Sulman

I think the large charge explosives like 120mm mortars or howitzer rounds have a pretty big kill radius. I've seen a couple of action squares in some cases. I've wildly varying luck with the M2 60mm mortars. I know some players swear by them but I remain unconvinced. The British direct fire ones seem a lot more lethal in the few scenarios I've had them. This might just be an issue with spotter efficacy.

Bocage.

Actually, having revisited CMBN after some 7 years I have to agree it's definitely changed some fundamentals. Occupy conditions are much tougher to meet because inf. won't flee, so it's easy to bleed a lot of points because one fire team has remained hidden. Also I can't get some units to shift at all. I spent an entire game mortaring a tripod MG42 team (with a good spotter) and they didn't budge. HE seems a little inconsistent to me. RPG and 'schrek teams can do enormous damage with effective fire but 60 and 80mm mortars don't seem anything like as bad. Maybe it's my imagination but tackling strongpoints definitely feels way harder.

Yes. I don't mind the current mechanics, but the scenarios requiring you to occupy a large number of buildings when you're given a Platoon are a definite mood in CM2. I am not good enough to win by these conditions so I play tactically and try and inflict as much losses as possible while usually settling for a single objective.

It's notable since I think 2.13 in Black Sea that defenders in good cover can last a long time under certain circumstances. It does make fish'n'chips hard work, but it was never easy, and it's also a two-way street: Your troops won't break so easily from a defensible position. I do find it frustrating (one RPG team lived an incredibly long time) but I don't think it's broken. As regards spotting and hitting the person by the window, this may be a case of the 3D world and modelled abstraction not being in coincidence; perhaps the game engine considered him concealed in some way - again a very common thing.

It is, I'm getting more into the WW2 titles (CMSF1 &2 were my main playground) and I'm very impressed with the effort put into the scenarios. I looked at Singling on Google Earth and was so impressed how well the terrain is represented in game. Also the colour palette captures that grey Winter vibe absolutely perfectly.

Sometimes you get lucky and pull off the sort of stunts you curse the AI for. This 75mm M4 got sent on a rat run to try and get behind a Tank Destroyer that I knew was keyholed on this street. Against my expectations. the Sherman rolled over the short brick wall and put an AP round where the sun doesn't shine As soon as that was done, the Turret swung left and engaged a Panther(!!) at emerging from the intersection at the top of the street. 2 hits on the side of the turret, and it was ablaze. A highlight of what was a very tough scenario.

Yep, fair enough. I found it actually looking for just about anything on how to fight as the Russians would, just to try out these things in the safety of my computer chair.

I've observed something in CM2 that seems difficult to solve (Steel Beasts also suffers) which is what I term a 'spotting notch'; namely in certain situations units that appear to be in plain sight in the 3d world cannot be seen, with big gameplay implications. Commonly it is because of some terrain feature partially obscuring the unit (like a shrub or hedge) causing it to be ignored by the spotting algorithm. Another example from a recent game was a BMP which was 1/3rd obscured by a brick wall - it was effectively invisible to all units, despite most of it being visible in the 3d world. Blind RUS/UKR armour is well-known, their spotting really is all over the place.

What a great find. Made me think of the Britain of my childhood when we made great documentaries and the threat of a war of annihilation was frightening and real.

Amazing videos. The '83 one coincidentally was the same year as Able Archer which spooked the Soviers in Eastern Europe enormously. I found this super document which ties together Russian doctrine from a variety of sources: The Russian Way of War

I think you're right, and it's pretty close to Russian doctrine as per this: The source is in the plate title. The APC is an integral part of the platoon/squad, and usually is deployed behind, prefererably in cover but it is a significant part of the platoon's combat power. If you play this way you do risk them, but when it works it works very well. In a company formation you'd typically have an attached MBT up front leading, but I've not really tried this out in CMBS. That's obviously the ticket post-scouting.

I took a draw on my first attempt, 2/3 objectives but nothing left to go any further. I'll take it, felt like everything was against me. Interestingly I noticed that units can get in a spotting notch where they can't easily be spotted, I've been victim and beneficiary of this. A tank in light concealment (like the yard of a house) gets a couple of seconds spotting advantage and it's enough to take out most of a platoon. Typically they're not seen at all. This is the case with one of the spawned ENY tanks and I only got him once he tried to move forward, but he accounted for three T-84s in a single turn.

The terrain is very favourable for getting near the objective; here's a screenie of where i placed my 2-man scout team to observe obj. 'High Ground'. This raised road forms a small berm and is also a good spot to place the fire-team on, but they attract spots and observation from one whole side of the town just to the left, and are soon suppressed themselves.

Hi All, Played through CMSF2 when it came out and so took a break from CMBS. I returned and had a crack at the Ukraine campaign (the base 'shield of Kiev' cam). I did well on the 1st mission, but the second on 'Attack on Zalissya' has stopped me dead. I've restarted twice; the problem is essentially the same: 1st attempt had me follow the briefing and go for obj. 'High Ground' first. I moved 2 platoons and support platoon under cover, with the tanks just behind. I scouted but to no avail, so immediately worked to suppress the objective. It didn't go well, my squads just could not put the fire down or live long enough. Return artillery was absolutely brutal as I was effectively stalled. ENY armor was also triggered at this point and chewed my afv's to pieces after my tanks failed to stop them (could not get spots or lost the sabot duel) 2nd attempt I used the forest to get right up to the warehouse objective. The attack stuttered because one of my AFVs was spotted and hit in the forest, costing me a squad. At least I got to grips with the armor this time. The T-84 Oplot seems to be the only thing I can use effectively. I could not effectively suppress the ENY position with infantry and the squads tended to receive effective RPG fire which would leave them shaken or worse, panicked. I am finding it very hard to attack with the infantry. Using the classic base of fire team and maneuver team, even my base of fire struggles to get fire on the target and tends to stop when it receives fire. This makes me use my AFVs to increase combat power, making them vulnerable to the hail of RPGs that seem to characterize this kind of fighting. The map also spawns armor at some very nasty points, but that's an old issue with CM2. My main problem is that I can't get an attack to even start before it breaks in the space of a couple of turns. Even the base of fire takes casualties and the AI artillery is absolutely brutal. Following the Russian doctrine of placing the APC in a covered position to provide fire support isn't easy as there's only really woods and the RPGs eventually take their toll. I feel a bit exasperated and generally over-matched on this mission. Real cold water after the first one. Any tips? When I first got the game I didn't remember any problems with the Russian Campaign, but do remember the truppen tending to route easily. I note a lot of the infantry squads are green.

Traveled through the building to do it, too! 4 in one would be amazing. I didn't even know this was modelled but given that everything else it, it makes sense.

I was playing a TF Thunder scenario with a lot of close range encounters. This was about 150m and there was an enormous explosion and 3 smoke columns. I could not see the vehicle behind the targetted tank, just its smoke. I guessed it was either an IED car or a BMP, but the review showed this... Note the hit decal over the first road wheel, there is one on the second tank (you can't see it) on the right hand side. I'd heard of this happening but had never seen it. very impressive.

There's some fatigue in constantly attacking, too. You get a little bored with the grind. Even the occasional meeting engagement is a nice break.

As I progress through TF thunder I keep thinking how life imitates art. Specifically when rolling a Mech Inf company into a city, you give up on using the crunchies pretty bloody quickly, and just rely on the tanks because they're the only thing that stands a chance of surviving. There's a mission by George called 'Point Blank' and it's a very steep challenge. Here's a screenie showing the map after I successfully completed it (Just the link as I don't want to spoil it for anyone.) Note the sheer amount of infantry, and that's after the battle. My initial plan was to take the back alleys and scout the intersections with infantry teams. I made it one block and quickly had my scouts cut up by effective fire from the buildings. The new infantry behaviour exacerbates this too, because they hold onto those apartments a lot better. This isn't a complaint, it's just a matter of fact. Every building near the objectives has infantry on it, it's far too much for one platoon, and even the Bradleys were held back. One Abrams got hit by three RPG 7s in one turn, and they were all from different apartments. The armour was the only thing keeping them alive. And he was supposedly under watch by Sgt. Cataracts in the Abrams behind. The other thing is scouting tanks < 500m when they have TIS is nigh impossible if they happen to be facing your direction. It made me think of Simon's arguments about realism. I don't think such a mission would really have happened, or would have at least lasted one block before the Coy commander halted it. The objective is the enemy armour, and arguably there's better tools for this, like the AH-64. Also you have SPAG support, but it's very difficult to get a spotter to live long enough to call it. This mission would really have benefited from the addition of a UAV and PGM from the SPAG, but it was created back in the CMSF1 days. As regards collateral damage, CNN et al I can completely see how places like Grozny and Homs got completely obliterated, and that's surely a gift of these simulations. Total War in far off places doesn't necessarily consider the nature of the targets.

It's not the only scenario that has these issues; there's a couple in CMBN as well. I just did a recap/mini-AAR on one in CMSF2 'Into the Valley' which has similar plausibility problems. I can believe all of it but the insane ROE and mystifying lack of support make it a tough mental exercise. 'School of Hard Knocks' in CMBN was the tentpole one for me, missions that seem intended to poke the player in the eye, with very tight victory conditions, frustrating setup, and seemingly everything against you. But, everything works, and there's lessons in all of it. It sort of keeps me coming back. Stockholm Syndrome probably, haha.

That's probably it. Difficult to avoid, imho. You've not got nearly enough infantry to clear out the AT teams the hard way, so at some point HE is going to be involved. I did well in the following mission - a cakewalk in comparison - so I'm in a much better mood!

Once the hilltop squads could not see any more targets on the high ground that observed the exits, I had to make a decision: Move infantry down onto the plain, or push the tanks? I might be wrong, but I just wasn't confident moving infantry off just yet - There's very little cover on the map The squads lacked frepower No support assets I could not roll the Bradleys out of defilade yet until the area near the exit was clear. I took a gamble and thought the Abrams should be able to make it with a bit of luck, so I moved them up and they immediately found infantry a couple of hidden Kornet teams. Thankfully, the only cost was minor track damage (slowed it down a little) to 1 Abrams I moved onto the rise to cover the NW high ground in case there were units that had not revealed themselves. I decided it was safe to pack up my infantry into the Bradleys and roll them down the hill. The risk seemed to have greatly reduced and they had plenty of support from the tanks. You can see the ENY observation posts clearly in this picture, but the contacts are old (they're all dead or ineffective at this point): No other AFV would take damage for the rest of the mission. Progress was slow towards the exit because the TAC-AI kept changing orientation to deal with threats. one would not quit until it had obliterated an infantry squad hiding in a building. The AI changes which keep infantry in defensible terrain longer were brought sharply into relief on this map; I could not get any units to flee. They fought to the bitter end. There's a point in every CM2 game vs the Ai when you know it's basically over, and you're just running down the clock. All my units (less 1 abrams) exited without incident, but shis mission did not go the way i had hoped. After my problems with Nightstalkers resulted in having to take a defeat I was disappointed to encounter another. It is what it is, but I must admit I felt a little short-changed and didn't fully understand the accounting. The Syrians got 300pts for casualties inflicted, and 1900 for reasons I didn't see - they weren't listed in the breakdown. I am not going to retry the mission, because at my level I think this is about the best I could do on what is a very dificult map. There's not a lot I could do differently, I think my basic strategy was fine. The right flank of the map is also a possibilty but you've still got to deai with all those AT-14 teams (at least six) that have flank shots. Oh well, onwards and upwards!

Although the briefing mentioned minimising collateral damage, the Syrian units didn't seem to care about this, and politely asking them to leave buildings so they could be shot at didn't work either , so the bushmaster HE did its thing: This is a typical sight on this map: An AT-14 positioned near a window (or the remains thereof..) A note about these units, I am unsure of their skill level but they are bloody hard to kil. The gunner usually goes down quick, but the asst. gunner usually survives the most diabolical incoming fire. This actually led to the platoon commander's loss - I sent the HQ unit forward at the same time the squads moved up, and as they approached the pinned unit the Bradley let go some HE, unfortunately killing the LT. This wasn't area fire, the Bradley was reacting to a spot on the asst. gunner, and he used the big boom stick. With my platoon squads up I issued fire arcs to stop them immediately engaging ENY units they saw, and on the villa below the hilltop what did they see? You can appreciate the difficulty with this map. That's 2 AT teams on that roof, with one being an AT-14. I wanted to smack it with that squad, but I was well aware from the previous game that the northernmost AT-14 team would support them, and I hatched a plan to use my Bradley as bait a big stick. In no way did I want to lose that Bradley, but I realised the foundations of this hilltop house were on a raised berm, so the Bradley would have some protection. I moved it forward: He was a little far forward as you can see from the picture, so I moved him back. They actually hit with a Kornet and it damaged the TOW launcher, but the Bushmaster sang and pinned them. With that done my squad were free to engage the rooftop team on the closer house: Both this building and the much further one engaged by the Bradley had good observation on the exit road, so they had to be dealt with. Around this time I realised that I'd actually lost an Abrams to fire from the farm, very early on. Because they weren't moving I had failed to keep an eye on them, and when cycling through units (I do this as a sanity check to ensure I've not forgotten anybody) I found a crew cowering in a garden. It had been hit between the roadwheels on the right hand side. It looked otherwise undamaged. I was annoyed with myself for not realising it was exposed but this is part of the game too. More to come!

Once the infantry platoon got near the complex at the top of the hill, I set them fire arcs and moved them in a roughly 80m line to the edge of the treeline. They immediately got engaged by the building occupants and returned fire. This went on for a turn or so and nobody was getting anywhere. I did not want to try and assault the building as this did not go well before, I really needed more firepower to decisively evict or kill the occupants. I had no crewed machine guns, so my attention wandered to the M2s waiting below the hill. I'd seen Syrian APCs trundling around this type of terrain in many previous battles, so perhaps I could use my Bradleys to supplement my base of fire? The M242 Bushmaster is devastating against infantry, but the Brads do not survive anti-tank environments very well, but I had to risk it. I ordered a single M2 to move alongisde my platoon line. He parked up and immediately destroyed the AT-14 team on the rooftop: As often happens, the mere presence of an AFV caused another ATGM team to reveal themselves (my infantry never spotted them) but they to did not last long, facing the collective fire of my platoon and the solo Bradley. No casualties so far.

I thought I'd try a little recap of my 2nd attempt at this map. The first did not go well and I decided to give it another go. Fresh of my success with 'Dagger Fight' which ended in a Total Victory when the computer surprisingly threw in the towel, I thought this would be a nice change of pace. First, the briefing: Generally, CM2 briefings have a lot of hidden clues. This one is vague and really once you start this mission you'll want to punch the intelligence officer. The map is anything but clear. Combined with the fact you have a Coy of tanks you know things are about to get spicy. The farm is merely one of many locations with ENY activity, so yes, it's one of those. The scenario 'ATGM Ambush' is good training for this mission. This is essentially the same thing on a much bigger scale. The map, and some general ideas about strategy, with a caveat: 1st Attempt: My original strategy was to dismount my mech inf platoon, get them up the hill and occupy the buildings circled in yellow. I did achieve this, but at quite high losses to one of the squads. I mistakenly - stupidly - thought I would have some arty assets later as there is an FO, and my plan was to get him in that building which could observe the map exit where there would no doubt be plenty of ENY units. I did not count on a couple of things: How hard it would be to dislodge the few infantry in that building, occupied by apparenlty the world's toughest ATGM crew. The whole northern portion of the map being lousy with ENY. Mutual support for ENY in this hilltop complex from the high ground to the N and NE. ATGMs as a close-support-weapon (devastating, and new to me) One syrian ATGM squad displaced about 80m to a nearby field and started pounding the building with missiles. I lost a whole squad to ATGM fire when the building collapsed, and the others only survived when I hid them deep in the complex, which rendered them ineffective. I rushed a bradley up the hill but left it's right flank just momentarily exposed and it got deaded by ATGM fire from the NE. I decided to push the tanks forward and they got so beat up mid-way through I decided to think about it and try again. No shame in admitting you get it wrong occasionally. If at first you don't succeed... I thought my general idea of clearing the nearby hilltop was fairly sound, especially if my inf had javelins (they did!) they could use against the Northern ATGM teams. I needed to be very careful to keep them in defilade once they were up there. I was really missing some LMG support too. They would have been very handy. v The 'suspicious activity' reported by the lead tank (as per the brief) is just out of the frame on the right, a small farm complex. Now, bit of a moan from me; I do not like missions that have your units starting in danger. The farm is ~250m away, which puts the lead elements easily in range even from RPG fire. Like most players I like to do a little 'walk' around the map at truppen level, you can see that at 3x magnification two of my M1s are easily visible at their start line from a rooftop just down the road: Starting T1 I sent my infantry up the hill, classic two up, one back formation with a Bradley watching over them. I was well used to CMBN where scrub and woodland usually held small units waiting along avenues of approach: My lead M1s immediately (and somewhat predictably) picked up targets in the farm complex and further north - ATGM teams - and engaged them effectively. Although potentially vulnerable in this position, I think they were generally out of harm's way and did not want to move them just yet. They also took out a lone sniper on the nearby hilltop that was near my infantry but had no LOS to them. More to come!