General Jack Ripper

I was just kidding Sex robots sound awesome, so long as they can cook and clean as well.

It's only a matter of time now...

Hey, we've already got all the tanks and artillery we need, all we need is Charles' nightmare vision of a giant space lobster, with laser claws and lightning antennae! Given how good he is at main battle tanks, a giant evil space lobster would be absolutely terrifying. You know, I had that thought for a split second...

If we're talking about Combat Mission games we'd like to see in the future, may I cast a vote for Space Lobsters of Doom? I've been waiting for this mythical game for over a decade now.

We'll see what happens when the reinforcements arrive, provided I even hold any of the map when they do. I'm currently getting my teeth kicked in literally everywhere. 75mm AT Gun fires two shots, scores two hits, and fails to kill it's target, meanwhile a single round of return fire kills the entire crew. It's been one of those battles... PM sent.

So, what happened to 2nd Platoon? Creighton Abrams happened.

"The G.I.'s War" by Edwin Hoyt is one of my favorites.

I'm playing a bit of 'Duel in the Mist'. Very nice scenario. 2nd Platoon ran into a bunch of Shermans, and called for help. 1st Platoon advances in column to their assistance. 2nd Platoon was destroyed before we arrived. Such is war.

Well, after attempting to fix a problem that was caused by trying to fix a problem created by fixing a problem, I was forced to do a full system reset which resulted in me losing all my data. Naturally, the very first thing to be reinstalled afterwards is Combat Mission. Even after all these years, the ease of re-installing the full package of Shock Force is a testament to the robustness of the title. I don't know how many 8 year old-games will re-install and work so easily, because I generally don't play any of them... Even the E-License system worked perfectly, aside from one minor flaw when running the NATO expansion "Please Run this program as an Administrator". But that is not Battlefront's fault, rather Microsoft's war against it's own users is to blame. Just wanted to express my appreciation for a well-built piece of software, even AAA developers with hundreds of employees can only dream of such out-of-box reliability. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to marathon Task Force Thunder until I get caught back up.

That was the terrain present on the map. I didn't modify that part of it.

You know, it just occurred to me what it might mean to have the Gulf Stream pointed directly at you across the ocean. Summer time in Britain must be pretty mushy.

Twenty videos down, probably about twenty more to go. I'm not 100% sure where I'm at in the campaign, given it's June 8th, and we're only now getting to our June 6th objective.

1) Indeed, frontal assaults without numerical superiority would pretty much be the worst case imaginable. I tried the same attack again on my own time, with a couple HMG42's added to the German force, and none of the Americans even made it to the first wall. There were 12 casualties inflicted while attempting to gain fire superiority, and the first maneuver element was easily wiped out. 2) As far as I know, the bazookas were re-assigned as a company level asset sometime in 1944, being removed from the weapons platoon. 3) Both sides have stone walls fronting their positions. The woods on the German side are the thick type with 3 trees per spot, with heavy woods ground type. Until the Americans reached the first wall, all of the German positions were on a reverse slope, making area fire impossible. 4) The massed fire from the American attackers caused many casualties rather quickly among the first few turns of the attack. The Germans lost two of their three LMGs in the initial exchange of fire, hence the lack of firepower displayed.

The song is called: "Richmond is a Hard Road to Travel" It's from a digital copy of a Columbia Records recording. If you google the song title you can find many versions. Being more than 100 years old, there is no copyright held on it. The video recording style will remain long and slow as best I can. I performed the first move in that way because I had seen many AAR's on YouTube from inexperienced players, who simply issue quick moves without really planning. To play CM well, you must unlearn some things you get from common RTS games. That is one thing I have in mind. The manual may be modern, but the knowledge is as old as time itself. All battlefield performance is relative, I had no method to contest the open ground, so I resolved to run out the clock, and force you to attack my prepared defense. I'm fairly certain that would have worked. The planned switch to narration opposed to captions is purely for the sake of efficiency. Far more information can be conveyed more quickly through narration. Captioning these videos has always grated on me, I never wanted to do it. The terrain was roughly similar on both sides, I made a lot of very small edits to the map, elevation and terrain tiles, types of walls, etc. A frontal assault like that really can only succeed if there is plenty of real hard cover available. Advancing across an open field into a prepared defense is practically impossible, without an enormous superiority in firepower. Given the 1:1 ratio of attacker to defender in the example, superiority is lacking. If such is true, I was not aware of it at the time. I'll take note of this and be sure to test before making further content on the subject. I'm glad even some old timers get value from this project, it's a very nice compliment. I won't have anything to post until next weekend at the earliest, so please be patient everyone. What spare time I have is divided among many projects, and overruled by sheer procrastination.

Damn, that's a good idea. Are you a teacher by any chance Badger? You seem to have a knack for it. I just want to say, this project would be crap without everyone's suggestions. Thank you all. I'm going to start writing this weekend, so yes, the whip is officially cracked, @c3k. I really do think I had started out on the wrong tack, and rather than trying to forcefully shift the project into a new direction, I'd rather just stop, turn, and restart. It's a bit schizophrenic, but then again, I've never tried something like this before so some teething issues are to be expected. All the existing material will remain posted until superseded by new stuff. Thanks again everyone.

What I have in mind for a new format is this: Scripted Narration, introducing each concept, and explaining it in detail. Use of recorded gameplay to illustrate key points of narration. Use of still images and text to outline key concepts. Video #1 - The Infantry Squad Supporting Weapons Squad Level Tactics Video #2 - The Infantry Platoon Supporting Weapons Platoon Level Tactics Working with Armor Video #3 - The Infantry Company The Platoon as a Tactical Unit Supporting Weapons The Weapons Platoon, or Machine Gun Section Company Level Tactics Company Level Operations Video #4 - The Infantry Battalion Battalion Operations Supporting Weapons Combined Arms Operations Video #5 - Mechanized Infantry Differences in Employment Comparison to Light Infantry Working with Armor Video #6 - Armor The Role of the Tank Tank Platoon Tactics Armor Operations Video #7 - Artillery Types of Artillery Large vs. Small Calling for Fire Terminal Effects Video #8 - Air Support Types of Aircraft Weapon Effectiveness Point Target vs. Area Target So what I'm planning is to make each video less 'demonstrative' and more 'informative' which could allow me to make more effective use of my limited time. The big problem I had early on was I had started out to illustrate the Field Manual, rather than using the Field Manual to inform the Combat Mission player. I think this is a fundamental flaw in my efforts to produce this video series. Let me know what you think.

I need to ask for some advice from the lot of you: I had made my mind up to attempt to unify these TTP videos into a new format. The trouble is, while each of the concepts are very small when read on the page, to adequately explain them seems to take an excessive amount of time. Do you think it would be a hindrance to go into less detail , and thus cover broader strokes of the materiel at once, or is the focus on smaller details of more benefit to the audience? Looking over the vast amount of potential materiel leads me to envision an endeavor that could potentially take years to complete (due to low production time), or I could simplify the content, expand each video to cover more of it, yet leave fine details by the wayside. What say you?

I know, but I wanted it anyway. Such delicious toys, taken away at the last moment. Very sad.

* Scoped M1 Garand rifle removed, replaced with scoped Springfield M1903A4.

I just finished reading this entire thread, and I have to say it's pretty epic. I don't have anything constructive to add. Sorry. How can you not have read this book: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22523 Not only was there an American invasion of Siberia, but there was also a combined U.S. - British operation in the Archangel region. Something about Communists just rubs people the wrong way.

Thankfully, he managed to button up in time. I literally do think my MGS crewmen have the worst job on earth. If I make it through Dar al as Sud without killing any of them it will be a miracle. Another Task Force Thunder video will be up tonight, and another Road to Montebourg will be up next weekend.

AND, We're back! New format, voice commentary, shoddy sound volume, and glorious mediocrity! Don't worry, I'll improve things next video.

FRAPS works fine on windows 10, uninstall FRAPS, download a new installer and reinstall it, then set the default video player to Windows Media Player instead of 'Movies and TV', which will run the compatible codecs. Then, FRAPS should work just fine, I've been using it with Windows 10 since day 1.