Raging Al

So would I.
And I would buy France 1940, Norway 1940, Poland 1939 as well!

I suppose they figured that was worthwhile because most of the work was already done. And in any case, I'm not the one calling the shots at BFC. While I do think CMSF2 is a clear improvement, I thought CMSF1 was perfectly serviceable (and I still enjoy CMA, even though it hasn't got an engine update). 
In an ideal world we would have every single theater of every single war (both historical and what-if) all in the latest and greatest engine. But we don't live in an ideal world. BFC has finite time and resources, and there are so many theaters in so many wars to cover. I'd rather they spent their time providing us new theaters, rather than just updating the ones they've already given us. I would absolutely be in favor of a Combat Mission game covering Poland 1939, Norway 1940, and France 1940, since those theaters haven't been covered yet. But CMBB and CMAK both do an excellent job of covering the Eastern Front and North Africa respectively. Yes, the CM1 engine is not as good as the CM2 engine. But CM1 is still the second best engine in the world after CM2.

Thanks for the update -- you guys sound like you've been amazingly busy!
I love Battlepacks, especially when they have Master Maps in them! Looking forward to them  

Totally agree, and SAME (but I'm only 52 so you have a few years experience on me 🙃).  I've been playing these since the beginning and there is nothing that comes remotely close. Also an OG wargamer and still do play some tabletop stuff but my veins pump CM blood.  All my screenshot pics are merely love letters to BFC. 
Thanks team for the literal thousands of hours of entertainment you have given me over the years.

We definitely have plans for the Red team but are keeping those close to our chest for now. Gotta leave something for the build up.

Well that is a loaded question to be honest.  Bil H will no doubt chime in but a few factors came into play as I recall:
- Resources.  We can take a really good shot at BAOR and not cripple ourselves in development for years - along with the other BFC titles.  The core team is pretty small and we were looking for a quick, but solid, follow up to the main game.  Germany would have been a lot more work, as would  any other NATO nations, and the French were just a non-starter.  Those modules will take much longer, particularly in vehicle modelling and artwork.  BAOR had a lot of new vehicle models but much more manageable in the timelines for a first DLC.
- Locale.  The Northern Plain was actually where the most likely Soviet Main effort was going to fall.  Hate to admit it but Fulda was a bit of a sideshow in the overall Soviet plan.  It made sense game wise simply because the largest market for the game is the US, and we had a lot of details on this fight - US research is a dream as they put everything out there, Canadians are a nightmare.  That said we really wanted to do the northern plains from the start and historically that is BAOR or the Germans.
- Expertise.  We had experts on both UK and Canadian orbats right out the gate, which made research a lot easier.  I joined in 1988 and had a lot of my old battlebox stuff to pull from and some old timers I still know from up the day.  On the UK side we had similar expertise.
- Timeframe.  Late 70s, early 80s is really the “tipping point” of the Cold War.  It was when the doctrine and equipment of both sides was pretty balanced, each offsetting the others strengths and weaknesses.  Before this you get the nuclear armies, which were just nuts. And after you get the  western advantage leaning into overmatch and then we start to look a lot like CMSF or BS.
- Straight up cool factor.  So how would the UK done against the Soviets?  Canadians are fun because they mix European and US kit.  You wanna know how a squadron of Leo’s would have done…well let’s find out.  Not saying the other nations are not interesting but when you add everything up it just made more sense to do BAOR next and they would be fun to play.
As to “how will they play”…totally honest…no freakin idea.  We also had no idea on the main game.  It wasn’t until I played those first few scenarios while we were early in did we see that we were onto something.  BFC doesn’t balance for gameplay or market. They literally plug in the data from research and then throw it at each other in game. The balance is almost entirely emergent.  When we do up scenarios and campaigns there is always a level of balancing that goes on but this is macro stuff like force size and enablers.  For CMCW we were amazed at how little balancing we had to do. I designed the campaigns and scenarios based on doctrine on both sides and basically how they would have gone into a fight with each other.  The fact that these led to tightly balanced fights that require deep understanding of what each side can do was all pretty much emergent design.

Expression of gratitude to Battlefront team.
Like other players of Battlefront's Combat Mission series, I have my own wish list, of things I'd like to see that I think would make the game better. Now at the age of 72 and wargaming as my primary hobby for 64 years, I have learned that such expressions of "I'd like to see it done this way", appear to be an inevitable response to any set of rules and any game. Tiresome sometimes. To rules writers, game coders and games masters, such feedback can be a bit discouraging. So at this time I want to say:
I am VERY HAPPY playing the WWII Combat Missions series 'as is'. It is afterall - a game.  From my perspective it is a perfect follow-up or replacement for miniature wargaming. To me this is what it feels and looks like. Except it looks better than minis, I can field larger armies, and I don't have to learn a 60+ page book of rules!
When we gamers sometimes appear to gripe about this or that feature no implemented - we might as ourselves, "How long have I been playing these games." For me the answer is "Continuously since the release of series one - Combat Mission Barbarossa to Berlin, CM Afrika Korps etc." So I must have been enjoying it as is. No? So many years of fun.
And I LOVE having an easy to use Scenario Editor. I probably spend more time tinkering with map making, or tweaking graphics than actually playing. I have yet to play through all of CMBN's over 300 sceanrios in my collection.
In conclusion. THANK YOU Battlefront for many years of happy gaming, for your many hours of coding work, your responses to the community. Given my wonky ticker, I don't knwo if I'll be around to enjoy engine 5. I hope so.
Dr. Wilhelm C.T. Oudshoorn BA, DDS (a.k.a. WimO, a.k.a. Kandu)
 

Great stuff @Ithikial_AU you just made my day. Needed something to look forward to. I bet this BP will be a great marketing tool for the Steam crowd. Also like the fact that the Vehicle Pack gets some love.

@BFCElvis - For pinning please.
 
Steve has let me off the proverbial leash to release some bones for CMBN in 2023.
 
Relive the opening days of the Normandy Campaign from the perspective of American and German forces fighting for control of the Cotentin Peninsula of France. From D-Day through to the 13th of June, take command of forces from the 4th Infantry, 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions, as they fight for a foothold on the western edge of Operation Overlord. Alternatively, take command of German formations in the area, including the 6th Fallschirmjäger Regiment as it tries to hold back the Allied Invasion.
A Taster of Included Content
 
-          Three Campaigns
o   We Start Here – Follow the exploits of the 101st Airborne and 4th Infantry on D-Day. Follow the first paratroopers to hit the ground just after midnight, through to the evening of June 6th. Get off the beach.
o   Purple Heart Lane – Command the 101st Airborne from the Battle of Ste Come du Mont through to the Battle of Carentan.
§  A slight experiment in campaign design, allowing the player to fight a rolling battle at their own pace over several in game days. Can you keep pace with history or will the 17SS Panzer Grenadier Division arrive in time to make your task more difficult?
Current count, 110 scenario variants so that is quite a long campaign script.
§  A recreation of the Carentan Operation from Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord.
o   Fist of Iron – Take control of the 17SS Panzer Grenadier Division on the 13th of June as they launch their counterattack to retake Carentan. Can you defy history?
-          Scenarios (purposefully incomplete to leave some surprises)
o   La Madeleine / Tare Green – The 4th Infantry Division head north along the beach to clear the German Strongpoints.


o   Clash of Eagles – 101st Airborne and 6 Fallschirmjäger Regiment elements clash around Vierville.
o   Hill 30 – 101st Airborne try to hold the line southwest of Carentan against a determined 17SS Counter Attack.
-          Master Maps
o   Seven maps covering just over 70 square kilometres of now famous battlefields, recreated from Allied aerial photographs and D-Day planning maps from 1944.
-          (Possibly) Master Unit Files. In combination with the Master Maps will allow players to easily put together fight their own linked multiplayer campaign battles. [Let me know views on this one].
Requirements
 
Players will be required to own:
-          Combat Mission Battle for Normandy Base Game;
-          Commonwealth Forces Module;
-          Market Garden Module; and
-          Vehicle Pack.
 
Likely Questions
 
Why are we going back to D-Day?


When the CMBN base game was designed there was a conscious decision to focus on the US Army and German Heer forces only. This meant that key German formations that were fighting around the 101st Airborne area were not available. With Waffen SS and Fallschirmjäger formations now part of the game family we are able to recreate these famous engagements inside the CM2 engine. It's also a chance to present a number of different tactical scenario situations rarely used in previously in stock scenarios such as the use of naval gunfire, extensive fortifications, spotting victory point allocations etc.
Why the focus on the 101st Airborne? No love for the 82nd Airborne?


There are already a number of community made scenarios and maps available for players focusing on the exploits of the 82nd Airborne to the north of the location depicted in this Battle Pack. We didn’t want to crossover too heavily with the work the community had already undertaken.
Will any new formations or units be added to the CMBN family with this release?


No. Like other Battle Packs the focus is on campaigns and scenarios. Unlike Modules which focus on the new units and formations introduced, Battle Packs provide us the opportunity to mix and match all the content available in a game family.
What’s the release date?


When it is ready. This will be sometime after the CMBN Steam release. This pack has also been a bit different when compared to others to date. When this was announced at the start of the year the actual work had only just commenced rather than being in development for some time already. Saying that, the mapping is virtually complete and scenarios are being built.
How will I be able to get my hands on it?


From all the existing places you can currently buy Combat Mission products.
In the promotional photos that bush is 0.764 meters away from where it was historically!


Everything is a work in progress. Also, I suggest you may want another glass of a fermented vegetable drink.
Wait a minute who the hell are you?
One of the volunteer beta team. Like GeorgeMC and JonS before me, one of us generally leads a Battle Pack development though this time I've been lucky enough for a number of other betas to help out and get all that mapping done. Also dabbled in some modding and YouTube in previous years.
Can we see some pictures?
Oh alright.

I am very interested to see how the Canadians fair to be honest.  The Leopards came aboard in 78 (although there were smaller number integrations earlier) and before that was the Centurion Mark 11.  Game timeframe  is set 1976-1982…so some good assumptions to be made there.  As usual we aim to be as excruciatingly accurate as possible, particularly for the mainstream vehicles and weapon systems.

Cold Warriors.
  Well it looks like Steve has already dropped the mic over on the annual update thread, so let myself, Bil H and Cpt Miller (along with a small team of unwashed heathens - two of whom are actually from the UK), be the second to announce the first CMCW Module - CMCW - British Army On the Rhine (BAOR).

We are still in development so I will only outline the broad strokes of what we are working on, and insert the caveat that we reserve the right to add/subtract - 
 - Time frame of the game is going deeper backwards into the Cold War.  We are setting the clock back to 1976, so CMCW will now encompass 1976-1982 (including some minor tweaks to the existing US orbats).  As has been noted we are less interested in the later Cold War years largely because they really do start to resemble the later CM titles and we are shooting to keep CMCW distinct in its own right.
- UK BOAR - right now we have a pretty comprehensive build planned for the UK units as they transitioned from their 1974 structures - to where they landed in 1980.  As per the picture above players should be able to become deeply engaged within the historical BAOR sector of the ETO.
- And because I just have to represent the home team, we are also doing the Canadians.  That little black box is the planned 4 CMBG AO - you will note this was right at the tail end when the brigade was still part of the BAOR, although for those that really want to play First Clash and park them down in Lahr you are fee to do so because the basic unit structures remained the same.
- We do have plans for the Soviet side, but are going to hold off on details until we zero them fully in...more to follow. 
- I will let you all speculate and discuss what new vehicles and weapon systems we are talking about but there is a not insignificant list of new ones we are planning - more as we start to get some cool screen shots.  
As noted by Steve, we are well on our way and are planning for a release this year - content and full scope remains TBA.
Thank you all very much for your support, the response to CMCW has been well beyond what we were expecting and that is entirely thanks to you guys.

It’s correctly modelled.  Quoted from the CMFI game manual:
”Semovente 47/32
The Semovente 47/32 was a Fiat L6/40 light tank chassis with the turret removed and an open-topped superstructure located in its place. The vehicle mounted a 47mm Cannone da 47/32 M35 with 70 rounds of ammunition and had a crew of three. Command variants found at the company and battalion levels had a radio instead of a 47mm gun. In the guns place was a dummy cannon that outwardly resembled a 47/32, but was instead a 8mm machine gun.”
Hope that helps

First off thanks to all those who have supported the Battlepack by purchasing it, and a shout out to those who have provided their support in the creation of this project – and a huge shout out to those who have freely given their feedback and additional support publicly via various means – online streaming vids, DARs, AARs and various forum posts etc, Its truly heartening to read and see these. 

It’s just as well, being Scottish, that we are renowned for being slow to anger and not prone to unprovoked outbursts. On a personal note a mahhoosive amount of work went into the battle pack, at my end. Work of which I am truly proud off. The lion’s share of research, mapmaking and AI plan stuff was devoted to the two campaigns and the Rakow and the Dying Sun scenario. These all involved painstakingly creating huge new maps from primary sources. Research turned up several ‘loose’ ends regarding accepted historical narrative and I’m as chuffed with these as the scenarios!

I digress… In short this sucked up a huge amount of time and I was also involved in several other projects (which I was keen to be involved in including CMFR and CMCW). Creating new content, AI plans etc for the Battlepack was a significant endeavour. So yup I used bits of various previous maps (which were my own creations and made available publicly) which I then significantly tweaked – mainly because I could not positively ID RL locations, or the fact is I thought the map – like Der Ring (which by the way took nearly a year to produce) to have a new life after some major tweaking. I’ve done this on previous game families with other maps. A few astute observers might have spotted them. 

But, and I should stress this, in the case of Der Ring it was heavily reworked and I created brand new AI plans (I had to as I’d chopped and reused bits) etc. So yes whilst some stuff is based on sections of der Ring they are more the offspring – rather than the map wearing a false wig and a pair of dodgy specs…

Re the rather offensive swipes about scamming, well,  re the master maps it’s pretty clear that as stated on the BFC website that they are “New maps based on maps from the Battle Pack missions”. 

Years back I used to be with a punk band – another life another story…. One of the bands (way more successful than we were) we did some gigs with, had their singer on one of their records state this quote, it was along the lines of – “Whatever you do they’ll slate you off and criticise you to the ground…” It’s stood me in good stead through life.
So aye happy to take the constructive knocks, but I’m less inclined to give credence tae whingers.
 

For anyone who enjoys a unique challenge, this tournament is highly recommended.  I’ve taken part in two of the three previous Field Warrior tournaments that @slysniperhas organised (gutted to miss the last one as I was without a laptop) and couldn’t wait for this to be announced.
A series of five completely new 30min scenarios to test your wits against different opponents.  If you enjoy your PBEM battles fast and furious then get involved.
 
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/forums/cmfi-field-warriors-tournament.500/

Ahhh, I'm with my fellow Antipodean here. I'm completely happy with the content on offer and I'm ok with the it's ready when its ready approach. I'm always excited by new features, engine updates, bug fixes, and of course new content. But while I patiently wait there is just so much content, campaigns and missions before you get into the user created stuff, I honestly don't know how anyone has the time to say I've played it all. Even if I was retired, I would struggle to get through all the content. I became a huge fan of the Battlefront products when I purchased CM Normandy. The unique WeGo turn based system with the variety of orders/commands that can be combined across every waypoint for me is the closest I will come to experiencing tactical battlefield decision making. And I can sit back and watch it all unfold over and over in replay. Infantry or tank only or the ultimate test combined arms, the CM series has it all. WW2 is for me where this series shines best but modern it works just as well. Sure, it's not perfect but I can mention fancy triple A titles with buggy/glitchy replay or stability issues or that get patches that brake untold features. I don't experience that in the CM titles. Just another thing that I am grateful to Battlefront for.  Anyway I hope 2023 will be a great year for Battlefront and the CM titles. 

For those wanting more content, feel free to jump into the editor and build some new scenarios for the community.  Trust me there is nothing special that the CM Betas get that you don't when it comes to the editor. The unit editor is already incredibly powerful if you know how to use it. Oh and it's part of the package if you've already bought the game.
For those wanting fantasy weapons and a vehicles like tanks with automatic 120mm cannons, I reckon you'd love it for about 15 minutes before the novelty wore off and you never used the content again. There's a reason WW2 remains a popular time period for wargamers after all this time, and it isn't because of questions like: "What if the Panzer VIII Maus was deployed in 1945?"
Can vouch for each of those guys listed and the effort they put into creating official content, I'm desperately trying to scramble to keep up with that standard. I still bow in awe at benpark and his effort to recreate 1945 central Berlin. The research undertaken to try make the most accurate recreation of historical engagements and help out in designing accurate TOE/OOB is in my mind second to none among the BFC official staff and the wider volunteer circle.
Want an example? A small tidbit from my own work last Friday night. I've been recreating an engagement that includes the US 2nd Armored Division and been drawing from various historical and printed sources. Well I stumbled across digital scans of the divisional day by day reports and hand drawn maps of unit movements from June 1944. What was there was information that went against what was printed in some major history books by some big name historians. Though it was clear where the confusion over the years has come from given certain 2nd Armored battalions were detached from the Division in early June. Well this discovery slowed down putting the scenario together as it required me to go and edit my unit files and swap formations to ensure the scenario you play is the most historically accurate as possible.
Finally, keep in mind that many of us have day jobs so working on CM content is on the side of "paying the bills"* and because we have a passion for wargaming, CM and most importantly history.
* Feel free to send next weeks winning lottery numbers my way.

For anyone who enjoys a unique challenge, this tournament is highly recommended.  I’ve taken part in two of the three previous Field Warrior tournaments that @slysniperhas organised (gutted to miss the last one as I was without a laptop) and couldn’t wait for this to be announced.
A series of five completely new 30min scenarios to test your wits against different opponents.  If you enjoy your PBEM battles fast and furious then get involved.
 
https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/thefgmforum/forums/cmfi-field-warriors-tournament.500/

Thanks @BFCElvis.  Private message sent.
 
And thanks @Pete Wenman for bumping Elvis

Hey Guys,
  Thank you very much for the very positive feedback.  Gotta say that beyond Bil and I dreaming away about the "bads ol days" we were really hoping to deliver something that might bring some entertainment and happiness in what have been some pretty crappy times.  
   CMCW is the game that fit the niche we didn't know we were missing (well some definitely did), it is in that sweet spot between WW2 and the modern titles that not only blends but has a unique identity all its own.  I know not everyone will take to it but there are more than enough time-titles in the BFC library for everyone, we are just really glad we could maybe get one more out there.

Judging by the colors and the logo looking like a scary face, I'd say it's the International branch of Monsters Inc.

It's certainly a very impressive accomplishment considering it was done outside of BF and with presumably very little, if any, support.  It would be good to know the logistics and budget so we could determine if something similar could be done for Early War etc.

Well we like to think we have been "part of the team" for quite some time now (Bil and I were beta testers for quite awhile and they are definitely a key part of the whole outfit).  That said, this time was definitely a different level of commitment but we are really glad that Steve et al took a chance on us.
Right now we are focused on continuing to support CMCW as we roll from BFC early access to wide release under Slitherine.  After that we will see.  Nothing is written in stone just yet, but I can say we do have plans...and then a plan after that...and maybe one more after that.

Chalk me up for France and the rest of NATO. France had some totally insane stuff in their toolkit like the AMX-50. 

Personal message to the scenario designers:
I just finished my first medium scenario (Brauersdorf), and it was great, but I find it very hard to motivate myself to even start another medium (or larger) scenario.
They are simply too big / too much effort for casual playing.
You (the designers) put so much time into the editor to set up these big scenarios, and I cannot even appreciate your effort, because I simply cannot convince myself to put the necessary amount of time into a single game.
I have no idea if others feel the same way, but for me it would be much better, if, e.g., two thirds of the scenarios would be 'small' or below in size. And not the other way round.
Best regards,
Thomm