Petrus58

Your continued use of Kharkov instead of Kharkiv belies your intentions here. Everyone I have talked to in Ukraine, including Russian speakers since the invasion never refer to the Russian spellings for city names because the Russian propaganda pushes it so hard (To convey the notion that they 'belong' to Russia or otherwise legitimise their claim. They will -never- refer to these cities according to their Ukrainian names)

The fact you insist to use such nomenclature is a dead give away to me that you are not being genuine with us here, not to mention your lack of actual evidence supplied. 

Probably the last bone for BP2 before release. A small thing, but the main menu screen is getting cluttered.  

Trying very, very VERY hard (oh man it was hard today) to not let the forum distract me but this one I can't resist.
Brexit was voluntary, my friend. 100% their own political process (even if 49% actually voted against) instigated by a spineless PM. So 100% of 51% (or thereabouts) decided to leave. No one "forced them". 
Hungary in BRICS, the protected by an "eastern military".... Um which one? RUS? Cos they've stripped their borders to deal with a bunch of Uppity Ukrainians who just don't seem to get the Good News of Modern Russian Imperialism. And would need to overly NATO to "protect" Orban. Never mind the absolutely certain domestic insurgency and rioting.
Cmon Govnor. 
Yer 'Avin a larf! 

Think logically about what the fall of Ukraine will lead to:
The Russian army will reach the borders of countries such as Hungary and Slovakia. The population of these countries, having seen enough of the atrocities of the Russians in Ukraine, will demand from their governments only one thing: to negotiate peace with Putin as quickly as possible and to exclude even the possibility of a Russian attack on these countries. Guess which of the Hungarian and Slovak politicians is well acquainted with Putin and can come to an agreement with him? Of course it's Fico and Orban. These guys will receive total support from their population. (There is no other explanation for Orban’s desire for the fall of Ukraine and the emergence of hordes of orcs on the borders of Hungary). I think there is no need to say what conditions for peaceful coexistence Russia will put forward to these countries. Of course, this will be a withdrawal from NATO. And the people of these countries will willingly agree to this demand, especially after they are convinced of the West’s inability to consolidate in the face of the impending threat.
The problem is not only in Hungary and Slovakia. In every country there are pro-Russian politicians who eagerly await Putin's victory as evidence of the weakness of the West. Take the Czech Republic for example. Pro-Russian sentiments here are no less strong than in Hungary or Slovakia. The same is true in Bulgaria. After Putin’s victory, these politicians will gain an undeniable advantage in a number of countries. These politicians will strive to leave NATO and enter into an alliance with Russia (this is logical, no one wants to be with the loser, everyone wants to be with the winner). 
The role of the war in Ukraine in the existence of the Current Order in Europe should not be downplayed. Ukraine's defeat could cause significant changes in eastern Europe.

I decided a while back to replace one of the house textures (the one with large grey blocks) with something a little different and ended up adding four new house skins along with two new modular building skins.  While I was working on the files, I also added basic weathering to the tile roofs for all buildings.  You can download the file from the link below and place it in your data/Z folder.  
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OjN0AcVIsFzEthIbAaTBq2CXrhVbLQTN/view?usp=sharing

A while back, I had modified Juju's excellent floating icon pack to match my own preferences.  The colors I chose were based on the old Squad Leader board games; Axis icons are blue, USA and Russia are green, and British is khaki.  Since USA and Britain share some icons, I ended up making the common icons (command units, snipers, spotters, etc.) a color halfway between green and Khaki.  It's a little distracting but I really wanted the two nations to be unique. 
I did end up adding a few icons for DLCs but if you notice any others that are missing, please let me know.  Icon sets for all four WWII games are included so only pick the one folder that matches your game and move it into the Data/Z folder.     
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QWeUcUfywL08RQrjnJY1Kr30PtQxc3rH/view?usp=sharing
 

I keep thinking that.  They'll run out of arty tubes, IFVs & tanks, we think, based on the loss rates.  But I also keep questioning whether we are being the german general staff circa 1941/2, where we continually think they are running out of everything but turns out.....
 

Two times olympic weightlifting champion Oleksandr Pielieshenko gave his life while in service of the 47th Brigade

This! The National prejudice attitude that many on this forum seem to have toward Russians tends to color their comments and lead them to dehumanize and demonize the Russian people as ignorant savages who are always drunk, raping and killing babies. Yes, possibly the conscripts and prisoner “volunteers” are more brutal and resigned to their deaths than seems the norm. Can you say Igor Sikorsky, Tolstoy, Tchikovsky? Not everyone is ignorant, uneducated, and brutal. No one should be surprised by Russians who make intelligent and insightful statements. I see the same ignorant and prejudicial statements about every opponent the U.S. has ever faced. It’s much easier to kill a fellow Human being when you make that person out to be so inferior to you.

Not a US Army master sergeant, but an Imperial Japanese officer in 1943 or 1944? Totally. The parallels are worrying for threading the needle of defeat-without-total-collapse. It takes a lot to shake a society to its senses once it's decided that glorious death is as good as victory.

If there is an upcoming CMFI battlepack, then I hope is that it features more fighting from late 1943/early 1944 which was arguably the embodiment of the war in Italy (mountains, mud, bad weather, and not yet a strategic backwater) and is currently not very well-represented in the game.
The New Zealanders and Indians at Cassino?
The Free French leveraging the Gustav Line?
The Canadians at Ortona?
The Americans at San Pietro which was made famous by the 1945 John Huston documentary film?
 

This is ‘PART 4: Techniques – methods of undertaking movement tasks by tanks in combat’ of the short longer than originally planned series giving an overview of the tactical fundamentals and principles behind WWII German tactical drills and combat formations commonly used in 1944 using examples from Combat Mission Red Thunder to illustrate key points. 
In Part 4 we look at the specific ‘battle drills’ and associated movement techniques used by the German tank platoon to gain superiority in a firefight with enemy forces.
Part 5 will be looking at training programmes etc and jeezo, was that a rabbit hole...
Hopefully this will be of use to both players and thsoe interested in this time period. It was originally intended to complement the tank tactical problem series I created.
As an aside when you start digging into this is becomes even more painfully clear how a dogged emphasis doctrinally and values wise on "unexpected, concentrated and determined attack; aggressive leadership and daring operations." coupled with increasingly minimally trained crews (and training hampered by lack of resources both human and material), and just as importantly, tank and small unit commanders, would only lead to needless losses. 

Can we please lay off beating on our brother Erwin at this point? I think people made their points on the merits, let's turn down the ad homs.
...For those who forgot life before Feb 2022, he's put a *gigantic* amount of effort into this community.

Mit Karacho!

And now for something completely different...
Italy.
Firefight!


The rarely seen Italian fascists!

 

My favorite light tank of the war.

German airborne amongst the rubble.

I just finished playing spearhead as allies, major victory achieved. The campaign was amazing. I lost 2 tanks during the final Cologne battle one was a pershing hit by a panzerfaust 60 killing 3 crew near end of map the other was an m4a3 taken out by a panther earlier on. The other pershing I had was also put out of action with a panther shell hit taking out it's barrel at a distance, no crew injuries and withdrawn to rear. The Panther was taken care of by an EasyEight watching down a street as it was trying to escape a jumbo. In this campaign you will find many building that form a square with a courtyard in the center, and with that the enemy can be in any window, waiting for you to dare and cross the courtyard. I'm glad to have played this before Remagen campaign.
I wanted to mention that It felt like the city environments ran noticeably smoother compared to other battles maybe the maps were smaller or did you guys improve things?
I also want to mention how beautiful the building are. A lot of time and effort there, Sometimes I just pause for a while and view the woodwork/stonework. It looks like a trolley ran through the city? Was/Is the Appelhof platz an underground subway?

This is where cultural differences come into play. You thinking like a westerner that has to be consistent in what hes saying. You don't get that this isn't the case in russia. The bigger the confusion the bigger the control. This is why i say that they will make twist on this that in the end will make no sense. Cause if its make no sense you will only remember the calling words. Ukraine was involved, and the feeling you should have that is hate. Every aspect of russian propaganda is based on building down rationality and enforcing emotional response. They aware that its hard influence rational peoples so they don't need them. They need instinct driven animals.
It does not matter that it was a fault of their home defense service. Cause they will not be held responsible.
The other thing is the narrative. It does not matter.  really don't want to come with cliches but in 1984 there is a scene where they have the two minutes of hate. You know the story in the first part of the two minutes they saying one thing and in the end they say the exact opposite. Its true today as well. There are some peoples in the russian society that can have individual opinion and some influence but usually they are far away in Ukraine. Those back home are don't have influence or first hand experience to know what its true. Its an alternative reality. So it does not matter if the narrative does not fit the picture, only that it push the right button on the primitive parts of the human brain.

I'll probably post some pics of the updated maps some time later but this is just a quick update on progress. I have completed three of the four phase 3 missions now and am currently working on The Tumah Crossing. Road to Amarah, Where Farmers Dare and Jameelah all have functioning AI plans and reworked maps and I've done some proper testing on them. I beat Jameela yesterday afternoon and I feel I'm done with that for now.
After phase 3 is complete, I only have the final three to rework and much of that is already done as I tend to improve maps when I'm not feeling that committed to AI scripting and actual playing so it's not going to take as long to rework these as it did the earlier missions in the campaign.
So while an end is in sight, I will need to revisit all the earlier missions and test them to make sure that the campaign is actually winnable. And of course, there will be the revised briefings and artwork to do but that's not a particularly big or unpleasant task.

I see the rabble are getting roused.  We all appreciate the enthusiasm, we really do. As to updates, well I can echo what Steve has already said - we are aiming to have this DLC out this year.  As to progress, well data and research are largely complete (few things left but not biggies).  Maps for the major campaigns are built (I showed off a few and one was used in that CM tourney).  Campaigns are essentially designed and waiting for the kit.  Equipment lists are done, we will likely be haggling these to the finish line.
So over all scope, scale and background are all defined.  What we are waiting for now is the second longest pole in any content creation tent - artwork/modelling.  This is where stuff gets drawn and actually put into the game.  Once we get enough of that we start rolling on really putting it all together, which in the case of BAOR should be pretty quick, but we still need to do testing and polishing.  We still have a features debate - what is in or out features-wise but that will be sorted quickly.
So the short answer is “sometime this year” and we are fairly far along.  Now it is a matter of getting very few critical people’s time to deliver their end and we can then pull it al together.  No Star Citizen, conspiracy or subterfuge, only limited resources available and waiting in line.

Don't think this has been posted earlier but the Army trying some new tech here.
Airborne soldiers do some smart shooting with new sight that helps smash drones. 
https://www.forces.net/services/army/airborne-soldiers-do-some-smart-shooting-new-sight-helps-smash-drones?fbclid=IwAR0TWthFemVVlX_5RRp79SZg4GiWN8JOPy84i4znNrwF7E1cRtwvIsFwyi4
 
 

Hi,
As a Swede I thought today would be a good day to stop lurking for a bit and drop a comment. Been playing cm for 20 years and following this forum for a long time.
Thank you all for contributing to this thread, checking it daily. Always a good source for news and discussion, so much knowledge and experience gathered is hard to get elsewhere. 
I always was all for our countrys neutral stance combined with a strong Defense but last decade has of course swayed us all in Sweden a bit. I have my background in the army, cv90. Seeing us finally start to retake our capabilities regarding defense is good.
Anyways thanks for having us in the club I guess (why am I thinking about brothers Marx)?
Carl 

You are hoping that the younger ones of your opponent don't have any desire for war either. No more wars. Problem solved. If suddenly no one would enlist, then all wars could stop. Could be a reality after this war ends. But how will it end? 
The next option is war from distance, AI, robots, drones, guided by 16yr olds boys and girls but no human is allowed on the battlefield. 
Russia is in better shape because :
- has survived the humiliating defeats of the first year. 
-It now has the momentum in the front lines and is gaining ground steadily. 
- defeated the long awaited Ukrainian counter offensive. 
-defeated (or maybe crushed) the hype around western wunderwaffen. 
-At last found a successful cheap way to employ the air force in support of ground operations. 
- Vastly improved drone fleet  capabilities and operational efficiency.
-has no conflicting internal voices anymore. No Prigozyn, no Navalny, no opposition, no crazy ultra nationalists. Just a dull grey homogenous military state. 
-caused serious cracks and doubt among Ukrainians and westerners if victory is possible. 
-western funding is now more insecure than ever. 
- has overcome sanctions and tech and production shortcomings.
- has the upper hand in manpower and widening the gap while Ukraine is facing serious issues with mobilization. 
That doesn't mean it's in great shape of course. But in most ways it has adapted and wages war better than Feb 2022.
 
 

Luft Stalag XIII the bitter end for Task Force Baum
 
See Here

Petr Pavel is one of the coolest world leaders serving in office right now.
He reminds me of those Presidents you would see in 90s movies like Independence Day and Air Force One. But as much as I like Harrison Ford he is just an actor, Petr Pavel is a real hero. 😎