LongLeftFlank

At this juncture I'd like to note that the CW module will be Fatally Flawed© without inclusion of a NAAFI van or at least a tea urn Flavour Object. In fact, British troops should derive a special "Brew Up" morale benefit, including berserker rage should said object be destroyed. On the negative side, execution of any and all orders will be delayed for the duration of said Brew Up. Alas, I can't find an online version of the Spike Milligan cartoon showing the Mind of the British Soldier, with 75% of the brainspace devoted to "Thinking About Tea and Cigarettes".

I agree that "neither terrain nor concealment" are quite right in the game yet -- my careful study of this leads me to believe that it has to do with: (a) entrenchments and fortifications being far too readily spotted (they seem to be treated as a form of vehicle) relative to unentrenched infantry, even when in concealment terrain. ( entrenched infantry "taking a knee" and exposing nearly half their bodies rather than fighting semi-prone behind the berm/wall/bank as they would really do. And once those big HMG teams begin losing men, they lose their ammo loads and morale too. On the other hand, I don't what you're defining as "any form of heavy weapon", but in the real deal, reducing a stubborn fortification was often indeed a matter of bringing a heavy weapon to bear -- particularly a HE chucker, but a HMG would also do. If your game map is well made though (e.g. doesn't have hilltops offering commanding overwatch from end to end of the map, including right through "forests"), manhandling said weapon into position isn't necessarily straightforward or risk-free, especially if the German mortars are as good as they were in RL. I've learned a huge amount about siting German defenses from this game, and the tactics that work most effectively in game are absolutely the same things they did in RL. It isn't just digging mutually covering MGs and snipers into the corners of bocage fields, mining gaps and having reserve squads and lots of mortar FOs positioned, although those are important. It's "fading" as much of your MLR away from roads so that the Yanks can't just wheel up Shermans and blast away, and doing your best to render the roads themselves deadly and impassable with StuGs, ATGs, shrecks, whatever. It's keeping a careful eye out for points like hilltops and building attics that might offer enemy spotters or HW ranged overwatch into your positions and blasting them early and often. It's making use of drainage ditches, small streams or patches of dense woods that create natural antitank barriers and infiltration routes (you can mine them or put weapons in defilade to stop the attacker from using them). I sound like a broken record here, but it's quality map design that makes this game sing, and the absence of it that makes things seem out of whack.

From a business POV, this makes sense -- with the ETO's major combatant armies all present with the release of the CW module, the "Market Garden et al" module is going to need to have a lot of goodies in it to attract buyers. My guess is that in addition to FJ and Volksgrenadiers, a lot of said goodies will have to do with the fall 1944 city fights, like Arnhem/Nijmegen, Aachen, Le Havre/Boulogne, s'Hertogenbosch, as well as perhaps backdating to the Liberation of Paris (remember that wonderful Tuileries fight from CMBO?) and maybe the sieges of Brest and Cherbourg. So maybe we'll get some nice grimy brick industrial buildings, railway infrastructure and whatnot. And flamethrowers to burn them down with -- those little horrors alone would bring in a lot of buyers. OK, we now (hopefully) return you to your scheduled Carentan thread....

The number 4 tiny plank-walled Barn type will do for a boxcar in terms of basic cover and LOS properties, but the roof makes it look silly. No easy way to remove that, alas.

Sorry about hijacking yoir thread Rokko in order to engage in ridiculous agriculture groggery. On the other hand, this matters in game terms because walls and hedgerowns have very different cover and navigability qualities than fences. We wouldn't want map designers to say "Whew, now we're FINALLY out of the damn bocage, so fields can all look like Iowa, or the Ukraine, or even the Ardennes" (where a lot of wire fencing is indeed used since these formerly wooded areas had only been brought under the plougg in the late 19th century -- as distinct from northern France. Again, not suggesting wood and wire (to quote Johnny Cash) wasn't to be seen at all in Northern France. It appears quite clearly in that game loading screen showing the 2 Shermans observing the barrage. I just don't want to see it overused on maps that purport to be authentic. LOS blocking terrain is all too scarce on CMBN maps as it is.... Making the mortars and German uber-longs even more uber than they already are...

You're bringing a very North American perspective to this though. America had thousands upon thousands of square miles of virgin land to be brought under the plough. In Europe the large fields had existed for hundreds of years. Fuel was more expensive in interwar Europe and I'd suspect that the bulk of farm mechanization capital would be focused on trucking produce to market. While tractors were certainly not unknown you simply didn't have the massive demand -- at least not yet -- that fed the success of John Deere et al, pushing these things into the market. I will try to do a little more research on this.

While awaiting Broadsword's next PBEM turn, I was playing around in the Editor trying to help Undercovergeek create some rolling stock for his Carentan railyard. A bunch of Shed objects placed together actually look pretty good as small 1940s era box freight cars, although they are sitting on the ground and lack wheels (I tried using the oil drums on their sides (2) but this failed for reasons described below). After over an hour of struggle I had to give up this little project. This is not the first time I've noticed that flavour objects (doodads) are a lot more of a hassle to manipulate in CMBN than they were in CMSF. A few observations: 1. They can get "stuck" if you move them into another piece of terrain like a wall... try as you might they won't get out. You have to delete the terrain. 2. Flavour objects do not like to overlap -- they generally delete each other when they do so, and on occasion even when they come into close proximity. The screenshot shows an example: what's left of my final attempt to create 2 "boxcars" each consisting of 4 sheds laid end to end but not quite touching.... 3. Every so often I encounter a flavour object that simply refuses to budge -- I can't move it, rotate it or delete it. That is true of the shed on the far left of this screenie. I click and click and click from every which angle and nothing happens. I save game, go in and out of preview. Nothing. I have a saved game of this available for forensic purposes. PM me svp.

Well whatever the German name, "Siegfried Line" was definitely in common British use during the 1940 "Phoney War" period, and I believe was used by the Anglo-American press to refer to the Westwall complex through the end of the war.

To help you understand why things look as they do, I'm going to repeat a little of what I said in another thread. Keep in mind that the below is all about 1940s agriculture -- the postwar agrarian revolution has changed many things. Fields growing crops make a lot more sense in lowland areas than they do in the stony uplands of Basse Normandie, since these areas have had thousands of years of rivers and streams meandering across them and topsoil has had a chance to become deeper and more fertile / plough-friendly as opposed to washing away. Starting with the growth of cities, commerce and the French nation state in late medieval times, the ancient patchwork of tiny "strip" fields was progressively consolidated into large tenant-farmed "estates" whose landlords became wealthy exporting produce -- hence all those chateaux. The tenants live together in tiny villages. In the 1790s the tenants rose up and chopped off the heads of their landlords, but the basic economic structure remains. So the footprint of the 1944 fields has been in place for hundreds of years already, enclosed by crude stone walls made from rocks pulled from these fields (they are plentiful even in the lowlands owing to the repeated passage of glaciers). Over time, these crumbling walls become overgrown embankments -- i.e. hedgerows -- but these aren't truly bocage any more than are their counterparts in England. While the Atlantic winter winds are less harsh than they are in the uplands (and the fields are mostly bare in winter anyway), you still do want windbreaks, typically at the North and West edges of these fields. But instead of high bocage, which won't protect big fields, the farmers cultivate patches of woodland or (along roads) rows of straight, tall trees like poplars, creating that classic "French countryside" look. Unlike North America which is (was) awash in cheap timber, you probably wouldn't see wood fences much except on horse farms. Still less would you see barbed wire.... there are exceptions of course, but you'll find these would be in proximity to more modern agroindustrial complexes like dairy barns, or adjoining the Routes National to replace ancient walls that had to be removed to widen those highways. Mechanised farming (tractors) have not yet entered widespread use by 1944 -- mass production of such equipment only began after WWI, and you had the Depression in the 1930s, so it's not like the manor farms have had a lot of capital to modernize. Ergo, cattle and horse power remains predominant. I hope this helps give you some insights.

Could be wrong, but these Red Devils look like they're wearing some kind of smock, or anyway something a tad baggier than the regular tunic. And if the basic wireframe indeed exists, then it's a good bet the SS have them too....

Hmmm.... tempting next project. Hmmm.... But no, I've promised the CMSF faithful to get back to Ramadi once I've completely exhausted the le Carillon - la Meauffe Greater Metropolitan Area. In any case, did significant Aachen-style infantry fighting (i.e. suitable CM scenario material) take place in the city centre once the 101st "cracked the crust" of the FJ defenses at the edge of town? Most of the damage in the centre looks like artillery or aerial bombs.... with maybe a sniper holdout or two getting his perch hosed down with bullets.

Not holding my breath though. Anything that requires the team to program new animations or even static figure poses is going to be tacked on to the bottom of a verrrrry longggggg list. Things like machine gunners who prop their weapons up on whatever instead of firing from the shoulder like riflemen rate a way higher priority....

Sinister Nazi genetic experimentation? Or else they got really deep into that Aryan mythology....

Yes, I'm not using citations for any kind of serious analysis of battlefield norms, just saying that not every soldier eagerly grabbed that "Blighty wound" at once. Like I said before I'd rather see soldiers able to drag casualties to cover than dedicated medics or any kind of "healing" feature. I'm content with things as they are now.

Oh, and the Extremely Useful aerial shots.... I hope I'm not hijacking your thread here. As you may know, I kind of dig mapping cities....

I will add my accolades to those above. Also, Chris Ferrous pasted a link to some period photos in another thread, and I noticed these Carentan shots rue Holgate: Carentan railway place de la Republique ... and many others. These shots are awesome for checking authenticity of your maps. FWIW.

Wot's Japanese for LOL!?

Uh, except for just about every citation for conspicuous gallantry I can ever recall reading.

Not directly addressing your question, I know, but having to face and resolve just this kind of tactical command dilemma is the reason why this game is so unique and powerful in the wargaming space. There's certainly a doctrinal training ground solution (husband SW in reserve to establish base of fire once enemy MLR is located, etc.), but this breaks down rapidly on the battlefield, especially in the bocage where tactical communication and even basic orientation is extremely slow and unreliable. FWIW, here's an anecdote I've quoted before, from Buckley, "The Normandy campaign 1944: sixty years on": The 2/137 was more successful in changing tactical organisation and procedures for the infantry and their own and attached fire support weapons. Colonel O'Connell decentralised his forces, attaching a platoon of heavy machineguns and a section of 81mm mortars to each company. The rifle companies were ordered to abandon conventional formation and create attack groups of four or five men. O'Connell remarked, "The best tactic was to first place very heavy concentrations of mortar fire on all suspected enemy lines and then to follow this up with a liberal use of grenade launchers and hand grenades." Again, more historical context than practical advice here. In game, I've personally found that command delays don't seem to matter too much for Regular or Veteran troops out of command.

Great photos there. Thanks for sharing.

There were many anecdotes from the Western front of both sides holding fire on clearly marked medics and ambulances. I'd guess this probably happened far more often on balance than shooters deliberately targeting them. The most frequent occurrence, I suspect, is that the medic is partly out of view of the enemy, and his identity and activities are not apparent, or he is in proximity to other men who are actively shooting. So the enemy does not withhold fire and this gives rise to an "atrocity" rumour in men already predisposed to think the worst of their enemies. As the war went on and the Germans became more fanatical, their snipers in particular started to play by harsher rules, e.g. gut shooting a guy to use as bait for anyone coming to his aid. Which was why they didn't tend to be taken prisoner if identified.

I'd love to see a generic 1-2 man unarmed or pistol-armed unit in the game that can b designated for various support tasks such as medic or ammo bearer. But I'd sooner have men able to drag casualties out of the line of fire.

You cam create your desired "Extreme Bocage" with a little work; first create a 1m high embankment using the Elevation editor. To make it impassable use the Heavy Forest tile. To make it passable with difficulty use Light Forest or Mud. Top it off with Bocage or Low Bocage, whichever suits you. Hedges do provide some nominal concealement to units prone and Hiding behind but generally I agree with the criticisms previously expressed. The foliage in this game is about a meter too low in terms of its LoS effects.

"For this module I sold my virtue"

CMx1 is a traditional ASL-style tactical wargame nicely rendered into 3d. It's good for battalion level fights, but IMHO to wargame "in the boots" (omniscience issues aside) of a company or platoon commander you simply can't beat CMx2 (the current engine). The two games are simply different, at least when it comes to infantry (CM1 was already 1:1 on an AFV scale so it hasn't changed so much). Neither CMBO nor ASL is going to explain to you just how a single sniper can pin down an entire rifle platoon for an hour, or exactly why and how 9 out of 10 Allied infantry attacks stalled within yards of their LDs under a withering rain of German MG and mortar fire. Maybe that's not why you wargame, but there are plenty of us who want that and are delighted that there's a game company and community with the stones to pursue this segment of wargaming. For those who want a higher scale and less micro there are plenty of other options out there for you. The engine will evolve over time, absolutely, to tweak things like infantry cover seeking and ability of buttoned tanks to sniff out concealed infantry, and to add features like true CoPlay, AI "triggers", more autonomous road pathing and perhaps unit SOPs (formations). But that's hard for a small shop to deliver in one mouthful. So the demos are always free: keep trying them and who knows, someday the engine may fit your personal comfort level. Don't give up.