Commanderski

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Mini map pack for Battlefront Combat Mission Red Thunder
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Description:
 
Three maps in Estonia one in Latvia.
All the maps in this mini pack are based on google earth satellite images, photos and also street view when available, not historical maps. So obviously these locations were not identical during ww2. I however tried to downgrade the type of roads when I thought it made sense, on rare occasions removed a couple of houses or farms here and there but for the most part they're as accurate as I could make them.
Some have attack or meeting engagement setups, some are raw (no deployment zones or objectives). The latter will require a little bit of work to be playable.
I tried as much as possible to frame the maps so they're versatile and can be used in various ways: both for meeting engagements and attacks. But there are also usually several possible setups that you could use i.e different directions for the attack with potential objectives and road in all cardinal directions. There is often not just one single way to play them.
It should be noted that most of these maps, except Talvikese which is fairly open with rural terrain, are basically dirt roads going through forests, marshy ground and lakes. So it can be very easy if played as attacks or assaults to block the roads with anti tank mines depending on the deployment zones. So you could just have infantry battles, have an agreement with your opponent to limit the usage of mines or even modify the terrain a little bit by replacing marshy ground with mud or something else where needed. Or just play them as is. It is up to you.
Feel free to use them for whatever you want. Simply credit me and provide a link to this thread.

The maps:
 
1/ Estonia - Kapera (raw map)


size: 1408 X 1072m
type: forest/rural
60km west of Pskov
google earth coordinates: 57°46'12.40"N 27°19'33.80"E

2/ Estonia - Kahri Koorvere road


size: 1168 X 1184m
type: forest and lakes
35km south east of Tartu
google earth coordinates: 58° 5'19.20"N 26°58'28.02"E
Includes both a raw map and a version with a red attack setup. The map with the attack setup is slightly cropped on the northern edge for gameplay reasons so I decided to also include the original one.

3/ Estonia - Talvikese (ME)


size: 2688 X 2832m
type: open/rural
20km south of Tartu
google earth coordinates:  58°12'3.76"N  26°49'7.02"E

4/ Latvia - Courland - Lemzere (raw map)


size: 1776 X 1008m
type: marshy forest and lake
55km south west of Tukums
google earth coordinates: 56°36'15.63"N  22°34'36.97"E
 
Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8d4xsu2bbu1sbbe/CMRT Baltic mini map pack.rar?dl=0
 

Installation:
 
Extract the map in the following directory:
Documents/Battlefront/Combat Mission/Red Thunder/Game Files/Scenarios
 
Zveroboy
 
 
 
 

Campaign generator.

When will be the release? 
The ideal date will be the 22.06.2023. But I won't promise too much....for sure, release will be 2023 ! 
What's the current progress?
The biggest campaign "Tiger Trail" is in its final testing stage as a Betaversion. It will be ready for 22nd June release. 
The "Five Bridges" Campaign has seen most of the map making, which is (with my experience) the most time consuming aspect - testing will start in March.
The "Into Hell" Campaign the same.
The "Partisans" Land Campaign (the smallest of all) is in the middle of map making and will be ready for testing in April.
So - to quote the guys from Battlefront 😉 "it will be ready when it's ready."
Will there be any single Missions?
Currently, I have plans for 3 single Missions but I doubt to have the time to put effort in these ones. So, let's see....
Is there a possibility to increase the number of campaigns or single missions for that BattlePack?
Of course. As the headline says, this is a project made by fan(s) of CM and everybody who wants to participate is very welcome. Honestly I have to say that I have written a mail to Battlefront and offered them this stuff (without financial interests) in order to get designs, briefings etc. more professional but they ignored myself 😜
So, if anybody is motivated to create stuff, doesn't matter if one small single mission or a whole campaign, then this would be very appreciated 👍 The only condition is:
the stuff must match the BattlePacks main theme "Summer of Destruction June to July 1944, ArmyGroup Central". 
Will there be any Master Maps?
Currently, the pack will include 12 Master maps but this number may change until release.
 

Chapter IV
 
Campaign "Tiger Trail"
When the German Frontlines had collapsed and the Soviet Advance approached the Border of East Prussia, the Axis Headquarters sent its armored reserves to stop the Soviet Steamroller by all means. The Player is commanding parts of the German 3.SS-Panzer-Division "Totenkopf" west of the Njemen River near Grodno. Will the Division be able to stop the enemy and cut off the III.Soviet Cavalry Corps ?
17 single Missions.

We have the announcement of a (hopefully) stunning new module for CMFB, for a absolutely great CMBN BattlePack, for a very interesting CMFI BattlePack - so WW II fans like me are happy wth the coming stuff in 2023.
BUT, something is missing....where is the CMRT ? No new content after the release of the fantastic BattlePack of George MC in 2022 😢
 
And here it is: 
While back after a long break, Mr.X was very busy and is working on a FanMade BattlePack for 2023. More to come....

Just checking - you do know there's a Seelow Heights battle in Fire & Rubble?  Not sure if the map will be similar or overlap with yours though.
EDIT : Had a quick look at FR Seelow Heights, it's roughly 5000m by 2000m with a lot of open fields.
The author is Jon Martina - I think this is @ASL Veteran?

A wee vid covering last minute of a recent PBEM
 

NOBODY laughs at you, Phil. You are the King of mods and without you I wouldn't have had such a good time with CM.

https://i.imgur.com/xwQA5S2.jpg
 

True...
But one thing that Battlefront could do is to improve the map editor...or the entire scenario editor for that matter.
That is something the community can't do...
 

with the time we dont know nothing more when is time to be the night, or the day, coming sometime on the same moment, that is for some of us already the new day, or the evenig, and more about tomorrow, in fact depending the correct side that you are on the planet to following the sentences of Steve ! 😝
Cheers

mañana
noun tomorrow; the (indefinite) future.

Today "is the tomorrow evening" ! 😆
Cheers

Throw them some bones!

Rather annoying that we always have to wait and speculate.

And the RT battle pack if you do WW2 as well.  And it is excellent (thanks @George MC).
Looking back at @Battlefront.com's (Steve's) original post in this thread, in addition to what I wrote above, there was also a CMFI battle pack incoming, which would extend my WW2 'upcoming' list to:
CMBN battlepack CMFB Commonwealth / Later timescale module CMFI battle pack For those of the other persuasion, work an a CMCW module was also mentioned.
Of course things may have moved on or changed since then but I think at least a couple of the above are progressing.

Things that are on their way (AFAIK):
CMBN battlepack CMFB Commonwealth / Later timescale module And something that isn't but wishful thinking:
CMRT Early War module And one which goes without saying but which is always met with stoney silence when it is said 😉:
Engine 5

CMCW Module Engine 5.0

Are you not playing the designer? I mean to create an AI plan as the designer I have to playout the scenario. This then forms the basis of the AI Plan. Then tweaked to take account of players doing 'leftfield' stuff. The only downside is I have to plot all my moves at the start of the game whilst you as the player get to do em each minute.
But yeah playing against people (which I do both for fun and competitively in tourney's)adds another dimension but I think playing PBEM has developed my CM skill set, deeper appreciation of tactics and that helps inform creating interesting AI plans - caveat - I'm not expecting good players to be beat by the AI plan but hopefully have an engaging time. So in my world view - plenty room for both types of play

This is visit of Prigozyn to the morgue in Pervomaisk, Luhansk oblast. Day ago UKR HIMARS hit a hospital with wounded Wagner fighters. So pills of bodies in black bags are from this strike. Also the truck brought new bodies from frontline. Is this Geneva Convention violation? I think, no. Wagners are merceneries, so GC doesn't spread on them.
One more effective strike took place at 23:58 31st of Dec in Makiivka city, Donetsk oblast. Three HIMARSes or something more large completely ruined a building of former technical college #19, which was used as barracks since 2014. On eve in this building were deployed Russian mobilized soldiers, which just arrived to Makiivka. Also in the basement of college was an ammo dump. Result of explosion you can see on the photo. Locals write in the building was about 600 "mobiks" and most of them were killed in explosion. As if one survived told in hospital "it's will be good if from 600 survived 100". This episode already have big resonance among Russian milbloggers, though they don't issue number of dead. 
On the photo the college/barrack before and after
 

I don't have any of the modern games as I prefer WWII Eastern Front but Combat Mission Cold war just won an award for the best computer wargame. The category is near the bottom of the page.
https://charlessrobertsawards.com/2021-winners/?fbclid=IwAR3_IFzobXQoAujp6DYu8hIQ5sTGRNjBwLRKZEjIIfq_nbnGJIcEleLiXg4
 

You can play as Allied, for example Cat and Mouse which I'm playing against @Ultradave.  I'm the one with the IS2s, and I think I'd say it's a tough ask for both sides. 
Great work by @George MC once more, and the map for this one is excellent (and totally new I think?).

Master Maps are my favourite thing, and I'm loving the ones in the BP ❤️