General Jack Ripper

I figured I'd get back into some Combat Mission, but I'm not feeling up to continuing The Road to Montebourg yet.
I got ahold of the Euroscape mod and fired up Task Force Thunder for a bit of fun.
Aside from needing to swap out some weapon sounds (damn "brass tinkling" sound effect gives me a headache) I had a lot of fun.
 
Check it out.

Thank you for the compliment.
I actually did a search on YouTube for the Euroscape mod before I recorded this and got no results. I figured it might help such a large mod if people could see what they're getting.
I think I might record a few more videos of some random battles to show off the mod a bit more, the mod is very impressive.

I haven't finished reading the whole thread. I'm on page 25 and it's 2:45am, I doubt I'll finish reading this tonight.
 
I just wanted to see if everyone was aware, VICE News has been covering the war in Ukraine from the very beginning, with a series of dispatches titled "Russian Roulette".
 
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLw613M86o5o5zqF6WJR8zuC7Uwyv76h7R
 
Anyone who is looking for an independent, alternative viewpoint of the events in Ukraine might start here.

If your enemy is advancing over open terrain, find any spot that offers cover from your fire and put mines in it.
Preplaced shell holes, haystacks, ditches, small clumps of trees, river fords, road crossings, hedgerow gaps, narrow alleyways, holes in walls, dummy foxholes, etc.
Remember, mines will not STOP your enemy, but they will cause major delays or force your opponent to move onto different ground.
 
Whenever I'm placing mines, which admittedly is not often, I look at the map from the enemy's perspective, and try to shut off an avenue of approach.
Failing that, I will try to take away a piece of key terrain by mining it heavily.
 
While doing my terrain survey, if I find myself thinking "it would suck if the enemy showed up there" then I place mines on the spot in question.

A few words of wisdom from me:
 
Combat Mission Shock Force: "Oh sh*t the mission briefing DID say I.E.D.s. Whoops. I guess I wasn't using that Abrams anyway."
 
Combat Mission Battle for Normandy: After playing The Blue and the Gray and The Road to Montebourg for three days straight, I emerged from the darkened confines of my bedroom with a thousand-yard stare. I then realized I hadn't eaten for three days.
 
Combat Mission Fortress Italy: It's the one with the Italians in it. That's all I know about that.
 
Combat Mission Red Thunder: This is the one you buy if you're a secret communist, or if you like to shoot communists.
 
Combat Mission Black Sea: If you read Red Storm Rising and think to yourself "I want to do that!" then buy this game!

Yes, I, too, will turtle when I think my losses will...
 
Sorry. I couldn't keep typing that without laughing and losing my focus. Turtle because of losses? Gadzooks! Your men WANT to die for you! They only showed up for this battle so they could prove their mettle! Don't deny them the opportunity.
 
Make some scouts. Hell, designate an entire platoon as a scout platoon. Make 'em expendable. (Don't tell them that. Tell them you've picked them, not because you don't give a toss if any survive, but because you've been impressed by their skills and fortitude. Tell 'em no one else could do what you're about to ask of them.)
 
Anyway, start small, with HUNT. Move a scout team or two up and about. Have one stop in overwatch while the other continues. Keep moving some scouts forward. Keep the ones that survived stationary. If the enemy saw them, the hard spot will go to "?" status after they've been still. On the flip side, the stationary ones will begin to spot more/better.
 
Pick the guys with binos.
 
This is the "slice the pie" approach, or, if you'd prefer, "the camel's nose under the tent", or, "I just want you to touch it once". Whichever you like.
 
Pry open the Lines of Slght and determine which zones are empty of the enemy. Move up more guns and men and dominate the empty space. If the enemy enters, he dies.
 
How will that help you here? Well, the setup zones seem to be minor depressions. Move several scouts up to the top and look around. He's got 88's? Smoke 'em. Once they're blinded, move up some HE tossers and area target the guns. Tanks? Well, you'll need freedom of maneuver, so you'll need to find the guns first.
 
Ken

akd,

I have played the game, but nowhere nearly as much as I'd like to be able to. When I get CMH sorted out, I'll be PBEMing with SLIM, too. Nor does it follow that simply because I don't have much play experience it means I can't attack game issues from the standpoint of military analysis, known real world events, veterans' accounts and other means. I have clearly stated my views many times on what should be doable in CM: everything our forebears could. See, for example what I said on pushing ATGs and the case I made thereto, as well as the carefully documented arguments I've mounted in support of on-map Indirect fire from weapons such as the leIG 18 and the sIG-33. Also, I did much the same thing which helped make the case for reining in the previously unholy abilities of tanks to instantly spot and kill infantry close assaulting, something BFC subsequently did, to the considerable benefit of game realism. And since when do you get to decree I have no right to state my views? As long as I do so within the parameters of the Forum Rules, I can and shall. Best get used to it.

Regards,

John Kettler

I know I posted in here before but I must stress this point.
 
The whole reason I bought Shock Force in the first place was it's setting. At the time Shock Force came out, many of my friends had joined the military, and some had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Having some of my friends deployed to a war zone on the other side of the planet made me naturally curious. Unfortunately there were not many good sources of information aside from the television, and some internet bloggers. While writers and television can describe events, they cannot really convey the gravity of events.
 
I think video games are a medium that allows an audience, to some small degree, to experience an event. However, with the fate of Atomic Games Seven Days in Fallujah, it seemed that video game developers were effectively told to back off. For some reason examining the events of the recent conflict was considered to be "too sensitive a topic for the public".
 
Here at Battlefront, it seemed no one got that memo, and we were given Combat Mission: Shock Force, in my opinion the most realistic depiction of war in a middle eastern country ever made. It offers those who have not experienced it a very small, but well built window into what may have been the most important event of the 21st century. It also stands as a unique product from Battlefront. While we will get other modern warfare titles in the future, something tells me they won't be jumping back into the sandbox anytime soon.
 
So for anyone who says Shock Force should be rebuilt into a different setting, think carefully about what you are saying. The first game of a new generation, and a completely unique setting as far as Battlefront Games goes, deserves to be preserved in it's original form going into the future.
 
Well, that's all I have to say about that.

Before there's more discussion about how old the movie cast is, look at this man one more time and tell me what you see.
I mean really look at him.
Do you see a 20 year old man?
Do you see a man who would jump on someone and stab their eyeballs out in order to go home?
 
 
It's been commonly stated that prolonged exposure to combat has the tendency to turn young boys into old men. In the movie, the crew of Fury landed in North Africa in 1942. It is now 1945, and they have seen the worst of the war. I was especially affected when they sat down at the dinner table in the German girls apartment. After acting like a couple of dicks straight out of high school, there was then a story told about how they had driven through the Falaise Gap after the fighting, and had witnessed a scene of death "so enormous the mind cannot comprehend it".
 
So yes, I think the movie chose the correct cast, a few guys who looked like 900 miles of bad road.
 
In regards to the shooting of the prisoner, the scene is not unique in any way. Prisoners were shot in WW2, on all sides. I recall a section from the book The GI's War in which a man was wounded on D-Day, and his friend was killed. While he was waiting on the beach to be evacuated, another GI came down to the beach with some German prisoners. The GI offered up his Thompson and asked if the wounded guy wanted to take revenge by shooting the prisoners. He refused, but the point is the offer was made in the first place.
While we can sit here in front of our computers with our modern sensibilities and think "shooting prisoners? barbarians!". Us people that live today and go watch these movies have absolutely no idea how a war of extermination should be fought. WW2 was a war of extermination, we could only win by killing everyone who fought against us.
 
The movie does a good job hammering that point through the audience's thick skull, in an extremely intense and effective way.
 
Now that's all I have to say about that. I thought the movie was great. Not perfect by any means, but a great movie. 8/10

If you want to play with ultra-modern NATO forces just go buy CMBS. I would prefer CMSF to keep the same setting and forces, just be updated to the current version of the game engine. Maybe add a few pieces of equipment that weren't in the original, like Anti-Aircraft weapons, and T-12 Antitank guns.

The General Discussion forum is down below.

It's already known that the Battle of the Bulge game is coming next, and that game will cover time until the end of the war, so putting the Maus into the game actually makes more sense than dropping everything planned for the next year or two to start working on a new game.
 
Combat Mission has existed for 15 years, and in those 15 years there has not been a France 1940 game. Stop talking about it as if it's "right around the corner" or "just hasn't been gotten to yet". As far as I know, there are no plans for a France 1940 game, and there are no plans looking into the near future. Not to mention, we have already heard from Steve that production of Vehicle Packs and additional add-on content does not adversely affect the game development cycle, so I'd say we have a much better chance of seeing new vehicles and weapons, than some mythical early-war France 1940 game.

Gentlemen, BEHOLD!
 
After much delay, and taking some time out to play other games, The Road To Montebourg is back!
 
http://youtu.be/WvCh4jGIRtk
 
Here is the planning phase for our next battle: The Labyrinth
 
Do not let the simple hedgerow fields fool you! I assure you all this map is a fiendish den of obtuse angles and reverse slopes!
Watch as my superior intellect tries, and utterly fails, to think up a clever plan to tackle this jigsaw puzzle of a map!
All I can foresee is my victorious pixeltruppen dissolving into violent explosions!
 
Come with me on this journey! It is your destiny!

I know I posted in here before but I must stress this point.
 
The whole reason I bought Shock Force in the first place was it's setting. At the time Shock Force came out, many of my friends had joined the military, and some had been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Having some of my friends deployed to a war zone on the other side of the planet made me naturally curious. Unfortunately there were not many good sources of information aside from the television, and some internet bloggers. While writers and television can describe events, they cannot really convey the gravity of events.
 
I think video games are a medium that allows an audience, to some small degree, to experience an event. However, with the fate of Atomic Games Seven Days in Fallujah, it seemed that video game developers were effectively told to back off. For some reason examining the events of the recent conflict was considered to be "too sensitive a topic for the public".
 
Here at Battlefront, it seemed no one got that memo, and we were given Combat Mission: Shock Force, in my opinion the most realistic depiction of war in a middle eastern country ever made. It offers those who have not experienced it a very small, but well built window into what may have been the most important event of the 21st century. It also stands as a unique product from Battlefront. While we will get other modern warfare titles in the future, something tells me they won't be jumping back into the sandbox anytime soon.
 
So for anyone who says Shock Force should be rebuilt into a different setting, think carefully about what you are saying. The first game of a new generation, and a completely unique setting as far as Battlefront Games goes, deserves to be preserved in it's original form going into the future.
 
Well, that's all I have to say about that.

Boats or amphibious vehicles (like the DUKW and DD Sherman), various flavors of supply trucks (with ALL types of ammo available)[unless I've missed something in the editor?], and more options for on-map artillery pieces (Towed, or Self Propelled Artillery).
 
That would pretty much do it for me.

I do recall some scenario designers who would sprinkle their maps with burning vehicles to provide extra illumination at night. The only problem is you can see and avoid that illumination, while hand launched flares or illumination rounds from arty could be dropped right on top of you with no warning.

Oddly enough, that's exactly what I had already said:
 
 
See? I may be crazy, but I'm not dumb.
 
I wasn't commenting on CMBS specifically, I was commenting on the general behavior of aircraft CAS as modeled in the game. When you call in helicopters to attack an 'area target' they tend to loiter for a while, make several observation passes, and don't quit the area unless they're shot at, or can't spot anything. I merely expressed a desire for fast moving aircraft to exhibit the same behavior, that would provide more incentive to use them in the game to interdict areas of enemy operation, rather than using them exclusively on point targets, which seems to be all they're good for at the moment.

Looks like a baby Panther. If you feed it lots of russians and americans, it will maybe grow into a real Panther tank.

It's already known that the Battle of the Bulge game is coming next, and that game will cover time until the end of the war, so putting the Maus into the game actually makes more sense than dropping everything planned for the next year or two to start working on a new game.
 
Combat Mission has existed for 15 years, and in those 15 years there has not been a France 1940 game. Stop talking about it as if it's "right around the corner" or "just hasn't been gotten to yet". As far as I know, there are no plans for a France 1940 game, and there are no plans looking into the near future. Not to mention, we have already heard from Steve that production of Vehicle Packs and additional add-on content does not adversely affect the game development cycle, so I'd say we have a much better chance of seeing new vehicles and weapons, than some mythical early-war France 1940 game.

Adding new things to Combat Mission is never a waste of time.
 
 
Now that is funny!

Adding pointless fantasy things into the game instead of covering real gaps in the CM lineup like france '40 is a waste of time. 

Making things that people will buy isn't a waste of time for BFC.

I like France '40, but I would rather have reasonable late war what ifs (E-25,50,75, M29/34, Black Prince, IS-3, etc) in a heartbeat.

BFC would certainly have the marketing numbers, but I suspect very late war would sell better than very early.

Especially if they found a way to bring the RT and Bulge content together and do a CM: Operation Unthinkable.

Oddly enough, that's exactly what I had already said:
 
 
See? I may be crazy, but I'm not dumb.
 
I wasn't commenting on CMBS specifically, I was commenting on the general behavior of aircraft CAS as modeled in the game. When you call in helicopters to attack an 'area target' they tend to loiter for a while, make several observation passes, and don't quit the area unless they're shot at, or can't spot anything. I merely expressed a desire for fast moving aircraft to exhibit the same behavior, that would provide more incentive to use them in the game to interdict areas of enemy operation, rather than using them exclusively on point targets, which seems to be all they're good for at the moment.

gunnersman,
 
I think those two are suitable for a quiet Estonian night, whereas Bradleys could be heard in the Kremlin. Only slightly more acoustically stealthy than a nuclear strike. Speaking of Bradleys, here's a niftly little toy.
 

 
Regards,
 
John Kettler