Erwin

Well of course it was so rare and amazing that people took pics and here are 3... not hundreds.  Look at the troops' faces.  It was like winning the lottery is all am saying.

Well of course it was so rare and amazing that people took pics and here are 3... not hundreds.  Look at the troops' faces.  It was like winning the lottery is all am saying.

Very, very cool...  Can't believe people been dreaming these sorts of eye-candy ever since CM2 came out in 2007.  It's finally possible.  Thanks Aquila!!

I like the idea.  Suicidal pathing is a repeated headache and by far the main justification for a restart of the game (assuming you have a recent save).

The technique of having reinforcements that may even arrive after the scenario time limit is reached is a way to stop the AI surrendering "prematurely".  Players used to complain that the game would end abruptly just as they were about to execute their wonderful final assault plan and it was a let down - like coitus interruptus.

Very, very cool...  Can't believe people been dreaming these sorts of eye-candy ever since CM2 came out in 2007.  It's finally possible.  Thanks Aquila!!

If there are more than one US AI plan you may have gotten unlucky.
 
******** SPOILERS *********
 
I lost 5 recon vehicles (all the Pumas and 2 US HT's) finding out which roads had mines or had US ambushes.  Discovered that the northernmost W-E road was unguarded.  (The center of the map was a nasty killzone and held down a couple of German platoons.  But, I took all their AFV's and headed back east and then north to go west on the unblocked road.)  A couple of light US AFV's came east, but were easily killed by the Panther and KT that were heading west.  
There was no opposition on this northern road and the Germans occupied the NW block objective with no enemy sighted.  A half-hearted US attack came from the NW woods, but were easily defeated as by then I had many AFV's and inf in that area.  I move pretty cautiously and never move precipitously but was already occupying the Meuse objective, while the rest headed SE towards Wiltz  with 40+ minutes left.  But, at that point it was silly.

The technique of having reinforcements that may even arrive after the scenario time limit is reached is a way to stop the AI surrendering "prematurely".  Players used to complain that the game would end abruptly just as they were about to execute their wonderful final assault plan and it was a let down - like coitus interruptus.

We were talking about this scenario the other day.  I tried it as the Germans and (unfortunately) the designer knows what he is talking about when he says it's not suitable to play as Germans vs US AI even though there is/are US AI plans.  The first 20-25 minutes were fun as one recons the roads and gets blown up by mines and ambushes.  And I liked having some US vehicles to play with as the Germans.  But, I eventually found an unguarded road west and spent the next 50-60 minutes doing nothing but traffic management as everything was sent up that road unopposed.  Was able to reach the "To The Meuse" objective with no casualties, and was backtracking to take Wiltz when I figured that I had broke the scenario.  
There were some ineffective US counterattacks, but I think I had moved so fast it was the US who walked into ambushes rather than the other way round.  I dunno if there are alternative US AI plans and maybe I just got lucky.  But, it's probably best if one does what one is told and only play US vs Axis AI.

Very, very cool...  Can't believe people been dreaming these sorts of eye-candy ever since CM2 came out in 2007.  It's finally possible.  Thanks Aquila!!

Boy oh boy...  That's bad...
...Actually, many have been asking for the recrew ability.  So maybe enjoy playing with the new feature b4 it gets removed...  

Will try that.

I like the idea.  Suicidal pathing is a repeated headache and by far the main justification for a restart of the game (assuming you have a recent save).

Thanks for doing the tests.  That's valuable info when playing the game.  Gun hits do seem to happen with irritating frequency in CM2.
Dunno what RL data there exists re gun hits, but presumably if such data was not collected it was because it happened so rarely in RL that is was not worth worrying about.  
So, at least we know we have be aware of and work around the CM2issues of hulldown being worse that being in the open plus gun hits...  The only thing that seems to be clear is to (whenever possible) avoid multiple shot duels whether one is hulldown or not.

About 40 minutes in and am enjoying playing the Germans.  The mines tend to force you down certain roads and the US have some nasty ambushes.  But, have made it to the "NW Block" objective with the KT and some PzV's and inf etc.  So far lost all 6 recon AFV's and maybe 45 inf.  The M4 still in action.    Am thinking I need to prep to ambush the US coming from the NW.  

You should copyright that, mate. 
 
LOL Thank goodness no one important monitors this thread.
There is a logical (or illogical) issue with the Chinese situation.  We all expect that the real Chinese infection and death rate is far higher than they admit.  However, if they really have so few infections and deaths cos they shut down travel so quickly to avoid infection transmission, then how come there was so much infected travel allowed to foreign countries?  
The fascinating insights from roadiemullet describe a nation with very "irregular" efficiencies.  Re his examples of dealing with authorities... some of the authorities seemed to be on top of things, other had no idea what was going on.  It was almost a comforting picture of scattered incompetence. 
However, we also know that China is working as fast as it can to institute a "1984 on steroids" society in which everyone is monitored and AI can figure out what you may be thinking/intending from facial recognition.  Your "Social Capital" - based on whether you conform and don't complain - an abominable corruption of social media, will decide if you can buy a plane or train ticket, can travel period, can even get a job...  
Then you look at China's aggressive militaristic expansion to take over the undersea oilfields all the way down to Indonesia.  Add in the annexing of Tibet and more recently making inroads across the Himalayas into Bhutan and confronting India: 
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/China-s-Bhutan-land-grab-aims-at-bigger-target2
Then you have the infiltration into the west's institutions (when I lived in Tempe I heard that ASU has a similar issue):
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/16/how-china-infiltrated-us-classrooms-216327
https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/red-flags/11601456
One has to see the "big picture" to see what is the nature of the Chinese junta and what China is really up to.  Only then does the Pearl Harbor reference makes more sense.

Boy oh boy...  That's bad...
...Actually, many have been asking for the recrew ability.  So maybe enjoy playing with the new feature b4 it gets removed...  

This should provide access to a comprehensive set of all CMSF scenarios and campaigns to date (along with same from other titles).
 
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0B0HhNCJWAbKmcUF0VHRERzdvYTA

Well that is actually a good recommendation as it presumably shows the AI puts up a decent defense(?).  

+100 for CM: Afrika Korps.  ;0
 

Ahh...  I didn't notice that there were 2 similarly named CMFB scenarios:  One is called "CMBO Classic - The Road To Wiltz" and the 2nd is "Another Road to Wiltz".

If this was originally in CM1 I remember that one well.  Good scenario.  Glad that it works as well in CM2.

Thank you roadiemullet for your very useful current observations.  Very helpful to have up to date insights and info.

I don't know anything about that trade, but having been taken to a rural "wet market" where dogs and other non-identifiables are being BBQ'd, live animals wandering around getting slaughtered in unhygenic circumstances etc., it was easy to believe that nasty things could come out of that sort of environment.

If you have Netflix...
I highly recommend an Israeli show called FAUDA (I think sburke turned me onto this - sorry if that was someone else) – a very hard, dark gritty counterterrorism series (Israel vs Palestinians) in which it’s hard to figure out who the bad guys are.  But, great writing, characters and acting.  FAUDA is sophisticated in that the morality and ethics of both side are "flexible" and it's often hard to tell the good from the bad guys(!)  Remember how the spaghetti westerns like Sergio Leone's THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY revolutionized the western and essentially killed off the traditional Hollywood western?  To me FAUDA does the same thing to the Hollywood "counter-terrorism" genre.  After FAUDA the Hollywood TV series seem silly, trite, formulaic and very unrealistic (and unwatchable).
BLACK CROWS is also v good.  Basically it’s an anti-ISIS propaganda TV series supposedly created in Saudi Arabia, but mysteriously has very good Hollywood values and the director and crew have no credits one can check.  Hmmm…  Also, sometimes I wonder if it’s intentionally funny or what…
For comedy I stumbled on “The Indian Detective” which I thought very funny.  Felt foolish when I found out that the lead (a Canadian-Indian chap called Russell Peters) is an internationally famous stand-up comedian who I had never heard of.  I mean… Russell has performed all over the world to sold out 20,000+ seat auditoriums in NY, LA as well as Las Vegas famous.  Much of his audience seems to be immigrants and minorities and he ruthlessly makes fun of them, and they LOVE him as his routines apparently are so accurate and really hit home.  As a child of immigrant parents I agreed with his audience member who are interviewed...  Russell has amazingly funny insights and observations when he described them and how they behaved towards their kids.  He is waaay funnier than (say) Seinfeld who used to be my favorite.  I found three documentaries on Netflix about Russell - a couple of which are tapes of his shows - brilliant.