Sgt.Squarehead

The Thirty-Fourth Minute
KG LINKS
The StuG moved up this turn to provide fire support.
KT7 looks to be clear of enemy. Surprising as I would expect AoA1 to be pretty heavily defended. 


KG ZENTRUM
The scouts are pulling back and being remounted. They will be moving out once everyone's back on board. The mortars may have stopped, only one fell in this turn where it's been two per turn since he started killing bushes back in the fifteenth minute.


KG RECHTS
The T34 immediately backs away from its position. This could be bait afterall.

2nd zug's SPWs pull back from the treeline away from the mortar fire. Another spotting round fell this turn, it definitely looks like a large area fire mission.

SITMAP

On the left we've almost cleared KT7 and it looks like nobody is home.
In the center I will be repositioning the rest of 2 Kompanie once everyone is on board. The going is slow in this weather on foot.
On the right I'm pulling 3 Kompanie's 2nd Zug back but 1st zug seem to be out of the area to be shelled so I've left a squad forward to keep eyes on where the T34 was. I'm rearranging the armour a bit, the StuG with KG ZENTRUM will go and join KG RECHTS and I'm going to move the Panthers off to join these fellas below. Tigers on the prowl!

Any guesses as to where they are going?
MMM

From 'Greatest Tank Battles':
 

Former British Empire was up for grabs & accessible, former Russian Empire, less so. 

Yeah, I couldn't find any indication that 280mm penetration was going to do the job either. 

With us Yanks it was perfectly functioning Bf 109's and FW 190's in tunnels under Geissen Depot.
 

A nice big desert map. 2km wide, 2.68km tall

Bathing beach in the northeast corner, Army Nurses, nudge nudge say no more wink wink, is she? is she a goer? 😉

The switchback road up from Derna to the Escarpment.

And once up there on the escarpment you head to Tobruk for a cold Foster's Lager but first you gotta cross this old stone bridge across Wadi Derna. 

 

Forward we go once again.

 
Through the mists, the mighty objective awaits our greatest efforts.

 

Thanks!
Yeah, actually that's a big part of the reason I decided to dive into this. Rather than have folks dealing with ports of varying degrees of time and success. Basically, what happened is suddenly, totally unexpectedly, I got complete WWII burnout. So, with the port issue in mind, I decided to do just enough of the map to test combat and see if I wanted to continue.  The result of the test was like, "Oh, yeah..gotta' make this happen."
Despite the amount of work building from scratch, it felt less intimidating than dealing with the unknowns of porting and would allow me to get a feel for the extra tools in BS. So, I made an elevation overlay of composite screenshots from the RT map and matched all tile elevations across the whole master. Then, I set up a composite file to produce overlays to do the same thing for the general map work. I do a "row" of blocks across the map, a block at a time, filling up a row at a time. Then, I do screenshots from the RT map for the next row. As I go, I am checking Google Map and Street to look for improvement changes made possible by the extra features in BS and opportunity of doing again from scratch. That's mostly building heights and the addition of some flat rooftops. However, there are a couple of future areas that I did on the RT map before I decided to be so faithful to real Kharkiv. So, those might see big changes on the BS map as I make them conform more closely to the RL layout.
One really nice thing is that the BS map is being made with finalized texture placeholders. So, I can update textures later without having to go back and rework building assignments. The RT map was done with a temporary number system and the textures are all scrambled now. So, I'm going to have to go back and reassign across the whole map. Ugh.
I'm able to run RT and BS at the same time, so I flip screens back and forth between the 3D views in RT and BS, along with Google Street, to match building configurations to original and/or look for improvements. That also allow me to spot and fix any issues in the RT map, along with doing any spot improvements there as well.
As for time estimates...
For the BS map, I'm doing the most time-consuming blocks first. That's the northern part of the map. Those blocks take 1 to 4 hours of concentrated work each. In the row areas worked on to date, there are roughly 28 blocks. All but 3 of them are completed except for flavor objects. The last 3 are placed but I need to go through and format the buildings. They are beasts, though, and that's probably an 8-10 hour job to finish all of them. A very rough estimate of the total number of blocks on the map is 80.
To be honest, I've long been kicking around asking for help on the textures to speed things up. That's not a strong area for me and is a kind of bottle neck. Also, I had originally considered doing some custom flavor objects (I know there are some interesting threads on that). However, I don't think I should spend any time on those myself.
From the get-go, functionality has taken top position over everything else. Where visual presentation collides against game function, function wins. Luckily, I haven't really come up against any issues. In fact, I've been super-pleased with how well the Engine is handling the designs I'm throwing at it. Everything works at least as well as stock. My putting some kind of road path pretty much everywhere I possibly can may be part of that. The player just needs to be diligent with waypoint placement vis-a-vis which door entrance he wants and very careful to make sure his waypoint found the right column in a high-rise.
Anyhoo, long post. I'll leave off here. Thanks again for your long-enduring interest and patience. Your enthusiasm for the project has certainly helped me get through those moments when I realized just how much I had bitten off to chew on! 🤪

Pen and paper, first, along with dozens of bookmarks. I use Photoshop for after that, with each battle a separate Layer with an "IN" and "OUT" flowchart - I keep everything movable, on one document. It is open to add or remove things, and is pretty simple. Like a script-writers room wall, in miniature.
Anything like Powerpoint (or the Open Office version) would also let you do this graphically.

The War Thunder post is actually based on an article from Tankograd (who are generally very reliable):
https://thesovietarmourblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/pt-76.html#d-56t

"Based on the semi-empirical shaped charge penetration by Walters and Zukas, a standoff distance of 2.66 yields a penetration of 5.0 calibers or more when a precision-made copper shaped charge liner is used on 320 BHN armour steel. With a shaped charge liner diameter of 62.3mm, this implies that BK-354M should be able to penetrate 311mm of RHA steel or more. However, because the spitback mechanism in the GPV-2 fuze introduces an additional delay compared to more modern piezoelectric fuzing systems, the nose of the shell to experiences some deformation during an impact with a hard target causing the standoff distance to decrease slightly. Furthermore, the design of the shaped charge itself with its long spitback receptacle at the apex of the shaped charge liner is not optimal. As such, the penetration power achieved with BK-354M was less than 311mm RHA. "
PS - @Rice  If JK does publish those documents, I trust you'll be man enough to make a public apology? 

Dude.....When? 
This looks so cool.....You saved me a bunch of work too! 
PS - @37mm  Thought I'd draw your attention to the building textures a few posts above. 

Don't claim to know how to depict this in CM, if it can be depicted in CM, but Breakthrough is all about the Russians in the Second Chechen War fighting a highly outnumbered desperate battle from a hilltop blocking position  trying to hold off an enormous force of Chechen and other fighters while waiting for reinforcements. This great war movie draws upon real events in the iconic 2000 Battle of Height 776. It's in Russian with English subtitles. Would post link, but YT won't allow this one to be embedded. Channel is called Epic Media English. Combat action is intense, and a wide variety of weaponry is shown. There's some excellent scenes of BMD-2s shot mostly from close range. 

Regards,

John Kettler



 

Not yet, alas. But let me give everyone status. I have some minor bad news and some major good news.

The bad news is that I'm not any further along with my work on the RT project than my last update. The good news is that I have been very active over the summer and the result is...

 

 
For the Black Sea crowd, "Kharkiveskya" will be coming as "Kharkiv."  Boom!

 

 
No ETA yet, though. Much work done, but much left to do. I'd expect the next upgrade to hit first. If the upgrade delivers major performance enhancements, that could change what I do with the campaigns. Both the RT and BS versions will be released at the same time.

I'll let folks know when I'm ready for beta testers. For now, I can say that I've been doing some combat testing in QB form on parts of the new map that are finished (minus flavor objects). And, while I was very pleased with the WWII combat, I'm even happier with how the BS kit is feeling on the map (which is not a port, but a fresh build in the BS Editor).
So, sincere apologies to those who have been waiting so long for this. It is going to happen. And I think yer gonna' like it! 😀

Strong boys

If I may use this thread to also ask attention for the (IIRC) already reported and acknowledged issues with Syrian forces:
* Special Forces & Airborne squads still only have 100rnds of 7.62x54r ammo. (other formations got a fix last patch).
* All Syrian formations in QBs have very limited RPG ammo (like 1 or 2 rounds).
* Syrian Mech Airborne formation in the editor has limited RPG ammo (like 1 or 2 rounds)
* C2 issues like above. I have quite some examples, but I think the issue has already been reported by @akd previously.
Unfortunately those were not in the previous patch, hopefully they will get priority in the next patch. For any PBEM/H2H with Syrian forces those are significant, as well as for Red vs Red or Red vs Blue scenario's and campaigns.

Minutes Twenty Two to Twenty Seven
Not a lot happened in these minutes so I'll report on all of them together.
KG LINKS
Still no contact on the left, 2nd squad is at the farm at the end of the twenty-seventh minute so I'm bringing the StuG up for for fire support along with a couple of the HTs. There are a couple of nice hull down firing positions for them to take up.





The impatient side of me is thinking this is taking too long, but given the amount of trees and buildings here and the fact I don't really have that much infantry to start with I'm going to be cautious and take my time. I will move a tiny but quicker (use QUICK instead of HUNT to cover the open spaces while being overwatched by fire support) but I'm not going to be reckless.
Given where his other OPs were situated I am expecting contact around about the third set of buildings in the image above as that would be in line with the other contacts I have had. We'll see!
KG ZENTRUM
The AT rifle team finally spotted 2nd squad moving around the trees on the right and took a few shots. None of them hit and my guys barely noticed such was the range but now he has spotted me it's time for these guys to eat some HE. I don't want him getting intel for free.

To that end I have decided to carry out the switch I was thinking about and swap the StuG that was with KG RECHTS with the Panther that was with KG ZENTRUM so both Panthers are with KG RECHTS. The StuG will then be brought up to fire on the AT rifle team on KEY TERRAIN 1 and either take them out or drive them off, I don't want to use a SPW (changing terminology to be more Germanic) as they've proven already that they can be damaged at range.
I don't know if he's seen any of my armour yet but this will obviously get his attention so if he's going to get a confirmed spot then I'd rather it was on a StuG than a Panther. Hopefully when the Panthers do get involved it will be a nice surprise for him! Then I'll unleash the Tigers (insert maniacal cackling and hand wringing here)!

No other contacts have been reported, I think KEY TERRAIN 3 is clear so once the OP is driven off then I'll retask KG ZENTRUM.
The mortars are still dropping. Poor scrubland, RIP.
KG RECHTS
The AT rifle team that ran away into the trees did not reappear and no other contacts were reported. I am bringing the rest of 3 kompanie up (1st zug, they only have two zugs) to fan out along the treeline and get more eyes on the farm. Investigating/clearing KEY TERRAIN 2 is going to take time and I'll need more than one platoon given the amount of trees. I'm expecting to run into troops in here as that seems to be where the AT rifle team retreated to.



2nd zug are pushing through the trees, scouts out front and have made it pretty far without any contact.

Finally the Panthers are reunited. Here having a cosy chat with 3 kompanie HQ.

SITMAP

On the left and right they'll continue to probe and see what they can uncover. In the center everyone is holding position until I can deal with that OP on KEY TERRAIN 1 (added them back to the graphic for reference).
I realise I didn't share my prioritised intelligence list before now:
What is the enemy OOB? - Unknown but the presence of a sniper suggests it's not JUST a cavalry regiment as they don't have any organic snipers. It might not be a cavalry regiment at all. Does he have any armour? What other AT assets does he have? Is he defending back or up front? - Looks to be back with OPs out front. Is Obj ROT occupied? - YES Where is his piquet line? - Once NAI1 is investigated then I'll know for sure. Where is his MLR? We also found out through our Dutch intelligence network that the enemy may have armour in the AO, something to keep an eye on.
MMM

CM:SF2 again.....Yeah Red radios are properly f**ked! 
I've tried to draw @Battlefront.com's attention to this on numerous occasions.
TBH this was a big part of me losing my scenario writing mojo.....Most of what I was doing was Red vs. Red and my missions were failing in testing because information just was not being relayed between radio equipped units and as I used moderately strict C2 rules in my testing, things just ground completely to a halt.
I suspect that Red's awful comms and the very slow response time of their air & aviation assets may have been partly created in CM:SF1 to represent jamming by Blue forces and that somehow this has carried over into CM:SF2 (where we actually have jamming, but Red have almost no functioning radios to jam).

Not directly.....The extras vanish.  However you can get them pretty close to each other, placing a ring of them around a wreck should still look quite effective.
Many moons ago I started laing out the groundwork for a 21Pz.Div. in Normandy campaign concept (loosely based on the Too Fat Lardies tabletop campaign).....Reckon I might give it another look, with a comprehensive mod set like these making the maps should be fun.

It's pretty accurate too.....I walk my dogs round there! 

Korsun 2017 ... what a sick scenario.

 
And the Worchester, England map is insane.

 
The CMBS pack has goodies I have never seen before...

From the CMFR Cutting Room Floor. Any time there was a BFC switch over to another project, I'd try out something weird with the included tools. You may have seen a version of this in CMCW, which was an adaptation of this original concept. The idea is to have a visual to track the campaign over, with choices depicted "on map" for the campaign portion.
This is simply a map that is zoomed way out to cover an operational area. Houses are towns, large buildings are urban areas, factories are industrial areas, and so on. The scale has been exploded to represent a potential campaign level view. The player would have a small unit representing their force on-map. I suppose you could have more than one unit, t depict multiple combat groups, but that is untested. Enemy forces would probably be tied to the scenario, but there may be some area for creativity there.
The campaign script has two potential decisions per branch. That could be a choice between any number of scenarios - a choice between attacking one of two towns, etc. Something like this could used as a makeshift operational map. This concept could then be used (in whole or portion) to create branching battles on an "operational map" made from a standard map...but scaled up. I like the idea of using the entire map for this one, as it would keep a sense of progression (or not). Like CMMC, but without any extra engine stuff, and everything is tracked via the campaign script. It gives a graphic progression to the text-based campaign we currently have.
My idea was to have a few new flavor objects for the towns and smaller trees, but it can be done with what we have (and maybe a 2D mod or two). I suppose there should be some standard for what the 3D stuff means (2 small barns= town, 4 large buildings= city, etc). It's getting the practical stuff on-map, then making sure it doesn't look like a dog's breakfast in 3D.
The "operational map" where the high-level branching choices are is below - this map being for the area covered by Operation Spring Awakening. It was too much of a slog for a campaign, but the operational map remains. If you have CMFR, you will see some maps destined for this idea.
In practical terms - The choice to the player would be "take the road to Deg, or take the road to Enying", then the player will move their campaign operational map Schwimmwagen/Jeep, etc. to that "town" on the map (or any choice trigger terrain), which will be linked to that battle as the next battle in the campaign in the campaign script. I the map attached, the Germans start at the west (just because of the current map rotation - really north), heading east (south, geographically) to Simontornya or Cece.
The attached example is far too large, and was intended to be split into smaller sections. Doing something of this size would be unmanageable to make a campaign script for if the battles were numerous. Each operational sub-map would be its own campaign, with 6 or so branches. That's probably 12 sub-maps, which can be easily made from Master Maps, QB maps, etc.
If I get any free time to cipher it out, I'll attach a script example for the branching for the first round using this map, and maybe others may wish to test the idea out on their own ideas. I have a few of my own, but they need a fair amount of time to percolate.
Images, looking west to east. Hungary, Lake Balaton region.


 

I'm attaching the Snow Roads (they have an associated Mod Tag attached, from FR). They might be useful as a guide. I'll get caught up on the last two pages of this thread when I get a free second to see if I have any other useful road experiments (aside from the many failures!).
Snow Roads.zip

BTW - @chuckdyke  In relation to one of your previous comments.....These tenement buildings:

Have, IIRC, 35 individual rooms each. 

To avoid this:

I do the same as your 'Passable Result':

But I also stick a few Dirt Red tiles around the junction.....It does a fairly decent job of blending things in. 
FWIW