Mr.X

Indeed, during the research, all the German Infantry Divisions of Army Group Centre, I studied had almost 100% personal strengh in June 1944 - according to the structure for ID 1944. Nonetheless there were huge problems. As an example: 252.ID had 3 strong + 4 average Grenadier-Batallions in June 1944. Additionally a Pio-Batallion and a Training-Batallion. Division had to hold a frontline of approximately 35 km length (!) - so, one single batallion was responsible for a sector of 4-5 km length (!) The divisional Artillery Regiment had in total 44 guns. There was a huge lack of ammunition supply, so only 3-5 shots per day for every gun were allowed. Division had in total 21 AT-Guns, only few were SPGs. Eqipement of Infantry was often poor - so, the common MG was still the MG-34 for example. Additionally there was a serious lack of infantry AT-weapons like Panzerschreck and Panzerfausts. Except for few weak platoons there were no reserves behind the frontlines. And, not least - the few supply routes suffered under continous partisan activities.

@PEB14: Interesting fact. To be honest, I never touched this problem I don‘t like the core unit system so much, because of the difficulty to calculate the development of a battle, especially if there are too many missions behind each other. With the opening of Bagration, the German Units had to hold overstretched frontline sections with few or none reserves, but the personal strengh of most infantry divisions was on 100%. In „Summer of Destruction“ the player will initially command full strenghed units in some cases, but I have choosen another way of structure for most of the actions. Regards Mr.X

@Aragorn2002: Perfect preparation for the BattlePack

Some new impressions from WIP:

I just took a look at it (didn‘t hold the book in my hand for about 10 years). No special information about the TOE of the Commandos They landed in the area of the Pachino Peninsula to secure the flanks. Can send you the chapters from the book if needed

At the end there will always be a conflict between historical accuracy and playability in CM due to the compressed character of the fightings. Real fighting at company or batallion level would be an extremely boring thing in a game because of the often endless hours they lasted. The same with reports of (for example) huge numbers of destroyed enemy tanks - in most cases such situations were the result of catastrophic decisions by headquarters or bad misjudgment of leading officers on site - many CM Players would not assess such situations as enyoyable playing. So, if in doubt, I will always try to prefer playability instead of pure reality. So, what players can expect, is historical correct units, historical correct locations/dates/circumstances and as historical as possible built maps (depending on military maps, areal photos and old pictures). 80% of the officers names and ranks will be correct, too - for some officers I have made short portraits to improve the atmosphere. Fighting itself will be harsh, sometimes with limited options, often with much more tactical options than one will expect with first glance. Regards Mr.X

May be, a series of 7-8 very small missions could work…for example one fortified Italian Bunker position which surprisingly gives resistance while the story tells the Player, that all other Italian Units in the area immidiately have surrendered. Or some tiny street fighting along few houses, where a handful of fanatics decided to die with honor….

@PEB14: Call it quarter historical The information in this Osprey Book is not much more than some locations and generally info IIRC. I am afraid, almost any actions with Italians in Sicily are difficult to be used for CM Most of the Italian Units surrendered at latest with the beginning of serious fighting. And the few units which tried to counterattack like in Gela are reported to be massacred by Warship Artillery… But your optimization of the campaign is much appreciated At least the maps are really worth it Regards Mr.X

Most of the failing German high ranked officers however became pensioners. At least until 20th of July. Then comfort changed for some.

Ultimately, every civil or military fail on Soviets Side lead to paragraph 58, thus to the simple choice between beiing sentenced to death or 25 years in Siberia.

By the way, during the making of this BattlePack, it was like a history- and geography lesson for me. Although I was aware of, that the typical wide landscape of the East is mainly found in the Southern (and Ukrainian) Region, I was still surprised about the sheer density of wooded and swampy areas in the Central Region. Almost no place for huge tank operations, only a limited number of roads and always some kind of a claustrophobic feeling. Now, I can comprehend, why German Headquarters simply lost the contact with whole Army-Corps.

@kohlenklau: Of course, PEB is free to use all that stuff and improve it

@Artkin: I doubt, that more than some WIA were evacuated during the Stalingrad-Pocket. Most of these units had to be almost completely reformed. I will try to read this chapter of the history of the 244th Brigade and will tell you, if I find any info Regards Mr.X

@PEB14: As I mentioned: I am not a big fan of this campaign On the one hand, the maps are quite nice… On the other hand, the story is at least semi-historical, if at all. It depends on an old Osprey-Book. Concerning the mixture of units, I have to answer like a politican: „I do not remember, what I did at this time“ It was 2013, my former computer is dead for years and I don‘t own the original missions any more, nor do I have any memory about the briefings. To be honest, I am mostly a RedThunder Fan and back then, I was waiting for RT and had only few freetime (job, children etc.). May be, this explains the result And obviously, the handling of bunkers seemed to be a kind of game related problem. And I did the mistake to put too much Italian Units into the missions. Summarized, I think mission 2 seemed to be fun for most players, mission 1 was ok for 50% of players and mission 3 was (despite the hard map work) at least frustrating ****. Regards Mr.X

@Artkin Of course, you are right It‘s a mistake. It should be the 78th (storm) Division. And yes, both Abteilungen had been destroyed in Stalingrad. But they were rebuilt in March and April 1943 as Abteilungen and later (early 1944) reformed as Brigades. Regards Mr.X

@Vacillator: It is never too late Every report is very appreciated Regards Mr.X

Short update: While I am starting with playtesting for 2 of the 4 campaigns (the biggest one runs already at this stage) - I have now an overview of all the different divisional and Army-Units, the players will command (parts of) through these 5 campaigns. And I couldn‘t resist to list them here : 12th ID 24th (mot) ID 31st ID 45th ID 95th ID 134th ID 178th (Storm) ID 252nd ID 286th Security Division 383rd ID PGD „Feldherrnhalle“ 12th PD 20th PD 3rd SS-PD SS-KG von Gottberg I. Flakabteilung(AA-Battalion)/ Kommandostab RF-SS schw.(Heavy) TD-Battallion 665 schw.(Heavy) Heeres-TD-Battalion 519 Assault Gun Brigade 244 Assault Gun Brigade 245 Assault Gun Brigade 909 Regards Mr.X

@Artkin: Great overview

In contrary to the Siciliy-Campaign, the claim of this BP will be to have the best possible historical accuracy. All maps will be based on historical military maps or at least areal photos. All units will be presented as historical correct as it can be. Many real names of officers and some portraits of former soldiers.

Oh, these guys have made much huger campaigns than me. I remember, there was „Devils Descent“ and a campaign about the counter attack at Mortain („Letzte Hoffnung“?) and „A bloody Ride“ should have been the third usermade campaign for CMBN. I doubt, if it is still playable today, but I don‘t have a version on my current PC. With „Welcome to Sicily“, from todays view, I am not lucky. Only 3 missions and historical not acurate enough. The last one is „Zawiya Uprising“ for ShockForce. It was meant as a small Red vs Red Campaign without too much expectations (while I had waited for RedThunder) - but most critics were positiv.

Medical Intervention Team. While you are waiting for medical emergencies in a 24hour shift, time can be very very long

But the real Designers like GeorgeMC or PaperTiger will be able to answer this question with more details, because they have constantly created new high quality stuff for years, while I only did three campaigns between 2011 and 2014.

It would be interesting to find out the exacte time, a single campaign is consuming. I guess, the 10 mission campaign „Five Bridges“ needs about (net - I cannot concentrate myself for endless hours - so meanwhile I do some other things for a change) 300 hours, which means 4-6 months…

@PEB14: Without exaggeration, I assume, it is hundreds of hours. But I didn‘t count I am in the lucky situation to be able to combine my work with my hobby. So, while I am sitting here and create stuff, I am payed So, no clash with real life, enough time for children and family AND CM During the last ten years, I never had time for such things and may be, next year my time for CM will be (at least) reduced. So, now is the time to become a legend