Myles Keogh

"The MAN?" The maker of a niche PC game? Really? LOL "I'm not happy here and do not wish to spend anymore time on it." LOL We've seen meltdowns on here before, but this one was classic. Maybe it being Christmastime with possibly time-off from work or school brought-out his inner-child.

I played SL/ASL extensively for a ten year period, but then in mid-1993 I stopped playing. At the time, I thought it'd just be a short hiatus, but I never played it again. I was a true fan. I had every release that AH made for ASL with the exception of the deluxe modules. And for a couple of years after I stopped playing, I was still purchasing content and annuals. I was thinking that someday I'd get back into it, but here it is over two decades later and my modules are all collecting dust in my parents' basement. (Nostalgia keeps me from selling them or throwing them out.) There were a number of reasons why I stopped playing. Different priorities. Lack of time. Moving away from home. My opponents scattering throughout the country. Still, I thought that I'd one day get back to it because I didn't think that anything would ever rival it for a WW2 tactical gaming experience. I especially didn't think a PC game would ever match it. I remember playing Steel Panthers back in the mid-90's and thinking what a shallow game it was in comparison to ASL. However, CMBO shattered my belief that no game could rival ASL, let alone surpass it. Anyone I noticed one feature from the OP's list that is still missing CMx2: Terrain/Buildings catching on fire. This feature was in both SL/ASL and CMx1, but so far it's MIA in CMx2. (I remember playing a COI scenario "Breakout of Borisov" where I rushed my Russian cavalry into a village and purposely set it on fire to deny it as cover to my enemy. The wind picked-up the flames and as the game wore on almost all of Board 3 was covered with "burning" counters.)

The "1.0" or "2.0" on mod names are usually just for the modder's own identification purposes. He wants to mark his mods by their version number because sometimes modders update their work and this makes it easier for him and players to see at a glance which version of that mod is the latest. It rarely has anything to do with the game's patch or upgrade status. Uniform mods will work in quick battles. The vast majority of mods will work with any version of the game. However, there are some exceptions. Earlier uniform mods made prior to the CMx2 2.0 upgrade (late 2012) will not work with newer versions of the game because of how that upgrade changed how uniform files were named. (Likewise, you won't get newer uniform mods to work with older versions of the game.) You can get some of them to work by renaming the files, but the CMx2 2.0 upgrade also added in uniforms for NCOs and officers that weren't in the 1.0 version so most of the older uniforms mods will be incomplete even if you do rename the files. [CMFI was released with the 2.0 upgrade so its always had that version's uniform labeling system. However, CMBN uniforms made prior to CMFI's release will not be compatible for the reasons stated above.] Also, some other mods, such as Vin's animated text and UI mods such as JuJu's, will have issues if one is not using the correct version of the game. But for the most part the majority of available mods (vehicles, sound, terrain, special effects) are perfectly compatible with any version of the game. Also, there can also be issues with playing older scenarios/campaigns with newer versions of the game due to TO&E changes made over the years.

You don't have to wait around for the CMFI 3.0 upgrade. It was released last year. So, if you purchase the 3.0 upgrade then you will get the command lines in CMFI by pressing the hotkey- "ALT-Z."

Did you also purchase the Gustav Line module? If you didn't then you won't get snow in CMFI. If you did purchase Gustav Line but see no snow then you have a tech issue.

Are you playing with a fully upgraded and updated game? If so then this may be an issue with the campaign itself due to it being designed with CMx2 1.0. There have been a number of changes to CMBN's TO&Es from the various patches and upgrades that have unfortunately created "bugs" such as missing or extra equipment/vehicles and OOB issues in older campaigns/scenarios. Since all the scenarios/campaigns for CMBN (and other CMx2 games) are user "donated," BF doesn't fix them when it patches or upgrades the game. It leaves the decision to update a scenario/campaign to the campaign designer and/or the players. Sadly, a number of the earlier released campaigns have some TO&E issues due to their not being updated. The campaigns are particularly problematic as to being updated due to how they are structured. Apparently, it would require a lot of work.

Same here. If I see a scenario that is loaded with "elite" or "crack" troops then it's almost instantly chucked into my recycle bin. Elite and crack troops in CMx2 are really, really good. They get such big boosts as to morale that it seems like the morale system no longer functions as designed. They also spot extremely well. Being elite or crack turns CMx2 pixel troops into almost fearless, automaton warriors. Having an entire company of John Rambos may be fun to play around with on occasion, but if you're selling your scenario as "historical" or "semi-historical" then it's almost always over-the-top in CMx2 world. Crack and elite should be reserved for the very best of the best: Knight's Cross, DSO/Victoria Cross, DSC/Medal of Honor recipients, or Heroes of the Soviet Union: Wittman's Tiger Murphy's platoon HQ Baskeyfield's AT gun There is an unfortunate tendency by some scenario designers to overinflate the experience level of formations that were described as "elite" or crack:" Allied paratrooper formations and Waffen-SS panzer outfits. However, those outfits were often filled with green replacements or were, in fact, almost entirely green. Yes, these were highly motivated and conditioned soldiers in comparison to men of other outfits, but there are ways in CMx2 of representing "crack" outfits without elevating all the individual soldiers in that outfit into pixelated Sergeant Rocks. [Of course, there is the opposite end of the spectrum. There was a terrific scenario designer for CMx1 who firmly believed that ALL the experience levels above "green" made the pixel troops too unrealistically brave. So, he had a number of scenarios in which all the player's troops were green regardless of the historical unit's actual experience level. It certainly made for challenging (and, at times, frustrating) scenarios.]

One of the few unfortunate side effects of BF upgrading CMBN to stay up-to-date with newer CM releases is that some of the older scenarios and campaigns that were created under the 1.0 engine are now out-of-date especially as to OOBs. There have been changes to OOBs that have resulted in some older scenarios/campaigns now missing vehicles/equipment or having what appears to be bugged chains-of-command (ex: changes made to the OOB for US armored infantry platoons will result in their having TWO platoon commanders in older scenarios.) Since all CM campaigns/scenarios are user-made, BF doesn't update them when it patches or upgrades the game. It leaves it to the individual designers to update them or not. And most have chosen not too. So, when one plays an older scenario/campaign with a fully updated/upgraded version of CMBN then one will occasionally stumble across OOB discrepancies or "bugs."

Yes, CMFI was a surprise. I think Steve's only hint was that they had "something nice" in the works. That comment led to a lot of speculation including one individual hoping it was going to be a reboot of CMx1?!?! However, there is a HUGE difference between when CMFI was released and today. In 2012, CMBN was the only other CMx2 base game. (CMSF was considered "done.") Today, BF has CMBN, CMFI, CMRT, and CMBS all of which are crying out for additional modules and content. Any "surprise" release would delay modules for those other games which would upset a lot of people. Since CMBN's release in 2011, BF is averaging one or two major releases (base game or module) per year. They released CMBS in January and the new Bulge base game is shaping-up to be the 2nd 2015 release. If they're going to squeeze in a 3rd major release for 2015 then I hope it's for CMFI or CMRT, but that's not looking good. If BF released the final module for CMFI and/or a CMRT module this year then that would be a very pleasant surprise.

I do want to believe that CMRT is going to get a module. Sometime. However, we haven't heard a peep about it. Since the 2011 release of CMBN , BF is averaging one or two major releases a year (base game or module). They've already released one major release for 2015 with CMBS. They've informed us that they are working on the new Bulge base game and there have been hints that something is in the works for CMFI. So, if 2015 is going to be the year of more than two releases then it appears the Bulge base game and a CMFI module are the leading candidates. Are we looking at 2016 as the earliest we can expect something new for CMRT? Or is CMRT the first causality of the law of diminishing returns for CMx2? I certainly hope not. (I'll buy anything WW2 related that BF releases. I skipped both CMSF and CMBS (no interest whatsoever in either title), but will pre-order any new WW2 content. I hope they're are enough consumers like me to keep this series going, but unfortunately we're are a niche.) As for new content for CMRT that I'd love to see: Germans: Luftwaffe field divisions, the SS, German terrain features, and, if we're really lucky, one or two Axis minors such as the Finns or Hungarians. Soviets: Lend-lease vehicles and partisans. I certainly don't think snow would be particularly far-fetched to be included because, as others have noted, its already been coded into the engine.

Yep. Apparently, CMBB didn't even get within sniffing distance of CMBO's sales. Steve has repeatedly informed us that while the OstFront is popular among wargamers it's NOT popular among casual gamers. It was casual gamers that turned CMBO into CMx1's biggest seller. And American and British casual gamers couldn't give a fig about Commies fighting Nazis. Steve has also described CMBB as a well-intentioned "mistake." The amount of content and work BF put into CMBB was not rewarded in the sales figures despite it being a better and expansive game than CMBO. BF has mentioned that they'd like to do the entire Ostfront, but they've never outright mentioned that those plans are set in stone. And I wouldn't hold my breath waiting. When you think about BF's plans for CMRT, CMFI, CMBS, and the new Bulge game then you're looking at maybe 3-5 years before they can turn their attention to a WW2 title that isn't set in 1944-1945. Three-to-five years is a long time in the PC gaming industry even for a niche game like CMx2. What killed CMx1 was the engine's limited ability to be upgraded and diminishing sales returns. CMBB sold less than CMBO and CMAK sold less than CMBB. One has to wonder about CMx2. This is not a young gaming system. The base engine is almost ten years old. The first game of the WW2 versions is approaching its fourth anniversary. The last word we got as to work being done on a WW2 game was on the Bugle base game. I've always suspected that BF held-off on doing the Bulge as a way to inject new life and sales into an aged engine. The Bulge sells. It always has. Casual gamers are much more likely to take a chance on a Bulge title than they would Stalingrad, Kursk, El Alamein, and Casino. It's always been a bread-and-butter title in the wargame industry because it always attracts some non-wargamer buyers. If the Bulge is a success then hopefully we'll see additional East Front content, but if it isn't....?

Thanks for the quick reply and answer. I was worried there for a moment that I had screwed-up my installation, but upon seeing the same issue on my older PC then I suspected a TO&E change had been done with an upgrade or patch. So, it's good to know that everything is working as it should. I have had the redux version of this scenario for years, but it appears a "redux redux" is needed. As much as I appreciate and enjoy BF releasing upgrades and constantly improving the engine, it is unfortunate how some of the original CMBN scenarios and campaigns are now a bit out-of-date.

I was going to give this one a shot with the Americans, but then I noticed every single one of my armored infantry platoons have two first lieutenants: one with the platoon HQ team and the other with the 1st Squad. In fact, the 1st Squad has a HQ floating icon rather than an infantry one, but it's identified as an armored rifle squad not an HQ in the unit panel. Plus, every 1st Squad has two members carrying carbines rather than M1s, but these squad/HQ hybrids don't have radios. Thinking it may be a bug with the scenario, I created a Quick Battle with a U.S. armored infantry company and got every platoon being led by a 1st lieutenant who is embedded in that platoon's 1st Squad (and unlike the scenario there aren't even any separate platoon HQ teams.) Is this a bug or some sort of strange TO&E unique to U.S. armored infantry? I am updated to 3.11 with the Vehicle Pack. I recently installed CMBN to a new PC. So, I thought it may have been an issue with my installation, but I checked CMBN on my older machine and got the same issue.

It's a shame more people keep discovering that this scenario is broken the hard-way: by getting involved playing it only to discover deep in the game that it is broken due to it having the wrong bridge type. And make no mistake from how the scenario is set-up to its actual history (it's supposed to represent the bridge that supported the armor of an entire corps!) to its author's comments here: that bridge is supposed to support armor! It was NOT intended to be limited to jeeps and foot traffic as it is currently. This an easily fixed scenario: a couple of minutes work with the scenario editor to switch-out that unsuitable bridge. Upon this issue being discovered (and it's been known for over a year now), a revised version with the map edit should have been immediately uploaded to the Repository and/or CMMODs with a warning that the original scenario is broken and should be replaced with the revised one. Granted that wouldn't have prevented everyone from playing the broken version, but it still would have been a more helpful option than just doing "squat" about it. I've made an edited version. It's not pretty, but it does give the player a fully functioning bridge. I probably should have uploaded it or offered to make it available back when it became clear no one else was going to do "squat" about it, but I didn't.

Umlaut: Yeah, the character of "Viktor" is a bit far-fetched. I guess we're supposed to surmise that his family had so far fared a little better than other German Jews by 1941 due to his father being a patriotic veteran of the Kaiser's army, but still his storyline was a bit hard to swallow. One could also argue that Berlin being one of Europe's most liberal cities prior to the Nazis may also explain such unlikely friendships. Still, "Viktor" is a rather hackneyed creation. (And I'm not even going to his address his being quickly accepted by Polish partisans as both a German they could trust and his not being Jewish simply on the word of a Polish girl who is also completely unknown to them. As I said, that script....whoa!) A more realistic and maybe more interesting character could have been created by making "Viktor" the son of a Jewish mother and a decorated "Aryan" WWI veteran (or vice versa: Jewish war hero father/"Aryan" mother.) Nazi lawyers argued themselves into pretzels trying to determine how such half-Jewish Germans should categorized for either "evacuation" or sterilization. A half-Jew with a German surname and veteran father would have been a lot more believable mixing with other young Germans especially German soldiers in 1941 than a full-blooded one named "Goldstein!" Also, the writer could have addressed the emotional turmoil of a young man who wants to emulate his father's WWI heroics and fight alongside his friends for Germany, but his Jewish blood not only makes him an outsider but also an "enemy" to his country's government which all his friends thoroughly support and believe in.

I thought "Generation War" was very well acted and decently directed, but that screenplay.....? Whoa! Talk about convoluted! Wasn't the scriptwriter aware that the Ostfront was rather large encompassing hundreds of thousands of square miles and involving tens of millions of human beings? Yet, he has his characters repeatedly bumping into each other and always at the most convenient of times such as to prevent a rape or death. By Part 3, I was actually laughing as each more absurdly ludicrous scene unfolded with its truly unbelievable coincidences. The cast of young, talented, and extremely good-looking German actors/actresses deserved a better script. (And throw in that young Ukrainian actress who played the escaped Polish slave-laborer as well.) As did the set, costume, and production design teams. I certainly don't think "Generation War" is terrible, but its script keeps it from being compared to either "The Pacific" or "Band of Brothers." For a European production, it was just way too "Hollywood" in its desire to pile on "deus ex machina" plot devices to get its characters sharing screen time.

As far as I'm aware, no user-made campaigns have to date been made available to any CMRT download site. So, you're not going to find any. Unfortunately, the ONE big drawback about CMx2 in comparison to CMx1 is that we're not seeing the avalanche of user-made scenarios that occurred with the older engine. Although some posters keep insisting that CMx2's scenario/campaign editor is not as intimidating or difficult to use as it appears, the proof is in the pudding that most of CMx2's would-be scenario designers don't agree. New user-made scenarios are rare and campaigns even rarer. (There are very few user-made campaigns available even for CMBN which is approaching its fourth anniversary.) Granted a lot of the CMx1 user-made scenarios were awful, but they were so many of them that it wasn't that hard to find a few gems mixed in amongst the dross. That's just not the case with CMx2.

None of the uniform mods made prior to the 2.0 upgrade will work. Though not mentioned in its changelog, the 2.0 upgrade reworked almost all the uniforms and included bitmaps for them. They also included a number of new uniforms for NCOs and officers. They even changed how the uniforms files were labeled. Those 9th Cameronians and Argyll & Sutherland uniform mods were created by Darknight Canuck for the 1.0 version and thus will not work with the 2.0 version due to the above issues. (You can get some of those mods to work within the game, but you're going to have to re-name all the files to the 2.0 uniform labels. The SS helmet mod would be easy enough to do, but DC's CW uniforms would be a lot of work and incomplete as well due to no NCO or officer uniforms being available in his mods.)

The ending of "Fury" is so moronic with its characters acting utterly illogically that it insults your intelligence. That ending ruins the film because it's stupid! No tank crew in the history of the world would sit in an immobile vehicle in enemy territory with no chance of assistance or even the ability to call for help especially a crew of American draftees who have the end of the war well in sight. It's not only illogically stupid, but also goes against everything we've learned about these characters who throughout the film talk about "keeping alive." Yet, in the end they commit suicide rather than abandon their broken-down tank? It's not like they didn't have any other options. The screenwriter didn't even bother to surround them. It's clear that all they had to do was start walking in the opposite direction and they live. The screenwriter also apparently believed that the 2nd Armored being part of Simpson's 9th Army didn't adhere to Patton's "..an army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuaility stuff is a bunch of crap...." I thought the days of low-budget films and TV shows showing WWII being won by an American half-squad (think "Combat" or Fuller's "The Big Red One") were over in this day of the $100 million movie budgets. But 50 yr old Brad Pitt (a 50 yr old staff sergeant?!?!) and his crew of 30-somethings (yeah, right) forge on ahead all by their lonesomes! At least Bogart's "Sahara" showed the viewer the reasons why his tank crew had to fight it out by itself. And then you have even more their suicidal opponents. I'm used to Hollywood German soldiers being portrayed as incompetent warriors who rival the Imperial Stormtroopers of the Star Wars movies for tactical ineptitude, but "Fury's" climax with a German battalion immolating itself against an isolated tank was a "bridge too far" for my usual suspension of disbelief. "Fury" has some things to commend it, but its ending was as dumb as Lloyd Christmas saying: "You'll have to excuse my friend. He's a little slow. The town is back that way!"

The straight answer is: "No." None of the vehicles or equipment in the Vehicle Pack will appear in any of the stock campaigns/scenarios. In order to see/use the stuff from the Vehicle Pack in the game you must either: 1) create Quick Battles that use them, 2) design your own scenarios that include them or 3) download some of the newer scenarios that feature the items from the pack. (A few of the CW/MG stock scenarios have been updated by their designers to include the proper historical vehicles for those scenarios (Borderland, Shadow of the Hill 7 am, and Seven Winds), but you have to download them yourself from the Repository. No pack or patch will update them for you.) Supposedly, BF is working on new scenarios/campaigns that will be sold either as DLC or as a pack that may presumably feature the new vehicles/equipment, but no word as yet when those will be made available.

Apologies for necro-bumping. I did a search to see if this issue was known. It's a bit frustrating to discover it has been for nearly a year and NOTHING was done about it. If it's a bug or flawed map design then it hasn't been fixed. Of course, I didn't know about it until I was nearly 40 minutes into the scenario. Needless to say, it was irritating to discover that the famous Son Bailey bridge that took-up an overlong 10 minutes in a "Bridge Too Far" to be built doesn't support armor! It appears that despite Elliot Gould's best efforts XXX Corps' tanks ain't getting to Grave. In terms of gameplay, this breaks the scenario and makes it unplayable. The Brit tanks are stuck on one side of the canal and the Germans on the other. It's absurd because there are victory locations on both sides! The problem is that CMBN's "canal" bridges don't support armor. I don't know if once upon time they did prior to some patch or upgrade, but they certainly don't now. The description in the scenario editor is vague. The canal bridge is not described with "W" for "wide" which according to the 3.0 manual is the only type of bridge that can support all vehicles (ie tanks). It's just "canal bridge" with no descriptor. Are wooden canal bridges supposed to support armor? Anyway, aesthetics be damned! I used the scenario editor to transform that admittedly neat looking canal bridge into a plain, ordinary, mundane stone bridge with a big old "W" next to its name! It took me a minute. I have to restart the scenario, but it, at least, now has a working bridge!

Mord: Thanks again for your great work on CMBN and CMFI. It's great that you're thinking of doing a portraits mod for CMRT. However, if I may be presumptuous, but I'd keep it simple. The Ostfront with its literally hundreds of divisions and relatively scarce source material sounds like a Mt. Everest of work as to formation insignia. Also, as far as I know, the Soviets and Germans rarely wore any unit insignia in combat unlike their British and American brethren. [i love to use the Portraits Flag Patch for American and British units because they did wear them on their uniforms and some of those divisional insignia are extremely famous, but with the Germans I use either the Plain Portraits Flag [Heer] or Portraits [branch] Symbol (SS, Luftwaffe ect.)] Thus, if I had any modding ability whatsoever and to avoid a mountain of research work, which would probably always be incomplete due the paucity of sources, then I'd probably just do the generic portraits for CMRT: Plain Portraits Plain Portraits Flag Plain Portraits Tiny Flag Portraits [branch] Symbol Admittedly, I just love the addition of bright colors ("Oooh, pretty colors!") that your portrait mod brings to the rather utilitarian color template of CM's UI (and this is with Juju's great work.) And as a history geek, I do like the immersion that comes from seeing the famous American and British divisional insignia in CMBN/CMFI, but I don't share a similar enthusiasm for the far less known German/Soviet formation insignia.

BF has announced an interest in doing the entire OstFront including 41-43, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for those titles. As of now, BF's plans for CM are: 1) A modern warfare title which turned-out to be CM: Black Sea and is nearing release 2) Modules for CMRT that will take it to the end of the war. (Lend lease vehicles and partisans for the Soviets and the SS, Luftwaffe, and maybe some Axis minors (Hungarians, Finns ect.) for the Germans.) 3) A Bulge title that will allegedly feature modules depicting the war on western front from October 1944 to the end of the war. (I know a lot of veteran wargamers groan about another Bulge title, but I suspect BF held back on such a popular title so late in CMx2's development in order to hopefully inject new life and sales into what will be a pretty aged engine. Casual gamers, who couldn't give a fig about Commies fighting Nazis, may take a chance on a Bulge title.) 4) Scenario/unit packs for both CMBN and CMFI. I don't know if CMFI ever will get a vehicle pack similar to CMBN's, but BF did hint that its working on a Monte Casino map project so maybe some flame weapons/vehicles will be included in that. BF has indicated that it will sell new scenarios/campaigns for CMBN as either a pack or DLC. That's a whole lot of stuff on BF's plate. Throw in patches and additional engine upgrades and BF's has got its hands full for a very long time to come. And then there is always the possibility of diminishing returns killing the game especially as the game engine ages and new PCs/platforms and maybe even competition woo away or turn off the customer base. It could be YEARS, if ever, before we see those 41-43 Ostfront titles.

I'm a huge fan of Mord's/DC's portrait work. For both CMBN and CMFI, I do take the time to switch in the proper "Flag Patch Portraits" (divisional insignia with national flag as a background) when playing a historical or semi-historical campaign/scenario. [i really only do that for the Commonwealth and Americans because I usually leave the Germans with the more generic "Plain Portraits Flag" or Branch Symbol.] I like Mord's work so much that I'm using Mord's German "Plain Portraits Flag" (national flag as a background) mod from CMBN for CMRT. I just like seeing the additional colors and national flavor that the background flag brings to CMRT's rather utilitarian UI color template. So, I'd love to see a Soviet version of the "Plain Portraits Flag" so we could get some brilliant red in the UI when plays the Russians. Not a request, but a "it'd be nice" wish.

Exact same opinion here. I also grabbed it for $7 or so, fiddled around with it for a short while, quickly realized that it didn't grab me and that it just seemed inferior to Combat Mission in too many areas, and that I really don't like real-time games. (The review feature of turn-based Combat Mission has always been one the game's most awesome aspects.) So, I deleted it and shrugged-off the lost $7.