Macisle

First time defending in Berlin, with a company of regular infantry, backed up by a platoon of concrete & latest Stug III's, plus a cannon halftrack (SPW 251/22). Man, I love this map! Thank you so much for your great work Ben, BF and crew! Anyhoo, I'm quite excited to try out the HT. Could only buy one, 'cuz rarity. Didn't buy AA. Guess what I heard in the sky after pressing Go on turn one. Below is one of the cornerstones of my defense: a fortified strongpoint at one end of the road that cuts Potsdamer Platz. After getting the all-clear on opening enemy arty, I sent in the HT to join the ATG to cover the road and tucked it in a nice little ambush position. Then this happended: So far, it's been strafed twice, but has emerged unscathed (maybe the buildings help). Meanwhile, the HQ of a machine gun support platoon gets the first spot on incoming Soviets from his upper floor building location near the Haus der Flieger. View from the Soviet position: Not quite time to open up yet!

Patch download took 7min 35 sec for me. Full installer a few days ago was 12 minutes exactly.

A lone surviving defender emerges from a reduced strongpoint to ambush an advancing platoon HQ. Two riflemen go down. The T-34 in overwatch is quick to repay him in kind for his heroism.

Advancing from shellhole to shellhole and tank to tank.

Hey, Fritz... CANISTER: It's what's for dinner!

Ma' boys opening up on my first enemy contacts in F&R.

For me, it's Vein's flames first and Juju's UI 2nd. Those are my top two mods for CM. Everything else is gravy on top.

Fantastic! Thank you soooo much!

Thanks! I'll be switching over to F&R for screenies as soon as I can get a copy (have to wait for a few days). Till then, I'm scratching my screenshot itch with stuff from H1nd's Nemanitsa map. It's awesome and has a real Kursk vibe to it. I decided to grab a minute of footage that captures a bit of the atmosphere. It's the next minute after the last screenshots I posted. The flame HTs were supposed to torch two areas each, but didn't engage. Not sure why the friendly side (right) HT didn't, but the enemy side (left) HT started taking shots from an AT rifle that popped up from a different strongpoint. It got spooked, ran into a ditch, emerged, and then shot up a Soviet waiting to ambush ma' boys. Beautiful CM moment! Anyway, here'tis:

Both half-tracks back away from the small arms fire. The lead HT MG gunner attempts to engage the offending Soviet(s?) and is immediately cut down for his efforts. The HTs back off for half a minute while friendly tanks and infantry saturate the strong point with area fire again. Then, they re-engage, one HT on each side. Despite the huge amount of MG fire being put on the strongpoint, Soviet defenders still manage to survive, take shots and even inflict casualties on the German infantry, who have paused their advance to engage and limit their exposure from movement. As the rear HT circles behind the strongpoint, another Hero of the Soviet Union emerges, braving a hail of bullets from multiple MGs to hurl grenades at the approaching German vehicle. It doesn't look good for the German crew... The first grenade goes wide, but the fearless Soviet pulls another and is about to let it fly when the lead half-track on the other side lets go a jet of liquid flame that finds its mark, ending the immediate threat to the second HT. Whew! Meanwhile, enemy air, which has been circling seemingly forever, finally appears ready to attack. Thank goodness the Germans have strong AA support. Wait... Nevermind. At least the radio man got out.

Mobile recon kubels in to scout out the torched strongpoint on the right. So far, all clear. Meanwhile, the flame half-tracks reposition to support the assault on the strongpoint on the left. Friendly infantry is very glad for the help! Uh-oh... friendly suppression fire on the left side of the strong point eases up for the incoming half-tracks a bit too soon and Guards-Iron-Man-Ivan doesn't let the opportunity go to waste. SMG fire immediately erupts from the next target area and hoses the lead half-track. Gulp!

Whoa. If the performance boost was enough and BF threw in the ability to increase the scenario clock to much higher numbers, my Kharkiveskya campaign might move from four battles to one big one. That would be GREAT. Well, that and if they added objective unlocks, more reinforcement groups, and point-neutral exit zones. Either way, I'm looking very forward to hearing the eventual details on U5.

I feel his pain. Gotta' wait for something to arrive in the mail before I can buy. Could be up to a week. Aaaarrrgh!

From his overwatch position, a tank commander observes as his comrades work to overcome a duo of strongpoints. On the right, flame halftracks incinerate the hiding remnants of anti-tank gun crews. On the left, elements of his tank platoon join Grenadiers closing in on the remaining defenders. Despite intense support fire from tanks and machine guns, the Soviet Guard infantry there continue to inflicted casualties on the advancing Germans. A radio call is placed to the half-tracks...

Understood. I want to add to the thanks and say that your UI mods are wonderful and are a huge enhancement to the CM experience. I still get a little jolt of joy every time I look at them for unit info.

Yeah, I'm already kinda' holding my breath on that. I need to keep to firm limits to get my project done. However, now that folks will have Ben's superb work, along with everything else in F&R (and maybe CW) to chew on. I'm thinking the stars are going to align to drop in key goodies from F&R and Upgrade 5. I've no idea what they are planning for U5. Objective unlocks would be super-dee-duper-dee for what I'm doing.

Congrats on the release! Alas, I've got to wait a few days (only -- I hope!) for something to arrive in the mail before I can get my copy. S-U-R-E looking forward to it!

For any units with HQ squads (Soviet 44, US Armored Platoons, etc.), I split off the HQ team from the rest of the squad and use it as per normal HQ. Works fine. The remaining teams from the HQ squad can be used as a smaller squad. Yes, I follow the same SOP for using Hide.

Adding to the Target Briefly info just above: You can combine the Target Briefly command with movement waypoints and pauses to use one unit to attack multiple targets in one turn (best used with AFVs). So, for example, if you have one tank and three potentially enemy-occupied buildings you could do the following: Target briefly for 15 seconds on building A with a 15-second pause on your tank. Add a movement waypoint (could be very close to the tank) with a 15-second pause and 15-second TB (must select the WP to add) on building B. Add a 2nd waypoint with a TB command on building C. The above works great for shoot-&-scoot tactics as well, like crest a hill, take a shot, and reverse back to safety. I seldom use the regular Target command. Instead, I use TB with extra time (add 15 seconds per click). For area fire, I put in at least 15 seconds over a minute to "refresh" the option to continue next turn. If you only use 60 seconds, you might lose the ability to continue the targeting next turn, due to dynamic LOS obstructions (dust, smoke, etc.). Another piece of CM advice is to get a feel for the Command & Control system and how it spotting information flows. This is most important for AFVs. If a tank has been given spotting intel and knows where to look for an enemy unit, he will spot faster than if he is spotting cold. If the situation allows it, a good trick is to have an open AFV paired with adjacent infantry with binos to help spot and pass info within voice range. Another tip: Keep your HQs safer by putting a close-range circular target arc around them to stop them from engaging targets at range. Barring desperate situations, your HQs should be used for their command and intel-passing benefits, not for actual combat. A follow-up tip on this is to make the circular arc 50 meters. That's a good balance between hold-fire and point-blank security and is the maximum non-radio command range. So, it acts as a visual reference for keeping your non-radio units in command. Final note, you can use the target arc command to fine-tune unit facing on a waypoint for best spotting position. Then, on the next turn, you can change it to a circular arc. The units will keep the fine-tune position. Last point on arcs: I like to issue a force-wide 50-meter circular arc on all infantry at start and remove the arcs as needed. That saves a lot of lives. I also tend to put arcs on infantry to keep them from firing beyond a usable range -- generally 150 meters. I use 50 to 100 for scout teams, depending on the situation.

This is great to hear. Sounds like some of the goodies I was hoping for to use in my project are in the pipeline with F&R.

Very cool, indeed.

It's a battle I cooked up using H1nd's Nemanitsa map. He's an excellent mapmaker. To my knowledge, he just does maps without AI plans. So, I grabbed the map and did one of my "QB+" personal scenarios. That's where I put something together as fast as my fingers will fly before bed and wake up to a pleasingly foggy memory of what I did and something between a QB and scenario to play. Usually, I play once and then delete. So far, the battle is a fun one (great map!), with the AI providing adequate traction. I did general setup areas, so I don't know where anything specific is. I've been diligent on recon and have enjoyed seeing what pops up. I actually sent someone a copy and have a dropbox link ready of my first turn setup save. So, I'll go ahead and post it HERE in case anybody wants to give it a whirl. A few things to note: I forgot to turn the clock down, so there are 4 hours set. I'm using a house rule of 2 hours (must ceasefire then if the battle hasn't finished). A couple of enemy units intended to be hidden are easy to spot. However, it may not be a biggie, given the particulars. I've added setup arty, so the player will need to cancel and redo. Check the battalion commander and left flank company HQ for that. There is no briefing, so here is the one I added for the person I sent the file to: June 22, 1944, German Assault on Village of Nemanitsa Your mission: Take the village. There are four line objectives, each deeper into the village. One star equals 100 points. Terrain points total: 1K, Casualty points total: 1K. Enemy Force: Mixed Soviet Guards, with air support and fortifications. No specific intel, but expect a strong infantry presence. Your Force: 2 X Regular Infantry Companies and Battalion HQ (mortars on-map) 2 X Panzer IV Platoons Panzer Support Co. with mobile AA, recon, pioneers, & FT HT platoon 1 X Wespe Platoon for heavy direct fire support Heavy mortar support All forces on map at start. 4 hours on the clock, turn-based Iron mode. Assault on Nemanitsa

The German assault on Nemanitsa initiates its first push in strength against the outer Soviet defense line.

I really like the buttonhole, belt and pouch details on the uniforms. The hats are especially nice and some of the best uniform work so far in CMx2, I'd say.

This was a neat 2 minutes. A Spitfire attacked and shredded the lead AA vehicle. Then, it got shot down by the remaining two. Then, a heavy point barrage by 75mm Pack Howitzers knocked out the Panther with their first FFE salvo and the AA vehicle beside it with their second. The first hit brewed up the already buttoned-up Panther. That was the front hull top hit. However, a second hit on the engine deck came seconds later. And, in the next minute, two more hits that would have likely killed the Panther, had it still been alive. Not bad. The paras got an easy morning!