A Canadian Cat

Minute 0:48: Orders Get the FO and the initial scout team off of KT3. Fast fast. The tank I sent to attack the bunker just spotted it as the turn was ending. For good measure I will give the tank an explicit target order. A view of 2nd platoon A Co. They are in bad shape. None of them are are accepting orders and they are at about 50% causalities including their leader Lt. Bhola Singh

Minute 0:49-0:48: 2nd Platoon's transport cannot get it into gear fast enough and a round lands right next to their trucks. Both trucks are disabled and a roughly 10 men become casualties right away. As they try to take cover more shells land. They take more casualties. Everyone else pulls back successfully. Including across the fords. I think this is a result of the enemy using TRPs. They clearly have one near the woods opposite the town but do not have them in the woods on the hill at KT3. So B company can with draw once spotting rounds are seen but A Co just do not have the time to get away. Speaking of spotting rounds two more land. This is a composite image showing them bracketing the bunker at KT3 (the first at 20s into the turn and the second at 55s). So it looks like they are not targeting the woods where my men are but are targeting the hill top where my FO is heading. Oops. I sincerely hope that the enemy FO cannot see the spotting round #2 in below and that will delay fire for effect just a little longer.

And it gets uglier too. I am sure I have a larger force but I don't want to be reckless with it. I don't even know where the AT gun that took out my tank is located. But even that is on the back burner after this next turn...

Temptation is how you end up in trouble. I'm going to wait for more angles on that position and perhaps some artillery to get it to move. I have not decided yet for now I'll just make sure to avoid it.

This is that shot. If I moved 50m or so up the hill this is what the LOS looks like. Yes, it does look like its LOF would be blocked. I am not sure I would take that risk though. Just a small move forward would change that.

Oh I am totally planning to *avoid* that duel right now. I sent that tank up there to deal with the bunker and stay out of sight of that Stug. Dealing with that Stug is going to take multiple tanks and multiple angles and maybe some artillery. So, not going to happen while scrambling to get way from enemy artillery

Minute 0:49: Orders A Co and its supporting tanks pull back. All vehicles reverse away. The lead section of 3 Platoon will actually go forward out of the barrage and the mortar team will head for the barn. No one else is taking instructions. Given the spotting rounds the scouts on the hills near KT3 also pull back. Whit the exception of a tank that will move up to try to get LOF on the newly spotted bunker. I check that the tank can do that without taking fire from known positions in the town. Here is how: set camera position 2 scroll wheel two notches down (bun barrel level for a Sherman) and position the camera just at the end of its move order.... ...then click away to deselect and zoom in on where the Stug in town is located. I cannot see it. Just for fun I check to see how much further the tank could move before being in danger. About 50m NW

Minute 0:50-0:49: Those artillery shrieks result in direct hits in the woods. Men go down. Many many men. Three platoon is devastated. The mortar tea is reduced to one man. Two sections take multiple capitulates. Only one section does not end the turn shaken. The scouts across the ford spot a bunker. It appears to be occupied. Interestingly it also seems to be facing the road from the town not the hill where the scouts are. As the turn winds down another artillery barrage is heard. This time a spotting round lands between my scouts and the bunker they just spotted. Here is a wider view. Scouts below and centre and the bunker to the upper right. Spotting round is to the left in the next tree line.

LOL yeah. Real life has me pretty busy on the weekends. We are getting ready to move. Man I hope not

Minute 0:50: Orders The sections of 3 Platoon leapfrogging through the woods. Move the FO up to the high-ground at KT3 so they can call the air support. Bring forward another tank to fire on the town.

Minute 0:51-0:50: Taking and receiving fire. The recon vehicle is not harmed. Recon by fire continues. More infantry from B Co head towards the woods. There is no sign of the AT gun that hit my tank last turn. No hint at all of where it must be. On top of that the shriek of artillery is heard. No impacts yet.

Those are the last of the shots taken without shadows... Again sorry about that. All fixed going forward.

Minute 0:51: Orders The other lead tank will pull back but try to get one more shot off on those soldiers in the open. The lead platoon of A Co heads into the woods. Move the scouts forwards.

Minute 0:52-0:51: Ouch things start to go sideways quickly. A lead tank is hit and destroyed by a unidentified AT gun. The tank with a whole in it just under its main gun and the crew taking cover. Infantry unload from their trucks and head into the woods. The scout team near the bunker on KT3 spot something off in the distance. Look what is peaking between the buildings – a Stug.

I could not find the link while I was on my phone yesterday. Some one else was asking just recently:

I assume you mean the Scancade program linked in my post. Yes, you need to unzip the contents of the downloaded .zip file into a convenient place. Then you also have to install Java. Once you have done that you can copy the campaign file into the directory where the scancade.jar file is and double click on the .jar file. There are more flexible ways to run it if you have lots of file you want to scan but for unpacking a single campaign that is probably the easiest.

What was the problem? Yeah. Based on this and other discussions, if I ever created a campaign I would package up all the bits needed to recreate it along side the actual campaign file.

That sounds like a terrible idea. Splitting it into two versions, one RT and one WEGO, would not reduce the work. It would make more. I would hazard a guess, given the impression I have of the way the games are played, a viable method to reduce work would be to drop WEGO and focus on RT which is where the sales are. Just to be clear I would hate dropping WEGO because that would be the end of my playing of any new titles so I don't like that idea either.

Sounds like a mod problem. Those things can happen when you have a mismatched version of the animated text mod or other string based mod. Another way to get something like that is if the install found another game's files and created a strange Frankenstein install.

About a year ago I wrote this: I do not think anyone tried it.

In a way I can understand your pain. I don't feel it though but feel sorry that you do. That is for sure. There is so much stuff in all the WW2 and modern games if they never released anything new I still would probably play the games every single day for the rest of my life and still have stuff to do. So, years between modules for one game just isn't a factor. I am not alone - I checked

Shadows are off!?!?! Oh crap I'll turn then on. I have one more turn in the bag with them off. I never play with them off and I did not intend to have them off. In fact I am not sure how they ended up off at all. I feel bad I didn't notice. As for trees as poles: they will be like that in every orders shot - so you can see what I am doing. My intention is to have trees (and shadows) on for every playback shot. If I miss some - oops - I am sure no one will be serious hurt or die

Minute 0:52: Orders More area fire. A platoon of A Co disembarks and takes up position in the woods. They can move forward towards the town in the cover of some trees in the coming minutes. There is still some work to do to get scouts in position to observe the plateau.

Minute 0:53-0:52: Some shots of the armoured recon firing on the town. Some is directed at the recoilless rifle. Nearly at the forest's edge.

Yeah but you did not ask an open question about how BFC could do x, you asked why they don't follow your prescription of what they should do. Which by definition means you started from the answer and asked why they are not wise enough to see that you are right. Stated with a little exaggeration and some flair.