c3k

Well said.

CM need to consider adjusting scales within the editor...
Motivation: Poor thru to Ukrainian
Leadership: -2 thru to Zelensky

Something interesting that happened some hours ago:
It seems that a Russian IL76 tried to make a mad dash to Kaliningrad. It didnt work, and is being scorted by Polish Jets to Bratislava right now.
Edit: Here you can see It landing in Slovakia

And to this point, AFAIK no other military districts have been mobilized. In order to commit additional troops Putin either needs to mobilize his allies or mobilize more Russians. But mobilizing Russians will cause a direct domestic cost. He can do it, but his 'account' at home is already running dry. 
@CHEqTRO 
Also almost certainly the reason why Putin has escalated his nuclear forces. As @The_Capt says, his option space is low and he needs a deterrent. Were it not for the nuclear deterrent NATO would have almost certainly intervened by now. 

Hi everyone. Nikita here.
I'm still in Crimea. I have to be careful with every word, especially after being detained on 24th by police and FSB, so I will be brief. I am literally shaking as I type due to adrenaline, but we all need to be strong these days.
1) Ukraine will be free. The bastards will fail. I can clearly see it.
2) We witness an insane amount of heroism. Which is truly inspiring.
3) Thanks to Steve and other people from here who were kind to me in the past and took time and patience to communicate with me. It made a lot of difference in the end and made me a person who I am today.

Thanks! Ordered...
Lol... I wish!
I have a great friend who's uncle was in the 899th and wounded around El Guettar on March 31st, 1943. He's trying to piece together some conflicting info. I'm trying to get it sussed out for him.
(But, yeah, I'd love for some of this research to be useful in a different manner.  )

Gotta say, I agree with the observation that exposed crewmembers seem more vulnerable to iron sights at long range (anything over 100m) than soldiers in the open.
FWIW, iron sights at 300m, the front post covers an ENTIRE torso. No way can it be used for pinpoint fire vs. the upper half of head. 

The general problem with shooting at exposed crew is that spotting vehicle = spotting crew.  Vehicles are generally easy for infantry to spot, and if the state of the vehicle is unbuttoned, then the instant the vehicle is spotted, every capable weapon will target the exposed crew.  Beyond that, there is no ability for crew to take temporary cover the way infantry similarly exposed behind a low wall can.  They are either unbuttoned or buttoned (and for the AI player the latter is permanent), so buttoning at even a hint of possible small arms fire in the area would likely excessively reduce AI situational awareness.

Good - I see your logic now @Bulletpoint.
Just keep in mind that this specific result applies to a duel of buttoned up vehicles and that the probability of spotting first in a duel is not the same thing as the probability of spotting (when there is an opportunity).
But, as @chuckdyke says - the important thing to remember is that infantry helps. By how many % it helps depends on many variables that the tests do not cover.

Some good points...
1. Changing the engine-coded surrender mechanics would, as mentioned, "break" earlier scenarios and campaigns.
2. I have no idea how much work it would entail to change the engine-coded behavior. (Morale in this game is more complex than it seems at first glance.)
3. There are work-arounds, again previously mentioned (reinforcements after game end and/or hidden objectives with higher HQ towards the rear), but that may not help for the battles created without them.
 
My suggestion would be to allow the behavior to stay the same...except for this: when the AI wishes to surrender, the game does not end. Instead, the player would get a screen, "The Enemy wishes to Surrender. Do you accept?" with a "Keep Fighting" or "Collect the Prisoners" option.
The problem there is that the Global Morale of the defeated enemy will be poor and it may keep trying to surrender, unless that behavior is suppressed.
Again, it would entail extra coding and may or may not have unforeseen ramifications.  (Complex systems behave in complex manners.   )

CMBS – Opening Encounter (thefewgoodmen.com)
Uploaded and install instructions updated.

A few screenshots from "Opening Encounter".  A very well done scenario.   
 



 

I was just uncoiling then rigging up some Christmas lights and it sometimes makes me feel like I am gonna blow up a bridge...gave me an idea for a scenario. I should have it done tomorrow...
CMRT play as allies vs axis AI
BARB SNOS MOSTA (BRIDGE DEMOLITION) 
^
The Eastern Front, June 1941. 
^
You are Major Mikhail Jagarski, a fully trained Red Army engineering officer. You command a detachment of engineers but have also corralled a platoon of demoralized conscripts straggling back from the previous town. Just now a coded radio transmission ordered you to prepare the bridge over the Bestelnaya River for demolition. The bridge must not fall intact into fascist hands!
^
The German motorized scouting units are visible just out of range. They are sure to soon gain enough strength to press hard to take the vital bridge. Your demolitions sergeants are offmap at the bridge structure and need at least 15 minutes to rig the charges and blow the bridge.  
^
Deploy your available forces to hold back the enemy.
^
You have 20 minutes to complete your mission. Points are given for destroying the enemy and preventing them from reaching the rear area touch objective. 
Comrade, we wish you the best of luck in escaping afterward to further serve our beloved Motherland.
 

This has been sat on my hard drive in an 'almost finished' state for a couple of years now.  Prompted by this thread:
I decided to finish it off.
Some tasters ...
Scenario Image:

Strategic Map:

Operational Map:

Tactical Map:

Overhead Comparison CM and Google Earth

Eye Level Comparison CM and Google Earth:

The basic premise is that Russia attacks the Suwalki Gap after a period of tension on the Russian and Belarusian borders with NATO (sound familiar anyone ...).  This mission is set in Lithuania's western border with the Kaliningrad Oblast where a US force has hurriedly deployed in response to a threat of a thrust east out of Kaliningrad in support of the Suwalki Gap attack.
The map is 3,328m x 1,920m ...
Watch this space ...

My focus will be on the battle at Radziechow...more aligned with my current ability and skill set.
Still sizable! 30 Soviet tanks were lost and almost as many panzers.

EDIT: I think I will depart from this thread and head over to the CMRT forum for more Barbarossa discussion, glad to see you over there and listen to any suggestions you or others might have. Please remember the golden rule here, I have no magic wand, just limited Blender abilities and trickery.
 

I've fought mini-actions to do just that.....I'll also go to ridiculous lengths to ensure my men get buddy-aid:

In the Afghanistan game the enemy was fleeing from the map (fighting retreat).
I liked that! Combine it with units surrendering when you get close.
 
In most scenarios I think the timing for the retreat / surrender of the enemy is OK.
I only play the scenarios once and see if I can win the campaign.
If the enemy gets much more resilient I have no chance to win...
 
P.S. Steam brought me back to the game! Good decision on Steve!
       Hope for the fire and rubble release on Steam! 

Not for either of the tanks in this scenario (M60A1 & T-72 'Ural').....Both relied on optical rangefinding.

VAB, thanks for that, I think I may be starting to unpack this mystery a bit.
Ok, so out of an abundance of curiosity I ran a series of ten tests on a different test set.  I remembered something Steve once said about flat ground "not being flat and empty ground in CM".  So even though it may look like a bald grass covered plain, in CM the numbers under the hood take into account small divots, grass clumps etc.  So I tried an trick from the old days and put these tanks on pavement (see attached) and comparing to VABs original test it seems to make a significant difference.
If you recall (third post on this thread) ranged from 9 sec to 443 (7min, 23 sec) for the T72 to spot at 2000m.  In my test series it saw nothing nowhere near as long.

So the longest for the T72 to do a (?) spot (i.e. there is something there) was 1 min and 28 seconds.  Shortest was 15 secs.
Longest to clear spot (I see an M60, lets kill it) was 2 min and 5 secs.  Shortest was an immediate clear spot at 24 secs (gotta be honest, that one feels a little fast)
The T72 won 8 out of 10 engagements but I had the M60 turned around backwards (the fact that it managed 2 wins is pretty interesting, that beast can see).  With the longest time to first hit at 3:02 (but this was really crappy gunnery because they had a clear spot at 2:03).  The shortest was 55 seconds.
So what?  Well first off we cannot look directly into the scopes of the gunner and commander in CM.  I suspect that the TACAI basically scans the horizon until it "sees" something.  To scan a 90 degree arc at 2000m is covering approx 3100m of scan distance (https://www.omnicalculator.com/math/arc-length, note I am not sure it works this way in RL and my math may be off), at the noted 
looking for a 3.6m tank...that is not something done in a few seconds.  Then the TACAI has to fully identify the threat (is it a tank or a barn? It is a tank, ok whose tank?) 
So where does this leave this whole discussion.  Well first off there does not seem to be much distance between CM and SB as originally proposed.  Someone would need to do a series of AI-only test in SB to see how the numbers stack up.  I also suspect that the game engines model open ground differently based on this pavement test.
Some of the RL data is pointing to the T72 having visibility issues
And probably should be seeing worse than the M60.  Still at an average Zero to See/Start Shooting time of about 85-86 seconds at 2kms, for a last gen tank than is not bad at all.  That may feel like a long time for a player with his feet up and ass in a chair, but for a crew operating a tank that is not a long time at all.
Tank Spotting.btt

I think this might go beyond "strategy" and deeper into personal philosophy.  Try not coming across as a rude troll, for a start.  This is our house and "no" you cannot comment on anything you like...try it and see how fast this thread gets locked up and you facing a ban.  
I am not a "CM homer" (seriously how that poor name got dragged through the mud us beyond me and a testament to a big problem of our time.  How one of the greatest writers of all time got that name hijacked by a yellow cartoon character makes me cringe)...I am a CM "owner".  Bil, myself and Cpt Miller, with BFC and some outstanding beta-testers built this floor of the house and frankly I find it offensive when someone comes here to promote an outside game while denigrating ours.  I would never think of, and would condemn in the strongest terms, anyone going over to the SB forums (or any other wargame forum) and exhibit this same behavior.
CM is not perfect, no wargame can ever really achieve that, but it is the best in the niche it has (my opinion) and we are going to work very hard at keeping that up.  Go play SB, hell after all this talk I am getting tempted to really go try it out...it looks like a good game and I wish them all the luck the angels of heaven can spare.  Wargaming is a niche market so anyone playing anything is a win for all of us working in it but, for the love of all that is good and righteous, try not to be a rude jerk about it....the internet has enough of those already.

It doesn't look like the total weight plays a role in weapon recovery. 
 
A soviet inf sqd depleted their ammunition sent to first aid a squad of fallen sub-machine gunner , two riflemen provide first aid 

 
they refuse to pick up any SMG , they didn't even bother with to pickup 7.62mm x 25 ammo. Only 8 hand grenade recovered 

 
Here is different story, a German Panzerschreck team provided first aid to a sturm squad. They have total 22 rounds rocket on their back, it's so heavy that they can barely walk. But in the end, they picked up two MP44 plus enough clips
 

 

 

 
I will do some test in CMSF2/CMBS/CMCW later. But I think in modern title pixeltruppen will refuse to take 7.62mm LMG. Their pickup priority are Javelin , RPG and LAWs 
 
***********************************************
 
BTW, I would love to see more unauthorized weapon in pixeltruppen's hand. BFC has already given extra BAR to US Inf Sqd and Beretta SMG to Germany sqd in CMFI. Wish one day we will see MP40 carried by regular Soviet infantry squad and PPSh in Germany pixeltruppen's hand
 

 

 

A tiny Barbarossa panzer combat teaser scenario is now in my goody box!
BARB The Double Zug Hug
^
Near Udachnyy Vystrel, Soviet Union. Summer 1941. An afternoon probe sadly caused by Hauptmann Hartman's zest to achieve the iron cross. Fields as far as the eye can see. Light wind from the east. 
^
You are Leutnant Gluckstreffer and lead the 1st Zug of the 99th Reserve Panzer Company out of Munster. You have four PanzerIIIG's with a PanzerIVD in support. Fuel and ammo are topped off.
^
You can see "Alte Harty's" panzer burning fiercely. Herr Hauptmann is presumed KIA along with the Battalion Adjutant Major Schmerzen and the Regimental Veterinarian, Herr Doktor Wenigmachen, their panzers also seem knocked out. Mein Gott! All this just to gain a decoration and impress the frauleins! What caused the loss of three panzers is a mystery you are ordered to immediately solve. The radio also informs you that the 2nd Zug will arrive in 5 to 10 minutes.
^
The farm building is a likely spot for Red Army stragglers. Wipe out any occupants and destroy the barn. Move forward as you decide.
^
You have 15 minutes to accomplish your mission. Points (...and maybe decorations???) are awarded for destroying enemy units and reaching some hidden touch objectives. PANZERS VORWARTS!!!
 

For those who want to do a RT scenario based on actual operations this would be helpful: https://pamyat-naroda.ru/ops/  
You only get the Russian side and only a basic understanding of the opposing Axis forces but that information is generally more available than finding these Russian forces would have been.
You slide the timeline bar and you can go to any year and month and it will give you a list of operations that occurred at that time. When you click on the operation link you can get more details about what units were there down to at least brigade level maybe even lower.You can see the combat path on where the units were at any given time alos plus they have the actual combat/historical maps. Tons of useful info on this site. 
They also have the combat logs of each unit but they are copies of the original documents and are in Russian and you can't use any type of Google translate on them.
I'll also post this in the RT section.

Minute 31-30
AOA 2
Meanwhile on the other end of the Russian lines, things were a lot more quiet. I didn’t want to advance between the two treelines with unsupported armour, but my difficulty in spotting the Marder, or worse, several Marders, makes me want to ensure my tanks can support one another better. I displaced one tank left, and brought infantry close by in the woods to make sure I have more eyes on what’s going on ahead. The smoke from earlier HE fire from my tanks made vision poorer but would not last long, thankfully clearing by turn end.

 RU154
Through the second treeline the Tankodesantniki spot a German HMG and HQ unit. My opponent is moving his men around in conflicting directions. I can’t make a pattern of it. 

 RU155
Among the houses at KT 1 I move 1st Platoon HQ and what remains of 1st Squad from 2nd Platoon to the last house in the row, where the Germans had an HMG I chased out with tank fire. Once I know this is clear, I won’t have to worry about shaped charge weapons to my flanks, just ahead. 

 RU156
With my flanks clear of nearby infantry threats, I feel comfortable giving 1st Platoon HQ T34/85 an armour arc order to wait for the Marders to make an appearance. 

 RU157
Overall, I feel pretty good about the situation. I’m picking off his men little by little, I have plentiful HE ammo in my tanks, and I’m no longer taking heavy infantry losses. I am concerned about what he may have hidden away but by now if he had a powerful reserve I think it would have made an appearance.