Sgt.Squarehead

Ok, my friend. I finally was desperate enough, finished some other stuff and had no books to read for days now, to buy the package of the first three Culture books.
I’ll let you know how it comes out.

The village of RAKOW, Poland, around 40km SE of KIELCE. This is VILLAGE Z in the AAR report at this link: http://www.allworldwars.com/Small-Unit-Actions-During-German-Campaign-in-Russia.html#2212

The map above (kindly sourced by Hugh Davie from Soviet AARs) shows the general dispositions of the Soviet forces in this area during August (RAKOW = PAKYB). The German attack came in from the west along the line of HILL 251.3

View from HILL 25.3 looking east towards RAKOW.
The context of this AAR is the German effort to reduce/eliminate the Soviets Baranow bridgehead in Poland during early August 1944.
I should note whilst I was researching this action, whilst this AAR appears super detailed a significant number of key facts are incorrect - unit make up, commanders, and Soviet opposition. The same action is described in the book 'Armoured Bears' on page 240-241 and whilst having slightly less detail, more or less ties in with the actual German OOB (and listed commanders) and TOE at the time, although again its vague as to the Soviet opposition. I also have access to Soviet AAR reports (which Hugh Davie who used to haunt these forums very kindly translated for me) and they provide an intriguing ins-sight into the fighting in this area. Whilst they confirm a German attack, and the numbers of tanks and light SPW involved are 'broadly' consistent with the size of the German kampfgruppe involved, they diverge on other details such as German losses, the actual direction and the objectives of the attack. All in all though none of the sources dove tail perfectly!! Still, they all agree that Soviet artillery eventually stalled the attack from moving beyond the outskirts of RAKOW.

German Panzer IVs moving up in the early dawn.

Approaching RAKOW and taking fire.
"Three German tanks were immediately disabled, one of them catching fire. Hauptmann Zobel (commander of the 8/II/Pz.Rgt 6) ordered the two platoons to withdraw."

Me, I still see this:
 

The weapon above is indeed a 82mm Vasilek (my favourite artillery piece in CM:A), it's a clip fed auto-mortar.....I was looking for that video to post in this thread, so bravo to @Zveroboy1 for posting it.

The Russian army no longer uses the Vasilek, but apparently the VDV still has it, so there's some hope we might see it in a future CM:BS update.....Not sure if it's officially used by the Ukraine, apparently it's been seen on both sides in the Donbass, but that's not what CM:BS models.
It's also been suggested that the Vasilek was used in Syria, but AFAIK the SAA never adopted the weapon, so it's likely a recent import (of one side or the other, possibly both) and thus outside the scope of CM:SF2.
Just one more reason to love CM:A.....A whole battery firing together is really quite effective! 

1) Friendly vehicles never block LOS/LOF for other friendly vehicles.
2) Operable enemy vehicles block LOF, but not LOS, from friendly vehicles.
3) Non-smoking KO'd vehicles do not block LOS/LOF for friendly or enemy vehicles.
4) Non-smoking KO'd vehicles block LOF, but not LOS, from any unit as long as the targeted unit is not a vehicle (ie: tank shooting at infantry or infantry shooting at infantry)
5) Smoking vehicles block LOS and LOF.
6) "Vehicles" means tanks, SP guns, and AT/Anti-personnel guns.

You're a member of the community ….

This. 
At least one major scenario, utilising the full capabilities of Engine 4 (& then some) is imminent (courtesy of the mighty @MOS:96B2P).....Testing for that project started on January 30th (for me at least). 
I've got several projects in the works (including a 2p only one that's very near completion, but which will need thorough testing before release), however all of them are set on large re-jigged CM:SF1 maps which featured fake rivers or seas.....They now have real rivers & seas, but the process of making those changes affects the entire topography of the map (fake rivers and seas can have multiple elevations, real ones can't).  It's amazing how much time it can take just to restore the general lie of the land (on maps of over 6Km2), let alone adding in all the new terrain types and flavour objects.
 

Would it make sense for scenario designers when simulating low intensity warfare like the type which sometimes takes place in the Donbass area to give players only a handful of rounds in order to model this type of artillery fire? You could give the player, i don't know, let's say a dozen rounds, it would depend on the caliber obviously and the number of tubes in the battery obviously. Maybe coupled with a TRP. And then another volley 20 minutes later or so when the gun has relocated. It could add an interesting tactical twist to have support fire with only limited size volleys. It wouldn't be appropriate for every type of battle of course.
Not actually recent footage and don't mind the clickbait "phenomenal artillery battle" part but impressive how far the return fire comes though. 80 seconds after the first shells have been fired and as the comment on twitter says, that includes the shell flight time as well. Well of course that's assuming it is not a random stray shell that just landed nearby.
 

We really need persistent map damage to make this concept properly immersive.....It's exactly what I wanted to do with Mosul, but as the eminently wise @Combatintman pointed out, there's nothing that wrecks immersion more than large numbers of buildings suddenly undestroying themselves between missions. 
In some ways CM2 was a step backward from CM1.....IMHO the absence of 'static campaigns' (followed by fire) would be top of the list. 

It has to do with the AI's inability to manoeuvre for the shot. Similarly, AI controlled vehicles cannot pull back to hit high targets that the gun cannot elevate to target, so they are allowed to shoot at targets to high for the gun.  They also cannot make minor adjustments - backup some and move forward so they are 10m to the left - in order to get at enemy vehicles behind already wrecked vehicles.
So, limitation for a reason.

One word:

 

The scenario Coup D'etat has been uploaded and is available at the Scenario Depot III.  Link below.
 http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-shock-force-2-2/cm-shock-force-2-scenarios/coup-detat/
rocketman created a very cool PDF map and reference document available at the below link. 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8weqdobt7pidc8/Coup d Etat Reference and Map Document.pdf?dl=0
Enjoy the scenario and if there are any questions feel free to ask here or send me a PM. 
Have a safe taxi ride.  And, as @Sgt.Squareheadsaid, don't get in the red taxis.   
The player leads a small under equipped rebel force in an early morning (0400hrs) coup attempt to overthrow the governing regime.  It is set in the fictional third world country of Abbudin and takes place in heavy urban terrain.  The scenario is Red vs Red AI only, heavy urban terrain, all modules required, variable end time (extra hour, 45 minutes for 200VPs).
The scenario provides in game intelligence to help guide the decision-making process along with a modified military grid system and an intelligence code. 
The player can use IEDs, VBIEDs, assassinations, bribery, mercenary units, radio propaganda, extra scenario time and foreign assistance.  As the Coup d’etat progresses the player must decide which methods to use and when.  All the methods have advantages and disadvantages.  Some methods cost Victory Points (VPs).  Four VPs for each mercenary, 25 VPs per IED explosion, 50 VPs per VBIED explosion, 100VPs to bribe a regime commander to withdraw his unit, 200 VPs to fight until 0800hrs etc.  After 0600 hours the player can choose to use a USMC amphibious force.  This force includes the USS Wasp, USS Ticonderoga and USS Oak Hill.  This overt outside military intervention will trigger a backlash in the streets of the city………  
 

The scenario Coup D'etat has been uploaded and is available at the Scenario Depot III.  Link below.
 http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-shock-force-2-2/cm-shock-force-2-scenarios/coup-detat/
Some sound files were to big to load. 
@rocketman created a very cool PDF map and reference document that was also to big to load.  I have a message sent to @Bootie at the FGM site about rocketman's PDF file.  Hopefully the PDF can be added to the Coup scenario post in the next week or so. 
I clicked on all the links that did upload and everything is working as far as I know. 
Enjoy the scenario and if there are any questions feel free to ask here or send me a PM. 
Have a safe taxi ride.  And, as @Sgt.Squareheadsaid, don't get in the red taxis.   

To celebrate our victorious coup, local aldermen perform the traditional 'Air Guitar Conga':

See.....I didn't burn everything after all! 
Meanwhile.....Former regime soldier Abdul Aziz decided that, all things considered, his day could have gone a lot worse:

My hat's off to the mighty @MOS:96B2P for this epic creation.....Absolutely magnificent! 

https://warontherocks.com/2019/04/how-does-the-next-great-power-conflict-play-out-lessons-from-a-wargame/
Long and detailed. 
Kevin

page 53 of the manual:
"The only exception to this rule is that vehicles are not protected by hiding behind stunned armored vehicles ..."
so even behind a destroyed tiger, 2 tigers, 3 tigers etc ....

Actually it's all quite simple. BF can't give release dates, because they don't know themselves. That's annoying, surprising, etc. but there it is. They are working as quickly as  they can, on that we can trust. Let's give them time and relax. They will learn their lessons for the future out of all this, of that I'm also sure.
Personally I'm hoping for a release before the end of the year of both modules, but that is not guaranteed, I think. So be it then. Even that won't be the end of the world. In the meantime:
The sand of the desert is sodden red,—
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; —
The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks:
'Play up! play up! and play the game! '
P.s. Happy Eastern, folks!

I suspect @MOS:96B2P may have a surprise for you. 

Cool to see some table-top gaming going on.....It's where a lot of us started out, I suspect. 
Get yourself a free picture hosting account.....I use Imgur & Flickr

I'm just not feeling this disdain.....They're a tiny outfit, trying to do a fairly major job and, by & large, when they do release something, it's very, very good. 
You should try dealing with some small model companies, then you'd know what disdain really felt like. 

Salute is one of the biggest tabletop gaming events in the UK, held annually in London's ExCel centre (an f-awful hangar with overpriced everything 😉).  The theme this year was Post-apocalypse. Painting and terrain absolutely stunning.

There were a lot of steampunk games - look at the quality of the terrain building!

I'm just not feeling this disdain.....They're a tiny outfit, trying to do a fairly major job and, by & large, when they do release something, it's very, very good. 
You should try dealing with some small model companies, then you'd know what disdain really felt like. 

I'm messing around with a LNA core file at the moment; 50+ Toyotas & Technicals, 5 T-62 tanks and about a couple of companies worth of men:

Their C3 structure is rather complex (borderline tribal even)! 
These are the guys who will be trying to take Bishr:

Don't worry, that's an old picture, it looks a bit sexier these days!