Erwin

Couldn't agree more. Having so many products with separate forums is making each forum very sparse. Back in CM1 days, the forums were very active and were only divided between CMBO, CMBB and CMAK. Today re CM2, there are currently only a couple dozen of us posting most of the messages on all the forums. It's starting to seem like BF forums are dying on its feet like the ones at the once very active WeBOB - with only one or two active areas. Right now, most of the CMBS chatter is about politics and technical weapons systems issues - hardly anything about playing the game itself. I hope this isn't affecting the customer base. But, that may be an increasing concern. I wonder if having separate forums is a good idea any longer. After all, it's the same game and engine, just different eras or geographic areas. Perhaps the forums should be consolidated a la CM1 to West Front, East Front and Southern Front.

Maybe an area barrage is less effective than targeted artillery. I am playing a scenario right now in which my mortars are very effective vs enemy in foxholes and trenches.

Well, I am not familiar with editor, so maybe these scenarios are fixed in time(?)

2nd mission: Am approaching halfway and am enjoying this even more than the first mission which was also very enjoyable albeit a bit WW1-ish in terms of costly mass inf assaults. This is an Ardennes-like mission with a mech force trying to make it down 2 or 3 narrow roads thru woods to take a couple of towns and some high ground. Map is a good size - about 2200m x 1000m. One can select a variety of strategies to accomplish the missions. The mixture of units in Mission #2 is great - a Brigade-sized force with a battalion of mech inf in BMP2's and a company of T-90's plus HQ and supporting units including AGL's and on map 81mm mortars plus a couple of batteries of 152mm all with ample ammo. Weather is supposed to be poor so no air. But visibility seems unaffected. There seems to be more than enuff force to do the job properly (so far) and with good recon and planning one can spot the ambushes and deal with them with the appropriate weapons systems. Am about to start the assault on the larger town. We'll see how things go from here.

Scenarios are made for a particular time of year. IIRC you can go into the editor and change the date to a winter month.

Interesting effort to make the unit types clearer. But given the very small size they are in the game, can one really see that detail?

Whatever you do, the units will run to the widows to shoot at enemies (assuming covered arc allows that). People on these forums report that putting units outside the building is most effective for killing attackers who enter the building (form the other side of course). What is puzzling is that several posts that say that entering a building using SLOW is better than QUICK or HUNT. I guess the vagaries of the CM2 engine allow for a sneaky approach, but unlike being on HIDE, units moving SLOW are fully aware and can spot and jump and kill occupants effectively. That also assumes that other units are firing at the building or a breach has just been made so as to somewhat suppress the defenders.

Taking out ATG's and other assets/units in foxholes or behind sandbags is what mortars are for imo. Units are a lot better off in buildings. One needs heavy arty to affect them there.

Maybe as a sim grog these differences between the older CMSF and the new CM2 engine make a big difference. For gamers and as someone who plays a lot of CMA, CMSF as well as the newer titles one notices very little difference in gameplay experience. There is virtually no "reacquainting" necessary when going from one game to the other. For example, yes, the new titles have AAA etc. But, it's not as if one has to order the AAA unit to engage aircraft. Everything is done by the AI that one hardly notices (until something blows up).

Can't recall other that it had a suitably academically boring research name.

We seem to be making exactly the same point. But, thanks to Aspergers... Here ya go: http://aspergerstest.net/aq-test/

A interesting take on the subject. Probably the most realistic objective would be to be able to bleed the invaders until they go away (like Afghanistan, Vietnam etc.) Re the social stuff, take a look at Matrix Games "Decisive Campaigns - Barbarossa". That has a very innovative role playing aspect that forces you to make policy decisions eg: partisans and how to treat local population - in addition to negotiating with competing military factions to get the resources you want for your sectors of the war. It's operational level, but that is a more appropriate level for civ/mil interfacing etc. However, some years ago (well, last century) I played a first-person military role-playing game on exactly that subject developed at USC's ISI research establishment for platoon leaders and troops.

The point is dear John, that one needs to have a flat very solid non-bending weight-bearing surface covering all the people so that the weight is distributed over a large surface. Distribution of weight over a large surface is the trick. A woman with stilettos could kill you by walking over you, so does that make her as heavy as a tank? (Try that comparison on your own female sigother unit btw.)

The uncon mods I have seen include "spies" ie civilian dress and also mixed with some camo outfits; some sort of Syrian ethic/religious group (black hoods with green lettered bands across the head plus black or camo pants - could easily be adapted to ISIS); Al Nusra flagged vehicles (also easy to adapt to ISIS) etc. For some reason CMSF doesn't seem to be represented at CMMODS, but these mods must be somewhere.

CMSF looks very similar/identical to the more recent CM2 releases. The differences are in the mechanics and in-game features. There is less flexibility in some cases. Eg: In CMSF a vehicle cannot drive thru walls. The waypoints don't have quite the same features etc. Personally, I don't find the differences anything major. Many of us still love playing CMSF. Also, BF says they will bring CMSF up to CM2v3 standards at some point. The existing CMSF bundle when patched up to IIRC v1.32 is wonderful and a bargain. Now it's getting close to winter, just being in a desert environment with sun and sand and some very long LOS battles is a wonderful change in pace from the relatively "claustrophobic" short LOS range European environment of most CM2 battles.

If your leg were a flat piece of wood on the ground it probably wouldn't sustain damage. My theory is that since your leg sticks up off the ground, it would be subject to much more weight as the tracks climb over it. I saw a magician have an articulated semi drive over him safely. He dug a shallow grave type hole and lay in it with a sheet of plywood over him - so it was like part of the flat level ground. Mind you, if it were a tank that would be impressive.

Yes, good work. But, before you do a lot of additional work, hopefully you have checked out the mod versions of uncon forces that already exist(?). There is quite a lot already available which provide far more options than in your pic. Eg: JocksMixedCombatants Mord's Mixed Combatants (& unit portraits) Mord's masked Syrian Fighters There is more than enuff uncon and Iraqi and Syrian Army mods already made to simulate just about any battle in Syria, Iraq etc. Am still hoping for a Mosul scenario - (hint.)

*********** POSSIBLE SPOILERS ************* Just completed the first mission (ELITE/WEGO). Really enjoyed this. Great map and interesting challenging situation with lots of options for a strategy. I learned a lot about the very real challenges of handling Russian forces (in the game). But, a few comments/issues (see below). Result: CHECKNYA 65 OK 144 KIA 90 WIA 1AFV KIA 3 VEH KIA RUSSIA 370 OK 43 KIA 87 WIA 1 AIR DRONE KIA I could have CF'd earlier to get a victory with less friendly casualties but decided to play on to completion to see what happened. Got a TOTAL VICTORY with about 5 minutes left on the clock. I considered my Russian casualties were unnecessarily high - primarily due to shockingly bad arty and (especially) air strike accuracy. If this is a realistic/accurate depiction of Russian arty and air strike capability, the Russians are in a lot of trouble today. However, can one really believe this? Comments: The additional arty and air support in this version of the mission were a welcome and imo realistic addition. One doesn't need all the infantry now. In fact imo this mission now probably has at least two companies of infantry too many. I suspect that with less infantry, the troop density would be lower leading to more care and less casualties. It gets tiresome to move so many inf units when only 20% seem to needed at any one time. The 81mm mortars were disappointing re accuracy and effect. It was bad to select more than one mortar per arty attack as each mortar insisted on using its own spotting rounds(!). That really wasted a lot of ammo. Surely this is not the way it is in RL? I used the 81mm for foxholes. But, with about 230 rounds between 6 on-map tubes - only a few dozen rounds actually landed usefully on target. The 122mm guns were also inaccurate - caused many friendly casualties - one really doesn't want to have friendlies within 150m+ of target. But, even if a few landed on target they were devastating to the enemy. The 122mm was invaluable in bombarding the defenders making it easy for small numbers of inf to mop up. But with only one battery of 6 tubes it made the attacks very linear as one had to wait for the arty to become available again before proceeding. I wish the 122mm had been divided into 2 batteries so that one could have two bombardments going simultaneously. They were great for destroying the hilltop defenders in their trenches. However, the 122mm was relatively ineffective vs the defenders in the village buildings. The air support was, in the immortal words of President-elect Trump, "a disaster". The three drones were wonderful to spot enemy locations for arty and air support. But, some of the airstrikes hit places I couldn't see, or just cancelled themselves. When one of my Air FO's was KIA, and his radio operator was still alive, his drone kept giving information, but could not be controlled or cancelled. You would have thought that without an air controller, the air strike would automatically cancel. But, no... About 6 minutes later his airstrike still went ahead (killing some friendlies who in the meantime had captured the objective by themselves). As only Air FO's can call in airstrikes, the loss of one of the two Air FO's was serious. I ended up with aircraft with quite a lot of unused ammo. Perhaps it's best to use the fixed wings for preplanned attacks. However, the helicopters were reinforcements, so... Eventually I sent the surviving Air FO RO on a suicide mission to kill him (felt quite guilty for the poor guy who had so heroically carried the radio all this time). That was the only way to get the drone recorded as KIA. But, the airstrike had finished by then. So, not sure if killing the FO unit completely would have cancelled the airstrike or not. Again in Trump's words: "Very sad." You'd think this sort of issue would have been sorted out by now in CM2. Setting up Mission #2 now. Again, great map and interesting situation completely different from Mission #1. I also appreciate the radically different unit composition - Mission #2 is mostly AFV's and IFV's.

"Zawiya Uprising" was an XNT campaign! Maybe my favorite Red on Red campaign as the mix of units was very interesting, the maps were all good and had continuation... and it was fun. For a stand alone CMSF scenario my all-time favorite is "UK Mud Marines". Very large xnt map and lots of variety of units and challenges. Highly recommend anyone interested to take a look. (Requires the Brits of course.) While "Benghazi" may be interesting it would be small. I still am hoping for "Mosul". The RAMADI map would be perfect to adapt or use as is. These towns are all mostly the same apart from a few landmarks perhaps.

Ok, so I am dyslexik as well. Maybe we can start discussing and comparing our symptoms and personal horror stories - good therapy. And there isn't much other discussion on these forums at the moment...

Panther Games has an xnt marketing concept - they give away the CO2 core game for free, but you pay for each of the many add-on modules. Note that their website is complex and non-intuitive so took some time to figure out. I played the previous version - I think Crete was the last one. The operational level where you give the operational commands but rely on your AI subordinates to do the tactical stuff is very interesting - and somewhat relaxing after the minutiae/micro management challenges of CM2. It's a good game to go to when the periodic CM2 burn-out hits. (Tell Kohenlau quick!) And yes this could be a good operational level system to set up CM2 tactical battles.

It's kinda like you are already lying in your coffin. Military efficiency.

Ok, ok... calm down everybody... it was a post more in the vein of wishful thinking then a hard and fast "expectation". Aim for the stars and you may at least hit the moon sort of thing... Maybe I have Asberger's and take things too literally, but I didn't realize everyone else here suffered from that as well. Can we form a club maybe?

I would definitely start with CMSF bundle, and in a year or two you can start fresh with CM3.

The game is like World of Tanks first person action. But, I was referring to the amazing graphics and the look of the maps. That's where I hope CM3 will get to.