Erwin

sorry - just joking...

To give a contrarian view, was thinking that the above has become an accepted "politically correct" cliche spouted by everybody these days.  Maybe it's time for a film to promote the "joyful, fun and positive" aspects like "comradeship, and opportunities for advancement" (for the sake of balance etc.)?

+1   Good idea.  I often wish I could repeat a fire order when the first barrage wasn't effective and it's excruciating having to wait through a whole spotting cycle.

Trying to compare Trump with Hitler or Stalin as some attempt to do is rather silly and says more about the intellect and sheltered life experience of those people than anything else.  

Great job as always, Olek.  When you went dark for a few months I was worried you had burned out like so many of our best modders.  Am happy that you are back! 
 

Trying to compare Trump with Hitler or Stalin as some attempt to do is rather silly and says more about the intellect and sheltered life experience of those people than anything else.  

Yes, Bootie is a hero for doing all this work.  

CM2 has "very delicate" victory conditions.  In some cases a single cowering enemy individual can be enuff to deprive you of the objective.  
When a Green objective color disappears that means it was a "Touch Objective" (and you do not have to leave troops there as a garrison).  If the Green color stays... that will be an "Occupy Objective" and you need to occupy it and ensure no enemy hiding anywhere.

I think it's something else.  In my old wargaming days we never thought about those items.  None of my old wargaming pals were reading or discussing anyone's memoirs or the other items you mentioned.  In those schooldays (60's) we were brought up on a diet of pro Allied propaganda and maybe we thought of the Germans as the underdogs - maybe it was a revolt vs the post war incessant pro western ally "Ra Ra" propaganda.  Also, post WW2 many of the superior German weapons were either classified or info was suppressed for PR purposes presumably.  During the 60's is when we started to learn about King Tigers and Me 262's and other advanced German weapons.  So, those were the sexy weapons we wanted to play with.  (Another example is that these days most players seem to want to play the Confederates rather than Union in ACW games.  Or even Napoleon rather than Wellington.)
But, players didn't want to play the Italians or Japs (until very recently (eg: War in The Pacific AE).  The Germans had more varied interesting equipment, cooler uniforms, and the cardboard counters used to represent the Germans were more unique (and few) and seemed more versatile and mobile.  The black and white counters used for the SS were just plain sexier and yes, the Soviet counters were like masses of expendable cookie counter copies and looked boring.  The GB units were simply "blah".  Except in the NA desert of course.  That is where the Brit vs German games flourished - although again, everyone wanted to play Rommel and DAK.  That's one major reason there is probably still a market for a DAK NA game - perhaps a CMFI module.  (BF said that CMAK was the poorest selling of the CM1 games.  Maybe the CM1 game system was already old and faltering when CMAK was released.  But, many of us over at WeBoB loved playing huge CMAK scenarios on the 8Km x 4Km maps.)
Something changed in the late 90's.  Perhaps younger players simply wanted to be on the winning side and play the US.  (?)

Trying to compare Trump with Hitler or Stalin as some attempt to do is rather silly and says more about the intellect and sheltered life experience of those people than anything else.  

Trying to compare Trump with Hitler or Stalin as some attempt to do is rather silly and says more about the intellect and sheltered life experience of those people than anything else.  

Trying to compare Trump with Hitler or Stalin as some attempt to do is rather silly and says more about the intellect and sheltered life experience of those people than anything else.  

The interesting question is that why and how did Stalin get to power and take over the SU when apparently he was a disaster.  Did nobody notice?  Or are we victims of western revisionism?   (Have been watching some of the TV shows and docs about the UK Royal family and one can see a huge whitewash and rewriting of history in progress - so am tending to question what we are being told these days.)

CM2 has "very delicate" victory conditions.  In some cases a single cowering enemy individual can be enuff to deprive you of the objective.  
When a Green objective color disappears that means it was a "Touch Objective" (and you do not have to leave troops there as a garrison).  If the Green color stays... that will be an "Occupy Objective" and you need to occupy it and ensure no enemy hiding anywhere.

There is no doubt that designing a great map takes a great deal of time.  Even more time to make a great (playtested) scenario.  Making a great campaign that uses all the features available like core units, ammo and material conservation, branching storylines/missions etc. is a career.  Designers (and modders) are heroes.  But, it's noticeable that we had many xnt user-made CMSF1 campaigns, but since then the numbers have decreased dramatically.  Designers and modders have gotten burned out and/or left the hobby.
Have suggested that BF should create modules of campaigns for sale since a great campaign requires so many man-months or even years of effort.

My suspicion re why WW2 Africa desert theater hasn't had so much demand is that many folks have the idea that deserts are flat, featureless and boring.  Maybe there a a few places in the world that are like that.  But, that is very rare.  Anyone who has been in deserts knows that desert terrain is a) beautiful, b) often with rugged and dramatic vistas, and c) marvelous for long LOS and maneuver warfare.  We need to regularly chant for BF to consider an Afrika Korps module for CMFI.  (Especially if they ever get to the earlier WW2 period.)

There is a reason that the US trains on the Utah-Arizona border -  looks a lot like Afghanistan

+1  Desert terrain may look flat as a pancake, but as you say, it really is not.  There are always undulations that can be used to approach an enemy relatively safely.  WW2 Africa theater often mentions that.  

Yup.  From looking at the map, those hilly flanks seemed to be where the threat to an attacker would come from.   

I don't know what the defender set-up locations were.  But, I recall some defensive games I played where I put main guns with inf protection in the hills around the village and was able to do a lot of damage to the attacker who was massed to take the village and had not allocated any forces to occupy surrounding hills.  And if he had split his forces to occupy surrounding hills, he would not have so much to attack the village with. 
A) If possible you wanna prevent the attacker massing his forces against one part of your defense and B) Try and position defensive guns for flank shots from keyhole positions that the enemy cannot easily see.

+1  Would also be great to have an AI that can handle many of the human player chores eg:  "Go recon over there" (and the teams act realistically and not suicidally to locate enemy); "Go resupply"; "Go tend to WIA"; "Follow the leader" (road convoy etc.)...  

Once upon a time we was told that CMSF2 was never going to happen.  But, things changed and now we have CMSF2.  Am simply pointing out that info that is 18 months old is almost useless.

As I mentioned earlier, 1917 is not really about the experience of WW1 as other same era historical movies have been.  1917 is a good story shot in a beautiful and stylish manner by Roger Deakins (full disclosure - he was a tutor of mine back in the dark ages when I was trying to make it in movies) but it could have been set in many different eras and locations.  
 

Yes, locating your ATG's and other primary weapons so that they can ambush the enemy from the enemy's flank as they roll by.  That will help the ATG's stay alive long enuff to kill a few things. 
The worst defense positions are ones where one sets up to fire directly at the front of an advancing enemy.  It doesn't matter if your weapon can kill the enemy frontally.  Since an attacking enemy (who knows what they are doing) will have more firepower, your defenders which are in direct LOS will get KIA very quickly as soon as they open fire.
 

Maybe some inspiration for missions from "The 317th Platoon" - (French film about a lost platoon in Vietnam prior to US involvement):
https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/08/07/1965s-the-317th-platoon-is-the-movie-that-should-have-kept-us-out-of-vietnam/
https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=6bdzXOTAONGh1fAPr_Wc8AM&q=la+317e+section+english+subtitles&oq=+La+317e+Section+&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0j0i22i30l9.1026.1026..2677...0.0..0.46.46.1......0....2j1..gws-wiz.....0.maUMUXg-A1g

I also liked the image of the squad on the following tank looking on in amazement at the comrade's fanaticism: "Lead by Example".