Ts4EVER

I also play (and develop) the BF2 WW2 mod Forgotten Hope 2. Post videos from that on my Youtube channel along with Combat Mission content.

Playing the Russian Red Thunder campaign, I can only agree. In my experience bocage, and to a lesser degree city fighting, is best suited for the CM gameplay. It basically becomes a weirdly compelling, methodical geometry puzzle that allows you to take enemy positions one by one. The more complex the terrain, the less fun the game, because it highlights the idiosyncrasies of the spotting system and the murkiness of controls. Especially forest fighting and subtle height differences often lead to a frustrating unpredictability of outcomes, the death of tactical planning.

I'm playing the Russian campaign in Red Thunder right now and one thing I would wish for: A Red Army campaign focused on a tank unit.

Yes that one is a nice anti-war movie, just don't watch the recent made-for-tv remake, terrible, just terrible.

Yeah sorry about that, will cut it back a bit after the Osintorf scenario (that one is already recorded and just the upload is staggered).

Not about the SS, but I can recommend "The act of killing" documentary.

Getting a Nazi vibe from this.

Hi, I am currently playing the Soviet campaign and filming it, thought you might be interested:

Yeah I know about the engine limits in Combat Mission, especially when it comes to stuff that is "off the grid", meaning not in 45 degree angles. Luckily refractor 2 doesn't have that particular problem, although it comes with its own pitfalls.

I just uploaded the last part of the series where I end the battle and a little bonus video that especially PanzerMike might find interesting:

My guess is that there will be a "crossing of the Rhine" themed expansion pack that will include the Brits and other Commonwealth forces, including their latewar equipment (Comets, Land mattress etc), as well as more German stuff that fought against them (Kriegsmarine organized like Volksgrenadiers for instance).

It's a Jagdpanzer IV. But yeah kinda weird. Maybe the crew panicked after being hit?

I decided to make a Youtube series out of it, but so far not much has happened:

Yeah same here, I think I posted a theory earlier regarding this: I think it is because of the less intuitive terrain.

Allies did not use air in my playthrough.

I got one but tbh it felt "weird". I played as Germany and cease fired at a point where I controlled Verdenne and the north crossroads, but felt my force was in no condition to assault the last town. However, there was like 1 and a half hour left on the clock. So it felt like I would have to mow down the occasional american infiltrator in the woods around the crossroads while running down the clock, which is not my idea of a good time. I got a major victory and realised that there was still a significant American force in the forest (well a platoon and a heavy weapons company I guess), but they were all broken with some single rattled teams thrown in. The last town was guarded only by a scout team and 1 immobilized Sherman (also broken for some reason). So I guess I could have taken it, but it would have been pretty anticlimactic. So in conclusion I would say the scenario has some problems with pacing.

I tested this and basically shut it off immediately when I realized that there is defensive artillery plotted for round 1 directly in front of the attacker's deployment zones. It is bad enough that the AI does this in Quick Battles, but from a scenario designer I consider it a personal "F--- you". You do realize that there is a function to already have squads depleted? Because that is a more elegant and less aggravating solution than bombarding them with fire you can't dodge anyway.

Regarding your airborne comment: Note that the Airborne TOE doesn't even have Springfields.

Maybe they show up in the American GL campaign. I seem to remember that the last battle in that campaign featured a lot of unusual German vehicles, like Elefants, Brummbärs and such. Maybe there are Panthers in there as well.

Yeah figured. Too bad it wasn't really used, would give the Allies some more variety in weapons, and as you know from my earlier thread, I am all for that

Maybe they are only available in quick battles. Panthers weren't used much in Italy.

I double checked, and the 3d model is a Springfield rifle. I do remember there was a thread that the sniper in the tutorial scenario uses an M1 Garand. I checked this and both icon and model are unscoped, but maybe there was an oversight and the rifle was coded at using optics? Note that there was a scoped version of the M1, but as far as I know it was not used in combat in WW2 (only in the Korean and Vietnam wars).

I think part of what makes it enjoyable is that the tank fight inside the town represents a compelling "geometry puzzle", similar to the best bocage maps.

Played the Singling battle as Americans today, got a tactical victory at the end with basically the same end result as in the real battle: One side of the village was mine, the other German. They lost 5 tanks, I lost 8, no cases of permanent bogging (didn't do much fancy off road maneuvering though). In the end infantry was running quite low for my liking so I decided to stop advancing and run down the clock the last 5 minutes (+ overtime).

In historical science you base your theories on sources. I provided examples of some. However, usually you will have to extrapolate from these using common sense and circumstantial evidence, since the source record is not without gaps. In this instance, there are (too my knowledge), no documents that for example let you see what every single soldier was issued or how and when exactly each weapon is used. There might be some anecdotal evidence to support this or that reading (I mentioned for example Günther Grass' memoir, where he recounts being issued a Beretta smg as an SS tanker in 1945), but you will not be able to get a complete chain of evidence. From what I see in these sources (and if someone can produce evidence to the contrary, that would be great of course) we can tell: - The G41 rifle was still the predominant semi auto rifle in German hands in the time frames of FI, RT and BN - The Germans did have captured weapons in their divisions, many of them close to German designs or using the same ammunition We also know that: - The Germans had a notorious lack of all kinds of war materials, especially towards the end of the war - The German army was often in positions where it had to fight for life with "all hands on deck". It fought a "poor man's war". - The German bureaucracy was a bloated mess, with parallel forces, organizations and supply chains popping up left and right, in need of weapons (SS, Volkssturm, Reichsarbeitsdienst etc) The conclusion I draw from this is that it would be cool and not historically inaccurate to include some of the more common substitute standard weapons (MG26(t), Beretta MP, refurbished board weapons) into the game, especially in light of the fact that there is already an option to set equipment to "poor" and some rather sketchy forces like Luftwaffe ground troops and Kriegsmarine crews are already ingame. Also note that several refurbished French equipment used by the 21st Panzer in Normandy was also added in the pack. Finally some more, hopefully interesting, circumstantial evidence (make of it what you will): Fallschirmjäger in Normandy: Forum thread about an American veteran who captured a Beretta M38/42 in the Battle of the Bulge and brought it home: http://www.k98kforum.com/showthread.php?113-Beretta-MAB-38-42-vet-history Hard to make out, but this American landing craft leaving Normandy has a captured Tokarev SVT40 in it (low in the picture, sticking over the edge) MG81 in use by Luftwaffe soldiers in Normandy... ... and by Volkssturm in 1945: