Commanderski

Someone swiped at you for a battlepack that has massive amount of excellent battles for just $10??  F them.  Your work on this was excellent. 
That does not mean that I have changed my opinion of how evil you are for wrecking so much of my beautiful kampfgruppe at Rakow. 

You have no reason to justify yourself George.  The vast majority here are fully aware of the massive work and contribution you have made to the CM universe.

First off thanks to all those who have supported the Battlepack by purchasing it, and a shout out to those who have provided their support in the creation of this project – and a huge shout out to those who have freely given their feedback and additional support publicly via various means – online streaming vids, DARs, AARs and various forum posts etc, Its truly heartening to read and see these. 

It’s just as well, being Scottish, that we are renowned for being slow to anger and not prone to unprovoked outbursts. On a personal note a mahhoosive amount of work went into the battle pack, at my end. Work of which I am truly proud off. The lion’s share of research, mapmaking and AI plan stuff was devoted to the two campaigns and the Rakow and the Dying Sun scenario. These all involved painstakingly creating huge new maps from primary sources. Research turned up several ‘loose’ ends regarding accepted historical narrative and I’m as chuffed with these as the scenarios!

I digress… In short this sucked up a huge amount of time and I was also involved in several other projects (which I was keen to be involved in including CMFR and CMCW). Creating new content, AI plans etc for the Battlepack was a significant endeavour. So yup I used bits of various previous maps (which were my own creations and made available publicly) which I then significantly tweaked – mainly because I could not positively ID RL locations, or the fact is I thought the map – like Der Ring (which by the way took nearly a year to produce) to have a new life after some major tweaking. I’ve done this on previous game families with other maps. A few astute observers might have spotted them. 

But, and I should stress this, in the case of Der Ring it was heavily reworked and I created brand new AI plans (I had to as I’d chopped and reused bits) etc. So yes whilst some stuff is based on sections of der Ring they are more the offspring – rather than the map wearing a false wig and a pair of dodgy specs…

Re the rather offensive swipes about scamming, well,  re the master maps it’s pretty clear that as stated on the BFC website that they are “New maps based on maps from the Battle Pack missions”. 

Years back I used to be with a punk band – another life another story…. One of the bands (way more successful than we were) we did some gigs with, had their singer on one of their records state this quote, it was along the lines of – “Whatever you do they’ll slate you off and criticise you to the ground…” It’s stood me in good stead through life.
So aye happy to take the constructive knocks, but I’m less inclined to give credence tae whingers.
 

Hah!  Take that Comrade GeorgeMC!  I knocked out the three guns that had my drive completely stalled. So let's run a couple halftracks full speed down the road I already know is clear because I've already sent a little infantry that way.  What could go wrong?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  there's more guns!  Two more at least!  and I have no eyes on them.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Curse you GeorgeMC!  😂   Yer killin me!

Not showing more because I don't want to spoil the scenario by giving much info.  I ran one hannomag forward and it got hit.  I thought it was from one of the known guns and I just figured I hadn't fully knocked it out.  So blastered that position w more mortars, for sure it had to be gone.  Ran second hannomag and it got knocked out also, which was when I realized the shot came from a couple hundred meters from the known gun.  Also found another gun in another location that could cause me trouble as I move toward the second bridge, but again no eyes on it. Now I gotta get command units w binoculars and radios into position to find these devils and then get some mortars or arty on them.  This will take a lot of time.  In the meantime I think I'll push small infantry units through the kill zone.  Maybe the second bridge will can be taken by infantry only?  We'll find out. 
 
 

As a Professional user in my day job and what feels like a lifelong fan, I do think they've done a good job balancing development with a small team. War gamers and staff officers are a tough crowd to please, but their passion comes through in their work and their adaptation of Steam after years and years of discussion shows a willingness to be responsive, listen to the community and reach new fans. 
 
I imagine the Professional orders have taken up a large amount of time, in part because we're a demanding bunch, and also because of the nature of government procurement and contracting. Beyond that, current events sunk a Black Sea module that seems to have had a fair bit of work invested in it. The important thing to me is that they're communicating with the community here, and have remained committed to it even when people are disappointed. This has often been a point of contention, and again shows a lot of positive development. I don't want all that to get lost. 
 
In terms of specifics, of course I would like to see Partisans, Co-Belligerents and RSI in Fortress Italy, and a fully developed TOE and OOB for Italian forces in Sicily which right now are lacking a lot. I'd love to see Brigade Piron and the Princess Irene's in Battle for Normandy/Final Blitzkrieg, and the Scheldt and Rhine Crossings for the Commonwealth in Final Blitzkrieg. Finally, as with it seems everyone else, minor Axis / new Allies for Red Thunder, particularly the Poles and Romanians who played a huge role in critical operations. 
 
This is my "Christmas list" every year, and I want to point out again that in Fire and Rubble, we got partisans. That's a major item was on the list addressed, just as Rome to Victory crossed off nearly all of my wishes for Allied forces in that title. These aren't small things, and I just want to take the time to show that they don't go unnoticed. 
 
The new year is sure to be marked with some  frustration, disappointment and delay, like every year, but there will be high points too, and sometimes that gets lost in the moment. Merry Christmas everyone. 

Yes and Cows, all adds to the mix...lol Remember a German Infantry Division had approx 4,800 horses, in fact the German Army was 80% horse drawn, even in 1945.

The Anhalter Bahnhof, now with Trains....Battle for Berlin V2, Coming Soon.

Hi fellow CMFB-ers,
have you ever thought of making your own campaign but were intimidated by all the hard work that goes into it?
I’ve been recently tinkering with the scenario editor to create a historical campaign in CMFI and, in my recurrent drunken stupors, I came up with an idea to quickly create fully randomized campaigns: The Quick Campaign Generator!
The QCG creates a 10-battle campaign in just a few clicks (well, a few hundred…) putting you at the head of your core force, which you must lead throughout the campaign to achieve glory and win some medals, recording their progress in the meantime. It is in part reminiscent of Robo's quick campaign generator for CMx1 titles (as some of you may remember).
Essentially, it is an Excel spreadsheet that lets you create a ‘bare-bones’ linear campaign comprising ten battles without having to do any historical research, map-making, briefings or artwork, i.e. the exact opposite of @Ithikial_AU’s excellent tutorial (https://community.battlefront.com/topic/137921-fire-and-rubble-preview-the-anatomy-of-what-goes-into-a-stock-campaign-release/) that I’ve used for my historical campaign.
The purpose is to have fun with all the goodies (tanks and vehicles especially) that CMFB has to offer, without the headaches. Pure CM sex with no emotional involvement 😉.
All the Scenario Editor choices, for example Weather, Ground Conditions, Experience, Headcount, choice of troops etc. are completely randomized to let you try out all possible combinations. Although, these battle are heavily biased in favor of armor, I must admit.
When you open the spreadsheet, you will see:
a tab called ‘Battle generator’, which provides random battle conditions,
two tabs called ‘Human ATT’ and ‘Human DEF’, which generate a random force composition to be used in the various battles if you’re attacking or defending;
the ‘Allied AAR or Axis AAR’ tabs, where you will be recording your progress during the campaign. Beware, your performance will be accurately monitored and judged 😉.
Ignore the other tabs. They contain data used for the formulas. I’ve protected the sheets to avoid mistyping into a cell containing a formula.
 
This was the situation for my Elite Panther platoon in a German Wehrmacht campaign called “Panthers on the Prowl” that I created using QCG:
 

 
 
Notice the nice array of medals my core force troops earned! (Well, it was on Easy mode...)
 
As you progress in your campaign, your results will be recorded and medals awarded. Statistics include tank kills, tank losses, infantry casualties, etc.
 

 

 
 
Your overall performance will be duly monitored as shown here:
 

I did pretty well, apparently.
 
Basic knowledge of how the CM Scenario Editor works is of course recommended, but not a requirement. Full instructions are provided.
Inside the package you will find:
-          - three versions of the QCG spreadsheet (one for a US campaign, one for a German Wehrmacht campaign, and one for a Waffen SS campaign);
-          - a pdf file containing Instructions (and a Quick Start Guide);
-          - six campaign script files “(QCG) Campaign Script.txt” (easy, medium or hard for Allied and Axis forces);
-          - five text files for the type of battle you will be fighting;
I’ve also added a couple of campaigns that I have created using this system, with the related Excel files that only contain the AAR tabs.
Enjoy! If you have any questions, just let me know.
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bA3jnnT6tjh0xdKZHnAl5pyr5e2LBA6_/view?usp=sharing
 
 

In vain in Europe they are afraid of Russia. As you can see, the Russians are very afraid and respect the military from Europe. Some time ago I listened to a funny interception of a Russian military conversation (most likely it was just a joke, but who knows). This guy said that Russia was very lucky that the Americans had not yet guessed to send movie heroes from the action movies of the 80s to Ukraine. (Schwarzenegger, Stalone, Van Damme, Dolph Lungren and others). Then the Russian troops would have had a very hard time.🤣

I don't even think of Combat Mission as a game anymore. It's like some indispensable program like Outlook or Excel. You rage at it but could never imagine yourself without it. It just is.

Right.  And don't call me Shirley.

Surely time to go back on topic right?

A new CMBN mod.  

 
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/cm-mod-warehouse/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cmbn-infantry/cmbn-lehr-uniform-wrap/

Current conditions
 

Spanish and Lithuanian 105 mm additionally to L118
 

"Kraken" has captured Russian squad likely somewhere in Kharkiv or Luhansk oblast
 
 

Are the Russians learning or getting desperate?
 

Not sure of how credible this is, but even if you divided it by two or three it would be a staggering number.

Russian tank got direct hit with HE shell from UKR tank, was heavy damaged and abanoned
 

Second known destroyed T-90M - Georgian Legion issued a ground footage of this convoy, HIMARSed in September
 

If you skip the context, it's really hard not to feel bad for these guys:
 

No evidences that they were 100 % unarmed (grenadeds, pistols etc), because procedure of unit surrendering wasn't finished and UKR soldiers didn't have time to search them. Combat episode wasn't finished. 
To prove during suddenly started engagement? To whom? They had to call a lawyer under fire?
Western rules based order often turns out into swamp of bureaucracy, red tape of 100500 of committees and useless talking shop.   

Well, that certainly explains the lack of news from the fronts.  Everyone waiting for the ground to freeze.  Soooooo weird to see this, 80 years later, for us WW2 fans.   Thanks much for sharing these vids.  

and the 17 players from various parts of the western world rejoiced 🙂