Ithikial_AU

Ahhh why not. It's been a few years since I posted to a thread like this... 1. North Africa - Base Game in Tunisia and work your way back from there. - Only way I'm ever going to see Aussies in a CM title again I'd imagine. 2. East Front - 1941 and 1942

Have a copy of the save game or just before the crash? Any explanation of your movements etc may help.

Beers = yes. Jaegermeister = Not going to try but going to keep up the impression that I am to keep him off balance. Most of the troops near Jaegermeister already have their morale shot and are breaking pretty quickly every time they come under fire. Not going to be effective for movement etc when you expect contact with the enemy.

Tightening the Noose Map first. Mix it up a little this time. Rather than drawing in arrows to show where things are moving, (because from my side there isn't much in the way of movement), instead I'll show the main lines of sight and fire that my key units are currently holding down from their positions. Since the last update I've really tried to cover all the angles possible and restrict Elvis' movements, or at least get eyes on anything he does move so I haven plenty of warning. His remaining armour pieces now can't move across his two flanks without running the gauntlet of 3x 75mm guns from close range. Things I've picked up so far. There's one Sherman in the north and I count one SU-85 and one OT-34 in the south. He's moving tanks from the south back towards the north and his right flank. I think he thinks there is a much bigger force in the north threatening OBJ Jaegermeister. I'm also seeing tank crews scrounging weapons which is a strong indication he's getting low on infantry. Good. I've constantly been punishing every Soviet head that appears in a building window with some HE rounds. (New TacAI at play). I'm running low on HE across the map but I think it's paid off. North The Sherman managed to get into position and blast a fireteam from KG @benpark but has done little else. He can't move forward without being side shotted by the halftrack that took out his buddy about 10 mins ago. I don't think there is much infantry left on this side except for some snipers and HMG teams holding the buildings around OBJ Jaegermeister I'd push forward but I'm down to one platoon plus some Volkssturm and their morale is completely shot at this point. Maybe if they recover from being rattled but not counting on it given time and the face they are all Green with poor leadership. Going to be a stalemate but if I keep some of his forces away from the south then they've done their job. Centre KG benpark and KG sacrificial scouting lambs @Bootie have done some good work in pushing into the custer of buildings right on top of the Soviet positions for most of this battle. The Volkssturm scouts did good but some of the pioneers from Benpark's company decided to ignore by blaster orders to go through a wall and instead run through the open door and into the courtyard where they were promptly chewed up. Can cover more of the map and limit Elvis' ability to swing around onto the OBJ Beer from the north from these positions. This leaves him a very narrow corridor to approach the contested OBJ. Here's a sight. Waffenn SS fleeing while the Volkssturm fight on. More elements from KG benpark cross the street to push into the Soviet cluster of buildings. Remaining elements of KG @DoubleD and KG @Josey Wales hold the main road cutting the map in half for Sovit armour. South Elvis is making his big push. I think. His troops and tanks started plastering buildings with flame, SMG, HE, and machine gun fire the other minute. They were all empty buildings I had vacated ages ago. He also tried to push a T-34 through the gap that the OT-34 used before but this time my PzIV was waiting for him. One brewed up Soviet tank that also blocks that pesky alleyway. I think he knows, but there's only one route for his troops to reach the objective and a line of angry Fallschirmjagers are waiting in the windows. There's also a Soviet aircraft buzzing around but it's not committing to any attacks. All for now. There's less than 30 mins left on the clock. I see Elvis' thread is getting all the views and replies. <sniff> Probably last call for questions before this is all over.

With 30 odd minutes on the clock it looks like Elvis is making his move. Update soon. It's kind of lucky the fighting was ramping up again, the pixeltruppen were starting to contemplate the war...

More details about the the fix and my personal experiences playing with the TacAI changes in an urban battle can be found in my post last month over in the Fire and Rubble DAR thread. (25th of June) Just in case there are any people here that aren't as interested in the Ost front and may not have seen it. But yes, +1 to Cpt. Miller's post. It's looking good people.

Waiting for the Hammer to Fall... With a Dash of Crazy Not much happening on my end these last ten minutes or so. There is still the odd firefight between squad sized elements but not much. I am causing more casualties than I am receiving however. The only major casualty was a paznerscreck team in the south that crept into a building (full of wounded comrades) as they tried to take a shot at one of Elvis' remaining tanks. The shot was on target but went a few feet over the turret. A jet of flame from the OT-34 came back at us as payment, wiping out the panzershreck team and killing all the wounded men in the building in the process. So... Elvis likes to commit pixeltruppen war crimes. Not a lot in the south but the thin yellow arrow in the centre right of the map is perhaps to most suspenseful moment. The remaining PzIV from JG @DoubleD was ordered forward to apply more pressure to the Soviet platoon(?) that was pressuring KG @benpark and KG @Bootie. It arrives and starts laying down the hurt but takes a few AT Rifle rounds. I think it got spooked and it's commander decided to retreat to behind the line of friendly buildings. TO do so it decided to charge down the main road towards the Soviets. At that point Elvis decided to rush a lend lease Sherman back across to my left after my halftrack took out his remaining T-34. It speeds past my JzPzIV and also past my armour on this main road. It shoots but barely misses both the spooked PzIV and the armoured car behind it. Just. My vehicles also missed their rushed shots. A minute or so later Soviet infantry are swarming the PzIV. I'm pretty sure they are Engineers as building walls are being blasted around me. Bow guns come in handy at close range!

No plans to sorry. DAR's have always been picture and forum post affairs. Some of the magic has to be left for when you get your own hands onto the new content.

This is the first or second shot fired by this vehicle during the battle. What you see in the UI is pretty much it.

The Avenger Very small update. @DoubleD has been avenged by one of Josey Wale's remaining vehicles. The Cannon Halftrack SPW 251/22. A half track with a giant tank gun somehow mounted onto it. This was the same T-34 that surived Double D's side penetrating hit before taking out his Panther with a catastrophic hit. (Yes crew positions is likely bugged - It's a beta people. )

Well I've been dumping 81mm mortar fire onto the buildings near OBJ Beer occupation by the Soviets and it hasn't made a lick of difference. I'm guessing a lucky shot falling directly out the front of an occupied window would make the pixeltruppen double think their life choices, but light/medium rounds hitting rooftops isn't doing anything to enemy troops on the ground floor. We don't have any heavy artillery in this match up so I can't tell you if a 155mm howitzer shell crashing into the building's roof does something different.

I've got permission from BFCElvis to post about something a little to the side of this content. Fixing the Hedgerow Bug It's perhaps most prevalent in CMBN given the abundance of hedgerow maps/scenarios but applies across all titles for infantry behind hard cover. You may have noticed my Green troops in this battle have not been running away or into the streets towards the enemy during these firefights with the Soviet infantry. This whole DAR has been using a version of the F&R beta that includes some tweaks to the TacAI to address infantry bolting from cover when coming under small arms fire. Infantry that come under small arms fire are more likely to seek cover and 'cower' rather than displace, even when pinned/rattled. Infantry are more likely to bolt when under attack from high explosives... (which let's face it makes sense. ) The changes I've noticed: - It becomes very hard to dislodge infantry already set up in a building or behind a wall. Even when you lose LOS/LOF there's a good chance your opponent is still there. (I've joked it's going to take naval shells to dislodge Veteran troops). - Getting the jump on the enemy while they are moving / before they are set up and ready to seek cover still causes morale to collapse very quickly. Case in point: like when most of my Pioneer platoon evaporated under SMG fire within 30 seconds. - Infantry taking persistent casualties will still suffer morale damage over the long term. Like my Volkssturm surrendering after a solid five minutes of constant rifle fire back and forth. - Expect longer drawn out firefights in urban and hedgerow maps. That also means watching those ammo counters more closely. - High explosive and flame options just became a lot more valuable in urban combat. Close quarter AVRE or M12 GMC anyone? Still being tested and subject to change but there are positive signs among the beta testers so far. All for now.

We Say Goodbye to Another YouTuber Good night @Josey Wales, you did not see the third guy with the AT Rifle. Josey raced forward to try and save more members of @benpark's KG being gunned down many Soviet SMG soldiers. He was partially successful and engaged Soviet AT Rifles that responded but there were simply too many. One shot through the side took out the loader and the crew bailed from the vehicle to be quickly gunned down in the street. The remants of KG Josey Wales is helping @DoubleD hold the north while going after the lone T34 guarding the approach to OBJ Jaegermeister. This will hopefully cause him to take stock of the situation and stop the steady stream of Soviet reinforcements he is flooding south to tackle OBJ Beer. These are running the gauntlet of DoubleD's panzers. The south has been bloody. Since my last update two full squads of @mjkerner's fallschirmjaeger have been wiped out. The remaining Soviet tanks are poking forward and blasting any spot they get with HE, bullets and flame. There's still enough troops to hold the position but it's starting to get a little dicey in terms of numbers of front line riefleman. Directly after the last little teaser the whole squad of fallschirmjaeger were wiped out except for two pixeltruppen who are holding bravely among the flames to look after their injured. Soviet soldiers streaming south still run into the wall of steel holding OBJ Beer. FInally in the centre it's become pretty quiet. KG @Bootie and KG benpark are holding form after seeing off their infantry opposition (for now). And for a rare site, the Volkssturm decided to not surrender after all once the SS Troops arrived on scene and took care of the opposition. Here is the map of the situation and the next few planned movements. Not a lot. I hold two objectives, it's up to Elvis to make the serious move now. I think a human wave of some description is coming in the south very soon though. (Yes I do realise that I've somehow killed all three prominent Combat Mission YouTubers... honestly not on purpose).

It's a single texture file of the uniform. You could create a mod and mix up the armband position among the different members of your peoples militia.

Yeah this is going to end well...

One, Two, Three Tank... North and Centre We start in the centre of the map. So many Soviet tanks went boom over the last few turns. @DoubleD came to fore and did their job as a number of Soviet armour elements tried to reposition and break up my control of the main roads. A Sherman, T-34 and a SU-85 all went boom in the space of two minutes. It wasn't a complete walk in the park as KG @benpark lost most of a platoon in about 30 seconds. One of the pioneer platoons was lining up to enter buildings along the main street and pick off some known infantry taking pot shots at the Volkssturm. They went in and... It was a red cross blood bath. @Josey Wales personally charged forward, covered by DoubleD's PzIV to seek revenge for poor benpark's men. A blazing MG34 and 20mm cannon and close range started picking off Soviet soldiers popping up in every window. As the turns rolled around the Soviet anti-tank rifles started appearing but Josey became a machine. KG @Bootie and about one and half platoons from KG benpark hold the position closest to OBJ Jaegermeister. It's a nasty little block of flats that will become a SMG paradise if Elvis ventures across the main road. The pioneers have blasted some walls allowing easy access between the buildings out of line of sight of the enemy. With Elvis' armour now concentrated in the south, (more on that next), I'm pretty confident I can hold this and get shots off at anything being sent south to reinforce his main effort. (You're meant to look towards the enemy guys...) And for something a little humorous. Some Soviet tank crewmen and the Bootie's Volkssturm decided to both put down their rifles and surrender to each other. I think they cottoned on that it was May 1945... South @mjkerner's Fallschirmjager are putting up a stiff fight but whenever one of the five Soviet tanks looking their way gets a spot they fall under a hail of bullets and HE fire. Saying that they can only see one face of the objective building complex so most of the troops are still there to put up a fight when Elvis decides to get in close. His tanks cant move without being barraged by tanks and recoiless rifles and I'm sure Elvis knows this. The clokc is ticking so I'm expecting a big final push at some point. (Oh and the late @Hapless's surviving crewmen continue to do him proud). Finally the map. OBJ Jaegermeister is out of the question now but I still have the strength to old OBJ Beer.

I know nothing about modern military other than what I Google. https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/toe/aad.htm In Combat Mission's editor I'd purchase a bog standard infantry battalion and dump all the light vehicles, heavy weapons above a 60mm mortar and anything that can't be broken down and carried by single trooper. Not sure about Javelins but that would be a tight squeeze in a Blackhawk.

The Worst Vehicle Trades in Military History We start this update saluting @DoubleD who saw and opportunity, took it, did all he could and paid the ultimate price for what appears to be absolutely no gain. We start in the north where we left off with the PanzerIV and Panther from DoubleD's platoon advancing to swing around and strike at two T-34's gaurding Elvis' home objective - OBJ Jaegermeister. They have the cover of the building and a high wall to provide a hull down position. One of the T-34's move off to the east to try and intercept the spotted German panzers. DoubleD in the lead in his Panther takes off with a cover arc ready to ambush this moving T-34 while it's still trying to deploy. It's a fatal mistake. Disaster. The T-34 had already started turning. DoubleD is quicker and does get the first shot off, a side penetration! It surprisingly doesn't take out the T-34. Moments later a return shot causes a catastrophic explosion killing the whole crew. Despite the whole swing around from the north east plan in tatters, it turns out to be enough to stop Elvis from trying the same trick. It also proves (expensively) that there isn't any Soviet infantry around this part of the map. KG @Josey Wales is moving up to take over flank security, confident his opened top light vehicles won't be exposed to Soviet SMG's. That is really all that is occurring on the northern half of the map since the last update. The Soviet aircraft did reappear and shoot up a supply truck back in my deployment zone (sorry, the Ostwind didn't get to respond so no pics of it in action), but hasn't been seen since. The PzIII get's into a shooting match with a T-34, (one from the centre earlier?), and the short 75mm shows it's age. Multiple strikes as the T-34 struggles to get a shot on target. However all it takes is one shot in return. An SU-85 and another T-34 soon appear down this alley of death followed by a lot of infantry that cross the road covered by the Soviet tanks. @mjkerner's boyz are in for a tough time. The small force holding the forward buildings pulls out before being engaged by the swarm of Soviets not rushing into their vicinity. Merging with the other platoon a wall of steel awaits anyone who who goes for the direct approach to the OBJ Beer. Contact does come, however in a surprising location. It's in the buildings diagonal to beer and not a great location to launch an assault on. There's only open ground between that position and the ruins of the brewery (or what the intelligence brief suggested was once a brewery). Elements of @benpark 's pioneers providing a screen along the centre of the map along with other Fallshcirmjager inflict heavy casualties on the Soviets. Orange = good. Green = bad. @Hapless's PanzerIV crew, his body still sitting lifeless in his commanders seat, pops smoke and swings around to lay fire down onto this infantry threat. Finally here is the situation report. Stars equal fire targets while the colour represents who is doing the firing. Unfortunately a whole squad of Fallschirmjager were wiped out by the Soviet tanks in death alley. They were facing the park adjacent OBJ Beer. I'm not going to try to head towards OBJ Jaegermeister anymore. I'm really stuck with what to do with the bulk of KG Benpark. @Bootie's Volkssturm have being proving great scouts and are now moving up as close to the main intersection, (currently obscured by smoke), to hold that square of buildings and cover the road towards OBJ Beer. A militia charge across the road into the buildings on the right flank of Elvis' assaulting force in the south? Any requests for pics let me know.

Sorry I should have said... I've had the luxury of trying to harrass the Soviets for a number of minutes now but that has *not* really worked.

Racing to the second objective was my initial plan so technically I own two of the three locations. I've had the luxury of trying to harrass the Soviets for a number of minutes now but that has really worked. I've lost more vehicles than he has. I still have a solid defence around the Objective Beer and cutting of most of the approaches with fire. Not out of the woods just yet but can see some sunshine through the trees.

It's Getting Bloody I'm sad to report the Lieutenant @Hapless is no longer with us. He took a stray burst of machine gun fire observing the situation from his PzIV cupola. More on that shortly but first here's the current situation... KG DoubleD and KG @Josey Wales have had their roles reversed. There are now at least 2x T34's covering Elvis' objective so sending across a bunch of armoured cars became a touch dicey. The two panzers from KG DoubleD is moving across to the far right of the map while the armoured cars take up positions to cover the north south main road in the centre right of the map. Honestly, I was incredibly shocked to see this road was open to quickly went to lock it down. A lend lease Sherman popped smoke and tried to cross but was taken out by the JzPzIV's. A second Sherman appeared and the armoured cars with their 75mm guns opened fire. The rounds went slightly over it's head! The Sherman then methodically popped all four armoured cars from KG Josey Wales. Josey himself is alright but and is moving forward with the second half of his KG. Meanwhile, KG @Bootie sends up an AT team to try and pop the Sherman but comes under fire. Well... that was close. Meanwhile in the south, KG @Hapless exchanges fire with another T34. The PzIII with it's short 75mm gets a number of hits and causes at least one crew casualty but they lack the penetration capacity to do any noticeable damage. As the T34 is backing up, a burst of MG fire takes out Hapless himself. It was honestly a great shot, a stream of bullets arcing over the PzIII to hit the unlucky tank commander in the vehicle behind. Second image below is Hapless' last moments. Meanwhile KG @mjkerner sends up another squad of fallschirmjager to flank the Soviet SMG platoon and takes them fully by surprise. Mjkerner's troops are holding, exposing minimal numbers to the enemy from a forward platoon, while a flexible reserve platoon as moving to engage where it's safe(r) to do so. As the last turn comes to an end, another juicy target shows up in front of the JzPzIV's. Mmmm... maybe Elvis doesn't know that KG DoubleD is on this right flank???

Gorgeous work. The ARMA series including community mas generally have high resolution topographic maps readily avaialble via Google which makes life really easy for getting started. When CMBS was released I tried to get a group together to map out of all Chernaurus into 1km squared blocks (except some of the larger towns/airports) but sadly we all got busy in RL. Still got the work that was done for that sitting here somewhere. I actually have a completed "Proving Grounds" map from ARMA2 for CMBS on my hard drive but I never released it. Did rely on third party additional flavour objects to be modded in. In CMSF2 I've been eyeing of Kavala from "Altis" in ARMA3. Just screams US Marine landings in those nearby bays before moving on to the high ground and the town itself. Maybe one day.

Problem 1) is very likely FXAA being turned on. Go to your Nvidia control panel and for CMRT (and any other CM game) ensure this setting is set to 'Off'. Also ensure the game is using your GTX1650 and not defaulting to your inbuilt Intel(?) graphics. Problem 2) sorry I'm not sure. Did you load the patches in the correct order? It's been a while but I thought there was one universal installer for CMRT that had everything up to date. Suggest opening a helpdesk ticket. And welcome back.

Blast should of brought out my tape measure.

The Fighting Erupts The Situation (Sorry quality appears to have got hit pretty hard this time for the map) BFCElvis appears to to be concentrating on the southern edge of the map. Only having the one armour piece (a "Bedspring" T34-85) overwatching Obj Jaegermesiter is both welcome but also has me nervous. I've only spotted I'd say a company's worth of infantry and a handful of tanks but I've fgot eyes covering two thirds of the map. Did he use reinforcements or is there a tonne of infantry hiding in buildings just waiting for me? It's the unknown that's killing me. I've managed to lock down all the main streets on my side of the map with some form of AT coverage. Elvis is going to have to commit at some point and hit hard to bust his way through. Oh and then there is this... What Our Boys Are Up To KG @mjkerner (blue) is taking on the brunt of the fight at present as the Soviets push through withering German tank fire with sufficient numbers to still sting. Soviets up close are outlaying more small arms fire than the Fallschirmjager squads in close combat. There are casualties on both sides but if KG @Hapless (green) wasn't present it would likely be a cake walk for the Soviets. Hapless' Panther is also being a real nuisance, moving forward to lay a few rounds into a building to take out a squad in two shots before ducking back behind cover. Has also managed to take out a SU-100 laden with a full squad of troops. The PzIII is also causing real problems for the Soviet infantry and giving the Fallschirmjager a fighting chance. Casualty rate I'd estimate it is about 2:1 in my favour at this stage. KG @Josey Wales (pink) is fast moving into position to move across the north side of the map. Relying on their speed I'm actually hoping they are spotted and distract Elvis. If I can split his attention and most importantly his armour, taking some pressure off the KG Hapless and KG Mjkerner in the south it's a win. If they manage to take out the "Bedspring" T34. It's a bonus. The other half of the KG remains back in my deployment zone as a reserve. KG @DoubleD (yellow) has given up trying to take down the building as it's built with... solidified bedrock from the earth's core. It simply isn't dropping. The JzPzIV's will continue to cover the main road while the PzIV and Panther are split off to support KG Josey Wales. I'm confident Elvis is pushing all of his armour south so time to outnumber him from the north. KG @benpark (orange) has split up. One platoon of pioneers his holding the centre of the map. It's my weakest area of coverage but the high numbers of SSTG44 and MP40's in these late war Pioneer squads makes up for the small numbers of men. If Elvis tries to head down the middle of the map I may not be able to hold for long but I'll know about it. The main part of Benpark's force is waiting for the order to expose themselves to Soviet observation, cross a main road and begin their assault on Jaegermeister. KG @Bootie (white) and his Volkssturm continue to hold around the JzPzIV's giving them close cover but can provide some more rifles to KG Benpark if needed. Well then there are the 'scouts' from the last update. They weren't shot at and are still alive but I'm not confident in their spotting abilities given they have no binoculars. I wonder if old man poor eye sight is modeled in the game? Some screenshots... Alley of death - my side... Alley of Death - his side. It's a mixed bag for the Fallschirmjager. Um, for those who wanted to see this in action... ... sorry. Notice the puff of smoke near the building on the right side of the picture? The Panther's 75mm AP round went straight through. We're dealing with a big timezone difference but still managing to pump out around 2 - 3 turns per day. Stick with us.