Erwin

Not only does Dragonwynn produce very good campaigns, am amazed at his prolific production rate. He's released 3 or 4 xnt campaigns in the last 6 or so months! Re chain of command: The LHS trench mortars have 4 green lights: Mortar - 4th HQ - 2nd Co - 3 SS Auf. But, still none of the FO's can access. The RHS trench mortars do have the 4 Zug Weapons Platoon and 5th Co HQ's out of C2. I will try and move the HQ's back. But currently I have the Weapons Platoon HQ up front with the HMG's (where I thought it was supposed to be) and the 5th Co HQ in the wrong (LHS) mortar trench for some strange reason. But I need to check who has radios. Strange, I don't recall having this kind of C2 issue every before in any CM2 game. I think the default set-up was odd as it seemed that HQ's started with the wrong troops so maybe they got very mixed up. Or, it could have been me misreading which HQ belonged to which formation.

I really like "sneaking around" missions. I have a hard time with all-out assaults or fast moving actions - esp when playing Red and in CMBS. It's easier playing Blue as one can often "snipe" one's way across the battlefield using precision fires. But when playing Red I doubt that I am using the correct brute force methods and I get demoralized when I lose entire teams or half a mech platoon due to airstrikes, or massive arty (as in the CMBS scenario/campaign pack Russian campaign). Maybe it's just me, but the stress of not being able to make a single mistake in a mission, leads quickly to CM burn-out... (That's why I end up playing Grigsby's WITPAE for R&R. Being strategic it is so much more forgiving of errors.) Hope that Bil H or someone would design a tutorial on how to conduct modern force assaults - esp from the Red side.

Not sure if Heart of Darkness Mission #1 is fast paced. If you move fast I think you get ambushed easily since most of the challenges are MOUT. I really like the mission. But, it's only fun when it's a test of skill, not bad luck re stumbling into mines - getting 5% of one's force KIA or WIA due to mines which one cannot detect means what... you lose due to too many casualties and need to start again but this time avoiding the mines?? Really hate replaying missions.

Playing Mission 1 of Heart of Darkness. A bit frustrated that I lost 3 guys to mines. Problem with CM2 is that the only way to find mines/IED's is for someone to get blown up. I thought that the area of IED's was indicated by barrels and other eye candy. But, apparently there is no indication. Also, I made the village to the left and close to the set-up zone as my HQ and was surprised to find a whole bunch of Taliban pop up literally under their feet. Lost a 2-man FO team and the sniper guy from the sniper team but wiped out the Taliban. Same thing happened a few meters in front of a couple of armed vehicles. Fortunately all Taliban immediately killed with no loss to crews. 30 minutes in, 1 hour to go. Just about to take the first objective in the LHS town. 6 KIA and 6 WIA. Seems too high % for this operation. Can't help feeling that in RL, the Brits would pull back and have an inquiry at this point. But, since it's a game I guess must soldier on. Man, I hate heavy casualties. That's what burns me out from playing CM2 on a regular basis. It's the feeling that am not improving my gameplay... and may be getting worse.

+1 China is and has been our biggest enemy for many years now. They are an "existential" threat to the entire west cos of their attempt to control the S. China Sea - partly cos they are llarge oil reserves there, and China is oil poor (their Achilles heel). Also, something like 90% of world trade sails through that region. So, their actions are a direct threat to not only the US but the entire west, and an attempt to dominate the world. In addition, just like there is a much larger group of Islamic sympathizers for radical Islamic terrorists even tho' they may not indulge in attacks themselves, China has encouraged N. Korea for years, snickering behind their smiles about how N. Korea humiliates the "great and powerful" US and generally freaks the US out. China is largely responsible for the current situation and hopefully can be called to account for the actions of their proxy client state.

Pretty impressive film-making. Very interesting.

I was always taught that in writing "less is more". So, I applaud Heinrich's economy of words. Let's hope others follow his xnt example.

Re C2 issues... The (5th?) Co HQ is with the mortars. So, a couple of the FO's have no green connection with that Co HQ. However, one of the FO's has the Bn HQ as its direct superior and it has a green C2 dot to it. That Bn HQ is also with the mortars. So, am really confused as to why I can't access any on-map mortars. ********* POSSIBLE SPOILER ********** My tactic (or is it a "strategy"??) of keeping my flamers and engineers with charges up front was not good. I was hoping that they would flame the trenches or throw charges when an enemy appeared. But, it seemed that the Russians always spotted the Germans first at under 10 meter range and most friendly casualties occurred in the first few seconds. It was only the fact that I had a preponderance of local forces plus a few HMG's able to fire supportively on their own initiative that enabled the Germans to clear the trenches. I could see that even tho they inflicted lots of losses on the attackers, the Russians were surprisingly eager to run - maybe due to the last upgrade issues. Am still interested in how others handled this initial attack and if there is a better method of attacking in these very short range LOS situations. eg: Should I have SLOW moved the Germans the last 10 or so meters up to the trenches?

"Out of Contact" I had the Co and Bn HQ's move beside the mortars which I left in their original set-up positions. The FO's could access the off-map arty but not the on-map. Will have to check the C2 panel later. Any comments about my German casualties or timeline for clearing the trenches? I wondered if I should have taken more time and done a lot of prep support fire from the MG's on the trench lines where my guys were heading. Generally, I hate to shoot at anything until I see a target. (British economy of ammo.)

*********** POSSIBLE SPOILERS ************ Took 15 minutes to get first contact with enemy troops in trenches. 5 minutes later most trenches are cleared. I think it will be a simple matter to clean up and walk the flamers and/or engineers along the trenches and blow up the bunkers from the rear. The on to the next objectives. My strategy was to use one platoon from each "column" for the attack, leading with 2-man scouts. Two scouts from each "column" walked up the sides of the mine-cleared avenues trying to flank each bunker position until they spotted enemy, or more usually, got killed. One platoon from each "column" with engineers and supported by the MG's split and attacked towards the trenches on each side each bunker. Left flank did well with very few casualties. The center and right flank took the heavy casualties... although, half a dozen guys were blown up by mines prior to the assault cos they strayed into the mines or the mines continued after the warning posts stopped and my flanking attacks walked into mines. Germans have 49 KIA and 19 WIA so far (including a flamer team and a couple engineer teams). Russians have 40 KIA and 26 WIA with 2 MIA. To me it seems like high casualties for the Germans. But, maybe this is ok for East Front?? However, all the other platoons are fresh and unused. What was puzzling is that the arty was of no use. Once the FO's moved up with the troops, they had no contact with the on-map mortars, and by the time they could spot the trenches it was too close to call in the offboard stuff. I kept the Co CO's and Bn CO's with the on-map mortars but that didn't help keep contact with the FO's. What am I doing wrong??? Or, is your intention dragonwynn that the first assault is purely inf??

Or, when the baby can crawl to the fridge to get you a cold one while you engrossed in a game? PS: Congrats!

I think those are old CMSF mods. Tons of great CMSF mods were made over the years, and many (not all) work in CMBS.

Loved the military police formation riders "coming down the autobahn to a country near you". And the pseudo Nazi rally around 6.00 complete with the beautifully kept WW2 coal scuttle helmets looked ready for a new 4th Reich insignia. But. let's face it Germany as with much of Europe, has far more problems with Islamic insurrection - primarily due to massive Turkish immigration to be threatening anybody else. And I really appreciate that at least they don't have kids in uniform singing "Katyusha" (or a German equivalent). See what I just did...? Insulted several countries and a religion cos I is a highly trained professional writer - kids, don't try this at home!

Lovely singing if you close your eyes. Otherwise all those fresh wholesome faces exploiting kids etc. in a propagandist/militaristic setting... reminds me too much of Scientologists or a Mormon Tabernacle show. Here's another example:

The C2 aspect is fascinating. Probably most of us play without considering it at all.

I play the campaigns primarily as that is where the CM system shines - when you have to take into account force and ammo preservation. My favorites (at least the ones I see still in my saved games folder) have been: Back On Tracks (German) The Khabour Trail Warriors In The Sands (Brits) Zawiya Uprising (Red vs Red with Uncons) The Road to Dinas (Red vs Red. However, some missions are very hard and frustrating. I have had to repeatedly replay several missions just to advance until I burned out.) I think Dragonwynn's latest campaign offering "The Heart Of Darkness" looks very good. altho have only played the first mission so far. I prefer combined arms, so while there are some good infantry-dominated campaigns those are not my favorites. Xnt standalone scenarios that I recall: UK Mud Marines (My favorite - played it twice! Lots of those wonderful Brit light vehicles.) A Helluva Road Opening + UK Helluva Takeover Mullah Fayyad Into The Green Actually too many to list... IMO all the more recent CMSF scenarios and campaigns are xnt as designers have had years to perfect their craft.

Doesn't work. I found this: "What is a man file and how do I open a man file? The MAN file extension is used for a Unix Manual that is implemented by Unix Systems Programming. It is actually an introduction to the use of Unix with focus on techniques and principles. Users should have basic knowledge with C program and familiarity with Linux or Unix operating systems." I don't have any experience with C programming, Linux or or Unix OS. I make an effort to never mess with stuff like this when I don't understand what I am doing. Any way you or someone could make available or send me ordinary zipped files (or unzipped)? (Am baffled why after using regular HQS zipped files for years, suddenly .man was used for 2.6.)

And I suspect it may go down in history as the best CM2 title so far given how many of us are rediscovering it. It makes such a refreshing change from the mostly gloomy WW2 and CMBS titles.

My 7zFM won't extract. Is that not the same as 7-Zip? (It came from the 7-Zip folder.) Apologies for my ignorance but are there different versions?

Of course that is best. But it's taken me 10 minutes to carefully scout close to the trenches and have no enemy contact of any kind (other than the mines) so far. I got impatient and ordered the follow-up guys to run to catch up with the scouts. My bad... Impatience is always what gets one killed.

Go get some sleep, John. Being on these forums for 5 days without sleep can't be good 4 u.

I don't think these are spoilers, but I found that my troopers had a bad habit of meandering sideways across the posts and into the minefields. Already lost a couple of Platoon HQ CO's and a couple troops. Also, I thought once the post line ended close to the objectives that was the end of the minefields. So I started moving laterally - and ran into minefields and lost another guy. Damn you sir!!

Well doesn't everyone have a "Mosin Nagant two chamber oilcan" already?? I do have one of those fur hats with Soviet badge - I think from when it used to be called Leningrad. Very good for cold weather at Sundance Film Festival and for getting attention.

Very nice...