Bozowans

You do though.
At least in quick battles. Sixty percent more points than the defender in attacks, more in assaults. Or you have no business attacking in the first place if the defender is stronger than you. In scenarios that's another story.
And that directly translates into a higher firepower than the defender. Even more if you choose to attack over only a portion of the map and just screen the other part so the defender can't reposition easily.
Now obviously attacking over open ground is not going to be particularly healthy in most cases and that doesn't mean you should avoid perfectly good cover or concealed approach routes if there are some available.
However I don't think that's what Bozowans was advocating. He might have overstated his case and the lack of importance of cover a little bit too much. But I think he was just trying to point out a pitfall some people fall into. Being so reluctant to attack without cover that it leads them to avoid it at all cost and as a result either bunch up too much or become predictable.
Oh look a mostly flat piece of ground with a gully on a side. Let's use this to be sneaky. Yeah you already know what is going to happen I bet. The gully is going to be mined, have a couple of TRPs in it and be raked by machine gun fire.
Now you are clearly an experienced player and I doubt you fall into this trap yourself but this is more widespread than you think.
 

Heh no one is arguing that cover and basic tactics don't matter. Not sure what good it does to reduce our position to a caricature.
Not sure either why you appear to take this personally to be honest because this isn't about you. It is about a mistake some people make. Being so reluctant to attack over open ground that they systematically take the cover no matter how crappy or obvious it is. I have seen it several times and it wasn't against the AI.
All I am arguing is this : If the drive for cover is so strong that you become a/ predictable or b/ bunched up as a result, then the alternative, attacking over open ground is -sometimes- preferable and it is not something to be feared or avoided at all cost. It is perfectly feasible, albeit clearly not ideal and a bit painful.
I don't see what's so controversial about this. This is just pointing out a potential pitfall that some people fall into. That's all.

To me, cover does not really seem to matter that much in the CM games. It matters a bit, but it's more about fire superiority. Squads in good cover will often get blown to bits very quickly if the enemy has fire superiority. A single tank shell hitting a foxhole position or the side of a building is sometimes all it takes to wipe out the squad inside. On the other hand, you can also advance across a gigantic open field against enemies in good cover and still take zero casualties as long as you have fire superiority.
Sometimes I think players get too focused on sticking to cover as much as possible. I see people do it in videos and I often catch myself doing it. I become obsessed with cramming all my troops into what little cover is available and then I end up hurting myself because not all of my troops can form a good firing line from inside the cover. My troops become too constricted when I try to only follow what cover is available. And then it gets even worse when an enemy artillery barrage lands on all my troops bunched up in the cover. If I just move some of the troops out into the open and spread them out a bit more, I can get more angles of fire going against the enemy positions, more firepower can get focused outward, and things get easier. Even troops lying prone on open ground can still be hard to hit, especially at a distance.
Units are also the most vulnerable in CM when they're moving. Stationary troops seem to be harder to hit for some reason. It all depends on the situation of course, but I've had success when crossing open fields not by trying to charge across it as quickly as possible, but by taking it slow, stopping frequently (but not for too long), and shooting at everything in sight. CM seems to be a game less about whatever terrain you're in, and more about firepower and angles of fire. It's about getting more of your guns to bear against the enemy than they can, so that the moment they open fire they will get blasted instantly by overwhelming return fire. You wanna think about terrain not in terms of "how open is this?" but more in terms of "can I get a good shot at them from here?" At least that's how I see it.

I took a screenshot of the tank:

 
Those two penetrations on the side were both 120mm mortars falling onto it. You can see another mortar from the same battery exploding in the background in the picture. They are not very accurate so I was amazed when I got even one hit. Then the second one happened a minute later.
I've seen mortars knock out vehicles before, and even saw a mortar fall through the open hatch of a tank turret once, but I've never seen two hit so close together before in years of playing these games. So that was interesting. 

I've often had the opposite experience in SF2. Units only surrender when there are enemy troops very close to them, which is pretty rare, especially with the extreme deadliness of the modern munitions in SF2. Units tend to get obliterated from hundreds of meters out. If the Syrians are poor conscripts or whatever, they will usually just run away rather than surrender, which results in them getting mowed down in huge numbers as they abandon their cover. If the scenario has a lot of close quarters urban combat or if you're a really aggressive player and try to charge in close to the enemy, you do see a lot more surrenders though.
I think if I were to change how the AI works, I would try to make poor quality troops less likely to run, and more likely to cower in one place for very long periods. If I were some conscript thrown into a foxhole waiting to die horribly in the big enemy assault coming my way, I would probably spend the whole battle soiling myself in a terrified stupor at the bottom of my hole as the deafening explosions go off around me. I don't think I would want to get up and run around. Once the enemy assault sweeps over my position, I'd throw my hands up before a grenade lands in my hole.
If playing as the US Army or whatever against poor quality Syrians, it would be cool if you could see something like this: At various points in a battle you might lay waste to a suspected enemy position with area fire, and all the enemy fire stops completely and the enemy seems to disappear. Everything goes quiet. You might think you've killed all the enemy troops until ten minutes later you send some infantry to check out the position and a couple dozen hands all pop up out of the trench in surrender.
That would be a lot more realistic than the way the game usually works, with everyone in the trench jumping out and running away into a hail of gunfire and explosions the moment a few bullets come their way, resulting in like 200 KIA when the scenario is over.

I've often had the opposite experience in SF2. Units only surrender when there are enemy troops very close to them, which is pretty rare, especially with the extreme deadliness of the modern munitions in SF2. Units tend to get obliterated from hundreds of meters out. If the Syrians are poor conscripts or whatever, they will usually just run away rather than surrender, which results in them getting mowed down in huge numbers as they abandon their cover. If the scenario has a lot of close quarters urban combat or if you're a really aggressive player and try to charge in close to the enemy, you do see a lot more surrenders though.
I think if I were to change how the AI works, I would try to make poor quality troops less likely to run, and more likely to cower in one place for very long periods. If I were some conscript thrown into a foxhole waiting to die horribly in the big enemy assault coming my way, I would probably spend the whole battle soiling myself in a terrified stupor at the bottom of my hole as the deafening explosions go off around me. I don't think I would want to get up and run around. Once the enemy assault sweeps over my position, I'd throw my hands up before a grenade lands in my hole.
If playing as the US Army or whatever against poor quality Syrians, it would be cool if you could see something like this: At various points in a battle you might lay waste to a suspected enemy position with area fire, and all the enemy fire stops completely and the enemy seems to disappear. Everything goes quiet. You might think you've killed all the enemy troops until ten minutes later you send some infantry to check out the position and a couple dozen hands all pop up out of the trench in surrender.
That would be a lot more realistic than the way the game usually works, with everyone in the trench jumping out and running away into a hail of gunfire and explosions the moment a few bullets come their way, resulting in like 200 KIA when the scenario is over.

I've often had the opposite experience in SF2. Units only surrender when there are enemy troops very close to them, which is pretty rare, especially with the extreme deadliness of the modern munitions in SF2. Units tend to get obliterated from hundreds of meters out. If the Syrians are poor conscripts or whatever, they will usually just run away rather than surrender, which results in them getting mowed down in huge numbers as they abandon their cover. If the scenario has a lot of close quarters urban combat or if you're a really aggressive player and try to charge in close to the enemy, you do see a lot more surrenders though.
I think if I were to change how the AI works, I would try to make poor quality troops less likely to run, and more likely to cower in one place for very long periods. If I were some conscript thrown into a foxhole waiting to die horribly in the big enemy assault coming my way, I would probably spend the whole battle soiling myself in a terrified stupor at the bottom of my hole as the deafening explosions go off around me. I don't think I would want to get up and run around. Once the enemy assault sweeps over my position, I'd throw my hands up before a grenade lands in my hole.
If playing as the US Army or whatever against poor quality Syrians, it would be cool if you could see something like this: At various points in a battle you might lay waste to a suspected enemy position with area fire, and all the enemy fire stops completely and the enemy seems to disappear. Everything goes quiet. You might think you've killed all the enemy troops until ten minutes later you send some infantry to check out the position and a couple dozen hands all pop up out of the trench in surrender.
That would be a lot more realistic than the way the game usually works, with everyone in the trench jumping out and running away into a hail of gunfire and explosions the moment a few bullets come their way, resulting in like 200 KIA when the scenario is over.

So I tend to spend far, far too much time down at eye level. It takes me forever to play each scenario because I'm constantly rewinding the turns and watching them from different units' points of view. I take way too many screenshots as well. I play plenty of other games but for some reason I take far more screenshots of CM than any other game I've ever played. Something about the WEGO system and camera zoom means I can spend ages trying to frame different compositions for screenshots. So I'm glad you like them! 
I took a million screenshots of the last scenario I played from the Blunting the Spear campaign so I thought I'd post one of the parts I thought was cool, with the runaway T-34 that almost broke right through my lines. So there might be some spoilers here for anyone who hasn't played this campaign.
At the beginning of the scenario, I massed all of my tanks on my right flank, and I put my two companies of infantry in a long line across the map in two waves. The first wave was made entirely of two-man scout teams that I sent forward in a widely dispersed skirmish line. I wanted the scouts to just run forward, find the enemy, infiltrate their lines, and then if possible, rejoin the second wave later for the main assault.
I was supposed to be attacking, so I had no idea that a platoon of T-34s were about to come charging straight toward me right at the beginning of the scenario through a smoke screen. My own tanks were all on the right, and the T-34s were charging straight at my left, right toward the masses of trucks and support units I had parked in the rear:

 
Here you can see an overview. You can see my wave of scouts out front and everything else massed farther behind.

 
The T-34s came over a hill, firing a couple of times at my trucks in the rear, but missed. They had to cross a wide open field to get into my lines. My own tanks were out of position to respond effectively, but for a couple hundred meters the T-34s would still be exposed to a few of my Panthers on the right. Two of the T-34s were destroyed, and one of the Panthers was knocked out by a partial penetration that killed the driver.
Miraculously, the third T-34 managed to get all the way across the field in a suicide charge at top speed, running a gauntlet of Panther fire the whole way. Five Panther shots were directed at it, and all missed. The T-34 managed to get out of view of the Panthers and got mixed in with my line of scouts. It stopped to blow up a scout team nearby:

 
Luckily, it stopped right next to another scout team and it was immediately hit by grenades:

 
Seconds later, an AA half-track stationed in the rear opened up on the tank. Most of the shots were ricochets and it didn't seem to have much effect. The T-34 was immobilized after a little while, but I couldn't tell if it was from grenades or AA fire hitting the wheels and tracks.

 
At this point I was panicking. The T-34 had a perfect view of a lot of extremely vulnerable units in the rear, and it would have taken several minutes for my own tanks to respond. Trucks, half-tracks and Kubelwagens were frantically driving every which way to escape. HQ teams and mortar crews were running for cover.  If the T-34 had kept going just a little farther, it could have caused a lot of damage. I sent Panzerschreck troops running ahead to stop it at all costs as AA fire tore through the air:

 
A rocket is fired at almost the far limit of the Panzerschreck's effective range, at about 185 meters.

 
A hit! Right as the T-34's turret was turning toward the AA half-track, the rocket slammed into the far rear end of the turret. If it was just a few inches to the left, it would have missed, and the AA gun would have been toast, along with who knows what else.

 
The driver jumped out of his hatch as more AA fire ripped into the tank. The rest of the crew were cooked inside, as no one else emerged.

 
Confronted by the pissed off tank driver, the cowardly scout turned tail and ran. The driver popped off a few pistol shots at the scout's backside and then comically started chasing after him through the field:


 
The tank driver chased after the guy for quite some distance. A few bursts of machine gun fire from nearby infantry missed the driver by inches. Undeterred, the driver kept up the chase.

 
Eventually, the scout's partner woke up from his stupor and joined the chase, ending it quickly with a single shot from his G43.

 
Quiet once again broke out across the battlefield, and the German advance continued. A lot more death and destruction would take place before the day was finally over.

I do agree that tanks are overpowered, but everything else is overpowered too IMO. I don't think this is an issue with tanks alone. Foxholes don't provide that much cover from even small arms fire. There is not enough fog of war in the game. For one thing, they never managed to replicate what they did in the CMx1 engine, where the game would deliberately mislead you about where enemy units are. If an enemy unit was firing at you at long range, a little 3D soldier model named "sound contact" would appear somewhere, but it might appear dozens of meters away from where the actual unit really is. So if you were taking long range MG fire from a cluster of buildings off in the distance, you would not be able to tell which building they are firing from. You can try plastering the location of the sound contact with HE fire from tanks and artillery, but once you get closer, you might find that the enemy unit is in a slightly different location completely untouched.
In CMx2, if an enemy sniper fires just one single shot, you can pinpoint his exact location easily and order every single one of your units to mass fire on that exact spot in the next turn. Real life wars on the other hand seem awfully boring and confusing most of the time, with firefights consisting of hours of ineffectual and mindless shooting in the general direction of the enemy, with the outcomes decided more by morale than anything else. Both sides will put on a big display of noise and shooting until one side cracks, thinks they are going to lose, and then they run away. In CM, units are not allowed to rout off the map, and every battle is a brutal fight to the death with enormous casualties. Battles in CM are decided more by fire superiority and destroying the enemy as completely as you can. 
I think the tank issue can be solved if the game just had more mystery to it. Enemy locations and unit types need to be much more vague. You should not be able to tell that an enemy unit 1000m away is an HQ team located in that one precise action spot. You should only have a general idea that there is enemy infantry "over there" somewhere. That way, battles would be decided by throwing suppressing fire over a large area and then assaulting up close, instead of pinpointing the exact action spot the enemy is located in and then just hammering it with HE fire from tanks and artillery until everyone is dead.

I do agree that tanks are overpowered, but everything else is overpowered too IMO. I don't think this is an issue with tanks alone. Foxholes don't provide that much cover from even small arms fire. There is not enough fog of war in the game. For one thing, they never managed to replicate what they did in the CMx1 engine, where the game would deliberately mislead you about where enemy units are. If an enemy unit was firing at you at long range, a little 3D soldier model named "sound contact" would appear somewhere, but it might appear dozens of meters away from where the actual unit really is. So if you were taking long range MG fire from a cluster of buildings off in the distance, you would not be able to tell which building they are firing from. You can try plastering the location of the sound contact with HE fire from tanks and artillery, but once you get closer, you might find that the enemy unit is in a slightly different location completely untouched.
In CMx2, if an enemy sniper fires just one single shot, you can pinpoint his exact location easily and order every single one of your units to mass fire on that exact spot in the next turn. Real life wars on the other hand seem awfully boring and confusing most of the time, with firefights consisting of hours of ineffectual and mindless shooting in the general direction of the enemy, with the outcomes decided more by morale than anything else. Both sides will put on a big display of noise and shooting until one side cracks, thinks they are going to lose, and then they run away. In CM, units are not allowed to rout off the map, and every battle is a brutal fight to the death with enormous casualties. Battles in CM are decided more by fire superiority and destroying the enemy as completely as you can. 
I think the tank issue can be solved if the game just had more mystery to it. Enemy locations and unit types need to be much more vague. You should not be able to tell that an enemy unit 1000m away is an HQ team located in that one precise action spot. You should only have a general idea that there is enemy infantry "over there" somewhere. That way, battles would be decided by throwing suppressing fire over a large area and then assaulting up close, instead of pinpointing the exact action spot the enemy is located in and then just hammering it with HE fire from tanks and artillery until everyone is dead.

I do agree that tanks are overpowered, but everything else is overpowered too IMO. I don't think this is an issue with tanks alone. Foxholes don't provide that much cover from even small arms fire. There is not enough fog of war in the game. For one thing, they never managed to replicate what they did in the CMx1 engine, where the game would deliberately mislead you about where enemy units are. If an enemy unit was firing at you at long range, a little 3D soldier model named "sound contact" would appear somewhere, but it might appear dozens of meters away from where the actual unit really is. So if you were taking long range MG fire from a cluster of buildings off in the distance, you would not be able to tell which building they are firing from. You can try plastering the location of the sound contact with HE fire from tanks and artillery, but once you get closer, you might find that the enemy unit is in a slightly different location completely untouched.
In CMx2, if an enemy sniper fires just one single shot, you can pinpoint his exact location easily and order every single one of your units to mass fire on that exact spot in the next turn. Real life wars on the other hand seem awfully boring and confusing most of the time, with firefights consisting of hours of ineffectual and mindless shooting in the general direction of the enemy, with the outcomes decided more by morale than anything else. Both sides will put on a big display of noise and shooting until one side cracks, thinks they are going to lose, and then they run away. In CM, units are not allowed to rout off the map, and every battle is a brutal fight to the death with enormous casualties. Battles in CM are decided more by fire superiority and destroying the enemy as completely as you can. 
I think the tank issue can be solved if the game just had more mystery to it. Enemy locations and unit types need to be much more vague. You should not be able to tell that an enemy unit 1000m away is an HQ team located in that one precise action spot. You should only have a general idea that there is enemy infantry "over there" somewhere. That way, battles would be decided by throwing suppressing fire over a large area and then assaulting up close, instead of pinpointing the exact action spot the enemy is located in and then just hammering it with HE fire from tanks and artillery until everyone is dead.

So I tend to spend far, far too much time down at eye level. It takes me forever to play each scenario because I'm constantly rewinding the turns and watching them from different units' points of view. I take way too many screenshots as well. I play plenty of other games but for some reason I take far more screenshots of CM than any other game I've ever played. Something about the WEGO system and camera zoom means I can spend ages trying to frame different compositions for screenshots. So I'm glad you like them! 
I took a million screenshots of the last scenario I played from the Blunting the Spear campaign so I thought I'd post one of the parts I thought was cool, with the runaway T-34 that almost broke right through my lines. So there might be some spoilers here for anyone who hasn't played this campaign.
At the beginning of the scenario, I massed all of my tanks on my right flank, and I put my two companies of infantry in a long line across the map in two waves. The first wave was made entirely of two-man scout teams that I sent forward in a widely dispersed skirmish line. I wanted the scouts to just run forward, find the enemy, infiltrate their lines, and then if possible, rejoin the second wave later for the main assault.
I was supposed to be attacking, so I had no idea that a platoon of T-34s were about to come charging straight toward me right at the beginning of the scenario through a smoke screen. My own tanks were all on the right, and the T-34s were charging straight at my left, right toward the masses of trucks and support units I had parked in the rear:

 
Here you can see an overview. You can see my wave of scouts out front and everything else massed farther behind.

 
The T-34s came over a hill, firing a couple of times at my trucks in the rear, but missed. They had to cross a wide open field to get into my lines. My own tanks were out of position to respond effectively, but for a couple hundred meters the T-34s would still be exposed to a few of my Panthers on the right. Two of the T-34s were destroyed, and one of the Panthers was knocked out by a partial penetration that killed the driver.
Miraculously, the third T-34 managed to get all the way across the field in a suicide charge at top speed, running a gauntlet of Panther fire the whole way. Five Panther shots were directed at it, and all missed. The T-34 managed to get out of view of the Panthers and got mixed in with my line of scouts. It stopped to blow up a scout team nearby:

 
Luckily, it stopped right next to another scout team and it was immediately hit by grenades:

 
Seconds later, an AA half-track stationed in the rear opened up on the tank. Most of the shots were ricochets and it didn't seem to have much effect. The T-34 was immobilized after a little while, but I couldn't tell if it was from grenades or AA fire hitting the wheels and tracks.

 
At this point I was panicking. The T-34 had a perfect view of a lot of extremely vulnerable units in the rear, and it would have taken several minutes for my own tanks to respond. Trucks, half-tracks and Kubelwagens were frantically driving every which way to escape. HQ teams and mortar crews were running for cover.  If the T-34 had kept going just a little farther, it could have caused a lot of damage. I sent Panzerschreck troops running ahead to stop it at all costs as AA fire tore through the air:

 
A rocket is fired at almost the far limit of the Panzerschreck's effective range, at about 185 meters.

 
A hit! Right as the T-34's turret was turning toward the AA half-track, the rocket slammed into the far rear end of the turret. If it was just a few inches to the left, it would have missed, and the AA gun would have been toast, along with who knows what else.

 
The driver jumped out of his hatch as more AA fire ripped into the tank. The rest of the crew were cooked inside, as no one else emerged.

 
Confronted by the pissed off tank driver, the cowardly scout turned tail and ran. The driver popped off a few pistol shots at the scout's backside and then comically started chasing after him through the field:


 
The tank driver chased after the guy for quite some distance. A few bursts of machine gun fire from nearby infantry missed the driver by inches. Undeterred, the driver kept up the chase.

 
Eventually, the scout's partner woke up from his stupor and joined the chase, ending it quickly with a single shot from his G43.

 
Quiet once again broke out across the battlefield, and the German advance continued. A lot more death and destruction would take place before the day was finally over.

So I tend to spend far, far too much time down at eye level. It takes me forever to play each scenario because I'm constantly rewinding the turns and watching them from different units' points of view. I take way too many screenshots as well. I play plenty of other games but for some reason I take far more screenshots of CM than any other game I've ever played. Something about the WEGO system and camera zoom means I can spend ages trying to frame different compositions for screenshots. So I'm glad you like them! 
I took a million screenshots of the last scenario I played from the Blunting the Spear campaign so I thought I'd post one of the parts I thought was cool, with the runaway T-34 that almost broke right through my lines. So there might be some spoilers here for anyone who hasn't played this campaign.
At the beginning of the scenario, I massed all of my tanks on my right flank, and I put my two companies of infantry in a long line across the map in two waves. The first wave was made entirely of two-man scout teams that I sent forward in a widely dispersed skirmish line. I wanted the scouts to just run forward, find the enemy, infiltrate their lines, and then if possible, rejoin the second wave later for the main assault.
I was supposed to be attacking, so I had no idea that a platoon of T-34s were about to come charging straight toward me right at the beginning of the scenario through a smoke screen. My own tanks were all on the right, and the T-34s were charging straight at my left, right toward the masses of trucks and support units I had parked in the rear:

 
Here you can see an overview. You can see my wave of scouts out front and everything else massed farther behind.

 
The T-34s came over a hill, firing a couple of times at my trucks in the rear, but missed. They had to cross a wide open field to get into my lines. My own tanks were out of position to respond effectively, but for a couple hundred meters the T-34s would still be exposed to a few of my Panthers on the right. Two of the T-34s were destroyed, and one of the Panthers was knocked out by a partial penetration that killed the driver.
Miraculously, the third T-34 managed to get all the way across the field in a suicide charge at top speed, running a gauntlet of Panther fire the whole way. Five Panther shots were directed at it, and all missed. The T-34 managed to get out of view of the Panthers and got mixed in with my line of scouts. It stopped to blow up a scout team nearby:

 
Luckily, it stopped right next to another scout team and it was immediately hit by grenades:

 
Seconds later, an AA half-track stationed in the rear opened up on the tank. Most of the shots were ricochets and it didn't seem to have much effect. The T-34 was immobilized after a little while, but I couldn't tell if it was from grenades or AA fire hitting the wheels and tracks.

 
At this point I was panicking. The T-34 had a perfect view of a lot of extremely vulnerable units in the rear, and it would have taken several minutes for my own tanks to respond. Trucks, half-tracks and Kubelwagens were frantically driving every which way to escape. HQ teams and mortar crews were running for cover.  If the T-34 had kept going just a little farther, it could have caused a lot of damage. I sent Panzerschreck troops running ahead to stop it at all costs as AA fire tore through the air:

 
A rocket is fired at almost the far limit of the Panzerschreck's effective range, at about 185 meters.

 
A hit! Right as the T-34's turret was turning toward the AA half-track, the rocket slammed into the far rear end of the turret. If it was just a few inches to the left, it would have missed, and the AA gun would have been toast, along with who knows what else.

 
The driver jumped out of his hatch as more AA fire ripped into the tank. The rest of the crew were cooked inside, as no one else emerged.

 
Confronted by the pissed off tank driver, the cowardly scout turned tail and ran. The driver popped off a few pistol shots at the scout's backside and then comically started chasing after him through the field:


 
The tank driver chased after the guy for quite some distance. A few bursts of machine gun fire from nearby infantry missed the driver by inches. Undeterred, the driver kept up the chase.

 
Eventually, the scout's partner woke up from his stupor and joined the chase, ending it quickly with a single shot from his G43.

 
Quiet once again broke out across the battlefield, and the German advance continued. A lot more death and destruction would take place before the day was finally over.

So I tend to spend far, far too much time down at eye level. It takes me forever to play each scenario because I'm constantly rewinding the turns and watching them from different units' points of view. I take way too many screenshots as well. I play plenty of other games but for some reason I take far more screenshots of CM than any other game I've ever played. Something about the WEGO system and camera zoom means I can spend ages trying to frame different compositions for screenshots. So I'm glad you like them! 
I took a million screenshots of the last scenario I played from the Blunting the Spear campaign so I thought I'd post one of the parts I thought was cool, with the runaway T-34 that almost broke right through my lines. So there might be some spoilers here for anyone who hasn't played this campaign.
At the beginning of the scenario, I massed all of my tanks on my right flank, and I put my two companies of infantry in a long line across the map in two waves. The first wave was made entirely of two-man scout teams that I sent forward in a widely dispersed skirmish line. I wanted the scouts to just run forward, find the enemy, infiltrate their lines, and then if possible, rejoin the second wave later for the main assault.
I was supposed to be attacking, so I had no idea that a platoon of T-34s were about to come charging straight toward me right at the beginning of the scenario through a smoke screen. My own tanks were all on the right, and the T-34s were charging straight at my left, right toward the masses of trucks and support units I had parked in the rear:

 
Here you can see an overview. You can see my wave of scouts out front and everything else massed farther behind.

 
The T-34s came over a hill, firing a couple of times at my trucks in the rear, but missed. They had to cross a wide open field to get into my lines. My own tanks were out of position to respond effectively, but for a couple hundred meters the T-34s would still be exposed to a few of my Panthers on the right. Two of the T-34s were destroyed, and one of the Panthers was knocked out by a partial penetration that killed the driver.
Miraculously, the third T-34 managed to get all the way across the field in a suicide charge at top speed, running a gauntlet of Panther fire the whole way. Five Panther shots were directed at it, and all missed. The T-34 managed to get out of view of the Panthers and got mixed in with my line of scouts. It stopped to blow up a scout team nearby:

 
Luckily, it stopped right next to another scout team and it was immediately hit by grenades:

 
Seconds later, an AA half-track stationed in the rear opened up on the tank. Most of the shots were ricochets and it didn't seem to have much effect. The T-34 was immobilized after a little while, but I couldn't tell if it was from grenades or AA fire hitting the wheels and tracks.

 
At this point I was panicking. The T-34 had a perfect view of a lot of extremely vulnerable units in the rear, and it would have taken several minutes for my own tanks to respond. Trucks, half-tracks and Kubelwagens were frantically driving every which way to escape. HQ teams and mortar crews were running for cover.  If the T-34 had kept going just a little farther, it could have caused a lot of damage. I sent Panzerschreck troops running ahead to stop it at all costs as AA fire tore through the air:

 
A rocket is fired at almost the far limit of the Panzerschreck's effective range, at about 185 meters.

 
A hit! Right as the T-34's turret was turning toward the AA half-track, the rocket slammed into the far rear end of the turret. If it was just a few inches to the left, it would have missed, and the AA gun would have been toast, along with who knows what else.

 
The driver jumped out of his hatch as more AA fire ripped into the tank. The rest of the crew were cooked inside, as no one else emerged.

 
Confronted by the pissed off tank driver, the cowardly scout turned tail and ran. The driver popped off a few pistol shots at the scout's backside and then comically started chasing after him through the field:


 
The tank driver chased after the guy for quite some distance. A few bursts of machine gun fire from nearby infantry missed the driver by inches. Undeterred, the driver kept up the chase.

 
Eventually, the scout's partner woke up from his stupor and joined the chase, ending it quickly with a single shot from his G43.

 
Quiet once again broke out across the battlefield, and the German advance continued. A lot more death and destruction would take place before the day was finally over.

So I tend to spend far, far too much time down at eye level. It takes me forever to play each scenario because I'm constantly rewinding the turns and watching them from different units' points of view. I take way too many screenshots as well. I play plenty of other games but for some reason I take far more screenshots of CM than any other game I've ever played. Something about the WEGO system and camera zoom means I can spend ages trying to frame different compositions for screenshots. So I'm glad you like them! 
I took a million screenshots of the last scenario I played from the Blunting the Spear campaign so I thought I'd post one of the parts I thought was cool, with the runaway T-34 that almost broke right through my lines. So there might be some spoilers here for anyone who hasn't played this campaign.
At the beginning of the scenario, I massed all of my tanks on my right flank, and I put my two companies of infantry in a long line across the map in two waves. The first wave was made entirely of two-man scout teams that I sent forward in a widely dispersed skirmish line. I wanted the scouts to just run forward, find the enemy, infiltrate their lines, and then if possible, rejoin the second wave later for the main assault.
I was supposed to be attacking, so I had no idea that a platoon of T-34s were about to come charging straight toward me right at the beginning of the scenario through a smoke screen. My own tanks were all on the right, and the T-34s were charging straight at my left, right toward the masses of trucks and support units I had parked in the rear:

 
Here you can see an overview. You can see my wave of scouts out front and everything else massed farther behind.

 
The T-34s came over a hill, firing a couple of times at my trucks in the rear, but missed. They had to cross a wide open field to get into my lines. My own tanks were out of position to respond effectively, but for a couple hundred meters the T-34s would still be exposed to a few of my Panthers on the right. Two of the T-34s were destroyed, and one of the Panthers was knocked out by a partial penetration that killed the driver.
Miraculously, the third T-34 managed to get all the way across the field in a suicide charge at top speed, running a gauntlet of Panther fire the whole way. Five Panther shots were directed at it, and all missed. The T-34 managed to get out of view of the Panthers and got mixed in with my line of scouts. It stopped to blow up a scout team nearby:

 
Luckily, it stopped right next to another scout team and it was immediately hit by grenades:

 
Seconds later, an AA half-track stationed in the rear opened up on the tank. Most of the shots were ricochets and it didn't seem to have much effect. The T-34 was immobilized after a little while, but I couldn't tell if it was from grenades or AA fire hitting the wheels and tracks.

 
At this point I was panicking. The T-34 had a perfect view of a lot of extremely vulnerable units in the rear, and it would have taken several minutes for my own tanks to respond. Trucks, half-tracks and Kubelwagens were frantically driving every which way to escape. HQ teams and mortar crews were running for cover.  If the T-34 had kept going just a little farther, it could have caused a lot of damage. I sent Panzerschreck troops running ahead to stop it at all costs as AA fire tore through the air:

 
A rocket is fired at almost the far limit of the Panzerschreck's effective range, at about 185 meters.

 
A hit! Right as the T-34's turret was turning toward the AA half-track, the rocket slammed into the far rear end of the turret. If it was just a few inches to the left, it would have missed, and the AA gun would have been toast, along with who knows what else.

 
The driver jumped out of his hatch as more AA fire ripped into the tank. The rest of the crew were cooked inside, as no one else emerged.

 
Confronted by the pissed off tank driver, the cowardly scout turned tail and ran. The driver popped off a few pistol shots at the scout's backside and then comically started chasing after him through the field:


 
The tank driver chased after the guy for quite some distance. A few bursts of machine gun fire from nearby infantry missed the driver by inches. Undeterred, the driver kept up the chase.

 
Eventually, the scout's partner woke up from his stupor and joined the chase, ending it quickly with a single shot from his G43.

 
Quiet once again broke out across the battlefield, and the German advance continued. A lot more death and destruction would take place before the day was finally over.

Actually most of us Bolshie lovers won't get too upset, because those red bastards got the last laugh, so to speak, and we are too-well-used-to wargame developers pandering to players that glorify the German military.
That said, I have no idea why you'd consider that "honoring the last stand of the Wehrmacht" would be more "fair" than honoring those that defeated Nazism after it had treacherously invaded their country?  Weird...

Bolshie lover?  uhhhhh, the wehrmacht et al killed around 25M folks in soviet russia.  Russia did not attack germany.  So yes let's 'honor' them??  for a war of murder and extermination??  Hitler's plan was for the enslavement, banishment or murder of 160M people.  So yes, the russian invasion was certainly a most 'honorable' endeavor.  As long as we all agree that those 160M weren't actually people, but some sort of subhuman eastern hordes like all those twisted german memoirs always say (I've read piles of them).    
The last stand of the wehrmacht was utter madness, not something honorable.  It was the reckoning of their murderous actions.  Having said that, I am really looking forward to fighting on the Oder and in Hungary.  As either side.  Yes, well, I have to reconcile that somehow.....
And having said that, I am currently fighting through Blunting the Spear as wehrmacht, so where do I really go with this......
 
 

Very slowly! I wish I had more time lately to play these games. I finally finished the fifth battle. It was quite difficult; the most difficult one yet other than the second one. I lost three Panthers destroyed outright, and another two were immobilized, so I really lost five tanks. Another two after that lost their main guns, and even more lost their commanders or other crew members. That was a nasty fight. The Panthers performed so well in the third battle, but their gunnery was not so good in this one. I tried massing my armor and hitting the enemy with local superiority in numbers, but they would still miss loads of shots and get picked off one by one. The enemy also had some very well placed AT guns in this one. One of the AT guns managed to shoot one of the Panthers right in the backside from like 50m away. I had no idea it was there and the tank drove right past it, just a few feet away. Oh well, luckily they give you so many tanks that it doesn't matter too much if you lose a bunch of them. I'm going into the final battle with a whole other company of Panthers that is pretty much untouched. 
Despite the few setbacks, I still managed to get a total victory and force a Russian surrender with 6 minutes to go on the clock. I had tanks surrounding the final objective and infantry storming into the village when it ended. The enemy lost 22 tanks/assault guns. There were a lot of pretty intense moments in that one, and lots of extreme close quarters fighting in the dark.
I looked over the final battle for a few minutes and it looks crazy. I hope it doesn't crash my computer with how big it is. It's gonna take me ages to play it.
 
I've heard this too and I wonder if this was the case in the CMx1 engine? I thought you had to move tanks slower in that one or else they would bog down. Maybe that's why that belief has carried over into CMx2? Or maybe that's never even been the case at all?

Thanks, I'm gonna need it considering what just happened 
*spoiler alert*
At the beginning of this mission a platoon of T-34s went on a crazy mad suicide charge straight at my lines. My tanks were out of position to deal with a sudden, unexpected tank charge like that, so only a couple of my tanks were in a position to fire back. Two of the T-34s were destroyed, but not before knocking out one of the Panthers. The third T-34 managed to charge full speed across a field straight toward my infantry and trucks in the rear, running a gauntlet of Panther fire the whole way. Five Panther shots were directed at it, and all missed, at a range of about 700m. The T-34 kept going until out of view of the Panthers and got mixed in with my scout line, almost running over a scout team. The T-34 stopped, blew up a different scout team at point blank range, then started getting hit by repeated volleys of AA half-track fire and grenades from the scout team it almost ran over. Eventually it was knocked out by an astonishingly lucky Panzerschreck hit from 185m away, just as the turret was turning toward the AA half-track. If the T-34 had made it just a little bit farther, it would have been in a perfect position to blow the hell out of the mass of trucks, mortar teams and support units I had parked in the rear. The T-34 had even fired at a couple of trucks, but missed. That was a close one.
Even crazier though was the lone tank driver that jumped out of the burning T-34. He hopped out right in front of one of my scouts, just a few feet away. The cowardly scout promptly got up and started running away, but the tank driver started chasing him across the field, firing his pistol as he ran after him, hot on his heels. The driver eventually got shot in the back by the scout's teammate after a brief chase. That had to be one of the sillier things I've seen in this game.  

They really are annoying aren't they? After a big tank battle they tend to be scattered all over the map hiding among trees and wheat fields and whatnot. Then the only warning you have that they are around is when a sudden flurry of pistol shots ring out at point blank range, taking down some of your men in the process. I just lost three men to one of those tank crews. 
I wish that units can retreat off the map in this game. Tank crews should be getting off the field ASAP, not lying around in ambush with their silly little pistols.

They really are annoying aren't they? After a big tank battle they tend to be scattered all over the map hiding among trees and wheat fields and whatnot. Then the only warning you have that they are around is when a sudden flurry of pistol shots ring out at point blank range, taking down some of your men in the process. I just lost three men to one of those tank crews. 
I wish that units can retreat off the map in this game. Tank crews should be getting off the field ASAP, not lying around in ambush with their silly little pistols.

Thanks, I'm gonna need it considering what just happened 
*spoiler alert*
At the beginning of this mission a platoon of T-34s went on a crazy mad suicide charge straight at my lines. My tanks were out of position to deal with a sudden, unexpected tank charge like that, so only a couple of my tanks were in a position to fire back. Two of the T-34s were destroyed, but not before knocking out one of the Panthers. The third T-34 managed to charge full speed across a field straight toward my infantry and trucks in the rear, running a gauntlet of Panther fire the whole way. Five Panther shots were directed at it, and all missed, at a range of about 700m. The T-34 kept going until out of view of the Panthers and got mixed in with my scout line, almost running over a scout team. The T-34 stopped, blew up a different scout team at point blank range, then started getting hit by repeated volleys of AA half-track fire and grenades from the scout team it almost ran over. Eventually it was knocked out by an astonishingly lucky Panzerschreck hit from 185m away, just as the turret was turning toward the AA half-track. If the T-34 had made it just a little bit farther, it would have been in a perfect position to blow the hell out of the mass of trucks, mortar teams and support units I had parked in the rear. The T-34 had even fired at a couple of trucks, but missed. That was a close one.
Even crazier though was the lone tank driver that jumped out of the burning T-34. He hopped out right in front of one of my scouts, just a few feet away. The cowardly scout promptly got up and started running away, but the tank driver started chasing him across the field, firing his pistol as he ran after him, hot on his heels. The driver eventually got shot in the back by the scout's teammate after a brief chase. That had to be one of the sillier things I've seen in this game.  

Thanks, I'm gonna need it considering what just happened 
*spoiler alert*
At the beginning of this mission a platoon of T-34s went on a crazy mad suicide charge straight at my lines. My tanks were out of position to deal with a sudden, unexpected tank charge like that, so only a couple of my tanks were in a position to fire back. Two of the T-34s were destroyed, but not before knocking out one of the Panthers. The third T-34 managed to charge full speed across a field straight toward my infantry and trucks in the rear, running a gauntlet of Panther fire the whole way. Five Panther shots were directed at it, and all missed, at a range of about 700m. The T-34 kept going until out of view of the Panthers and got mixed in with my scout line, almost running over a scout team. The T-34 stopped, blew up a different scout team at point blank range, then started getting hit by repeated volleys of AA half-track fire and grenades from the scout team it almost ran over. Eventually it was knocked out by an astonishingly lucky Panzerschreck hit from 185m away, just as the turret was turning toward the AA half-track. If the T-34 had made it just a little bit farther, it would have been in a perfect position to blow the hell out of the mass of trucks, mortar teams and support units I had parked in the rear. The T-34 had even fired at a couple of trucks, but missed. That was a close one.
Even crazier though was the lone tank driver that jumped out of the burning T-34. He hopped out right in front of one of my scouts, just a few feet away. The cowardly scout promptly got up and started running away, but the tank driver started chasing him across the field, firing his pistol as he ran after him, hot on his heels. The driver eventually got shot in the back by the scout's teammate after a brief chase. That had to be one of the sillier things I've seen in this game.