Sandokan

If it is any consolation to anyone, Leonardo left behind a huge backlog of unfinished (and never begun) works, and constantly reproached himself for this fault in his journals.
Christopher Hitchens relates (perhaps apocryphally) that 'whenever [Leonardo] tested a new quill, he would scrawl the same unhappy inquiry: “Dimmi, dimmi se mai fu fatta cosa alcuna” (Tell me, tell me if anything ever got done).'

Ahem... since it was brought up...
 

 
 

I did a test today to explore the effects of fatigue on spotting and shooting in CMBN.
TLDR:  there is no apparent negative effect on spotting or shooting for German LMG or sniper teams (comparing "rested" to "tired").
Details:
I set up a 10-lane shooting range, with the shooters looking downrange through a tall hedgerow. All units regular, rested, temp hot, no wind. I then placed some driver volunteers (ahem) from the American motor pool 80m downrange from the hedgerow and let the German LMG teams move to their hedgerow, spot downrange, and engage their targets.  I ran all 10 lanes concurrently, and then reran the whole thing 3 times.  I measured two things: time to spot after reaching the hedgerow, and time to kill the target after spotting it.
Here you can see the snipers at work:

I then redid the whole thing with units made tired by running back and forth.  All 10 units ran the same distance as each other, so should have been equally tired.
Then I redid all of THAT with German sniper teams, the only difference being moving the targ... um, volunteers to 200m downrange.
I was a bit surprised by the number of outliers - where the spotting or firing unit took a VERY long time to spot or hit.  Occasionally longer than two minutes.
Bizarrely, considering all of the data, the LMG teams did a much better job of shooting while tired, and the snipers did a somewhat better job spotting when tired. Stripping out all data points 60 seconds long or longer (an arbitrary value that favors the rested troops) resulted in the rested and tired troops performing about the same. Maybe you can make an argument that spotting is slightly worse when tired.
===  Raw data  ===

===  Removing all data points 60 seconds or longer  ===

For completeness the tests should also be done with fatigued and exhausted units, and I guess also veteran and a broader range of unit types.  But I hardly ever push my troops to that point.
 

MINUTE 3
2nd Squad on my far left (2nd Platoon) received a sound contact as it moved up towards its position.
This gif has been sped up by 50%:

The image below shows final positions... I believe (and I am not sure as I really dislike the standard icons, so difficult to tell unit/vehicle types apart) that this is a light armor vehicle.  I assume (and I was taught to never assume) that Ian is reconnoitering this area in order to determine how I am deploying.  If he doesn't have a dismounted team nearby, he might not know my BMPs are on the other side of the ridge.  That enemy vehicle was definitely moving, I do wonder if its alone.  Perhaps I can expect a scout team to poke its head over the ridge in front of my squad.

In the 1st Platoon zone the T-62M moved past the advancing infantry and took a couple shots, both hit the upper floor of the large building in the Farm Objective...  I am slowly getting closer to the ridge and my infantry should be able to sight into the objective next turn. 
Time is slightly compressed in this gif, the tank reload took several more seconds to complete than is shown.

I'm going to do what my grandma did and stay 39 years old for a few decades.

It's all Baudolino's fault, just everything! 

MINUTE 2
 
Baneman continues to push down AA1… he only has one Scimitar and one Fennek on that route so far so it is hardly a movement in force.
His Scimitars and a couple Fenneks are fanning out and taking up positions inside the EA1 box behind walls, in trees and hull down if possible in order to overwatch KT2.  From the orientation of a few of them he seems particularly interested in the saddle between the two hills, but that might just be to keep them centered so they can orient on whichever hill needs attention.
This image identifies all eight of the Scimitars and their locations, three of the four expected Fenneks and the FV432, which now sits behind a building as shown.  Except for one Fennek I have identified the locations of his entire reconnaissance force and can start planning how to counter it. 
(NOTE:  The vehicle icons were added in Photoshop, this is not a game feature)

One Scimitar took up position behind the Old Ruined Farm walls.

Another Scimitar engaged my Technicals again... one of which dismounted.  Not moving these on turn one is starting to haunt me… oh well, hindsight and all that.
Baneman is moving his UNCONs into the OBJ Gold buildings... one of this teams has suffered one casualty and is cowering... this team did return the favor and took out one man from an MG team.  But I have a lot of fire pouring into that building so he might be outgunned.

I can see several more UNCON teams moving through the buildings as well… I have contact icons for them anyway.  So will hold tight and let them come.

I have no doubt that his UNCONs are giving him intel on my movements on KT2 just like mine are of his movements... nothing I can do about that right now though.
Team 2 has finally reached its destination and dismounted the ATGM and recon teams.  They will be in position next turn... hopefully unseen.  If the ATGM team is not spotted moving into position or setting up the ATGM, they may be able to do some damage... but time will tell.  The vehicles will be positioning into (hopefully) keyhole positions to engage a Scimitar or two. 


Team 1 has also finally moved into position, the hulldown LAV-AT getting a fleeting spot on the Scimitar Baneman is moving down AA1, but it was a short sighting and he lost it as the light tank moved behind the Farm 002 mound. 

The BMP actually stopped in a non-hulldown position to the Scimitar at Farm 002 and could be spotted... so I will back it into a hulldown position to overwatch the AA1 route.  This team is masked from the mass of Baneman’s Scimitars as that is not their target... making the AA1 route uncomfortable for him is however.  I wouldn't mind if he knew these vehicles were here, might make him cautious.


My LAV reaction force was still moving into position at turn end.  


·         PIR:  Will the enemy recon attempt a recon in force down AA1?  A Scimitar joined the Fennek on this route, still no recon in force, it appears to be a route recon only for now.
·         PIR:  Will the enemy recon attempt a counter-recon operation?  After two minutes this does not appear to be his intent.
·         PIR:  Will the enemy recon force take up overwatch positions at KT1?  After two minutes of action it appears like my opponent is indeed putting most of his Scimitars into overwatch positions oriented towards KT2.
Three turns until my Advance guard arrives, in the meantime I am chewing my fingernails to the quick.

For this game we wanted to show as much as possible, and yet provide an entertaining and challenging game.  We decided that each of us would take two nations, and some UNCONs and Fighters and duke it out man on man, steel against steel (or Chobham as the case may be)... the only constraint was that whoever chose the US would also have to field the Syrians as the US does come with some advantages (Javelins etc.).
I gave Baneman first choice and he went with his own folks, the UK and partnered them with the German Army.  He suggested that I, as an American should take the US, so what choice did I have?   
As for force purchases we adhered to the following:
These constraints will apply to EACH nation we choose (purchase must be 50-50): Light troops - one platoon of mounted recon (or light armored recon) or two platoons of dismounted recon Armor - either two tanks (1st class: M1, Leo, or Challenger) or one platoon of second class tanks (anything Syrian, Leo 1 (Canada) Infantry - either one company (mounted) or two companies dismounted troops Artillery - whatever comes with our purchased units, plus:  one battery of medium howitzers (one from each nation) UNCONs - will let George select and deploy for us No air We then sent our purchases to @George MC who provided a gorgeous map for us to fight on, and he set us up.. George also selected and setup the UNCON force for us and deployed them.. neither of us knew the force composition or the locations of our irregulars.  George identified key objectives for us also and really this game could not have happened without him.  So, THANKS GEORGE!!!
I will get into the details of my force pick and what I suspect Baneman is bringing to the party in a later post... should be interesting, this is a Meeting Engagement with the following forces arrayed against each other:
BANEMAN - UK and German - UNCONs including some Technical (gun truck) support) ME - US and Syrian - UNCONs including some Technical (gun truck) support) The next post will have some pictures.    I will show some map highlights and include a topo map that I am using to track the action in this battle. 
I will run through my METT-T analysis as quickly as I can in order to get to the action... the first of those posts will probably go up tonight.
Bil

i saw Tell Spring Not to Come This Year.
Didnt really grip me. I dont know. Im sure some would find interest in it.
It certainly reinforced my feeling its a hopeless war Americas fighting there.

SpetsNaz, I think, vs muj in 1986. Russians are desperately trying to interdict Stinger shipments and capture a sample. Lots of war toys, including Mi-24V HIND/D. Really well done show, with real characters, not caricatures. Am finding this more than a bit surreal, for I was at Rockwell then and can well recall the electric sense of excitement we all felt in Operations Analysis when we got DOD Betamax footage of a muj downing a MI--17 HIP with a Stinger, We knew this would have a profound impact on Russian ability to use air power, especially helos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXo0ILflfYs
Regards,
John Kettler

Yea, it was disheartening to see that happen.  I'm glad it's disabled.
The Kettlerian Universe is very different from how I perceive reality but I certainly respect John's passion and the wonderful nuggets he finds.  We would likely not get along face-to-face but he merits all the innate social courtesies I can offer as well as the respect of his humanity which is only right.  Viva la difference! 

You can just block people who annoy you. It's very easy.
I haven't blocked that many though, even though they may be annoying, rude etc. I like to hear other viewpoints. If I see something that is overly negative, I just shrug and move on. No reason to take it personally.

Just suddenly found this one on my hard drive. 
H2H only, Afghanistan - Kyrgyzstan border, 1993
Here is the link 
https://cloud.mail.ru/public/LDCj/HeBHwzWyQ

Greetings! 

This is my first real attempt with the editor - which started out from this real-world Luftwaffe aerial shot I came across for the village of Golynki, west of Smolensk...



...which I stretched to fit more neatly into a CM-friendly grid, and came out with this map:





It is a 2000m x 1792m map, covering a few types of terrain: a peat bog in the northern half, a wooded area and the near-pristine village of Tregubovka to the southeast, and the larger village of Golynki to the soutwest, which has been largely demolished and abandoned under the German occupation. The map is divided in half by drainage ditch running north-south (both it and a secondary ditch on the northeast side are passable 'shallow ford' throughout), and has a major rail line running east-west in the bottom quarter of the map. 



At the moment, I have no data on any actions that took place here - all I learned is that this area was recaptured by the Soviets in October 1943 (I originally thought it was part of the CMRT timeline in 1944, but it is not so). 






It's a very detailed, handcrafted map - it may still need a bit of optimization as I went very heavy on the flavour objects (so the frame rate might drag down in certain areas, depending on your system). On the upside, it's very pretty in places





I'm trying to figure out what to do with it in terms of scenario - and since I have absolutely 0 experience with scenario building and AI programming at the moment, any help or advice would be appreciated! What would you like to see on this map?

At the moment, there is no AI and all the parameters, objectives, etc. are placeholders only. It's only really usable in the editor right now.

You may download my current WIP version of it here: 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hA9cr80cdMmHkGK8mhhbNgZz_LAefsyH

...or in the forum attachment.

If you have anything that you'd like to create on this map yourself, or use it or any part of it for your own scenarios - you're very welcome to do so (with credit for map given).

Thanks for checking it out! 
CCIP - Golynki (v01 map only).btt

Brother Ed is happily making craters on a 3-D printer, and I unearthed this to help him. Turns out this is a blast from my past, in the form of a runway cratering study I used when doing a report on US rapid runway repair capability in my early days at Hughes. This is, in part, quite the tutorial on crater configuration from aerial bombs and addresses dimensions  for a range of bomb sizes against both a range of runway types and against bare soil. It's called BOMB CRATER DAMAGE TO RUNWAYS and was authored by Peter Westine of the Southwest Research Institute. 
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/907456.pdf

P.S.

I give up! This post won't delete. Tried doing that after realizing I put it in the wrong place. Should be in CM GDF, not CMFB. Mods, please move it. Thanks! 
Regards,
John Kettler

If you are interested, check „www.panzerkauf.de“. Looks like they have dozens of AFV‘s on stock. Unfortunately, they give you a price only on request.
Keep us informed, when you made your choice... 😎

You are heartless
recalled Waterloo in a topic opened by a french !!!                
More seriously, I live on the ground where the  kampfgruppe Engel campaign is happening
I can not help thinking  about the game  when i move on the ground !
Of it there is in particular a hedge where I lost my jagpanther or I sigh as soon as I pass there
it's there....

The vehicle in your picture is a SKOT OT-64 APC, not a BTR. 

But if you do want a BTR-60, $17K will buy you a nice one: 

http://www.mortarinvestments.eu/products/armoured-vehicles-4/btr-60-8
Offers on a knackered example here:

http://www.russianmilitary.co.uk/details.php?id=165

Morning/afternoon/evening everyone! I return, with the second entry of the AAR.

In the interests of keeping the amount of "filler" entries low, this post will cover both my initial plans and the first few turns of the engagement.
 

Reasoning that it is somewhat pointless to come up with a detailed and intricate plan without having any knowledge of Rinaldi's dispositions, I'll develop my plan as I conduct a reconnaissance. This initially consists of my four scout teams moving forward dismounted, two moving into the high ground on my right and two straddling the MSR on my left. Each duo of scouts is backed up by their APCs and a section of Scimitars, who will follow up to lend support to the scouts when they encounter opposition. The Javelins are deployed mounted up to my extreme right. I am also moving the tac air controller team in the centre, to take up position on the high ground to my front.
 

Now, onto my plans thus far. My task (and that of my enemy) is simplified somewhat by the terrain; the irrigation ditch running across the AO limits me to just three axes of advance. The first axis (the arrow marked '1' on the map above) is a simple advance straight down the middle, over Tweedledee and into the objective. The second axis is a left hook, going over Tweedledum and following the MSR to the objective. The third axis is also a left hook, but even wider; going over Tweedledum and then occupying Point 228 before descending the hill to make a final assault on the objective. Whichever axis that I choose will be supported by a base of fire on the high ground to my front and right. My force composition also limits my choices; with a grand total of 16 men making up my whole infantry complement, I can only really afford to choose one axis for my main effort.
 

"Whichever of you mugs is humming the Jaws theme best pack it the 'eck in . . ."
 
Now, to go over the pros and cons of each axis.
Axis 1 - Pros:
- Most simple of the three plans
- Will take the least time to prepare and execute
Cons:
- Can be enfiladed from enemy positions at the Tool Houses and Point 228
- No concealment or cover; the ground leading to the objective is completely open
- Open to fire from the South side of the objective and from Point 225
- All potential enemy positions at the Tool Houses, Point 228 and Point 225 will have to be suppressed for the final assault on the objective, as well the objective itself
- Attacking from the same position as my base of fire allows the enemy to concentrate all his fire in one direction
Axis 2 - Pros:
- Will neutralise any enemy positions at Tool Houses
- Provides some cover and concealment from enemy positions in the objective and Point 225
- The enemy is forced to split his fire between my base of fire and the manoeuvre force (or shoot at one and not the other)
Cons:
- Is enfiladed at very close range by enemy positions on Point 228; Point 228 will have to be suppressed while the plan is being executed
- Will take longer to prepare and execute; more distance has to be covered
- Vulnerable to a counterattack from the reverse slope of Point 228
Axis 3 - Pros:
- Will neutralise enemy positions at the Tool Houses and Point 228
- The enemy is forced to split his fire between my base of fire and the manoeuvre force (or shoot at one and not the other)
- Provides an additional place from which the objective can be overwatched
Cons:
- Advance up the slope of Point 228 will be enfiladed by the objective and Point 225
- Assault on the positions at Point 228 could be costly and very time consuming
- Vulnerable to a counterattack from the reverse slope of Point 228
- Will take the longest amount of time to prepare and execute
Each plan has some pretty big cons, which is somewhat concerning. I do know one thing though: whichever plan I go with, and however my enemy responds, the objective is going to be swarming with enemy troops. Thus, the objective is going to be smothered in fires, from both my base of fire and my rotary-wing support.
 

And as always, the enemy gets a vote. I made some analysis of the enemy in my last post, but a few things have occurred to me since then. He may have minefields, in which case there is a 99.99% chance that they will be placed on Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and if he has enough of them then there'll probably be some in the entrances to the objective too. Minefields will make my job much harder and without engineers there is, to be frank, jigger all that I can do about it other than grit my teeth and push on through. Freezing up and trying to find another route would give my opponent a wonderful opportunity to inflict heavy losses on me (Rinaldi isn't an amateur; if he has minefields, they'll be covered by fires). The enemy may also have indirect fire support. Each Syrian Reserve Mechanised Battalion gets a platoon of six 120mm mortars and each rifle company within the Battalion gets a section of two 120mm mortars. It is entirely possible that Rinaldi's platoon has the company mortars in support. If I get pinned down or take too long to move from one spot, those 120mms could do some horrendous damage to my small force. Now, that said, Syrian call-in times for indirect fire are quite simply diabolical; in a previous match that I played, it took my Syrian Special Forces forward observer team *seven minutes* to call in a barrage from a section of 82mm mortars. I can't imagine what the call-in time for a reservist mortar section must be like. If I keep moving, any potential mortars shouldn't be an issue, but it is still something to keep in mind.
So far I still can't make up my mind about which of my potential schemes of manoeuvre to go with. All of them are equally unpalatable. My force has does not have sufficient firepower to suppress every potential enemy position and all it takes is one lucky close-range volley from an enemy position to make one of my infantry teams combat ineffective, or to knock out one of my Scimitars. All I can say at this stage is . . . a mortar! A mortar! My kingdom for a mortar!
But alas, it is pointless to screech about what I don't have. You play the hand that you've been dealt. At this stage, I believe that more reconnaissance is needed before I go through with any of my plans. I can at least move the units that will form my base of fire into position (the Javelin troop and at least two Scimitars) while my scouts move forward.
 

And finally, at 42:13, contact is made with the enemy! Scout Team 4, moving up along the road on my left, takes fire from their front. They swiftly identify their assailant as an MMG team, hunkered in a trench on Point 228. Sadly, I hadn't been paying enough attention to the micro terrain, as Team 3 on the other side of the road are in the low ground of the orchard and can't see the hill. So much for bounding overwatch!
 

The sniper in Team 4 is already taking aim at the MMG team before the turn ends, but I decide that a four-man scout team getting into a shootout with an MMG is a mug's game, so in my next turn I order them to drop down and crawl back behind the curve of the hill, while I move my Scimitars forward and get Team 3 into a position where they can actually support their pals over the road.
Right, this post is at a good length now, and I've covered all of my planning so far. First contact with the enemy is a good point to end on I think. Thanks for all the feedback so far everyone!

Yep -  use it all the time
 
P

There was a lot of upgrading of the CM games over the years to get us to where we are now.  The below list is some of the improvements that the up to date titles have.  There is actually more but below is what I could remember or looked up.  This must be a massive undertaking to add even some of the below to CMSF.  So in theory the below is some of the stuff that BFC might add.  I say in theory because it is so much stuff that it is kind of hard to believe they would do all this work and think about offering it to preexisting CMSF1 customers at a discount.  
 
* HULLDOWN COMMAND: This command allows a vehicle to move forward until only the turret is exposed to a specified target, and then the vehicle stops moving.
* IMPROVED INFANTRY SPACING: While moving, squad and team members will maintain a few meters of distance between each other. Soldiers will spread out laterally on the move when possible.
* PEEKING AROUND BUILDING CORNERS: Infantry units positioned adjacent to building and tall wall corners will now automatically post some soldiers at the corners to observe and fire around the obstacle. Machine guns and anti-tank weapons have priority for positioning at the corner. 
* COMBINE SQUAD COMMAND: When a squad is given the Combine Squad command, the squad will reorganize itself into two teams (if it originally had three teams). The Combine Squad command can only be given to Squads that are un-split.
* EXPANDED WAYPOINT DESCRIPTIVE TEXT: More special unit commands (such as Hide and Deploy Weapon) will now be marked with white floating text above the waypoint they are assigned to.
* CAMPAIGN BRIEFING: The overall campaign briefing is now viewable during any campaign mission by going to the Menu Options Panel and selecting "Campaign".
* FORWARD OBSERVER KILL CREDITS: F/O’s now get credit on the AAR for any casualties caused by off-map fire missions called in by them.
* SCREEN EDGE PAN TOGGLE: Using the hotkey ALT-E you can disable camera panning by touching the screen edge with the mouse cursor.
* AI AREA FIRE ORDERS: The AI can now be scripted to use Area Fire! Each AI Order can have a target zone designated. The AI will attack the target zone with suppressive area fire if it doesn't have any spotted enemy units to engage or other important tasks to do.
* AI FACING ORDERS: Each AI Order can be given a location for it to Face towards. When the AI Group reaches its destination, it will pivot or rotate towards the designated point.
* AI WITHDRAW ORDERS: AI Groups can be ordered to Withdraw. Vehicles will move in Reverse to the destination, while infantry will leapfrog back while turning around to face behind them.
* CAMPAIGN RESUPPLY: Personnel replacements and ammunition levels are now more uniformly resupplied across all core units between campaign missions.
* 3D FLAVOR OBJECT CLONE TOOL: While in the 3D Editor, a flavor object can be cloned. A duplicate of the flavor object will appear a short distance away.
* 32 ORDER AI PLANS: Each AI Group can now have up to 32 Orders, increased from 16.
* Stream terrain: Small streams can now be placed on battle maps.
* New tracer and muzzle flash effects.
  Quick Battle TO&E options have been improved
- Mouse text for targeting: too close or out of range
- Improved TacAI logic for placing teams along walls
- Very heavily-laden soldiers cannot use Fast or sometimes even Quick moves
- Ground units are now able to fire at attacking aircraft
- Ammo Dumps allow platoons to have reserve ammo stored separately on map (automatically distributed for certain Skill Levels)
- Three different sets of camera controls; Standard (traditional), First Person Shooter, and Real Time Strategy
- Optional graphical Command and Control link tracing
- KIAs are shown in the Soldier/Crew Panels to track soldiers lost during the game
- Ability to create AI Triggers that execute actions based on other units or interaction with Objectives
- Maximum map size increased
- Customized "Mod Tags" for most graphics.
- Ability to specify specific mods be used for a specific Scenario.
- Hit impacts to vehicles and bunkers now shown graphically ("hit decals")
- Water animates for fording units
* Map editor elevation changes can be "sharp" by holding the control key when clicking tile elevations.  This allows the creation of realistic ditch contours.
* Computer player may use "Ambush Armor" plans.
- Waypoint dragging. A waypoint can be clicked on and moved by dragging it to a new location.
- Hotkey Unit Groups. Select units and assign them to number keys for quick navigation during gameplay. To change the camera's location press Alt and the number of the group you want to navigate to. The camera relocates and the highest level unit of that group is automatically selected. In Iron Mode, only HQs can be assigned to hotkey unit groups.
- Grouped Spacebar Command system. Instead of getting all of the commands in a big list when the Spacebar is used, instead you get four groups of commands: Movement, Combat, Special, and Administrative.
- New Load New Game dialog screen. The list of scenarios can now be sorted by size, length, or alphabetically. Details are presented in text form instead of icons.
- New Saved Game dialog screen. The list of scenarios can now be sorted by newest file, oldest file, or alphabetically. You can also filter between single player saves and PBEM saves. Save games can be deleted from this screen instead of having to flip back and forth between the game and your desktop.
- Visual Hotkey binding. A new dialog allows you to specify and view key assignments. Players can still manually edit and exchange Hotkey.txt files as before.
- Special Equipment icons enlarged for better readability. The enlargement reduces the number of icons from 12 to 6. Multiple items of a single type of equipment are now represented by a single icon with a number specifying how many of that item the unit has.
- Auto-Assemble linear terrain tool. Roads, walls, fences, and hedges can now be automagically drawn across the map instead of placing them one tile at a time. The old manual selection interface still exists to allow tweaking specific Action Spots.
- BMP map overlay. Instead of having to create game maps by freehand you can now trace over a real world map within the Editor. Four different levels of transparency make the process easier by adjusting for different needs as work progresses.
- More AI Groups. The number of AI Groups available has been increased from 8 to 16. This allows for greater fidelity of AI Plans and their assigned units.
- Copy and paste AI Plans. Create a solid AI Plan, copy it, and paste it into an unused AI Plan slot. Once done the copied Plan can be modified to make a unique variant without having to build the Plan up from scratch.
- Improved terrain elevation/contours, smoother and more intuitive.
- Target Armor Arc Command. Instructs units to engage only armored units within the specified arc. As with nearly every Command, outcome varies greatly depending on unit quality and battlefield conditions.
- Target Briefly Command. Tells a unit to fire all it's guns on a designated spot for 15 seconds, then cease fire. Conserves ammo and reduces the need for player management when short suppressive fire is the desired outcome.
  

There is always a debate about which way is better to play the game, WeGo or real time. For me, it is WeGo all the way and the following two moments sealed the deal for me:
The first PBEM match I ever played in CMBN was a quick battle against a friend from college. I was trying to advance under fire into the next set of buildings in a town. The squad I was moving came under fire and all the men but one ran up to a fence, jumped it and rushed into the safety of a building. The straggler, held tight at the fence and cowered. The turn ended with him kissing his butt goodbye, bullets bouncing all around him. I figured it was only a matter of time until he died, so I tried to move the squad into a better position in a different building. When the next turn started, they cancelled their movement order. The squad leader ran out of the building and stood over top of the cowering solider. He turned and fired in the direction of the incoming rounds. Several bursts of fire came flying at him but nothing hit him. The guy on the ground stopped cowering but he still refused to move. The squad leader fired another burst and then another at the enemy. He then turned and faced the guy on the ground. With only a few seconds left in the turn, the cowering solider got up and ran ahead of his squad leader into the safety of the building.  Neither guy suffered a scratch. I must have watched that turn at least a dozen times. I told my friend and he could not believe it when he watched it over and over again as well.
The second time I was truly impressed by this game was another CMBN battle. I had an entire platoon moving from one section of woods, across the road and into another set of woods. There was a two man scout team in the woods who opened fire as my men moved out. They hit one man and then began to take a whole platoon worth of return fire. One scout was killed right away but the other took careful aim and fired. He shot a guy from my platoon who was just about to throw a grenade. This man dropped dead and dropped his live grenade. It went off and killed three men in my platoon and lightly wounded several others. Unfortunately, one of the men who was killed also dropped a live grenade. It went off killing another 4 or 5 guys and lightly wounding a bunch more. My entire platoon panicked and ran away.  I had to watch 4 or 5 times just to figure out what had happened and then another 20 times to finally believe it was true. It was such a clear demonstration of the randomness of war I was too impressed to be mad.
I saw neither of these events on the first play through of the turn and it was only because I rewound the turn to see what had happened on the other side of the map that I even saw it all. If I had been playing in real time, I would have missed them entirely. Once I found out about this little program called FRAPS, I always load it up first just in case another one of these moments happens again, I can have video evidence to share with you all.
 

In another thread I mentioned I had a set of links saved away I called a set of FAQs. I promised to share so here they are.
This is an export of the bookmarks for the folder I call FAQs on my bookmark list so nothing fancy and, while I did a little fixing up, this is really how disorganized it is on my computer. This is a combination of stuff I think will be useful to me, issues that come up frequently that might benefit others and totally useless topics that I got tired of answering again and again and or I got tired of googling for the last answer that was given. The order below is not really planned either. It's just the way they are organized in my bookmarks. Sometimes the link titles are what the poster used sometimes they are my rewrite. The description was automatically added by FF, except when it didn't. I left it all so some of the spelling mistakes are mine and some are yours I could not careless and only mention it cause I don't want to hear about it . It is possible that a link or two is to an internal tester only part of the forum or I might have repeated a link. If that happens - sorry. I would not mind knowing about those.
You might or might not be able to tell which is which. Either way I hope you all enjoy them! Hey, lets collect your FAQ or Important links in the follow on discussion.
Scenario and Map Design
Scenario designing with AI
Hi,I have had reason to be inspired to create a SP scenario that will feature the player as the attacker.It has occurred to me that there are some basic gam...
Making OP Neptune Spear – A Scenario Design Tutorial
Ok a couple of people (yes you @Borg ) have been screaming out for a ‘Special Ops Mission’.  So I thought – hell why not?  But there is a twist to this … ...
Scenario Test & Discussion Thread
I did a lot of work on the scenario yesterday, mostly in the AI Plan. Here are the highlights: Fixed the runaway MG team problem (yes, it was just th...
AI triggers small tutorial
Using Google Earth to create contours
Adding spoilers using the editor
CM Maps Universal Translator Tool - Manual hex edit instructions
Flavor Object Placement and limits
Is there a limit to the number of flavor objects you can insert into a map? Or the number you can have within some set number of square meters? I keep...
Spotting Objectives
An interesting discussion of how Spotting objective work and how you might use them
How to use Mod tags
Instructions on how to use mod tags with scenario authorship
Another Mod How to
This one includes how to add multiple tags
Supply platoons and ammo dumps
A post discussing how vehicles from the same platoon converted into ammo dumps combine into a single ammo dump.
 
Mods
How to install mods
The short and sweet explanation of how to install mods.
Mods and sub folders
Because the short version didn't make it clear.
 
Tank fighting positions
Static defenses
OK I went and did some experimenting.  Here is a scenario with four different prepared tank positions on each side one is T90s vs M1s and one is T90s vs Bra...
Battle positions for tanks/AFVs
I think M1A1TC's description of how BPs are used goes to demonstrate just how hard it would be to code the AI behaviour for them.
 
Writing Briefing Info
CCIR in briefings - Combat Mission - Black Sea - Battlefront.com Community
Commanders essentially do two things - they lead and make decisions. CCIRs are designed to allow them to make informed decisions and are recommended to th...  
 
Destroying Bridges
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/94780-how-do-i-blow-bridges-up-staftesters-q/?tab=comments#comment-1235110
Steve's direct answer to why blowing bridges is not part of CM
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/110304-destroying-a-bridge/
What can destroy a bridge.
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/110851-can-pioneers-blow-bridges-in-mg/
Market Garden specific discussion
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/124968-blowing-bridges/
A discussion about blowing bridges
Spotting
LOS Through Trees and general explination Good discussion.  Picking up on the last train of thought... design for effect vs. engineer for effect...   Spotting and Multi-threading So if the spotting cycle were reduced the chances to spot in any given cycle would have to be reduced to keep the results in the game the same. An increase in resources dedicated to spotting checks could allow the game some room to tweak some corner cases but that is about it.   Spotting cycle explanation   Tactical Tips
Learning the ropes of IFV combat 1 hour ago, Ivan Zaitzev said: I don't know much about modern warfare.I'm more of a WWII guy and can't say I'm very good at that either. So,...   YouTube Play List of Tactic Instruction This playlist includes: Combat Mission Normandy Tactics - by Jeffrey Paulding Combat Mission: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures - by Chris Maillet Combat M...   Tactical Lifehack - Getting solidiers to Stand up when not moving 15 hours ago, Vanir Ausf B said: The Pause + move command thing does work with the caveat that the unit must be already moving when the paus...   HQ in BMP impoves spotting and engagment I did some tests... 1 BMP-3M  at 300 meters open field against 2 strikers.   Only gunner and driver: average spotting time of strykers and engagem... Hull Down & Partial Hull Down Advantages
V4.0 Hull Down question
           How to use the command and other disagreements.
Sniper Tactics
           Some thoughts on how to utilize snipers - some advice from an actual sniper!
 
New To Multiplayer
Announcing "Whose Turn Is It?" a PBEM turn management program
Use Dropbox / WTII / CMHelper for multiplayer games
PBEM opponent wanted
Search for PBEM opponents
New player resource list
In the meantime, Mishrae, welcome to the forums. Don't forget to bookmark both the repository, and The Scenario Depot III:http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/ts...
  Unit Behaviour
Command Connection - Company CO commanding section   C2 & Information Sharing - Redux   The Relationship between Soft Factors, Morale & Fatigue The Relationship between Soft Factors, Morale & Fatigue    Preface Hi all, I'm pretty new to the BFC forums but I've been milling about over . Buddy Aid: How to handle casulties at the border of AS
XO or 2IC taking over command
 
Targeting Buildings
Targeting with tanks in an urban envionment   City fighting, what are the isssues?? - Page 3   It's got to go It really has. Before we come to the wide open plains of the Rodina. What has to go? The requirement to be able to spot the ground plane at the centre of an...   Urban Combat: share your tips and techniques that work for you With the market garden module on the way and some improvements to urban combat mentioned by BFC I thought now would be a good time to start a thread about w...   It's got to go. - Steve's comment I know this thread has been quiet for over a month, but today I stumbled upon it and figured I would address the issues here since, no doubt, they will come...  
Performance Discussions
Ben's Video settings This what I have ticked "on" in the Nvidia Control Panel ...   Performance Optimization   Notes on Performance for NVIDIA gpu And now for some hard data to prove my point regarding inconsistency in antialiasing levels with my hardware/drivers: AA 4x (default in-game setting) vs AA 16x (set in Nvidia control panel) --> AA 16x wins with higher FPS's. ...   Performace Discission With Steve As my topic, I'm wondering if there's any optimization done on the new Combat Mission. The mouse and control lag is really painful when there's more than a ...   CM:BS Performance Nvida settings   Erratic frame rate investigation Open GL instructions analysis   AMD Graphics card Recommended Settings     Full Battle Playback
Review entire battle?
Future Feature Request: Save Replays for Playback Battle video - Combat Mission: Shock Force
Full replay some thoughts  
 
IP Address Problems
blocked battlefront site
I really, really want to buy new CM .... but My ip is blocked for 2 or 3 years already I know at least 10 other CM fans who can't access www.battlefront....
not allowed to buy your product?
Dear Publishers/Admins/(Devs?)   I am a big fan of your games and products. I find it disappointing that I can not access and purchase any of your games usi...
Battlefront site blocked
While traveling, I found that this site is nearly always blocked at airport lounges even though other game sites are not blocked. Just thought maybe someth...
 
Bones and Future Plans
May 2018 General Update
May 2018 Engine 4 Patch update
May 2018 Update on Shock Force 2
May 2018 CMFI Rome to Victory Bones
May 2018 CMRT Module 1 - to be named later - Bones
2017 Summer Bones
15 hours ago, Apocal said: Someone in another thread mentioned that BF's programmer had left. I immediately assumed it was ChrisND since he ...
July 2015 what's next post
It's been a while since we've laid out our development plans. Time to change that As always we are hard at work on more than one thing at a time. The big pr...
 
Unit Encyclopedia
In game unit encyclopedia Hello. I am a long time Combat Mission player that started with Beyond Overlord and have played most of Battlefronts Combat Mission games. The one thing I ...   Other / Not Categorized
How to update a PBEM game after applying a patch or upgrade of the game   Sell on Steam? Steve's summary   Steve's discussion of DRM   Load Time Varies with Number of Mods?
AT Guns: Re-crewing There are three basic technical complaints as I see it: 1. Rotation speed 2. Pushing speed 3. Ability to take cover far from the gun CM presumes battle...   Any plans for Vin's animated text to be updated On 23/05/2016 at 8:55 AM, CMFDR said: "Cas" versions have casualties in plain letters instead of signs. As you asked for Erwin:  ...   Crews Re-manning Tanks There are a lot of aspects of crew behavior that could be looked at, but I think it would be helpful to keep in mind that tank and crew behavior in Combat...   150mm heat from a 50mm AT gun   Indirect Fire
General Advice
Rate of Fire and Rounds Used
Artillery and Smoke
How come smoke rounds are unusable (and who's responsibility is it to keep track)
 
Saved Links
Command Friction - Applying C3 Effects A set of Rules   Newbie H2H questions - Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy - Battlefront.com Community   Combat Mission Victory Calculator One for the scenario designers. I've been thinking about a dormant Carpiquet campaign I really want to get done and realised it's a bit hard to test objecti...   CM Career Record System CM Career Record System [Now featuring Red Thunder] Combat Mission Red Thunder   Best way to structure objectives for screen scenario What do you want each player to do? Figure that out, then reward them for doing the 'right' thing. It seems to me that the two sides have quite differ...

iTunes?

Returning to the basic premise of what CM does right and what wrong in regard to historical plausibility here is what I came up with, point by point, as the Austrian laid it out:
 
1. All or nothing aspect
- CM portrays wounded and missing in action. 
- Damaged vehicles (but not a total loss) are modeled. 
- No soldier and vehicle "health bars".
- You don't have to always completely wipe out the enemy to win like in most other games (depends on the scenario of course) -> bloodiest historical battles where 40 to 50% casualty rates were logged can be replicated in the game easily, as well as simulating lower intensity encounters (but those are harder to come by). The caveat in CM is that losses are usually higher then what real life situations would be due to us players pushing our troops harder and being less careful with our pixeltroopen lives then what real commanders would do. Plus real soldiers would probably disobey suicide tasks that we easily execute with our pixeltroopen.

Notable exceptions are campaign missions which promote preserving your soldiers life (excellent CM George's Von Schroif campaign for example)
 
2. Only warriors allowed aspect
- CM is guilty of this aspect. Non combat units are represented only minimalistically in the shape of supply units (am I forgetting any other unit?). In it's defense the scope of the game is focused mostly on tactical battles where non combat units weren't present in big numbers due to them being delegated to the rear of the front. 
 
3. Total information aspect
- CM doesn't give you total information of your enemy and this is true for scenario briefings which wildly differ in how much info about the enemy you get and also in the actual tactical battles themselves where you can not even have the enemy number and composition estimates. Having a total information on your units is present though but I find it hard how the game of this scope could tick this particular point off the list without making the game too irritable to play.  
-CM doesn't provide hit chances to the player. 
- Moral value of units is available to the player but not in percentages or other numerical numbers so this is 50/50. I personally think the way game conveys this information is optimal in the given scope of it. 
- Omnipresence, certainty and precision differ wildly from scenario to scenario in CM but in sum are not as in your face like in many other war games. CM is especially good when it comes to battles themselves where if played on Iron mode the game really shines with it's stellar C&C information modelling. 
- Losing contact with your units is partially modeled in CM (units being more brittle, easier to scoop, lose morale, no enemy positions info being passed to them, etc.) but you can never lose the ability to command those units that are out of the C&C. You can for example order your mortar team that is out of contact of C&C network to strike a specific point that you as a player know sports a MG nest but your mortar team would not be able to themselves know about. House rules need to apply here in order to be able to really simulate this aspect of the real thing. That said CM to my knowledge is THE game that comes as close as possible to it while not inhibiting the player too much in gameplay itself.  
- Vehicles in CM are portrayed right by them being more blind then their infantry counterpart (true for CM ww2 titles) and are more successful when supported by infantry. 
- Vehicle damage indicator is fully known to the player and thus CM games are the same in this aspect as other games so CM "fails" in this regard.     
- Vehicle repair on the active battlefield is not possible so that is a plus for CM. 
- CM doesn't have production lines for vehicles, etc so knowing exactly when something will come off the assembly line does not apply to it. 
 
4. Total control aspect
- Troops (foot grunts, vehicles) in CM do not always blindly follow your orders (example no control when the unit's is pinned, moral plummets, etc.) but you as a player are still able to send units in a certain death outcome situation with no soldiers complaining so this is not fully covered by CM but still comes quite close.
- There is no country production efficiency modeled so the point about players having unrealistically omnipotent ability to streamline the country they play as does not apply in CM games. 
 
5. How enjoyable to play are realistic aspects of the game 
- CM rocks especially because the realistic aspects discussed here in the tactical battles that you play are very enjoyable, enhance the overall gaming experience in the positive way, make the game stand out a lot from the WW2 crowd and don't hinder the gameplay in any way. Players need to learn about these plausible game mechanics and learning them is a lot of fun and mastery of different game aspects is especially rewarding. CM offers a lot of educational value without the political/religious involvement of what is portrayed and what isn't with a little caveat that atrocities like killing civilians as a punitive measure for the partisan activities and setting villages ablaze of course aren't modeled (CMRT where such historical actions were part of the retreating German army tactics).  
 
ANALYSIS  
OK, these are most if not all the points the channel creator points out as far as I was able to discern out of the video  - there are 17 major points that he makes in total. Let's count point by point how many of these things CM games do right, partially right, how many fail to deliver and how many can't be applied to it due to the nature of the game in question:
- 3 of 17 points made are not applicable to CM games due to their nature/scope. 
- 1 of 17 points fails entirely in CM (vehicle module damage information could be improved in the game - player should not be given immediate info on what parts of the ingame vehicle modules got damaged or destroyed, for the most part that is).
- 5 of 17 points are done partially "right" (gameplay limits apply here so not much that can be improved here on most accounts).
- 8 of 17 points are modeled exactly as pointed out they should be by the channel creator.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Due to the nature/scope of CM games where only tactical level of battles are portrayed there are only 14 points that pertain to them.  Of these here is what the results tell us in percentages:
57% of these CM games simulate to the letter.
36% of these CM simulates partially, on at least 50/50 level if not more in the given gameplay limits of course.
7% of these CM games fail to deliver. 

This is why CM games are the king of those that do tactical battlefields. No other game comes as close to these numbers as CM games do to my knowledge. I'ts hard to bypass 93% done right or mostly right by other war game developers. 
 
Hope you guys enjoyed these number crounching as much as I did.
 
Cheers,
Hister