RockinHarry

1 hour into 2008! Happy new year to all followers!

I do collect lots of contemporary german training stuff from the 1930ies - early 40ies, mostly books (field manuals, tactics/maneuvre training), but also started to find those rare german training films. Hundreds were made during (and before) WW2 and I wonder how many are still buried in archives on film rolls, non digitized version! My first training film on CD (MPG format) is "die Gruppe als Spaehtrupp" (german squad as reccon patrol), a 48 minute long training film showing all stages of a german reccon patrol in action, starting with explaining the situation, briefing the squad in the field until return to freindly MLR with everything in between in great detail. I already have great detail in contemporary books, but the film is an invaluable addition!8) Interesting enough, I´m curently waiting for a version of the same film at youtube (Manner gegen Panzer) that a friend is about to send me on CD. Another film freely available is the german sniper training and I also know of a film that showcases officer training of the german bad boys (Waffen XX). Didn´t have it yet so can´t tell more. If anybody out there has access to further contemporary german training films, please PM me! What yet can be said to "Manner gegen Panzer" is that it shows german defense tactics (vs russian armor) in interesting detail! The main doctrine always was, divide enemy infantry from the supporting tanks, even if the enemy armor is about to roll over the main infantry defenses, trying to hold out in those small slit trenches. The slit trenches are not just to provide smaller target to enemy shelling, they also provide greater standfasteness, when tanks roll over. Off course greatly depends on ground/soil. However, the russians adapted in 1943/44, to deal with german close quarter AT defenses better. Think the film showcases the tactics and means used in 1942/43 at the russian front mainly. If no AT guns were nearby, the infantry´s main effort (beside fending off enemy infantry) was to immobilize and blind enemy tanks which then were sittting ducks and could be finished off with other available hand held AT means, which mainly were grenade bundles made of stick grenades, AT mines, molotov cocktails, satchel charges and any of the newly introduced HEAT grenades as rifle grenades (1942), the Hafthohlladung H3 (1943) and other well known devices (Panzerfaust ect.) The film also showcases well that german infantry AT warfare was both, organized/pre planned and supported from personal initiative of german soldiers starting in 1942, after all that terrible experiences at the russian front in 1941, where close quarter AT defense was mostly based on improvisation. One can see in the film that a local infantry AT group organizes with supporting groups (fighting enemy infantry) and single supporting men who cover the single Rambo who tries to approach enemy tanks with handheld stuff. No idea how many died in this process though. Although the films are all reenactements, they are very professionally made and I doubt you´ll find any real frontline films that give the wealth of detail as seen here. They´re not free of "propaganda" elements though, but it´s suffice to state what they´re good for. (rasing morale, self confidence, combat spirits ect.) An interesting film scene was where a young german soldier in the trenches was about to break when the russian tank attack started. The german non com (or was it an officer? Do need to look again) nearby showed how to keep coolness and gave instructions to fight enemy infantry to enable the tank hunters doing their hazardous job. (a "Rally" in wargames like CM ect.) My guess the film was mainaly aimed at non coms (squad leaders and up) and less to the lowest rank soldiers. They surely were showed to all at last! Another interesting detail is the means of camouflaging the trenches! BFC..look at this if working on CMx" WW2! As can be seen, patches of grass and local material was used to better mold the trenches into the terrain. CM uses a one fit all, but personally I prefer one of the avilable trench mods that have the unrealistic sand bag attachements removed. I´ve never seen sand bags in use by germans under those conditions, except maybe in the desert and at those places where you can´t dig (urban terrain) normally. Otherwise sandbags, if left uncamouflaged are a simple "here we are - invite to kill" marker. Left to be said, all the mentioned actons and tactics work pretty well in the CM series games, even if most of it is abstractly modelled, as the infamous infantry "close assault", where you just see hand grenades thrown at tanks, followed by the occasional "hit" (or "Treffer" in german version) result/message or even disabling (mostly immobilizing) enemy armor that is either slow moving or stationary (hint! This is how it works in CM best!). So if seeing that "close assault" in CM happening the next time, just imagine what you did see in "Manner gegen Panzer" and pay respect to BFC! 8) Would love to see detailed infantry AT tactics in CMx2 working! Wouldn´t that be cool? 8) (purchased CMSF two weeks ago, so I know the "potential" is there!)

No sorry, did not try any the campaigns yet. Did load up 2-3 scenarios and hit the QB button twice, as well as opened the editor (my favourite place in any wargame normally ) Very much looking forward to WW2 setting, as said! If not BFC gets it working, who else?! :cool:

I use 'Assault' whereever I can, even over short distances. It helps your guys overcome the current squad spotting problems of 1.04 and they are very capable of engaging and destroying everything they come across in this mode! Best regards, Thomm </font>

Thanks the welcome! As said I´m not really interested much in modern warfare, particularly in any the desert theathres (counts the same for CMAK where I solely play italy/NWE settings), but as any of us Combat Mission enthusiasts, hate to have the family incomplete and at least try it out and see! Found the CMSF section at CMMODS already and did some first download of scenarios, including "Chance Encounter" (hm..didn´t I see that name anytime before? LOL) and two scens of GeorgeMC, whose designs I always appreciate much! Hope I´ll find the time soon, between my running CMBB and CMAK sessions! Hm...I don´t yet feel quite ready for PBEM and I hate to step in without beeing able to give a good show! LOL Think 2008 will give me first opportunities! Can´t BFC and 1C join to combine the best of Theatre of War and CMSF into a single game? I´d die for that!

Ah..ok! did not hear of it before! :cool: Guess the desert theater is beeing modded? Just received my copy of CMSF past week, but there´s neither modding nor WW2 (yes i knew before )

glad the stuff is useful to anybody! Most of the stuff resided on my hard drive for over a year already! Hate to make new mod sets for every news scenario i have in the planning, thus i do not come to anything at last! What is SCW again? :confused:

Hello, now finally came to purchase my copy of Paradox version and updated to 1.04 at once. So this is my entry point and respectively I don´t really know much about any the issues that were encountered since the release version and that were "fixed" since. Need to say I´m not interested in the modern area and near east setting at all, but I mainly want to support further BFC efforts, that possibly lead to something that surely the majority of CM enthusiasts are dreaming of, a CMx2 with WW2 setting again! Generally I like what I see in CMSF (compared to CM1 series) and one sees the great potential particularly for the GFX, although you waste away lots of it, due to the nature of the pale and dull looking desert landscapes! Just dreaming how european or asian like landscapes might look with the GFX engine!8) Having played lots of COD and RO games the past months, I have quite a good imagination, what it could be like in CMx2 WW2! Well, I haven´t tried CMSF playing much the past few days and I´m still learning what a beginner is to learn in this game. Few things I noticed in the game is the lack of tooltips that actually should be a standard in nowadays games, particularly when new to the game. That begins in the scenario selection screen where the small icons are not that self explaining as you might think, even after doing the game manual checkup. That continues into the game, where the interface bottom bar would also improve considerably from tooltips functionality. I do like much that a scenario designer can work out the briefing screens to great detail, include custom maps ect. Did always dream of it for CM1. Have a bit of difficulty with plotting infantry moves through dense urban terrain. Seem to always hunt the guys into enemy fire, when I think I know how the guys would enter any buildings. Surely my lack of experience with the game so far. Maybe someone can enlighten me; does the game considers infantry movements through cast shadows (along walls, houses, ect) an advantage when it comes to enemy spotting chances? Mean to say, particularly when moving in urban environment (and anywhere else), making use of shadows was and is standard practice for more stealthy movement! Is that modelled in CMSF? I just had tried moving a US infantry squad (or team if you prefer) this way along a wall in the cast shadow, but was surprised, most of the 3D men were moving into the open, apparently avoiding some of the games "doodads" (telephone poles, trash piles, ect) that were placed along the wall. So is that just a "collision checking" problem, or is the game yet too abstractly modelling infantry movements? Now back for some more playing. Have the game installed on my low end 1600+ Athlon XP with Nvidia FX5200 graphics card and 768 MB Ram. Frame rates are ok so far, although not smooth.

Sorry, have too limted time to make the imageshack ect. stuff and linking. (no at home internet access) Going at CMMODS.com and doing the search by designer is really quick and the appropiate example mod pix are all there! thanks

Hello, just did update my mod series at CMMODS.com with: CMBB version of CMAK "rough" (looking like tree stumps, shattered forest area) and CMAK "pine trees" (modded version of SDogs pine trees with a little bit of undergrowth and some shattered pine tree trunk) CMAK new ETO/NWE mods: "Cattle fence", similar to J2D´s version with the stakes beeing farther apart for more realistic looks. "brick wall" (predominant type in some parts of western/north-western germany and the netherlands) "hedge" , less cubic like looking. "clay field" (predominant type in some parts of western/north-western germany and the netherlands) search by mod maker Rockinharry. Example pix available. have fun, Harry

Hello, just did update my mod series at CMMODS.com with: CMBB version of CMAK "rough" (looking like tree stumps, shattered forest area) and CMAK "pine trees" (modded version of SDogs pine trees with a little bit of undergrowth and some shattered pine tree trunk) CMAK new ETO/NWE mods: "Cattle fence", similar to J2D´s version with the stakes beeing farther apart for more realistic looks. "brick wall" (predominant type in some parts of western/north-western germany and the netherlands) "hedge" , less cubic like looking. "clay field" (predominant type in some parts of western/north-western germany and the netherlands) search by mod maker Rockinharry. Example pix available. have fun, Harry

As long as there´s no CMX2 with WW2 setting, all 3 CM versions keep residing on my PC, no doubt! :cool:

H2H takes me about a year to complete a standard game of between 30 to 45 turns, due to my limited internet access (2 files a week at max). Let me know which one of your games you would be interested to have tested vs. the AI!

Too bad, found them all to be at H2H setting. Otherwise would have given one or the other a try.

Think Map Converter is able to do this. Don´t have link to that tool handy ATM.

Joachim mentioned already above... You noticed you played with dynamic flags actually? Appears you as attacker wasted many units for a target worth nothing! (a "bogus") Concentrating on the 900 point value flag would have been way to go and just start a small diversionary cautious attack on the bogus one to draw some defending (mobile) forces away from the main goal. That´s the good and the bad thing about dynamic flags, but usually the defender is at a (realistic) disadvantage.

Shoot me an email and tell me what bands you like. Mord. </font>

same 1940 setting? over at TPG or at your Kessel site?

Indeed!

I too had that CoD and CoD UO experience shortly ( followed by Red Orchestra) since I was able to assemble a PC that could run these games with reasonable frame rates. (Athlon XP 1600+ replaced my vintage P2-300) I had lots of short time exitement and entertainment from these games and CoDUO is only played through half way. Lacking internet access from home, no way to try MP unfortunately, which surely gives the option to experience more realistical actions. I was able to run RO in single player mode (with most stupid bots as opponenets), by registering at a friends computer (with internet access), but after doing a bit of sightseeing and bot shooting the exitement faded quickly again. The looks and environment are most impressive though! If ever a WW2 version CMX2 (Shock Force) is about to be released, I hope it has the looks and intensity of the mentioned games, but with the inbuilt realism of BFC games. :cool: Hey Mord, I´m digging Metal as well, even running an band as guitarist, but prefering brunettes! Seal Team? Wow long time no see it mentioned anywhere. Just took the box from the shelf to see when it was released; 15 years ago! Was very good for its time IIRC. Just lately I tried Vietnam - Line of sight from a game DVD, but wiped it from the hard dive quickly again. Good looks, but almost unplayable when it comes to game play and entertainment. Heard that Vietcong should be a good FPS. Now back to my CM PBEM games and scenario design!

See http://www.the-proving-grounds.com/scenario_details.html?command=search&db=scenarios.db&eqskudatarq=1345 A medium sized Axis vs. French AIP on big map.

..from a german game magazine DVD. Despite the high minimum requirements for hardware i got the demo to run at suffciently speed (on Athlon XP 1600+, 768 RAM, FX5200) and got some impressions. There´s lots of things that I like ...beside the ones I´m disappointed about which are, houses that can not be entered by infantry, fences impassable to infantry, inappropiate terrain tiles for forested areas, unrealistic looking entrenchment positions and the like for guns. Is anything of that about to be improved for the future?

Hehe...you know how much I hate these AT rifle boys in our games! :mad: Quite annoying if you don´t have any infantry to root these out. Forcing enemy armor to button up is always a good measure anyway. :cool:

The small crew russian tanks are quite sensible vs. enemy snipers! Lay sniper ambushes and take out as many tank commanders (who oftenly serve also as gunners for their coffin) as possible in a single game turn! Once you got a number of the tank commanders (enemy tank stays immobile and possibly not shooting during next 1-2 turns due to "shock") and all enemy tanks are buttoned up, you can start with the regular AT fire. This gives any defending AT guns a better survival chance and more opportunities to shoot without beeing discovered. Same for small tank hunter parties who have better chances to sneak and paste some grenade bundles or close assaulting infantry.

You probably overlooked, the SdKfz 251/10, as well as the 250/10 are there (vehicles)!