AlexUK

Dude, it's a quality blog and as I recall, threads are free! 
The CM community needs more content & commentary from folk who actually understand the game.

I'd love to know how you did that.....Probably wouldn't understand a word of it if you told me, but all the same! 

US Marines for Black Sea? Aren’t there suitable NATO units that could have been included. So little variety already in the modern titles. And are we to believe an invasion fleet is sent into the Black Sea? Within land based air range, kilo subs operating in it. Urgh. Sounds ridiculous and the US centric aspect is getting a bit boring, could have done an entirely new army or something. Reasonable excited about most of the stuff listed but this made no sense other than it would be easier to make with the assets from other titles.

If you are still unsure of what to focus on for the CMFI battle pack may I make a suggestion? I would like to see it focused on some of the Allied nations who aren't very well represented. Most of the game's stock scenarios are either the US or British armies. The Brazilians, French, Canadians, and Indians only have 2 each I believe. The New Zealanders only have one (very small) scenario. I would love for the focus to be on these guys. Other than that, thanks for making a great product and providing me with hours of entertainment.

The Eighty-Second Minute
KG Leino -  Die Mitte
Everyone who is not in cover gets into cover in case of more 85mm shells. The HQ Tiger backs up a bit, just in case.

We brace for a counterattack...but our Alsatian pitbull feels like he can take on the whole of the Soviet Union by himself!

KG Koskela - die Linke
Panther 1 finishes off the T34, even though it's clearly not been re-crewed and is likely deader than flares.

With that burning the Panthers move out to provide overwatch for the StuG.

The tank's crew is spotted retreating into the trees, I assume they were hiding next to their vehicle and decided that hot shards of shrapnel were not good for their health.

2 Kompanie, what's left of them, move out behind the panzers. Everyone is buttoned given my luck, or lack thereof, with keeping the gunners alive thus far.

KG Perala - das Recht
2/1 push up through the scrub, scouting the way ahead. No reaction so far.

An overview of the ground they are traversing. You can't really tell from this picture but they are on a reverse slope from the farm and any forces he has there and there's a lot of bushes and rough ground between them and his tanks. Even if he does hear my forces passing through it would take him a while to attack through this stuff and I'd certainly have more than enough warning.
I need to be wary of a welcoming committee at the other end of it though where the terrain opens right up.

2 Zug have moved over from their screening position and are preparing to follow the scouts. I'm a bit nervous about moving them through the rough ground, I'll have to try and pick my way through as many clear patches as possible.

SITMAP

A quiet turn, some mortars are still falling scattered all over the place, this turn one landed way to the left of the area marked as the suspected target in the image above, I really do think they are spotting rounds but nobody is around to see them land.
I will see if he counterattacks in the middle, I'm still trying to get a solid spot on the tanks in the treeline. I assume they are both in there although I only have one contact icon. If he doesn't make any moves in the next few minutes I will launch an attack of my own, but I don't want to do it too early as he could smash into my right flank with the tanks from the farm over on the right. I need him to be preoccupied with KG Perala so he can't commit them to defeating KG Leino.
On the left I'm not sure what he could do to stop me if he has no forces up the highway. The infantry that were in the trees may be able to do some damage to the SPWs if they get close enough, I may have to drop one of the Panthers back a bit to provide some flank protection.
MMM

I keep hoping the reason for the delay is they are working on something big and are just waiting until they have it all ready before dropping one or more bombs on us.
But maybe they are just too busy w bigger customers.  Which is OK I just wish I knew.  If there's nothing coming for 6 months, I'd rather know than wonder.  However, I am still betting that there is something coming. 

Interesting document! Page 22 has a table showing different shell types penetration vs panther and p4. 
I haven't done any testing at all, but I seem to recall in-game better penetration than in table (particularly 76mm vs front turret panther)? 

Steve started typing a long informative post and then the forum software lost it all so we went out side to do something productive like chop wood. During his marathon wood chopping session he got tired and his grip on his axe slipped. The surgery to repair his injured leg took a few hours and now he has a few days of recuperating in hospital before he can start retyping the great update.
How's that? Probably sub standard since there is not conspiracy and frankly its way to believable. 
Totally made up BTW just to be clear.

Hopefully we will get an update from Steve. I am a man of habit (OCD?), and the absence of an update has, I believe, led to a tooth infection so far.

Throw grenades command
Improved draw distance (not playing cold War at the moment as big maps are not showing trees etc at distance). 
Acquire with option to specify amount (I don't think I would use a put back command much and disadvantage of extra complexity may outweigh benefit). 
Colour all teams of same squad - if I have terminology right (I know colour blind people won't benefit but majority will). 
More options for road angles. 
Hotkey to select last way point of currently selected unit - would greatly speed up issuing orders. 
Better handling of sounds. When I am playing, I am pretty sure some sounds cut out, and with sound mods it becomes unplayable due to delays in sound (on both old Macbook Pro and current Macbook Air). 
M1 native version.
More flexibility in uniforms mixing. 
Better building targeting. 
I am hoping 2022 announcement delayed because Engine 5 to ve released with all the above imminently😁

If I owned B-F-C
Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum

If I were a biddy biddy rich yidle-diddle-didle-didle man
I would make all the early war....
Ya ba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dum

Fiddler on the roof - Tradition ( with subtitles ) - Bing video
 
Still hoping for New Year's Bones

An update on the spotting tests. First, overall spotting rating (remember - it is a measure of spotting ability in the forward direction at 200-1400 meters, relative to the Pz IVH). It confirms the previous find that open topped vehicles spot far better than fully protected ones and are nearly unaffected by being buttoned up.

Second, I also plotted the spotting rating as a function of distance for selected fully protected vehicles (the trends tend to be the same for all) when opened up. At close range (200 m), there is little difference in the spotting ability among the different vehicles. As the range extends, some gain an increasing advantage of up to 15-20% over the reference Pz IV. If you have a vehicle that can spot well, it is advantageous to engage at a longer range. If you have one that doesn't, you may be able to reduce this handicap by getting closer.
I have included an outlier - the SU-85/SU-100/SU-122. It spots poorly at close ranges. I have only seen this behavior with this one and with the T-70. The heavy assault guns (ISU) do not have this problem.

The same plot including a representative of the open-top gang, for perspective.

The same plot with hatches closed. At 200 m the spotting improves and being buttoned up is less of a disadvantage than at 400 m. From 400 m up, the disadvantage of being buttoned up gradually decreases with range. Unless you have a SU-85/SU-100/SU-122, which again does its own thing.

Coming soon is another ASL translation BARB THE HEDGEHOG OF PIEPSK

Bonez!  Or da puppeh getzitt! 

From a scenario i'm currently working on...Some intense fighting going on 😎...
The aftermath...

 

It has been a strange year. Although my loved ones have not been hit with Covid, I must admit the whole misery has affected me more than I realized before. I try to make my world as small as possible at the moment and playing CM is certainly one of the small candles that help to chase away the darkness (my wife is abroad for family matters at the moment, hence the darkness). I've learned from my obsession with the release of FR to keep things in perspective, but yeah, things like the upcoming release of a CW module are still something to look forward to in a time in which so little seems certain. 

It would be good the winter war of 2022 doesn't happen, and we have to keep guessing about the performance of all this equipment.
 

I am still gnawing on this years bone, CMCW!
But any news about the engine 5 upgrade and the CMCW module are welcome

Hi all,
Just wanted to formally announce my next campaign release titled 'First into Antwerp'. Ironically this was actually the first campaign I designed but the second I've released.
Command the British 3rd Royal Tank Regiment and the 4th Battalion Kings Shropshire Light Infantry as they advance from Boom to capture the port city of Antwerp, Belgium, and later attempt to establish a bridgehead over the Albert Canal.
This campaign consists of 8 battles and is historical. To be played as PLAYER vs AXIS AI.
Be aware in order to play this campaign you MUST have both Commonwealth and Market Garden Modules.
Battle sizes are varied. It is strongly recommended that the player reads the README in the attached zip-file.
The Zipfile will contain the following:
2 Campaign folders.
1 Campaign file within each folder.
49 page Campaign Design booklet including Campaign Progression Tables and Order of Battle. (You know, for some 'light' reading )
Campaign has been tested and should be compatible with patch 4.03.
Total battle duration of the campaign totals roughly 8 hours.
Annnnddd here's some pictures:

 

 

 

Download link CM CW: First into Antwerp (thefewgoodmen.com)
 

Here's my effort:

The .rar file, including the single [partisan] tagged mod required for the scenario can be found here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jq2xscbm767ixxn/SgtS Xmas Scenario 2021.rar?dl=0
Thanks to @kohlenklau both for the idea to do a xmas scenario (I took it kinda literally) and for all of his assistance. 

The Seventy-Fifth to Eightieth Minute - The Rest
The Right
2 Gruppe continue to scout a path through the scrub.

As they do so the armour contact pops up again. It doesn't move.

It's soon followed by a friend.

So he has 2, probably 3, tanks on the right - a platoon. I've knocked out 2 T34s and there may be 2 more just to the East of ROT if he didn't move them to this flank, but why would he? So that would be a total of 8 confirmed spots which validates my assumption that he has a company in the AO. Need more info though to be sure.
The Left
I've decided to take a gamble. The StuG set off up AoA 1 overwatched by the Panthers. 2 Kompanie are mounted and ready to follow.

SITMAP

A reminder of the AoAs and objectives. I'm back into recon mode for now but I am pushing up AoA1 as I think he will have it defended lightly, I'll do a "what I think he's up to" post with where I suspect he may have deployed his defences next I think to lay the groundwork for my future actions.
AoA1 is a gamble, but if I can get up there quite quickly then he would either have to redeploy to stop me or if he's already over there in force then that means other AoAs may be open. Interesting times.
The main thing I'm worried about is manpower and time at the moment, and time will probably screw me quicker than losing guns will.
MMM
 

Hi folks....
Just an update that a new campaign from @theforgeris now available on The Scenario Depot.
CMFB Rollbahn D -Full Campaign (thefewgoodmen.com)
The Rollbahn D Campaign contains 35 linear scenarios built as historically accurate as possible.
In other news thanks to the folk who have been emailing me regarding the missing links they have come across in The Scenario Depot.  I do believe that I have worked through the 700 odd scenarios and all links are now added... it was a beast of a job but I finally got there.  It doesn't help when sometimes the file names don't reflect the title of the scenario... but it is good that these scenarios didnt just disappear when the BF Repository shut down or GreenAsJade stopped maintaining CMMODs.
Ive also been advised by a few folk about the comments regarding me and my handling of the Mods and Scenarios so just a quick post to clarify my position with a few points.
Battlefront decided to discontinue the BF Repository...
GreenAsJade offered to host the mods/scenarios on CMMOD's...
GaJ, myself and a team of volunteers transferred thousands of files across from the Repository before it was closed...
GaJ stopped maintaining CMMOD's and I did my best to carry on the work we started but without direct ownership I did what I could...
My site The Few Good Men in agreement with Gary Krockover took over the names of The Scenario Depot and The Proving Grounds (from CMx1 fame) and we started hosting our own work under those names and added in The Mod Warehouse, it was not my intention at that time to become the guardian of all CM Mods and Scenarios.
As CMMOD's became less and less active I came to an agreement with BF that the FGM would host the files using the CM Mod Warehouse and The Scenario Depot so that we didn't lose all that historical content.  That is part of the reason why the upload process is a little stilted - it wasn't designed for thousands of users to march in and start uploading mods.  It was set up for me to rescue any mods from disappearing.
Now I hold my hands up and admit that I have been overwhelmed with the amount of content that I got, I was passed, salvaged, downloaded, was emailed tens of thousands of files and that yes I only have a certain amount of them up on the site and hosted as it is a continual work in progress and that is where we stand just now.
Between having a family, full time job and other commitments I do what I can and would appreciate some understanding of the situation before commenting that 'I have destroyed the community or calling for me to be assassinated'.  A lot of people have been giving their opinion without offering a solution.  This is the best solution I was able to come up with to save the content at the time.
The majority of costs are paid for by me helped out with some donations to ease the burden.
I have said before if someone wished to take on the financial burden, has the time to invest in uploading thousands of files and the means to continually maintain the huge database and answer numerous queries on a daily basis then I am willing to hand over the reins.  But, I suspect like the last time no one actually wants to do that and would rather hide behind a keyboard firing insults at me so we are left in the position that I will carry on doing what I am doing with the full support of the guys at BF.  I will close with this...
all files are backed up to a hard drive on a regular basis. I have a huge catalogue of files and am happy if you are looking for a particular mod/scenario, to check to see if I have it, if it is not hosted on the site yet and get it fired of to you.  If I fail to get back to you via PM or the like hit me up again.  I receive a tonne of correspondence every day and sometimes these do get lost in the maelstrom. Thanks for reading and hopefully this clarifies things a little... and if you want to take over the job feel free to drop me a PM and we can discuss.
Cheers for reading....
 
Bootie
 
 
 
 
 
 

Getting close to the end of the year.  Any chance of a Christmas sneak peak of Engine 5? 😀

Help!
I've finished a campaign build, BUT the zip file is 26MB...therefore breaches the 20MB limit on https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/
If anyone can help it'll be appreciated. Already to go on the 16th Dec as well!
 

December 16th 05:35, the “Ghost Front” erupts in a maelstrom of noise and violence as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein begins.
The Rollbahn D Campaign contains 35 linear scenarios built as historically accurate as I’ve been able to achieve. 
You control the fortunes of KG Peiper, SG Knittel, and Panzer Brigade 150, along with elements from KG Hansen, KG Sandig, and the 3. Fallschirmjäger-Division.
Boy did this project snowball!
The Campaign begins with a choice. Either starting at the very beginning or on Day 3 of the offensive. The latter will be an easier route as you’ll have not suffered any losses to your core units. I’ve included here what it takes to progress within the Campaign as not every engagement is balanced. The scenarios range from small to medium to Ben Hur like epics. 
I’ve made minor changes to the Day 1-2 scenarios based on the feedback from the Rollbahn D Part 1 Campaign.
Day1-2
SN01: Murky Merlscheid / Fallshirmjager Regiment 9 / Minor Victory
SN02: Leaving Lanzerath / Fallshirmjager Regiment 9 / Minor Victory
SN03: Minen The Gap / Spitze / Minor Victory
SN04: Breakthrough / Spitze Kompanie and FSJ / Minor Victory
SN05: Hurrying Through Honsfeld / Spitze and Gndrs / Draw
SN06: Bull in gen China Shop / Spitze and Spitze Komp / Minor Victory
SN07: Butchers Of Baugnez / Spitze and KG Peiper / Minor Victory
Day 3 
SN08: Laying Down The Recht / KG Hansen / Minor Victory
SN09: Poteau The Priority / KG Hansen / Minor Victory
SN10: Storming Stavelot / KG Peiper / Tactical Victory
SN11: Trois Is A Crowd / KG Peiper and FSJ / Draw
SN12: Jabos! / KG Peiper / Tactical Defeat
SN13: Probe At Stavelot / KG Peiper and FSJ / Minor Victory 
SN14: Neufmoulin Rouge / KG Peiper / Draw
Day 4
SN15: Duel In The Mist / KG Peiper and FSJ / Minor Victory
SN16: Too Tight At Targnon / KG Peiper / Tactical Defeat
SN17: Vorauskompanie Searches For Gas / SG Knittel / Tactical Defeat
SN18: Ster Way To Heaven / KG Peiper, Sandig, SG Knittel / Tactical Defeat
Day 5
SN19: Stationary At Stavelot / SG Knittel / Major Defeat
SN20: Chewin Them Up At Cheneux / KG Peiper / Tactical Victory
SN21: Treachery At Les Tcheous / KG Sandig / Draw
SN22: Closing The Door / SG Knittel / Draw
SN23: Ambush At Chenai / KG Sandig / Draw
SN24: Violence At The Preventorium / KG Peiper / Draw
Day 6
SN25: KG X Factor / Panzer Brigade 150 / Tactical Defeat
SN26: No Prizes At Noupre / KG Hansen, SG Knittel / Minor Victory
SN27: Punishment At Parfondry / SG Knittel / Tactical Defeat
SN28: TF Jordan Storms Stoumont / KG Peiper / Draw
SN29: Cold Hearts At Froidcour / KG Peiper / Tactical Victory
SN30: Persistence Prevails / KG Peiper / Draw
Day 7
SN31: Borgoumont Blitz / KG Peiper / Major Defeat
SN32: Kicking Coblenz / SG Knittel / Total Defeat
SN33: Festung La Gleize / KG Peiper / Tactical Victory
SN34: Hansens Surprise / KG Hansen / Draw
Day 9
SN35: Katz Und Maus / The Survivors / Minor Victory
 
All the maps are my own, apart from Cheneux, which is stock that I’ve modified. Ranks/uniforms can be inaccurate as command units are above the battalion level.
Each Scenario will be available as a separate download in January.
 
Good Luck!