Chibot Mk IX

Sounds like we will roll into Germany with T-72's before we get the opportunity to do the same with T-34.
 
 

@Chibot Mk IXit's the caliber of the round.
 
I frequently run into buildings being shot up for suppression and do not suffer casualties -- if I'm doing it with small arms. However, if you are shooting large caliber rounds then it can kill your own guys. .223, .30, etc. won't do it, but .50, I mean that's something that can punch holes in concrete. To prevent the above, give them a target arc so they're not opening up with your own friendlies in the firing lane. This is true of a lot of stuff. In one of my previous PBEM games I was the assaulting force in an urban enviro. Friendly fire was almost as big of an issue as contending with the enemy itself. But sometimes it's also just... acceptable to eat some friendly fire. (Don't tell the troopers that.)
 
I actually have an example just like yours to show. In this case I'm using irregulars to look for contact. They make said contact, but all the US forces standing by were basically free to fire. What ended up happening was the guys running to the building side got lit up by a humvee's .50 and I believe one got killed by a 25 or 30mm cannon round.
 
Base of fire POV:
https://streamable.com/5lgg4p
 
Irregulars POV:
https://streamable.com/6dnp34

https://pamyat-naroda.ru/documents/view/?id=134908669
https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=237999

3-rd platoon became SMG platoon (but with MGs and snipers), 1-2 were rifle platoons. In rifle company were 3 platoons.
I doubt that "heavy squads" with 2 MGs were really widely used. With exception to summer 43 near Kursk, where Guard armies were well prepared to defence and really had many MGs (>400 for division).

In the end of war platoons could have only 2-3 MGs. (With few magazines, by the way. With 1-2 47 round magazines for each DP in some "tired" divisions) So "heavy" squad was squad with 1 MG, not with 2 MGs.  
And few messengers, unlike German Company CO. So company usually acted as 1 unit, having all 3 platoons in 1 formation. And platoons didn't have their own transport, unlike German platoons. 
Soviet doctrine gave more focus to maneuver than to fire. Fire elements were MG and mortar companies at battalion level, HMG at company level. (50mm mortars were mainly dropped by 44-45) MGs usually had few mags and were not expected to perform long firefight. Company had to get as close as possible after hits of own artillery, in formation with other companies.
Urban warfare doctrine was different, based around company level assault groups.

The 43 battalion orgs remain as "paper orgs" with 4 squads per platoon, 2 of these "heavy" squads with 2 LMGs.  The 44 org has been reduced to 3x 7-man squads with 1x LMG per squad.  One SMG platoon and two rifle platoons per company in both orgs.  The 44 org should be your go to org for 1944-45.
The Battleorders site is incorrect about the Guards rifle units being identical to regular rifle units.  At least on paper, they were allocated additional support assets: small company HMG "platoon" with 2x HMGs instead of a single HMG team, as well as more snipers and AT rifles.
Please note that these changes will only appear in new content.  Older scenarios have previous orgs baked in to prevent TO&E changes breaking scenarios.

It seems to me that tanks have firing-range accuracy in this game, while infantry accuracy has been dialled down a lot to simulate combat conditions.
So in effect, tanks and infantry are playing by different rules.

I think the tank guns and AT guns in CM's WW II titles are too accurate against infantry size targets.  Please note I am not question the gun's accuracy or the lethality, I am wondering how come the AT gun can hit center of a infantry squad 800m with first shot? Or a T-34 first shot a HMG team hiding in a foxhole at 600m away? The problem is the range finding, how they can find the range so accurately with infantry size targets?  
I remember in CMBB and CMAK, the AT Gun will take at least 3-5 rounds to correct the aim.
 
 
 

The Last Frontier released November 4, 2020, (Russian title: Podolsk Cadets). 
It's about the 3,500 infantry and artillery cadets stationed in Podolsk, an industrial city south of Moscow during the battle for Moscow
Filming of The Last Frontier took place at the actual battle site in Kaluga Region. The river, bridge, houses, fortified areas and soldiers' uniforms and weapons were all carefully recreated, based on surviving records.
CGI accounts for only 10 percent of the special effects. Instead, original German armored personnel carriers and Pz. IV, Pz. II and Pz. 38 tanks, Soviet 45 mm anti-tank guns and legendary T-34 were restored from museums and brought on set.
The movie was made from the same producers who made Brest Fortress and The Battalion. The first link has a description of the film and a 4 minute trailer. The second link is to teh main movie site and your browser should be able to translate the page. 
Looks like it might be a decent movie. I haven't been able to find out if there is a DVD or streaming site with English subtitles yet.
https://www.rbth.com/arts/333018-russias-best-wwii-film-in-years?fbclid=IwAR1hoskCapAlX963TRN9oWuaTwcYy1zwxFOmiKu4q0NhPXW99vCsUjZqgGE
http://last-frontier.ru/
 

It's the rage, frustration and infuriation that keep you coming back for more 😛

But sometime you must take a gamble.  I had a PBEM game in which my opponent sent 3 BMP-3 to disembark Infantry in front of my position.

I had only one Corsar ATGM team available, and they are not in an ideal position.  There are some trees in front of the building. The next building could be an ideal fire position. So I issued order like this.

 
Here is the result
 
ATGM Maneuver and Fire Part I
ATGM Maneuver and Fire Part II

The problem with the Warriors lies with the rate of fire.
More specifically the Warriors gun  "RARDEN" has manual loading system using 3 round clips. Max full auto salvo is 6 rounds. 
BMP-2 can fire more rounds of HE in a one burst than the Warriors whole ammo load of HE.

Recon vehicles tend to spot faster than tanks (even in WW2), because they're usually open-topped. The difference is larger in the modern titles, of course.

Dismounting crew to recce is standard doctrine everywhere, and there is nothing weird about it.

The vehicle lets you get into, and importantly, out of trouble, quickly. The vehicle in most cases will also have a radio, so you can send those spots up the C2 chain.

Whether the vehicle itself is heavily armed and/or armoured depends on doctrine (which is and was a fluid thing), but it's not a co-incidence that recon elements tend to be very heavily armed - whether the vehicle is a basic jeep or a Sd.Kfz. 234.

The point of the firepower is typically that a battle will (should) start with both sides sending out recon elements, to find the enemy. These recon elements will inevitably clash at some point, and it's generally a good idea to win that skirmish if you can - or at least use the firepower to extricate yourself.

In CM it's quite common to have a battle that starts at the actual point of main contact. That's not the case in all scenarios or every situation - a large enough map with small enough forces will create something like this "recon phase".

In that situation, you have to ask yourself how important winning that recon fight is, and what resources you can afford to dedicate to it (especially in points, if this were a quick battle) - it might well be that you want to aggressively dominate the recon fight, both getting eyes on the enemy, and also denying them the terrain that would give them the observation points that they would need to spot you.

If you can pro-actively win this battle-before-the-battle, you're setting yourself up to do very well from the start, so there's every justification for a fast, high-firepower recon vehicle. If there's no way to achieve this (based on terrain, force size, etc.), then recon vehicles are pretty pointless, and you're better off with just infantry eyeballs.

If wide open map then distance is your friend - fast forward to hull down - pause 15s to observe - then reverse. Or dismount crew and move to good place to observe. The have one of their pals fast fwd into view of enemy, pause - very briefly to draw fire (hopefully first shot will miss if at range...), then reverse. This works better if enemy far enough away e.g. 1000m plus. Not so good if very close or oppo is using TRPs in which case first shot could be on target.
If close terrain then dismounts better.

yes, pause + smoke combination doesn't work . 
An alternative way is to have two squad, one smoke, the other pause for 30s~45s then charge.
but it is better to play it safe, wait for one min, check where the smoke grenade landed then issue fast/quick command in the next order phase . I have experienced a lot of issue that the smoke grenade landed two spots away from intended place.  
 

PRP-4 "Nard" , Artillery observation vehicle 

guaranteed you'll be checking.  And you'll be backing your tanks up with M113s to take advantage of their smoke dischargers as well.  ...be sure to check wind direction otherwise it could be quite embarrassing..

Just a wild though how this could work without a separate command: 'smoke' combined with a target launches the smoke canisters in the direction of target. Smoke without target create the vehicle smoke from the exhaust.
Now from a design point of view I would usually not be in favor of such 'magical' behaviors behind 1 button, however I think most people playing the game and actually using smoke would be able to figure it out easily (the visual indication of where smoke comes from will also help to make clear what kind of smoke is being deployed of course).
Also, 'smoke' would always create smoke so for the 'newbie' user it wouldn't be that confusing. 

In case anyone's wondering (which nobody probably is), the odd stowage racks on the M150 hull top are a stowed Kevlar tent that was designed to partially shield the TOW crew from artillery splinters. When erected it looks like the worst idea in the world so we kept i folded.
 
 

DPICM/ cluster munitions for artillery and aircraft, respectively. I'm not sure if it qualifies as an engine improvement, but it is certainly a new feature. Highly requested by the community as well, and will be a big game changer for tactical battles. I have no idea if it is going to make its way to the other modern titles. That decision/discussion is above my paygrade. Although I will say that I think it is reasonable to expect it to eventually make it there. 
Otherwise, there are no major engine upgrades coming with CMCW.
FASCAM is another thing that falls outside the scope of CM. A FASCAM fire mission would literally take an hour to call in, it is not something that an artillery battery can just be given a map coordinate and then fire at. There are a ton of different variables that go into it. In CM it is best simulated by having a minefield already present on the battlefield and labeling it FASCAM. In fact, there is a scenario that essentially does just that, but I won't say more so I don't spoil the surprise. 

A (rather dry) treatise on the subject is the  Russia book 'The Offensive (a Soviet view)' by A.A. Sidorenko, published in Moscow in 1970 with a translated version put out by the US Government Printing Office, perhaps in 78(?). 228 pages with chapter titles like "Employment of nuclear weapons and destruction of the enemy by fire", "Defeat of a defending enemy and exploitation of success" and "Forcing water barriers".
Apparently this Colonel Sidoereko was a prolific author of tactical treatises. The book may have been based on his doctoral thesis which earned him a 'doctor of military science'  PhD (equivalent). Though too broad to be applied directly to CM engagements it'll give you a backstory on what the Soviets are attempting and why they're attempting it. If you Google it you'll get lots of hits including some free pdf book downloads.

it becomes more of a western problem now.  Those Russian AT units are hell.  This isn't CMBS where the tank is reacting as soon as you aim.  At7 may "only" reach out to a 1000m but you may never see it coming.  The BRDM-2 with it's AT 5 can touch you from 4km and they spot pretty darn good...and they are small. (and the maps allow for that kind of range).
I've had a 21 second flight time At 5 nail an M60 frontally for a kill - just under 3.5 km range and not be spotted.  So do the math, you want to shoot and scoot as US at that range you have 15 seconds to back out of sight.

March to Glorious Victory Post Number One.
  So Bil and I have a loose-agreement (I would say gentlemen's but that is probably a stretch) to not peek at each others threads.  The dirty truth here is that this isn't really an AAR per se, it is more of an IAR (In Action Report).  Full disclosure, we are only about 6 mins into the thing, so I can't really put a spin on my plan or anything because I have no idea how this will end.  So far so good  but we are in early days.  We should start posting turn summaries tomorrow but for now may I present an end-product of about roughly 32 years of military training in both line and staff positions...The_Capt's glorious Mission Analysis!  
So here we are on this grubby little peice of West German real-estate (seriously, Pete Wenman is a freakin wizard with these maps btw) facing off against what I am sure are overfed, overpaid and over-entitled Yankee capitalists all huddled in their vehicles waiting for something to happen.  So like they taught me back in the day..let's start with terrain:

So my guys are coming from the bottom, Bil and his jerks are up near the top.  I have a bunch of woods except for this defile behind a hwy bridge that I have to deploy my main force out of.  We have a big valley between us and the town of Dollbach in the center which is the golden goose we are both lining up to grab, whilst killing the other guy.  Not much to see on my map edge except a bunch of woods with some dirt roads cut through them.  
Bil has the high ground ridge up there and there are three major wooded areas that him and his ilk are no doubt hiding out in.  It is more one on the left but pretty much that approach along with the Valley is dominated by Bil's thugs.  In short, this is not an optimal starting position.
Bil's Plan.  So I have learned some time ago that you are not fighting vehicles and equipment, you are fighting a person (Capt's rule #1).  So spend time understanding and getting inside the head of that person.  With Bil it is easy because we have been sparring in CM for just about 2 decades now.  So here is what I am thinking, that Bil is thinking:

So Bil is probably going to be cautious and build a nice path to victory here.  First he is going to put out Eyes in those woodlines, then he will reinforce with teeth because why stick his neck out if he does not have to?  Then once I have watered the West German countryside with my blood (and other fluids) he will make his reach for Dollbach (Hands...dirty, old, wrinkly hands with yellow fingernails).  I will be at a significant disadvantage at this point because I will be dead, and you do not fight so well when dead (Capt's rule #2).  So my role here is to play peeky snipey from a really crappy position with Soviet gear that does not see as well as his sexy US optics...hmm...Capt no-likey, no likey...one bit.  So now the Plan:

My end goal is to make Bil more dead than me, not to get heavily invested in the West German real estate market.  So we are going to try something simple and blunt.  First, I will get Eyes on my woodline, gotta see what I can see (Capt's Rule #3).  Then I am going to put out hands...fingers really, to make it look like the land grab is my only game.  Then once my art start dropping (could be wait here cause he has EW turned on), I am going to bull rush that corridor and swing up into those hills to kill Bil (Teeth).  This is going to be tricky and I am going to take losses but I can afford them.  I get a MIC FSE in 5 and another Tank Coy-ish in 10, so I will have mass because I am betting the best he has is an Armd Cav platoon, maybe two.  So basically we will play Bil's snipey peeky game for a bit, push recon out into that town to make me look desperate and then freakin charge on the left.  Questions?
 

Not much differently from 1945 either Bletchley. Apply firepower, then a little more, and once the heavy guns are dry, send some bullets. Then send men, but not prior to flattening the grid square. If you're using an Armored Division troop, apply all of the above, but send a tank between the bullets and then the man step. Tactically the US Army looked pretty good, and was second only to the Red Army in being subject to the least of post-war cuts and expenditure reductions-which were still quite substantial nonetheless. US Army Divisions had all of their artillery batteries augmented from 4 guns to 6 after the war, however some of the expansions in US heavy firepower were offset by Soviet improvements in their own artillery parks. So unlike the Wehrmacht US Infantry would be facing much more serious threats from counter-battery and preparatory fire this time around. The BM-21 is not a terribly sophisticated piece of equipment but God, they sure got a hell ofa lot of em! 
Much like the Wehrmacht, it seems that much American thinking was now oriented toward strong-point style defense which would hopefully nullify much of the consequence of the heavier fire by simply not presenting any target. Then of course the Armored Divisions would have many built in advantages against that but much like the conundrum facing the Panzer Divisions in 1944- how many of those do you have? You've got 7th Army. Group Soviet Forces Germany alone is seven Armies. 
What's the promise of defeating the Red Assault with strings of infantry in blocking positions and counter-attacks by Armored Divisions to plug gaps? If 1945 is any hint, it's not good-but there's room for frustrating time-tables and slowing down the enemy's advance. This was a big element of the REFORGER exercises after all ie: hold on until the cavalry arrives. In this frame there's quite a room for Combat Commands/Brigade Combat Teams to work around inside of. If Bill's force looks like the buffet table at the Shoney's that's because his force is a post ROAD (Reorganization of Army Divisions) command. IE: It's all Brigade Combat Teams, not Regiments. So the structure is closer to 2007, but the execution will still look more like 1945. 

Solution 1 works as it is advertised 
 
Here is a edited scenario, I put one Recon Co. (bmp) and one Tank Co. on the map.
WEGO mode, Iron difficulty 
Pic 1
beginning of the game, no one knows what is on the other side

 
Pic 2
Recon Inf disembark and moving forward

 
Pic 3
Beginning of the turn. Recon Inf under heavy fire immediately. They can ID couple M1A2 on the other side of the map. the Recon Plt leader, who is sitting in the BMP 10m behind, begin to yell in the radio about enemy contact

 
Pic 4
50s into the first turn, Recon Company commander got the report from his plt leader, he begin to distribute the information, first he tell this to his commanding vehicle crews. 

 
 
Pic 5
at the same time, the Tank Company commander still knew nothing.

 
Pic 6
but in less than 5 seconds, he saw the Recon Co. commander waving hand and yelling at him. then He got the update that there are a lot of enemy on the other side

 
Pic 7
when 1st min ends, the 1st plt of the Tank Company still don't have a clue.

 
Pic 8 
But his commander's warning get through radio net at 2:43 
 
 
 
Pic 9
one of Plt leader's subordinate quickly got the update from him

 
Pic 10
the other one is a slow boy, he has hard time to understand what's going on.

 
 
Anyway, by the end of Min 4, every Syria units on the map got the news . "American Tanks are coming!"

Even the M735 used by some M60 variants struggles to knock out T64s/T80s from the front.  This will be a radical change for players used to UBER U.S. tanks from CMSF/CMBS. I have had to go back and dust off my WW2 U.S. tactics.