QuiGon

I don't know about the syrians or the dutch, but germans have dedicated platoon HQ teams (the so called "Zugtrupp"). That, AFAIK, applies to all formations in the german armed forces. So that was pretty much correctly done in CMSF1 IIRC (haven't played SF in a while). Anyways, I'm really looking forward to SF2!

I would either go with Black Sea altough it is quiet limited in scope so far or wait for Shock Force 2, because the current Shock Force (which takes place in Syria, not Afghanistan as Sgt.Squarehead already mentioned) is pretty outdated IMHO. It didn't recieve the engine upgrades that the other current CM games recieved.

@cool breeze Alright, I missunderstood what you meant then. I thought draft = conscription, but as I just learned it's not But now that makes me wonder: Who is planning to draft women? I know conscription for women is a topic, at least in some countries, but I've never seen debates about women beeing drafted?

Now you're beeing sarcastic. If you like to discuss this matter in a serious way I would request you to keep it serious. On subject: We in the western world strive towards equality between men and women, in accordance with human rights. Drafting not just men, but also women is just a logical step as with the opening of the military for women there is no real reason why they should not be drafted as well. The time where men and women had different roles (work/household) are a thing of the past in most parts of Europe and North America. So, enough of the theory, let's look at some examples, because there are already some countries that draft women: Israel: AFAIK Israel was the first (western) country to introduce conscription for women. IIRC they serve not as long as men (2 instead of 3 years I think?) and get only drafted into specific (all female?) units, but that includes combat units as well. Norway: Norway was the first european country to introduce female conscription a couple of years ago. There are no all female units, nor are there units that don't allow women. In 2014 they even went even further and started an experiment where they turned an air defense bataillion into a 50/50 male/female unit and even allowed gender mixed bedrooms. It apparently went pretty well. You can read up on it here: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/norway/2017-01-19/norways-radical-military-experiment Sweden: Sweden abolished conscription somewhere in the 2000s, but reintroduced it about 2 years ago, but this time it also included women. I know there has been various forms of female conscription in some communist countries, dating back as far as the 2nd world war, but I don't know enough about that to elaborate. So, as you can see, it is already happening and I've heard nothing bad about it. It's a step to equality and honestly, I don't see any reason why this should be something bad if women are allowed to the military anyways.

Combat Mission: Fulda Gap 85' would indeed be a dream comming true. I hope it will happen at some point.

Looks like the Trump-Administration stands with Ukraine. The newly appointed US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, who is also a member of Trumps National Security Council has now criticized Russia for what is happening in Ukraine and said that the sanctions against russia will stay in place.

I would buy almost any (european) national forces pack, even a Luxembourg forces pack

That would be soooo great! This and a NATO expansion for CMBS and I'm happy

Why is this patch not mentioned on the Battlefront frontpage?

As Steve already pointed out, NCOs were actually supposed to lead platoons in the german army, especially 2nd and 3rd platoons. This is still the case today btw

I also have to say it's an awesome Mission and with lot of arty preperation for the crossing it works quite well. But I haven't managed to play much further than the crossing, because it also crashes on me all the time. Is that because of insufficent RAM or VRAM? Or can it be both? Because on one crash I got a error message which said I'm running out of VRAM.

They are outside the scope of CM. They are used on divisional level to attack enemy forces on large scale. Like Duckman said, they would just cover an entire map in CM. Of course there are also precision guided rockets nowadays, but there is no need for rocket arty just for that.

I played this mission twice now. It was also my first mission in CMBS at all. In the 1st attempt I won the mission by only loosing one IFV (it got hit at the staging area by long range autocannon fire from a BMP) and I think 1-2 tanks recieved light damage. In the 2nd attempt I won the mission without any losses (1 tank lost his main gun though). In both attempts I used the same tactic: I used the tank platoon in a line formation to advance through the open field with two stops. The 1st stop was more on the left flank of the open field shortly after crossing the dirt road on elevated ground with LOS to the town. All 4 tanks crested simultanously and spotted some IFVs which they destroyed. About 2 of the tanks got lased and reversed with smoke, but the other two tanks killed the lasing IFVs quickly. I moved the tanks to the 2nd battle position after the tanks killed everything they could see from the 1st position. The 2nd stop was a bit closer to the town, this time on the right flank of the open field, just to the left of the road. It was another elevated position on a crop field and it was the same procedure: Cresting simultanously, killing every IFV in LOS. One of the tanks got hit though, by an enemy ATGM in the process and lost it's main gun. It was the only tank with LOS on this IFV, so the other tanks couldn't shoot back. I switched the damaged tank with one of the other tanks which then killed that IFV. I let one rifle platoon and the weapons platoon as well as coy HQ travel behind the tank platoon but kept them below the elevated positions. Only when the tanks where on their 2nd position I let the rifle platoon advance from behind the 2nd tank position which was just left of the road to the very left side of the town through low ground. But the mission was over before they reached the town. I let the other two rifle platoons advance on the road (one platoon on each side of the street in column formation). When they reached the bump on the street I let the first two IFVs of each platoon crest it. The two leading IFVs stopped behind the bump and the two trailing IFVs stopped on top of the bum, so they hat LOS and LOF above the leading IFVs to the end of the street. They spotted 1-2 enemy BMPs and a recce IFV which they all destroyed with their autocannons. From there I let the two platoons slowly advance on the road to the town, occasionally killing some enemies with their autocannons. By the time they reached the town the mission was won because the russians gave up. So I killed almost everything with my 4 tanks and some enemies with my IFVs on the road. I did not enter the town at all nor did I had to dismunt any of my troops. Those two attempts are still the best attempts I had on any mission in CMBS

The manual also says something about that: (page 14)

+1

Check the wiki: http://combatmission.wikia.com/wiki/Bogging

If there will be a CMFG a dream would become true for me. I really like that setting (big fan of OFP, WiC, Wargame and RSR), so besides new modules for CMBS I would really like to see BF developing CMFG.

I'm waiting for an update on the update of the update

This! It's good to get updated and know what's going on, even if it's bad news.

I appreciate the update, even though it's not satisfying, but understandable. Keep up the good work!

First day buy! I would really like to see a Cold War (or rather Hot War) setting in CM.

That is what I was talking about

There are actually plans to deploy armed troops to eastern Ukraine by Germany and France. A recon team was there last month to check the situation for such a mission. The reason behind that is that France and Germany might support the OSCE with drone reconnaissance and because of the small operational range of those drones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMT_Luna_X-2000 on german side) the operators would have to be in the AO. To be protected a force of paratroopers is supposed to accompany them.

I hope to also see a german forces module for CMBS in the future, since it was great fun in CMSF!

Hmm, i really would like to have an upgrade for CMSF, because I like the scenario and especially the NATO-units and I'm afraid we won't be able to play germans, dutchs or canadians in CMSF2. But lets just hope the best.