Lethaface

5 Mins in Update

The Map (North is north this time around )

KG DoubleD has managed to get into position first and effectively cut the map in half for Soviet armour. There is a small back alley way around to avoid their line of fire but it will be traffic chaos for anything more than a platoon and slow BFCElvis down.
KGMjkerner and KG Hapless have have reached the Beer first! This I'm a little surprised at honestly as I thought the Soviets would be tank riding to the objective like I was. Plenty of arcs of fire for my AT weapons and KG DoubleD covers the only other known firing solutions to their left.
Given the situation, I'm throwing two thirds of KG Josey Wales into the fray. They will advance along the northern map edge and support KG Benpark in the future. This force will be the one to pressure KG Jagermeister from the north. I'll wait a little bit though as the big unknown for the moment is what has BFCElvis got coming at me from this approach.
Waiting game for a little while as I try to gather more intel.

Here I am thinking you are talking about the scenario load time. Ugh.
Yes- the two giant Berlin maps take a while to load- not that long for me, I'm maybe around 15 minutes for the two massive ones- but that is the same for any nearly 3kx4k maps out there with lots of objects populating them. I have endured longer waits than most any cumulatively now, I suspect. So, you will only experience that load time if you want to chop it up in the Editor 3-D view, or simply to see what has caused me early-onset arthritis- in which case, the load times come with the territory(no pun intended). The older screenshot of the maps only shows a portion of one, so there's a good deal of coverage of Sector Z spanned over 2 maps.
They are truly best used for chopping up into smaller battles. They are included in game content in part as well, so they are playable- and the load times are what you would expect there for anything comparable in CM size-wise vs. load time. And they are not the only big maps- the battle of Berlin was only part of 1945 in the east.

It's been a while since I've played such a large PBEM or even one with so many vehicles, here's a little vignette AAR from my recently concluded match with @gardar15. 

Read it here: https://rinaldiaars.blogspot.com/2020/05/equilibrium-black-sea-vignette-aar.html

Hey;  leave CMSF2 out of your drunken ramblings! 😀
That was awesome fan service for owners of the original. Very much appreciated by many here including myself.
Otherwise, I'm not to sure what you mean by too big & complicated... what would you have them release instead?

It’s Berlin in 1945, so not sure what else it could be. From ground level and level 2 It looks good, where I spend most of my time. I expect most of the starting images  from high level views will be to orient you, as is the custom. 
They will also only be seen in Berlin, obviously.

I did download it a while back and played with it a bit, had a blast! Didn't create two separate installs though and currently engaged in other battles, so it has been sitting in my unused mods folder for a bit. Can't remember if I gave feedback or not (should have at least), but it's for sure a great effort with great results! Felt like playing a different CM game.

Meet to Volkssturm
While we wait for the action to kick off let's play a game. Who can guess all the small arms in this UI screenshot? I've cobbled together a few UI elements here so no, this doesn't all belong to the one squad. Middle column are just more K98's.

 

(Budbaker has his comics… but I’m not an artist so expect memes)
Welcome to the Fire and Rubble German DAR as I take on BFCElvis and his pesky Soviets in a very late war May 1945 urban engagement in Berlin… and it’s somehow snowing. The war has effectively ended but my guys didn’t get the memo, so our adhoc combined arms force is going to push forward into no man’s land one last time.
The mission is a simple meeting engagement. Secure Objective Jägermeister and Objective Berliner Weisse, while holding our own starting Objective, codenamed Vodka. The Soviets deploy around Jägermeister.
The map is a very small slice of Benpark’s absolute monster 2x master maps covering the centre of Berlin. Honestly each master map with no units took my PC around 25 mins just to load in 3D preview mode. The part of Berlin we’ll be fighting over is towards the north east corner of the eastern map. If I’ve got my bearings right, I think we’re close to Alexander Platz and a hostel I stayed at back in 2017… I digress.

The map from above. Well... the right way up because I'm from Australia... (I took the picture looking south <facepalm>)

 
The forces…
To show off the variety of new kit I’ve done away with forming a coherent force for a little bit of everything. Command and control is going to suck.
These small forces are organised into small kampfgruppes of between a platoon to a company in strength.
KG @benpark – In honour of the mapmaker himself, he commands the central force which is a company of Waffen SS Pioneers with enough demolition charges to level a few of his meticulously placed buildings. Part of his force will however need to remain behind to cover Obj Vodka if it all falls apart. The bulk of the force will advance. (Benpark's force highlighted in the picture below).
KG @mjkerner – Commands the Fallschirmjager who will be the main infantry force trying to take and hold Obj Berliner Weisse. (Picture of the KG that will take the beer objective).
 

KG @Hapless – Will be working in tandem with KG Mjkerner to secure the beer. This adhoc Panzer Platoon (more on that later) includes a Panther, PzIV’s and a PzIII. Yep a PzIII. For all the grief I gave poor Steve I had to include at least one in the DAR.
KG @DoubleD – The other adhoc Panzer Platoon is kitted out with 2x JzPz IV/70’s (including one of the ugly versions), a Panther and a Panzer IV. They will be initially responsible to heading up my left flank to get into a good position to effectively cut the map in half. Oh and something new...
 

KG @Bootie – The local Volkssturm unit. Initially will be responsible to provide security to KG DoubleD who will be exposed in an urban environment.
KG @Josey Wales – The adhoc Armoured Car unit. Will be holding back for the moment but will be used as a mobile reserve depending on the situation. Oh and some weird ones...

And I’ve just noticed a bug. Every single unit is set to typical/default ‘Green’ experience. The joys of betas.
 
The Enemy
We’ve picked forces in the editor and not the quick battle generator so some variety can be included in the DAR – particularly on this side. Benpark has ensured it’s roughly balanced. I’m expecting a solid Battalion (+) of Soviet infantry coming at me and probably a company or more of tanks. Probably Lend Lease heavy….
We’ve sort of agreed to avoid major spending on off board assets and focus more on the visible units.
 
Da Plan
KG Mjkerner and Hapless have the initial glory as they race to secure Obj Berliner Weisse, (Green and blue). If Hapless can get his tanks into position first it will be a big help as we wait for the foot slogging infantry to catch up.
KG DoubleD probably has the most crucial task of trying to cut the map in two, (Red). That major street running through the centre of the map will be key. It’s closer to BFCElvis’ deployment zone so I’m expecting Soviet tanks to roll past it or already be on that road by the time I arrive. But if I can split up to Soviet armoured force or I’m real lucky and BFCElvis plays cautious and leads with his infantry DoubleD’s JzPzIV’s will have a field day.
KG Bootie (white) and his Volkssturm will cover KG DoubleD, while KG Benpark (orange) will advance with the intent of pressuring Jagermeister. KG Josey Wales will remain behind in the deployment zone ready to move to where he and his armoured cars are required. Either helping Benpark around Obj Jagermeister, or to backup Hapless and Mjkerner around Obj Berliner Weisse.
The map….

That’s about it for now. Feel free to post any queries below but obviously no promises that I’m allowed to answer anything. Also, the usual caveat that all screenshots you see here are taken from a beta so everything you see is subject to change. I’ll try to avoid the placeholder art where I can but who knows, maybe we’ll have purple Panzer IV’s in the final build.

Any large, named structure will have adjoining doors in the Berlin maps. Anything else is considered a warren of apartments that would require at least one breach. There aren’t long corridors in these buildings running through the lengths of them.
That self-imposed rule holds for the master maps. Any map made from the big ones may be adapted, of course- that’s part of the point of including them. They will also be available in portions in quick battles, scenarios, and campaigns for those that want to avoid the Editor completely.

Lol, Mord  almost accidentally made some money
 

@Erwin, fwiw didn't have any problems installing any of the cmx2 games on my win10 machine a while ago, nor with windows defender and afaik I haven't setup any exclusions. I also have two disks, on is fast SSD with windows and some games on it. Other is large SATA disk. I guess the main difference is that I'm an 'IT guy' myself 🙂
One question: why do you install the games in on C:\sims\? I used to do that as well long time ago, but programs are supposed to be installed in the \program files directory and since windows has been more active with security and permissions, that could be one explanation: some sort of under the hood permission violation. 
It's a shot in the dark, but you could just try installing in the usual directory to see if that gives a different result. 
 

I did download it a while back and played with it a bit, had a blast! Didn't create two separate installs though and currently engaged in other battles, so it has been sitting in my unused mods folder for a bit. Can't remember if I gave feedback or not (should have at least), but it's for sure a great effort with great results! Felt like playing a different CM game.

In a shooter, you want unnatural contrasts to aid spotting bad guys. Since CM units generally make their own choices what to shoot, we can go for photorealism (except maybe at night).
These building collapse physics are badly wrong, like dominoes, but if shooter players just want to blow stuff up with ubertanks,  who the heck cares? Sure, CM could use a modest overhaul of its building physics and cover values but this kind of eye candy isn't the solution.

I meant, wait a few minutes not give me money. LMAO!
 
Mord.

Sent.
That'll be 150 US dollars. I want it it small unmarked coinage (dimes, nickels, and Susan B Anthonys), preferably dated between 1958 to 1979. D mint only!!!!! Anything less and the code I hid inside the bmps will activate and vandalize your bathroom.
 
Mord.

I aint got a few quid im on lockdown hell bud... how much?
 

I always play iron, in part because I think that the information sharing system actually gives you more information.

The speed of the information sharing would not be effected.  Iron just does a better job at showing what a fire team knows during the playback / action phase.  Elite and Iron both know the same information.  The display of said information is slightly different during and only during the playback / action phase.  Below is a link to a thread discussing Iron mode you might find interesting.  Photobucket vandalized the screenshots in that topic.    Then lower down this current post is something I copied/paste from the linked post.
 
 
With the exception of the action/playback phase Iron plays just like Elite.  You do not have to click through the chain of command, jumping from unit to unit to find the out of contact unit.  When you have no unit selected (highlighted) all your units are displayed, whether they are in or out of C2, just like in the other skill levels.  The difference between Elite and Iron is when you are in action/playback phase and you have a friendly unit selected.  In this situation you can only see what the selected friendly unit is aware of to include other friendly units.  This aids in the understanding of C2 and how C2, or the lack of it, plays a role in how this unit may react to different situations.  When you unselect the unit all your units are again displayed along with what information you have on OpFor units.  When you are in orders phase and you select a friendly unit all other friendly units remained displayed, just like in Elite.

Shock Force 2, with conditions. Play as the Canadians, and when purchasing, set their equipment to poor. This will give them the base Leopard 2C tank, equipped with very early thermal vision. In a completely ridiculous test, 12 Leopard 2C tanks against 12 T72M1 Turms-T tanks on a flat map, at 2000 meters apart, after just one turn there were 11 dead Leopards and 12 dead T72's. Pretty balanced. The Canadians also do not have any top down attack missiles when purchased with poor equipment. 
As for the rest, most of what you describe can be edited out, not purchased or simply not used by you when you play. You don't HAVE to purchase a UAV, or use precision munitions when calling in off map assets. You can also set the battlefield conditions to limit the effectiveness of the thermal sights; fight during the middle of the day and under extreme heat. 
While not your dream CM setting, it is as close as you can get with what is currently available.

The Commonwealth Troops & ModTag Project
Darknight_Canuck’s Magnum Opus

This project is condensed into seven (7) archives:
DKC – CMBN Campaigns (broken into 4 sub-archives) [22 Campaigns]
DKC – CMBN Scenarios wModTags [175 Scenarios]
DKC – CW Uniforms
DKC – CW Vehicles
DKC – Portraits, Ranks & HQ
DKC – US & German Vehicles
DKC – US Formations & German Uniforms
There is A LOT of work here from other community mod-makers (see the included notes) and I will try to credit everyone for all their original work. If I miss someone, it is not intentional.
Includes mods from: Aris, Mord, Wims, Vein, EZ, MJK, NikMond, Jacquinot, BenPark, Damian, Quintus Sertorius, Tashtego, Umlaut, Egger & Saturnin.
This is no longer just a Commonwealth uniforms and vehicles mod (though that is the main focus). I decided that I would make the mod easily accessible by adding extensive ModTags to every scenario in CMBN that I could find (and which had at least semi-historical units), which makes the mod application seemless. This was the theory…though campaigns posed a more difficult problem, since I do not have access to the uncompiled campaigns (where I could simply add ModTags). For campaigns, I have layered the mods based upon the battle being fought and included notes on when to swap the included .BRZ files (thereby, not spoiling the unit composition for the player).
All CW uniform insignia and vehicle markings are based upon my extensive accumulated research, and therefore any mistakes would be my fault alone but it should be noted that there were sometimes various versions of insignia worn by units at different times/places, so there is room for some variation; also, this is a game, and sometimes graphical additions are made based upon best estimates.
Note: This mod will work perfectly fine with the standard interface, but I would suggest using Juju’s Interface mod and Bergman’s vehicle silhouettes (they are what I use) as there are 1 or 2 graphics from those mods that will make an appearance.
Feel free to include the units with any scenario/campaign releases or add ModTags to these scenarios to take advantage of them, just please remember to credit the community members noted above for their work.
Enjoy — Darknight Canuck [DKC]
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/cm-mod-warehouse/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cmbn-other/the-commonwealth-troops-modtag-project/

Like Najibullah, it depends on the money methinks.  It had better not implode or things will be a tad cheeky for me next year.

Okay, I lied.  One more picture.  While trying to decide what scenario to do an AAR on, I found I needed to really tweak stuff around to get nighttime looking good.

Video here: https://i.imgur.com/BggbJjX.mp4

My last bit of spamming this thread... I'm planning on doing an AAR in the near future instead.

Russian Razvedka approach a compound sitting on the commanding heights of the town.

The heights were remarkably poorly defended. A brief firefight saw the Ukrainian defenders handily defeated by withering cannon fire. (Anyone else notice that Razvedka are reluctant to use weapons other than the SVD? It seems to make them particularly vulnerable in firefights).  Strong points identified by the BRDM assault company are blasted by supporting artillery coordinated from the heights.

The BRDM company dismounts advance through the village.  Even though my Reconnaissance Battalion is facing an entire Infantry Battalion, heavy supporting fires have been instrumental in dislodging stubborn defenders.  Unfortunately, every single casualty hurts when all of my squads are 4-man teams, while the Ukrainians outnumber me two-to-one.

With regard to multiple AI plans...
Imo it kind of depends if the goal with the scenario is to be used simply by one self or if it is to be uploaded and made avaliable to the community...
If the goal is for personal use only then a higher number of AI plans would be preferable to maintain some sort of FOW...
But if the scenario is to be shared i actually prefer fewer...well designed ! AI plans to a high number of them...
I rarely play a scenario more then twice...having fewer, better AI plans would be preferable 😎
Even if you have multiple AI plans some of the FOW will be ruined anyways...the unit roster will be the same !
If a scenario has 4 Panther tanks and 2 AT-guns...thats what it has...in every playthrough...
You will know it after having played it the first time...
If the scenariodesigner would like to add some uncertanty into the head of the player...he could use the briefing..🙂
För example mentorn things like...
"Based on previous days fighting we can not rule anything out...despite being heavely outnumberd and low on ammo...don't be supprised to see the enemy counterattacking...
Even in suicidal fashion ! The enemy is very unpredictable..."
Mentioning the unit roster...got me thinking...
To increase the FOW and make multiple AI plans somewhat more interesting..wouldn't it be a good idea to have the option to include multiple unit rosters in a single scenario...?
This way the unit FOW of the AI would not be ruined after the first playthrough...
Maybe not completally different unit rosters offcourse but change a few details...
Kind of in the example above....instead of having 4 Panthers and 2 AT  Guns...one AI plans might have 2 Panters, a StuG and 2 AT-guns 😁