Fizou

Cool! Happy to help. I will see if I can dig up anything else.

JonS, Is this of any use to you (or was it the one you had already looked at)? http://geo.nls.uk/maps/belgium/index.html

Nice catch!

I guess the reason is that many of the German units can be recycled as they have been created for the western front already. Hence more focus could be put on the terrain, new features in 3.0 and the Russians. I also believe that there might be a bit higher interest in the later stages of the campaign for many as there are big cats and big soviet tanks to play around with. I for one am really looking forward to the eastern front and will buy anything released (most exited for Barbarossa and Stalingrad). With Bagration I’m sure we will see a lot of good scenarios that are balanced and challenging for both sides. CMBB managed to do it during this timeframe so why not CMx2? I see no reason to be concerned about this.

kohlenklau, No need to do a AAR/DAR. My AAR "project" was just for turn 5 off the operation and as we are on turn 6 now, its over and done. I'll keep using this thread to keep you up to date on the situation though. Good luck in the current battle! A lot is riding on your attack!

A great read as usual. Thanks for posting Bil!

Great! Looking forward to following this one

Some more information on whats going on in the southern AO. The thin black line is indicating this AO. The yellow line the northern AO. There are two assaults this turn (time frame 10:00-12:00). The northern one is for a 300 VPL, and here a combined force of Rangers and Paras are attacking a Italian 75 mm gun battery. They are also attacking over bridges and the river here has no fording points either. We are sure to see axis counterattacks in this area. Further to the south a small unit of paras are trying to take out another Italian 75 mm gun battery. This battery was intent on firing on our bridge/river crossing attack in the north but have been stopped by the paras of 1st Bn. If they can silence these guns we will have a smoother ride for the operations reminding 12 hours. Also note the massing of units to the south east. Here we are all but ready to force a crossing of the Maggazola river in the southern AO. We will then move forces up to the 300 VPL ASAP. ----------------------------------------------------- Id also like to go over some rules that concern CM combat that we are using in this campaign so you are aware of them. First.. when it comes to artillery. 1. Only the attacker is allowed to preplaned artillery strikes. 2. Linear missions are only allowed for preplaned strikes and for smoke. 3. All other fire must use the circle fire mission. 4. The size of the area that is put under fire is decided by the number of guns used. Every tube targets a area of 35 m (55 m for naval guns), this can be differed by +/- 10%. This means that a 3 gun battery that uses all tubes must cover a circle area of 94-114 m. It can not be bigger or smaller. A smaller area can be targeted if less tubes are used. It can however not be bigger than the 114 m circle area. For USS Buck that has two turrets. The circle area can be 99-121 m (if a linear mission during preplan it can be between 99 and 121 meters long). The reasons for these rules are to make things a bit more interesting and to keep artillery a bit less effective. Secondly.. after last turns last stand battle we have decided to make some rules so that not battles turn out to last stands. So depending on a force morale (at the start of the battle, global morale is established. In this case if your force is reduced to below 20% of its starting strength it must surrender. Your men make up 178 in headcount and every tank is counted as 10 so that is another 60. Total headcount is 238. If your force drops below 47 men it must auto surrender.) A unit that has been on map for the first 30 minutes is also allowed to surrender. If it does 25% of its survivors may escape and join the closest applicable friendly unit (the rest are treated as casualties). Both of these new rules are to try and get a more realistic feel to the action and when units decide to throw in the towel (also more interesting decisions for the player to try and make the best of very situation.

Sorry for the late reply kohlenklau. Its been a busy time over the holidays. I have had time to create/expand the maps we are going to use for this turns allied assaults though so we are about to start the action. Are you still up for your spot in our team? If so I have decided to keep you in command of all forces in the Allied northern AO (I will do the same for the southern AO. I think this will keeps us more engaged with our pixel truppen as we follow the same units over the duration of the campaign). Time is 1000 hours 20 July 1943. Below is a map of your AO. Your forces will attack the VPL at hex 18.7 (shown by red box). This is a river crossing and the last major natural obstacle to the city Ribera. In Ribera there is a further 200 VPL location that is your force final objective (this can also be seen in the map above. Note that the paras in your last battle perished just north east of this VPL). Your attack will start at 1025 hours and will be made from two directions as shown above. Your force is made up of Paras from 2nd Bn 504th Para Regt (82nd Airborne Div) and light tanks from 82nd Armored Recon Bn (2nd Armored Div). Note that one of the Tank units are low on ammo. Also note that one of the Para units coming in from the north have a high fatigue (weakened in CM terms). Your off map support is made up by 3x 75 mm pack howitzers as well as the guns of destroyer USS Buck. The enemy force is made up of Italian pioneers and blackshirts/bersaglieri. Both these units are estimated at Coy strength. Note that the pioneers are disrupted (this effects their CM leadership with -1 reducing their combat efficiency. This is in addition to the Italians lower morale/combat efficiency when compared to their German allies.) Intelligence also suggests that the Italians have a coy of 47 mm AT guns. These guns are able to penetrate the frontal armor of the Stuart light tank at medium to long combat ranges. The Italian force is well dug in. They have dug an extensive trench system and deployed a lot of barbed wire. They have also 4 TRPs on our approaches. On the bright side they only have their light brixia mortars in support (to the south paras from the 1st Bn have disrupted Italian 75 mm guns that where intending to shell your attack). Its also worth to mention that these Italian units have been attacked by P-38s during the last hours so they have been softened up (this has also caused the pioneers to become disrupted as mentioned earlier). Below is the setup zones and the axis potential retreat route. Note that the bridges are the only way for your force to cross the river. A natural choking point. Mission: You must take this hex from the enemy and put it firmly in our control. Its a VPL and thus very important for the overall outcome of the campaign. In addition to this, this hex will provide us with a jump off point for our further attacks on Ribera (its the only bridge in the north that allows tanks to cross). Your force is outnumbered and the enemy is well dug in, but your men are of better quality and with better motivation. You have tanks and a lot of artillery to aid your attack. Its also important that you keep our casualties low. Below is a picture of follow on forces to give you an idea of what is available to capture Ribera in the coming turns. Your secondary objective is to destroy as much of the Italian force as possible. You will have 1:30 Hours to complete your mission. Allied follow on forces for the northern AO. Note that several of these units are some distance from the front as well as in off road terrain. It will take them some time to move forward. This makes it imperative that the Paras don't take to heavy casualties until they can be relived by the infantry. Check our DB folder.. there is a folder named hex 18.7. There you will find the files to start the action (axis setup is done.). Allied password is the same as before. View from the SE approach.. note the twin bridge over the Maggazola river. View from the N approach.

Looks great PvtW!

Logistics grog..

+1 . I also think the Italians are handled in a great way as is. Im sure BF will do something great for the Russians as well. But as others have pointed out.. maybe that isnt relevant for 1944. The red army had come a long way since 41..

Im very excited for all the news and info on 3.0 and will definately upgrade from 2.0! Will we be able to make the bigger maps in CMBN and FI when its upgraded to 3.0 or is that something that is locked to the eastern front (Im guessing yes)?

Looks superb Mord! Im following this with great interest

20,000 / 10 = 2000/yr / 12 = $170/month

Keep it up Vanir. Im sure many of us are happy that you do this and show true passion for the game and expect excellence from it.

looking forward to the completion of this mod. Know a lot of hard work goes into it!

SlowMotion, No I think it takes a few turns before it comes into effect.

I think it looks great Aris.. please upload!

Love it Fuser!! Big extra thanks and appreciation for numbers/insignia variants. Super awesome!

I believe there are 21 different videos. You can find most of them (if not all) here: http://www.youtube.com/user/geesusdb?feature=watch

Zenomorph, Yes.. as CMx1 will provide you with in game data tables of armor and penetration for varios vehicles and weapons. The game will also give you a calculation guess of % to hit and likelyhood of doing damage agains given target. But it is cumbersome to do as you say.. Hope to see this back in CMx2 some day.

Love your mod waclaw and very happy to see that you are already preparing for Bagration

Really strange that the results are different for the end screen?

Comparing Vanirs test and pics with what Steve has written.. doesn’t make sense to me. The hull down could potentially block the "shot trap area" if it was high enough.. the pics show thats no way close to being the case. Might it be that the low velocity of the Sherman gun, at that distance will hit at an angle so that the shot trap won’t come into effect? I’m in way over my head here but I’m very happy to see you do these tests Vanir and trying to make sure everything is they way they are supposed to be. Also thanks to Steve for listning in.