Broadsword56

Abandoned by whom? You won't find board wargames at the corner shop, and they're not the mass phenomenon they were in the 1950s-1980s. But many people still play them, there are more and better ones being published than ever, and the Internet and computer play aids have it possible to play them on computers and find opponents 24/7. If you don't like them, fine -- don't play them. I'm not trying to convince you to like anything. Just don't make sweeping dismissive statements that are also inaccurate.

@RCMP: Since you just bought a copy of Panzer Command, that's a great place to start. Learn that game first and you'll be on solid footing for the GTS games. Among those, I suspect the most popular will ultimately be the newest in the series, still in prepub, called The Greatest Day. It covers D-Day and the first week of the Normandy campaign, in the British sector. It should be a perfect companion to CMBN Commonwealth. I think the Pegasus Bridge scenario alone would make an outstanding CMBN op-tac campaign. Also, Adam Starkweather has designed a simplified Assault Combat routine for TDC that should address a lot of the concerns about time and complexity that players expressed about the earlier games. But among the three published GTS games, I'd recommend Where Eagles Dare. It's the Hell's Highway portion of Market-Garden, from the Belgian frontier up to just south of Nijmegen. The reason is that the system underwent a lot of refinements since The Devil's Cauldron. But TDC is excellent too and just the ticket if you want to play with those brave paras in Osterbeek and Arnhem, or see what you can do with the 82nd Abn in Nijmegen and Goesbeek Heights. Plus, TDC has all those badass 9th and 10 SS Pz Div units too. Re: master map coverage -- I haven't really laid WED and TDC hexmaps out over the CMBN Market Garden master maps to see exactly how much of those campaigns is already mapped in CM. From what I've seen, I think you'd find a lot more of the master maps fall into the Arnhem and Osterbeek and Nijmegen sectors, which are all within the Devil's Cauldron boardgame. But even there, if you were really playing the boardgame as an op layer for CMBN-MG you'd still probably find yourself needing to make a lot of maps from scratch to stage battles at various points in the game. Which is precisely why I made Panzer Command Bagration -- the master maps came first (thanks to benpark, who did them for the RT Soviet campaign), so I made a hex-and-counter map that matches them exactly (or as exactly as I could). So there are very few areas in my game that don't already have the same area mapped in RT. Staging battles is simply a matter of figuring out the Red Thunder OOBs and defining the relevant master map area, then cutting the master map down to the needed size. That still takes time, mind you, but a lot less time. So far in my first op-tac campaign using my game with RT, I've reached 1100 hrs on 23 June (Day 1 of 3), and it's going pretty much along historical lines: - A bloodbath for both sides that favors the Soviets because they can afford the losses and the Germans can't. - Slow, grinding combat by the lead Soviet division that has almost but not quite penetrated the German first fortified trenchline near the Peat Cuttings at "C" on the screenshot (but there are two more fortified lines to go before a breakout can truly be achieved). - Clear weather at the start that let the Soviet tac air inflict lots of damage and suppression to the German fixed positions, but a Random Event just changed it to overcast (which ends air support for the rest of the day unless another random event changes it again). I also had one cool thing happen at the boardgame level -- an "Ambush" random event that let the Soviets knock out a small dug-in German AT platoon (at "D" on the screenshot) that had been holding off the better part of a Soviet regiment all morning. (In my imagination it meant a small Soviet team had infiltrated in through the woods and hit the Germans from behind with a suprise assault.) German artillery in the vicinity of "G" is starting to hit the lead Soviet units at "C" and slow them down. At "E" some frontline Germans are already cut off. (no LOC due to enemy units or fire zones). If they stay icut off for 24 consecutive hours, they're removed and the Soviets earn VPs. (in my game rules the Soviets get VPs for German steps removed due to cutoff but not for German units KIA, because the campaign objective is rapid penetration to isolate Orsha and encircle as many Germans as possible.) The 27th Guards Rifle Regiment has, under cover of a barrage, made a successful ferried crossing with the help of a sapper company, right under the nose of a fortified German position at "F" on the screenshot. Advancing in that sector would be difficult though, due to all the marsh terrain behind the German front line. The Soviets on the exposed German right flank could also cross the river these, but attempts to do it using "ad hoc ferry" rules (simulating the Soviets use of improvised rafts and local civilian boats when engineer boats weren't handy) have failed so far. The 1st Guards Rifle Division has arrived, but the trails and river crossings at the Soviet bridgehead are so packed with units that it's difficult to thread fresh infantry and armor through all the congestion to reach the tip of the spear. The lead division will need to either advance to make room, or die to make room, in order for the follow-on forces to truly join the fight. On tactical level, I've only fought one RT battle from this campaign so far -- a bloodbath of a frontal assault at 0900 on a key German fortified strongpoint on the north shoulder of the Soviet penetration, location "A" on the screenshot. Sburke and I called a halt to the RT battle when, in about 60 minutes, the Soviets had wiped themselves out and the last few occupying Germans -- on the verge of collapse -- were saved by the timely arrival of a reinforcing Stug company and Shrek platoon. But this armor is the only serviceable armor left in the German 256th ID in this sector. So while my opponent might have run wild with it in a standalone RT game, he elected to pull it back so it could fight another day. The position became a smoking, cratered, corpse-littered no-man's-land until 1100 when the Soviets, thanks to better initiative, infiltrated some AT rifle platoons into the position to occupy it. But they're a small force, vulnerable and still in column, and the German armor is still just adjacent to the SW. So there could be another fight if the Germans can activate before the Soviets can occupy the position in strength. We also found that frontal assault battles on entrenched/fortified positions aren't as much fun, from a game enjoyment standpoint, as they might seem. We played it in RT more as an experiment to see how sunken and ditchlocked trench positions and realistic force densities would work out in RT. If you've seen those "over the top!" scenes in WWI movies, you can imagine how it went. One thing that made it dull was that the sunken trenches, while adding more realistic protection and defilade for the Germans, also hid them from spotting. So we fought nearly the entire battle with very few of our infantry ever even spotting each other directly. As in real life, the terrain will tend to funnel any Soviet advance along the single-track RR line toward Asintorf -- where the ground is firm and drained enough to give armor a path through the marshes. This area is also a German divisional boundary between the 256th Infantry Division and 78th Sturm Division My hope is that eventually the Soviet breakout will happen and there will be a swirling mobile meeting engagement between the penetration force and the arriving German 14th Infantry Division. Could make for some great RT setups. But it all depends on how soon or how late the decisive breakthrough happens, and how numerous and fresh the leading Soviet units are when they meet the counterattack.

Spectacular. The specially modded ruins make all the difference.

Since I've sent this Bagration gamebox and scenario to three people today, I'm thinking some of you who aren't already familiar with the Panzer Command rules system might find this new tutorial video useful: http://boardgamegeek.com/video/48150/where-eagles-dare/where-eagles-daregrand-tactical-series-gameplay-cr The video is for Where Eagles Dare in the MMP Grand Tactical System, but that system is based on Panzer Command and plays in a very similar fashion. So, once the Grand Tactical System makes sense to you, Panzer Command becomes much easier to grasp and you can discover the joys of Where Eagles Dare and The Devil's Cauldron, both excellent games to use as op layers for CM2 Market Garden.

You don't need the original Panzer Command Cyberboard gamebox. Just load my Cyberboard gamebox and scenario. What you need to go with it is the Panzer Command boardgame, for its rules and charts. Used copies frequently appear online for approx $25-$35 US.

That's as good a grain elevator as we could ever hope to see. Well done. And, being modded from buildings, it's one that can be fought through and fought from. Re: modded church steeples -- I've often suggested on the forums that we desperately need industrial smokestacks. I always thought perhaps the church steeples were the best modding candidates for that, until BFC gives us some -- given that they're already relatively tall and narrow. But since I'm not a modder, I have no idea.

Jaw-dropping. Takes the game to an entirely different level. We've been needing proper urban ruins for years now. At last!! Stalingrad here we come. (and BTW, is that a grain elevator in the distance on shot #12?)

Does anyone know whether the CW and German troops at the Third Battle of Cassino (March 1944) were wearing winter uniforms or temperate?

Have you experimented to see whether your custom-made low bocage using ditchlock can also have foxholes or trenches planted in it? Since it's ground, it should. This was also a big wishlist item for CMBN to allow Germans to have "true bocage defenses" where they had fighting and shelter positions dug right into the bocage. Some of us who tried to do an ersatz version in CMBN (by planting a bocage section right on top of an existing foxhole) never really worked.

Here's the story about it in today's New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/world/europe/russia-revisits-its-history-to-nail-down-its-future.html?_r=0 No one knows exactly what "denigrating really means," and that's just the point: It's whatever the state says it is. And this quote from a Russian historian predicts it will have a chilling effect: “The law is not about Nazism, it is about establishing an historical canon, a historical narrative written by the state,” said Ivan I. Kurilla, a historian at Volgograd State University. “It would criminalize historical research.”

Last week, Russian President Putin signed a new law that carries a five-year jail term and heavy fines for anyone who tries to denigrate Russia's WWII record. Without getting into the politics of current events, I think there's legitimate cause to wonder what this could do to chill the work of Western historians like Glantz, who have used the post-1991 opening of Soviet archives to tell a more accurate and detailed --and unvarnished -- story of that country's war experience.

How do you get those higher numbered variations to show up where you want them in game?

Which gives me the idea: We should have a virtual CM Christmas card competition this year. We'd create a dedicated thread where participants could post screenshots of their charming scenes by a deadline, then let the community vote (does this forum support polls?) You can use games that have winter in them already, or a snow mod.

I think if you've got a scenario map/situation where it's an assault on a fortified line, then the attacking side almost always would have done recon to know the line is there and where the fortifications are. This would be especially true in the June-July part of Bagration, where the Soviets had total air superiority as well. So losing FOW to sink fortifications into the ground is worth doing. The only place that FOW would be an issue is on QB maps or something that's more of a tournament style battle.

How deep do you sink the ditchlock tiles to get trenches lying flush to the ground, or bunkers with just the firing slits above ground?

And maybe the train car object could double as an urban tram, if we can also get tram tracks that work on urban streets.

Wait -- you mean you still actually *play* CM and fight battles? The rest of us have moved on -- we just make pretty farms and swap landscape design ideas now.

Extremely helpful -- thanks!

I've got a Version 2 gamebox and scenario now, and v2 rules, containing a number of upgrades and fixes. Previous saved games won't work with it, however. So it's only good if you want to start a game from scratch.

I just finished v2 of the Cyberboard gamebox and scenario for that game, so anyone who wants it please PM me.

I've long been asking for a fake watery terrain tile that we could then use to make streams and wet looking areas at any elevation level of maps -- instead of the plain marsh tiles that we've had to make do with, which just leave a stream looking like a brownish ditch. This gets us almost there. A version with just some mossy stones, perhaps, instead of lilly pads would be it exactly.

Stalingrad grain elevators here we come!

I'd still use this if I ever have a small scenario where, say, all the Soviets were hastily drafted and less well equipped NKVD militia defending the outskirts of Stalingrad in fall '42.

This is outstanding. Thank you for making this!

On Youtube I recently saw a WWII German 1943 training film for tank crews that showed dismounted Soviets trying to throw molotovs onto the rear engine decks -- the film noted how dangerous this was because the burning fuel could drip in through those vents. And it demonstrated a crewmember grabbing a fire extinguisher and using a rear hatch in the turret to put out the fire ASAP. If that had been a flamethrower, the danger could only have been worse, I'd think.