Erwin

Ach Franz - why did I eat that extra schnitzel...?

 

Ach Franz - why did I eat that extra schnitzel...?

 

Ach Franz - why did I eat that extra schnitzel...?

 

Love it.  Those of us who are less bothered by historical accuracy than for the chance to play early war will appreciate this.

You seem to have a natural talent for framing.  I trained with a lot of would-be camera-persons and the vast majority struggle with that.

Very atmospheric.  You must be a good photographer.

Outstanding pics.  Some of best seen here.  Are those manipulated in any way?

Thank you for all your work.  Hope that you eventually put em all together in a campaign.

What makes these pics stand out are the detail of the close-up faces - esp pic #1 - very realistic.  

Thanks for looking at the file.  No Zugs were completely wiped out.  I can't recall exactly, but I think the rest of the ZUG appears in Mission 6 - but with 2-man crews. The set-up turn started with the HQ already mounted in the 251/1.  But the vehicle was still listed as "dismounted".  
Other than the 251/1's that carry the HMG's - which only ever have 1 crew - all the other 251/1's have 2 crew members and IIRC casualties amongst those crews seem to be replaced between missions.
The issue is what is the point in the game of having units appear in subsequent missions that are useless.  
Even with the FO that cannot call in arty.  What to do with him?  Send him on suicide recon mission?  Is that what happens in RL?  In a game, what is the point of loading up the campaign missions with useless units?  I do recall that the FO unit was completely KIA in Mission 5.  So... the campaign game system has brought back a one-man FO that is useless.  That is a bug in the campaign game system.  
Does this ruin the game?  Of course not.  It's still very enjoyable.  Am simply pointing out that the CM2 system is an inexpensive "Commercial Off The Shelf" entertainment game that quite understandably has flaws that hopefully are in a list somewhere to be fixed.  Elsewhere I made a list of over 20 similar issues.  I thought that would be helpful.  But, some folks are so embedded in the idea that CM2 is a flawless and accurate simulation of RL that it cannot be criticized or improved.  Perhaps they are worried about their govt contract customers looking too closely.  Who knows...
 

Have an FO that had casualties in an earlier mission.  Now it's back as an single-man FO but the man is labeled as a "gunner" - so he cannot spot for arty.  If an FO returns in a campaign he should have spotting ability.  Bug?

Appreciated...  ty

Outstanding pics.  Some of best seen here.  Are those manipulated in any way?

From WSJ:  "A series of events on the international stage has laid bare the perilous state of great-power relations as Russia and China challenge the U.S.-led global order."
It may be finally realized that this is not a proxy war between Russia and the US but a proxy war between China and the US.  The Ukraine war is misunderstood.  While we try and weaken Russia, China is supporting Russia in order to weaken the US-led dominance. 
So long as China supports Russia, Russia has the ability to keep up the war "as long as it takes".  China's goal is to weaken the US and the western alliance just as the west is trying to weaken Russia.  But, our goal should be to weaken China.  The sad fact is that at some point the war of attrition of its male population will be far worse for Ukraine than for Russia... akin to what happened to Britain after WW1.  

Am heading abroad soon and won't have access to decent computer (or even phones) till April earliest, so hope one of the others can help.
Edit: Actually I couldn't resist powering up your scenario to take a look.  Not sure if you want public comments, but my initial take was good (small) map.  Altho units consist of all regulars and I was expecting the SF forces to have better experience etc.  Hope to try it out when I have a few more minutes.

Ditto.  Thank you.

Looking forward to it.  Appreciate you sticking with the renovations.  But, hope you have time for new stuff too.

That would be the best solution.  As I mentioned b4, I have been faithfully downloading all your outstanding work, but with all the updates etc, my Kohlenklau folders are a complete mess, and I would appreciate being able to delete em all and start fresh.  
 

We all hope that Ukraine would recover all its territory.  However, there has been a level of naive optimism akin to probably how the German High Command felt in the Summer of 1941.  Reality of how hard things are and how high are the stakes are now just starting to be appreciated.  Best said by WSJ:  "It has become clear in the past several weeks that the tectonic plates of global power are shifting. The autocratic alliance of China, Russia and Iran is signaling it’s no longer content to accept an indefinite standoff of competing ideologies and commercial interests as the status quo. They have decided to make Ukraine a singular test, which they believe the U.S., Europe and Asia’s democracies will fail."
 

That's good advice if you have a smallish map and lots of ammo.  But, on the huge maps it's not practical.  On huge maps you have to send guys in harm's way to see what it out there.

The important concept is that the scout vehicle is not supposed to be the spotter.  It's purpose is to draw fire... and survive.
Also:  When on a road, we may be talking 75-150 meter FAST scouting moves followed by an immediate REVERSE to a safe location.
The purpose is to be able to scout quickly long expanses of road.  Normally I would send multiple 2-man inf scouts.  But, on some of the large/huge maps, that is just way too slow and take way too much time.  (Only a few designers allow sufficient time for "careful" scouting.)
1)  If one sends an unbuttoned vehicle to scout into possibly hostile territory the chances are xnt that a crew member will be shot.  The spotter(s) are the inf and crews in the vehicle(s) who are sitting back watching what happens to the scout vehicle.  
2)  Am assuming that one starts in a safe location.  So when the scout reverses back to that location, the unit should be safe.  Once one has scouted ahead to a new location without any enemy contact, that next location becomes the new "safe" location and everyone can move to that location.  Then the scout vehicle moves FAST ahead to the next possible danger location and reverses back to the new safe location. 
3)  It's harder to hit a moving vehicle even in reverse.  If the scout was unbuttoned inf small arms fire could probably kill a crew-member.  That's why the scout should be buttoned.  However, it takes time for the enemy Tactical AI to aim and fire a large weapon capable of hurting the vehicle.  
I have spend over a decade trying to figure out how to scout distance quickly with vehicles (in CM2) while giving the scouting unit the best chance to survive.  The above tactic has worked best for scouting down a long road.  If off-road, one usually can move a scout vehicle FAST from one covered location to another. 
However, as mentioned, if time allows I always prefer to send many 2-man scouts ahead to quickly locate enemy assets and positions.  However, I still find it very hard to keep them alive.  Once an inf unit has gotten close enuff to be fired on by an enemy, the inf scout cannot move away to safety quickly enough.
Hope the above helps...
BTW:  It's great to have threads on CM2 tactics again.  We used to have many of these "hint" threads in the early CM1 and CM2 days.  But in recent years discussions seem to have become dominated by discussions on the various weapons systems simulated.

I see you joined in 2006, so you'll recall that BF said the plan was to start with late war and work back to early war.  It's a shame, but I hope the mil contracts haven't distracted from CM3.

Graphics are ok.  But wish we had better UI and more useful "auto-commands" to reduce the click-fest eg:
Hide in place in ambush, then shoot, then scoot to a safer location. 
Road convoy command.  
ACQUIRE or SWOP ammo and weapons with adjacent units including vehicles without the cumbersome need to split squads, mount vehicles, resupply, then disembark and join up with original squad...  (Yes, there would be a suitable time delay and limitations of what or how much could be swapped or loaded.)
We used to have a very useful "one-click" 180 degree covered arc in CM1.  Bring it back to CM2.

It sounds like one scenario... and then any others would be very similar.  A trench is a trench.  And then rest would be hard to traverse mud with huge holes.  There are quite a few strategic or operational WW1 game - at least cardboard games.  That may be a more appropriate scale.

Graphics are ok.  But wish we had better UI and more useful "auto-commands" to reduce the click-fest eg:
Hide in place in ambush, then shoot, then scoot to a safer location. 
Road convoy command.  
ACQUIRE or SWOP ammo and weapons with adjacent units including vehicles without the cumbersome need to split squads, mount vehicles, resupply, then disembark and join up with original squad...  (Yes, there would be a suitable time delay and limitations of what or how much could be swapped or loaded.)
We used to have a very useful "one-click" 180 degree covered arc in CM1.  Bring it back to CM2.