rocketman

Just had to recommend this battle. It is small but intricate. You start out with one Para HQ and two small squads and a generous set up area. Go secure that bridge and guard house. The neat thing from a design standpoint is that despite small squads they can be split up in several teams, so you end up with several tactical element comprised of just one or two men. This adds an interesting dimension to it. And a stunning map. I always feel the game looks it best in light fog/cloudy weather.
 
Who designed this gem? Highly recommended, especially if you're into tiny/small battles.

Just had to recommend this battle. It is small but intricate. You start out with one Para HQ and two small squads and a generous set up area. Go secure that bridge and guard house. The neat thing from a design standpoint is that despite small squads they can be split up in several teams, so you end up with several tactical element comprised of just one or two men. This adds an interesting dimension to it. And a stunning map. I always feel the game looks it best in light fog/cloudy weather.
 
Who designed this gem? Highly recommended, especially if you're into tiny/small battles.

Are you talking about TacMaps? If so, I usually take a screenshot from the editor of the 2D map and add it as a new layer to the TacMap .psd file (sort of like an editor overlay). Then I use the premade layers (high ground, low ground, forest, water, road, etc.) to paint acording to he overlay. Elevations are mostly done by eyeball and from memory, not exactly acording to contour lines.
If the map is very long (N-S wise) and not very wide (E-W) than I rotate the overlay to better fit the wide TacMap format.
For OpMaps I sometimes used screenshots from Google Earth as overlay, in CMRT you just have to select the desired area from a large map of the total operational area of the game's scope.
I hope this helps.

Working with GIMP is a little frustrating, especially dealing with text. I remember last year that it took me an hour to figure out how to move and edit text (you have to click exactly on the text)
 
For the templates, here's what I've discovered:
I opened the Market Garden map and discovered that NormalDude wisely put every different element on a different layer. Assuming you have the layers window open, you can play around with turning each one on and off (eyeball icon). He also grouped layers into certain sets and sub-sets of layers. For example, all the objective texts are in a group: OpMap Info bubbles
 
NormalDude put all of the "frame" elements, including the objective texts, into several different groups or sub-groups. All that you really need to do is move all of these layer elements to the area of the map where your battle takes place. The only way to do that is to lock ALL of these layers together. Click the white space between eyeball and the layer name to "lock" it.
 
The layers that need to be locked are every layer within the following groups: OpMap Info Bubbles, Us OpMap Plate, German OpMap Plate. Also, you need to "lock" the three following layers that are within the Names/Labels group: Scale Bar, Scale Text, Box Outline
 
Once all of these layers are locked then you can move them. To do this, click on any one of the locked layers and then click the Move tool. You should be able to move all layers that are locked together so that they keep their relative position to each other.
 
Change the objective text to match your briefing. I would Save As to the GIMP natural format at this point, probably name it as "US Objective Map - xxx Scenario" and then Save As again for the German Objective Map.
 
The final step is to crop the maps to the Box Outline layer for each map. There may be better ways to do this but what I found is this:
1. Select the Box Outline layer.
2. Choose Image pull down --> Autocrop Image
3. Choose Image pull down --> Flatten Image (this may not be necessary)
4. Choose File --> Export As.. Windows bmp ...24 bit, I think you need to choose option to save without color map
 
I hope this helps.

Impressive - real life looking!
 
What program do you use for video editing, adding sound and cropping out user interface?

Isn't everything about CM "life changing" 
 
Jeez, you really make yourself doing loads of stuff for CMFI - do you ever sleep? Is there a kohlenklau clone - clonenklau ?
 
Keep up the good work mate!

OrBat for 716 Inf Div on 6 Jun 1944

716. Inf.-Div. (bo) (7 K.V.A.-H1-K.V.A. Caen) [1]
Gefechtsstand – Caen

Kdr: Generalleutnant Wilhelm Richter
Ia: Major i.G. Bachus
Ib: Major Wolf
Ic: Major d.R. Wiegmann
IIa: Major Heintze

K.V.-Gr. Riva-Bella
* K.V.U.-Gr. Orne
K.V.U.-Gr. Lion-sur-Mer
K.V.-Gr. Courseulles
K.V.U.-Gr. Seulles
K.V.U.-Gr. Normandie

Inf.-Div.-Nachr.-Abtl. 716
* Kdr.: Major Werner Liedloff
Nachschub-Btl. 716
Verwaltungs-Btl. 716
Sanitäts-Btl. 716
Veterinär-Kp. 716

Gren.-Regt. 726 (attached to 352. Inf.-Div.)

Gren.-Regt. 736
* Gefechtsstand – Colleville-sur-Orne (WN 17)
* Kdr.: Oberst Ludwig Krug
* Adjutant: Josef Grüne
I. Btl.
* Gefechtsstand – Ouistreham (WN 14)
* 1. Kp. – Stützpunkt Franceville West (WN 05)
* 2. Kp. – Stützpunktgruppe 08 (Riva Bella)
* 3. Kp. – WN 03 and 04 (Franceville Plage)
* 4. Kp. – Ouistreham-Val WN 09 (Reserve)
II. Btl.
* Gefechtsstand – Tailleville (WN 23)
* Kdr.: Hauptmann Deptolla
* 5. Kp. – Bernières (WN 28, 28a) – St.-Aubin (WN 27)
* 6. Kp. – Stp. Courseulles (WN 29, 30, 31)
* 7. Kp. – Graye-sur-Mer, La Rivière
* 8. Kp. – Tailleville-Tombette (in reserve behind Bernières)
III. Btl.
Gefechtsstand – Cresserons
* Kdr.: Major Pipor
* 9. Kp. – Langrune-Luc (WN 24, 26)
* 10. Kp. – Lion-Hermanville (WN 18, 20, 20a, 21)
* 11. Kp. – in reserve behind Luc-sur-Mer (WN 25)
* 12. Kp. – in reserve at Douvres-la-Délivrande (WN 22)
IV./Gren.-Regt. 736 (Ost-Btl. 642) [2]
* Gefechtsstand – Amfreville
* Kdr.: Hauptmann Heinz Plate
* 1. Kp. – Stützpunkt Franceville (Ost WN 02)
* 3. Kp. – Hermanville (WN 19)
* 4. Kp. – Bavent
14. (Pz.Jg.) Kp. (six 5cm m.Pak and three 7.5cm s.Pak, static beach defenses)

Ost-Btl. 441 [3]
*Gefechtsstand – Crépon (northeast of Bayeux)
* 1. Kp. – Vaux (north of Bayeux)
* 2. Kp. – Reviers
* 3. Kp. – Meuvaines (northeast of Bayeux)
* 4. Kp. – Ver-sur-Mer (northeast of Bayeux)

Art.-Regt. 1716
* Gefechtsstand – Unknown
* Kdr.: Oberstleutnant Helmut Knüppe
I. Abtl.
* Gefechtsstand – Colomby
* 1. Bttr. – Merville (four 10cm le.F.H. 14/19 (t))
* 2. Bttr. – WN 16 (Colleville-sur-Orne) (four 10cm le.F.H. 14/19 (t))
* 3. Bttr. – Bréville (northeast of Caen) (four 7.5cm FK 16 n.A.) [4]
* 4. Bttr. – WN 12 (Ouistreham “Water Tower Battery”) (four 15cm s.F.H. 414 (f))
* 10. Bttr. – 4 kilometers northeast of Bayeux (four 15cm s.F.H. 414 (f))
II. Abtl.
* Gefechtsstand – Crépon
* 5. Bttr. – WN 35b (Crépon) (four 10cm le.F.H. 14/19 (t))
* 6. Bttr. – WN 32 (la Mare-Fontaine) (four 10cm le.F.H. 14/19 (t))
* 7. Bttr. – WN 28a (Bény-sur-Mer) (four 10cm le.F.H. 14/19 (t))
III. Abtl. (attached to 352. Inf.-Div.)

Pz.Jg.-Abtl. 716
* Gefechtsstand – Biéville
* Kdr.: Oberleutnant Kurt Kaergel
* 1. (Sfl.) Kp. – Biéville (ten 7.5cm s.Pak Sfl. Auf Lorraine Schlepper)
* 2. (Pz.Jg.-bo) Kp. – Reviers (nine 7.5cm and three 8.8cm s.Pak) [5]
* 3. (Flak) Kp. – Anisy (one Züg was east of the Orne 1 kilometer west of Sallenelles) [6]

s.Art.-Abtl. 989 (t-mot) (est. 400)
* Gefechtsstand – Reviers (east of Bayeux)
* 1. Bttr. – Basly (four 12.2cm s.F.H. 396 (r.))
* 2. Bttr. – Amblie (four 12.2cm s.F.H. 396 (r.))
* 3. Bttr. – Creully (four 12.2cm s.F.H. 396 (r.))

H.K.A.-Abtl. 1260
* Gefechtsstand – Ryes (south of Arromanches)
* 1. Bttr. – St. Aubin-d’Arquenay (Ouistreham) (six 15.5cm K 420 (f))
* 2. Bttr. – Pointe du Hoc (six 15.5cm K 420 (f))
* 3. Bttr. – WN 35a (Mont Fleury) (four 12.2cm K 390 (r.))

MKB Longues – WN 48 (four 15cm TbtsK C/36) (attached)

[1] Strength as of 1 May was 7,771, possibly not including HiWi. The division did not have a Feld-Ers.-Btl. or Füs.-Btl. organized. The division began to withdraw soon after the invasion and by 1 July began moving to join 19. Armee on the French Riviera. By 20 July it was assigned to IV L.W.-Feld-K. relieving 272 Inf.-Div.
[2] 2. Kp. was disbanded due to lack of strength on 30 May. It had been at Amfreville with the battalion headquarters and is occasionally shown there.
[3] Attached to Gren.-Regt. 736.
[4] Other sources indicate these were four 10cm le.F.H. 14/19 (t)).
[5] The guns were deployed on the low ridge overlooking the beaches from St. Aubin to La Riviere.
[6] The company had 12 2cm mobile guns, probably truck mounted self-propelled pieces. There were also 20 2cm and six 7.5cm (f) static antiaircraft guns in the division zone. The 2cm guns were scattered among the various WN, while the 7.5cm guns were south of Bernieres.

I found something with regards to smoothing terrain in the editor. This might be common knowledge to experienced map makers, but here goes...
 
Sometimes when there is a steep rise in elevation over a short distance, the editor produces not very real life looking "peaks" that really break immersion for me.

 
However, if you cover the area in mud, it smooths the entire area out. How about that!
 

 
I haven't tried all types of terrain features to see if it has the same effect. I can do tests if this isn't already common knowledge.

PDFs showing houses in CMBN and other scenario stuff:
 
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hcpas10cd31y716/AAAByUx3Xd6mygerASO1W-u2a?dl=0

Commonwealth Forces: Buron - Sticking it Out :Part 1

I think the main thing in this is "unique" - you guys are a unique gaming company. Producing unique games. I'm so glad I'm into CM. Not many games can be played on a daily basis for years on end without getting tired of it. But rather gets better over time!
Keep up the good work 

http://www.closecombatseries.net/CCS/images/cc5maps/mervl.jpgThats the mods map they use for Merville. If you are interested I could extract the jpeg from the actual map file of the game or write out instructions on how to do so. This is how I plan to get into making a few maps anyway. Essentially you can do an easy pixel to meter conversion and use the close combat maps as overlays.

FWIW, IMO, narratives of actions are largely irrelevant. What you need are sources that allow you to create the map, and to get the respective forces in the right start and positions at the start point you chose. What happens after that - i.e., the conduct of the battle - is up to the players, NOT the scenario designer.

I visited there back in October...
http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/threads/normandy-tour-day-3-british-6th-airborne.21082/
 
The excellent book I referenced before going was David Howarth's "The 6th of June" later editions was re-titled "Dawn of D-Day"
There is an excellent chapter on Ottways attack on the Merville Battery.
 
You can either view it or down load a free pdf here:
https://archive.org/details/ddaythesixthofju006129mbp
 
The British Airdrop starts on page 29.
Enjoy! 

rocketman,
 
Maybe this will help. The Merville Battery account from over on the Pegasus Archive. Considerable text, a number of maps, and some good pics. Beware! You'll be placing a lot of craters!
 
Regards,
 
John Kettler

Check out the Wiki page for the Merville battery. It lists several sources including this site: http://www.batterie-merville.com/?lang=en

There is a book written about the actual action from the paras side and another written by a German officer at the battery (may be the commander, can't remember). Am sure a grog will be along soon to give both book titles. I've got the para one, just can't remember it's title at moment, will look for it.
I've personally been to the battery position and have some photos of it if you need them but probably all available online anyway (Google images?). They do a re-enactment in one of the bunkers of a para assault on the bunker that was very life like and scared the cr*p out of my wife! It certainly had the shock factor.

Soon, the rest of the Shermans, my favorite CMx2 title deserves it...
 
 

After playing CM games for almost 10 years I finally decided to try my hand at scenario design and started fiddling with the editor. I must say it is a ton of fun. It adds another dimension to the game and it gives your creative spirit a lot of freedom. And it is truly exciting to see your ideas come into fruition. Having messed around with the editor also makes me appreciate well-made scenarios in a whole new way.
 
Up until now I've been intimidated by the editor, but I would like to urge all those who enjoy playing the game to give it a chance. And in the process of having a new fun tool to play with, the community as a whole would benefit from more scenarios to play.
 
The editor is the same for all CM*2 games, but as it is now scenario design issues are dealt with in the seperate sub-forums. I would like, and I also think it would aid more people who wish to try the editor, that there was a seperate scenario design forum. In it there would be links to video tutorials, guides, discussions how to create realistic maps, villages etc. AI plans and so on. It would also be a place where you can ask for or sign up for play testing. Having everything in one place would IMHO help a lot.
 
What do you think?

At it again
Just uploaded a set of snow powdered german greatcoats, helmets, boots and gear to greenasjades site - here
 
All textures are mod tagged [snow] and thus they should only show up in scenarios with snowy ground conditions. One or two of the helmet mods might be based on someone else´s mod. I haven´t been able to find out whose - but if so, my apologies to the original modder for not crediting him.
 
Enjoy
 
rek
 
rek2

Hey, all.

Turn up your speakers, go full screen, make sure you're on 1080p HD, and enjoy my new CMRT video:

http://youtu.be/QLuoK3melRo

Screenshot:


Thanks!

Macisle

If you try it out vs. AI, please let us know how well it plays. Been longing for a Carentan scenario.

BFC, is it possible to start a seperate strategy and tactics forum, like for CMSF, upon release of the game? It would be of great help, especially for us poor sods who has to make the transition to the modern era from WWII.

Chris, any chance we will see a beta CMBS scenario on Twitch tomorrow?