Lethaface

Replayed first russian campaign after several years; in the last mission russian commander need only single Co. Tactical Group to accomplish the task, 2 RTG are overmuch.

I'm not even sure what to do with it, but as a quick sidequest, I updated @Combatintman's "Day of Days" map...

Progress is slow at the moment, due to world events, but I have managed to do some conversion map-work for the People's Militia campaign...





 
@Hapless & @Aquila-SmartWargames have been taking up the slack by helping to promote our little project...
 

Tank commander Raboud destroying a T 55 MV.


The round exited through the other side.

The only time you need to do this is if something goes wrong. Generally speaking heavy suppressive fires will cause the enemy to exit the building unless they are fanatics.
 
In 'Hell in the Hedgerows' I did successfully order a clearing of a defended building with grenades because my suppressive fire was unable to penetrate the building and pin the defenders.
All I did was split an Assault Team and order them to quick move into the house. I judged the enemy team to be sufficiently distracted to allow the maneuver with few casualties. They paused several times to shoot, stopped right outside the front door, threw a couple grenades, and went into the house blowing away anything remaining. It was over in a few seconds.
The relevant turn is time-stamped below:
 
The assault team did become pinned by my covering fire, but by approaching from an angle they were spared the full effect of it until they were inside the house.
Further down the street I attempted the same maneuver simultaneously to little effect. I did flush the enemy out of the building, but my squad took a casualty and also retreated. Clearing a house with grenade assault is a very dangerous thing to do no matter how you go about it.
That being said, I would absolutely love a Target Grenade command not necessarily for clearing houses, but because at very close range I would like to deliberately area fire onto terrain with grenades say from behind a wall or behind a hedgerow.

From the same PBEM.
There is nothing quite like flanking a Panther and taking it out with a 75 mm M4!


Note the already existing damage on the Panther. Side skirt was hit by a bazooka, the tracks on the side of the turret were hit by a cumulative rifle grenade. The tank was engaged frontally four times by a 75 mm M4. The commander was killed by machinegun fire from an M4. His replacement, the gunner was shot by an M1 Garand. By the time it was destroyed it had only three crew members and it was still capable of fighting.

Right, let's get cracking.

Our first mission is a nice simple one. The invasion of Syria is beginning and TF Thunder is leading the charge. Our target is an old fortress watching the Syria-Iraq border. My forces for this mission are a mech-heavy company team from my battlegroup.

Our mission is to occupy the barracks and HQ building of the border fort and to secure the border crossing by destroying the Syrian forces garrisoning the crossing point.
The enemy is a reserve infantry battalion, dug in and supported by static T-55/T-54 tanks. The enemy positions have little to no depth, companies in line and platoons in line. They have mined the only crossing point. The battalion is lightly armed and likely to be poorly trained and led. Their tanks are a serious threat to my Strykers but pose little threat to my tanks. The mines will need to be cleared and the Syrian tanks will need to be eliminated or neutralised before I make my assault on the fort.

The AO is roughly 1km x 1km and the terrain is not complex, a flat desert dominated by a few key terrain features.

Most important is the border berm, running north-south. This completely blocks movement and (obviously) provides concealment. The only opening lies south of my start line where a highway cuts through the berm and as previously mentioned, has been mined by the Syrians. Luckily for me, however, some kind souls have built ramps sloping up my side of the berm. This turns a previously onerous obstacle into a ready-made hull-down firing position with excellent sightlines and fields of fire. This is an advantage that I will be making great use of.

The fort dominates the Syrian position. The buildings provide cover and concealment for infantry and provide clear sightlines across the entirety of the Syrian half of the AO. The buildings are likely to be occupied by Syrian HQ units and rifle squads. Care will have to be taken when occupying this objective, as while the Syrian reservists are no match for my riflemen in a firefight, they may be able to inflict casualties by lying in wait inside the buildings and setting point-blank ambushes. Much of my fire will have to be concentrated on this objective.

Behind the Syrian positions, a dry Wadi leads north-west to south-east. This could provide shelter from observation and direct fires. The Wadi would be a decent place for a quick reaction force to reinforce the Syrian positions. It will have to be placed under observation as I make my attack.

The conditions are fine, with clear weather, warm temperature, dry ground and a light wind coming from the west. Helpfully, the Syrians are also being hit by a moderate E-warfare effort.

My troops consist of A Company (a Stryker rifle company), reinforced by an armoured platoon from B Company. On the field at deployment, I have 1st Platoon of A Company, 1st Platoon of B Company, the Mobile Gun System Platoon and the Company HQ Platoon. The Company HQ Platoon has a breach team of engineers for clearing the mines at the berm opening. The 2nd and 3rd Platoons of A Company will gradually reinforce, arriving in approximately ten and twenty minutes, respectively. Our fire support is extensive. Along with the two 120mm mortar sections (two tubes to a section) of the battalion artillery, we will have an entire 155mm howitzer battery (three two-gun sections) available when they have completed their counter-battery missions. Also available to me is an RQ-7B Shadow UAV for observation.
I have a powerful force, my fire support is extensive, the terrain gives me a great advantage and my enemy is of poor quality. If I keep things simple and sensible, there should be no question of victory.
The next instalment will be much sooner than this one was, as I have already played the mission, taken my screenshots and made my notes. Watch this space!

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone. This will be an AAR series, covering my playthrough of the US Army campaign of Shock Force 2: 'TF Thunder'. I briefly dipped my toe into this campaign in Shock Force 1, but only as far as the first mission. This will be my first proper playthrough of a Combat Mission campaign, and I'm sharing it all with you! So, without further ado, let's get into the campaign briefing.




The ground invasion of Syria has begun. After a three-day-long aerial bombardment, NATO forces are pouring into the country from all sides; The US Army from the East, the British Army from the North and South, NATO forces from the North and the US Marines from the coast. I am commanding a battalion of Task Force Thunder, a Stryker Brigade reinforced with armoured units. I have under my command two Stryker rifle companies (A and C), an armoured company of M1A2 Abrams tanks (B), an armoured infantry company in Bradley IFVs (D) and an armoured engineer company also in Bradleys (E). This is a fast and powerful combat force, equipped with the best fighting equipment on Earth and manned by some of the best soldiers on Earth. And in the finest American tradition, the battalion is liberally supported by artillery and airpower. Our brigades mission is to slice Syria in half, striking from East to West along a route designated 'Route Lightning', with our limit of advance being the important Syrian city of Hims (also known as Homs).
My enemy will initially consist of Syrian reservists and militia holding the border. These units are poorly trained, poorly led and poorly equipped. As we push into the interior of the country resistance will stiffen, varying from the still poorly equipped but slightly better led and trained regular units, to the elite, well-equipped units of the Republican Guards currently around Hims. Also, scattered throughout the country there will be pockets of paramilitary, special forces and other irregulars, many of which are well trained, motivated and equipped. There will be tough fighting ahead.
Speed and force protection is the name of the game for this campaign. Our mission is to neatly snip Syria in half as quickly as possible, but our last objective is a tough urban target. Replacement of casualties and destroyed vehicles will not be happening. Taking too many casualties early on will make our mission exponentially more difficult. I will have to carefully balance aggression and caution to complete this campaign successfully.
In the next instalment, we'll take on the first mission. Stay tuned!

We´ll see if it is really nope and a bad reason to give:
1st Test Run: BMP-2 is not given any orders. TacAI decides to use ATGM and takes out Bradley
2nd Test Run BMP-2 is given a Light Target Command (which is claimed to be not working). The BMP-2 engages the Bradley (No ERA) with the AC. In contrast to the screenshot situation the Bradley turned away from the BMP is in the utmost worst situation, still the Bradley is not penetrated by the 30mm and manages to turn and takes out the BMP-2. The BMP-2 wether was able to pen the flank nor the front of the Bradley (which is claimed to get shredded) It would be the better option to use the ATGM.
As I said penetration is possible to achieve and sometimes I even prefer the gunner not to use the ATGM for example when trying to "blind" with fire and because the gunner loves to immediately reload under fire but again its a "tough call" and at least the screenshot incident is far from the description "ingame issue". But I guess some ask questions while solely interested in approval of what they assume to be exclusively true, so I leave it to be as it is.

Agreed, I think @BletchleyGeek hit the nail on it's head.
In WW2 games I often use the squad lead on point during assaults, as they often are the only one to have an SMG and need to provide close c2. Although, if it's a green/-2 leader I tend to use them for overwatch duties rather than for assaulting duties. Also, when you are duking it out with enemies at range I try to keep HQs etc on covered arcs. Squad lead's SMG isn't that usefull in that regard so he's used to provide c2 with Plt HQ, while the other parts of squad are exchanging fires with enemy.
In modern titles the squad the squad lead isn't the only one with an automatic weapon. And often even split squads have radio, so there is no real need to use the SL on point. Also, point man in modern titles is a bit more dangerous due to accuracy and proliferation of high calibre direct HE chucking weapon systems. I scout more and try to give most units covered arcs so I can start the firefight on my terms.
In my experience mortars aren't picking of Squad leads more than other pixeltruppen. But, that's also anecdotal. 🙂
 
 

Just keep track of what is the pose of the squad members. Leaders and gunners tend to switch to the "one knee down" pose while idle rather than being prone. Any soldier not prone is more exposed to fragments, incoming fire, etc. They may also not be able to take advantage of the "microcover" associated with particular tile types.
The job of a leader first and foremost is to ensure an adequate level of situational awareness. Being prone is not conducive to that. 
Similar issues with the guy with the squad status weapon. These guys are more likely to experience "weapon pull" - since they have the big gun they are more likely to use it. So he squats to scan for targets. Being prone is not conducive to use that cool gun. 
On top of the above we have the target prioritisation for higher value targets: leaders and the dudes with the big gun. In your examples my guess is that what you see is about the posture of the pixel truppen.
RockinHarry, several years ago, demonstrated beyond doubt how swapping the default animations had a significant impact on casualty rates.
There's still a lot of game to enjoy @semmes, don't get too caught up on the little artifacts that follow from the approximations to the real thing that were deemed necessary to get this game out of the door.
Peace out and stay safe!

Bit late, but had some other stuff to deal with. 

I thought the style and way of presentation suited this battle, and the type of battle it simulates (CMBS, full spectrum intense meeting engagement). Couldn't say what style I prefer, following 1 unit vs following a battle, kabooms vs ingame footage, etc. All have their own charm, more options are better I guess :-). 
 

Not particular to this scenario, but...
Vehicles like the Puma and its brethren are not scouts.  They are long range recon units built to feel out larger scale enemy locations and report to higher level HQ for more operational decision-making.  In CM, they are typically not used at the right scale.  Not to say they can't be useful as a base of fire for infantry units.  But sending them down the road as scouts is a very quick way to end their little virtual lives.
Where the Puma shines is on long range recon patrols supporting other more lightly armed ACs and HTs.  The best scenarios for the Puma is as part of a larger recon force tasked with penetrating an enemy's recon screen or creating a screen against enemy recon units.   Again, not saying they were never used in a pinch in a desperate straight up fight, but units like that are too valuable to throw away unless absolutely needed.
Also, IIRC, the Puma and the 234 family had a special muffler system that dropped its engine noise to barely a whisper.  Not sure if CM models that.

I have made a few changes to improve this impressive map further. @theforger gave me the go-ahead to post it here.
Previously, the edges of forests seemed a bit artificial, because it was pretty obvious they had been painted with a tool in an editor. So what I did was to work over all the terrain edges and break up their outlines. I did it with respect for the original map, so there should be no real gameplay difference and it should not break any AI plans or player tactics. But hopefully you will also find it easier on the eyes.
Before

 
After

 
Unfortunately I can't upload the file, because the forum only allows me to upload 1.22 MB and the file is 1.45 MB ....

Another video showing the attacking SPW the Jagdpanzer IVs above were moving up to provide overwatch for.
 

Wee quick and dirty video showing some early Jagdpanzer IVs moving forward whilst supporting an attack by a SPW unit.
 

Yes the flamethrower vs tank, an interesting situation.
In the video situation it was indeed hit by a Stummel HEAT round the same time. It deemed me when I checked the casualty statistics afterwards.
Depends, if for you "useless against tanks" equals there is no way to harm a tank with flamethrowers in CM than no this is not the case. If you define it by being absolutely not reliable when dealing with tanks than yes as achieving an effect on a tank with a flamethrower might be a matter of luck with low chance.
The flamethrower fired at the tank.
 
I did an experiment video ago and possible effects on a Panther tank can be seen condensed here. The chance to achieve such effects in this specific Panther case was low. The chance might depend on factors like vehicle model, engagement angle etc. 
 

I admit I find your modded setup a little unusual - but modding as one sees fit is part of the pleasure of the game. It certainly showcases the thrill of a good Real Time game (at which you seem very skilled). Nice video...

There is no need for you to fear anything as CM will look exactly like how the individual players pleases to setup their graphics.
Look I know that you follow me around with your banter because I can imagine that you´ve by now noticed that you got banned from commenting on my Youtube channel for multiple rude and almost identical spam-like comments and now look for a way to air your steam. Perhaps it helps to settle this when I let you know that I am absolutely not interested in your opinion about my things, won´t change my decision, and whatsoever want the least have to do with you. Furthermore it would be also utmost pleasing if you stop stalking my place and simply spent your time elsewhere with something that suits your preference. Despite this I have nothing to discuss with you and do not wish you derail that thread for this further.
Thanks, they´re by Mord and they are a must-have for me.
 
Looking forward for Fire & Rubble

Some Material in order to get hyped for the upcoming Fire and Rubble release:
 

I do like that late war coloring of red primer oversprayed with green, with a little of the old yellow color added on top.

he likes toes in his pot.

Nice finale!
Literally fighting till the last men standing!

Or at the very least, the Stryker engineering vehicle already in the game should have a mine-clearing dozer blade, LIKE IT DOES IN REAL LIFE.

You could even use the existing mine clearance command from the sherman crab, just without the chain flails.
It can't be that difficult, can it?