Combatintman

@Free Whisky has got his own thread about his video here:

You are the gift that keeps on giving - another brilliant video.

Pre-order is the key bit you've overlooked.

Probably thought Fury was a tactical model for armoured combat ... hence ending up zapped and captured when confronted with the real thing.

@Aragorn2002First go here: Index sheets viewer (amzp.pl) Then select Karte des Deutschen Reiches 1:100 000, Großblatt/Einheitsblatt, ark. zbiorcze /1919 - 1945/ You'll then get a map index screen with the map sheet numbers on a map. Should look like this once you scroll across to Prussia and the Baltic nations: Then click your desired area - if there's a red number it means there is an online map sheet for it. Then just look at the sheets. In this case it was Pillkallen that I clicked which brought up that list of nine maps in the Index Page that is in the first hyperlink in my last post. I opened the fortification one because it was handily labeled fortifications and; therefore, looked interesting. If you go south of Pillkallen to Ebenrode (16b) there is a similarly labeled map for that area: maps.mapywig.org/m/German_maps/series/100K_KDR_Gross_and_Einheitsblaetter/Gb_16b_Ebenrode_VI.1944_Befest_Mitte_Dez_1944_LoC_G6966.R4_s100_.G4.jpg A time-consuming process for sure and some maps won't be conveniently labeled 'fortification map' or similar. I have found some maps that have had military markings on them with no clue before I opened them that I was going to see anything other than a standard map sheet. Always helps if you know what part of the country, you're looking for to start with and then it's pretty easy to narrow down the map sheets you're after. It also helps if you've got a pretty good interweb connection/download speed. I have spent weeks, if not months in this archive and most of my East Front content for CM has benefitted from these visits.

Or here: First link is the index page: Found maps (amzp.pl) Remaining links are all of the maps on that index all maps are dated 1936-1944 but the ones I've looked at have elevations shown in the old-world style so no contours: http://igrek.amzp.pl/details.php?id=11824023 http://igrek.amzp.pl/details.php?id=6072 http://igrek.amzp.pl/details.php?id=6547 http://igrek.amzp.pl/details.php?id=11797654 http://igrek.amzp.pl/details.php?id=11821246 http://igrek.amzp.pl/details.php?id=11824191 http://igrek.amzp.pl/details.php?id=11794966 http://igrek.amzp.pl/details.php?id=11797694 http://igrek.amzp.pl/details.php?id=11807669 http://igrek.amzp.pl/details.php?id=11838475 Screenshot from the 1944 fortification map: All of the above are 1:100,000 which was the standard military map scale for German military maps of the era. They ain't great for CM Scenario Editor Overlays so you have to use them as a sort of reference to see the layout and extent of the town and then use other tools such as Google Earth. I've had a look there and its blatantly obvious where the church was: Use OpenTopoMap for your contours - there aren't many: OpenTopoMap - Topographische Karten aus OpenStreetMap Some pretty good photo resources of the place - this one stood out: Image Archive East Prussia, Schirwindt, aerial photo (bildarchiv-ostpreussen.de) Other than that, I can't' really help I'm afraid ...

UAV swarm at the US National Training Center: https://twitter.com/NTCLead6 Good to see that the training regime is evolving.

Given the amount of data that has to be processed I would say it is impossible. For the ground war alone - this is a Theater Intelligence Cell's job. That will be a lot of people working in specialist areas - eg current battle, future plans, order-of-battle etc to feed the grown-up who's going to make sense of it and then brief it to the guy who's going to make the decisions. I am that guy in Afghanistan - On average I read 500 individual reports a day and it takes me about three and a half hours to make sense of them all. About an hour or so to write up the individual incidents of interest and about 45 minutes to 90 minutes to find and plot where they took place. About 20 incidents is a busy day for me. Databasing the incidents takes about 20 minutes. On top of that it takes me about an hour and a half to write slightly more in-depth pieces for my daily summary. In-depth collation or in-depth reading? Forget it ... not enough time in the day. This is small beer compared to the amount of reporting that's coming out of Ukraine.

How long does it take to play then?

The obvious flaw in that clip is the absence of anybody either embarking or disembarking from either of the two Mi-26s.

As a smoker that guy is sure to get a posting to an ammunition depot.

Might also explain why lateral E-W bridges are being targeted - according to FIRMS there is a a fire in the vicinity of a bridge just east of Kherson (annotated white box)

Not many to choose from is one of the big factors and many of those are in the middle of town and have a fair amount of security in and around them. The Russian Embassy by comparison is accessible as it is outside the city centre. The attack was clearly planned and IS-K had almost certainly gone there on days that the consular section was open to see what went on there. That recce identified that there was a crowd to hide in and that Russian officials would come outside the embassy security perimeter to call people forward to get their visas which was the scenario in which the attack was made yesterday. In security risk management terms a straight out case of an exploitable vulnerability. The Pakistani Embassy, which used to be the British Embassy until 1994, is also pretty accessible for the same reason and that embassy also has lots of people outside it gathering for visas. Of the two, and if I was in IS-K's shoes, I'd go for Russia because IS-K still relies on facilitation and recruitment via Pakistan. This shouldn't be taken to mean that Pakistan is providing this - it is just where some recruitment happens and Pakistan's geography puts it adjacent to IS-K's stronghold in Kunar Province from which onward facilitation routes run. It is of course no friend of the Pakistani government but far less hassle right now to target Russia because Russia isn't in a position to turn the screws on IS-K recruitment and facilitation. It is worth pointing out that IS-K is not the force it was in 2019 and now that it can't collaborate with the Haqqani Network in the way that it used to, it needs to pick and choose its targets carefully as well as implied above, ensure that its recruitment and logistics aren't disrupted. Quite a few of the attacks this year have shown that IS-K is almost relearning its trade. The August 31 attack on a Taliban military convoy in Kotal Khair Khana in Kabul's Police District 17 was a good example. This was a VBIED and the intent was to target a bus full of Taliban military but the device was triggered too soon and a minibus with civilians aboard travelling in front of the military bus got the brunt of the blast. That sort of botched execution was rare before August last year. This attack was more about embarrassing the Taliban than attacking Russia although the suicide bomber made sure he got two of them. The message was very much that the Taliban cannot keep foreign diplomats secure like they promised rather than Russia is a hated infidel country. Other than that Steve ... I have no idea

No - more about utterly demolishing the Taliban narrative that IS-K poses no threat. The IS-K claim for the incident made specific reference to oft-made Taliban promises to guarantee the security of international missions.

Meanwhile from our Kabul correspondent ... Afghanistan: Russian embassy staff killed in Kabul bombing - BBC News Looks like Islamic State has declared for Ukraine.

Well they're getting it in spades now ... wonder why the United Kingdom supplied shedloads of NLAWs etc to Ukraine?

Yeah ... this. Russia is concerned about Islamic terrorism on both its own soil and in the CSTO 'Stans bordering Afghanistan. Using an Islamic militant for an attack would also not go down well with China. A definite non-starter.

Have you read this tutorial yet ...

I'd look at the enemy in a bit more detail before you leap into a plan. You say it is platoon strength - so go and 'place' a German platoon on that map and think about it from the German defender's point of view.

From this forum's Kabul correspondent ... let's well and truly bury the Afghan thing. As is generally the case, the most obvious explanation is usually the right one. The timelines were simply those dictated by the February 2020 US-Taliban Agreement. Biden arrived in office with a short timeline in which to take the decision to follow through with the withdrawal commitment in the US-Taliban Agreement. The decision was announced on April 14, 2021. According to the Washington Post article: "Just weeks before the essay appeared, Biden and Putin had held a June 16 summit that both declared was “constructive.” At that point, Ukraine was a concern, but one that White House officials felt could be dealt with. As the White House delegation left the meeting, held in Geneva, a senior Biden aide would later recall, “we didn’t get on the plane and come home and think the world was on the cusp of a major war in Europe.” The article states that it wasn't until October that the US was confident enough in its assessment that Russia would attack to take it to the President or put another way, sometime after the last US service member walked up the ramp of a C-17 in Kabul.

Yeah but the terrain in Monschau is a lot more 'buildingy' than the Italian one ... We could have at this all week because I'll bet you a pound to a pitch of sh1t that the Monschau scenario is a lot more 'unity' than the Italian campaign you're playing - based on your Youtube videos I can guarantee it as there don't seem to be many blokes on the map at all. The map is only one part of a scenario which seems to be a point you seem determined to ignore. If you don''t believe me then go into the editor and knock yourself out making a map of Monschau that fits your vision of accuracy, then stick the same amount of units on it and see how it plays.

If you were referring to my post as describing the third ammo dump in your post that I have bolded ... I said no such thing. As to the girder, I don't know. Interestingly there is no obvious scarring on the tarmac and the girder does not appear to have passed through anything else before impaling the vehicle so its trajectory was more near horizontal than horizontal. Based on the limited information available, that corrugated hangar, which I agree is more of a workshop than anything else, based on the fact that it is too small for aircraft and no aircraft have been seen on any of the imagery I've looked at parked in it, is the most likely source of the girder. There is another fuel storage facility, which does not appear to have been covered anywhere else, annotated in the image below. It is certainly a more likely source than any of the other facilities for an explosion that would cause a girder to move east to west but still too far south for my liking.

No I disagree. The map is quite big in dimensions, it has got a ton of trees on it and quite a few direct elevation tiles. All of those eat up CPU or RAM or whatever it is that increases load time or in OP's case a CTD. Add in a ton of units, I won't say how many to avoid spoilers but the amount of units is pretty much at the extent of the game's capacity. Also add in the fact that CMFB was released eight years ago so the team would have been putting the content together at least a year before that with computers of that era and the constraints rack up. In map making terms, buildings, particularly tightly packed ones, and sharp elevation changes do not go well together at all. You end up with sunken doorways which often can't be entered or buildings sunk to window level or above window level which, quite frankly looks sh1t. You then have pathfinding problems with troops often avoiding sunken doors and choosing an entrance other than the anticipated one by the player which most find somewhat upsetting. You even posted a screenshot of the Wintergewitter campaign where a building-elevation interface caused you a drama on the CMFI thread for that campaign. At the end of your part two YouTube video you encountered another problem related to a building-elevation interface where your troops were brassing up an American turn after turn that you couldn't see who was wedged between a building wall and what looked like a 2m high elevation on the adjoining tile. I suspect that the designer compromised with the map in order to overcome these issues in their depiction of Monschau in order to improve gameplay.

About Saki Airfield ... I had a rummage around the place on Google Earth just to confirm the annotations of fuel and ammunition storage on other imagery that have been doing the rounds. I agree with those assessments. What I did find was something else ... There is an area at the north of the facility which is not shown on the other annotated imagery that was taken hours before the strike that has been posted widely. The attached .kmz file will take you to the point I have annotated as Grid 36T WQ 46855 94846. I have put imagery from April and June 2021 side by side because some features are more obvious in one image than they are in the other. Points to note are: That the vehicle entrance facing north has a tarmac roadway which leads to the compound gate and; therefore, is truly a vehicle entrance and exit. The vehicle entrance facing west does not have a tarmac roadway. Cycling back through historical imagery shows that vehicles come out of the underground facility using that entrance and park up adjacent to it. The personnel entrance I am fairly sure is part of this facility and is possibly an emergency escape route as it lies outside the perimeter of the underground facility. It certainly is not part of the aircraft revetment which is the bunded feature immediately to the right of it as none of the other revetments on this airfield, or quite a few others that I have looked at in this part of the world, have them. The facility is clearly of some importance as it sits fully enclosed in its own compound and is underground. What it is though, I have no idea. Despite it being of some importance, it is right next to the airfield's perimeter fence. By the looks of reporting on the Ukrainian strike, it appears either to have been not important enough to target or judged to be too hardened to destroy with the means available to the Ukrainians. It is certainly not a 'special weapons' facility as these are generally double fenced. Anyway - if anybody's got any informed ideas I'd be grateful to hear them, otherwise, I just found it interesting. 36T WQ 46855 94846.kmz

Satchel charges do the trick as well ... as should be expected.