Chudacabra

1:49 The Abrams that just appeared fires on the last member of the scout team and kills him. However, my BMP-3 with a command team inside spots him and engages with a burst of 30mm and an AT-10. Alas, a BMP-3 is no match for an Abrams. On my left flank, an Abrams joins the Bradley and moves down the hill. I lose spotting contact, but my opponent is pressing through the woods. I though these woods were impassable and they are not defended.

Agreed, but this was hit by an Abrams. Hiding under trees and moving around every few minutes helps. I think I have a rough idea of where my opponent's UAV's are, although I wish I had some myself.

Having cleared the ambush in the treeline, three or four Abrams' and one Bradley take up firing positions on the top of the hill. Some friends await them on the reverse slope waiting for an opportunity. In retrospect, I should have attacked at this point, but I keep delaying for several turns. Those tanks and the Bradley pour fire onto a depression on the far bank. Thankfully I moved my AA pixeltruppen in the nick of time and he's tired, but okay. I reposition this fellow on the far bank. He comes under fire, but all rounds miss by a large margin. American artillery falls here and there. My Tunguska on the far bank explodes! I could have sworn it was out of sight. At the end of the turn, a lone Abrams appears overlooking the unsuccessful ambush site.

On the other side of the map.... Sniper team in the treeline meets their end. There are now 4 Abrams' and one Bradley on the crest of the hill on my far left. Overview from the far side of the river. I'm a big fan of keeping an eye on things, but if I were my opponent I would be blasting every tall structure on the far bank. An Abrams spots an infantry team and fires a round. Thankfully, a BMP-3 is nearby and pops smoke to cover their escape. Nearby my lone T-90 does not retreat fast enough. I was expecting my opponent to advance more cautiously. I have lost spotting contact with the lone Bradley on this flank, so I can only assume it is moving downhill.

Ambush squad gets two golden opportunities! Curse that APS. AAAAHHH!!! One RPG team down to one injured man. Scout team in the woods ambush position gets off an RPG-26... APS again! This Abrams is angry. .50 cal targets my scout team while the main gun fires on my already depleted RPG team.

Thanks for making all the wonderful maps for the various incarnations of CM! I would gladly pay for a George MC Module. APS does work for a fair number of uses as far as I can tell, but I don't know how many exactly. Does anyone? Things do get interesting in a bit, but the game is certainly anyone's at this point. Considering the armour imbalance, I think I've fared pretty well in avoiding BMP-3 explosions. Yes, running 1.03.

Near the ambush site, APS stops yet another missile fired from a helicopter. An Abrams sits just out of reach of my scout team, but it's probably not worth engaging them with an RPG-26 outside of 30m or so. On the far left, the tanks and Bradley pivot, exposing their flanks to me, although one faces rear. I unfortunately I have no units with the capacity to take advantage of such a broadside opportunity. My opponent is pushing (I think) for the edge of the map, although I do not immediately move to counter this threat.

Something else gets blown up by a Havoc or a Hind. On my far left, contacts appear and I'm dealing with several tanks and at least one Bradley. The dummy foxholes do nothing! The First RPG team gets off a shot on a Bradley, but the APS destroys the round. The Bradley keeps on going and pops smoke into the woods. The Bradley makes a sharp turn, exposing its rear to the second RPG team. But it's turret swivels and blasts them with 25mm rounds before an RPG can be fired. The team takes one casualty as smoke begins to envelop them.

2:00-1:54 A chopper scores a hit, but I'm not sure what has exploded. APS stops a missile. This will be a common theme. I moved my mechanized ambush party out of the woods and a bit closer to the crest of the hill. Can you spot the sniper team? Because this Bradley did, although I never make visual contact with it. My ambush party in the treeline spots an Abrams. Said Abrams begins to move towards the gap in the treeline and appears to have some company.

I then have three mechanized infantry platoons in the town itself, along with some AA assets. I have split all my squads and equipped everyone with as much anti-tank weaponry as I can. I intend to draw my opponent into the town and fight there. There's really no point in engaging M1's head-on, especially with RPG equipped infantry. I have primarily deployed my anti-tank missiles on the far bank to get flank shots and keep them out of sight. As we shall see, my decision to leave the treeline at the top of the last photo essentially undefended will prove somewhat interesting. On the far side of the river, I have spotters, mortars, AA units and one Khrizantemas. I hope to hit fast and hard with artillery and choppers right of the bat. I have called in all my attack helicopters and heavy artillery. The first turn sees artillery shells start landing, some helicopters buzzing about and a couple of spotting contacts.

After years of CM games, I figure it's about time for me to actually do one of these. I'm playing as the Russians against a regular opponent, who has done quite well against me in recent battles in CMRT and CMFI. He is however somewhat inexperience with CMBS (that's why I'm the Russians). We're playing Bridgehead at Kharalyk, which along with Lights, Camera, Action is my favourite CMBS battle. The battle is currently about 20 turns in, but I'm going to start from the beginning and focus on what went wrong and what I would do differently a second time around. I will usually turn off icons for screenshots, but they can make things much easier to follow. Initial Setup and the First Turn The map is great and feels like a real landscape. However, it is a landscape that I must defend against an enemy that at least initially outguns me by a wide margin, although he may not outnumber me. I have reinforcements arriving in 30 minutes, so my focus must be to delay my opponent by misdirection, ambushes and flank attacks. Here's a view to the north showing almost all my units at initial setup. A few mortars and AA assets are not shown. The bulk of my infantry and their vehicles are located in the town. I have some recon assets forward from my main positions. I have set up an ambush laid to hopefully attack the rear of vehicles that have passed through the woods. I have a few sniper teams placed well forward to keep an eye on things. I also placed some empty foxholes in the treelines. The intention is that my opponent will be forced to take time and clear these. I also have a mobile ambush posse located in the woods on the northeast section of the map. It consists of two Khrizantemas and two T-90s. As we shall see, things don't go quite according to plan. They're a bit difficult to see here, but trust me, they're there. I also have another T-90 on the far side of the map (unfortunately it was stuck just outside the setup zone and I couldn't move it. Probably would change that in the editor if I was doing things again). This T-90 will immediately withdraw back down the hill.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure Russian AA troops can only carry two Igla's at a time, as they carry the launchers, not just the missiles. They become quite overburdened with two launchers however and can only move on move. In the game I'm playing it also doesn't seem as if they can discard used launchers and still carry them around.

This looks like the cover of a 1970s Penguin book about psychedelics. Well done!

1. Yes, it's often the only defense unless you have buildings or fortifications to take shelter in. You can place pixeltruppen on hide for a bit of added protection. 2. No. A Panzershrek might be able to do it, but 135m is pushing it for WWII AT weapons, especially Panzerfausts.

I wouldn't mind it as an option, but I think that in most games the 60 second turn works quite well. I've always felt that the "OH ****!" moments in CM games are part of what makes them so much fun.

Great news! Thanks for all the hard work and the most excellent game.

I'm about 25 minutes into the first battle and it is tough! So far it's a very challenging, but still fair campaign. I unfortunately lost my BMP-2 (should have paid attention to the briefing!) and have taken moderate casualties. I think it might be a good idea to include a couple of MMG teams with the Ukrainians, but otherwise I think the forces are quite well done.

I'll give it a go!

I think the whole CMx2 family is great, but I would probably pick CMFI and Gustav Line if I had to choose and move on from there. I think Black Sea is great (I particularly like playing Russians against Ukrainians), and certainly worth buying eventually. I think CM games are best when the forces involved are slightly scrappy and you have to be creative with them, which is why I like CMFI. CMFI also goes earlier than any other game and I think a lot of the maps are really fantastic. Still, I would generally say the only way to go wrong is by only buying one CM game.

I finished the first version of this scenario and got a draw. It's very challenging and I really enjoyed it overall. I liked the slightly scrappy forces involved. I feel CM games are often more fun with lower quality forces. I lost one tank to an RPG by being careless, but the other one did quite well. It did make me wish for the high HE ammo load that WW2 tanks carried. Is there any reason why you gave a BMP-3 to the reinforcements? Seems to me that a BMP-2 would be more realistic, although I certainly appreciate the 100mm and 30 mm cannons.

Played the first 25 minutes and it's really well done so far. Great map! I've taken moderate casualties clearing the near side of the river, and my tanks and second company have just arrived and are moving up. That heavy machine gun was a doozy. I like that you've taken advantage of the fact that CM AI is only really challenging when fighting from well-sited static positions.

I'd also give it another go.

I played it through. Got a major defeat. The Russian reinforcements from the south side appeared just after I had cleared the buildings there and was moving troops up. These teleporting pixeltruppen caused me a lot of casualties and that effectively made capturing the central objective impossible. I would recommend moving their deployment zone to the western edge of the map behind the buildings there. Also, while the Ukrainian troops are elite, they are heavily outnumbered and do not have much firepower. The addition of maybe one or two MMGs and maybe an additional recon or engineer team or two would help a lot. I would also prefer the option to place all my troops in one setup zone. It did not seem wise to split a small force like this. But overall, I think it has potential to be a fun small infantry-only scenario.

I can try it out.

Could be fun for the whole family though!