kohlenklau

...and now Part 4 The new lead tank might have suffered a concussive effect from the enemy shells as the crew seems to go crazy and drive their tank backwards towards the German Panzers! It seems they have damage to their radio and maybe the crew is voting on what to do after each man gets several minutes to explain his opinion...? The intensity of the fight at the tip of the spear contrasts greatly with the lightness of mood back at an immobilized tank far from the fray. Mexondeaux hums a little tune as he watches through the vision slit. I see trees of green, red roses too I see them bloom for me and you And I think to myself What a wonderful world I see skies of blue and clouds of white The bright blessed days, the dark sacred nights And I think to myself What a wonderful world The crazed tank is commanded by Sergente Floch! What the floch is he doing? Major Tron's tank has advanced into the lead... His driver exclaims loudly over the intercom "We've penetrated Francesca!!" Major Tron frowns and kicks the driver in the head with his boot. C'EST MA FEMME!!! In a fit of jealous rage, Major Tron orders the entire crew outside to settle the matter without rank. He was a boxer before the army. But not a very good boxer - so the crew agrees. The matter is quickly settled and Major Tron swears them all to not disclose what has occurred. He then orders all tanks to briefly halt to review their status before the final push on Saint-Grammont.

Part 3 The lead tank survives! The culprit is spotted, a Panzer IV Ausf D with short barrel 75mm cannon. Maybe it was a HEAT round? Just to the right on the other side of the hedge is a Pz II Ausf A firing the 20mm autocannon. This crew has avoir les boules!!! In France, we can take off the tops of the trees for use in a delicate pastry...or to better see the battle of char versus panzer THERE! There is the black-hearted beast of Krupp steel! Having come directly from a paint shop, in preparation for the victory parade in Paris, the Black beast's crew is extremely hesitant to get their panzer damaged. The Panzer II Ausf A dies in a ball of flame. uhhh, ball of..smoke? "BOURRASQUE" retreats back. She is scarred and ravaged but still alive.

Part 2 continued... The lead tanks move across Phase Line Elaine having crossed the big creek. As the turn ends, automatic cannon fire comes from a sound contact further down the road to Saint-Grammont. The lead vehicle encounters a German Panzer III Ausf F armed with a 37mm gun. The enemy tank has an excellent crew with outstanding gunnery skills. The shell hits the lower front hull and puts the 75 out of action. She fires back and hits the panzer in the upper front hull. As that KO'd panzer's crew bails out, our Char gets LOS on another PzIIIF. Suddenly, a massive explosion rocks the Char. Has our lead tank been destroyed? Continued in Part 3...

The freedom to work on what I want at any pace or never even finish it is what I enjoy. I could not "work" for BFC. They never asked me so I guess we see eye to eye! I probably wouldn't last a few weeks if they DID ask me and I DID join. hahaha. I wish them the best and I will happily stay in my little playground for the rest of the year and then I am planning on punching out of this hobby for good. I plan to mod my heart out and then it will be time to move on.

Here is the briefing for the French. Here is the French set-up. I used 3 different color zones to kind of force or allow some stuff to happen. left and right flank positions and the main area at the farmhouse. He has an LMG. A squad. A Breach team. A platoon leader and Capitaine Gourmand. Plus 3 foxholes. Let us look at some of the French troops...(P.S. I don't have a PhD in French Military History, ok. Just trying to have fun and be creative.) These are colonial troops. I guess from Africa. Their helmet has a crescent moon and R.F. emblem. Courtesy of @JM Stuff Merci JM. This is a Breach team of French. Falaise made the greatcoats and one has the collar badges for the regiment. He also made a bunch of gear and I will swing around to take a shot of their back sides. ...and le derriere! Check out the canteen we made in Blender. It actually holds wine according to Falaise. (Red with beef. White with fish and chicken). He made all the textures. We are still migrating them out to the other troops. These guys are pretty much fully equipped. Here is our rendition of the France 1940 French army squad. We wish we could ditch the SMG as desired but it isn't editable. We can play tricks to make it go away and not be present in a battle. The French had very few SMG's. They got several thousand out of Spain after the Spanish Civil War. They started making one. MAS-38. I am trying to get it Blender modded. No luck yet. I haven't had any success making a MAS-36 either. Here is another @JM Stuff Maybe he hangs around the docks late at night and got this 3D model off some drunk sailor? I don't know. Merci JM. I made this mod of an SMG in Blender after seeing a photo in an Osprey book. Whatever! Here is LT Falaise...What a man! Carries 333 rounds of ammo. WTF? I dialed the headcount down but the game doesn't dial down the ammo. hmmmm Last but not least, Capitaine Gourmand. Where did they get that radio from? Jeez. I better swap that out for 2 tin cans and some string or maybe one of those funky Italian radios with the big hoola-hoop antenna? TO BE CONTINUED

I modded a splash background just to set the mood a bit better. Here is the scenario cover view Here is the map I made. A farmhouse on a small hill beyond the creek. In the distance is some road the Germans use for running supplies as they race towards the Meuse or the English Channel. The French are using the farmhouse to spot for artillery and this Waffen-SS platoon must eliminate the farmhouse. Here is my Waffen-SS platoon trying to be as "France 1940" as I can get them. I am not a TOE expert. I asked one of the BFC bubbas for help and I got no reply. Maybe I am "persona non grata"? I attached a 50mm mortar to the platoon of 4 squads. I can only do what I can do. If you don't like this, I know it isn't perfect, but please just move along... I am not Audie Murphy so this thread isn't about great tactics but I will use what Dick Winters taught me when I watched "Band of Brothers" and set up a base of fire off on my left flank. 2 of my 4 squads will go over there along with the 50mm mortar. Suppress the farmhouse and allow the remaining 2 squads to make their approach and close assault the joint. If needed. But first I gotta cross the creek. I made the map so I know where all the fjords are. FJORDS? They are in Norway son! What we have here is shallow fords. Like a Pinto with bad shocks? hahaha, what a jokester. I do not know where Falaise has set up but I will use the magic of television to show what his troops look like. He made some great gear mods and I think our France 1940 French Army ensemble looks tres magnefique. That is French for "we can do this crap but BFC can't?"

Voulez-vous PBEM avec moi ce soir? @FalaiseFalaise and I decided to do a PBEM to showcase the infantry aspects of the new mod. He defends as the French and I am the Germans. I am multi-tasking on the armour PBEM DAR so this one will be a bit more paced out...

I am building a 24 foot tall dining room. It has stairs and a loft. Also building a small house for my son. 700 sq ft. PING-PONG sounds fun. My wife and I have an excellent rivalry in scrabble, rummy, flinch, farkle and darts. No ping pong yet!

Part 2 continued... we will take a break for lunch...

BUFLA TO THE RESCUE Part 2 The attack presses forward despite the loss of a third of our force. We are about halfway to Saint Grammont... Viva La France!!! One of our vehicle crews has bailed out and fires at the nearby enemy in panic. It helps another vehicle to make it through... Our tanks have reached Phase Line Claudette under German mortar fire. You know...this crap aint easy to do. We knocked-out a German truck. The crew will paint a "kill marking" on their barrel...and leave their insurance papers for the driver to avoid any police involvement. The Germans used up about a dozen grenades to knock-out the abandoned tank. ohhh, but it was successful Back at Phase Line Beatrice...the crew in an immobilized R35 sit quietly and await their fate. The German anti-tank gun fires a long range "hail Mary" shot to try and KO an R35. It ricochets into the air. (I measured it at about 550 meters)

@WimO You are definitely going out with a bang. Great job. Maybe destroy your CD's and delete CM off your hard drive and take up a hobby that gets you up and about. Am I talking to you or myself? If you find "that hobby", please let me know what it is.

It is like making a big salad and a lasagna and nobody wants to swing by for lunch. PM me the link and I will do your tests. very general things, such as:- Is the battle too short / too long? Map too big / too small?- Too many / too few troops?- Too easy / too difficult?- Any obvious mistakes?- General impressions / improvements suggested?- Etc.

One woman takes nine months to have a baby. 5 guys humping on her doesn't speed it up. blah blah blah @Sedak I think you might smell like webgear, leather and c-rations. But BFC has pretty much lost all its WW2 Mojo. Battle Packs? Not what I am looking for.

Hi Steve, Can you please give me some small amount of support to my CMFI France 1940 Mod? 1. Can I get the "raw" texture photoshop files (with layers) for a few vehicles? Removing camo patterns is very difficult. 2. Can someone help me with a few of my vehicle mdr hacks? I just have a few little problems that an insider might clear up. A few man-hours of somebody's time. Thanks and I hope you say yes. Phil

A near miss for Sergeant Clouseau! We have lost 5 of the R35's as we clear this first defensive line of infantry. The 37mm gun is practically state of the art for its time. The SS grenadiers pay dearly for the 5 tanks. End of Part 1

Tonight we have a new PBEM presented as I play it and post some screenshots with some funny commentary. BUFLA TO THE RESCUE Part 1 The French tank forces launch an attack into a section of the German lines with their objective to cut the rail line that passes near the small village of Saint-Grammont-sur-Merde... The French force is composed of 2 platoons of Char R35's and 1 platoon of Char B1 bis. A total of 15 vehicles. It is a skinny long map... we will go on the left, the right and the middle. Or as we say in Saumur, "gauche, droit et centre" An enemy gun is detected on the right flank near the first phase line! The phase lines are named after the women of the Battalion Commander... Phase Lines Abigail, Beatrice, Claudette, Daniella, Elaine, Francesca, Gabrielle and Helena. We have reached Phase Line Abigail! The light tanks risk bogging in the muddy creek... The training of the tank force has been less than desired. One tank races ahead of the others. Perhaps he seeks glory? In another area a great traffic jam wastes valuable time... A tank is hit by a grenade and the crew becomes excited... continued on next post...

She's a big girl!

This is my last mod ever so I am TRYING to go out in style. All the bells and whistles. new floating icons...

Dang. I thought it was for Kohlenklau...

The Bufla will have her combat debut tonight at the hands of @Heinrich505 I made a few improvements (raised it up using the "pedestal" from the regular Flak88) and have secured tweaking it. I saw this version and tried a little effort to copy it.

Yes. Folks not carrying the special access card to the back room.

To best gage the interest, please PM me if you want any of this mod. THEN I can provide a link by PM back to you to download stuff...

I PM'd a link to Test Scenario A with mods to the THE DIRTY HALF-DOZEN PLUS ONE

It would be a big ego boost if a hundred people said they wanted this humble mod...or any of my other mods. Possibly folks consider it as amateur and half-*** or not the real deal if not made by BFC. But as I always say they are free and worth every penny. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just having a small group actually has many benefits. You all know me and can just ask me to look at any issues if there is a glitch.

Well, I can say that "marketing" has been done and still no major influx of interest. I have a youtube channel. But I have had several youtube videos created by Smartwargames and 37mm. I appreciated their exposure. This was not for France1940 but for many other mods and it was all crickets except for maybe a handful of people commenting.