Broadsword56

OK, one more shot of the windmill that I really like:

The SW part of the map has a little settlement on it -- since I had no period photos or sources for buildings here (just the building locations) I used some imagination to make a factory/warehouse complex and worker settlement. The factory front office and entrance: The loading dock at the rear: Inside the walled courtyard, covered warehouse area: Aerial view of the compund: And finally, since this is Holland after all, from the SE corner of the map:

An area roughly in the center of the map, where various woods and clearings mix with farms and pastures. Kind of like Normandy without bocage, I guess: A closer look at the tree plantation area on the west side of the map. Note the lanes (path tiles) between tree sections. This made crossing the forest a nightmare for US soldiers, because Germans could set up machineguns to fire along the lanes: Aerial looking east along the canal from the west end of the map: The raised canal dike is not crossable by vehicles, but there's a path along the top of the dike that vehicles might be able to use in places. The problem is that once a vehicle is on the dike, it can't get off except at Son Bridge and maybe a few other spots. There are two water-filled (shallow ford) creeks on the map, as well as the Dommel River in the NE corner, which has a little bridge of its own (it's there for authenticity but it probably doesn't have much tactical use on this particular map). Next: The final shots...

A postcard-like view of St. Petrus Church overlooking the Market Square and the old Town Hall: The flat landscape makes the church steeple the highest thing for miles around, and an extremely valuable observation post. Here's a shot looking toward the steeple from a forest clearing all the way on the W edge of the map (see the steeple on the far center horizon?): Now we'll look toward the west and northwest, where the town gives way to mixed farmlands/woodlots and the Zonsche Forest. Best and its bridge would be offmap in this direction: The tour continues...

A closer look at Son town... View north along Hell's Highway from the bridge: In town, the North Brabant Sanatorium: The sanatorium was a prewar TB hospital. Once the 101st captured it, the building served as a field hospital for the rest of the campaign. To the left of the entrance is the doctor's residence. Behind the hospital (not shown) are nurses/staff quarters, a meadow and gardens, and some outbuildings that served during the battle as a morgue. Across the street from the hospital, the St. Aloysius Boys School: This was the site of one of the infamous German 88s that the 101st had to knock out before they could approach the bridge. St. Petrus Church: The tour continues...

A level 9 view of nearly the entire map (a bit of the S edge isn't visible here): The US paratroops' dropzones were north of this map. They advanced south along Hell's Highway, on the right, and through the Zonsche Forest in the NW. Note the variety in the forest -- some of it is mixed woods, which will block more LOS, but those gridded areas are the "pine tree plantation" type of forest often described in AARs. More on those later. The US objective -- Son Bridge. In reality it was a swivel bridge, which could pivot 90 degrees to let water traffic on the Wilhelmina Canal pass through. We don't have a swivel bridge in the game, and the "Canal Bridge" we have is beautiful but the wrong style for Son. So I used an urban bridge to approximate the look of the original. Note how the wooden fence in shallow ford tiles can approximate the look of wooden piers at the waterline. Here's a view of the bridge from the south end: And from the north end. Note how the raised canal dike makes the bridge crossing higher than the surrounding terrain and blocks LOS:

A preview and discussion thread for the new MG map I just uploaded. This map extends the covered area W and NW of the "Counterattack at Son" map that shipped with the MG Module. Below, both map areas overlaid on Google Earth. Counterattack At Son is the game map on lower right, my new map is the bounded area (1,744m x 1,536m on the upper left): Now you have a map covering the previous action on Sept. 17-18, when the 101st Airborne advanced on its objective: Son Bridge. The Counterattack at Son map also included Son Bridge and parts of Son Town, but focused on the area where the German 107th Pz Brigade counterattacked later in the campaign. A preview tour of the map will follow in several more posts...

Understood. It would be good to have that automated layer too. I enjoyed CC2 years ago and it was quite an innovation at the time. So today with CM, the choice is to keep waiting and hankering, or to make something together with the imperfect but available tools we have right now. Some will prefer to wait and others will prefer to make-do.

No, I still don't see it. Very odd. I checked my spam folder just in case but it's not in there either.

Factory chimneys and oil storage tanks. Tram tracks. A rubble tile.

Excellent, Los! That's one tough map for any British player trying to make a frontal attack across the valley. Better have a LOT of artillery and smoke and TRPs, and plan some classic rolling barrages!

No, it's "works4u"

Thanks mjkerner -- but I don't see any e-mail from you in my gmail inbox :-( Check the address you have for me, or PM me here on the forum. Re: the battle described above -- I will be posting my large (1,744m x 1,536m) MG Son West map (just the map, no AI or scenario) to the Repository soon. It abuts and slightly overlaps the MG Counterattack at Son map that shipped with the MG module. So, anyone who wanted to could make a multi-map historical campaign around Son, with the initial 101st Abn attack on my map on 17 Sept, followed by the German 107th Pz Brig counterattack on the Counterattack map. I'll start a separate thread about this new map soon.

That might seem like a problem with operational layers, but it's really not. You can't possibly set up and play out in CM every fight that the op layer generates. Even if you tried to do that, the campaign would take years and few of the CM battles would be any fun for the players. Also, you have to be in a mindset to enjoy the op game every bit as much as the CM battles within it. That's why it's important to pick an op game you actually enjoy for its own sake, not just as a mechanism to rush through and get back to the CM tactical stuff. Because most of war really is maneuvering and moving to contact, etc., and intense close combat doesn't happen everywhere all the time. What's really brilliant about an op layer, though, are the HUGE variety of unbalanced but interesting and surprising situations that it will generate from time to time. Those are the ones to watch for, and which make the best setups for CM. Battles like these can be surprisingly "balanced" in terms of either side's chances to achieve its objective. The imbalances are what really make the CM battle more dynamic and interesting, compared to canned standalone scenarios or artificially balanced QBs. Just one current example from the Market-Garden (101st Airborne sector) campaign that I'm in right now with sburke: The campaign started at 1500 hrs on 17 Sept 1944 with the initial US airdrops, but we haven't had a battle setup we liked for CM until 1100 hrs on 18 Sept. But it's a real doozy... In the boardgame (Where Eagles Dare, by Multiman Publishing), a Panzer ersatz company of Mark III tanks that escaped the pre-drop airstrikes made the highway north of Son too dangerous for the 506 PIR to advance south along that road to attack its objective: Son bridge. So the 506th and 502nd both had to take a safer, more covered and roundabout route from their DZ through the Zonsche Forest. That slowed them down tremendously. Then Sept 18 dawned with foggy weather, slowing the advance even more (and would delay the day's reinforcement and resupply drops until later in the afternoon). So it's now 1100 hrs and the GIs are finally in contact with the German defensive perimeter N of the bridge. But during all that delay, the Germans were able to race truck-mounted KG Ewald into the area south of Son and the canal. So they've dismounted and are marching in to stiffen the defenses. What we have now is a Gettysburg-like situation that's loaded with uncertainty and suspense: An outnumbered screening force at Son Bridge defends against lead elements of a vastly superior attacking force. But each side has reinforcements coming in, widening the battle and as they take up positions and swing the balance one way or another. So we've cordoned off the relevant area, mapped it, and now are setting up the forces to play this out. Adding to the excitement is the possibility the bridge could blow. This isn't possible within CM, but the boardgame has a system for it. So, if US units get within 250m of the bridge (a touch objective in CM is useful for this), it becomes "contested" and we plan to pause the CM battle so the Germans can attempt to blow the wired bridge. Then we can have a new CM setup based on the blown bridge, or it's intact and the US tries to assault across it. Some other interesting oddities that the boardgame generated for this battle: *The initial German defenders are a mix of 88s, flak, and two companies of fairly well-equipped LW panzergrenadier troops (HG Panzer Div training and replacement companies). One of those LW companies -- the one already in contact -- was suppressed by supporting US mortars but turned "heroic" in the boardgame. So in the CM battle, we'll have this unit start with unusually high motivation and leadership settings, but a near-zero cover arc for the first few minutes. So the GIs need to assault them quickly, because when they recover, watch out! * As the US player I pushed an engineer platoon a bit too close to German positions, and the 88s wiped them out. (I rationalize this after the fact by saying this simulated them getting disoriented in the forest in the morning fog). Now the US won't be able to build an improvised ferry/walkway across the canal if the bridge gets blown...at least until more engineers can arrive as reinforcements later in the day. * XXX Corps is still creeping along, just south of Eindhoven. So the decisive battle of the campaign will probably happen in the streets of that city. The outcome of the Son battle will determine whether the Allies get to close on Eindhoven from north and south, or whether the Germans will get to defend against the Allied divisions one at a time. (The overall campaign is already probably lost for the Allies, but we don't care because the battles are the primary interest here.) I didn't summarize all of the above to bore anyone or steer the thread off topic -- just to illustrate what a rich background story an op layer can give you. The CM battles have such wider consequences, and the op layer events ripple through the CM setups to create all sorts of exciting and realistic variety.

Welcome to our world, Col. Handgrenade. All your reasons for wanting an interactive & dynamic strategic layer for campaigns are right on the mark. But if you're an old-school wargamer, then perhaps you've also enjoyed board wargames in years past. Bear in mind that you can use a number of conventional board wargames to perform exactly the role you're talking about. Just pick a boardgame whose scale is a level higher than CMx2 (company-to-battalion sized units, 300m-500m per hex scale, turns covering somewhere between 1-4 hours) and you can start using it as your campaign layer. You can do this right now, and enjoy all the benefits you're talking about. No need to wait for BFC to do it for you, since they're not likely to do it anytime soon -- if ever. And you can use computer playing aids like VASSAL or Cyberboard to play the boardgames, so no need even to set up maps or keep counters lying around.

Please do not make this brick a road tile. And yes, a more natural weathered brick look, like the photos, would be ideal. It's more useful as a mod to the terrain tile Paved1 or Paved2. Then it can be used for making sidewalks in town/cities, as well as courtyards for old Dutch houses, etc.

Calling all Dutchmen: Didn't Dutch cities and towns often use red brick for their sidewalks? (My only knowledge of this is a fuzzy memory of a visit to Holland some 40-plus years ago, and a lot of time starting at virtual Dutch sidewalks from a prone position as a FPS character in "Brothers in Arms 3" on PS2 back in the day...) If anyone has the time or inclination, a red brick terrain tile would help maps in the Holland look more authentic, i think. I'd recommend modding "Paved 1" or "Paved 2," which are both gray pavers that look pretty similar.

Yeah, those decals would be amazing to have in CM as signs/posters.

And if you're making or modding maps, also comsider putting a wire fence alongside the ditch. Some have found this encourages the troops to follow it and stay in the ditch.

Are you giving the order to split squads or to whole teams? I would think you need to split the squads so there's room enough in the ditch action square for them to get in. But I haven't tried it. Anyone else having this problem?

LOL -- Suck it up, soldier. Just wait 'til you get to the Ostfront!

One reason I ask is because one might assume "Training and Replacement" means a low-quality unit of recruits. But my operational boardgame has these two companies of II.E.u.A Rgt HG rated very high in troop quality (as high as the 101st Airborne). I think it might be because ersatz battalions usually contained a cadre of the very best and most experienced/motivated veterans from the parent division. Maybe these men got this nice Holland assignment in a "quiet area" as a reward for good performance, and because they were deemed too valuable to be wasted as cannon fodder on the Ostfront. Just speculation on my part.

Thanks, but the troops I'm referring to were farther north, defending near Son bridge.

Does anyone know anything about the II.Fallschirmjager Ersatz und Ausbildings (E.u.A.) Regiment Hermann Göring, who were part of the Eindhoven Regional Command when Market-Garden started on 17 Sept. 1944? From poking around online, I gather that this was a training and replacement unit that happened to be garrisoned here -- the main HG Division was at the Eastern Front. They'd be Luftwaffe troops and have the FJ structure (as well as the FJ uniforms I suppose). Does anyone know anything about their degree of readiness and morale and leadership, etc., at that time? Anything unusual abotu their TO&E or equipment?

Now you're talkin' ! To me, Bulge without the SS or VG just ain't the Bulge. But that's just me, because when I play there it's going to be the whole campaign and I need a wider range of unit types.