Rokossovski

Thank you, George, yes, she is doing very well indeed. And thank you for you interest in this AAR!

It’s hard to believe that it’s almost four years ago when I was doing this. I wanted to do a serious AAR, with good quality graphics and both show something  and learn something. The latter did happen; I certainly learned a few things that I need to remember to this day when playing. This battle was full of mistakes on my part, and I’d like to think I improved since then, but it was all the same a battle that was actually a lot of fun to play despite the mistakes. The Russian army’s approach to war is a bit different doctrinally than the German, and the paucity of specialized equipment can be a burden on an inexperienced leader. But one learns to compensate...
Preparing the necessary graphics is a time-consuming job. In a minute of game play I obtain over 100 screenshots and have to analyze them to determine what is essential to show, and how to combine many of them for the picture-in-picture shots as well as the zoom-in circles. Tracking individual units and labelling them then follows. When I was doing this originally my wife was diagnosed with cancer and while this AAR was a welcome distraction, over the months of treatment that went on well into the subsequent year, I wasn’t able to maintain my energy. Just getting through the day was a challenge.
 But I kept all the turn files, my notes, my graphics templates. I hoped to return to this long ago, but now is better than never. I reinstalled CMRT 1.03, made some videos for reference, took some screenshots, and got to work. I hate leaving things unfinished and were it not for some technical issues I’d be doing the comics I have yet to complete. They will come later. 
I’m not sure if anyone will really want to pick up reading this after such a  long time but I am going to do it anyway. 
A quick recap:
You can see the objective areas in the shot below. I’m playing against a close friend who is a far more cagey, far less impatient player than I. I don’t know what his forces are. He has selected some armour, as the burning Marder shows, as well as another one I spotted heading westward before it became a contact. I’ve faced no artillery so far, but that doesn’t surprise me. I’ve faced some losses on Axis of Attack 2, where one of my Tankodesantniki platoons has lost 75% of the men in two of its three squads. The third squad is actually detached and on AoA 1, supporting third platoon. Split evenly, my tanks are on each approach, although AoA1 has two JS-2s. I have lost no tanks so far. 
My force is as follows:
1 Tank Regiment HQ (T34/85)
1 Tank Company HQ (T34/85)
2 Platoons of Tanks, each platoon consisting of:
2xT34/85 1xJS-2 1 Recon Platoon - 3xBA64B
1 Tankodesantnikii Co consisting of:
CO HQ (3 men) 3xPlatoons consisting of: 1 plat HQ (1 man) & 3 Squads (10 men ea) 1 FO
1 Battery of 4x82mm Rocket launchers - off map - 384 rockets (half fired)
(Click for more detail)

RU125
I apologize for the poor contrast font in the sides of the shot. It looked good at 2880px!

A 155mm round is about 100lbs compared to the 30ish lbs of a 105mm. In the early 2000's a lot of NATO planners assumed artillery would be standardized to 155mm but operational experience has shown that cheap, light, mobile guns are valuable. I'd rather have a 105mm on call than a 155mm tied up supporting other units. More tubes are generally better than fewer state of the art tubes with precision rounds.  I think the Russian way of war is on the right track in that regard.
See also the return of 60, 81 and 120mm mortars to NATO after all those theorists thought precision CAS would replace organic fires.
When I joined the military as a field artilleryman, even at the school staff were bemoaning the End of Artillery because everybody was reading about how armed UAVs, small diameter bombs on CAS, land-based CIWS, Hell even tactical lasers had made artillery obsolete. I think NATO thinkers get tied up in the latest and greatest until the next conflict. Look at all the loony ideas before Vietnam, or even throughout the 70's and 80's.

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Afghan National Army for Combat Mission Shock Force 2
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Okay so I am going to release this because it has been sitting on my HD for about a month without me tweaking it further. So it is probably good enough in its current state.
This is a two-in-one mod that turns some of the Syrian Infantry into Afghan National Army. Here is what it does in detail :
Syrian mech infantry ----> Early Afghan Army
Syrian airborne infantry ----> Late Afghan Army
So basically you get both uniforms in a single mod and it is up to you to decide which type you want by selecting the corresponding branch.
 
Early Afghan National Army :
 

They replace Syrian mech infantry and use AK's with a woodland camo uniform. The camo is supposed to represent either regular US woodland, a variant from Iran or Pakistan or a cheap chinese knockoff with a slightly different pattern and colours.
 
Late Afghan Infantry :
 

They replace Syrian airborne infantry, field M16's and their uniform is a mix of woodland camo and the new Spec4ce Afghan Forest camo.
If you plan on using late war afghan infantry, I suggest you use regular airborne infantry as opposed to mech airborne infantry, both located under special forces. They will have a full allotment of RPG ammo.
 
When to use early or late war?
There isn't a clear cut date really but here is what I could gather with a quick search online.
Uniforms :
The ANA began to issue its own pixelated camouflage design in 2008-2009, designed by Hyperstealth Industries and named "Spec4ce Afghan Forest" pattern with some initial batches of these uniforms were made in China.
Weapons :
The U.S. military began shipping about 55,000 used Marine Corps M-16A2 rifles to Afghanistan with the intent of outfitting every soldier in the Afghan army with one by the late spring of 2009.
Of course both of these changes happened gradually but before 2008, you should opt for early ANA and after 2009, go for late war ANA.

Issues :
 
1/ The texture for the buttstock of the AKS-74U used by the squad leader of the paratroopers and the AKMS of the mech infantry looks a tad messed up. I think this is caused by the weapon swap and shared parts so I don't think it can be fixed for late war ANA. For early ANA, you could just temporarily remove the AK74M to M16 weapon swap folder from your mod directory.
2/ This isn't directly related to the ANA mod because the issue stems from the Syrian uncon fighters-Taliban conversion that I made previously, but since both mods are likely to be used in conjonction, I should mention it here. In my Taliban fighter mod, I swapped uncon fighters (the guys with the black pajamas and balaclava) with uncom combatants models and re-textured them both to use the same skin. Syrian uncon fighters and Syrian regular soldiers share the same boots though.
If you want to pit ISAF forces versus Taliban, there is going to be no issue whatsoever.
However if you plan on having a battle with ANA on one side and Taliban on the other, either the boots worn by ANA soldiers or the boots worn by Taliban fighters (depending on the load order) will look messed up because they share the same texture.
Again, I need to emphasize that this will only be an issue if you are using both my ANA mod together with my Taliban fighter mod (And NOT combatants who don't wear boots but trainers).
To keep it simple, I recommend that to represent Taliban forces, just use my Taliban combatants mod and only use my Taliban fighters mod sparingly. Only if you need heavy weapons like Dshk and recoilless rifles that combatants don't have for instance. And finally make sure the ANA mod loads after the fighters. This way the glitch won't be as noticeable.

How to install :
Extract the mod in the following directory : Documents/Battlefront/Combat Mission/Shock Force 2/User Data/Mods
 
Credits :
37mm did the weapon swap for the late ANA. Without his help I would probably not have bothered with the weapons and only modded the uniforms.
 
Download :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9gcpgmkwc8lgga2/zzANA.rar?dl=0
 
Let me know if there is any problem or error with the mod.
Zveroboy
 

Hello guys,
So I figured that the main difficulty devs would get trying to implement the French is language barrier and finding sources especially considering French army organisation was quite significantly tweaked in 2014-2016.
So I've managed to build a quite precise Order of Battle from online ressources, and magazines. I've not taken into account units out of the scope of the game such as logistic and non-combat support elements and command elements are greatly simplify (as a result command element are the least accurate I think). This may not be 100% accurate, especially regarding support elements, but main combat formations should be exact.
The document presents the main formations from which are drawn the GTIAs and SGTIAs as well as off-map assets that would make it in the game scope.
Except when specified otherwise, all soldiers are carrying a Famas assault rifle.
Doctrine wise, when it comes to fire suport, French army is quite close from the US army. For Artillery Fires, Squad Leader and Platoon Leaders can order simple artillery fires, while Foward Observers will provide more advanced fires (danger close fires, predicted fires, special effect shells, large bombardments). When directed by foward observers and their observation vehicles, fires don't require ranging shot.
For CAS, Foward Observers and TACP teams are allowed to guide an airstrike, but also a Platoon Leader in certain circonstances. The main difference (at least from how US army is depicted ingame) is for helicopters and CCS. In French doctrine, Helicopters will enter in direct radio contact with the supported units and are responsible for the fires they make, all units from Squad Leaders and upwards can guide helicopters. They will also provide them recon and intel directly.
Next time I'll try to present the different vehicles and armaments with "stats" similarly as how US, Ukrainian and Russian weapons are presented in the Game Manual.
ToE France CMBS2.docx

Beware the IEDs of March....

I've been too pokey, I've got to get my Turkish army mod uploaded to contribute to the project.

It's likely it's just awaiting its turn to be uploaded in CMMODS IV.

How are things going?
Dont wanna stress you, but i am so amazed by this mod 😅.

I keep checking every day to see if this one has been released . . .

push
You made our mouths watering with your mod MikeyD, we wont just forget about it 😉

Hi IICapMillerII, thank you for making your beautiful mod available for all of us to use!  I took the liberty of borrowing the vest you made and SaintFuller's Ssh-68 helmet to remake a mod that IMHO more accurately depicts what the Syrian army from circa 2008 would have looked like. Since you're the inspiration of this mod, it's only right that I should share my screenshots with you before I put it out there for the rest of the community.  It goes without saying, credit will go to you and SaintFuller for the vest and the Ssh-68 helmet.  Cheers! 

no wonder my Shermans are slow to spot.....

Yeah, I guess, although we wouldn't need animations of frantic paddling, I'd be happy if they sat placidly in the boats during the crossing.
As to too few use cases--not sure about that...  There were lots of cross-river attacks, including on the eastern front, although the Russians were as likely to use crude rafts or even logs as assault boats.  But some way of crossing rivers other than on bridges would open up lots of new scenarios.
Personally I would much rather have features which allow different types of scenarios (partisans, assault boats) rather umpteen variations of the Pzkw IV or a bunch of oddball vehicles, for instance.

That's the title of the first S.L.O.D. module.
I like the ring of that acronym- Almost as nice a ring as C.H.U.D. was back in ye olden times.

I'm not sure if you're supposed to pet them . . .
That kind of behavior could be what brings on the Space Lobster invasion.  (At least according to the leaked draft of BFC's S.L.O.D. backstory).

Why not put it on dropbox in the meantime?

Still hoping . . .

While I'm in Photophuckit, here are some camo schemes I'm toying with for African Bush Wars.  I'm thinking I'll just put out a series of different uniforms schemes that can be used for all of the different Syrian unit types for mainly rebels and insurgents, but govt troops as well.  Then some from NATO types mainly to be govt troops, or at least govt spec ops.  Then y'all can pick and choose which camo to wear that day. 😉

Sahrani Liberation Army
by IICptMillerII

The Sahrani Liberation Army (SLA) is the army of the fictional country of the Democratic Republic of Sahrani from the videogame Arma: Armed Assault made by Bohemia Interactive.
I decided to make this reskin because I've always liked the "generic OpFor" look of the SLA. The "lore friendly" loadout of the SLA is mechanized infantry in BMP-2s (Syrian 
Republican Guard formation) along with T-72M1s. However, all T-72 variants and the BMP-1 have been retextured as well to allow for flexibility when using the SLA.
This modpack will replace the following stock Syrian assets:
Regular and Reserve infantry
BMP-1
BMP-2
BRDM
T-72 (all variants)
Shilka
Special Forces (NOT Syrian airborne)
Voices:
In Arma, the SLA have hispanic heritage, thus speak Spanish. However, I have given them Russian voices and names as these assets are readily available from Combat Mission Red
Thunder and Combat Mission Black Sea. Going through the process of creating a whole new set of voices in Spanish would have taken me too long and been far too labor intensive.
Infantry:
Both Regular and Reserve Syrian infantry have been retextured to look like SLA soldiers. Regular infantry have their rifles model swapped to use the AK-74. This is purely a
cosmetic change, as the game still simulates them firing the 7.62mm round of the AKM. Additionally, the stock helmet texture has been remade by SaintFuller to model the Soviet
SSh-68 helmet. The textures for the helmet were made by SaintFuller and tweaked by myself. All other infantry textures were made by myself.
Vehicles:
Included are reskinned BMP-1s, BMP-2s, T-72s, BRDMs, and the Shilka. All textured by myself.  

Especas:
These are the Special Forces of the SLA. They are equipped primarily with AKS-74Us and wear green berets into combat instead of a combat helmet. The stock Syrian Special Forces
are used to represent the Especas. The AK-74Ms and helmets have been model swapped for the AKS-74Us and berets. The beret is from Combat Mission Battle for Normandy with the
retexturing done by myself. The AKS-74U model is from Shock Force 2. All other Special Forces textures were made by myself.

Known Bugs:
Sometimes, swapped model textures will "flicker" when viewed from a distance or from up close. To my knowledge there is no way to fix this. However, it is mostly unnoticable.
Credits:
Battlefront.com for making Combat Mission and most of the base textures and models
Bohemia Interactive for making Arma: Armed Assault and the SLA
IICptMillerII for making most of the textures and model swaps
SaintFuller for making the SSh-68 helmet model and base textures
Usage:
You are free to use this mod how you like. If you use any assets from this to make your own mod, just be sure to give credit where it is due.





Download Link:
http://cmmodsiii.greenasjade.net/?p=8070
 

Windmills are present in FB's archives but not available in the editor despite Holland being depicted as one of the locations. Here is a way to enable windmills...
It's triggered by a "bogus" bitmap. Simply add the bogus bitmap to your Z folder. I included a snow roof too.
The windmill will appear in the editor as the last (bottom right) independent 4 story commercial building.
The windmill works exactly as in CMBN, but it's snowbox is square. So in deep snow conditions the snowbox around the bottom floor looks a bit wonky. 
 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1jtX0EIDwY6OLKPYiIp2JgYSM6lk7V3aU
 
This discovery leads me to ask what else can be enabled by bogus bitmaps...? There is a lot of content in the brz files of FB that don't appear in game like various others bridges e.g canal bridges.

Do the Pixeltruppen all fall asleep walking through the poppy fields?

These mud houses are my take on the typical houses found in Afghanistan, made out of dried mud. I based this mod on the green zone of Helmand province, therefore they are perhaps less suitable for the more mountainous regions where stones are more prevalent. But they will probably work better than the stock buildings anyway. I suppose they could also work for the more rural areas of Syria or Iraq.
These mud houses are made to work alongside Kieme's CMSF in HD buildings. You can have both mods installed at the same time. The mud houses, because they are located in a directory whose name begins with the letter z, should replace some of the buildings made by Kieme. At first I only intended to replace a couple of buildings but ended up making more and more so that only two of Kieme's buildings are intact so to speak.
Finally, although they are modular buildings and can have any number of floors, they work best for single or two storey buildings obviously. Not sure you could stack mud that high anyway.

The opium poppies replace grain tiles.
There are two different textures included in the mod. The default one and another one with a more brownish/yellow colour that is found in late summer when crops are ripe.


Not much to say about these.
 
TAGS :
In order to see the mods in your game, you need to add one or several of the mod tags that are linked to the textures.
mudhouse
mudwall
poppies or poppiesyellow
TEST MAP :
The mod also includes a small portion of an Helmand map I am working on, already set up with the mod tags so you can have a quick preview.
INSTALL :
Details on how to install included in the readme inside the rar file. I have uploaded two versions of the pack, one with all the files tagged and one without tags. Install the mod tag version, it won't interfere with your game unless a scenario designer adds the tags in a mission. The other version without tags, you can just swap it in and out of your fold folder at your convenience.
DOWNLOAD :
Mod tags :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/utekfowt06srp3d/zAfghanistan Mod Pack - Mod Tags.rar?dl=0
No mod tags :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bob522itexpip3d/zAfghanistan Mod Pack.rar?dl=0
 
credits : Mord for the SF2 logo

I had a few days off so finished my first (admittedly byte sized) campaign, "Guardians of the Homeland"...
... twas great fun, shame there weren't more "episodes" featuring "the Guardians".

Nice mini-series!