Petrus58

Exactly one year after the first announcement, the project is now finished. In order to avoid
misunderstandings on the part of the company Battlefront.com, I chose the name CampaignPack 😎.
The pack (as described in former threads) consists of 5 campaigns in which the player is thrown
into the events of the summer of 1944 in the sector of the German Army Group Center.
In total you will play minium 52 single missions, maximum 55 single missions (depending on one
branch). To avoid technical problems, I didn't add any mods to the campaigns. But I can, for example,
highly recommend the excellent work of @JM Stuff, especially his extraordinary mod collection of vehicles
and wrecks 👍
I recently visited the forum regularly to stay in touch with people who wanted to register. However, I have
asked the people at Battlefront.com several times to delete my profile.  This request has not yet been
granted to me, so as a quasi "undead" I will always stop by - but I will no longer take part in any discussions
or answer any questions in the forum. To get in touch with me, please write to me at:
E-Mail: f-s-zbg@web.de.😎
Of course, I can still send the campaign pack to anyone interested.
 
So all I can say is:
It was a great pleasure for me to finish this project and share it with many people.
I hope you have as much fun playing as I did creating it 🙏
 
Best regards
Mr.X 

Honestly, I don't know if I would call it "anxiety" but I have had nights where for hours I have been awake thinking about this war.
I understand how important this war is for the direction this world can go, and I will keep following it until it is finished and will keep supporting the good guys in this war no matter how long it takes.
Personally I do recommend once in a while disconnecting from the internet and spending some time with family, go on a hike in the woods or something.
But ultimately compared to Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines, I really have nothing to be anxious about.
 

While we wait the modding master to perhaps arise once again, I couldn't help myself.

So here's the first of a few mods of weathered vehicles for the Downfall module. Don't know how many I am going to make, but it certainly won't be all the new Downfall units.
Here's a Dropbox link for the Pershing - but it will only be temporary until the files have become available on https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/cm-mod-warehouse/



 

Hi all, its been a while... in fact so long that I had to create a new account for the Forums... Anywho I started revamping some of my old work so it will play better in Game Engine 4.x and also I am back to creating some new scenarios (some fictional, some semi-historical)... Also redid my Combat Mission Site (haven't touched it in 7 years)... Since I lost touch with all the people that use to playtest for me I ask if you have feedback; Good, Bad, and/or Ugly that you submit that via the Feedback button in the site's menu... I have done extensive testing on the vs. AI battles but, the Head to Heads I have not been able to test... Well I am active again, who knows for how long but I do have a lot of time on my hands and a lot of scenarios/campaigns on the production schedule...  You can check every thing out at Fredrockers Combat Mission Site ... Enjoy

If it's anywhere on the Eastern Front I hope that @George MC is working on it. His maps and scenarios are some of the best ever.

So I have guessed that it probably takes them around two to three years to make a new game or module. Game development is normally measured in years, not months, so two to three years is most definitely not an inordinate amount of time. If it took them five years, that would be pretty concerning. If it took them ten+ years, then we'd be looking at Duke Nukem levels of procrastination. But two to three years is pretty bog standard.
As to the research. You know how difficult criminal investigation is. I don't. But I suspect that historical research is probably harder. I assume that you run into a lot of the same difficulties in criminal investigation that can cause so much trouble in historical research (unreliable witnesses, contradictory sources, etc...). But think about how difficult criminal investigation was for you, and now imagine that most of your witnesses have died of old age, and most of your evidence has been degraded or destroyed by the ravages of time. I'm impressed that Battlefront is able to conduct such incredibly detailed research with time to spare to finish full games and modules at what is honestly a pretty reasonable pace.

I've been considering splitting this one up into two, shorter campaigns- one for the 9th Cameronians and the other for the 2nd ASH. There's no real overlap for these two stories. No promises but I would like to drop the difficulty down a notch. I watched Hapless' video series on this campaign and it did make me reconsider the difficulty. After all, not many of us are lucky enough to get out work played like this and I would like to encourage it rather than 'embarrass' the good folks who do. It was meant to be a HARD campaign, after all, it was a very hard operation but I think the last two Grainville missions need to be toned down and that JgPzIV in mission 2 subbed for something a little less intimidating.

I've updated/created a couple of vehicle dealerships for Downfall to the best of my abilities. That is:

The existing German dealership - with the new Downfall units.

A new UK dealership - plus a few Canadian vehicles that I couldn't find in the British TOE. No Polish forces, at they don't seem to contain other units than the British.

I think I have found all units available in the dealerships, but I'm not sure.

I haven't updated the US dealership yet -  but might do so later.


UK dealership FB.btt Dealership_GER snow 45 Downfall.btt

There isn't a listing for the big maps I made for the DF module included anywhere, but I'll attach some images of each them here for some visual reference for people looking to use them for their own purposes. These were either chopped up for the campaigns, QB's, and for the Rethem scenario that I made. There's a good deal of territory that wasn't used, as well.
Rethem:

Cologne/Koln:

Heister:

Kleve/Materborn:

Remagen:

Kranenburg:

Erft Kanal:

Elsdorf:

That was pre-planned with the 6.0 Update 'Unity'.

I made this a few years ago, your screenshot brought it to mind

"Breaking" would be, in terms of this war, a condition whereby prosecution of the war is no longer possible.  A secondary meaning could be regime change.  The third possible definition is one we actually want to avoid which is the uncontrolled break up of the state of Russia.
I don't think people really understand the objectives nor the mechanism of sanctions.  To most it is simply "stop buying stuff and Putin go broke."   That is not really how large economies work.  They are more like weather or climate systems and sanctions are attempts at changing their overall energies over time.
So, as a min, I think the sanctions on Russia have three major strategic goals:
- Isolate Russia as much as possible through collective action and lateral pressures.
- Constrain Russia's ability to wage war.
- Put pressure on the regime and Russian people in order to induce change.
So before one can make a judgement on whether sanctions are working or not, one has to look at those three objectives and really measure progress - not simply "what we want".
Russia is more isolated now than it has been since the Cold War.  The trend appears to increasing as the US continues to exert its own power.  Is Russia completely isolate, no, not yet.  But one cannot say that is had been business as usual either.
Russia is definitely constrained in its ability to wage war.  We do not know the full effects of these sanctions on the economy but we do know that Russia is pulling from far afield to sustain itself.  I think there is an argument to be made on Putin wanting to avoid full mobilization because it may create a tipping point amongst the population - a restrained economy has to be part of that calculus.  Can Russia still fight?  Sure.  But can it field a modern competitive military right now...no freakin way.
Are the Russian people actually doing anything about all this?  Who knows.  There have been signs of strain and resistance.  I am sure we are helping that along in the back field.  But these things can take years to fully come to bear.  One could argue that the sanctions regime is as much about the next war with Russia as the current one.
So before anyone throws up their hands and goes "Sanctions are not working!!"  Really look at what they are doing.  And more importantly how much worse the situation would be if we had never undertaken them.  We won't know about Russia breaking until it does.
Ok, that is one way to look at it.  How about what we did not see?  Russian mothers were not standing arm in arm on the highways leading into Moscow to protect Putin either.  Apathy cuts both ways frankly.  Massive inaction, does not mean massive action in another direction.
On this.  Did you ever consider that Europeans, particularly Eastern Europeans are too close to the problem?  Too much history, too much bias and just...too much?  I hear this "westerners just don't get it" a lot.  But maybe our perspective is a bit more unshadowed by Russia.  In the West we know all about "grudging, cursing and complaining", we have built entire industries around those concepts.  Our system looks entirely dysfunctional from the outside based on how much we disagree. 
But that vs armed troops off the freakin leash marching on the capital...is something else entirely.  Stuff exploding all over the place.  Rich people continually trying to fly out windows.  The amount of effort and expense Russia is spending on "internal security".  Evidence of extremely poor discipline and conditions within its military.  All this stuff starts to stack up well beyond "I want a better cellphone plan."
We project so much onto Russia - hope and fears.  When we should spend more time just watching the damn duck.  Is it walking and talking like a duck?  Is it making weird sounds that in any other nation we would see as signs of strain?  Russia is not in a good place.  There is no doubt of that. 
Finally, what does that mean to the war?  Well the big one is that Russia's ability to field a modern military able to conduct operational level offensive operations is in serious doubt.  They had the goods two years ago but that old lady filmed on that first week was right all along - The RA of 2021 is in Ukrainian fields pushing up sunflowers.  What is on the ground now is largely conscripts and essentially holding on while being wasted on small tactical suicide missions. We were all surprised that they could even hold the lines they have, but there you go.  War, or at least this war, has shifted towards defensive advantage, that much is pretty much settled.  That had nothing to do with Russian prowess or resources, and everything to do with shifts over the last 40 years. 
So here we are.  Watching and waiting to see what happens next.

Here's screenshots #2 and 3. Maybe they'll eventually show up on an official screenshots site, maybe not. Late war M4A1 Sherman 76 and Pershing during some QB city fighting. Battling Jagdtigers
 

I had pulled a bunch of screenshots for the guys but I don't know which they're going to use. So I'll post a couple of my favorites here to whet your appetite.
First, a tank I lobbied hard to get into the game - uparmored Sherman! One of a number of late war M4A3E8s that went through a field modification program that literally doubled the bow armor (which is now thicker than the Jumbo's). They acted as substitute/additional Jumbos in field units.
 
 

A combination of cancer treatment, and then needing to buy a new PC, means that I have built up a backlog of stuff to play. But, I will certainly buy this at sometime. Having been to Kleve for a meal once, and seeing how lovely it is, I might feel a pang of guilt if I have to pound it to bits. Ho hum. 

Why not both? I find the best learning comes from a variety of sources (in my case books, youtube, and simulations). The quality of the military history content on youtube has reached really spectacular levels. They usually have much higher research standards than traditional documentaries. Real Time History isn't even the best of it (as much as I enjoy their content, they tend to repeat common myths a bit more often than most of the other channels I go to, so their research standards seem to be a bit more on par with traditional documentaries). There is Eastory, Drachinifel, Military History Visualized, TIK, Military Aviation History, Usually Hapless, Battle Order, The Operations Room/Intel Report, Kings and Generals, Forgotten Weapons, The Chieftain, The Western Front Association, GI History Handbook, and so many more that I'm sure I'll remember in a few minutes.
No source is perfect, and I've caught all of these channels making the occasional mistake. There is just so much misinformation out there that it's impossible for even the best historian to filter out all of it. That goes for books as well. The format that the research is presented in has no effect on the quality of the research, so books will contain as many errors as videos. I was just reading James Holland's book on Normandy, in which he repeated the myth that the Bren was extremely accurate and the MG42 was extremely inaccurate (they actually seem to have roughly the same accuracy, about 4-5 MOA). I doubt anyone could say that James Holland isn't a good historian. There are simply so many myths out there that it's impossible for even the best historian to catch them all.

https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battle-for-normandy-campaigns/the-road-to-montebourg-revised-for-v4-0/
Don't worry, this won't overwrite or otherwise delete the original campaign that came on the disk. IIt's a completely different file. This is substantially different from the vanilla campaign and the number of changes made is huge but the most important one to note is that you will need both the Market Garden module and the Vehicle Pack to play this.
 
Other important highlights are that the 2/8 INF core units are now mostly Green with High morale which means you'll need to manage them more carefully in a firefight.
All-new AI plans using triggers and most of the tricks that came with later versions of the game.
Flamethrowers are included in some missions.
Some maps have been revised, most notably the map for Turnbull's Stand which veterans of the original campaign will probably notice quite quickly.
A 'new' mission has been added although those of you who found and played the earlier revised version that was uploaded to BFC's old Scenario Depot will recognise it. The campaign has a prelude phase consisting of the new mission and then the old campaign opener Beau Guillot. You should notice quite a few changes made to that mission as well - some extra help to make up for the drop in experience.
There is air support in quite a few missions now and less artillery, at least the bigger guns anyway.
 
Anyway, let's post this and then I'll see what needs to be 'fixed' or not in good time. This is an old campaign so i'm not expecting a ton of feedback for it for quite a while but let me know and I'll fix things. Now I'm taking a break from CMBN. I haven't quite decided what comes next - finishing Hasrabit or a new version of Gung Ho! for the German forces. Later, I'll get to work on the two Scottish campaigns I'd mentioned elswhere.
 
Have a Happy New year.

This.
And this.  Just whose side are you on?
Oh, wait I know this dance.  You are going to throw around Russian propaganda lines, anti-western sentiments, and general doom and gloom until Steve gets irritated.  Then you will post walls of translated useful stuff to take the heat off...wait a bit, and come back around for another pass.  You realize that is exactly the same Russia "useful idiot" tactic?
So just to avoid all that for what must be the 5th or 6th time - your position in a nutshell:
- All is lost.  Ukraine is losing its will to fight and will never get it back.  In fact they are going to gleefully switch sides after this war.
- Russia is unstoppable and will roll on Poland and the Baltics once they are done with Ukraine.  With Ukrainian Divisions riding at the forefront.  And now you admire them for this...along with NK.
- The US and West are weak and scared.  Our support is clearly plummeting (and with friends like you...) because we are not hopping too with another $100B by 4 Jan and several divisions of shiny new tanks, that will be turned into scrap metal in a few months anyway...because Ukrainian will etc (gets a little blurry here.)
I was willing to write off the first few times as to war weariness but you are spending far too much effort and energy right now for someone who is burned out.
So...whose side are you on exactly? 

The IDF is pretty much doing what it likes right now - do you care much ?  - and you expect the West to condemn some minor revenge attacks  by Ukraine on Russia ? Unless said attacks threaten somehow the stability of the  relationship between the West and  Russia/China  I can't see anyone caring much at all . Not sure why some folks on this board think the Rubicon has somehow been crossed .

I would be *very* hesitant to imagine that the Russian state will break up in a formal way. Marginal parts of it, such as Chechnya might go but even then, it's far more likely that some sort of unspoken palatinate develops. The Russian state inhabits a number of tough neighborhoods along its extensive borderlands and the folks there are unlikely to prefer being under the tutelage of a Chinese/Kazakh/Turkish/etc local hegemon. If forging out on their own had been viable economically, strategically, militarily, they would likely have done it in 1990 to 1991. 
Russia seems alot more like a mid to late Ottoman state. It will persist in a slow decline.

Hi, I have been lurking this thread since the start of the war and would just like to contribute with an exellent video from the Ward Carrol channel on youtube. This video talks about some stuff that has been in the talks lately, especially the air war and F-16.  Would also recommend his older videos with Justin Bronk.
 
Video Name: Justin Bronk on the Fate of the West if Russia Wins in Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmMclP8dlI0&t=1081s
 
 
// Jarran

It's not really zero-sum though. Russia not-winning doesn't mean Ukraine isn't losing (and ... my apologies for asking you to parse through multiple negatives there)
In any negotiation there is win-win, win-loss, lose-win, and lose-lose. Right now we seem to be firmly in lose-lose territory, and the ongoing negotiation (all war is negotiation, remember) is over who loses least.
Losing least can easily be framed as a kind of success by way of "yeah that hurt, but you should see the other guy!"
 
Edit: I'm typing on my phone, which sucks. On each axis there's a spectrum which runs from 'win bigly' to 'lose like a republican voter'. The four quadrants - ww lw wl ll - above are just a convenient shorthand for a complex rainbow of possible outcomes.

I think this is really the big point of disagreement.
My line of thinking - and tell me in which ways I'm wrong - is that if the objective of Russia is to take over and/or destroy Ukraine, anything than Russia being kicked out from basically everywhere (other than Donbas, I guess) is a major Russian victory.
Russia holding Crimea means there will be basically no maritime trade. Any large disputed territory means no Ukraine in NATO and/or EU(*). Any other result than Russia being decisively kicked out in a way that shows "try again and we will kick you out again" means there will be no reconstruction, because Russia will try again, and who would rebuild stuff when Russia is just going to blow it up again? No investments, no industry, no refugees ever returning.
Yes, Russia will not take over rest of Ukraine militarily. Yes, Russia is paying a price (though the payments are not evenly distributed - the people in Moscow likely don't even notice). We obviously can't read Putin's mind, and if he planned massive Soviet restoration then he failed, but if the objective was abusive spouse being "I'll have you and if I can't have you then I'll kill you." then I find it hard to see current state as anything other than success.
Of course Russia wanted more. But if I buy a lottery ticket for five bucks (few hundred thousand minority and prisoner lives) and win 10k (significant part of Ukrainian territory and destruction of its future) is it a failure because I in my dream I saw myself winning the jackpot (all of Ukraine forever)?
...
I mean I can also go back to lurking if I'm annoying you people.
 
_____
(*); this is orthogonal discussion to whether extending the EU without figuring out some way out of veto bullying is even a good idea

That is a deeply unfair and frankly insulting post. You are talking about a man who is living inside Ukraine and who bases his pessimistic view on his assesment of war weariness level of the ordinary Ukrainians. Something you by definition would not know about, and the Western press would not report about - not newsworthy enough. Frankly, In this forum on this subject only the opinion of Haiduk and Zeleban matters, as they are the only ones who can take a measure of that metric. And you are saying that Zeleban thinks that people he meets every day are losing the will to fight not because he sees the symptoms of that, but because he has been "inadvertently convinced by Russian propaganda"? What hubris!
Shame on you.