agusto

Did someone say 5th Panzer Division?
 
  
 
 
Looks sweeping and legendary, George. I am really looking forward to playing all your latest stuff once I am done this mod from East Front Hell.
 
 
 
 
Mord.

This scenario covers the following action (as recorded by von Plato in his history of 5th Panzer Division) in the closing stages of Operation Bagration. Smorgon is on the main rail line from Minsk to Vilnius – hence it was strategically vital for allowing Germans to bring units into action. They were low on fuel/transport so railways were a vital component for keeping armies supplied and flow of reinforcements/moving units etc. The Soviets had just cut the rail line. 5th Panzer Division under the command of Major -General Karl Decker (His General Staff Officer or Ia was Lieutenant-Colonel Anton Detlev von Plato) or at least what was left of it, was concentrated into one group for a last gasp attack.
 
"Early on 6 July an armored group with I./ Pz. Gren. Rgt.14 and I./ Pz. Gren. Rgt. 13 and Pz.Rgt. 31 is formed under Colonel Lippert. The II./ Pz. Gren. Rgt.14 takes Sakowice and II. / Pz. 13 the section west of it on the road of advance. The armored group moves out at about 11.00 am. After short, heavy fighting the enemy is thrown north of Sakowice. The armored group thrusts above Krasne Osinowka until just before the railway, southwest of Smorgon, nearly 10 km deep. Then our power is exhausted at Osinowka - Bialkoszcyna as the enemy throws new armored units against us." 
 
The scenario covers later part of this attack i.e. the armoured kampfgruppe's thrust to Osinowka - Bialkoszcyna. By this stage in the fighting 5th Panzer had been in continuous heavy combat since 27th June, moving to and fro across a huge area. By the evening of the 5th July it had endured several cycles of full on combat. By the 6th July and was starting to show signs of strain and this final throw of the diec was to be it's last major offensive and combat cycle during Operation Bagration. Many of the panzergrenadier companies were down to 35 men. Their armoured strength had gone from 70 Panzer V Panthers and 55 Panzer IVs to a recorded strength on the evening of the 5th July of 25 Panthers and 25 PzIVs.
 
From a CM perspective such heavy casualties mean it's possible to simulate this without having hundreds of units on the map. Correspondingly the map is huge - 3km wide x 4.5km deep. The map is based on a contemporary Russian map of the area. What it highlights is this area was at least fairly suitable for a large scale armoured attack. It's one of the few areas in this part that's not bog and wood infested - being mostly rolling terrain with patches of wood but generally fairly open sight lines. The down side is several rivers/streams run across the terrain which mean the Germans had to attack across these natural barriers. The attack did make headway but the Soviets managed to very quickly push armoured units (from the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps and 3rd Guards Mech Corps under General Oslikovski) into the area. These are the attacks that halt the tired and run down 5th Panzer.
 
Playing the Scenario This scenario was originally designed to be played first and foremost from the perspective of the German side against the Soviet AI. It is playable head to head (H2H) but has not been playtested for balance in this regard. I suspect it’ll be a tough one for the German player – so if playing H2H let the less experienced player take the Soviets.   When playing this do so with the mindset you are playing a min campaign. Due to the size of map and tactical challenges you’ll need to tackle this as a linked series of actions rather than one decisive action.  
It's now available for download at the following links:
 
Scenario Depot III
 
The Repository
 
The image below is taken looking north. It shows the first water barrier a mainly marshy/boggy stream. Behind is a low ridge and rolling terrain. The village ahead is KARAVAI
 

 
Another shot - this time looking east across the German line of attack.
 

 
This is further north. It's the small hamlet of LIAUKI about 700m south of OSINOWKA.
 

 
Another full scale view of the map. Again looking north.
 

 
From the Soviet side of the hill. T34s from 3rd Guards Mech Corps counterattack the German armoured spearhead. This view is looking south towards LIAUKI/CHADAKI
 

I know I slacked off last weekend. (AAP challenge and some total war had to be done)
I'll definitely play through this either tonight or tomorrow and write up some notes.

Agusto,
Sorry I have taken so long to reply...started the updated scenario.  Going much better this time.  2:30 is a slog...oyyy...but think this version is much better paced and balanced.  
 
Small spoiler...
 
Used the sniper teams to good effect...took out 5-6 BMPs before main force showed up...love, love point arty.
 
Decided to try and use the ol' central position COA...using my sniper teams to pin down OBJ Alpha and Charlie with arty and CAS while I use my main force to take X-ray and Bravo...then figure I can mop up the other two objectives...I am assuming the MAIN enemy force will be concentrated around X-ray...so far so good...except I can't keep my AAVs from getting shot...huge difference between having Bradleys and these huge targets...oyyy
 
Will see how the CAAT works out....waiting for the arrival of the main enemy armor force...should be interesting...
 
Will provide complete AAR as soon as i finish!
 
Thanks for this.

Ohh man that looks great. A must have IMO.

I agree that CMBS lags behind in certain areas. Still though i claim that within its genre (battalion to platoon level 3D tactical wargames) it is the most deep and challenging game with the highest replayability. I tried other compareable games, like APOS, SABOW,  etc and none of them i like as much CM. I have litterally spent a thousand hours or probably more playing CM and i am still not bored of it, so Battlefront must be doing something right, even if it' s not making shiny graphics or cinematic sounds or forrests beeing consumed by giant blazing fires.

Hear, hear!

There ain't to many nice stock campaigns (I still believe the MG campaigns are unpleasantly tough) and now this one is broken!

That ain't good.

This has been reported in at least 3 other threads over the past year or so.
 
Honestly BFC needs to have a disclaimer on the purchase page for these expansions to tell people they will not be able to play the campaigns if they have 3.0, its bordering on false advertising.

There are still a few vehicles to finish them all off. Meanwhile, I have started working on the interface, following master Juju's concepts, here you can see new "realistic" icons for the special equipment, all based on photographs of the real deal:
 
 


 
 
The idea is to improve a bit the lifeless interface without causing too much commotion. Weapons silhouettes should come next.
Changing the interface is a huge task, Juju's mad.

Hi,

I'm starting this thread with the specific goal of capturing, all in one thread, the stunning pics and discussions some of you have posted regarding shattered M1s, Merkavas, T-72s, etc., including technical details of target armor configuration, what did it, what worked, what didn't and why. To me, these are very valuable, and, since the pics aren't directly referenced in many cases, all too easy to lose track of in a sea of posts. I'll start with this:

HEAT warhead tests against an estimated threat advanced composite armor array (sans ERA) in the 1980s made the horrifying discovery that even minor repositioning of protective elements within could not only make the difference between successful penetration and outright failure, but couldn't be detected by National Technical Means (NTM, diplospeak for recon satellites). This meant that a known armor configuration against which we had designed, tested and fielded an effective counter (or so we devoutly hoped; actual track record on predicting threat armor array characteristics was awful) could be quietly and secretly changed into one which defeated that munition, and the U.S. would have no way of telling such a switch had been made--until the weapon failed to kill the tank! Since the weapon system in question was specifically intended to deal with the Fulda Gap and all those Russian tanks, this would've been disastrous. I saw the warhead test footage myself, and the campers definitely weren't happy after that.

Regards,

John Kettler

Muzzle velocity of T-HEAT ammunition 3VK-14 and 3VK-18, usual for UKR tanks are 905 m/s and 915 m/s

Arena is tagged at a max velocity that it can intercept. I want to say 900ms, though I may be all wet on that number. If your round falls below that velocity then it's susceptible to interception. I believe 120mm HE would start out at around 950ms. Firing across a big map the round would of course slow its flight, possibly bringing it just inside the capabilities of Arena

When I was using BMP-3 advancing on a mission, a M1a2 ambushed and fire upon me in approximately 500 meters, then the miracle happened, Arena was activated and intercepted the 120mm m256 gun, successfully   and the last time I check, the maximum possible interception speed for Arena was only 700m/s(≈2296ft/s)
 
Now, I do considering is that the year 2017 makes Arena more advanced, or is it just some calculation error? or there a statistic test that proofs the Arena is capable of intercepting main battle tank's gun shell?
 
Note: this is not only happens on M1A2, my test in game proof that it is capable of defeating any sort of MBT's main gun. Funny thing is, while overwhelmingly effective against MBT, unguided rocket launcher often easily breaching in the APS defense perimeter and destroy the entire vehicle.

I uploaded the Testing ground in #5, clearly T-84 was shooting 125mm T-HEAT as its primary ammo selection when engaging BMP-3, which definitely been blocked by Arena almost every single test

image hosting without registration   In one of Britain's more audacious espionage ventures captured German officers were interned at Trent Park as M19 surreptitiously recorded their hair-raising exchanges. A slick PBS production exceptionally well filmed, acted and produced.
 
The story of how those conversations were recorded and how they can now reveal, in more shocking detail than ever before, the hearts and minds of the German fighter. In total, more than 100,000 hours of these secret recordings were made. Only now have they all been declassified, researched and cross referenced.
 

It's hard to understand what you are asking because there aren't enough details in your description about what you are doing exactly.  It should be obvious what artillery is doing if you are running the artillery yourself.  Are you just assigning artillery to one side or another and waiting to see what the AI does with it or something?  If you are doing stuff in the editor you can always place a bunch of enemy soldiers out in some open ground, assign yourself a forward observer, give the forward observer twenty batteries of 105mm howitzers and have at it.

I counted the crosses, there are 16 of them.
 
 
Absolutely . Thanks for sharing this GaJ, your men died for a good cause...our entertainment.

well yeah but neither was the comment it was in response to.. yet I didn't see you comment on that...hmmm.
 
It's the circle, the circllllleeee of price!!!
 
Man you guys are so lucky you can't hear me sing.

Go get a life!
 
Senseless post.  No need for it.

Exactly!  That's why Battlefront went out of business last year ... oh wait  . 
 
I was going to type more but it would be pointless and a waste of my time.

Dang, man, 'real world' stuff ain't suppose to happen to posters here! We're all meant to be spirits that haunt the internet immune to the travails of real life.
I'm reminded of something I once told a sick friend. You may not believe it now, but someday this is will all be nothing but a colorful anecdote you tell people at dinner parties.

Mark Twain once wrote his paper to inform them: "The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."
 
To those who have expressed concern for my health and well-being, my thanks and I will reply to you individually as soon as I can get my e-mail program to send as well as receive. For all of you who may be interested, I will write a more detailed report as soon as I can and post it in the GF, which is I think a more appropriate forum for such discussions. But not to keep you in too much suspense, I will say here that on the 26th. of March I was struck by a pickup truck which resulted in 11 broken ribs and a broken clavicle (no, that is not a baroque musical instrument). Since then I have spent five days in hospital and about two and a half months in a nursing facility and only arrived home today. I am in pretty good shape due to some good rehab work by some dedicated people. More later.
 
Michael

I did a semihistorical scenario OPERATION WARHORSE based on the fall of Baba Amr district in Homs in 2012 to a 4th Mech Division tank battalion. No AI plan though: H2H only. Vicious urban street combat! You should probably add more FSA snipers and RPG teams to balance better for RED.

Repository link
http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=2525

Yup, my main takeaway from our test game was that I needed to add about 3x the number of snipers and maybe a few small IEDs. I also need to max out the pop density settings (BU AFVs spot inf in buildings wayyyy too easily, but that's a chronic problem with the game engine in general)

But I never got round to those changes as you know.

SPOILER.
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Basically the only way for Red to win -- as in the real fighting -- is to strip off and break the already understrength Blue infantry dismounts, so the piles of tanks and BMPS are vulnerable to the very limited number of RPG shots.

Long time stalker of the forum here, and I have a question about some Strykers.
 
So a few weeks back I was near Ft. Carson, Colorado, and I was lucky enough to see a convoy of a troop of Strykers from the 2/1st Cavalry, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, en route to  Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site (I believe). However, after studying the 200 or so pictures I had taken of the convoy (yes, I am a nut) while halfway out my car window (no, I was not driving), the configurations had me a little confused.
 
So its a cavalry unit, right? So it should be equipped with M1127 Strykers Cavalry Vehicles, which, to my understanding, do not possess the M151 Protector RWS. However, it seems that most of the vehicles I passed had the M151 along with that little green, uh, box thingy that's used for RSTA. 
 

  Red is the RSTA box; blue is the presumed M151.
 

 
Different Stryker, with M151 uncovered
 

 
This one seemed to lack the RSTA box
 
 
 
Also saw M1131 Fire Support Vehicle, I believe (along with a M1133 Medevac vehicle which couldn't make it into the post).
 
So...thoughts? I thought this was little strange...were the M151s retrofitted to the Cav vehicles, or the RSTA boxes retrofitted to vanilla Stykers? I know not all Strkers in a cavalry units are M1127s - some M1126s and others mixed in - but I still thought this was interesting.