zinzan

My understanding was that there was friction between Armored Forces and Army Ground Forces. (I may have just butchered their actual titles. Bureaucrats everywhere are screaming. ) McNair (AGF guru and commander) wanted homogeneity over all else. Doctrine (incorrectly) called for Tank Destroyer Command to deal with enemy armor and for tanks of Armored Forces to romp about in the hinterland, routing enemy HQs and artillery. 
When the 76mm upgunned Shermans were pushed upon the AGF (by the Ordnance Board? Gah. Ask the Bureaucrats), the actual Generals were asked about them, prior to the invasion. No one wanted 'em.
Then, they met Panthers. (The Tiger introduction had been done in Tunisia, but clearly wasn't impressive enough at the time.) The number of Panthers were a surprise...
That's when they (the combat commanders) began clamoring for every 76mm-gunned Sherman they could get.
There was plenty of blame for myopia to go around. Starting at McNair, and working down, only a few "visionaries" saw the need for more gun. Thanks to them, the 76mm Sherman was ready. (And the same goes for the Brits and the wonder of the Firefly.)
The Pershing (M26) was in design well before the invasion, specifically to mount a Tiger-esque gun in a "medium" tank. 
This also explains why the various tank destroyers always had a gun which was one step better than the Sherman. 75mm Sherman vs. 3 inch TD. Next, the 76mm as a better gun than the 3". When the Sherman got the 76mm, the TDs had the 90mm.
"Shermans shoot Germans: Tank Destroyers destroy tanks," would be an appropriate motto for US Army doctrine up through late '44/early '45. ("Doctrine", not actual use.)

I think most of the problem with tD doctrine was that by the time large numbers of the machines and the battalions equipped with them were available in the theater, the threat that they were intended to counter, i.e. large formations of attacking German armor, had gone away. Furthermore, everything that a TD could do, the newer generation of tanks could do and maybe even do it better, in addition to a few things that the TDs never did too well.
Michael

I completely agree that signs and wonders would be nice to see.  I completely disagree that "no screenshots equals no progress".  Given that Battlefront has a very small staff and must choose between developing the game or developing work in process marketing collateral, I prefer that they focus on developing the game first and then spend post development efforts to market the game when it is ready for sale. 
I don't mind that what I think doesn't matter though.  Battlefront knows better than me what's best for it's business.

yes i do good catch

Shhh...I'm Hunting Wabbits (or other Fresh Meat), lol
Yeah, I figured someone will come along and say, "What a minute, haven't you been playing CMx2 for a few years now".

Hi Bil, I'm also a big fan of your Battle Drill Blog and your AAR's prompted me to start making my own in a video format. I have learned a lot from your efforts so can vouch that you definitely have not been pissing in the wind!
Many thanks.

I confess...
 
I have been trying to quit for years...You get the wierdest sideeffects...uumphf, uurf
"whats that pink Pz IV doing in my livingroom",  "iirk, uurg..."
"ooohhgf ! Look !!!... there's a 25 year old blond in my bed !! " , "aaahhh, oohh...NO, NO NO...Come back !!!!"
"please...."
 
 

That wasn't "speculation" it was "Science Fiction".
 
Mord.

Actually, it was a hallucination occasioned by overindulgence in pickled herring.

Michael

LOL - excellent idea!

How right you are...
Do you see this BFC ? 
I'm sure IanL is a... somewhat olderish guy (that is...a man that might not get all that many presents any more on his big day...)
Let's make this guy a happy man on his birthday by releasing some new stuff for him to enjoy...shall we ? 
 

Why? Because it's my birthday? That must be it right

How's this for a speculation...   In BrotherSurplice AAR-thread - "Sabres at Dawn AAR - BrotherSurplice vs Rinaldi (H2H)" over in the Shock Force 1 forum Bil Hardenberger hinted today at the possibility that he would start a new AAR-thread  very shortely.   Hopefully this will feature one of the soon to be realed modules.   This got me thinking...perhaps it will be the CMRT module "that will take us to the end of the war"...A few weeks of some nice reading and then perhaps a release of the module on...   ...why not..the 8th of may. Seems like a good day for such a release...   This got me thinking some more...It's been a long time since we have seen any new releases from BFC and they have stated that they are working on several projects at the same time now and that these projects are making good progress...Releasing all these projects within a short timeframe will not be a problem they said...   I know whats going on now !!!    They have completed the CMRT-module "that will take us to the end of the war". They have completed the CMFI-module "that will take us to the end of the war" and they have also managed to squiz in a little surprise...a CMFB module "that will take us to the end of the war"...   And they will release all three of these modules on the 8th of may in a special VE-day bonus bundle !!!    Would'nt that be nice ?   

Nope, I am in pretty heavy mechanical engineering.  The motto being: If you can‘t repair it with a sledgehammer or a torch, it‘s rubbish. 😎

Thanks, mate. My explanation would have been more “engineer like”: It’s like trying to align a microscope with a sledgehammer.

I concur, despite bocage! 
If "best" is defined as being the only one you could afford to buy, then CMBN offers the greatest content for dollars spent.  Each game has a particular selling point.  If that particular selling point is not decisive to you, then CMBN will keep you happily occupied for a good long time.

Next post!  My advance continues against limited enemy resistance.  Not a whole lot of text, mostly pictures.

My two Brummbars exchange fire with the Sherman to my loss.  They both miss their few HEAT shells and the picture Brummbar gets its gun knocked out.  I order the other one to back up out of the los of the sherman.  I let my damaged Brummbar remain in place to keep the Shermans attention.

A lot of dead Americans throughout the front half of the town.  All shot while retreating or routing.

A lot of Americans retreated from my Brummbar fire and the remaining ones are being killed or routed by the large amount of firepower and infantry (around a company of them) I have moving into the town.  


On the right side of town there hasn't been much fire exchanged since I'm still setting up my units, almost a company's worth, and am waiting for my mortars to fire. 
 
My mortars are about to fire or 1-2 minutes away from firing.  I have some concern about friendly fire, some spotting rounds might land on the slope where my right flank units are setting up.  But victory is almost certain at this point so I am not that concerned.

I have two squads mopping up the remaining infantry and AT gun on the ridge.  Not really necessary at this point but I don't want the AT gun to find some unexpected los and hit my units in the town.

The panzerschreck got killed!  Time for a panzerfaust charge!  Will run my men up to the building then behind the sherman.  If that still fails I have more panzerfausts and expendable men.  I also have more panzerschrecks advancing through the town that I can use soon.
Next post will probably be the last post and conclusion of the battle!

Nice commentary/analysis of WEGO vs RT. 

I made a video about a year ago where I talk about why I like the WeGo system. The footage is from A Muddy Affair. I don't comment at all on the scenario but give a brief summary at the end on how the battle went.
 
I thought the scenario designer did a sterling job on this scenario, it was extremely challenging and rewarding.
 
 

Not old, just older . . .
Discord is a proprietary freeware VoIP application designed for gaming communities. Discord runs on Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and in a web browser. As of December 2017, there were about 87 million unique users of the software.  https://discordapp.com/

The Few Good Men site uses discord. Check out the Discord Chat on the right hand side of this page: http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/
I am personally not plugged into the discord group but you can get there from the above.

I had the same problem but at a hedgerow.  Some guys went through the gap and others did not.  I solved the problem by breaking up the squad and giving the stragglers their own orders.  Then they moved ahead no problem...  

The Blitz is running four scenarios this month.
Sign up for the March Scenario of the Month has started over at the Blitz. This month the scenarios are:
CMBN: BP1 - Nulli Secundus
CMBS: Power Hour
The form post on theBlitz for sign up: http://www.theblitz.org/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=71493

I played the same mission yesterday, and while I agree it's a tough nut to crack, I saw plenty of cases where the AI ran into the streets to get cut to pieces. Somehow it's never as painful when it happens to the enemy as to my own guys
I don't think they will ever fix this behaviour 100 pct, but I feel there's still room for improvement. A basic check to not let troops run towards known threats (contacts) might go a long way. And if there's no escape route without enemy contacts, then to stay.
Staying put when under fire in a building might not guarantee survival, but it often seems the more "believable" choice. At least as I see it.

Thank you for taking the time to explain the installer issues, Ian. Especially with Battle for Normandy, it's a bit of a nightmare. I think I'm just going to stick with v.4.00 for now and try work-arounds like using the pause command that you suggested. Though I do hope some patch for the infantry behavior will arrive sooner rather than later.
 
Doubtful anyone's going to revoke our grumbly grognard status around here. If you play CMx2, you are by definition a gumbly old grognard.