LongLeftFlank

Thanks for the contributions all. After stripping away all the general gearhead talk 🤓, this seems to be the summary of CM specific specs advice to date, as far as this non-techie can tell:
- CM puts more stress on memory/CPU architecture
-  favour higher speed CPU cores vs more slower cores
- Buy K versions of Intel CPUs
- AMD backend cores are not full cores
- CM is happy with higher clock frequencies
- Nvidia (GTX) graphics cards are better than AMD, especially for laptops and  avoid Intel cards
- Consider an extra case fan in a desktop build
- Windows with bloatware removed leaves more resources for CM than a Mac OS (no doubt some Mac evangelist will argue this but please don't derail the thread!).
What else? 
I care *solely* about optimizing for CM performance here. I have other devices for general computing. Cheers! 

Why? It was essentially a siege battle. From recollection, the project was abandoned because of various issues around troop behaviour in entrenchments/fortifications.  I would love to see the work that was put in to modding CMBN to generate the Viet Minh, CEFEO and the Vietnam environment updated to the current engine and released.  The first Indochina war was more than DBP, which CM is not optimised to replicate on many levels, so I hope that this project gets revisited.

Hmm, why do I feel like the lead in "A Man for All Seasons", with my old friend SB in the role of Norwich chiding me that my obstinate purism will cost me my head?
And you will seek my thousands of posts in vain for a "CM totally sucks", either stated or implied. Not guilty, m'lud.
My particular wargaming interests are highly specialized and in the distinct minority (although I'm also not the only one). So I hardly expect my views to matter much to BFC as a commercial matter. I hope and expect most SF1 players will greatly enjoy the upgrade. But I am not required to alter my interests to match theirs. And the step change improvement over SF1 is not yet self evident on the criteria that matter to me. No amount of belittlement or strawmanning (not you, others) is going to alter that. Time will tell.

Great video, mandatory viewing for all us CMSF armchair warriors!

A hardware thread like this one should be stuck to the first page in my opinion.
I just did a few hours of research for buying a new PC. What I came up was this:
Dell XPS Tower
Intel Core i7-8700 CPU
16 GB, DDR4, 2.666 MHz
M.2 PCIe-x4 SSD, 256 GB
Hard Disk 2 TB (7.200 1/min)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB DDR5)
... for 1236 €    (10% reduced offer)
Actually, I admit that this is overkill for my needs. Personally, I would have ordered the smaller XPS tower:
Intel i5-8400 Processor
8 GB, DDR4, 2.666 MHz
SATA-HD, 3,5, 1 TB (7.200 1/min)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti (4 GB GDDR5)
... for 809,10 €  (10% reduced offer)

(... but then it turned out that the PC will be bought for me, anyway.)
I shall be more than happy to report how CM runs on it.
Best regards,
Thomm
 

Hi Long Left Flank. 
I am getting my new rig next week and will report back how it handles it. i7 8700k, MSI 1070 Ti Gaming, Asrock Extreme 4 motherboard, 8gb of 3.000 MHz RAM, Samsung evo SSD. If you can wait until then with your purchase...

Resurrecting this old thread on specs and settings, plus some helpful pro tips @IanL linked to below. Cheers, Ian et al!
I am shopping for a CM2 machine as my old one won't run CMBN at all any more,  and certainly won't handle Ramadi SF2... 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Just read this thread, well done @Kaunitz.
Sad to see though that not much has changed on this front since 2013, when I ditched my CMBN Dien Bien Phu opus for many of the reasons you describe here: no slit trenches; infantry unable to hunker down and keyhole, and easily shot dead in their holes or bunkers to the last man by ranged direct and indirect fires, within minutes, as they 'prairie-dog' up and down to spot. World War 1 would have been quite different with these physics.... 
And, no firing slits or embrasures.... 

Good grief! We can be shot in the head from pretty much any angle the moment we stick our heads up to spot, Charlie Brown.
 

Your Ramadi map is more realistic though mate 😉

Great video, mandatory viewing for all us CMSF armchair warriors!

I put together a short film of the 56th Stryker Brigade Combat team's recent NTC rotation. It occurs to me that w CMSF 2 coming out some might find it interesting. My son provided much of the helmet cam footage.. You can see the opfor makes liberal use of smoke for mounted movements..
Los
 

Yeah, I'm not sure I can recommend that kind of tourism mate. If you must see a war zone but don't want to enlist, you might consider a refugee aid org like Docs w/o Borders. That's what Hemingway did.

Don't plan too much, just go!!! The backpacker trail is well defined pretty much everywhere. Pack light, fly one way to a suitable starting point (I recommend Costa Rica or Bangkok as fairly safe), buy the Lonely Planet guide, and you'll make friends who will tell you the next steps.
If you're healthy and don't have addictions beyond tobacco you can get by nicely for half a year on about USD5,000 + air fare. It's nice if a family member can keep your minimum paid on your Visa bill; you don't want to be broke in a foreign land.
And don't sweat the resume. At age 26, I sent a telegram (yup I'm that old) from Chiang Mai telling the law school that had accepted me I wasn't coming. Never regretted that choice. My 2 travel years were vastly more formative than school. It's also why I'm a road warrior expat today (married to another backpacker). Having deep roots in a place is great, but it isn't for everyone.
Anybody who interviews you (at any company worth working for) will either have taken time out to travel, or wishes they had. And as a bonus, your dating conversation will be vastly more interesting, especially to the kind of person you'd actually want to be with.... 

I like that.
After the death of David Carradine, I told my brother if he ever finds me dead in an embarrassing position, like laying naked in bed covered in fudge, or croaked on the toilet ala Elvis, he is to get me dressed, go out and kill a shark or bear, tangle us up, destroy the room, and put a knife in my hand to make it look like we died fighting each other. I want to be a legend around the police station water cooler. Moral of this story? That's my shoe size talking...on just about any topic.
I always say, life is what you make it. If you choose to believe the world is a horrible place than that's what it will be. I find happiness in the smallest things; a nice summer evening, a crisp autumn afternoon, a brand new pair of socks, a fresh piece of paper, a new book, some cool music, etc.. If you learn to appreciate the seemingly insignificant then your existence will be filled with many joys and surprises. And of course find the humor in everything.
@Erwin. Yep, if you think about it, all this board is is a collection of (mostly) grown guys still playing in the backyard with their army men. 
Mord.

+1.  Altho the writing will be backwards and will say something like "Paul is dead" or somesuch.
Seriously tho' I cannot say that the black hood against the flag has improved.  Either the hood graphics need to be crisper (if possible) or maybe make the hood more dark gray than black and then give it a dark black outline like women's mascara to pop it out from the flag.  Or vice versa... make the flag lighter than the hood (since it's in the BG).

Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book! 
As for a RED force counter to BLUE open country mech, all I can think of is some of the 1941 Ariete tactics during CRUSADER, where their best offence was a good defence (i.e. a feint), and their short guns bushwhacked the advancing British tanks on reverse slopes and wadis.
Hezbollah provides the only successful  modern example of course, but they had the singular advantage of defence in depth, in a long-prepared zone. Still, they had some interesting tactical ideas.
2006 Lebanon war
Hezbollah deployed their tank-killer teams in a thin but effective defensive scheme, protecting the villages where the organization’s Shiite members reside; villages where their short range rockets were positioned and where command infrastructure and logistics support was set up. An estimated 500 to 600 members of their roughly 4,000-strong Hezbollah fighting strength in South Lebanon were divided into tank-killer teams of 5 or 6, each armed with 5-8 anti-tank missiles, with further supplies stored in small fortified well camouflaged bunkers and fortified basements, built to withstand Israeli air attacks.
Due to mountainous area, engagements were encountered at ranges below 3000 meters. Hezbollah tank-killer teams would lay in wait in camouflaged bunkers or houses, having planted large IEDs on known approach routes. Once an Israeli tank would detonate one of these, Hezbollah would start lobbing mortar shells onto the scene to prevent rescue teams rushing forward, also firing at outflanking Merkava tanks by targeting the more vulnerable rear zone with RPGs.
In general, Hezbollah demonstrated rather slow regrouping and response rate, since their mobility and command links were severely restricted by the IDF dominating the open areas. However, even this slow pace was fast enough to match the slow and indecisive movements of the Israelis forces.
... Benefiting from its superior night combat capability, the IDF conducted most movements at night, minimizing exposure of forces during day time.... 
Realizing the capabilities of the Merkava 4 tank, Hezbollah... engaged these tanks exclusively with the heavier, more capable missiles such as 9M133 AT-14 Kornet, 9M131 Metis M and RPG-29.... the TOW as well as non tandem RPGs, were considered obsolete against tanks, but proved quite lethal against troops seeking cover in buildings.
Overall, almost 90% of the tanks hit were by tandem warheads. 
The IDF employed several hundred tanks.... about ten percent were hit by various threats. Less than half of the hits penetrated.... 
Hezbollah aimed their missiles to the sides, and rear, when possible.... An armored brigade, which bore the brunt of battle.. hundreds of antitank missiles were fired... only 18 tanks were seriously damaged. Of those, missiles actually penetrated only five or six vehicles and according to statistics, only two tanks were totally destroyed, however, both by super-heavy IED charges.

Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book! 
As for a RED force counter to BLUE open country mech, all I can think of is some of the 1941 Ariete tactics during CRUSADER, where their best offence was a good defence (i.e. a feint), and their short guns bushwhacked the advancing British tanks on reverse slopes and wadis.
Hezbollah provides the only successful  modern example of course, but they had the singular advantage of defence in depth, in a long-prepared zone. Still, they had some interesting tactical ideas.
2006 Lebanon war
Hezbollah deployed their tank-killer teams in a thin but effective defensive scheme, protecting the villages where the organization’s Shiite members reside; villages where their short range rockets were positioned and where command infrastructure and logistics support was set up. An estimated 500 to 600 members of their roughly 4,000-strong Hezbollah fighting strength in South Lebanon were divided into tank-killer teams of 5 or 6, each armed with 5-8 anti-tank missiles, with further supplies stored in small fortified well camouflaged bunkers and fortified basements, built to withstand Israeli air attacks.
Due to mountainous area, engagements were encountered at ranges below 3000 meters. Hezbollah tank-killer teams would lay in wait in camouflaged bunkers or houses, having planted large IEDs on known approach routes. Once an Israeli tank would detonate one of these, Hezbollah would start lobbing mortar shells onto the scene to prevent rescue teams rushing forward, also firing at outflanking Merkava tanks by targeting the more vulnerable rear zone with RPGs.
In general, Hezbollah demonstrated rather slow regrouping and response rate, since their mobility and command links were severely restricted by the IDF dominating the open areas. However, even this slow pace was fast enough to match the slow and indecisive movements of the Israelis forces.
... Benefiting from its superior night combat capability, the IDF conducted most movements at night, minimizing exposure of forces during day time.... 
Realizing the capabilities of the Merkava 4 tank, Hezbollah... engaged these tanks exclusively with the heavier, more capable missiles such as 9M133 AT-14 Kornet, 9M131 Metis M and RPG-29.... the TOW as well as non tandem RPGs, were considered obsolete against tanks, but proved quite lethal against troops seeking cover in buildings.
Overall, almost 90% of the tanks hit were by tandem warheads. 
The IDF employed several hundred tanks.... about ten percent were hit by various threats. Less than half of the hits penetrated.... 
Hezbollah aimed their missiles to the sides, and rear, when possible.... An armored brigade, which bore the brunt of battle.. hundreds of antitank missiles were fired... only 18 tanks were seriously damaged. Of those, missiles actually penetrated only five or six vehicles and according to statistics, only two tanks were totally destroyed, however, both by super-heavy IED charges.

This covers off on why there are lots of young men and women in graveyards (including two people I knew very well) or living their lives without the limbs they were born with.
IEDs are a nightmare and defeating them requires a lot of effort. FWIW I have never been taught to put rounds down to defeat IEDs in any of my predeployment training for either Iraq (1 tour) or Afghanistan (3 tours) between 2006 and 2016 or seen the method employed on my time outside the wire. The drills taught to cross a culvert (or any suspect IED location) involved a lot of very methodical observation, movement and steps to mitigate the effects of the device if it detonated by minimising the number of people likely to get whacked by the detonation. That was all complimented by technical means such as ECM and detection devices such as the Vallon
http://www.vallon.de/products.lasso?a=uxo-detection&b=8
Of that suite of measures, the only thing that is lacking in game is the Vallon. Well not quite obviously but in terms of mechanics for IED detection because they can't be detected, then in game terms it is lacking. However, in real life Vallon and similar devices do not find every single device so ultimately IEDs have to be defeated by combinations of means and the sad fact of life is that, despite all of the above, where IEDs are present, they will cause casualties.
Moving through an area with culverts/chokepoints (such as your bridge example) or one identified as a High Activity Zone for IED placement is slow and stressful and does not involve whanging 40mm from a MK19/GMG or similar around the place. Why? Because in reality your ROE rarely allows you to put the rounds downrange on suspected positions/IEDs that the game allows you to and of course  your briefing stated that they were likely to be present which is a luxury not always available in real life. As a result of all of this, you are faced with, in game terms, boring methodical application of time-consuming drills. In real life, stressful and exhausting application of time-consuming drills.
Is it physically possible to get an IED to detonate by firing at it with 40mm MK19/GMG or similar? I'm not an expert but I suspect that yes it is; however,this method, like all others, is never a 100% guarantee and I would guess that the percentage of successfully defeating a device by firing a direct fire weapon in the vicinity of said device would be pretty low.
I can't help you with your requests regarding that particular mission but ultimately I think it is worth remembering that:
This is a game.
You can't control everything that happens on the battlefield.
You are going to take casualties.

Work and computer power permitting, I am going to resume work on this long shelved BN base game campaign, which includes a 2 x 3 km master map of the east bank of the Vire River above Pont Hebert, from la Meauffe to the German fortified heights at le Carillon.... 
Below are a few key snips from the old thread... 
 
La Meauffe had been the front line since mid June, when 175th Infantry occupied it, then withdrew (under fire) to higher ground further north.
 
So I did some more research online and was gratified to find a French chronology of La Meauffe's war. And it turns out the elusive "Gestapo château" which anchored "Purple Heart Corner" is the Chateau Fors, commanding the key T junction and railway crossing at the south end of La Meauffe. Many historians place it wrongly at St Gilles, which was the LXXXIV Corps HQ, rocketed by Typhoons on D-Day and also heavily fortified.
So at long last I have confidence in the start lines and the July 11th objectives for 1/137.

Ok, enough history, what's going on with the map?
First objective: La Meauffe.
Vermanoir and Eglise St Martin, linchpin of the German left.
The thick-walled sandstone church and cemetery "bristled with firepower and atop the bell tower was a German machine gun nest that commanded the approaches to the area. Close behind the church was a chateau, another thick-walled building with excellent facilities for fortification.... A labor battalion of impressed Russians had been forced to build heavy reinforcements and a bomb shelter of concrete with walls three feet thick." Moreover "every house and shop had been converted by the Germans into individual pillboxes."
. 

Work and computer power permitting, I am going to resume work on this long shelved BN base game campaign, which includes a 2 x 3 km master map of the east bank of the Vire River above Pont Hebert, from la Meauffe to the German fortified heights at le Carillon.... 
Below are a few key snips from the old thread... 
 
La Meauffe had been the front line since mid June, when 175th Infantry occupied it, then withdrew (under fire) to higher ground further north.
 
So I did some more research online and was gratified to find a French chronology of La Meauffe's war. And it turns out the elusive "Gestapo château" which anchored "Purple Heart Corner" is the Chateau Fors, commanding the key T junction and railway crossing at the south end of La Meauffe. Many historians place it wrongly at St Gilles, which was the LXXXIV Corps HQ, rocketed by Typhoons on D-Day and also heavily fortified.
So at long last I have confidence in the start lines and the July 11th objectives for 1/137.

Work and computer power permitting, I am going to resume work on this long shelved BN base game campaign, which includes a 2 x 3 km master map of the east bank of the Vire River above Pont Hebert, from la Meauffe to the German fortified heights at le Carillon.... 
Below are a few key snips from the old thread... 
 
La Meauffe had been the front line since mid June, when 175th Infantry occupied it, then withdrew (under fire) to higher ground further north.
 
So I did some more research online and was gratified to find a French chronology of La Meauffe's war. And it turns out the elusive "Gestapo château" which anchored "Purple Heart Corner" is the Chateau Fors, commanding the key T junction and railway crossing at the south end of La Meauffe. Many historians place it wrongly at St Gilles, which was the LXXXIV Corps HQ, rocketed by Typhoons on D-Day and also heavily fortified.
So at long last I have confidence in the start lines and the July 11th objectives for 1/137.

Work and computer power permitting, I am going to resume work on this long shelved BN base game campaign, which includes a 2 x 3 km master map of the east bank of the Vire River above Pont Hebert, from la Meauffe to the German fortified heights at le Carillon.... 
Below are a few key snips from the old thread... 
 
La Meauffe had been the front line since mid June, when 175th Infantry occupied it, then withdrew (under fire) to higher ground further north.
 
So I did some more research online and was gratified to find a French chronology of La Meauffe's war. And it turns out the elusive "Gestapo château" which anchored "Purple Heart Corner" is the Chateau Fors, commanding the key T junction and railway crossing at the south end of La Meauffe. Many historians place it wrongly at St Gilles, which was the LXXXIV Corps HQ, rocketed by Typhoons on D-Day and also heavily fortified.
So at long last I have confidence in the start lines and the July 11th objectives for 1/137.

Ok, enough history, what's going on with the map?
First objective: La Meauffe.
Vermanoir and Eglise St Martin, linchpin of the German left.
The thick-walled sandstone church and cemetery "bristled with firepower and atop the bell tower was a German machine gun nest that commanded the approaches to the area. Close behind the church was a chateau, another thick-walled building with excellent facilities for fortification.... A labor battalion of impressed Russians had been forced to build heavy reinforcements and a bomb shelter of concrete with walls three feet thick." Moreover "every house and shop had been converted by the Germans into individual pillboxes."
. 

Work and computer power permitting, I am going to resume work on this long shelved BN base game campaign, which includes a 2 x 3 km master map of the east bank of the Vire River above Pont Hebert, from la Meauffe to the German fortified heights at le Carillon.... 
Below are a few key snips from the old thread... 
 
La Meauffe had been the front line since mid June, when 175th Infantry occupied it, then withdrew (under fire) to higher ground further north.
 
So I did some more research online and was gratified to find a French chronology of La Meauffe's war. And it turns out the elusive "Gestapo château" which anchored "Purple Heart Corner" is the Chateau Fors, commanding the key T junction and railway crossing at the south end of La Meauffe. Many historians place it wrongly at St Gilles, which was the LXXXIV Corps HQ, rocketed by Typhoons on D-Day and also heavily fortified.
So at long last I have confidence in the start lines and the July 11th objectives for 1/137.