General Jack Ripper

That's exactly where this is from. You know, I just had a thought. What if a reinforcement arrives placed in a building that has already been destroyed?

That was General Sedgwick. "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!" *POW*

To anyone complaining about how visible foxholes and trenches are: http://cmmodsiii.greenasjade.net/?p=1107 Get that mod, it works! Often times I won't notice foxholes unless I'm right on top of them.

The house may have been destroyed by artillery, but this gunner doesn't seem to care: I don't know if this has been reported already. Save file is available, PM me.

Sorry, I didn't notice the other thread. Thanks Rambler and Ithikial.

I know it's been a while, but I'm planning on firing this up starting this week. Has there been any changes to the campaign after open testing started, or is the version 1.0 beta still the same?

Just wanted to report in, my playtest of the scenario finally finished. The Americans scored a major victory. Dad simply plowed through any resistance left with a wall of Shermans, pushed his infantry onto the objective, then ran his tanks back to the exit zones. SPOILER: (Highlight to reveal.) The arrival of the SturmGeschutz was a welcome surprise, but they were all wiped out while causing minimal damage. Playing as the Germans, I expected more reinforcements than just a few StuGs. See below: I think that is an excellent idea. Bringing the reinforcements in earlier will allow the German player to make better use of his existing weapons, and allow him to deploy the reinforcements. As the time sits now, by the time the reinforcements came in, I had already lost control of the vast part of the map. So the reinforcements were stuck in their arrival zone. SPOILER: (Highlight to reveal.) The infantry that arrived basically just sat in the woods because there was nowhere they could move to and not be observed. Anyway, I guess that's it from my end. This was an enjoyable scenario, I think the length, size of map, and the forces available are good. Just need to space out the U.S. reinforcements a bit so they can be easily integrated into the fight without breaking the pace. And like I said, maybe more tall grass and bushes to create more potential concealment for the infantry. It's very difficult and frustrating to push troops around wide open spaces when tanks and machineguns are everywhere. The concept of the raid is a good one, get in, smash things up, get out. That leads to an enjoyable battle that offers a nice change from simply "capture the objective".

Once again, I got caught playing CMBN while quite sleep-deprived. A few casualties were the result:

Damn this made me laugh! It seems the situation has taken a turn for the worse. Here's hoping you can clean up a bunch of Baneman's armor, so you can maneuver freely once again.

No they don't, off-map missions always show as tracers. 3D mortar shell objects are only shown with on-map mortars, and just having checked mine, they don't fall sideways either.

Yes, because people complained about it when it was the other way around.

Well, after almost a year, The Road to Montebourg is back! [applause!] I know it was kind of a d*ck move to stop right as "The Labyrinth" kicked off, and I apologize. I've decided to call off all non- Combat Mission projects for a while, so more videos will come along quickly. Enjoy.

I always detached a two-man Scout Team for this purpose, often leaving them behind when the squad dismounts. (Granted in a two-team squad, that's not exactly feasible, but those wonderful U.S. 3-Team Squads are perfectly suited for that purpose!) If they get killed, you're only out a couple of rifles, and the rest of the squad's firepower is intact.

Sorry, I should have clarified when I said "my normal rule" because my rule of thumb is to split an assault team containing the squad leader, and use it as a dedicated non-combat observation element. (See the Part 3-A video.) Thus, when playing the Germans, I violate my normal rule, and leave the Squad in one piece. Minimum of 4 men, out of a typical 9-man squad. Thus, splitting off 4 men and not using them as a fighting element, is seriously reducing your available short/medium range firepower. Especially when splitting off an "Assault Team" also brings any semi- and fully- automatic rifles with it. So, if you're going to Split your German Squads, you need to make sure you have two combat-capable elements, both with sufficient firepower. The normal "Split Teams" command seems to work best for that purpose.

I do know of German units with 3 team squads, but I wanted these early videos to use bog standard Infantry Rifle Platoons. It's an artifact of my initial design plan, which rapidly changed from then to now. I left in the two-team squad mostly because you'll see that squad type very often, and I've noticed a trend among new players (and some old ones) of never splitting squads. I wanted to point out the fact that even if your squad only has two teams, you can still do things with it. I will definitely be doing videos with some common drills/maneuvers. The very next video in the series will be showing the four "F's" in a simplistic fashion, utilizing the 'Tactical Maneuver', 'Components of Firepower', and 'Splitting Squads into effective Teams' concepts already covered. My initial written outline for this series has basically become obsolete, but I definitely still want to cover 'Tactical Decision-Making', 'Combat Power', and 'Situational Awareness' before I jump full-tilt into battle drills and combined arms. Granted, I'm not a qualified instructor by any means, so the best I can do is go by the book, and collect lots of feedback. I might ask for volunteers to help make demonstrations, but that won't be until later down the line. Of course, anything you guys want to submit, in the form of TACSOP's, Drills, Rule of Thumb, etc. is more than welcome. The more varied knowledge we can cram into this thing, the better it will be for everyone.

Just how could Baneman's filthy heathen swine not accept such a generous offer when presented with such a picture of perfection? Truly, this screenshot is a portent of greater deeds to be done, with greater glory and honor to be won! All Hail the Mighty Canister Round! The most time-honored round in existence!

By all means, criticize! It's part of the scientific process after all, and is necessary to keep up the quality of information presented in these videos. My intention is to strive towards the best quality I can manage, given the fact I have no real setup, merely my bedroom and a headset. Any advancements in quality I can manage, I will do my best to make happen, but I can't be aware of potential improvements without receiving this feedback. The Smoke vs. WP topic will require some testing on my part. I have no idea how the TacAI chooses between the two types of ammunition. Aside from that, here is the second half of the video. I've skipped to posting a final cut, done along the same lines as the previous part: Once again, this will stay unlisted for review purposes before going public. Enjoy.

I heartily approve of this use of area fire. To quote Starship Troopers: 'You're not paid to bring ammo home with you.'

I'm not fussy about smoothness, I was trying to cut out any sharp breath intakes, moments of silence, or any other unneeded words or sentences to keep the length down as much as possible. A few syllables were unfortunate casualties, I'll do better on the next recording. The major difference between Smoke and WP is the rate of smoke generation, and the delivery method. WP has a bursting charge to scatter the phosphorous and quickly generate a good smoke screen. Regular Smoke is more like the smoke grenades, it burns a materiel that creates the smoke. I'm not fully conversant on the specifics, I'll be doing some research before I cover it. I do have plans to cover specific weapons and ammunition later on in this series. There will be a few more parts to Chapter One, then Chapter Two will be entitled "Employing Fires" and will cover the individual weapons, as well as common supporting weapons used at the Platoon level. Basically, all of Chapter Two will be 'how to use your weapons'. There was no way to fix it aside from recording again. Personally, I don't use words very often, so recording a voiceover is an effort. Thanks for your feedback earlier Badger, it closely mirrored my own thoughts, which means it must be most excellent feedback indeed!

I'm with you on that one, but splitting the first Assault Team as a dedicated observation Team is the best workaround you'll get. It does work well, stick that 4 man Squad Leader Team into good cover with a short cover arc, and just let them observe and report.

This is my intended final cut for part 3A. I removed redundant statements, any dead air longer than a few seconds, and added title cards and introduction. The second half will have the German Squads, and conclusion. If it passes muster, I'll make this public, and post the second half.

Well, for what it's worth, I always approve of a plan read simply: "Make everything explode." Once I realized there were two SturmTigers, I was waiting for buildings to topple like dominoes. Then again, I have no idea as to the ammunition capacity on those tanks. I haven't used SturmTigers myself since CMBB. It was certainly nice to see them again, and in such a dramatic fashion too! Thanks Ian, and thank you Bud for taking the time to make this comic.

Nicely done. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

1) Can do. I left that in as a spot of humor, but I'll remove it. 2) I'll chop things up for sake of brevity, I was a bit worried about video length, and had intended to cut a bit more out. Redundant statements and such. I'll get working again. Thanks for the feedback Badger.

It's hard to tell without counting individual bullets.