BletchleyGeek

Thanks @akd for wading into Twitch and coming up with a direct link to Steve & @ChrisND demo session. Very interesting to hear Steve's voiceover (it's good to put a sound to the written word!). As usual, when you listen to a creator talking about their work, there's nuance and a smattering of detail that you don't get from text alone. So I learnt a couple things about CMx2 that I didn't before. I think every fan of these games should watch that demo.
What was the feedback and questions from the professional audience like? It is a crowd that, speaking in very general and broad terms, is not very fond of high fidelity simulators, and prefer manual wargames as they don't need to jump a big technical barrier in order to tweak the models.

Minor update of sheer and utter madness because I'm sure if he hasn't already BFCElvis has started to gloat (I know I would have).
Ithikial's grand Panzer plan falls dead in a heap. The two Panzer IV's take lead and pincer the known Sherman. It's facing towards OBJ Beer to the south. It's utterly confused spotting both Panzer IV's he poor commander and gunner are shell shocked. The turret finally begins to move. The Sherman at 'Dead Tank Corner' gets the first aimed shot off and instead of going for the rear of the turret places one directly in the centre of the hull! It ricochet's off the hull.

Sherman slowly moves it's turret and single shots the Panzer IV. Immediate catastrophic explosion.


The JzPzIV directly behind then takes a hit in the rear engine and is knocked out. I think my last JzPzIV(A) is safe since there's literally four tank wrecks lined up between it and the offending Sherman.
Meanwhile behind the other Sherman has a panic attack (the crew are rattled) and pops smoke and begins to reverse rather than taking a shot at the rear hull and turret of the Sherman!

Luckily for me it's the end turn and I quickly put a stop to that nonsense. You will stand and fight or your will die. I'm not nice to my pixeltruppen.

Now to go grab a drink.

Looks like this is actually a demo of the “professional” version, at least they have titled it as such, and Steve seems to be presenting.
edit: actually standard CMBS being demoed, but discussion is potential of CM professional.

Haven't dug into detail on this data, and on individual basis I do think the MP44 could use some tweaks (although SMGs may also simply be performing too well at range).  However, when looking at unit firepower (which matters most), the Sturm platoon in CMBN is one of the weakest employed by the Wehrmacht: 3x 8-man squads armed solely with MP44.  Of course this was one of the first implementations of the Sturm platoon concept, and then it was believed then that the MP44 could entirely supplant the LMG at the platoon level.  Furthermore this is a mounted unit meant to fight in concert with the firepower of its SPWs.  Later sturm platoon implementations brought more men, LMGs and scoped rifles back into the sturm platoon org.  Meanwhile, the MP44-armed SPW platoon was largely abandoned in formal orgs after it's initial implementation in the short-lived Panzer Brigades.
If you look at something like the Begleitgrenadier platoon in Sturmartillerie Brigades (and in upcoming 45 version of the infantry division Panzerjäger Battalion for RT module), I suspect the platoon would be rated very high in the unit firepower comparison.

A while back I reported on a series of tests of SMG's, rifles and machineguns in CMBN 4.00: 
Basically it is about measuring the number of kills per unit time achieved by a single soldier with the tested weapon against a standard target, a group of 4 soldiers in foxholes, again and again, under the same condition. It attracted some interest, so I returned to the project 2 years later and did everything more thoroughly in CMBN 4.02. The tests were automated with python, which allowed me to do lots of test runs - each result represents an average of more than 500 runs. It quickly got out of hand and in the end cost me much more effort than it is worth, but after a few months, hundreds of hours of CMBN clocked overnight on my backup computer and over 80 million rounds of ammunition fired, it's done and ready for release.
Although this was done in CMBN, I think the results will apply to other CM WW2 titles, too.
Read the full report here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/enmae2qpysgkace/CMBN Weapons Tests 2020.pdf
Inside you will find:
How different kinds of weapons, from the Walther P38 pistol to the M2 HB machinegun, perform against infantry targets from 40 to 312 m in terms of number of kills achieved per unit time and ammunition expenditure How Gunners differ from Soldiers when firing LMG's (they don't, or at most very little) How Marksmen differ from Soldiers when using scoped rifles (they do, a great deal) The effect of experience (Green, Reg, Vet and Crack) And perhaps the most interesting stuff - results for individual weapons added up according to the TO&E of almost fifty U.S., German and British infantry platoon formations, giving an estimate of the firepower of each at different distances, and also recalculated per QB purchase cost to see where you get the best "value for money" from this perspective.

Error.

FYI the name is Bil Hardenberger... appreciate the mention though.
 

The next turn after the above update...

 

Feel free to bash me later if I'm wrong, but I don't think that will happen. I think the kind of players who will be attracted to this game will usually be the kind of people who are interested in history and realism, and who are intelligent enough to realise that they might be doing mistakes if things don't work out the way they hoped for.
At least that's that style of the majority of posts I've read on these forums over the years. I think the idea of the unreasonable player has been exaggerated quite a bit.
As Steve said, niche games are judged by a different standard than the latest and greatest AAA game. And played by very different people.

Doesn't matter so much on Steam, where there's a general 2-hour refund option. The game itself is the demo.

I understand your challenge. In your example the 'team' or the 'mg42' are neither feminine or masculine: 'it was discovered' (it = the machinegun). 'They were cut down' (they = the team).
For me the challenge is the other way around, I can never remember all the different rules for je/tu/il/elle/ils/on/nous on verbs in present and past tense, feminine/masculine. 
Mais c'est bien de pratiquer!
Even if I had French 4 years in high school. 😅
 

Oookay. I almost fell off the couch when I read about this on The Wargamer and had to check out the Steam page to see it wasn't an elaborate prank.
 
Will you guys be giving Steam keys to those who already have the games?
 
And excited to hear about this, I am positive it will be good for your business!

Excellent, thanks very much Steve  Now we can write a review.

Oookay. I almost fell off the couch when I read about this on The Wargamer and had to check out the Steam page to see it wasn't an elaborate prank.
 
Will you guys be giving Steam keys to those who already have the games?
 
And excited to hear about this, I am positive it will be good for your business!

Oookay. I almost fell off the couch when I read about this on The Wargamer and had to check out the Steam page to see it wasn't an elaborate prank.
 
Will you guys be giving Steam keys to those who already have the games?
 
And excited to hear about this, I am positive it will be good for your business!

Excellent, thanks very much Steve  Now we can write a review.

Oookay. I almost fell off the couch when I read about this on The Wargamer and had to check out the Steam page to see it wasn't an elaborate prank.
 
Will you guys be giving Steam keys to those who already have the games?
 
And excited to hear about this, I am positive it will be good for your business!

Oookay. I almost fell off the couch when I read about this on The Wargamer and had to check out the Steam page to see it wasn't an elaborate prank.
 
Will you guys be giving Steam keys to those who already have the games?
 
And excited to hear about this, I am positive it will be good for your business!

Obligatory question for when this happens:  have you decided whether to issue Steam keys to current customers to let them transition over to that platform?  
In case anyone hasn't used Steam and is wondering why - the quality of life improvement from never having to worry about installer .exes and getting automatic patching is something you'll never want to come back from.  

The new patch really does crush mods, but still I like the new platoon behavior.
CM is acceptable unmodded, but I will miss my gridded terrain!!!  Bil, are you listening?
I don't understand why I can play City Skylines or Transport Fever 2 and get a decent topo map overlay, but not in a war game where it is far more than aesthetics?

I would exchange Maus, IS-3, Jagdtiger and anything else for a horse! And German infantry carriage.

it is not good to make fun of someone who speaks a language that is not this own 😤
then I discovered this document (authentic) which proves that there were women paratroopers in the American army
perfide Albion 😁

In memoriam KG @Josey Wales
KG Josey Wales has been wiped out to a vehicle. Well except the Ostwind but it's done nothing all game.
North
Up first just a nice scenic shot that I think summarizes the upcoming module - minus the snow.

Josey Wale's last surviving halftrack saw an opening as the lend lease Sherman on my far left flank pounded some infantry from KG @benpark. The Sherman's turret was facing away from the halftrack so with bravery it rolled forward. Mistakes were made. It easily got into position, aimed and was elevating the long 75mm gun barrel, but Elvis had been sneaky over the end turn. The Sherman began reversing to break contact with my infantry and in the process swung the hull and therefore the turret back in the direction of the my halftrack. The halftrack came off second best with two quick 76mm rounds through the hull.


(Centre right of the gun shield. A thin piece of metal doesn't protect much against a 76mm round. )
Payback was quick, but not against the Sherman. The tank retreated further back into the main road that has been Elvis' main logistics line all battle. It did however give up it's overwatch position across the park that dominates the north east side of the map.  @DoubleD's Panzer IV (minus DoubleD himself who sits dead in his commander's seat!) rolled into the park and took out a Soviet AT gun and some infantry that hand been loitering for a while.

It then successfully rolled back to safety after popping smoke. Unsure why which has me a little concerned. The green crew is rattled following the death of it's commander but it saw something. Back in it's position of safety, it immediately came under fire from a Soviet mortar position. A few close calls but one some scuffed paintwork.

Meanwhile elements of KG Benpark are setting up to enter the park. There is preciously little Soviet defence now on this side ( I hope they haven't traveled south) so time to apply some more pressure. Elements of KG Benpark are occupying the old Sherman position with their panzerfausts, daring the Soviets to come back to the park. To the far north, Elvis rains down some off map mortars (I assume). Takes out a kubelwagon and some infantry gun crew but I think it's falling well off it's intended target which is the Benpark's infantry closer to his lines.
Centre
Strangely all silent. KG @Bootie has pressed some Volkssturm forward and even the crossroads of death appears vacant of enemy troops. Probably not the best shots but they hold a lot of panzerfausts covering the intersection. They are also doing a little to much thinking for their commander's liking...

KG Double D is just about ready to spring it's trap.
South
The final KG Benpark platoon has crossed successfully to flank to Soviet's trying to take OBJ Beer. I'm getting eyes on a lot of Soviet corpses which I don't remember killing. Mortars actually did something other than damage some buildings?


And then their brothers in arms show up and try to even the score with their SMG's. The one positive is I think these were troops ELvis was setting up to assault OBJ Beer which I don't think my 'Wall of Steel' of @mjkerner's fallschirmjaeger would be able to hold. Elvis did conduct a probing movement towards OBJ Beer since my last update, and even though they were dispatched my troops still panicked and went to ground. I don't think Elvis realises this. My 'wall of steel' is actually a 'wall of aluminum'.

20 minutes remaining.
Finally the map and the next moves.

KG DoubleD will launch it's attack once one of it's tanks crosses the park. We'll hit that Sherman from both sides while covering the approach the SU-85 in the south may take to react.
KG @Hapless is firing some smoke rounds and will race past the Su-85 to assist Benpark's pioneers. Hopefully he won't be too late.
KG Bootie surprisingly holds the centre of the whole operation.

Thanks for making it! Playing it with @BletchleyGeek and we are both enjoying it, ~50min left. 
Like @mjkerner says it is a great scenario! I'll try to post some form of AAR when we are done.

10. Enhanced Modding Support
add units
equipment
functionality
ingame OOB editor