Bulletpoint

Just had to recommend this battle. It is small but intricate. You start out with one Para HQ and two small squads and a generous set up area. Go secure that bridge and guard house. The neat thing from a design standpoint is that despite small squads they can be split up in several teams, so you end up with several tactical element comprised of just one or two men. This adds an interesting dimension to it. And a stunning map. I always feel the game looks it best in light fog/cloudy weather.
 
Who designed this gem? Highly recommended, especially if you're into tiny/small battles.

Well I don't think I have anything to add for @Bulletpoint but based on your discussion about trees being annoying in the CMBN threads I would recommend Fortress Italy - and add on Gustov Line.

Lets put it this way CMBN and CMRT I play with trees set to show trunks mode so I can actually see what my guys are up to. With CMFI I have trees fully on and for the most part I do not have to turn them off to see what is what.

Put down the pipe, hippie.. marijuana is not a combat drug

Put down the pipe, hippie.. marijuana is not a combat drug

True. In a very abstract way of lines and circles on a map, I can really admire the German performance in the first couple of months of Barbarossa. Not because I think they were the good guys who should be winning against the evils of Communism, but because at that moment they were skilled practitioners of military art fighting against a foe that was horribly off balance. But I suspect that this is best covered at the strategic or at least operational level. I'm not particularly thrilled to see it played out on the CM battlefield. Granted that some aspects are well covered at that level (such as the matchup of various models of armor), but the whole aspect of logistics—which to a large extent is what won and lost that war—is more or less completely elided in CM.
 
Michael

It all depends on who you are reading. Yeah, there are tons of books printed every year that are basically nostalgic for what great guys we were. Citizen Soldier is an embarrassing example of that. But there has also been a lot of unsentimental (and even anti-sentimental) revisionism written in the last 20 years about the war fought by the Western Allies. That is still ongoing and looks to be for at least another couple of decades.
 
Michael

The following is by no means and objective description or analysis but only my subjective perception:
 
CMSF: Coalition forces massacring Syrian forces. Difficulty comes from trying to achieve your goal with minimal casualties. In some of the NATO campaigns you get 4 tanks and a company of mech infantry for 10 battles without reinforcements. Lots of user generated content at the Repository. Engine is not updated to 2.0 or 3.0.
 
CMBN: Close range, bloody bocage-fighting. Stock maps are usually of average size, often with woods and village son them (besides the omnipresent bocage, of course). Lots of user generated content.
 
CMFI: Interesting, unusual units. Mountainous, mediterran terrain. Lots of user generated content, but less than the above two titles.
 
CMRT: Large scale, epic tank and infantry battles. Often huge, flat, open maps. Often you will see long range duels between tanks or soviet human wave tactics. Very bloody. Still relatively new, so there arent as many mods as for the other Cmx2 titles.

CMRT is for Ost Front buffs. doesnt have all the modules that the others have so its not far to compare but it does have two terrain types (Soviet Union and Eastern EU) huge variety of units. and its the Friggin Ost Front. Cmon will yas.  Best one. That being said I fell back in love with BN when my buddy Sburke gifted me the modules I didnt have - MG, 3.0 and the battle pack.   BN (WITH MG MODULES AND CW MODULE)covers two terrains - france and holland, has Waffen SS, Fallschirmjagers, Kriegsmarine troops, Brits, Canucks, everything.  Ost Front will too, but in time, now its Wehrmacht, and Soviet Army.  Still, many types of Werhmacht, stragglers etc. Many types of Soviets, including Guards units etc. Air support is different in the games too - realistically in the West Front you can kinda sorta control where your air strikes land, in the East its just roving air support if it shows up at all. And it may hit anything.
FI was my least favorite for awhile.  Really only Sicily. GL made it a whole new game.  It covers the earliest war period in game so far, and has the only winter fighting you'll see so far. Which is really cool.  It also really expands the game, going to May 44 from July 43.  Monte Cassino, Ortona, Anzio, etc.  GL really made FI What it is, not FI.  The Italians, for me, were  fun for five minutes. Yea I like a challenge, but theyre just not my thing.

Baneman's description is a good one.
 
Normandy Modules, Common Wealth and Market Garden complete the CMBN time frame arena.
If you are really into CMBN you can't go wrong with the full package.
 
If you want something different, a more open battlefield with less powerful equipment, Fortress Italy & Gustav Line are a very compelling combination. I enjoy playing CMFI/GL after a heavy engagement in the other games.
 
Red Thunder is interesting because you have powerful WWII equipment for both sides than can make some pretty epic battles in open and urban environments. CMRT just looks really cool too.

Understood.
 
You have plenty of great non fictional WWII available. It would be difficult for me to pick one of your candidates Fortress Italy, Gustav Line, Market Garden or Red Thunder. I have them all. I play them all. Having the WWII variety makes for a diversity of gaming enjoyment depending on my mood.
 
Best of luck in your choice.

Lets not get confused here. I wasn't assaulting a German Company-sized element.

It was a 2-man MG squad, and a HQ squad....

They sustained five minutes of direct and indirect fires (105mm!!!)

I'm not sure how some of you can argue that this is a realistic game. That's not the least bit realistic. You can disagree with me, but I've been on the receiving end of indirect fire in real life (82mm mortar and 57mm rockets) and I'm telling you that the pixeltruppen in the woodline should've been broken by the time my assault squad reached them...let alone repulse my guys with one MP40.

At the time I thought that calling for both 105 and 60mm would've been a bit overkill!

Ah yes the low bocage - one of my biggest gripes. How many times have I mistaken it for hedges and had my soldiers slaughtered when instead they had to move around it?  The other problem I have with low bocage is spotting the gaps.  I find locating the gaps in high bocage to be easy, but with low bocage I have been mistaken many times.

I unknowingly played a mission like that. I was so mad at the game for weird LOS issues. Think I got a major victory though (maybe it was just a tactical), can't remember for sure. The thought that I did play with trees turned off occurred the next day; I looked and the map looked completely different: Oh so those trees are why my troops got slaughted in some magic ambush.

Joy, just invested god knows how many hours on this scenario and we are 21 mins in and just talking to my oppo he said he could not plot move for Panther on the bridge. Hmmm I thought the Jeeps I have are OK.

Now I see this is broken! It was shaping up to be a great game but this seems to place it in the bin! What a waste. I guess I can not edit game in progress to fix the bridge?

Shocking and a real shame. I will let my oppo know and see if he feels he can win without getting his tanks across. Also seriously knackers my cunning plans!!

Can't believe the play testers did not try and get tanks across the bridge!!

Apologies for necro-bumping.

I did a search to see if this issue was known. It's a bit frustrating to discover it has been for nearly a year and NOTHING was done about it. If it's a bug or flawed map design then it hasn't been fixed.

Of course, I didn't know about it until I was nearly 40 minutes into the scenario. Needless to say, it was irritating to discover that the famous Son Bailey bridge that took-up an overlong 10 minutes in a "Bridge Too Far" to be built doesn't support armor! It appears that despite Elliot Gould's best efforts XXX Corps' tanks ain't getting to Grave.

In terms of gameplay, this breaks the scenario and makes it unplayable. The Brit tanks are stuck on one side of the canal and the Germans on the other. It's absurd because there are victory locations on both sides!

The problem is that CMBN's "canal" bridges don't support armor. I don't know if once upon time they did prior to some patch or upgrade, but they certainly don't now. The description in the scenario editor is vague. The canal bridge is not described with "W" for "wide" which according to the 3.0 manual is the only type of bridge that can support all vehicles (ie tanks). It's just "canal bridge" with no descriptor. Are wooden canal bridges supposed to support armor?

Anyway, aesthetics be damned! I used the scenario editor to transform that admittedly neat looking canal bridge into a plain, ordinary, mundane stone bridge with a big old "W" next to its name! It took me a minute. I have to restart the scenario, but it, at least, now has a working bridge!

"... I will move on from Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy to try some of the other releases.
But I don't know if I should go for Fortress Italy, Gustav Line, Market Garden or Red Thunder...."
 
It would be a shame to sidestep the new modern vintage on offer.... Black Seas
 
My prediction is Black Seas (vintage 2015) will be Big, with a Buttery Bouquet, a Baked Brilliance.... Smooth, Supple, not overly Sweet and a Spicy yet Finessed Finish....  

A few words of wisdom from me:
 
Combat Mission Shock Force: "Oh sh*t the mission briefing DID say I.E.D.s. Whoops. I guess I wasn't using that Abrams anyway."
 
Combat Mission Battle for Normandy: After playing The Blue and the Gray and The Road to Montebourg for three days straight, I emerged from the darkened confines of my bedroom with a thousand-yard stare. I then realized I hadn't eaten for three days.
 
Combat Mission Fortress Italy: It's the one with the Italians in it. That's all I know about that.
 
Combat Mission Red Thunder: This is the one you buy if you're a secret communist, or if you like to shoot communists.
 
Combat Mission Black Sea: If you read Red Storm Rising and think to yourself "I want to do that!" then buy this game!

A walk in the park. Unless you're the enemy.

while testing Studienka I had a couple guys run into a Russian tank crewman who went into surrender mode right after shooting one of mine.  Of course my guy being the civilized bloke he WAS, proceeded to buddy aid his comrade.  The Russian recovered his morale somehow and proceeded to shoot him..  I have asked charges be leveled according to the Geneva convention but so far no reply.

Tough question - Kohlenkau's description of CMRT is accurate ... unless you end up in forests/woods when major SMG armed Russians make things ...interesting.
 
I haven't had CMFI+GL myself long enough to judge properly, but it gives a taste of non-uber equipment ( funny Italian stuff, PzIII's etc. + learn to cope without Pzschrecks and/or fight Tigers ) and the joy (?) of fighting with a less than stellar TO&E of the Italians ( who can pull out some decent resistance nevertheless if you treat them more carefully ).
 
IMO, Market Garden adds more firepower to the Allied formations otherwise not very different, but it's hard to tell since CMBN is the one product I've kept up to date the longest.
 
CMFI can be more puzzlelike ( esp. if you're playing the Italians or have an Italian component ), but feels very different. More care needed perhaps.
CMRT is all about shock and awe ( to borrow the modern term ) - the Russians want to move in fast and blazing to keep the opposition off balance. If the German player can slow them down, it can go very very badly for them.

I'm a Eastern Front grog but I have to say I'm back playing CMFI and GL lately and think it is probably the best family balance wise.

sounds like wine tasting! "..crisp, with hints of cherry and black oak..."
 
CMRT lots of tanks, big maps, long LOS, summer now but winter with module
 
CMFI mountains, has snow if wanted, interesting forces, not like CMRT or CMBN.
 
Just buy them all.

That's interesting/odd. Usually people complain about their TCs being too tolerant of incoming smallarms fire... Were the PzIV particularly low experience or morale? But if the Shermans were unbuttoned, they might well have the spotting advantage over buttoned IVs, so the oddness starts to shift towards, "Why were the IV TCs so chicken?"

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-7#entry1440462
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-7#entry1441254
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-8#entry1441938
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-9#entry1442801
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-10#entry1443370
 
http://community.battlefront.com/topic/109190-the-sheriff-of-oosterbeek-%E2%80%93-a-scenario-design-daraar/page-12#entry1446224

Did a bit of a test to see. A British MG platoon with both its MMGs dismounted and other elements used to man the UC-carried MGs inflicted casualties at about 3x the rate on individual "houses" compared to individual "churches". The targets were 3-storey with an unsplit squad of Grenadiers on each storey. The Grenadiers were Elite, Fanatics with +2 leaders. The MG platoon was Regular Fanatics. The shooters never saw a single German; this was all area fire. While the Germans were "Hide"ing, they didn't take any casualties. As soon as they "unhid", they started taking them, in both building types.

Another test with Conscript grenadiers as the target dummies didn't change the casualty rate noticeably, nor did it mean the Tommy machinegunners saw anything more of them; still not spotted at a range of 200-250m after minutes of hammering away.