Bozowans

Screenshot dump from one of the Fire and Rubble scenarios. Soviets get something like 900 men and a crapload of tanks in this one.


 
Soviets are attacking a series of hills against dug-in Germans. I chose to mass my forces in multiple huge waves and attack the Germans head-on, going straight uphill. I made especially sure to keep my tanks massed together in one big group, advancing in close coordination with the infantry.


 
As I expected, there were a lot of Germans deployed in reverse slope positions all over the place, but I was able to completely overrun them. Most of the Germans were not able to get more than a few shots off before they got blasted by overwhelming return fire from the masses of onrushing troops.



 
There were some intense last stands from a few German troops here and there, but it was mostly a rout. This panzerschreck team fought to the death, taking out a tank at point blank range and gunning down several Soviet troops:

 
I got lucky several times, like when this Stug got shot right down the middle of its gun barrel:

 
The Soviet tide rushes on.


 
At times I was advancing so rapidly that I simply bypassed several enemy positions. Here you can see some Germans fire into the flanks of my advancing troops. They mostly had bolt-action rifles, which was pretty ineffective. Rifle fire nipping at the flanks of such a huge force felt like nothing more than mosquito bites and I just ignored them, heading straight for the objectives.
 
Whenever my force did halt, the amount of firepower they could deliver was devastating. The 152mm shells from the ISU-152s were especially devastating. I can only imagine how horrifying it would have been to have to sit in a foxhole and face down an attack like that in reality.


 
One of the highlights of the battle was when I had some men charge at a German AT gun, pinning down the crew with small arms and grenades for several minutes while I ran a flamethrower around the side to BBQ the survivors.


 

 
The Germans totally collapsed, losing 363 men to my 108. I kinda want to try this again as the Germans just to see how I could stop such a powerful Soviet force. Seems like it would be difficult even against the AI. What I was most afraid of as the Soviets was artillery, but the German artillery was way off target and didn't do much. I would think good use of artillery would be essential for breaking up a massed attack like that.

Screenshot dump from one of the Fire and Rubble scenarios. Soviets get something like 900 men and a crapload of tanks in this one.


 
Soviets are attacking a series of hills against dug-in Germans. I chose to mass my forces in multiple huge waves and attack the Germans head-on, going straight uphill. I made especially sure to keep my tanks massed together in one big group, advancing in close coordination with the infantry.


 
As I expected, there were a lot of Germans deployed in reverse slope positions all over the place, but I was able to completely overrun them. Most of the Germans were not able to get more than a few shots off before they got blasted by overwhelming return fire from the masses of onrushing troops.



 
There were some intense last stands from a few German troops here and there, but it was mostly a rout. This panzerschreck team fought to the death, taking out a tank at point blank range and gunning down several Soviet troops:

 
I got lucky several times, like when this Stug got shot right down the middle of its gun barrel:

 
The Soviet tide rushes on.


 
At times I was advancing so rapidly that I simply bypassed several enemy positions. Here you can see some Germans fire into the flanks of my advancing troops. They mostly had bolt-action rifles, which was pretty ineffective. Rifle fire nipping at the flanks of such a huge force felt like nothing more than mosquito bites and I just ignored them, heading straight for the objectives.
 
Whenever my force did halt, the amount of firepower they could deliver was devastating. The 152mm shells from the ISU-152s were especially devastating. I can only imagine how horrifying it would have been to have to sit in a foxhole and face down an attack like that in reality.


 
One of the highlights of the battle was when I had some men charge at a German AT gun, pinning down the crew with small arms and grenades for several minutes while I ran a flamethrower around the side to BBQ the survivors.


 

 
The Germans totally collapsed, losing 363 men to my 108. I kinda want to try this again as the Germans just to see how I could stop such a powerful Soviet force. Seems like it would be difficult even against the AI. What I was most afraid of as the Soviets was artillery, but the German artillery was way off target and didn't do much. I would think good use of artillery would be essential for breaking up a massed attack like that.

Screenshot dump from one of the Fire and Rubble scenarios. Soviets get something like 900 men and a crapload of tanks in this one.


 
Soviets are attacking a series of hills against dug-in Germans. I chose to mass my forces in multiple huge waves and attack the Germans head-on, going straight uphill. I made especially sure to keep my tanks massed together in one big group, advancing in close coordination with the infantry.


 
As I expected, there were a lot of Germans deployed in reverse slope positions all over the place, but I was able to completely overrun them. Most of the Germans were not able to get more than a few shots off before they got blasted by overwhelming return fire from the masses of onrushing troops.



 
There were some intense last stands from a few German troops here and there, but it was mostly a rout. This panzerschreck team fought to the death, taking out a tank at point blank range and gunning down several Soviet troops:

 
I got lucky several times, like when this Stug got shot right down the middle of its gun barrel:

 
The Soviet tide rushes on.


 
At times I was advancing so rapidly that I simply bypassed several enemy positions. Here you can see some Germans fire into the flanks of my advancing troops. They mostly had bolt-action rifles, which was pretty ineffective. Rifle fire nipping at the flanks of such a huge force felt like nothing more than mosquito bites and I just ignored them, heading straight for the objectives.
 
Whenever my force did halt, the amount of firepower they could deliver was devastating. The 152mm shells from the ISU-152s were especially devastating. I can only imagine how horrifying it would have been to have to sit in a foxhole and face down an attack like that in reality.


 
One of the highlights of the battle was when I had some men charge at a German AT gun, pinning down the crew with small arms and grenades for several minutes while I ran a flamethrower around the side to BBQ the survivors.


 

 
The Germans totally collapsed, losing 363 men to my 108. I kinda want to try this again as the Germans just to see how I could stop such a powerful Soviet force. Seems like it would be difficult even against the AI. What I was most afraid of as the Soviets was artillery, but the German artillery was way off target and didn't do much. I would think good use of artillery would be essential for breaking up a massed attack like that.

As much as I like the fact that troops are much more likely to stay in cover rather than route into the open, sometimes it really does border on ridiculousness.
Infantry platoon with attached recon squad move down the rail line towards the spotted mortar position. The enemy are almost impossible to hit with nothing but their heads peaking up over the embankment but an MG is providing a bit of suppressive fire.
heRecon squad frags their position while a rifle squad provides covering fire, their throw is terrible and lands probably 10m behind the foxholes.They pay dearly for their mistake, one is shot and a minute later one of the German ammo bearers pops up and hoses the medic before he's forced back into hiding under a hail of fire.Enough is enough, with an "URAAAA!", the recon team storms over the embankment and assaults the German mortar position, the battle is short but violent with the last of their PPSH ammo unloaded point blank into the defenders. Another squad of infantry goes over the top and frags and fires into the foxholes of the mortar section commander and his staff, they're all killed in their foxholes except one who tried to run and didn't make it more than a couple of steps. Finally, the mortars are silenced.

Screenshot dump from one of the Fire and Rubble scenarios. Soviets get something like 900 men and a crapload of tanks in this one.


 
Soviets are attacking a series of hills against dug-in Germans. I chose to mass my forces in multiple huge waves and attack the Germans head-on, going straight uphill. I made especially sure to keep my tanks massed together in one big group, advancing in close coordination with the infantry.


 
As I expected, there were a lot of Germans deployed in reverse slope positions all over the place, but I was able to completely overrun them. Most of the Germans were not able to get more than a few shots off before they got blasted by overwhelming return fire from the masses of onrushing troops.



 
There were some intense last stands from a few German troops here and there, but it was mostly a rout. This panzerschreck team fought to the death, taking out a tank at point blank range and gunning down several Soviet troops:

 
I got lucky several times, like when this Stug got shot right down the middle of its gun barrel:

 
The Soviet tide rushes on.


 
At times I was advancing so rapidly that I simply bypassed several enemy positions. Here you can see some Germans fire into the flanks of my advancing troops. They mostly had bolt-action rifles, which was pretty ineffective. Rifle fire nipping at the flanks of such a huge force felt like nothing more than mosquito bites and I just ignored them, heading straight for the objectives.
 
Whenever my force did halt, the amount of firepower they could deliver was devastating. The 152mm shells from the ISU-152s were especially devastating. I can only imagine how horrifying it would have been to have to sit in a foxhole and face down an attack like that in reality.


 
One of the highlights of the battle was when I had some men charge at a German AT gun, pinning down the crew with small arms and grenades for several minutes while I ran a flamethrower around the side to BBQ the survivors.


 

 
The Germans totally collapsed, losing 363 men to my 108. I kinda want to try this again as the Germans just to see how I could stop such a powerful Soviet force. Seems like it would be difficult even against the AI. What I was most afraid of as the Soviets was artillery, but the German artillery was way off target and didn't do much. I would think good use of artillery would be essential for breaking up a massed attack like that.

Infantry using the hunt command used to duck down instantly upon taking fire in previous versions of the game engine. It got removed for some reason. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional. Now, infantry getting shot at will keep moving until they get a confirmed spot on an enemy or their suppression meter goes up enough to make them duck down (often because they end up taking casualties from refusing to duck down). I'm not sure how long it's been like this now. Years?
It worked better before IMO. Before, infantry were very sensitive and might duck down even when they're not getting shot at, like if an explosion went off 100m away or something. If a single bullet flew over their heads they would duck down. It made the hunt command useful for slowly creeping forward without taking too many casualties. Players would use it like a "move to contact" command.
Perhaps they changed it because they thought it was too sensitive. Perhaps they changed it so that "hunt" means more like what it says - the soldiers are actively seeking out and hunting the enemy in a more aggressive manner without being too overly concerned about incoming fire.  
On the other hand, the normal move command has always worked the same way as far as I know. Infantry will walk forward, and if they get shot at, they will eventually start breaking out into a run unless their suppression meter gets so high that they get pinned. Only then will they duck down.

My favorite was when I had AT infantry run up to an enemy T-34 in the middle of the dark. They failed to spot the tank for several minutes even though they were literally right next to it. They were so close that they could reach out and touch it. They even had to run around the invisible tank in order to find a spot to lay down. The buttoned-up T-34 spotted my infantry first and machine-gunned them all. 
Even despite silly things like that, there is still nothing else out there like the CM series and I still get a lot of enjoyment out of them. I agree with the OP honestly. 

The 152mm shells from those ISU-152s are pretty ridiculous. This German position was pretty much vaporized in one hit. Poor saps could barely even get a shot off before they all went boom. Saw one survivor running away from the scene afterward.
 

My favorite was when I had AT infantry run up to an enemy T-34 in the middle of the dark. They failed to spot the tank for several minutes even though they were literally right next to it. They were so close that they could reach out and touch it. They even had to run around the invisible tank in order to find a spot to lay down. The buttoned-up T-34 spotted my infantry first and machine-gunned them all. 
Even despite silly things like that, there is still nothing else out there like the CM series and I still get a lot of enjoyment out of them. I agree with the OP honestly. 

The 152mm shells from those ISU-152s are pretty ridiculous. This German position was pretty much vaporized in one hit. Poor saps could barely even get a shot off before they all went boom. Saw one survivor running away from the scene afterward.
 

Infantry using the hunt command used to duck down instantly upon taking fire in previous versions of the game engine. It got removed for some reason. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional. Now, infantry getting shot at will keep moving until they get a confirmed spot on an enemy or their suppression meter goes up enough to make them duck down (often because they end up taking casualties from refusing to duck down). I'm not sure how long it's been like this now. Years?
It worked better before IMO. Before, infantry were very sensitive and might duck down even when they're not getting shot at, like if an explosion went off 100m away or something. If a single bullet flew over their heads they would duck down. It made the hunt command useful for slowly creeping forward without taking too many casualties. Players would use it like a "move to contact" command.
Perhaps they changed it because they thought it was too sensitive. Perhaps they changed it so that "hunt" means more like what it says - the soldiers are actively seeking out and hunting the enemy in a more aggressive manner without being too overly concerned about incoming fire.  
On the other hand, the normal move command has always worked the same way as far as I know. Infantry will walk forward, and if they get shot at, they will eventually start breaking out into a run unless their suppression meter gets so high that they get pinned. Only then will they duck down.

Infantry using the hunt command used to duck down instantly upon taking fire in previous versions of the game engine. It got removed for some reason. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional. Now, infantry getting shot at will keep moving until they get a confirmed spot on an enemy or their suppression meter goes up enough to make them duck down (often because they end up taking casualties from refusing to duck down). I'm not sure how long it's been like this now. Years?
It worked better before IMO. Before, infantry were very sensitive and might duck down even when they're not getting shot at, like if an explosion went off 100m away or something. If a single bullet flew over their heads they would duck down. It made the hunt command useful for slowly creeping forward without taking too many casualties. Players would use it like a "move to contact" command.
Perhaps they changed it because they thought it was too sensitive. Perhaps they changed it so that "hunt" means more like what it says - the soldiers are actively seeking out and hunting the enemy in a more aggressive manner without being too overly concerned about incoming fire.  
On the other hand, the normal move command has always worked the same way as far as I know. Infantry will walk forward, and if they get shot at, they will eventually start breaking out into a run unless their suppression meter gets so high that they get pinned. Only then will they duck down.

German soldiers clear out buildings with StG-44s during Market Garden.

 
German soldiers storm the town of Son, to re-capture the bridge and cut the highway.

German soldiers clear out buildings with StG-44s during Market Garden.

 
German soldiers storm the town of Son, to re-capture the bridge and cut the highway.

German soldiers clear out buildings with StG-44s during Market Garden.

 
German soldiers storm the town of Son, to re-capture the bridge and cut the highway.

German soldiers clear out buildings with StG-44s during Market Garden.

 
German soldiers storm the town of Son, to re-capture the bridge and cut the highway.

My apologies then. I know mentioning anything political here ruffles feathers, but it can be hard to avoid sometimes with the more realistic subject matter of these games. I will try to avoid it then.

I beat the Bunkers Burning scenario a long time ago with a giant massed attack straight up the middle of the map, almost human wave style. Not on my first attempt though. This was probably not long after CMRT first came out years ago. I remember trying to play like a western army at first and slowly creep my way up the flanks with small detached units but it didn't work. There was just not enough room to maneuver on the flanks and I couldn't bring enough firepower to bear.
So on a second attempt I massed my whole force together just out of view of the Germans, brought down a smoke screen covering up maybe half the German line or so, then told everyone to go over the top in a huge mass. I wanted to concentrate as much of my force as I possibly could on crushing the Germans not currently covered in smoke. Ideally it was supposed to be like 100% of my force concentrated on maybe 50% of theirs. I was able to knock out most of their bunkers and heavy weapons within a few minutes, then when the smoke cleared, I could shift fire and concentrate on the other part of the German line.
Once the biggest AT threats and bunkers were dealt with, I had the tanks and infantry just charge ahead across the fields. I wanted the flamethrower tanks to get in there fast, and the infantry to get into grenade and SMG range. It worked surprisingly well. The Germans were overwhelmed with too many targets at once and eventually collapsed.
 
I have a hard copy of that book.  I might have to dust it off and look at it again. 

I beat the Bunkers Burning scenario a long time ago with a giant massed attack straight up the middle of the map, almost human wave style. Not on my first attempt though. This was probably not long after CMRT first came out years ago. I remember trying to play like a western army at first and slowly creep my way up the flanks with small detached units but it didn't work. There was just not enough room to maneuver on the flanks and I couldn't bring enough firepower to bear.
So on a second attempt I massed my whole force together just out of view of the Germans, brought down a smoke screen covering up maybe half the German line or so, then told everyone to go over the top in a huge mass. I wanted to concentrate as much of my force as I possibly could on crushing the Germans not currently covered in smoke. Ideally it was supposed to be like 100% of my force concentrated on maybe 50% of theirs. I was able to knock out most of their bunkers and heavy weapons within a few minutes, then when the smoke cleared, I could shift fire and concentrate on the other part of the German line.
Once the biggest AT threats and bunkers were dealt with, I had the tanks and infantry just charge ahead across the fields. I wanted the flamethrower tanks to get in there fast, and the infantry to get into grenade and SMG range. It worked surprisingly well. The Germans were overwhelmed with too many targets at once and eventually collapsed.
 
I have a hard copy of that book.  I might have to dust it off and look at it again. 

Young people work longer hours than any other age group. They work longer, get paid less, sometimes have multiple jobs, and with the rising cost of living, are priced out of things older generations enjoyed. They are also expected to retire later than previous generations. Many young people are not too optimistic about the future and don't even expect to be able to retire at all.
The generational divide among wargaming is interesting though. It doesn't surprise me that that might be a source of conflict within the community. Most people are pretty friendly and helpful, though I haven't done much PBEMing myself.
I wonder what the average age is among forum users here. It kinda surprised me when CM Cold War came out to see so many posters who were active duty military during the time the game takes place in the late 70s or early 80s. That was before I was even born.

Young people work longer hours than any other age group. They work longer, get paid less, sometimes have multiple jobs, and with the rising cost of living, are priced out of things older generations enjoyed. They are also expected to retire later than previous generations. Many young people are not too optimistic about the future and don't even expect to be able to retire at all.
The generational divide among wargaming is interesting though. It doesn't surprise me that that might be a source of conflict within the community. Most people are pretty friendly and helpful, though I haven't done much PBEMing myself.
I wonder what the average age is among forum users here. It kinda surprised me when CM Cold War came out to see so many posters who were active duty military during the time the game takes place in the late 70s or early 80s. That was before I was even born.

Young people work longer hours than any other age group. They work longer, get paid less, sometimes have multiple jobs, and with the rising cost of living, are priced out of things older generations enjoyed. They are also expected to retire later than previous generations. Many young people are not too optimistic about the future and don't even expect to be able to retire at all.
The generational divide among wargaming is interesting though. It doesn't surprise me that that might be a source of conflict within the community. Most people are pretty friendly and helpful, though I haven't done much PBEMing myself.
I wonder what the average age is among forum users here. It kinda surprised me when CM Cold War came out to see so many posters who were active duty military during the time the game takes place in the late 70s or early 80s. That was before I was even born.

Once the grenades come out it's game over. Fortunately, the British didn't use theirs.

It seems small arms fire has no effect whatsoever. 

 

Yeah that was an extremely tough mission. I played it months ago and beat it but took heavy losses. There were such huge numbers of Americans defending the town that it seems impossible to not take heavy losses. I had the King Tigers that you get from capturing Stavelot in the previous missions, which helped me get through a couple of tough spots at least.
I took the southern approach as well. I tried to wrap around the town, enveloping it from the south, hoping to get around the US flank and rear, but the US defenses were much denser and extended out a lot farther that I thought they would, so it ended up kinda turning into a brute force push straight into the town anyway. It seemed like every building had guys in them, plus foxholes around them with even more guys. Some of the enemy armor tucked away in the town was hard to deal with. For a couple of them I just had my King Tigers brute force their way up to them and blast them point blank. Others I managed to flank with my infantry and hit them with panzerschrecks.
I wonder if attacking from the north instead would be better or worse. I didn't want to go too far off road because of the mud, but maybe it would be worth the risk.
The horrible visibility means you can move around unnoticed and pick your approach, but the moment you bump into someone and the shooting starts all hell will break loose. They will see you and cut you down in seconds. It seems the most you can hope for is to move forward slowly and carefully and have as many of your guys as possible in good positions, stationary and ready to return fire before the shooting actually starts.
In a normal CM scenario, I try to spread my infantry way out and have them probe the enemy defenses all across the map to figure out where they are, weak spots etc. Then I take out their heavy weapons with my own tanks and artillery etc, then regroup and concentrate everyone together for the final push. That doesn't really work in this scenario though. It's a big map and you can't really afford to spend ages sneaking and probing around in the dark. If you spread too far out, no one can support each other either. So I tried to keep my forces concentrated together.
If I had to try it again though, I might consider keeping my forces even more concentrated and densely packed than before. There are huge numbers of Americans, but they are spread all over town and can't all support each other in the dark, so if I keep my own forces densely concentrated and focused on one spot, I can achieve local superiority and punch through that one small part of the US defenses and then keep going into the rear or start rolling up the enemy lines from there.