Broadsword56

Just discovered this battalion-level boardgame, with 1200m per hex. Excellent scale for using as an op layer for CM: Piercing the Reich (Moments IN History, 1995. Covers the 1st Army's attack across the Westwall in fall 1944): http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5275/piercing-the-reich And a review: http://grognard.com/reviews/piereich.txt Copies on the used market seem abundant and low-priced. People who've played it say this system shares many similarities with Joseph Balkoski's "Saint-Lo," which I've enjoyed using as an op layer for CMBN. It has a lot of randomized activation, simulates FOW and gets away from the straight IGO-UGO approach.

I'd like that too, IF the Tac AI in this game were at a much higher level, with SOPs and the ability to give units general orders and let them find the best ways to execute them. But that's not CM x 2, and in this game we have to become every leader of every unit on the battlefield in order to make them operate intelligently. Given that, I figure it's OK to see them all and know more than the commander would know, because I'm not only the commander but the squad leader, platoon leader, etc.

And then of course, a really evil opponent would deliberately hold fire, let the scout team reach that cover, and then open up on the full squad as it follows after him...

I hereby repeat my pleas for a closeup of that vineyard-appearing terrain!

@Black Prince: Sound tactics there, but I'dd add that one should put the team on HUNT or SLOW for the last AS before they reach the hedgerw or terrain feature. Also, no one mentioned covering the point team. No reason one can't have the other teams set with LOS/LOF to where the point team is headed, so at least if he gets ambushed the other teams can return fire and give him a chance to retreat. There were lots of great tactics articles written for CM x 1 about the art of tactical movement, etc., which I think can still be found online (I really miss that and don't know why this forum tends more toward technical whining/complaining than actual discussion of gameplay or tactics, but this thread is a good one and a step in the right direction...)

Scale is perfect for meta gaming with CMFI, and better yet -- Consimpress is redeveloping/republishing this classic 1976 monster: http://www.consimpress.com/news/2012/4/4/avalanche-2nd-edition-q1-2012-update.html Publication may be quite a ways off, but by then maybe the CMFI "famiglia" will have moved to the Italian mainland and the action around Salerno.

Was that The Race to Messina?

Although you'd think point duty would be a crap job assigned to the low man on the totem pole, from what I've read about US units in Vietnam, only the experienced and battle tested grunts were trusted to walk point -- it was simply too important a job and the whole squad's life depended on it, so FNGs were kept well out of the way and isolated until they proved themselves.

Sounds like an excellent game, but after playing a meta campaigns using a battalion and a platoon scale game, I know I wouldn't like the way a regimental level game would work with CMBN. I'd have to do way too much abstraction and guesswork to determine the setups and maps for battles and export the results back to the boardgame. Battalion scale is about the largest that I find workable.

His neck muscles are bulging with tension as he fires his weapon in the heat of combat. Happens to me all the time :-)

Good suggestions, JonS, for making the most of this scenario concept using the tools we have now. What I like about the concept is that it could be a small, beer-and-pretzels battle that someone can play when needing a quick CMBN fix. I also like that the objectives would be more varied and different than simply "kill all the Germans," or "capture that VP location." The player would have fight unknown enemies popping up in the dark, AND secure the DZ, AND get the radar and beacons working within the time limit. Also I like that the flaming beacons would progressively illuminate the DZ, too. (Just wish we had somethng smaller than a Kubelwagen to blow up and burst into flames).

Don't be put off by the long help file (help.htm) that comes with the tool. StoneAge took the time to document everything step by step, with lots of screenshots too. And there's an appendix to the file that has really valuable tips on using features of Google Earth (like the polygon technique for displaying elevation contours). I've use the tool on a couple of maps now, and it's worked pretty well. Try it with a small test area first, and it gets much easier as you get accustomed to using it.

Here's the forum thread -- the opening post has the download link to the tool: http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=104046&highlight=StoneAge The tool's author is StoneAge.

Yes, I completely understand the frustration of hours wasted like that.

And we again see how detailed the realism improvements in the CM x 2 engine truly are: Italian troops even make culturally realistic hand gestures -- as in this officer's appreciation of the volume of US fire: MAMMA MIA!

Rokko: You can use the HTML Tool and still distort, beautify, or completely ignore the real-life terrain. What it gives you that you don't have now is the ability to place whatever terrain you create in any area of a 4 x 4 km map that you want. (The biggest limitation to the tool, IMHO, is that you can't enlarge the size of its "paintbrush" so you have to click every 8m x 8m cell. I don't know if StoneAge can invent a way around that, but I hope so.)

That looks like a vineyard in the lower left corner of the last screenie. can you zoom in on it so we can ogle the new terrain/veg?

The solution to this problem has existed for months now. Go to the Repository and download the HTML Mapping Tool. Also search for and read the threads about it on the forum. In essence, you use the tool to make your map in 400m by 400m sections. Then the tool automatically draws them in the CMBN map editor, anywhere within the 4000m x 4000m box you want them to go. So, for example, that section with the Abbey d'Ardennes in it can be placed at the East end of the map, or the middle, or in a spot 3 sections from the top and 5 sections from the left. But unfortunately, the work you already did in the editor can't be moved. One consolation is that redrawing maps or sections of maps within CMBN will be MUCH easier and faster with CMBN 2.0, because we'll have the ability to trace our map designs using a graphic overlay. But, even then, you won't be able to move or copy and paste existing map work within CMBN. So a mapper either has to plan a 4km x 4km map with these limits in mind, or use the HTML Mapping Tool and get the freedom to place and reuse map sections anywhere.

@JonS: Thanks for the TO&E information. I see now about why my idea can't work: The editor lets us randomize WHEN units arrive, but not WHERE.

I was watching a documentary on US Airborne pathfinders in WWII today on the Military History Channel, and it made me wonder whether anyone has made -- or tried to make -- a small scenario featuring these specially trained and tasked troops. Some specific things that seemed like they might work in a scenario -- a night scenario, of course: 1. Randomized landings -- setting the pathfinders as reinforcements with some variation in where they'll show up. 2. Randomized enemy -- set the Germans to pop up randomly too, or do some AI patrols. 3. Mission duration: AFAIK, pathfinders had. 60 min. to find the DZ, clear it and mark it for the landings. 4. Pathfinders marked the DZ with a small radar beacon and lit the signal lamps in the shape of a giant "T." I could imagine one or more "touch" objectives on the DZ would represent the place where the radar has to be set up. And I could imagine setting a series of combustible objects (small immobile veihicles?) to make the lamp positions of the "T." If the pathfinders have demo charges, they have to blow up all the objects -- creating the fires to act as the beacons. The other plus is that because destroyed vehicles could be point obectives, it would give the scenario a way to award VPs for lighting the "T." The pathfinders had their own TO&E for these missions -- not sure what the details were. But I'd see it being a very small, but very repeatable and replayable battle due to the random variations in where the pathfinders land and how close the enemy is. I'm no AI coder, but I just wanted to throw the idea out there to inspire any would-be designers. Might be good for Sicily or Salerno too, but not so sure about the pathfinders' roles there.

Another new book, available on Kindle, is "Deliver Us From Darkness: The Untold Story of Third Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment During Market Garden," by Ian Gardner. Terrifically well written and loaded with first-person material, including more on the Dutch civilian and resistance perspective both before and after September. I've got it now and am enjoying it immensely.

Is that a new type of bush? An artichoke plant? Grapevine?

OK, just to clarify: The SOP options box (for a vehicle unit, let's say) has 4 main menus: IF FIRED ON... IF FIRE... IF FIRED ON AND HIT... IF SPOT ENEMY... So under the IF SPOT ENEMY, for example, you can check the box for these options: STOP STOP AND POP SMOKE REVERSE (SPECIFY THE # OF METERS) REVERSE AND POP SMOKE UNLOAD To BFC's credit, we already have excellent tac AI in CM x 2 for vehicles that will make them reverse and pop smoke when they decide there's sufficient threat. So some SOPs are already built in. But you can see from the above that SOPs let you do more commanding and less micromanaging, so you can match your orders to tactical situations instead of trying to do it all with moves and timed pauses/fire orders. I think Tac Ops lets you set rally points too, which would be a great feature in CM x 2

One of the TacOps SOPs I remember was telling a unit what to do on first contact with an ememy. One option was "pop smoke and retreat." Think of how helpful that would be for a scout team, and how many clicks and lines and commands that would save.

But if they're winter (naked) trees, maybe that will save a bit of strain on the silicon - since there's no need to represent all that foliage blowing around.