Vergeltungswaffe

Brummbär/Sturmpanzer IV Late snowy and white with original BF.c bmp (seems to have no winter textures in FI; The other Brümbars have their textures in FB, RT).
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/6xwii1nje1kccgc/Brumbar_Late_snowy_white.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/kx3wrabu2bmpnbr/Brumbar_late_snowy.zip/file
Zip White:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/i1d6del5tb4f28i/Brumbar_late_white.zip/file
 

Thank you very much for your support 🙏 😎

We should tag @IICptMillerII so he sees your questions.

You'd be surprised. Creating content while a product is in beta does occur and can lead to some unforeseen problems and redos of aspects of scenarios as stuff under the hood changes. Known risk you take. Luckily, the general consumer doesn't have to worry about that.
Remember that BF only announces products once development is well into the pipeline. The Utah Beach Battlepack has been the exception as that was first announced basically around the same time as a green light for the project was given. There was nothing "in the editor itself" so to speak. Just design plans and research paperwork. I'd hazard a guess there would of only be some kind of announcement that the BP existed around now based on where we're up to.
There's also quite a few perfectionists behind the scenes trying to marry up the history with the tools and features available in the game engine. For example just for the Carentan campaign, I've tried to reflect all the units involved in the fighting and their relative strengths at specific points in the roughly two weeks of history I'm recreating. That's not a quick process to do right and try to validate sources. In the Carentan campaign you will command five different parachute/glider battalions plus add-ons at varying points. It's pretty big but you'll still probably be crying in parts if you know what you'll be throwing them  against.  I mean I could race forward and not care about historical accuracy at this point and have you pushing down Purple Heart Lane with a British Armoured Battalion because it would be 'cool', rather than a recreating the 3/502 of the 101st Airborne... but I think there maybe a few protests from the player base.

Sigh. I don't speak for Steve but I suspect he doesn't care much if some rando on the internet thinks he's not working and is bitching an moaning about it. I could be wrong. It's possible he'll pop in here right quick and show proof to you that he's still working. LOL Not

I do love a good PzGdr assault.

I do love a good PzGdr assault.

I like it when a plan comes together! 
I was rather chuffed that this close assault by my SPW mounted panzer grenadiers worked.
Took some previous suppression fire and ensuring I'd KO'd any enemy AT guns, then drive at full speed onto the position, all guns on board blazing.
It does not often go quite to plan like this...
 

Wow that seems a bit unfair. Sorry, not sorry, you aren't getting new toys fast enough.

It is all Putin's fault I guess.

More volunteers to the front ! 😉😜
The Campaign "Five Bridges" is ready for starting the (hopefully) final testrun 👍
Regards
Mr.X 

Having playtested several missions I can say that the work done by Frank on these campaigns is top notch, and on par with the quality of officially released battle packs.
The completed product will surely be lots of fun!

35%…that is pretty good.  One thing I do regret is the last battle of the campaign - Alsfeld.  Not the scenario, the one last push with everything one has left is solid.  No, it was the work we put into the map and the scenario knowing that few people would ever play it.  We did up all the US Campaign scenarios as stand-alones but not the Soviet for the reason that those ones need to be earned (the master maps are avail though).
When we sat down with the scenarios and campaigns we decided to do “reality first”.  What did the doctrine of the day say?  Bil was a Int NCO during the Cold War and has a lot of experience there.  Where would each side realistically be at that point? What time and space made sense for the fight?  We did do balancing at the end - some got too brutal even for us.  But we tried to get as close as possible.  Fun, was something we really left to each player to decide for themselves.  Also why we created levels of accessibility as not to alienate anyone totally.
Anyway, glad to hear you enjoyed it.  We got a lot of positive feedback from the core community on this title.  We can live with those outside maybe not loving everything. So long as the fan base is happy, we are happy.  (And we know the fan base is a bunch of grognards so “happy” is a relative term).

As someone who has done game design then you know that your own experience is not necessarily reflective of everyones experience.  Take a look at the Cold War forum.  A few people before you have come out not liking the Soviet campaign, or even Scenario 3 but it is not overwhelming by any stretch.  In fact most of the feedback we have received has been overwhelmingly positive from the community we built the game for.  And we do have some new folks getting into a whole new era of warfare they did not know about before.
As to skill, well I beat Scenario 3 (after more than one try) and felt like I had to use skill.  I even learned something about how the Soviet system could work in this situation.  There is a counter-point, and based on feedback I know I am not the only one.
So I read your points and do not even entirely disagree but as far as CMCW is concerned, but the core community has already spoken.  We must be doing something right.  Handholding is a plague on modern gaming.  So much so the retro Rogue-like movement is very alive and well.  For this community, spoon feeding post-game solutions or explanations kinda takes away from the community as a whole in trying to figure a game out.  Go online and see how many videos have been made of folks playing CMCW.
So I am not claiming CMCW or the Soviet campaign are perfect.  But they are squarely in the red rings as far as the primary audience is concerned.  Not going to mess around with that solution to much - if it ain’t broke don’t fix it…kinda thinking.  As to market growth.  Look, first rule of game design as far as I am concerned is the same as warfare - know what game you are in.  CM is a niche within a niche.  It will never, and has never gone mainstream.  This is a point of pride for all these weirdos, some who have been with this whole thing for over 20 years.  We welcome new gamers with open arms.  This has to be one of the last non-toxic gaming communities left.  But we aim to target the fan base.  If we can do that and pull in some new interest, great.  In many ways CMCW pushed the envelop of what CM can do.  We used huge maps and large forces…that was a turn off for some.  But we adhered to realism and authenticity.  We made a game designed for the community, by members of that community.  The only reason I got engaged in this discussion was that you seemed to infer that we did not do QA/QC and that is why you had a bad experience.  Not how it went down.  Deliberate design decisions.
So when we get BAOR done, it will have an easier, middle and hard campaigns. Some scenarios bordering on unfair but a lot of real war scenarios are unfair.  We won’t be dropping hints or suggestions…let the grogs grumble.  But the right people will love it to death, and maybe some new ones too.  
 

I thought it was your imagination.

I am following the topic "annual look at the year to come - 2023" and have seen, that the planned BattlePacks for CMBN and CMFI will probably be delayed due to the real life obligations of the creators 😢
To be honest, until recently, I wasn`t sure whether my huge project could actually be realized in the end.  But to spread some optimism: NOW, I am absolutely sure 👍😎
I`m continually working on it and so far there are enough volunteer testers. At this point, many thanks to you 🙏 without your help, it wouldn`t be possible to do this work...
My very special thanks go to @Phantom Captain, @pintere and @M.Herm for your fabulous efforts and the helpful and detailed AARs and valuable suggestions !!! 
So what`s the next plan?
As of today, a precise schedule has been set as to when the last finished campaign will begin its beta test. This date will be December 1st. From then until January 11th, I will continue to pursue my professional obligations during the final test runs. From January 12th I will be active again and will make the final improvements. From then on it will only take a short time until the release. 
Since we are now in a period of 3 month before the release, I have taken the liberty of opening an additional topic, where the final version of the BattlePack is described in detail and pre-orders can be made. 
More to come...
 
Regards
Mr.X

The final version of this Battle Pack will consist of the following stuff:
1. Campaign "Partizans Land":  6 missions in a period from May 31st to June 6th 1944 
Player will command Axis Anti-Partizan Forces in a small operation along the railway line Orscha - Lepel.
 
2. Campaign "Into Hell": 8 missions in a period from June 8th to June 23rd 1944
Player will command units of German 252nd Infantry Division during the defensive actions north of Witebsk
 
3. Campaign "Our Father": 7 missions in a period from June 27th to June 29th 1944
Player will command mixed remaining units of German 12th, 31st Infantry Division and Panzergrenadier-Division "Feldhernnhalle" 
during the encirclement of Mogilev.
 
4. Campaign "Five Bridges": 12 missions in a period from June 26th to July 2nd 1944
Player will command units of German 383rd Infantry Division and 20th Panzer Division during the desperate pocket battles
around the city of Bobruisk.
 
5. Campaign "Tiger Trail": 17 missions in a period from July 17th to July 26th 1944
Player will command units of 3rd SS-Panzer Division "Totenkopf" during their counter offensive actions around the 
city of Grodno.
 
6. There will be included 16 Mastermaps
 
 
In summary the Battle Pack will contain 50 single missions from tiny sized to huge. All the campaigns can be called as 
"semi-historical". The player will command units that are as historically accurate as possible. A large number of the maps are 
based on original/historical maps. Much time and effort have been invested to the detailed research of the historical battles.
Some historical participants of the events are introduced with additional information. 
 
The whole Battle Pack is a fan made project of my own without any financial interest. I have created it just for my personal fun.
And now important information for everyone interested:
There will be no option to download this Battle Pack from any website. Because it is an exclusive product, I also chose a special way to order it:
If you want to pre-order the Battle Pack (or order it after the release), you have to pm me here in the forum. Give me your e-mail adress and forum-name and I will register you. As soon as the Battle Pack is released, I will send it to you.
In this way I will keep an overview of how many people will actually order the Battle pack - regarding this, I currently have no idea/expectations of numbers.
 
Estimated date of release is February 1st in the 80th anniversary year of Operation Bagration.
Pre-orders are open now !!!
 
Regards
Mr.X 

Stug F8 snowy with original BF.c bmp (seems to have no winter textures in FI).
View:
https://www.mediafire.com/view/et9jowjzzqbn632/Stug_F8_snowy.jpg/file
Zip:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/aqsy77eshcaui6n/Stug_F8_snowy.zip/file
 

I can't remember if I posted this once before when CW first came out, but I have still a small pocket handbook that was issued to all FIST Chiefs in the 1/320FA back then. At the time I got this book I was a FIST Chief in A Btry, 1/320FA (Abn), later a Fire Direction Officer at battery and battalion level (in 2/321FA (Abn), and later still a Fire Support Officer (at both Bn and Bde level in 1st Bde). 
It's 5 separate pdfs. The first one has a lot of info on how a Soviet MRR would operate in the attack, which may help with tactics opposing them. It describes the recon element, the advanced battalion, with tactics and TOE. There is a nice table on how each element is organized and fights, along with (importantly!!) vulnerabilities. There is a lot of fire support information which will be more useful for background information, but does include a lot of specs of both US and Soviet equipment - rates of fire, shell weights, even airlift requirements to move a battery and supply it by air. In those tables DRF and DRB refer to the Division Ready Force, and Division Ready Battalion, referring to the artillery units associated with the infantry brigade that is on "Mission" cycle - the ones who are always ready to fly away at a moment's notice. One battery is direct support for an infantry Bn, one artillery Bn in direct support of an infantry brigade. Back then those direct support roles remained rigid, so that the same units batteries always supported the same infantry. For example as a FIST Chief, I supported C Co, 1-325 Inf (Abn). We trained with them in the field all the time, so we built a good working relationship. 
The TOE for US is specific to the 82d Airborne so you can't really apply it to a US mechanized unit. More men per squad, limited vehicles, etc. The 82d is kind of unique, and keep in mind that it's walking infantry, and the tactics for defense are described as the 82d being put in a position to oppose a mechanized Soviet advance, but in general terms, they still apply pretty well. 
Hope you find it useful. Feel free to download and save copies for yourself. This was freely given out, never classified in any manner, and we carried them around. 
They may help with tactics opposing Soviet advances, which in the AI scripting are pretty well based on how it's described here. Any fans of Flashpoint Campaigns (either Red Storm or Southern Storm) may also find them useful there - easier to see the larger scale Soviet organization unfold.
Enjoy.
Dave
Fire Support Handbook -5.pdfFire Support Handbook -4.pdfFire Support Handbook -3.pdfFire Support Handbook -2.pdfFire Support Handbook -1.pdf

We appreciate you and all the content creators for this game.
We're very blessed to have such talented, dedicated people.

We appreciate you and all the content creators for this game.
We're very blessed to have such talented, dedicated people.