Bil Hardenberger

Good luck Ken.. don't screw it up.

Thanks for the feedback.. I have removed the link to the BETA set and will try to get some time to address the issues noted above this weekend. Then will re-upload a new BETA set. Thanks for checking them out!

Okay, I know there are a lot of these getting released lately.. but I think mine are just a bit unique, vehicle icons are handled uniquely... when selected the icons flash blue for Ukrainian and olive for US units... Note that these are BETA.. I will be making adjustments, but wanted to get something out there for those of you waiting to try my floating icons. I was going for clarity and ease of identification with this set. If you download them and try them out please give me any feedback you like... I know there are some issues: for example the FOW icons, ammo dumps get the ammo bearer icon etc.. I need to adjust those for sure. Grab them here: Bil's Floating Icons-BETA Previews:

pnzrldr, ScoutPL, Imperial Grunt, and Mark Gibson are all officers in either the US or Australian Armies (Mark Gibson), IG is a Marine Colonel.. so yeah, plenty of guys with real world experience playing this game. There are several others, combatintman, BadgerDog, myself., etc. also have military experience, though I personally never had the "pleasure" of serving in a war zone.. closest I got was as a potential speed bump on the DMZ in South Korea during the first Gulf War.

Canada Guy, send me a PM with your email and I'll send you a BETA set to try out if interested. Note: I have adjusted the Bluefor icons so they are all blue (rather than the green shown in the previous image), but when selected the icons will flash olive-green (for US units), and blue/yellow for Ukrainian.

Yeah sorry guys.. its about 90% complete... had a computer crash last night and lost all my licenses it seems.. so might be a bit longer.

Apoll, yes it does sound like you are playing real time... I never play in real time, only wego. I too suggest you play that way. There is way too much going on in most scenarios to play real time, which I would only ever play in a platoon sized battle. You need the time to take stock of all aspects of the battle.. you can only do that in wego mode for anything larger than a platoon. In wego you can rewind each turn, watch the enemy UI contacts and determine movement paths, intent etc. Happy to go into more detail, but it sounds like you know what you are doing, only need to remember that you are playing as every commander at every echelon, from platoon leader, to company, to battalion commanders, all the way down to individual team leaders. You need to be able to jump into each of their shoes.. not possible in real time. Hope that helps some!

It's good to have options. Ian, congrats on beating me to the punch.

Just started reading this thread.. but I wanted to pause and correct this misconception.. not sure where it came from.. but neither Scott nor I had played this battle before starting this AAR game. We were in the dark except for what the briefing and Scott's intelligence advantage told us.

Keep those hatches closed in CMBS.

You only need superiority at the point of contact... find him, then concentrate against each enemy position with overwhelming firepower to suppress the enemy unit (fix him), maneuver to his flanks (flank him), then assault the position (finish him). Eat the elephant one bite at a time. You do not need 4:1 odds to accomplish this.. especially for a defending enemy that is probably spread out to cover all avenues of approach.

My close terrain recon technique is outlined in this post (from my CMRT BETA AAR): Close Terrain Recon Technique If you don't want to waste ammo using area fire, this technique should at least help you ID where the enemy teams are located and you can then plan with that knowledge as you move forward.

I will be completing mine in the next few days. I won't be putting mine on the repository though, instead I will host them on my blog. I'll provide a link when they are ready.

Dams-fr, start at my Tactical Problems blog (link in my sig). That should give you a good grounding in basic tactics. Good luck!!

I doubt the version Scott and I played was in the release game... Lights camera Action is the scenario this was based on.. that one might be included.. it'll be far different than this one was though I'm sure.

Miquel, you're getting it? You won't regret it.

Heh, funny... if they let me play another one.. well, we'll have to see.

Thanks Buzz.. I still have two turns to write up for you guys.. so the AAR is not quite over yet.. then I want to do a full game analysis, but we'll see how much energy I have by then.

Thanks John, yes modern warfare is indeed brutal, unforgiving, and extremely fast paced. by the way, I would play you anytime.. and I suspect you would do better than you think... with your ability to analyze and with your equipment knowledge I have no doubt you would be a worthy opponent for anybody. Let me know when you are ready for a game.

Scott, this is an AMAZING AAR.. outstanding work!! Who knew a big galute like you could write?

Okay, we are definitely going to move on from this one. Sorry about that, but I will finish up the final two turns that I have that work and try to bring this to some sort of conclusion. In reality, any Russian force would probably start to withdraw from this AO as soon as the American force arrived in such overwhelming numbers and with such dominating combat power. I want to tip my hat to Scott as he has proven himself a more than worthy opponent. I am really looking forward to sitting down and reading Scott's thread to see his take on events.

Scott and I were letting you guys enjoy the game before addressing this AAR. We played a few more turns but now the BETA we were stuck with is now crashing when I try to save my orders so it might be done really. More on that later.

I have one in the works, needs a little tightening up but will be available soon:

Sorry I only just saw this... I am not sure I still have those old CMSF mods... that was a few computers ago now and I do not even have CMSF installed, haven't in years. I will take a good look tonight, but other than checking GreenAsJade's mod repository I might not be able to help you if I cannot locate them. I'll let you know what I find, or what I do not find. Maybe another user on this forum can help you.

Thanks Uncultured Swine... the whole reason for doing these AARs is to show it off and hopefully sell a few copies for Battlefront. If a few like yourself purchase the game because of the AAR and if Scott and I can contribute in that, then it is worth all the work. It is my way of paying back Battlefront for allowing me to be part of all this. Aragorn2002, yeah I was also not excited about the modern setting... but I am finding it a quite unique and enjoyable challenge.