poesel

A wise decision. Well, in that case you have to accept German 'dominance'. Personally I think Germany is a very respectable and noble country, which learned from it's mistakes and deserves to be forgiven. Apart from that it made the unity of Europe and the avoidance of new European wars for a large part financially possible.
Time to forgive, not forget, Panzermartin. Whether we like it or not, the European countries need each other. Unity is more important than ever.

Tearing down monuments is trying to erase history. It is more important to make sure that those who see these monuments know what or whom those represent.
Judging the past with current morale standards is necessary to understanding. But removing the offending statues means that this discussion will never happen again and the atrocities will be forgotten.

Some of the conversation over the few pages have referenced the former Yugoslavia.  Which brings back... well, not so good memories.
I was a Canadian peacekeeper in Bosnia in latter half of '93.   During the Croatian offensive in the Medak in Sept of '93, I was with the 2 PPCLI when we went into the sh*tstorm to try to stop the ethnic cleansing going on.  The Croatian army attacked our unit during that operation, a thing that the Croatian government denies to this very day.  Despite us photographing the Croatian dead after the battle and collecting their ID, etc.    We had god damn evidence and to this day, the Croatian government position is that they never attacked us.
Part of our job, beside trying to keep the warring factions apart, was to document evidence of ethnic cleansing and I was in charge (I was an officer) of a evidence collection team.  So, literally thousands of photos, videos.  Transcripts of interviews with witnesses and victims.  Six months exposed to that living hell, day after f*n day....
So I had the evidence, because sometimes our official recording devices ran out film or tape and we used our personal recording devices to finish up at a site.
After I got out the military, I found myself sometimes on various military forms about games, such as this one.  Arma forums, military wargame forums... that sort of thing.  And as it happened, I ran into forum members from Croatia and Bosnia Serbs and we would get into it.
Universally, every Croatian or Bosnian Serb forum poster denied what happened there.  And I was called a liar on many occasions for telling them them the truth of that war as I was there and they weren't.  And I have evidence to back up my claims.  No one believed me and if I offered visual proof, they didn't want to see it or they disclaimed it as fake.
I remember a particular Bosnian Serb who was not in the war but we got deep into the weeds discussing what happened during that war.  Deny, deny, deny.  It never happened.  Until videos that the Bosnian Serbs took of them killing civilians and dumping them in mass graves what was recorded by the very soldiers who committed the atrocities surfaced and made it onto their local media and they couldn't deny it any longer.  Those videos were part of the process besides sanctions that resulted in some notable Bosnia Serb / Serbian leaders being turned over to the ICC for prosecution for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.  After the revelation came out, this individual on that forum who I had spent hours engaging with about the culpability of Serbs in the atrocities simply ignored me from that point onwards.  I will never know why.... was it that he discovered that I was right all a long and he was wrong and he was ashamed (as he would have been) or he simply wanted to hang onto his delusion of what narrative he wanted to believe was true and he knew that I would keep chipping away.   
Denial is a powerful thing.   I don't understand why it has such power but it does.  People can dismiss an outright objective reality because to accept the truth is to undermine what they think reality is or should be.   I don't get it and is beyond madding to see the denials in the face of objective reality happen over and over.
Sigh.   I don't know why the hell I rambled on with this.  Maybe it was a story I need to tell to remain sane in light of the same brutality I witnessed back in Bosnia happening in Ukraine now.  Or maybe I still am the greater fool for believing my experiences in Bosnia can be an object lesson to others about holding onto a narrative that is personally comfortable but runs counter to all the real evidence to the contrary.   DMS, I am looking at you....
The truth will come out after all this is over.  At least, I hope it does.  The truth of this war needs to be told and codified so generations that follow can know what really happend.
Now at the end of this and reviewing it, I feel that I should have deleted this or apologize for it.  
I am hitting post. It is my truth.  Let people accept it and learn something from it or ignore it.  I needed to say this for a long time.   
 
 

The Kremlin blinks first in the geo-economic war over Ukraine (msn.com)
On April 29, Russia’s finance ministry announced that it would pay some $650m to foreign creditors on two overdue Eurobonds. And by making the payments before the bonds’ grace period expired on May 4, the Kremlin has avoided falling into sovereign default.
On the surface, this may look like a win for Russia. But in reality, the move was an embarrassing one for Vladimir Putin.
Ahead of the bond’s formal maturity on April 4, the Kremlin announced that it would buy back the bonds in roubles – and pay those who refused to accept the rouble buy-back as well. Nearly 75 percent of bondholders (almost certainly all domestic) agreed to the new terms .
Emboldened, the Kremlin announced on April 6 that it was also depositing roubles into accounts set up for other bondholders. The Credit Derivatives Determinations Committees judged this to be a “potential-failure-to-pay” event, ruling that Russia would effectively be in default if it fails to correct the situation by the aforementioned May 4 deadline. In response, Russian officials accused the West of attempting to force Russia into a default by restricting its access to foreign currency reserves. The US Treasury, which oversees sanctions, however made clear that sanctions do not bar Russia from paying with funds it was earning from ongoing oil and gas sales.
Russia’s recent decision to pay the bonds in foreign currency enabled it to avoid the all-but-guaranteed acceleration of other debts and lawsuits that would have followed a default and further impoverished the Russian people.
However, the move also left the Kremlin in a position of extreme hypocrisy and embarrassment. In the end, what Putin did was to repay domestic bondholders with roubles, which they cannot convert freely into hard currency to spend abroad. And pay foreign holders in full, in dollars – hardly a feat worthy of praise.
To achieve this Putin likely tapped into the record levels of foreign currency Russia accumulated through oil and gas sales since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine.
And it seems, soon it may also lose that crucial income.
On May 4, the European Union proposed plans to phase out the purchase of Russian oil.
Between the launch of its invasion on February 24 and the time of writing, Russia has earned $21bn from oil sales to the EU according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CRE). This record income was partially due to high hydrocarbon prices resulting from the war itself. Russia’s foreign currency stockpile, however, will not keep growing forever as the costs of the war are borne and oil and gas markets readjust. And now, it is also on the verge of losing a key customer.
Furthermore the EU is going after Russia’s oil sales not just within the bloc but around the world.
The bloc’s package of sanctions measures also includes a ban on providing transportation to Russian oil, regardless of where it is destined. This is certainly a fallible measure, given shipping companies set up outside the bloc could avoid it. However, the package will also bar the provision of insurance services for such shipping. This is far more difficult to evade, given the shipping insurance market is so dominated by EU, Canadian and US firms.
In case there is any doubt just how exposed the shipping sector is to Western sanctions, one just needs to look to the actions of Russian state-owned shipping company Sovcomflot. On May 3 specialist maritime industry publication Lloyd’s List revealed that Sovcomflot was looking to sell at least 40 ships from its 121 ship fleet before wind-down authorisations expire and it becomes fully sanctioned on May 15.
If Sovcomflot fails to raise enough cash to honour its debts before then, it will fall into default and creditors will go after its ships. Just like the Russian state, Russian businesses are still fearful of defaulting on Western creditors – even amid a war.
These sanctions are unlikely to be lifted as long as Russian troops remain beyond the pre-February 24 lines of control. For example, none of the sanctions introduced after Russia’s annexation of Crimea have ever been lifted.
Despite these setbacks, there is clearly some fight left in Russia, which is using its gas sales to Europe to try and ensure that the rouble remains convertible even as sanctions are further tightened, and thus that it can at least buy foreign currency if and when needed.
The Kremlin is likely to cut off other EU countries and companies who refuse to comply with the gas-for-roubles demand, as it already has with Poland and Bulgaria. But gas sales to Europe are an even more important source of revenue for the Kremlin. Pipelines are expensive to replace, and the above mentioned shipping sanctions are applied to liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes as well. Europe should prepare to call Putin’s bluff.
The West is winning the geo-economic war. The Kremlin will blink again.
 

You're going to get pounded on here mate, but in consideration of your good service to this community, I will say the following:
1. Most of us here know a fair number of decent Russians (most of them, in fact), and nobody has any doubt you are a decent (Russian) guy. And yes, there are no doubt many decent Russians in the ranks of the invading forces (just as there were in the 1941 Wehrmacht).
2. There are also a fair number of trigger happy "Git Some!" jerks and occasional sadists in the ranks of any army, no matter how highly organised, supplied and disciplined.
3. And, sure, juvenile trash talk on Twitter needs to be substantially discounted unless there's reason to believe it is manifested in action.
.... But Russian soldiers in Ukraine also have many strong incentives to behave brutally and murderously, and few restraints (although there is doubtless also decent behaviour, and probably a fair amount of simply minding one's own business):
a.  weak unit cohesion, bullying NCOs, lack of respect for officers and these days, for the Army itself, given the across the board lousy military performance;
b. Widespread drunkenness in all ranks, including while on duty, with only arbitrary punishments;
c. ranks drafted from the poorest segments of society, not across economic classes and regions (Moscow has suffered few dead, and most are officers);
d. Many of the draftees are Asian and Muslim, with little love for whites, including Russians, who call them 'чурка' (churkas, which is roughly 'wood chips'). It's easy for them to Other the occupied population (and vice versa). That said, the brutality seems to be an equal opportunity recreation; 
e.  the nonstop dehumanising 'Khokol' propaganda being pushed by RU media, probably more on the families than on the soldiers who are in the line. Yeah, that happens in war, even civil wars;
f.  Finally, said pig farmers have caused  many soldiers' comrades know to die horribly, often burning to death in vehicles. Partisan attacks and ambushes -- actual or rumoured -- are particularly resented, as they always are, and used to justify vicious 'reprisals'.
(Yes, of course, they're defending their homeland, but as a combat soldier, you aren't inclined to see things the enemy's way)
g.  I expect the troops get away with war crimes with impunity; there are no disciplinary consequences and officers have more pressing concerns anyway. Feel free to cite counterexamples though, if that is incorrect.
So you'd need to be wilfully blind not to see the toxic mix that makes this behaviour all entirely credible. May this war end swiftly.

Russian say we are "fascists", ok - then here our MG42... ok... M53 or MG3

I'd like to differ. I agree with you that shooting straight up into 8th floor is a rather seldom occurrence.
What's IMHO worse is the lack of limits to gun depression. Because that makes it easy for tanks to defend versus close assaults. And I mean VERY close assaults with grenades.
Without a limit to depression a tank can literally shoot through its own motor.

A grenade assault which does not kill the tank is the death sentence for the attacker because a tank has no blind spots where it can't shoot you.

For a certain type of battle this happens quite often. See picture.

Glorious March to Victory, Final Post - "Like Tears in Rain"
Well big thank you to all who watched.  I figure I should stop leaving you all hanging, so we cease fired on the last turn (33 I believe).  Now take the end-screen with a grain of salt:

So first off there was a dumb double-accounting error for the Soviet side.  Basically the parameters were:
En Cas 50% = 50 VPs
En Condition 50% = 50 VPs
Dollbach Village = 100 VPs.
The error was the Soviets had another 100 VPs for having fewer than/better than 50% cas/cond, so I subtracted that because if we had paid attention Bil was above 50% too.  So the score was really 100 because I held the town.  (Note, also a small error in that his M150s were counted as tanks...a bug we noted for fixing)
The outstanding question is "could Bil have reduced me to 50% without going there himself"...that one is tougher.   So for Soviets:
215 men: lost 71 = 33%
17 Tanks: lost 10 = 58%
17 AFVs: lost 9 = 53%
For the US:
138 men: lost 56 = 40.5%
12 Tanks: lost 6 = 50%
17 AFVs (also counting his mortar carriers): Lost 6 = 35%
So this was by no stretch a "Total Victory", that was straight up on us for not checking the victory parameters.  I hold the village but given the drubbing I received in taking it, I am not sure I can put a statue up in Red Square for this either.  Add to this the fact I started with a lot more men and tanks, it starts to push the whole thing into Draw territory to my mind.  
Now Bil had much better arty, had air (I had none) and EW which made my arty next to useless without TRPs (which I did not have) so there is that.  And my starting position was not the best but it is a poor craftsman that blames the workbench.  
I will let you all judge for yourselves.  Regardless, was a helluva fight, the kind that comes around only every so often,  and we are all working to get you guys a chance at it yourselves soon enough.
 

Here is a map with the positions of all included FB scenarios, campaigns & maps:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zetZ6VPvwx0g.kFKcTFo1c88A&usp=sharing
I've tried to locate the positions as best as I could. If you find mistakes please PM me.
There is also stuff from BN, CW and parts of MG (thanks Pete!). I plan to include the pieces from the other titles over time and maybe even non-BFC content.
If you'd like to participate please PM me.

Here is a map with the positions of all included FB scenarios, campaigns & maps:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zetZ6VPvwx0g.kFKcTFo1c88A&usp=sharing
I've tried to locate the positions as best as I could. If you find mistakes please PM me.
There is also stuff from BN, CW and parts of MG (thanks Pete!). I plan to include the pieces from the other titles over time and maybe even non-BFC content.
If you'd like to participate please PM me.

As a Linux user I sometimes look through WineHQ for capabilities of running some Windows stuff in my favourite OS. Last week I've found that there is a Wine patch that enable run CM2. It seems that it passed unnoticed, so I'm writing it here.
So far, I've tested demo versions of CMRT, CMFI and CMBS and on my 8-year-old laptop (Linux Mint 19, Wine 3.20) they all run without any issues.
The question is: how it looks with full versions? I'd like to know that they work before purchasing. If there are another Linux users (who don't want to dual-boot anymore) I would appreciate for sharing the results of the tests.
 
Regards

I dismounted most of the German infantry from their Marders in case they could be seen early. Man, those Panzerfaust 3's are large !

But it is an impressive sight as the reinforcements move up

Further orders - since Bil is covering the Dig Site, he doesn't have anything looking down in the other direction due to his protective mound. So I think moving another Scimitar forward would be good

At least one Marder joins the Watcher in the Woods - that's a good position even if the range is a bit too great for useful area fire against Bil's uncons.

Final overview of the bulk of my position - Both Leopards have moved onto the highest tiny mound available.

MINUTE 4
Team 2’s AT team finished setting up its AT-7, aimed at the Scimitar near the ruined farm and let fly… the missile just skimmed the turret but hit the ground well beyond…

…immediately the accompanying Fennek spotted the team and fired a few volleys of grenades at this team.  None hit, but the grenades were churning up the ground as they moved closer and closer toward the end of the turn. 

The AT team fired a second missile that is still in the air at the end of the first turn.  I will be pulling them out of the line next turn... hopefully they get out okay… if not, that’s okay too as long as he loses the Scimitar.  I’m on the edge of my seat…

Neither of my vehicles in this team got a spot this turn... I will be pulling the BMP out of the line next turn in order to re-mount one of the scout teams as noted last turn.  The LAV-AT will stay where it is for now, I expect Baneman will move a vehicle or two next turn near the ruined farm, and that might help the LAV-AT spot one or both of them.
Team 1’s BMP did pull off the line this turn, and will now wait for the Recon Platoon leader team to remount next turn.

The Fennek at Farm 2 dismounted this turn and entered the buildings.  It does not look like he wants to push beyond the farm at this point... he is happy to sit in place and provide support fire with the Scimitar towards my UNCONs near the Monastery.

Two of the four LAVs in my reaction force will be moving forward into keyhole positions next turn, hoping to get a spot or two on a Scimitar or Fennek.  This movement is in preparation for my Advance Guard which is just one minute out. 

The dismounts from this platoon are starting to move out on a route reconnaissance toward OBJ GARNET.  The other two LAVs are being held back in reserve.

In DUMAYR, Baneman is pushing his irregulars hard toward mine and it continues to cost him.  My teams are going to get critical on ammo very soon though, so he might be able to get an advantage.  I am switching my teams in this area to control their own fire.  I should have noticed the small amount of ammo they carried from the start.  I’ll try to provide them some support by fire from my positions near KT2, but to be honest, the action in DUMAYR is a side-show right now and I am not intent on pushing forward at all there.
My final Technical did extricate itself, so that will help some and it is moving to the sound of guns in DUMAYR-North.

PIR:  Will the enemy militia/fighters attempt to seize DUMAYR?  His assault is picking up steam, but it has cost him a lot of casualties to this point. I estimate he has lost 9 or 10 fighters (maybe one or two more) to 3 of my own. PIR:  Where are the enemy Technicals?  I finally get some contacts on his technicals, they are presently located near the built up area at the western most bridge.

Turn 2 :
Hahahaha, of course it turns out that assumptions made about Bil's options turn out to be wrong. This turn some of my Uncons get spots on units moving up just behind Apprehension Height and Worry Ridge ... because they're amphibious. I definitely did not see that coming, so "Bottleneck Bridge" immediately goes down as the most inappropriately named terrain feature on the map !

What appear to be 2 BMP-2's and one TOW-toting vehicle put in an appearance. At least one of the BMP's disgorges some men and the other probably does so too. So infantry are about to start peering over the crest next turn.

The good news is that none of these vehicles are poking their own noses over the crest, so I should be able to suppress their infantry with MG fire ( if I can spot them ).
Naturally, if they have any kind of AT weaponry with a range greater than 300m, I'm going to be sad panda.

Over the past few weeks I've been extensively testing the firepower of different American, British and German rifles, SMGs and LMGs in CMBN 4.0. I originally wanted to make a complete series of tests before 'publishing' the results, but I understand that there is an update in the making that will, as a minimum, adjust the rate of fire of some weapons, so for my work to have any impact, I should show them now rather than later. I am posting in general CM discussion. Although the tests were CMBN-specific, I believe that the same patterns in weapons effectiveness will be found in other titles as well.
Method
13 lanes, target troops in foxholes (4-man U.S. medium mortar ammo bearer teams, regular, fanatic, no ammo). Walls are used to separate the lanes over the last 40 meters only, to prevent ricochets from affecting the results. In each lane, one firing team (regular, normal motivation, no leadership modifier) engages the target troop unit using a target arc order. The firing team is so set up that there is only one man in the team with the tested weapon, and he is the only one firing. Ample ammo is provided from supply trucks so the firing unit does not run out of ammunition during the test. There always is a leader in the team with binoculars to aid with spotting at long distances. 13 firing teams with the same weapon are tested in parallel at distances from 40 to 600 meters. The test runs for 10 minutes or until all target troops are eliminated, whichever comes earlier. The total time in action for the 13 teams (between 0 and 7800 seconds) and the total casualties (between 0 and 52) is evaluated. Each test is repeated 26 times, therefore each weapon is tested 338 times at each distance.
An example of the test file is found here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d5b7qoex6cmigm0/Weapons effects BAR (Gunner) 400m.bts?dl=0
In total, there are 106 files like that one, each run 26 times for up to 10 minutes. About 10,250,000 rounds were fired by the firing teams and 72,530 casualties taken by the target troops.
Distance to target is the average distance of the 13 firing teams to the target action spot (as the firing team's action spot is 8 m wide, this needs to be adjusted for)
Firepower is here defined as the average number of casualties suffered per unit time by the target troops. Minor wounds do not count. The unit is bpm, "bodies per minute".
Rate of fire is taken from ammo consumption during the test, averaged from 26 instances. The unit is rpm, rounds per minute.
Accuracy is the number of casualties per round fired. It may not fully correspond to the number of hits per round fired as one casualty may receive multiple hits, especially with automatic fire. The unit is bpr, "bodies per round", multiplied by 1000 to make the numbers easier to interpret.
Tested weapons
MP40 (Leader), Sten Mk II (Leader), Sten Mk IV (Leader, Soldier), M1A1 Thompson (Leader) - distances 40-192 m MP44 (Leader), MP44 (Soldier) - distances 40-320 m Karabiner 98K, Gewehr 43, Lee Enfield No 4, M1 Garand (all Soldier) - distances 40-320 m Lee Enfield w/scope (Marksman) - distances 40-600 m MG42 LMG, Bren, B.A.R. (all Gunner) - distances 40-600 m [I am going to break up this post here, results come next]

First of all, some more notes:
there is no discernible difference in MP44 and Sten effectiveness whether it is fired by a Leader or a Soldier. I am showing Leader data only. similarly, there is no conclusive evidence that Sten Mk II and Mk IV are any different. I am showing Sten Mk II data only. MP44, Bren and B.A.R. switch from full auto to semi-auto fire above 150 meters, so there is a step change in the results between 120 and 160 meters where I ran the tests the statistics may still not be good enough for weapons achieving few kills at long distances, so the results for rifles at the edge of their range are indicative rather than accurate. Firepower
First note: the vertical axis is in log scale, otherwise the drop in firepower with distance would drown out all detail. I'll post the excel file so you can make any graphs you want.
Bolt-action rifles are at the bottom, Lee-Enfield appears to be superior to Kar 98K. Semi-auto rifles are better, both M1 Garand and Gewehr 43 are on the same level together with the MP44 (when fired in semi-auto mode). All SMGs are better than all rifles over their entire range up to 200 m. MP40 and Sten have very similar performance, Thompson is the most powerful SMG. MP44 is less powerful than SMGs but is in the same league with them until the 150 m mark. Bren and B.A.R. are generally in the league with SMGs as well but, of course, keep going beyond 200 m. The B.A.R. is inferior to the Bren, apparently due to its smaller magazine, and therefore lower average rate of fire. MG42 beats everything by a wide margin except the sniper rifle. The scoped rifle benefits much less from closing the range than the other weapons.

The only problem from my perspective is that SMGs keep their high performance out to 200 m. Their firepower does not fall much with distance in the outer part of their range, and as we will see, their accuracy (on "bodies per round" basis) is constant or even rises between 120 and 200 m.

[more to come]

Rate of fire
Not that much to see here, bolt-action rifles have the lowest rate of fire (including the scoped Lee-Enfield), semi-auto rifles have a higher one. You can see the difference between the Bren and B.A.R. as a result of magazine capacity (30 vs 20 rounds). MG42 has about 2-6 times higher RoF than everything else.

Accuracy
I want to highlight again that we are talking about kills per round, not about hits per round.
The green line on the top is the scoped Lee-Enfield. It's accuracy is super-high but does not increase that much with decreasing distance, so there is little advantage in getting close. Bolt-action rifles are more accurate than semi-auto rifles, although this cannot be confirmed at long distances (sample size issue, I believe). Bren and B.A.R. achieve more kills per round than over 240 m. The SMGs are at the bottom but as you can see, their accuracy is flat or even rises with distance above 120 m!

Excel file link (individual data is on hidden sheets if you need to see them): https://www.dropbox.com/s/qeltpvi732w91bt/CMBN weapons effects.xlsx?dl=0

Sorry to dig this up again but being (again) on the receiving end of Soviet SMGs one thought came up:
HE is nerfed a bit to accommodate the bunching up of pixeltroopers so shouldn't there be a similar mechanic for SMGs?
Obviously any spray&pray type weapon would have an advantage against high density targets. Maybe that is causing the perceived effectiveness?

Sorry to dig this up again but being (again) on the receiving end of Soviet SMGs one thought came up:
HE is nerfed a bit to accommodate the bunching up of pixeltroopers so shouldn't there be a similar mechanic for SMGs?
Obviously any spray&pray type weapon would have an advantage against high density targets. Maybe that is causing the perceived effectiveness?

I quite like this one because it made me chuckle.
 

I'm in, too.
To be honest - my main goal is to get that connector to CM. Which in turn means that CM opens up with some kind of interface. Which again opens a LOT of other possibilities.

I'm in, too.
To be honest - my main goal is to get that connector to CM. Which in turn means that CM opens up with some kind of interface. Which again opens a LOT of other possibilities.

Jason - I think we disagree here. I'm not going to run a test if there is no exactly defined expected outcome. Doing that is just a waste of time.
 
The question that (at least I) would like to have answered is if the PPSh is too accurate in CM. To test that I need a setup that only(!) tests just that property. Then I define my expected outcome before I test. If the result is close to the expectation then nothing is wrong, if it's off then there may be a problem.
 
That test is not realistic as in 'that never happened in reality'. It still tells us something about reality because an overly accurate PPSh would also skew all 'real' battles even if it might not be obvious.

Jason - I think we disagree here. I'm not going to run a test if there is no exactly defined expected outcome. Doing that is just a waste of time.
 
The question that (at least I) would like to have answered is if the PPSh is too accurate in CM. To test that I need a setup that only(!) tests just that property. Then I define my expected outcome before I test. If the result is close to the expectation then nothing is wrong, if it's off then there may be a problem.
 
That test is not realistic as in 'that never happened in reality'. It still tells us something about reality because an overly accurate PPSh would also skew all 'real' battles even if it might not be obvious.

Hello BF forum members,   I recently produced an AAR 'film' of a PBEM game I played out with Rico from The Few Good Men, as part of Rico's Cross of Iron multiplayer campaign.   I particularly enjoyed the final episode I played, called Blunting the Spear, and decided to make a film out of it. Rather than go for a standard PBEM game, Rico role played the Soviet side which made for a great experience for the German commanders. My encounter turned into a huge tank KO fest which I thought would make for a good AAR subject. So as a homage to Rico's campaign I've put together a film of the battle.   I've adopted a different style on this occasion to my usual commentary AARs, and tried to produce something which tells more of a story to reflect the fantastic storyline Rico developed for Cross of Iron.   On a separate note, I also hope the BF crew recognise my love for the game they've created. I'm a little annoyed that my work IP address has been banned from accessing BF's sites. I presume they've marked me down as a 'bad egg' for questioning the content of the upcoming CM Bulge release on the FGM forum (it's my understanding that BF staff have read the thread there). Please note this BF, when I've been critical of CM, it's always been out of a love for the game and a desire to see it become the best game it can, rather than a want to undermine it. I would appreciate it if you could take my work IP address off your ban list, I've tried emailing you about the subject but had no response.    Even if only in  a small way, I hope the few CM videos I've made over the years have helped to market your game and increase its audience. At the very least I hope the hundreds of hours I've put into making them demonstrate that I'm not some destructive CM troll.   All the best (and hoping you don't ban my home IP address)   Odin