LUCASWILLEN05

I would be suspicious that this plton is actuallly bait for hidden AT guns. Assault guns or tanks. So first I would scou the area and establish that this was not the case. Them I would move the tanks to within 500 - 600m of the enemy position. Use them t create a basr of fire along with one rifle platoon. The ther two rifle platos will employ fire and movement tactics to assist in suppressing the enemy and move them into close assault positions. If the Germans have not retreated or surrendered then close assaullt thei positions. Move the tnks and the firest rifle pltoon up quickly from the fire support base to support the final attack and exploit success.

Well there were the 1848 Revolutions. Combat Mission Risorgimento anyone? :-)

There is a joke about a Polish soldier who finds an old bottle on the banks of the Vistula. When he opens it, surew enough out pops a genie wqho grants the Pole the traditional three wishes. "For my first wish," says the Pole "I would like the Chinese Army to invade Poland". Months later, the invasion over the genie returns to grant the sencod wish "For my secondwish," says the Pole "I would like the Chinese Army to invade Poland. Months later, the invasion over the genie returns to grant the third wish "For my third wish," says the Pole "I would like the Chinese Army to invade Poland. By this time the genie is curious and asks why the Pole keeps asking for the same thing each time, thus wasting his wishes. "But don't you see," says the Pole " For the Chinese army to ivade Poland three times they must pass through Russia six times!"

Well, you never know one day BF may return to the ME fr a general cnflagration. perhaps based on IS. And then they would have to iclude Israel, Turkey, Iran, Hezbolla, US, NATO.... One can always have megalomaniac dreams of this sort!"

Does it rain constantly for three or four hours though. Probably not usually in the real world environment. It would be more realistic if we could vary the type of precipittion or have it stop raining altogether, go to just overcast and a bit later start rainin again. For clear weather to become overcast and then styart raining/snowing as appropriate. For mist and fog to evenually clear etc. In short for the game weather system o mimic the real word environment (pardon the expressio ) a little more realsticly than is possble at present but obviously within certain realistic perameters.

I enjoy playing those big battallion plus size scenarios but I don't always have several hours to play. Obviously you can save and play over multiple sessions. Having said that small scenarioslasting up to an hour that I can play to a conclusion when less time is available are also lots of fun. A game involving perhaps one or two companies, say a recon probe or a small local action is just as much fun as the larger action and more suited to some people's experience as weell! A good mix of scenario sizes please :-) One might find inspiration from the battlwes fought over the summer of 1943 in much the same place. It would be interesting to see how these actions would play out between modern U|S, Ukranian and Russian forces.

I would still like a winter variant though. Just in case Vlad tries this in winter or the war lasts longer....

Indeed there would be effects on ground condions, the ability to hit and spot, fatigue. I suspect much of that will already be coded in. Changing groud conditions such as deeper snow or worse mud might not be however. These things are more likely to be relevant in our longer games lasting 2 - 4 hours. Howwever I suspect a lot of coding might be required to get this right.

I am inclined to agree. . And to a certai extent it means B?F re-inventing thwe wheel and having to think of a new family title. I hink Red Thunder happens to be a great title for the Russian Front as a whole. Some tank types such as the T-34/76. the Panther, Tiger etc lastedover more than a year These models would be available in 1943 at Kursk for example. Using a somewhat more generic Russian Front modular approach would clearly have advantages for BF, reducing the graphic design workload for example and thereby concentrating more on tanks that are new for the next yearly module in the Red Thunder series. We also know they can upgrade the game to the latest version as was done with 3.0 recently. Eventually BF might even add the 1939 Polish campaign and the 1940 Finnish campaign to Red Thunder as they don't really fit very well anywhere else and are not worth producing as their own family of games.

This actually happens quite a lot in Russia. If you read some of the detailed modern accounts of Kursk you will find sudden torrential downpours can be quite common in that part of Eastern Europe. Because if the soil type this can quickly turn the ground to mud. Having said that we should have logivcal computer program rules such that you don't get precipitation out of a clear blue sky. Before precipitation the sky must be overcast. You can only have mist or fog if there is no wind I also like Womble's idea of a "squally showers seting selectable by a designer who wants chaneable weather conditions. It is not always logical to have constant rain or fog/mist. Even with a scenario lasting an hour or less it is plausile that weather conditions could change during the course of the action which, again, is why I like Womble's idea.

Poland, Germany, UK and US Marines

Some very good points there. Even on the steppes I suspect you would often be able to find cover suitable for ATGM teams such as vegetation and balkas. These featutres were common on the Mius River battlefields fought over in July and August of 1943 (described in detail in Nipe's Decision in the Ukraine. The features of the battlefields fought over during the 1943 Battle of Kursk also included considerable natural cover. Boh sides will be seeking to exploit both natural and man made cover to maximum advantage. Terrain will rarely, if ever, be an open billiard board even in the steppes.

Would it be possible for BF to develop a program routine that would allow weather to change during a battle? This might work by the scenario designer steeing a percentage chance for weather to change with branching options enabled. To take a simple example the game could start off as foggy. After a specified amount of time there will be a 40% chance the weather remains this way but a 60% chance every ten minutes that the fog will become mist. Once this happens there will be a 70% chance every fifteen minutes that the mist will clear. Once that happens there will b a 50% chance that the weather is clear. oherwise it wil be overcast. If overcast there will be a 60% chance of precipitation.

Nein! Nein! Ze PAK Screen! I hate ze Bolshevik 57mm AT Guns! Ven zer are a lot of zem zey are sehr deadly to mein Big Cats! Great video.

I think this module is overdue. I also think I am a megalomaniac! Wha wargamer isn't?

Is there any chance of BF releasibng a new Red Thunder module in the near future? This game needs: 1 Waffen SS 2 Romanians and Hungarians 3 Partisans (Polisj and Russian 4 Volksgrenadiers (when the Russians start getting into East Prussia 5 German style buildings when the Russians into East Prussia 6 Shermans and othe lend lease AFVs 7 Winter weather and extension of the period covered to November and December 1944. Possibly up to the end of the war if yu want to do everything in one module 8 If covering everything in one mdule then also Volksturm and 1945 TOEs I know you are busy with Black Sea but Red Thunder needsttention as well. As do Italy and Normandy! :-)

Volksgrenadiers and a date expansion to include the October/November time frame. Yes I like thwe idea of gaming the autumn Siegfried Line battles too much t want to wait for the Bulge family :-) In the meantime wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.

I don't see lasers being man portable just yet. Mounted on armoured vehicles and UAVs. In the not too distant future, yes. But man portable lasers with similar ranges to assault rifles, machin guns and ATGMs. Not for a while but it will come eventually. And then you will get Star Wars style Stor Troopers! :-)

In a scenario I am working on I had a couple of waves of Luftwaffe air support timed to come in supporting a Panzer thrust (the scenario uses the Berezina map which, let us say is not ideal tank country Anyway, I made a bit of a mess of the traffic management while clearing a small Soviet bridgehead on the German side of the river. Anyway, the traffic got snarled up into a nasty trafficjam. At which point the Luftwaffe arrived (i can only have been them as the Soviets don;t yet have air support available) And then the Luftwaffe misidentify German vehicles "thiking" they are Soviet To be fair to the Luftwaffe there were Soviet infantry positions a about 400 meters away on the other side of the river. I lost the best bart of a Panzer Grenadier Platoon. Danke Schon Goering! Would Target registration points better guide the Luftwaffe in attacking the right places?

I suggest you sort the battles by size as has already been suggested. By the way there are quite a few additional scenarios you can download fro this site some of which would suit beginners like yourself. You can also of course pause the action at any time, consider the overall situation and issue new orders based on that assessment. This game is a strategy game, not a click fest. Nevertheless it is a good idea to play some of the smaller scenarios first to get some experience. In big games, particularly in restricted terrain traffic management can be a big problem when employing large armoured forces! If you make a mess of the traffic mangement you get something reminiscent of the cross roads scene in Patton!

Do a Rotmistrov. Tell Stalin that the Germans had dozens of Tigers and Panthers. And remember that your Commissar is Nikita Khruschev. Have everyone believing your myth for the next 60 years or so until the fall of the Soviet Union (because the truth is so politically embarrassing) by which time it no longer matters/ And you might just escape the Penal Batalon as well as the Gulag. And when the cushy training job comes up in a few months you can safely be moved sideways!

Yes. The technology to do this is either not yet available or in its infancyBut in a few decades time things will likely have changed. This new laser weapon the US navy is testing is a demonstration of how echnologies can change. For infantry you would have to have small, high powered and "intelligent" projectiles for a weapon of this sort to work. Like Javelin the weapo would have to be able to attack the top armour or perhaps even the underside of tghe tank if they can be made small enough to do it. The technology probably doesn't even exist beyonsd the conceptual stage yet, but, if someone figures out a way to do it the tank may well be in real trouble. However, we may not see weapons like this until perhaps 2025 and 2050. Speaking of lasers they may have anti tank applications in the future as well For now I think the tank is reasonably safe but it is possible to look ahead ans forsee how its reign on the battlefeld might come to an end. As for what might replacre it, perhaps the tank might evolve into some form of high speed hybrid of land vehicle and high speed air vehicle. Maybe something evolving from technology similar to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-22_Osprey