Phantom Captain

Exactly.

This! I think a lot of what makes CM so great is all the micro stories that happen over the course of a battle and how you really fill in the lines in your head on what's going on. It can be more immersive than any other game I have ever played. In a recent PBEM, this exact thing was occurring for both me and my opponent simultaneously as we did discuss it after the fact. It was one of those moments where I had a Russian 3 man recon team start to tangle it up with a Ukrainian infantry team cresting a ridge and advancing. My recon team opens up on them and took out a couple men. The Ukrainians, in shock, begin to fire back and hit one of my team. I displace back out of the building I am hiding in and take up a new position. A minute later the Ukrainians again press forward only to engage with my team again, and we both take another casualty. This little running gunfight went on for five minutes or so as the the two teams would displace and continue hunting each other. Both teams raging that the enemy had hit their teammates! Eventually, my last surviving man, wounded even, made a dash back to safety and survived. These little incidents and how they develop and play out really make CM different than anything else. And having the ability to go back and watch each one minute of battle play out from so many different perspectives as many times as you want, game changer. Regardless of all the whinging (that has been going on forever, mind you) I am with @The_Capt in that for most of us, CM is great because of all of these little detail things that can't be found anywhere else. There really is nothing else even remotely close in my opinion. No other game creates the tension and nervousness as you wait for a PBEM turn to see how that last minute and your decisions played out!

This is a really interesting idea. I am going to try this.

domfluff's explanation on the defensive aspect and doctrinal use of the team was very helpful and does clarify things a lot. Offensively, I think I tend to use them much like you. Very much in the spirit of the German MG base of fire and maneuver tactics. I seem to split them too and put one on either flank of my line and use them to suppress thereby supporting my infantry on the attack. I completely get your point as well in that role being utilized by the Soviet/and or Russian IFVs which does free up all your infantry for maneuver purposes. It is also nice to be able to port the MG with the rest of the infantry through terrain as you described and is an advantage. I find that Soviet infantry up close do have a lot of teeth!

Thanks @domfluff Exactly what I was looking for!

What is the best way to utilize Soviet MG teams? How do you get the most effect out of them?

Thwip thwip thwipthwip thwip He didn't make it..

Haha! Indeed! 27,000 tired but motivated troops can be very productive. 90 minutes is a long time. I think, in soft ground, you could easily dig and complete pretty acceptable foxholes.

I know this is sort of off topic but it popped into my head and I had to share. At the battle of Franklin in 1864, the Union soldiers, after marching and slipping away from the pursuing Confederate army for the previous 36 hours, still put up complete breastworks, with a front ditch, abatis, and head logs around the entire southern end of the town (covering more than a mile) in about 4 hours. I do think men under threat of being shot work very quickly digging in or making any possible cover they can.

And that's the thing! I think in Black Sea all the new armor technology and APS systems, laser warning systems, automatic smoke systems, etc. give their crews a much better chance of survival on being spotted first and taking a hit. Cold War...not so much. Like you said, it seems that if you are hit you are dead (T-64s excluded at a certain point!). Speed means everything I am also finding. If you stop, you die. It's like the line from the old animated Heavy Metal movie, "You die, she dies, everybody dies".

They aren't "blind" per se, but compared to the Americans I think they are definitely at a disadvantage with their optics.

I pretty much feel anything on the other side that moves, or even doesn't move, is a target.

Haha! I had a good friend at the time who was infantry/airborne. He broke his ankle or knee?, can't remember, on a parachute jump coming down too fast. He, said because of that, he was assigned as driver for some officer in Germany who was a bit, umm, off. Haha! But yeah, I love my armor but I really don't think I would have wanted to be an M60 crew member at that time, ha!

Ha! Very true! They are a bit blind... The beast here never even spotted who was hitting him. Fun watching those M60s get spots and make hits but can't kill while the T-64s sit back and shrug off hits but can't see anything!!

I am really understanding this in this environment. It's absolutely brutal! And that's the trick isn't it? How do you do what you need to do and stay hidden and unseen. It's very nerve wracking committing to an attack knowing how many are not coming back. It's really fun to watch the Americans and Soviets just slam all hell out of each other though! This PBEM, so far, has been an absolute bloodbath.

Steadfast Ukrainian troops continue to watch for encroaching invaders... Meanwhile, Russian soldiers and equipment continue pouring over the border into Ukraine...

Playing Grieshof Meet and Greet PBEM. Has anyone else noticed or is starting to get the feeling that Cold War is even more lethal than Black Sea in its own way? It seems that playing doctrinal with so many mechanized forces that death comes very swiftly to so many more than in BS. Just my thoughts... Anyway, this BEAST of a T-64 shrugged off 18 hits, yes 18!!, from an M-60 and at least one TOW missile at about 1500m. The 5 or 6th shot actually hit the track and immobilized it. I had the crew bail out and they ran into the building it's sitting next to and watched a few more rounds bounce off. Feeling brave they re-crewed the tank only to take a couple more hits and bail again. Finally, the 18th round went in and killed an empty tank. T-64s are the real deal.

Thanks that was excellent! Steve's new mantra, "Combat Mission forever!" I'm down with that!

Yeah. Not a fan of that guy at all.

They've been trying. "Meaningful" apparently is very subjective. I'm reading Russian troops are flooding into Belarus now too with that autocratic jerk in charge. Things look up and then they look down. The Ukrainians are very impressive in their stoicism and bravery though.

Yep, been playing around with them and this seems to be correct! Still love the mod! It's much better.

No, you can put mods in the mods folder and they work. All my mods for all my games are in my mods folders now except maybe Afghanistan because it's different. But just for fun I made a z folder in my User Data folder and dropped them there. It still seems off. I only get the russian motor infantry even for tank drivers? It's just using one portrait for everything and not differentiating. But...upon further experimentation it just appears to be that way. I loaded up a Crossing the Dneiper save with your mod and without and it just uses the Russian Motor Infantry portrait for everyone either way. Cool though! I like yours better!

Thanks! These look excellent but are not working for me. I drop the whole folder in my User/Mods folder and it is reverting to the same face for everything. I took them out and dropped them all in my mods folder individually, same thing. Any ideas?