Jock Tamson

I play ASL (more often than CM at this point), Lock N Load Tactical, and Panzer/MBT.  As for why, I like knowing the rules of the simulation and the mental challenge of remembering and applying the rules.  

ASL for me. It fills in the gaps left by CM. There are scenarios and releases now that cover from the Sino-Japanese war to the Korean war, and everything and every theatre and nationality in between and a lot of stuff that isn't in CM e.g. paradrops, beach landings, gliders, climbing, sewer movement, basements for tanks to fall into...
Sure, you have to do the engine work yourself and there a few other drawbacks e.g. no sexy 3D and the FOW isn't as well-done, and you can't replicate weal-world tactics in the same way as you can with CM but in my opinion it's worth it. The modules can be hard to get and quite expensive, but if anyone prepared to forgo the full sets with physical boards can do quite well with VASL, an online computerised playing surface - unfortunately, it doesn't enforce the rules so you still need to learn them.
Some say that ASL is a Hollywood version of WW2. I don't think that's correct - the outcomes are too random and too cruel - just like in CM. Show me the Hollywood ,movie where the best leader was taken out by a sniper before he got to do anything, or where a bunch of Stalingrad's heroic defenders fried themselves with their own molotov cocktails.  But a lot of players reckon that each scenario played produces its own story that  stick in the mind. One that sticks in my mind recently was from "Fighting Withdrawal" (me playing solo - Holditov vs Holditala) the first scenario in the first module, which has the Finns attacking a Russian-held town in one of the early attacks of the Continuation War. A number of Finnish squads needed to cross an open space but it was covered by an Russian squad+ MG which had already wiped out one squad attempting to cross at the same spot. A morale check against one of the Finnish squads auto-generated a Hero counter and the hero distracted the Russians by heading for an adjacent building, drawing fire while the rest of his comrades scampered across safely. The hero survived the fire aimed at him but seeing that the Russian squad was demoralised (it had been reduced in quality by an earlier morale check), he fancied his chances at taking them on single-handed...and didn't survive the experience. The kind of vignette you might read about in a book by Max Hastings, Anthony Beevor or Cornelius Ryan. 
 

I am not sure which mod it is in, it might be one of Mord's.  Someone on here will probably know.

Even better with the very sweary Scottish voice mod from CMSF1

Even better with the very sweary Scottish voice mod from CMSF1

The more you try to simulate, the more you suck out the game.  It is a tightrope for an entertainment product.
Advanced Squad Leader does not try to be a simulation, and is better for it.  There is risk, randomness and decision making within a framework of phases all of which encourage a narrative to emerge.  The inconsistencies that you get with CM are not so jarring when their equivalents occur in a boardgame - because "rules" (although in ASL there is likely to be a rule for it). 

For example CM goes to great lengths (compared to other computer games) to simulate the effects of different levels of C2.  And yet you, as the God-like player, can order every unit on the map with LoS to an action square to fire on it, even if only one unit has actually spotted a contact.  The AI, of course, will not do this.  This kind of situation is where, for me, CM can trip up over itself as it walks the line between allowing players freedom to do things, versus providing a framework of rules within which both player and AI operate.  That kind of even ground within a set of rules is where, for me as a wargamer, a lot of the fun in a game is.  I appreciate the situation is more nuanced in multiplayer.

The lockdown has encouraged me to look at formats I would have considered quite lo-fi a few years ago.  There is so much software out there that tries to simulate stuff, it has become boring for me.

So I have been picking up the ASL Starter Kit after many many years away from boardgames, and goofing around with VASL.  I have been playing Lock n Load Digital which has a nice impulse system.  I've played a lot of Field of Glory 2.  Sad to say I have found them more fun than CM.  Maybe there will be something in the next iteration of CM that sucks me back in.

Download Gimp, then use the BRZ exploder that comes with the games to explode the brz files and expose the individual bitmap images.  Or download one of the US forces mods from https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/cm-mod-warehouse/  and play around with editing those.  Aside from learning how to use Gimp, which largely takes a few hours of trial and error, the important bit is to make sure you save the bitmaps in the correct format - 24 Bit with no additional meta info (this will make more sense when you are using Gimp and try to export one of your edited images for the first time).
This is what a bitmap looks like.  This particular one is for a new Combatant that I did for CMSF2.  I have noted which bits are which.  The front of the shirt was copied from an image on the internet.  

In this example, I copied the texture for the shirt from the internet, copy and pasted the vest from the Syrian Special Ops uniform, recoloured the jeans.  You can see that you don't have to be super careful, so long as you respect the boundaries of each section.  I added a wave transformation to the sleeves.

Lastly, this is the Syrian Special Ops Uniform modded with the German forces trousers.  You can see where I got the vest from for the mod above.

It occurs to me that this feature could be used to play co-operatively.  Or tutoring a new player.  Anyone tried it?

Now up on the Mod Warehouse https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/cm-mod-warehouse/ 

Yes

It occurs to me that this feature could be used to play co-operatively.  Or tutoring a new player.  Anyone tried it?

London is not particularly representative of the rest of the UK.  Many of the smaller cities offer a quality of life that Londoners can only dream about.  Example: Edinburgh

It occurs to me that this feature could be used to play co-operatively.  Or tutoring a new player.  Anyone tried it?

It occurs to me that this feature could be used to play co-operatively.  Or tutoring a new player.  Anyone tried it?

It occurs to me that this feature could be used to play co-operatively.  Or tutoring a new player.  Anyone tried it?

It occurs to me that this feature could be used to play co-operatively.  Or tutoring a new player.  Anyone tried it?

The screenshots on the Steam page are really poor.  Aliasing in all of them, when there is no need for it.  You wouldn't put crumpled clothing in a store window.

Now up on the Mod Warehouse https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/cm-mod-warehouse/ 

https://ibb.co/rk7wnTc

Almost sounds like he patched the wrong location because he mentioned something about the icons being messed up

I have mostly played CMx2.  I own them all, including Afghanistan.  I played a little bit of CMx1 back in the day, but nowhere near the same extent.  I have been gaming since the early 80s.
I am finding, as time goes on, that I am being drawn more and more to games in which the underlying board game (or miniatures) rules are still evident.  For example, I play quite a bit of Field of Glory 2.  For me, it is more "fun" than CMx2, whether single player or PBEM.  I can't put my finger on it, but it is something to do with that old school combination of detailed rules, Action Points, terrain rules, consideration of your opponent's options, etc that draws me in, in a way which CMx2 just doesn't seem to manage.  Lock 'n' Load Digital is another one.

There is obviously plenty of complexity available in CMx2 which has always been a big draw for me.  However I think one of the problems is that I only play single player so my intricate bounding overwatch, house assaults etc are never matched by anything I see the AI do, so it can start to feel less like a wargame and more like a RTS title.  Hopefully the Steam release will enable me to get some friends interested in multiplayer.

+1.  Very nice.  I remember you did something similar for CMSF 1.  A mixed combatants if I recall.  Thanks again.  

I'll be putting these on the Mod Warehouse, but in the meantime:
UK Forces :  https://1drv.ms/u/s!AswpXnulSwEAjywkrhj1Wr4dNuBi?e=VcA7sa
Unconventional forces : https://1drv.ms/u/s!AswpXnulSwEAjy13tUrDFQImjCIa?e=qE6pEU

Download the desired mod, copy the zip into the ..\Data\Z directory in your CMSF2 installation, and unzip.