ratdeath

Looks like the Steam release might be on the 16th of November.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1189359974
(25 minutes into the video)

CMCW for me.
I always wanted a cold war combat mission though i wasn't sure what time would have been better.
The 79-82 timeline is a great choice.
I like playing with mechanized troops so the choice was simple!

Leos for everybody!

Congratulations dbsapp you are now my own personal counter-misinformation project.  Don't care about other trolls who come on the forum, someone else will have to deal with them, you are all mine.  What does that mean, well I am going to personally fact check and then post in response to your posts like these [aside, not on things like screenshots, those were pretty cool btw].
So in the first mission of the Soviet campaign we have a Soviet MRB (BTR) in the opening push of the first morning of the war.  This MRB is good but not the best in the Soviet Army, largely because they are saving those for breakout.  You are facing US V Corp 11 ACR who have both M901 TOW and M60A3s (TTS) with a mix of Reg to Crack crews.  A wise man once said "your ignorance of your enemy is not a game bug, it is a 'you' bug".  Even with that stacked against, human players (even you) have been able to overcome this scenario.
 Your sole opinion (and you are entitled to it) but also totally unproven by any of the many tests that make up this very long thread - none of them actually conducted by yourself.  
So you don't play the US side much...interesting.  Anyway, I do believe they took a run at this issue in the first patch but it is not resolved.  M113 thermal/spotting is on the very top of our priority list for the next patch as this is the closest thing to "unbalanced spotting performance" that we could actually find...and you - by your own admission - did not help in this regard.
Wow, so that is clearly simple troll fodder.  You have totally blown any idea that you are "just trying to make the game better".  You are clearly speculating and projecting intent in what looks like a smear misinformation campaign.  The fact that I, and others from the core team, have repeatedly put time and effort in attempts to address the issues you raise (which we assumed was in good faith) is demonstration that we care very much.  BFC has a bench exactly one person deep in core areas and they are supporting 8 game lines and an military contract.  In short, it is a small indie company, sorry CM Karen if they are not hopping too fast enough.
Ah here we are again at Sov mission 3, apparently "patch" means lower the challenge to the point you can beat it, which is of course our company motto.  So to clarify this ham-handed shot, the Soviet Campaign has two versions.  The Standard version works exactly as intended (with the exception of a Tac Air controller, which has been fixed) and has not been tweaked at wrt VPs or win conditions.  Players should enjoy this one, and people have successfully beaten it.
The second version, March or Die, does need tweaking.  As is, it is still winnable (trust me I did the math several times) but it is too hard, to the point of being unfair.  A big shout out to The_Monkey King for helping out on that one.  Anyway it has been tweaked and will be updated in the next patch.
And now we get to the crux, is this speculation or aspiration from someone who slanders?  Regardless, I am not at liberty to divulge details but "we are doing just fine, thanks for asking".  To the point that we were greenlit for the first DLC Module in record time and are working on it now. 
As to the patch, well it is in the works and hopefully will coincide with the Steam release, "coming soon but when it is finished".
 

Add a 'Woo!' to the 'Yay!' already provided above. 

Yay!

Buy it from Battlefront and add it to your steam library via Slitherine/MatrixGames. That way you have both options, steam and non-steam installation.

Here are two examples of the complete data. The numbers give the measured probability (in %) of spotting a Pz IVH as a full contact in a single spotting event. Flat ground, grass, clear weather, midday. The first one is for a typical tank, the other one is for an open top tank destroyer. I would say that in both cases the effect of buttoning up (or lack thereof) is consistent at all ranges. For the SU-76M, there is a noticeable penalty to the sides and rear when buttoned up, but not in the ahead direction.
Left half = opened up, right half = buttoned up
T-34-85:

 
SU-76M:

T-34-76 (M1942 Late) - special for @chuckdyke

 

This is what the test setup looks like:

The Fiftieth Minute
Objective ROT
The bombardment continues. I make a stupid mistake and try to move some teams up without having established fire superiority and I lose 3 men, 1 KIA and 1 WIA in different fireteams. The DP gunner spotted last turn took the first two out, not sure who got the third. I've not heard a peep from Sgt Plucky so I assume he's been knocked out of the fight.


One of the casualties was a MG gunner so I will try and recover the weapon.
The panzers are inching closer and now in range of the forces in the town and start taking small arms fire but nothing bigger than that so far. I would expect there to be 45mm guns defending the objective, he may have them keyholed further back so I still need to be quite cautious.
My advancing infantry do get a spot on another squad in the building next to the one spotted last turn. One of the Panthers also has the spot.

The SPWs got in on the action this turn, plenty of fire going into the objective now.
NAI5 and KG RECHTS
Nothing to report, the infantry continue to advance and no further contact.
SITMAP

1 Kompanie are almost at their jumping off point. I think I'll give it another minute or two of suppressive fire and then they can close on the objective. I'll share my plans of how to do that in the next update.
On the left I noticed that the trees at NAI5 are actually on a slight reverse slope and I can only see into it from the left side of the road so I'll be moving my scouts over onto a small rise so they can put some fire in there and see who shoots back.
The new contact in the objective has been added:

MMM

The one Bil Hardenberger does an AAR/DAR for on the forums
His AAR/DAR's are always a true inspiration for how to play CM.
There are also others that do great AAR/DAR's!
CMCW is my favorite CM! Why? Cold War!

I don't think that's a fantasy.  All we need is NATO & winter stuff, then pretend we're in Norway.  I don't see Steve saying we will NEVER have NATO CMCW.  I hope you're right.  We should start a thread endlessly complaining about lack of Norway module , to which I would happily contribute.

A reminder of how I think he will have set out his defences, seems I was right about the AT team in the building over the river, that's where Sgt Plucky is conducting a one-man war.

MMM

The Forty-Third Minute
Objective ROT
The scouts return fire and it doesn't take long to supress the AT rifleman.

The other half of the squad run over the road to get a better view.

They engage and take him out with a burst of MG fire. The range is about 300m.


Meanwhile the weapons zug (2 x MG sections) and the rest of 2nd zug push over the bridge.

The first Panther arrives to link up with the Tigers.

Meanwhile 1st Kompanie push along the road overwatched by the SPWs.

KG RECHTS
All's quiet on the right. The probing continues and I bring some SPWs up to try and make a bit of noise. I now suspect he has an OP in the farm buildings ahead as it would make sense given he needs someone with LOS to call in the mortar fire on the woods. Given the limited visibility this is the obvious place. It will be getting a burst of fire soon.

SITMAP

2nd and 4th zugs from 2 Ko. are pushing over the bridge and advancing towards the objective. They are still well out of range of the town itself.
The Tigers are going to move over next turn, I would move the SPWs first but given I suspect he may have ATGs in the area, or even T34s, I will be sending the big boys first.
1st zug/2 Ko. are nearly at KT7, they will be passing straight on through and investigating NAI5 which has the added bonus of providing a bit of flank security.
1st Ko. continue to advance.
MMM

There was an unusual spotting bug discovered with Tiger I some years ago. The tank commander had bad forward spotting ability. It was found that the (invisible) tank commander was sitting sideways in his seat and the vision block wasn't in front of him. That was our first indication that there's more going on 'under the hood' with situational awareness than we imagined there was in the game. I recall spotting targets with the good-old T34-76 where the commander also acts as gunner. Commander up in cupola spots a target, slips down to his gunner seat and loses the target, pops back up and spots the target again, back down to the gunner's seat and loses it again. The 3 foot(?) height difference between commander's and gunner's station was the difference between seeing and not seeing the target.

Wanted to jump in real quick... 
There is a lot going on in a combat formation, spotting is only one aspect and one of the many things they juggle at the same time.  The way a real world formation works is they spot for activity in a sector or general area, each part of a formation having a different assigned sector, then as potential areas of interest start to pop up (in CM terms FOW icons) these formations can conduct a detailed focused search of those areas to determine what, if anything is actually there.  This takes time.  Just like it often does in CM.
It is rarely fast, unless the enemy units are moving or firing... then units get identified very fast indeed.  Works the same in CM by the way.
I truly believe that CM has spotting about right.. not perfect and there are always odd situations... but its close enough to be a very good representation of small scale combat, in my opinion.
As for Steel Beasts.. I have played it many times though I sold my license several few years ago.  I also preferred to play it as a wargame, but I had a lot of frustrations doing so that I would prefer not to get into on this forum.  Suffice it to say that SB is a wonderful game that has a lot of wow moments, but it has a much different focus than CM.  They are not really comparable, other than the fact that they represent combat in 3D... the approaches are miles apart.  I would be curious to know how detailed the SB spotting system actually is.. but to be honest, the fact that many say they prefer it, and that spotting is easier in SB than CM tells me that it is probably more abstract than you might think it is.  In my experience if some aspect in a simulation is easy and works as expected, that simulation is probably flawed in some way.
Bil - Co-designer/creator of CMCW

I did some quick tests on a shooting range map 2400 m, day, clear weather, damp ground.
1st Round
T-72A (1980) vs M60A1 Rise Passive - Company vs Company - ( 4 -T72 Lost vs 13 M60 Lost )
2nd Round
T-72A (1980) vs M60A1 Rise Passive - Company vs Company - ( 1 T-72 Lost vs 13 M60 Lost )
3rd Round
T-72 vs M60A1 - Company vs Company - ( 11 T-72 Lost vs 7 M60 Lost )
4th Round
T-72 vs M60A1 - Company vs Company - ( 13 T-72 Lost vs 7 M60 Lost )
5th Round
T-64B vs M60A1 - Company vs Company ( 2 T-64 Lost vs 15 M60 Lost )
From my limited testing both sides spotted quickly within 5-10 seconds. Shots were fired almost at the same time, sometimes in favor of the soviet side. Seems like both sides give and take. These tests are very crude I guess but in a tank duel it feels like both sides have their own super tanks depending on what they goes up against.

As soon as we are able…working on it right now.  

I did some quick tests on a shooting range map 2400 m, day, clear weather, damp ground.
1st Round
T-72A (1980) vs M60A1 Rise Passive - Company vs Company - ( 4 -T72 Lost vs 13 M60 Lost )
2nd Round
T-72A (1980) vs M60A1 Rise Passive - Company vs Company - ( 1 T-72 Lost vs 13 M60 Lost )
3rd Round
T-72 vs M60A1 - Company vs Company - ( 11 T-72 Lost vs 7 M60 Lost )
4th Round
T-72 vs M60A1 - Company vs Company - ( 13 T-72 Lost vs 7 M60 Lost )
5th Round
T-64B vs M60A1 - Company vs Company ( 2 T-64 Lost vs 15 M60 Lost )
From my limited testing both sides spotted quickly within 5-10 seconds. Shots were fired almost at the same time, sometimes in favor of the soviet side. Seems like both sides give and take. These tests are very crude I guess but in a tank duel it feels like both sides have their own super tanks depending on what they goes up against.

I know I post pointless things like this too often, but I just can't get over the incredible wealth of fun I get out of the Combat Mission games.
I've been playing Commonwealth and minor Allies in CMFI so long - with huge enjoyment - that now I've started a few QBs with US forces they seem brand new. Meanwhile, I carved off a few slices of the gorgeous CMFR master maps, quickly threw together some QB maps and started playing them - late '44, early '45 - which are a terrific challenge and hugely enjoyable. The AI does such a good job with a good map that you can put together your own fun QB map on your own chosen terrain with relative ease, without any idea of how the battle will unfold.
And I'm still scratching the surface of CMCW, which offers a whole new unfamiliar world of units, vehicles and capabilities which are engrossing and offer a whole new historical learning curve. Plus of course I still dip into the other titles (I've still to properly explore CMBS and CMFB - and after all these years with different versions, I still love the extended versions of CMSF and CMBN).
Through all kinds of ups and downs in life, Combat Mission has been my 'happy place' for nearly 20 years!! 20 years FFS!! That's beyond unique for a computer game.
Sorry - I'm a bit drunk, but I just had to say wax rhapsodic...

The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Minutes
KG LINKS
The dismounts start to cross the field leading to the trees and buildings in the distance. They're using successive bounding overwatch to move across the field with the HTs as a base of support fire on the road.

One HT moves onto the highway to take up an overwatch position.


A view from above. 2nd squad is hugging the fence and advancing through the trees, 1st squad is much more exposed and I'm expecting them to draw some fire first. Once they get about half way up this field though they'll be in defilade from the buildings.

KG ZENTRUM
The probe continues toward NAI3, scouts out front.

KONTACT! As expected he has at least one unit on the hill at NAI3. It's an AT rifle team, which makes me more certain that that's what fired at them on the northern approach a few minutes ago before withdrawing. Looks like Grunt is using them as a piquet line, which makes sense given he'll be expecting my force to be mechanized. I can't get too close to these things with my Hanomags as they can do some damage even at a distance.

The situation from above. The scout team will now stop and see if they can identify any other units on the hill, they don't appear to have been spotted by the AT rifle team. The squads will wheel around to the trees on the right and try and advance a bit to see if they can spot any other units.
The mortar fire continues to fall, but not near my troops. It's definitely an area fire mission.

KG RECHTS
The dead and wounded are still being tended to so the scout team pushes on through the woods to get to the South side and get eyes on the farm to the West.

I'm bringing two HTs up to the edge of the treeline to cover the open ground to the left...

when this appears in the distance. As 2nd squad/A team tend to their dead comrade another AT rile team comes walking out of the trees and they get the spot.

They lose contact briefly and then re-acquire (they were HUNTing this time) and send some lead his way.

The situation from above. The AT riflemen moving forward is interesting. He must know I've got at least one HT and probably a platoon of infantry given how much fire his sniper took so unless he thought he had a covered route to try and get a sneaky shot at one of my HTs I'm not sure why he'd move them through such an open area. Perhaps he just wanted to get eyes on now his sniper is dead. At turns end one of the HTs I was moving up gets the spot too and is aiming. I'll make sure his frontal armour is facing in that direction.

SITMAP

MMM

The Sixteenth Minute
KG LINKS
The probing continues. The StuG is brought across into a fire support position, next turn I will start moving my infantry forward again.

KG ZENTRUM
They continue to reposition to get eyes on NAI3. Another mortar lands, this time on the other edge of the scrub. A light or harassing area fire is my guess.

KG RECHTS
We quickly get a spot on the contact, it's a Soviet sniper. He gets another shots off and wounds a man from 1st squad/B team. I forgot to tell these guys to stop, my fault.

The sniper is soon spotted by other units as the 251/17 area fires and he's quickly suppressed.


He's taken out by the other MG gunner in 2nd squad. They will now stop and tend to their dead comrade and hopefully recover the other MG42.

That was expensive, 1 KIA and 1 WIA for 1 sniper. There are no further contacts this turn so this must have been an OP. I'll let the troops tend to the wounded then I'll get them all into the treeline as some of them are still quite exposed.
SITMAP

1st Kompanie and the Tigers continue to chill (literally) back in the setup zone. Hans dropped a cigarette and burnt a hole in his trousers but mostly there's just a lot of grumbling.

MMM