Bud Backer

No way I could know, as the hole was in the hull just below the turret, near the driver hatch. I thought that it was dead until you rolled it back and then... came back again!! That was an agonizing bit of time watching that tank turn the turret and then... nothing. *phew* Earlier I mentioned I had more to say about the smoke. As already seen in the comic the smoke came it handy for Gorokhov's troops to advance toward your lines in perfect concealment, as to later withdraw back into it after their mauling by your tanks. More interesting to me was that your tanks responded very rapidly to laser warnings from my tanks, before my tanks would fire. However, once you were hidden behind the smoke (and neither of us could fire) I always adjusted the positioning of my tanks (and brought up more) so that when the smoke cleared, usually there were 3-4 heavy guns pointing at one of your tanks. That's what I meant by using it to my advantage. At it worked every time in this battle. It only failed when I got a bit overconfident and moved a vehicle when the smoke was thinning, but we will get to that later... So I started using smoke - my own T90 and BMP discharged smoke - offensively; creating cover to move into advantageous positions. I don't know why I didn't think of that before. I guess my tendency to conserve ammo and by extension this life-saving but limited capacity to make smoke made me never consider it before. Probably rather dumb on my part... This was one of those rare moments when you didn't surprise me. You're definitely the better player. But this time when I looked at this map during deployment I thought, if it was me, I'd try a swing around the ridge and hit early. So I was waiting for just that move. I had a lot of infantry, so losing 2/3+ of a platoon in exchange for three tanks and two BMPs seemed an excellent trade-off. Though I don't want to overstate things. I was disappointed and concerned about losing that many men, this early on. My own (apparent) lack of familiarity with certain features of modern stuff proved costly. For example, the tank-fired airburst rounds were utterly lethal in causing casualties. Not all at once, but those 3 tanks managed to kill/wound off a few men each and every time they fired, so over time it attrits my force considerably. Thankfully I didn't send more men there with 1st platoon! It likely was more than 8 BMPs, but certainly all 4 of my tanks were there waiting and ready. I knew you could not cross directly over the ridge and attack me frontally as I had well over a company of infantry in the woods atop it and it would likely not have gone well for an unescorted armour force. So I was already set up with half my armour facing not forward, but to the side where you came. I should add that at this point, (and I mentioned this to Ian in an email about this battle) that I felt really good. He lost 3 tanks and 2 BMPs and some infantry. As the defender he had less points so I should be even more outnumbering his forces than at the start. I underestimated his force armour composition badly. More on that later...

Great to see you back here, gnarly! I was fixing some missing images in another comic and saw your posts there and wondered "whatever happened to that guy; I don't see him any more." CMBS, when I first played it, was a terrible surprise at how easy it was to die in it. WW2 expectations and methods lead to a quick death. If @37mm and his merry band of modders choose to make an African-setting variant of their superb mod for CMSF2, I will do one for that game too. I have ideas... and Syria doesn't interest me in the least as a setting.

Welcome back, @Michael Emrys! You’ve been missed. You’ve some reading to do here!

Thanks, Splinty! Definitely more to come on this! Thanks, amigo! Wasn't sure I was gonna publish this one but I'm glad I did. The thing about this battle is something I suspect many low-ranking infantry-men might relate to - not having the full details on what is happening where around them, beyond generalities. It makes it scary to move, and to not move. Either could be a mistake. When 60-ton behemoths start slugging it out with one another, its a scary place to be. And you have no choice but to go where you're told... I won't reveal anything about our crazy driver, but you will hear about Bakhtiyarov again, no fear.

They will eventually cancel but at the moment you have no control until that occurs.

For some of these last three panels you may want to click on the image, and then when a larger popup opens, click on that for the full screen version. There are details that might otherwise elude you.

I’ve done the same. But the result of that is I think I am exposed when I’m not and I don’t advance...

You’re welcome! Thanks for commenting. Good. You weren’t alone. I was really nervous about the whole affair. And again when making it into a comic. How to present the tension of the moment? How to portray the rescue?

Playing a battle now and saw smoke from my enemy's mortars.

Ha! That's the ultimate compliment: that I inspired someone. Great stuff!

I was concerned about some sort of surprise as well, but at the same time, trained on those trees and that slope were not less than 4 125mm guns, and another 8 or more 100mm. And Gorokhov's men should have had some other sign of enemy vehicles in the immediate vicinity. I had to get those men out while artillery scoured the enemy crunchies, more than anything, and it wasn't worth the risk of sending in more valuable vehicles that an RPG would take out easily at close range. Bakhtiyarov drove it like he stole it. Pedal down all the way. It's a pretty zippy, tough little truck, and despite taking fire and being hit multiple times it remained undamaged and the occupants uninjured through the whole rescue operation.

Seems I can’t complete the login. The site is slow anyway this week but the login stalls every time.

If you can get in then good. If you can get in but suffer such a delay each time, then I think it’s time to reset the DRM. Several people who experienced significant load times found the issue resolve after doing that, but it does require the assistance of Helpdesk. Point them to this thread for added clarity. I’m not entirely unscathed either.

Rather odd but I can't open CMFI, CMRT, and CMFS2. CMBN, CMBS and CMFB all work fine. Edit: Never Mind. I had another app that was causing a problem, once it was closed all worked fine. Sorry, Phil, I was hoping to help you out but I had no luck. However... if you go into \users\PhilM (or whatever your personal user folder is) at the bottom you may see some files with gobbledygook names that are just unintelligible. Those files are error logs. If you submit a ticket include those files.

Thanks, Mate. Wasn't sure if it was something specific to my login.