LongLeftFlank

....and I would personally savour the tears of rage of edge hugging gamey bastidges. But an "OBAT" unit could be a single fixed point on either flank, hence subject to on map terrain, and also time-bounded, i.e. be presumed to be suppressed after a certain point. Just add this to the fantaCM list.... Back on the main topic, I agree that "overstaffing" the computer forces is the primary way to overcome the zombietruppe factor. But I have also long felt that if the TacAI isn't up to simple things like: "Advance along the ditch, not along the sides of it, unless I've told you to Dash" or "'Sir, we've spotted an enemy unit!' Take cover, return fire, then send a team flanking through the trees to the left", or "If my Sherman is on a road and I click a single waypoint down that road, just follow the dang road to it, not a straight line across country, unless I click a waypoint off the road" ... then give the designers Editor tools to pin out sensible (covered) 'paths' to prompt the AI. It's basically a variant of the waypoint tool that automatically repaths around impassable terrain. It basically preplots waypoints, and is invisible to the players but not to the unit TacAIs. Use of such a feature is optional of course, you can always let your zombies be zombies

Yes, I don't want Ramadi locked as a politics thread please.

In WWI the Allies found themselves almost entirely dependent on German optical glass, and therefore critically short until Bausch & Lomb redressed the balance through heroic efforts. https://www.osa-opn.org/home/articles/volume_27/january_2016/features/how_the_great_war_changed_the_optics_industry/ In WW2 the deficiency was more qualitative. Zeiss had revolutionized optics with coatings in the 1930s - but that edge doesn't seem to have lasted past 1943. Some good tidbits below for those interested, especially the stuff about T34 sights surprising Aberdeen testers: http://forums.lnlpublishing.com/threads/history-the-us-optics-crisis-in-1943.1945/ http://www.panzer-war.com/page37.html http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/265163-german-optics/ I can't find a reference, but I would expect Britain still had a limited domestic optics industry in 1939, and with the total loss of Continental supplies found herself having to make do with less here, as in so many other areas. Hardly a matter of choice or neglect. I'm sure this topic has been treated in these forums too, btw, but I am getting weary of the new Search function missing stuff I know full well is there.

Burning vehicle smoke absolutely does affect LOS.

The war wasn't over yet, so there *might* be just a teeny tiny bit of propaganda in this pamphlet... Evidently KG Peiper was knocked out largely by airpower on Dec 18, in the fog; who knew? "Col. Meyers continued to send four-plane flights shuttling over the area until 1700 hours that afternoon, seven missions in all. At the end of the day, pilots reported 126 armored vehicles and trucks destroyed, 34 damaged."

https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1188225/department-of-defense-press-briefing-by-secretary-mattis-general-dunford-and-sp/ In Mosul alone, they've [IAA] suffered approximately 980 killed and over 6,000 wounded [as of mid-May]. I assume that's heavily CTS troops.

Interesting piece here (linked from ZeroHedge but I figured I'd lose the 'deplorable' / basement n*zi commentary that inevitably follows): http://www.mauldineconomics.com/this-week-in-geopolitics/medieval-times-in-the-modern-middle-east Islamic State, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey scrambled to take ownership of the Sunni rebellion in Syria (and Iraqi 'Sunnistan').... Identities based solely on sectarianism now stand in the place of nationalism....The Sunni bloc is in disrepair; the Shiite bloc is on the rise. Interesting analysis, though incomplete, as it omits 2 key players: Jordan (US and Israeli client) and (populous and EU-linked) Algeria.

Just watched HYENA ROAD yesterday while sitting on my rower. Good flick as war films go, though way too much drama at the end. Go Canada! Interesting too how 'prairie' (i.e. American) all the actors' accents were.... Is the lead character (the intel guy) based on anybody you know or know of, CIMan? (no names, obviously)

With a VBIED variant!

Starcraft had that feature: you didn't get to see any of the map until your Zerglings loped through it (Kekekekeke!) All else was darkness: 'Here Be Dragons' I vaguely recall seeing a wargame once where unseen areas showed as a period 1:25,000 topo map. But while cool, that would put a further burden on scenario designers.

... My prior isn't criticizing CM or BFC btw; they have given us the toolset. Designers looking to game out smaller portions of larger operations simply need to be intelligent (sometimes creative) in representing the on-map effects of off-map portions of the action.

Amen on the AI point, and great post by Kaunitz. The first sequence of this clip from the Estonian film "1944" nicely depicts the unrealistic 'isolation' of many CM scenarios from their own tactical scheme, still less the bigger operational picture. The filmmakers took great pains to lay out an authentic hedgehog position. Yet the Estonians are shown barely repelling a company scale probe. What's missing, in addition to the minefields and wire which should be stalling the Russians on the forward slope (kill zonel, is intense flanking fire from the identical hedgehogs to right and left. That ranged direct fire should be killing T34s with flank shots and mowing down the skirmishers from enfilade with HMGs. The defenders "on map" really just need to hunker down and call in the battalion mortars to finish the job, unless a few Russians get through the kill zone. So to represent this kind of thing accurately in CM do you triple the width of your map and shove deep river barriers in to prevent gamey bastiges from making an end run? Or add some form of off board direct fire feature?

Great footage, many thanks for sharing. You really get the claustrophobia faced by the roadbound columns in the built up zones. While Daesh 'counterattacks' with just a few infiltrators.

The concept of Grenadiers as "heavy" (assault) infantry and Fusiliers as "light" (skirmishers) formations, together with other legacy designations such as Carabiniere, became the European standard with Frederick and Napoleon. However, they date back even further to the Gunpowder Revolution, where arquebusiers, caliverists, musketeers, etc. displaced crossbowmen and were distinct from the masses of pikemen, halberdiers, etc., as well as from the artillerists, bombardiers, etc. From the start, grenadiers were literally chosen men, tough guys whose job was to get close in and throw "grenadoes" to disrupt the enemy front, accepting the huge losses they'd incur en route. Later, the "spirit of the bayonet" displaced grenades as the preferred tool for breaking enemy ranks, and grenadiers were selected for intimidating size and esprit de corps, since close assault remained a hazardous task. This Napoleon fansite has some factoids on this topic, but I wouldn't take it as gospel truth either (caveat l'empereur): http://www.napolun.com/mirror/web2.airmail.net/napoleon/infantry_Napoleon.html

Memory is hazy 5 years on, but I think I used Poles for Japanese or sumfink, so there could be a possibility of CBI/SEA theatre.... you'd have hetai carrying Lee Enfields and stuff, but wev.

I'd award you a case of beer but I'd be usurping the prerogative of @Bigduke6

Marawi battlespace, courtesy of Reuters. The article is the usual defeatist claptrap; if you aren't winning you must be losing.

I'd be curious what you see @Erwin, my decrepit CMBN PC didn't come to Asia with me, so I never upgraded to 2.0.

Having done it, I absolutely deny PTO is not appropriate for CM, unless you are the most hardcore World of Tanks refugee ever. BFC does need to tweak that fortification spotting though. And treetop sniper nests would be nice. And caves. And...

Think piece: can anyone cite WWII (ETO) *offensive* operations (outside urban areas) in which a broad distribution of armour (i.e. combined arms down to the tactical level) was or 'coulda-woulda-shoulda' been a superior deployment to concentrating armour in mass? Anzio containment seems to be an example where a (counter)attacker got better results out of combined forces than they would have hitting with a concentrated armoured 'fist' (cf Sicily, Salerno), but that wasn't an offensive posture. .... While we are speaking of Doubler, I suppose the final mid July US bocage push to St Lo might qualify. Is there a better 'might have been' force mix for the German panzer brigades in Lorraine, for example? What about Kursk? I haven't plumbed the full depths of Glantz (zzzzzz), but it always seemed to me that the post 42 Russians were rarely (Popov?) caught out in an offensive attacking with either too few tanks or too little infantry. They seemed to have a good feel for the right balance, except with cities (nobody did that one 'well' as attacker in WW2 tbh).

I am not at all the blood and gore type, but that actually appeals to me. Perhaps apply the Execution not aid rule to any Fanatic unit?

Unfortunately, it was designed in 2012 with CMBN version 1.0. I gather the mods look like a mess or don't work at all with 2.0 which I never bought. Need to change my sigline I guess.

Yeah, I find this guy's analysis pretty poor in general. The unspoken message always seems to be 'everything is just a horrible mess and the US always makes it worse'. Which I suppose suits his readership.

More info emerging on the Marawi siege. As I suspected, it went off half cocked on the jihadi side, which allowed the Philippine army to trap (inasmuch as they can do that ?) the 600 odd fighters. http://www.interaksyon.com/osg-shares-intel-with-sc-afp-knew-of-maute-hapilon-plot-vs-marawi-on-may-18/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+InterAksyon+(Interaksyon.com) The ISIS-inspired local rebel groups had intended to burn down the entire city of Marawi on the day of Ramadan, or on 26 May 2017. The said attack would have served as the precursor for other rebel groups to stage their own uprisings across Mindanao in a bid to simultaneously establish a wilayah in the region. However, the planned attack by the rebels was foiled when government troops attempted to serve the warrant on 23 May 2017. This forced the ISIS-inspired local rebel groups to prematurely execute their planned siege of Marawi” http://thestandard.com.ph/news/top-stories/239181/govt-foils-isis-plot-to-take-over-3-cities.html Fighting in the city has left 58 soldiers and police and more than 20 civilians dead, the military said, estimating that almost 200 militants have been killed in the clashes.... the military has struggled to defeat the heavily-armed gunmen, who have used hostages and pre-existing bomb-proof tunnels to entrench their positions. Marine soldiers were moving into Barangay (village) Mapandi in the conduct of clearing operations when they clashed with about 30 Maute/Abu Sayyaf gunmen on Friday. He said the “enemies” set off improvised explosive devices, fired rocket-propelled grenades and B-40 projectiles on the advancing troops and killed 13 soldiers. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/904250/13-soldiers-killed-in-marawi-afp#ixzz4ja26rlbn Asked about the remaining number of the extremists holed in some areas here, Herrera said there were still around 200-230 gunmen remaining, including their top leaders, Isnilon Hapilon and Abdullah and Omar Maute. “They are still inside commanding their men. They are utilizing and maximizing tunnels for their logistical support and for their protection,” he said.

After reading up further on the Iraq campaigns, I am adding a further mod request for CMSF2: 24. Add a fourth wall type: reinforced cement wall/barrier sections in common use by Allied forces and civil highway authorities alike, both low ("Jersey barrier") and high (T wall or "Texas barriers"). Should be breachable only by fully tracked vehicles, main gun rounds, or demo charges.