Lethaface

After a year and and five months it is done! The SF2 mod really burned me out but I managed to FINALLY finish this bad boy after lots of breaks and procrastination. There's over 1700 portraits included. I hand made 60+ unique faces for this one, there's plenty of variety.
Thanks to MJ for sending me the new portraits so I'd know what was included in RtV. He didn't have the SS so I had to guess, but going by my research I think I have them covered.
Guys, please read the included "Urgent" readme in the zip when you get a chance. Things are pretty tough for me right now so I'd appreciate it.
I sent the mod off to Booty so it should be up some time soon (or maybe Ian can get a hold of him and let him know). In the meantime here's the splash screen and I posted a pic in my FI Mods thread.
 

 
Hope you guys enjoy them and stay healthy, the world has definitely taken a weird-ass detour.
Mord.

Just discovered this so that's one reader ;-). I usually read all your AARs (and others), however often just lurking but giving likes. Due to corona I work from home so everything is a bit more calm and thought to post to show there are actually people reading and enjoying. I think I'm not the only lurker who enjoys those. 
Great to have a AAR to read during this period!
So, thanks!

I’ve no idea how many are reading this but I’ll give some background to what you’re seeing.
First of all, this is created using new software that I wanted to try. Making this comic took almost three months which is about the same time per page as my previous ones. I was concerned about the learning curve when switching software but it was less effort than I expected. There were a few shortcomings, like very few onomatopoeia, and one's ability to manipulate them wasn’t as advanced as my usual software. However, the ability to change the dimensions and shapes of each panel on the fly was huge. Previously I had to go on to separate custom software to re-size the individual panels on a page and they had to be four sized, and right-angle parallelograms. With the software I used here, I could almost make any shape. This afforded much more flexibility in terms of layout, as well as reducing reader boredom through panel layout repetition.
Second, I wanted to give the perspective of a single squad in combat. Some films, and a number of books, have taken a much more focused view of battle, personalizing it. Rather than making it that of one man, I thought a squad might be interesting. There are few grand overheads, because a squad would have none. There are few explanations of what is going on everywhere else in the battle (and it was a fair sized one) because again, a squad would have little such information. If you’re confused what is going on where, then you’re in the boots of Gorokhov and his men: aware of a wider engagement around you, following where you are led, and only certain of what you’re doing and the ground you’re running on.
Finally, since this is a special edition, the look itself of the graphics is different. You won’t find many speech bubbles here, and no comic half-tone dots. I wanted this to look less like a comic and more like a graphic novel.

Just adjusting to the cost of toilet paper...

Your comics were 10 cents last year ….
I hope you're not profiteering  … 😏

While Ian and I are sorting out some really disappointing challenges with our CMFI AAR - one I wish to complete regardless, I was swamped with a major project at work and of course now our friendly pandemic. He and I started a battle in CMBS to have something in the fire while we slowly got things going in R2V, and I wanted to try a different comic software. It’s a nice one that works on both my Mac and my IPad which allows for some added flexibility. I was going to post this after I finished another comic, but that one also ran into a snag with all files lost and I am underway making that from scratch. 
 
But then this happened... 
Blame him...
In any case, CMBS and CMSF2 are the two game families that have no comic for them. This is an attempt to rectify that gross lack.

Hola,
Mi Canal de la Abadía del Gamer esta dedicado al 80% a las serie de Combat Mission, entre ellas la versión SF2, estáis invitados --> https://bit.ly/2UjXTur
Iré actualizando en este hilo el contenido que vaya subiendo sobre el CMSF 2:
 
 
 

In case you didn't read it already, this was the reaction of Steve in the 'year ahead bone post' in de CMRT forums when I asked about the different issues with the Dutch forces:
 
I can only speak to the radio thing as that is something I personally fixed.  Radios were missing from quite a few units across multiple nations. 
As I said above, we fix things as they are brought up.   I'm not always aware of them and even whe
can only speak to the radio thing as that is something I personally fixed.  Radios were missing from quite a few units across multiple nations. 
As I said above, we fix things as they are brought up.   I'm not always aware of them and even when I am that doesn't mean I remember 'em.  We have bug tracking software to do that
n I am that doesn't mean I remember 'em.  We have bug tracking software to do that

Friends of the Tank Museum posted this great pic on FB. Too good not to share.



Regards,

John Kettler

like this

easy, take the horizon of CMA

Although most of the People's Militia campaign will take place over the course of several years, the final battles will all take place within the span of a few days during a great battle dubbed "Operation Isandlwana".

I've got an idea.  Let's NOT trust scientists & doctors who ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. Let's trust Fox news, who've done a stellar job of brainwashing people into being very unsafe (recent poll showed only 38% of Fox watchers thought virus was serious).  Let's trust the average Joe.  Like we do on climate change in america, where the scientists are all liars but folks making money off fossil fuels somehow have no reason to lie.  Oh, and basic biology is not based on evolution,  just ask the average joe.  And the earth is 6000 years old.  Just ask Joe.  And average Joe wants to know who is to blame for this!  F--k average joe, he is an idiot.
This is not complicated to understand -- we must slow the infection RATE.  Italy has over 4000 dead w 627 dying in a single day this week and US is around a week behind them in getting our infection started.  No one in this thread so far has mentioned "flattening the curve", which is the most basic requirement for understanding what is happening:  The death rate for covid is less than 1%.  UNTIL YOU RUN OUT OF VENTILATORS THEN IT'S 3-5%.  That's 10 million in america alone.  We must keep the number of life-threatening cases below the number of respirators we have available, or 1% becomes 5%.  Italian doctors have to decide who to save because they have more dying folks than life saving machines.
But here I see mostly conspiracy theory and unsubstantiated internet drive (w some welcome and notable exceptions).  
By the way, do y'all know where the Spanish Flu actually started?  Kansas, USA, army base had the first verified case, though where it actually 'started' is unknown.
 

Average Joe does not understand math.  Maybe someone less average will need to make some decisions.

That's a nice way of putting it.  It should be a very interesting read but it seems the author is in some type of competition to see how many modern catch words & phrases he can pack into every sentence.  Maybe it was time for his Officer Evaluation Report and he his trying to impress his rater with how articulate he is.  After awhile I started to laugh and just read it for comedy sake.  There are entire paragraphs of impressive, flowery, prose that might have one sentence of substance.   Below is one example.  
This network encouraged vertical and lateral coordination and information-sharing, which produced disciplined initiative, improved the situational awareness of every member of the team and allowed JIIM stakeholders to federate information and collaborate efforts. 
Well...........I got to go collaborate the efforts of my young ones (stakeholders) and federate information (in a transparent way) to encourage vertical and lateral information-sharing (for disciplined initiative) so we get the day's chores done around here with an increased situational awareness.   

Tal Othman continued>
Hezbollah fighters moving up, after repelling yet another HTS attack.

Meanwhile, 9K111 operator engages a T 72M. Distance to target: 1300 meters. Missile flight time ~8 seconds. The operator is being encouraged by militia machinegunner.

The missile is fired.

The missile flies straight to its target.

Target hit!

The tank is knocked out. Turret crew evacuates, no sign of the driver - mechanic.

So Eugen's games have always really been hit or miss to me. I really loved RUSE back in the day but the Wargame series really fell flat with me. Overly fixated on multiplayer gaming which im not really interested in anymore. On top of that the Wargame was desperately in need of a majorly redesigned user-interface so it wasn't so overwhelming and saturing the player with enormous numbers of units basically not-at-all different from one another in the context of the game. 
Steel Division 1 was also very uninteresting to me since it was obviously still designed entirely around multiplayer. Steel Division 2 was released last year and I only grabbed the game back in fall in time for the Vistula DLC and it's honestly the first game from Eugen in over a decade that I could recommend to anyone....with some notes and commentary on its overall design.
The new Army General mode is the thing Eugen's games have desperately needed for years. Wargame's really basic campaign generators weren't bad, but were crippled by cheating tactical AI and its bad user interface. Steel Division 2 has finally incorporated large numbers of semi-automated command mechanics that allow the player to delegate basic attacks and holding actions to AI commanders now. These mechanics have proven utterly crucial for me in finally being able to actually recommend Steel Division 2 for those interested in the game. It's still overwhelming at times....but crucially the player can now fine-tune the overall workload. You can do things like set aside artillery for counter-battery fire or planned missions that they will engage in without the need for tight micromanagement. 
It still takes quite a bit of practice, learning, and frustration to grasp the overall game but it's really rewarding once you do. At least now the scale able automation allows players to "bite off" and learn acceptable chunks of game at a time. Once I learned the game I really felt Army General and its depicted battles (now including a Red Army campaign against Finland in 1944!) were both exciting and accurate recreations of the battles they depict that avoided the overly-scripted pitfall of many strategy games while also creating entirely organic situations that could both reward you or punish you for sticking with...or (crucially) disregarding doctrine. 
As always Eugen's Iris-Engine technology is really impressive stuff, allowing the player to look down on the world as if a God and then zoom right down into the action to see nearly-shooter level graphics is really stunning stuff and Eugen can be proud of their achievement as far visual technology goes. Overall, if you catch the game on sale? I suggest you grab it, but I can sympathize with anyone who has too many bad memories of previous Eugen games. It's still very much a "Wargame" sort of game but Eugen is definitely refining its games into something more accessible to a wider audience than just the hardcore multiplayers. 

Don't need  Russian news, Italy is my neighbour  country, so we have some informations here in Slovenia. You think people are not dying from cov 19 ?
Our philosopher Slavoj Žižek on corona virus. I know.... Russian's fake news ... But philosopher can't be fake ... He can be  wrong or right .. You decide ..
 

Quarantaine it, you mean? 🙂

Did notice this in a little test today. The 35mm shouldn't need that much 'exposure' I guess. The CV seems to be expending ammo like a bradley, although the cartridge and ammo capacity is quite different. 

I also did some testing with the Gill today (because others reported it did weird things, but didn't notice that so far), and I did find something very odd. It seems that it's flight path is inverted, instead of going 'up' (as a top attack missile should, and the ingame model does suggest such behavior) it goes 'down'. When I use it from an elevated position, it works fine. However, my test today was in a defilade against targets on a higher plateau. All missiles (2 teams firing about 4 or 5 each) skimmed the ground and intersected with the ground before reaching the target. I guess it is reproducible if this is not a 'known' bug yet. ?
Between the c2 radio issues, the Gill and the CV90 I'm holding back playing with the Dutch too, unfortunately. I hope the next patch will fix these things, at least there is plenty of other stuff during the wait (I don't see a patch coming 'soon'  , because nothing was said about it until now).

Did notice this in a little test today. The 35mm shouldn't need that much 'exposure' I guess. The CV seems to be expending ammo like a bradley, although the cartridge and ammo capacity is quite different. 

I also did some testing with the Gill today (because others reported it did weird things, but didn't notice that so far), and I did find something very odd. It seems that it's flight path is inverted, instead of going 'up' (as a top attack missile should, and the ingame model does suggest such behavior) it goes 'down'. When I use it from an elevated position, it works fine. However, my test today was in a defilade against targets on a higher plateau. All missiles (2 teams firing about 4 or 5 each) skimmed the ground and intersected with the ground before reaching the target. I guess it is reproducible if this is not a 'known' bug yet. ?
Between the c2 radio issues, the Gill and the CV90 I'm holding back playing with the Dutch too, unfortunately. I hope the next patch will fix these things, at least there is plenty of other stuff during the wait (I don't see a patch coming 'soon'  , because nothing was said about it until now).

I didn´t know that Berlin got also hit, long time since I´ve read it. It very likely wouldn´t require constitutional changes at all as in the case of a direct attack the Bundeswehr might already have legitimization by Art. 115a GG alone.
However Article 5 NATO would be very likely activated aswell and thus there would be more then enough reasons for the government to give green light and enact a combat focused mandate. 
Exactly

Working on some alternative history mod. 
I've noticed that a lot of equipment in SF2 would fit cold war era. 
Using my spare time to play around with some models. 



 

BMP pack is almost ready but them infantry models will take time. 



I have a plan to make it somewhat like CMA but with Warsaw pact units. Will be meant to play red on red - with German forces on one side and rebels on the other. Mod is planned to cover time period of mid 60 till late 70s of the 20st century. Syria represented within the game will be treated by mods of this series as Afghanistan. No modern tech will be modded - simply Warsaw pact go against rebbles in Afghan/Iran area. 

Lots of designers have Anglish as a 2nd language so they should be congrachulated for what they can do.  Am less vorried about grammer and speling than about breefings that are either inaccurate, to complex and/or hard to unnerstand or omit important info dat the player needs in order to plan proper.