the Soviet one is particularly brutal).  If you love the game, praise the entire team, if you are angry that the Soviet officer holster does not look right, feel free to vent at either Bil or I, mostly Bil.
Onto the AAR.  Ok in the proudest tradition of this thing, Bil will wow you all with dazzling intelligence products that would make an ASIC weep.  I, on the other hand, prefer a  more tactile and coffee-stained approach...I also tend to lose these fights.  This map comes from the US campaign, a scenario called Dollbach Heights, but do not worry the scenario is completely different so no spoilers.  This whole thing is occurring in the backdrop of a Cold War-gone-hot strategic situation set in summer of 1982, which may seem quaint today but back in '83 we actually came pretty close.  The Soviets are basically making a break for the Rhine as fast as possible before reserves can be called up and fly-overs conducted.  The US forces are the tripwire forces of V Corp with units like the 11 ACR and 3rd Armd Div (for this AAR we do not assign particular units) as the game centers on the Fulda corridor (between the West German border and Frankfurt).  So the strategic game is simple, Soviets have to move fast as possible to get in close to the major urban areas, knock France out and put the UK into close range.  The bet back in Moscow is that at this point NATO will fracture as half of them sue for peace...we will see how that works out.
A couple points on force balance and doctrine.  So this is 1980, the beginning of a vapid and synthesizer-infested decade (trust me I was there). The US forces are still recovering from the entire Vietnam experience.  Goldwater-Nicols has not happened so we are still talking about conventional service competition in the US military, which was unhealthy (still is) and a US Army that was slowly coming out of the old ROADs models and heading towards AirLand Battle.  The TO&Es are based on the '77 force structures (you will note US tank platoons have 5 tanks).  The "so what?" is that US forces are pretty much at their most vulnerable point in this era.  They lack mass and are moving to active defense and maneuver warfare but the equipment has not caught up.  It is going to feel weird to some but this is a modern (well semi-modern) title where US forces do not dominate the battlefield.  They have to be played carefully to achieve parity.  For example the T62 can kill an M60A3 in the front from about 1500m, so the US player must be elegant and clever...like the gentle fox.
The Soviets on the other hand are the bear that eats said gentle fox and then poops him out, barely breaking stride.  The Soviets at this point are pretty much near the top of their game.  Their equipment is solid, if a little blind, and they have mountains of it. Soviet operational doctrine is actually very good, it uses mass much like it did in WW2, and frankly Genghis would be proud at how well the Soviet can throw MRRs at a problem and simply keep going.  The T64 is a beast, probably the best Soviet tank in the game (particularly the B versions), the T80 can throw a punch too.  The Soviet use of ATGM is frankly terrifying.  First, they literally put those things on just about everything, and the AT 5 feels like the modern day Javelin in that, if it can hit, it will kill.  In testing one scenario of the US Campaign, I played sloppy and watched an BMP MRB shred all the US armor in about 5 mins...so there is that.   
At a tactical level the Soviet are all about lining up the punch.  They were not mindless hordes, they would prepare and shape with recon but when they decided to throw that punch...oh, my.  First they would drop the sky on top of you using massed artillery.  Then they would advance en masse  along multiple axis projecting dilemma everywhere for an opponent.  They would then trade shots until your armor is gone and finally they might dismount and clean up any poor infantry you have left.  I say 'might' because they would often simply bypass those huddle GIs and just keep going.
So for this AAR, I will try to emulate the soviet approach as much as possible.  Stay tuned and see how it turns out.       

It's -5 F right now, going down to -12 by the morning, and it's supposed to be -5-ish actual and -35 in the wind tomorrow during the day.
 
Who's coming to visit us in Minneapolis this week, eh?

Ah, brings a tear to my eye it does. No, not your barely passable command of the King's English Joe Shaw, I actually think it is the acrid odor that fills the room when one of the Oddstralyians lifts his arms to pat himself on the back for giving the world the band Men At Work.