Broadsword56

Here's an AAR map in Army archives, showing the basic action of the historical battle: And here's the Google Earth 4km x 4km area, with the topo lines, focusing on the Hill 336 area (lowest point is approx 250m, highest approx 396m): The CMSF desert horizons looked great in this map in CMFI, by the way.

Well, bummer... Started tiling terrain on my 4km x 4km Tunisia map. All seemed fine after I laid in large swaths of grass and of rocky terrain. Then I went in and broke up the grass with many little splotches of mud. Suddenly the 3D preview of the map will no longer load. It hangs every time on the loading screen with the progress bar frozen at 46%. If I try to load it as a battle scenario, it hands with the progress bar at 39%. I'm puzzled by this, since full-sized maps with no units or foliage on them yet wouldn't seem to be something that would make CMFI crash. A slow load would be expected, perhaps, but I don't know what would be causing this.

No, not at El Guettar. Certainly in the high mountains there could have still been some snow, but this battle happened centered on a valley and surrounding foothills. I've read lots of the AARs and accounts and they all say it was very muddy ground after extremely heavy rains. No mention of any snow. What the accounts do mention is the way the valley was practically devoid of any useful cover -- not even much in the way of scrub or rocks -- just a vast rolling plain of 6-inch-tall green grass, occasional wildflowers, etc. The grass wouldn't have been solid and lush like Normandy, but interspersed with sand and mud patches like an arid place would be after a good Spring rain. The foothills get progressively rockier, rougher, and less vegetated as they rise. And then the other key terrain was the great Wadi, impassable to behicles except on the road bridge, and defended by a wire and mine belt.

Thanks so much for your interest, nathangun! Since I so often get requests for these operational-tactical conversion rules, I'll just post them right here so people can cut and paste a copy to save, or be able to search for them and find this post in the future: St. Lo – CMBN conversion rules By Broadsword56 These rules formalize and facilitate the setup of Combat Mission:Battle for Normandy battle scenarios from combat situations in the board game Saint-Lo (West End Games, 1986), and vice-versa. 1.0 Fitness – The boardgame’s HQ morale level at the time of activation sets the starting “Fitness” level of the units entering battle as follows: HQ Morale 6 or 7 = Fit HQ Morale 4 or 5 = Weakened HQ Morale 2 or 3 = Unfit (Exception: Pinned or disrupted status affects fitness, see 6.0) 1.1 Battalion-level forces: Apply the overall Fitness level to 2 of the 3 companies. The third company is always one level higher than its fellow companies (simulating the fact that one company would have been in reserve and more rested than the others). 1.2 Company-level forces: apply the overall HQ Morale/Fitness level to both companies. 2.0 Experience levels US 29th ID and 2nd ID = Veteran US 35th ID = Green in first battle, then Regular second battle, then Veteran 3rd and subsequent battles. German 352nd ID and FJ units and SS units = Veteran 3.0 Leadership levels (Can be modified by Pinned or Disrupted status, see 6.0, and/or by prior casualties, see 7.3) US units = default level 0 German units = default level +1 4.0 Motivation levels – Motivation levels in CMBN can be Fanatic, Extreme, High, Normal, Low, or Poor. The default motivation levels for units entering CMBN battles should be as follows (this may be modified by Pinned or Disrupted status, see 6.0; and/or by prior casualties, see 7.3): US units – Normal German 352nd ID - Normal German FJ and SS – Fanatic 5.0 Supply levels – CMBN Range is Full, Adequate, Limited, Scarce, Severe. Most of the supply effects are modeled at the op level by the boardgame’s LOC rules, which affect how much headquarters can do. Default supply level for all units = Adequate. 5.1 Exception: Units whose HQ has no LOC at the start of the tactical action have the following effects entering a CMBN battle: 1st CMBN battle in this Op day/turn: Supply = Limited 2nd CMBN battle in this Op day/turn: Supply = Scarce 3rd and subsequent CMBN battles in this day/turn: Supply = Severe 6.0 Pinned or Disrupted states Pins or Disruptions (that were caused by boardgame barrage, etc.) are modeled at the start of a CMBN tactical battle by applying some modifications in the unit editor to the "soft factors" of affected units. 6.1 Pinned: Units pinned in the boardgame start a CMBN battle with Fitness level one step lower than the normal level that would be determined by Rule 1.0. Their motivation level is set to Low. 6.2 Disrupted: This is a more severe state, and at that point there would have been effects on a unit's command-and-control due to leader casualties and shock, etc. A disrupted unit starts a CMBN battle automatically with the lowered fitness level of Rule 6.1, plus "Poor" motivation, and -2 Leadership state. 6.3 At the end of a CMBN battle, tactical results would get translated back into the boardgame. So, depending on units' Motivation and Leadership levels at the end, they would re-enter the boardgame as Pinned or Disrupted or normal. 7.0 Unit strengths 7.1 Companies -- Company counters in the boardgame range from 1 to 4 points at initial strength, and represent approximately 100 to 200 men. So, for companies entering a CMBN battle, the units are purchased with reduced strength from CMBN’s standard TO&E levels as follows: 1 pt = 100 men = 50% reduction from TO&E 2 pts = 125 men = 30% reduction 3 pts = 175 men = 10% reduction 4 pts = 200 men = 0% reduction 7.2 Battalions -- Battalions in the boardgame range from 11 to 5 points at initial strength, and represent 400 to 800 men. So, for battalions entering battle: 11 pts = 800 men = 0% reduction 8 pts = 700 men = 10% reduction 9 pts = 600 men = 20% reduction 7 pts = 500 men = 30% reduction 5 pts = 400 men = 40% reduction 4 pts = 300 men = 50% reduction 7.3 Cohesion step losses and strengths Combat losses have a greater effect on a unit’s ability to fight than just the loss of personnel. Each CMBN battle scenario imposes overall loss thresholds, representing the cohesion “breakpoint” for the type of mission the unit is doing. Losses are the total of KIA + WIA +POW. 7.3.1 Battalion breakpoints: At the end of CMBN battles, players check who occupies the objective, and whether any participating units should take a step loss. Based on the overall losses (KIA + WIA + POW), at the end of the battle, any battalion or company that lost over a certain percentage of personnel strength should go back into the boardgame with a step loss or other penalties, as follows: 7.3.1.1 Attacking battalions: Each 40% in personnel losses per attacking battalion (average for the entire battalion at the end of a CMBN battle) triggers the following: *1 step loss; *Permanent reductions in leadership (1 level lower than standard); *Permanent reduction in motivation (1 level lower than standard). Attacking battalions that lose 33%-39% of personnel in a single battle suffer no step loss, but they do suffer the permanent reductions in leadership and motivation. 7.3.1.2 Defending battalions: Each 80% casualties per defending battalion (average for the entire battalion at the end of a CMBN battle) triggers 1 step loss. Defending battalions that lose 50-79% of personnel in a single battle suffer no step loss, but they do suffer the permanent reductions in leadership and motivation, as in 7.3.1.1. 7.3.2 Company and asset unit breakpoints: 7.3.2.1 Attacking companies and assets: If total size of a player’s starting force was less than battalion, each 35% casualties per company or asset triggers one step loss (elimination) of that company or asset. Attacking companies or assets that lose 26-34% of personnel in a single battle suffer no step loss, but they do suffer the permanent reductions in leadership and motivation (as in 7.3.1.1) long as they remain a separate company. [if they later “builds up” with its fellow companies to reconstitute its parent battalion, these penalties end and the company carries the ratings of its parent battalion.] 7.3.2.2 Defending companies and assets: If total size of a player’s starting force was less than battalion, each 70% casualties per company or asset triggers one step loss (elimination) of that company or asset. Defending companies or assets that lose 50-69% of personnel in a single battle suffer no step loss, but they do suffer the permanent reductions in leadership and motivation (as in 7.3.1.1) as long as they remain a separate company. [if the company later “builds up” with its fellow companies to reconstitute its parent battalion, these penalties end and the company carries the ratings of its parent battalion.] 8.0 Objectives and scoring: The CMBM scenarios will use two types of objectives: terrain (“occupy”), and enemy casualties. 8.1 Terrain objectives in the CMBN battles are areas within a zone of approximately 280 meters on a side, or less, which represent the target hex of the attack in the operational-level boardgame. 8.2 Casualty objectives in the CMBN battles are to inflict enough casualties on the enemy to exceed their step-loss threshold. 8.3 Each side plays the CMBN battle for 1000 victory points. Points are allocated as follows: Attacker: Terrain objective (occupy) = 1000 points Defender: Enemy casualties > 40% (if enemy is a battalion) or 35% (if enemy is a company) = 1000 points. 8.4 If the battle ends in a tie on points, the personnel loss percentage determines the outcome. Example: A US company attacks a German company in a hasty attack in the boardgame. The resulting 60-minute scenario ends as follows: Outcome example 1: US losses = 15%, German losses = 85%. Terrain objective ends in German hands. Result: Even though the Germans retained the objective in CMBN, their battle losses trigger a step-loss and elimination of the German unit in the boardgame. The US unit may advance after combat. The assumption here is that the German company put up a good fight, but lacks the strength to hold the objective and has ceased to be an effective combat unit for the rest of the 8-day period of the campaign. Outcome example 2: The US company wins the objective in CMBN (1000 US points) but suffers 61 percent casualties (1000 German points). The German company suffers 50 percent casualties. In the conversion back to the boardgame, the US company is eliminated and the German company retains the objective. Outcome example 3: The US company and the German company both suffer casualties in the CMBN battle that would trigger a step loss in the boardgame. Result: Both units are eliminated in the boardgame (an “exchange” result) and no one is in control of the objective hex. Outcome example 4: Neither side loses enough casualties to trigger a step-loss (0 points for the defending Germans). The Germans, however , control the objective at the end (denying the US side its 1000 points). The US attack is considered to have failed, and the German company retains the objective hex in the boardgame. Unit strengths remain unchanged in the boardgame (simulating minor losses that could be filled in a short time with replacements, transferring troops from other companies, rallying stragglers, etc.) The US player will usually be the attacker in this campaign. Historically, the US objective was to capture the city of St-Lo (a territorial objective). It didn’t matter to the success of the mission whether each German unit was destroyed or whether it simply retreated out of the way. On the other hand, the defending Germans’ primary objective was to inflict as much damage as possible on US troops and slow them down, then retreat back to the next line of hedgerows. The specific territory the Germans were fighting on was only of temporary, situational value to them. On the other hand, if the Germans launch a counterattack – say, to cover an open flank or recapture a crossroads – then the territory objective now matters more to them. That is why these rules give the attacker a territory objective and the defender an enemy casualty objective. It took about 2 weeks time lag for reported casualties to result in replacement reaching a battalion (at least for the US) and that is beyond the scale of this 8-day campaign. So casualties are minimally replaced. For example, It’s been reported that by the end of the campaign, few of the active 29th ID battalions could muster more than a full-strength rifle company. It might seem odd that these rules allow a battalion suffering 19 percent casualties in a CMBN battle to return to the boardgame with no step loss, while the same battalion suffering a 20 percent casualty rate in the battle loses a step. 1 percent is not that different, but some threshold needs to exist. The threshold represents a cohesion “breakpoint” for the unit as a result of intense combat. A unit that loses 10 men over the space of several days can regroup, promote new leaders, perhaps fill some holes with rear-echelon cooks and postal clerks. But a unit that loses 10 men in the space of an hour or two has had a shattering experience that may destroy the unit’s ability to continue fighting effectively. 9.0 Airstrikes. Since St Lo has its own system for airstrikes, and they happen separately from battles, no need to do anything there -- they represent "operational level" or grand-tactical bombing, not the kind of direct tactical air support modeled in CMBN. But since St. Lo does model weather and its effect on airstrike availability, a US force in a CMBN battle can be set up to have on-call air support during the battle under the following rule: 9.1 If the weather state in the boardgame is "clear" that turn (there’s a 30% chance of this weather condition) and one or more US airstrikes are currently available in the boardgame, the US side may enter the CMBN battle with air support. 10.0 Artillery 10.1 Artillery forward observers and observation. If an OP is placed on map in the boardgame for this combat and observation is successful, it is deployed in the CMBN scenario as follows: 10.11 If the OP is 2 hexes or less from the observed hex, it will be deployed with the combat units in their setup zone(s). 10.12 If the OP is 3-12 hexes from the observed hex, it deploys onto the CMBN map in its own location, corresponding to its location on the boardgame map. 10.2 On-call and defensive artillery in combat – Whatever artillery support units the players allocate in the precombat phases of the boardgame will participate in the CMBN battle as off-map artillery. 10.2.1 Fire intensity – the boardgame’s rules governing regular, rapid, and intensive fire for on-call artillery or defensive artillery in combat will apply to the CMBN battle as follows: Normal fire (1 fire mission) = On-call artillery unit has “Limited” supply state. (all defensive fire artillery is restricted to at this level) Rapid fire (2 fire missions) = On-call artillery unit has “Adequate” supply state. Maximum fire (3 fire mission) On=call artillery unit has “Full” supply state. 10.3 Battleship artillery -- No battleship artillery in this game (it wasn’t available anymore by mid-July 1944). 11.0 Entrenchment, fortifications, and improved positions 11.1 Entrenching -- Any unit of either side that entrenches its position in the boardgame enters the CMBN battle with the following fortifications: 40 Foxholes 5 Barbed wire 10 mines (of any type) 11.2 A German unit that is in a boardgame hex already marked “improved position” enters a CMBN battle with the following fortifications: Foxholes (battalion 40, company 10) Wooden shelter bunkers (battalion 10, company 3) 10 Barbed wire 5 AP Mines 5 AT mines 10 Mixed Mines 20 TRPs (if on call or defensive artillery is available) 11.3 German strongpoint hexes would get all of the improved position fortifications above, plus: 6 wooden MG bunkers 10 trenches 10 Sandbag walls 30 more barbed wire 12.0 Attack modes The St Lo boardgame makes important distinctions between "Hasty," "Deliberate" or "Intensive" attacks. The CRT results in Saint- Lo are much more severe, depending on the type of attack used. The attack modes will be represented in CMBN battles as follows: 12.1 Hasty attack: 12.1.1 Hasty attack battle time limit: 2 hours. 12.1.2 Hasty attack leadership levels: Units making hasty attack have no modifier to their default leadership levels (except for pinned or disrupted status, see 6.0). 12.2 Deliberate attack: • Leadership levels: Units making deliberate attacks all add 1 to attacker standard leadership levels. • Battle time limit is 3 hours. 12.3 Intensive attack: In an intensive attack, attacking units enter CMBN having all the benefits of deliberate attack, plus some extras: • "Full" supply level • Target Reference Points for artillery. • Leadership: Add 2 to the attacker leadership level that would otherwise be in effect. • Time limit: 4 hours It would be important to think about what those types of attacks are simulating in the game. They represent a combination of command involvement and pre-planning, and preparation time; increased time and effort expended to get a good result. A hasty attack is just "There's the enemy -- let's go get em!" It would happen immediately, many times a day, with no pre-planning, often on small units' own initiative. Meeting engagements would always be hasty attacks. A deliberate attack means the unit hit some resistance, paused for a few hours or maybe even half a day, to formulate a better plan and call up the needed forces, issue orders, etc., and then attack. So it takes more time and involves higher command, and takes a bit more time. An intensive attack means a real set-piece battle (preparatory rolling barrages, air strikes, an attack at dawn, with waves of reinforcements, etc.) Command involvement would be much higher-level and more direct. It would happen more often against strongpoints, or where the forces were more evenly matched. 11.0 Pre-battle Intel: Simulates amount of pre-planning and each side’s prebattle scouting of enemy positions. 11.1 Hasty attack: 1st attack on this objective hex this Operations Phase: 10% both sides, 2nd attack 20%, 3rd and subsequent 30%. 11.2 Deliberate attack: 1st attack 20% both sides, 2nd attack 30%, 3rd and subsequent attacks 40% 11.3 Intensive attack: 1st attack 30%, 2nd attack 40%, 3rd and subsequent attacks 50% 11.4 Modifier to all the above intel level rules: -10 percent for the attacker if the attacker moved into its attacking hex this Operations Phase, +10 percent if attacker was already in the hex from a previous Operations phase. -----

Thanks MJ, and yes, please do send me those horizons. I think I saved some instructions from an old post about how to change the horizon files. What I want is to be able to make one folder that will contain the scenario and subfolders with all the other mods like palm trees, cactus, and horizons, so that a user only needs to place the single Tunisia folder in the Z or mods folder to use it, and has an easy time removing it to play vanilla CMFI again. I have the entire elevation contours mapped in the editor, at 5 meter intervals, for the entire 4 x 4 km map already, thanks to the ease of the new overlay function. Took me perhaps 4 hours or so, total, over a few days. Already the topography of the valley and hills look amazingly identical to the color post-battle photos of El Guettar from LIFE magazine. The basic Italy default ground tile assortment is a mix of yellow grass, sand, and rocky, it seems to me. So most of my map work will be painting in a LOT of custom ground -- whether it's mud for the wadi and low areas, rock for the mountains, or zillions of green grass patches alternating with sand and mud. Then there will be lots of brush vegetation scattered all over, plus low scrub bushes, cactus, and finally the occasional palm trees and olive groves ( the little orchard tree will work fine for that). This map will test how well the new 2.0 game handles a really huge map, with a huge amount of troops on it. If it doesn't work the map and battle can easily be cut down. But I'm optimistic because there are so few trees. The stress on the system will be all the detailed terrain contouring.

One thing I see would really help with my Tunisia map would be a different horizon image. The Italy one isn't horrible, but it would make the immersion way better to see some rough and dry desert mountains in the distance. @erwin: I think it's a no-no to pull things from a different game into CMFI, since some players of CMFI don't own that game.

I know zero about the design aspects of this, so I defer to those who do. But it would seem analagous to the way units with mortars change from a model showing it "deployed" to "not deployed." If the cammoflaged/netted unit takes KIA/WIA, nothing changes except the GUI display about crew and weapon status. If it takes a direct HE hit, you get a crater and the cross or skull-and-crossbones icons. If the camouflaged unit moves, the cammo model disappears and is replaced by the standard model and the men moving with the packed up weapon, or the gun being hitched, etc. Anyway -- probably not worth delving into because it sounds like it's not in the cards from BFC's POV.

Precisely.

I'll post some work-in-progress shots of my Tunisia map when they're ready. It's not Egypt-style desert, but definitely N. Africa and won't be at all like Italy.

...and maybe connect that to a "camouflaged" model that would look a bit different from the uncamouflaged version. For example, cammo netting over an AT or MG emplacement, where you'd just see the gun poking out, low to the ground, and only darkness inside (the crew would not be visible but would be abstracted and shown as usual on the GUI). So, you wouldn't have to deform any of the terrain mesh -- just give the player the graphical illusion that the unit is lower down/concealed, and back it up with some protection-level tweaks and/or spottable-distance tweaks under the hood, if necessary.

With CMFI you can easily make a map of 4km x 4km of nothing but sand and rocks, with blazing sun and hot temperatures. We don't have the British and Commonwealth forces in CMFI yet, or desert uniforms for inantry, but... if you don't mind a bit of work-around, you've got Honey tanks and Mark IIIs and a number of things to make some pretty decent early-war style desert battles just to satisfy that craving.

Well, here's a true WWII story where -- if they made a good movie about it -- the love interest really happened and wouldn't be artificially inserted into the plot: Tomorrow to Be Brave: A Memoir of the Only Woman Ever to Serve in the French Foreign Legion I'm reading it now, and it's a great tale of the amazing Free French outnumbered holdout against Rommel + the Ariete Division at Bir Hakeim in May '42. Susan Travers was nominally French Gen. Koenig's driver, but actually they secretly were lovers too. She stuck it out in the foxholes right alongside the men and got the Legion of Honor and the Military Medal for her actions. (She's even got her own hero counter in the MMP grand tactical boardgame No Question of Surrender!)

If you hate artillery, just wait until CMFI gets to Salerno -- a teacup-shaped battlefield with German OPs on every mountain and able to spot just about everything.

I don't understand the complaining about map sizes. We've got a map editor in-game and with 2.0 it's better than ever. Make some.

Saw it on the first run of the series last winter. Secret War is a series worth watching -- its research, presentation and production values seem a cut above the usual "Ten Most Awesome Explosions of WW II" sort of drivel on the history and military cable channels. Also, the stories told in these shows are less well known and more personal than the big battles we've been hearing about for decades.

Actually, this wouldn't be an issue. It's a common misconception about Tunisia that it was sand dunes and desert, like Egypt and Libya. Much of Tunisia, especially in Feb/March 1943, was very green, with wildflowers, etc. Rommel often remarked on its beauty and thought it would be a great place to bring German farmers to settle after the war. Early 1943 was one of the rainiest rainy seasons in many years, and in fact the mud is part of what delayed Patton's spring offensive. The north of Tunisia is arid, like Sicily, but quite agricultural. The real desert only just begins down south near El Guettar -- but again it's more arid than desert -- lots of scrub bushes and trees, and sandy patches interspersed with green grass. Olive groves, etc. Check out archival color LIFE magazine photos and newsreels online of US troops in Tunisia, and you'll see what I mean. Here's a view of the nearby area in modern times -- amazing compared to what we typically think of as North Africa terrain: A key terrain element at El Guettar was a big wadi (seasonal streambed ravine), which wasn't passable by vehicles except in some places. Dunes would be easy with just the elevation tool to make mounds, then sand terrain tiles on top. But, other than the palm trees, I can't see any terrain that wouldn't be doable with what's already in CMFI. It's mostly the man-made element that would be missing (North African buildings, objects, etc.).

Yes, 41-42 wouldn't work as well, so Crete and the classic Western Desert stuff might not be doable. But Tunisia was not much earlier than Sicily, so that ought to work fine once the rest of the 1943 forces and equipment are added with the mainland Italy module.

One cool thing about CMFI is that once we get the mainland Italy module, we also will effectively have the TO&E needed to make Tunisia '43 scenarios, it seems to me. I don't know who's interested in Tunisia, but it could be a fun alternative to Italy -- the same way that some found that Italian Campaign mod pack in CMBN to be a fun alternative to Normandy. If we could just get LongLeftFlank's palm tree mod into CMFI that would be the icing on the cake. One would have to be careful with building, to use just the ones that don't look too Italian. The only thing I'd miss is Allied AA guns to keep the Stukas at bay. I'd be curious to see the differences in the way El Guettar plays out in CMx2, since I made that user-made historical scenario for TOW2 Africa. One thing that frustrated me then was the 2km limit to maps, which limited the maneuver in armor engagements because they could be under fire immediately from the other end of a map. In CM 2.0, with the ability for a map twice the size, accurate TO&E, and a more authentic infantry tacAI, it could be quite a spectacle, and the infantry aspects could become a lot more realistic/interesting. A mini-campaign using the same master map of that valley could have 4 good battles on it for March 1943: 1. Patton's lead recon elements bump into the Italians E of El Guettar. Fluid probing action. 2. The famous night attack by the Rangers that took the Italian positions and cleared the way for the advance. 3. The big battle of El-Guettar itself: German armor-inf counterattack and the last-ditch US stand with the M-10s. 4. The US resumes the advance along the valley and tries to to capture key hilltop objectives against dug-in Germans.

Like many of you, I sometimes feel as if I've "read 'em all" when it comes to good WWII books. So I like to alert the forum when my prowling of used bookstores uncovers a little gem now and then. Yesterday I picked this one up in hardscover (but I see it's also available on Kindle, so all the better for the rest of you): http://www.amazon.com/DAY-OF-THE-PANZER-Sacrifice/dp/193203370X I really like these small-unit, you-are-there types of books the best. They feel the most relevant to CMBN's scale, and the stories -- when they're well written -- make much more gripping reading than the dry accounts of divisions moving here or there. Quote from a reader review: "Day of the Panzer is unlike any other WWII book I have read, and I have read hundreds. In a nutshell, it explores the invasion of Southern France after D-Day, and the thrust inland, following (more or less) a few select unit and individuals as they drive fatefully toward their destiny in the small farming town of Allan, where veteran German infantry and a Panther tank await them. "The result is a focused, tightly wound series of chapters about the battle that erupts there. The author follows the men (and many locals) on their experiences, which includes grenade attacks, tank-to-tank battles, POW issues, executions, and heroics you have never heard of before. If you enjoy small-unit tactics--think Band of Brothers in Carentan, Episode 3--you will love Day of the Panzer." Probably some good scenario-making material in this book, I would imagine. I also like that it takes place in Southern France -- where I know next to nothing about the history of that campaign compared to D-Day, Market Garden, The Bulge, etc.

After checking the battles and maps provided with the CW module, and searching on the forum and repository, I came up empty. Has anyone made -- or is anyone working on -- a map/scenario/anything on this historical CW forces battle in June '44?

Well, to be fair, at least Norton told me what it disliked and gave me the option to exclude it from destruction. It seemed to think the CMFI CD contained a heuristic virus. (um, it didn't, did it?)Once I told it to restore the suspect item, the game installed fine.

The only place I can think of in the immediate future of CM where tank-riding would have happened a lot was in Operation Market-Garden. The British infantry in XXX Corps piggybacked on the tanks a lot in the attempted dash up Hell's Highway. Of course they'd dismount on contact with the enemy, but the nature of this campaign involved a lot of hit-and-run actions and meeting engagements at various points right along the road. But I can accept not having tank riders in CM, if it means getting the module sooner and having other features that will be more critical to accurate terrain and tactics for Holland (like a fake water tile that would allow us to set land lower than water on a map, for example, making it possible to do canals and dikes properly). As for tank riders, one could always set up a battle scenario with the infantry starting dismounted, on the highway next to the tanks, as if they had just been piggybacked on the AFVs before the scenario started. One could even give those infantrymen a bit of a "soft factors" penalty to simulate the disorder that follows when tank-riders suddenly come under fire and have had to to jump off straight into combat.

Relax, Chemahoth -- it's coming.

Also, I still haven't found any good online source of WWII aerial recon photos of mainland Italy. Many were shot, of course, but they haven't gotten organized and digitized and posted in searchable online DBs as much as those from France, Holland, etc. (one more sign of the often-overlooked treatment history tends to give this important campaign... ) Here's a guy with a website and an amazing collection of military WWII Italy maps: http://custermen.com/Maps/ArmyMaps.htm

It's not about penetrating bocage, necessarily, but about fire superiority -- a counter to the MG42 so the infantry can do their job.