Commanderski

The Channel is not the best environment for u-boats. It is fairly shallow. Until the Germans conquered France and u-boat bases were transferred to Brest, Lorient, Saint Nazaire and La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast, u-boats were based in Kiel and Hamburg. And to reach their hunting grounds in the Atlantic ocean, they travelled around the British isles, avoiding the Channel completely. It was a very dangerous area with little chances to escape if detected.
Besides at this stage of the war u-boats had become more preys than hunters, being harassed by air patrols often as soon as they left their pens. Destroyers in hunter killer groups exacted a heavy tolls on them when they tried to attack convoys etc.
I don't know how many u-boats were tasked with patrolling the Channel before D-Day, but it can't have been a very pleasant assignment. And even if they managed to spot the invading fleet, they wouldn't have stood to chance to inflict any significant damage with all the escorting crafts. The waters must have been teeming with asdic equipped destroyers. And in order to contact their base to warn them of the attack, they would probably have had to surface. I know they had snorkels but not sure whether they could transmit or not while using them.
As far as surface boats are concerned, wasn't most of the German fleet confined to harbours at this stage of the war?  Apart from the occasional night raids to lay mines and a couple of torpedo boats and mine sweepers staying in close proximity to the ports, I doubt they ventured out too far at sea.

I am a long time Battlefront customer, and own CMSF1 & 2, CMBN w/all modules, CMBS, CMFB. I could never really get on with CMFI though. But now that R2V is released, I went all in and got the lot. I have a feeling this will be my standard WW2 CM game for quite a while. The time frame covered beats all the others hands down, as well as the wealth of nations and equipment. Kind of like CMAK was my go to in the old days. Am downloading now, and quite honestly haven't been this excited for CM in quite a while.

Some colourised film footage from Normandy I've never seen before, inc. bocage fighting and various AFVs trundling about in dusty & smokey conditions
 

Beautiful graphics real colors love it !

That moment when you realize you brought an airsoft to a black powder party...

 

I just made a ZZ folder and put in the music and now it works...must be some type of computer magic.

Most of an XO's duties take place outside of the game's scope, but using them as liaisons and medics are good ones. In a battle these would generally be the things actually expected of an XO until...well...his CO got killed. 
If you're crazy like me they frequently end up pressed into recon too. 

This one that Fiskerby mentioned can be particularly useful.  Use XO teams to act as liaisons to other friendly units that are not in the same chain of command.  The XOs will then provide horizontal C2 to the other unit (if the XO teams have radios).  

Quick men, get over to Josey Wales's new video on yt, his Russians fire their rifles.

Couple of screenshots from possibly the most 'Conventional CM Scenario' in the pack ('A February Thaw'), it's a conventional meeting engagement on a balanced map, but it looks awesome:
The lead platoons of 1st Co. Gebirgsjager Regiment 576 advance swiftly into the freezing forest:

Meanwhile their attached mortar platoon deploys to a minor railway siding:

"
Here’s a peak behind the BFC curtain from a long-time Beta tester. (I’m not sure if this is cleared for posting, but what the heck…)
 
At the most recent BFC-Fest, the band was giving me a headache, so I pushed my way out of the mosh pit and walked up to the main house. Steve’s chauffeur pulled the horse-drawn carriage towards me, but I waved him away. I wanted to clear my head and a walk along the half-mile trail up to the house, lit by torches, was just what the doctor ordered. The amplified sound of the band gradually abated, absorbed by the woods, and the BFC manse came into view as I walked along the trail. Yes, I ignored all but one of the strategically placed drinking stops. Clear headed thinking would only be clouded by single malts. Well, except for one or two.
 
Arriving indoors, the muted string quartet provided a gentle contrast to the tinkle of champagne flutes among the many conversations. Spotting Steve, alone by the open french doors to the back gardens, smoking the remnants of a tired cigar,  I decided to share my pricing ideas and drove straight towards him.
 
“Steve,” I said, “I’d like to share a new pricing scheme with you.”
 
Never taking his eyes off the distant treeline, he gripped his cigar and wrenched it out of his mouth. “Certainly.”
 
“This’ll be ground-breaking,” I paused. “Give the game away. For free.”
 
He coughed out a cloud of smoke, “What?!? How would that keep the revenue stream flowing?”
 
“Simple. The game is free. The men and tanks are not. If anyone wants to FIGHT with a unit, they’d have to pay for each squad, team, or vehicle. Obviously, pricing would be variable, based on unit effectiveness and rarity. Each scenario would have a fixed price, based on the units in the Order of Battle. Quick Battles would be very price sensitive.”
 
“Players would rack up the units (or scenario) they want. The game would spit out a price and a hash code. Go to the BFC website, paste in the hash, pay by credit card. The website would produce an unlock code, specific to the submitted hash, and they’d be off!”
 
“This would make campaigns that much more special. No more exploratory recon! Every man would count. Who would want to pay for a Tiger tank twice?”
 
He turned towards me and fixed his eyes upon mine. He quickly stubbed his cigar out in the caviar tray being carried by a passing waiter. “You may have something…”  And then he strode out the doors onto the deck and continued into the gardens. He was still striding forward as I lost sight of him past the lighting around the fountains.
 
So, this may become the new way. Just sayin’…" 
 
That's like the World of Tanks franchise where you can play for free until you need to repair your tank or want to upgrade.  I doubt if it would work here.

No game or marketing concept is ever perfect. There will always be people who love the game and the way the company handles it and there will always be people who complain about the game and the company whether they buy anything or not.
Personally I like the way BF is doing things.

No game or marketing concept is ever perfect. There will always be people who love the game and the way the company handles it and there will always be people who complain about the game and the company whether they buy anything or not.
Personally I like the way BF is doing things.

No game or marketing concept is ever perfect. There will always be people who love the game and the way the company handles it and there will always be people who complain about the game and the company whether they buy anything or not.
Personally I like the way BF is doing things.

No game or marketing concept is ever perfect. There will always be people who love the game and the way the company handles it and there will always be people who complain about the game and the company whether they buy anything or not.
Personally I like the way BF is doing things.

No game or marketing concept is ever perfect. There will always be people who love the game and the way the company handles it and there will always be people who complain about the game and the company whether they buy anything or not.
Personally I like the way BF is doing things.

Mountaineering. You won't find terrain like this in Normandy!
 
 

tank  in french color
but American-made
it's tough !!!

You destroyed my tank? Now you will pay the price

There's no need for theorizing. Hop on the game and try them out!
 You could place a US squad next to a Brazilian and give an area fire order. See if you can note any difference in out-going volume of fire between the two.
 I'm interested in hearing back from a player after giving R2V Riva Ridge a spin. Fair warning, its pretty bloody.

Personally I hope they slllllloooooooowwwwww roll any bones. First, enjoy Rome To Victory. Second I would rather not see expectations set high and then delays annoy people. Regardless of how reasonable and understanding the people in this thread are there a enough that are just not. I'll take 200 "please tell us something" posts over on "you missed the dead line that I expected because I am hard of reading and entitled to my entitlements therefore the company must be going under and I'm never buying from this company again" posts.

Kubelwagen driver with a scavenged panzerfauste does his best. Unfortunately the Kubelwagen got blown to bits seconds later.

Ouch, Brazilians in snow! That must have been horrible for soldiers from a subtropical country.