Ithikial_AU

Great early Christmas gift. Merry Christmas and 2017 is looking good.

Absolutely no knowledge of the inner workings of BF, but I assume this time around having to handle a CM Upgrade for a five families of games takes a bit of manpower and coffee. Not to mention the content modules that have at least been mentioned in previous bones being in development at the same time. In short let them work and oogle over screenshots/bones when they are released.

Not to mention the vast bulk of us probably have no connection to the IT industry and don't know a thing about what our ideas equal in terms of programming/resourcing implications. I admit (as one of those forum guys who's posted ideas here before) I've felt sorry for the BF team in the past reading through some of the threads since most don't have any thoughts on how there idea would be implemented. I get the same thing in my job when managing our economic research projects or even from ad-hoc requests with the questioner having no grasp on what is actually possible. "We want this and this and this and this, oh and is it possible to cross reference by that." (And my team gets complaints when we say no - funny that!) All projects have to start somewhere and the 'ideas phase' can be a lot of fun, but those that leave the 'ideas phase' open too long are destined to never get there project completed on time/budget.

Not sure how much you know about the battles during this week but I don't think that will happen here. (Particularly in H2H play). Many of the battles will be in fog which cuts down visibility dramatically and makes tank warfare a whole different challenge than the usual fields. The other matter is that most of the US forces on the defence only have 75mm guns and you're going up against Panthers. Good luck with the turkey shoot if you go front on with them as they advance. We've agonised over how many of the newer 76mm Shermans had actually arrived to the 37th Armored Battalion in particular. There's also the first of the Luneville battles where you've got a Cavalry squadron going up against Panthers. The US player here will have to be incredibly careful here about who he takes on and lets slips through to the city behind him (for the next battle) if he wants to win the scenario. Again Rinaldi beat me to it again. Zaloga's new book that Rinaldi has mentioned in particular is a good easy read.

If you want a greater challenge don't play it as a stand alone scenario. If we manage to pull together a campaign that same force in Rinaldi's two scenarios has to survive three separate actions before then. Two of them are tank duels in fog. Let's see if it's a cake walk after you get through that. I agree with Rinaldi that not every scenario in CMx2 has to be a finely balanced encounter or a steep mountain to climb where you as a player can't make a single mistake. Good scenario design and victory point allocation can get around that. It's not very realistic in most cases either. No attacker would go in with a force that is equal in size and power to what is in front of him unless he had no other choice.

Rinaldi beat me too it. An American campaign would just really just be used for the casualty tracking/extra challenge rather than a branching structure that we are used to. Despite the Germans utter lack of decent command and control in the region (and badly thought out offensive plans), the Americans were mostly on the reactionary footing for the entire time of the battle. They were constantly surprised when German armour came at them through the morning fog on multiple dayts. From my research I'd actually go as far to suggest at this stage they were over confident through to the 20th of September thinking the Germans had nothing to throw at them in the area, despite days of making contacts with German armour. The afternoon / evening of Sept 20th that Rinaldi is covering with his two scenarios is the exception where the Americans were on the front foot. Regardlesss even here the 4th Armored never held onto the terrain captured for more than a few hours before pulling back. I'll just add that when you look at the forces involved on the German side, not many of the formations were used multiple times in any great numbers. This is partly because they suffered attrocious losses to the 4th Armored in poorly coordinated attacks in less that optimal conditions each time a fresh force went into the attack, while in other cases poor coordinations meant forces earmarked for set piece attacks didn't make it to start lines for the kick off point in time.

[Incomplete] Eastern approach to Ley, north east of Arracourt is the one I'm currently working on. Site of the first tank duel on September 19th at dawn... in very dense fog. Anyone on the Beta team? Any idea about that graphical glitch for the bridges? From @Rinaldi, the village of Moncourt east of Arracourt and a rather risky tank attack in fading light by Col. Creighton Abrams.

The Battle of Arracourt was one the largest armour clashes of the war. Elements from three fresh Panzer Brigades formed a spearhead that struck George Patton's US 3rd Army in the Lorraine region of France in mid-September 1944. CCA of the 4th Armored Division faced the counter attack across the rolling hilly areas around Arracourt from the 19th of September before petering out in a stalemate by the 29th of September. The US advance to the German border was halted for the time being, but at a cost of most of the Panzer reserve fresh from August production runs within Germany. The battle also solidified the 4th Armored Division as one of the premier forces of the US Army of World War 2. Fun Fact: Mid-September operational Panzer strength across the western European front was estimated to be around 671 Panzers and StuG's, of which 390 were committed to the Lorraine fighting around Arracourt, compared to only 114 at Arnhem. (Zaloga) The Lorraine campaign is somewhat overlooked within mainstream wargaming in favour of the more diverse array of forces for the concurrent Operation Market Garden to the north. This common interest in the armoured clashes in eastern France brought @Holdit, @Rinaldi, @Mad Mike, and @Ithikial_AU together to create a range of scenarios covering the main engagements from this period. Please note this is just four guys from the CM community and nothing to do with a BF Battlepack release. The team is working away on some big maps and battalion(+) armored battles fought between CCA of the 4 Armored Division and Panzer Brigade 111 and 113. Plans - 8 Scenarios - To cover the fighting from the 18th of September (2nd Battle of Luneville) through to the fighting at Juvalize north east of Arracourt on the 23rd of September. - Master Maps and Quick Battle Maps - From the scenarios above to allow you to 'slice and dice' in the editor for your own fights. - (Possible) Campaign - A linear campaign option from the US point of view to track losses from CCA for those wanting more of a challenge. - (Possible) H2H Multiplayer Campaign Tracker - Separate external setup (likely MS Excel based) to give the MP crowd a tracking system for those wanting to fight through the entire series of battles with their regular opponents. - (Possible) Mods - A few mod-tagged mods to give it a bit more of the right 'feel'. (We need to check with the mod authors closer to the date). Release: When it's done! However, Rinaldi already has a battle up for testing over at The Proving Grounds, get it here: http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tpg2/cm-battle-for-normandy/duel-in-the-mist-2-0/ Feel free to ask any questions below and one of us will be along to answer them soon. Other than that please see a few preview pictures to make you hungry for tank on tank action. Oh and I hope you like fog. [Incomplete] South eastern approach to Luneville. Can the 2nd Cav "Pattons Ghosts" stop the Panthers and Panzergrenadier attack? From the other direction to give you a sense of the scale of this map from @Holdit.

Cheers for the effort. Downloaded.

It's an immense time commitment to create a scenario (inc map) from scratch compared to the the CMx1 days. Not saying the payoff isn't worth it but you've got to give them time. Don't be scared to jump into the editor yourself and create a small scenario.

Maybe not for a full module but certainly more that can be covered in future CMBN packs. - Free French - Commandos / Rangers - Operation Dragoon would also be a nice pack for the assault through southern France.

Pretty sure the answer is no, unless you move out of line of site completly from the spotter as part of that move. Which is very hard if the spotter is using a drone on an area observation mission and has you locked on. You'll probably only know you've been spotted a second before you're taken out. The joys of modern warfare and perhaps part of the reason we see more people (at least over at FGM) stick with WW2 CMx2 games. It's simply more tactical and 'forgiving' allowing you to plan and react more so than modern era titles where it's generaly spot first or die. Mmm maybe programming new terrain rules for vehicles moving inside buidlings (garages, warehouses etc) would help reduce the risk but for now.... good luck.

Fixed for me. I could finally continue my playthrough of the Ukrainian campaign.

Very nice.

I still had the original briefing templates for the other games/modules on my hard drive so transferred them over to CMMODS the other month. No idea if one for CMFB was going to be released for the community.

Whoops. Missed that bit.

Same thing happened in Australia when a whole generation realised there were better international beers out there. Regardless, consumption of alcohol via Beer on a per Capita basis has been falling for some time as we acquire more diverse pallets. (Yes out central statistical agency collects data on alcohol consumption). As for Black Sea, good patch that's got me having a crack at the modern era again. Looking forward to the (I assume) Marine module and hope some non-conventional forces also get a look in to mix it up a little.

No idea what goes on behind the scenes at BF, but I'm guessing given the back and forth arguments that have been mentioned on these forums over the years, I'm guessing that a decision was made that the Western Front titles would allow the player to have more control of aircraft. Not sure why a simple mortar HQ can order them around however. I personally fall into the camp of allowing more control for aircraft on at least the Western Front. Not suggesting it should be laser guided pin point accuracy by any means (I'd even support a move for limiting aircraft support to large area fire targets and by dedicated FACs/FO teams), but from the reading I do there was at least some concerted attempt by the Western Allies at this point of the war to have a communication line between ground forces and supporting aircraft.

Didn't know about that website Ian.

I may have missed it, but has the bug surrounding the Oplat crew/turret getting stuck undertaking the action of 'rotating' been fixed? Thanks for the patch!

No probs Aragorn and good work IanL.

I saw the same thing while building 'Lions of Carpiquet' in CMBN. When you delete a haystack it can leave one doodad of brush where the haystack used to be. I noticed it on ploughed field ground tile. It does not turn the whole action square into brush. I think you can reset the ground tile by brushing the affected area with a different ground tile or use the brush tile and then change it back again to what it is meant to be. (Sorry it's been a while).

1. Africa 2. East Front games going back to Barbarossa. 3. Anything else.

Cheers.

Another sandgroper. We're slowly taking over the community. Three coffees? Try 1x Upgrade or 1x Beer. You can't get a Pint of beer under $10 anywhere. For what was said earlier about somehow 'legally' porting maps between families, for what it's worth I'll add to the chorus of please considering not removing that idea from the wishlist or features for a future upgrade. Even being able to use a RezExplode type of tool to port over basic terrain tiles, elevations and modular buildings would save map/scenario designers a lot of time. The static front line in places between September and October on the western front and the possibility of (hopefully) further eastern front families, quite a few plausible historical battles over the same ground exist between game families now.