Big Boss

"they [soviet forces] were pursued so closely by the enemy that is was impossibly to lay anti tank mines.." They had several months prior to the battle for that. "...But the 2nd SS panzer corps had already reached Prokhorovka..." Nope etc. etc etc. Putins controlled media has been hard working to adjust history once again to the old soviet style.

That’s a good idea no major programing required, worth testing. I didn’t know that they represent more points, that should make me think twice before sending them into the fire. For me Iron difficulty just making it harder for you to see where contact icon are. It’s just adds more mouse clicking. Still if the jumped out crew can see something important it’s easy enough for other units, not in any ways in communication with them to adjust to that new situation.

Hi! I have been playing Combat Mission for years and this is something I thought about and would like to hear other member’s opinion. Using crews from vehicles to recon ahead is a great method to minimize your vehicle’s exposure to the enemy and was used quite often as I recall. This seemed to happen a lot with tank crews and with some examples from German memoirs, books etc. mentions that crew members even managed to knock out unsuspecting enemy tanks close up at night. My problem is when using crews from knocked out vehicles in recon capacity. Jumping out from a burning/smoking vehicle they dodge the small arms fire and after a few minutes of panic they can act as forward recon elements if they survived. With no real means of communication (radio in tank) they will give the player some nice intelligence about the enemy, especially if their tank were at the forward edge of the battle and the rest of your units have pulled back. My idea was that crew members from destroyed vehicles should be unable to function altogether (based on morale shock, suppression etc) and maybe be removed from the battle after the first panic phase as wounded that gets medic help are.

MINOR SPOILERS Thanks for the comment George MC. I know the mission wasn’t primarily suited for H2H play and we really like that you still made it possibly with briefings and all. I my self appreciate the Fog of War and uncertainties that must have been in these battles IRL. But as the game is designed if a unit is just a few meters from an objective zone it doesn’t count. But that is small complaints as knowing the game limitations we still love it and the amount of work that you and other mission designers put down on your free time. “Look after the assault gun battery (ensuring they don’t lose any more assault guns).” This could mean that you can’t lose ONE more tank, or SOME to get any points at all. That makes for a hard decision regarding their use in the battle. I think when you read real field orders during the stress and confusion of war maybe that was as clear it could get .

SOME SPOILERS! Fun and somewhat different battle as its don’t have any infantry at all only tanks. Beautiful maps with lots of possibilities. Played it H2H and although we liked the battle we had some problems with the objectives and the briefing. For me as the Russian side its was some confusion in how much of the Malinova village we had to hold to get points and if there were any point in trying to attack towards Daugavpils as is stated in the briefing (land objective?). It also stated in the mission that it’s a soviet defence and a German attack although both sides seems to have a little of both (often not a bad idea but here it was somewhat vague). My German playing friend said the German briefing stated that the Stug was of paramount importance to save although the Tigers themselves were worth a lot points too. So for the Germans it was a little difficult to know what he was supposed to do as there was no exit zone for the Stugs either, making them fight the IS-2 or hide during the battle offered no easy answers. I won as the Reds by knocking out the last Tiger an hour in the game. Only two Stugs were then still alive when my friend surrendered. In the beginning I managed to knock out Carius with a first round from a regular IS-2 from 2000m.

SPOILERS Finished playing this H2H last night. Me as Germans and my friend as the soviets. We have about the same level of experience and it was a very fun but though match. I won after about 2 hours when the soviets ceased fire after losing all but a few of his tanks. My plan was for a armored left hook (all tigers, nearly all Panthers and some PzIV with heavy inf. supp.) to ford the river and continue on the left flank (p 213.4, 211.0, 212.6) and then advance to the Orange and Gelb objectives after the big forests (p203.7 and 204.5). Meanwhile smaller forces were to advance in the middle to Obj Blau then occupy the dominating hills (p215.8) north of it. My plan worked like charm. The first dried up river was crossed at some difficulties, mostly trying to get a large armored force across small congested areas but also from some AT-guns. I places some of my Panthers on top of the hill 212.9 and 206.6 were they were in position to cover the advance (some SU-76 got hits from over 2500m ). Then when I were across the river and soviets tanks arrived I always seemed to have the advantage of firing first and often took them out before they could do some damage. Even my PzIV when in right position dealt heavy blown to the T34. The enemy tank found that they had great difficulties fighting me at a distance and tried two mayor counterattacks to close in the range and overwhelm my panzers. They manage to knock out several panzers atop of 211.9 and with that the possibly to have a difficult hole in the center of my line just as my left hook approached 212.6. But luck was on my side again and two Panthers from my back arrived in just the right time on the reverse sloop on 211.9 and managed together with some PzIV from my left flank to charge the enemy and knock them out. After that the soviets lacked more than some tanks and although he still had lots of infantry left (soviet inf are terrible ill-equipped in AT-capabilities) he called it a day just as my left hook approached Obj Orange. Some casualties German tanks 15 Soviet tanks 32 Soviet Inf 270 German Inf 130 All in all a very fun and challenging mission with a wonderful map and very good supplement materials. It was fun to play as a mechanized armored group against and static defense lines with armored reserves arriving piecemeal.

I agree! Until recently my knowledge about the theatre limit itself to Marked Garden and maybe the battle for Walcheren island but then I read the excellent book Autumn Gale Schwere Heeres Panzerjager-abteilung 559, Kampfgruppe Chill and the German Recovery in the Autumn of 1944 (Jack Didden & Maarten Swarts). It focus much on the fighting in and around the Benelux countries during the fall. Highly recommended, although pricey, for those who want to know more about the fighting in this relatively "side showed" theater.

Great news Battlefront! The H2H option is much appreciated. Together with an interesting time span and units involved should make for some long tough hours in the dark.

Hi! Thanks a lot for the update plans. Especially the plan to release Battle Packs makes me full of joy and something I’ve wished for a long time. Maybe a H2H campaign with branching scenarios ? /Big Boss

This looks like a very interesting mission. It’s a beautiful large map with lots of terrain for both the defense and offence. I will give it a try in H2H in a few weeks’ time and hopefully will have some good experience to report.

Great mission, pdf and terrain.

Thanks a lot, these looks very nice indeed. I especially like the one in the top right corner.

Very good summary IanL. As you also said it's not my highest wish either, but as you said even small changes could improve the gameplay experience.

Kampfraum Arnheim by Remy Spezzano has some great photos from Oosterbeek from the German side. Its not only about Oosterbeek but rather it follows a few german war correspondants all over the Market Garden area.

Do I get you right? You don´t want to know the status regarding your own vehicles? If that's your preferred playing style just turn the Vehicle Hit text off as its already availably ingame. What I and some of the other commentators wish for is the possibility to alter the game even more for a more personal preference playing style.

This is my opinion exactly. As the game is played out now, either you have the hit text for both player or none. If you turn the txt of you still have some clues on the effect. Dark or bright hit decal, fire and smoke, hatches open. What I would like, is to still have text hit message on my own vehicles just to be able to quickly get an appreciation during a sometimes stressful turn.

I noticed the "death clock" effect but didn't know if it was intentional or just a delay from the computer side. This gives the computer (and often you) something to think about. But as a human player if you see some penetrating (hit text) hits on a armored target you, IMO, more often than not turn your gun to another targets, calculating that even if the target is not fully destroyed it should probably be severely damaged. As for airplanes attacking destroyed vehicles I noticed when playing CW Colossal Cracks recently the side bonus effect on two occasions that MY airplanes attacked my own destroyed tanks.

I expected that but I couldn't find the thread. Its probably one of those things that sounds easy to wish for but´s harder to implement by BF. As LukeFF also said, with the new hit decals its would still give some information on the status of the hit object.

Hi! Are there anybody else than me that would like to have a selective side specific Vehicle Hit text function as an option before you start a H2H game? IMO I would like to have the Vehicle Hit text appears on my own vehicles but not on the enemy. That way you should be left a little in the dark of the effectiveness of your hits. Today, even on Iron difficult level you know exactly if it's a spalling, partial or penetration hit. Without the text message, burning and opened up vehicles can tell you a lot but other than that you may want to fire an couple of extra round just to be sure. This I think would add to the fog of war and immersion. This should encompass all combat mission titles and not just cmbn and if this has been requested/discussed in the forum before I'm sorry.

Promising indeed. I read the book some time ago and would love to try it out in RT.

Quite right I Think. We should all probably agree that its a very difficult subject with lots of different opinions and subjective answers.

A further comment on “destroyed” units. Who defines what units is functional or not seems to be a matter of opinion both from the enemy side but also from higher levels in the chain of command. As Stalingrad has been mentioned a couple of times I understand that several of the German divisions fighting in the city itself before the encirclement were utterly spent as a fighting force. Platoon with a couple of combat ready men and companies with 10-20 and so on. IMO Jason Mark in Island Of Fire: The Battle For the Barrikady Gun Factory In Stalingrad describes this very well. Per your definition these units should be considered destroyed and pulled away and reconstructed. But neither 6. Armee HQ or OKH made that conclusion neither did the soviet opponents. And these units continued to fight on until they were, no matter of definition, Destroyed when the army surrendered. It seems that German units continued to fight for longer periods with heavier casualties (destroyed?) than western allied counterparts. This is probably not because a German love for war or some other bs but dictated by the dire manpower and material supply situation. The Allies had the resources to rotate units in and out om the combat area, something the Axis could only dream of.

Rinaldi Some comments on your earlier post The 79. Volks-Grenadier-Division wasn't in the initial attack echelon on the Dec 16. It was held in reserve by 7. Armee so it's true what you write that the division never got off their start line (if you mean on the first day of the offensive), but it was never meant to. The division went in to action on Dec 22 near Heiderscheid against the US 80th Infantry. It is true that they didn't make much progress but they successfully repulsed several American counterattacks. The division suffered heavy casualties during Wacht am Rhein but wasn't "destroyed" . It fought on till late spring 1945. The same must be said about the 2. Panzer-Division. True, it lost a majority of its combat strenght when fighting the US 2nd Armored Division but still managed to pull back enough units to take active part during the remainder of the war. Words like "destroyed" related to larger units should IMO be used sparingly as they seldom match the historic facts. Heavy casualties and material destruction could surely lower combat efficiency but that's quite different from being fully destroyed.

Unternehmen Nordwind (31 Dec. to 25 Jan. 45) is also interesting as it included substantial French forces under General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny.

Looking forward for this release. I like the prospect of scenarios with heavy snow but from what I read at least the first weeks of Wacht am Rhein were more muddy with cold rain than white covered fields and trees. The heavy snowfall with subzero temperatures began around Christmas and climaxed in January.