Erwin

I agree re the seemingly unending patches. While I buy all the modules in order to support BFC (and keep patching), I am primarily trying to play CMSF and CMA until the WW2 series gets closer to its "final" patched version. Otherwise, it's like always playing a BETA version and I want to play the "glorious full version" (and I hate replaying old scenarios). The videos make GUSTAV look very promising. I like the "shading" option that desaturates the colors. I find that without a lot of tweaking of my NVidia controls, the colors look unrealistically vibrant and bright. Oh and btw, nothing indiscreet about my training injuries. The problem is that I still push to the limit and as one ages, that injury hurdle gets lower. Training with a bunch of beautiful girls in their 20's doesn't help. But, I can still keep up with them, and in one instance am still faster.

Yeah, I have never seen those squad window graphics ever b4 either. Can't decide if they are useful/an improvement or not.

IIRC nothing will delete or change a covered arc in CM1 unless the player does it. Units may however fire outside of the covered arc based on the game AI.

It just occurred to me that the originators of the "Cyberwar" idea for CMSF may have a point if they were actually referring to EW (Electronic Warfare) and ECM (Electronic Counter Measures). Having worked with "Cyberwar" concepts now for many years, I forget that the vast majority of folks do not understand what Cyberwar actually entails, and in this instance I think that EW and ECM is what the original posters actually meant to discuss. EW and ECM may well be good additions to CMSF2 as they are (mostly) a tactical weapon. "Cyberwar" is more of a strategic weapon and is akin to the gamechanging "nuke" of the 21st century, making previous weapons systems obsolete in a major war between sophisticated opponents. What is scary is that "sophisticated oppo" could include bright computer geeks as well as a nation state. As a result I predict that a very nasty cyberattack is FAR more likely to occur in the forseeable future that any nuke exchange. But, EW and ECM are very likely to be experienced in a conflict between sophisticated oppos such as NATO vs Russia/Ukraine etc as (IIRC) is proposed in CMSF2.

Looks amazing. Hard to believe the level of detail you have worked at.

Eh?? I love realism. That's mostly brown, right?

Thanks for the heads up. Done...

Completed this with a minor win. Fun, but seemed way too short. *****SPOILERS****** It is a very short scenario, so little time for finesse. I tried to use the choppers to take out the bunkers, but found the helicopter support pretty useless for that. The AVS grenade launchers did the job much quicker and easily. They also took out the technicals easily. I thought I was smart to move off the road cross country. But, ran into mines that immobilized all but 3 AFV's. The functioning vehicles had three teams of marines plus, fortunately, the AT teams, the MMG's and HQ. I used their grenade launchers to make a hole in the wall of the compound and all entered thru there. The vehicles did a good job of killing any enemy in the buildings and the inf entered and hunted around mostly with little opposition. The AT teams KO'd at least one technical. The problem is what to do with the majority of the inf in the immobilized vehicles. I tried dismounting them, hoping it was an AT minefield, but all those inf were suppressed and WIA by the mines. So, basically one can easily win this scenario with three vehicles, three teams (one platoon) plus the MMG's and AT teams. Everyone else is superfluous. Wish one had more time to do this scenario carefully.

Just completed this fun little scenario. Minor win. See other forum.

Thanks... I keep thinking that ZA Toolbar is dead and buried, but the dam thing keeps coming back to life! I found these instructions seem to work best: "1. Go to Start, type in msconfig and press enter. 2. In System Configuration Box select service menu, look for entry "ZoneAlarm Toolbar IswSvc" and untick. 3. Then select startup menu from System Configuration box look for entry "ZoneAlarm Browser Security" and untick. 4. Press OK, restart computer and CMSF patched post v121 should work."

That sounds like a good idea. Set-up, esp with large scenarios takes much longer than needed.

Just completed it after months away from CMFI. Really enjoyed Aris' scenario, but was surprised to get a US Total Victory as it was a bloodbath with most of my tanks KO'd and a third inf casualties. I thought I was doing ok until the last 25 minutes, when one gets into the town and casualties skyrocketed. I guess I can't get used to that after CMSF and CMA. I felt I deserved a loss or a draw at best. (PS: I never found a use for the mortars and I don't think I used em at all.) Anyway, highly recommended scenario.

All the .exe files appear to be in place (not removed by AVG). CMBN and CMFI launch normally. I did recently upgrade AVG, ADAWARE, SPYBOT and maybe ZA. What steps can I take to troubleshoot? Thanks...

Also, even if we look at purely military cyberwar attacks, what do you do when all your high weapons are increasingly offline when the POL supply is disrupted, no spare parts etc etc... It's not that this is a fascinating topic for a game/sim. All I am pointing out is that cyberwar is a game that would be far removed from the world which the CM series attempts to depict.

Thanks to designers like you CMSF is going to enjoy a resurgence of interest (and hopefully yet more interesting campaigns and mods).

The thing about cyberwar is it could be very hard to determine WHO is attacking us. It may not be a nation-state. The question raised by my team was that what was the point of worrying about (say) Tomahawk targeting issues when back home, the financial system has collapsed, your wife and relatives can't get any money out of their ATM's, the food distribution system has been crippled, the large cities especially become deathraps as lack of water, food heat etc lead to massive "social upheaval" and all one's troops are now needed simply to keep order so that the top 1% are not inconvenienced. The question that no one wanted to answer was what good are a nation's aircraft carriers, nuke subs, stealth bombers etc. in this sort of war?

Also consider any large formation being unable to function effectively. Combat would again be at the platoon, perhaps company level with LOS rules. Think of the TWILIGHT 2000 game about military activities in a post-apocalyptic era. (Of course that's close to a worst case scenario. My point is that it would be a completely different kind of game, and we "panzer pushers" would most likely not enjoy the GAME.) A Cyberwar game in which one is fighting instrusions into one's systems while attacking the enemy's systems is more akin to a high abstracted RT wrist twitcher. Now some will enjoy that. I am simply raising a caution that a game with a "realistic" depiction of cyberwar would not be anything like the current CM series.

+1 to Canucks. I don't think I have played a scenario with Leopards and the other Canadian gear!

"a year earlier over the Czechs or a year or two later over the Yugoslavs and it would not have changed the outline of the war appreciably." I have always read that Hitler and his Generals were terrified at the thought of the French walking into the Rhineland while the German forces were all in the east. It was a huge opportunity for the western allies that was missed. All the more so had it occurred a year or two earlier before Germany was fully mobilized. They were desperate to buy time. (Although admittedly so were the Allies due to their temerity.)

What a wonderful Easter present. Thanks.

I think what you are describing is a game completely different to the CM2 series (and/or its engine capabilities). A decade ago I was involved in designing a cyberwar sim for DoD agencies. And it was NOT fun to play (if you enjoyed moving military units around as in CM series). It starkly indicated how useless/helpless all our extremely expensive conventional armed might/toys could be since we (in the west) are so dependent on high tech for superiority. As you might imagine, the sim was not well received by DoD and funding not continued.

Units that you order to BUTTON may UNBUTTON at the discretion of the game AI.

Campaigns can have branches depending on your choice and also whether you win or lose.

The thing with CyberWar, it has the capability of being the ""revolutionary form of warfare" that makes all the current crop of high tech weaponry we spend billions on useless. Rather like the sub and air made battleships obsolete, or the tank made horses etc. All that armed might is useless if the C2I is disrupted. And that means that any realistic depiction of Cyberwar in a game like CM2 would make for a non-game. Eg: "Enemy Cyberattack completely blinds you and stops all communications. You lose."

I personally copied all such diagrams and info from POS and other locations to WeBoB site. Check there.