Der Alte Fritz

What a great selection of images. I particularly like the contra-rotating windmill!

Watch this Panzergrenadier training film from 1944 and you will see that HT are used to rush infantry into areas well away from small arms fire but which may be under artillery fire or used in areas where there is a risk albeit low of sniper fire or the the odd enemy soldier with small arms. Their use is all very planned and co-ordinated to provide mobility at specific moments in the battle. The film is about using the PzGr in the Hautpkampffeld (HKF) which is the area behind the Main line of Resistance (HKL) where counter attack forces are used to engage the enemy and ultimately recover the lost ground and restore the HKL. This is a classic use of PzGr in a counter attacking role in support of an Infantry Division which would be holding the HKL and HKF with static forces.

I have had the exact opposite experience to my cost. In the final stage of the Training Campaign. A ran a jeep with a FO through a wood but with no terrain indicator like we had in CMBB it is hard to know what terrain types are in a wood. Anyway the jeep sets off on a long movement, then turns off to the side, comes out of the wood and heads on a vast detour through the German lines to its destination. It got as far as a bridge before getting shot up, blocking the bridge to the 3x T34 and 2x SU153 who now had to make long detours back through the woods to the lake and then along the shoreline. Tried to run a SU-152 through the bridge to push it out of the way but it again re-routed into a vast detour round half the map which I was able to stop in time as it was set to move at SLOW. The other jeep did exactly the same making a trip through the woods at the rear of the map, it re-routed, making a big detour into open ground and gets shot up by the Stugs in the village. I do not mind the game having routing problems but these vast detour solutions are hard to fathom.

There are 25 basic individual building types and each one has 1,2,3 variants within the folder so that placing several of the same building in a line will give some variation. So there are several options here. I imagine you can add additional buildings to the folders to produce more variants. Some folders display a [tag] [easterneurope] which can be used in scenarios in Poland to give a more Polish feel. This could be developed further by adding extra buildings with the [tag] [ukraine] or [carpathians] so that a scenario could show the correct setting to display your carefully modded Panther tank. In many cases a copying of the building and just re-colouring or re-texturing would make a lot of difference.

Hi George We have a possible contrast with the L'vov-Sandomir Operation in the area of the Western Ukraine (Galacia) which takes in this very different, terrain hilly mountainous area, the snowy Carpathians in the background and a different vernacular architecture with thatched roofs and tiles roofs, buildings more of brick or plasterwork, more painted surfaces and church are very different in style with more German influence. On the operational side, in July you have the Soviet offensive against AG Nord Ukraine which was torn apart by the Ukranian Fronts and chase back into the mountains or pushed away to the gates of Warsaw to the north. Some really stirring accounts of Panzer Divisions operating in a total vacuum with no unit on either flank for several hundred kms.

Farmhouses tended to be built around a central courtyard with a wall closing off one side and a single entrance gate. Perhaps to keep out Vampires?

Vernacular architecture of the Carpathians Both Lemberg and the Carpathians were richer than Russia being under former Austro-Hungarian rule until 1919 so they have slate roofs and generally a higher standard of finish

We can be quite specific about the areas involved in the fighting June-Sept 1944 Western Ukraine (formerly Eastern Poland and nowhere near the current Polish border) around Lvov and along the Carpathian mountains (under Austrian rule it was known as Galacia), Belorussia around Minsk particularly the wooded marshy area and later on around Brest and Latvia (with its long connections to German Protestant culture). Area around Lviv (Lvov-Lemburg) Lemburg town Really looks more like Milan than Minsk

As a comparison this is a White Russian house:

What in the same way that a "North America" regional setting would cover Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Kansas, Manitoba, New Hampshire and Alaska? Russia alone is twice the size of Canada without Poland, Belorussia, Ukraine, Transinstria, Latvia. Lithuania, Estonia (Finland). There is a lot of regional and cultural diversity in "Eastern Europe" CMRT specifically covers Belorussia - wooden houses which would also be applicable for eastern Poland. The Baltic states are very different and Ukraine, Western Ukraine and the area around Lvov are different again. Lvov (Lemburg) was Austrian for most of its history and has very different buildings to Belorussia. Here is a painting by Ilyra Repin of a Ukranian peasant house and from: http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20044/6

It would really expand the scope of the game to get some terrain and buildings for the Ukraine and Poland so that we could do scenarios of the Lvov Sandomir Operation. Someone did do a set of Ukrainian buildings for CMBB years ago.

Any chance you could change the existing side cap in the game files into a Ushanka? Just one question, the Soviet Tank Crews wear black? I thought that their overall were blue

I saw blocking detachments and NKVD troops adding a morale boost to Soviet troops (or was that "Enemy at the Gate"?) and the new German Crowbar AT weapon - just climb on board the tank and prise the hatch open - great animation with the troops in greatcoats. I think I saw my all time favourite tank the T-34/57 M1941 with rarity turned off you can buy just one.

They will go with the sales of course. CMx1 titles ranked in terms of CMBO, CMBB and CMAK in terms of sales. I think that CMBN will be their best seller and they have plenty of scope to add more packs (The Bulge etc), mini-packs and other paid for content with good sales. I am sure that CMRT will be the next in line in sales as there is quite an Eastern Front following and using the material from CMBN series can expand the Eastern Front to the end of the war June 1944 to April 1945 very easily. The Waffen SS, Lend Lease vehicles already exist in CMBN and there are only a few extra Soviet vehicles and units needed to get to the end of the war. CMFI, I am sure was done first because it already contained many of the elements from CMBN and it was a question of adding in extra content from the base CMBN game, extra content that could then re-appear back in CMBN as the Commonwealth pack. So what of the future. CMBN can continue to expand by adding in extra units, vehicles etc onto the existing CMx2 3.0 platform. CMRT late war expansion pack is easy as it rides on the back of the Bulge expansion pack. They could add in a Ukraine/Poland mini pack with some extra terrain, partisans and other items. After that is a little more difficult. For a Kursk era pack, most of the Soviet vehicles will already be in place, as are most of the units so the work needs to happen on the earlier German units and vehicles which is quite a lot of work but would help if there was to be a CMFI Torch expansion. But earlier than Kursk or Stalingrad? No I really doubt if we will see a June 1941 or 1942 expansion within a couple of years as it would require a complete Soviet and German new set of units and vehicles which is a big job. CMFI is more difficult as although extra content can be added into the existing timeframe, to go earlier would mean a big commitment in terms of new German vehicles, units, British vehicles and new terrain of course. A big project so unlikely to happen with the new modern CMSF version coming using the CMx2 3.0 engine. So I think we will see the Bulge and CMRT Late War expansions coming out reasonably quickly. How much gets done after that will depend on CMRT sales, if they are good, we might get Kursk (based on the CMFI work for the Germans) and the existing Soviets). Then it is CMSF Mark II but the rest of CMFI and CMRT is a long way off. I would not hold your breath for Hungarians and BT-7 tanks.

Just a smidgeon less transparent would be great

Yes I shall certainly download them when they become available. This is a good site for inspiration: http://www.tridentmilitary.com/Reproduction.uniforms.html

I did mine in Photoshop 7 and it is very straight forward once you get the knack. You do not need another editor just master the one you have. Basically, you create a new CHANNEL called 'alpha 1' which is black ie transparent Then you create a "window" to see the image through - by drawing a white shape round it Then you save the channel making sure that the alpha channel box is ticked Save and you are done,

I had the same problem. The icon image is square and the way you make it any other shape is to add an 'alpha' layer. What happens is that this gets lost when you mod the icons and you have to put it back in.

I tried using Bill Hardenbergers CMFI Floating Icon mod in CMRT but I get a black square around the icon. His icons are larger (128 px) than the stock ones (32 px) but other wise the same a single layer .bmp file with no alpha layer. Any ideas?

Any chance of a muddy water mod or a dark water mod this time around?

That is true because it was the Christie suspension that was the limiting factor. Each of the road wheels sits at the end of a large spring that runs the full height of the hull. This allows a huge range of independent movement for each wheel which in turn allows a high cross country speed. The cost of this is that it limits the weight you can put on the hull in the case of the T34 to about 35 tonnes.

My Xenophon copy of TM 30-430 is not brilliant either. So I use the set from Charles Sharps book Soviet Infantry Tactics in WW2 as a check and where I could not read them. Can scan the pages if you want and post them with a link here.

I see both sets of icons in their 'modded' form.

I have been using your mod but found it a little confusing. IN the Soviet system a circle denotes a man or 'team' in BF parlance while a half circle denotes a section/squad or platoon. So ammunition carriers use the squad symbol but this team is only 3 men so should be denoted by a circle with an 'n' in the middle. Likewise the HQ units are denoted by a circle with a cross on top - a platoon commander ie the man himself - a better symbol might be the HQ traingular flag symbol which denotes all HQ up to Battalion. The SMG squad has a blob under the half circle but in fact it is a letter the Russian letter looking like a 'q'. The symbol for flamethrower is not OT but rather an arrow with a base with a circle through the middle of the arrow shaft.