Darknight (DC)

The finish line was dangled tantalizingly within Mord's reach...he could see it, the end of his arduous journey was near...but then I, being the wicked taskmaster that I have discovered myself to have become, whispered into Mord's ear that the perceived end of his quest was but an illusion, and that the true conclusion to his efforts lay over a further, more distant horizon.

Poor, wretched soul...there is a fine line between nirvana and purgatory....

I'm sure by now Mord is ready to kill me.... He's made it through the Brits, which was a chore-and-a-half, then the Canucks (which I'm sure gave him a sliver of hope that it got better)....but then came the Kiwis & Afrikaners, which has begun to peel away the fragile, fragmented layers of his remaining psyche....and I can't quite tell him that it gets better with the Poles....though, I can definitely say that, one way or another, it will all be over soon.

I'm hesitant to say it...but I'm afraid I may have broken our Mord.

You can still use the uniforms with patches and all, just no berets....

Be careful with Mord boys....he's going to be in a fragile state when he sees the scope of the CW stuff....

I think there's a nugget or two here that I'm very interested in hearing more on....

I like very much....

The NZ Mk II looks pretty good to my eyes (and the Polish one), so maybe just swap the faces? It's the Khaki-coloured one that looks most off. Not slipping, I just didn't mention the others that aren't 'available' as nationalities in the game yet for simplicity, but I can do that here for the sake of 'completionists' everywhere (Indian, South African, Italian, French, Brazilian, Greek, Palestinian)....I may have even missed one or two still....

I think its between 25 and 30 portraits....assuming nothing other than national backgrounds. Then the number of sub-mods would be multiplied by the number of divisions and/or regiments to be included. (just using the division-level, you would have to multiply a national subset of the 25-30 above by the number of divisions fielded by the nation...and this can get to be a pretty big number in the German case).

Possibly....

Overall, it's looking good. Just two things: The side project seems to blend a little too much together...I find them a bit harder to discern (though maybe I'm just getting older and its my eyes ). For the main project, I like the look of the Mk II helmet in the 2nd column/bottom row (NZ?), and maybe the 2nd column/4th row (Poles?) but the rest look a bit oversized, especially the 2nd column/2nd row (Brit?) & 3rd row (Cdn?). (Ok, I lied, there's a 3rd...the inclusion of an alternate Maori face for the NZ infantry)

Getting the textures to stretch just right can be maddening, since different parts of the sleeves stretch irregularly. I was using a warp brush to get sleeve patches to work, and then LOTS of trial and error to figure where to set them best.....once I got a few templates it became easier to mass produce.

I've got a pretty good idea of what's going to be keeping me busy this Holiday season.

Aris, you know I have any CW decal references you'd ever need...no need to waste time researching what's already done.... I originally planned to decal every one of your CW vehicles down to the regimental level, but I'm pretty sure I would have driven myself insane with all the seasonal variants (and only a very few would ever likely get used by players). Not to mention that it was taking away all of my limited free time.

I'd have to agree here....it is terribly frustrating....'curse the screen' frustrating at times....but probably a good approximation of the variance of spotting in a similar real-world situation. I am experiencing this effect with great frequency in a recce engagement between Mord and myself.

Combat Mission: Road to Victory (or Path to Victory) That way it describes the entire period they are planning to cover. Or something like: Target Germany or: Across the Rhine Or something crazy, like: Götterdämmerung

Pretty much....though resigned to the reality that it is going to probably be a later pack (after CM:EF gets its first family going).

And Commandos.....please....

Have you factored in all the units/patches? (You haven't been around for us to have our 'Just how many units were in that Theatre?!?' discussions....)

Mord my friend, I was beginning to get worried...was getting close to sending a search party south of the Border. BTW, when you get that rig up and running, you owe me some PBEMs.

This sounds intriguing. So, depending on how many people get involved, some players will take on the role of the LtCol or Major, playing the battles out in CMBN, and a few will be taking on the role of the Brigadier- or Major-General, directing the operation? And you're looking for players who can average a turn a day, right? I'd like to read more on this first but having a go as a Canadian Bn commander sounds like fun.

I think my opponent directed his initial assault onto my left flank because of the partial concealment of the terrain along that road. The strength and speed of his initial push along the left overwhelmed my units there and he established himself around the single building just on my side of the ridge near the road. He made a major assault from that area towards the village on my left and there was a lot of fighting towards the little vineyard there but my platoon held (supported by the PzIV). My opponent actually infiltrated troops all the way along the left to the back of the map but he couldn't move on my rear because I shifted the other PzIV across from my right in support. The other major push came at the ridgeline near the centre of the village and slightly to the right, where the stone walls run. That area became a killing field of mortar and small arms. My right flank probably seemed to be too much open ground to cross, though he did place some troops in the farmhouse complex at the right rear, probably for observation. One of the most important things I did right was to have small units doing recon/observation so that I could see where the masses of troops were going heading as soon as possible. The most dangerous moments of the entire game came when I had to retreat my recon or I lost them as casualties, because I was essentially blind (also when the dust/debris cloud was lingering, for the same reasons).

I actually played this map as defending Germans versus Americans a couple of months ago. It was a very interesting map for a defense. I had a reinforced German Company + a few HMG, 2x PzIV and 2x ATG. (my opponent had, among his assets, a fighter bomber for the assault) My setup was a platoon on the left flank, supporting an ATG on the leftmost ridge and supported in turn by a PzIV; the other three platoons were responsible for the village, split to defend from the reverse slope of the ridge (and a few scouts forward of that to keep an eye on enemy movement), with C&C from the upper floors of the village buildings; and the weapons platoon on the extreme right flank to harass any movement in that direction, supported by the other ATG and PzIV. My opponent moved in force against my left flank, overwhelming my assets there but was halted by the panzer and the platoon on that side of the village. That was when the fighter-bomber showed up. A bomb fell on the village causing a 3-story structure to disappear in a cloud of dust, troops and all, panicking a lot of nearby squads. Most annoying was that the lingering dust/debris cloud completely messed up LoS for several turns. The strafing also hurt many individual squads. Despite this, the plane also strafed my opponent during his attack, so all-in-all, I don't believe it was worth his purchase points. It was very difficult for my opponent to move over the ridge and gain any toe-hold on the village, and eventually I was able to grind the assault down (having the two PzIV as a mobile reserve element was an important part of the win).

Lots of work there. You could save yourself some space for GL by omitting Canadian & Polish Airborne though. These units were not engaged in Italy.