General Jack Ripper

I'm sorry I've been gone. Circumstances beyond my control kept me quite busy.
It's almost like a significant portion of the population had some reason to stay home as much as possible while ordering lots of packages from the internet.
I dunno what that was about, but once I finish buying a new PC for video editing I'll be producing videos again.

To get a good approximation of Russians in CMBS go look for those Youtubers who decided to give the Steam CM franchise a spin without ever having played the game before. A lot of 'How does this work?', 'Oh! I just blew up!', 'Oh no, my men are dying!' and 'I'll just run him into the middle of the field and..."

Not enough T-80s though.

I'm sorry I've been gone. Circumstances beyond my control kept me quite busy.
It's almost like a significant portion of the population had some reason to stay home as much as possible while ordering lots of packages from the internet.
I dunno what that was about, but once I finish buying a new PC for video editing I'll be producing videos again.

ZIP-CRACK!
"Did you see that?"

ZIP-CRACK!
"Did you see that?"

ZIP-CRACK!
"Did you see that?"

ZIP-CRACK!
"Did you see that?"

ZIP-CRACK!
"Did you see that?"

I only ever play a scenario seriously once. I play ironman and only keep one save I overwrite every turn. The maximum amount of time I can 'rewind' is thus limited to 60 seconds. So if I want to 're-roll' my turn I can do that (or if I forgot to give an order I intended to, etc.), but I cannot go back to fifteen minutes ago and move down another approach route.
Whatever result I get at the end, is what I get. If I get my butt kicked fair and square I give a friendly nod to the scenario designer and move on. I may play it again from the other side just to experiment or see what was the situation from the other side, but I don't take those seriously and I rarely finish them. Once I've seen what happens in a scenario it's difficult for me to go back and do it again given I've already seen it once, I wouldn't feel it was 'fair'.

I have to admit I am very stubborn.
It is very hard for me to just move on.  Easier if it is a player created scenario.
When I was starting my career, one of my managers wrote on my annual performance review, 'Mark does not tolerate short comings in others easily.'  She meant this as a negative in regards to my team interactions.
I wrote in the box next to it for my comments.  'Thank you.  Few really understand the value excellence.  I will NOT slack off.'
So, it is very hard me to just write in my scenario log I keep "detour".

ZIP-CRACK!
"Did you see that?"

There's only two types of ground impassible to infantry, so you'll likely not see it much, and it will be obvious when you do.
The trouble is some types of rubble or flavor objects can be used to block a door and make it impassible, and you won't know until your guys refuse to use the door.
Personally I think if the scenario designer wants to block a door, he can simply not put the door there in the first place.

Watching tanks roam around the NTC scenarios like ships at sea was a picturesque and relaxing way to spend my weekend.
Thanks.

It doesn't work so well point blank against the firing slit of a wooden bunker, but it seems pretty much perfect for all other applications.

The easiest way to clear enemy out of buildings is to apply high explosive to any and all suspicious rooms, floors, and doors.

Here's another one. The tank platoon finally shows up.
I'm going to have to ask him where he's been all day, and why my boys had to die because he wasn't there.

I like the way you think.
There is another angle you may not have considered, which is strange because the rudiments of it were demonstrated in the opening part of this battle.
If the town is the objective, then you need to get your mass (I.E. your infantry) into the town. To do this you are confronted by one big problem, all that open space between you and it.
That being said, I have one question that might shed some light:
How many smoke rounds does a T-62 carry?
Once upon a time I was confronted by a similar but much smaller scale tactical problem, how to cross an open area that was covered by machine guns and cannon. I partially solved that problem with the creative use of smoke.
(Video time-stamped to relevant turns.)
While my idea is a mere embryo born from a single seed that began and ended it's brief lifetime before it could even learn to crawl, perhaps an entire tank Company on some rolling green hills of Germany can develop this embryo into a fully-fledged creature?
TL;DR - Blind him with smoke, then CHARGE!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmW_vcwM_qxukdDjpfUEerpICUzTrTKek
The full playlist for the Combat Mission: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures project is linked above, including:
Combat Mission Normandy Tactics - by Jeffrey Paulding Combat Mission Tips - by his1ojd Combat Stress, Combat Shock & Morale - by Josey Wales Combat Mission: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures - by Chris Maillet (Me) New, completed videos will be posted into this thread. Feel free to ask questions, make observations, or criticize anything you see.
This project would be worth nothing without your feedback.
 
Using excerpts from: FM 3-21.8 The Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad this video gives a brief explanation of how to utilize an infantry rifle squad in Combat Mission.
 
Using excerpts from: FM 3-21.8 The Infantry Rifle Platoon and Squad and Bil Hardenberger's Blog: Battle Drill this video gives a brief explanation of how to utilize an infantry platoon in Combat Mission.
 
Using excerpts from: FM 3-21.10 The Infantry Rifle Company and Bil Hardenberger's Blog: Battle Drill this video gives a brief explanation of how to utilize an infantry company in Combat Mission.
The old thread in the CMBN forum is deprecated, and I will no longer be following it.

Well I'll do the correct thing and buy it here, then activate it on steam.
Then I'll buy a second copy on steam as a gift for a buddy of mine.
Then I'll force him to play it.

Last month, February 6, was the birthday of Eva Braun; it passed unnoticed. The Braun family might have celebrated but their members are extinct; Eva's father died in 1964 and the final member, Gretl, died in 1987. She had named her daughter Eva, in honor of her sister, who was born on the very day of the Nazi capitulation. That Eva committed suicide in 1975 after her boyfriend was killed in a car accident. The star-crossed family leaves one with a sense of futility, all that drama and turbulence gone like a brief summer breeze.



Eva Braun was born in 1912 into a lower-middle-class Bavarian family and she was educated in Catholic schools. Her grades were mediocre but she excelled in sports; swimming and skiing. In 1929 she was employed as a saleswoman and model in the shop of Heinrich Hoffman, Hitler’s photographer, and in this way met the rising politician. Eva was not initially impressed, she confided to a sister calling him "a gentleman of a certain age [Hitler was 23 years older]  with a funny mustache and carrying a big felt hat.” But Hitler, a constant visitor to the shop, was persistent, showering her effusive compliments. She surrendered. After the controversial death of Geli Raubal, Hitler’s niece, Eva became his mistress, living in his Munich flat and trying acting despite the fierce opposition of her father. In 1936, Hitler decided to move her to the Berghof on the Obersalzberg, concerned about her stability; the year before, suspecting female rivals, she had made a second suicide attempt. There she remained until the Bunker and Götterdämmerung.

Goodness is as banal as evil and may exist in the most unlikely people: even Hitler's mistress.
-Angela Lambert

At the Berghof Eva acted as a hostess; she was gracious with the constant guests and kind to the help. Although an ardent proponent of German victory, she never joined the Nazi party and no one heard her utter an anti-Semitic word. (1) She shared with Hitler a love of dogs. Eva was a prolific photographer; her folksy home movies at the Berghof have left us rich historical documents. 

But, the frivolity... Eva spent most of her time exercising, brooding, reading cheap novelettes, watching romantic films, or concerning herself with her own appearance, particularly her weight. She was addicted to fashion and changed her clothes several times a day. Needy, she obsessed over Hitler's attentions or lack thereof; Dr Morell claimed that she asked her to give Hitler drugs to boost his sexual appetite. In her diary, Eva boasted "I am the mistress of the greatest man in Germany and in the world." However, she resented that they rarely appeared in public together and that few Germans even knew of her existence. 

 According to Albert Speer's memoirs, Eva approached Hitler in "high indignation"; Hitler quietly instructed Speer, who was armaments minister at the time, to allow limited availability of women's cosmetics and luxuries rather than instituting an outright ban, Speer later said, "Eva Braun will prove a great disappointment to historians."

Eva had her other moments of defiance. She was the only person who would dare to declare, “I’m going to bed!” during one of Hitler’s endless nighttime monologues. And she made it clear that she was repelled by his vegetarian diet. "I can't eat that stuff". 

Was Eva a victim of Hitler's manipulative, Svengali-like wiles? It seems she was carefully selected and groomed by him as a symbol of unthreatening and devoted (and blond) German womanhood. The extent of their sexual life is veiled in mystery. There is no doubt that she would have had led an entirely different, and probably happier, life if the meeting in the photography shop had never happened.

As the Reich began to crumble in late 1944, she invited her cousin Gertraud Weisker to visit her at the Berghof. Decades later, Weisker recalled that although women in the Third Reich were expected not to wear make-up, drink, or smoke, Braun did all of these things. "She was the unhappiest woman I have ever met," 

Eva Braun's diary:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/eva-braun-s-diary

1- There is some controversy over Braun's awareness of the Holocaust

Well I'll do the correct thing and buy it here, then activate it on steam.
Then I'll buy a second copy on steam as a gift for a buddy of mine.
Then I'll force him to play it.

Well I'll do the correct thing and buy it here, then activate it on steam.
Then I'll buy a second copy on steam as a gift for a buddy of mine.
Then I'll force him to play it.

[whispers] Whisper whisper whisper.
Sorry, I just wanted to get in on this action.