PIATpunk

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

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

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

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

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

I will be hosting a discussion with @George MC and @domfluff on my youtube channel about the battle pack, as well as campaign and scenario design in general, on Thursday 24th November at 20:00 GMT if anyone is interested:

Here's my Gate effort. 

The code is the same between the Steam release and the BFC release. You can play using Matrix's PBEM+ with the BFC install once it's all setup and available. This patch release does not include that PBEM+ work. So there will be another release coming to support that.

Hi all
I've created this post to make available some resources that may be of use to players.
I've attached the Five Days One Summer campaign flowchart - so you can see where you are going, if you wish. If you'd rather not see into the future then best not read it.
I've attached the Tigers at Ogledow campaign flowchart - again possible spoilers here so if you'd rather not know, don't look!
Also I've attached a SPW Training Missions Tactics and Lessons document. This document provides a deeper overview of the doctrine and tactics taught (and used) by German armored panzer grenadier units equipped with the Sdkfz 251 halftrack and its variants (referred to as a Schützenpanzerwagon or SPW) in the later part of the war, around 1944. Its main intent is to provide additional background to the series of scenarios and missions in the battle pack for Red Thunder, in particular the series of three SPW ‘Lesson’ series scenarios. My thanks to @domfluff who reviewed this and provided tactical insight, oh and it was his idea originally.
Five Days One Summer Wiking panzer grenadier mods - I've added a wee package of mods I used for the grenadiers in the Five Days One Summer. I basically assembled others excellent mods to create a look which is in the Wiking Mods GMc Mix . Main changes are grenadiers are in light battle rattle - no extraneous kit, crusher caps are M43s and senior officer has a 'Wiking' cuff band and a M43. My thanks to the talent and good will of Aris, @EZ (WSS Senior Officer and WSS camo uniforms), @Frenchy56 (Crusher and side caps to M43) @kohlenklau (No-gear mod - the campaign is mod tagged 'no gear') @Lucky_Strike (Senior officer peaked caps to M43s). I used Aris' Soviet tank mods, his Soviet faces and VM's summer Soviet uniforms.
Five Days Campaign Overview_v1.pdf SPW Training Missions Tactics and Lessons_FINAL.pdf
1831305623_FiveDaysOneSummerMods.rar
Tigers at Ogledow Campaign Overview_v1.pdf

create an exception in the 'Virus and threat protection settings' of Windows security to exclude the CM executable process.
If windows defender has been 'destroying' one's hard drive lately, there's probably a good reason for that.

The mystery has been solved ☺️
 
 

Declan's been quiet.  That's possibly a good sign.

In short no objective account.
I found  numerous on-line accounts of this action. Many of them would appear to be based on, or heavily reference, an account published on Battlefield.ru which could be found at the link below though it appears its now broke...
The Soviet view of the Ogledow action referencing primary sources:
http://www.battlefield.ru/royal-opponent.html
A slightly more detailed overview of the Ogledow engagement and includes some original sketch maps showing the locations of KOd tanks. It appears to be heavily based on the original Battlefield.ru account
http://tankarchives.blogspot.com/2013/07/king-tigers-at-ogledow.html
Discussion querying loss rates in this action:
https://www.feldgrau.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11435
 
This link takes you to an account which attempts to debunk the whole action, I’ve added it here for err, ‘interest’:
https://elgri.livejournal.com/10845.html
What happened to the captured Tiger IIs from Ogledow
http://www.battlefield.ru/was-tiger-really-king.html
My own notes and summary:
German tank losses in this action – three Tiger IIs destroyed - on the 12th August are confirmed by German records, but further losses in the next day or so are more challenging to reconcile with Soviet claims. That’s not to say the Soviets did not KO or capture the tanks they claimed they did, just from my research it is difficult to corroborate these claims. Thomas L. Jentz (‘Panzertruppen Vol 2’) states that 501st had 45 Tiger IIs on strength by 7th August 1944 and in ‘Germany’s Tiger Tanks – Tiger I & Tiger II: Combat Tactics’ page 153 gives a situation report that shows by the 21st August the unit had ‘only’ lost six Tiger IIs as total write offs, whilst 12 were in need of repair. Schneider in ‘Tigers in Combat I’ on page 46 confirms that the 501st lost three Tiger IIs on the 12th August 1944 and indicates that on the 13th August – “Heavy fighting and further losses. 1 tank – Tiger 002 – is captured intact by the enemy.” The German losses are noted and challenged in the Battelfield.Ru article where the author notes –“Jentz's figures are doubtful. On the battlefields near Ogledów, Mokre, and Szyldów, twelve King Tiger tanks were left behind. From the [Russian} archive records currently available, it appears that the 501st Battalion was routed…”
It is worth noting that the German records for the 501st would appear to be contradictory as several authors provide slightly different numbers for the 501st for the end of August 1944. For example, Dennis Oliver in Dennis Oliver (‘Tiger 1 and Tiger II’ page 5) gives 501st as having 41 Tiger IIs on strength with 26 combat ready by the end of August 1944 having lost 4. Whilst Thomas L. Jentz (‘Panzertruppen Vol 2’) states that 501st had 45 Tiger IIs on strength by 7th August 1944 and in ‘Germany’s Tiger Tanks – Tiger I & Tiger II: Combat Tactics’ page 153 gives a situation report for the 31st August 1944  as 13 complete write-offs; 14 operational; and 18  in need of repair for  total of 32 Tigers. Reconciling kill claims and operational tanks is always a challenging (futile?) exercise given the various factors common to both sides such as over inflated kill claims, incorrect reports, vehicle accounting systems combined with different definitions of when a tank is ‘knocked out’.
 
What is clear is that the combat record of the 501st during this and subsequent actions in the Sandomierz bridgehead was generally unimpressive. Possibly due to the original battalion being all but destroyed attempting to hold back Soviet attacks during Operation Bagration. Such catastrophic events would mean few of the experienced crews would survive to help form the cadre for the new unit to be rebuilt around. 
The 501st was reconstituted on the 14th July 1944 with the new Tiger IIs but this only gave the whole unit around a month to reform and train on the new vehicles, and as a combat unit, before being sent into action – perhaps therein lays the reasons for the lacklustre performance of the new tanks and their crews through August 1944: 
•    after the heavy losses in June 1944 the reformed 501st  consisted mainly of new recruits without combat experience and lack of thorough training due to the short time between being reformed and sent into combat;
•    serious technical problems with the new Tiger IIs (final drives in the vehicles being especially prone to failure, especially if the driver was inexperienced);
•    lack of experience with the new tanks and their strengths and weaknesses combined with overconfidence and overestimation of what the weapon system could achieve, especially the thick armour, often resulted in poor reconnaissance measures and a resultant poor tactical handling.
The 501 st’s record through August 1944 was so poor that on the 22nd August 1944 Major von Legat was relieved of his command. It is also reported that he had links to the 20th July 1944 conspiracy to kill Hitler. On the 21st December 1944 the battalion was redesignated as schwere Panzer-Abteilung 424.
It is worth mentioning that the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Corps did not have significant numerical superiority during this action. Referencing Battlefield.ru’s account – “It had the following operational tanks to face the German III Panzer-Korps assault: nine T-34-76's from the 53rd GTBr (GMc Note: Oskin’s tank appears to have been a T34-85 according to most accounts), and nine T-34-76's and ten T-34-85's from the 52nd GTBr. The 51st GTBr, positioned to the north, had eleven T-34-76's and four T-34-85's. At Staszów there were eleven JS-2 heavy tanks, and one JS-85 heavy tank from the 71st Independent Guards Heavy Tank Regiment.” 
Crucially and in marked contrast to their German opponents from the 501st all their crews were seasoned and experienced armoured combat veterans. The high level of professionalism of the Soviet tank crews ensured they made excellent use of reconnaissance, took full advantage of the terrain and the tactical opportunities it afforded and ensured excellent tactical handling at all levels of the unit. 
Hope this helps?

So, just to give you a quick update, everything below refers to importing stuff from OpenStreetMap
Wot Is Done Already:
Forests, randomized tree types and densities, tree types configurable, weights for types and densities configurable Bushes as above Grass as above Farmland as above water etc. (basically everything that is just a polygon in OSM can be done in this way) Wot I'm Working On:
roads, Roads, ROADS!!! I became a little obsessed with them. By now I'd like a word with the sadist at Battlefront who decided that doing the road tiles the way they are was a good idea. Most designers don't bother, because it is a royal PITA that you can't just combine most of the tiles, because the widths don't fit (so, you can't go from W<->E to NW<->SE directly, there has to be a tile in between. Not even the official Line Drawing Tool in the editor does it right. Oh well. After rather excessive use of graphs and shortest path finding in there and so on, I found a solution that works. I am just fixing edge cases. And then I will have to destroy it because while correct most people will not like the sometimes resulting wiggly roads instead of just diagonal ones. I guess I'm going insane! 🤪 Once that's done though, railways and streams will be easy to implement and fences and walls should also be relatively straightforward. Wot May Come:
Areas (like forests, grass, etc, see above) with configurable cores/borders, such that you can have forests that are more dense on the inside or have different ground, fields with crops but just plowed ground on the edges (randomly) walled or fenced areas - good for having fences around fields, hedges around residential areas, ... Houses, but only types, I can't do 3D-view Flavour Objects (which you will have to fine tune yourself, no automatic stuff in 3D-view): Bus stops where there are bus stops on the map, power poles, etc.) Well, that escalated quickly from nice little project for a weekend or two...

Love the way ian points the finger at Battlefront's code for the delays.  What a bunch of maroons.

At-Z.  However the red lines are purely informational and do not join units together like a giant red rubber band.  The enemy could use Sturm Scissors and ruin everything!

Some time ago I compiled all the bugs/weird CM phenomena in a single list that anyone can add to.  Hopefully, some of these items have been addressed:
Note: Some of the items are only pertinent to modern titles and other items are relevant to all titles.
Re CMSF2 (so far): 1)  Spotting issues.  A two man scout team with no binoculars can spot enemy units at close to 3,000 meters much better than an FO (with super dooper optics tech) or an HQ with binocs.  Folks have opined that it's because one of the riflemen has a "Thermal Imager" attached to his rifle and that is why they spot so well.  However, if that is accurately simulated in CM2 then why don't all RL units have thermal imagers and scrap the expensive and heavy laser designators and other high-tech optics that seem so inferior in the game?
2)  Related to item 1) Once can have a scout team, an FO, an HQ, a Jav team etc all in the same location, literally lying on top of each other.  The scout team sees an enemy units - but even after many minutes the other teams cannot see it - they do not communicate.  There is something wrong with the C2 system.  Again... apologists say that in RL they often cannot see what their buddy can see.  However, since the Thermal Imager is so much more effective, wouldn't they simply borrow the rifle with the Thermal Imager so they could see for themselves and then line up their super dooper optical gear on the target so they could finally see it?
3)  The M1046 TOW Humvee crew can dismount and take the TOW launcher and missile with them.  According to the UI it takes something like 1.7 minutes to deploy the TOW and a lot longer to pack up.  But it never seems to deploy. 
4)  Related to item 2) It is very very hard to use any vehicle mounted ATGM in CM2 as "hull-down" doesn't mean that only the vehicle optics on the roof are exposed.  Instead the top of the vehicle is exposed and can be easily seen and fired at and destroyed.  Without being able to dismount the TOW in this example, it's usually suicidal to attempt to fire the TOW even from a hull-down position. (Not sure if this has been fixed in CMCW.)
5)  Same is true for the M707 Humvee and other "Arty Spotting vehicles" with Laser and other high hech on the roof.  All of these cannot be safely used in CM2 "hull-down" as they can be easily seen and destroyed.
6)  The M1114 AGL (Automatic Grenade Launcher) Humvee crew can dismount with the AGL.  However, it must be a spare from the trunk as an AGL remains mounted on the Humvee and can be crewed and operated by another crew or inf team.  Is it correct that the M1114 carries two AGL's?  (Note that the crew of the M1114 with the 50 cal can also dismount and operate it, but in this case the Humvee no longer has the 50 cal mounted.)
7)  UK HQ's in CMSF2 cannot spot for arty or air.
😎Heavy arty falling on top of enemy troops often doesn't incapacitate them.  While it's true that shrapnel may miss, the shock wave of a large explosion alone is usually deadly as it can liquefy one's innards.
9)  Some vehicles carry ammo that seems to be available for resupply.  But, the crew cannot ACQUIRE any, and/or neither can any other unit mount the vehicle to ACQUIRE any.  Eg: The M1046 TOW Humvee) have quantities of regular ammo eg: 5.56mm etc.  But it seems impossible to acquire any of it.  The crew cannot acquire it, and if you dismount em and mount an inf team, they also cannot acquire any ammo.
10) LOS/LOF issues.  While CM2 is supposed to be WYSIWYG it often doesn't work that way.  One can get down to level one and eyeball a situation.  But, what one sees from a location often is not what a unit will see at that same location.  Eg: The AI can see pixel-wide gaps in what human examination considers completely blocked LOS.  A related issue is that one can eyeball a situation like a road in town and there is no obstruction down a street to target a building.  But one finds that when one places a unit in that location, it cannot see or shoot at the building.  
11) Another LOS/LOF issue.  Frequently we find that a crew served weapon can see and target an enemy only to discover that it's only the 3rd ammo loader who can see the enemy, not the main gun/gunner.  However, it is usually impossible to move the MG or gun a few inches to a position where it can see and fire the primary weapon at the enemy.  
12)  Finding Hulldown positions is often problematic.  Some folks seem to like the "Hulldown Assist routine" available in the game.  But, often it simply leave the vehicle with no LOS to the desired target and one has to waste another turn (in WEGO obviously) manually moving the waypoints to get a hull-down position.  So, one may as well do it manually from the start.  The additional problem is that it is common that vehicles go from having "No LOS' to "Partial Hull Down" with no "Hulldown" option being able to be located in between.  One can spend many minutes dicking around with moving waypoints the shortest possible distance in this, that or the other direction to find a hull-done position (relative to the desired target), but one can only find either "No LOS" or "Partial Hulldown" positions.  It's unclear if this is an issue with the map, (maybe the terrain is strange), or the LOS routine.
13) Some vehicles like Bradleys when targeted vs a building don't use the desired weapon - their cannon - but instead fire their missiles - which often makes no sense.  (Target Light makes em use their MG's.)  BMP's are similar vs buildings: Sometimes they use their ATGM's, sometimes their cannon, and sometimes their MG - even if one orders TARGET LIGHT.  There is no indication as to why the AI chooses a particular weapons system.
14) SMOKE and buildings...  Smoke acts as if there are no obstructions or walls and will drift through a building as it is made of wire.  This is actually very helpful when one is attempting to assault a multi-room building.  But, doesn't reflect RL.
15) When one orders a SMOKE artillery strike and run out of SMOKE, the battery obviously still has all its HE rounds.  However, if you first order HE, when all shells are gone the battery has no SMOKE rounds left - they seem to have been used up as HE.
16) Some SNIPER teams in CMSF2 carry 50 cal rounds, even though they possess no weapon that can use 50 cal rounds.  
17) Park your vehicle directly behind a small tree and any enemy fire that comes from that direction will hit the virtually indestructible tree and the vehicle may be 100% unaffected.  Unless the enemy gun/tank moves, it can exhaust all its ammo in this way.  AI controlled guns especially can be made useless by this trick.  It seems that trees are better armor and provide better protection vs AT rounds than steel. 
18) Attempting to resupply a squad one may split off a two-man team to mount a vehicle, get the ammo, then debark and run to where its squad is.  That takes two turns.  However, the teams may not recombine.  A turn later when one again moves both parts of the squad to the same spot, they may still not recombine.  To get the teams to recombine one has to split the larger squad team into two and then move all three teams to the same spot.  Only then will the teams recombine to the full squad and complete ammo resupply.  
19) Heavy HE barrage does not seem to damage vehicle/armor subsystems as much as expected.
20) Some vehicles like the WW2 era 8 wheeled German Rad recon vehicles are supposed to be able to move as fast in reverse as forwards, but in the game move in reverse much slower.  In the game, it may be that all reverse speeds are identical or % of the forward speed.
21) Crewing oddities.  BMP's usually benefit re spotting from an extra man or two in the vehicle in addition to the crew in addition to enabling the vehicle to "Open Up".  A BMP cannot "open up" if it only carries its 2-man crew.  If the BMP has lost a crewman, and there are no other inf being carried, it cannot TARGET - it becomes merely a transport vehicle.  However, sometimes, leaving an extra two-man team in the BMP will enable it to "open up" and TARGET and other times it won't.  Adding a two man crew from another vehicle to the BMP will still not enable this BMP to TARGET anything and the BMP still cannot "open up".  The extra crew are treated as mere passengers.  It's all irregular and unpredictable.  
22) Guns in CM2 aim for the center of mass.  So, even when at short range, the gun will aim for the hull even though it may have more chance of killing or damaging the target by aiming at a different part.  If the turret is less well armored than (say) the hull that can mean that a hull-down tank may be more vulnerable than out in the open, as the turret will be the target. 
23) Tanks can spot inf ridiculously quickly given what we know of tank's poor vision when buttoned up, or in poor visibility, like in smoke etc.
24) Inf is unable to detect a tank that is  a few meters away on the other side of a wall, or in poor visibility.
25) WW2 jeeps and trucks have bulletproof windshields. Often making the driver much harder to kill than he should be.
26) Some vehicles have onboard mortars that do not need to dismount to fire.  However, if one does dismount, deploy and fire, and then remount the mortars in order to move to another location, when one tries to access the mortars for firing, some if not all of the mortar HT's may say "Destroyed", while other mortar HT's are able to accept mortar fire orders normally.  Witnessed in a CMBN game.  Saved game file available.
27)  Special sniper ammo like "50cal" and "338 Lapua Magnum" etc. is not available for resupply.
28)  Your additions?

I just hope attention is paid to including bug fixes pointed out on this forum, as well as registered in their internal tracker.

I just hope attention is paid to including bug fixes pointed out on this forum, as well as registered in their internal tracker.

Soon  all done from my end. 

At-Z.  However the red lines are purely informational and do not join units together like a giant red rubber band.  The enemy could use Sturm Scissors and ruin everything!

At-Z.  However the red lines are purely informational and do not join units together like a giant red rubber band.  The enemy could use Sturm Scissors and ruin everything!

At-Z.  However the red lines are purely informational and do not join units together like a giant red rubber band.  The enemy could use Sturm Scissors and ruin everything!

At-Z.  However the red lines are purely informational and do not join units together like a giant red rubber band.  The enemy could use Sturm Scissors and ruin everything!