Sequoia

IIRC , the French Army went through a major reorganization in the time period as well. So, if an expert on the French Army would commit to doing the research, perhaps that would be the only way it could happen.
Captain, are any of us young men anymore?
 
 

We definitely have plans for the Red team but are keeping those close to our chest for now. Gotta leave something for the build up.

Well that is a loaded question to be honest.  Bil H will no doubt chime in but a few factors came into play as I recall:
- Resources.  We can take a really good shot at BAOR and not cripple ourselves in development for years - along with the other BFC titles.  The core team is pretty small and we were looking for a quick, but solid, follow up to the main game.  Germany would have been a lot more work, as would  any other NATO nations, and the French were just a non-starter.  Those modules will take much longer, particularly in vehicle modelling and artwork.  BAOR had a lot of new vehicle models but much more manageable in the timelines for a first DLC.
- Locale.  The Northern Plain was actually where the most likely Soviet Main effort was going to fall.  Hate to admit it but Fulda was a bit of a sideshow in the overall Soviet plan.  It made sense game wise simply because the largest market for the game is the US, and we had a lot of details on this fight - US research is a dream as they put everything out there, Canadians are a nightmare.  That said we really wanted to do the northern plains from the start and historically that is BAOR or the Germans.
- Expertise.  We had experts on both UK and Canadian orbats right out the gate, which made research a lot easier.  I joined in 1988 and had a lot of my old battlebox stuff to pull from and some old timers I still know from up the day.  On the UK side we had similar expertise.
- Timeframe.  Late 70s, early 80s is really the “tipping point” of the Cold War.  It was when the doctrine and equipment of both sides was pretty balanced, each offsetting the others strengths and weaknesses.  Before this you get the nuclear armies, which were just nuts. And after you get the  western advantage leaning into overmatch and then we start to look a lot like CMSF or BS.
- Straight up cool factor.  So how would the UK done against the Soviets?  Canadians are fun because they mix European and US kit.  You wanna know how a squadron of Leo’s would have done…well let’s find out.  Not saying the other nations are not interesting but when you add everything up it just made more sense to do BAOR next and they would be fun to play.
As to “how will they play”…totally honest…no freakin idea.  We also had no idea on the main game.  It wasn’t until I played those first few scenarios while we were early in did we see that we were onto something.  BFC doesn’t balance for gameplay or market. They literally plug in the data from research and then throw it at each other in game. The balance is almost entirely emergent.  When we do up scenarios and campaigns there is always a level of balancing that goes on but this is macro stuff like force size and enablers.  For CMCW we were amazed at how little balancing we had to do. I designed the campaigns and scenarios based on doctrine on both sides and basically how they would have gone into a fight with each other.  The fact that these led to tightly balanced fights that require deep understanding of what each side can do was all pretty much emergent design.

Similar in basic dimensions and role. M113 has the .50 cal, the FV432 has the smaller calibre 7.62 GPMG. The FV432 does have smoke launchers though, I believe, which the earlier M113s do not.

In employment, very different. The US manuals have some extremely aggressive uses of the M113, dismounting on or past the objective, and fighting from the vehicle where possible.

By comparison, the FV432 would debus troops, then withdraw to a Zulu muster point, safely in the rear. The vehicle wasn't meant for fighting, and there was no expectation that it would.
The FV432 is already in Combat Mission - the version still in use by the British army has been up-armoured and upgraded, and is known as "Bulldog". This vehicle is in CMSF.

Not really strange, as USAEUR no longer has Sheridans in 1979, which is the beginning timeframe of the base game. 

Not really strange, as USAEUR no longer has Sheridans in 1979, which is the beginning timeframe of the base game. 

I am very interested to see how the Canadians fair to be honest.  The Leopards came aboard in 78 (although there were smaller number integrations earlier) and before that was the Centurion Mark 11.  Game timeframe  is set 1976-1982…so some good assumptions to be made there.  As usual we aim to be as excruciatingly accurate as possible, particularly for the mainstream vehicles and weapon systems.

We wanted to concentrate on the British Army of the Rhine and Canadians first, mainly for selfish reasons and also because we have a couple people on the team who are experts on the British Army so it was the obvious choice for us.
We do have plans for the German Army too, but that will unfortunately have to wait.
Bil

Cold Warriors.
  Well it looks like Steve has already dropped the mic over on the annual update thread, so let myself, Bil H and Cpt Miller (along with a small team of unwashed heathens - two of whom are actually from the UK), be the second to announce the first CMCW Module - CMCW - British Army On the Rhine (BAOR).

We are still in development so I will only outline the broad strokes of what we are working on, and insert the caveat that we reserve the right to add/subtract - 
 - Time frame of the game is going deeper backwards into the Cold War.  We are setting the clock back to 1976, so CMCW will now encompass 1976-1982 (including some minor tweaks to the existing US orbats).  As has been noted we are less interested in the later Cold War years largely because they really do start to resemble the later CM titles and we are shooting to keep CMCW distinct in its own right.
- UK BOAR - right now we have a pretty comprehensive build planned for the UK units as they transitioned from their 1974 structures - to where they landed in 1980.  As per the picture above players should be able to become deeply engaged within the historical BAOR sector of the ETO.
- And because I just have to represent the home team, we are also doing the Canadians.  That little black box is the planned 4 CMBG AO - you will note this was right at the tail end when the brigade was still part of the BAOR, although for those that really want to play First Clash and park them down in Lahr you are fee to do so because the basic unit structures remained the same.
- We do have plans for the Soviet side, but are going to hold off on details until we zero them fully in...more to follow. 
- I will let you all speculate and discuss what new vehicles and weapon systems we are talking about but there is a not insignificant list of new ones we are planning - more as we start to get some cool screen shots.  
As noted by Steve, we are well on our way and are planning for a release this year - content and full scope remains TBA.
Thank you all very much for your support, the response to CMCW has been well beyond what we were expecting and that is entirely thanks to you guys.

The response we're seeing from many on this thread is why we don't get more bones threads. It's nothing new for those that remember the response to the very first CMBN screenshot with the Tiger Tank.

The response we're seeing from many on this thread is why we don't get more bones threads. It's nothing new for those that remember the response to the very first CMBN screenshot with the Tiger Tank.

The response we're seeing from many on this thread is why we don't get more bones threads. It's nothing new for those that remember the response to the very first CMBN screenshot with the Tiger Tank.

The response we're seeing from many on this thread is why we don't get more bones threads. It's nothing new for those that remember the response to the very first CMBN screenshot with the Tiger Tank.

He sent me this when my little border collie died....
Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten year old Irish wolfhound, named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa and their little boy Shane were all very attached to Belker and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer.
I told the family there were no miracles left for Belker and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog. Ron and Lisa told me that they thought it would be good for the four year old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.
I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few moments, Belker slipped away peacefully. The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion.
We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, “I know why.” Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I had never heard a more comforting explanation.
He said, “People are born so that they learn how to live a good life – like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The four year old continued, “Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

I joked about making a glossary, but decided to actually go through with it. Some of these memes I don't think I've seen in years but am recording for posterity's sake.

Brain in the Jar.   Alleged condition of incomparable Battlefront programmer Charles Moyan.

Borgspotting. A term mainly referring to the issue that, in the CMX1 games especially, if one unit on a side spotted something, all units on that side instantly became aware of it. It's a reference to the hive-mind Borg culture of Star Trek- The Next Generation.

I joked about making a glossary, but decided to actually go through with it. Some of these memes I don't think I've seen in years but am recording for posterity's sake.

Someone needs to do a Combat Mission forum meme glossary.

Someone needs to do a Combat Mission forum meme glossary.

Locked in a basement? My dear sweet summer child. All the old timers here know Steve keeps Charles head in a jar.

Some say that before his brain was relocated into the jar, he could crack walnuts with his butt cheeks.
Some say that viewing his code without sunglasses leads to permanent eyesight damage, due to its brilliance.
We only know that he's "The brain in a jar!"

This is either the ramblings of a mad man or a coded message worthy of James Bond. 

The prosecution of the Second World War - which killed about 100 million people for starters.  And then there is the thorny reality that international law, which underpins the western world order has been put in place since.
There is ample evidence that the occupations influenced both German and Japanese culture; however neither was a wide scale attempt at social engineering.  Even if attempts were made at a local level, they were dropped quickly as we did not spend the 80s running re-education camps in Hamburg.
You are drawing on a flawed historical example and advocating for something that is never going to happen.  We did the occupation dance for 20 years in Afghanistan and Iraq and never came close to what some are proposing - which look more like Cambodian or Chinese Peoples Revolution.  We are not going to occupy a country of 140 million for 50 years to try (and fail) to force change at that level.  We will work indirectly to induce change, so Russians can decide for themselves and perhaps see a better way.