Warts 'n' all

I thought you were Monsieur Warts 'n' all, but we did have two campaigns being discussed.  Anyway, bonne chance mon ami.
EDIT: My conscience told me that bon chance was not correct.

As I imagine it would, lol.
 

Elizabeth lifts her eyes from her Whitehall Gazette, chuckles and says, "He got you there Noddle Head".
Thanks for the correction. I'm blaming the fact that getting stuck in a minefield plays havoc with my typing.  

If I may presume, I think perhaps you meant  'content' yourself....
 

My thoughts were pretty much along the same line. I shall have to contend myself with getting my Limey arse kicked in the Reichswald. 
I've already put together a new music mod "Jocks in the Wald".

My thoughts were pretty much along the same line. I shall have to contend myself with getting my Limey arse kicked in the Reichswald. 
I've already put together a new music mod "Jocks in the Wald".

My thoughts were pretty much along the same line. I shall have to contend myself with getting my Limey arse kicked in the Reichswald. 
I've already put together a new music mod "Jocks in the Wald".

My thoughts were pretty much along the same line. I shall have to contend myself with getting my Limey arse kicked in the Reichswald. 
I've already put together a new music mod "Jocks in the Wald".

To be honest, I find myself somewhat underwhelmed by this expansion. The content I have tried so far is fine, but it falls short of expectations in terms of scale.
What it is missing is that "big thing" that gets you excited about it. In Fire and Rubble that was the Volkssturm stuff, which was completely new to CM and really unique. Downfall is a big content upgrade to Final Blitzkrieg, but in terms of the Combat Mission series as a whole, it does not actually add that much new stuff, with most of the formations and assets being ported over from other game families. Sure, the Volkssturm guys are still cool, but certainly not new anymore and frankly, I find it a bit weird that Downfall leans so heavily on those scenario and campaign wise, considering that they tended to surrender or go home on the western front, compared to the east.
Obviously there is not much new stuff you can realistically do with the Germans, but if you had asked me about this module before it came out, I would have bet that the new "big thing" was amphibious vehicles and river crossings, the capability of which exists in the engine, with various LVTs, maybe footbridges and campaigns at Walcheren and during Operation Varsity to use these new systems. That would have been cool and exciting and, at least to me, the obvious direction for the game to take. All of this is completely absent though. I guess the Schwimmwagen was added, but no allied amphibious gear? This timeframe would also be perfect for adding Commandos and Rangers (which already exist in Italy BTW).
There are the new super late war vehicles and weapons like the Pershing and Comet, but even in that area there is lots of unused potential that would have made the module feel way more unique and interesting. Just from the top of my head: Sherman Tulips, Sherman Crocodiles with fuel trailers (used at Juelich, another river crossing), Super Pershing... personally I am more of an infantry guy, so for those few of us: Why not add M1 Carbines modified for full auto capability, a common field modification, with kits being shipped officially?
I could even think of some more German stuff that could be used to spice those up a bit, like the PAW-600 AT gun that was actually used at the Aller against British forces. In a similar vain, heavy AA gun formations that the allies overran (anti bomber positions), 10.5cm, 12.8cm AA guns... Maybe the 8.8cm improvised AT guns made from unused Jagdpanther guns, used at the "Düren belt"? And of course, since the MP40 was being phased out of production, some Beretta M38/42 for the Volksgrenadiers.
Anyway, my point is, the module feels light on exciting new content and like more could have been done with the scenario.

So... you are youngster newcomer to the game.  Welcome. 
 
 

Last I heard, BFC was not going to go back to Early War as (presumably) they thought Early War to be less marketable.  That was a huge disappointment to many of us.  Has there been another BFC statement that they are now considering Early War?

Also someone I know pointed out that the armoured regiments had two Fireflies per troop by 1945. This is not reflected in-game as far as I can tell, in fact most of the TO&Es seem to be copy-pasted from CMBN. Sherman IIAs are missing from the Polish faction as well which would be a pretty interesting vehicle to differentiate it from Commonwealth armor.
It was said that this expansion was made with love but that only seems to concern the US faction from what I can see.

I wish I could be enjoying the module. I've bought it, and it looks great. I've spent some time just admiring the Pershing and Comet. But I committed myself to playing my CM2 content in chronological order a few months ago (I think I'll finally be wrapping up Sicily this coming month, and I'm hoping to be on to Normandy by the 80th anniversary (I wish I had started this on the 80th anniversary of Husky)), so it's going to be a while until I play anything set at the end of the war. The good thing though is that it's going to be long enough that I'll probably have forgotten any spoilers, so I think I can get away with drooling over other people's Downfall gameplay when it starts getting posted to YT.

Sadly, having taken a more detailed look, these are really not my cup of tea. Although you have done a reasonable job with the maps. Basing them on PS really does expose what it for what it is; a childish shoot 'em up dressed up to look like WW2.
I'm not sure which was the biggest insult to my intelligence. The SS arriving on Utah Beach in tanks on D-day, or Best being dominated by a church on a rocky escarpment. Ho hum.

Well, before blaming all your problems on the designer of the scenario, maybe you should evaluate the skill level you are playing at.
I have not finished the battle, but here is where I left off at. I still have a hour and 33 minutes left in the battle.
My losses are at 68 men, the Germans at 194. 
I lost interest because of the ease of the battle at this point.
 
I thought the map to be well done, the challedge to be good and the oppotunity to use  the wasp  as very enjoyable since they are a key to the success of this mission.
If I do ever finish it, I for sure see no problem with getting to the final objective and keeping things  in my favor. So, how can there be so much varience??  The designer cannot solve that problem unless, they started creating 4 or 5 versions of each battle, set for different difficulty levels.
 

I appreciate all the feedback and am somewhat surprised by the lack of consensus on this issue.  I thought I was just missing some basic command or process but appears it is far more nuanced.  @jtsjc1, I've seen tank commanders fire their 50cals but only on tank models where the MG is located in front of, or on the side ofm the commanders hatch. 
I've run a few more tests using scenarios with in the game (don't have enough functioning brain cells left to try and tackle the editor...) and have not been able to get any rear-mounted pintle .50cal gun to fire.  Would be great to hear from anyone that has a "reliable" way of getting these MGs to fire.
 
Thanks,
Mike

Why did I do a weird little scenario like 'Das Hochwasser'? While researching likely battle locations I came upon the picture below. Operation Grenade, the US crossing the Roer river. Conditions looked so miserable that I wanted to try a scenario to match.
You know those famous WWII Bulge battle photos of tanks covered in heavy snow? That snow happened after the battle in January. Photos were taken once combat photographers dared to return to the field. What came after the snow? Torrential rain that melted all the snow cover, flooded the countryside and made forward progress... uh... difficult. To add to the misery the Germans also sabotaged two Roer dams upstream. So, I concluded, this title needs an engagement on flooded ground. 😬

I remember really enjoying this campaign when I first played it, sometime around when the Commonwealth module for CMBN was first released. Combat Mission has improved so much in that time that the potential for revising this campaign seems exciting. But, @Paper Tiger, please don't tone down the difficulty too much. I did find this to be a very difficult campaign when I last played it. But that's a huge part of what I enjoyed about it.
Besides, I'll always take historical accuracy over balance. And my understanding is that this operation was no cakewalk for the Allies.

Many thanks. Recovery is slow, but the girlfriend takes great care of me, and even listens to me waffling on about CM.

Re casualties from ricochets:  Will experience this usually in urban-type scenarios where one has many units support firing at a house/wall, and one unit attempting to assault.  That assaulting unit may take casualties from ricochets due to the massive amount of lead being chucked.  In situations like this I try to have most supporting units cease fire just b4 the assaulting unit reaches the wall/house it will attempt to enter/breach.  

@Flibby:
„More drama than at an Alabama Sweet 16 party „
Well said 😂
But seriously: will the next step be to declare this guy, JoMac, the real victim ? OMG 🙏🏼
 
During all the years, I have never ever insulted anyone in this forum and I have never ever put pointless bull**** into somebody‘s threads. 
And I would be very curious to see how relaxed you would react, if I reported you the admins here for criminal activity😉
Ultimately, I don‘t care . I will continue with playing CM or creating some stuff if I like to, with or without being a member of this forum😁
the still not deleted Mr.X 😎
 
 
 

I was going to post something similar to this. A warning to JoMac for what I would think would be a violation of forum rules?  At least most if not all boards I have belonged to do not allow any mention of compensation for mods, and rightly so.  Delete or modify the offending post to "deleted for violating forum rules" or something similar and leave the thread open. Maybe edit the original title of the thread with a preface to the original title, something like "User created mod:"  FWIW Frank did mention on the first page, as a response to a user's question that the mod was free of charge.  Frank's exact words, "You pay nothing 🙂". 
To me leaving the thread as it was when locked leaves anyone that reads it wondering about the outcome. Was Frank looking for compensation or not? Elvis does state in this thread " I believed him then and I believe him now." which clarifies the issue here, but not in the locked thread. Perhaps a post stating the issue was looked into and the finding, ie "I looked into it and Frank was not seeking compensation" as an ending is much better than the way it reads now.  
I do hope Frank reconsiders and sticks around.  

If you mean the comment about Paypal (perhaps a joke, who knows) was taken out of context, Frank was not to blame either for the comment or taking it out of context.  As has been said above he had nothing to do with the comment and had no intention of taking anyone's money.
And now we are where we are, with Frank having asked for his account here to be deleted.  Not a good result.
 

I think you may be the one that is misunderstood slysniper. I think Frank has handled it admirably. He was just trying to set the record straight that what he is offering was never going to be payware.
He is offering to give us all something for free that has cost him many hours of research and dedication, and you have seen fit to have a dig at him?
 
I really don't see the need or point in your post to be honest

By the end of the war tank riding on American tanks was becoming more common. This was when  advancing forces were covering dozens of miles at a time being met mostly by surrender flags. Different circumstances than the Normandy hedgerows 9 months earlier. So not appropriate for that title, appropriate for this one.