Myles Keogh

Ok, you don't have as high an opinion of "Battleground" as I do. Fine. As for BoB "aping" "Battleground." If you don't see similarities or, at least, the influence of "Battleground" upon BoB's Bulge episodes then that's fine, too. However, I definitely see them. Everything from the drilling, the truck ride, the "field" hospital," the Christmas service with a jeep as an altar, and even its use of a massive sound stage for its Winter Wonderland scenes shows that someone behind BoB admired William Wellman's movie. Steven Spielberg, BoB's executive producer, is on record as being a fan of "Battleground" which also reinforces my belief it was an influence. BoB even makes a reference to the inter-divisional football games for which "Battleground's" Sgt. Wolowizc was practicing. Finally, both movies have scenes showing the retreat of remnants of the 28th Infantry Division. How "Battleground" represents those men of the Bloody Bucket in comparison to how BoB portrays them is another reason why my once very high opinion of the HBO miniseries has fallen.

That "Arid location" was the plains of Spain. Throughout the 1960's, Francisco Franco loaned out his army and country's locales relatively on the cheap to numerous film productions. Name a big budget epic from the 60's and more likely than not it was filmed in Spain with its "cast of thousands" being Spanish Army soldiers. Ever wonder why all those American POWs in the beginning of "Patton" all have dark hair and swarthy skin? All Spaniards. As were the English Civil War armies in "Cromwell" and the Roman legions in "Spartacus" and "Fall of the Roman Empire." The big tank battle in "Battle of the Bulge" was filmed in some Spanish Army training area with American made Patton M-47s (representing King Tigers) and M-24 Chaffees (representing Shermans.) Since the Chaffee did see some action late in the Bulge, the film producers actually had to nerve to claim in a "making-of" advertisement that their film had the "real type of tanks used in the battle." (I once tried to dissuade someone out of his belief that those M-47s were actually King Tigers due to his accepting the nonsense spouted by the film's producers in the nearly 50 year old pre-release hype film that was included as an extra on the DVD. Despite overwhelming evidence (and just common sense) to the contrary (yeah, the mid-1960's Spanish Army had an entire battalion of pristine PzKpfw VIb's), he just didn't want to believe (or admit) that he had been snowed by a commercial.) Those Spanish Army M-47s also saw duty again in "Patton."

I ran into this issue as well while creating my own replacement music mod. I was going to use the "German Advance" from the original soundtrack from "Patton" as the "music intro" file and "Prelude" from the original soundtrack of "Battle of the Bulge" for the "music splash" file. However, due to this issue "German Advance" plays as both the "intro" and the "splash." (I know "Panzerlied" from the Bulge soundtrack is popular, but I already use that as the intro for CMRT with "The Sacred War" as the "splash.") The problem is that CMFB doesn't have a "music splash" file. CMFDR in another thread very helpfully listed all the items included in CMFB's .brz files and the only two music files listed are the "intro" and "end of battle." I don't know if this was an oversight or that BFC decided just not to make additional music for CMFB other than the intro.

A big +1. "Battleground" is approaching its 70th birthday and still stands as the best Bulge movie and one of the best and most accurate depictions of the American GI. It really does emphasize the heroism of the ordinary GI and does so with little sentimentality or flag-waving. It also thankfully contains none of the petty backbiting, slander, and elitism that mars "Band of Brothers" which aped entire scenes from "Battleground" for its Bulge episodes. Why "Battleground" still stands tall as one of the great WW2 films is not too hard to figure-out- it was written, directed, and acted by a cast and crew filled with military veterans. Its director, William Wellman, had flown with the Lafayette Escadrille in WWI. Its writer, Robert Pirosh, had been a master sergeant with the 35th Infantry Division and saw action in the Bugle. Its cast is filled with WW2 vets: Jerome Courtland, Don Taylor, James Whitmore, Douglas Fowley, Richard Jaekel, and James Arness who was severely wounded at Anzio. Its technical advisor was H.W.O Kinnard - the 101st Airborne's operations officer at Bastogne. And even its extras were Screaming Eagle veterans of the battle. (In contrast, "Band of Brothers" was acted, written, and directed by men with little or no military experience, let alone combat experience. It certainly shows.) A couple more Bulge movies: 2003's "Saints and Soldiers"- a low-budget independent film with a shaky grasp of Bugle history, but earnest and well-acted. 1956's "Attack"- a terrific but low budget film based on a stage-play about an American infantry company with a problem- its commander is a cowardly incompetent who is completely unfit for command. Although not specifically a Bulge movie, it does take place during a German counter-offensive in late 1944. Great cast! Eddie Albert and Lee Marvin were both decorated combat vets. And Jack Palance, another vet, is terrific as a platoon commander who has had enough of his commander's bungling.

Minor cosmetic issue: I was playing as the Americans in the "Hung-up at Cheneux" in which one plays as the paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne. I noticed that none of the paratroopers are bearing the insignia of the All-Americans, but a few have the Screaming Eagle of the 101st on their shoulders. So, I checked the scenario editor to see if there had been a mistake with the uniform-tagging. It appears all the units were properly tagged to have an 82nd Airborne uniform. They are all tagged either "Winter 82nd Air" or "Greatcoat 82nd Air." However, there appears to an error with the "Greatcoat 82nd Air" tag- the units that have that tag are the ones bearing 101st Airborne insignia. Also, none of them are wearing greatcoats. Plus, is the "Winter 82nd Air" tag supposed to have none of the pixeltruppen bearing the All-American insignia on their uniforms?

That's Hugh Cole's Ardennes book which is one of the legendary "Green Books"- the US Army's official history of WW2.

Waclaw won't be able to answer your questions on here because he got himself permanently banned for trolling. (His long habit of making cracks about whether a CMx2 product was worth its price finally caught-up with him. Here is the thread: (see page 8)

I gave this a shot a while biding time waiting for CMFB's release. I rarely play the Soviets, but I was really enjoying the first scenario: nice map and very manageable as to the amount of units involved. Also, ammo was tight! It became a real concern as the scenario progressed. Jeeps, which usually are holders of various goodies in other campaigns/scenarios, are all empty here. (I also liked the historical nature of the campaign that was imparted in the fairly well-written briefings. The history geek part of me has a strong preference for historically based campaigns/scenarios.) I was rolling up the German flank when CMRT crashed! I pressed end-turn, the resolving turn bar appeared, and then the game CTDed. It was the first crash that I've had with CMRT with the 1.03 patch. Sadly, since I had never had a crash before with 1.03, I wasn't regularly saving the game. So, I lost 25-30 turns and simply wasn't in the mood to replay them. So, I've shelved the campaign. (I do wish sometimes that CMx2 had an auto-save feature.) I don't know if the crash was caused by the campaign, CMRT 1.03, or just some random glitch. Anyone else have any problems?

I agree which is why I'm already using elements of Juju's CMBN UI mod with CMFB. It's a decent substitute until his CMFB mod is complete. I can't stand those Panzerblitz-esque silhouettes that vanilla CMx2 uses for weapons and vehicles so I immediately switched in Juju's CMBN replacements. There are a few missing items, but the vast majority of CMFB's equipment is covered by the CMBN mod. I also put in Juju's compass, ranks, special equipment, and suppression meter. Overall. I put in the stuff that I most miss about his mod when playing with the vanilla UI. I'm also using Mords/DC's CMBN portrait mod which works just fine with CMFB. (Love seeing the 4th Armored portraits when playing the Chaumont scenarios.) However, as noted in another post of mine, it's unfortunately got some gaps in the US OOB. (EX: No Checkerboards for the 99th Infantry- Lyle Bouck's men feel a little bland without them.) And I'm using a "branch" mod that was made for CMBN- it a UI mod that has the CMx2's branch ID (armor, armored infantry, infantry) with the unit's national flag as a background. (I forgot the name of its creator, but I've always liked it because of the little touch of immersion it gives. Unfortunately, he never made versions of it for CMFI or CMRT.)

I am looking forward to CMFB and replacing the vanilla interface with Juju's superb work. (I've never understood BFC's decision to use those hideous looking 1970's Panzerblitz-like silhouettes for CMx2's UI.) However, I always use Mord's/DC's portrait mods over Juju's because I like the historical immersion one gets from its various national flags, branch symbols, and unit insignia. When playing the Americans or Commonwealth in any historical or semi-historical campaign/scenario, I do take the time to insert the proper divisional/formation patch portrait for the units being portrayed. So, I'm wondering if there is going to be a CMFB version of that terrific mod? If there isn't going to be then I'm pretty confident I can use the CMBN version's portraits, but there will be some gaps in the American OOB. Unfortunately, the CMBN version doesn't have portraits for some of the most prominent American divisions that saw heavy action in the early days of the Bulge: 99th Infantry Division ("Checkerboard") 106th Infantry Division ("Golden Lions") 9th Armored Division And it also doesn't have portraits for a number of divisions that played a role in pushing back the Bulge: 75th Infantry Division ("Make Ready") 84th Infantry Division ("Railsplitters") 87th Infantry Division ("Golden Acorn") 17th Airborne Division ("Golden Talons") 11th Armored Division And its missing divisions that saw action in other areas of the ETO in late '44 and early '45: 42nd Infantry Division ("Rainbow") 70th Infantry Division ("Trailblazers") 78th Infantry Division (Lightning") 12th Armored Division 14th Armored Division I know it's a bit presumptuous to ask if these OOB gaps could be filled-in for a very labor-intensive mod, but I'm big fan of Mord's/DC's work and would love to see it in fully updated for CMFB. If it can't be done then I can live with it, but no harm in asking, right?

For some previous CMx2 releases, BFC allowed those who pre-ordered to download it a few days before anyone else. They haven't done that for every CMx2 release, but it has been done in the past to incentivize pre-orders by people who just can't wait to get their hands on the game.

For some reason this fix made the Stuart Kangaroo inoperable. With the platoon commander's halftrack reinserted into the game, I twice tried to get "drivers" into the Kangaroo, but none of them would actually take control of the vehicle. When I played the scenario before "fixing" it, I was able to get the Kangaroo up-and-running. I must admit being disappointed at the number of "glitches" that I've run into with BP1 scenarios/campaign. Either the 3.12 patch screwed-up things or the quality control/play-testing for BP1 wasn't very thorough. Things I've already seen: 1) First scenario of the Amiens campaign: a 90 point victory point location doesn't actually give any points. 2) Second Amiens campaign scenario: the force make-up of the attached British infantry platoon can change every time you play it. Sometimes it will have an attached 51mm mortar team (very important for this scenario) and sometimes it won't. 3) Third Amiens campaign scenario: the British flamethrower teams don't have any flamethrowers! 4) The Copse: You can win a major victory as the British by just driving your forces up the road and exiting them. I exited all my forces within three turns and didn't lose a vehicle or a man. I was just screwing around by rushing a tank up the road expecting to see a KABOOM! Yet, when that didn't happen I sent all my vehicles rushing towards the exit and won a major victory. 5) Celex et Audax: The halftrack with the PIAT mentioned in the briefing was inexplicably deleted from the scenario. And that's just the scenarios that I've actually played. There could be other scenarios with "issues." I'm certainly no "bug detective." I don't play these games looking or "testing" for things to complain about. I just play them. However, even I could not fail to notice the above problems. I love the concept of the battlepack, but I'm disappointed in the execution of the first release. (And what is even more disappointing was that BP1 was initially announced as a September 2015 release. Yet, here we are a half a year later and it was released with a number of easily spotted issues.)

I finished playing the first scenario of BP1's "Amiens Tonight" campaign. Overall, I thought it was terrific. It's maybe a bit "big" for my usual tastes, but still terrific work. I'm George McClellan as a commander so I only got a draw, but while I was reviewing the after-action-report I noticed that I didn't receive any points for one of the victory point locations I did capture. Objective Don (the Sawmill) is listed in the briefing and on the map as being worth 90 points. The AAR listed it as being achieved (green check-marked). However, the AAR listed its VP total as ZERO!?!?! Is this a bug? Or some sort of design decision in which the player is sent after a red-herring objective that actually has no value? SPOILERS: The sawmill is an out-of-the-way objective. It's all by itself which led me to believe that it was fairly lightly held. So, I assigned my weakest company (C Coy) to take it. Eventually, I reinforced C Coy with two carrier sections. I needed them all. By game's end, C Coy had been ripped-up. Needless to say, I wasn't too pleased to receive zero points for an objective that I had sacrificed a company to get. Still, I really did enjoy the German counter-attack for Objective Beer. That caught me off-balance and pretty much halted my advance on the final objectives. After capturing Objective Beer, I left two beat-up D Coy platoons, the company HQ, and two armored cars, one of which had badly damaged tires, to hold it. I thought I was being overly-cautious as to protecting the objective, but, in fact, it wasn't enough. The Germans destroyed one of the armored cars and almost routed the two shaky D Coy platoons off of the objective. I had to send my reserve A Coy platoon, my last armored car, and two Cromwells to recapture it. Panzerfaust/panzerschrek fire destroyed a Cromwell and the reinforcing armored car. The loss of three AFVs led me to calling-off A and B Coy's advance on the final objectives resulting in the draw.

From the 3.12 readme that's now in the CMBN folder: v3.12 Features: Content * Market Garden module scenario "MG Counterattack at Son" has been updated: the Canal Bridge has been replaced with a bridge that can support more weight for tanks. * Market Garden module campaign "The Road to Nijmegen has been updated: Improved Experience level of friendly aircraft throughout the campaign. Concrete bunker changed to wood bunker in Heuman Lock Bridge mission. Reduced morale of German troops in Heuman Lock Bridge mission. * Commonwealth module campaign "Kampfgruppe Engel" has been updated: fixed an issue where core tanks would disappear after Mission 1. * Commonwealth module campaign "The Scottish Corridor" has been updated: Replaced three tanks missing from player force in one mission. Updates * Some micro terrain, such as rocky ground, now provides more protection from high explosives. Bug Fixes * Fixed a bug that caused players to swap sides in a 2-player Quick Battle. * Fixed some issues with vehicles interacting with bridges. * Fixed some issues with AI purchasing logic in Quick Battles. * Fixed a problem where units from a module that was not owned by the player could be added to a scenario after a 2-player Quick Battle, resulting in the scenario being inaccessible to the player later. * Fixed a bug where a towed anti-tank gun could disappear or get left behind by the towing vehicle. * Fixed a bug where an anti-tank gun could take up to 15 minutes to Pack Up, instead of the time indicated by the UI. * M8 and M20 scout car driver and radio operator, when commander is unbuttoned, should no longer be hit by small arms fire that does not first penetrate the vehicle. * King Tiger (Henschel turret) mantlet armor protection increased. * Fixed a bug that could cause a unit's pause orders to be change to a one-second pause if a waypoint was repositioned. * Anti-tank guns now rotate more slowly. TO&E * The Grille is now available to the Waffen-SS service. * Waffen-SS motorized Panzergrenadier formations have more Panzerfausts stored in their Opel Blitz trucks. * PSW U304(f) halftracks now carry Panzerfausts like other German halftracks. * Bedford QLT TT trucks assigned to Lorried Battalions and carrying infantry platoons are now stocked with extra PIAT ammunition. * Fixed an issue where if an entire Panzergrenadier battalion was purchased, sometimes one platoon would be left without available halftrack transport. * Adjusted ammunition counts for various artillery units. * These vehicles will now properly have a full crew when they are purchased as individual vehicles: Firefly, Stuart III, Stuart V, Stuart VI, and Crusader AA. * The imposter "Vickers" team that is actually a 2IC team available for purchase as a Specialist Team has been removed. * Commonwealth service QB Infantry branch once again has Observer teams available for purchase as Specialist Teams. * Some Kriegsmarine Specialist Team troops were being improperly equipped with the Gewehr 43 rifle. These troops are now equipped with the Kar 98K. * Adjustments to ranks of various Kriegsmarine troops. * German Heer once again have a Panzer Division Escort Company. * SS Panzer Division Escort Company in Quick Battles now has three subordinate ATG squads assigned, instead of three subordinate ATG platoons. Art * Fixed a misaligned passenger in White Scout Car. * Fixed an issue with 105mm-armed M4 Sherman turret rotation on slopes. * Fixed normal maps on Humber IV and Daimler tires. * Adjustments to assignment of uniform textures for Luftwaffe infantry NCOs, Commanders, and Kriegsmarine troops. * Replaced missing brittleness indicator dot. * Adjustments to King Tiger model and texture (Henschel turret variant). * Adjustments to airborne 6 pounder ATG model.

I knew that screenshot looked familiar. Is your pic from the 2nd scenario? It looks like to be the exact same building where I saw this bug. The bug may be an issue with that particular campaign. Either due to some glitch in map design or from its use of certain terrain mods. I've never experienced this bug in any other scenario or campaign.

I came across this bug too while playing Ithikial's "Lions of Carpiquet" campaign.

That was CMMG's "Counterattack at Son" scenario. The author used the neat looking "canal bridge" to represent the Bailey Bridge at Son, but no one, the author or his playtesters, noticed that the canal bridge couldn't support the weight of either the German Panthers or the British Cromwells (not exactly behemoths). So, it led to the absurd result of the British being stuck on one side of the canal and the Germans on the other. Eventually, a replacement scenario with a workable bridge was uploaded to the Repository, but a lot a of people found out in a frustrating way that CMx2 does indeed take into account that armor can only cross certain types of bridges.

I am interested CMFB's subject matter- the Bulge and other areas of combat in the ETO late 1944/early 1945. Also, I think CMx2 3.0 is a terrific game that I really enjoy playing. So, CMFB is an instant pre-order on my part. It's the subject matter that sells these games to me. CMx2's WW2 stuff? All instant pre-orders. The hypothetical modern stuff? No sale. I skipped CMSF and CMBS. (I also skipped CM:A.) I have no interest in those games' subject matters. None. Zero. Zilch. It wouldn't have mattered if CMBS was released with a ton of new features I still wouldn't have purchased it because I know I'd never play it. Still, when CMBS got its own forum then I didn't go there "to announce my displeasure throughout the world" that BFC had decided to go back to hypothetical modern warfare for its next major release.

Agreed on Hugh Cole's "Ardennes." Rather dry reading, but terrific research and detail. The 2001 edition published by William S. Konecky Associates is very good as to presentation: full color maps and lots of photographs. Used copies can be found on Amazon for $8. An older "pop" history book not yet mentioned is John D. Eisenhower's "Bitter Woods." Eisenhower was a good writer and due his family connections had access to a lot of the top commanders for his research. (However, he pulls his punches as to any criticism because these men were his dad's subordinates.) Eisenhower's book was the first to really publicize the heroism of Lyle Bouck's I&R platoon. A more academic/professional treatise is John Nelson Rickard's "Advance and Destroy: Patton as Commander in the Bulge." Written by a professional Canadian military officer and Ph.D holder, this a very detailed operational study of Patton's famous "90 degree turn" and the subsequent attritional fighting to push the Germans out of the Bulge. It's not "lite" reading material, but it's fairly well-written.

Blunt has come under fire by a few 84th veterans as being a fabricator and a BS artist. His other book, "Foot Soldier," received some scathing reviews by men claiming to be veterans of the 84th who call into question Blunt's tales of daring-do. Are these guys just carrying-on a personal grudge? Or did Blunt's take on old soldier's stories go little too far?

I read this book a year ago. It does have it strengths- its depth of details, the maps, photos, and illustrations. However, it does have some issues: 1) It's a translated work- Swedish to English. Thus, you'll come across a lot of awkwardly worded sentences and phrases. 2) It was published by a small company that didn't have a large editing staff. Misspellings, factual mistakes, and the aforementioned issues with the translation are too frequent. 3) Bergstrom clearly set-out to be antidote to the Stephen Ambroses of the world. That's not entirely a bad thing. Ambrose's WW2 books with their "Greatest Generation" nostalgia are very poor history. Late in his career, Ambrose appeared to be more interested in building monuments than producing solidly researched historical work. Thus, it appeared refreshing at first that Bergstrom was definitely not in the thrall of the "Greatest Generation fighting the Great Crusade" storyline. However, unfortunately, he goes to the opposite extreme of Ambrose. He seems to go out of his way to cut the American army down-to-size as to its achievements in the Bulge. He over-emphasizes every American failure and takes every German estimate of heavy casualties inflicted upon their foes at face value. By the end of the book, I was wondering how the heck the American army even managed to land in Normandy, let alone help win the war. Bergstrom's work definitely has its value, but it's not particularly balanced and the poor editing/translation lessen its merits.

BFC been very upfront that CMBB and CMAK almost ruined them. We'll never see the scope of a CMx1 release in any future Combat Mission game. People simply didn't buy those games in the numbers that justified BFC's efforts and costs in creating them. The disappointing sales of CMBB, which sold less than CMBO, and CMAK , which sold less than CMBB, is what led BFC to adopt their current base game/modules/packs sales strategy that has thankfully kept them open for business.

An R-35, huh? How are you going to react when you see a "grenade" taking out one of your Tigers? It does happen. DO NOT GET TOO CLOSE to infantry with any of your AFVs. There is a good chance they will get destroyed or immobilized by what the game shows as hand grenades. In game terms, the hand grenades being thrown at tanks from R-35s to King Tigers are supposed to represent a host of close-assault techniques that WW2 infantry enacted against armor. It's one of the game's "fudges" due the complications and expense of programming the pixeltruppen actually doing close-assaults against armor.

Cool signs. But "famous Peiper photo?" That's not Joachim Peiper chomping on a cigar next to the Malmedy sign. It's believed that man is Untersharfuhrer Ochsner. Although Ochsner's identity as the man in that photo has not been fully confirmed, it's clear from the other photos taken of that individual that he's definitely NOT Peiper. The other photos show a man clearly lacking Peiper's finer features, thinner face, and cleft chin.

Yep. Can't say he wasn't asking for it. It was clear as day that he was deliberately being provocative and trying to distract/disrupt (ie. the SOP of the bored troll.) He was trying to either get this thread locked or to see how far he could push things until the ban-hammer came down. And when he learned people were ignoring him, he changed his screen-name in an attempt to get around that. Straight-up trolling. He spent the last two days here instantly pouncing on any reply to his trollbait. Hell of a way to spend Christmas, but a troll's gotta troll especially one that had WAY too much time on his hands. And now we have to wait and see under what guise he will return to us as because most likely he'll pull a Steiner14 and keep popping back on here with different handles until he finally gets bored or grows-up.