Chudacabra

Looks great. This is an excellent map and one that I have been hosed as the Russians in two successive PBEMs. Good luck!

Great DAR! It has encouraged me to play this battle again. I've been pretty cautious so far, but managed to lose a T-72 to an ATGM. I feel that CM really shines in terms of entertainment when you have slightly scrappier forces rather than tracked gundams.

Great stuff so far! This forum needs more rock and less talk.

I don't think you would realistically send light armour reinforcements to deal with heavier armour. A Stryker with a 40mm grenade launcher is fairly effective against a BMP-2, but you have to be careful. It also seems that you would probably have a drone and some arty right away. That being said, I don't think these necessarily detract from the scenario being fun to play. Considering that the US often has a qualitative edge, I think it's okay for battles (especially against the AI) to be a bit gamey in order to make them more challenging.

I'm playing it right now and it is quite gamey, but lots of fun. I tried a frontal assault against the town in my first attempt, but it failed quite miserably. So I decided to take the high ground on the left, which has plenty of Javelin opportunities and lots of spots for hull-down Strykers. The map now abounds with burning Russian vehicles and my tracked reinforcements just arrived.

Does anyone know if this campaign is available to download anywhere? Looks like fun.

I think you could model declining Russian air capabilities in a campaign to some extent. I don't really see much utility in a quick battle or scenario however. I think that CMBS is unquestionably the least realistic CMx2 game, but I also think it's the most fun (perhaps because Russian capabilities are likely greater than they would be in real-life, meaning that the game is at least somewhat close to balanced). Personally I would rather see better AA for the Americans, rather than an abstract and likely very difficult to program approach to air units.

I believe Stingers cannot target the Zala, but can shoot at the other two Russian drones. While I understand that in a real war American air superiority makes ground AA fairly irrelevant, it would be very useful to have some greater AA assets for American forces in CMBS. Maybe with the NATO module(s)?

You can't even trust him to honestly fall down the stairs!

A couple of AT-4's from close range.

The beast briefly roars... But its hatches soon pop open. Its valiant crew jump to the fight... and are promptly killed.

A building full of two American infantry squads. "I think there's something in the woods, sarge..." "A T-90! It's too close for Javelins!" "Hit it with everything!"

A 45mm AT gun. Not such a bad door knocker.

A Stug crew flees their knocked out vehicle.

Great stuff Heinrich! I do believe BF has done away with any hand to hand fighting that you could occasionally see in CMx1.

It did not end well.

Brutal way to end a turn.

I have had fairly good luck with the Khrizantema in a current PBEM. It doesn't work miracles, but in a good hull-down position two of them managed to bag 3 Bradleys and hit an Abrams twice to unknown effect. I feel they are quite good against Bradleys, but I haven't had great success against Abrams'. Although when playing as the Russians I have not had particularly good luck killing American tanks with any weapons system. As for Russian ATGMs, well, they are cheap and sometimes work. But the Javelin is simply horrible death from the sky.

Make sure you've got a way out after you start shooting.

Don't go over your own mines.

Wow! This looks amazing!

Maybe my next PBEM will get the AAR treatment, but it's rather time-consuming. Battalion or so. Should have bought more breach teams.

Agreed. Probably the best QB map I've come across. I would have chosen my forces a bit differently, but there's always next time.

Now for a bit more of an even match, I move a T-90 forward to deal with this Abrams. The T-90 scores two lower hull penetrations at 175m. And it still doesn't die! Although at least it now backs up extremely slowly. Plenty of dead infantry to go around. Urban fighting in CMBS is simply brutal, although I think the Russians can do quite well with their preponderance of cheap HE.

Too much politics in this forum lately. More rock, less talk! A BMP-3 gets the jump on an Abrams... And dishes out nearly 40 seconds of 30mm.... The turn ends and I think "Maybe I've done it! I've finally taken revenge on behalf of the cumulative dozens of BMP-3's that have met their fiery end at the hands of those American steel beasts. I seem to have stunned this monster, maybe the crew will bail out, maybe their gun doesn't work anymore, and I bet they can't see either." But no, not today. Alas, yet another BMP-3 goes pixeltruppen heaven! An A+ for effort!